Porcelain

05

"What do you think you are doing?" It took Fleurette leaving not even a minute for Giry to turn her questions and questioning gaze towards the source of the voice. She may not be able to see him, but she had grown quite used to knowing just where to look to be close to hitting the mark. Erik was good at hiding, brilliant even, but Giry knew him quite well, and where he often took to hiding.

"Do you think it's wise to ask me?" Erik stated while staying in the shadows of the backdrop. Excuse him for sounding amused then bitter. He ventured out from the basement level most days, if not for curiosity, but to take a break from writing. It could be suffocating down there after a while. Fleurette seemed to be on her own often, whenever her sister had decided to go elsewhere it seemed. Unlike others, she spoke to him like a normal person, not something to fear. Though he supposed really, as a newcomer here, she hadn't a reason to fear him.

Madame Giry stood stock still looking at the stage. She was still trying to pin point where he was standing exactly, not that she knew what would happen if they did lock eyes. No doubt just get caught in a stare off that would end in a stalemate. She would never find him, even if she was close. Erik made it his livelihood to go about being unseen. He wouldn't be a very good ghost if he got spotted easily.

"I am merely welcoming the new dancer."

"Dancers, Fleurette is not the only one."

"Yet she is the only one that interests me. Such a naïve young lady who seemingly ignores warnings." Erik paused, how many times had she been warned and told not to do something, yet still found herself doing it?

"Has she seen you?"

"No," he answered in the middle of turning away, he was on his way back down below to his home under the opera house. "And I do not intend on her seeing me any time soon either." With that said he disappeared.

——

"Oh Fleur, what is with that face?" Meg leaned across the table and looked at the blank faced redhead. She seemed to be completely within her own head, lost in thought and away with the fairies. "You must be really suffering from homesickness." At least, that is what Meg presumed her problem still was. She couldn't comment, she had always known home to be the theatre. She could understand and see why someone would miss home, if they came from elsewhere.

"I'm not. Trust me I am fine. Just tired."

"You often have problems sleeping?" She asked while watching Fleurette picking at the food in front of her. She lifted her green eyes up to look at her, it was just the two of them. Christine and Eleanor were both off with their fiancés. "Has going to a doctor ever crossed your mind?" Meg couldn't help but just come out with. It was silly, because she probably already had done. But she was worried for her new companion.

"I dislike doctors. I do not wish to have to cross paths with one." Fleurette said while pushing the plate away from herself. Picking up the skirt of her pale dress she walked out of the room. She had no clue where she was going she just wished to stop talking about whether she was well or not. I'm fine, Fleurette mused while walking briskly down the stairs jumping from the second to last step she landed silently. Plucking a candle from a holder beside her she walked down the corridor, yet again no one was wandering the quiet, eerie corridors.

Sighing lightly when she stopped in the wings of the stage she walked on. Fleurette had discovered that the stage, when there was no one else about, was an incredibly peaceful place to sit and think. Putting the candle down, she sat next to it with her legs hanging over the stage. Tomorrow they were allowed to have a day off. This meant that she could visit home along with Eleanor, that's only if she wasn't busy with Felix.