Meet the Family...or Not

Life, Identity

Fenneck tells Erikur that he is going to be with Evelyn.

Fenneck was lying on his bed, waiting patiently for Evelyn to appear when the door to his room opened and Erikur stood in the doorway. "Hey! You should knock first!" he told him, stressed about his new secretive lifestyle. Erikur rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him. "Oh please! That's never stopped us before," he said, coming to sit with Fenneck on his bed mat. Fenneck scooted away from him. "You should leave," he told Erikur. Erikur looked at him, confused. "Doesn't exactly look like you're busy," he commented. Fenneck was getting quite stressed and annoyed by this. Erikur had probably come to give him another lecture. "Look, I already told you, there's nothing to talk about," Fenneck told him harshly. "Oh, but there is," Erikur said laying back and looking up at the ceiling. "What are you talking about?" Fenneck asked him. Erikur turned to him and gave him a threatening look. "Why the hell did you lie to your father about where I was last night?" Fenneck's heart leapt in fear. "I...uh..." Fenneck was caught off guard by this. "Who were you with?" Erikur asked him accusingly. "Just some... other elf. I don't know their name," Fenneck lied. "That's very unlike you Fen. Come on. Tell me. We've never lied to each other before Fen!" Erikur sat up angrily. "Well you've been an ass lately!" Fenneck exclaimed, equally upset. "I don't want to tell you," Fenneck crossed his arms a little too childishly. Erikur huffed. "It's her. Isn't it? You were with Evelyn." Fenneck looked down to avoid Erikur's eyes. "Fenneck! What did I tell-" Erikur started to lecture him. "No Erikur. Stop. You don't get to judge me! You don't get to come in here and preach to me about right or wrong! Especially since you've been engaging in an affair of your own with Jasna!" Fenneck lashed out accusingly. Erikur recoiled in confusion. "Jasna?! What the hell? What are you talking about?" "Alexei said you hang out with her sometimes and I knew he was lying to me about it!" Fenneck said, unable to hide the hurt in his voice from having secrets kept from him by his two best friends. "It's not fair for you to judge me for such a thing when you're doing it yourself and you're wrong about Evelyn. She's not mean. She has had a horrible time in the palace. She has no friends Erikur! Everyone hates her or just wants to use her for her position. She's lonely and sad! You have no right to judge her!" Erikur looked overwhelmed and he shook his head, trying to organize his thoughts carefully. "Fenneck, I am not sleeping with Jasna. I do see her sometimes... but only to practice music or to... talk about politics. I'm sorry I've been harsh about Evelyn but Fenneck, this is dangerous. An affair like this could easily ruin your life," Erikur pleaded with him. Fenneck shrugged sadly. "So could not being with her." Erikur sighed and fell back onto the mat, defeated. Suddenly Evelyn appeared in front of them, looking guilty. "What the hell?!" Erikur said, jumping in fear. Fenneck looked at her and sighed. "I'm sorry, I felt bad for eavesdropping," she admitted. "You know magic too?" Erikur asked her, more curious than upset. She nodded. "You're Erikur?" she asked cautiously. He nodded. "Yes... your highness." He awkwardly bowed his head to her, remembering she was a princess. "Oh please, you don't have to do that. Not here, at least," she told him, waving her hand. Fenneck wasn't sure what to do. Erikur straightened himself. "As you wish," he said formally. Fenneck gave Erikur an angry look. Erikur studied Evelyn for a moment before sighing and standing and addressing her. "Forgive me for intruding. I didn't realize Fenneck was having company tonight." He cast a judging look at Fenneck before turning back to Evelyn. The two of them shared a look and seemed to be studying each other intensely. After a few moments, Erikur softened his demeanor and sighed heavily before nodding to Evelyn who had a look of pain and sadness on her face. Fenneck was quite confused by their behavior. Erikur leaned against one of Fenneck's shelves and turned to face them both. "What's the plan?" he asked them. "How are you doing this? If you're going to be sneaking around and lying and using my name I deserve to know what's actually going on here." Evelyn spoke. "I made a teleportation circle here so I can easily pop between here and my room at will. I can also become invisible or turn into gas if I need to hide." Erikur nodded understandingly and looked at Fenneck. "Your parents will find out." "Well not if she's invisible!" Fenneck countered. "Come on Erik. We can hide it for a while and we'll figure it out later if something happens." Fenneck tried to hide his fear that his parents would most definitely put an end to the relationship. "They can't find out Erik," he begged his friend. Erikur sighed and pondered this for a while. "Fine. But you both need to be careful. I don't like hiding this from your family. Try and avoid using me as an excuse, okay?" Fenneck nodded understandingly. He hated putting this stress on his friend but he wasn't sure what else to do at this point. He looked at Evelyn. She smiled softly at him. Fenneck turned to Erikur. "I'm sorry Erik. I..." He looked at Evelyn, lost for words. His face told Erikur enough though. Erikur sadly nodded. "I'll give you both some privacy." He walked past Evelyn and went to Fenneck's door and turned around to look at the desperate couple. "Be careful," he begged them before leaving and closing the door behind him. Evelyn looked down at Fenneck who plopped his head into his knees, hiding his face from hers. She sat down next to him and gently rubbed his back. "I'm sorry. I didn't really know what else to do." Fenneck looked up at her and shook his