An incredibly handsome man barged into the room, ignoring Amelija completely as he paced across and stood directly in front of Erik, waving his finger at him with obvious anger and annoyance.

"I know you took them!" he said. "Where are they?"

"So you admit?" Erik smiled slightly.

"You smug, arrogant, thieving bastard -"

"I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about", Erik held his hands up in the air. "In fact, I'd much prefer if you didn't drag my name through mud in front of our guest."

"Don't play dumb -" Jack said, before his nature took over and he coughed slightly. "...guest?"

"Yes. This young lady is Alina's sister, and she'll be staying with us for a few weeks."

Jack turned around, looking at Amelija for the first time.

"Good afternoon", she raised her eyebrow with slight irony, still faintly annoyed by the absolute gall this man had, to be handsome and not notice her.

"Oh", Jack said, pausing for a second too long before he blinked, put on a polite smile and walked over to her, taking off his hat with one hand while extending the other to her. "Lovely to meet you, Miss. My name is Jack Franklin."

"Amelija Boričević." she flashed him a hopefully friendly-yet-mysterious smile.

"I was told you'd come, and I was looking forward to meeting you", he said, looking into her eyes. "Alina told me many lovely things about - "

"Cut the bullshit, Jack, please", Alina scoffed. "I told you she was a bitch, and by God, I stand by it." Alina's voice cut through them like a knife, effectively destroying any magic left in the moment.

"Lovely, Alina", Amelija grinned at her. "Good word travels far, as always."

"Ehhh", Alina shrugged. "Sorry, Jack, but I'm dying to hear what you two are bickering about again."

"Your darling stole my chess set", he informed her dryly.

"I have done no such thing", Erik said with slight smugness from across the room - Amelija twitched; she couldn't get used to how easy it was to forget he was still there. "Jack's home is, as he has informed me, impossible to break in. He even told me he'd be willing to bet I wouldn't be able to get inside. So I couldn't have possibly done it."

Jack looked at Alina with a look that begged for permission to break something on his head.

"However, if Jack's home really was broken in, as soon as he admits it, I'll gladly help him look for whatever was stolen", Erik finished with a positively saccharine tone in his voice.

Alina dragged her hand down her face, then laughed. "I take it back. You two settle this in whichever way you will, but I want nothing to do with it. I've had enough of these during the school year."

Erik shrugged, looking at her innocently. "I wouldn't dream of involving you, darling. We both know how much you deserve some rest."

"Why yes, yes I do", Alina smiled sweetly. "Some rest and some peace. And quiet. And good will from men."

They looked at each other for a second when Erik sighed softly and turned to Jack.

"You've got friends in high places", he remarked. "Fine. Come with me. And you should change your lock, this one could be picked by a monkey with nothing but a pair of dull tweezers."

He left through the front door, leaving Jack and Amelija to look awkwardly at each other, ignoring Alina completely.

Alina cleared her throat. "Jack, I think wherever he hid your chess set, it's still in your house. It's certainly not here."

"How do you know?" Jack took his eyes off Amelija with great effort to look at Alina.

"Well, firstly, I don't think something like that could just appear in this house without me noticing, and secondly, I don't think he could resist bragging to me about stealing it if it was actually here so he could prove it."

"I- right, I should head back home." Jack put his hat on again, looking at Amelija. "It was lovely meeting you, Miss. I hope to have the honor again."

"I-" Amelija stuttered, blushing slightly, and composed herself before she could say something stupid like "I hope so as well!"; instead she smiled a smug little smile and settled for, "Well, you just might."

He nodded and closed the door behind him, leaving Amelija to deal with an absolutely vicious round of teasing from her older sister.

ooo

Jack sped along the sunny path until he caught up to Erik, still fuming with a mixture of annoyance and… something decidedly different.

Erik slowed down when he heard him approaching, and cleared his throat. "Jack, the part about the lock is actually important."

"Sorry?" Jack snapped out of his spell, trying to remember why they were here.

"Changing the lock on your front door."

"There's nothing wrong with my lock", Jack snapped. "It was professionally made!"

"Whoever made it? Someone from the seventeenth century?"

