Sabastion's House Chapter One

A simple classic little cottage with an over run garden located in an older neighborhood of Athens.



The city edge where the hospital gave way to suburban houses after a block or two, a left, then a few more blocks and the trees on the city edge were starting to be visible just past the houses which became more stone than wood. Driveways became scarce, fences became lower, more spread out. Manicured lawns became dotted with trees, shrubs, and the occasional flower bushes or fence side gardens. The sidewalk was a little imperfect but far from abandoned.

Sabastion waved to a couple of elderly people who passed them on the way across the street, a little old lady with a small happy dog and a man with peppered hair checking his mail box. It was about a block into this neighborhood that Sabastion stopped by the gate to a stone cottage among a few others. The garden was starting to become just a little over grown, but the grass was well kept and the home clean, if old. He gave Emily another tiny movement of his lips, something like an embarrassed smile, before he opened the gate and motioned for her to enter first before he stepped in and closed it, heading to the door to open it for her. "There are three rooms," he explained. "Although.. I guess you would say two? As one is mine-" He slid a key into the well oiled lock and opened the door, letting her step inside first. "New beds and bedding, recently painted and empty furniture and closets. It is perhaps.. small? I am sorry for that. I know many prefer more open homes-" The home had a small entry way with an ornate set of steps that led upstairs, perhaps a bit narrower than usual but there was a well kept dark wood railing. A door to the right led to a tidy, traditional little dining room complete with a table for four and a china cabinet, the left led to the living room with leather and similar dark wood furniture. The floors were would but large area rugs had been laid down to reduce echo and provide comfort. A door at the end of the entry way hall, just to the left of the staircase led outside to the backyard, judging by the light pouring through the stained glass. "My room is upstairs to the left. There is one upstairs to the right. A shared bathroom upstairs and around the landing to the left- so, past my room. There is another half bath- shower but no tub- off the kitchen-" He motioned toward the back door and to the right. "Other room-" He motioned to the back and to the left." No door to the living room, so private. Window open to the garden, it is nice."

Emily tried to listen to Sebastian as he explained the layout of the house at the same time that she was trying to look it over for herself. She took a few steps into the dining room and kitchen, peeked into the living room and then to the garden outside. She smiled. She had never been a fan of bigger houses. In fact, she liked very much how quaint this one was. It was only what he needed and not much excess. She wandered back to the stairs and looked at him with another bright, blue-eyed smile. "I love it! It's so cozy!" She said sincerely. "Can I go upstairs and see the room?"

Thinking his home rather unimpressive, Sabastion was a little stunned by her enthusiasm. He could only nod and motioned to the stairs, indicating she could go upstairs to look around and, once she was headed up, he followed after at an appropriate distance. He didn't think she would do anything strange, but he didn't know Emily on a personal level yet. The room to the right was simple, a full bed draped in cobalt blue and silvers, a few matching decorative pillows. A thick charcoal rug and powder gray walls. The bed footer and head, the desk and chair, wardrobe and small night stand were all a nearly black wood, less reddish than the other wood of the home. It had a small window but it over looked the backyard and the wooded area that started at the end of his lawn, just past a short stone wall. His own room was pale cream and whites with pine colored furniture. It was much the same as the other room, though a little smaller and had a few paintings and medical drawings hung up, an alarm clock on the night stand and a laptop and a few papers on the desk. The bathroom at the end of the small landing held a cobbled floor, except the floor of the large glass shower which had a slate stone interior, a copper toilet, marbled sink pillar with copper fixtures lay below an iron framed mirror that hid a recessed medicine cabinet. Sabastion did not follow her, instead half sitting, half leaning on the sill of the small window on the landing, just wide enough for him to do so. He had let it open and the warm breeze and sun felt good on his back as he allowed his potential new room mate to explore.

Emily roamed the house with big eyes, taking in the colors and textures of every room. His room was more conservative with the pale colors than the second room, which was darker. Neither room seemed her pace, though. She was all too impressed with the bathroom though, and was smiling widely by the time she returned to him. "You said this was a three-bedroom house? Can I see the third bedroom?" she asked, tilting her head. She was surprised, really; she had expected a man of Sebastian's education and personality to have a fine study somewhere in the house. She'd yet to see one, and wondered if maybe that's what the third room contained.

He regarded her quietly for a long moment, as if thinking on something, but in the end he nodded. "Yes, but it will need work if you prefer it," he explained, then stood from the sill and led the way back downstairs, around the staircase, and toward the back door. At the end of the hall to the left, just before the backdoor, there was another bedroom door. He placed his hand on the handle then looked at her again before actually opening the door.

Inside was a room lit a little brighter than the upstairs ones, most likely due to the small bay window that let in more light than the others. It was cracked open to let in the sound of birds outside and the light breeze carried in the smell of flowers from the garden. The room itself was larger than upstairs as well. There was a full bed but with an intricately carved headboard that made it seem grander than upstairs and it was draped in soft blankets and pillows of ivory colors and finely detailed floral and vine prints. There was a large desk at one wall as well in a deep cherry oak that, despite being dark, did nothing to darken the room. The walls, what was visible of them, was simple wood paneling, a door similar to the one they entered, albeit narrower, led to a small walk in closet with a sort of vanity in it to check one's appearance, the floor covered in a thick white rug. The majority of the walls, however, were covered from floor to ceiling in massive bookcases, filled with books. No gaps were visible. Near the window was a small table with a fine vase of flowers on it and a comfortable looking plush chair, perfect for reading. Sabastion merely stood aside and allowed her to look around.

Emily slowly stepped into the room, her smile melting off her face and into an entirely different expression of awe. Her big blue eyes took in the room, soaking in the sunlight from the bay window, the bookshelves stacked to the brim with literature, and the bed and desk and everything else in the room. She stepped into the space and did a slow turn, taking in everything she could. "Wow," she breathed, and felt her heart flutter. She was absolutely in love with this room. She looked at Sebastian, her cheeks glowing. "Can I have this one? Is this the room you're renting? Or was it the one upstairs? Does it matter? I will pay whatever you ask," she said, even though that last statement was strained. Rent was never easy for her, but she could manage if she squeezed in a few extra shifts at her other job.

Sabastion just shook his head, waving his hand at her again. "I haven't even begun to think of rent. I own this home, it is only utilities I concern myself with. That much I would ask that you split with me, since I am sure we will use approximately equal. If you like this room..." He looked around at it again, his face soft and a little distant, but after a moment, he looked at her again and gave a short nod. "You may have it. Will you need to change anything? I would like to take a few books out. And, when would you be choosing to move in? I only considered this today so I'm afraid I'm not exactly any more prepared than you are for this stroke of luck."

Emily couldn't contain her squeal of pure joy, and bounced on her toes in place for a few seconds before she quickly said, "Well, I have to give my former roommate notice, but I can free up my schedule and be moved in by tomorrow! I can go pack right now!" she said eagerly. She really didn't have many things of her own outside of what she needed for school. Even her furniture had been borrowed from a friend and it was all in poor condition. "I mean," she quickly amended, "would that be okay? Or is that too soon for you?"

Sabastion gave her a one shouldered shrug where he leaned against the door frame, arms crossed over his chest. "Beds were made to be slept in, homes meant to be lived in. I think it is too long for this house to have only me for company." He gave her a tiny quirk of the lips again before stepping out of the room and meandering for the front door again. "I need to sleep, obviously, but if you need any help-" He stopped by the door where there was a little pad of paper and a pen on a very small table, wrote his number down, folded it in half, and handed it to her. "Please, call me. And while you are here, and still in school, you are welcome to ask anything. For your company, the least I can do is offer tutelage if you should need it."

