Tempest // Sebastian Sallow

Chapter 54

Sebastian had meticulously selected all the books he deemed necessary, despite Rosie's insistence that perhaps they should be heading into their practical curse-breaking with what they already knew.

But once they had cleaned up from their breakfast, Sebastian dove head first into revising all the spells he figured he should know and recall to be a successful curse-breaker, making sure he brought Rosie back to the table after she wandered off when he figured there was one she should also know.

"You know, I'm already aware of most of these, Sebastian... I had these books long before you..." She said with quite an exaggerated eye roll as she was forced to sit down at the dining table again.

Once Sebastian was certain he'd nailed the incantation and wand movement for Sectumsempra, he slammed the book shut and declared he'd learned enough for one day, sliding the books back into the shelves, in their correct places as he'd meticulously organised them as if it were a real library while Rosie was at work, and went to their bedroom to finally change out of his pyjamas.

Being an August day, the weather was quite warm, noticeably a lot warmer than anything Sebastian was used to, being a Scotland native for most of his life since his parents death, and Rosie insisted that he make use of the shorts that Isabelle had forced him to try on when she'd taken him shopping.

Sebastian disagreed, arguing that the jeans he'd begrudgingly started to wear over trousers would be fine, but Rosie Callahan was notoriously stubborn and was the only person ever known to out-stubborn Sebastian Sallow himself. He agreed to try them on, handing over his jeans but then Rosie whipped them into non-existence with Evanesco leaving him no choice but to wear the blasted things. So he tried to negotiate.

"I'll wear these if you wear those pretty little booty shorts I've seen in your drawers." He said, doing up the zipper of his cream coloured shorts that sat just above his knees, leaving him feeling quite exposed, his previous excuse for not wearing them being he didn't enjoy the breeze on his leg hairs.

"What? The tiny little ones I bought only go to a themed party years ago? You're kidding." Rosie scoffed, pressing her back against the drawers as Sebastian approached her, ready to open them and find the offending pair of shorts.

Sebastian smirked as he reached for the drawer handles. "Oh, I'm not kidding at all, Rosie," he teased, his fingers curling around the cold metal. "I think they'll look positively charming on you."

"And you'd be happy to let me walk around in public with half my arse-cheeks on display?"

"Oh, love, we're only going out to duel. No one will be seeing you but me, I promise."

Rosie gave Sebastian a playful shove. "Fine, I'll wear them, but only because I know you won't shut up about it if I don't."

Sebastian chuckled as he opened the drawer and retrieved the tiny shorts, holding them out to Rosie with a grin. "There you go."

Rolling her eyes, Rosie snatched the shorts from him and disappeared into the bathroom to change, much to Sebastian's chagrin that he didn't get to watch her slip them on. But he couldn't complain, especially when she'd actually agreed to his particular request.

When Rosie finally reappeared, Sebastian's breath caught in his throat as he realised what top she'd decided to pair with the scandalously short shorts.

She pushed the sleeves up, the neck of the Quidditch jersey slightly too wide for her slender one as it exposed her collarbones and turned around to flick her hair up into a high ponytail, revealing the letters S A L L O W plastered across her back.

Rosie was playing his game.

And she was fucking winning.

Sebastian hated that.