Flo and Mahtab never ever fought over women any more, on the contrary. The younger brother started to give tips to the older one, to be more effective with girls, and to be able to say things the "other gender" really loves. Mahtab, though, was much better at complimenting Bonnie, seemingly, as the girl accepted them more happily from Mahtab than from Flo. Florian guessed it was because Mahtab is, biologically a girl after all, and they maybe know better what girls usually like. Their brain works in a different way, as Papa explained before, and Mahtab, yet he liked to deny he had anything to do with girls, maybe had a male and a female brain at the same time as Flo imagined it. This female brain helped him to get closer to Bonnie, but Flo did not mind it any more.

Flo started to lose his interest in a girl like Bonnie and did not want to get closer to the girl any more, only as a friend. He would have preferred of course, if a girl is hard to get, and he had to make efforts courting her, but Bonnie's distance was sometimes too much for him. He had been trying to impress her for another half a year, but he had to realize Bonnie was much more interested in Mahtab than him, though they weren't passionate lovers, only seemed to be like really good friends. Mahtab and Bonnie were able to share interests. As Mahtab also loved to draw and had a lively imagination, Flo often caught those two discussing art and their ideas about artworks they were planning to do.

- I would like to ask for permission if you allowed me to draw your portrait as I did your brother's. – Bonnie said once, examining Mahtab from close.

- You will soon own an art gallery out of the portraits of my family. – Mahtab let out a nervous chuckle with a much Erik- y remark, and started to unintentionally wonder how much he really resembles his father.

Of course, Mahtab was aware the portrait Bonnie was planning to paint with so much endeavor, wasn't his real portrait. The girl only drew an illusion which was made by Papa to save him from the reality of the cruel world, and he was sure if Bonnie saw his real face and knew about his dark little secret, she sure wouldn't be his friend.

- Are you sad? – Bonnie asked suddenly.

- No. – Mahtab hurried with the reply. – I am all fine.

- You looked to be a bit of sad. – Bonnie wished to make sure her friend was really in a good mood before starting to draw.

- I was merely lamenting about something. – Mahtab sighed sadly, yet Bonnie mistook her friend's feelings for tiredness or just artistic mood swings, so she did not ask anything else.

The teen was sometimes feeling uncomfortable about Bonnie staring at him for long time while she was examining his features for a lifelike outcome. Mahtab sometimes feared the girl will somehow find out his face was only a mask. He examined the mask for a long time in the mirror at home in the bathroom, carefully looking for details which could give away it being only a disguise. He could not find any, after an hour and a half, as Papa was real great with making lifelike masks no one was able to identify as fake ones. Though, the thoughts did not leave him alone about his fears, and he only knew one person to talk to about these thoughts who will understand them fully.

- Papa… - He tucked his head into the salon at three o clock in the dawn, finding Erik playing chess with himself.

- Yes? – Erik looked up with a hint of worry. – Should you not be in bed already?

- I am nearly 19. – Mahtab shrugged. – I am not a baby any more.

- I keep forgetting you will all be grown up one day. – He shrugged apologetically. – To me you will always be my small children I have to protect. I maybe treat you younger than you are, because it is not too long ago for me when you were born. – Erik closed his eyes, sighing dreamily. – I still remember the time you were a toddler and you followed me around constantly.

- I know what you mean. – Mahtab smiled and sat down next to his father. – And why don1t you sleep Papa? Are you ill?

- No. – Erik shook his head, being touched about his child worries about his health. – Sometimes I just can't sleep. It happened through all my life. Do not worry.

- Papa, as you are awake… I am actually happy for this fact because I can talk to you without others hearing us.

- Is there something personal you wish to discuss with your Papa? – Erik stroke Mahtab's hair with two fingers as he knew it always calmed the child.

- Yes. – He nodded. – Papa, if someone loves you for… something they THINK they love you for… is it a good thing?

- You have just asked the hardest question to answer my son. – Erik scratched his head. – Is this conversation about you and that "Bonnie"?

- Do you know about her? – He inquired cautiously.

- I am not blind nor deaf, my dear child, contrary to my age. And I always keep an eye at you, my dears. I know about everything that occupies your minds.

