It was bad enough being stuck in a house with two people acting seriously awkward together, and being miserable because of it-- even worse when one of them was bonded to you. Even when said bond blocked you out, you couldn't help but notice that he was blocking you out, and couldn't help but realize why. When all said bond had said on the subject was, "I ton't vant to talk about it," he'd had to find out somewhere else. Thankfully, Chario'd explained what happened to make the whole tense atmosphere, though that had made Sentio too embarrassed to ask his bond again.

Yes, that was all bad enough to have to deal with. But then things had, somehow, gotten worse. Rather than sulking in his room or rattling around the house uncomfortably, Cacopheny had started creeping around the house, throwing nervous glances over his shoulder, as if certain something was following him. Every now and then he would start, jump, and hurry from the room into some other room, with no apparent reason. His gaze, when he actually put it on someone, was far too focused, like he was trying to block out everything else.

It was even more strange than usual, and even more uncomfortable than his sulking and rattling. Sentio didn't think he'd ever seen him quite like that, not even in his parents' manor. He certainly hadn't seen him so twitchy in... years. Not since the manor, in fact.

When asked what the problem was, or if he was all right, all Cacopheny answered with was an absent, "Vat problem?" or an insistent, "Fine, I'm fine."

And yet, he obviously wasn't.

The problem, Sentio was sure, either had something to do with Akija and her-- her reaction-- or his shadows, or some twisted combination of both. And since no one else seemed to want to talk to him about it-- least of all Akija, who was the one who probably should have talked to him about it-- it looked like the only one who would, would have to be Sentio. It was what he'd bonded him for, he reminded himself: to help with the craziness. If this wasn't a time he needed help with his craziness, he didn't know what was.

Getting him to talk would be the real challenge, though, he guessed. There were only so many places in the house to corner him, and if he was careful about it, he'd be able to catch him before he could disappear magically, too. It was getting him to talk that would be hard. So, he intended to devote an entire evening to it, and while the rest of the house left for the Watchers, he screwed up his courage and stopped Cacopheny.

"I want to talk to you," he said firmly, closing the door before the half-demon could follow Chario outside.

"Apout vat?" Cacopheny asked, with a kind of absent innocence. Sentio refused to believe it. He was staring too fixedly at the door, studiously avoiding looking at Sentio, and besides, a minute ago he'd been sidling carefully away from nothing at all.

"You know exactly what," Sentio told him, using his best adult voice. The effect was ruined when said voice broke on the last syllable. He blushed, but Cacopheny didn't seem to notice.

"I'm fine," he repeated automatically.

"No, you're not," Sentio countered. "You're jumpy and skittish and acting weird."

"I-- ton't know vat you mean." He definitely sounded nervous.

"It's obvious, Cacopheny," Sentio pressed. "There's something wrong, and I want you to tell me what it is."

"I-- I-- I can't," Cacopheny stammered, inching away, as if he might back into the house. "It's not-- iss-- can't ve jzust ko? To sse Vatchers'?"

"They went so I could talk to you," Sentio said smugly. "You're not expected."

"Sentchio...."

Ignoring the reluctant whimper in his bond's voice, he tried another tact. "Cacopheny, this is what I'm here for, remember? To help you. With this kind of thing. I know I haven't done a whole lot, but I want to at least try. Can't I at least try?" When Cacopheny, looking torn and still unaccountably nervous, made as if to protest, he added pleadingly, "Please?"

For a minute, he thought he'd be denied again. Cacopheny looked ready to lock down the last bit of open communication he had left with another lie, or turn and flee. His edges were even fraying a little bit, visibly, as if his hair and clothes were reaching for the safety of the shadows behind him. Sentio held his breath, tensed to leap and grab him if he actually did try to disappear. He was so prepared for that, in fact, that he was too late to do anything about what actually happened: Cacopheny just sank to the floor-- or maybe crumpled was a better word, going so rapidly that Sentio was too late to even lunge to catch him. He curled up there, half-slumped against the wall, hiding his face in his hands and the mess of his hair, as Sentio knelt hastily at his side. "Cacopheny? Cacopheny, are you--"

"No, I'm not," came the muffled, just barely understandable reply; even after so long, the sound of demonic when it wasn't expected made Sentio shiver.

"Do you want to talk about it now?" he asked.

"N-no. But. I will, if you want."

"It might help... isn't sharing problems supposed to help?"

There was a long silence, but before Sentio could actually prod him again, he gave a violent shudder, ran his fingers through his hair shakily, and started talking, still in his first language. "Sssssseen them before. Three, three, three... three times before. Didn't think I'd see them again. Thought they were done, gone, left behind. Oh, gods, oh, claws, thought wrong...." He put his head back into his hands.

"But who are they?" Sentio pressed, disturbed. No one else saw anything, so obviously it was just someone from his mind, a shadow, or more than one.... But did he usually see shadows? His shadows? He knew their voices sometimes leapt out of unexpected places, but as far as he knew they didn't have any form or substance to them, nothing to see.

But then, that fit what he'd been doing. Was he, somehow, getting worse? After all this time?

"Don't know," Cacopheny answered in a rapid mutter, looking through fingers and shaggy hair out into the room, but not at Sentio, instead past him, deeper into the house. At them? "Don't know. No names. Never said names. I don't know any. But they're there, two of them, they won't stop staring at me. Won't stop staring-- won't stop, stop, stop stop stop. Not again, please, please not again...." The dark eyes disappeared entirely behind hands, but the demonic whine continued.

He was drifting again, and Sentio prodded him carefully with one finger, trying to bring him back. "Nothing's going to hurt you, Cacopheny," he said as soothingly as he could, but his bond didn't seem to notice. "Hey-- hey." This time he gave Cacopheny's shoulder a shake, and that seemed to do a little good. At least he stopped talking under his breath to something that wasn't there. "Talk to me," Sentio tried again. "To me, not them. You've seen them before?"

Peering again from the supposed safety of hands and hair, Cacopheny took a shuddering breath and answered, thankfully at him rather than to something else. "Once, very young. Thought they were friends... so so so sssssssso wrong. Again, when She-- when She first-- started--" He broke off with a sound like a hiccough, a spastic twitch, then a wordless whine, and continued without completing the thought. "Again, later. When He was getting angry, and would find me, and--" Another twitch and catch of voice, and again he left that thought unfinished. "I thought-- after coming there, here, leaving there-- I thought if they didn't come then, they never would. Never again. Something I left behind. I didn't think... I didn't... I just want to...."

"Do they-- what do they do?" Sentio asked, as much out of desperation to keep his bond from losing focus again as really wanting to know. He couldn't imagine what was so scary about someone staring at him. 

"Nothing," Cacopheny almost-wailed. "They just-- watch. And watch. And make all the others quiet. And-- and they know."

"What do they know?" Sentio tried, feeling more and more out of his depth.

"Everything. Nothing. I don't know, I don't know... they just make everything-- they-- they ruin things. Every time they come, everything's ruined. Everything's different, ruined... everything...."

And after that, Sentio couldn't get any more sense out of him.