Chapter Text
A blue butterfly flew through the open window of the lecture hall and sat on the windowsill, right next to Pinocchio, who was trying to listen to Professor Manus' lecture. He scribbled on the paper, covering his left ear and rubbing his shoulder with his right.
He looked around the hall. Everyone was either glued to their laptops or listening to the lecture. Only a few individuals who sat on the other side of the room whispered to each other. However, he heard a whisper and an unpleasant noise right next to him. Moreover, his head started to hurt terribly.
Eugénie, sitting next to him, looked at him questioningly, taking the earphone out of her ear and looking away from the show that was playing on her smartphone. After a moment, he saw the anxiety in her eyes. She wiped her nose as if she wanted Pinocchio to repeat the movement.
He looked at his hand, noticing a red streak. While he was watching it, Eugénie put the phone in her pocket and grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the room, leading him to the bathroom and holding toilet paper under his nose before sitting him down on one of the chairs that stood in the hall next to the room where they had classes.
“It's been happening to you more and more lately,” she said, leaning against the wall across from him.
He looked up at her, making no comment.
“You know what, P? Maybe you should go to the doctor or something.”
“I'm fine.”
“I see. It's not like this is the third time this week and the second time in Manus' class that your nose is Edward Cullen's wet dream.”
“Fortunately, the weekend is just around the corner.” He smiled slightly at her and moved the paper away from his nose to look at her.
“I'll bring more, and you sit and don't move.”
P nodded. Eugénie disappeared back into the bathroom and P looked towards the stairs. He blinked as he saw another blue butterfly fly across the hall. He followed it with his eyes, noticing a familiar-looking girl at the end of the corridor.
He got up to follow the butterfly towards the girl. He felt dizzy halfway there and, only thanks to Eugénie who had just come out of the bathroom, he didn't fall over.
“Idiot,” she muttered, setting him back in the chair. “You're bleeding even more.”
“I thought I saw someone I knew.”
“P, apart from me, Gemini and Romeo, you don't have many friends.”
“Nonsense.”
“Mhm. Of course.”
After a few minutes, Eugénie took the paper from him, watching his face for a moment.
“Okay, we got it.”
“My legs feel like jelly,” he grumbled, allowing Eugénie to help him up.
“It does not surprise me. I wasn't kidding when I talked about Cullen.”
She opened the door to the room and entered with him quietly. Manus raised an eyebrow at them, then went back to the lecture, glancing back at them sporadically as Pinocchio drank Eugénie's juice, and she pretended to take notes while going back to watching the show.
P felt Simon Manus' eyes on him all too well, hence his joy when class finally ended. He was going to wander around the city and then return home quietly, hoping that his father would be long asleep or sitting in his study and wouldn't poke his nose out of him when he opened the door.
“I would like you to stay for a while.”
Eugénie and P stopped and walked over to Manus' desk, sitting on the empty chairs.
“This is the second time you've come out in my class.”
“It's my fault,” said P. “I've been having nosebleeds more and more often lately, not just at your lectures, professor.”
“It's not good, you should go to the doctor.”
“I told him the same thing,” said Eugénie, “he doesn't want to listen to me.”
Manus smiled crookedly.
“See you at the next lectures, this time after consulting a doctor.”
They nodded and said goodbye as they left the room. They immediately felt arms on their shoulders and heard Gemini's voice.
“What are you planning for the weekend?”
“DnD playing,” Eugénie replied. “There hasn't been a session for a long time, and I have a spare room in the dormitory.”
“Be careful, or I'll come to you.” Gemini smiled and looked at P. “What about you, pal?”
“Be anywhere but home.”
“You can come to my place,” Eugénie suggested. “Beer, food and laughter on me.”
“I thought playing DnD was a serious activity for serious nerds.”
“Typical DnD play involves throwing a crossbow and trying to convince the bartender to give you a mead for free. We laugh more out of characters than we role-play, actually.”
P sighed and put his hands in his pockets.
“I'll see what I can do.”
They left the university building, and P, after walking Eugénie and Gemini to their cars, planned to stay a while longer, hoping to meet Sophia — the one person who wouldn't look at him strangely if he just told her about his condition. He also needed someone to whom he could just talk, and maybe Sophia could at least give him some advice.
He said goodbye to both Eugénie and Gemini and leaned against the fence. But when he tilted his head back and closed his eyes, he heard those soft, echoing whispers again.
He opened his eyes and looked ahead. A shiny blue butterfly flapped its wings as if suspended in space. He pushed himself off the fence and began to approach, holding out his hand. He felt like he was in a trance, and the closer he got, the louder the whispers became.
He almost managed to touch the butterfly when it vanished before his eyes with the sound of sharp braking. He looked to his left, his heart racing at the sight of a terrified but familiar face.
“P?!” she said, a small smile appearing on his face.
Only she could tell him and his brother apart at a glance. The rest, sometimes even their own father, weren’t able to tell who is who, even after thinking about it.
“Alice? What are you doing here?”
He saw that she was thinking. After a moment, she leaned out to open the passenger door.
“Get in.”
He sighed and got into the car without giving it a second thought.
He wouldn't have anything to do anyway, and meeting an old friend sounded like good business.
“And so?”
She tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
“I'm going to finish my studies.”
P looked her up and down. She changed her hair color, and the usually straightened and combed hair was now slightly wavy and unstyled, dyed black, with a slight navy blue glint - like an ink stain.
And the tattoos on her arms - full of motifs of butterflies, roses, chess, blades, cards and alchemy symbols.
“You've changed since the last time,” he muttered, lowering his head.
He felt her looking at him out of the corner of her eye.
