Into The Flames (Sebastian x Reader)

Den of Night

When Sebastian pushed open the heavy door at the bottom of the stairs, everyone's attention was instantly on the two of us.

The room, which was dark and seedy and just how I had expected a basement drug lair to be, was filled with greasy, dirty looking men, bent over tables assembly line style as they packaged and boxed drugs to be dispersed.

All that activity stopped, however, as soon as we walked in.

Sebastian ignored the stares from the workers, their hooded eyes suspicious and leering from deep within their filthy, hollowed faces. Instead, he let the door swing shut heavily behind us, and then offered the men a smile, not unlike the one he had given the barmaid upstairs, as he said in a pleasantly loud voice, "Good evening, gentlemen. Who can I address as the manager of this establishment?"

I rolled my eyes. Manager? Establishment? This was a sweatshop cranking out drugs, in the basement of an inn, run by a group of tattered men who probably didn't even know how to read or write. Why did Sebastian speak as if it were a highly regarded place of relaxation?

Honestly. He drove me mad sometimes.

A man rose from his seat behind a desk at the back of the room, hidden from our view until now, and planted his hands firmly on the surface in front of him, leaning forward to peer at us with wary eyes. "Aye, that's me, I s'pose." He flicked his gaze from Sebastian, who was standing erect and proper, still in that damned suit, over to me, his eyes shifting down my figure in such a way that I was glad I had on my cloak as an extra layer of protection between myself and his leering look. "You musta presented the correct entry fee upstairs? What's yer business then?"

I saw Sebastian flick his eyes around the room quickly, taking in the men who were all still staring at us, and then he turned his attention back to the man at the back of the room before he said in an amicable voice, "Well, I was hoping this could be between the two of us. It's a private matter, you see." He shrugged one shoulder slightly and tilted his head toward the men watching, as if to ask the man to call them off.

The man watched him for another moment, seeming to hesitate, before he barked out, "A'right you lot. Get back to work! The boss'll have our heads if we don't get that shipped out t'night!"

The men hurried back to their stations, resuming the processing tasks they had been doing when we entered, and a quiet hum of noise and activity once again filled the room.

Sebastian pulled me down the center of the room, back toward where the man had seated himself behind his desk again, and as we walked among the rows of tables and the assembly lines of men, I muttered under my breath so that only he could hear, "I don't think you're going to be able to charm your way out of this one, butler. He looks a little less impressionable than the woman upstairs."

Sebastian kept his gaze on the man in front of us as we neared, but before we reached him, he responded to my statement, a slight hint of amusement in his low voice as his lips hinted at his customary smirk. "I won't need charm for this, my lady. I've got you."

We had reached the desk, and Sebastian pulled out the lone chair for me, bowing slightly as he did so, and I took my seat. He moved to stand behind me, and I was surprised when he rested a light hand on my shoulder, his long fingers curling slightly into the fabric of my cloak as he did so.

He was really milking this couple disguise for all that it was worth.

I was pulled from my thoughts when the man in front of us spoke, his voice gravelly, his eyes lighting on Sebastian and then me. "Now. You had a coin. You're obviously here for the product. You said it was a private matter?" He flicked his eyes down to me again, as if questioning if I should partake in this discussion.