Knight in shirtless armor
It was bright, almost too bright. The light that had poured through the window since the sun rose had lit up the room so much that Cassie had buried her head underneath her pillow in hopes of being able to sleep off her headache. However, that didn't work. A muffled groan filled the room as Cassie moved her left hand towards her pillow before lifting it from her head. Her eyes fluttered open shortly before shutting them again as the bright light stung her eyes. She tried a few moments later, slowly, and after a few tries, her eyes found the watch on her hand. Shifting her hand slightly, she eyed the pointers trying to make out the time.
10.03 am, another groan filled the room, though this wasn't muffled. She had slept too long. Rabastan had most likely already eaten breakfast unless he had decided to wait for her, which made her feel even worse about the fact she slept in.
As Cassie let the pillow occupy the space next to her while she studied the ceiling, she thought for a moment before tensing up. How in the bloody name of merlin had she ended up in this room. The last thing she remembered was Rabastan saying that they would take their time and relax, and then suddenly, she was out like a light. Surely he couldn't have carried her up here. Of course, he could. He was fully capable of doing it, but why would he... To be nice? She asked herself. Because you might be uncomfortable sleeping on the couch, or because that's just who he is, a small voice answered.
Slowly she gathered both the strength and courage to sit up, letting the comforter fall of her upper body. Truthfully, if she had been the only person here, Cassie wouldn't have minded spending the whole day in the bed. It was, after all, much more comfortable than the one at the Lestrange manor. Her eyes went across the room, much like the rest of the cottage, it wasn't big, but it felt like home. A window on her left was decorated with white lace curtains. There was a light grey wool carpet on the floor, and in the far left corner, just by the window, was a rocking chair covered in a deep scarlet wool blanket. Against the wall on her right stood a beautiful antique dresser. It was short and didn't take too much space, which meant you wouldn't fit everything in it, but it was big enough to hold the most necessary things.
As she stood up from the bed, planted her feet on the cold floor, Cassie was rather tempted to just dive back under the covers, letting herself sub come to the warmth that still lingered there. She eyed her trunk as a shiver filled her and knew that it was best to get dressed in something warmer. The clothes from yesterday hadn't been the warmest, as a few hours worth of heat from the fireplace had warmed the living room up so much she had traded her knitted sweater for a thin jumper.
Clad in a pair of dark green woolen socks, pants, and her favorite black and white knitted sweater, Cassie made her way from her bedroom, down the stairs, through the small foyer, and into the kitchen where Rabastan stood occupied with the stove.
"Good morning." He greeted with a smile.
"Morning."
As his eyes returned to whatever it was that he was making, Cassie couldn't help but let herself be overtaken by curiosity. She stared curiously at the boy for a moment before moving towards him until she was on her toes leaning over his shoulder. "What's that?"
"What's that?" he chuckled, "Breakfast, of course."
Cassie rolled her eyes as she leaned against the stone wall. "What's for breakfast?" She tried again, eyeing the sausages he was turning.
"Food," Rabastan replied with a smug grin that did not go unnoticed by Cassie, who once again rolled her eyes while crossing her arms over her chest, trying to bite back the small grin that was threatening to appear.
"Merlin, arent you mysterious today." An almost teasing glint shone in her eyes, knowing he was just playing around with her. "But come on, what's for breakfast?"
"Food. Didn't you just hear me say that, or are you having problems with your hearing?"
A gasp filled the room as Cassie held a hand over her heart and feigned a wounded expression. "Problems with my hearing? How dare you Rabastan Lestrange?!" She gave him a stern glare to which he only lifted a brow while wearing the same smug grin. Holding his stare for a moment, Cassie eventually cracked, unable to keep up the facade. "But come on... I'm serious..."
"No, you're not... You're Cassie. I thought you knew that unless you have eye problems too." He laughed, watching her features as her jaw fell slack.
"Bloody hell.. you're terrible." She slapped his arm, causing him to laugh even harder, though she couldn't help but crack a smile herself. Shaking her head, Cassie gave him a playful stare as the two continued their banter.
