Exile || Sebastian Sallow

28 | Right Here, Right Now

"Kisses on the foreheads of the lovers
wrapped in your arms.
You've been hiding them
in hollowed out pianos."
— Cigarettes After Sex

───•~❉᯽❉~•───

28 | Right Here, Right Now

Belle's Perspective

My eyes fluttered open to soft yellow light diffusing through the sheer curtains. Strong arms were wrapped around my blissfully tired body in a protective yet tender embrace, a slow and steady heartbeat beneath my ear.

Slowly, I looked up to find Sebastian Sallow's relaxed form still soundly asleep, looking peaceful under the morning light.

We'd drifted off to sleep last night after we'd taken a bath. He was insistent, though I just wanted to cuddle and fall asleep after a much pleasurable evening. Quite an understatement if I was being honest with myself.

I never knew just how much he'd make it feel as if he'd known my body his whole life. As if we hadn't been at each other's throats on multiple occasions during our reunion. Here we were now, under the sheets, skin to skin, snuggling all through the night as peaceful as can be.

I propped myself up on one elbow, the mattress slightly dipping from the movement. Sebastian stirred a little when I moved, but he kept sleeping, his arm around my waist slackening the tiniest bit.

I couldn't help but admire him from this angle. His head was turned to the side away from me, the curve of his jaw sharper than when we'd first met. His freckles seemed to glow against his skin under the morning light, covering so much of his body and face in a pattern I yearned to kiss no matter how long it would take. The curve of his soft lips reminded me of how they traced my skin in the cover of the night, how he made me forget the horrors of the previous hours even for a moment. His back was still a little red from where I'd marked him with my nails as I screamed his name. I bit my lip at the images flashing back in my head.

There was something peaceful about him that I hadn't seen before. Not since he came back to Hogwarts and all we've ever exchanged were bitter glares and spiteful words.

All my fears seemed to ebb away at the first touch of him last night. The feeling lingered and stayed, much to my surprise, because he kept his promise. He didn't bolt at the first sight of my surrendering. Not anymore.

So many words were thrown, chaining me to a storm of endless questions and theories.

My cheeks burned at the first thought. When Sebastian gave me a massage and somehow managed to calm down the effects of my ancient magic, his touch, a magic of its own. But it was in the way he distracted my pain with stories of his odd dreams that made me wonder if...

Could it be a coincidence that Orpheus had also told me countless times about his dreams? It couldn't be ... could it?

I tried to match up Sebastian's dream tales with the ones Orpheus told me about but none did. Still, I wasn't going to discount the possibility.

I also couldn't help but think about what he'd said when he asked me why I found so much hatred in him after everything we went through in fifth year.

"You never said sorry to me, Sebastian. Not once. I waited, and waited, but you never did."

"Belle, I said sorry to you for so many nights, and even before you walked away from me."