Note-Firstly, I'd like to apologise. I've been a little sloppy with punctuation and have been making some fairly obvious mistakes. I'm going back to my "one-a-week" posting, because it's Summer, so I've got lots on. But, anyway, I hope you enjoy the penultimate chapter! I'm sure your all getting really frustrated with Klaus (I know I am) so this chapter will hopefully make up. Ah, so much cheese I could drown…

"She looks beautiful, doesn't she?"

Ernst didn't take his eyes off Anna. He couldn't. She wasn't just beautiful; she was positively radiant, with her corn-coloured hair sparkling in the sunlight, and her face glowing with happiness. A broad, merry smile stretched across her face, making her eyes crinkle at the corners. She was surrounded by small children, all tugging at her wedding dress. She bent down, and hoisted the smallest one up in her arms. The child stuck its thumb in its mouth, wrapped its legs around her legs and nuzzled contentedly into her shoulder. The young woman laughed, and it was the sort of laugh that made everybody else around her want to smile.

"Yes, she does. She always does"

And didn't everyone know it? Georg was standing to one side, looking dazed and pale, with a ridiculous grin plastered all over his face, as if he wasn't quite sure what had happened but was damn pleased that it had happened to him. Otto, his best man, was standing next to him, laughing at his friend's expression. He raised his champagne flute in a small toast, and clapped his friend on the back. Over the other side of the courtyard, Thea rested against a tree, smiling dreamily on the reception like a well-wishing nymph and clutching tightly to the bouquet of blue flowers she had caught. Martha, who was still small and stocky, and didn't look as if she had aged a day since she was fifteen, was engaged in conversation with a pretty woman with long, copper curls.

"I didn't think you knew Anna" Ernst queried quietly.

"I don't" The reply came almost instantly.

"So why did you come here?"

The silence that followed made Ernst smile. He'd moved away from the large group, and was hovering around the outskirts of the square bit of land in front of the church, against a small bunch of tall trees. Nobody was looking at him for once; they were all too busy staring, transfixed, at Anna. He had some privacy, at least. In the midst of the people, Anna set the small child back down on the grass, and spun around, her dress flying around her ankles, and laughed a sound like a peal of bells.

"You're avoiding me, Ernst"

"Am I? I hadn't noticed"

"Why are you avoiding me?"

"It isn't to do with you, Klaus"

"Of course it is, seeing as I am the one being avoided"

"It's to do with somebody else entirely. You just happened to be wrapped up in it, that's all"

"How am I wrapped up in it? And what am I wrapped up in? Come, Ernst, you do speak in riddles sometimes!"

Ernst sighed in exasperation. All he came here to do was celebrate Anna's wedding peacefully, with no distractions. However, it seemed fate had, once again, come up with different plans for him. He didn't like the way this conversation was going. He was wishing for the ground to open and swallow him up, even though he knew that it would never happen. He just wanted for forget everything, just for this afternoon, so that he could celebrate with everyone else and let Anna's happiness seep into him, just a little.

"Please, what have I done wrong?"

"Nothing, Klaus. Just…just leave it, please"

"But you have been avoiding me and all I ask is why and you will not tell me!"

"We all have our secrets"

"That may be, Ernst, but-"

"Oh, Hanschen, please be quiet!"

Ernst's breath caught in his throat. Oh, God. This would not end well. Klaus, too, was silent, as if pondering. Then he spoke again, his tone gentler, less demanding.

"Is it something to do with…with Hanschen? I assure you, he is nothing to me, but whoever he is he is obviously something to you. A friend? Or-or a brother?"

"N-no…"

"But it is to do with him, is it not?"

"Yes, it is. Are you happy now?"

"No, because that still doesn't explain why you are avoiding me!"

Ernst suddenly had an almost irresistible urge to hit his head against a tree trunk. It was like arguing with a stubborn infant. He didn't say anything. He'd spent ten years being almost completely silent, and that was how he liked it, how he wanted it to stay. How could this person, shrouded in mystery, just come along and break the quiet he'd spent so long trying, no, striving to perfect? It wasn't right.

"Ernst? Please, talk to me…"

"Otto married Marianna Whelan, in the end. She finally returned his calls. That child Anna's holding in her arms is their son, Christoph."

