The sun rose again on another sunny day in downstown New York, shining brightly on the little brick building. It was still a bit early, the businessmen and vender's were preparing for a hard day's work. Inside, Ferdinand was at his desk when the welcome bell that hung upon the front door rang. Someone had entered, making the older man arch an eyebrow.

A young man, in his early twenties whisped over, handing the lawyer a letter, bound with a red ribbon and addressed to someone named "Rosemaria Turner." With a sigh, Ferdinand nodded, placing the letter on his desk. He was aware that Strange had made up this woman to be the step mother of one of his many ridiculous aliases.

"Seriously, can't the fool just use one name?" He grumbled, returning to work.

When he believed the coast to be clear, the small frame blonde wobbled out, rubbing his eye and yawning into his palm. His hair was a mess, he hadn't the time or patience to brush it or get dressed.

"F-Ferdi.. wuzzat for me?"

The older man nodded, handing him the letter.

"Here."

Strange opened the mysterious letter, knowing exactly what it was. His pay, for his latest production.

"It's a lot...I was the lead this time," He chuckled to Ferdinand, reliving the magestic moment once more, a moment that had transpired the night before the shoot up.

Lucian crawled out of bed a bit later than usual, standing up and stretching. The morning light filtered in through the blinds, slanted bands of light falling across his back. He stumbled drowsily into the bathroom, staring at his reflection for a moment. His eye caught on the scar across his cheek, soon falling back to his hand, and then the bandage still on his bare upper arm. This job really had him taking a beating. It almost wasn't worth it. The money was fine, but he had a real chance of dying. He washed his face, tossing the towel in the general direction of the towel rack as he walked back out into the bedroom. He quickly got dressed, wandering into the living room. What to do. Probably just the same thing as always. The walk to the antique store was rather nice on such a clear day, not that the brunet appreciated it much, despite his lack of an umbrella whenever he needed it. He would hate the rain, but he failed to notice the weather when it wasn't awful.

"Hey Strange." Ferdinand said, turning in his chair to eye the blond who was still examining his pay. The blond looked up at once with a look of curiousity, tilting his head.

"What are you going to do? You seem to be well off with just that one occupation." The older man replied, eyeing the envolope containing his payment.

Strange looked down at the envolope, finding himself oddly unenthusiastic about his surplus supply of money.

"I..I dunno.. I'm not even too excited about making this much." He replied truthfully, rubbing his forarm with the envolope securely placed in his breast pocket.

Lucian arrived at the antique shop in a little while, knocking on the heavy, newly-replaced, no-longer-bullet-ridden door. Everything seemed so normal, again. That avalanche must've been a hundred years ago. And was the detective even still chasing him? It had happened so recently, and yet.. He knocked again, impatiently. He couldn't be caught standing out in all of this horrible.. sunshine and happiness. He'd catch his death.

Ferdinand was still at his desk when he arrived, the shower water running in the upstairs bathroom. Without looking up, he welcomed him.

"Good morning Lucian. No work today?"

"Nah." Lucian said, entering the mostly repaired antique shop.

"Damn union strike. I'm not in their stupid union, but they'll probably kill me if I tried to cross their line."

It was nice to be off from work. And he was getting by from taking up a bit more criminal work on the side. He was still recovering from the financial shock of his entire apartment getting busted up in about five seconds.

Strange took the time he spent under the luke warm water thinking, thinking about everything thst had transpired over the passed few days. Lucian, Lucian.. The only name that came to mind, the one reoccuring thought, his words, his presence, his face.. Shaking the thoughts away, he shook his head, washing his hair when a thought struck him mid-scrub. Could things really...go on like this? And why, why did the brunet plague him so? He couldn't understand why almost every thought he had tracked back, in some way to Lucian. It hurt him, and what if..what if it hurt forever?

"Why do I..." Strange clutched the side of his face over his eye, so frustrated he let his head bang into the shower wall, letting his burning eyes relieve themselves of their mid-moistening sting.