"My father made it, you prick. He's a professional locksmith, and a damned good one at that. Always said old-fashioned heavy locks are harder to pick than the flimsy modern ones. Just because you're insane enough to figure it out- "

"I'd appreciate it if you'd stop calling me insane and whatnot whenever you're annoyed, Jack", Erik interrupted. This was not going how he expected, he realized as Jack clamped his mouth and furiously kicked a pebble out of his way. Jack's stubborn refusal to change his old lock was completely irrational coming from a rich man living on an island full of crime - and Erik had tried to talk him into it before; he'd thought a demonstration would simply annoy Jack and not offend his entire family. He decided for a different approach. "I did not mean to insult your father. What he said is correct, or was, in a way. That lock was incredibly well-made, whenever it was made, but it's simply outdated. People have discovered ways to pick these locks since, and it's actually not that hard when you have the time and tools to study them a little bit. And modern flimsy locks are easier to break, but they are actually much more complicated to pick. They require, well, flimsy tools."

Jack rubbed his nose. "And if somebody decided to break my flimsy lock instead of picking it?"

"Well, that would still require a lot more effort than just breaking your window, so I wouldn't worry about it exactly."

"Breaking a window makes a lot of noise."

"So does breaking a steel lock." Erik shrugged. "They're not that flimsy. What would be the point?"

Jack nodded, biting his lip in obvious distress. "My old man never liked change. He likes his honest-to-God, old-fashioned ways. That's put him through a lot of trouble. Never could adapt."

"Huh", Erik said.

"He was worried the mobsters would get me when I decided to come back, so he made that lock for me before I left California. Said it would protect me. I had no reason not to believe him - they didn't even bother trying to break our lock when they... made us leave, you know."

"No?" Erik turned to him in surprise. Jack didn't talk about his family's exile often, and never mentioned their current whereabouts to him until now. "What did they do?"

"They burned our house down to the ground", Jack laughed a joyless laugh. "It sent a clear enough message and achieved the goal."

Erik kept silent for a long time. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine. It was a long time ago."

He thought about it some more.

"My house in France burned down as well", he finally said. Alina said people feel better if you share something of yours after they confide in you.

"So you said. You said you burned it yourself."

"No, not really. I set fire to something else - a theater - well, a part of it. I set fire to one particular box, but some very important people were sitting in it. It was supposed to be a distraction, so I tried to make it burn slowly - but you can't really control these things. Nobody was hurt in the end, but they knew who it was and a mob gathered and burned my house down. I barely escaped - I thought I would suffocate there or burn alive. It was the most horrifying thing", he finished, fiddling with the cufflinks on his sleeves. The damned things were proving to be convenient for fiddling in situations where he couldn't just take out a piece of string or start cutting something to occupy his hands. Well, I also kidnapped a person, but we're not on that level of confidentiality yet. Or ever, hopefully.

"You can't even comprehend how fast it spreads until you see it", Jack frowned at him, still looking very irritated but a lot less sad than before. "Was there no other way to create that diversion other than setting their asses on fire?"

"If I'm being completely honest - perhaps I thought some of the French elite deserved to smell a little bit of smoke, just to teach them a lesson or two." he clasped the cufflinks open and closed again, resisting the urge to scratch at his scalp. "I think I picked the wrong ones. And the wrong place. And I paid for it, as you can see. They destroyed everything I had."

"Some mighty justice it was", Jack scoffed.

"No, it was a lynching. I won't pretend I wanted justice myself. Justice was, at that point, a luxury I never had or expected in my life - after a while I just started seeking revenge, through whatever means." he sighed. "I didn't mean to burden you with all this. I'm sorry your house burned down, and I'm sorry about picking your father's lock. I would not have done it if I knew."

"Really? Because you seemed to be having a jolly good time." Jack gave him a toothy smile.

"I would not have done it", Erik repeated. "Jack, teasing you is fun, I'll admit, but I wouldn't deliberately scare you. Especially with something that terrible."

Jack walked in silence, looking as if a weight was lifted off his shoulders. It occurred to Erik that he had until now been his friend even without Erik paying that much mind to Jack's feelings.

"Fine", Jack finally said.

"Really?"

"Well, it's already done, you've traumatized me and I don't know how I'll forgive you, unless-" Jack grinned.

"Unless what?"

"Amelija is very beautiful", Jack said with badly-feigned nonchalance. Erik looked at him, then returned his glance back at the road ahead. Erik had always been very good at noticing changes in people's feelings by the small gestures - but incredibly bad at actually interpreting them, so as per usual, he had no idea why Jack suddenly looked so uneasy.

"I'd like to meet her again", Jack offered again when the oblivious jackass failed to take the hint.

"So meet her."

"I'm asking you to introduce me, jackass. Are you making me uncomfortable on purpose?"

"What?" Erik turned his entire head towards Jack now. "Uncomfortable? Why in hell would I do that? If you want to meet her, meet her; you've never had a problem with it. How am I supposed to help? Between the two of us, am I really an exemplar of social skills?"