“And you, not at all,” she replied with a sigh, changing gear. “Except that I almost knocked you down because you were chasing a butterfly.”
He looked at her, raising an eyebrow.
“Did you see it too?”
“It was fucking huge and blue. It was hard not to notice it, you know?” He saw the sarcastic smirk on her face. “Never mind. At least, we ran into each other again.”
They were silent for a moment, although P could see that Alice wanted to ask something. But they drove through the streets of Krat, not exchanging a word most of the way; only the soft music prevented the deathly silence in the car.
“I thought… I thought you were going to be with Carlo.”
P felt a pang in his heart when she mentioned him.
“Did you have a fight?”
“No” He turned his head towards the window. “He's probably dead.”
Silence again. They stopped at the traffic lights.
“What do you mean?”
He threw up his arms.
“He went missing half a year ago. If he's alive, he's probably started a new life somewhere else a long time ago, without me and our father. Or he got drunk and…”
“You know, if he got drunk and something happened to him, they would have found him a long time ago. Corpse…”
“Have this the thing about them, that they are able to find,” it barely passed both of their throats.
“Father is also delusional. Since half of the year. And there's been no sign from Carlo for half a year.”
“And how does he deal with it?”
P pursed his lips in a straight line.
“So bad that I don't feel like going back home. Don't get me wrong, I miss him and all, but apart from the fact that Carlo is missing, nothing else matters.”
They moved in the completely opposite direction to the Geppettos’ house.
“Do you still have the keys to uncle's place?”
“I have them with everything else…”
“Great; I'll buy some cigarettes on the way.”
They went to the store, where Alice went in for cigarettes, and after a while she returned to the car to go near the beach, where Venigni's summer house was located. He once gave Carlo and P the keys to it so they could use it.
Three years ago, this was the main meeting place for him, Alice, Carlo, and Romeo. It was here that they celebrated Alice's and their own birthdays. This is where there were lots of beer bottles and cigarette butts lying around, there was music playing, they were playing cards, and Alice and Carlo said they were together.
Stopping his racing thoughts, P opened the gate and then the door to the cottage, letting Alice through and closing it behind them. There they left their things and went out to the veranda, where Alice lit a cigarette and sat down, staring at the seascape.
“Why did you change your university? And on Krat.”
She took a drag and hunched over.
“For two reasons.” His silence made her continue, “I had a dream. About you, me and Carlo in the parking. Just like today, I was driving and I almost hit you.”
“And the second reason?”
She sighed and brushed her hair away, showing off the newly healed Medusa tattoo on the back of her neck.
“By one lecturer. It turns out he had been having tea with us over ten years ago and was molesting Lizzie.”
He didn't ask if the same thing happened to her from him. The body language, the tattoo, and the tone of voice in which she said it made him think that was the case.
“I didn't think your parents would let you go to a completely different country by yourself,” he changed the topic a bit to something safer.
“Because they didn't let me go. I came with Alex and Lizzie.”
“Are they still together?”
“The second wedding anniversary is in two weeks, and it's the sixteenth in June that they've been together.”
“Half a lifetime together, huh?”
“I would like to be with someone as good a couple as they are someday. My parents asked Elizabeth to come with me, and Alex, instead of protesting that she had all the work and lectures and everything, immediately pointed out that they were looking for a cryptologist at your university. A few good luck spells and here we are. Lizzie takes care of the house and Alex teaches cryptology.”
“Yes, she knows singing, acting, magic and ciphers like no one else.”
“You better blame Dan Brown, because with her ADHD, she wouldn't have bothered with this if she hadn't read the series about Langdon and her hyper fixation on ciphers.”
“So it is?”
“Yeah, she was diagnosed on her thirtieth birthday. None of us were surprised, not even her.”
She stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and stretched her legs out in front of her.
“What's going on around you? Because we only talk about me.”
“Actually, it's about Alex.”
“P…” She looked at him pointedly.
He sighed and tucked his legs away from him.
“Romeo took a break; works in a café and plays concerts with Stalkers .”
“I knew he wouldn't last long on this philology. He always preferred his band.”
“They are even preparing a tour, but they need a singer, the last one had to leave them.”
“Give him a contact to Alex. She’s the only one able to do a fry and then enter the notes above the soprano as if it required no effort from her.”
P laughed softly.
“I'll tell him, he'll be delighted. Apart from that and Carlo’s missing, nothing interesting happened. My father even employed seers and nothing.”
“Seers for a pound.” She snorted. “If Alex didn't despise him so much for the way he treated you three years ago, maybe she would help him.”
“She overdid it.”
“Bullshit. You did everything to be the best son you could be, and he poured warm urine on it.”
“You're defending me and not Carlo?”
“Carlo knew perfectly well that he was his daddy's favorite son, and if I criticized him a little, he probably wouldn't hold it against me.”
He smiled slightly and looked down.
“Would you like to... meet me here tomorrow morning? We would hang out together and then… you could come with me to Eugénie for an RP session.”
“Aw…our lovely nerd. Sure I'll go, RP sessions are always fucking fun.”
“I just want to spend the whole day away from home and come back only after my father is asleep.”
“Have you tried talking to him about it?”
“I tried.”
“And?”
“Like talking to a brick wall.”
She raised her eyebrows and tossed the lighter she was holding in her hands.
“If you want, we can also hang out at my place. Alex and Lizzie won't mind.”
“Are you sure?”
“More than sure. Finally, you know, some decent person hangs out with me. Maybe you can still lead me to the right path.”
P snorted, feeling heat rise to his cheeks, and then Alice's arms wrapped around him. He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him and melting into her warmth.
“I missed you, you know?”
“Me too… Would it be possible to continue where it all ended?”
“I’d love nothing more.”