Closed: Time for a New Back Up Plan
There were a million things happening that week. Sebastian wasn't in the mood to deal with any of them. He also might have put himself on a new version of exile. Self-imposed exile. That wasn't actually very new for him, but with the big secret out to essentially everyone he knew, Sebastian had reverted to old ways. Habits and all that
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After a restless night spent literally locked in the manor with the unsuspecting crowd of supposed party attendees (the whole thing both reminiscent and miles removed from memories of the previous month's full moon - he was really hoping that this whole 'locked in and waiting' thing wasn't becoming an actual trend), he had made it a point to be especially fussy once Sebastian and Sabrina had both returned, human once more and relatively unharmed. As much as he tried, he didn't think he'd ever quite get used to that morning-after look, the visible bruising and obvious stiffness and that pained expression that accompanied even the simplest of movements as unsettling now as it had been back when it had come without an explanation.
His own sleeping schedule as off-kilter (read: nonexistent) as ever, he had been coming and going since, putting in a few hours at work (Daphne was forgiving enough about tardiness and half-days, so long as his delayed invoice filings or contract edits didn't interfere with any of the more timely and urgent aspects of her business) and barely just stopping at his place for a change of clothes and a shower, still not quite convinced that he wouldn't be returning at some point to find the house half-empty and Sebastian gone.
He had gone home again that morning, knowing that he would at least be needing to put in a few hours at the office and that Sebastian had his own understandably obsessive, speculative work to go back to.
As aware as he was that he was quickly racking up more hours spent at the manor than at his own half-abandoned flat these days, it didn't stop him from grabbing a Floo directly to the Daleys' that afternoon, brushing himself off before navigating toward the office, the only place he had gotten to expecting Sebastian to be when he was actually in the house, surrounded by maps, journals, and all manner of old articles and documents.
Reid froze with his fist inches from the open door, his intended declaration of arrival left hanging as he caught sight of Sebastian, expectedly engulfed in his research and planning, though much more intimately settled in than usual, his head resting on his arm where he had apparently conked out amidst the stray chess pieces, the black king piece knocked over by his elbow.
He paused just outside of the room, his hand flattening out on the door and fingers twitchily drumming against it as he caught his lip between his teeth. He lingered there longer than was undoubtedly necessary, watching the rise and fall of Sebastian's shoulders and stubbornly ignoring the fuzzy sort of warmth that sprang up in his chest before snapping himself out of his ridiculous daze. Really, now.
He slowly stepped inside and around the desk, reaching out to lay a hand over his shoulder.
"Hey-" he said quietly, his voice barely above a whisper for not wanting to rouse Sebastian too rudely, the hand on his shoulder giving it a slight squeeze of pressure. "You know this is what beds are actually for, right?"
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"Huh?" Sebastian blinked, rubbing at his eyes for a moment before looking up. It took an extra few seconds for him to put the pieces together for what Reid was doing there. "Hi. What?"
It wasn't actually shocking. Sebastian had been getting progressively more used to Reid just being there more often than he wasn't. He tried not to think about that too much, and they never talked about it, but it was one of the more comforting things happening in his life at the moment.
After the full moon, it was particularly so. He kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, for Reid to realize this werewolf nonsense was too much to deal with and get fed up with the whole thing. Reid wasn't the type to do that, Sebastian knew, but when all his friends had been locked in while werewolves roamed the grounds and two people had been attacked? It was one more worry to pile onto the list, wondering when the inevitable drama that came with Daleys was that one last push too far.
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He moved one of the stacks of journal back from the corner of the tabletop, careful not to disturb anything else (as haphazard as it might seem, he knew all about disorganized organization, and to hell with anyone that dared to mess with his system) before grabbing the knocked over chess piece and seating himself on the edge of the desk, absently twiddling with the marble figure as he raised a teasing eyebrow down at Sebastian.
"Sleep well?"
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"They say sleeping bent over a desk is the best way to do it." He was still waking up, voice sounding lethargic, but he got it together a little more as he watched Reid carefully shift things around, making sure not to damage Sebastian's semblance of a system. Not for the first time, he appreciated that Reid got it.
He got distracted for a moment, eyes caught on Reid's fingers and the way he twisted and turned the king in his hands. When he shifted, a bit of wayward floo powder caught his attention. At least he knew for sure it was working now and the charms were sticking to their timetables well, but it seemed silly.
"You can apparate in now, by the way." When Sebastian had finally gotten his mind around to realizing that Reid was coming and going more often than not, especially recently but before that as well, he'd realized the wards probably ought to be altered a little. It wasn't a big deal or anything, but it might actually turn out helpful in the future. After Reid had ended up locked in the house two full moons in a row, Sebastian was determined to create some sort of fail safe around that happening again. "I changed the wards this morning."
