Courtesy

Things in the kitchen got a lot better once Johann sniffed pointedly at Damien and then made himself scarce. Dezzy, Grace, and Liam all seemed excited to see each other, though Dezzy kept grabbing Damien's arm or shoulder or poking and prodding him at random intervals. He knew it was just her way of expressing concern for him, so he endured it. 

Still, it was a relief to finally leave the kitchens, the four of them traipsing down the hall. Damien made note of the route, determined to learn his way around a bit better. Before long, they reached the hallway where Grace and Damien's rooms were located, and Damien realized with a bit of surprise that Grace was taking them to his room, not her own.

He wasn't sure why they'd decided to descend upon his own bedroom, but he was glad he'd had the sense to clean up after himself before making his way to the laundry that morning. 

"Well, this is my room," he said, following Liam inside. Grace was lighting his candle by the bedside, and her face flushed a bit, as if she'd only just realized she'd invited everyone into his space without actually asking him. Still, she'd been such a help to him, he had a hard time holding it against her. 

"Oh, sorry, Damien," Grace said, "Dezzy wanted to know where you've been staying and I forgot…"

"It's fine," Damien said, settling on his bed with a flop. 

Dezzy threw herself down next to him, and Grace slowly perched on the end with a contrite look. Liam remained near the door, looking awkward and seemingly moments away from wringing his hands.

"You can sit down too," Damien offered, gesturing to the area of the bed to his left, which hadn't been claimed by Dezzy.

"Oh, thank you," Liam said, "I don't mean to intrude."

"You've been invited," Damien said, "so it's hardly an intrusion."

That made Grace look at him a little strangely. "That reminds me," she said, "Mister Einhardt wasn't able to come in here."

"I don't want vampires in my room," Damien said, almost instinctively, before remembering one person in the room wasn't actually in on the true situation.

Liam, who had just pushed back Damien's pillow to gingerly seat himself at the very head of the bed, turned to look at Damien with utter confusion. "Why not?"

Damien stared back at him, not sure how to answer that, and finally settled for a weak, "...because I'm sick."

Grace and Dezzy were both tense, watching Liam.

The young man frowned a little bit, but nodded slowly. "I see. That would be awkward, if a vampire came to your room and it turned out you wouldn't be able to offer anything. I wouldn't want to be visited, either, if that were the case for me."

Dezzy sat up from where she'd flopped, leaning around Damien's shoulder to look at Liam, saying, "That's a good point!" 

Grace just sighed in relief. 

Liam, though, was still frowning slightly. "But why did Sir Einhardt come to your room, anyway?"

Damien wasn't sure how to explain that without bringing up the whole borrowing clothes situation, but fortunately, Grace had an answer for that.

"Ellen asked him to bring Damien to his room because he'd fallen asleep," she said, "but he didn't know where it was, so he came to my room and asked me to help him bring Damien back."

"You fell asleep and Ellen didn't punish you?" Liam gasped, looking at Damien in surprise.

"He's sick," Dezzy said, scowling at Liam. "He didn't do it on purpose!"

"It was an accident," Damien confirmed. "I keep misjudging my strength."

Liam looked even more baffled by this, opening his mouth, ostensibly to ask yet another question. He was cut off by Grace, who said, in almost too much of a rush:

"Damien has a wasting disease, that's why he has trouble gaguing his strength. He's not used to being weak, but now he keeps losing strength. it's why he was transferred to the laundry in the first place." Grace gestured vaguely in the direction of the hallway where the laundry was located, barreling on. "He gets tired very easily, and sometimes he falls asleep in the middle of his tasks. Ellen doesn't have time to deal with it herself, so she asks whoever's available to take care of Damien when they have the time. Mister Einhardt had the time, so he brought Damien with him, since he needed to see me about another matter, anyway." She gestured in the opposite direction, indicating her own room, finishing her explanation with a quick, "Then he carried Damien here to his room, and he couldn't come inside, so he asked me to carry Damien the rest of the way to the bed."

"And he couldn't come in because I don't want vampires in my room when I'm sick," Damien nodded firmly. 

"I see," Liam said faintly, not looking at all like he understood what Grace had just explained.

Fortunately, Dezzy seemed to have followed along just fine. "So when Mister Einhardt carried you," she said, an almost-smirk on her face that Damien didn't like the look of, "did your… wasting disease… do better, the next day?"

"Cain has been coordinating my treatment, yes," Damien said, shooting Dezzy an irritated look. "It's been going… fine. Except that he left the castle, so now it's going less fine."

"Oh, right," Liam said, sounding worried. "I hope he'll be okay. He doesn't usually get assigned back-to-back tasks like that."

Damien could scream. He was so tired of people worrying about the horrible vampire that killed his pack. What was so great about him? Sure, he apparently felt remorse about killing people. So why didn't he just die already and stop creating more misery? Why was he so determined to live, if he was just going to keep hurting people? It made him so angry to think about it. "I'm sure Cain will be just fine," he growled. It must have been a bit more aggressive than he'd intended, because both Liam and Grace flinched. Dezzy just gave him a sharp look and bopped him on the nose.

"Bad, Damie," she chided. "Behave."

He hated it when she treated him like an oversized puppy. He swatted her hand aside. "Seriously. I'm sure Cain will be back in no time and he'll be as fine as he always is. This can't be the first time Crowe has set him up."

Grace and Liam exchanged looks. 

Damien frowned. "It isn't the first time… is it?"

"He's usually not so… straightforward," Grace said.

