Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Twenty-Three

~~~Elena

"You're going with Ominis."

"No, I'm not. Let him take Xander, I'm staying here with you."

"Natty will be here, I didn't ask you to stay with me, go with Ominis."

"You didn't have to ask. I'm staying."

"Are you both quite finished!?"

Xander shouted at the breakfast table at the two of us. It garnered quite a few looks. I looked across the way and actually chucked a roll at him, which hit him square in the chest. He yelled at me but he also looked pleased that he'd gotten Sebastian and I to stop bickering. 

It didn't last long.

I stood up and looked down at him. "You're getting on that train and you're going with Ominis. I don't need you here to watch for me and laugh the next time you slip me up and send me on a wild goose chase to nowhere."

He responded by giving me one of those smirks that made me want to hit him. He reached up and slid his fingers across my cheek. "Darling, I simply have no idea what you mean..."

I smacked his hand away from me and started in on him again. Xander smacked the table. "Knock it, the fuck off. What's wrong with you both? Last night you were all over each other like no one could see you and now you're about ready to start stabbing."

Both Sebastian and I looked at him like he was insane. Sebastian shook his head a bit. "Yes, and?"

I started giggling and it made Xander so mad he got up and left the table, cursing at us further.

Sebastian turned back toward me. "Ominis is already taking Xander in my place. I'm staying with you."

My face started going red in anger, but he took my hand. "Elena. After the other night? I'd been thinking about what you said. We've only a handful of months left. Then what?"

I'd...honestly not thought that far ahead past my immediate goals. Truthfully I hadn't thought a lick about it since Ominis and I got drunk together in the harbor. And that was a couple months previous. Sebastian sensed my confusion.

"Exactly. I'm...having trouble fathoming it. So, in case the worst happens, I'm staying here. I want a few memories of...just us. Plus, I want to see your reaction to your Christmas present."

"If you bought it with poacher money I-"

"I, have been doing side jobs for Mr Pippin. Don't get in a twist."

~~~Sebastian

Glass shatters off the wall of the Undercroft. A potion bottle. I have no idea what was inside of it, but it leaves a red stain that sticks to the stone walls and drips down onto the floor. Elena watches me do it with fear in her eyes, shaking, tears running down her face. All I feel is anger toward her. She's pleading with me that she had to do it, that she couldn't have lived with herself otherwise. I'm not listening anymore. 

"Sebastian, please listen to me!"

"WHAT, ELENA?! You should have just sent me to Azkaban! I have nothing! Ominis can't bear to look at me, you've locked away all of that magic, and you killed the person who could have cured my sister! You're useless to me now!"

She cried harder. "But...But I'm still here!"

"And what good does that do me, hm? Like I said. Useless."

"I-I..." Her face started contorting in anger. "I-"

"Sebastian? Sebastian it's okay."

I jolted awake, panting and terrified, covered in sweat. It takes a minute for me to focus. 

"Elena?"

"I'm right here."

And she was. We were the only two Slytherins to stay home for winter break, and I asked her to stay with me. To sleep beside me. Now she was worriedly looking down at my face, running her cool fingers through my hair. I reached for her, gathering her up in my arms and pulling her to me. She rested her head on my shoulder and slid an arm across my chest. We'd laid down in not much more than small clothes, and her skin against mine was more comforting than anything else to have ever eased me back to reality from that dream.

"Your heart is pounding. Are you alright?"

I reached up and rubbed my face. "Yes. I'm fine. I will be at least."

"Do you need to talk about it?"

"...No. I've had that nightmare for a couple years now, I'm used to it."

~~~Elena

I knew in his nightmare I was involved somehow. He'd said my name. A couple years? 

Didn't take a genius to figure out what the nightmare was. 

A small part of me wanted to press the issue. There were far too many things left unsaid from that fight. Part of me thought those words ought to be allowed to die a quiet death. The part of me that knew better, realized that they'd need to be said at some point, or we'd be too consumed to ever get past them.

I'd forgiven him, for the most part. But I don't think he'd forgiven himself. 

Eventually, his breathing evened out, and he shifted a little. "What time is it?"

"Late. You only fell asleep an hour or so ago."

"Did I wake you?"

"...No."

"Elena..." He slipped from me a little and propped himself up on an elbow, looking down at me. The light in the room was nothing more than a dim glow from the fire that burned for warmth in the tall iron brazier that sat in the middle of the dorm. "Listen, if this bothers you-"

I broke out laughing a little which seemed to confuse him. "Sebastian. How many rules have the two of us broken? School or otherwise? How improper have we been? And you think lying next to you bothers me? No. I merely have a lot on my mind."

"Anything I can help with?"

"If you weren't one of the problems? Of course. Oh, don't look at me like that. We both know it's true. You act as if I'm not one of yours."

"...You're all of my problems right now. You infuriate me to the point of wanting to tear you into little pieces, but I love you enough to put all of those pieces back together again. Then I would do it over, and over, and over. But, at the rate you're going..." He slipped a little farther down the bed and danced his fingers across that scar that was now a permanent decoration on my stomach. I shivered.

"I hate that you're doing this, Elena."

"I hate that you made me."

He started crawling back up my body, kissing and biting as he got between my legs and kept going until his mouth was at my throat.

"Getting hurt on my account. Letting other people scar your beautiful skin, letting them bruise it..."

"You sound jealous again."

His hands were pulling at what little remained on us, until there was nothing left. 

"I am."

"Are you the only one allowed to hurt me, too?"

He pressed himself inside of me.

"Yes."

*~~~ Super short but super sweet. ;) Hoping to get the next chapter out to you all tomorrow, but it's a busy weekend of packing and seeing a few people I'd miss otherwise before my move. Thank you for sticking with me this far, I appreciate it more than you know.

Love to you all,

-Piper ~~~*