"You know I'm only kidding, Cassia." While Rabastan laughed, Cassie couldn't help but freeze up and stare at him with anything other than surprise. Her eyes lingered on his face while he smiled, letting his laughter die down to soft chuckles.
"What did you just call me?" she asked quietly, uncertain if she had heard him right.
The chuckle died in Rabastan's throat as his ears darkened and his eyes suddenly found the oven much more interesting than the girl next to him. "What do you mean? I called you Cassie. Maybe you really should get your hearing checked," he laughed it off, trying to sound as if he hadn't accidentally called her by the nickname he had been going around within his head for a while.
"My hearing is just fine." She pointed a finger at him while she added. " You called me Cassia."
"No, I didn't." he quickly denied, his voice pitching slightly.
"Yes, you did."
"No i-" There was a long pause in which he opened his mouth a few times only to close it as if trying to test the words before he said them. "Okay, so maybe I did..."He admitted finally, "I've been testing out a few nicknames in my mind for a while now. I mean, everyone calls you Cassie or Cas. I just wanted my own nickname for you... If that makes sense. Look, if it's terrible, I won't say it."
Cassie couldn't help tilt the corner of her mouth up in a gentle smile. "What were the other options?"
"Erh... Cassio and Peia, though they didn't feel right." Rabastan rubbed the back of his neck, his eyes still boring into the pan.
She wasn't sure if she should be impressed or flattered, or maybe both, not because he had thought of three nicknames for her that wasn't Cassie or Cas, but because he had wanted to give her a nickname that was only his. Though truthfully, it took a great deal of her not to snort when she heard them. "Cassio sounds like something you would name your dog, and... well, I'd rather prefer Cassia over Peia."
"Sounds like a pea." She added, chuckling.
"So it's okay with you? You don't mind if I call you Cassia?" He asked nervously, finally gathering the courage to raise his eyes, letting them meet hers. For a moment, Cassie thought he looked almost terrified. As if she would ever get angry at him for giving her nicknames.
"I don't mind." She smiled sweetly before teasingly adding. "Rabbie."
Rabastan looked as if the name gave him literal feelings of pain as his features scrunched up in a grimace, and he lowered his head, pinning his eyes yet again at the food he was making. "Bloody hell." he groaned loudly, hearing her loud laugher fill the kitchen. His ears were burning while his face wore a shade of red that was slightly lighter.
"Oh god... I'm kidding.." Cassie tried to make out between her laughs. The expression he had made was so hilarious that it had almost brought her straight to the floor. "I'm kidding. I would never call you that. It almost sounds like a rabbit."
He looked at her again, not quite sure if he should believe her when it came to not calling him Rabbie, but he seriously hoped she wouldn't. The name made his skin crawl. Raising a brow skeptically, he couldn't help but let the ghost of a smile wash over his face as he watched her dry away the tears that had gathered in her eyes.
"I like it." She said suddenly. Her voice was filled with such sincerity that it made Rabastan raise his gaze once more. "Cassia." She said, testing the words on her tongue. " No one's ever called me that before."
"Really?" He asked, surprised.
She smiled brightly while giving him a soft nod. "Really." Moving her gaze, she eyed the pan once again, the question of breakfast still lingering in her mind. "But seriously, what's for breakfast? And please don't say food."
He cracked a smile at her pleading voice while moving the sausages from the pan to a plate. "You know, I'm almost surprised you didn't look at the table because if you had, then the answer would have been right in front of you. Literally."
Her brows furred while she gave him a confused look. Cassie turned around towards the table she had ignored when entering the kitchen, only to find it filled with several plates with different kinds of food. The amount of it almost made her head spin. There were omelets, pancakes, beans, toast, bacon, and boiled eggs.
"Are we expecting someone?" Cassie asked, looking at him strangely. "Because I'm pretty sure you've got enough food there to feed a quidditch team or two."
