NOTE: Hey everyone! This weekend is my birthday, so let's all take a break and do something less serious. The plot will continue soon, but for now, enjoy this little piece of sugar. Have a nice weekend!

14. The Good Whiskey

"You know, you've been obviously close to snapping since we found Walt", Jack said later as he poured whiskey in two glasses and passed one to Erik. "Why not just take a break, if it was too much for you?"

"I have been close to snapping for about thirty years", Erik sighed, downing the whole thing in one go. "The only break I'll ever take will be when I die."

"I see." Jack poured him another glass, hoping he wouldn't regret it; luckily, Erik seemed to have enough common sense to pace himself a bit with that one.

"And I promised not to", Erik added, just in case Jack wanted to ask the obvious why not die then? Why are you burdening yourself and others with all this nonsense?

"Not to die?" Jack turned to him in surprise. He, on the other hand, would not have thought in a million years to ask someone why they hadn't killed themselves yet.

"So to speak. At least not to die for nothing", he shrugged. He had no idea why he was telling Jack all of this; he hadn't spoken about it in months, as he never told Yana about it and Alina didn't mention it. Was he actually developing a need to confide in people? Well, maybe just the ones that pour me large amounts of alcohol after I threaten to kill them. "it was a... sort of pact. I promised if others would let me live like a human, I would act like one." He waved his hand dismissively. "Obviously, I'm not good at it."

"I've seen men throw punches over much smaller offenses, and they didn't spiral into such existentialism because of it", Jack smiled. "Was that pact you made with Alina?"

"Yes", Erik mumbled in embarrassment.

"Is that why you're so much calmer around her?"

"Yes and no. Part of it is the promise. The other part is the fog", he blurted out.

"The fog? Did I hear you correctly?"

"Uh... it's hard to explain. The anger is... sharp. The blackouts start with needles in my spine", he looked at the glass, swirling the liquid around. "Alina puts a sort of... cotton fog in my head, whenever she's around. It's like having a splitting headache and laying your head down on soft pillows", he rambled. Sometimes literally. "It doesn't cloud my thinking, just… makes me less alert. It softens the spikes, and they don't appear so often", he finished barely above a whisper.

"Well, that was a very beautiful way of putting it", Jack remarked, deciding maybe Erik had deserved a little more of the whiskey. "You're an interesting combination of poetry and violence, has anyone ever told you that?"

"Sadly, yes, they have." Erik finished his glass.

Silence spread around the room.

Jack wasn't going to let this evening end on such a sour note, and since his companion seemed to be spontaneously sinking into alcohol-fueled sadness, he would have to do something.

"Never really found a girl like that, myself", Jack laughed. "Not my time to settle down yet. I have things I need to do first."

"Hmm." Erik wasn't sure what the appropriate response to that was, so he erred on the side of caution again.

But then, as silence spread once again, he realized that may have been the rude thing to do.

"Uh, what things?" he offered.

"Oh, you know", Jack waved his free hand. "Wild adventures. Getting filthy rich. Seducing many questionable ladies before finding one who can outsmart me. I've done some of those, but I'm not that old that I can't have some more fun", he laughed.

"How old are you?" Erik asked. He realized again he had the bad habit of not asking people the most basic questions when he met them; truth be told, his other bad habit of asking them at inappropriately late times wasn't helping much either.

"Thirty-four."

"And what have you done so far? Of those things." Erik leaned forward in his seat slightly. The alcohol in his blood was making him less withdrawn; he was slowly finding it easier to think of questions to ask.

"Oh, mostly adventures. I joined the army for two years, but that didn't work out. After I finished school, I got into boxing, and I even got pretty far before I realized taking one too many hits might leave me less able-minded than I would prefer, so I stopped. I worked as an investigative journalist for years when I was in my twenties; I've covered so many murders, scandals and intrigues that you wouldn't believe", he laughed. "I traveled all across the country. I had ideas for how I'd get rich and famous - gold, stocks, trade, you know. All those things that look much easier and more exciting when you don't actually have to do them." he paused. "I came back home a few years ago. I had family here, and… they had some trouble, so I tried to help. Mafia got to them, and they had to move in the end. But I can proudly say I took part in the recent purge of crime across this island", he finished. "A lot of people still owe me favors around here, and I can cash them in as long as I keep quiet about it."

"That's a lot of interesting things", Erik said, looking genuinely impressed.

"I'm sure you've done plenty of adventuring yourself", Jack smiled. "What are your stories?"

"I have none. I lived alone all my life, and never went outside much." Technically, that was true.

"Surely you have some? You don't strike me as someone who hasn't lived much, not at all. You're one of the toughest mysteries to crack, and that's coming from a journalist. I have known you for half a year, and I still don't even know why you're wearing that mask all the time", Jack gestured.

"Ngh." Erik sat back and crossed his arms. "Of course, that. Just in case I forgot it was there." He would have been a lot more offended by this if he was sober, but right now he didn't really have the energy for that.

