Mi Casa es Su Casa

Heather drove Logan into town. He sat in the passenger seat, looking out the window, of the same car she drove on Earth-1. The sights outside, passing by his window, of green forests and rolling hills were familiar too, as were the very roads she drove, gravel tracks giving way to tarred road, winding the way from Silver Lake to Azure Rocks. Everything reminded him of home. He even knew the place where the trees disappeared, replaced with street lamps. That hadn’t changed. But just yesterday at exactly that time, those same street lamps began to glow orange, lighting the way in the early evening Autumnal dusk. Today, it was Spring, and the sun was still shining.

Today, the town also felt bigger. Even with so much missing from it, he felt small amidst all that he didn’t know. It was a strange feeling for him, the boy who had learned everything he could about Azure Rocks and its surrounding landmarks. There wasn’t a side path or back alley in the town that Logan didn’t know. The only person who possibly knew it well as he did was sitting right next to him, driving the car and shooting him curious glances whenever she could. Though he was still looking out the window, he could feel her eyes on him.

It was the same roads, the same car and the same girl, but the silence was the giveaway. If this were his Heather, they’d have spent the whole drive home shooting the shit and laughing about what their friends had done. They were better than siblings because they never fought. Their pride as negotiators didn’t allow them to fight. Whenever they disagreed, they would sit down and hammer out the details like it was a business deal, and within an hour they were laughing again. To see her now, curious but silent and so distant from him, felt like some one had snatched his heart right out of his chest.

“Maybe I should have stayed at the cabin,” he suggested. “Out of the way, until we have some of this figured out.”

“Too risky,” she said with a shake of her head. “Eventually cleaners will show up at the cabin to give it a thorough, deep cleanse. It’ll be scrubbed and scraped from bottom to top. After what we got up to these last two weeks, I can’t say I blame them but…” she glanced at him again out of the corner of her eye. “…they’d definitely find you.”

“You underestimate my ability to hide. But maybe you’re right, maybe this way is easier,” Logan admitted and scratched his head. “I just don’t know how you’re going to slip me past our dads.”

“I only have to slip you past one of them,” Heather told him softly, unsure what his reaction would be. It felt strange even for her to hear someone refer to her single uncle Daniel as ‘Dad’.

“Your uncle doesn’t live at the Manor?” He was surprised but also a little relieved. He wasn’t quite sure he was ready to face his own dad, knowing that he too would share Heather’s empty, unfamiliar gaze. “Is the Manor small too?”

“I don’t know if it’s smaller than yours, but I certainly wouldn’t call it small. It’s the biggest house in Azure Rocks. Only the Harrington Villa comes close.”

“That sounds about right.”

“Besides,” she said cryptically, returning to the main subject. “I don’t really intend on slipping you in at all.”

He raised an eyebrow as he shifted in his seat to look at her directly.

“You can’t seriously be thinking of just introducing me to your dad?”

Apparently, his version of Heather was just as crazy as the Heather he knew and loved.

“You let me worry about daddy,” she insisted. “If it was mom, it’d be a problem, but I can reason with daddy.”

“Okay,” and without thinking added, “I trust you.”

She fell silent at that. This raven-haired girl beside him looked so much like his cousin that the words just rolled off his tongue, but he knew that she must be thinking ‘How could he trust a stranger?’ Even if her rational mind knew that he was from an alternate world with an alternate Heather, to say those words to her, here, felt unearned. She hadn’t done anything yet to deserve his confidence. And yet, he trusted her anyway, because he recognized her actions. The goodness of her heart hadn’t changed.

“Anyway, you can tell me what you think,” she said, choosing to move on. “We’re coming up on the Manor now.”

Their surroundings had already given that away. He recognized the same streets that led to Ravers’ Manor, and he hoped that meant the lay out for the rest of the town was just as he remembered it. She checked her mirror and indicated, turning between two stone pillars topped with carved lions and driving up a lane to the manor, exactly as Logan remembered. He could see the mansion already, as proud and glorious as ever. Among all the townhouses and cul-de-sacs in the residential area, the mansion stood out, a beacon reminding everyone of the power and status of the Ravers’ name.

The moment the car came to a stop in front of the steps, Logan jumped out of the car. After everything that had changed and gone wrong on that fateful day, the steadfast image of Ravers’ manor was like a comforting mirage. Except it was real. It was very real. He placed one foot on a step, and then another, marveling that he could get closer and closer and the image never faded or disappeared.

“How’s it measure up?” Heather asked, sliding out of the car too. “Bigger? Smaller?”

“It’s perfect.”

An employee ran down the steps to take the car round to the garage, grabbing the keys from Heather’s outstretched hand on the way. She took the steps two at a time, leaving Logan in his dust as he savored each one. It was as if he was seeing it for the first time. And it was the first time seeing this Manor. But after the long, very mentally taxing day, he needed something constant. Something unchanged. And that lasted just until he stepped inside.