"I wasn't entirely sure about what you wanted. So I made a little bit of everything."
"I can see that." She said, eyeing the table once again, moving towards the fridge, pulling out a bottle of milk and one bottle of water. As she turned around, Rabastan waved his wand over the food, muttering a quick heating spell, making sure their breakfast wouldn't be cold.
"Here." Cassie sat the two bottles down where she could find room for them before ultimately pulling out a chair, sitting down herself. Locking eyes, the two gave each other a warm smile before starting to pile their plate with all sorts of food. She had been right; she thought while taking the first bite of the pancakes. There was enough food to feed an entire quidditch team. She couldn't help but close her eyes to savor the taste. "Holy merlin, this is good." She moaned, taking another bite.
A ridiculous grin made its way to Rabastan's face as he watched her. "Yeah?"
"Mhmm." Cassie nodded her head eagerly, taking yet another bite.
The two continued to eat in silence, sharing a few comments and small talk as they did. After the table had been cleaned and all the plates and dishes were newly washed, Cassie stood by the oven and made the two some coffee while Rabastan was adding more wood to the fire in the living room.
"Where did you learn to cook?" She asked as the question had lingered on her mind for quite some time.
"Believe it or not, not that long ago. When I bought this place, I knew that I had to learn how to cook unless I wanted to starve myself. So I bought a few cooking books and made a lot of food. The first week, I burned a lot of it, though it got easier over time." Rabastan confessed while he was kneeling in front of the fireplace, holding a log in his hand before ultimately throwing it in.
A soft smile reached her features as Cassie couldn't help but imagine him running around the kitchen fretting over the food he was making or rather burning. "I do have to say. I'm rather impressed. The food was delicious."
"Thanks." He mumbled softly, his hand rubbing the back of his neck while the tip of his ears turned red, obviously not used to the compliment. Throwing in the last log, he gave the flames a lingering gaze before raising himself up, moving over to the couch, and sitting down in the same place as last night. Just in time to catch Cassie's appearance in the door opening, with two mugs in her hand, she wandered over the floor in her socks, handed him his mug before grabbing a blanket with her from the chair next to him.
As she sat down on the couch, it didn't take long before the blanket was spread all over her, also making sure that it laid perfectly, so it covered some of Rabastan too. Sipping her coffee, Cassie let her gaze wander to the window. The sun was shining bright outside, making the white snow appear almost like diamonds as it lay glittering. As she sat studying the narrow view she had of the outside, a thought fell into her head, and she suddenly knew what she wanted to do that day.
"I want to go outside," Cassie said suddenly, drawing the attention of the boy next to her.
"Now?"
She shook her head. "Soon," she said while turning towards him with a smile. "I want you to show me around here."
He thought for a moment, then nodded. "We can do that. If you want to, we can pack with us some snacks and something to drink, if you don't mind going for a little walk." He suggested, raising his cup to drink from it.
"Sure, suppose it's a good thing we brought proper winter clothes then." A mischievous smile stretched on her face as her eyes lighted up. "Maybe we can have a rematch. "
Rabastan cocked an eyebrow amusingly while he stretched his right arm out, placing it on the couch behind Cassie. "Are you sure you're up for that? I don't think I have to remind you of last time, do I?"
The mischievous smile immediately fell from her face, as an almost dangerously fire appeared in her eyes. "Last time never happened. You cheated."
"I just did what I had to do. I take games very seriously. Besides, no one said anything about not using wands." He defended as his lips curled up in a smug smile.
"Yeah, well, no one said anything about using them either." She retorted, furring her brows in frustration. "You never even gave me a fair chance."
"Do you want me to give it to you now?" he offered, leaning closer to Cassie.
The air around them was filled with heavy tension as neither of them backed down. Cassie narrowed her eyes at him, had it been another time, she might have blushed at the double meaning behind what he had said, but the only thing she was capable of feeling that very moment was an intense urge to show him just who she was. "There is no bloody way you will be able to beat me."
