The Darkness of a Night

Flames rose in the fireplace, flicking their light over the relative darkness of the living room where Ksenia found herself sitting like she had on more than one occasion after putting Cordelia to bed. A book about dragons rested in her lap, providing a source of knowledge for that particular evening. A page turned over and the witch’s composed gaze flicked over the words.

The school year has ended a few weeks ago and it was getting close to the point in the middle of summer. The dazed state that the Slushatel had found herself in during the first month of living with Cordelia and Silas was disappearing finally, replaced by a sort of calm that she hadn’t felt for years. It was strange to be experiencing such a feeling once again after all that she had been through. She welcomed it.

Now that the lessons and exams were over most of her time was spent in the house with Cordelia, getting to know the girl better and better every day. When she wasn’t focusing on her niece, the Slushatel focused on the house itself. The task of keeping the household in order was simple enough, something that her mother taught her how to do before she was killed. The orderliness of it was simple enough to follow when she was in school. Now though, especially after her meeting Tucker that had resulted in so much anger, there was an increasing want to return to some normalcy; to focus on some things that she was focused on before Silas had found her. The rest was very welcome by Ksenia and she felt grateful for what the Raske heir had done for her. The man himself was not seen that often in the house and he was absent at that very moment as well, working most likely. Another page was turned and the witch brought her attention from her musings back to the book.

The flames abruptly turned green then to admit said man into the room. Silas looked... well, quite bluntly, he looked singed. His hair certainly was on one side, the shell of his right ear clearly burned. Despite his appearance, the man seemed perfectly poised as he opened his mouth to issue a greeting.

Until he abruptly flinched, jerking his robes off over his head, followed by his tunic. A stream of invectives poured from his mouth, justifying the phrase 'talks like a dragon tamer' as he stamped on the smoldering fabric. Fire-retardant cloth was only so resistant to dragon's breath, after all.

"Bloody, ill-tempered beast!" Silas snarled, brushing a now-cold cinder from the back of his neck. "I told Zelenko to leave well enough fucking alone."

Kicking the ruined garments, he turned to Ksenia, the fury in his expression draining. "Seems I didn't duck fast enough," he offered by way of both greeting and explanation. The dragon tamer twisted his right arm around to examine the outside of his forearm, which was also burned.

"Accio dragon salve,*" he chanted, pointing his wand towards the corridor. Catching the container in his left hand, he sat, twisting the lid off and setting the open jar of red-orange paste on the coffee table. He summoned a lantern closer to better examine the slight damage done to his right hand. "Ruddy horntail... Someone should get that moron fired, already."




*Special burn salve for burns caused dragon's fire. Essentially, extra-strength burn salve

The changing colour of the rising flames made Ksenia's head snap up in surprise. the witch watched as a usually composed Silas took his clothes off in anger, her mouth open slightly in surprise. The witch's eyebrow rose as he offered a greeting though she stayed silent herself. Amusement flickered in her eyes very briefly before it was gone. The book was set aside calmly on the couch before Ksenia rose from her seat, clearly much more composed then the dragon tamer was at the moment.

"Mitzy!" she called out to the house elf, her voice rising only slightly.

A second later the elf popped into the room, her eyes wider than usual as she looked at the newly created mess.

"Take these clothes please and dispose of them," the Slushatel gave the instructions as she studied the garments for a few more moments to get a better picture of what exactly happened before they vanished along with the elf.

Only when the path was cleared did she approach Silas. "I take it that the day hasn't worked out that well for you," she murmured as she came to stand at his side, studying the burn marks. The witch frowned. There were a lot of scars that covered his skin. It was something that she had assumed he had but to see so many fresh ones did not bode well with the young witch. "Here, let me help," she said as she reached for the salve.

"It was fine until my coworker decided to piss off the Hungarian Horntail that came to the reserve last week," Silas remarked without any heat. "The man has absolutely no sense of how to handler dragons. I don't know how he made it through training - alive or otherwise. His head might as well be empty for all the sense he shows."

He turned in his seat so she could better reach his right side. "Get my ear and neck, first," he requested. "I'd rather they not scar, if possible. Everywhere else is less important.

"Thank you," Silas added.

"I never imagined it would be wise to piss off a dragon," Ksenia said as she gathered some salve onto her finger. She started on his neck, moving her fingers as gently as possible over the skin, making sure that the healing balm did not miss any of the burn. The Slushatel has studied healing in school so she was not a stranger to such tasks. "I can place a cooling charm on them after I am done if you want," she offered as she moved on to his ear, a look of pain crossing her own face for a brief moment. These tasks were completed with the calmness that was very usual to her nice. It always felt nice to be in his presence and there were very few things that surprised her now.