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Which quirked into a semi-confused half-smile once he caught on to just what Sebastian was actually saying in that typically nonchalant way of his.
"Changed the wards?" he repeated. "So- you're basically giving me a key?"
Not that it was a big deal. It was mostly quite hilarious, actually, made that much more so by how 'by the way' it had just been announced, a neat chunk apparently taken out of that endlessly annoying spellwork.
Convenient. Appreciated. But not a big deal.
"You realize I may just be popping in for the sake of raiding your kitchen now, right?"
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That was essentially what he was doing, handing him a key. Except it was completely different, of course. Safety precaution, that's what it was. If Reid was going to accidentally make it a habit to show up on full moon nights, Sebastian had to factor that in. If it also meant Reid could officially come and go as he pleased, that was just a side effect.
It didn't mean anything. It didn't have to. It was just a thing that had taken up about four hours of Sebastian's day. Not a big deal at all.
"I pay people to keep it stocked. Go crazy, but I can't be held responsible when my kitchen staff yells at you for sneaking ramen in." Sebastian shook his head, small smile still firmly in place.
Sebastian turned to glance over his map, mostly because it was there and distracting himself when he was about to say anything too serious was a thing that he was getting good at.
"And put that piece there." He pointed to a section on the map that was the most likely location, the goal spot. That's what he'd been doing before he fell asleep, hadn't it?
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"Been busy, huh?" he stated more so than asked with a raised eyebrow, a bit of a frown creasing his forehead as he tried to make sense of the mess of scribbled notes and strategically placed chess pieces.
Definitely busy.
He carefully placed the king piece in the indicated spot, throwing another look at Sebastian that he imagined settled somewhere between curious and concerned.
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This was the pack that murdered his family and the families of so many others. He couldn't let that go. The sooner he found them, the sooner they could put a stop to this.
Looking up to meet Reid's eyes, Sebastian couldn't control the way his lips twitched again at that expression. If he'd asked more specifically, Sebastian would have probably denied him any information on principle. When Reid looked like that, Sebastian would tell him anything though.
He reached out with one hand to indicate the pieces as he mentioned them, his other hand settling around Reid's knee, thumb idly picking at the outer seam of his trousers.
"The pawns are clear spaces. The knights are suspect. The king is where the pack probably is. I want Sabrina to double check it for me." After they'd lost one of their own and alerted too many people to their existence, Sebastian expected them to move the camp, but it would be a start.
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"And then what? Storm in there guns blazing?" he asked as lightly as he could manage, the quiet note of fussing worry he tried to keep at bay still creeping noticeably into his tone.
He wasn't about to try to convince Sebastian to step away from this - Merlin knew it'd be a losing battle, and it certainly wasn't his place to be sticking his nose in. That pack needed to be taken care of one way or another, and it was clear that this was as close to making any sense of it all as anyone had ever gotten.
There was comfort to be had in knowing that with Jemma this deeply involved in cracking this thing open, backup was sure to not be far behind when it was needed. Still, there was nothing to be done about that nagging feeling of worry and imminent danger.
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His hand slid up a little, just enough that Reid's brushed his in the midst of the seemingly random beat he was tapping out. He wasn't trying to still the agitated motions, but there was always this compulsion to touch more when Reid got started in a way that wasn't the every day erratic gestures.
"I'm going to find them and assess the situation. Then call in the hit wizards Jemma keeps trying to throw at me and let Potter do what he has to do to get the Aurors involved." He sounded as bitter as he felt, even if he was tying to keep it out of his voice.
He caught a bishop with his free hand, idly tilting it onto it's edge and spinning it. There wasn't a use for those pieces yet. Maybe he'd use them to denote the cavalry. Sebastian wasn't used to this, to asking anyone to help when he had a job. This was too personal, though, and he knew that going in on his own was courting death in a more blatant way than he had in a long time. The rage was too close to the surface. If left to his own devices, he wouldn't be able to break out of it and focus on safety for anyone.
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'Find them and assess the situation.' Right. Because that couldn't possibly go wrong in any way. Not like he'd be 'finding and assessing' a pack of murder werewolves with an established sort of vendetta against his family and a recently thwarted belief that he was also dead.
Right. Nothing to worry about here.
Reid idly watched the bishop spin and topple over for a moment before lightly pressing his fingertips against Sebastian's, then moving his hand that much more forward, enough to just about get a grip on his hand.
