All Right
by Kat Kire

Author's Note
This is not hinted E/N. Okay, maybe it is hinted E/N, if you read it right, but it's not meant to be. Angsty Erik. Patient Nadir. A classic in the making. Heh.

Disclaimer
Don't own it. But I do owna Persian plushie that says over 500 phrases when you touch his hand, and dispenses advice. They come in several different colors, and if you would like one, please, just specialize variety and I will bestow it upon you.

Summary
After Christine leaves, Nadir says something strange to Erik. "It's going to be all right."

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"It's going to be all right."

"What?" Erik's head flew up from his heaving chest. His eyes were full and they shone feverishly, seeming jaundiced. To anyone else they would have been terrifying, but Nadir just looked levelly at him, blowing the steam off of his cup of tea.

"It's going to be all right."

Erik lunged at him then, a last ditch, desperate act, attacking the world, the world that had destroyed everything that was real within Erik's small, shadowy world. The armchair Nadir had occupied fell unceremoniously over, Nadir's tea falling onto the carpet and spreading like a bloodstain. Grotesque and dripping with tears and sweat, Erik's face seemed more distorted than ever. Truly monstrous. But Nadir looked at him through eyes that saw more than that, eyes that had seen him too long for that, clear blue green eyes, unusual for a Persian, eyes like sea, the color of grief and patience and promises kept.

"It's going to be all right."

The monster sagged, everything leaving him. Nadir sighed and stood painfully up, lifting Erik in the process, remembering again how feather light his friend was, like the hollow bones of birds. Embracing Erik tightly, Nadir marveled at how weak the man was now, and how exhausted, how drained of all the things that frightened the world and made them call him evil.

"It's going to be all right."

Erik sobbed, racking, childlike sobs that shook his thin frame. Nadir winced as a sharp shoulder bone bored into his chest. "Erik, stand up. I've known you too long to think you're shorter than I am. Stand up."

It's going to be all right."