She sat herself down on the arm of the couch after finishing with his neck and ear to better examine his arm. Her eyes lifted to his face, being able to see it in this position. She did not ask any more question, going back to what she was doing. He was in enough discomfort as it was.

Silas scoffed. "Oh, he didn't do it intentionally. The man's just a moron," he pronounced. As her fingers made contact with his skin, the man flinched violently, dragging a hiss in through his teeth. His left hand gripped the arm of the chair as he stiffened in an unconscious attempt to continue ignoring the pain.

"Not necessary," Silas said. He was speaking through gritted teeth as he was suddenly finding it difficult to relax his jaw. "The... salve... has cooling properties." His eyes fell shut and he made no further move to speak while she continued to work. He did manage to relax minutely as she finished with his ear.

His arm was not as bad, as it had been mostly protected by his cloak when he lifted it to guard his head. His hand had fared the best, with only a slight burns across his pinkie and the edge of his palm. It still stung quite a bit, but the rest of his injuries were worse.

Ksenia worked as quickly as possible as she applied the salve. The burns created an ugly sight, getting rid of them as fast as possible would prevent any permanent damage. "There," she said as she leaned away from his arm finally, all visible injuries covered. "Are there anymore?" she asked as she rose from the seat and went to a table that stood closer to the window, filling a glass with water and carrying it back to Silas. Being exposed to such heat would have dehydrated him. She offered him the glass before taking a seat back she sat previously, her eyes still looking over him with concern.

"Would you like some food? Cordelia and I had pork roast for dinner," she informed him.

Silas released a brief, the taut muscles along her shoulders loosening. His jaw unclenched as he opened his eyes and he took silent stock of himself. "That should be all of them," he answered.

"Thank you." The man took the glass and made short work of the fluid it held. Noting her gaze resting upon him, he gave her a small smile. "No, thank you. I'm not hungry. I trust Cordelia has gone to bed?"

He reached for the book she had set aside. "And what is this you've been reading?"

Ksenia studied him without saying a word for a few more moments. The seamlessness with which he endured his injuries deserved some admiration, but the witch knew that she would have been disgusted by weakness shown as a result of pain. The harshness with which she now scrutinized the world around her proved to serve as a means to protect herself as well as finding people who she would actually enjoy spending her time with. Her respect for the man did not cease to grow the more she learned about him.

The Slushatel was brought out of her thoughts by his smile, the small smile that did not appear often. She returned it. "Yes she had. Not too long ago. I think she is starting to like the Russian fairy-tales," she responded to his question. The witch did not let her mind linger on the thoughts that begged her to see what their relationship was, to see that they were already behaving like a married couple in some respects. It was simpler not to think on those matters.

Gaze following Silas's hand as he took the book into his hand, Ksenia was reminded of what she was occupied with before his arrival. “It’s one of your books. It would have been a crime to ignore the knowledge that is stored in the house that you live in,” she said with a small smirk. The book that she had chosen for that night focused on the nature of dragons. “Fascinating, really. So many powerful creatures are barely heard about, always stay in the margins. Really illuminates how self-centred and ignorant some people are.”

Silas had opened the book and paged through it with the reverence of one familiar with the volume. His cramped notes crowded the margins in places, some passages crossed out and corrected by his hand.

"People in general are an ignorant breed," Silas stated agreeably, closing the book and setting it back down. "It's a good book. Not the most accurate in regards to the Hungarian Horntail, but most comprehensive on the Norweigan Ridgeback and Welsh Green."

The man leaned back casually in his chair, regarding her quietly for a moment. Then, he beckoned her with a hand. "Come here."

Ksenia's eyes stayed on him as she listened to him speak silently. What he said explained the amount of notes written in the sections that were not as accurate.

Talk was not something he was very interested in at that moment. It was understandable given his injured state, and so she didn't say a word, her gaze flickering over his burnt flesh once again as they sat in silence.

The blue orbs snapped to Silas's face upon hearing his request. She rose slowly from where she sat, not really knowing what to expect as she stepped towards him.

A flash of a mischievous smile passed over his features quickly enough to have been imagined, save for the impish gleam that remained in his eyes. In the next moment, he'd pulled her down to sit in his lap. He leaned with his elbow on the arm of the chair, his other hand lifting to trace her features with a sort of casual appreciation.

