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"I know," he says more from an effort to be just a little bit shitty than actual arrogance.

"You'd normally have a lesson today," he points out after a moment, tasting the tea and making a mental note to steep it just a little longer next time.

"And thankfully the texts provided by Herr Archer have some exercises included that I can utilize in his absence," offered smooth as silk without even a beat skipped.

He lets that sit in the air for as long as he can stand it.

A few seconds, really.

"Why are you pretending as if you don't care?"

He doesn't blink. Instead, like a cat, he turns and looks at Johann and after a moment, tilts his head.

"I am not 'pretending' anything, Johann."

"Then what are you doing?" He wipes a bit of jam from his mouth and picks up his tea.

"I was eating my breakfast," he says, only a little annoyed, and he's going to take one of the biscuits now, mostly because he wants the taste of it with the tea.

He sets his jaw, just a little clench.

He turns it into a classic sneer. "You're cute when you use that annoyed voice, you know own. Even when you're not being fully truthful."

And Florian's eyes narrow, just a smidge.

"I am being entirely truthful. Nothing I've said has been a lie. And don't turn that face on me when you want something. It's just aggravating."

"I didn't say you were lying, sweetpea."

He leans closer to him. "I said you weren't being fully truthful. Telling me only truths while deliberately leaving out other things is still not being truthful. I've seen you do it to other people long enough to recognize when you're doing it to me."

And those pale glass eyes practically glow as he looks at Johann.

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because I'm yours," he answers easily enough, watching his face, grinning past the ice.

"If you want to be an island apart from everyone, then I am the sea that keeps you there. Still with you."

"If we both know, I do not see much point in discussing it. There's hardly anything to be done about it, after all. He will return or he won't."

The answer pulls some of the harshness from him.

"That's just a poor excuse for continuing to be false about it. If we both know, then you don't have to pretend."

He reaches over for his hand.

The urge to pull away, to strike, to snap is strong in him, but just as strong as the urge to accept the gift of the breakfast, to not ruin this hobby that clear seems to be working in some way or another for Johann.

The greater prize must always be considered over the temporary advantage... and a part of him is sick that his strategy is now employed with Johann where it never was, where it's never had a place. He hates that flood more and more, as much for what it had done as for the cracks its aftermath caused. Johann wonders why he hasn't said he loves him nearly so much and it has nothing to do with a lack of love.

Everything to do with a need for distance. Distance he'd never thought he'd need before.

He can feel his heartrate flicker up in his throat.

He takes Johann's hand, fingers soft.

"I am hardly the one who pretends most often. And I have never believed your apathy. Not since the beginning, even. So I could ask the same."

He shakes his head a little, clearing the strands from his face. "I've been working on it," he grumbles under his breath.

Then, because he owes him something better than that as far as an explanation, he continues. "Ever since we met properly, you've never been without me. Do you realize that? I have. I was without you at home and then I came here and I was without you. Apathy was the only defense I had."

"You had me and then you lost me and you... responded as thus?" he posits gently enough. His fingers entwine with Johann's.

"I had you and lost you and had to pretend that nothing affected me because I was originally told I needed to - sever you completely."

He feels himself relax. "That's the origin of the apathy here."

"Something which I have not yet forgiven Dorian for," he admits quietly. This is a place of wonders, of deals, and that particular decision is one that he has some very distinct feelings about.

He would normally interject and defend Dorian here, but he's too tired to do so. He's too tired of the arguing and the bickering. He is not a creature of subtlety and politics.

"I know," he admits, leaning forward to start to clear the tray. He picks up another piece of toast in the process.

"So tell me about Archer."

Florian didn't want an argument. They're talking and he's being honest. He tries his best to keep his feelings about Johann's friends, the ones who tried to cut him off and away from him, to himself.

"What is there to tell? He is my teacher and I his pupil. I was not lying to you, Johann, when I said I hardly knew what to say on the matter."

"You've never had a teacher before. Not like this, at least. If he goes, you're fucked." He's not trying to be cruel, but there is an undercurrent of fear there. Johann fears for Florian, for him getting something he wanted so much, only to have it taken.

He rolls his eyes, just a little, and breathes in deep.

"I have a few contingencies in place. Xie Lian has promised to teach me the magic of his world, some of the scripts and scrolls he uses. And Herr Tepes, the young man in the infirmary, not the older one, apparently teaches the magic of his world, a system of sigils and glyphs. There's also any number of books that I've found referenced in those he gave me that I can find in the library. The resources are significantly better than they were back in Elendhaven."

That actually assuages a lot of his worries and he pauses only briefly in his cleaning to acknowledge it with a nod.

"Good. Then I don't have any reason to worry about it?"

"No," he repeats, confirms, "you have no reason to worry about it."

He wasn't so foolish as to pin everything on another person. He's learned how quickly, how decisively, that can fall apart.

"Then, will you play teacher and show me how to heat the kettle without melting it?"

He doesn't consider the matter closed, but there isn't much more he can do.

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