After they finished eating, Crow gathered up the dishes and took them to the sink. “Do you wanna play some card games or something while you wait?”

Will looked over from the table to the sink, “Wait? For what?”

Crow shrugged a bit. “Well, for the okay that you can leave. I’m sure I can find a deck of cards laying about somewhere.”

Will thought it over a moment. Playing games sounded like a decent distraction, but it wasn’t quite what he wanted to do.

“What’s Lisez doing?”

“Out looking for something.” Crow answered as he started to dry the dishes.

“Isn’t that what she has you guys for?”

Crow shrugged a bit, his movements slowing as he thought over his answer carefully. “Well… She… can’t really boss me around. But she has three people out doing jobs for her at the moment, and she’s doing something.” He glanced over at Will. He was sitting there staring at Crow with those blue eyes, listening intently. Crow could feel that intensity trying to squeeze all the crucial bits of information he had been leaving out.

“If she can’t, then who can?”

Crow turned fully to look at him. “Uh…” He shrugged a bit. “That doesn’t mean Lisez can’t threaten me, ya know?”

Will didn’t say anything for a moment. He looked down to his lap at his relaxed hands, focused on the lines in his palm. “She’s threatening you?”

“More… or less.” Crow shrugged, and he went back to putting away the dishes.

“Why?”

Crow rolled his eyes at that. If he keeps asking I’m gonna blurt out something that’s gonna get me skinned, dammit. His shoulders slumped as an uncomfortable lump and emotion sunk into his gut all over again. “I can’t really tell you.”

“Then tell me why I can’t go home yet.” Will replied, getting annoyed. “Can’t I just open the door and head home now? I don’t need an escort or anything.”

“No.” Crow answered, turning suddenly, “You can’t go home yet, so just shut up and wait!”

If this had been four years ago, Will probably would’ve jumped from the sudden outburst of anger. But instead, he had been expecting it. So he just settled on a glare resting on the other’s being before him.

Slowly, Will stood, and pushed the chair back in at the table. “If you insist, sir.” And he gave a curt nod, continuing a glare at Crow as he left the room and back down the hall.

Crow put his hands onto the edge of the sink, straightened up into an irritated posture, rolling his eyes and bit the corner of his lip. “God dammit.” He sighed after a minute, then started after Will.

Crow found Will had returned to the bedroom. With a surprised look, Crow watched what Will was doing from the doorway.

Will had sat himself down on the floor next to Crow’s bed, which he had smoothed out. On the edge of the bed he’d laid out the 52 cards of the deck Crow had given him before into a horizontal line running the length of the bed. Though they were overlapping each other in an odd pattern that Crow didn’t recognize right away, he understood what they were meant to be when he saw Will lift his hands.

Slowly Will held his arms out with a slight bend in them. He moved his fingers along each of the cards in a certain way unique to how they moved as if they were hitting the black and white keys of a piano’s keyboard. On some of the upright-facing cards, Will held a finger down longer then another. He’d pause and then move his hand to the left, while his head moved smoothly to the right.

The melody of the keys was echoing inside Will’s ears. He could hear the sustain pedal hit right when he needed it, and the soft pedal for the softer notes he wanted to give a depth to the music.

Crow crossed his arms, smiling a bit as he leaned against the door stop. It was a strange sight to behold. Will was playing the piano with 52 keys, nearly half what a normal piano should have. And yet, Crow could tell that was all the range Will needed for the piece running in his mind just then.

After a few minutes, Will lifted his hands away, and let them drop back to his lap. Even if it’s in my head, I can tell the strings should be tuned and better taken care of. He thought, thinking back to the one grand piano in the house that he liked to play. Even so, it offers a warm tone of age to the music that newer pianos don’t have.

Will was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a soft applause behind him. Crow smiled a bit, clapping his hands.

“I imagine that was pretty and slow, huh?” Crow asked.

Will turned his head a bit to see him out of his peripheral vision. “Probably.” He paused, turning back to look at the silly arrangement of cards. “How long were you there?”

“The whole time.” Crow chuckled a bit. “You like playing the piano?”

Will didn’t answer as he stared at the cards. That question felt heavy and large; Far too big for his mind to fathom at the moment. “No.” And he jerked his hand up, messing up the card-keyboard, flinging the middle-left of the cards out of place and over the bed.

