lumos_maxima | open rp post #002

The first rays of sunlight had barely begun creeping up through the little holes in the curtains and Bellatrix was already awake, her feet hanging over the edge of the bed, not quite reaching the floor, not fully - just the tips of her toes. She'd been prompted to wake up by her own dreams (or was it nightmares? She could hardly tell the difference sometimes, when even dreams of victory were contorted and jagged at imaginary edges, twisted in some way or another) and though she hadn't intended to go anywhere, still didn't intend to, it had been best to sit, clear her mind of any troubling thoughts. The other option meant inching closer to the man on the other side of the bed and naturally, she'd avoided the contact. She was no child, she needn't reach out for comfort or at least that was what she told herself. She was fortunate enough to have just sat down at the edge of the bed. Knowing her she could have just as likely walked halfway towards the door before dropping on the wooden floor, right in the middle of the room. This was the lesser of two evils, so to speak.

Her body ached, but that in itself wasn't what bothered her most. After all, Bellatrix was a fighter - a warrior - and she'd ache all over from the heat of battle many times before she'd succumb to the pain. The previous night had made her feel much like him, more alive than she could remember feeling in quite a while - perhaps when she'd first met their Lord, or when she got her Mark, but even then she'd submitted, as any loyal servant would, while this was different and, loathe though she may be to admit it, they'd been equals somehow. To some degree.

Severus' awakening seemed to go by unnoticed, misinterpreted as the gestures of someone who was having troubled sleep more than anything else, or at least until Bellatrix felt the tips of his fingers just brushing over the skin on her back, causing her to straighten up in surprise. Though she didn't look at him, she didn't move away, either; all she did was remain, sitting, until her shoulders relaxed and his voice registered in her brain. Her own voice was low - lower than usual -, even slightly raspy, when she finally managed a laugh (though there was nothing funny about it) and spoke in return,

"Where to? I've nowhere to be at this hour."

"Nowhere?"

It wasn't a question of clarity so much as a snidely punctuated remark that summed up in one word: See? You're just as lonely and pathetic as you like to claim me to be. Severus was too tired and in no mood to get into an argument with Bellatrix at this hour of day, though, and so he just let his snide, single-word response linger in the air.

He closed his eyes with the intent of attempting more sleep, but opened them again a few seconds later. He was awake now; he wasn't going to get back to sleep and he knew it, regardless how itchy and tired his eyes were. And just like Bellatrix, he had nowhere to go or be at this hour. He really was as lonely and pathetic as Bellatrix liked to claim him to be. About as lonely and pathetic as she was.

"You look like you're thinking of leaving." He paused, then quickly added, "Not that I care if you do."

She allowed the question to linger in the air, heavy with unspoken words and the memory of the previous night. Luckily for Bellatrix, she caught on to the snide intent of that simple word with no trouble whatsoever and luckily for Severus (and for them both, really) she was not quiet awake enough just yet to stir up a fight from that alone. Instead she chose to ignore him, sat still but for the moment she reached to scratch the skin of one of her shoulders and that was apparently enough for him to chime up again. All the better - it saved her the trouble of breaking the silence.

"I wouldn't take you for one to care," she laughed, again, still the same boring, unamused sound. But there was no bitterness to it, just a simple acknowledgement of some sort. They were both about as lonely and pathetic - though she could hardly bring herself to humour the thought - that it seemed easier to push one another away the moment their presence became disposable.

"If my presence bothers you as much then perhaps you should leave first."

"I'm quite comfortable where I am, thank you," Severus replied dismissively. "I'll leave when I decide to leave."

On that note, he pushed himself up, throwing the bed covers off him, and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress. He stood and headed for the bathroom, not caring overly much that he was naked. He was too tired to care; and Bellatrix had already seen everything there was to see of him. He used the toilet, washed his hands and returned to the room.

