Emil stayed away from everyone else in his room for most of the day. He wandered around, getting his bearings in the small space, walking back and forth from his bed to the wardrobe, the window, the bathroom, the door. Then at least he'd be familiar with this area, and that was all he really needed. The worst moment was when his phone blipped and he picked it up from where he remembered leaving it only to realise he couldn't read it. He sat, staring blankly at the phone for a second before waving his hand over the screen. He was sure there was some sort of message-reading device on this phone, but there was no way he could turn it on. For starters, he didn't know where it was, so there was no chance of him finding it ever, unless he went to Lukas or Tino, but that wasn't happening any time soon.

He flopped backwards and let out a frustrated groan, rolling over and slamming his head into his pillow.

"Why is this so damn frustrating?" he groaned, reaching for his phone again, shining it on where he knew his face was, seeing nothing.

"You know you could just ask?" Mr Puffin said from somewhere nearby.

"Hm?" Emil stared at him for a second. "Oh yeah. You'd been so quiet I forgot you were here! Sorry."

"Thanks" the bird said, sitting on him. "You know, I can always just, not read it out."

"No" Emil sat upright, making him squawk in protest. "Please read it." He typed in the pin to his phone, having done it so many times now he was more familiar with the pattern that the actual code itself, and put it in front of the bird. "What does it say?"

There was a small pause in which he assumed it was being read over. "It's from Leon, he asks if you want to meet up coz he's around and is 'board'." 

Emil nodded. "Yes, definitely. Anything to get me out of this house."

"But where can you go?"

Emil's shoulders sank as he remembered and frowned. "Oh yeah. I guess... uh..."

"Kid, you have to tell someone. Anyone. You've already made it clear you're not telling your family, but what about your friends?"

"Yeah" Emil drew his knees up to his chest. "He could come round here?"

"That's probably better" the puffin said after a small rustle. "You know your way around the house. And I'll be here, so if you don't tell him, I will."

"Fine" Emil huffed, taking his phone away from him and glancing at it. It was a pretty useless thing to do, but it was kind of habit, as was knowing exactly where every single letter was, every single punctuation mark was on a keypad. Texting wouldn't be hard, it'd be reading them that'd be the hard part. Within a second, a reply had pinged back. This time Emil didn't pause in handing it over to Mr Puffin.

"He says to open your window."

Emil blinked and slowly stood up, walking with a sort of half confidence towards the window and feeling around the inner rim for the catch.

"Wrong way"

Emil made a sound of frustration and moved his hand the other way, finding the catch and opening the window, the cold air immediately rushing in.

"Why is it so cold today?" He groaned. "I guess it's good? I mean, it's not like I can be forced to go out or anything now."

"So hermit-like"

"Skit!" Emil cried, jumping back a little, catching his foot on a random piece of clothing and falling.

Leon laughed and he heard him jump down onto the floor. "I wasn't really that scary was I?"

"No" Emil said, slowly picking himself up. "Just shocked me is all."

"You were like virtually staring right at me. How didn't you see me?" Leon said in a confused sounding voice.

Emil tensed. "Wasn't... uh... wasn't focusing."

"You alright?" Leon said after a small pause. "You're not responding."

"To what?" Emil asked, frowning.

"Just then, I waved my hand in front of your face."

"D... did you? I didn't feel it" Emil stuttered. He knew he'd said he'd tell him, but now he wasn't so sure. Maybe he should just make sure he knew what he was doing in total before he told anyone at all. Mr Puffin landed on his shoulder and he immediately sagged.

"You know, you can't just keep it from everyone kid" he said loud enough so Leon could hear well. "And if you won't tell them, at least tell him, and if you're not going to tell him, I'll tell him for you."

"No, no, no" Emil brushed him off his shoulder. "I... alright."

"What?" there was a creak as Leon sat down on the chair at his desk, most probably with the back of it in front of him. "What's wrong Em?"

"I..." Emil sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't see."

"What d'you mean? You mean like... dizzy? Or you need like glasses or something like that?"

"No, I mean like..." he trailed off, not exactly wanting to finish the sentence.

"Blind" He didn't need to. Mr Puffin chipped in before he could finish. "He's blind. He can't see you, or me. He fell down the stairs this morning, he crashed into the stair banister, refused coffee because he didn't know where it was. He can't see anything, and he's trying to hide it from people."