Emily seemed frozen as she reached to accept the paper with his number scrawled on it. She stared at him. Now he was not only her idol, her coworker, and her roommate, but he was offering to tutor her, too?! She might just die of shock. She blushed and managed to stammer out an exuberant, "Th-thank you!" as she took the paper from him and hugged it to her chest. Symmetrically, she realized she should give him her number, just in case her clumsy luck managed to lose his from her possession. She ripped the page in half where it was mostly bare and used a pen from the nearby desk to write out her own number, along with her name in rather attractive cursive. She offered it to him. "Just in case," she blushed with a smile.

"I think this is the first time a woman has offered me her number," Sabastion commented idly as he took the piece of paper, looked it over, his eyebrows going up at the delicate handwriting, before he tucked it away in his pocket. It was only then that he offered her something that might have been a grin. He had made a joke. "Do you want to leave those here?" he asked, motioning to the items in her arms she had brought from the hospital. "Since you'll be back?" His brain caught up with his words then and he frowned apologetically. "Unless, you don't trust me yet. I would understand that."

Emily's cheeks darkened but she smiled at his joke. When he offered to let her leave her things there, she glanced down at them, and then at the desk against the wall. She nodded at him gratefully and moved to set them down on the desk's surface. "Thank you," she said again sincerely, returning to him with only her purse and phone now. She bounced a little on her toes. "I know you said you need to sleep... but I feel like we should celebrate somehow!" she peeped. "Can I buy you dinner tonight? Just strictly as new roommates, of course, nothing too personal," she added in a rush of words.

"Your phone number and dinner?" Sabastion said skeptically. His mouth didn't change but his tone spoke volumes about his joke. He shook his head. "How about I take you to dinner? For saving me the bother of putting out the ad and vetting people, and potentially inviting someone I have nothing in common with to occupy my home." He sighed, the gesture a little dramatic. But he was Dr. Panas, he would never do something so silly. "I would rather stay alone." Had he just said he liked her? That was a round about way to say it but yes, he supposed that was what had just happened.

The subtle translation was not lost on Emily, and she shyly pushed a strand of dark hair back from her face and behind her ear. She smiled up at him and nodded. "Okay... I would like that. How about we meet at Sophie's tonight, after you're done sleeping? You can call or text me when you wake up?" she offered politely.

It was only then that Sabastion gave her another of his rare smiles. It was small, but it was charming, almost like happiness peeking through a flower bush. "I look forward to it," he said, leaned past her, and opened the door to allow her out. "I will see you tonight at Sophie's then, Emily."

Emily had shrunk back shyly when he'd leaned into her, and then passed her to open the door. It had taken her a moment to realize that's all he was doing was showing her out. She blushed deeply and cleared her throat with a sheepish laugh, then nodded and stepped outside. "See you tonight! Sleep sweet!" she called, then turned and hurried down the walkway to the sidewalk and back towards the city. She was giddy. It's not a date, it's not a date, it's not a date, she told herself mentally, but still couldn't help but be excited.

Only after Emily was out of sight did Sabastion gently close the door. He turned and leaned back against it, letting out a long breath through pursed lips. Where was Sophie's? He had never been there before. Well, he supposed it should come up on maps if he searched it, or someone could direct him if he walked into town. Had he ever had someone in this home before? No, he had a few friends but always met them elsewhere. And Emily of all people! .... He needed to sleep. Now. He was too tired to think about this right now. He locked the door and made his way up the familiar stairs to his room. The only thing he did before simply passing out on his bed was add her number to his phone, took off his shoes, shirt, and belt, then promptly fell asleep on top of his bed.

---

It was early afternoon, judging by the shaft of light streaming through the window, when the twinkling ring of Sabastion's phone disturbed his sleep. Once, woke him, but he didn't open his eyes. Twice, his eyes opened and he looked around blearily for the little device. By the third he found it on the night stand, checked the name, then pressed the little indicator on the screen to answer the call.

"I'm so sorry, midnight shift. How are you doing, Jade?" His voice was a little rough around the edges with sleep and he idly rubbed a finger at the corner of his eye to clear the sand. Despite being tired, his concern for his friend was genuine. Jade didn't call him often, but no matter the reason his greeting was almost always identical.

"I'm sorry to have woken you, Sebastian. I wouldn't have called if this wasn't important." There was a soft clicking noise that made Sabastion suspect she had tucked it between her head and shoulder. He had seen her do that before with phone calls, perhaps once or twice. "I haven't slept more than, probably 8 hours in the past week or more... I don't know what to do. I need sleep. Please is there anything that you can do?"

Sabastion sighed and shifted his legs to sit on the edge of the bed, rubbing his hair which made it stick up worse than his nap had. He thought about her statements a moment before he answering. "I'd need to know more before I could be of any help. Have you changed your eating habits? Your activities or schedule? Have you had undue stress at work or with family? Are you pregnant?" Unlike most people, Sabastion didn't seem to have the same sense of taboo for some questions as others might. He was clinical, but not uncaring. He stood and quietly padded his way downstairs to the kitchen to make some tea. Might as well go ahead and get up. "When you do sleep, are you having some sort of night terrors?"

There was a pause before Jade answered. He supposed she was thinking. "Well... I have been having bad nightmares lately. Which... really makes it hard to sleep or not want to go to sleep." There was a heavy sigh. "If you had them you wouldn't want to shut your eyes either."

Sabastion hummed thoughtfully, pausing in grabbing the kettle to instead lean back against the counter, more in his head now than seeing the room around him. Without an examination, without tests, he couldn't safely assume anything. Perhaps things she could do at home then? "There are a few things you could try... exercise to tire yourself, being overly exhausted can lead to dreamless sleep. You could also try keeping a journal. Writing down what is on your mind and working through it with your waking mind can help alleviate bad dreams as well. If it was a matter of not feeling tired I could prescribe something but night terrors... that's something else entirely. Is anything going on? Anything troubling you in your day to day life?" He wasn't a psychologist of course, but everyone knew that dreams were usually a result of thought processes, with a lesser amount caused by chemical balances (or imbalances, as the case may be).

"I usually work out at night... I guess I could workout harder." There was a pause. "Aside from these dreams no. You know me I normally don't sweat the small stuff. I've been a little less chipper because of lack of sleep... I've got a few new guys on my team but they are awesome." Another pause. "Mmm come to think of it... I haven't heard from Archer in a while and that kind of worries me. I guess I just hadn't realized it."

"It is sometimes the things we forget that bothers us the most... It is worth a try I suppose. Perhaps call him, or email him? I'm not sure the best way you get in touch with him. You'll let me know if it helps, right?"

"Of course I will. We'll have to sit down and have lunch some day and catch up. But for now I'm going to let you get back to sleep. Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it."

Sabastion nodded, but realized she couldn't see it. "You are always welcome, I look forward to our next meeting. And Jade-" But she was already saying goodbye, so he frowned instead. "Alright, I will talk with you later. Good bye." The call disconnected and he tucked his phone into his pants pocket, shaking his head. He'd tell her later. He looked outside at the sun, sighed and shook his head, then grabbed the tea kettle to start some hot water before looking for his tea infuser. He'd have a cup and check some emails, then get ready for dinner- The spoon he was going to use to scoop loose tea clattered on the counter. Dinner! Emily! He noticed what happened and quickly picked up the spoon again. He was going out tonight! That's right... and she was going to live here- Live here! The morning came rushing back into his head, providing multiple bits of information. He looked at the now open door to the room she would occupy. He would move books while he took his tea then, instead of emails. It was better to be ready for her move tomorrow. He sighed, trying to calm his nerves, and returned to scooping the tea. She was just a person, a medical student he knew. Why was he getting nervous? What was he, a child?

As Sebastian was preparing his tea, and while his phone was still warm from the last phone call from Jade, it started to buzz in his pants pocket all over again. This time, however, the name on his screen was Emily's. Emily waited nervously on the other line, tapping her foot on the sidewalk and chewing her lip.