He sank on the edge of the mattress, running a hand through his hair, before he lay back down, tugging the bed covers over him. "If you're not going to leave, then I suggest you get back into bed. I don't care to listen to your restless pacing.

"I do suggest you leave before Rodolphus becomes suspicious, however. Unless that's been your plan all along."

Though she didn't respond to him immediately, nor did she turn to ask where he was headed, the moment that Severus left the room Bellatrix did entertain the idea of leaving. She could simply go home, blame her absence the night before on a quarrel with muggles or muggle-borns, but there were only so many lies she could tell before they became blatantly untrue. She did stand up, but ultimately her body was still tired, demanded its well-deserved rest after an eventful night and she realised all too soon that she'd rather not go anywhere like that just yet. She was tired, though for some reason she could hardly bring herself to sleep peacefully, but she sat back down, running her hands through her already messy hair.

"I've been away the whole night," she replied, tentatively reaching to press her hand to the side of her neck, as if inspecting for damage. "If he has reason to be suspicious, little can be done about it now."

She turned back to glance at him then, the hint of a smirk tugging at the corners of her lips. It didn't really make her look very amused though. It just made her look somewhat bitter as she pulled her legs back over the mattress and pulled the covers over herself, slowly sinking down until the back of her head was resting against the pillow and she could glance up at the ceiling. A fascinating sight, no doubt.

"He would never suspect you, if that's what worries you."

Severus wasn't sure whether he was relieved or irritated that Bellatrix had decided to stay. He lay on his side, listening to the sheets rustling as she pulled them over her, felt the way the mattress dipped here and there. It wasn't an especially large bed and so he became almost instantly aware of her body heat against his. If anything, that was what was most secretly comforting: the body warmth of another person, even if that person was Bellatrix.

As for Rodolphus suspecting him... Well, that was certainly a potential issue that was crossing his mind. He wasn't willing to be so candid with Bellatrix, though.

"If I were you, I'd be more concerned about why you've been away the entire night in a strange bed with me rather than in a familiar bed with your other half. Trouble in paradise, I presume."

The thought of inching closer to him never once crossed her mind. She was fine as she was right then, warm under the bed covers and, true, warm next to him, but that was more than she'd care to admit.

"Why, I could ask you what you're doing in bed with a married woman. Could you be that desperate, or simply lovestruck, Severus?" She sounded nearly incredulous, her laughter hollow and raspy, unlike the usual sound that could have carried through the room. She didn't mean half of it, though, not really. "Do you still think we married out of love, Rodolphus and I? That's funny."

Except it wasn't, not really. Convenience or not they'd slowly gotten attached, just not enough for her to call it fate or destiny and certainly not enough for her to voice that to Severus Snape. She liked to keep her mask intact, thank you.

"Then maybe you're the desperate and lovestruck one," Severus coolly replied, "seeing you're trapped in a loveless marriage."

Even Severus could see that it was pathetic no matter which way they looked at it. It was pathetic if he was desperate and it was just as pathetic if she was desperate. Perhaps we've met halfway, popped up the thought from out of nowhere in his head.

"I may be in bed with a married woman but it's not my vow I've broken."

"But you are still in no place to guilt me, if that is what you intended."

She hitched in a breath, watching the rays of light that slowly kept pouring into the room. She looked different somehow - almost fragile in a stark contrast to her usual demeanour, a contradiction in itself. A clear difference from the previous night and for this while she almost looked completely composed. As if nothing in the deep of her psyche had slowly begun twisting and turning in response to her own cruelty. Or perhaps it was the other way around.

"You're still here because you want to."

"I'm not guilting anybody. I'm merely pointing out what's obvious to me."

He stared at the wall across the room, still lying on his side with his back facing Bellatrix, as she delivered her next comment: that he was still here because he wanted to be.

