you look so pretty in the dark of night [closed]

[Kelly Evans]

One of these days, Kelly was going to get caught stealing potion supplies from St. Mungo's, so on this particular day she'd decided to actually go out and buy her own. An eerie bell tinkled as she opened the door to the Apothecary and walked through, closing it gently behind her. The sales person looked up briefly from a dusty ledger, nodded then went back to whatever he was doing, so Kelly assumed she'd be left to her own devices for a while. She felt a twinge in her lower body but ignored it, ignoring the stabbing feeling in her chest that accompanied the pain that reminded her that something was indeed missing from her body, and it wasn't lunch.

She muttered an easy wandless spell that caused a little basket to float behind her, as she wandered through the stuffy aisles, picking up different ingredients and placing them in the basket. Asphodel for the sleeping draught she'd been taking the past few days. Belladonna for relaxation. Peppermint for euphoria. Kelly stopped in front of a rack of simple spices and the basket bumped her in the head, impatient to get moving again. She pulled it from the air, breaking her enchantment, and placed it at her feet, once more immobile.

The witch twisted her hair back into a knot at the nape of her neck with one hand as she bent down, peering into the dusty shelves, looking for just the right sized bezoar, just in case she ever needed one. She wrapped the stone in a paper bag and placed it gently in her basket, before moving on to the next aisle, which was filled with already prepared love potions. Looking over her shoulder to make sure nobody was looking, because she was vain like that, Kelly picked up a bottle and read the label, one eyebrow raised in amusement. It had always been a popular lesson at Hogwarts, brewing Amortentia, but Kelly had never really been that impressed.

Something about bottled infatuation just didn't sit right with her.

[Sebastién de La Pérouse]

He had been gone for the best part of a year. Things had changed, he hadn't. He was richer now, if that were possible, and he had solved the mystery he was desperately seeking to find the answers to. His "uncle" had died, he had returned home for the funeral with his cousin Jessamine. He'd left before the wake had finished; he was not one for sentiment. He had shown up, said goodbye and that was that. If only had had known that his uncle had had the answer all along, his life would have been so much easier. The old fool had always been selfish though, it wasn't until he was dead and gone that Sebastién had discovered the truth, written in his pathetic excuse for an uncles will. He was still seething.

He had been back in London for a few weeks now though, keeping to himself, hiding in shadows and trying to piece together everything he had learned to finally find out the truth about who he was. Unfortunately that involved a lot of complex magic, memory spells and potions, too many trips into the dark well of his pensieve. He had filled the walls of his home with vials and vials of memories, most useless, but he was still unwilling to part with them in case the final key lay within them. So many vials, too many in fact. He had run out. He had had to come out of the shadows and into the dingy light of the apothecary to replenish his stock.

He had been in the back of the shop looking at some of the more unpopular items, the ones smuggled in through the cellar from Knockturn Alley, Sebastién had returned with a cauldron full of flesh eating beetles, a jar of bobutur pus and a collection of other things better left unmentioned. He set his collection on the register at the front with a curt nod before wandering silently down the aisles. Rounding the corner of one her saw a familiar head of blonde hair bobbing over a small pink bottle.

Of course she would be here.

Sebastién had had more single interaction with Kelly Evans than he had anyone else since moving to London. She always seemed to pop up in his life in the most inconvenient times -- he had seen her only a few weeks ago at the local pub but it had been so crowded and she had been so preoccupied that even the few drinks he had sent her hadn't truly fazed her. He'd been swept away in the darkness before he could get any closer.

Today he just couldn't resist.

Sebastién de La Pérouse believed in only a handful of things. Fate wasn't one of them, but sometimes he wondered if Kelly Evans could be something he could believe in. Only sometimes. Most nights he didn't think of her at all. She was from the land of sentiment, somewhere he just didn't belong. He wasn't one to waste time on things that never could work. Time was precious. Yet he still found himself now stepping silently behind her, peering over her shoulder and arching an eyebrow as he read the label on the bottle in her hands.

"My my my, surely if you need one of these that boy of yours just isn't doing his job right." With a smirk he ran a hand down her arm, resting his on hers and plucking the bottle from her hands. "With an arse like yours he should be bending over backwards to keep you, not forcing you to resort to more chemical methods". He would have suggested it was her that couldn't keep her man happy but he knew her temper better than that. Sebastién liked to play with fire, but he wasn't particularly fond of being burned.