Sabastion had just placed his infuser in his cup when he felt his phone again. Frowning, and curious, he pulled it out to see who it could possibly be. Seeing the name though, his eyebrows rose slightly in surprise. It was only mid-afternoon. He didn't expect a call until almost evening. Nonetheless, he picked up on the second ring and held it with one hand while the other put away the tea things. "Hello, Emily," he greeted in his typical calm tone. "Is something the matter?"

"Hello, Dr Pan- um, Sebastian," Emily said quickly and added, "Yes, er... No... Well, kind of. I didn't know who else to call..." Her voice grew quiet a moment before she took a breath and quickly explained her predicament. "after I left you, I went straight back to leave a notice to vacate for my roommate, like I said I would, but he wasn't home. I did as much packing as I could and then took a break and went to the beach for a while.. Well, my roommate came home while I was gone and saw my notice and I guess he's either really angry, or really happy that I'm leaving. Either way... He put all my things out on the sidewalk and forced me to give back my key..." Her voice broke a little at the end, the telltale sign of incoming tears, but she held them at bay.

Sabastion frowned into his phone, thought on it a moment, but seemed to decide he didn't really see a problem. "So you are moving in today?" he asked. It seemed more of need for confirmation than an actual question. "Are you alright for the moment? I will need to get dressed before I can rent a truck to move your things- Ah, or did you have someone in mind to help you move? I apologize, I assumed we would need to rent a truck but I did not confirm if that was the case." He glanced at the room again. Well, that would be alright. He could simply move the books after her things were here. That should be alright.

"If you don't mind, I would like it very much of you allowed me to move in today, Emily sniffled on the other line. "Oh, but I don't expect you to pay to rent a moving truck for me. I don't really have many things... I'll figure something out." She thought of Luke. He worked on a farm, so surely he had a truck, right? Oh, but she didn't have his number. She sniffed again. It wasn't like her to feel so defeated and sad, but this ex roommate of hers had really done her in this time.

"It's no trouble," Sabastion replied as he turned off the kettle and wandered into the room to start taking a few books off the shelves to set them on the bed for moving later. "Do you have anything large? Furniture? If not, I will simply bring my car. I will need your address- Your old address, I suppose, so I know where to pick you up. Unless you are uncomfortable with that?" He turned a book he picked up around to double check the spine. Then paused, thinking about her tone. "Emily, there is no need to worry. At least it is not raining."

There was another soft sniffle from her end of the line. "You're right," She said, and her tone sounded a bit brighter already. He was right, after all; it could be worse. "your car should work fine... I only have a few boxes. I'm so sorry for the trouble. I'll pay for dinner tonight, I insist." She just hoped she had enough money to last her until the end of the week after the fact.

"It's no trouble," Sabastion assured her and set one last book on the bed before heading out of the room and back upstairs. "What is the address? I'll get dressed now and head over. And Emily, please, do not worry. This is a difficult situation for you, I have no trouble with helping. For now, please accept my assistance and we can worry about balance in the future." He set the phone to speaker and set it on the dresser as he pulled out a navy blue t shirt to put on.

"Alright," Emily said with a slightly wider smile, though she still felt guilty. She gave him her ex roommates adress, something about Parthenon Way, and finished with, "I'll be sitting outside... Trying to get my things in order." Not all of her things had been in boxes yet, but not even those things had been spared from being thrown outside.

"I will be there soon," Sabastion promised and hung up the phone. He didn't see a need to say goodbye when he would see her in just a few minutes. After a quick change into jeans and some shoes he grabbed his phone again and headed downstairs to grab his keys, lock his door, and get his car. He didn't drive every day, but he did it frequently enough to see friends across the city and so the black hatchback was well maintained, if a bit more room than he really felt he needed. He was glad for the extra space today though as he started it up and headed down the drive to find Emily.

---

Emily was mostly quiet during the ride back to Sebastian's house. But the farther from her old place of living they went, and the closer to her New one they came, the more her mood improved and her appearance brightened. She didn't even seem to mind her scratched fingers anymore. She sat forward in her seat and smiled at the sight of the old house, feeling a rise of butterflies in her stomach. He had said "let's go home" before they had left, and she was excited by that idea--this was her home. Not an apartment, not a spare room in her parents' house or with a friend, but a place that actually felt like home. She looked at Sebastian from her seat and her smile broadened. She was living with her idol from this day forward.

Sabastion glanced over at her and, seeing her expression, did a double take with his eyes. "I'm ethically required to inform you if you keep smiling that wide your face will split in half," He took up his usual space on the street near his home and turned off the vehicle, giving her one last sideways look and a bit of a raised eyebrow before he got out. He walked up to the house and opened the door wide before coming back to help her unload the car. "Is there anything that will need taken somewhere other than your room?"

His comment about her face splitting in half bribed a shy laugh from Emily, but her expression lessened out of embarrassment. Her cheeks were still red when he came back to help her unload the car. She shook her head. "Just bedroom and bathroom things," she explained, hoisting two boxes up into her arms, one stacked on top of the other. She trudged towards the house and inside without incident, carefully bending to put the boxes down on the floor at the end of the bed. She paused when she noticed a few books stacked on the bed, the ones he'd pulled down earlier before he'd left the house, and took a moment to read their titles.

Most of the books were texts ranging from basic to expertise. Their subjects varied from children's books to specialist books on child psychology, from cookbooks and books on nutrition to a book recording the most contagious and damaging diseases. There were a few on various cancers and a couple of books documenting real accounts of myths and fairy tales. There was just over a dozen in all.

"I am sorry," Sabastion said as he entered with one of her larger boxes and carefully placed it on the floor near the desk. "I meant to carry them upstairs." He reached across the bed to start gathering them in tidy stacks so they would be easier to carry, not making eye contact. "I left in a bit of a hurry..."

Emily had been thoroughly interested in a few of the books he was currently gathering up, and her blue eyes flicked up to his face innocently. After a moment, she said, "May I borrow a few of them sometime?" She tilted her head almost cutely. She pointed at the books about diseases and cancers and smiled. As strange as it might have seemed, she genuinely enjoyed reading medical fact and research texts. Her own medical encyclopedia was still sitting on the desk top, where she'd left it earlier that morning.

Sabastion looked up at her with a questioning look but, seeing she was genuine, he gave a little nod. "Yes. You may read any of the books you like," he added and motioned to the shelves around them which were filled with dozens of medical texts, with a few dictionaries for terms or books and supplementary books on religions. "Excuse me, I'll be right back." He gathered the two stacks of books he had formed carefully in his arms, then left the room to drop them off in his bedroom before he would return downstairs and continue carrying her things inside.

Emily had watched him leave with the stacks of books curiously. Despite that he'd said yes to her request to borrow the books sometime, his response hadn't seemed to mean the books he was currently holding--the ones she specifically asked to borrow. She looked at the other books on the shelves and wondered if the ones he'd taken out had some sort of special meaning to them. She chewed her lip as she pondered this, working at the splits in her lip that were already there. She broke from her daze when he returned and she blinked herself back into methodically emptying a box of bathroom items, carrying them to the desk to be put away later. Once all of her boxes and things were in her room, she gave him a genuinely grateful smile. "Thank you again for your help, Sebastian. I couldn't have done it without you."

"I think you are a strong person, Emily. I think you could have," the doctor replied, giving her a fond look before he lifted a hand and pointed to hers. "Let me take care of that for you." He left the room briefly, apparently going to the bathroom off the kitchen, and returned with a small first aid kit. He opened and unfolded a disinfecting wipe, holding it in one hand as he held out his free one for her damaged one, his "doctor expression" firmly in place.

