I saw nothing but the black veil of darkness shrouding my vision, yet all my other senses told me everything I needed to know. As the crackling fires echoed from below, two hands gripped my shoulders firmly and there was a cold breath against the back of my neck, making me shiver in contrast to the uncomfortable warmth surrounding me. He was pushing me excruciatingly slowly, and I could feel the ground shift below my feet, from rock hard slipping to nothing. The edge slowly touched my toes, stopping when half of my feet were floating. Still, he said nothing.

I sighed raggedly in defeat, accepting what was about to come. It truly is my fault, and I deserved to be punished. I shamed my father's name; I betrayed my master's trust; and I broke a rule in this house, even though the master was clear on explaining them and even emphasizing the second rule – the one I didn't follow.

His grip on my shoulders slackened, and I leaned forward towards the heat for my punishment. He must have been surprised by my sudden surrender, because the grip once again found its strength and pulled me backwards once again.

Unmoving silence took over and I wondered confusedly why. What's happening? Why isn't he doing anything? I couldn't look back because then I'd still see pitch black. But I could still hear his deep breathing as his fingers shifted on my shoulders and his sweat dripped down the back of my neck.

"You know what? I'm letting you go."

What?

Again, he saw through my confusion. "I changed my mind. I'm giving you a second chance." Huh? But why? What made him change his mind?

As I continued to question it in my mind, he was already pulling me towards him, away from the radiating fire pit. He removed my blindfold and I was greeted by the white poker face staring back at me closely. Way too closely.

Blushing, I stumbled backwards, realizing it was a bad idea when the fire's warmth greeted my back but luckily he caught me on time, his hands catching me by my waist and pulling me with him, this time farther away from danger.

"Geez, you're so clumsy…" he commented, even chuckling slightly and I realized I've never seen him this carefree before. His hands stroked up my back, and I realized something else as well: I was still leaning towards him, my hands on his chest and his own behind me, his head nuzzled on top of mine.

I stuttered my words, pulling away in embarrassment and he let me go reluctantly. He stood tall once more, placing his hands behind him. "W-Why didn't you do it?"

"You're one of my best servants; I wouldn't want to lose someone with potential like you. So I decided to give you a lighter punishment – you will not be given tonight's dinner instead." He explained, before turning to the stairs. "Off to bed then, Felix."

"U-Uh okay…" I stammered, surprised that he actually called me by my first name – and that he actually remembered in the first place. "Um… thank you."

I excused myself, ascending the stairs when he spoke. "I trust you, okay?" I turned around, looking him in the eye. "No one will know, Master." I promised, before heading back to my room with a new resolve to not disappoint him this time.

But of course a newfound fear had silently bubbled in the back of my mind.

Even though my curiosity was still there, I never brought the topic up again, afraid that he might throw me down the fire pit for real. Why was his eye detached from its socket? What could have happened? Did he get involved in an accident?

"Felix." His voice snapped me out of my daze and I flinch slightly, looking at his mask. "Come to my room after dinner. There's something I want to talk to you about."

Oh shit. Did someone find out? I swear on my own grave, I never told anyone… I hope he's not going to hurt me. To be honest, I found myself getting nervous when we meet gazes. Well, who wouldn't be scared of a man who almost threw you into a fiery hole where many other burnt bodies lay? I know I would.

"Come in," he calls from inside. I gulped nervously, taking a deep breath and mentally preparing myself for the worst, before finally entering the room. I noticed he wasn't wearing his mask.

"Felix, I want to ask you something." He said, going straight to the point. I nodded for him to continue, my palms starting to sweat. "Do you want to know how I lost my left eye?"

Huh? Why was he asking me this? But I thought he didn't want anyone mentioning anything about his face… Where could he be going with this?

Maybe it's another test. "Um, no…" I answered, seeing through it.

"Why not?" He prodded.

I paused for a moment, thinking about the question. "Because I know it's a personal thing for Master and as a servant I have no right to go anywhere near that topic."

"You've improved." He murmured, standing up and walking to the window. "Okay. You may go."

