Thibaut Residence

The wooden door creaked open unveiling the gentle face of a woman. She smiled when her eyes met the visitor's face. "Good morning, Mrs. Thibaut. Is Walter home?" The visitor politely asked. She nodded before stepping back to allow the man in. "He's upstairs. I'll get him for you. Please, sit." She offered the man a seat on the couch and left to retrieve her husband.

Two children were playing on the floor with wooden toys. They cautiously glanced at the man to avoid eye contact. They averted their eyes to their father as he entered the room. "Ludvig. How are you?" He greeted the man with a grin and a firm handshake. They took their seats across from one another before a more serious thought dawned upon Mr. Thibaut. "Is Desiderius okay?" The two children at play quickly forced their attention to Ludvig with great concern. "He's fine Walter. He's very adamant about his studies, however I worry that he's becoming stressed. "Mrs. Thibaut brought the guest a glass of water making a polite attempt to listen in on their conversation. "What do you advise? That we take him out of college?"
"No, that would be too much. Your boy is very intelligent. You don't want to squander any of his talent by doing something so drastic." Ludvig took a sip of the water. "I simply think it would be appropriate for him to come home. Just for Christmas. I'm sure he misses his family and is a little homesick." Mrs. Thibaut stood behind her husband and softly gripped his shoulder with her hand. "Is Desider coming home?" The young girl asked eagerly. Mr. Thibaut hesitated before nodding. "Yes, Darling. Just for Christmas."

Heidelberg University

Edward took the responsibility of tending to Desider's black eye, since he was the one taking medical classes. He checked for permanent damage and internal bleeding, but neither was found. Edward handed his idiot roommate a cloth from the window sill, left to cool by the winter air. Desider pressed it to his eye. "I probably look like a monster." He chuckled sheepishly as he crawled past Edward and onto the young man's bed to look at his reflection in the mirror. "It looks like this side," he pointed to the injured eye. "Hasn't slept in years, but my left eye looks normal." He looked over his shoulder at Edward. He appeared to be slightly annoyed. In his defense, Desider was on his bed while looking out of the window and he was constantly distracting him from the book he was attempting to read. "Edward, oh Edward! Will you ever learn to love a face like this again!? What if I'm stuck looking like this?!" Desider dramatically wailed. "Are you implying that I could love a face like that in the first place?" Desider glared at Edward, but he never lowered his book to notice. Becoming agitated and bored the blond thought of a better way to spend his time. "I'm going to the Christmas Market." He made an obnoxious effort to climb over Edward to get off of the bed. "You should join me."

Edward held his book in one hand and rubbed his temple with the other. He hadn't actually planned anything past the first day of Christmas and the only reason he participated for the first day was to spite Desider by taking his idea. However, he did secretly enjoy leaving the gift for his strange roommate.

Edward's eyes rested upon Desider's black eye. He felt a tad guilty. The clumsy roommate had received the black eye in the process of trying to give him a gift.

Desider finished tying his shoes. "You don't have to go. I just thought you might like to leave the dorm for a bit." Edward closed his book. He wasn't certain if he was annoyed or grateful for the offer, but he was willing to find out.

The Christmas Market was not as busy as Edward expected. He didn't consider that most people would be spending Christmas with their family at this time. Most of the vendors were closed. The few who remained seemed to have items such as Evergreens or a mass selection of items and no way to store them. Or either, they couldn't afford to be home with their families for an entire day.

Edward followed Desider through the streets. He appeared to know where he was going. "I hope you don't mind. I need to get some last minute gifts for my family." They entered a humble bookstore. The building looked fairly new or at least clean on the outside, but inside the shelves were coated in dust and the books were aged with dark yellow pages.

"Desiderius!" An elderly man with a wooden cane greeted him from the back of the store. Desider walked over to the man and eagerly shook his hand. "How is your father?"

"Well, sir. I see you're recovering from your asthma?" The older man smiled and nodded. "Fairly. I still cough and wheeze, but I'm walking. They just admitted my son to the asylum, so hopefully they can catch it in time before he becomes ill."

