"Are the nightmares being especially unkind to you tonight, Daniel?"
The young man squeaked, almost dropping his candle on the library floor.
"Daniel?" Alexander put down the book he had been reading and half rose from the couch.
"I'm sorry. You startled me. Yes, I mean no, I mean I couldn't sleep. I thought reading might help calm me."
Alexander sat back down and resumed reading, or at least opened his book once again; his eyes weren't skimming over the passages and Daniel wondered if he was waiting for him to leave.
"I'll just find a book and go back to my room then." He picked a book at random from the many shelves and turned to leave the baron to his solitude.
"That one, Daniel?"
"Pardon?" He turned. The baron had one eyebrow raised and was looking at the book in Daniel's hand.
"It was my understanding that that particular book was banned in your country. I never thought of you as being curious about those sorts of things."
Daniel glanced at the title of the book in his hand and dropped it as if it had burned him. He rubbed his hand against his nightshirt. "Why would you have such…such filth?"
Alexander laughed, a deep, rich sound that made Daniel shiver. "I've never seen you blush so, Daniel. Your… innocence is charming."
Daniel debated picking the book up off the floor and returning it back to the shelf, but couldn't bring himself to touch it again. "I think I'll forego reading. I'll just stare at my bedroom ceiling for a while."."
"Don't be foolish. Come, sit by me for a while. Read."
"I need to find a book."
"Try this one. I read it the other day. It reminded me of you." Alexander held out a slim, red, leather bound volume.
Daniel took it with some trepidation and sat beside his benefactor. "Goethe? It looks like poems," he remarked, flipping through it.
"That would be because it is poetry."
He winced. Again he managed to sound like a complete dolt. "I'm sure it's lovely, but I am afraid my German is still not up to snuff. It would be completely lost on me."
"I could read it to you. My translation skills, while being far from flawless, should be adequate to get the point across."
"Please. If you don't mind."
"I wouldn't have offered if I minded. Now this one was the most striking; it was the first one that brought you to mind."
"Who rides so late through the night and wind?" Daniel felt his eyes drift shut as the baron's deep voice rose and fell, the rich cadence lulling him into a doze. It was a poem about a child riding home with his father one dark night and seeing something called an Erlking-the devil?- in the woods. The child kept warning his father that this Erlking was trying to tempt him away, but the father kept chalking it up to a child's fancy. The Erlking kept tempting, the child kept resisting and the father denying, until: "I am charmed by your beautiful form; And if you won't come willingly, then I'll use force." He frowned at that part, but couldn't stir himself to comment. The poem ended with the father finally believing his son and rushing home to try to outrun the Erlking only to discover his son dead in his arms, the Erlking victorious.
"Hm. That was lovely," Daniel mumbled, commenting more on the baron's voice than the poem itself. "Lovely, but a bit gloomy." His eyes few open. "How did that remind you of me?"
The baron only smiled. "Shall I read another?"
He hesitated, then nodded. The baron selected another poem and Daniel found himself nodding off. His head falling against Alexander's shoulder jerked him awake. He tried to righten himself, but the baron placed his hand on his shoulder folding him against his chest. "Shh. It's all right if you sleep, Daniel. Shall I continue?"
"Yes, I love your voice." Daniel's eyes drifted shut. They opened when he realized what he had just said. "I meant you have a lovely voice for reading."
Alexander only hummed, before launching into a rather lengthy poem about stars and longing and agony, possibly over a lover; Daniel was too tired to keep it all straight. Alexander's voice trailed off as Daniel was on the cusp of sleep. "What I would do to keep you, my Daniel." He thought he felt lips ghost over his temple and then the dreamless void claimed him.