Emily had forgotten all about her hand on the way here and during their time unpacking her things from the car. She sat on the bed and swung her legs, waiting for him to come back with the first aid kit. His expression was so serious as he held his hand out to her that it actually made her smile. He was a fantastic doctor, and it was one of the traits she admired about him the most. She slid her thin, pale fingers into his hand delicately. The scratches were anything but clean cut, running in jagged, uneven lines from the insides of her index finger to her ring finger. One of the teeth on her old house key had obviously been a bit sharper than the others. Dried blood outlined the cuts, making them look worse than they really were, and speckled her skin in reddish-brown smears. She watched him closely as she allowed him access to her wound. Her cheek throbbed, but she tucked the hair from that side of her face back behind her ear.

"You're lucky," Sabastion commented as he accepted her hand, his own touch surprisingly gentle. Something about the way he held her hand, though, said she was not going to be able to flinch away. That probably came from experience. "It doesn't appear you will need stitches, though you may have light scarring." His eyes shifted slightly indicating he was looking along the pale skin of her hand and arm. "At least they won't be too visible," he assured her, giving her that little quirk of his lips again, this time more out of comfort than amusement. He held up the sterilizing wipe, so she knew to relax and not be surprised, then set about with deft movements cleaning the dried smears from her hand and making sure the mostly closed wounds wouldn't become infected. He was perhaps a bit more thorough than was absolutely necessary, but finally he set aside the wipe to be thrown away and picked up a few bandaids and began applying them to her fingers. He might not have said as much, but he had been thoughtful enough to use the clear strip bandaids which would be less visible on her than the 'skin tone' ones typically used. "There," he finished, the hand holding hers giving one last gentle, indulgent brush of his thumb over the protection before he finally let go of her hand. "Your cheek-" He paused, having tried to reach out to her cheek again but, remembering her earlier flinch, he stopped his hand and lowered it back to his side. "How is the pain? On a scale of one to ten. From what you have said I am certain it is only a surface bruise but it's better to be cautious than to miss a fracture of the sinus cavity..."

Despite a hiss between her teeth at the pain of the chemicals from the antibacterial wipe, Emily had remained perfectly still for Sebastian while he cleaned and bandaged her fingers. She had very much enjoyed the feel of his hands on hers--firm, unyielding, yet gentle and reassuring. Her stomach was doing flips into her throat by the time he'd finished. A whimper almost escaped her when he released her. She cleared her throat instead, her face red, and didn't look at him when he asked about her bruise. "I don't think I've broken anything," she commented softly. "It just... throbs. About a three--noticeable, but tolerable." she mumbled. She raised her big blue eyes to his from under her long lashes and dark brows, and said, "Do you still want to feel my face and make sure..?"

Sabastion nodded and raised his hand, holding it there as he watched her expression. "With your permission," he said carefully and, when she didn't resist, he reached out to her face, fingers brushing feather light across the skin of her cheek to her ear, holding her hair back as his thumb very carefully felt out the area around the bruise, marking her reactions, stopping the moment it hurt her, judging by nothing more than a twitch of her eye as the indicator, feeling for any shift under the skin. He only seemed to encounter some mild hardening though. "The bruising is deeper than I thought..." he remarked quietly as he felt her cheek, the words almost a whisper from where he had leaned down a bit to get a closer look at the colors blossoming on her cheek. "I don't think it damaged the skeletal structure, which is good news... We'll need to watch it for a few days, let me know if the pain gets worse, but I think you are okay..."

Emily was holding her breath. He had leaned in close, and she had not wanted to offend him if her breath smelled bad, but also, he was just... so close. She could see the different shades of his irises and the freckles on his face. His hands had that same reassuring but unwavering grasp on her face. Her face reddened and she sat back after he finished his assessment, dropping her gaze again and starting to chew her lip between her teeth. "Okay," she said softly, her lip never leaving her teeth. It was already scarred from where she'd bitten down too hard once, the little strip of white brighter when her lip stretched under the pressure of her bites. "Thank you, Sabastion."

Sabastion didn't seem to notice the thanks. Instead, he was frowning down at her, having straightened from his examination. Without hesitation, his hand touched her face again, a gentle touch to the forehead, a gentle touch of fingers. then palm, then the back of his hand. He was feeling for a fever. "Your face is very red," he explained simply. "Are you feeling warm? Do you have head pain?" He paused, then removed his hand, giving her a critical look. "Emily, please don't do that." A single look at him showed what he was looking at. Her lips. He actually did that a lot, thinking back. "Are you nervous? Stressed?" He paused again, then took a half step back and leaned on that foot so he moved slightly away from her. "Am I stressing you? I did not mean to make you uncomfortable."

Emily's eyes widened and she straightened up at his intense questioning. His interrogation about her feverish symptoms only caused her blush to darken, until the tips of her ears were pink. She shook her head though when he moved to step back and actually stood from the bed. "N-no-!" she started to say. The strap of one of her sandals had caught under the opposite foot, and she yelped as she fell forward against him, her hands groping for purchase on his arms and shirt.

To say he was surprised probably would have been an understatement. Well, perhaps not surprised, but startled. He already knew Emily was a bit- a lot- clumsy. When she stood he had immediately made to take a step back to put a little space between them, but he didn't make it. Instead he found his arms reflexively catching her around the middle to keep her from falling further, his footing surprisingly steady. Once he was sure she was steady, he helped her to her feet again. It was only after a long moment he realized he still had her wrapped in his arms, his hands flat on her back. Careful not to startle her again, he slid his arms away to release her, but only once he was sure she wasn't going to try any sudden movements. "Ok.." he said carefully. "Alright, there is no need to... Well, that is, calm down?" He wasn't even really sure what that reaction had been.

As soon as her feet were steady under her, and he was pulling his arms away from around her, Emily stood herself up straight. She kept her eyes down and said profusely, "I'm so sorry! That... it was an accident, I didn't meant to... um... invade your space... I'm sorry." She felt like a fool now. He had seen her hurt herself a few times already, and he knew how clumsy she was, but she had almost hurt him this time, and she felt horrible about that. She had, however, been grateful that he'd caught her. And his arms had felt rather nice around her... She shook her head. "Thank you for catching me... Um... I'm gonna go shower and get ready, if that's okay? Unless you don't want to go to dinner anymore.. that's fine, too. I understand. You must still be tired. I'll leave you alone." she said quickly, turning away from him and starting to dig for some clean clothes. She was still wearing her shorts and white t-shirt and bikini from her trip to the beach. She was sweaty and dirty and wanted to shower anyway. She felt sick with her slip-up though.

Sabastion tried to speak several times, but she kept talking. He decided it was best to just wait until she was finished and so there was a long pause after she was done before he spoke. "You'll make me dizzy, talking like that," he commented. "And there's no need to apologize so much, you didn't do anything wrong. You just tripped. I am just glad you didn't fall and hurt yourself again. If you decide you still wish to go to dinner after a shower, I will be in upstairs. I would.. be very glad, to go with you." He seemed to debate if that was how to say it, but in the end, he just nodded and left the room. She obviously needed space. He had to be making her uncomfortable. And so, while she showered, he headed upstairs to put the books he had brought to his room in an appropriate place.

Emily waited until he was gone from the room to deflate, letting out a heavy sigh through her pursed lips to relax herself. She had fumbled so badly. How did he ever take her seriously? She rubbed the redness from her face and then grabbed some clean clothes and her makeup and other shower necessities, taking them into the bathroom downstairs. The shower was small in there, but she didn't need a whole lot of space to get clean. She took her time in the shower, starting off with scalding hot water first, and then colder water second to bring herself back around. She stood with her face under the water for a few minutes, admiring the cold on her skin. Feeling clean and refreshed now, she dried and dressed quickly, and applied the few layers of makeup she wore regularly--almost imperceptible face powder, a bit of concealer though she didn't really need it, and some eyeliner. She remembered his comment about her biting her lip and examined how chapped they were. She frowned. She lathered her lips in Chapstick, and then emerged from the bathroom in her clean clothes: some light blue jeans with a few worn spots in the thighs and knees, and a darker blue t-shirt that made her eyes stand out and fit around her torso in all the right ways. She padded barefoot back into her room to deposit her dirty clothes, and then shuffled into the kitchen to get herself a drink of water. He had said he still wanted to go to dinner... had he seemed happy about it? Or did he just pity her? After all, in one day, he'd seen the extent of her clumsiness, her poor living situation, her lack of funds, and other issues. She started to wonder if maybe he was already regretting letting her into his home.