“Let me give you the tour-” she frowned at herself. “Sorry, **** of habit. You probably already know where everything is.”

“No, I think you should. I don’t know what might have changed,” he paid back her offer with a weak smile. “For instance, the portrait of Ryker Ravers that usually hangs up there.”

He pointed to wall behind the first landing, where the stairs split and led to the separate wings of the house. In his world, his father’s family occupied one wing, while Robert and Heather inhabited the other. The changes seemed to be aesthetic rather than structural, so Logan could only assume that Heather and her father presided in this big empty house all by their lonesome.

“Mmmm, I don’t remember ever seeing a picture of Ryker there,” Heather pursed her lips tight thoughtfully, making her lips even more kissable than usual. “But I can ask about it later.”

“Don’t worry. It’s not really important,” Logan dissuaded her, and distracted himself from staring at her lips by turning his attention to the graceful descent from the upper floor of another woman.

This woman he knew too. She was a daily fixture of his life, although their relationship was nothing compared to his with Heather. He recognized the almost steely stiff, dark, straight hair that barely moved or even ruffled a strand, and those serious green eyes, although he’d never seen them fixed quite so seriously on him.

“Good evening, Miss Ravers.”

“Evening, Valeria.” Heather flicked her dark hair to one side as she looked to Logan. “Do you know our majordomo?”

“Yep. That hasn’t changed.”

But Valeria’s normally stern face formed a puzzled expression instead. However, she addressed Heather as tactfully as possible.

“I don’t believe I’ve ever met your guest before, Miss Ravers.”

Heather chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, Valeria. It’s like…an inside joke between me and him. So, don’t worry if you hear us talking and it sounds a bit strange. Could you prepare a guest bedroom however? He’ll be staying the night.”

Disagreeing with a direct request from the family that had saved her from her previous employer and given her the best job of her life wasn’t what she wanted to do. And yet, she had to remind Heather, “I may require your father to sign off on a boy staying over.”

“I’ve yet to ask him, but I think it’ll save time if you get a head start,” Heather flashed a grin. “Let’s work under the presumption that daddy will agree with me.”

“That is a reasonable expectation,” Valeria admitted, even allowing herself the smallest of smiles. “Very well. I shall prepare a room for Master…”

“Just Logan will be fine,” he said while baring his own smirk.

“If you forgive me fifteen minutes, Master Logan, I’ll have your room ready and then I’ll show you where you’ll be-”

“No need,” Heather informed her. “I’m going to give him the tour.”

Valeria nodded, understanding, and dismissed herself to carry out the task assigned to her. She passed two maids at the first landing and with a flick of her hand, called on them to follow her.

“Let me show you around then.”

Heather took a few steps forward, then stopped and pivoted back towards him, twisting her body in such a way to show off her strong, lean figure. He saw the fullness of her round ass, the sides of her breasts, sitting high on her chest and thrust up further still, dazzling blue eyes, electric just like his own, and a mischievous, teasing smile that he’d seen many times before when his cousin had an idea she was particularly proud of.

“Or you can show me around. It is supposed to be your house too, after all. Let’s see how well you really know the manor and how much it’s changed.”

“Okay,” he agreed, amused at his cousin’s idea, and curious himself to see if Ryker’s picture was the only difference. He approached a door directly to his left first. “This should be the dining room.”

It was the dining room, although differently decorated than he remembered. His mother had been allowed considerable freedom in deciding how the rooms would be furnished and painted, but without her presence, it seemed that Robert had made all of those choices himself. Or perhaps it had never changed from when Brooke lived there. Logan was too young to remember how it had looked before the divorce, only remembering his mother’s modern and sophisticated influence. It still looked nice now too, styled in a more classically elegant décor, with lots of rich mahogany and dark hues.

At least the door was still where it should be, and he successfully led her to the kitchen. It was difficult to tell if the kitchen had been decorated differently because it was full of steam and the mouth watering aroma briefly made him forget what he was doing. Frida Isidro, the resident chef of Ravers Manor, fritted back and forth like a hummingbird, while occasionally barking orders at cooks under her command; a well-trained machine that never failed to produce the best meals, night after night.

“Whatever you’re making, it smells amazing, as usual,” Heather hummed before taking another deep breath through her nose, savoring every flavor.

Frida hadn’t even noticed the intrusion to her kitchen, until Heather’s voice startled her. She looked at the Ravers heiress, the to Logan, and back again.

“Are you sneaking more boys into the Manor again?”

“No, Frida, don’t worry, I brought this one in through the front door.” She cocked her head towards Logan. “Did you know that you could sneak into the Manor?”

