"You look unwell. Is there something bothering you, Aladar?"

Elias stared at his little apprentice, who seemed to show signs of sorrow. As usual, Aladar didn't really reply, and just walked up to the mirror and stared at it, grabbing his toothbrush and brushing his teeth, but never leaving the mirror.

The demon looked at his reflection, as well as Aladar's reflection; he noticed his student's gaze was only on his reflection. He didn't really see anything out of the ordinary, so he knew whatever fascinated or bothered Aladar wasn't something he could see.

"Sometimes I wish I could see through your eyes..."

Elias put his arm around the Zangoose, causing the smaller male to lean into him, sighing a little and pausing his morning routine. He was already plotting a way he could share his student's vision, thinking of spells that could let him see from Aladar's perspective; his curiosity was almost driving him mad, but he knew he couldn't be brash with Aladar's current state.

He knew whatever it was though, it had to tie in why Aladar was so comfortable around him.

"Some wonderful men looking back at us, no?" The demon attempted to lighten things, and it worked a little, as Aladar seemed to resume brushing his teeth, and his face a little less somber. "But what men do you see, little Zangoose?"

Aladar paused for a second, but resumed. Elias knew his student wasn't hiding anything from him, but he knew that reaction was conformation that Aladar was seeing someone else in his reflection, presumably the man who demon reminded Aladar of.

He was close to finding out more of the Zangoose's past.
_____

Yeah, this is something I've thought about for a while.
For those who didn't (for some reason) figure it out, obviously Aladar sees Delga when he looks at Elias, and literally sees Delga when he looks at Elias' reflection anywhere.

I hinted at this in this pic: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/58973642/ , but this particular AU is one where in addition to Delga taking his life here: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/33620429/ , Aladar was also kidnapped and taken to Delga's old world by Leo, who wasn't going to leave empty handed.

You can imagine that being kidnapped and tortured right after watching your loved one off themselves, Aladar was not in a good mental state, and highly traumatized.

Similar to how Aladar saved Delga, Elias had rescued Aladar by accident, and took him in because he was creature that he'd never seen before, and he could tell that Aladar was scared, alone, and very afraid, not to mention was also a mage like him.

Elias noticed that though Aladar had issues, he wasn't afraid of him, which was very strange given his appearance and size. In addition to learning more about Aladar and what a Zangoose was, he made it his goal to figure out why this traumatized Zangoose wasn't afraid of him, and he was quick to learn that Aladar saw something in him, or in this case, someone...

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