Betrayal of the Black

fifty-two

"WHY ARE YOU IN BED, NAKED, with my sister?" wondered Draco, horrified.

"I'm not naked," responded Theo. "I'm shirtless."

"Shut up," demanded Celestia, burrowing further into the boy beneath her. "I want to sleep."

"He's naked!" cried Draco.

Theo's chest vibrated with a laugh beneath her head. "I assure you, I have my pants on."

Sighing, she tried to quench her headache by sheer will. Which only served to make it worse. She must have winced into his chest because the thumb resting on her hip began to move soothingly, and goosebumps ran up her side.

His hand moved down over her hip, trailing over the goosebumps with his fingers as his hand slipped under her shirt. Their bodies were covered mostly covered by her quilt, which hid his touch from Draco. She almost felt oddly guilty, even though the touch was innocent.

"Sleep, please," she muttered.

Sleep hadn't so much eluded her than she had eluded it. She knew the moment she closed her eyes and succumbed to sleep; the nightmares would come. So, the entire night she had been stuck in the weird limbo between being awake and unconsciousness.

She doubted Theo had slept either, but they hadn't spoken at all, so he may have dozed off a couple times and she'd have been none the wiser. Somehow, she wasn't exactly tired but the yearn for sleep was still present.

"Get up. Breakfast is being made," said Draco.

Knowing there was no way to get out of this, she pressed her head further into Theo's chest and continued to speak into him again. "Okay. Fine. I'll meet you downstairs in fifteen."

Draco didn't leave though, and a second later, she heard the impatient sound of his foot tapping rhythmically against the floor. Finally, she looked up at her brother, keeping the side of her face pressed against Theo.

She couldn't help but wonder what a picture she and him made; both with tousled hair, sleepy eyes, his hand on her hip beneath the blanket, her hand on his chest, nearly skin-to-skin.

Her hand was pressed to his chest, and she wanted to memorise the faint presence of his abs until she had them memorised with her fingers, her mouth, her mind, her soul.

The sound of Draco's footsteps persisted, and she groaned. Beneath her hand, Theo's abs clenched. "Draco, we're not going to shag in the fifteen minutes you're not here."

"He's naked!" he repeated.

"This is it. I'm done. I give up. Kill me now," she announced.

Theo laughed again, and she loved being able to feel it originate straight from his chest. Fingers tightening, she dragged a nail along the line of his abs, and his laugh cut off with a sharp breath.

"I swear to Merlin, Dray, if you don't get out of my room in the next two seconds, I'm going to stab your eyes out," she threatened, pulling out a knife from underneath her pillows.

Looking not nearly alarmed as he should, Theo asked, "Has that been there the entire night?"

She smiled at him. "Yes."

"Fine. Fifteen minutes exactly. I'll be waiting," said Draco, pointing at his eyes then at Theo.

Reluctantly, her brother left the room. She moved to get up with a sigh, but Theo yanked her back down so that she was sprawled over him.

"Don't go yet. We can stay like this a little longer," he said.

"It takes me more than fifteen minutes to get ready; my time is cut short as it is," she said.