Crow frowned a bit, walking in to the room. “Hey, now.” He started to reorganize the cards into the way they were, even though he wasn’t sure what that had been. “If you do, then you do. No harm in that. Right?” He aimed a smile at Will.

Will had his head down, as he had an upset glare settling on the cards.

“I dunno what happened… But why are you his servant?” Crow asked, still shuffling with the cards.

“I already told you.” Will answered. “…You’re doing it wrong.”

“Then you do it!” Crow straightened back up. He watched as slowly Will lifted his hands and he began to reorganize the cards into the pattern they had been in before. Crow stood there and watched him in silence. “Why’d he hit you?”

Will didn’t answer, focused on putting the cards back. But his body language showed that he had heard the question, and finally he answered softly. “Because, I spent my earnings on some expensive pastries for his birthday.”

Crow’s brows furrowed. “That’s it? He seemed…” He shrugged his shoulders, “More upset at something else.”

Will’s head lolled to the side briefly, “Well… I keep… Doing things that a son would do.”

Crow watched and waited for a further explanation.

“But…” Will stopped, moving his hands back into his lap. “I’m not his son.”

Crow moved to say something, but Will started speaking again.

“A son would be memorable. And I am not.” Will’s eyes thinned into an upset glare. He began to slightly adjust the cards in an OCD manner to straighten them out perfectly on the quilt. “To him, I’m just a strange servant who acts strange and is strange.”

“Isn’t ‘strange’ just another word for ‘unique’?” Crow tried to cheer him up, smiling some.

Will shook his head. “No. It just means he doesn’t want me around.”

Crow’s jaw loosened. The sadness that was coming off of Will was suffocating Crow. “Why?”

Will shrugged a bit, still not looking at him. “I’m not his son. He only keeps me around for Alexander’s sake.”

Before Crow could say anything to Will to progress their conversation in anyway a voice echoed deep within his head. Just as it did, his sight vanished completely away into a black empty void. Be careful what you say. The voice was heavy, powerful and left a pressure on Crow’s eyes. It was the same powerful voice that had ordered Isaac around earlier. The pressure didn’t leave, as if his eyes were being squeezed in the grip of a hand. It left an immense pain to say the least.

Crow yelped loudly, and suddenly, making Will jump and turn to look up at him surprised. Crow was holding both his hands up to his eyes as he doubled over to his elbows and knees. He gritted his teeth as his body tensed.

“W-what’s wrong?” Will asked, shifting to put his hands on his shoulders.

Crow moved his left arm just enough to jerk it and swing at Will, pushing him back. “Don’t touch me!” he shouted, as he fell and pushed his forehead to the floor.

Will sat back, surprised. He shifted over again and tried to touch Crow’s head. “Tell me!”

“Get back!” Crow shouted again, swinging his arm at him. “Dammit.” He let out a louder shout, “Fine! Stop it already!”

Will stared at Crow as slowly all the muscles in his body began to relax again and return to normal as he laid onto the floor in a ball with his face down in his palms against the flooring.

“What was that?”

Just a god being a fucking bastard. Crow thought. He rolled his eyes and sighed as he pulled himself to sitting up again. He opened his eyes again, blinking a bit to clear his sight again to normal. “Nothing. Just a caught nerve.” He rubbed his temple briefly.

Will nodded a bit, not believing him.

“Sorry I snapped.” Crow answered, rubbing his eyes again.

Will tilted his head to the side, moving his jaw as he ran his tongue over his teeth inside, thinking what to say. “What’s wrong with your eyes?”

“Nothing.” Crow replied, as he started to rub at them again. When he looked back to Will he was able to read the face easily. That wasn’t nothing. He shrugged a bit sitting back. “What?” he asked, making a smile. “Are my eyes putting a spell on you?”

“No.” Will answered flatly. Crow’s smile slowly went away.

“Then what is it?”

“Are they gold?”

“You said they were.”

“No.” Will shook his head. “Like, real gold.”

Crow smiled a bit. “If they are, I should cut them out and melt them down, huh? Be good money in the pocket.” Will just stared at him, and again Crow’s smiled evaporated into nothing. He looked away, over to the arranged cards. “Yeah. They’re gold. Like the metal. They aren’t my eyes.”

Will sat there surprised, looking over Crow and his posture quizzically. “Then… what… What happened to your eyes?”