Act II - Bonds

This is how we became best friends.

Say, Albert, do you remember?

On rainy days, we'd always go there. It seemed like a secret hideout for us, where we could go and escape from the rest of the world for the day. Normally, sitting around in a cramped space with someone for hours isn't that appealing to me, but with you, it was always fun.

What would we do? Well, anything, really. Play cards, do homework (although it was mostly me doing the work, and you fooling around with my model ship collection), go on the computer we set up ourselves, eat the desserts we scrounged from your kitchen before dinner, or just sit around and talk. It was a special place, a haven for just the two of us.

Even Eugénie didn't come up there. Well, at least not too often.

Now, when was it that we started going there? A little less than three years after we met, right?

"Franz!" Albert yelled, waving his hand as he came running towards me. "Hey, Franz!" His boots padded across the snow, crunching softly as he came closer. "Wait up!"

Franz! Franz, you're so ungrateful!

It was a crisp December afternoon – the air felt thin and chilling, in a strange sort of way. A gray sky of clouds cast overhead, crowding the sunlight out in masses. I swallowed hard, trying to smother the rising feelings in my stomach.

It hadn't snowed in a while.

Do you know how hard I try to support this family?

School had just ended, and I was walking home alone. Albert would always get annoyed if I left without him.

If only your father hadn't died!

"Geez, Franz." As Albert caught up, he scowled. He was panting now, his hands on his knees. His cheeks were flushed pink. "Why didn't you wait for me?"

"Sorry." I told him flatly, turning away from his exasperated gaze. I felt a bit guilty, but I just didn't want to talk to him that day.

Albert's eyes lit up in concern. "What's wrong?" He put a gloved hand on my shoulder.

I brushed him away. "Nothing's wrong." I retorted, maybe a bit too harshly. "Just forget about it."

Albert drew back, hesitantly looking away. I continued to walk forward, but from the corner of my eye, I could see that he was still following me. I was just about to whisk around, to tell him to leave me alone for the day, but Albert stopped me before I could say anything.

"I… I never got the chance to thank you earlier," he began, his voice cautious, almost as if he was afraid of irritating me.

I raised an eyebrow at him, but said nothing.

"So… thank you." He looked away, hiding his embarrassment.

I pretended to not know what he meant, but I couldn't help noting the red scarf that was wrapped snugly around his neck. He noticed my reaction, meeting my eyes with a wide smile. I immediately turned away.

Don't you turn away from me! Look at me when I'm talking to you!

"Yeah," I watched the way the snow would compress beneath the weight of my shoes. I couldn't look at him now, when I felt like I was about to cry.

You're such a useless child!

"Franz? Franz… are you crying?" I could feel Albert's voice by my ear. He was coming closer to me; he was going to see my tears.

That's when I broke.

"Just go away, Albert!" I yelled. "Leave me alone!"

His arm was still outstretched as I walked away from him. I vowed that no matter how much I wanted to, no matter how bad I felt, I wouldn't look back. Even as he called out for me, even as he began to apologize, I continued to walk on.

This time, he didn't follow me.

A phone call came later that day.

I was sitting up in my room at the time, staring at my mathematics textbook. Long division was a cinch for me, but for some reason, I couldn't muster the initiative to open my notebook. I'd been sitting at my desk for almost an hour, trying to distract myself with the inky night sky outside my window.

But it hadn't worked. I could still hear my mother's sobbing cries from the dining hall. She had gotten upset with one of our maids this time, screaming at her for breaking a set of our finest china. I loved my mother so much, but when she was like this, I found it hard to be around her.

It was so much better when your father was here!

Yes, Father. If only Father was here, things would be all right. We would all be happy again. She would constantly use him as an excuse.

I shut my eyes tight. My fists abruptly came down onto the polished wood of my desk. I cared about her. Even so, why couldn't I help her?

Why couldn't I protect the ones I loved?

I really was useless after all. I wanted to get away from here, to escape to some other place where none of this mattered.

Knock, knock.

"Young master," a voice called from my door. "A phone call for you."

"Come in," I replied uneasily, unfamiliar with the wavering tone of my voice.

When I picked up the phone, I was surprised to hear the voice of Madame Morcerf. She seemed anxious, her voice traced with worry and concern.

"Franz, is Albert at your house?"

"No, Mme…" A strange feeling started to swell in my stomach. "Did something happen?"

"He's been missing ever since he left school today." Her voice was trembling now. "I've called the Danglars, but he isn't over there either. Eugénie told me he would probably be with you."

"Mme Morcerf, I saw him earlier today after school, but…" A pang of guilt stopped my words. "I'm sorry; I should have walked home with him."

"It's all right, Franz. I'm sure he'll come home soon." She sighed, followed by a short pause. Was she really assuring me, or perhaps herself? "If you find him, please let me know."

"I will, Madame Morcerf."

I sat in silence a while after, crumpling an empty page of my homework.

That idiot. Why had he gone off by himself, making his parents worry? I was frustrated with him, but at the same time, frustrated with myself.

Had I really hurt him that much?

But where could he be? It was already way past dinner, and the streets were nearly empty. Albert wasn't the type of person to go wandering around at night for no reason.

I was ashamed to know that I was the cause of it.

Ten minutes later, wrapped in the warmth of a winter coat, I was running down the lonely snow-covered streets in search of him. Few strangers would pass me by, and as they did, I would have a spark of hope: could that be Albert? To my dismay, I only saw unfamiliar faces.

"Albert!" It had begun to snow by now. Tiny white frozen crystals were floating down to surround me. It was too late to look for footprints he may have left behind. "Albert!"