Well. He couldn't quite deny that now, could he? Severus never did anything he didn't want to do, after all, unless it was something that would ultimately have a payoff that benefited him. Sleeping with Bellatrix in no way benefited him. Yet, here he was. And Bellatrix sleeping with him in no way benefited her - at least, not to his knowledge - and yet here she was, too.

"The same could be said for you," he replied simply.

"We've established that much, haven't we?" The question didn't warrant an answer, not really. Bellatrix shifted in her spot, adjusting the covers around her; though the room wasn't necessarily cold, it was a bit chillier than she was used to and she'd sat at the edge of the bed for too long until Severus woke up, anyway.
Sleeping with him wasn't of benefit to her, that much she was aware of, but it had happened nonetheless - and that was curious in itself, though Bellatrix wasn't sure she wanted to inquire about the hows and why so abruptly.

She glanced at him, with his back turned to her as she felt was most appropriate and most fitting and soon enough she was turning to her side, with her back turned towards him as well. As it should be - had it been another pair it could have been some sort of sad picture (and then again, maybe it fit them well, too). Not that the thought had crossed her mind.

"What point is there in pressing the matter any further now?

"Sleep, Severus. Maybe one of us will wake up and this will have been but a dream."

Not that she meant it, not necessarily.

Edited 2013-10-01 01:01 (UTC)

Severus answered with nothing but a quiet, noncommittal hmph at Bellatrix's suggestion that this could all just be an unpleasant dream. Again, he closed his eyes with the intent of hoping he might be able to procure at least another hour's sleep but in the lingering silence that fell between Bellatrix and himself, he found his mind starting to wander.

To the previous night, specifically. As he lay on his side while the room slowly but steadily became brighter as the sun rose, the memory of Bellatrix with her legs wrapped around his waist while she eagerly ground her pelvis against his thrusts entered his thoughts. How wanton and utterly shameless she'd been. The way she'd scratched and clawed at him with her nails, the way she'd seemed to want him. He hadn't felt wanted like that since--

Well. Nobody ever wanted him. Definitely not the way Bellatrix had seemed to want him last night. It was a pathetically, dangerously, intoxicating feeling: being wanted. And as he lay there listening to birds starting to chirp outside, Severus turned his head on the pillow to look over at her.

He lifted his arm and stretched it out across to her, rolling partway onto his back, and he let the back of his knuckles brush up along her exposed shoulder blade.

Despite her very suggestion, Bellatrix was well aware that she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep anytime soon and she was well aware that no amount of wishful thinking would make this a figment of her imagination; luckily for her there was little to no wishful thinking lingering in her mind to begin with. It was there to some degree but perhaps more in the sense that she wished she hadn't wanted him at any point, that he hadn't wanted her (and with the memory of the previous night clear in her mind's eye and evident in their bodies and they room they presently inhabited, she was pretty certain she could call it that) because, in the end, it would have made it easier on both of them: they wouldn't be here, one lonely man and one lonely woman whose worlds collided in the least likely of manners. Not that she would like to think of herself as lonely but what was it, in the end, that had brought them down together in a bedroom above an old pub? What was it that had them tangled up between thrusts and grunts and nothing short of debauchery if not that?

She felt him shift on the bed, felt the way the mattress seemed to drop slightly on his side, but didn't think too much of it until she felt him reaching out to her and just that touch seemed enough to startle her, to send a chill down her spine.

Slowly but steadily she turned just enough that she could glance back at him over her shoulder, but whatever she might have meant to say seemed to have gotten lost along the way. However, the way her brows knit together in some form of confusion was quite telling in itself; what was he thinking? That was one of many questions that crossed her mind.

Severus met Bellatrix questioning gaze and he held it while he turned his hand inwards and ran his fingertips back down the very spot he'd just lightly touched with his knuckles. Bellatrix was right: he was still here because he wanted to be. He could have easily left last night after he was done with her; he could have shoved her aside, got dressed, walked out the door and slammed it behind him without a second thought.

