Dean

As chance would have it, the hotel that we checked into was far from nice. Chris had pointed out the white hotel with crumbling marble pillars and yelling bricks, whining that he hadn't had an actual pillow to sleep on in a while. I would have fought more with him, but honestly I wanted to sleep on a bed too. We argued for a bit, just enough for me to prove my point that I was in charge and I was just taking a suggestion, and then we pulled into the lot and parked.

As soon as we walked in, the first thing I noticed was that there was no heat. It was freezing, so much so that the attendant at the main desk was wrapped in a blanket.

He glared at us, looking at us like we had just poured vinegar in his coffee. He sighed a long, heavy sigh and grabbed the book for our names from under the table. I carefully signed it, using my middle name as my first.

He glanced down at it. "Welcome, Mr. Black. I'll see to it that your room is taken care of. He looked at another log, taking his sweet time as he thumbed slowly through it.

I tapped my foot, already regretting giving in to Chis. We didn't really need a mattress, it was just more comfortable.

"Yeah, we only have one room available." said the clerk. He handed Chris the key."HAve a nice night."

"Yeah, you too."Chris smiled back. I grabbed his sleeve and yanked him away, towards the elevator.

As soon as the button was pushed and doors closed, Chris pulled away from my grip. "What was that for?" He hissed, grabbing at my shirt. "He was just being polite."

I stared at him. "Are you blind?" I growled back. "He clearly doesn't want us here. We should just leave." I shoved him off of me and pulled my jacket back onto my shoulders.

Chris stared. "Are you serious? We haven't even seen our room yet! Let's just stay here. He was probably just in a bad mood or something."

I shook my head. "Fine. But I won't be the one complaining when he sets our beds on fire while we sleep."

Chris rolled his eyes and shuffled away from me, tugging at his hair, just like always. It crossed my mind was a strange habit that was. Why pull your own hair?

The elevator beeped, making the power too scarce, the light above us flickered. I sighed and walked briskly out as soon as the door opened. There was no real point in prolonging our pain. The sooner Chris would go to sleep, the sooner we could leave.

I grabbed the key from Chris' hand and unlocked the door. I turned the knob but found that the door was indeed, quite stuck. I sighed. "Perfect start to a perfect night," I grumbled.

Grunting, I forced the door open and stepped inside. The room was covered in cheesy decorations, ranging from colorful cartoon fish to clashing patterns. MY shoulders slumped as I walked through the archway, which looked like it had been purchased from a dollar store, and into the actual bedroom. Alone in the corner, sat one, king-sized bed, sunken in on itself from old age. I looked at Chris, who looked quite defeated.

I threw my bag on the ground and walked over to the bed, testing it by sitting on it. I sunk so far it could have been quicksand.

Chris sighed and flopped down on it beside me, which made the entire bed groan.

"What are we gonna do?" Asked Chris, looking through his lashes at me. He looked exhausted. Sucks that I was such good friends with him, otherwise we'd be marching out the door right now.

"Exactly what you wanted," I replied, standing up. "Go to bed. I'll be in within five, so don't take up all of it." Chris nodded and closed his eyes.

I stopped walking into the bathroom when I stopped. "Oh, and Chris?" He looked up from the bed again, though he was sluggish.

"Don't fall asleep with your shoes on." I teased, ducking back into the bathroom.

I brushed my teeth, thank God Chris had thought to bring one, and took a quick shower before I got into my pajamas and went back into the room.

Chris looked like he hadn't moved, but he was changed out, and his feet were now bare.

I padded over to the bed and slipped inside, ignoring it's grunts and groans from the new weight. Chris wasn't snoring, but I could tell from his even breaths that he was close.

Hoping to beat him out, I closed my eyes as quickly as I could, hoping to fall into a stupor quite soon. I hadn't felt tired about five minutes ago, but now, as I closed my eyes, I could feel every cramp and knot in my body, aching from sleeping curled up in a car for the past few days. It was surprisingly easy to let my consciousness slip away.

I woke earlier than I would have liked, to the shriek of the mattress, and a banging on the door. I slipped out of the bed and fumbled to the door, tripping over everything on the floor, somehow.

I pulled open the door and saw a young woman, around my age, with curly brown hair flying in every direction, narrowed blue eyes, and a first still raised to bang against the wood.

We stared at each other for a moment, and then she lowered her hand. She let out an annoyed sigh.

"Whatever you two are doing in there, we can hear the mattress squeaking." She hissed, crossing her arms.

I stared at her. "We weren't even awake. In fact, he's still asleep. The clerk just gave us an extremely loud bed. One bed. Even though we asked for two."

"What clerk?" She asked.

I shrugged at her, a little confused. "How should I know. He was just really rude."

She tapped her chin. "Did he have brown hair?" I nodded, remembering his greasy brown locks. She smiled, and her demeanor instantly relaxed. "Oh. That's Ralphie. He's real rude to new people."

"New people?" I asked. "People are regulars here?"

She nodded, looking proud. "Of course! There are at least twenty regular customers."