"Why do I.. keep thinking of you?"

"So.. is Strange here?"

Really really smooth. That's what he was. He didn't know why it was so hard to try to sound like it wasn't the first thing on his mind. Usually it was more like, 'Where's Ferdinand, I need to argue with that guy.' But not tonight. Not after all that had happened.. He heard a dull thud upstairs, looking at the ceiling, as if that would somehow reveal the source.

".. S'that him?" He asked, tonelessly.

"Eh? Oh yeah, showering..right." Ferdinand was busy, so much paper work lay spread out upon the desk before him. He stroked his temple impatiently.

"If you don't need anything, then see yourself out, I've very busy today."

"Aw, Ferdi, I thought you enjoyed my company and had succumbed to my rougish charm." he said, in mock disappointment.

Lucian didn't want to get shooed out that easily. He still hadn't found out if the blond was doing alright, how his arm was healing. That sort of thing. He'd wanted to come back earlier, but he'd managed to keep away until now. Not that it had been easy. He'd been trying to keep busy, to think about other things, enjoy being well again and all that. And now he had more free time. So naturally he'd gravitated right back to the antique shop and Strange.

Strange finally decided on something, something that would prehaps end the madness, even if just for a few weeks. He decided to put the money to good use, he would seperate them! Oceans apart, he wouldn't even cross the actor's mind anymore! Or so he hoped. Switching off the shower, he sighed again, The mirror before him was quite foggy, making his reflection impossible to observe in the thick masking. He really didn't feel like seeing himself, the look of weakness disgusted him.

Lucian took a seat, watching Ferdinand with a bored expression plastered on his features. He sighed. He didn't want to deal with Ferdinand. He wanted to deal with.. oh god. A light blush briefly appeared on his cheeks, and he looked away from their employer, frowning deeply. He hadn't even thought about that not being the right thing. He'd wanted to see Strange without even a conscious decision to do so. He flicked a few strands of hair away from his eyes idly, awaiting the blond's return with some sort of unreasoning nervous anticipation.

The sound of the bathroom door could be heard upstairs, followed by the sound of foot steps. The footsteps headed for the stairs, taking small, delicate steps as a figure began to decend, the feet, the legs to the torso. Finally, all of the small framed blonde housekeeper could be seen, dressed in only a pair of pretty unisex pants, with a towel wrapped around her shoulders beneath her fair hair. She hadn't noticed the burnet at first, not until she reached the door to her small bedroom, her eyes widening a bit.

"Oh, hey Str-..." Lucian's voice cut off as soon as he noticed that Strange was only half-dressed, sort of freezing in place.

He'd been sitting still before, so the only explination was that he'd stopped breathing for a moment. Or was just very stealthy about it. Then, the disgruntled little decent-human-being voice in his head which he barely recognized and had long believed dead snarled. Look at his-her face. FACE. NOWHERE ELSE, with a startling, angry intensity. He blankly stared the blond right in the eye, as if his brain had shut down entirely and now failed to transmit any emotion or thought.

Strange's face flushed, and she quickly darted into her room, not muttering so much as a "morning" to him. The blonde shut the door and locked it behind him, quickly putting a shirt on over his bear chest, what had Lucian seen? When did he even get here?! Why was he here?!

Ferdinand paid no attention, continuing with his work.

Lucian blinked. What had just happened? Oh right. Strange without a shirt. And he hadn't taken that wonderful opportunity to even guess at his gender. Good show. He'd kick himself for that one later. He didn't even know why that was a big deal. Weren't they supposed to be friends? So then what had just happened? Why was that so mind-numbingly awkward and semi-traumatic? It shouldn't have mattered, it should've been just laughed off as nothing, but it was so serious. He sat foward, clearly more than a bit uncomfortable, staring a the floor, blushing profusely. What was wrong with him!?

Strange quickly changed, opening the door slowly and walking out. He wore an expression that said "Hello everyone, nice to see you all!"

