east of /eden + av

Eurydice tells Steel to stay behind and look into the fire. She says the twins will accompany her to dinner, then looks at all three of them expectantly before striding away.

It's all new - this dynamic. Eden watches Echo from across the foyer as the matriarch welcomes her family into her father's house and wonders how the hell they got there.

Echo fiddles with her busted up cassette player and loses the staring match.

The blondes have nearly all filed in when Eurydice does a little motion with her fingers behind her and they move - Echo to the dining room, to stand behind Eurydice and play nice, and Eden to the gardens, to patrol the grounds and make sure there are no other fires set tonight.

At least not any purposeful ones.

He glares at one of the cousins on his way out - the tall one with the big mouth, the one who had tried to trip him on the first day and had nearly been upended over the stairwell for it.

It's colder out now, but Eden crosses his arms and shoves his hands into the crooks of his elbows and ignores it. He starts at the front door, then rounds the back and walks through the completely unnecessary hedge maze, then does it all again. The wind picks up when he crosses to the west side and the chill of it turns his ears red and his nose numb. He'd taken a coat from one of the hall closets, but he's sure it's more so for aesthetic than warmth, some ugly fur thing that had been covered in dust.

He squints at the manor for a vantage point, somewhere to get out of the wind, and ends up climbing a trellis up to the central balcony before he can really reconsider.

It's a better choice, he justifies. It's sheltered from the wind and now he's high enough to see the property, low enough to jump down and not break anything vital.

It's strategic.

He huddles in the corner, where the railing meets the building and pulls the collar of the coat up higher.

Eden had originally supposed to be in the building - Echo was supposed to be outside. But she knows how the noise of everyone sets him on edge and had told Eurydice to switch them. Now he's standing in the cold, tracking the way the trees sway, trying to keep a steady count of seconds, when the balcony doors open and make him freeze quicker than any chill could.

He watches for half a beat, as someone steps outside, and Eden pushes himself further into the wall, wary if this is the original arsonist or a new one. And then the tenseness of his shoulders fades, replaced with a muted sort of annoyance. Because he recognizes who it is.

Dinner shouldn't even be over yet, and he's not losing his spot here just because the night didn't go according to Eurydice. If Avriel Baptiste wants to ruin a dinner party, then he can do it on his own time, when his own life is on the line.

Eden leans quickly into the light so Avriel can see him, arm outstretched, pointing back towards the door.

Back inside.

Avriel reaches for the inside of his jacket and Eden immediately shifts, stance defensive, hands moving in front of him, feet behind him. Every vantage point of the balcony strikes him then, every piece of it and himself he can use to his advantage. Avriel doesn't look very bulky, and Eden has enough strength in him to cave a grown man's head in.

They stare at each other for a long few moments, long enough that Eden can see his breath cloud up and up and away but it doesn't quite feel like he's actually breathing. He's just seeing it. Between the cold in the air and the tensing of his lungs it's like someone's poured liquid nitrogen down his spine. He watches Avriel Baptiste with wide eyes, suddenly aware of why he's here and who he is.

Eurydice would hate it if her guest of honour went back to the table damaged.

And so Eden forces himself to lower his hands and he forces himself to take a breath and he stands stock still as Avriel speaks.

"I don't belong in there." The victor says, and Eden's eyebrow twitches, unimpressed.

Something about a pot and a kettle drifts by.

But his job is his job. Eden shuffles his way to the fancy double doors and pops one open, feels the sudden rush of warmth that hits him like a slap. He looks down at the plush carpet of the hallway, then turns to Avriel a little more uncertainly this time, a little more urgently, holding the door and gesturing inside again.

Avriel still doesn't move towards the door. He leans the other way, and Eden huffs.

He closes the door gently, cutting off Carver's voice and letting the heat from inside wash over him again before it fades and the chill starts to prick at him. He's always hated the cold, always stolen the blankets from Echo when he thought he could get away with it. Which, admittedly, wasn't very often.

Eden looks closer at Avriel then, because he's making a face like he's about to throw up. Or maybe he's cold too. Maybe he ate something bad - Eden doesn't like all the fancy food the Le Roux's eat either.

He hopes that Avriel doesn't decide to throw up over the balcony. He's not sure how'd he explain that.

But Avriel just suddenly looks uncomfortable.

"It's loud," he mutters, "you know?"

