Snippet #2444410

Erys snorted at Morgan's comment as the boy left. Vincent probably would kill him, or torture him, if he knew what had happened. Regardless, it seemed that her beloved brother had not known of the incident. A few days had passed since and Erys found herself wandering the von Nacht manor. She had avoided running into Heinrich. Quite honestly, he caused her to be wary around him, from the way he would stare at her to the subtle hints of his body language. She had chosen to stay as far away from the von Nacht elder as she possibly could. Which is what she was currently doing now. She had kept track of his scent, keeping tabs of where he was moving and where he had been so she could avoid him.

There was one place he had yet to visit, and Erys found her way there, only to find that it was already occupied. A smile pulled at her lips as she leaned on the door frame, her eyes fixed upon her best friend. Vincent wouldn't speak of it, but she had known the two had a moment of some sort. He had a picture in his room that he had framed and set upon his shelf, and the scene was one Erys knew well. She had laughed at how sentimental her brother was, however; he had just glared at her. She waved him off before leaving, and here she was now, in the presence of Ava.

"Ava," Erys stated, making her presence known. She then pushed herself off the door frame and entered the music room. She ran her fingers over the various instruments in the room, fingers finding the piano with ease as she pushed a key, eliciting a soft sound from it. She smiled as she turned her blue gaze towards Ava. "Thanks, for giving Vincent that gift. He doesn't show it, but he actually appreciates it. He hasn't stopped looking at it since you gave it to him," she stated, a hint of amusement lacing her voice.

Ava had taken the opportunity to tune her Stradivarius, as she hadn’t been able to properly pay attention to it for a while, and it was simply monstrous to neglect such a beautiful instrument as the one that she’d been given. She looked up from where she was intently plucking at the strings when Erys entered, smiling brightly for the presence of her best friend. One would probably not think that the two of them would ever get along, and yet they meshed well enough to complete each others’ sentences at times, almost like sisters. It was a tender thought for the human girl, who’d never had any siblings of any sort.

She was a bit surprised to hear it, but perhaps not as much as she should have been. Chuckling lightly, Ava shook her head, the corners of her eyes crinkling slightly with her gentle amusement. “I always knew he was secretly a softie,” she said with mirth in her tones, tilting her head to one side. A thought struck her then, and though her smile only grew, the hint in her amber-colored eyes could only be construed as mischief.

“So… you and Morgan, huh? He must have a thing for getting socked in the jaw.” She snickered, but in its own way, the query was serious. Erys wasn’t the kind of person to take such things lightly. “We, uh… saw part of that, you know. I’d intended that mistletoe for Jazz and Nikki, but I’m glad to see it worked for someone.”

"I think he's secretly a masochist," Erys replied casually. She shrugged her shoulders in the process, however, the question that escaped Ava's lips caused Erys to choke a bit. On what, she wasn't drinking anything. "Well not exactly. He started something I was inclined to finish. Plus, when you stand underneath a mistletoe, depending on who you are with, you are not supposed to give a simple kiss on the cheek," she stated as she regained her composure. She winced slightly when Ava mentioned that Vincent and herself had indeed witnessed the scene. That did not bode well for Erys.

If that were the case, why hadn't he spoken to her about it? Better yet, why had he not spoken to Morgan? She inwardly groaned. He was probably thinking of a way to make Alistair disappear without it being linked back to him. He had a reputation to uphold after all. She sighed before chuckling slightly. "What can I say? The guy's grown on me a bit," she stated while shrugging her shoulders. She wouldn't admit to it, but there was some weird attraction she had towards the Alistair vampire. Whether it's because of their occasional butting heads, or if there was something actually there, Erys had felt something for Morgan.

"What about you and Vinny? It seems you had some sort of affect on my brother," she turned the question around on Ava. She didn't like being the receiving end of questioning and so, she decided to turn the tables. Plus, she wasn't exactly unaware of Vincent's unusual mood swing. Despite him being a softy, he had truly softened up a bit and there was a strange glint to his usual darkened eyes.