But so could have she. She had a husband, after all. Beyond that, Bellatrix was no stranger to being cruel and reckless with other people. She could have up and dressed and left him feeling used and lonely in the old inn. She could have walked out laughing that shrill, unhinged laugh of hers. She still could. In fact, it occurred to him, as he foolishly let his hand wander from her shoulder down the length of her slim, bare arm, that she could choose to turn on him in ways that could leave him seething and recoiling.

Then again, he thought to himself, so could he. He could penetrate her mind if he wanted to. He could scope out the recesses of her most private thoughts and use them against her. He could grab his wand, which was on the bedside table next to him, and press it up against her throat and threaten her in ways that were as cruel as he'd seen her threaten others. And he knew she could exact the same kind of punishment on him if she wanted to.

He hadn't, though; and neither had she. Where they could have been savage towards each other with magic and cruel barbs, they'd instead been savage with each other's bodies and Severus would have been lying to himself if he thought he didn't want that primal sense of feeling so alive rushing through his veins again.

"Come here." It wasn't a request; it was a quiet but firmly issued command.

What are you doing?, was the thought that crossed her mind as his fingertips trailed her skin but she didn't voice it. She watched instead, only watched because for a split-second it felt to her as if breaking the silence would tear the whole scene apart and she wanted, she needed to know, she needed to figure him out and to figure out what was on his mind in ways where upfront invasive attempts would do nothing but cause them to end up with their hands pointed at one another. So though her lips were parted in anticipation of a word or a question, it was he who broke the silence.

His tone was clear to her, but why should listen? There was undoubtedly a moment wherein she considered turning her back on him fully by virtue alone of refusing to comply to any sort of command issued by him under any circumstance, but what else would she do then, when they were alone, the two of them, and there was nothing else to effectively distract her from his voice?

So she allowed herself to roll onto her back, slowly but steadily, exposing pressure marks along the side of her neck as her hair fell to the sode, and then turned to her other side; all the while her gaze did not leave his and though in any other situation her next question could sound aggressive or irritated, it lacked those traits this time- her tone and her gazer betrayed her and easily gave away her confusion:

"What is it?"

For a moment, Severus thought Bellatrix was going to dismiss him, maybe with a scoff or a sneer, and turn away. That was fine, came the pinched thought in his head. He'd just turn away, too, and pretend he hadn't said anything. Maybe he'd lie here, watch the sun rise through the small parting and in the moth eaten holes of the tatty curtains, then get up and get dressed and get out.

That'd be a great deal simpler, came another, more collected thought. But no sooner the thought was in his head that Bellatrix was turning towards him and not away from him. He caught sight of the marks he'd left around her throat from last night - marks he was going to make sure to charm away from her skin before they parted ways - with a quiet sense of triumph.

He shifted properly onto his back to more comfortably face her. Hands resting on his middle, his head turned towards her, sheets tucked haphazardly across his bony hips. At Bellatrix's question, Severus studied her eyes and then her lips, and he lifted his hand and briefly brushed his knuckle across her chin before nudging her chin up and away to get another look at the bruises.

Severus shifted again, this time on his side and he propped his head up on his hand, elbow resting on the pillow. He raised his other hand back to Bellatrix's throat and he placed his thumb and fingers precisely over the imprints on her neck; as if he was checking the imprints against the size of his hand, to see if the glove fitted. And, of course, it did.

"We'll have to do something about these," he remarked conversationally.

It wasn't like her to allow this. Bellatrix was strong and independent and refused to give anyone the satisfaction of so much as thinking they had anything on her. There was the Dark Lord, of course, the sole exception whose orders she followed (mostly) without question. But there was something about Severus and the way he seemed to study her at that very moment - something that should have made her evidently uncomfortable and defensive, but it did not and she found herself allowing him close, or as close as he was right then, just barely brushing his fingers against her in stark contrast to the previous night, the evidence of which (or part of), she found, he would soon press his fingers to.
She could feel how her skin was sore under direct touch. It was an uncomfortable feeling, a hint of pain that traveled all the way to her jaw and to the back of her neck, but it wasn't nearly enough that she'd complain. Battles fought dark spell after dark spell were far worse, she knew that and at the end of the day, satisfaction or no, Severus was going out of his way to not make her hurt.

