Porcelain

18

"I have to admit, I needed to get away from watching rehearsals." Fleurette explained while wriggling to sit slightly. She rubbed her eyes and tucked some of her damp hair behind her ear. She reached beside her and patted the edge of the bed.

Hesitantly Erik sat down and turned to look at her. "Could you not have stayed in the dancer's quarters?"

"Eleanor forced me out of the room. She said I could not spend all day cooped up reading."

"But you are allowed to stay cooped up watching everyone work?"

"Yes!" Fleurette huffed annoyed and crossed her arms. Frowning she shook her head and looked at him. "It's annoying to say the least."

"You do not have to listen to everything your sister says."

"I do have to listen to her quite a bit though. She means well, honestly she does." Fleurette smiled and yawned.

"You come and visit only to sleep."

"I'm not tired."

"I shall believe that when you're still awake in five minutes." Erik smiled lightly and crossed his arms. He frowned lightly when Fleurette shuddered and pulled the numerous covers around herself. Reaching down he put a hand to her forehead, she looked up at him.

"What's wrong?"

"How do you feel?"

"Cold."

"You have a temperature." Erik stated and moved his hand away, she reached out and held onto it.

"I'm ill?"

Erik smiled lightly and fidgeted a little. "Only because you have a temperature, that does not make you ill." He paused, "This is from swimming."

"I'm never swimming again." Fleurette huffed and shut her eyes. "Hold me to that vow please."

"I will try."

"Thank you," she said quietly while her head slowly lolled to the side against the pillow. Erik shook his head, it didn't take five minutes for her to drift off to sleep. It took more like two minutes. Carefully he managed to get his hand free from her grasp and moved away to let her sleep.

While she slept he had a letter to write. A part of him felt like he had to tell Eleanor where her sister was. He was rather sure that the eldest Bousquet had figured out that her sister had gone off exploring again. Sitting down at the desk, he picked up his pen and looked towards the direction of the bed. Fleurette was well and truly asleep and no part of him wished to wake her up to take her back upstairs. Writing to let Eleanor know where she was seemed like a good idea. Even if this would no doubt cause many problems for them both.

It was much later, Erik having gone visiting to deliver his letter that Fleurette wriggled in her half asleep state and pushed the numerous covers off of herself. Sitting up slowly she opened her eyes and looked around. Frowning lightly, she climbed out of bed and looked down at one of the discarded covers. She picked it up and wrapped it around her shoulders, stepping down from where the bed was she ventured onwards.

Her green eyes flicked over everything and everywhere, there was no sign of Erik. She gripped tighter onto the cover, her nails dug into her skin as she looked around. She was rather stuck here until he returned. No part of her wished to swim again to get back to the opera house. She shook her head a little too quickly which caused her to almost loose her balance. Her thoughts were running away with her. Erik would return here, because this is his home.

Which left the question of: where was he? Fleurette walked over to what could be considered the shoreline and looked out at the lake with the eerie drifting fog. It was so quiet, her eyes looked around. She couldn't see anything much beyond the candle lights reach. Fleurette quickly decided that with all the silence it made the underground home more scary than it actually was.