The sixteen new books found a home on an unused corner of his desk, arranged by type then alphabetically. The unevenness of the heights and thicknesses of the books was always more aesthetically pleasing to him than arranging by size. He'd had a room mate in college that did that. It made no sense. He heard the shower downstairs, she had been in there a few minutes by the time he finished with the books. How strange it was, to be considerate of someone else in his own home, to think of plans later with that person, that person using your facilities, when it used to be so easy before to just live his own life. He sighed and sat at this desk, leaning back in the chair as he looked over the surface out his open window at the back garden. The sun was still bright and a few butterflies were enjoying the tulips. What he thought was a humming bird came into view, then out of view just as quickly. He breathed deep the smell of the flowers as the shower downstairs stopped and he idly picked up the book on factual records linked to myths and began flipping through it. He had most likely read it a dozen times by now but it always felt like he found something new every time he read it.

Emily looked up at the back garden through the windows of the kitchen, studying the way the bushes waved in the breeze and the butterflies in the flowers. She smiled. It looked nice out still. She left her cup of water on the counter and moved to the back doors at the end of the main hallway, then stepped outside into the back garden. The lush, green grass felt amazing under her bare feet. She stepped into the middle of the sunlit garden, her back to the house, and just stood, leaning her face up towards the sun and lifting her arms, letting it warm her skin.

Sabastion looked up from his book and was a bit startled to see Emily standing in the middle of his back yard. After taking a moment to remember she wasn't a lunatic- or, that he was pretty sure she wasn't a lunatic- he took advantage of the moment to get his first long look at her. It was a rare opportunity to admire the young woman. She was odd, obviously. She was clumsy. She was brilliant and she was stunning. And she was standing like a crazy person in the middle of his lawn. Her dark hair was an almost polar opposite to the pale skin of her arms. She looked decidedly more fragile than one would guess she was from how many accidents she survived. He wondered idly how something more serious hadn't happened to her yet. Then he realized where his eyes had found themselves resting and he felt himself flush, looking quickly back at his book. Yes, he supposed, the company was nice.

Emily smiled to herself lightly. The sun felt wonderful on her skin and she could feel it drying her hair. She opened her eyes and looked around a bit more, studying the plants he had planted in his garden a bit more closely. There were roses, daisies, and other lesser-known flowers, and ivy climbed the trellises along the porch and side of the house. She smiled as a vine coiled lightly around her finger. It was a trick her grandmother had showed her as a kid. She noticed some smaller herb stalks growing in the darker soil of the shaded sections and fingered the leaves a little. She would have to look up what they were. She lingered in the garden a little longer, then headed back inside to find her water again. She decided to meander through the house and explore it a bit more closely, and found herself looking at pictures on the tables and walls of the living room.

Three years ago the home would have told a very different story, but the good doctor had let himself fill the home. There were a few photos of Sabastion himself: graduating college, grad school, medical school. A few were prints of abstract images, a few others were sketches that seemed to come from botanical books. Others were anatomically correct medical sketches of various organs such as the eye, the heart, and even one that was a full body with "cut outs" that denoted various muscles that made the figure take the running pose it was in. There were two full framed paintings of meadows he had left up, the living room had one of a cheery sunny field of flowers, the other was of a winter scene and hung in the dining room. Along the stair case there were a few smaller paintings, all framed of course, depicting singular flowers in painstaking detail. The few other photos around were of things in Athens: the lighthouse, the hospital, a farm with the city limits sign.

Emily traversed through the house looking at every picture she came across with close attention to detail. She paused at the photos of the lighthouse, the hospital that she now knew so well, and the farm and tilted her head. They were photographs, and very well done photographs. She smiled lightly. She wondered if Sabastion had taken those photos. She looked up the stairs towards his bedroom door and started to chew her lip, but thought better of it and started up the stairs, her nerves be damned. She couldn't avoid him forever if they were living together. She knocked on his door when she reached it. "Sabastion?"

The doctor looked up from his book at the woman standing in his doorway. He had figured Emily would be even less likely to approach him with the barrier of a door, so he had left it open in case she chose to approach him. Now he was faced with a woman in the doorway to his bedroom and a variety of pop culture inuendos fluttered through is mind at the situation. He ignored them all and closed the book, tucking the tip of his finger into place to hold his spot. "Yes Emily? Can I help you?" The words might have sounded cold from anyone else, but as with everything the Russian man said, it somehow miraculously came out sounding concerned but calm. It was anyone's guess how many years that tone had taken to master at a level where it sounded natural.

Emily turned her lips up gently at his question and shook her head. "No, I just... wanted to apologize again for my fall downstairs... and for getting so flustered about it. I think it's just been a long day and I needed that shower. I'm better now." she said, the fingers of her uninjured hand lightly rubbing the bandaids around the fingers of her opposite hand. She shifted on her feet. "I'm feeling much better now and I just wanted to tell you that I'm really looking forward to dinner with you, too. Are you sure you still want to go?"

Sabastion gave her that same little quirk of his mouth, the almost-not-quite-smile, then nodded. "But it's still early," he told her and looked out the window at the sun dial in the yard. It was almost three in the afternoon it seemed. He looked back at Emily. "Is there anything you would like to do while we wait?"

There was an entire list of things she wanted to do with--and to--him that sprung to mind. Her cheeks pinked slightly and she had to stifle the smile that turned up her lips. "I don't know," she said lamely, looking at her bare feet. She looked back at him and leaned against his door frame. "What about you? Any ideas?"

Sabastion leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest while he thought. It was a long moment before he answered. "Do you have any homework? Do you need help setting up your room? I also wanted to ask you if you will continue using the shower downstairs or want to put your things in this bathroom as well, or both. I have not had a room mate in this home before, I'm afraid I am not familiar with the usual rules. You seem to be more experienced though. Is there perhaps anything I should know? Do you have allergies? Dislikes? Likes? Aversions? Preferences?"

Emily kept her eyes on him as he asked her these questions. She sighed a little as she seemed to think on her responses, and milled into his room slowly, opting to sit on the floor rather than invade his bed. She crossed her legs and looked up at him. "I do have tons of homework, always, that I could always use help with," she admitted with a smile, "and you're more than welcome to help me set up my room. I can use the shower downstairs if you'd prefer, I'm alright either way. Um... I don't have any allergies or aversions... except maybe to terrible roommates who watch a lot of football and drink beer most of the evening, or play loud music in the middle of the night." she laughed lightly. She blushed then and her smile vanished when she realized she was speaking poorly of her ex roommate and that it wasn't very fitting of her to do so. She normally never spoke bad about anyone ever.

"Well, I do not do any of those things," Sabastion assured her as he set his chair back upright. After a moment's thought, he shifted out of the chair to the floor, leaning his back against the bed as he spoke with her. "Use whichever bathroom you feel comfortable with. I will attempt to remember to lock this one when I shower, for your comfort." He sighed and laid his head back against the mattress, staring at the ceiling and thinking of the other things she said to make sure he responded to them all. "I suppose it is best to set up your room before attempting to work on homework..."

She would have argued against his insistence to lock the bathroom door while he showered if she were that kind of girl. Instead, she kept those comments to herself and blushed about them. She nodded in agreement and watched him. "You're right. There isn't much to do... mostly just putting away clothes and trinkets." she shrugged. "I hope you do not mind me using the sheets on the bed down there already... I had my own bed sheets," a very nice set that she actually had paid a lot of money for, in fact, "but my roommate wouldn't let me back into the house to get them after he threw out my things."

