~ Black Sick Spider ~

- Chapter 6: Don't You Dare React -

"Lucretia is here...?" Walburga murmurs, her voice thick with sleep. Although she is conscious, she is not quite awake enough yet to be bothered by the fact that she is still lying half on top of her husband.

"And knowing my sister, she's likely to be upset over being kept waiting," Orion says, trailing his fingers lightly down the length of Walburga's spine. She arches into the caress in a subconscious, catlike motion.

Since the beginning of their marriage, there has been plenty of physical contact between them, both for comfort and out of affection - but never has either member of the couple touched the other in a blatantly sexual manner. And although the light touch of his fingertips against her spine was not meant to elicit such a reaction, it seems that her body does not share the same compunctions as either of their hearts, and reacts with an instinctual sensuality.

He lays his palm flat against the small of her back, desperately attempting to ignore the slight rocking motion of her hips against his thigh.

She's half asleep and doesn't realize what she's doing, he internally shouts at himself. Don't you dare react!

Physically, he remains still. However, he is unable to prevent the maelstrom of emotions that erupts within him. It is as though his newly awakened lust for the woman pressed against him is at war with all of the love he has ever felt for her. And while the mating instincts of a seventeen year old human are strong, he has been in love with her since they were children. He fights his raging teenage hormones with the strength of the conviction that he is the only thing she has left to cling to in this world, and if he were to hurt her now, she would be completely shattered emotionally.

After what feels to him like an eternity (but in reality is a mere handful of moments), Orion manages to tamp down his animal urges, subsequently extricating himself from the warm weight of his wife's body and standing up from the bed.

"Get up. Get dressed." The words come out more sharply than he intended, due to his irritation with himself over his lack of control of his feelings.

"Your sister has always been a bit of a brat. Let her wait," Walburga protests, burrowing further under the covers. She doesn't seem bothered by his snippy tone, even though it is a rare occurrence for him to speak to her that way.

"You can stay upstairs if you don't want to see her," Orion says.

The overly gentle tone of this offer gets Walburga's hackles up.

"Don't be ridiculous," she snaps, throwing the blankets off and glaring at her husband. "Why should I not want to see her?"

"Well," Orion hedges, hesitating to cite her emotional fragility as his reason for assuming such a thing. After a moment he settles on: "We have been avoiding our entire family since our wedding, love."

She makes a dismissive gesture. "Our family in general is quite a different matter than Lucretia in particular."

Being cousins of the same age, Lucretia and Walburga were often pushed together at family gatherings as children, and after much forced interaction they learned to tolerate one another. The two girls were each others' closest friend during their years at Hogwarts, as well. While Lucretia was overall more social than Walburga, they both had abrasive personalities - although the manner in which Lucretia tended to get under one's skin was more subtle and less intentional than Walburga's brash outspokenness.

A timid knock comes at the door, and Orion realizes that the house elf is still standing there awaiting instructions. He hurriedly sends the creature away, telling it to attend his sister's needs while the couple make themselves presentable.

Lost in her own thoughts, Lucretia does not hear the footsteps approaching. When something furry touches her cheek, she lets out a startled cry and lashes out at the-

-fluffy toy unicorn?

Lucretia blinks to clear her sight. It seems the unicorn staring her in the face is, indeed, not an illusion. It takes her mind another few moments to notice that the toy is dangling from the hand of her second cousin/sister-in-law, who is leaning over her.

"What are you doing?" Lucretia asks, frowning. She looks pointedly at the stuffed animal, in order to ensure that the other witch takes her meaning.

"You fell asleep-" Walburga starts.

"I was not asleep!" Lucretia exclaims indignantly.

Walburga continues as if she had not been interrupted "-on the couch, and we were tucking you in."

Orion is standing awkwardly next to the couch upon which his sister reclines, holding a blanket.

Lucretia does not acknowledge her brother's presence as she weakly protests, "I wasn't asleep..." - while knowing full well that neither of them will believe her, even though it's true. "And it isn't as though I'm here to take a nap, anyway! I brought the pictures from your wedding, like you asked me to." The last bit is directed at Orion.

"Yes, and we're looking forward to seeing them," he replies placidly.

Walburga tries to hide her surprise at this pronouncement, having had no idea that the pictures even existed - much less that Orion had asked his sister to procure them. Even so, the stuffed unicorn slips from her grasp.

~to be continued~