I sigh in relief, my breath shaky as I bowed to excuse myself, my trembling body unbeknownst to myself until now.

I comforted myself with the thought that I was safe, trying to calm my restless mind and tell myself that nobody else knows, that he wasn't mad at me or anything.

But as I knocked the expensive-looking vase over, the once smooth and shiny blue shattering to small, crystalline pieces, I knew I would be wrong.

I stumbled down to the floor, my anxiety finally breaking me down as I felt shock, fear, and panic pull my adrenaline up all at once. He walked up to me, and a sense of déjà vu washed over me. Just like last time, except he might not forgive me this time.

"I-I'm so sorry!" I yelped out, backing away until I reached the wall. Terror continued to rush through my blood as the thoughts of the fire pit washed over my memory for the umpteenth time and only now, as I was trapped, like a rabbit caught in the headlights, do I realize how helpless I've become in this situation.

Still keeping silent, he reached a hand over to my face. Instincts told me to squeeze my eyes shut, brace myself for the incoming pain on my cheek, but it never came. Instead, his rough hand caressed- no, ghosted over my cheek, and he was suddenly kneeling in front of me, matching my eye-level. I halted my breathing, wide-eyed and confused.

"Why are you so afraid of me?" he questioned softly, almost as if being careful and gentle as to not break my fragile state. I would break, if he didn't say the right words.

"B-But the vase…" I couldn't answer him; I wasn't afraid of him, I was afraid of what he might do.

"I never really liked that thing anyway." He shrugged off. "But you didn't answer my question, Felix. Why? Is it because of what happened at the fire pit?"

Hell yes it was! Anyone would be scared as fuck after that. I was almost annoyed that he asked me such a thing but I chose not to say anything – he was still my master after all, and saying that I wasn't afraid would only be a blatant lie.

Sighing, he ruffles his hair in frustration, pulling the hand on my cheek away. "Look, I'm sorry about before. It-It was stupid of me, I know. Could you forgive me? Please?"

There was something about that moment of irony and… adorableness, the master begging the servant with an innocent and childlike expression that prevented me from staying mad at him. And so the feeling of fear momentarily subsided and I took the hand he offered as I was picked off from the ground and was offered a seat.

My hand still stung from the touch of his own colder ones, even as I sat on the chair facing his bed. The "nice feeling" type of sting, I mean… Wait, what?

"Look, I know I've been an arrogant bastard of a master to you and everyone else, and I deeply apologize for that. I just… I didn't exactly have a good childhood and I could use an ear, you know what I mean?"

I didn't know what to say. First, he threatened to burn me to death, then he suddenly becomes kind towards me, and now here he was, requesting that I give his problems a listen. All this change was just so overwhelming that I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep up; that right when I get used to this kind side of him, he would shift to a different personality again.

Then again, did any of that really matter? My master, who I pledged my loyalty to, needed me and I sure as hell won't deny him what he wanted. Yet as I pondered over it a bit more, I started to question myself. Was that really the only reason? Deep inside, I knew there was something else that drove me to follow him.

I just couldn't put my finger on what it was.

"I understand, Master. I vow to never speak of whatever you will say to anyone."

"I'm just hoping you really will keep that vow." He commented. "And loosen up, will ya? You should cut the formalities; it's just the two of us in this room anyway."

I nodded, awkwardly staring at my fingers. How was I supposed to talk to him without being formal? All my years of service, I've never been asked to do that… But then again, even I knew he was different.

"I was born with a curse," He began. "The world around me felt so imperfect, unbalanced. Everything I saw, I had to make it perfect. Even as a child, my room was completely symmetrical. I didn't know why, but I've loved symmetry ever since I was a kid."

He paused, picking up his eye from the red container I had previously knocked over. I hadn't noticed it before because I was so scared, but it was light green, unlike his right eye that was smoky blue.

"I looked at myself in the mirror one day and I realized, I was flawed myself." He continued, glaring at the green pupil. "I had what's called Heterochromia iridium, or… two different colored irises. As you can see, my right eye is cornflower blue and my left, pale green. Every single person in my family had cornflower blue eyes, so I knew my left eye was the mistake."

