A light was still on in the living room when Gremio got up to get a glass of water, although it was late. For a moment, he feared it might be Flik, and considered returning to the bedroom after all... but he couldn't continue to hide for the rest of his life, could he? And if it was anyone else, it wouldn't be so bad, he reasoned, slipping into the kitchen.

On his way back through the hall, he dared to take a look and see. It was a larger, heavier frame that was seated in the living room, shaggy dark hair showing, though his back was turned. Flik was nowhere in sight, Gremio noted, and he found that strange - if Flik had turned in, usually Viktor did as well, and he didn't tend to stay up late unless there was a reason.

Or unless he was drinking, Gremio reminded himself, seeing the bottle set beside Viktor's chair, and the glass in his hand. Though normally Viktor did his drinking with friends, and loudly - not by himself in an otherwise silent house.

Curious concern made Gremio feel something like his usual self, and he stepped into the living room. "Viktor? Is... is everything all right?"

Viktor turned to glance back at him, but then shrugged and settled back. His expression seemed unnaturally serious, which puzzled Gremio. "...Is something wrong? Flik...?" Yes, that was the obvious answer, Gremio thought as he sighed deeply. "...I can never apologize enough, Viktor. But I'm so very sorry for what happened... even though he said he understood, I can't so much as think of him without guilt, and so all I can do is apologize over and over. I really am sorry, really, truly sorry..."

"Yeah, I know."

There was no reassurance in Viktor's muttered response, or even understanding - just disgust, and Gremio lowered his head helplessly as he came to stand in front of Viktor, his hands clasped together, contrite. "...I will do anything, anything at all, to make it up. If only I can."

Viktor shook his head slowly. "Flik said he knows it wasn't your fault. So do I..." He took another drink, then settled back. "...But you know, I can't help it. Every time I think about it, I start hating you more."

Gremio's eyes widened; he hadn't expected such a statement from Viktor, everyone's friend, even though he'd felt in his heart he deserved it. "...I understand. I'm sorry," he repeated. It was all he could say.

Finishing off his drink, Viktor glared up at him. "It's not just the rune and what it makes you do, Gremio," he muttered. "Back when we met, I thought you were a really nice guy... nice to a fault. Yeah, so you were always really uptight, and sometimes that got on my nerves... but you know, I always respected you, because even when we disagreed, it was always you trying to do the right thing, usually in a more honorable way than I'd have done it. Even if you were prissy, I figured at least you had a good heart."

This wasn't exactly news to Gremio, after they'd spent so much time together in the last several months. He remained silent, not certain what Viktor was getting at.

"But now..." Viktor grumbled, shifting to pick up the bottle again, and taking his eyes from Gremio. "Now I'm seeing you in a different light. It's not just that when I look at you, I imagine you on top of Flik, holding him down and... touching him, and... all that. Because like he said, that really wasn't you. But I can't help seeing you there anyway. And I think about when you passed the Beast Rune to me - just for one night, you said, and that was a big fat lie. You never intended to take it back. You were just sticking me with it while you took the easy way out. Not even for Tir's sake - just your own. You know even if you thought you were doing it for him, he wouldn't have been happy. He probably would have followed you."

That was probably true, Gremio had to admit, in light of what had happened since then. But he couldn't have known... He remained quiet anyhow, letting Viktor talk.

"And since we started out, I've found out all this other stuff about you that you've been keeping quiet," Viktor continued, pouring himself another drink. "So you've been learning things while you travel - how to fix up nice deadly poisons, I know that much. How to hide in a crowd, how to find places where no one will be able to track you down. And back when we set out on this trip, supposedly you were thinking you might even steal a true rune from somebody. I have to wonder how many other cowardly ways of stealing and killing you've picked up without telling anyone."

Gremio just stared at him, shocked. It wasn't at all that he was offended, though part of him wanted to protest the accusations. The rest of him knew that they were all true. To protect Tir while they'd travelled alone, he'd swallowed his pride and learned from anyone willing to teach him a skill that would be useful in self-preservation - or rather, the preservation of his Young Master - no matter how unsavory. He'd learned to pick locks, he'd learned how to ready a weapon under his cloak without looking unnatural. He'd learned to move silently, and conceal daggers where they would be unnoticed but still accessible, and how to live off the land in case there was a time when it became too dangerous to live near other people. He would, he supposed, make a very good thief or assassin at this point - and the realization left him feeling sick. "...It... it was all to protect Tir, at any cost," he managed. "I'd never... never do anything dishonorable unless he was in danger. But... but... if something terrible happened, and such measures were required, I wanted to be prepared, rather than helpless..."

"Yeah, of course, everything you do is for Young Master," Viktor mocked. "Except it's pretty obvious these days that you don't even know what he wants. You ever think maybe he doesn't want someone who would lie, cheat, steal, or kill for him? Maybe he just wants someone who'll be there for him, someone who'll encourage him to do what's right. Y'know, that was the difference between Mathiu and Leon," he added, strangely casual all of a sudden. "Leon's strategies might have brought about more victories than Mathiu's ever did, but damned if I'd ever follow that guy. Unlike Mathiu, he was willing to throw away everyone's life but his own and his superior's, if it meant his boss got what he wanted. Sound familiar?"

Putting it that way, it certainly did, but Gremio cringed from actually accepting the words for what they were. It wasn't as if he'd abandoned his ethics - he'd just... put Tir before them. And that wasn't really a bad thing, was it? It was his job... Tir always had to come first. More than a job, in the past few years it had become his wish as well.

Viktor took another drink, and glared up at him again. After a moment, he set the glass down. "I'm getting out of here... I can't stand to even look at you right now. I'm not seeing my old friend Gremio, just someone who looks like him. And I don't even know if that old friend really existed in the first place."

Gremio shook his head quickly, raising a hand. "No - don't go, Viktor. You're a guest here. ...I'll go," he said quietly, trying to blink back tears that were beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. "I have some thinking to do."

"By the way," Viktor added, settling back down as Gremio turned to go, "if that rune ever touches Flik again... I'm stepping in. And I won't be gentle. As a matter of fact..." He grinned with such a darkness that Gremio shivered. "...I'll be just as rough as it is. Maybe more. Understand?"

Gremio nodded quickly, and turned away again - the gleam in Viktor's eye frightened him, and so did the sudden rush of heat in his right hand upon hearing Viktor's words.

Perhaps Viktor was right, Gremio thought as he slipped out the door into the night. Perhaps he was not a person who deserved to stay there, in the McDohl manor. If he could inspire such words from even those he considered old friends, perhaps that Gremio had gone missing some time ago.