A/N: As usual, I would recommend putting the video on loop.

Very pale blues shifting over to her sleeping form, Ether didn't answer. He didn't know. Would she protest against any of his help while she recovered; would she give him that hateful glare of hers? Yes, she had admitted to missing him, but he didn't know what that would look like once she settled down from the intense emotions of their last conversation. "Your eyes are adjusting well, aren't they?" Nick asked that time, his optics diverting over to the table lamp in the room. "Even in the mornings, you've let the sunlight come in with no problems."

At first, Ether thought that he had heard Nick wrong since the conversation topic was seemed so random, especially since the human male already had asked him a question. But, Ether understood Nick's reasoning shortly after. Maybe if he hadn't taken (f/n) from him twice, he might've thanked him. "I suppose, but it still hurts." Ether's eyes briefly drifted over to the lamp. He didn't squint, and he averted his attention to Nick. "I've been tolerating the pain, but I have my sunglasses if I need them."

Nick gave a hum in response before his brown optics switched over to (f/n). Ether leaned back on his chair and sighed. "To be honest, I don't know what's going to happen when she opens her eyes again, but I'm hoping that she has more energy so that she can do some of her daily needs on her own." A small smile met his lips. "It'll be good for her, and she can get a sense of her independence back."

"What about ..." Nick trailed off, trying to think of a different word, but he kept coming back to the same one. "A relationship? That's what you're hoping for, right?"

"Are you trying to encourage that?" Ether asked, releasing a few giggles. He quirked a brow. "I thought that you hated the idea." Nick frowned, and Ether smirked. "Knew it." A frown met Ether's lips, and he almost scoffed. "I don't get why you would ask that, then. Curiosity? Your jealously talking?" No answer met him. "It's probably for her sake, right?" Again, no answer came, and Ether released another sigh and crossed his arms. "You heard our conversation."

Slowly, a smile did touch Ether's lips. "But, we've always been in a relationship, though, on our own terms. Certainly not a traditional one. I can't even call it romantic even if I wanted to since she still doesn't really see me that way." A giggle parted from him. "I don't blame her, but I guess that we've clarified that we're there for each other. We're not friends, but we're not lovers even if I consider her my love." An amused, yet irritated look crossed his countenance. "I guess it falls under that cliché saying of you humans; it's complicated."

"... Yeah, it is," Nick finally replied, brushing back some of his pitch black locks. "I don't know how she's still holding it all together like she is. After everything, she's still able to hold conversation and think about things logically. I barely held myself together with Callest, and if he ... if he ..." Nick trailed off as unpleasant images filled his mind.

"Don't think about that. Your team members are still alive." A slight giggle parted from him. "The new ones anyway." Instantly, Nick shot a wrathful glare at Ether, who only smirked and quirked a brow. "I'd apologize, but I'm not sorry. They were a**holes, and they had it coming. Besides," he leaned over towards Nick, who backed into his chair a little, "we're not best friends or even friends. So, you might want to tell me what else is on your mind before I get impatient with you being in here."

Glare not letting up, Nick responded with a lower, angered tone, "Fine." Ether grinned and giggled before he leaned back on the chair. "We need to talk about your food situation. You still have enough, but two weeks won't last forever." The grin on the creature's lips fell, and his expression returned to a neutral one. "... Deidre told me about ..."

"I assumed so." Ether glanced to Nick out of the corners of his eyes. "You two are like siblings. It's understandable. You're also the leader in the group. Of course, information gets brought back to you." Slowly, Nick nodded, and his expression eased a little, but his guard remained up. "So, do you have any ideas about what to do? Any dead bodies I can have?"

Grave robbing never had been something on Nick's to-do list. Going through graveyards and tracking paranormal activity was a different story, but that wasn't the case here. If it wasn't necessary for the present situation to work out and for no more people to be killed currently, he would've gone against it. A sick feeling formed in the pit of his stomach, but it had to be done. Was that how (f/n) had felt back when she had agreed to house the creature in her home? "There's one." Ether sat more upright. "It's a ninety-year-old woman that had passed from old age. She's being buried in a few days in the cemetery here in Teller's Den. That'll work, right?"

