No one knows my name...

It was one of those mornings where Rafael was awake before anyone else in the house and he enjoyed the few hours of solitude he’d have before Jaret woke up and started banging about in his loft bedroom, rousing everyone else from sleep as he did so. There was only so long the peace could reign for and much to Rafael’s delight he had four long, luxurious hours until that peace was broken and his moody teenage brother went on the warpath. Breakfast would be difficult enough to deal with if Nicolai decided to tease Raina like he usually did and Jaret’s moodiness would put everyone in a foul mood. So Rafael just wanted a few hours to himself so he could relax and put his mind at ease. Even if for some mad reason Raina or Nicolai woke up before their brother, Rafael was sure Mynah would be able to deal with them; he had great faith in her.

Yawning, Rafael got out of bed and stretched. He felt the bones in his neck and spine click as he stretched and once he had finished he cast a bleary look around the room. Sunlight had already broken through the material that was substituting curtains and the white light was bouncing off of every surface allowing Rafael to see the objects and their colouring. He stood up and opened up one of the drawers in the cabinet that was pushed up against the wall opposite his bed. He pulled out a thin cotton shirt and a pair of jogging bottoms. Rafael quickly shed his pyjamas and folded them up before taking out some underwear and getting dresses. Once he was dressed, Rafael left his room and crept quietly down the stairs. He sat on the second to bottom step and grabbed a pair of trainers off of the shoe rack. He slipped his feet into them and quickly tied the laces up. Rafael ducked into the kitchen and took an apple out of the fruit bowl as well as picking up Mynah’s iPod, the one he’d treated her to about five years ago. It was old, worn and had had more things spilt on it than any electrical appliance in the world but it still worked which was brilliant.

Making sure to remember the keys, Rafael left the house and locked the door behind him. He then broke out in a light jog, heading in the direction of one of the nicer parks in their area. Most of them were covered in tags and litter which wasn’t pleasant. This one was in the ‘richer’ part of London and Rafael took full advantage of the large expanse of land that was on offer. Usually he’d take a bit of bread and feed the ducks that were in the pond there but they were fresh out of pretty much everything and Rafael was patiently waiting for Vanessa to give them their monthly ‘allowance’. He wouldn’t get paid until the week after next so they were pretty strapped for cash and hungry but Rafael made sure to buy everything in bulk so they still had a fair bit of frozen food and fresh fruit that Mynah got from the market.

Rafael put the earphones in his ear and turned the iPod on. He began to scroll through the songs as jogged through the park gates and he continued along the path. Rafael quickly settled on ‘Boston’ by Augustana and he dropped the iPod into his pocket before biting into his apple and continuing to follow the winding paths that went all through the park.

Khaat had been up all night at St. Mungos for the third night in a row. She had lived on nothing but coffee, and she was getting tired. The hospital had seen a rash of summer carelessness at all hours, and she had not been able to leave while her father was out of town. She had thought about a workout on the treadmill in the fitness center. But she was so tired of being pestered every five seconds, it seemed, that she ruled the fitness center out. She told her assistant when the little neurotic secretary arrived that she was going out for one hour. She had already changed into jogging clothes and had gotten out a clear pink plastic waterbottle that had a fushia carabiner clip attached to the lid. She had filled the waterbottle with cold water, and had clipped it to her beltloop in the denim shorts. It wasn't ideal jogging gear. Denim cutoffs, White tank top, white running shoes. She mentally kicked herself for packing crappy shorts in her duffel bag a couple days ago.

She walked out of the hospital and took a moment to stretch her muscles outside on the edge of a concrete flowerbox. She hurt. Far too many hours at work. Stress and tension had mounted everywhere in her well toned frame. And she didn't like the thought that she had gone almost 5 days without spending any time in the sun. She missed that. Her new house had sunlight everywhere, and she spent as much time outside as she could manage.

Besides that, she missed Abbey. Brian had been taking care of her for days now without her because Khaat had not been able to get home. She started off at a gentle pace, jogging alongside the hospital, through the alley and left the safety of the wizarding neighborhood for a large elegant park. The park was always so peaceful this time of day. Not many people around. Evidently muggle Londoners either slept in during the week, or didn't jog this early.

