Passion | | Sebastian Sallow *under slight editing*

Chapter Twenty-Two

Sebastian was sitting peacefully in the house, wondering when Ominis and Astoria would return when he suddenly heard the door fling open and then he heard frantic footsteps stumbling into the house. He quickly got up, using the wall to support himself so he wouldn't be stepping on his hurt foot since Astoria would scold him about it.

"What's going on?" He asked quickly, getting into the front area of the house, and taking in the scene in front of him.

Astoria was holding Ominis, who had blood on his chest, up and frantically trying to stop the bleeding. Sebastian's eyes widened, staying off his foot was quickly forgotten as he ran over, grabbing whatever cloth was closest and pushing it on the wound on Ominis' chest, enticing a loud groan of pain from the blond man in front of him.

"What happened?" Sebastian asked, looking to Astoria whose hand was fumbling around in her satchel trying to find some healing potion or wiggenweld.

"Last poacher camp, a poacher tried to hit me with diffindo, and instead of Ominis just letting me protect myself he jumped in the way and got hurt." She said, both panic and annoyance being noticeable in her voice. She grabbed a wiggenweld potion and rushed back over to where Sebastian was holding Ominis up against the counter.

Ominis seemed to roll his eyes, even through the pain. "Sorry for trying to keep you safe, Astoria." He groaned. Astoria tipped his head back a bit and poured the green liquid into his mouth, taking the vial away and placing it on the counter when he was finished. Ominis let out a small sigh of relief, the pain was more dulled down a bit but it still burned like fire.

Sebastian appreciated that Ominis was trying to keep Astoria safe, but when it sounded like he did something Sebastian would've done himself, that was a problem. "That sounds like something I would've done, so you know it was a stupid thing to do." He joked, giving Ominis a comforting squeeze on the shoulder. "But regardless, thanks for keeping her safe."

"I'm right here, you know," Astoria said, crossing her arms. "I can keep myself safe, and I think you both know that."

"We didn't say you couldn't," Ominis said, letting himself relax a bit, trying to release the tension in his body. His voice was a little bit raspy. "But I don't regret it." Sebastian chuckled a little bit and gave Astoria a knowing look. Ominis may have come off as a bit heartless or rude to other people around him, but he was really caring as long as people gave him a chance. He was always known as the one Gaunt who was blind, the family "disappointment" for not endorsing blood purity. But when it came down to it, he was clearly ready to risk and lose his life for the people he cared about.

Astoria huffed a little bit. "Just don't do it next time... that cut could've been a whole lot worse."

Sebastian moved back a bit so that Astoria could tend to Ominis' wounds. He sat down so that he wouldn't be putting any pressure on his foot. This situation just made him wish he was there more, to help them, but he knew it would never work out and that they would've been in this situation regardless, it just would've been him getting hurt.

"It's a little deeper than I thought it'd be," Astoria said, squinting her eyes a bit as she inspected the wound on Ominis' chest. She turned to rummage through her satchel again and find some needle and thread and stitch him up.

Sebastian felt a little bit useless just sitting there but he knew not to interrupt Astoria while she was doing something so important. Although that didn't stop him from asking some questions. "Did you guys find anything that could be related to finding Rookwood? I mean, clearly, he can't be that far." Sebastian said. "I'm not sure how far the prison camp I was at is from where he is, but I doubt it's that far."

"We didn't find anything, but I think we're close," Astoria said. She threaded the needle and then looked up at Ominis' face, watching his facial expressions closely. "Okay, this might hurt a bit but I need you to stay still, okay?" She said, before pushing the needle into the top layer of skin. Ominis let out a loud hiss of pain and clenched his jaw tightly. Astoria tried to ignore his act of pain and kept stitching him up. He jolted forward a bit and Astoria put her hand on the unharmed part of his chest. "I said stay still." She said sternly.