head, "It's okay. I just feel bad for putting this stress on him. He was not happy about my affections for you when I first told him what happened." "How many people know?" she asked, concerned. "Only Erikur, Alexei and Vyndius, the halfling who sent you the note." Fenneck told her, worried she'd be angry. She didn't seem too upset though. "No one else can know." she said. Fenneck nodded. "I agree." She thought for a moment before smiling. "I need to meet Alexei," she said. "Why?" Fenneck asked her confused. She smiled mischievously. "Take me to him. I'll be invisible, don't worry." Fenneck shrugged and stood up. "Okay." He wasn't sure what she was trying to pull but she seemed confident. She suddenly vanished and Fenneck reached out to touch her. She squeezed his hand. "Lead the way, I'll follow." Fenneck opened the door to his room and looked out into the living room. His parents were still gone and Fenneck walked out the front door, hoping Evelyn was still with him. Occasionally she would brush against him to assure him that she was there. When they got to the bar, Alexei was leaning against the bar, looking extremely bored. "Hey!" Fenneck greeted him. "Hey!" Alexei smiled and looked up excitedly. Fenneck walked up to the bar and suddenly heard Evelyn's voice in his head. "Ask to speak with him privately." Fenneck looked blankly at Alexei, suddenly freaked out by Evelyn's telepathic abilities. "Uh... can we speak... privately?" He asked him. Alexei gave him a weird look and shrugged. He grabbed a beer and turned around to enter his room. Fenneck followed him and let Evelyn brush past him before he closed the door. When the door closed, Evelyn appeared. "Oh my fucking gods!" Alexei jumped back in fear and surprise, dropping the bear bottle he had in his hand, causing it to shatter across the ground. "Sorry!" Evelyn squeaked. She waved her hand and the spilled beer and glass cleaned itself up. Alexei looked at her, then at Fenneck and back and forth a few more times before settling on Fenneck. "What the hell?!" he asked confused. "Hi," Fenneck said, still confused as to why they came here in the first place. "This is um... this is Evelyn," he said awkwardly. Alexei looked over at Evelyn and his eyes widened in fear. "Oh my gods," he muttered before quickly bowing to the floor in fear. "Your highness! Forgive me," he said to Evelyn. "No please. Stop that," she told him, waving her hands for him to stop. Alexei slowly stood up and turned to Fenneck who shrugged. "She wanted to meet you," Fenneck explained. Alexei relaxed a bit and studied Evelyn. "I'm Alexei," he said awkwardly. "Nice to meet you," she said politely. "She met Erikur a few minutes ago." Fenneck explained. "She said she wanted to meet you." Fenneck walked over to Evelyn and wrapped his hand around her waist and looked at her lovingly for a moment before turning back to Alexei proudly. Alexei smiled softly at them. "You're quite beautiful," he told Evelyn. "You really made an impression on him." Evelyn smiled shyly up at Fenneck who pulled her closer to him. "Yes she did." Fenneck said lovingly as he he admired her. He was excited to show her off to Alexei. "You two look good together. You still need to be careful," he warned them both. "I'm sure Erikur already gave you both an earful though, huh?" Fenneck nodded. "We'll be careful. She knows some magic that will help us. She can teleport directly to my room and her own now." Alexei nodded like this was a good idea. "Look, I trust you to be smart, Fen. Clearly you two have it hard for each other so who am I to judge you. Thank you for trusting me and for letting me meet you," he said smiling at Evelyn. "Thank you," Fenneck told him gratefully. "We won't keep you from your work. I just wanted her to meet my friends." Alexei smiled. "I'm glad to have met her." He turned to Evelyn. "If you ever need anything, I'm normally always here." He said a tad bit annoyed at his long work schedule. They chatted for a bit before Fenneck and an invisible Evelyn headed back to his home. He opened the door hesitantly and saw his mother and father sitting on the couch talking together. He walked in and felt Evelyn push past him and beeline for his open room. He closed the front door. "Hey Fenny!" his mother called out to him. "Hey mum. Hey dad. How was your day?" "It was good." His mother stood and walked over to him. She followed Fenneck's worried glance to his bedroom and gave Fenneck a suspicious look. "You haven't been getting into trouble lately, have you?" she asked him suspiciously. "Of course not. I was just saying hi to Alexei at the bar," Fenneck told his mother. Faina smiled up at her son. "I love you Fen. Be careful, okay?" Fenneck wondered if she knew. He decided to keep the lie up though. "I love you too mum. I uh... I'm going to go read and rest before work tomorrow. We have a lot of orders to fill in the morning and Naertho wants me to come in a little earlier than normal." Faina nodded and moved back to the sofa with her husband. "Okay love. Have a good night." Fenneck went into his room and closed the door. He felt Evelyn's hands wrap around his chest lovingly. He smiled and turned to her. He felt magic enter his body and suddenly he could hear her thoughts inside his head. They made love with the effort to be as quiet as possible knowing Fenneck's parents were in the next room. Eventually Evelyn left and Fenneck rested for work. This quickly became a cycle. She would visit every few nights, sometimes even meditating with him till the morning. Fenneck fell madly and deeply in love with her with every passing day. Erikur and Alexei played along and would occasionally help cover up one of their escapades. Evelyn even learned to magically look like Erikur or Alexei in case Fenneck's parents ever caught them in the act like they had that first night.