She took the familiar trail, not giving much thought to the environment around her. She had come to do this so automatically, that she didn't have to think about it. She was hoping the crisp morning air would clear out the fog in her braincells caused by sleep deprivation. She had a board meeting to facilitate today, training for new healers, budget problems to resolve, new policies and procedures to write....

Suddenly, she found herself spilling onto the sidewalk, having tripped over something or another. She heard her ankle give a loud crack and felt pain shoot up her calf as she hit the pavement hard. She clutched her ankle and looked around. Some idiot had left a bloody brick right in the middle of the sidewalk. What numbskull left a bright red brick on the sidewalk, anyway? She was ticked. And she was more ticked at herself that she had been enough of a numbskull to not be paying attention and to have tripped and, more or less, fallen flat on her face. She hated exibitions in gracelessness. And she was hoping no one had seen her. She looked and saw her waterbottle had somehow survived. Well, with a little luck, she could get up, walk back to St. Mungos and think up some sort of convenient lie about her ankle being chewed on by a...a..what? A dragon? In downtown London? Hm. Well, she would have time to think up a more plausable escape from total humiliation before she got back.

She straightened herself out, and tossed the stupid brick up alongside a trashcan. It gave her a sense of satisfaction to hurl it. She tried to get up on her feet, and the aching ankle rebelliously refused to even consider helping her to escape more humiliation by allowing her back on her feet. She crumpled back to the sidewalk, frustrated now. Nice. Well, now what? Apparate back to the office in a heap? That idea really stank.

The sun was already beating down on London and Rafael was infinitely glad he’d picked clothes that wouldn’t add to the heat. There were water fountains dotted around the park and anyone who happened to be there lounging on the grass or even passing through having spotted one of the fountains through a fence was infinitely glad they were there. After finishing off his apple, Rafael threw the core into one of the bins and jogged over to the nearest water fountain. He pressed the little button and water began to flow out of the nozzle, careering upwards before curving over and draining away down the plughole. Rafael lowered his head and opened his mouth, letting some of the water jump into it and swirl around inside. He released the pressure he had on the button and the flow of water stopped. Rafael closed his mouth and swallowed before making his way back to the path and picking up on the jog once more.

The music changed and Rafael listened intently to try and identify what songs Mynah had put on the small machine. She had similar taste to him but sometimes she put some odd music, take now for example. Rafael was 85% sure it was one of Mayday Parade’s songs and he was 90% sure that it was one of the ones with the titles that had nothing to do with the actual song. Shaking his head he reached into his pocket and pressed the ‘next’ button, letting it to flick onto something else that was probably just as strange and obscure. Rafael ran a hand through his hair and entered one of the gazebos as he followed along the path.

A sound akin to something slapping down onto a hard surface met Rafael’s ears during a more quiet part of the song. He looked around but saw no one around. It sounded a lot like when Raina and Nicolai would fight, she’d push him and he’d push her; resulting in her falling over – usually on the hard kitchen surface. But it wasn’t them. They wouldn’t be up for at least another, Rafael glanced at his watch, four and a half hours. It was then that another sound could be heard and Rafael took the earphones from his ears. He followed the source of the sound and saw a woman on the floor, looking in the direction of a brick that she’d obviously thrown over. It hadn’t gone as far as the force of it hitting the metal legs of the bin allowed it to ricochet off in another direction.

Slowly, Rafael made his way down the steps of the gazebo. He walked across the grass but stopped half way. He looked down at the grass and nibbled on his bottom lip. He tucked the iPod earphones into his pocket and looked back over to the woman. She clearly needed some help. He didn’t doubt that she’d tripped over the brick but he didn’t know why she hadn’t seen it. Nice park or not there were always some yobs around with alcohol and weapons. The brick was probably evidence of their late night shenanigans probably having broken a window with it and dumped the ‘evidence’ in a park where no one would find it and even if they did they would dismiss it and move it to the side of the path so a child didn’t trip over it or an adult which was the case at this point in time.