"Because I", Jack waved his hand, then balled it into a fist as he calmed himself. "I like her, and I don't want to just drop in and say ay, pretty lady, my name is Jack and I fancy you, because then she might get the wrong idea and I want to do it right! Is that clear enough?"

"Ah." Erik said. He brought one hand to his mouth. "If you need my help, you're damned."

"I don't, I just wanted you to create a situation for both of us to be at the same place. It's just how these things are done. And don't sell yourself short - clearly, you've done something right", Jack grinned a very toothy grin at him.

"I, uh, no, absolutely not", Erik shook his head. "Not in a million years. I just didn't do any of the incredibly wrong things that crossed my mind. Really."

"Perhaps, if you dissect it enough, that's all it really takes." Jack winked. "So? Is that a yes, Jack, I'll help you out as a friend even though it might inconvenience me oh-so-slightly?"

Erik looked back at him in silence.

"You do realize you owe me?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

Erik looked back at him, doubt creeping into his eyes. "For Heidel? I never asked for that!"

"No, for Alina. She fancied you for months before she ever said anything, until I talked to her."

"Is that so?" Erik asked quietly, with a spark of something alarming.

"Yes, and don't give me that tone. She wouldn't have noticed you also had feelings for her if I hadn't told her. Once she noticed, all she did was her own volition. I never forced her into anything."

"Alright", Erik said slowly. "What do you want me to do, exactly?"

"It's not that hard", Jack waved his left hand around as his right searched in his pocket for the keys. Erik decided to, respectfully, not offer to simply pick the lock again.

"Alina is with her sister all the time. You could ask her - it would be much simpler."

"I definitely would ask Alina if I wanted a third-degree interrogation about my intentions before I've even had a proper conversation with the woman - nah, listen, I'll think of something. Might just ask you to pass on a note, that surely wouldn't inconvenience you too much?" Jack opened the door, finally, and let Erik inside. "Well, apparently, my chess set is in here?"

"Yes", Erik hurried towards the living room with Jack at his heels. He proceeded towards a very unassuming spot in one of the corners, knelt down, and pulled at one of the floorboards.

"Hey!" Jack exclaimed just as he pried it open. "What are you doing?"

"Opening your secret floor space, or whatever it's called in English", Erik said.

"I don't have a secret floor space! What did you do to my floor?"

Erik looked at the neat rectangular hole beneath the floorboards, then at the plank, then at Jack again. "I'm sorry, you didn't know about it? Who did you buy this house from?"

"Know about what?"

"I didn't dig a hole in your floor, Jack. The floor was hollow in this spot, and the board gave way as soon as I tried to pull on it. Look", he carefully took out Jack's chess set, then put the board back. "Listen, it sounds different when I step over it. You can hear it sounds hollow, unlike the other boards."

"I can't hear a goddamn thing", Jack admitted.

"Oh. Well, I mean, it was obvious you weren't using it, but I assumed you were at least aware of it", Erik said. "Sorry? I didn't mean to intrude in your home-"

"At least now I know about it", Jack put his hands in his pockets, looking at the perfectly innocent-looking floorboard. "Does you house have a secret floor hiding space?"

"Mine? It does, but I don't put anything there. Too easy to find - as I said, you can literally hear the resonance when you walk over it. I only put it there to distract from the, uh, secret wall hiding space and the secret compartment inside the ceiling." It had actually become a sort of hide-and-seek game between him and Alina since the house had been remade - even though she lacked Yana's natural ability to snuff out anything that was hidden (which was why Yana wasn't invited to participate in the game) - she was getting quite the hang of how Erik's thought process worked, so it was becoming near impossible to hide anything from her.

"That's a lot of secret compartments."

"Well, I have a lot of secrets." or had, at least. The number is getting smaller at an alarming rate.

"Speaking of secrets", Jack said, "Have you told Alina about how you might just join the great New York music scene? Or are you waiting to seal the deal before you tell her?"

"Alina knows everything", Erik said with unease.

"Did she tell you that you're being stupid and should just correct the parts Heidel told you about and visit him again?" Jack smiled, putting his chessboard back in its rightful place.

"No, she just thought it very loudly", Erik rolled his eyes.

"Good. You know, Fritz doesn't go around picking up strays and making them into stars. He wouldn't bother with you at all if he didn't think you already had what it takes - he has no time to coach you into the kind of composer he needs."

"Yes, I know", Erik sighed. "I'm… working on it."