"It occurs to me," he stated, tone matter-of-fact and conversational, brown eyes tracking the movement of his fingertips, "that I have been neglecting you a bit. That was never my intention."

Ksenia's mouth opened slightly in surprise as she wass pulled to sit on the man's lap. A light blush made itself known on her cheeks before she could school her features.

During those long months when they have lived together it became easy not to think of this aspect of their relationship. Silas was a very attractive man and to say she was not happy to have him as her fiance would have been a lie. But when her mind drifted to any intimacies the two will share later, it became impossible to form coherent thoughts. So she simply focused on her task, the formality of the relationship helping to keep her mind from becoming a mush.

"Oh," was all she said in reply to his words at first. She sat on his thighs with a straight back though her posture was relaxed enough to show him that she did not mind the contact. "I really don't mind. We were both busy. There are a lot of things that need to be done." the logic of the statements was a good thing to be relying on at that moment. It was what she made herself do all the time when it came to Silas.

The witch’s eyes went to take a brief glance at his face though they paused there for longer than then intended when they registered the gleam in his own eyes. “You look far too amused,” she accused him lightly as her own eyes narrowed slightly, studying him. The witch didn’t deny the fact that she enjoyed his caresses like she always did, she enjoyed them very much, but the way that he went about such things with his high level of confidence while she was left feeling so disoriented, pushed her to at least voice a small protest.

"Of course I'm amused," Silas remarked easily. "Haven't we learned yet that I'm nearly always pleased with myself? I'm successful in my career, engaged to lovely girl - who blushes prettily when I tease her. Furthermore, I caught you entirely off-guard, now, didn't I?"

The man ran a hand over her hair, leaning forward to press a brief kiss to her cheek. "You're beautiful," he stated. "And you deserve to know that I notice."

"Well, of course," Ksenia agreed with his words, her expression almost becoming formal, yet amused at the same time. "You do have a lot of things going for you, don't you?" she questioned, looking directly at him.

"Hmmm, now that you say that, perhaps you do need to do this more often. Really, it's not very nice to catch people off guard like that," she reasoned. The witch always enjoyed talking to him and it was especially nice to talk in such a light member some of the times.

Her eyes closed for a few moments as he kissed her cheek. He had only kissed her once before, when he gave her the engagement ring, and from that day she had managed to learn quite a few things about his demanor when it came to such instances. "Is that the only thing you notice?" she raised an eyebrow as she voiced the question, her voice quiet and with a hint of amusement.

"Do I?" Silas queried. "And what fun is there in being predictable?"

He rested his head in one hand, gaze studying her once more, taking her question more seriously than most given the situation. His expression was inscrutable, betraying nothing of what was happening in his mind. Silas' free hand lifted, a knuckle gently trailing along her jawline. But although his focus was visibly on her feature, her appearance was not the only thing the man was taking into consideration.

Silas kissed her again, lips briefly brushing hers. Then, he lifted her up from his lap and stood, his playful demeanor grown serious once more. He leaned in to speak quietly in her ear. "It's not the only thing I notice," he answered. He headed towards the hall, pausing a moment in the doorway.

"Good night, Ksenia." Then he continued towards his room, stopping in to check on Cordelia along the way.

Ksenia sat there quietly as he studied her, gaze not wavering from his own. The witch remained still, fingers weaving together as they rested in her lap. In some part this side of their relationship seemed to be so complicated in one way, yet so simple in another.

Her gaze did not remain on his face for long, however, as he stroked her own once again. Eyes closing slightly, the witch relaxed her posture more, facial expression not changing at that time.

The kiss startled her slightly, though she knew that it shouldn't have. She did not have any time to contemplate than thought any further as his arms lifted her from his lap. Ksenia's lips finally parted slightly in surprise at that action. She gathered herself, more alert than she was before, arms wrapping around her frame under her chest as he departed.

Sharp eyes watched the man's back as he retreated. What was she to think of this. Such a quick dismissal was not something she had considered. A part of her was glad. It reminded her of the fact that this was by far not a normal or usual relationship and she was letting her mind sink into a relaxed state that did nothing to explore it further, to make something interesting of it.

"Good night, Silas," she replied to his words calmly. The witch's gaze turned to the flames as the door closed behind him. She remained there, standing still, letting the fire reflect itself in her blue orbs, before departing the room herself.