Ava was still grinning up until the point when the conversation was turned back on her, and then she swallowed, trying very hard (and failing) not to turn pink in the cheeks. “Weren’t we supposed to be talking about you?” she tried, but it was pretty clear from the look she was getting that she wasn’t going to get away with such a tactic, and so she sighed. “Erys… you know I love you, right? We’re like, best friends, and will definitely keep each others’ secrets secret?” She coughed awkwardly, choosing to stare out the window and place a hand on her swiftly-burning cheek.

“I, uh… well… I’ve maybe had a little bit of a crush on your brother for a couple of years now. Ehe,” She peeked from the corner of her eye at her friend. “But—but nothing’s going on, really! I don’t think he knows… oh, I hope he doesn’t know! I don’t want to be another one of those crazy people that follows someone around and is just annoying and bothersome and silly all the time.” She scrunched up her nose at the very thought.

“Plus, I mean… I know he’s not exactly available. Especially to someone like, well… me. So it’s not really anything terribly important, you know. He’s just a nice person to me is all.” The words had tumbled out maybe a little faster than she’d intended, and she wound up smiling sheepishly over at Erys. Oh, but she was such a silly person sometimes, really. Getting all worked up over having her little secret out in the open like this. It shouldn’t even really matter, since nothing would come of it, but then… well, the heart always did like to hope, didn’t it?

Erys rose an amused eyebrow, a smirk tugging at her lips when Ava tried to redirect the questioning back to her. Erys, however, merely kept her amused features directed on Ava. Then, she tilted her head in confusion as Ava began speaking of keeping secrets. What had she meant by that? Soon enough, the question was answered when Ava began pouring her guts out. Erys tried her best not to laugh at her sister, and held a hand clamped over her mouth. Oh this was just the slice of cake that Erys couldn't refuse. So Ava's had a bit of a thing for her brother. That was certainly an interesting piece of information. Before she knew it, Erys had actually let out a heart-felt laugh, holding her sides in the process.

"I'm sorry Ava," she apologized, wiping away a tear from her eye in the process. She straightened out her posture once the rest of Ava's statement settled in. This caused her to frown a bit. To someone like her? Did she mean that because she was human? Erys snorted at that. She knew her brother well enough that he didn't dislike humans, and truly wanted to protect them. Perhaps...

"You shouldn't give up Ava. He likes you well enough, trust me. I just think he needs a bit of a push to realize it. I've never seen him so, happy about something as he was about the gift. And available, to someone like you? Of course he is. Just because he's my fiance doesn't mean that we can't choose whom we want to love. That promise was made a long time ago. If Ava wants my brother, she can have him," Erys stated casually, winking at Ava in the process. "Besides, I don't think I'd be able to handle him. You, on the other hand, might just do him some good," she finished with a softer smile.

Her initial reaction to being laughed at was a healthy dose of mortification, but then Erys apologized, and clarified, so her expression settled back into the slightly self-effacing smile. Well, at least it sounded like Erys hadn’t managed to guess before now, which meant that perhaps she wasn’t being too obvious about things. She shook her head a bit at her friend’s next words though—though this was part of the reason she’d been worried about it, it wasn’t the totality of her concern. For now, though, she’d leave the topic alone. It wasn’t like she really wanted to spend her time with her best friend lamenting on how she was going to grow old and die before any of them had time to so much as blink.

So instead, she only grinned, hiding her uncertainties effectively behind the smile. That was the thing with Ava—her smiles were almost always real, but they weren’t always the whole story. They were a much more effective disguise for being genuine, though. “Well,” she said lightly, “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, would you like to play something? I was just giving the Strad a tuneup; I could use the practice.”

Erys shook her head at her friend, stifling the laugh that plagued to leave her once more. Ava swiftly changed the subject, not that Erys could blame her. After all, she had basically given her blessing to Ava and encouraged her. Shaking her head softly, she kept the smile on her face when Ava mentioned playing something. She nodded her head in agreement. The last time they played something together was during the festival. That had been almost a month or so ago, and she missed playing with her friend. She sat down at the piano, playing a key to make sure it was tuned before smiling at Ava.

"So, what should we play?" she questioned. Soon, the halls were filled with a sweet symphony caressing the quiet demeanor of the von Nacht mansion.