Für Sarah

Twin Flames

Nearly seven years later, in Königsberg...

   A pair of glowing eyes watched the ignorant Professor Abronsius as he flipped through the yellowing pages of his journal.

  The Professor was a great man, one of the very best, even. Few men were as knowledgeable and well read as he, and no man was half as passionate of his profession. Abronsius's was married to his science and his child was his research.

It was because of his research that he was deemed a fool to his colleagues.

The eyes continued to see the Professor's every move, studying the way his white mustache twitched when he came across something that struck his interest. They seemed to glow brighter in the shadows of the old bachelor's small library, hidden only by a bookshelf. Surely if Abronsius glanced up from his writing he would see an outline of a figure in the darkness.

This figure shifted, debating inward as well as outwardly if he should near the Professor...

But Abronsius did not glance up. When the Professor wrote his notes down, the world became dead to him.

Suddenly, the glowing eyes and hidden figure emerged from the shadows and cover of the bookshelf, swooping in upon the man-

"Professor?" Sixteen year old Alfred said in his gentle voice. "Dinner has been- well- dinner was served nearly an hour ago. Marie was wondering if you were going to... have some."

Marie was the Abronsius's one employee at his home, a loyal cook and maid. So loyal in fact, that she never let his orphaned ward, Alfred, never eat until he was seated at the dinning table.

Needless to say, Alfred rarely was able to eat supper. The Professor was always tucked away in his library conducting research. Research which he in his kindness had tried to pass on to the young man.

  "Hmm?" The white haired man's eyes snapped up. "Oh. Ah, just a moment."

  Alfred pressed his lips together and gave him a short nod. He would revive no supper tonight.

Abronsius had taken in Alfred when he was a gangly boy of nine when his only parent, his mama, God rest her soul, passed. As his legal godfather, the Professor accepted the child into his home. Of course as a bachelor he had not a clue how to raise a boy. Thankfully Alfred was a quiet, shy thing who never caused a fuss or argued with the man. He often provided small lessons or lectures of the sciences, math, and arts to the young lad. Ever since he was booted from the board for writing and publishing the research he'd found on a classified subject that his colleagues believed a shame, Abronsius couldn't afford to send his ward to a boarding school. But Alfred learned all he could from the willing professor he looked up to almost like the father he had never had.

  The young man opened his mouth to say something, but shut it again. And reopened it, taking a breath. "If you don't mind, I think I'll go to bed."

  Abronsius released a noise that was somewhere between a grunt and a 'hmm', his only acknowledgment that Alfred had said anything at all.

  He didn't take it to heart. Over the years he'd begun to understand just how important the Professor's work was to him.

  Silently, Alfred dismissed himself from the library and quickly made his way up the creaky old wooden oak stairs to his bedroom.