MATTHEW

The next day, Eleni didn't show up.

G warned him when he arrived, but Matthew nonetheless danced for an hour or so before accepting that she wasn't coming. He worried. Through the bond she was distant – she was keeping her feelings under wraps – but he felt hints of sadness, emptiness, and what he could only describe as dissolution. He went downstairs and found G worried as well.

"Damn. I thought everyone liked chocolate!" the large man exclaimed. Matthew just shrugged the joke off.

"Something shook her." He couldn't reveal that he suspected they had triggered an unpleasant memory for the Eleni. G put his hand to his mouth and paced. Matthew was struck by how deeply G felt a responsibility for the girl.

"I'm going to go look for her," he announced quietly, hoping it would calm his friend as much as he hoped he would find the dancer. He told himself that, in spite of his promise to Eleni, leaving her alone was dangerous.

Also, he was fairly certain that she was outside the Towers, meaning she was not in the secret place where she slept. He hoped she wouldn't see it as a further infringement.

G looked doubtful.

"We've tried in the past with no success, Mattie. Unless you are going to…" he waggled his fingers towards his head. Matthew shook his head firmly.

"No. I won't do that. It might push her away more." G nodded, and Matthew read relief on his friend's face. "It might just end up being a walk, but I'm going to try. See you later."

Matthew began by circling the Towers. Using his powers, he might have been able to determine the direction she was in more efficiently, but as he had told G, he didn't want to reach out to her that way. She felt tremulous to him, and he was afraid anything drastic might make her run again.

Circling the building allowed him to sense which way she had gone by the wavering strength of the bond. It was subtle; in terms of distance, nowhere in the DownMountain would have been that far away. But using his telepathy internally to track the fluctuation in the strength of the bond, he was able to determine that she was somewhere straight down the center of the DownMountain from the Towers. He walked in that direction and was satisfied when he felt a subtle growing of the bond in response to his increased proximity to Eleni.

A little more than halfway past the center of the DownMountain, he started to sense that the bond was fading. For a moment, he panicked, but then realized he had probably just walked past her location. He slowly walked back and stopped in a small courtyard with a fountain in the middle. The Sewers had one large Washing Square, but the rest of the DownMountain had small ones in diminutive courtyards like this one. Some people even had enough plumbing to their homes that they didn't need to come to the washing yards.

There were several people there with their laundry, chatting as they worked, and a couple waiting to collect water from the nearby pump. He wished he had thought to bring a hat. The last thing he wanted was to draw attention to himself.

Slouching, he slowly made a circuit around the yard, and determined that Eleni was in the vicinity of one of the corners. A couple narrow streets branched off the area. He could have pressed further but was conscious of giving her some space. He also worried it might start to look suspicious.

Hoping she had seen him from wherever she was hiding, and would come out when she was ready, he picked up a couple of papers to read and settled at a small cafe. The server thankfully didn't seem to recognize him, and Matthew bought a cup of herbal tea as there was no real tea or coffee DownMountain. Then he sat and waited.

An hour and a half later, he registered surprise, and looked up to see Eleni standing in the corner he had targeted. She was staring at him; apparently she hadn't noticed him earlier. He held his breath and was relieved when she started approaching.

Sitting down across from him, and her look turned flat.

"You used the bond," she stated. He nodded.

"You felt…sad. I didn't want to leave you completely alone," he explained, willing her to see his sincerity. She glanced away and didn't say anything.

He noted that she felt better now. She was calmer, and the depressing emotions that had he had sensed before weren't evident. He relaxed.

"Why do you hide like that?" he asked gently.

She shrugged. "When I came here, I starting finding places where I could hide if something happened at the Towers. Though," she looked at him, "that is meaningless now." He determinedly ignored the comment and kept the conversation on track.

"Places like, the park we were at that night?" She nodded. "You just go there sometimes?" Another nod.

"A change of scenery," she said, and Matthew was relieved to see her lips twitch. He gave a small smile as well, as he collected the papers he had been reading.

"Why don't we head back to the Towers? G will be happy to know you're ok."

"Actually, I'm really hungry. Was that tea? Do they have food here?" He quickly ordered up two more teas and some food, although there wouldn't be more than dried snacks at this place. He was quite hungry as well.