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly jumped at the voice in her ear and spun around, her eyes immediately drawing upwards to look Sebastién de La Pérouse in the face. She scowled and rolled her eyes at the crude comment, jerking her arm away from the man's grip. "That boy of mine does his job just fine, thank you very much," she bit back, wishing she hadn't stood so close to the shelving because now she couldn't move away. Kelly reached up and took the potion back off Sebastién. "Although you might like to buy it, unless you've actually found a woman who likes snark and sarcasm in her bed."

She placed the love potion back on the shelf, forgetting for the moment about the basket of ingredients at her feet, before turning back to Sebastién. Something about his presence made her simultaneously want to hit him in the face and talk to him, because there was something about him that intrigued her. She saw through his act, even though she didn't quite know what that act was, yet. "Where have you been, anyway? I haven't seen you for a while, and you seem to pop up at the most inconvenient of times," Kelly asked, honestly curious.

"So what have you been up to? Scaring young children, seducing silly women who don't know what they're getting themselves into? Or letting into them," she added, a bite in her voice.

[Sebastién de La Pérouse]

He laughed, almost triumphantly as she jerked away from him, taking the bait and firing back an insult or two at him. This is what he liked, a woman with spark – someone who would challenge him on everything he did, not let him walk all over them like a doormat. Sebastién, for what it was worth, loved women. He loved the curve of their bodies, the way their hair would always seem to fall into their eyes, the gentleness to their voices, but most of all he liked the bite of their tongue. As beautiful as women could be they were no ornaments, and he would never be one to treat them as such. He would fire them up until they were living, breathing, lusting human beings because that was when he loved them most. Kelly Evans arose to the occasion without much coaching at all. Perhaps that was why he kept coming back.

“Kelly my dear,” he murmured, “I have discovered that woman are pretty much willing to put up with just about anything as long as I remain in their bed; Sarcasm and snark are nothing.” His voice was soft and heavy with some of his bedroom charm clinging to the syllables her uttered. Sebastién, if nothing else, knew how to work it.

Stepping back after a moment, he gave the woman the space she deserved, letting out a breath he hadn’t entirely been aware he was holding. She questioned his whereabouts, and while the desire to fob her off was strong – it really was none of her business – Sebastién found himself answering her to spite himself. “If you really must know, I’ve been abroad. A funeral in France, then chasing up some family business, it was rather an interesting time. I did make it back once or twice though, had a drink or two, or should I say paid for a drink or two…” He trailed off, running a hand through his hair to mask his frustration. What the heck was it about this girl, he was saying too much as it is, he always seemed to let his guard down somehow with her.
“You are wrong though, those ‘silly women’ knew exactly what they were getting into. I would be careful though if I were you Evans. You wouldn’t want people to think you’re jealous of these women now that would be a dangerous road to go down. If you would like to be in their position, that can of course be arranged, but with everything you’ve had going on…” he looked pointedly at her stomach, “… well, I just don’t think that would be the best thing for your right now.”

Okay, now he was just a bit of an asshole. That was much better. He just couldn’t get it right with this one.

[/blockquote]

[Kelly Evans]

"Clearly," she shot back, her eyes flashing. What was it about this man that made her blood boil so quickly. Probably the fact that she knew he was only trying to get a rise out of her, and she acquiesed every single time. She noticed the slow drawl to his speech and had to fight not to roll her eyes. "Does that work for you often?" she asked, at once sarcastic and yet intensely curious. "Whatever it is you're doing with your voice at the moment. The sexy tone, the smoulder. Because for whatever it's worth, it won't work on me."

She released a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding as Sebastién stepped back. She followed him, moving away from the cold metal of the shelving behind her. Kelly was surprised when he told her what he'd been doing, and despite her general dislike for him, still felt bad when he mentioned a funeral. He didn't seem all that bothered by the fact though, so she didn't dwell on the comment. She scoffed. "Jealousy really isn't a quality I possess, Mr. de La Pérouse. And I'm especially not jealous of any shrews you may pick up at the back of Licentious Lane."

Her face darkened as he went on, and her whole body tensed up. "You have no idea what you're talking about," she said quietly. Even her hair seemed to crackle at the anger coursing through her body. "So I'd be very careful about your next comment." There was no way he'd know. He'd have to have spies in the hospital, because there were two people outside of St. Mungo's walls that knew what had happened, and Sebastien was definitely not one of them.