- So… Bonnie thinks I am a boy with a handsome face. – Mahtab explained. – And I wonder if I shall tell her the truth or she will eventually find out herself, which will be a catastrophe.

- I wish I knew the answer to this. – Erik sighed deeply, recalling the events of the past. – The fact your mother and I got married, I believe is the work of mere coincidences, after the circumstances she saw my face among. – Erik took another deep sigh and massaged his temples, just as always when he had to remember a painful episode of his past- which was nearly all the time, seeing how his past was. – I am not sure what would have happened if I start courting Mama honestly, telling her the truth and showing my face. But… I know that once… eventually she has to find it out if you will get close to each other. You just can1t keep up an illusion forever. What happens if your mask gets damaged for some reason? If it slips off…? If you have to remove it for some reason? And… I doubt she should find out how your face is on your wedding night when you remove the mask for bed. – Erik cleared his throat.

- But I am afraid if she finds out the truth she will run away for good.

- That's what I was terrified of about Mama. – Erik nodded knowingly. – And this is why I acted the way I did, in the end. I haven't slept for nights before I took her to my house, Mahtab, trying to find out the best solution, and I am sure I did not find that back then. I would advise you to… be as honest as you can… I am sorry I can't give you a better advice, my son, but I still don't know what should I have done with your mother, and so I don't really know what should you do.

- Papa, is it a solution if I tell the truth without showing her my face?

- I doubt. – Erik shook his head firmly. – Women are very inquisitive, Mahtab… they painfully are… they need to SEE. – Erik's intonation changed to a broken one, as if he wanted to cry a bit, but in the end he took an effort not to.

- I just want her to know… me. The real me. And… I think there are only a few people who can love someone like me… but if I never try the limits, I shall never know.

- I just don't want you to suffer like I did, Mahtab. A face like ours gives you… much pain, I don't want your heart to be as broken as mine. Do not take whatever happens too seriously. Try not to, son. It goes as it goes.

- Do you mean I shall not love anyone too deeply so they can't harm me?

- I try to say you shall not love EVERYONE so deeply, as you do now. You shall be cautious and a bit of cynical. This is the only way to survive without too deep scars in your heart.

- I am already cynical. – He admitted. – I realize I use sentences like you do usually.

- All the better. – Erik nodded. – Keep doing so.

- Thank you Papa. – Mahtab hugged Erik lovingly and placed a soft kiss on his father's uncovered skull head.

None of them wore a mask at that early hour at home, they did not have to be afraid of visitors, and they were not repulsed by each other's features. They could be themselves in front of each other. Mahtab wished to be so intimate with a girl once… without any boundaries, showing his real self.

While Mahtab was trying to figure out when and how to confess his feelings and real self to Bonnie, and was lamenting about he should tell it the soonest possible as the later he admits the harder the healing process after such a painful scenario will be both for the girl and him, there was another strange issue going on in the family.

Florian started acting real strange. He was absent- minded, dreamy and his studies got really stuck. His homework Erik had to check became more and more flawed, even at the subject he used to be good at. He started making horrendous grammar errors in French, even though the family used that language to speak among each other, and even Gregory, who started to learn French just two years ago when they found him, started to get better in it than Flo. Erik was really annoyed by this fact, as it indicated his son wasn't paying enough attention to the tasks he was doing. Flo also started to be a bit of drowsy during the day, as if he wasn't sleeping at all during the night. He was still studious with music though, but nothing else. He was whistling silly and cheerful little songs, sometimes jumping through the rooms and clapping his hands delightedly.

- What makes you so happy, Florian? – Erik called out to him suspiciously as he was waving his messed up homework at him yet again. – Because it is definitely not your knowledge in History. – He snorted.

- Why? – Flo asked, not even really bothering to listen to his father's mountain speech. – Isn't it good?

- Good? – Erik gasped. – You ask if it isn't good?

Here came a half an hour long preaching by the annoyed father, who accused his son of carelessness, laziness and thanklessness, however he should be thankful someone actually gives a damn about his schooling, and someone cares about him at all, unlike his father who had to learn everything by himself and hardly anyone ever helped him with anything. Flo apologized and mechanically promised he was going to take more effort with his duties, but Erik wasn't pleased by the result of the scolding.