"It will. As long as it's a human, I can eat any of any age range." Ether leaned his left cheek against his left knuckles. His left nails touched the skin on his inner forearm lightly, and they would break the skin if Ether pressed them in anymore. "Just the sooner we can get her the better. Like your food, it does go rotten after a time." Nick removed the gruesome mental image from his mind. "But, there remains the problem of retrieving her in the first place."

"We'll go a few days after her burial so that it's quieted down around her grave. But, we also need to be careful in restoring the ground to what it looked like before." Nick diverted his optics back to (f/n). "But, you're right. We'll need to all go, including (f/n)."

"It might be too rough on her body, but we don't know when someone else will die around here." Ether didn't exactly look happy about the prospect, and Nick understood why perfectly. It was a risk moving (f/n) around too much. Her body was very fragile and going back out into the cold wouldn't help either. Nick thought that it would've been better if the old woman could've waited another week to die as awful as that sounded, but he also didn't want Ether to hold off on retrieving the body. If things came to the worse, he probably would start feeding on them, which terrified him for his friends' and his sake.

"I'm not going to wait for another one," Ether clarified, a knowing look in his eyes. "We'll go. (F/n) would want that." Nick couldn't help but visibly sigh in relief. "Just know that if Callest decides to strike, we'll be out in the open. I won't be able to protect all of you."

"I know." Nick intertwined his hands and squeezed them. "But, we have to go." Fear was in his gaze, but there also was a determined spark. If they didn't go, other issues would arise. It was becoming all the clearer as to why (f/n) sacrificed others in the past for her own family. He was in a similar position now, and he wondered if he would've left (f/n) to die if he had been in her place and she in Brent's. The thought unnerved him, but he still couldn't forgive her entirely for what she had done; however, he understood her actions better.

Analyzing Nick for awhile, Ether simply locked his gaze with the human's, who wanted to gulp. "Also, I want you to understand," Ether began as his tone took a darker quality to it, "that if Callest does show up and you ..."

"I won't," Nick cut him off, causing Ether to raise a slightly annoyed brow at being cut off by him. "Callest can't be trusted to keep his word. If he offers to spare us for (f/n), I'll refuse. I'm sure that everyone else will too."

"Make sure you remember that. Or, you'll wish that Callest had killed all of you in that subway." Ether released a threatening, sadistic giggle, and his eyes gleamed like they had in Cankerfell briefly. Nick slowly nodded, and Ether smirked in satisfaction before he focused on (f/n). "Was that everything?"

"I think so. If I have something else to talk about, I'll come in if you're not busy." Ether nodded and didn't look back to Nick. "But," Ether momentarily glanced to Nick out of the corners of his eyes, "Deidre wanted me to let you know that you should take care of yourself too."

By a little bit, an amused smirk met Ether's lips. "Let me guess; she wants me to get a shower and all of that." Nick nodded. "Well, I've been brushing my teeth when (f/n) is in the bathroom and taken care of other things, then, too." Ether frowned a bit at thought, and Nick assumed that his commitment to watching over (f/n) had caused him to lose a fair amount of his pride in the process. "But, I can't leave (f/n) by herself. I've already communicated that."

Scooting his chair closer to (f/n), Ether rested his right hand over where (f/n)'s left hand was under the covers. "A shower takes too long. I don't want (f/n) to get cold while I make sure that I smell nice. Her health comes before mine. Besides, do I even smell?"

Raising a brow, Nick resisted the urge to smirk. "So, you are worried about that?" Ether frowned, and his left nails twitched. Nick stood up and instantly created some more distance between them. "Sorry, but Deidre offered ..."

"I know, but I refuse to let her be in a different room from me until she's fully healed."

"She figured that, so she was wondering if you would accept taking a shower if she brought in blankets for (f/n) once she's done." Ether didn't answer immediately. "Anyway, she's the one offering. I don't mind either way."

"I know that you don't." Ether tightened his hold on (f/n) gently. "Just tell her that it has to be a lot of blankets, and I'll consider it. Is that all?" Nick nodded, and Ether concentrated only on (f/n) again. An internal sigh left Nick before he gave them one last glance for the evening and left the room, closing the door behind him.