Blind. He didn't like the word. It made him think of a really old person with a beard and a stick, hobbling around and clutching to someone's arm for support. It made him think of some sort of... disability almost. That was not how he wanted to be seen. That was not how he wanted to be seen by his family, and definitely not by Leon.

There was a sharp intake of breath on the others side and Emil waited for him to say something, anything. For the first time, the thought that people might reject him for not being able to see occurred to him. What if that happened?

"That's... pretty crap" Leon muttered. "I mean like... it's awful. I'm sorry."

Emil shook his head, not really wanting to respond and carried on staring blankly at whatever he was staring at. He had no idea what it was.

"How did it happen?"

For a second he didn't respond again. "Uh... it's been happening for a while. My eyes have been slowly getting worse and worse, it's some sort of albinism - the one that's made my eyes this colour, and then suddenly, today happened.Sometimes I'd wake up in the morning and not be able to see anything for a second, but those times it was always sorted about a minute later. I don't think this is going to go away."

The room descended into silence for a second, then, a pair of arms wrapped around him. He flinched to begin with before burying his face in Leon's shoulder, starting to cry.

"I don't know what to do" he mumbled.

"It's fine. We'll work something out I promise yeah?" Leon said, leaning back. "But the bigger problem is tomorrow."

Emil froze. "What's happening tomorrow?"

Leon hesitated before sighing. "The World Meeting. Why else do you think I was around?"

"Ríða" Emil cursed, slapping his forehead. "How the hell am I going to get around that?"

"Don't do anything" Leon said. "I guess. I mean, I can't remember where the meeting's being held, so we can't go there and like, make sure you know how to get around the place can we?"

"No" Emil grumbled into his sleeve as he chewed it in thought.

"I'll wait for you at the entrance to the building yeah?" Leon suggested. "Then I can lead you to your seat while talking about some sort of show."

"I guess" Emil said, slightly unsure. "I'll stay in the room at lunch and... who's presenting" he panicked. "I haven't presented in a while. What if it's me? What if I have to get up to the front by myself?"

"Relax" Leon laughed. "You won't have to. Yao's presenting, and that tends to mean that it's just kinda the G8. And Yao of course."

Emil sighed, relieved. "Good."

"I know you probably have your reasons for not wanting to tell them" Leon started. "But, you should do. I mean, they're your family. You should."

"Would you?" Emil asked a little snappier than he'd intended. "Sorry."

"It's fine" Leon said. "I wouldn't need to tell them. I share a room with Kiku. He knows that sort of stuff. There's no way he wouldn't find out.  My family is bigger than yours and they're all insane. There's nothing about each other that we don't know. They'd find out within minutes, but it's not whether I'd tell them, it's whether you want to."

"I don't. Not yet" Emil muttered. "I want to try and get to grips with it first before anyone else gets involved. Lukas and Tino'd fuss too much. Peter and Matthias would laugh. Berwald would understand and help a little, but let me do stuff by myself, so I could tell him, but he'd then go and tell Tino, and Tino would make sure Lukas knew, and where ever Lukas is, Matthias is, so Peter'd probably find out from Matthias screaming it down the hall. Nothing goes secret for long in this house if one other person finds out about it."

"So like, what about me? You told me" Leon said.

"Yeah, coz I trust you. You won't go telling anyone will you?" Emil asked.

"Not unless you want me to" Leon said. "I mean, I'd hate anyone else to tell everyone so, like, why would I go telling everyone?"

"Thanks" Emil muttered.

"So" there was a shifting noise followed by a clatter making Emil jump. "Ah, sorry. That was me shoving most of the rubbish on your desk off it and onto the floor."

"Why?" Emil cried. "It never did anything to you!"

"Oh but it did" Leon said, and even though Emil couldn't see, he could hear the smirk in his voice. "It was cluttering up the place. It had to go."

"So now it's cluttering up the floor" Emil pointed out.

"But I'm not working on the floor am I?" there was a scuffling noise followed by the scratching of what sounded like a pen or some other writing implement.

"What are you doing?" Emil sighed.

"Creating a battle plan for tomorrow" Leon said as though it was a perfectly normal thing to do. "We need to know what you'll say if anyone talks to you, and what we'll talk about, coz if we just walk in normally, we'll probably look weird. Besides, I'll be telling Teach that I have to talk to you about something. Can't have us looking ridiculous now can we?"