As the server walked away, Eleni spoke.

"I'll find a way to pay you back for this. And for all the snack bars you and G have been leaving." Ah, so she had figured out that those weren't exactly handouts.

He waved his hand, dismissively.

"It's nothing. Seriously. I have too much as it is," she looked at him, considering.

"At the Tower they said you are a rich playboy," Matthew choked a bit on the last of his tea and ended up coughing. He opened his mouth to deny it, but found it wasn't so simple.

"Do you think this is the life of a playboy?" was reply he settled for. He decided it was time to set the record straight and started thinking about what he would tell her.

"True," she acceded. "They like you, though. Said you weren't what they expected once they got to know you. Bright likes you, a lot." Eleni looked around absently as she shared this information, but her eyes met his eyes at the last bit. He caught the glimmer of knowing humor in them and with surprise realized she was teasing him. He rolled his eyes.

"Not you, too," she laughed softly, and he found he liked the sound. He prepared to give her the real story when she went on.

"Um…Bright is a girl, right?" Matthew blinked in surprise.

"No, they are non-binary."

"Non-what?"

"Non-binary. They don't associate with either gender, male or female."

"But…she was obviously born…a girl."

"Were they?" Matthew was honestly not sure. "Anyway, it doesn't matter."

Eleni gave him an annoyed look.

"How can that not matter?" Matthew sighed out in exasperation.

"You must have had people like that-." Eleni cut him off with a warning look, and then shook her head.

"We didn't."

"Oh, well, they just don't identify. Some people transition. From one gender to another." Eleni stared at him. "What was it like…there?" This was a normal occurrence in the Montagne. How could they not have them in their society?

Eleni changed the subject.

"Anyway, she—

"They."

"They like you." Silence. Matthew didn't know what to do with that, so he returned to his original topic.

"Well, I'd like to set the record straight on me, so here's the truth, which I hope you will take in place of whatever they, all of them, told you. My family is wealthy." There was no way around that. "My father owns the only vineyard in the Montagne, and people like their wine." Her eyes widened at that.

"Wine is extremely expensive at the…where I came from," she looked sad for a moment, and he tensed as he felt the edge of the same despair that had consumed her yesterday.

The server came with their food and drinks then, and Matthew waited impatient to clear the mood.

"If you want some, just let me know," he tried to joke once they left. It seemed to work as she focused on their conversation again.

"Do you drink it all the time?" she asked taking a sip of tea and a handful of seeds and dried fruit. He laughed.

"Rarely, actually. My father did a lot of drinking when he was young and regretted it." Of course, what he had been drinking wouldn't have been the high-quality wines of his family. It was other, less expensive types of alcohol that showed up at those parties. "Anyway, he steered us away from it."

"Us?"

He nodded. "I have a sister. But we aren't getting along at the moment." Eleni found that sad.

"I always imagined it would be nice to have a brother or sister."

"You don't have any?" She paused, then shook her head. He sensed hesitation through the bond, but also sadness. She was on her own, now, so it would do no good to dwell on people she could no longer see. He purposefully returned to the subject at hand.

"Let's see," he continued, pretending to consider, "what else should you know about me?"

"You are apparently a man of many…talents," she supplied. This time her eyes didn't meet his. She was clearly embarrassed. Matthew cursed G for sending Eleni to the group at the Towers, but he smiled ruefully, accepting the situation.

"You'd never believe I've only ever had one girlfriend, right?" Sure enough, that surprised her. "The girlfriend I told you about, we dated from the time we were…14 or so? Before that, though we still spent a lot of time together. There was no one else for me."

"But she…" he nodded.

"That's probably one of the reasons it hit me so hard. I was really committed." He had assumed they'd get married once she finished school. Clearing his throat, he got on with the embarrassment. "And after I left her, she went and talk to the tabloids. About us. About the things we did when…we were alone." He risked a glance at Eleni's face. It had reddened, but what surprised him was the look and feel of horror she wore mixed with her embarrassment.

"They would publish that?!"

"Sure. If people will read it, they'll publish it. And if it has to do with sex, then they know people will read it." Eleni stayed quiet as she took that in.

"That's disgusting," was all she said. Then, "She was completely out of line." Realizing she meant Jenna, Matthew heartily agreed. He also didn't understand why many people felt they were entitled to such private information and found Eleni's objections gratifying.

