Silver and Green with Envy: A Sebastian Sallow Story

Chapter Twenty-Seven

The rest of break passed quickly, and quietly. I couldn't do much, and even if I had been able or wanting, Sebastian and Natty wouldn't let me out of their sight, as well as keeping a close eye on each other. It was getting to the point of me just not leaving the common room so I didn't have to see them glaring. 

Sebastian obviously didn't mind that. He was more than happy to have me resting, reading stories out loud from the books I'd gotten from Professor Sharp on Christmas. He really liked muggle fairy tales, which I found incredibly amusing.

"Why are you laughing at me?"

"The smile on your face right now is almost wistful."

"I liked that one. It had a happy ending."

"You like those, hm?"

"Considering I often wonder what mine would look like if I get one at all, I like to live vicariously through them."

"Well now I'm curious." 

He laughed and pulled me closer to him, being careful of my ribs still. They had healed nicely but were still a bit stiff, so he still insisted on treating me like a piece of porcelain. 

"As long as you're in it I don't care what it looks like outside of that. "

"Oooh, flattery." I joked, but his cheeks went red and he turned his face away for a moment. 

"Not trying to flatter, I'm serious. Term starts up again in two days, Elena. We've got roughly five and a half months left after that. We have to somehow survive and fix all of the mess I've started. But then what? At the beginning of the year I'd been fully prepared to go back to Feldcroft. But now? I can't trap you in that mud hole. You deserve so much more than that."

"Wait. You were going to go back to Feldcroft?"

"Yes. The house has been empty since Anne left. Ominis isn't going back home, he was going to come with me."

"Then come with me. Both of you, back to Ireland."

"To Professor Sharp's?"

"He has a couple cottages near the shore that he rents to boarders. One of them is currently empty, I'm sure he'd be more than happy to work something out with you."

"You wouldn't stay with us?"

"Um. Aesop sort of took on being my guardian pretty seriously, I know I'm technically and legally an adult, but I feel like I'd give him a heart attack if I was living with two men and married to neither of them."

"...Do you think I was only looking at necklaces when I bought your Christmas present?"

It was my turn to go red in the face, as Sebastian laughed at me.

~~~

The morning term officially resumed found me waking for classes, exhausted. I'd barely slept at all and as I got dressed I quietly hoped out loud that we weren't going to be handling any dangerous plants in Herbology that morning. 

Out in the common room, I saw Sebastian waiting for me, looking just as tired.

"You couldn't sleep either?"

"Of course not. You weren't next to me."

I smiled gently at him and put my arm in his so we could talk to class together, as had become the norm. 

"You've become spoiled."

"Considering it was you who indulged my request, my being spoiled is entirely your fault."