"Morning Lucian." He chuckled, "When did you get 'ere?" Noticing his facial expressions, he blinked curiously.

"W-wuts wrong? Are you still sick?"

"Uhm.. No.. No." Lucian said, struggling to recover as quickly as Strange apparently had. No, it was no big deal, why would it be, Strange was right. Of course not.

"I'm fine. I just came over to.. talk to Ferdi."

Oh, good, he hadn't even thought of a reasonable excuse by now. What was he talking to Ferdinand about? He.. had no idea.

"Then spit it out." The lawyer bellowed from across the room, dropping his pen in his ink well again in a huff. He stroked his small moustache, folding his arms across his chest.

"You've been here how long already, you had business after all?"

No. He didn't. He didn't at all. But he could usually make some up. Or remember something he'd wanted to tell Ferdinand.

"Oh, hey, yeah, you know how you let me shoot Allistair? Could I do that again?"

That was actually a legitimate question that struck him at that very moment. Surprisingly, it was actually something he cared about and would like to know from Ferdinand.

"Or at least crack his skull or something? I don't have to kill him, unless you want to give me permission."

Well, it was a legitimate question by his standards, quite believable because he actually wanted to know. He hadn't intended to ask, but now that he was here and stalling.

"No. Why?" He grumbled, returning immediately to his work, shaking the ridiculous question off.

The housekeeper blinked curiously again, why did he want to hurt Allistar now? Was it really.. no way! it couldn't possibly be.

"Just leave 'im alone, he's a simple thing." Said Strange, waving his hand as he strolled over to the kitchen. He didn't want to look at him! He just couldn't!

"What? Because you let me shoot him before!" Lucian cried, not giving this one up without a fight.

He had not gotten revenge on Allistair. There was no reason for everything to get in the way now! He frowned as Strange spoke. He'd forgiven the little twerp? Lucian didn't even understand how that was possible. Here he'd been intimidating their token smartguy on the entire train ride home, and he was going to have to let him go?

Strange meanwhile put the tea kettle on, turning on the stove as he began to prepare breakfast. He would cook for three, unsure of how long Lucian was planning on staying.

"Ferdiii are you hungry?" Strange asked, the lawyer replying immdeiately.

"Yes, its nice to actually eat in the morning for once!"

The blonde chuckled, preparing the pan for some good old fashioned eggs, the same kind he often made on the rare occasions he was up at this hour.

Lucian was not just going to drop it. This was a perfectly good chance to show how not-here-for-Strange he was.

"I don't see why this has to be such a big deal. I just want to rough him up a little." he said to Ferdi, hoping that the blond hadn't heard enough to intervene again.

He didn't care if Strange had forgiven Allistair, even though he was the victim. He'd have to learn to never do anything like that for the rest of his life. And if Lucian had his way, then learn he would.

"Cut it out Lucian, it doesn't matter anymore!" Strange called, peeking his head out into the other room from the kitchen, an apron now tied around his waist.

He just wanted everything to just be pushed out, and then he could go on the trip he was going on without a care.

"Ferdi, once Lucian steps out, there's something I wanted to ask you." The housekeeper said calmly, making the pen Ferdiand was using stop moving, the man looked up at him and nodded.

"Just let me get these done." Strange giggled, a smile stretched across her lips although inside, her heart was breaking in two.

Lucian looked back at Strange, a little confused.

"Since- since when do you have anything to do with what I do, huh?" He said when he stepped out.

That sounded a lot like Strange not wanting him to be here. That was two against one, it seemed, and the two happened to be the residents of the household. He didn't look outwardly hurt, because he would never have dreamed of admitting that to himself.

Right, I can't stick around too long anyway."

The only way for him to get out of these was to sprinkle every dodgey thing he said with a healthy portion of truth and equal parts denial.

Strange frowned, turning his back to him and preparing to go into the kitchen again.

"You can get going whenever you like, if you want to stay I started breakfast for 3." Strange said softly, almost saddened by the brunet's desire to leave.