Then she made a connection he hadn't intended.

"You're that famous? Famous enough that people would care what you did?" She immediately became nervous. She understood the implications. He pulled a breath in.

"I am," he conceded. "Or was. I haven't been very interesting lately; I think they've forgotten about me," he said hopefully. Eleni studied him, with an edge of suspicion in her eyes. She fell quiet, considering.

They ate and drank in silence. Finally, Eleni spoke again.

"They never forget. They file you away for a rainy day."

"You have some experience in being in the spotlight?" That seemed odd.

"The lurid one," she didn't explain further. Instead, she said quietly. "I don't want extra attention, Matthew." Matthew sighed in dismay. She had been starting to get comfortable with him a moment ago, but now her walls were back up.

"Well, if we stick to the Towers, we should be fine. They can't go in there." She nodded at that, then looked out onto the courtyard spreading in front of them with a few people dotted about it.

"We should go back," her tone was terse. He settled the bill and they returned to the Towers in silence.

G nearly knocked Matthew over as he pushed him out of the way upon their entrance. "Elle, thank goodness. We missed you today! And you were out with Matthew unchaperoned." He glared at Matthew. "As your big brother, I see it as my duty to keep such instances at a minimum. Preferably nonexistent!" Matthew rolled his eyes.

"We were at a small teashop mid-DownMountain," he said, partially in his own defense. He saw Eleni give him an inscrutable look. She was not one to give up information easily.

G nodded appreciatively, and then led them to join the usual group in the large common room. Matthew was surprised when she accompanied them without objection but didn't question it. They hung out for a short time, but when the group got into a heated debate about G's interpretation of psychology – apparently this was a frequent topic – he saw Eleni duck out and followed her upstairs. He didn't like where things had been left between them.

"Eleni," he called up to her on the stairs. She paused and waited for him. Together they made their way to the room where they danced. "Look, I didn't mean to mislead you about who I am. It just…never came up. And to be honest, it's a part of my life I wish I could leave behind." She sighed.

"I believe you. But we shouldn't go outside the Towers together anymore. I really don't want to end up in some picture, pasted all over the place." He understood, though he felt a bit sad. He had enjoyed just hanging out with her earlier, having her tease him, hearing her laugh. He shook off the feeling. There was no reason they couldn't do that here, too.

"I'm done for today," she said next, and Matthew could sense her exhaustion. With all the searching and waiting, it was already mid-afternoon,

"I'll see you tomorrow," he said as he turned to go. She nodded.

The next day, after a morning of dancing, Eleni pulled a pair of toe shoes out of her bag. Matthew was delighted and asked after the slippers as she prepared them.

"They are not doing great, but I can dance on them a couple more times before they are gone completely." She sighed sadly. Toe shoes wore out quickly.

"I can easily get more, if you give me those for sizing." He was disappointed but not surprised when she shook her head.

"Thanks, Matthew, but no." Then, reluctantly, "I'm going to talk to G about how I can make some credit. I'll figure it out myself."

While he was glad to see her making a move towards accepting life here, internally he grimaced. He had heard from G that there were very few ways to make extra credit in the DownMountain until you had full time employment. With the exception of the Birth Proxy Program, which any woman over 16 was eligible to do. He did not mention that.

Also, she would need to open an account to accept the credit, which would require more information than he thought she would be willing to give. He didn't mention these facts either, and went back to his dancing.

After the shoes were on, she ran through a set of exercises to accustom her legs to the different sensation of the hard toes. Then she suggested a song, and they danced choreography he had learned from her. It was a strange experience, for he was accustomed to partnering when he danced with a woman in toe shoes. He found himself wanting to move towards her at places where it would make sense for him to balance her or assist a pirouette. Of course, the choreography didn't include that, and it would have just confused her.

As they danced on, he admitted to himself, it wasn't just his instinct to partner someone, toe shoes or no. He wanted to partner with Eleni.

She was frowning over her shoes when they paused for lunch, and he guessed there was little life left in them. A memory caught him for a moment, and he made a mental note to check something when he got home. Then he got back to the matter at hand.