Ernst had no idea where that had come from, but now he had started, he didn't want to stop. He wanted to continue, to try and make both Klaus and Hanschen understand.

"And Thea, she's always trying to look for outrageous adventures, but her last one hurt her far too much, and now she's a self-proclaimed spinster. Martha…when her father died she just left, in the night, didn't say a word. She made a new life; I think she's married to a bank clerk in Frankfurt now. Ilse and Melchior, nobody ever sees them anymore. And now Anna and Georg are getting married. Do you see? I am the only one who hasn't moved on. I stopped time for him. You know…" he laughed nervously. "Sometimes I didn't even see the point in everything I did. And then I remembered that it was all for him, when he finally came back. And he came back. And then it turned out that everything I had ever done for him was a waste of ten perfectly good years. And don't say you do not understand what I am trying to explain, because I know you do"

It was a beautiful day for a wedding, and the guests were laughing and talking and generally being blissfully happy and carefree. But at that point, it felt like darkness hung over the two men by the trees, cutting them off from everyone else.

"I loved him. As I have never loved anyone" Ernst echoed. "And it all came down to nothing, in the end. Such is life, I suppose. But that doesn't stop it hurting. And now he's leaving me behind, yet again, running away as soon as he broke me for a second time"

"I'm sure he had his reasons" Klaus said, his voice coarse.

"That may be. That doesn't make anything better, though"

Klaus choked out a laugh, and it almost sounded as if he was about to cry. Almost.

"Dear lord, Ernst, I never knew you were such a sentimentalist"

"You would not be the first to say that"

"This man is quite obviously a coward. You deserve better"

"It's not so simple. I don't want anything better. I just want him"

"You can't spend your whole life waiting for him to face his fears"

"It's all I've done for the last ten years. You see, I always thought it was my fault that he didn't come back. It was, in a way"

"How could you ever be at fault?"

"By making idiotic mistakes that should have never been made"

"People make mistakes, and people have to repent for them"

"Love is never a mistake"

Klaus sighed, and leant back against a tree. Ernst ran a hand over his face, already regretting saying too much. But Klaus was leaving tomorrow, and he wasn't ever going to come back. Some things needed to be said.

"Why were you at the graveyard before?" he muttered.

"I was visiting Moritz Steifel and Wendla Bergmann"

The reply froze Ernst from the inside. His blood turned to ice. They were getting awfully good at catching each other off guard, he noted.

"Moritz…"

"When I saw Melchior, in Berlin, I told him I was coming back here, and he asked me to visit their graves for him. Too ashamed to do it himself, I think. He asked me to tell them that they were right, and that he was sorry. He isn't all there anymore, Melchior"

"He knew you were returning?"

"Yes. It wasn't particularly spontaneous, Ernst"

For a moment there was quiet.

"Who are you?" Ernst asked. "Are you Hanschen, or are you Klaus?"

"I am both. You can't ever bury who you are, but you can lock them up and force them to keep quiet. Only at nights will I let myself escape"

"I love you, Hanschen. I always have. I never stopped, not once"

"That's because you never let yourself forget. Forget me, Ernst. I'm serious. There is nothing for us here or anywhere"

"I will love you until I die" Ernst repeated fiercely. "I can't do anything else. All I have ever done is missed you and missed the way things were. The timing was wrong, I understand, but there has to still be something there"

And that was when Hanschen brought his head down hard and fast and captured Ernst's lips with his own. The kiss was soft and tender and full of such a strong love that Ernst was drowning in it. He kissed back, his hand reaching up to hold the back of Hanschen's neck. His lips burnt and bruised, but he didn't care. He needed to be close, to have this connection to Hanschen, he needed to…

And then Hanschen drew quickly away, and he looked terror struck. His eyes were wild, like a dog that has been whipped, and he was shaking his head with small, slow, jerking movements. He was breathing fast, his face hot and flushed. Then he turned, and ran off through the trees and away.

Ernst did nothing, rooted to the spot. He reached up with a finger and slowly brushed at his swollen lips as hot tears began to swell and burst down his face. He swallowed, his throat dry and tight, and he gasped for breath.

"Hanschen…" he whispered to himself.