Rafael moved closer and he decided it was probably best to make his presence known. He opened his mouth but no word left it as he had planned. Rafael quickly clamped his mouth shut and pulled on a bit of stray hair that had fallen into his eyes.
“H-hello?” His voice sounded stronger than he felt but he couldn’t get rid of that damn stutter. It wasn’t a natural stutter, it was in fact nerves. He couldn’t speak to people as easily as others and this was just one instance. Swallowing, Rafael opened his mouth again and his lips moved awkwardly but fluidly as they formed the words and the sound left his throat, “A-are you alright?”

Khaat heard someone closeby speaking. She looked up to see a handsome and shy young man there, looking at her. She recognized the muggle earphones. Alright, she thought, no magic here. Muggle. Definitely muggle. Hm. That was going to make getting back to St. Mungos decidedly harder.

"Well, mostly, I think," she managed a smile. "I am usually more aware of stray bricks than I was today. I guess I had my mind on my work. Bad habit. I think I just twisted my ankle. Usually I don't sit down til the end of my run. I'm Khaat, by the way. I haven't seen you here before. Are you new here?"

She glanced at her ankle. It was turning black and blue and swelling instantly. Oh, nice. Wouldn't her father be amused to see her hobbling in her stillettos--if she could get them both on? He hated stillettos as much as she loved them, and he had been trying to get her to switch to more practical but decidely more boring shoes for years. And she had refused. It seemed he might actually get his way for awhile. Perhaps. And she was not in the mood to have to use a set of crutches or a cane. She'd hobble first. She seriously doubted if there would be any miraculous magic to heal this instantaneously.

"I think," she said, "if I could get up, I think I could make it back maybe. I hate to ask, but could you give me a hand getting off the pavement, please?"

The way the woman spoke was further confirmation for Rafael that he was abnormal in the respect of being able to socialise with people. She had no hesitance and didn’t seem to be wary of his presence. She must have seen him as some form of help and Rafael was willing to help her. Speak to her with ease or anyone for that matter wasn’t something he could accomplish. But she was merely a stranger. Rafael only had to get past at least half an hour with her and he’d be good to go. Strangers barely ever met each other again and he doubted highly that he’d see a clumsy Muggle woman that couldn’t watch out for bricks again. They always say you learn from your mistakes. Well, whoever they were, were actually probably wrong and were most likely a bunch of drunken poets that were coming up with things that “they” supposedly said. That didn’t make much sense even in Rafael’s head so he banished the thoughts and turned his attention back to the woman.

Her question caught him off guard a little. Would he be truthful and say he lived on the council estate about half a mile away? Would he tell this random woman that he was living in a hovel that wasn’t fit for homeless people? No of course he wouldn’t. That wasn’t the type of thing you said to people who were on the floor with rapidly swelling ankles. But then again, not many people sitting on the floor with rapidly swelling ankles made light conversation. At least, Rafael knew he wouldn’t. He at least be working out how to push himself back onto his feet. Then again, he couldn’t afford to be incapacitated for even a few days so he would have probably braved the worst of it until his day off. Even then though he’d probably still be running around after Nicolai and Raina as well as threatening to lock Jaret in his room for not coming home until some god-awful hour.

“No.” Rafael said, the one syllable word coming from his mouth without being filtered and changed by his nervous stutter. His voice was weaker than it had been but at least he’d lost the stutter. Now he just appeared to be shy and hesitant. “I just don’t come to this park often.” He added. The words were rushed but they were enunciated well enough despite the speed in which they were said. He nibbled on his bottom lip and felt the skin start to chafe underneath the pressure of his teeth. Rafael released his lip and flicked his tongue over the chafing skin, easing the burn slightly.

When the woman spoke again, Rafael nodded and moved a little closer. He knelt down next to her, tucking the iPod further into the pocket of his trousers so it wasn’t in danger of falling out. The thing had cost him more than it was worth so he didn’t want to lose it. He awkwardly held his hands out for her to take. He wasn’t entirely sure what he should do. He usually caught Mynah if she tripped over one of Raina’s toys and he would just scoop Raina up if Nicolai pushed her over. When it came to the boys he’d usually just leave them to Mynah, knowing that she could deal with them, specifically Nico, better than he could. Jaret just hated the world so he couldn’t really be helped whether you wanted to help him or not.