He'd best leave though, Strange didn't know if he could sit down with him today. Had he taken a totally innocuous statement by Strange and immediately twisted it into something against him? Of course not. That could never happen.

"Well, uh, I mean.. I still have a bit of time."

This shouldn't have mattered at all. Why should he be so uncomfortable now? Everything was in the open, well, not really- but they were friends again. More so than before.

Things were going swimmingly. Ferdinand hadn't even spent his time viciously berating him for costing them another night's stay in an inn. Why was he thinking along the lines of 'Get out while you still can?' Strange forced a grin, feeling a bit relieved that the brunet had accepted his offer. This was only because he didn't mind being around him of course, not because he wanted Lucian to stick around. he wanted to talk to Ferdinand alone. He set the breakfast down at the table a few minutes later.

"Soup's on!" He chimed, waiting for them before he sat down.

Lucian had pretty much been trying to pantomime beating Allistair senseless to Ferdinand the entire time Strange had his back turned, but had abandoned that as soon as the other man had noticed that and begun ignoring him. Or maybe he'd been ignoring him the whole time. It didn't matter now. Lucian trailed after Ferdinand, still inexplicably ill at ease.

The blond showed them to their seats, sitting down right after them and taking a sip of his hot tea. Strange forced his smiles, hardly touching his own food, as his stomach was full of butterflies and would probably cause his food to come back up in his throat if he tried to consume it.

Lucian couldn't even appreciate free food, surprisingly enough. And there was no witty breakfast banter to even distract him from it. He ate slowly, glancing up at Ferdinand ocassionally to mouth the word 'Please?' when he thought Strange wasn't looking. If only he'd had any real business to bring to Ferdi. But no.

"Why do you want to hit him so bad anyway?" The lawyer asked, shoving some of the eggs hungerly into his mouth, cutting at the rest of them as Strange stared into his tea.

He had no commentary, he decided he would step off, Ferdinand didn't even know what had happened, and he didn't want him to ask. His eyes widened, he asked anyway!

"Well, he's a condescending asshole." Lucian started.

That was part of the reason, it was. But it was a tiny, insignificant part of it. He could've said that Allistair had hit Strange, but that would make him sound like he cared too much. And he couldn't have that.

"And also I've recently realized that he's probably never recieved a beat-down in his life."

There. Leave the question less-than-half answered. Ferdinand couldn't know the difference. He didn't know what had happened. He wouldn't have been asking if he did. Ferdinand chewed his eggs, after a few moments he swallowed before he spoke.

"Something happened. We all know that, but why the sudden urgancy Lucian?" He asked calmly and suspiciously, he wanted to know everything.

Strange waved his hand kiddishly.

"He just got a little tipsy, made a few cracks at Lucy while we were at the lodge Ferdi, you know how Lucy 'ere's a short fuse!" He mustered a laugh; Ferdinand bought it. He wiped his mouth with a napkin, placing it onto his plate for his housekeeper to pick up.

"Thank you Strange, it was great." He said, strolling right back over to his desk.

Lucian had actually been about to spit out some ridiculous totally unbelievable lie, so Strange had saved his ass just in the nick of time. And he couldn't understand why he'd done it. He didn't even snap at the blond for calling him by his girly nickname. He was too busy looking surprised at his eggs. Well, the blond hd said he was going to honestly help them keep friendship a secret. It.. had to be that. Not even all-knowing Ferdinand would find out about this.

"Right, thanks, I've gotta run." He took the cue from Ferdinand, secretly supremely grateful for Strange's lying. Why had he been worried? Things were great. They had to be.

Strange waved sullenly, remaining at the table even as the brunet left. He remained silent, going to sip his tea when he discovered that the cup was empty. A sigh escaped from his lips as he collected the dishes and used his one good arm to bring them to the sink, preparing to wash them. He washed the dishes and when the coast was clear, he retreated to the main room to talk to Ferdinand at last.

