black nails and denim jeans

His footsteps echo down the empty halls as he walks. No particular destination in mind as he goes, mind too busy trying to formulate another plan.

What, exactly, is he going to do now?

Stupidly, he had pinned all his hopes on this. That when Roy and Kori told him he was surely, definitely, Jason Wayne and that they wanted to help reunite him with his family they were telling the truth. That he was someone who was loved and not just abandoned at the orphanage, unwanted.

The halls are quiet and still here, contrasting sharply with the loud and lively atmosphere of the ballroom. He stops, looking around the long corridor and realizes he has no idea how long he's been walking for or where in the mansion he's ended up.

There's a line of doors spaced neatly apart, all closed with shadows from the outside windows cast against them. It's... familiar, somehow.

Something brushes past in his mind's eye, the echo of a kid running through a brightly lit hall. He turns to follow it, a fleeting feeling of warmth that leads to one of the closed doors.

It's no different from any other door he's seen and yet.

He reaches out to the handle, hypnotized by the foreign feeling.

"Can I help you?"

Jay startles, jumping back a good foot from the door.

There's a man standing just off to his right, bright blue eyes and glossy black hair tied back in a low ponytail.

"Sorry, I just-- I was looking for somewhere quiet," Jay says quickly, taking another step back from the door. Why on Earth was he thinking of opening the door, this man probably thinks he was planning on robbing the place while the Lord of the manor was preoccupied.

"I understand," the man says with a smile, a flash of teeth that tells him that he was right.

"No, I swear, I. Ugh, this looks really bad, doesn't it?" Jay shoves a hand through his hair in despair, fingers roughly combing through the fancy gel Kori had used to slick back and tame his hair.

"Well, it certainly doesn't look good," the man agrees, rocking back on his heels. He gives Jay a calculating look, eyes narrowing briefly before smiling and sticking out his hand. "I'm Tim and we can forget this if you come back to the ballroom with me."

Jay blinks, there's that feeling in his head again. A brief warmth, a blue eyed child looking at Jay and smiling, music drifting around him like a ghost. He takes Tim by the hand.