"I've seen how stubborn you can be", Jack laughed. "If there's something you really want to have exactly your way, I've no doubt you'll fight for it. Where's all that burning fire you had in you when we were building the park?"

"Why does it matter?"

"I'm just asking, you arse. Satisfy my curiosity, and I might just let you choose my new lock."

"Choosing a lock is the easiest thing in the world, and so is building a structure that doesn't collapse", Erik waved his hand. "There are right and wrong answers, and plenty of ways to check if you're right or wrong. If the person who hired you doesn't like it, it doesn't matter. It's for them, and so you just change it until the solution suits them better."

"Right. And that, I suppose, doesn't work with music?"

"No", Erik said, "Not when it's your music. The notion of making something both to my liking and someone else's is simply something I've never done before."

ooo

On the evening of the next day Alina opened the door to Erik's room gently and with care - which was far from her usual enthusiastic barging into rooms - and smiled gently at the sight of him reading on his bed.

"How are the Karamazovs?" she asked, locking the door behind her. She had her own key now - after Amelija arrived, when it was obvious he wouldn't stop locking his door, he simply made another key and gave it to her without much fuss one day. She tried not to make a big deal out of it.

"I put that on hold for now." he closed the book, his movements slow and tired as he sat up. "I'm actually attempting to educate myself on the history of music in this country."

"That sounds interesting", Alina sat down on the bed next to him, leaning her back against the wall. "Any details you might want to share?"

"Well, the books I've so far found in the Conservatory's library are largely pertaining to the music made by European descendants. Other things are either not written down - or those books are not kept in the Conservatory's library."

Alina scoffed. "Perhaps the good people of the Conservatory don't deem it important enough."

"I do", he said slowly. "It's good to know what the Conservatory considers important,at least now that I'm still a nobody in their eyes. But I don't deem their tastes any more important than the music of the people they've cast out, in fact -" He hopped off the bed. "Maybe even less. Do you want to walk with me? I've been here all day."

"Sure", Alina stood up and walked over to the door, only to turn around and see Erik sitting on the window frame.

"Are we taking the escape route again?" she raised her eyebrows.

He smiled slightly for the first time in days. "I would prefer to avoid any niceties on my way out, if possible."

"Fine. If the window shuts and locks behind us, you'll be the one knocking and asking Amelija to open the front door."

"Fair." Erik hopped outside with ease, helping Alina as she fumbled with the layers of her dress. He led her along a little trail that continued behind their house, away from people, under the dark blue evening sky.

"I've found a place you might like", he said tentatively after a moment. "If you're still interested to go exploring with me."

"I'm always interested." she grinned her characteristic mischief-grin. "Now? You could have told me to change into something practical."

"No, not now. I'm too tired. We'll go soon enough."

"You're not doing well", she said gently. "Let me finish - you're handling it well, I'm not criticizing you, I'm just worried."

"Hm." he looked ahead. "I'm not really handling it well. You just dropped by at a conveniently good time today."

"Perhaps I am what makes your mood conveniently good", she suggested playfully.

"You are the sun of my sky1, darling", he bowed his head. "But in this case, no. This is not something you can control, or should attempt to."

Alina shrugged. "Maybe I can help, that's all."

"Maybe I can handle it myself."

"You absolutely can, but why would you?" she waved her hand slightly, careful not to move too forcefully. "Ever since we came here, I told you it's important that we can rely on each other. We're a duo working together, not two units simply coexisting."

"This isn't the same -" he almost snapped, then stopped to think. "Listen, darling. If you want a duo working together, you need to have two people who can equally hold their own. One of them can't constantly be carrying the other. You know that. I know you're used to carrying everyone, so I'm trying not to take it personally, but you still should have some respect- " he blinked. "I just said that, didn't I? It sounded a lot less unhinged in my head." Most things did, these days.

"Mhm", Alina mumbled dryly. "Do you feel disrespected?"

"Yes, but you're not the one doing it, I think." he sighed. "I- I'm sorry. I have been spending most of my time recently trying to decipher what people mean when they talk to me. It's getting a bit - too loud, too much, too irritating. I'd like to just", curl up and hibernate for a month or two, "rest, I suppose. I can't sleep. I know how it sounds - it annoys me that simple things can throw me off balance so much, but - "

"No, it's not simple things", Alina interrupted. "When I moved to London alone and started working, I had the same problem. People never said what they meant, and there was constantly some subtext, some unspoken message everyone but me seemed to pick up on - I felt like a complete idiot, being the only one who didn't just naturally understand it all."