Khaat took the hands offered out to her and managed to get to her feet, putting her weight on her good leg. "Thanks," she smiled. "You're a lifesaver. " She resolved she had to get back to St. Mungos, no matter what it took. She pulled up her courage, took a step and crumpled immediately on the bad leg. Pain or not, that ankle was not going to hold.

"Oh for Merlin's sake!" she cursed, angry. As soon as the words left her lips she felt her stomach sink. Now this muggle was going to think she'd slipped a mental health point or two. She didn't mind a muggle thinking she was a bit eccentric, but dang! This crap was liable to get her committed to a muggle assylum--or burned at the stake for witchcraft or something. She felt like the color was suddenly all drained out of her face. This kid was going to think she was certifiable. And she could not prove she was not. Hm...She wondered if she could just apparate out. But if she did, with the grip she had on his hands, she'd just yank him along, Matt would be pissed,....Oh, crap. Life was so complicated because of a brick.

She looked at him, thoroughly embarressed.

It was relatively easier getting the woman back onto her feet than Rafael had originally thought. He let her grip his hands as tightly as she wanted but he couldn’t help but wince at her hold. She was stronger than she looked he would give her that but then again, if Mynah was in the mood for a “play fight” then she could take him down; after a bit of work on her part that is. But he had to give this odd, clumsy woman some sort of admiration. She had a strong grip which must have compensated for the fact that she was so effortlessly clumsy. Who honestly tripped over a brick? Did no one watch what was right in front of them anymore?

Well, perhaps not. Raina and Nicolai walked into nearly everything while Jaret usually fell down his attic stairs every morning. It had gotten to the point where Mynah and Rafael just stopped waking up to see if he was okay. He usually was bar a few bruises but it was nothing a bit of healing salve wouldn’t fix. Lately though, Jaret had been snubbing the wonder cream that Rafael used to apply to the bruises he got – especially when he was little. Mynah passed it off as Jaret growing up and wanting to boast about winning fights or something to his buddies at school. Rafael didn’t buy it though and he couldn’t help but wonder whether Jaret was ashamed of him or something. It was an awful thought but the way the boy snubbed the family and Rafael in particular didn’t give the wizard much to summarise Jaret’s behaviour with.

He heard the woman speak again and the term sounded oddly familiar. Merlin: supposedly the most powerful wizard in the history of ever. He aided King Arthur and all that jazz. It was a term used in the Wizarding World mainly so perhaps this woman was either a Squib or in fact magical. Nethertheless, Rafael raised dark eyebrow at her and a small smirk began to play on his lips. “He won’t help you.” He said finally, sounding a lot like Mynah when she’d correct him if he’d curse Merlin or his socks or something else to do with the man entirely. “Entities don’t make a habit of helping witches and wizards.”

Khaat caught his little smirk. Ah! So he wasn't just an ordinary muggle. That was a relief. She liked the idea that she might not be convicted for some breech or another by Matt--all for tripping over some brick. Too bad it wasn't a sentient brick. She'd have loved to piss it off by changing it into a sock or something. Her father was rubbing off, she decided. He loved transfiguration. She was starting to like "morphing" people and things. Too bad she never got a chance to morph Rob into something. Oh well, maybe someday....

"I, um..have some friends a couple of blocks away,...that way..." she said. "Are you familiar with the neighborhood at all?" She was sure now he wasn't just muggle, but she wanted to still be a bit cautious with someone she didn't know. She was hoping he might not object to helping her back to more familiar surroundings, but she was betting some employee of hers was going to insinuate that she was cradle robbing. They so loved rumors. And right now, they were getting overworked and a bit punchdrunk from fatigue. Between her ankle, tripping over some stupid brick, and bringing back a teenager, she would be razzed to no end. Ah well, was that not what she got all those sickles for? To be humiliated on a regular basis by her own staff? And most likely her father would get all snarky about it and lead the insult pack when he got back.