Warning: Has not been beta'd. You have been warned!

Victoria’s flat in Paris is rather homey and cozy. At least, that’s what Kris thinks the moment he steps inside.

There are simple and natural colors painted on the walls, little ornaments and decorations sitting beside and above the fireplace; it is more neutral themed than it is girly but that isn’t all too surprising to him.

“Make yourself at home,” she tells him, pointing down the hall, “if you need to vomit or something, the bathroom is down that way.”

Kris laughs and throws himself onto her couch. “I think I’ll be okay.”

There is a large couple photo hanging above the television set. “Was that taken a long time ago?”

Victoria glances over and smiles warmly. “A couple of years ago, I think? I don’t really remember. All I remember is that I thought Aiden was trying to trick me into taking wedding photos because he insisted on a white theme but it turned out he was just playing around with photo shoot sets and techniques for his friend’s modeling company.”

“They came out nicely,” Kris tells her.

She smiles again. “Thanks.”

Kris shuts his eyes and leans back in the sofa. Everything in this residence, all of the warmth and comfort, was intended for another man. What happened to him and why is Victoria so fond with all of their past memories if he’s no longer around?

“Since you’re already in Paris, is there anything in particular you want to do?”

He takes a deep breath. “The Eiffel Tower?”

“You didn’t see that the last time you were here with your girlfriend?” Victoria scoffs.

Kris instantly opens his eyes. “Amber wasn’t my girlfriend. I really have to let the two of you have a chat once we get back to Beijing.”

“Well, are you planning on walking up the tower or riding it up?” She asks, ignoring his latter comment.

He hums in thought. “Maybe walking? It would be more meaningful.”

“You mean painful,” Victoria corrects.

“Have you walked up the Eiffel Tower before?”

Victoria shakes her head. “I probably didn’t even make an eighth of the way and I had to turn back.”

“Why?” Kris asks.

She tucks her hair behind her ear as she replies, “Aiden had a heart disease and any excessive strength or energy exertion could really hurt him so we never risked it. Our life together was a lot of peace and quiet; relaxed and, in a way, unexciting to most.”

“But you liked it,” he says.

Victoria tries to keep her breathing even, “More than anyone can imagine.”

In her heart she’s left an open space—the space that was once reserved only for Aiden. Now that Aiden is gone and can no longer occupy that spot, it is replaced by a shadow. That shadow that sits in her heart now wears the same exact form as Aiden but because it is a shadow, the shape shifts as it desires.

One night, in her dreams, the ever changing shadow doesn’t move.

Is it her heart fighting to rid her of the shadow or is it her mind trying to keep the shadow in one form? Either way, the struggle is silent and treacherous. Victoria can only watch quietly, left in a corner of her own heart to wonder what form the shadow will take next.

However, before an answer arrives, she is awakened by a phone call.

“Bonjour?”

“I won’t make it to the office today so don’t bother going in. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Victoria sleepily glances at the clock. “It’s five in the morning. What about your conference at nine and your lunch with the client from Lyon?”

“I’ve already called to postpone the conference. I’ll still be able to meet the client for lunch, so don’t worry. Something came up and I won’t be heading into the office though.”

She sighs. “Okay. Be careful, stay safe, and I’ll see you tomorrow.”

It’s actually a little bit of a relief that she didn’t have to go in to work today, if Victoria does say so herself. The only reason she allowed Kris to sleep in her bed with her was because he did seem to have caught a pretty bad cold from the plane ride and he’s been uneasy all night long.

Now she has time to stay home and take care of him.

Checking to see if the phone call woke him up, Victoria blinks the haziness out of her eyes and then reaches her palm to his forehead. It still feels pretty warm.

She stays in bed for another hour or so before she drags herself to the bathroom and washes up. It takes about a half hour for her to clean up and then she leaves for the supermarket just down the street, purchasing ingredients for chicken noodle soup and some crackers.

Honestly, she hasn’t taken care of someone sick in so long that everything feels a little foreign.

When Aiden was still with her, all she had to do was make sure he took his medicine and didn’t overwork himself—ensuring that he was wearing enough clothes when it was too cold and moderating the food he ate.

Victoria returns home at around eight sharp and Kris is still deep asleep.

Picking up her phone, she gives Luhan a quick call to confirm the details of her brief audit for Xiumin’s financing branch in Paris and they promise to meet later on in the evening because Xiumin wants to treat her to dinner for all her hard work.

“Can I bring a guest?” Victoria asks.

Luhan is bemused. “Who?”

“You met him, in Beijing,” Victoria tells him. “I can’t leave him here alone, he’s sick and helpless.”

Suddenly understanding her worries, Luhan tells her it’s alright to bring a guest along. He knows how deep it had scarred her when Aiden met with misfortune at her place while she wasn’t at home; he wouldn’t ever want her to experience that again.

“I’ll let you know where we’ll be meeting at a little later,” Luhan says, “Xiumin is still sleeping.”

“Okay,” she agrees, “see you later.”

Around nine thirty is when she hears Kris groaning, a large and messy figure stumbling out of her room and into the bathroom. He’s clutching his forehead, eyebrows knitted together, and something inside her chest clenches.

She waits until Kris is all done getting cleaned up before she approaches him with a cup of honey and tea. “You feeling any better?”

“I thought you had to work?” Kris asks.

Victoria shakes her head. “My boss had an emergency and told me to take today off. Do you want me to go buy you some medicine?”