The only thing I was proud of is that people still had the ability to deal with such crappy places. "Right," I murmured. "I think I'm going to go back to bed then. We have to go in the morning."

She frowned. "Oh come on! We were just starting to have fun." She poked at my chest, eyes sparkling.

I pursed my lips. "I'm going back in. Just leave."

She laughed and pushed past me and into the room. I whirled as she skipped into the bedroom, towards Chris' snoring. I slammed the door shut as I ran, apparently, I had never let go of the knob, and followed her in.

She was kneeling on the bed, poking at Christopher, who was starting to wake up. Chris wasn't one to wake up if someone was trying to wake him, and this was already shaping into a disaster.

I grabbed her by her waist, growling. "You can't just barge into someone's room like that!"

She squirmed in my arms. "Lemme go! I can walk by myself!" She cried.

"Yeah but nobody knows where-" As her elbow hit my throat, I stumbled over my bag and we fell backward with a loud thud.

Chris grumbled and flicked on the light beside the bed, he stared at us for a moment, and we stared back.

"Erm, What's going on here?" He asked. I looked at the girl, frowning.

"She barged in here. I don't know why. She just felt it was appropriate." She rolled her eyes and put her foot on my chest, shoving me to the ground.

She stumbled to her feet and extended a hand to Chris. "I'm Jemma. I live here, and when I heard your mattress I thought I would call you out."

"Jemma?" I questioned, holding back a laugh. "That's..." As I caught Chris' eyes, I pursued my lips. "A lovely name." I finished.

Chris nodded and took her hand, shaking it. "I'm Christopher. And that's Dean, over there."

Jemma smiled. "Nice to meet you two." She sat down on the table, crossing her legs underneath her. "So what are you two doing here? Adventure? Wild goosechase? Romantic honeymoon to the ghettos of California?" She asked.

Chris blushed and looked away, looking like he was choking on his own tongue.

"Let's just say that we're on an adventure," I said.

"More like a wild goosechase..." Chris mumbled under his breath. I looked at him, shocked.

"Really? Are you actually serious right now?" I got to my feet, fists clenched. "I- A wild goose chase? Are you serious? I - You?" I shook my head and left. Slamming the door behind me, so hard a picture along the wall of the hallways shook and fell to the floor.

I walked down the hall, taking deep breaths and combing my fingers through my hair. I couldn't believe Chris. Sure we had spent about four days driving around with nothing to guide us, but that doesn't very well mean that this was some stupid, pointless quest. We were here for a reason, and that just so happened to be saving my sister.

I leaned against the wall, sighing as I slipped to the floor. He knew how much Erin meant to me. I had practically raised her after all. I sat still twiddling my thumbs and letting my mind wander.

It wasn't long before I heard footsteps coming down the hall. I hoped that it was nobody important to me, but really when had fate liked me?

It was Jemma. She sat down beside me and laid her head on my shoulder. I scooted away a little, seeing as how we had just met within the hour.

"I'm sorry," She whispered. I thought for a moment that she was apologizing for barging into our room, and was about to congratulate her when she finished off with, "She must be so important to you. I wouldn't have followed anyone this far from my home, honestly."

I cleared my throat. "So Chris told you then? How nice of him to explain my private life to a completely random woman."

Jemma smiled and laughed. "Don't worry. He means well. He's worried about you, I can tell he feels bad for what he said."

"Well he better," I grumbled. Jemma looked at me.

"Dean, you should go back in there. He'll probably apologize." She said.

I shook my head so hard that it just might have popped off if I had shaken it once more. "No way. He should come find me."

Jemma nodded. "Alright. Then let's go for a walk. And you can explain to me what happened."

I pursed my lips, but nodded. "Yeah... Okay."

Talking to Jemma was easy, easier than I had thought it would be. I let my entire heart pour out my story, and I thought I saw her wipe away tears at one point, but she didn't say anything until I was actually finished.

"Thank you for telling me that." She murmured. "It sounds like quite that event."

I nodded my head solemnly. "Yeah." I could already feel the guilt in my chest fading away. So what they said really was true. Talking does help.

I watched her stare off the roof where we stood and smiled. She looked lovely in this light. Maybe I did too. It was quite hard to tell without a mirror.

She looked at me, and her eyes shone the city lights. I watched them dance and spin, reverted and yet still lovely. She blushed and looked away, to the small rosegarden that grew on the rooftop garden.

"Can you believe it's almost already winter?" She whispered, walking to the roses and touching one of the petals of the flower nearest to her. The petal beside the one she touched broke off and fluttered to the ground.

"Of course I can. It's normal for winter to be coming right now. Flowers die. So what? They just grow again in the spring." I said, walking back towards the edge of the room and leaning against it.

Jemma looked at me, her hair billowing in the wind. "How do you care so much about your sister and yet, not about anything else?" She asked.

I thought for a second and then turned away from her, looking back over the side of the building. I had no reason to answer. And besides, I didn't have an answer either.