Sabastion shook his head but didn't lift it. "We can go back tomorrow to try and get them if you wish. The sheets on your bed are clean and new though. Beds are made to be slept in," he repeated what he had told her early that morning. "I'm unconcerned with things like that. I am more concerned if it doesn't suit your taste. If you wish for black carpet instead of the white, we can change it, but I will need to know if something like that is something you want." He finally lifted his head to look at her seriously. "I look forward to getting to know you, Emily, but forgive me for my ignorance now. I hope that you will feel free to ask my any questions you wish. I think that may help put you at ease a bit more. You seem very nervous around me and I would prefer to ease whatever it is that worries you. If you are so uncomfortable with me, I'm uncertain why you would so eagerly want to move here other than to guess your previous situation was so terrible any new situation would do. If that's the case, I don't fault you, I just find this-" He motioned between the two of them. "Situation surprising."

Emily listened to him with big eyes. Had he just suggested that they exchange the carpet in her room? Didn't something like that cost a lot of money? Money she didn't have? She blushed as he continued though. Yes, she was nervous around him a lot... but that was only because he was very attractive, and smart, and medically adept, and she was both intimidated by him, and flustered by him. She looked down at her hands in her lap. "You would laugh at me if I told you," she said, even though she knew as the statement left her lips that it was not true.

"I apologize for whatever I did to make you think that," Sabastion replied, but said nothing else. Only continued to watch her as if waiting for an answer.

Her blue eyes flicked up to his at this statement, and she smiled weakly. She wasn't sure what it was about him, but she couldn't hide anything from him, and she didn't want to. She shrugged meekly and lowered her gaze again shyly. "I just... I like you," she said honestly, blushing, "I admire you. You're so smart and talented, and kind and just... you're everything I aspire to be as a medical professional. I was eager to move in with you because I want to learn under you, and... I dunno... be close to you, I guess." she admitted with a deep blush, still not looking at him. "I guess that sounds kind of creepy, huh..?" Her fingers fidgeted with the hem of her shirt and she had started biting her bottom lip again nervously. She had not lied to him, really, she had just neglected to tell him that she had a huge crush on him as well. She didn't want to risk a conflict of interest in their work place, even though technically it wouldn't have applied to them because she did not actually work there yet. But he was such an honorable man, she would not put it past him to uphold the laws that didn't technically exist yet.

Sabation hummed thoughtfully, then laid his head back against the bed again, staring at the ceiling. "'You shouldn't meet your heroes'," he quoted. "I'm flattered you think so highly of me, but I am just a man, like any other. You have all the potential to be great, Emily. It is your drive and passion that are the core of that greatness, and you have those already. The idea that you want to learn under me however-" He paused and raised his eyebrows, realizing what he was thinking and what he had almost said aloud. He chose to plow ahead. Hopefully she wouldn't notice. "I won't ever laugh at you," he promised instead, lifting his head again to look at her. "I hope you'll trust me enough to ask questions and tell me things in time, though I understand we can't possibly be at that point yet. I hope we can be so close, in the future." He frowned, his eyes shifting down to look at her lips again and his expression softened, but stayed sad. How he dearly wished she wouldn't do that. How he was starting to ache to give her something else to do with those lips.

She seemed to notice his gaze on her lips and she immediately and obediently dislodged it from between her teeth. She tried to give him a smile instead, hoping she had not disappointed him with the small act of betrayal. "I hope so, too... And I promise I won't hesitate to ask you questions about anything. I already trust you enough to promise that." she said softly. She realized she was staring at him again after a few seconds, and blushed, clearing her throat and standing off of the floor. "Um... Shall we go sort my room?" She had rather liked the sight of him leaning back against his bed like that though. Her mind was starting to wander to less than favorable places.

Sabastion was silent another moment. He did that a lot. He thought a lot. He just watched her, as if trying to catch something he was missing. "You like staring at me," he observed finally, but did not at all seem bothered by the fact. He actually seemed rather calm about it. That said, he shifted slightly to get to his feet. He smoothed his jeans unnecessarily then motioned for her to lead the way down stairs, clearly intending to follow. "Please let me know if there are boxes you prefer I do not touch. I do not know how many personal items you may have."

"Oh," Emily laughed lightly, the sound strained with sheepishness, "I don't have anything like that... No journals or anything... Aside from my panties, you should have nothing to worry about." She internally screamed at herself for using the word "panties". Why couldn't she have just said underwear?? She turned ahead, glad for the shift in scenery, and hopefully in topic. She led him back down to her room and looked at all of the boxes, trying to figure out where to start.

"I've never understood the idea of undergarments being private," Sabastion told her conversationally as he entered the room. The first box he opened seemed to have clothes, so he lifted them and carried them into the walk in closet, calling out to her. "It's merely fabric, same as our exterior clothing, and is, arguably, more effective at it's purpose-" He returned from the closet to look in another box. Books. "That is, covering erogenous zones. A dress can be lifted, but panties are more difficult to remove for exposure." He turned to a shelf and rearranged it to make room for the new books, and set about putting them away. "And I wasn't worried, I was merely attempting to be respectful of your boundaries."

Emily had listened to him with interest, even as she started unpacking her box of shoes. She was putting them away beneath the bed at the moment, and when he finished speaking, called back, "but it's about the idea of the areas they cover. A skirt can be lifted, but a skirt also doesn't exclusively cover the area of a woman's body that most hetero males covet the most," she argued, not unkindly. "And it's not just for women! For men, too! Most women might get even a little blushy at the exposure of the fabric that comes into daily contact with his um.... Well, you know," she blushed, waving it off. "It's just the idea of it."

"Penis?" Sabastion replied as he leaned over the bed to give her a quizzical eyebrow, but also to see what she was doing. Once he figured it out, he went back to putting away her school medical texts. "We're contrarians, so modest with undergarments, and yet we model swimwear after these same garments, and then purposely get them wet, so then you have wet, clinging, sometimes semi-translucent undergarments, and often this is in public places such as pools or beaches." He put the last book away and sat the box aside on the floor. The next held a few award plaques and trophies, as well as what seemed to be her jewelry. He picked it up and took it to the desk for later sorting. "If we see it as so private, we should swim in burkhas and wear our swim suits only for our significant others. It seems such an inconsequential division, I would rather simply not be uncomfortable in such state of undress, be it public or private."

"I guess that's a good point," Emily conceded as she finished with her shoes and moved into the closet to start putting her clothes on hangers. "But you make it sound so easy, being comfortable naked in public. I'm tempted to have you prove it!" She called from the closet. She smacked herself on the forehead for that comment, her face warm again. She glanced at him around the corner of the closet door frame and nodded at the trophies and awards. "You can just leave those in the box for now..." Its not that she hated looking at them, but they took up a lot of space she could be using for books and notes. She waved for him to join her in hanging up clothes in the closet.

Sabastion nodded and left the box to join her in the closet, carefully putting hangers through shirts, straightening them, then hanging them on the pole. "Prove that I would be so comfortable being naked in public?" he asked to clarify. "I don't know how exactly I could prove that without seeming as if I am only doing it because you told me to. That doesn't entirely seem like proof. I wear clothes for the comfort of others and because it is the socially acceptable thing to do, but you should know as well as I do that there is nothing shameful about the human body and I have no doubt, if you live here long enough, you will encounter 'proof' strictly through the statistics of the situation."

Emily blushed at his answer and while he was turned away to hang up a shirt, she allowed her eyes to roam from his toes to his head and back down again, allowing her imagination to briefly wander towards what he would look like if he took her up on that "proof". She moved to bite her lip, but stopped short and turned back to her task at hand. "I have trouble being comfortable naked even in private." She admitted.

