Ervil was never one for companionship.

He wasn’t given such a choice in his upbringing, wasn’t given any respect for it when his parents were betrayed, and wasn’t desperate for it in his adulthood. He never trailed down that path, believing that if he did, he would’ve endured a fate worse than his parents.

Ervil lived alone in the manor. He did all the dusting himself whenever paperwork was too much weight on his shoulders, and too much of a hassle. Who was there to tell him otherwise? Nobody, of course, because Ervil needs no one.

However, such an idea endured a change that Ervil never saw coming. Why, he couldn’t hear it either. It was storming that night, the lights had gone off in his manor, and he was walking down the hallways to find a match for his candle. It was only that moment he stopped to look at the front door that he heard someone on the other side of it.

Cold, shivering the poor thing. Before he could truly come to terms with what he’d done— bringing in someone into this manor that only he has been living in alone for so long… he believed he felt pity for them.

He still believes he does. 
Even when that same person he brought in that night unknowingly took apart his heart, bit by bit with their words and actions and the look in their eyes, and rebuilt it into something more alive— Ervil didn’t recognize the changes until it was far too late.

”I’m sorry, but I believe it’s time for you to leave.”

He’s always wanted to tell them such things, but the way they look at him with such a glimmer in their eyes— he shakes his head at his own foolishness, cursing that very day he brought them in.

Now that he’s staring them down, and they’re waiting for some kind of order or compliment, he sighs quietly.

“You’ve done well,” he tells them and he decides to turn his eyes away from their face to the papers scattered across his desk, “you can rest for the night. You’ve done everything already, after all, you always do.”