"And what did you do?" he asked.

"I made some mistakes, and it was not the end of the world. I made some people angry, which was also not the end of the world, and I learned." she shrugged.

"Well, it's all just", he ran his fingers through his hair. "Unnerving, and I might start snapping at people sometime soon, and that will not be good."

"If you do that, you don't have to worry about subtext, because they'll tell you very clearly what they think about it", Alina laughed. "Didn't Jack do the same yesterday morning?"

"Ah", he said with slight embarrassment. "That- turned out to be a lot less harmless joke and a lot more incredible violation of personal boundaries than I had intended."

"Did you settle it?"

"Yes, I apologized, but it unnerves me that I didn't have the common sense to predict it would bother him so much in the first place." he paused. "You know, if he had done something like that to me, messed with something too personal to me, I would not have been so… forgiving. It probably would have ended very badly."

"Well, we are all learning to get along with each other."

Erik sighed. Things Alina said made perfect sense, but didn't quite seem to capture the nagging feeling of something wrong in the back of his head.

"Darling, you are by no means the same man you were, but you're wrong if you think you can simply beat the devil out of yourself and never make a mistake again. You've had the temper all along, and perhaps instead of forcibly pushing it down you could make something constructive out of it."

"Constructive? Out of rage?" he looked at her. "You never seemed to think those two could coexist."

"Oh, I've seen plenty of destructive rage in my life. But maybe the passion, the emotion behind it, is something that can be expressed and turned into something beautiful."

Erik decided to refrain from saying what he thought about it, as it would have been decidedly unconstructive.

"I'm saying you should spread your wings a bit, Erik", she winked. "You've lived the last year and a half obsessed with avoiding doing something wrong - and you've certainly succeeded at it. But if you want to do something right and important, you can't be constantly tying yourself up so you don't rub others the wrong way. Instead of pushing down all this energy so you wouldn't hurt anybody, why don't you change its course into something beautiful? Nobody has your talent for turning pain into beauty."

Erik stared silently ahead as he walked.

"Nothing terrible will happen if you let yourself be", Alina smiled at him. "We can take it. I can take it."

"On the contrary, people get hurt rather badly when I do that", he whispered. "There are some impulses I can't give in to."

"Impulses? The only time I've really seen you impulsive was when someone threatened us."

"Yes, well, that happens a lot. Or I think it happens, then after I realize it was actually safe, it's already too late and - things happen that I don't always entirely remember- " he sighed. "We should talk about this another time."

"But-"

"Alina, I'm not keeping secrets from you. I'll tell you when I'm not so tired."

ooo

The truce between Erik and Amelija lasted for a short time - they all lived in peace for a while, Erik going out of his way to reciprocate the kind gestures Amelija had given him, with all three of them occasionally engaging in conversation, drinking lemonade on hot evenings, or walking around under the starlight. Amelija spent her days with Alina and evenings going out - sometimes with Alina, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends she'd meet during their daily explorations of New York City. Alina didn't protest, claiming Amelija was old and smart enough to choose her company, and secretly enjoying little pockets of time she would have alone with her darling. Amelija didn't mention it, even though she knew. She also made absolutely no sign that she'd like to see their handsome friend Jack again, even if she stiffened every time he passed by their house to say hello, winking and tipping his hat at her. She made absolutely no effort to seem interested.

The peace seemed almost too good to be true, until the inevitable happened.

Erik had gotten worse.

Not worse worse, Alina explained, but he was not entirely himself. He seemed to withdraw into himself more and more until he barely said anything or interacted with others at all. The only sign of any emotion Amelija got from him was the rustling she could hear from his room at night, followed by the opening of his door and nervous pacing about the living room. On the evenings she'd stay up longer, he didn't come out at all.

It would only be a matter of time before Amelija finally gave in to curiosity and asked about it.

"Don't ask him about the nightmares. Ever. Unless he tells you himself", Alina said quietly.

"Is that a rule?" Amelija raised her eyebrows.

"It's more of a guideline on how to handle him when he's in these states, without much fuss."

"And does your darling have many of those?" Amelija asked.

"Episodes or rules?"

"Both."

"Episodes are random and unpredictable. Something that might trigger it once, won't even register at a different time. It's a matter of... more things going badly at the same time, I suppose. Then he gets snappy, irritable and irrational. Sometimes paranoid. He spends most of the time alone, walking around or doing something with his hands." Alina paused. "Those are not so bad. He's learned to live with it so he doesn't take it out on others. But after the... fire, so to speak, comes ash. Then he clams up for a while, and we simply wait. He does nothing, says nothing, barely eats. The nightmares get worse and then stop, then he gets better."