"Want to find out?" He tested. His voice was low, and his eyes had darkened as he bore the same competitive gaze as she did. The two shared a final look before both of them bolted up from their seats, ran through the kitchen, up the stairs, and into their separate bedrooms.
Cassie immediately threw her trunk open and started rummaging as fast as she could, sighing with relief when finding her mittens and scarf. She laid them on the floor next to her hat and hurriedly pulled out some snow pants as well as a jacket. While changing her pants for a pair of warmer sweatpants, she lost her footing while jumping up and down, trying to hoist the pants on sooner, sending her flying straight on her back, hitting her head against the floorboard.
"Ouch.." Cassie groaned while raising herself up on her elbow as she laid one hand on the back of her head, where a sharp throbbing had appeared.
Suddenly the door burst opened as Rabastan, in all his shirtless glory, appeared. His eyes were full of worry as they landed on the girl. "What happened? Are you okay?" He asked while immediately hurried over and kneeled next to her. Even through her knitted sweater, Cassie could feel the warmth in his hand as it landed on her back, pushing gently so he was able to help her up in a sitting position.
"I'm okay. I just hit my head." She tried to reassure him while gently rubbing the back of her head.
"What happened?" he asked gently.
"Don't laugh, okay?" she met his warm eyes and couldn't help but feel her face starting to heat up. "I fell... while trying to get dressed... because I was hurrying and wanted to beat you out."
Rabastan just stared at her for a moment before his lips slowly curled up in a smile, and he started laughing.
"You promised you wouldn't laugh."
"I never promised anything." He chuckled, shaking his head at the situation altogether. "Maybe we should postpone the match until we know for sure you don't have a concussion."
"You're just afraid you're going to lose." She teased with a grin, though quickly groaned as a headache was starting to appear. "You're right, though, not quite sure if I wanna fancy a visit to st.mungos." Though I might already need one for other reasons, she thought to herself, willing her eyes not to wander any further down than to his chin.
"But thank you for worrying, my own knight in shirtless armor." She teased lightly, causing him to look down at himself as if first noticing now that he was completely bare from the waist and up.
"Oh... I didn't notice." He flushed, rubbing the back of his neck. Something she had learned over the last months he would do whenever he was nervous or flustered. Rabastan stood up from the floor and held a hand out for her. "Come on, why don't we take it a bit easy now and maybe go out later. But no snowball fights, okay?"
She sighed deeply while gazing up at him. "Fine, no snowball fights." Taking his large and warm hand in hers, Cassie couldn't help but widened her eyes in surprise when she felt her body being lifted up from the floor. As her face met his firm chest, she furred her brows in deep concentration as not to let her eyes wander to places she'd rather not, or actually, she did, want to see. The smartest thing would have been pulling away, but as she raised her gaze and met his, his thumb gently caressing the hand he was holding, the same warmth she had felt during Slughorn's Christmas party when she thought he was going to kiss her appeared.
She was so enthralled in his warm eyes that she barely noticed the grin that was slowly but surely growing on his lips.
"Did you hit your head that hard, or do you see something you like?" the teasing tone in his voice was clear as day while he looked down at her with amusement dancing in his eyes.
Cassie started coughing nervously, trying to cover up the fact that she, although she had desperately tried not to, had been staring. "Oh please, like that's going to impress me." She said cooly, though her mind was a complete and utter mess. Seeing the way he arched a single brow at her made her drop his hand so fast one would think he had burned her.
"I think I'm going to take a walk after all." She bent down, gathered her mittens and scarf in her hands before walking past him, only to remember the moment she stepped on the cold floor that she was barefoot. Turning around, she moved past him again, grabbing the pair of socks that laid on her bed.
"Do you want me to come with you?"
She stopped abruptly and turned to him, ready to decline, though quickly remembered that she was in an unknown territory, not to mention it was cold and snowy outside, along with the fact that her sense of direction wasn't all that great. "Eh... sure. But please put on a shirt first." Her eyes roamed quickly over his figure before the sound of Rabastan clearing his throat made her look up to the wide smirk that was lingering on his face. Feeling the familiar heating of her cheeks, she quickly stormed out of the room, desperate not only to get some cool air to calm her face but to get away from the half-naked man in her room.