He chewed on his lip for a moment before sucking in a breath. "Look- I know it's personal and everything- I get that, and I'm not going to try to talk you out of anything- but just- don't do anything stupid, okay?"
However concerned he'd intended to sound (not at all/very little), there was hardly any doubt that he had met that intention above and beyond. Worry was what he did. Whether that worry was needed or appreciated had hardly ever been enough to stop him.
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He flipped his hand, shifting his hold to wrap his fingers tightly around Reid's. "I know what I'm doing. This isn't the worst thing I've ever seen." It was damn close and more personal, though. In the end, it probably wouldn't be that comforting. Sebastian had figured out pretty quickly that Reid worried and panicked with the best of them, even if he tried to hide it. Sebastian wasn't used to someone caring this much, the heaviness of it making his head a little fuzzy.
Using his hold on Reid's hand and pressing a bit more firmly against his leg, Sebastian shifted, half-standing so he could catch Reid's lips in a shirt kiss, giving completely into the impulse and the closeness he'd been craving since he'd spent the full moon prowling around and trying to make sure a wayward werewolf didn't make it into to manor.
"Okay?"
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It might have been when he had caught him in the process of attempting to disappear and had found himself unexpectedly thrown off and annoyed, or when the sight of him on that first morning-after had overwhelmed him with a panicked sort of worry, or maybe it hadn't really set in until he had seen him shift, the realization of every detail he had missed smacking him across the face and squeezing at his heart in a way he hadn't quite been able to describe-
Whatever it had been, it had gotten him to the point where the idea of Sebastian putting himself in any kind of intentional harm's way made him nervous and uneasy, and as strangely comforting as that unexpected kiss or his assurances were, there was nothing to be done about the knot of concern at the pit of his stomach. He didn't really care to try to explain it to himself.
His glance flickered down to their clasped hands, catching his bottom lip between his teeth even as it still buzzed slightly from the press of that quick kiss, then looking up again to catch Sebastian's eyes (those damned, ridiculous, hypnotizing fucking eyes).
He reached up more instinctively than consciously as he nodded, lightly trailing his fingers up along the light of Sebastian's cheekbone, then down the stubbly edge of his jaw before splaying his hand out against his chest, right where he could feel his heart between against his palm.
"Okay-"
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"You're still going to fuss and worry, aren't you?" He didn't have to ask, not at this point. After the first time Reid had stumbled into a transformation-hangover, Sebastian had quickly caught on to just how fussy Reid could get. The strange part, one of the many, was that Sebastian liked that about him.
He wanted it to be some sort of side effect from not having anyone that cared enough to fuss at all, from being so disconnected he actually could have gotten himself killed - on accident or on purpose - and known there wouldn't be anyone there to notice, let alone miss him.
Reid somehow twisted that all around in a way no one else could. All it took was a hand pressed to his chest, and his heart was racing. Maybe Sabrina had been right; if Reid made him happy - something Sebastian didn't like to identify as an emotion - that was enough.
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Emotional involvement and unexpected complications or not, they had gotten along on one particular level to begin with for a reason-
Reid was undeniably good at fussing and worrying. He had been fussing and worrying about Skylar for years, and his dad, and his friends, all to varying degrees of annoyingness or subtlety. But he'd never quite gotten stuck with this particular kind of nagging feeling that had somehow become associated with Sebastian, that distinct mix of care and concern all wrapped up in a denial that had unexpectedly grown out of hook ups and rounds of poorly timed intrusions.
Unable to keep a crooked grin from pulling at his lips despite (because of?) the look on Sebastian's face, his fingers bunched in the fabric of his shirt, giving it a quick snappy tug and raising an eyebrow in a semblance of a berating way.
"You know this whole 'reckless badass' thing isn't actually cute, right? A boring, risk-free deskjob would do just fine-"
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Half the time, Sebastian wasn't actually sure how they'd ended up as whatever they'd become. Then there were Reid's ridiculous expressions and sarcastic comments. That's when Sebastian realized how on it Jemma had been when she'd thrown them to the wolves - well, thrown Reid to the wolves and thrown them together in general.
That line of thought led to madness, so he cut his eyes down to Reid's hand in his shirt instead, smirk twisting on his lips instead. He pressed his hands to Reid's lower back, pulling him closer to the edge of the desk so Sebastian could press closer against him. It should probably be shocking at this point that they were still all over each other most of the time. In the grand scheme, maybe that was the only part that made sense.
"Admit it. You'd be bored if I took up suits and a day job." Sebastian would be bored. A lot less stressed, but ridiculously fucking bored. "I already lost the mystery.Let me keep the leather jackets."
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