Lucian escaped out the front dor to the antique shop. Somehow, he didn't feel as relieved about it as he somehow expected himself to be. This was riculous, he couldn't just rely on Strange for entertainment and companionship! He was an independent person! He didn't need to rely on friends.. And he usually didn't, so then why..? He could only wonder what Strange had to talk about to Ferdinand. And why couldn't they discuss it in front of him? He may never have found out.. He hurried down the street, hands shoved in his pockets.

Night fell upon the city, the stars littered about the dark night sky. Strange lay awake in his sleeping space, unable to sleep. The anticipation of actually leaving somewhere and being gone for weeks, months..it just seemed like a lot. There was a sharp pain in his chest and he thought about it.

"I have to.. get away from him, its the only way this'll stop. Its for both of us." The blonde whispered, his face in his hands.

The bags he was planing on taking with him were piled in the corner of the shop, just two. He carried a lot on him, but enough tha he only needed two bags. Unable to sleep, the blond got to his feet and wobbled over to his door. He decided that a goodbye would be too hard, so he decided to simply say goodbye somewhere his friend couldn't hear. Fetching his coat, he waltzed out the door, closing it lightly behind him.

Lucian lay awake in bed, a scratchy record playing, forgotten, in the background. It was just to distract him from the pressing restlessness and uneasiness. He considered giving up on sleeping and spending a few hours in a tavern to calm his nerves, but somehow he stayed put, already preoccupied with too much to consider going out and drinking the night away. Something wasn't right. He couldn't place it, but it ominously hung just out of reach, threatening to bring everything around him screeching to a halt. He was unable to shake this feeling of intense foreboding, and he hadn't the slightest idea why.

Strange walked about the empty streets, passing the occasional druggy or drunkard as he passed. The blonde walked passed "Trunkdepo," "their usual tavern, Thadeus' church, and found himself in front of Lucian'd house, unaware of how he'd even gotten there. He stopped walking, his eyes reverted upward toward the higher level of the rickety building. The lonesome housekeeper bit his lip, shivering a bit as the wind weaved through his hair, his muddled thoughts consuming him. He was saying goodbye to this place, his jobs,co-workers.

"I'll see you again Lucian..." Whispered Strange turning to leave before he stopped again. "...please, don't die.." He finished, walking back towards the shop to get some sleep.

Lucian sat up, surely imagining whatever presence he'd thought he felt. For the most fleeting, brief moment, he'd thought he'd heard.

"... Strange."

Damnit. Why couldn't he get the blond off of his mind? He stood up, wandering over to the window and peeking out, only to see nothing. Surely he was going insane after all. Perhaps he'd just gotten so used to spending time with Strange while he was sick that this was just a natural thing that he'd have to get used to. And here he was, pining for Strange's company. Scorned lovers pined. What was he thinking!? That couldn't even be possible- that would mean that there was a 50% chance of him being gay, and he didn't gamble on such odds like Allistair did. He laughed out loud, banishing the thought. Why had it even popped into his head in the first place?

Strange slipped right back inside, muting the bell by placing his hand over it as he used teh rest of his body to close the door in his wake. He heaved a sigh of relief, all he could do now was sleep until he needed to get dressed and report the train station the next moring. He was going to London. He snuggled back into his bed, stroking the injured side of his face one more time, closing his eyes shut tightlly as he remembered the moment severla days ago when Lucian had helped him pull the shard from his face.

Lucian sat down on the edge of his bed, running his fingers through his hair. What was wrong with him!? Maybe he was still sick and feverish or something. Maybe he'd really lost his mind back there. Maybe this was all a dream. But he certainly couldn't have actually considered, not for a moment, Strange outside the strict realm of friendship. No. Because that was ridiculous and insane. He couldn't possibly be a queer, no matter who Strange was. Because- because- that was depraved! Not that it was only that. He also clearly did not like Strange as anything more than a friend because.. he and Strange were just friends! That was it! Nothing more. With this anewed reassurance, he laid down again, shutting his eyes tightly.