"Have you partnered before?" Might as well be direct. She looked at him and shook her head. "Do you mind if I tried balancing you?" He felt distinct pleasure and excitement from the bond, and knew she had wanted to dance with him, too. His mouth twisted in a smile he couldn't deny.

"So long as these shoes hold out," she muttered, but she stood and moved out onto the floor. "You'll need to tell me what to do."

He asked her to do a simple relevé, explaining he was going to hold her at her waist. She did so, and he gently grasped her, getting a sense for her position, her strength, her control. All were excellent, and he strengthen his grasp allowing her to lengthen the time she spent on her toes. He took her through a few balancing poses but didn't go beyond that for the day.

When they finished, he could sense that Eleni was extremely pleased. She even smiled a bit at him as she took off the shoes and massaged her feet. After a few minutes of cooling down, however she was as serious as ever.

"Have you found anything new about the psychic bond?" He winced inwardly. Every day he hoped she wouldn't bring it up. Every day she did. He sighed.

"No. I've exhausted the local options. I'll have to find another place to look." At her request, he had brought down the one book he'd found that mentioned psychic bonds with some thoroughness, and she had kept it a night to read through the section in question. It hadn't offered anything more than what he had already told her, though it had listed the known psychic bonds and the people involved that had existed at the time the book was written, some 400 years ago. Matthew didn't think there had been any since then; to his knowledge, he was the first telepath of notable power in centuries, and minor telepaths weren't able to sustain psychic bonds.

Now, Eleni tipped her head back in frustration. "Where are you going to look next? Is there somewhere DownMountain I could search?" He shook his head at her second question. They didn't even have libraries down here, except at the schools, and those were limited.

"The university. It will take longer, because its much larger than the local library, but I'll check every section that might have something." He made another mental note to apply for entry into the university library. Then he realized he could do it today. They were done dancing, and he didn't think Eleni would visit the group downstairs. In her focus on dancing en pointe she had skipped breakfast and lunch with them again. He had brought more snack bars and suspected they would comprise her dinner.

"I'm going to head home. I'll stop and get my pass for the university library in place."

"OK." Then she surprised him. "Thanks for partnering me today. I've always wanted to do that."

He was pleased. "Well, that's just the start, and I look forward to doing more with you. If you want." He suddenly felt awkward but was then relieved when she nodded.

"I'd like that."

After a quick goodbye, he left, passing Bright coming up the stairs. He guessed they were coming to see if Eleni would come downstairs, and later get some food. Hopefully, Eleni would be persuaded.

Matthew nodded to the young person but was careful to do no more than that. He was glad Eleni had tipped him off to Bright's interest. He would never have noticed, as they tended to be quiet and reserved. The last thing he wanted to do was lead them on unintentionally.

He stopped at the university library on his way home. It was actually quite a distance out of the way, on the far south-western side of the UpMountain, whereas the train station, which was not so far from his own home, was on the east. He misjudged how long it would take, and barely made it before they closed.

His application for a pass submitted, he walked part of the distance home instead of taking a closed car and was happy to discover he had arrived late enough to miss dinner with his sister. Adam updated him on a couple things at the ballet school and the vineyard, and Matthew listened as he wolfed down his cold food. Done, he helped clear the table, then retreated to his room where he spent the next hour cleaning out his closet looking for an elusive prize.

The next day the tabloid hit the stands.

ERIK

Erik Lensherr stared at the magazine lying on the table in front of him. A handsome young man, dressed well, if casually, in somewhat rumpled clothing, was reaching out to embrace a young woman swathed from head to foot in a mis-match of clothing that was little more than rags. They appeared to be sharing an intimate moment, but he ignored that. His interest in the cover was mainly for the man.

Matthew Summers had finally reemerged, though in a considerably less desirable way than he had left the public eye. Sulking was one thing; indulging in debauchery was another. The last thing the Head wanted was this person becoming further attached to the DownMountain. He needed to keep close eye on the wayward telepath.

Erik turned back to his breakfast as his nephew entered and spotted the tabloid.

"Can I see that uncle?"

"Good morning to you, too, Travis," Erik replied as he handed over the magazine.

Travis flipped an impertinent smile at his uncle and called out a cheery 'morning!' in return. Then his gaze fell to the tabloid. He scowled and made a disgusted sound.

