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Pale, graceful fingertips slid along the crenulations of an inset pillar as Hybris chattered on, “And after that, I decided to have a nice little cool down for the night and visit Geraldine. I haven’t read any of her diaries to her in months, you know.” He sounded sincerely regretful, as if reading a dead woman’s diary to her grave and offering commentary was something anybody but him would miss.

“And a boy found me there! A really strange one.” Which clearly delighted him, enough to summon a laugh along with the childish grin. “I think you’d like him, he’s very blank you know.” With an affectionate pat to a pale expanse of wall, he went on, “No memories, at all. Not even his name! The last name he picked up is unimaginably rough.”

And here he couldn’t help but tip his head back and laugh loudly and fully, the sound echoing off the long, almost cavernous hall mirror space had led him into.

“But not at all innocent.” When the laughter faded off, Hybris’s smile grew sly and satisfied. “I don’t know how someone can be so ******** brand-new and experienced at the same time.”

Pausing, he peered into a shadowy corner, then reached over to pluck out a crystal, “Thank you!” He chirruped, a kid being given a treat. “I’m letting him stay with me for a bit. Maybe a week or two unless he decides to become my pool boy or something.”

He considered how the mystery boy would look beside the water.

“I think he’ll burn easily.”

Eyes moving slowly across every curve and jut of muscle and bone, Malory began, “I really can’t imagine just…feeling so wrong in a body that I’d want to peel myself out of it, like a costume.” In the center of the small, round room with its mirrored walls, he shifted and gave a slight shudder in the perpetually cool air of mirrorspace. Still, it wasn’t enough to have him put his clothes or uniform back on just yet.

“So I’m trying to reach out and find it, but I suppose that mental state is a little scarier than most. Like I could lose myself in it.” But still, it was intriguing.

“Eles will be fine, though. Dr. Horrible said so. And…” and here he turned a little shy and uncertain, “...I told him about me. And you. And magic. It was my first time…I think I did really well, though?”

“He let me decide what we’d be. I chose pet, it didn’t seem to fit right to have him work for me. But,” Hybris sighed as he crouched down to reach into a diamond-shaped hole in the wall, “I don’t feel like much of an owner, somehow. Maybe it’s because I don’t feel he really needs me? Even though he absolutely needs me. At least to be comfortable. Which I suppose isn’t unlike a pet, just…”

He suddenly laughed and pulled out a crystal, “More like one of my Best Boys rather than say, an Aaron.” To be adored and indulged, not trained into a desperate and straining sort of obedience.

“I met Miss Desiree, she said she works with Melpomene and other Dark Mirrors, so you must know her pretty well. Eles completely manhandled her, which I think should have gotten him much more beat up, especially since I didn’t get to hold her at all,” Hybris huffed as he posed along a set of stairs that climbed up into the solid ceiling.

“She couldn’t tell anything about his starseed,” he sighed. “And I refuse to think he’s normal, which just makes him even stranger. You can't see the Dark Star and be ******** normal.” After a pause, Hybris admitted, “He seemed upset by it.”

The weight of absence bearing down on that slim back more than ever.

“I love him, too, obviously.” Hybris admits. “But love is…well, it’s easy, isn’t it? It’s easy to love anybody a little, just from a look. Or a single sentence that unravels me a little, or pinpoints exactly where I am.” He sighed, loudly enough for a breathy echo from the little alcove he lounged in.

“But this is…I find myself missing him. Often.” Another sigh and he dramatically slid out of the alcove and let himself just spill across the floor in a slow, quiet tantrum. “And I should get rid of him. Nicely, of course, just in case he’s someone scary. Or at least, put a little distance between us. Put another body in the house, in my bed.”

Rolling onto his stomach, marble cool against his cheek, Hybris became even more of black and violet puddle. With a grumble, he went on, “But I hate that. All of it. I may finally understand why some people punch walls. Just thinking of freezing him out, avoiding him, ignoring him for someone else for longer than a day…it pisses me off. So beyond frustrating. Thinking of him doing the same to me? Makes me sad.”

With a flop, he was on his back again, staring at the ceiling. “I don’t get sad. I don’t want to be sad. He’s going to remember and he’s going to leave. And maybe he will be scary, and then I’ll have to be the one leaving.”

A disgusted sigh, “So I’m just going to be sad in the end, no matter what, right? May as well just let it run its course and have fun.” He scowled for a moment, and then those fine features relaxed, allowing for a smile, “Let’s think of it as emotional research for forlorn lovers.”

Plucking a crystal from a wall sconce, Hybris decided to just tell the Mirror outright and without preamble, “He’s Faustite.” He froze at his own words, the first time he’s said them out loud.

“I could be wrong, of course,” he added after a moment, finally remembering to breathe. “There’s other explanations for all the little coincidences, along with the very big ones. And plenty of differences between the two that could be pointed out. But I’m not wrong.”

Walking down the room and through the next door, he studied the crystal. Pale blue and cool to the touch. He could expand his island’s little creek with this, maybe add a small waterfall. “I don’t…I’m not going to be scared.”

His thin pinkie finger finished with a flourish and Hybris leaned forward to ghost the mirror with a puff of air, the warmth of it hitting the chill glass and revealing, I see a boy who settles next to me and belongs there.

“So maybe I’m not above trying to make little deals. Maybe I’m not beyond wishing for more.” Life’s so much simpler when he can just expect more, just wait for it to be handed to him, cleaned and shining perfectly on a silver platter.

He didn’t quite dare sit on anything less than soft and cushy, with appropriate angles for personal comfort, and so it was with a slow, careful walk that Hybris made his way down a mirrored hallway. The first time in days, even though he’d spent much of the days within the Mirror.

“As you can tell, it went a bit…awry,” Hybris admitted, eyes scanning the hall for any telltale signs of a crystal on offer. “Let me assure you, though, it was what I’d offered to him a bit ago. And with my consent. I’m not going to pretend it didn’t hurt,” soft laughter at the idea of that, “but I don’t regret it. I don’t even regret making him worry to the point of hating me for it.”

He felt a little breathless at the memory. And, of course, at the lingering pain of his broken ribs.

“Love me enough to hate me for the worry I cause,” he sighed. “I could sink into that like a tarpit, at least when it’s him.”

He paused and affectionately slid his along the side of the Mirror, “Thank you, as always, for helping heal. I can’t seem to keep to myself, even like this. Maybe especially like this, when every indulgence is like submitting to a brand from him.” Or, often, coaxing one from him. Malory was like a teenager, writing the name of his crush over and over in a notebook. Just Eles on and on along his body, from the inside out.