"I imagine environmental temperature may have something to do with that," Sabastion commented as he shifted a strappy blouse around in his hands in an attempt to get it to hang right. As best he could tell it had some sort of criss crossed back that was being willfully belligerent. "But I assume that's not what you are talking about. You would be stared at quite a lot-" He flipped the blouse inside out, thinking perhaps it was wrong to begin with, but it only made it worse. He scowled at it. "I imagine that would make someone as gentile as you uncomfortable, even if the stares are all complementary."

Emily's cheeks blazed at his comments. Was he calling her beautiful? At the very least, attractive? She saw him struggling with her blouse and gave a shy giggle, reaching out. She took it from him, her fingers lightly brushing his as she did. She righted it, put it on the hanger with little thought to the meddlesome criss-cross backing, and hung it up. "Thank you," she said, about his comments on her appearance.

"For what?" he asked, giving the blouse a look that clearly said he thought she had just performed black magic. His face relaxed back to it's customary expression and he motioned to it with an vague hand motion. "I fear I am not being terribly helpful." He gave the blouse another brief, dubious look. "How does one even wear that thing?"

Emily looked at him and then gave a small smile. She grabbed the blouse from the pole again and held it up. "Well, this is where the head goes... And then these straps go criss-cross like this and tie at the top..." she explained. But the look on his face told her he still couldn't quite understand. "Here, I'll show you." She gently pushed him out of the closet and closed the door over, peeling herself out of her t-shirt and into the blouse. She emerged a moment later in it. It was a creamy, slightly sheer, and she had not had a tank top to put on under it, so her white, lacy bra was a bit more visible than she'd have liked. It came down in a ruffled scoop neck just below her collar bone, and the sleeves ended at a place between her wrist and elbow with wide bands and small bows. The waist was cinched with another band and ruffled out around her hips. She turned her back to show him the X-ed back, strappy and open, with the pieces tied off into a loose bow at the center of her shoulders. "See?"

"Seems unnecessarily complex," he commented, but raised his hand to the hanging strings of the bow, lifting it curiously. He had not touched her, but it cause the blouse to move in a way she would know what he was doing. "And sheer," he added, leaning a bit to look over it more thoroughly. After a moment, he looked her in the eyes with that same clinical expression, the one with gears turning behind his eyes as his mind worked on something he wasn't saying. "I may as well have seen you topless," he informed her and let the strings drop as he lowered his hand. "It seems relatively pointless. I don't think any clothing you could possibly own could make you look more beautiful." Humans were beautiful as they were, clothing was just a physical manifestation of the desire for modesty. "But if you enjoy it, then I suppose it is good that you have it." He nodded and stepped away to find the next box. It turned out to be school supplies so he took it to the desk to put them away in the drawers.

Emily's cheeks seemed stuck in perpetual crimson as he touched her and studied the shirt. "Thank you..." she mumbled, though she also couldn't help but feel a tad disappointed by such a clinical reaction on his part. "But it's not meant to be worn sheer. I usually wear a tank top beneath it." she explained, stepping back into her closet to change into her dark blue t-shirt again. She hung the blouse up, frowning to herself. He had called her beautiful, but the way he had said it hadn't felt as personal. She huffed. She scolded herself mentally for being so down about the exchange. He was her superior, and her roommate. He was simply helping her unpack. She should just give up on the fantasies her imagination constantly fed her. This was a professional relationship. He probably had a girlfriend, or at the very least a love interest, already anyway.

"Why do you not just wear the tank top?" Sabastion asked as he set her pens and post it notes into the little organizer on the desk. He wasn't sure how she liked it but he supposed she could move it around later. Although, if that was the case, why was he organizing at all. He paused to give that some thought. "I think if anyone has a reason not to be shy of nudity in public, it would be you, Emily. Although, I suppose I understand the world's concerns with such a thing. Perhaps the embarrassment is just our way of showing we are having less than pure thoughts." He turned and leaned on the desk, crossing his arms as he thought, looking at the closet doorway she was through, even though he couldn't see her from this angle. "I know I'd find it rather distracting if you took my philosophy to heart and went confidently about the world dressed only as much as you were on the day you were born."

She listened to him from behind the door as she fixed her more form-fitting shirt, and frowned in confusion. He would? Why? That didn't make sense to her anymore. She stepped out of the closet with a soft smile and a shake of her head. The smile was patient, but not like her brightened smiles before. "That's flattering of you to say, but you don't have to tell me things like that."

Sabastion's eyebrows raised slightly in confusion, then he frowned, and nodded in understanding. "I apologize. I did not realize I was speaking too familiarly. I won't do so again." He glanced up at her things on the bed, uncertain, then finally looked at her. "I am sorry, do you still wish for me to continue helping you?"

"No, it's not that it was too familiar, it's just..." Emily trailed off and sighed, running her hand through her black hair. She looked at the last of her things and shook her head. "No, you don't have to if you have something better to do. I'll finish up," she said, moving to her box of trophies and plaques and peered into them with a glower. She finally lifted the box altogether and hefted it into the closet, tucking it up on a shelf.

Sabastion just watched her, feeling he was missing something that was on her mind. But he still didn't know her that well and as much as he wanted to continue learning, he was beginning to feel that he had learned as much as he was going to today without upsetting her further. Best to be professional again. At least they were used to that. "I am sorry, for pressing," he told her, then stood to walk over to the window so he could look out at the sundial. "If you still wish to go to dinner, I suppose it is about time." He looked back at her and gave a little frown. "But after all I've said, I would understand if you didn't want to." Her day seemed to be going from bad to good to bad again, to good again, and now it seemed to be bad again, and he really didn't want to keep causing that kind of emotional turmoil. He wondered how long it would be before they were comfortable around each other, the way he was with his other friends. Did Emily even ever want to be his friend?

Emily hesitated in the closet. Why was he apologizing? She looked out at him and nodded. "Dinner sounds great. I'm starving." she said, short and sweet. She afforded him another kind upturn of her lips and grabbed for her purse. She pulled on her white tennis shoes and gave him a nod as she headed for the door. "Shall we walk? Its nice out."

"A walk sounds wonderful," he agreed and locked the door behind them before starting down the walk with her. A nice quiet walk while he thought about things, perhaps that would help him figure a few things out. It seemed the more he talked the worse things became, so perhaps just letting her speak would be better. He supposed he didn't really have much to say anyway, and he liked listening to Emily. Her enthusiasm and passion always warmed his heart, even if the shyness that followed it always made him feel sad. He wished he knew how to encourage more of those warm moments, to keep it going forever.

Emily strolled alongside him quietly, her eyes turned away and admiring the world around them instead. She was only in his house one day and already she was becoming too invested in him, and she was probably annoying him or creeping him out. She decided that she'd have to play it down a bit. She toyed with the strap of her purse a bit. "So I saw some photographs in the house.. Of the lighthouse and a farm and stuff... They were really well-done. Did you take them?"

That seemed like a safe enough question. He nodded. "Yes. I'm glad you liked them," he admitted. "Athens has a charm I admire and I wanted to be able to do so every day, so I took them of the furthest edges of the town, and, what I think of as the heart of this town... the hospital."

"I might be a tad biased, but the hospital one was my favorite," Emily laughed lightly, finally turning her attention on him and seeming to relax a bit. "You're very talented. I wish I could take pictures like that."

"I have been told it's a matter of practice, to learn angles and lighting. I have always thought pictures taken of passion are better though, even if they are blurry, or over exposed. It captures the meaning of the moment, not just the physical being of an object or a person."

Emily bobbed her head along in agreement, smiling brightly at him. "Definitely," she said and looked ahead again. "Every time I try to take pictures, I just seem to have terrible luck with electronics. I once dropped a $200 DSLR off of that cliff up north? They were able to recover it, but the owner wasn't happy."

