ST: Emanuel #1

What Emanuel noticed, first and foremost, was the way that the Girl looked at him. It was a disgusted sort of look, the kind he'd gotten from all the girls he'd ever liked, and most of the boys as well. The severity of it, the way her smile soured all across her face, transformed her from plain to ugly. It was a whole-body, whole-soul sort of look, and Emanuel, for the life of him, couldn't figure out what he'd done to earn it.

Catherine--he didn't have an aunt in his world, and so he couldn't think of her as Aunt Cathy in the same way that the others could--had given her a new name. Niki. It was disturbing, the way that Catherine, this stranger, had just given them all new names. Almost as disturbing as the way they'd taken to them.

He was happy enough to seclude himself in the Moreno library, read its books and try and figure out the differences between the reality he'd known and the reality he now inhabited. The history was almost identical, barring a few names--he'd never heard of Alexander the Great, or Thomas Jefferson; but for their lot, this world hadn't heard of Quincy Rhymer or Mishka Grabowski.

The library itself was a wide, warm room painted crimson and practically suffocating under the weight of its thick curtains, which gave the light in the room a heavy feeling. Each wall was lined with bookshelves which almost but never quite matched in terms of height, color, and design. The room, like the house, had a certain patchwork quality that could only come from three generations adding furniture, walls, and colors in a piecemeal way.

Of course, he wasn't the only one who holed up in the library. Niki was there every day, too, from the time Nico--the "real" Nico--left for school to the time he came back in the afternoon. She'd read in silence like he wasn't even there, look right past him when she searched the bookshelves.

But he looked at her. Sometimes quickly, sometimes longingly, sometimes just plain flumoxed. He looked at her, and he wondered what she was thinking, how she could basically fuck herself. They were awkward, even apart from one another: Nico and Niki. Hell, all things told, awkwardness seemed just about the only constant between every version of Nicodemus Ramm that they'd ever met across the cosmos and through the Hallway. Even the Rake had some glimmers of awkwardness in the way that he walked, in his lanky strides and limp, ragdoll posture.

"They're out looting again," he said, breaking the silence that had reigned in the library for hours today and weeks before that. When Niki looked up, she was absolutely incredulous, looking at Emanuel as if he'd come right out of nowhere, as if he'd burst into the room with his pants pockets full of weasels. In all fairness, it was probably more words than he'd said to her since they'd met. "They're out looting right now, I mean. Catherine and the Rake."

"I don't see that it's much of our business what they choose to waste their time on," she said, eyes fixed on her book again.

Emanuel smiled. "Of course it's our business. We're the only reason that she has to go out pillaging the Hallway, because she can't afford to keep us all."

She kept her face down, her mouth set into a mean little line.

"When was the last time you even just went exploring?"

"She asked us not to go off on our own," Niki said.

"The lady, she speaks!" Emanuel said. "But really, why should that matter? Are you related to her? Is she going to do anything to you? C'mon. Grab a book and let's find somewhere a little less oppressive to study today. Consider it a field trip."

Niki looked around, as if Catherine was likely to emerge from behind one of the curtains at any moment. Slowly, she stood up, sneaking a few books from the shelf.

"Well. You're really gonna go? Just full of surprises."

She turned and gave Emanuel the look--that lemon-faced look she seemed to reserve for him. In return, he shrugged and opened the door for her, giving her a little bow.