"And the rules?" Amelija pressed.

"Ah, alright. You can't raise your voice around him, of wave your arms too close to his head. You'll see when it starts to bother him, he'll start flinching or rubbing his temples. Don't try to touch him without permission, even if it's completely innocent or unimportant. Don't sneak up on him - well, you probably aren't quiet enough to do that anyway."

"Reasonable so far."

"You have to be very careful what you say, because he will twist your words into something malicious even when you didn't mean it that way. You have to be very, very clear what you mean and why you're saying it. He'll know if you're lying. Also, don't mention his appearance in general, but especially not the mask. If he wants to talk about it he'll tell you. Don't ask him anything about his life in Paris, unless it's about auntie Giry. And maybe most importantly", Alina took a breath, "don't look at him for too long."

"Excuse me?"

"If he thinks you're staring at him, especially if he's under some intense emotion, he'll get very defensive. Don't tell him you're not staring - I know, I know - just look away and it will stop."

"That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard", Amelija said furiously. "What, you can't look at your own man as much as you want to?"

"I can", Alina clarified. "You can't. Though I don't, when he's like this, because it would be cruel. It messes with him."

"So this is all to help him?" Amelija crossed her arms. "Or are you trying to help yourself survive a man who can't control himself?"

"I am in no danger", Alina said quietly. "Believe me."

"And if you went up to him and did all these things, would you still not be in danger?"

"Still, yes. Though it would make both our lives more difficult because he would get worse and I would have to deal with it", Alina started rubbing her own temples. Amelija wondered if she picked up that habit in the past year - or maybe she just didn't notice it before.

"You don't have to deal with anything", Amelija said tentatively.

"I chose to. I knew what I was getting into." Alina sighed and looked straight at Amelija. "And Amelija, believe me, if someone you loved woke up screaming every night from nightmares he can barely talk about, if he flinched at every sound and movement and spent days wasting away unable to hold a conversation... You, too, would do anything to make him better."

Amelija kept silent.

"You've been here for two weeks, and you're already asking me how to help him." Alina pointed out.

"Im asking if I should know anything for my own sake -"

"Unlike that dress, Amelija, cold ruthlessness doesn't suit you", Alina retorted. "It's your least convincing act, if you ask me, whatever everyone else might think."

"Oh, piss off", Amelija scowled, then stilled. "I think it would be best if I stayed away."

"Maybe", Alina sighed. "It'll pass soon."

ooo

Amelija kept her resolution to stay away for the next few days. She didn't make it obvious, but she went along with her days without bothering Erik or trying to push him into interacting with anyone else. She pretended he didn't exist until she had something direct to ask him - can you pass the salt? - and waited to see if he would acknowledge her own presence. Which he didn't. He was mostly in his room, sometimes completely silent, sometimes whispering something to Alina so quietly that she couldn't hear it through the door. On the rare occasions he came out, he looked very, very tired. Alina would sometimes talk him into going outside for a walk, or sitting in the living room - but though he obliged, he didn't seem to be entirely present, his eyes slightly glassy. It seemed he couldn't follow a single conversation for longer than a few minutes, so they all let him be. Yana would occasionally come over, alone. Amelija wasn't home most times when she did, but one day she came early and caught a snippet of conversation as she softly entered. She had learned to mimic Alina's unusually quiet demeanor, and so Erik barely noticed her as she arrived - which would have offended her at first, but it was better than him jerking his head in some silent alarm whenever she entered the room.

"Where is Piotr?" he asked her quietly. He seemed to be fiddling with some loose string between his fingers, tying various complicated knots and untying them, over and over again.

"He's sleeping. Walter took him to play today, and whatever they did, he fell asleep the moment he came home", Yana said calmly, her own gaze fixed on the embroidery in her hand. Clever, Amelija thought. She didn't have to look at him at all, and had something to occupy her during his long pauses in the conversation.

"You can bring him here. I won't harm him", he said so quietly Amelija almost didn't hear him.

"I will", Yana replied, still not looking at him at all. How she managed that, Amelija had no idea. Even her own, sometimes ruthless, heart would have melted slightly at that implication. "I'll bring him over tomorrow. Don't worry about it."

"But if he doesn't want - "

"I know", she cut him off, gently but sternly. "If he doesn't want to come, he won't come. I'll ask him first. But you should rest until then."