He shakes his head and takes a sip of the warm tea, sitting down on her couch again. Victoria sits down beside him and slightly freezes when he leans his head on her shoulder. “My head really hurts.”

“Are you hungry?” She asks. “I made chicken noodle soup.”

Kris shakes his head again. “I don’t feel like eating right now.”

“Sometimes you act more like a child than Tao does,” Victoria laughs. “You don’t want medicine, you don’t want food, and you’re refusing to sleep… you won’t recover like this.”

He smiles. “Having you here is enough.”

“You know, I haven’t taken care of someone in so long. Aiden used to take care of me so well that I didn’t even have to prepare my own meals but now I’ve cooked for you and the other boys more than I ever did for Aiden,” Victoria sighs. “It’s just so different without him.”

The man on her shoulder becomes oddly still, reminding her of the shadow in her dream. “We are different,” he says, “of course you’ll feel different about us, but that doesn’t mean you can’t like us both.”

“That’s not—“

Long fingers curl in with hers, solidifying the creases in her hands. Kris’s hand is warm and a little sweaty but somehow it fits in quite well with the shape of her own hand. “I can take care of you, too,” he tells her, “but then what does that make me? I don’t want to be a replacement.”

“I want to take over your entire heart, until all you can think about is me.”

“Maybe it seems like a lot to ask, and I’m not asking you to forget about him, but can’t you give me a chance?”

His questions intercept her one after another, until her mind is boggled and jumbled into a mess of nothing. Victoria doesn’t know what to say or how to answer. “You didn’t come because of Tao, did you?”

Kris is silent.

“I thought so,” she chuckles, “I mean, I had only just spoke with Tao over the phone a few days before you appeared—he couldn’t have been that worried about me not returning.”

Kris does not receive a direct answer from Victoria but he hadn’t really expected to.

“How’s it going?” Tao asks him over the phone. “Have you successfully courted my sister yet?”

Although Kris and Tao did not exactly grow up together, their parents had been close family friends ever since Tao could walk on his own two feet. They lived near each other and would share dinners or meals together constantly throughout the year; the two families were close, so close in fact that Kris and Sehun were almost like brothers to Tao.

In a sense, they made up for the absence of the sister that Tao had always wanted to meet.

Through Tao, Kris and Sehun heard a lot about Victoria.

Anthony, Tao’s steward, often told Tao stories about the young Miss Victoria when he was in charge of watching over her. Victoria, in Anthony’s words, was a sweet, caring, very considerate young girl; she loved to give kisses and wore a smile on her face all the time.

Tao was always delighted to hear that Anthony could see a small portion of Victoria in Tao’s eyes.

“Anthony emailed my sister a photo of me today!” Tao would sometimes grin at the Wu brothers. “Do you think she will think we look alike, too?”

However, there were never direct replies to the emails that Anthony sent out. Sometimes she would answer a simple greeting, sometimes she would simply ask Anthony how he and the others are doing in turn, yet, she never once brought up her father, Tao, or her own life in Paris.

To Tao, Victoria was mysterious and unattainable, but that didn’t stop him from maintaining hope.

“What if you never meet your sister, ever?” Sehun asked Tao one day.

Kris bit down on his lip, glaring at Sehun from the sidelines while Chanyeol rolled his eyes. Chanyeol; that’s right, sometimes Chanyeol would be there, too.

Their brother Chanyeol was born from Kris and Sehun’s father with a mistress, so he didn’t stay with them often. As forgiving as their mother was, she accepted Chanyeol but absolutely refused to share a man with Chanyeol’s mother.

After growing up and knowing his situation, Chanyeol hardly ever visited the Wu family and instead traveled alongside his mother, who had taken a job with a touring company.

So, of course, when Chanyeol was still young and was not aware of the complicated relations between the adults, he also spent a lot of time with Kris, Sehun and Tao. Chanyeol also knew about Victoria but because Tao would be in such a intricate mood every time they mentioned Victoria, he opted not to bring up the name too casually around him.

Sehun, however, always enjoyed stepping on landmines and exploding things all over the place. Thus the reason why Sehun and Chanyeol never really got along as well as the others did.

“She’ll come see me! Even Anthony says she will!” Tao had defended.

Chanyeol glanced sympathetically at the young boy and sighed. Sehun smirked, knowing he had gotten under Tao’s skin. Unlike the other two, Kris recoiled into a state of apathy—no expression, speechless and melancholy.

Of the four of them, Tao had the right to be the most naïve—he was the youngest, after all.

“Tao, I’ve always meant to ask you,” Kris speaks into his phone calmly, “why have you always been so accepting of your sister?”

After all, Tao is fifteen and is no longer the young and naïve child that he once use to be.

When Tao knew nothing of the world, Kris could understand why Tao would anticipate the sister that never seemed to care about him much, however, now that Tao is grown and is aware of how little interest Victoria had in him after his birth, shouldn’t that have willowed out his insistence?

“Do you know why my sister grew up in Paris?” Tao asks in turn.

Kris is silenced by his inquiry.

Smiling to himself, Tao takes a deep breath and continues, “I found out by accident. I might not have been born yet when it happened, but sometimes I still feel guilty when I think about it. My dad was the best dad in the world, but he was also the worst dad in the world. Jiejie, she… aside from me, no one else can make up for that emptiness in her heart anymore.”

“Right now, there’s more than just the absence of family that is hurting her,” Kris says.

Tao understands. “That’s why we have to work together. We have to make her happy; we have to give her all the happiness in the world.

-----

A/N: Thank you, and I'm sorry. ♥Xue