A lot could be said about how easily they seemed to be avoiding that ever since they'd woken up. A lot could also be said about the way the man in front of her had reached out to her more than once in the last few moments--

-- but it could wait.

"We wouldn't want to arouse suspicion," she agreed, lowering her chin now, her head tilting sideways to rest on her shoulder; her elbow was propped up on the mattress for support, so that she could regard him properly. They were a little too similar sometimes, the two of them. "Or fail to keep this a secret."

"Hm," was all Severus replied.

He held eye contact with her for a moment, then dropped his eyes down to his hand still around her throat. Then he casually let his gaze wander down to her chest, to her bare breasts. Just above her nipple on one of her breasts was an angry-looking bite mark. He knew he had a few similar bite marks on his own skin.

He released her neck and stretched his arm behind him to reach for his wand. Fingers clasping around the handle, he brought it with him as he faced back to Bellatrix. He touched the tip of his wand against the underside of her neck.

"Are you going to keep this a secret? Knowing you and your mouth..." He began tracing the wand slowly down her throat, down her collarbone, her sternum, between her breasts. And upon reaching the bruise just north of her nipple, he suddenly jabbed and twisted his wand against it, enough to cause pain on the damaged tissue.

"Vulnera Sanentur," he smoothly incanted, a spell he'd created years ago in school, and the bruise immediately began to drain away from Bellatrix skin, as though the wand was drawing it out of her.

For a split-second she felt as though, if she didn't turn away of her own volition then, he'd never stop regarding her in this same manner - examining every visible inch of her. It wasn't that it was making her uncomfortable per se, but it was striking her as odd. They were prone to fighting, verbally if anything, more than this.

When he reached for his wand there was another split-second in which he hesitated and nearly moved back to reach for her own, though in the end it was a carefully constructed defense mechanism and not as much a genuine concern that he would try anything. They both had enough bruises on them.

"Far be it from my to stain my own reputation," she remarked with a hint of her typical amusement. Though the wand was there and brushed against her neck, she didn't flinch.
... She did flinch however, when moments later it traced lower down her neck and chest (and oh, she'd almost smirked) and Severus saw it fit to press it onto soft skin, soft but bruised so there was very little to do about the hitched in breath or the way her expression contorted visible into pained discomfort. Nonetheless her gaze remained fixed on herself and on the wand and she watched intently as the incantation made it so that the bruise began to fade.

It was impressive, to say the least.

"... And you're being so kind, aftercare and everything."

"Removing evidence," he corrected her. He was not being kind, nor was he administering aftercare. He was going to stick with that belief, too.

The bruise gone, he moved the wand back up and dug it against the underside of her chin again, forcing her head back. He incanted the same charm, this time running the tip of the wand slowly down the bruise down one side of her neck. They faded as if they were being sucked into the wand. And he did the same on the other side of her neck.

"A pity to get rid of them, really," he said as the last of the bruise on her neck drained away. "They were quite a nice reminder that I finally got my hands around your neck and throttled you, like I've wanted to do for a long time."

Not that throttling her last night had led to shutting her up. The noises she'd made the night before. A memory of her seized up in orgasm underneath him and gasping wantonly, shamelessly, flashed through his mind. No, don't think about that, he scolded himself the moment heat began pooling into his groin.

"Pishposh," she waved her hand almost dismissively but reached up to push some stands of hair away from her face nonetheless; her hair was a mess, but it added some charm to her overall appearance. Even though he'd begun removing any marks of the previous night's affair from her skin she still looked the part.