"You're joking. What is that idiot doing getting photographed like that? G was trying to help this girl, not throw her to the wolves. Go back to Jenna already you loser. You two deserve each other." The muttered diatribe continued into the kitchen where Erik was no longer privy to the details.

Erik briefly considered his nephew's possible involvement in this minor scandal. Some of the Barons had objected to Travis' own adventures in the DownMountain, but Erik was confident in the young man's ability to keep his distance. And if he didn't, it was a mistake best made while he was young and could recover fairly easily from the backlash.

When Travis reemerged, he was balancing the open magazine on one arm, a cup of coffee clutched in the corresponding hand, and had a pastry in the other. Erik took the opportunity to learn what he could as the boy sat at the wooden table in the elevated, glassed-in porch that looked down onto the garden below.

"I didn't realize you were friends with Mr. Summers."

Travis snorted. "Friends? With that playboy? No way. But he's put this girl in a really bad position. She's totally innocent of who he is and what being with him entails. Look at the way she is dressed! He's handed them a feast. You can guess what they've written here." He shared a choice tagline, "'The real reason Matthew Summers hasn't returned to Jenna Frost revealed: he prefers cheap and dirty!'" Travis dropped the magazine down in disgust and nearly lost his breakfast in the process. Then he took a sip of his coffee and continued to read the article.

Erik frowned, but in truth had little care for how the Summers boy purported himself or his nephew's soft sensibilities. Neither of those things mattered in the long run. He focused on learning what he could.

"Yes, it does seem that Mr. Summers has made an unfortunate decision. Does he have an attachment to the girl?"

Travis shrugged in response his mouth full. Taking a drink of coffee, he said, "I don't know the details, only that G wanted to help this girl out. I doubt he intended it like this! I heard G roughed Summers up a bit a few days ago, so maybe it was connected. Hopefully, he gave her an education on the dangers of Matthew Summers as well! The man should come with a warning for crying out loud." The last part was mumbled into the pastry.

Erik smiled at his nephew's antics, as he came to the conclusion he'd get little that was useful out of the boy.

In the seven years since Travis and his mother had come home to live with Erik, the man had determined the youth was in no way fit to be the next Head of the Montagne. So, he allowed his nephew to indulge in his hobbies, and did what he could to prepare him should leadership fall on his shoulders. With only Travis and his sister Tracy, the heir apparent, as options for future leaders of the Montagne, the chance that he would be called up was greater than Erik liked. He hoped that things would never come to that.

"Well, it will make for exciting reading," Erik said with mild sarcasm as he rose to leave, ignoring his nephew's disgusted look. He had simply stated the truth. He did hope, however, that they wouldn't get as graphic as the last time. That had gone too far in his opinion.

Leaving the casual dining area, he passed through the large and well supplied kitchen, complete with room length island, and from there into the living room, part of which held a dining table for formal eating. Underneath the curved, floating staircase that led to the second-floor gallery, he opened a narrow door and slipped inside. At the end of a short hall, he placed his hand on a flat pad, which triggered a second door to unlock and allow him entry into the Lensherr Study.

The small room was said to have been designed by Magneto himself. Save for a few books, it had seen meticulous upkeeping through the years. Hexagonal in shape, three of the walls were covered in shelves lined with rare volumes. The entrance came next, and the panel adjacent to that held a large video screen. The next panel was blank, and a display case stood in front of it, its glass encased contents lit, as always. A desk sat a few feet away from the display case, in front of the shelves.

Carefully closing the door behind him, Erik proceeded to the desk to start his day. As he did every day he paused after sitting and pulled out his pocket watch. Opening the cover, he gazed at the picture held within. Then he closed it and tucked it away. Leaning back, he took a moment to ponder the problem of Matthew Summers.

At 18, the boy was technically an independent citizen now. Only the fact that he had effectively skipped the last semester of compulsory schooling meant there was any kind of administrative hold on him. Erik briefly cursed the fact, as he had many times, that Matthew had ended up with Adam Summers. Pushing that old frustration aside, he focused for a few moments on finding a way to pin the young man down.

Unable to reach a satisfying resolution to the issue, he absently reached down to unlock a drawer to his left and took out a special report. It had originated in the Citadel. Erik gave one last thought to the Summers boy, then turned his attention to this new and equally disturbing problem.