But what answered me was the silence of vacant streets.

Somewhere, I thought. There must be somewhere that Albert would be likely to go off to. Where would he go when he was sad? Wasn't there any place that he might escape to, like a secret hideout or something?

A secret hideout… Wait, what was it exactly…

As I pondered, a single snowflake drifted down to land on my outstretched palm. It felt delicately bitter against my bare skin. I watched as it dissolved into a tiny puddle in my hand.

When had I seen this before?

Albert, Eugénie and I had gone outside for the afternoon, building forts in the snow. It had been about a month ago, hadn't it?

"Hey, Franz, Eugénie – look! Look at this!" Albert motioned to us excitedly.

I put down the block of snow I'd been patting together for our fort. As I went over towards the two of them, I stared at Albert's bare neck. Wasn't he cold like that? He had pulled off his gloves, relishing the tiny crystallized snowflake that had landed on his hand.

"Ooh, it's so pretty!" Eugénie shifted on her knees to peer over Albert's shoulder. "I wish I could catch one and have it stay like that."

Eugénie was right. It was a beautiful thing, fragile and pure. As I studied it, it seemed untainted… free, almost. I looked up at Albert's deep blue eyes, wide in wonder.

What was the right word? Ah, I know.

Innocent.

"So what? It's just a snowflake," I scoffed.

"Aw, it melted." Eugénie sighed in disappointment. "Oh well, they always have to melt, eventually."

"Yeah. But it's nice while it lasts, huh?" Albert smiled gently towards her.

From the semi-circle of a wall that was our fort, I turned away.

"Hey, you guys, can't we do something a little more interesting than looking at snowflakes?" I suggested, although it came out as more of a command.

"Yeah! How about a snowball fight?" Albert seemed a bit overzealous about the idea. "Boys against girls!"

"That's not fair!" Eugénie exclaimed. "I'm the only girl. You two are always together!"

However, Albert didn't seem too keen on considering a change in rules. He was stubborn like that. He had laughed, teasingly, waving as he grabbed my arm to pull me away with him.

"Albert! Franz! Where are you guys going?" Eugénie called, getting up off of her knees to run after us.

"To find a fort, of course!" Albert yelled in reply. Then, turning towards me, he whispered mischievously: "I guess a snow fort won't work after all. We'll need a real secret base to hide from Eugénie."

He pulled me through tangled branches and fallen trees, causing scratches along the way. I didn't mind, though: I found it hard to focus on anything other than the strange feeling that I received from having Albert's bare hand tightly clasped around my own.

A few minutes later, we finally found our way into a desolate, snow-capped street. An abandoned stone building that somewhat resembled a partly collapsed battlement stood before us. In its own tattered, ice-glazed way, it was magnificent.

"Hey, Franz!" Albert smiled with the radiance of an accomplishment. "Just look at that. Isn't it perfect?"

I took off running. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Yes, that had to be the place. If he wasn't there, I wasn't sure where else he would be.

By the time I reached those wide, aged doors, my legs were numb and aching. But I didn't care. I leaned a hand against the wide entrance to catch my breath. Unexpectedly, the door creaked open.

Hadn't the place been boarded up before? I peered into the darkness of the building before me. No, he couldn't have…

Hesitantly, I walked into the shadowed building, the floors slightly groaning beneath my feet as I ventured further. It smelled of musk and damp wood inside here. I had the urge to put my hand against the wall to guide myself, but I was afraid of what I might happen to accidentally touch.

"Albert…" my voice trailed off as I began to have doubts. "Albert, are you there?"

Silence.

"Albert?" I took another blind step, but soon stopped myself. Something was near.

From a few feet in front of me, I felt the squirming of something hidden in darkness. The shuffling of wood scraped against the floor. Then came a distinctive moan.

"F-Franz…? Is that you?" Relieved, I rushed towards his voice, almost tripping over scraps of wood that were in the way.

"Albert! What happened to you?"

I didn't have to wait for his reply, however. It was pretty obvious. Above us, part of the upper floor had collapsed in on him. Moonlight from an open window above spilled onto his face. He was covered in dust and debris.

Pushing away the mounds of chipped wood, I was horrified to see that Albert was bleeding in multiple places. A large plank had fallen on his forehead, leaving a severe gash. He must have been out cold for a while.

I went over to support his back, holding up his face to mine. His hands were stiffened cold – he had taken his gloves off earlier when he broke off the planks to open the entrance.

"I… I fell. And then all of this fell on top of me." He laughed meekly then, almost in spite of his stupid actions. "I'm sorry… for what happened today."

"No… no, don't be!" I was trembling, out of happiness or fear, I don't know. "But Albert… what were you thinking, coming here by yourself?"

"I wanted to give you an early Christmas present." Albert smiled slightly. "Just like you gave me this scarf." He held out a bruised hand to lift up the red scarf that was still around his neck.

"What?" my tone was incredulous.

"I knew you were sad, Franz… I thought that maybe if I cleared out this place, you would be happy. It could be our secret hideout."

"Albert…"

"I didn't know that this place was so old, though." He laughed. "For it to fall on me like this…"

The dim moonlight lit up his soft blue eyes. His eyelids were beginning to droop. I could tell he was tired. He smiled at me slowly, carefully placing a hand behind my neck.

"Albert, you idiot…" I held him closer to me, feeling his warmth. "I don't need a present."

Albert said nothing for a while. He put his arms around my coat; and frankly, I didn't care if he got blood on it. I was just thankful that he was safe.

"Say, Franz… when we're together like this…" He paused for a moment.

"It's warm, isn't it?"

I closed my eyes.

"Yeah."