"If you're quite done insulting me, I think I'll just pay for my purchases and leave," she went on, bending to pick up her basket. She swayed a little as she straightened though, and was forced to grab hold of Sebastien's arm as she did. Hating herself for her own body's failings, Kelly muttered an almost incomprehensible curse, and shook her head, trying to shake off the dizzy spell.

[Sebastién de La Pérouse]

“Oh, but my dear, if you do remember correctly, I’ve picked you up in the back of Licentious Lane! Almost a year ago now, your memory cannot be quite that bad.” He had a smirk on his face once again as he remembered being able to swoop in and be the hero, it was quite out of character of course, but it had made his visit all the more thrilling on what would have otherwise been another useless trip. “I’d prefer it if you didn’t say anything against the other women though Kelly, it doesn’t sit right on you. They know what they want and they go after it, don’t chastise them for that, they’re just fortunate in that I am more than happy to provide it for them.”

He was letting her get too much under his skin. Sebastién was many things but a womanizer was not one of them. He worshipped women; he never pushed them or played them. With him they knew what they got, a very good night, sometimes two or three, but only if they wanted a good time, not a relationship. He would never string them along. Yet wouldn’t it be better to have her believe he was that womanizing asshole? As much as he hated to admit it, this is the first woman he had wanted to know in the quiet moments after the passion. It went against everything he had built his life around.

That was why it was easy to be so much more of an asshole that normal with Kelly. She scared him.

He watched her tense around his words and a regret flicked across his eyes for a moment before he masked it with his customary smirk. He did know what he was talking about of course, it had just taken one look at her at the pub to know that she was pregnant. She had been glowing. The drinks he had sent had been a test more than anything – surely she wouldn’t drink if she were. She had though, which had made him smile more than it ought to because it showed she was scared and scared was something he could relate to.

“Oh Kelly,” he murmured, a genuine smile on his face now, “I could insult you for years.” Lifetimes. But he didn’t stop her. He knew when enough was enough. Watching her bend to pick up her basket, he noticed the sway in her movements – the instability – and his hand was out to steady her before she could fall. He slipped one hand onto her waist just in case she feinted suddenly, a look of concern freely upon his face. “Kel, what’s going on?” he asked, any playfulness gone from his voice now as worry crept in. “Is it morning sickness, or…” his voice trailed off as he remembered the way she had looked at the pub, and here, now. Something was changed within her - something was not the same. “Oh, oh, I’m so sorry.” Realisation dawned upon him slowly, the woman before him was not pregnant anymore.

Pulling her to him without thinking, Sebastién wrapped his hands around her back, hugging her closely and resting his chin upon the top of her head. “No one deserves that Kelly, no one.”

[/justify]

[Kelly Evans]

Kelly scoffed. "Please don't remind me," she said dryly, though she couldn't help but remember the thrill that had gone through her when Sebastien had taken her in his arms, shielding her from the place she shouldn't have been in in the first place. She frowned slightly at Sebastien's words, desperately wishing she could place this man. He was just always out of her reach. "I suppose you're right," Kelly said nonchalantly. "What gives me the right to judge? Maybe you're really not a womaniser, and I'm making it all up in my head."

As he wrapped an arm around her waist to steady her movements, Kelly closed her eyes as pain flashed through her. She hated her body at that moment, hated that it had suddenly decided to go against nature, to rebel against its instincts, whether her mind had secretly wanted it to or not. She raised dark eyes to Sebastien's face, sparkling with tears she refused to let fall. It was on her tongue to deny it, deny the entire mess, to be angry at such an assumption, but all the fight went out of her and she simply sagged.

For the first time since she found out, Kelly allowed herself to be comforted, to be held in someone else's arms. It crossed her mind for a small moment the fact that these arms didn't belong to her boyfriend, but she just didn't have the energy to dwell on it. Instead, she pressed her forehead into Sebastien's chest and let him catch and comfort her. She shook her head as an answer to his murmured comment, but didn't say anything more.

After a few moments, Kelly sighed quietly and pulled away. She lifted her eyes to Sebastien's face once more and a wry grin pulled at the corners of her mouth, all snark and sarcasm gone. "Boys like you don't hug like that," she said quietly, her voice husky. She looked down at the ground, her dark eyelashes brushing again her pale cheeks, and cleared her throat. "I'd appreciate if you can keep this to yourself," she said. "Not that I can imagine you'd throw this kind of information around like gossip, but only a handful of people know, about any of...this."