At the same time, Liam noted, "Usually Crowe doesn't brag about it, though."

Dezzy was frowning back at Damien. "That doesn't sound good," she said.

"I'm sure it's fine," Damien said, reaching up to gently cradle the vampire-repelling amulet that rested on the center of his chest. "It'll be fine."

"I hope so," Grace said, frowning at Damien. "In the meantime, though, you need to stay out of sight and out of mind."

Damien grimaced. Right. He'd almost forgotten about the whole morsel thing. 

Dezzy was glancing from one side to the other, narrowing her eyes at Damien and Grace before finally saying, "Are either of you going to explain that for me?"

"I'm confused, too," Liam piped up, raising his hand like he was in a lecture hall, and not sitting at the head of Damien's bed, leaned against a lumpy pillow. 

"Crowe wants to feed on Damien, even though Damien is too sick to be fed from. But we all know Crowe doesn't care about that. He wants what he wants, and he'll get it, too."

Damien clutched the amulet a little harder, feeling his stomach twist anxiously. "It was sort of my fault. I was bad at hiding from him," he admitted. "Cain protected me."

"And then Mister Einhardt was sent away the next day," Grace pronounced. "So Ellen has been watching out for Damien. She probably whisked him away to the kitchen because she thought Crowe might try and find him in the laundry. I wouldn't be surprised to find out he did go to the laundry today, honestly. I swear she has ears everywhere."

Damien hadn't thought about the fact that Ellen seemed completely aware of his situation without once speaking clearly to him about it. He'd assumed that the Seneschal, Morgan, had been the one to explain the situation to her. But had Grace been the one to explain? Or were there other people in the castle that actually knew about his situation? He wasn't sure. He was a little bit worried, though, that his secret wasn't as safe as he hoped. At least only Grace and Dezzy knew about his unfortunate situation with the whole mate-sickness. He wasn't about to share that sort of information with anyone else. "I wondered why she was so adamant about it," he mused. "I thought she just wanted to make sure I could see Dezzy."

Dezzy huffed. "I think she just wanted you out of there before you fell asleep again."

"Ha, ha," Damien said flatly. "Very funny."

"I try," Dezzy mock-preened.

"I have another question," Liam said, raising his hand again. 

Damien considered telling him that he didn't have to do that here, but decided it wasn't worth the added discussion that was sure to follow. "What's your question?" he asked, instead of addressing the hand-raising.

"If there's really nothing between you, then why do you keep calling Sir Einhardt by his given name?"

Damien blinked. "Because… it's his name?"

Grace made a bit of a face. "Technically, yes," she said. "But most of us do address him with more of an… honorific."

Damien wanted to point out that she hadn't always done so, but restrained himself. "I guess Ellen did try and make me say 'mister'," he noted. "Is that why you started calling him 'mister' more, too?"

Grace had the decency to look embarrassed, glancing down at the floor. "...maybe," she said, a bit softly.

Then, Damien thought, maybe it wasn't that Ellen had made her more formal. Perhaps she'd been trying to express a level of informality, because Dezzy was such a laidback and informal sort of person. Had she been trying to impress Dezzy with the informal form of address? Looking back, he supposed she had always seemed a bit quiet and nervous. And it explained why she'd started calling Cain Mister Einhardt more often once they'd come back to the castle. Though she hadn't started calling him Cain again in the kitchen.

Then again, Johann had been in the kitchen. And Liam. And they both seemed to hero-worship Cain. So maybe it was just easier to stick to the more polite forms of address, rather than deal with the two thralls who adored Cain above all other vampires.

Damien decided it wasn't worth the effort of figuring out Grace's linguistic idiosyncrasies. He was having enough trouble figuring out the rest of his life in the castle. "If it bothers you that much," he said to Liam, "I guess I can call him Mister Einhardt." No matter how much it grated him to.say it. He didn't have many allies in the castle, and Liam had helped Dezzy and Grace before. It seemed a small price to pay for his friendship. Hopefully he'd remember to keep it up around Liam. And probably Johann, too, now that he was thinking about it. Oh, and Ellen. Ugh. At least he could still call Cain 'Cain' to his face. He hadn't seemed bothered by it, anyway. 

"What about sir Einhardt?" Liam asked.

"He's not a knight," Damien pointed out, feeling baffled. 

"He's like a knight," Liam said, his eyes going all hero-worshippy and glazed-over. 

Damien fought the urge to sigh. "Don't push your luck," he grumbled. 

Dezzy cackled, punching Damien's shoulder. "Aw, you're warming up to it already! Maybe by the next time I visit, you'll be calling him sir, too!"

There was no chance of that happening. Damien glowered at Dezzy in a way that made his feelings on that matter quite clear. "No," he said, flatly, "I won't."

"He really is heroic like a knight, though," Liam muttered under his breath.

"How?!" Damien demanded, turning to Liam with annoyance. "How is he heroic?!"

"...he stands up to Crowe," Liam said, appearing a bit cowed in the face of Damien's vehemence. 

"And he defends the weak," Grace added, a lilt of mirth in her tone that meant she was just trying to get a rise out of Damien.

Personally, Damien didn't think any of those were the sort of brave acts that earned someone knighthood status, but Grace was giggling a bit, and Dezzy was watching her with soft eyes, so he only grumbled a little bit, rather than pushing the argument further. "Fine, whatever," he grumbled. 

As long as he didn't have to call Cain something like "Sir Einhardt" to his face, it would be fine.