Annette had finally managed to convince Ashe to join her for a bit of coloring. She didn't know the new boy very well yet, and was hoping to strengthen their bond. It would not do for him to have joined the family of patients in the Blue Lions Ward and not gain some level of rapport with her. They were walking down the hall on the way to the rec room when they came across Dimitri.

He was, as always, followed by the large man who never spoke. The two were walking down the hall straight towards them. Dimitri was quiet today, his remaining eye lazily scanning his surroundings. He looked at ease, almost bored, watching the world around him like someone watches the landscape out the car window on a particularly long drive.

Dimitri had been rather quiet lately, and Annette suspected that they were trying a new medication on him. The tall, blond man seemed to perpetually live in a world that existed on the border between several different realities. What he saw and what he heard never really seemed to align with what the rest of us saw and heard. The doctors have been trying for a long time to find some kind of medication that would make Dimitri more present, or at least present enough to start participating more actively in reality. However, they hadn't yet found a medication that could bring Dimitri far enough out of his mind to be able to tell the doctors how the drugs were affecting him with any sense of clarity. He had been here for over a year, longer than anyone else except Dedue.

Because of Dimitri's tenuous grip on reality, sometimes the way he interacted with the things around him was confusing, or unexpected. Therefore, Annette was not surprised when he walked head long into her, even though he was watching her approach. She bounced off his large torso, but was caught by his firm grasp before she could fall on the floor.

"My apologies Annette," he said to her, ever polite when he is in this mood. "I had expected you to pass through me like all the others."

"It's no problem Dimitri," Annette assured him, noticing the slight confusion in Ashe's face. "This is Ashe, Dimitiri. Have you two met yet?"

Dimitri staired steadily at Ashe, looking at him as if he was seeing more of Ashe then there really was. "Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," Ashe muttered.

Annette found Ashe's timidness endearing. "We were just about to do some coloring together. Would you like to join us Dimitri?"

Dimitri considered for a moment. "Alright, that sounds pleasant."

Annette did not invite Dedue. He would come regardless. Anywhere Dimitri went, Dedue followed. They had been like that as long as Annette could remember. Dedue never spoke, not a single word, and was always within arms reach of Dimitri. Him being so was one of the only truly consistent things in the Blue Lion Ward. No one really knew why, but there was a lot of speculation among the staff and patients alike. Apparently they had arrived at the hospital after becoming victims of the same tragic accident. It had been something like a fire, or a firefight, Annette couldn't remember. Both of them had lost all of their living relatives, along with their sanity that day.

It wasn't clear if Dedue and Dimitri had known each other before the accident. Dimitri never seemed to indicate as much. Then again, Dimitri hardly recognized the doctors who had been treating him for over a year. Dedue clung to Dimitri like a shadow, and never seemed afraid of the sometimes volatile man. The doctors had one time tried to seperate Dimitri and Dedue. Nothing dramatic, just moving Dedue out of Dimitri's room and giving Dimitri a new roommate, Felix.

Their plan didn't have the intended effect. Dedue would just stand outside Dimitri's door looking sad and broken, like he didn't have permission to even enter the room despite the open door policy. If this was something that would have eased with time, they would never find out.

An unforeseen complication arose when it was discovered that Felix and Dimitri had explosively clashing personalities. Felix threatened Dimitri with one of those knives he was always making or finding, and Dimitri responded violently. This enraged Felix and things spiraled out of control from there. The entire ward was a mess that day. It took Dedue, all of the security from the Blue Lion Ward and some of the security from the other two wards to contain the two long enough for the twin Doctor Eisner's to sedate and separate the pair. After that, Dedue moved back in with Dimitri and Felix was given a room to himself.

Dedue often lent a hand in helping subdue Dimitri when Dimitri flew into his fits of rage; shouting about the dead and vengeance and screaming apologies to the heavens. Dimitri was a large, strong man and Dedue was the only man Annette had seen who was larger and possibly stronger. Despite this he was always gentle with Dimitri, holding him close as he thrashed and raged until either he wore himself out with the fight or was sedated.

Despite Dedue's size and utter silence, he never seemed intimidating. Annette was not scared to invite Dedue to color with them. The reason she stayed her tongue was from the bitter, hot shame she felt last time her and Dedue had interacted. She had been asking Dedue a question, the context of which Annette couldn't remember, and Dedue wasn't answering her. Then she had grown irritated, and lashed out at him. Annette had been nothing but kind and understanding with Dedue as long as they had known each other. The least she deserved was a simple yes or no, maybe even a head shake. At least something more than the silent, guarded stare he used on everybody. Filled with self righteous rage, Annette railed on Dedue.

When he still didn't give any indication that he had even heard Annette's simple question, she had stormed off to the room she shared with Ingrid, and proceeded to tear the room apart. Tossing their clothes everywhere and pulling drawers out of the dressers. She tore bed sheets and probably would have toppled the bunk beds over if Ingrid hadn't alerted the nurses and they came in to talk her down.

