"Henri? You in here, *mon frère*?" Remy knocked on his older brother's door. The other had barely come out of study at all the past week, and it wasn't too hard to imagine why. He himself had been a witness to the many pitying looks Henri had been on the receiving side of the past few weeks. 'Father dead, a mutie for a brother, poor, poor Henri' they said. -And the workload Henri must have right now!- Remy shook his head. Jean-Luc had only taught him a few of the basics of being a Guildmaster, mostly knowledge he would need if he were to jump in for Henri for a few days, and Remy still thought that actually doing all that stuff would drive him insane... The entirety of the responsibilities of a Guildmaster? -Let's just say that I'm happy to be the younger sibling- Remy huffed quietly.

He knocked again. And again. Claire had told him that she was sure Henri was in his office. A possibly irrational bout of panic descended upon him. Without really thinking, he burst into the room.

The door loudly hit one of the little tables on the side of it, and some of the top books in the previously seemingly gravity-defying book stack on top of it toppled to the floor, but Remy didn't hear any of it. He just saw his brother lying there, on the table in almost the same position as his father, just a little over a week ago. He just froze for a horrifying moment.

Then Henri was suddenly on his feet, in a defensive, combat ready position. The two brothers just stared at each other for several seconds. Then Henri relaxed and Remy hugged him tightly.

As the adrenaline from being woken up by a series of loud crashes slowly wore off, Henri decided to deal with the shaking teen now pressed to his chest. He briefly mused about the strangeness of his **little** brother now actually a bit taller than him.

"So... What was that about?"

He already had a bit of an idea, but better to ask than risk misunderstandings, especially in such trying times.

"Nothing. *Désolé.* For the books. I'll pick them up."

As his little brother tensed and moved away from him, Henri just gave him a look that he had had plenty of opportunities to practice. Family members usually did not lie to each other, not even in the Thieves Guild, but hiding one's emotional state or a smaller mistake? People constantly tried. Unfortunately for them, Henri studied telltale signs of lying of his fellow Thieves not only as a pastime, but also as part of his role as the heir apparent to the Guildmaster. He felt brief pang of pain in his chest at the thought that he now no longer was the heir apparent, but the Guildmaster.

By then Remy had already put all the books back into a stack that strongly resembled the leaning tower of Pisa and was looking back at him. Many considered his little brother a master in the art of putting on a perfect pokerface, but Henri suspected that they had just never bothered to get close enough to him. How few did truly realize that that the glow in Remy's eyes was not some form of hellfire or a gate to hell, but a declaration of his mood as clear and visible as a neon sign above his head?

In that moment those eyes were saying 'tense, doesn't want to talk about it'. -Nope. No bottling it in with me, young man.- Henri mused.

"Remy." After a short, but rather uncomfortable silence, Henri spoke again. "Is it about what happened to our *père*?"

Remy's posture didn't change, but his eyes said 'Yes!'. -Isn't the first time I'm having a conversation with his eyes...- Henri would have probably chuckled, had it been any other conversation.

Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Remy seemed to drop the pretense of stone faced calmness. "*Oui.*"

Henri kept looking at the teen, quietly encouraging him to continue.

It was as if a dam had suddenly been broken. The clenched eyes and locked jaw might as well had been a sob.

"It just looked so much like... y'know what I'm talking about."

Henri did know. He exhaled. In the silence of the study, a few rooms away from the next currently occupied room, it seemed a loud noise.

"I- I'm fine. Can we just talk about this other time? I did come here for a reason, didn't I?" Now Remy was smiling one of those small, honest smiles that never quite managed to actually look happy.

"Ah, yes." Henri smiled back. He suddenly had a feeling that the mess of a conversation they just had was actually the calm before the storm.

Remy sucked in a breath while simultaneously reaching for a pack of cards. "*Père* and Marius Bordeaux arranged a marriage between Bella and me and I think you don't know because you haven't told me yet." It all came out in one long, strange sentence.

Henri froze for a moment to process. If he hadn't heard of any such development, it had to have happened recently, after he had left for that job in Germany two months ago. He hadn't been able to attend council meetings while on another continent and after he had come back he had only just managed to sort out his paperwork and write all the necessary reports. Who would have guessed that a German Pharma company would have already started implementing as of yet not fully legal, experimental Stark-AI surveillance aid into their security systems? -The Frankfurt Guild did. The only reason they wanted me to come is to have somebody to blame the failed job on. So much for the 'International Guild'.- He rifled through the stacks of paper on his desks until he found the folder with the meeting transcripts in a locked drawer. He probably should have started there in the first place, but his mind was in disarray.

This new revelation mixed up a lot of his previous conclusions about his father's murder. Both Guilds had been suffering from the feud and Jean-Luc and Marius were the first two Guildmasters to believe Peace to be achievable in centuries... -Why would Marius jeopardize something they both wanted, especially if they had practically already sealed the deal?- Henri didn't have any romantic illusions about a possible marriage between Belladonna and his brother. The two teens may be, or at least believe themselves to be, in love, but to the Guild a marriage like theirs would be a Peace agreement. He suddenly remembered having rescheduled a meeting with the Assassin Guildmaster and couldn't help but worry about how that might have damaged relations to the Assassins. He found the relevant transcript and spotted a note that referenced the meeting Henri had rescheduled. It was marked as high-priority.

Remy's eyes widened slightly at the string of curses coming out of Henri's mouth. Henri concluded the outburst with a short and to the point end. "I think I messed up."

Remy frowned slightly. "Is there som-"

"No. I think I have to fix this myself." Henri pressed out. Remy probably genuinely wanted to help, but if Henri had actually messed up a fragile truce between the two feuding Guilds, Remy's idea of diplomacy wasn't going to help. Henri could honestly only think of very few circumstances, outside of heists, in which simply using Remy's powers to manipulate people actually helped.

Remy looked slightly annoyed at being spoken to in such a harsh tone, but seemed to register the possible seriousness of the situation. Everybody in the LeBeau household knew that Henri only rarely lost his temper in front of anybody but his father and wife, who were his two main sounding boards.

"I have to think." Henri said. His tone added '...alone. Leave. Now.'

Remy briefly stared at him, then turned away and left. The door closed quietly behind him. Henri's mind immediately snapped to the mess at hand. -What should I tell Bordeaux about why Jean-Luc cannot meet him? Can I tell him about *père*'s murder? Even if everything goes according to a fantastical best case scenario, can the Guilds still be united?- he sat down behind his desk and dropped his head in his hands. He might just have even more sleepless nights in front of him than he had thought.

A/N:

I'm nearing the end of the chapters that I had already written before I even started posting this, so there could be some delays after the next chapter...

I was thinking about writing a filler chapter with some of the guys and gals just hanging out and being as alright as their current situation allows, without any plot progression. Dunno... Any thoughts, comments? Is the amount of OCs bothering anybody (I know I occasionally get annoyed when there's to many OCs running around in a story...)?