"And so with a spoon and a pair of scissors, I… I cut it, my vision being cut in half. It didn't even hurt at all. Now that I think about it, maybe it wasn't shock that kept the pain away, but 'it'. I started referring to my obsession with symmetry as 'it' because I truly believed it was a thing inside me. A stowaway that shouldn't be there but lives inside me."

"I went to bed feeling fulfilled. Then my mother's scream woke me up. She had seen what I had done to myself: the empty socket still dripping with red fluids down the sides of my face. She woke my father up, and after talking in their room, where I couldn't hear them, they sent a doctor to 'fix' my eye. The doctor looked surprised when he saw me too, but he checked my condition and examined the eye anyway and left. He went to talk to my parents and I remember hearing my father's faint shouting and the door slamming shut afterwards."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Apparently, they asked the doctor to fix my eye back in place. But he couldn't, of course, and my father got mad." He answered. "My father became disappointed in what I had done, how I 'ruined the family's noble name' and died with no reconciliation with me whatsoever. My mother, however, loved me for who I was. She instead showed worry in place of disappointment and protected me from the prying hands of our other relatives."

"Eventually, she had to send me away one day so she entrusted me with this mansion, using my father's death as an alibi to inherit it early. She also made me this mask." He tapped at the white poker face to emphasize his point. "She said that the world outside our secure house was full of judgment, mockery and evil. The mask, she said, would protect me from harm."

"Then, she sent me you. She said your retired father was one of the most loyal servants, so she said you were trustworthy as well, but she told me to test you to be sure. So when you failed my test…" he trailed off, glancing at me.

"I'm sorry… I-I didn't know…" My gaze fell to the floor, shame averting my gaze from his own. "I shouldn't have let my curiosity get the better of me. I would never have known how much you trusted me…"

"Hey, it's okay. Don't worry about it." He comforted, sitting beside me and lightly rubbing my shoulder in reassurance. "I forgave you already. Besides that was my fault. I already told you that. And I didn't punish you anyway, right?"

Oh yeah. Which reminds me… "Why didn't you do it anyway?"

He freezes, surprised by my question. "I don't… I don't even know why myself. There was just something about you, when you brushed my tears away… I guess your sympathy got to me. And when you gave in to the punishment, even leaning forward in surrender, I thought, 'This isn't worth it. I'm throwing away the life of a person who regrets his decision and was genuinely showing sympathy for me.' I thought that… maybe you were the one who could accept me, the one I've been waiting for."

"But now you're afraid of me, maybe even mad at me… And it's all my fault." He hides his face in his hair, and I swear I saw a tear fall down to his lap. "It's okay if you do, I can understand why." His voice sounded so broken, and seeing him this way, I was far from angry at the state he was driven to.

Knowing that my selfish curiosity aided him to be driven this way did not help me from stopping the powerful guilt and sympathy gripping at my chest at all.

But it did push me to do something to comfort him. Facing the quivering man beside me, I wrapped my arms around his figure and perhaps that was all it took. All he needed was a shoulder to cry on: a friend. His arms ghosted over my body, through my waist and stopped at my back, gripping it tightly as he finally broke down and sobbed uncontrollably through my shoulder. He bawled and sniffled, his cries muffled by my suit and I hushed him, rubbing his back in reassurance while whispering softly my comforts.

Without really consulting my brain, my other hand, which lay on the bed passively, rose to Cry's head and ruffled it gently, then went down his chin. Before I knew it, his head was lifted up and I kissed his forehead lovingly and when I realized what I was doing, I pulled away, noticing that his sobs had ceased.

I waited for him to say something, or move from my arms which were still draped over his back protectively, or at least comment about something… but I got nothing. And so I decided to break the silence.

"It's okay now, I'm here for you… Don't worry about it, Cry." Then I realized I called him by his… nickname and I was about to apologize for the disrespect but he only smiled, even chuckled lightly.