"I even asked Alina, and she didn't help me much either", Jack shrugged.

"What did she say?" Erik asked carefully. How did she describe it?

"She said, 'he wears it because he's stubborn', rolled her eyes, and changed the subject", Jack laughed. "I won't push it. I asked you here to have a good time, not to interrogate you. Stop being so annoyed."

"I'm not", Erik said in an annoyed tone, feeling very annoyed. "There is no good story behind it. It's a horrible, disgusting... it has always been like this since I was born, and it keeps causing me problems constantly no matter how much I try to hide it. I am so, so tired of it, frankly, and I don't want to talk about it, because it's all people ever notice about me, and I never get a single waking or sleeping moment to forget about it!" he took a breath. "I can be other things, not just…"

"You are many other things", Jack hurried. "I'm sorry I asked."

"Alright."

"For example, I would bet that you're good at chess."

"I don't know. I might be."

ooo

About an hour and two lost matches later, Jack remarked, "Maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"Oh, I don't know", Erik grinned. "I'm having fun, to be honest. Another one?"

"I thought you didn't know how to play chess", Jack narrowed his eyes at him. He reached for the whiskey again. The level of liquid in the glass was getting concerningly low.

"No, no, that's not what I said. I said I've never played it with another person", Erik nodded with a very smug look in his eyes, passing him his glass.

"Maybe that's good", Jack retorted. "If you're this insufferable about it."

"You're a sore loser, aren't you?" Erik kept smiling. "There's no need to hurt my feelings. Didn't we just establish that we're friends?"

"Ngh." Jack groaned, pouring them another drink.

"You're my first male friend", Erik smiled dreamily, looking at some invisible point in the wall.

Jack stopped, bottle still in mid-air. "Excuse me?"

"Hahah, yes, that sounded completely wrong", Erik laughed a little. "Did you think I was going to say I've had many female friends? I've had exactly one friend before I came to New York, and she was my mother. My real mother, not the woman that gave birth to me", he stopped for a split second. Well, there was also Christine, but for all of our time spent together, I never really treated her as a friend. Maybe that was the problem. "I don't go about introducing myself to people. You're my first male friend, ever. I wonder if that's different. Is it different? Talking to Yana is easy, but I don't imagine her personality is exactly the normal for most people. Talking to Alina is easy in some ways but hard in others. You have to look people in the eye when they speak to you, Antoinette said so, but hers are so easy to get lost in", he finished, smiling serenely to himself.

Jack stared at him for several seconds completely still before saying, "You're the strangest drunk I've ever met."

"Only when I'm drunk?"

"Keep in mind you have so far avoided making any sort of contact with me aside from what was absolutely necessary, and now you're telling me all of this."

"That was before I punched you in the head. And then you invited me to your house and gave me your good whiskey", Erik nodded. "Am I the strange one here? Is this how men become friends? If I'd known that, my life could have been easier", he started to laugh again. "It seems that lately I can only act nice towards people after they have seen me at my absolute worst", he thought out loud, getting serious again. Jack was starting to get a headache just from trying to keep up with his moods as they changed.

"Not the best way to go about it", Jack decided it might be best if he hurried a bit with his own whiskey and just played along with whatever the hell was going on.

"It does sound quite stupid, doesn't it? And yet, the one time I didn't do it, it backfired in such a monumental disaster I almost died. It seems that it's very dangerous for me to pretend to be something I'm not." he sighed. "Not to mention, when they get disappointed it's really…"

"You don't have to say anything you don't want to", Jack remarked, because it seemed like Erik had forgotten the difference between saying things in his head and saying them out loud. Maybe he never knew the difference in the first place; he just jumped straight from one extreme to another.

"That's nice of you", Erik replied with the gentlest look in his eyes Jack had ever seen him cast his way. "You're a good person, Jack, better than I deserve. As are the other people who have granted me the gift of their company. I don't know how that happened, but I'll do my best not to let you all down."

"I believe you", Jack hurried. "And I don't think it's true. I would not be around someone if I didn't think they deserved my company. I actually value myself quite highly", his mouth twitched upwards in a crooked smile. "Alright, I think we should play another one before we call it a night. Black or white?"

"Black."

"You're annoying me with this", Jack laughed. He put one black and one white pawn in each hand, hiding them behind his back. "Alright, pick one."

"Do you really think I won't know where the black one will be?"

"Will you?"

"It will annoy you even more, Jack. I'm a better illusionist than you. Just give me the black one."

Jack rolled his eyes, pulling his hands back out and handing him the figure.

"I was bluffing", Erik said cheerfully, taking the black pawn and sorting the figures on the board. "I had no idea where it was."

ooo

A few hours later, Alina looked up from reading her book at the kitchen table to see Erik entering, very slowly and carefully with an uncharacteristically embarrassed smile on his face.

"Where have you been?" She raised her eyebrows in amusement.

"Jack's", he gave her a dreamy smile. "I punched him in the head, and now we're friends." He walked shakily over the room, kissed her forehead, and crashed into his bed without another word.