“Of course. Although there’s only one way in or out of the grounds, once you’re through the front gate, you can park at the garage, then sneak around the back. On the other side of the pool in the backyard there are steps that lead to the basement. From there you can walk right through the wine cellar, sneak past Valeria’s room, and come up right over there,” he pointed to a door at the other end of the kitchen. “Although you only ever brought one boy in that way.”

“Mmm, are you sure?” Leaving Frida to her work, she followed Logan through a third door that led back into the foyer. “Maybe I’m a bigger slut in this dimension.”

“Are you a bigger slut in this dimension?”

She teased him a little longer with her silence then sighed. “No, there’s only ever been one guy I brought in that way-”

“-Andrew Norstein.” They said in unison.

“It’s so weird that you know that.”

“It’s weird to me that you think it’s weird that I know that,” he told her as he pushed open another door, into another room.

Standing in the formal sitting room, Logan noted that the spacious area was laid out much the same with only subtle differences. The curtains and the couches, once Royal Blue, were now colored in Egyptian Blue, and the marble floor was lined with Persian rugs, unlike the Scandinavian designs his mother preferred. But Logan was struck much more by the fact that, once again, something was all together missing.

“Ravers crest should hang there,” he pointed with a finger to an empty place above the fireplace.

“The family crest?” Heather thought about it while gently pouting.

“It’s a wedge top escutcheon depicting a golden sword crossed with a golden revolver, crowed with silver roaring lion on a field of blue,” Logan explained.

“Yes, I have seen that,” she realized. “But I don’t think it ever hung in here.”

“I see. Well, let’s go to the den instead.”

He led her out of the room again, back into the entrance foyer and walked towards the back of the room, down a corridor. Hitching a thumb over his shoulder, he pointed out Robert’s personal study on the way, but they didn’t go inside. Another door beside it he told her led to his father’s study, but since her uncle didn’t live in the manor in this dimension, Heather informed him that room was nothing but storage. A little saddened, Logan pressed on, stepping inside the first floor den.

“How’s it match up so far?” Heather asked, throwing herself on to the long couch in front of television.

“About the same. It’s just the small things,” he said as he approached the four armchairs seated around a circular table in the corner. “But, you know, the devil is in the details.”

Indeed, much like the sitting area, although the room was similar to his own back in his dimension, there were slight differences. The carpet was thicker, the dark blue curtains were now sky blue and the dark gray wallpaper had been transformed entirely into eggshell white. It was so familiar and yet so wrong, that it made him nauseous. He stepped back and bumped into the couch. In his world he knew this house better than his own hands, but here he walked into the furniture.

Air. He needed air. He stepped out through glass door and followed the steps down to a large pool. The breeze cooled his head and made it a little easier to breathe, but the water just brought up even more memories. He could picture them in his mind, his girls, Heather, Sharon, Victoria and Ashley, frolicking in the pool, splashing and giggling, in nothing but tiny bikinis that showed off their firm, teen bodies.

“Are you okay?” The breeze carried Heather’s voice from where she stood at the glass doors.

“Just a little homesick,” he assured her, and turned back towards the manor. “Let’s continue the tour.”

Heather closed the glass doors after Logan had returned inside, then followed him out of the room and up the stairs, to where the manor split into two separate wings.

“Even this floor has two sides, but it doesn’t matter so much. This is where the guest stay.” He stopped as he saw Valeria ushering the two maids out of one of the rooms. “This where I’ll stay.”

“Sorry, maybe this was a bad idea. Just too weird.” She could kick herself for not realizing that his staying at the manor might cause problems.

“Coming into another dimension where I don’t exist is too weird,” he assured her, while flashing a smile. “Not sleeping in my own bed? That’ll just be a mild discomfort.”

“Let’s skip this floor anyway. This is where the guests stay. That pretty much covers it.”

“Okay,” he agreed as they turned back towards the stairs. “Although, I did once ask my parents why the Manor has so many bedrooms. It’s a big house, even when both our families are here. My mum didn’t want to tell me, but privately my dad said it was because of your father’s sex parties.”

“You’ve heard about those too, huh?”

“Who hasn’t? Back in the day, apparently, after things got frisky, people could retire to the rooms if they wanted. Some people, my dad said, just used the first surface they could find, but some used the rooms, and when they were done, they were free to spend the night.” Logan tilted his head thoughtfully. “But you maybe already knew that.”

“Yeah, I knew that already. I’ve seen the maids cleaning the rooms the day after.”

“So your dad still hosts them here?” Logan asked, surprised, and explained, “Where I’m from, he’s started using the Lake Hotel. Maybe my mum complained about him holding sex parties in the house where her children sleep. My mum respects your dad a lot, as most people do, but if its between protecting us, her children, or respecting him, I know which one she’d choose, every time.”

“She sounds like a wonderful woman,” Heather admitted, a little sadly.

