Tahdah! More updating!

And I promise, not THAT much more French, if any at all.

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Clair had clumsily helped me to the kitchen, where François sat at the little kitchen table, tied to one of the plastic chairs that were relics from the fifties.

"Well fancy seeing you here, François." I said in French, smiling closed lipped as he looked up to see me standing before him.

"Hello Fleur, what's with the French?" He asked coolly, and I thought up a quick lie so that he wouldn't use it to my disadvantage.

"What, a girl can't speak in a different language if she wants?" I asked, sitting down opposite him. He didn't respond, and so I continued on "So, what brings you to my neck of the time line?"

"Need you even ask?"

"I'm afraid so, seeing as we were getting along just fine, and the next moment you disappear." I retorted, bringing up why he just left me in his cave.

"You hadn't figured that I had been at wits end with you and your cold shoulder."

"Well I certainly hadn't counted on you on the verge of trying to stab my friend."

"I wasn't aiming for your little friend, I had been aiming for someone a little closer to heart." He said maliciously, and he flicked his eyes over to the doorway.

I followed his gaze and saw who he meant…

"Yes, your precious lover-boy." He said, and I felt a cold chill rack my body. I tried my best not to let it show, but it must have. "See, I knew if you had lost him, you would need someone to cling to for emotional support."

"And the part where you dragged me down the stairs by my hair and tried to kill me yet again was all part of this 'ingenious' plan?" I asked sarcastically.

"Actually no; the only reason I took you was because I hadn't hurt him bad enough. Of course, I didn't realize at the time that it wasn't what's-his-face, so I took you down here, to try to get you to come back to Paris…"

"And into your open arms." I finished for him, raising an eyebrow "Highly idiotic, stupid, lame-brained and about a thousand other adjectives that mean 'dumb.'"

"Looking back in retrospect, I find I am inclined to agree with you." He said, and my mouth dropped in shock.

"You're…agreeing with…me?" I repeated, completely disarmed of all the snappy retorts I had stocked for anything he might say.

He let out a sigh. "Yes, it was quite stupid, and I believe that sneak attack with the appliance was sufficient to knock some sense into me."

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, my shock erased from my mind as the real answer to why he was agreeing with me dawned on me.

"You're saying this only because you don't want to be strapped to a chair on an uncomfortable plastic chair, isn't it?" I denounced, grinning as a flicker of anger and annoyance shown in his eyes, but my smile faded as his eyes grew much like a baby deer's would look, and I knew he was going to say something that would try to get me to realize 'we were perfect for each other.'

"You always could read me like a book, as I you. I know that…"

"Deep in your heart you have feelings for me." I finished again, rolling my eyes in a bored fashion. "Seriously François, you need to get some new material, because that got old after the first time you said it."

"For you, anything."

"Oh for Honesty's sake!" I exploded, my tolerance for his idiocy finally snapping "Would you shut up about how much you 'love me?' It's a fine time for you to decide that you want to love me forever, especially after the fact that I locked my heart away, lowing to ne'er love again after what you did to me!"

His eyes widened, and I felt a tear spring to my eyes. I bit my lip looking away, cursing my stupid anger…I always said more than I intended when I got into a rage like that, and now look what I did…I admitted that I still longed for the days at the opera house when the François I had fallen in love with courted me and everything felt right.

As if François had read my mind, he said softly "I can make it all go back to the way it was…I promise…"

In his eyes was the one thing that always made my heart melt…and I didn't even have a name for it…Love? Adoration? Promise? Whatever it was, made my mind seem to wipe clean like a blackboard, and only smudges of coherent thoughts were left.

"I'll even find a way to get you back to the Opera House…" he said, and I hung on his every words. He was promising my old life back, the way I had wanted it to turn out…with me living happily ever after with someone who loved me wholly, and I could live in my dream world and see all of my friends…

A smile formed at my lips, and I glanced over away from François, ready to smile at anyone…and saw Ethan watching us silently, leaning on the doorframe, and my stomach twisted inside me.

I turned back to François and I knew that he knew who I looked at, but kept the anger that was flaring in his eyes in check.

"And yet you still remain infatuated with that pansy…" he said coldly, and I opened my mouth to say something, but he kept talking "I offer to win back the time in your life when you were happiest, and yet you still fawn after him," he jerked his head backward in the direction of Ethan "who can offer you nothing that you truly want."

His words rang in my ears, and I said nothing, my heart beating with odd little jerks as though one of its legs had been wounded and it had to drag it along.

"Fleur, Paris is dull and gray without you…every moment there without you is like the cruelest torture any man can hope to endure…and I don't want to have to endure it any longer, darling, I need you there with me…without you I'm nothing but an empty shell." He said, his voice softening as he noticed my eyes were brimming.

"I love you…and I need you with me…" he said, and I wiped my eyes, ducking my head down.

My brain felt like it was on overload, and my emotions were beyond that…I knew deep…really deep…down François was bad, and that I should stay away, but…oh how I wanted to go back to when everything was new and it wasn't so complex! Back when the only things I had to worry about was getting my Pas de Bourrée up to Madame Giry's approval and making sure that I had a clean dress to go out courting with François…and here…there were so many things…homework, grades, chores, student council, band, that stupid job…

And what good was staying here if I couldn't even speak English? I looked back up at François and nodded. How was I supposed to refuse such an offer?

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collective gasp

Oh no!

Again, I didn't proof-read, so it might be kinda funky. Any questions, just ask me.

Please Review and I shall update.