And Eden does.

He's intimately aware of that fact.

It's the kind of loud that makes his ears ring. The kind that sets him on edge and makes him want to sit in a dark corner with his hands over his ears. Sometimes, even on regular nights, the sound of the cutlery sounds too much like the sound of knives clashing. Or sometimes, when one of the kids raises their voices, it sounds too much like how 7 had always argued with the others.

Eden takes the tiniest step away from the door, towards Avriel, and squeezes his numb fingers together, one hand in the other. He nods slowly, and he flashes the number five on his hand, but he doesn't look away from Avriel.

He might still throw up.

At 4 minutes and 10 seconds, Avriel looks considerably less like he's going to throw up.

At 3 minutes 24 seconds, Avriel says he's cold.

Eden takes off the ugly fur coat he'd grabbed and holds it out to him with one hand, using the other to keep counting.

It's a nice excuse to avoid his question - no one actually cares why Eurydice got herself a handful of replacement kids, they just care that they're different. Eden's barely even been with the Le Roux's for a month, and he's not sure when he'll get used to it, if he'll get used to it, he still gets weird looks from the staff when they see him coming out of his room.

His room. He has a room now.

The wind ruffles Eden's hair a bit, and the chill creeps along his arms, but he grits his teeth against it. He's been cold before, he'll be cold again. Some part of him is always cold, that's just how people like him work.

Eden shakes the coat out a little more in front of Avriel, take it idiot, he'd said he was cold didn't he? He's important enough for tonight that Eden can't let him freeze.

Eden's still got two fingers held up, but Avriel shifts anyways. He pushes back against the jacket in Eden's hand, even though it doesn't do much good. Eden keeps his arm out, swaying with the motion but not retracting.

Can't he see he's trying to help?

Eden's got two minutes left to be hospitable enough to convince Avriel to stay for dessert.

The stray breeze hits them again and Eden makes a quick little aborted gesture of frustration, flicking the jacket again and narrowing his eyes. Eden's fine. People like Avriel don't get to worry about people like him.

Another finger tucks into his palm and Avriel wants to go back inside. That's good. That's what Eden wanted. It's better to keep a look out when everyone's in one spot and everyone's where they're supposed to be. Eden slips the jacket back over his shoulders and shakes his head, steps out of the way so Avriel has a clear path to the door. He can't go inside. Eurydice told him to keep watch outside. That means he stays outside.

He opens the door for Avriel again and lets the warmth from inside curl around his fingers, just long enough to thaw them.

They stand at an impasse and Eden's eyes start to water with how hard he's staring. No one but Echo's ever been this stubborn with him. But usually that ends with her twisting his arm and him pulling her hair until Steel inevitably breaks them up.

He's got the feeling that isn't the solution here.

But he needs Avriel to go back to the dining room, before someone comes to investigate and finds them loitering. Eden glares at Avrie, one last shot,l and then holds his breath and ducks inside as his fist resets from almost one to almost five.

The noise from the dining room seems a bit more quiet now, like everyone's stopped talking and started eating, but the heat of the hallway still hits Eden just as hard as the sound would have. He melts a little bit, stands with his back against the glass of the other door and feels little spots on his cheeks enflame from the sudden change in temperature.

He realizes belatedly that he hasn't taken a breath yet, one of his fingers tucks in, his eyes dart back and forth down the hall like Eurydice is about to round the corner and catch him away from his post.

Avriel asks him the penultimate question and Eden just keeps his head forward. He can feel the other boy looking at him, the side of his face burns from it.

He

doesn't know how to answer that question

He's a Le Roux, but he's not. He's Eden, but he's not. He's fresh out of a place that broke him and he hasn't quite figure out how to put the pieces back together yet.

He rolls his shoulders a little, fidgets with his hands, suddenly uncomfortable with the attention, and he doesn't answer. How could he? No matter what he says, it would feel like a lie.

Eden nods a little too fast when Avriel gestures back to the balcony, tucking another finger away even though it hasn't been a full minute yet. There's wasps buzzing just under his skin, making him antsy. Someone scrapes their fork across a plate in the next room over and he cringes.

He wants Avriel to go back now, he doesn't want to be questioned and thanked, he's overwhelmed by it. He makes a fist and holds it out, there's no time left, and he waits for Avriel to move away from the door.