Afterwards, Annette felt mind-rendingly ashamed. She had acted grossly inappropriate, flying off the handle the way she did. There was no excuse for the way he had acted, she was better than that. Annette had sobbed into her pillow for a few hours before the guilt abated enough for her to push it aside. Then she did as she had always done in situations like these, pretended it had never happened, and never spoke of it again. Always best to move on, forgive and forget. Or at least forget.

She hadn't spoken to Dedue since, and wasn't about to start now. The small group made their way to the rec room. Annette indicated the boys should sit down while she gathered the paper, coloring pages and crayons. The Blue Lion Ward was no longer allowed colored pencils because of Felix's habit of sharpening them into deadly points and hiding them around his room or on his person.

Happily she dumped the pile onto the center of the table and sat down next to Ashe. Dimitri reached across the table and grabbed a yellow, red and blue crayon and a sheet of paper. He and Dedue looked comical, sitting in the folding chairs there were just a bit too small for them. Ashe looked a little out of his element when Annette offered him a few choices of colors and a picture of an elephant. He smiled anyways and took the paper, filling in random bits of the page.

Annette took a blank page herself, and began drawing pictures of cute kitties and puppies in purple and pink. After a doodle or two she glanced over at Dimitri again. He was coloring spots all over the page, not worrying about staying in the lines. Most of the spots were yellow and blue, but there were a few in red. Each red mark was pressed beneath a finger of his non dominant hand.

"What are you doing Dimitri?" Annette asked pleasantly.

"I have to keep the red from invading the blue and yellow," he explained, not looking up from his coloring. "Otherwise the picture will become messy."

"I see…." Annette said, doing what she could to accept that this was the best answer he was going to be able to give her.

Ashe gave her a very confused and slightly fearful look, but Annette just smiled to assure him everything was ok. She watched Dimitri color for a while. The number of red splotches steadily increased in some kind of strange pattern that only Dimitri was privy to. He continued until there were eight red splotches on the page, and then he paused. Dimitri looked ready to place the next red splotch, but then he would have to sacrifice one of his two remaining coloring fingers. He studied the page perplexed. As if sensing his dilemma, Dedue reached his hand over to Dimitri's picture and replaced each of Dimitri's fingers with one of his own.

Dimitri gave Dedue a brilliant smile, one with teeth and a little crinkle in the corner of his eye. "Thank you Dedue."

Dedue said nothing, didn't even blush like Annette knew she would have if that shining face had been directed at her. He just sat quietly and held down the red marks so Dimitri could finish his work. Annette didn't quite understand, but she didn't need to. Her heart swelled with fondness for the attentive care Dedue was showing his dear friend.

Annette returned to her own coloring and remained absorbed with her own work until the page was crammed with adorable little animals. By then, Ashe had given up on coloring his green elephant and was just watching the other three. Annette did not notice that all of the crayons that Ashe had been using to color had mysteriously disappeared. Dimitri had finished his own drawing, and he seemed to be considering what to do next. Dedue still had his fingertips pressed to the red spots on the page.

"What's wrong Dimitri?" Annette asked.

"I'm worried that if I have Dedue let go of the red it will slide all over the page." He scratched his head, trying to figure out how to keep the red still without forcing his friend to sit there forever with his fingers stuck to a coloring page.

"I'm sure that now that you are done the red will hold still for you," Annette tried to reason with him.

"You might be right," Dimitri admitted.

Slowly, he wrapped his long fingers around Dedue's thick palms. He took a deep breath, shut his eye, and lifted Dedue's hand away from the paper. After a moment's hesitation, he reopened his eye. Relief flooded his face when he discovered that the red had not moved after being released.

"Can I see it Dimitri?" Annette asked, after giving him a moment to revel in his victory. Object permanence was a trick thing after all.

Dimitri nodded happily and passed the page to Annette. She gasped at what she saw on the page, causing Ashe to lean over to get a look for himself. Dimitri had created a recreation of the moderately complex mandela he had been coloring on top of, turned almost exactly 45 degrees, with no guide lines. Annette was stunned, she wasn't sure this was possible to achieve, even by highly skilled artists.

"This is amazing Dimitri! I'm super impressed," Annette fawned.

"Me too," Ashe quietly agreed.

"Thanks…." Dimitri responded, blushing with the praise.

Annette was filled with joy. These precious people here were all wonderful and kind and talented. She dearly treasured every one of them. They each deserved all the love she could give them. The patients of the Blue Lion Ward were like family. And just like family they shared in each other's successes, and helped ease each other's woes. Annette felt sure that this family would never abandon her, and she would be sure to hold them close in return.

"We should go show this to Dr. Eisner," Annette said. "I bet she would like to see it. What do you think, Dimitri?"

"I'm not sure," he said, sounding shy.

"You remember Ms. Dr. Eisner, right Dimitri. I think she would be very impressed." Annette coaxed. "Come on, let's show her. I'll go with you."

"Ok… and thank you…." Dimitri said, letting Annette gently lead him by the hand to the nurses station, where she hoped to find the female twin of the Eisner Doctors working on paperwork.