His remark was met with a laugh, bubbling with excitement much unlike the hollow sound from only moments after he'd woken up. She tilted her head down, making it so she inched just a little closer, though not enough to close the considerably distance between the two - just enough to add emphasis.

"If that's how you've always envisioned it, then by all means you could have gotten your hands around my neck sooner, Severus."

Granted it was unfeasible as circumstances were, but she was teasing more than anything, as evidenced through the smirk tugging at the corners of her lips and the way she looked at him, almost as defying as the night before when she'd been all fingernails digging into his skin, pulling him closer, wanting more.

"I would've been happy to help you work through that desire."

Severus clenched his jaw slightly at Bellatrix's laugh and at the teasing, almost amused remark. And the look she was giving him: it was as if she was attempting to goad him.

"Would you now?" he replied, being careful to not appear too interested. He pulled his wand away from her neck and casually leaned back to place it back on the side table.

"Is that why you're in no hurry to leave?" he asked when he faced back to her. "Because you want me to strangle you?" Though he'd just removed evidence of having had his hands around her neck, he quickly dashed his hand up to snatch her throat; his thumb pressing into the underside of her chin and his fingers biting into the side of her jaw just below her ear.

"Until last night, I never pegged you for a masochist," he quietly observed, studying her eyes and her face. "Does Rodolphus know how much of a slattern for pain you are?"

Her mouth cracked into a grin, all teeth and a little twitch, a subtle indicator that she might just burst into laughter. It wasn't just her - it was him, too. She was teasing him, planting a seed of doubt, but never daring, not outright anyway; yet there he was, his hand pressed against her skin and - oh - she even tilted her head back for him, not looking away even once.

"Perhaps you should ask him." She answered, though her words were quickly followed by a soft (but no less facetious) oh. "Then again, maybe not."

She glanced at his hand, running her index and middle finger over his own, over the back of his palm and wrist, trailing serpentine lines over his skin. "in my defense," she began, her grin fading to something closer to a flirtatious pout. "You're the one who can't keep his hands off me."

Severus was a stark contrast to the glittering expression of slightly unhinged amusement on Bellatrix's face. Where she was grinning, all teeth and eyes that were sparkling with a sense of dare to them, he was stern, stony faced, observing her like a hawk might observe its prey.

His expression darkened at her comment about him not being able to keep his hands off her. She'd caught him out. He felt like his unspoken, if not repressed craving for human touch had been rudely exposed. Well. He couldn't have that. He tightened his grip around her throat for a moment, eyeing the pout she was giving him, then abruptly let her throat go with a brusque, almost uncaring shove.

"Don't think so highly of yourself," he dismissively retorted.

He pushed himself up into a sitting position, drawing his knees up towards his chest. He draped one arm around his knees while pushing his hair away from his face with his other, before dropping that arm around his knees also. The bed sheet only covered his legs; the cool morning air hit his bare back, which was still lined with faint, haphazard scratch marks from the night before.

"Let's just pretend last night was a bad mistake and leave it at that. I think that'll be a lot simpler."

When she felt his grip tighten, there was a brief moment where concerned pushed its way into the back of her mind and she heavily pondered the possibility of pushing him away. But sooner than she could act, he'd let go and she reached up with her own hand to press against the skin of her throat, rubbing circles over where his fingers had set.

"Am I lying?" She rolled back onto her back, her head tilted back on her pillow, exposing her neck, her chest, all the way down to her waist where the fabric of the bedsheets had began to pool. "You're making a bigger deal out of this than it necessarily needs to be," she commented, closing her eyes. "We might as well obliviate one or the other to spare you the misery."

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albuquerque - 2013-10-11 17:44 (UTC) - Expand

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phrenesis - 2013-10-16 02:18 (UTC) - Expand

open rp post #002

yes perfect

everyone is in bed and i have internet, so let's go

short tag is short whups

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ugh sorry for the typos I was on mobile

no wuckers bb <333

<3

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