Jay only left for the rain. Ever since he was fifteen, whenever it rained, he would go outside to feel the first drops of it on his skin. It was a strange habit, to some. Jay could think of weirder ones.

Speaking of weird things. That was a whole ass man trying to climb up the side of the house, wasn't it?

Jay did a double take. Yep. That was definitely a dude. Trying desperately to climb up to the balcony on the second floor. In the rain. Like a fucking idiot.

Jay didn't know why a man was climbing up the side of his house rather than knocking on the front door. You know. Like a sane person. But he did know that this guy was about to bite it big time and crack his skull open on the patio below him – the patio Jay happened to be standing on.

And Jay was not in the mood to have brain splattered all over his shoes. So, with a curse, Jay rolled up his sleeves and started climbing up after the little bitch. He considered yelling at the guy, but even from this distance Jay could see that his hold was tenuous at best – alarming him might just make him lose his grasp and crack his skull open anyway. At least if Jay climbed up behind him, his body could break the intruder's fall. And hopefully if that happened, Jay would be closer to the ground – and thus less likely to fucking die on impact. Before even trying to go up, however, Jay had to figure out how in the ever-loving fuck this dude was scaling up the slick siding of the house in the first place. What was he even holding onto?

Jay squinted in the rain and saw that the man had managed to wedge his foot on the edge of the decorative pilaster framing the patio door. The ledge was barely an inch in width. He had the fingers of one hand desperately clinging to the bottom of the balcony, the other bracing him against the wall.

Jay sighed heavily through his nose. This was absolutely batshit. Why the hell did he come outside? He put a foot up on one of the sturdier flowerpots sitting on the patio to hoist himself up far enough to get a handhold. The movement jostled the pot, scraping it against the cement – and it was this noise, not Jay cursing or Jay literally opening the patio door to leave that finally alerted the douche to Jay's presence.

The intruder whipped his head back as far as he could to look, and Jay mentally braced himself for the guy to go tumbling straight onto Jay's head. Thanks to the grace of God, he kept his grip, and then Jay was looking up through the rain at panicked brown puppy eyes.

Jay opened his mouth, but he didn't even get the chance to say anything. The intruder looked Jay dead in the eyes and yelled, "Where's my friend?!" like Jay had personally kidnapped whoever he was looking for.

"..."

Jay was pretty good at the process of elimination. This probably wasn't someone from Venus pack – no one from Venus pack would be such a colossal moron – and if he was looking for a friend, it was probably a friend from his own pack.

The only foreigner in the pack that Jay knew of was Damon. This was probably Damon's dipshit then.

"Get the fuck off my house," Jay said, point blank.

Maybe not the most peaceable of replies but Jay was beyond irritated. He could have said "Don't worry, man, your friend's inside. Want a warm blanket and some hot chocolate while I get him?"

...No. Fuck this guy.

Thankfully, rather than continue trying to climb the house, the guy turned sheepish. "I, uh. I can't. I think I'm stuck."

"..."

Jay pressed his forehead to the rain-soaked siding. Wonderful.

***

Damon blinked. Mark blinked. And then before Damon could react, Mark leapt up to hug Damon, all soaking wet, like a big dog who'd just come up from a pool. "Damon!" he said, relief clear in his voice. Still stunned, Damon automatically hugged him back.

"Mark? What are you doing here?"

Damon was happy to see Mark, of course. But the last time he'd seen him had been...God, he didn't even remember. He just remembered calling Mark to let him know that he needed to get the hell out of dodge for beating up Malachi. Damon assumed Mark and his family would have found a place to stay temporarily while they waited for all the drama to blow over. Or that his family would have cut a deal with the Reynes or something. Mark's parents weren't super influential, but the Reynes also didn't have a weird grudge against them like they apparently did with Damon. Making the case that Mark was just protecting his friend would probably work. Honestly, Damon wasn't sure anyone even noticed Mark left. They were all too focused on trying to get Jun kicked out of the pack to even worry about Mark, even though Mark was equally – if not more guilty. Mark was a beta with no romantic attachments to anyone involved in the fight with Malachi, nor did he have heats as an excuse for aggressive behavior.

So...had Mark transferred packs?

Mark knew that's what Damon really wanted to ask. "I didn't transfer packs or anything. But I needed to find you to – to tell you about some of the things that have happened since you left."

...Ominous. Damon could probably guess that half of those things probably started with M and ended with I. But that could wait, until Damon wasn't in his boyfriend's house, surrounded by his boyfriend's stunned family members.

Speaking of family members – Jay and Mark were both not only rain-drenched but covered in mud too. What the hell happened in the past thirty minutes?

Damon could only ask. "How did Jay find you? And why are you all muddy?" What he really wanted to ask was, "why was Jay dragging you in the house like a bag of garbage?"

Surprisingly, a hint of a blush stained Mark's cheeks. That was rare. Mark never felt shame. When he took too long to answer, Jay took over.

"I found the dipshit roleplaying Spiderman on the side of our house. But he got himself stuck up there so I had to get him down. And then we both tumbled into the mud and rolled into the ditch. Your friend owes me his worthless life. I'm going to go shower."

Hm. Jay was... incensed. Leave it to Mark to somehow make an enemy in his first five minutes here.

...Roleplaying Spiderman?

Damon raised an eyebrow at Mark, to which Mark blinked innocently and surreptitiously moved closer to the fireplace to warm up – conveniently avoiding explaining any of it.

Damon would get him to fess up later. There was a lot to talk about. Including why Mark's eyes followed Jay out of the room, the expression in them, for once, completely unreadable.