SET FIRE TO THE RAIN ━━ regulus black

my hands were strong

CHAPTER IX

WHEN ALL THE guests had left after the ball, it was late and Arabella was in a hurry to get to sleep. Regulus walked around the corner and accidentally spilled his drink onto her. They both gasped and stared at the liquid dripping down the front of her dress.

“What the hell is your problem tonight, Regulus?” she said, pushing him in the chest and going into her side of the bedroom and taking her clothes off behind the privacy screen to change.

“I am sorry,” he said, following her. “I did not mean to spill my—”

“People will start raising suspicion if you keep behaving the way you do in public—” Arabella gasped. “Regulus, what are you doing? I am changing.”

Regulus had drunkenly walked around the divider. Arabella covered herself with the clothing in her hands. He just chuckled at her.

“Turn around!”

When he faced the other way he said, “You looked really good in that gown tonight, by the way.”

Arabella flushed but did not respond. He’s stupidly drunk.

“You know,” he continued, “one day, we are going to have to produce an heir.”

She was fully dressed in her nightgown now and was taking her jewelry off. Her face reddened even more and she stared silently at the back of his head. He slowly turned around to glance at her and she averted her eyes elsewhere.

He smirked. “You are blushing.”

“No I’m not,” she answered swiftly, walking to her vanity.

“I think we would have really charming offspring, don’t you think?” He looked at her in the reflection of the mirror over her shoulder as she combed her long hair, still a glass in his hand. She would not speak so he continued, “With my intelligence, good looks, and your stubbornness . . .” They stared at each other through the looking glass. “Your charismatic nature.” This made her blink and she could feel her heart skip a beat. She was turning red again, she could feel it. The corners of his lips twitched and she looked away, setting the comb down.

“Well that will not be happening anytime soon,” she snapped.

“I think the public and the royal families would prefer sooner rather than later.”

“I don’t care,” she said. “You’re drunk so please shut up.”

The next day Regulus found Arabella in the war room studying over the pawns on the maps. He noticed her moving some things and scribbling notes on parchment.

“What are you doing?” he interrupted her.

“I am making some changes because you have nove been doing anything.”

“What are you talking about?” he retorted. “I have been doing things! Things are going better.”

“Yes,” Arabella kept her eyes on the maps, “things may be going alright at the moment, but in the end, the possibilities of us actually defeating them is incredibly little.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do.” She finally looked up at him. “Because I actually grew up studying wars and tactics.”

He sat down in the seat next to her, and she thinks about what happened last night. I doubt he remembers anything.

“Why don’t you just let me deal with all this, yeah?” he said, his voice husky, almost seductive by her hair as he slowly wraps his hand around hers, and yanks the pawn from her grasp.