"I can't sleep", he admitted, rubbing his temples with his fingers. Amelija grabbed the door handle again, deciding she could instead find a nice bench and read in the sunlight outside. She opened the door quietly and pushed through it as discreetly as she could. Erik still didn't notice her, but she could swear Yana gave her a barely-there nod as she closed the door behind her.

After that, Amelija let him be. Not even Erik could find any question or judgment in her eyes as she nodded at him when they passed each other in the morning.

He might have found it easier to ignore whatever she thought of him if she hadn't started to seem much more worthy of respect than when he first met her.

She had fully intended to keep doing so, until one night she couldn't sleep, kept up by the heat and humidity that came with a sudden heatwave. Her window was open and it made the room more bearable, but lying in bed and trying to sleep was only making her more frustrated so instead she put on her simple house dress and ventured outside, to read in the living room. She settled herself on the small sofa where she'd usually sit, across from Erik's usual armchair in the corner of the room. The window was behind her, and the light of streetlamps and the moon outside was enough for her to read. She opened her book and tried to concentrate, ignoring faint rustling that came from the other room.

After some time - probably less than an hour, but she couldn't tell exactly - the rustling intensified, and then stopped. The door opened, and Erik came out silently, still in his mask and clothes. She wondered if he ever took it off when she was in the house. Or at all. He stopped by the sink to pour himself a glass of water, and nodded at her.

"Did I wake you up?" he asked, still in that flat, monotonous tone he adopted in the past week.

"No, the heat did." Amelija opened her mouth to ask what kept him awake when she remembered - don't ask him about the nightmares, so she decided against it. "Uh… it's annoying, isn't it? Do these heatwaves last long here?"

He turned his head to look directly at her for the first time that week. Amelija quickly looked down at her book..

"The heatwaves?" he asked. "No. It should be back from maddening to just annoying again in a couple of days, if last summer is any indication."

A tiny laugh escaped Amelija. She hadn't heard him speak a whole sentence, let alone try to joke, for over a week now. "That's alright. I'll survive. Mediterranean summers are hotter, and I got used to those."

"I can't sleep", he said to his glass.

"I've noticed", she replied automatically before she could stop herself.

"You have?" He looked at her again, slowly, and she kept her gaze to her book. She felt like she was circling some giant beast, but couldn't tell why. As weak, tired and unfocused as he was at first glance, something about him still made her skin crawl.

"You're afraid of me", he decided quietly.

"I'm not", Amelija replied, still not looking up from her book.

"Don't lie to me", he said flatly. "I can tell, I've seen it often enough. You're scared."

"This behaviour isn't really helping that", Amelija snapped. Her snapping was hardly more than a quiet hiss at her book and an angry glance at him, but it woke up some light behind his eyes.

"I see", he said. The dim anger flickering behind his eyes seemed to be tempered down by the strange exhaustion that seemed to emanate from his every movement. "What about my behaviour scares you so?"

"You're staring at me and asking me uncomfortable questions", she said sternly. Don't lie to him. Be direct with him. Well, being honest meant something completely different to Amelija than it did to Alina.

"Ah." he said, and to her surprise, looked away, in front of him, as he leaned a little more into the counter. "Over the years I've eliminated a lot of behaviours that made other people scared. Trial and error. It seems there is always something more. How much do you think will be left of me when I've eliminated them all?"

Amelija looked up from her book back at him, and he met her gaze again.

"At least you're honest", he decided. "Trial and error would have been harder with you."

"Are people normally not?"

"They walk on eggshells around me", he said. "I'm not sure if they think I'll break myself, or them, if they don't."

"Will you?"

Silence.

"Will you?" Amelija pressed.

"No", he whispered. "Not anymore. But I don't hold it against them. There was a time when I might have."

Amelija closed her book. "I'm not afraid of you. Whichever behaviours you might show, there is nothing you can do to me."

"Oh, I know", he said. "You are only here because of her."

Silence.

"As am I." his mouth tightened. "In this situation, I should be afraid of you, to be honest."

"I'm not here to threaten you, unless you're a threat to my sister", Amelija said bluntly. She couldn't figure out which level of bluntness was appropriate, to be honest. She could only hope her intuition would know. She didn't actually have higher ground in this discussion - Alina was already here, with him, so convinced and stubborn that Amelija sincerely doubted any sway she might have with her - but Erik, drowning in whatever darkness this was, seemed unaware of this, and as cruel as it may be it was her best shot to find out the truth.

"I would love nothing more than to say that I'm not", he managed slowly.