“She really is,” He agreed as another thought crossed his mind. “But if your dad still holds the parties here, where do you go?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?”

She grinned. Even in this alternate world with all of its differences though, Logan couldn’t believe that Robert would allow his eighteen year old daughter to take part in wild orgies. And even if Robert would permit it, Brooke would sooner have his head.

Halfway along the corridor on the third floor, he stopped and pointed to the bedroom at the end.

“That’s your dad’s room. And this…” he pushed at the door in front of him, swinging it open to reveal a bedroom. “This is your room.”

Not much had changed in Heather’s bedroom. The décor was still ostentatiously mature but girly. In the center was a large queen sized bed, around which everything else revolved, but he knew that Heather’s favorite aspect of her room was the large walk-in wardrobe. Someone had already brought up her suitcase from the car and left it by the foot of the bed. Valeria and her team would have happily emptied the suitcase and sorted clothing into the laundry, but if this realm’s Robert was anything like the uncle that Logan knew and loved, that chore had been left for Heather.

“That’s really about it,” Logan concluded. “I sleep on the other side, along with my family, but since we don’t exist, I’m not sure what those rooms are used for.”

“Uncle Daniel still has a room here, that he can use whenever he wishes, but he usually stays at his own place,” Heather revealed. “I guess when you’re a bachelor, it’s not as cool to live with your brother.”

“I guess not. So, how was the tour?”

“Fantastic, but you missed out on all the bathrooms,” she teased him. “Am I just supposed to wet myself?”

“I thought I’d trained that out of you a long time ago.”

Both Logan and Heather whipped their heads around to see Robert approaching from the stairs. Heather immediately bounded up to him, and he caught her in a tight embrace. When they parted, Robert looked at Logan, with a friendly but curious gaze, while Heather just stared at her father, her idol, constantly and forever amazed that she was really related to such a man.

“Valeria said Heather had a guest.” Robert extended a hand. “Good to meet you, I’m Robert Ravers.”

It felt strange to shake the hand of his own uncle like they didn’t know each other, but Logan wasn’t going to be rude, so he reached out and took Robert’s hand, as he replied. “You too, sir, my name is Logan.”

Robert didn’t let go until Logan gave a second name.

“Uh…Lyons,” he said, thinking quickly of the silver lion roaring against the azure background. “Logan Lyons.”

“Another Lion, huh?” Robert said with a chuckle as he released the young man. “You don’t go to school with Heather, do you?”

“No daddy, uh, he’s a friend of Andrew’s,” Heather said, also thinking on her feet. “And he’s staying here tonight.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, pumpkin,” Robert tried to tell her gently, although Logan knew it didn’t matter if he was nice or harsh, Robert Ravers’ one weakness was his daughter and he could almost never say ‘no’ to her. “I know we have open and honest policy here, but I can’t allow you to have strange boy staying over. First of all, your mother would kill me…”

“He’s not here for anything like that. He’s just a friend, and he just moved here, so he needs somewhere to crash. Honestly, if I brought him here for sex, do you think I’d parade him around right in front of you?”

“Yes, probably.”

“Okay, maybe. But honestly it’s really not like that,” Heather insisted. “If I was just going to let him share my bed, why would I have Valeria make up a guest room?”

“To stop me from thinking that he was going to share your bed.” Although he said that, Robert followed it with a sigh as he understood the futility in arguing with her. “I can see you’re serious about this though. I suppose I should just be glad you didn’t try to sneak him in through the basement.”

Heather’s jaw dropped. “Who told you? It must have been Frida, wasn’t it?”

“No, it was Valeria,” Logan answered without thinking. “You’re not as quiet as you think you are when you’re passing her room.”

Robert stared hard at the young man, utterly astounded.

“How did you know that?”

“I…overheard Valeria telling one of the maids,” he lied. The truth was he’d overheard Valeria telling Robert months ago in his own world.

“You know, I’m certain that I’ve never seen you at Heather’s school…and yet…” Robert tilted his head as he scrutinized Logan’s face further. “You look familiar somehow.”

While Robert’s brain tried to understand how he could see the face of his own brother in this young stranger, Heather pounced on the opportunity.

“So, can he stay?”

With a nod, Robert relented. “But if I hear anything coming from your room, I’ll…”

“What are you going to hear over the screams that Leah makes?”

“One of these days, you are going to have to let me win one of these,” he told her playfully as he made his way to the bedroom. “I am your father.”

Triumphant, and baring the smug grin to show it, Heather turned to her inter-dimensional cousin, and gestured towards the stairs.

“If daddy is home, that means dinner will be ready soon.”

“Actually, if you don’t mind, I’d like to just go to bed,” he said, while running a hand through his thick, dark hair. “It’s been a long, confusing day, and I feel a headache coming on.”