The fresh air was most welcome when Cassie finally opened the door and took her first step outside. The sky was a brilliant blue with a few passing clouds that steered clear of the shining sun. Looking around, there was not a single soul, except for the few animals that might linger around this time of year. As she waited for Rabastan to get some proper clothes on, she took the time to study her surroundings.
On the right side of the house, though it was covered in snow, laid what seemed or at least appeared to be a small garden. Cassie couldn't be entirely sure until the snow melted, but a sudden giddiness filled her at the thought of being able to plant flowers. There wasn't a flower bed at her parents' house, and truthfully apart from herbology, she had never really tried gardening until her first summer at the Potters. Dorea had an immense love for plants which showed in the beautiful garden she spent most of her time in, and whenever Cassie was there, the two would always spend a few hours tending to the garden, while the two others, James and Sirius, were busy trying to come up with new pranks. She couldn't help but wonder, as she remembered how beautiful the garden at the Lestranges was, if Cerys spends some time tending to her garden personally or if she used magic. Though the thought of a casual clade, Cerys Lestrange, with her knees deep in the earth tending to flowers, seemed both almost impossible but yet not quite.
"It's colder than I thought." Rabastan buried his hands in his pocket when he came out of the entrance door. Feeling a cold wind tickling his face, he was immensely glad for the scarf wrapped around his neck.
When she turned around and set her eyes upon him, she truly couldn't help but think, well, at least you have clothes on now. A small part of her felt almost disappointed, and she wanted to slap herself repeatedly when she recognized it. Get your bloody head out of the gutter, Cassiopeia.
"You do know it's winter, right?" She laughed softly, watching as he gave her a blank stare.
"Did you just say the exact same thing I told you during our meeting in December? That time when your friends joined us, and you were going around without your winter coat?"
"You remember that?" She grinned while raising a brow, impressed by his memory.
"How could I forget? Your hands were like ice itself. I swear I don't think I've felt hands that cold before." Rabastan retorted. Truthfully the only reason he even remembered it, was not because of how cold her hands were, but because of the way her hands felt in his along with that sweet smile she had given him after accepting his jacket.
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad. If you want, I could always take off my mittens, lay my hands in the snow for a minute or two, if you want to relive that experience." She jokingly started to take off a mitten just to see what reaction he would have.
He grabbed onto her hand and immediately pulled the mitten from her knuckles and up to her wrist. "You are keeping these on."
Her eyes widened at the sudden tone in his voice. It was comforting but stern, almost like a mother to its child. Biting her lower lip, she couldn't do anything but nod, not trusting her own voice, at least not in a moment like this.
Suddenly as she stood looking up in his eyes with both his hands wrapped around one of hers, a small, almost unnoticeable white dot floated down right in front of Cassie's eyes. It continued to float in gentle movements until it landed on their joint hands.
"Look." The sound of Rabastan's voice caused Cassie to raise her gaze from their hands. The moment she looked up, she met the sight of thousands, if not millions, similar white dots falling graciously from the sky. They floated back and forth, swirling around as if they were dancing around each other. The way they descended seemed so magical it almost made Cassie wonder if this was a dream.
"It's snowing." She whispered softly. The snow fell around them quietly, and as it floated and danced in the sky, she couldn't help but let her eyes drift back to the dark-haired boy in front of her. No... boy wasn't quite the right word. She knew boys. They could be immature and selfish. The one standing in front of her certainly wasn't like that. He was no boy. He was a man. A quite beautiful man too, she thought, watching his warm eyes lingering on the falling snow, the tip of his nose turning a soft red from the cold, and a gentle smile making its way to his face as he lowered his eyes to hers. As he smiled at her, she didn't even bother fighting the smile that made its way to her face.