Him.

Chapter XIII

Everything was quiet, and it was late at night. There were a few people stirring in nearby houses, yet they seemed to have stayed quiet in the dim of the darkness. Everything was surrounded by the black and the stars, the moon adding it's cheek to the conversation between crickets and birds. They spoke of the dew, and the morning that was to arise and chase away the moon very soon. A wind swept up the cloak of a man who was making his way through the dark like it was his friend. In all honesty, the darkness was his very closest companion, keeping him safe and comforted for years beyond what anyone bar a single person had done for him. The man was in search of a women, heh, aren't we all? But this specific man needed the woman for music, or at least that's what he told himself. Desperately, he needed to hear her own composition, one that hadn't been created at the tips of his fingers or by a foreign hand. No, he wanted her music.

As much as he enjoyed his home and playing happy family, Erik was glad to take the trip to find her. He knew it was going to be no easy feat, but he had no other choice. Haya's music made him desperate for more, and by God, that meant Erik would do anything to get that music. So, with no thought to anything but making sure his family was alright. With that, Philippa called down her brother, and Erik was assured with a kiss to the lips that everything would be alright whilst he was away. Philippa knew he was searching for a composer and a few miscellaneous things, but not that the composer was Haya. That, he decided, should be kept to himself.   

Within a weeks time, he'd travelled to a few places in France and gotten pretty far for that single week. Erik had found little, anyone who'd seen him actually rather scared of his appearance. As he travelled further away, it was easy to see that news of who he was became scarce. That made travels easier and more difficult. Paris had grown used to seeing him, especially with a wife and three bumbling children, but the outer fields? They weren't as merciful.

It was two weeks after he'd left home that something caught his attention... and it wasn't a good catching of attention either. No, this was the "there is something seriously wrong or dangerous" catching of attention.

Two men, dark skinned, like the men who'd taken Haya away the first time, were patrolling about the town Erik had settled in for the day. Wearing identical uniforms, Erik assumed that Haya was in the town somewhere. She had to be if they were snooping about, but that also meant they were out for her. The officers from her mother's country were intimidating men still, and if she was their target, they'd probably already found her. Erik would just need to be careful.

As luck would have it, he ran into a young woman that same evening, in his hotel. And since luck had it, the young woman was undoubtedly Haya. Talk about coincidence.

She looked positively stunned as Erik backed up and went to apologize profusely knowing the lower tolerance of his being there to the natives of that town. He stopped, however, dead in his words as Haya looked at him.

"Erik," she breathed, her lips fighting a smile and many other things that crept upon her features.

Erik dipped his head, attempting desperately to be polite and gentlemanly so as to not draw them any attention.

"Haya, I was wondering when I would finally come across you."

"Been searching, have we?" Haya asked him with a smirk, her unease dissipating.

"Yes..." Erik watched the surprise in her features fade, "And I wanted to see you, specifically, actually," Erik mumbled rather foolishly.

He was trying to remain stoic, to keep his façade up and remain deliberately calm, yet that was the last thing he seemed to be cabals of in that moment. His whole body was shaking, and it made Erik no less nervous than when he first met her. It was true, gods, he'd been a complete and utter wreck when his old friend Henry had invited him over, accompanying as well, the man's young and beautiful daughter. A young and beautiful woman who had yet to change by a single hair. He'd shredded himself to pieces thinking of all the things that could go wrong, and then suddenly he arrived at the house, wondering where time had gone. Erik walked in, and he was overtaken by the need to care for her. As much as the masked-man had denied his feelings for the young woman with beautiful tanned skin, his protests true and real, he'd lost all sense. He took care of the small cut in her hand, his healing abilities only good for the wonderful children he had nowadays. And there he was again, nervous beyond all hell that he would screw something up.

Why was he there again?

"Why did you want to see me?" Haya asked the same question, her eyes wide and now devoid of anything bar wonder and curiosity. Was she happy with him gone from her life? Had she finally moved on with the loss of her compositions and music?

That was why he was there, he finally remembered.

"Have you been composing?" Erik asked her hopefully.

She shook her head no.

His heart sank, and everything in him felt truly demoralized at the fact she hadn't been composing.

"What have you been doing, then?" He asked her awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Haya smiled lightly, as if thinking about something enlightening. Erik could have sworn she was in love with another man at that point, and she may as well be. It didn't matter! He attempted to remind himself as he did have his wife and children at home. They were his, and Haya was not in that equation that made up his life.

"I've been traveling a bit, seeing as I stayed at home a lot when I was younger. Most people don't have a problem with me, but it hasn't all been pleasant. Even so, I adore the country sides and whatnot."

Erik sighed in what he hoped didn't sound like relief. He couldn't afford to be relieved. Yet, that didn't stop him from asking her a few more questions, wanting to spend at least a bit more time with her.

"Anyone going along with you?"

Haya shook her head, "No, I haven't had anyone interested in doing so. I haven't really talked to anyone but the occasional store owner anyways," she admitted as though her travels should have brought more.

Erik smiled, "At least you enjoy yourself, yes?"

"Very much, it's a relief simply thinking of where to go next, not...." her voice seemed to catch, and it was obvious that she meant him when her eyes connected to his showcasing supreme guilt, "Not, other things."

The only thing Erik had truly thought about recently was music, and dear lord, he sounded selfish in that moment.

"Well, I'm happy for you..."

"How are your children?!" Haya asked with sudden vigor, knowing very well he'd had three beautiful children by now.

Erik looked at the painful expression on her face and tried not to focus on it, his hands clammy, but he ignored that too. He honestly wanted nothing to do with the conversation that didn't concern Haya or her compositions, but his mind flitted to the beauties that were his children.

"They're wonderful, the youngest one, Cynthe, is small, but cuter than imaginable."

"Well look at her father," Haya teased and poked Erik in the side, feeling a rib with ease.

"I try not to," he jested back.

He'd never liked his appearance, and thinking of it made him nauseous sometimes.

"Erik," she seemed to scorn him, the smile on her lips disappearing, but the masked-man would have done anything to get it back.

"Do not dwell on my self-image, Haya, over enough trouble from Philippa on my persistence in believing I am not attractive. She's nearly written it on my skin," Erik said with a pathetic laugh at the end of his sentence.

Haya returned the favor just barely.

He hated to say it, but at least she was unsettled by the mention of another person in his life. Not that she didn't know of Philippa, she quite obviously did, just probably had forgotten.

"Why are you away?" She asked, ignoring the sudden sound of doors opening and hushed but urgent voices.

Erik ignored it too, "I came to find you."

"Mademoiselle Beauregard!" Someone with a thick accent called, and the men in uniforms suddenly stood before Haya and Erik.

Erik's eyes were wide, but no one was more surprised by their presence than Haya herself. And with a quick huff of air, she fell to the ground in a shock of faint.