Severus and the Thunderbird

The Overnight

He looked around the apartment. It was more like a library than a home. Books of all shapes and sizes lined the walls, dozens of candles floated in bowls of water alongside of roses and tulips, the floor covered in a plush white carpet, the furniture worn but sturdy. The air smelled of bergamot, musk, and ink.

An Ilvermorny tapestry hung on the wall, with the Thunderbird insignia bolder than the others. Thunderbird favors the soul, he thought in his limited knowledge of the American houses.

She used his arm to steady herself as she untied her boots. The action struck him as familiar, as if it was something friends would do. Did she really have no fear around him? That would be a first.

"You gonna take off your shoes? Or do you want me to?" she teased, strutting across the room to pour two glasses of what looked like wine

He rolled his eyes, slipping off his dress shoes, her sarcasm a welcome reprieve from the continual pleasantries of his coworkers when he knew most of them didn't want to be around him.

She motioned for him to sit beside her on the azure blue couch, relaxing into the cushions. He sank down, welcomed into the soft embrace of the fabric. He sipped the surprisingly light wine. Leaning against him, she nestled in with a heavy sigh of calm.

"Why did you want to escape from your job tonight?" she asked, fingertips swirling patterns on his knee

If she continued to touch him like that, he may give up all his secrets. Skin screaming at the foreign feeling.

"I don't know how to explain without compromising confidentiality. Why did you decide to curse a team of men?" he deflected then replied back, leg relaxing against hers, she trailed her fingers higher up, reaching the top of his thigh

"Because for half of my twenties, I let a man control me. So when I left I decided no one else would get to push me around or guilt me into making choices that I didn't want. Even if it is just a drink" she answered, the regret and defiance hanging heavy on her words

"We often let those we think love us, control what we do..." he murmured, turning his face to hers, inches apart.

She nodded, reaching her hand up slowly to his face, tracing her knuckles down his cheek.

"I make my own choices now" she told him with a small smile, kissing his jawbone

A thousand pins and needles rushed through his body, the air sucked from his lungs. The spot where her lips had been burned hot as fire.

"Does that choice involve me?" he whispered, for fear his voice would crack if he spoke any louder

She kissed his cheek, down his jaw, and his chin, looking into his eyes before answering slyly

"If you want it to"

Oh he did. Passion wasn't something he allowed himself to feel. It was too dangerous. Unbridled lust was the cause of many a man's downfall. His self discipline was an ever constricting lasso. Memories of love could be used against people. But...this didn't have to be love. This could just be a mutually beneficial partnership. He couldn't think any further, she kissed beneath his ear and pressed her fingers into his inner thigh.

"I didn't come here just for sex. Or to take advantage of you" he asserted, his self control beginning to give way, brick by brick

"I know you didn't. That's why I asked you to come with me" she told him cryptically, eyes softened at the edges, fingertips smudged with quill ink resting on his chest 

"I can't make you any promises" he told her bluntly, not wanting to plant any false impressions in her mind of what he was or wasn't capable of

"I don't want you to. Let's forget life for tonight. No one controlling us. Just the two of us. Here. Right now" she told him truthfully, sliding over across his lap, kissing his neck as she slid her hands into his hair