Robin sat straight up, all sense of boredom wiped away. "You're trying to read Alex's thoughts?"

"I never said that!" Maddox rushed through his words, suddenly lost in the lies he had built around the whole situation.

"I just thought that if he was still out there...maybe I could find him..." He felt short of breath, lost as he shoved his hair out of his eyes. He was desperately trying to keep his thoughts in line. "He was never declared dead, and with this whole new world...I guess I just got carried away...."

Maddox stared helplessly at Robin, begging for a moment of understanding. All he wanted was to know that he wasn't crazy, that he wasn't as much of a mess as his sanity seemed to say, and that he wasn't dreaming of every possibility that could never be true.

He felt himself collapse inside as Robin shrugged her shoulders, pondering the thought. "It's not insane." She shrugged a smile, watching as relief spread through Maddox's body. "If Kat went missing, I'd spend every moment I could making sure he wasn't all gone. Sure, he can drive me nuts sometimes, and he does do some really stupid stuff..."

"Like what?" Maddox cut into her tiny rant as bits of frustration danced through her eyes. Robin's emotions tended to move like a river, drifting calmly before being torn apart by rapids and weaving through every last bit of terrain. 

"It doesn't matter," she sank back into the words, forcing herself to believe what she was saying. "It's not even his fault really. He tries his best, but everything just...works against him."

The air filled with tension as Robin's eyes drifted to the floor. He could see how much Kat bothered her, how much she wanted to punch him and hug him at the same time. He struggled with the same problem with Alex, constantly torn between love and hate as their lives were dragged in different directions.

"You know, you really haven't told me a lot about Alex." Robin forced a small grin as she searched for a distraction, Maddox's heart beginning to pound at the memories. "I know he was a pyro, but what else?"

Maddox's mind flooded with memories as he reached behind him, his fingers wrapping around the notebook and the beads. A strange mix of fear and excitement coursed through his veins. "He, uh, he was like an angel." His words came out slurred, excitement making his mind work faster than his mouth.

"I always loved risks, but he was happy right where he was. He had a garden." The words were coming faster than Maddox could stop them, ideas spilling over each other and mixing together as he tried to describe the missing masterpiece. "Since he was a pyro, he spent most of his time inside, but he built this garden. There were fruit trees and vegetables, and every kind of flower you could imagine. Sometimes after I had lacrosse practice, we'd sit in his pear trees and talk for hours."

"And he was always thinking of others too." Maddox lifted up the beads, tiny hand-carved spheres arranged carefully on a string. "When we were like, 10, Rosa gave him a rosary and he fell in love with Catholicism. He was praying every night, went to church every week. My parents and I thought he was crazy, but at least he was happy. He would always say that now he knew there was someone looking out for him, that God had a plan for him."

"He did a lot of charity work after that." Maddox paused for a breath of air, realizing he was grinning at the thought of his brother. His mind was still running rampant with thoughts, everything he wanted to spill to his new sister. As if hit by a new wave of energy, he grabbed the notebook, holding it up for Robin to see.

"This was my brother's notebook. He was always writing, always looking out for me. I used to get into a ton of trouble at school- I wasn't showing up to class, got into a couple of fights, that kind of thing. He was always the one to stop me from falling farther."

"So when Alex disappeared, I kept his notebook and rosary. My parents got rid of almost everything else, but they made me feel close to him." As if suddenly torn from a memory, reality began to sink back into Maddox. He lowered the objects to his lap, staring absentmindedly at what was left of his brother. The notebook held his thoughts, the rosary had his personality, but they were just fragments of what was left behind. Nothing could really keep his brother as close as he thought he was.

"I kept writing in the notebook." He found himself admitting, staring at the worn cover and bent pages. "I guess I wasn't quite ready to let him go. That's probably why I brought them with me when my parents tried to send me to boarding school, why I hung onto them when I ran away from that freak who tried to kidnap me."

Maddox stared up at Robin, her blank face torn between ideas. His heart pounded, knowing he had crossed a boundary. He wasn't supposed to discuss what hurt anymore. He was supposed to tell her what he loved, what he missed, but how was he supposed to love what he had lost without the pain? Fear seemed to wrap around him in a thick blanket as her blank face shifted, a sweet, yet devious grin sending chills down his spine.

"You know, we're both stressed out of our minds." Her raw energy returned, pulsing through her smile and quick words. "We just gotta blow off some steam."

"So, Have you been to the Alfheim forest yet?"