Flo was given two weeks of patience, yet his homework turned out to be just as bad, and he was yawning in the face of Erik during a History lesson again. Not by annoyance, tiredness. Erik was fed up at this point. He knew it was no use of talking to Flo any more. It went in at one ear and out at the other, as he already tried it. Flo only gave nonsense answers like he was fine, nothing bothered him and so on. Erik knew his son was dishonest, and he wished to know why. Was he into something illegal?

As he could not find it out by talking to Flo, he chose the illegal way as well: someone shall spy on Flo. It sure can't be him. He was good at following people around- 20 years ago. Now, he as a more than 70 years old man, wasn't able to run as fast and climb up on gutters as he was before. And he was seriously afraid even if he could follow Flo around without trouble, he'd get too much upset by a crime his son would do, and worried he'd end up beating the boy up too much in a sudden outrage. Mahtab, even though he was also a great follower, he simply lacked the naughtiness and was too much of a mimosa for a task like this. He wasn't a "real" man after all, some of the girly side still was present in his personality. Belle and Greg are still too young for a task like this, and Christine would definitely find this idea a way too cruel one and she would ruin everything by warning Flo instead, so not enough Christine shall not be the one doing so, but she shall not even know about the plan. The Daroga was a chief of police back in Persia, and though it required great skills of spying, the problem was just the same as it was with Erik. The Daroga was also quite in age, and Erik doubted he would ever spy on a child. Yet there is one suitable person for the job in the family: the naughty, laughably fidgety and spry Noel, who would die for an opportunity to tell about Flo. Noel was the perfect person: in personality he was the most like Erik among the children, and he was always into naughtiness.

Of course, Noel accepted the job offer right away when Erik asked him. He did not have a second thought about it, especially after Erik offered him some allowance as a prize for good work if he was able to find out something important. Erik had to chuckle after leaving the boy's room: Noel was just so much like him. His eyes shone with just as much greedy interest after money was mentioned, and all of his movements like a young teenage Erik's, only with a perfectly handsome look. And so was his brain and thoughts like his… Erik was sure he did not have to disappoint in his youngest son. The job would be perfectly done.

He did not have to wait too much for the news. Noel was really awesome with spying as three days after the commission he showed up in his father's study, with a sketchbook in his hands.

- Here is the address Flo visits every night. – Noel handed the paper to Erik with the seriousness of a private detective, who gasped loudly at the news.

- What?... How…? Why?

- After bedtime, he sneaks out of the window of his room and is heading to this street. He then knocks three times on a window at the lowest floor of the building where he is let in, then he climbs inside and only climbs out in the dawn when he returns home and comes home just the way he left.

- And… what is he doing at that place…? – Erik dried his sweaty forehead with his handkerchief.

- He meets a girl.

Erik jumped up furiously at that sentence, of course, not like he did not know before what was happening there, one could easily guess. Noel, though, unlike his usual childish self, now looked to be serious just like an adult and put his hand on his father's shoulder and gently but decidedly pushed Erik back on his seat.

- Listen carefully Papa, I am not yet done. They aren't doing anything indecent, at least not in the three days I was looking at them.

- How do you know what is indecent and what is not, you are still a child. – Erik groaned.

- Everyone knows- other than babies of course; how children are made. – Noel shrugged. – They did not make children, they were just talking and kissing.

- Is that girl is the Bonnie he was in love with?

- No. – Noel shook his head. – She is a new lover of Florian's, as I later was informed her name is Lily. She is an orphan and lives with her aunt who is just an old witch between 70 and death, and is deaf, so she can1t hear if Flo is there during the night or not. And even if she did, I doubt he knows what happens between a man and a woman as she was never married as she was just as a witch in her younger years as she is now.

- Be more respectful towards an old lady. – Erik scolded his son out of routine, but mechanically slipped money in his hand.

- Thank you, Monsieur. – Noel bowed and turned away to walk out of the room. – I do hope we are going to make a new deal again soon.

- Noel… - Erik called out and when the boy turned back to face him, he softly whispered: - Keep your eyes open.

- Will do, Papa. – Noel smirked and left Erik there with his thoughts.