A Strange Interlude

"Are you certain I'm not intruding?" Toris asked as Eduard brought out coffee. Eduard had invited him, yes, but this place was a mansion! And Eduard was very obviously rich. Toris was not poor by any standards, but all of this display of wealth was slightly off putting and he had yet to get used to it.

"Not at all," Eduard assured him as he sat down. "How are you? I hear Feliks is going on another designing tangent."

"Yeah, I've been roped into helping," Toris nodded, slightly grimacing at the thought of himself in some of those clothes. With the diversity of people in town one would think there was an actual model there.

Toris was learning an awful lot awfully quickly in this town. Such as Eduard was rather polite, but occasionally he would suddenly interject with something which was slightly blunt. Toris did not mind much. He was living with Feliks now. There was no one in the world more forward than him. At least, Toris hoped so.

"How, if I may ask, do you live with him?"

Toris thought about it. I don't know. In fact, he just called some guy in from the city to be a caterer for the upcoming wedding without asking either groom whether they were okay with that. I have no idea.

"I... just got used to him, I suppose. Feliks is not so bad." The truth was more likely to be closer to the fact that he probably liked being pushed around. But Toris would never admit that to himself, let alone to a brother he had not even known he had until this year.

"Well, I suppose if you have no secrets you wish to keep to yourself," Eduard nodded. Toris laughed, but cut himself off rather hesitantly. "I'm sorry, that's not really my business."

"No, no... it is all right."

Secrets? Toris still apparently had plenty to learn about himself. He had only figured out he was adopted a few years ago and now he had two younger brothers? Toris did not actually mind so much, he was raised an only child, but he did not mind learning he had family. He just was afraid he would find out something else that might be less... novel.

"Do you like reading mystery novels?"

The question seemed to catch Eduard off guard. Then again, it was rather out of the blue for him. Not as much for Toris. "I... have to admit I have never much liked mystery novels."

Toris smiled, nodding. "Neither do I. They're all filled with lies and murder and law breaking. Why should any of that be fun to read when it is not fun in real life?"

"What genres do you like to read?"

"Autobiographies." He had just talked himself into a corner, though thankfully there was always the returning question to escape in. "You?"

"Steampunk thrillers."

Toris felt himself take a few moments to blink. "Oh?"

And suddenly Toris knew exactly what his next mystery novel was going to be about.


Notes:

Yeah, Toris has the most boring taste in reading books compared to his brothers. Eduard likes his steampunk thrillers and Raivis likes his historical horror stories. Considering all what happened to Raivis in Hearth, one would think that he would hate the horror genre. Answer? Raivis is weird.

Toris has a pen name. It is Liet Uvos. If you get it then I am proud of you. You are now truly a fan of language.