"At least you're honest. Trial and error would have been harder", Amelija smiled a very toothy grin back at him. "Tell me. What would happen if - if she stopped walking on eggshells, and all you're holding back now came to the surface?"

Another silence.

"Is my sister in danger or not?" Amelija pressed.

"No." the answer was a little clearer this time.
"Do I have your word?" she stood up, pacing impatiently. Yellow eyes followed her every movement. "I don't care how you see yourself, or what you think of yourself. Is my sister in danger or not? Can you give me your word that you've got good enough grip on yourself never to harm her? Can you take that responsibility and decide, and promise, that you won't harm her?"

She stopped to look at him, green viper eyes meeting with the flame roaring slowly beneath his yellow ones.

"I can", he said. "I already have. It's been seventeen months."

Amelija blinked. "Since you met?"

"Yes."

"And assuming Alina knows this, why is she so wary around you lately?" Amelija asked, looking around her with her hands folded.

"Maybe she doesn't believe it", he whispered. "Maybe there are still some things I need to - eliminate."

"By all means, if this were any other woman, I'd say you can feel free to mold yourself into the kind of man she wants", Amelija puffed impatiently. "But in this situation, how would you say eliminating parts of yourself has worked so far?"

Silence.

"You've found the only woman in the world willing to put up with this much bullshit, and your response is to hide away anything she might not like?" Amelija taunted.

"There is more to love than not harming the other person", Erik hissed back at her, setting down his glass. "Maybe I want to make her happy!"

"Happy?" Amelija laughed. "If Alina wants that sort of happiness, she'll pack up and leave with me, marrying some stupid rich boy and settling down in a lovely villa with a lovely garden. But she's here with you, and instead of constantly trying to provide her with what she doesn't want, maybe you could try giving her what she does want!"

"I have no idea what she wants and what I can give!" he straightened up, hissing back at her.

"She wants you, so you could start by being yourself!" Amelija snapped. "Is this the cause of all this moping? Not some ailment, not some depression that leaves you so tired - you're just deciding to stop existing just so you wouldn't do anything wrong? Coward!" She spat out.

"I'm the coward?" his voice lowered as he inched a step towards her. "Are you really in a position to lecture me, little ice queen on her ice throne? It's fairly easy to scowl at others and tell them what to do while you're hiding yourself behind this cold sneer! Imagine if you did what you wanted, said what you wanted, instead of parading this little act constantly? Would you even be in this house, screwing up my sleep, or would you actually be enjoying yourself up at a certain American's home?" he narrowed his eyes at her, mouth gripped into a thin line.

"Now I'm the reason you can't sleep?" she raised her eyebrows, trying to ignore his provocations.

"Yes!" he scowled at her. "You, with your stupid, insufferable need for etiquette and decorum! For everything to be right as it should be! Nothing in this house was ever as it should be, and I loved it that way! And now suddenly I'm supposed to act decent around you because Alina loves you! I'm not one of your well-spoken lordlings, and I never will be! The first time I get a good night's sleep in this house, I'll wake you up with my screaming! The first time I really act like myself, as you put it, you'll find out just how scary and strange and freakish I can be! I had just stopped noticing it, next to Alina, and now you had to show up to show me again just how different I am from civilized society!" he stared at her for one more moment, breathing heavily. From the flash of fear that crept through his eyes beneath the anger and frustration, Amelija suddenly knew she'd struck a chord.

"Civilized society bores me", she said coldly. "It's a passing entertainment. One I'm used to, but it means nothing to me."

"And yet- " he hissed.

"If you can't be anything other than yourself without wasting away in this melodramatic darkness, at least own up to it", she straightened, looking him in the eye. "Either wear your disguises convincingly and enjoy the pretending, or own up to the truth. Don't apologize for it. Shame also bores me, to be honest."

Smile slowly crept up his thin, scarred mouth. "You could stand to heed your own advice, little ice lady."

"Don't call me little lady", she spat out.

"Fair enough", he bowed his head at her, having resumed at least some of his former personality before he left the room without a word.

Amelija stared at the closed door of his bedroom for a few seconds after he left with such seething wrath she nearly set it in flames, but then rolled her eyes and sat down, trying to focus on her book.

I'm sure certain Americans would at least be less annoying to be around.

Erik stormed back into his bedroom, Alina shifting slowly beneath the covers to face him. "I knew you two would sort it out amongst yourselves."

"Your sister is goddamn insufferable", he whispered in annoyance as he sat on the bed next to her, running his hands though his hair.

"Yes, well", she purred lazily as she took his hand in hers, "I seem to love that about people."