Desider nodded. "I'm sure he'll be fine, Hans." He smiled and stepped to the side to show Edward standing behind him. "Hans, this is my friend, Edward." The two shook hands before Hans turned back to Desider. "What brings you two here? It's Christmas! I'm surprised that you rather be running around in the streets than be at home with your family, Desiderius!" Hans smacked his hand.

"Actually, that's why I'm here. I wanted to choose a book for my mother and I needed your help with..something else." Desider turned his back to Edward. The elder's eyes became wide as he mouthed an "Oh" once he understood Desider's request. Hans ushered him to the back room. "I'll be back in a moment Edward."

Surrounded by books, but with nothing of interest to read. Edward searched the book shelves for something to read during his wait until he stumbled upon a book titled Old Heidelberg. Surrendering to his boredom, he opened the book. The elderly man's voice startled him. "That particular book is about a love story that happened at Heidelberg's very own university. It was written sometime in the late 1800's." The older man emerged from the door to the back room with Desider behind him. "I didn't know you liked romantic novels, Edward."

"There's a play as well. The university will most likely be performing it in the spring."

"We'll see it when they decide to perform it. Thank you, Hans." Before Edward could object, Desider took the book from him and purchased it along with one other and a package. Hans waved the two young men off. "That's everything I actually needed to get. Is there anything you wanted to do?" Edward shook his head. "I suppose we can go back to the dorm then." Edward suggested. Desider sighed at the failed attempt to spend time with his roommate.

The two roommates entered the dorm room. "I've got a letter!" Desider excitedly grabbed the envelope laid on his bed and peeled back the wax stamp. Edward surveyed the room with his eyes. He felt uncomfortable. As if the room was violated. Clearly, someone had been in the room with Desider's letter being evidence. Nothing appeared to be disturbed, but the nagging feeling in the back of his mind refused him to shake the impulsive thought.

"My parents want me home for Christmas."He dropped his hand to his lap with the letter in it.

"You don't want to visit them?"

"I do, but-" He wouldn't say it, but he felt sad for Edward to have to spend Christmas alone. His first Christmas without his family and the person who appeared to be Edward's only friend, couldn't be there for him. "But I didn't get presents for everyone!" Desider folded the letter and slipped it into his pocket. He grabbed his clothes from the drawer and his trunk from beneath his bed. He packed one of the two books into his trunk before handing the other one to Edward as well as the paper wrapped package. "I wanted to wait until the twelfth day of Christmas to give this to you but, well...and there's no arguing that letter. My mother wrote it." He scoffed. "Merry Christmas, Edward." He closed his trunk and took it in his hand. He wrapped his free arm around Edward's shoulders in a slightly awkward and unexpected hug. "Take care. I'll see you in January." Desider stepped past Edward and left out the door.

Edward listened to the footsteps echo down the hallway before he felt comfortable to move away from the door. He still couldn't shake the uneasy atmosphere he felt in the dorm. He managed to ease himself enough to sit on his bed. Having this over abundance of solitude overwhelmed the feeling even more.

Uncertain of what to do, he remembered the package in his hand. He remove the twine and tore away the paper. The result of the package was a black leather journal with "EDWARD RICHTOFEN" printed across the cover.

A/N: On the List of Admission for the insane asylum 1864-1889 (this was the closest I could find to the 1900's), asthma is listed. Hereditary predisposition is also on the list. Meaning, if a parent had any ailment (like asthma) the children would also be admitted. This may seem like a great thing to do at the time to help Han's son, but in the 1900's scientific knowledge about the human anatomy and physiology was so under developed that doctors were practically torturing their patients. People were admitted for imaginary female problems; masturbation for 30 years; bad company; bad whiskey; rumor of husband murder, and many more. I laughed my ass off reading some of these, but it's terrifying that these patients were being lobotomized, electrocuted, and injected with lithium.

-Old Heidelberg is a German romantic play by Wilhelm Meyer-Forster, first performed in 1901. In the play, Prince Karl from Saxony falls in love with the inkeeper's daughter, Kathie. When the prince's father dies, he is called to return to his homeland and rule as King and has to give up his love.