Sabastion raised an eyebrow at her. For a moment, he looked almost like the adult in this situation, rather than one of two. "I can imagine... If I didn't know better, Emily, I would think you were born under a very unlucky star."

Emily let out a wry laugh. "Yeah... Me, too." She said. She shrugged. "But it's really only with everything else... When I'm working in the ER though, everything just flows differently. I don't mess up as much. When I'm helping people, I fly."

He offered her another little upturn of the corners of his mouth in reply. "I've noticed. It seems you've truly found your calling."

Emily blushed and shrugged. "I enjoy it a lot. Its just always been easy for me, I guess. And it's good that my clumsiness doesn't follow me into the ER because it could cost a lot of lives. Though, with you there, I'm sure it wouldn't be as bad." she said, glancing at him.

"I am flattered by your faith in me, Emily, but I am glad for your skill. I won't always be working with you in the hospital. Mostly likely only few hours you have left. So it is good that you have such skill there. A lot of future patients will be very lucky to have you as their doctor."

Unlike with his compliments about her appearance, his compliments on her skill were taken gratefully, and she smiled widely, proudly, the gesture reaching those blue eyes. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "I, for one, hope we get to work together often."

"As do I, Emily," Sabastion replied gently, meeting her eyes with a steady gaze that held an underlying smile. "As do I."

---

Emily was all too grateful when they finally got back to the house. She found it an overwhelmingly appreciative feeling to see the old house waiting for them in the dimness of the early evening, lit by sidewalk lamps and the automatic timer lights that lined the pathway to the front door. She stepped up to the front door and produced the house key Sebastian had given her, flashing an excited smile. "I get to initiate my key!" she said and then slid it into the lock. She turned it slowly and her smile broadened when she felt the bolt slide out of the lock and the door swung inward, welcoming her inside. "That feels wonderful." she told him over her shoulder as she stepped over the threshold.

Sabastion responded with a fond expression that might have been accompanied by a chuckle, were he a more open person. He stepped across the threshold after her before closing and locking the door again. "I should head straight to bed," he told her softly. The neighborhood had been so quiet, it was as if the world had gone to sleep already. He understood, of course, that it was only so quiet because he lived in an older community where people turned in early. "Feel free to stay up if you wish. If you need anything, please wake me."

"Of course," Emily said softly, though there was a visible amount of disappointment in her expression. She kept her smile on though. "I hope you sleep well. I'll see you tomorrow." She headed down the hall to her own room and chewed her lip as she set about pulling out pajamas and homework materials.

Sabastion stared after her for a long moment. Her disappointment hadn't been subtle but he couldn't figure out what it could mean. Was there something she needed to ask? He took a half step toward her room but stopped. No, surely she would have just said it? What then? He sighed, the action more of a movement than a sound, and carefully removed his shoes, socks, and shirt before heading upstairs to minimize the amount of residual sand he was carrying from getting all over the floor. He would vacuum tomorrow either way. Once upstairs he carefully set the dirty things aside, grabbed some sleeping pants, and headed to the shower. An entire night in the hospital and time on the beach left him feeling a bit uncomfortable. Thinking of Emily, he made sure to lock the door just in case. A shower, then bed. There was plenty to do tomorrow in spite of it being a day off. Or, perhaps, because he finally had a day off.

Emily could hear the water running in his shower upstairs from where she sat at her new desk in her room. She had changed, and was tapping her pencil against her book, trying to do homework, but thinking of other things. She looked up towards the ceiling, then sighed and leaned back in her chair, running her hands through her dark hair before starting to pull it back into a messy braid. He was tired. She respected that. She had just hoped for... more time? She couldn't complain, they lived together now. She shook her head. "Stop it, Emily," she chided herself quietly and scowled down at her homework. But she couldn't concentrate. She finally got up and wandered back out into the kitchen and set about looking through cabinets. She located a kettle, which she filled with water and put on to boil, then she came across some boxes of tea. She noticed the sleepytime tea and smiled, pulling it down. With the gas range on high, it didn't take long for the water to start boiling and the kettle to whistle, and she poured it out into a tall mug and tucked the teabag in to steep. Once that was done, she very carefully carried the mug up the stairs, being extra cautious not to spill it, and into his room. She placed the tea on his bedside table and scribbled out, "To help you sleep," alongside her name and a little heart. She was starting to second guess the heart when she heard the shower click off. She gave a squeak and hurried out of his room and back downstairs.

"You'll fall if you run!" Sabastion called out to her. He had opened the door to the bathroom just in time to hear her finish hurrying down the stairs. He shook his head before continuing to towel dry his hair. Once he had his sleep pants on again he wandered back to his bedroom, pausing in the doorway as he immediately noticed something out of place: the mug of tea on his desk. Curious, he walked over slowly and read the note. She hardly needed to sign it, perhaps that was habit- He paused again, noticing the little heart. She signed her name with a heart. What a cute habit. After considering it, he decided it suited her and sat at his desk, opened his computer and answered a few work emails while enjoying the tea. A few minutes couldn't hurt. He yawned, his eyelids growing heavy. He set the half empty mug aside and tried a couple more messages but the text was fuzzy. It wasn't long before the tired doctor was left slouched in his desk chair, hands resting lightly on his lap, sleeping quietly.

Emily had almost laughed at his shout about running. She made herself some tea and sat in her room as she did some homework. About an hour later and she'd finished her tea and decided to turn in. But as she carried her mug to the kitchen to deposit it in the sink, she looked up the stairs at his open bedroom door. The light was still on. Was he still awake? She hummed and left her mug in the kitchen, then carefully treaded back up the stairs. Maybe she could collect his dirty mug as well, and give him one less thing to do. She paused in his doorway, seeing him sitting at his desk, slouched. "Sebastian?" she asked quietly. When he didn't respond, she stepped in and closer and noticed he was sleeping. She smiled softly at him, admiring him that way for a moment. She reached out and closed his laptop, then brushed a hand over his arm and along the back of his shoulders. "C'mon, Sebastian... bed." she cooed gently, trying to wake him just enough to get him to walk the two feet to his bed.

Pale eyelashes fluttered open to reveal almost equally pale eyes, bleary at first but with a kind of distant recognition. "Emily?..." He blinked a few times, taking in his surroundings. A yawn pulled itself out of his mouth and, despite his delirium, he still covered his mouth politely. "Oh, I'm sorry... It seems I fell asleep..." He tilted his head a little. then gave her a lazy smile. "Thank you for waking me. Yes, I should get to bed-" he agreed as he carefully stood from the chair, one hand almost reflexively coming up to rest on hers where it lay on his arm as if to say 'I'm alright now'. "You should as well. I'm sorry I troubled you- Oh! I'm so sorry, was there something you needed? Is that why you came up here?" He was looking at her. That same steady gaze he gave her in the light of the cafe and on the beach, he did it now in the light of the moonlight streaming through his window. Her skin looked paler now, almost white, her hair ink spilled across the page of her skin. His free hand reached out and brushed fingertips across her temple and ear as he tucked a few stray strands away from her face. Only after a heartbeat's time did he notice his fingers had come to rest on her jawline and he let them drop, also removing his hand from hers on his arm. "I apologize," he practically breathed, the sincerity of the statement evident. "I am more tired than I thought."

That motion of his hand, how it so fluidly and carelessly pushed her hair back from her face, had left Emily dazed and pink-cheeked. Her heart was racing in her chest again and her lips were parted, her own blue eyes hazed. "Don't be," she whispered bashfully when she came back from the moment and offered him a soft smile. "I didn't need anything, I just... I came up for your mug and found you sleeping... I thought I would help you to bed. I'm sorry for disturbing you."

"You far from disturb me, Emily," Sabastion told her honestly, as if brushing away the words. "I actually find your presence rather calming. Don't worry about the mug," he added, waving at it before hovering his hand near her shoulder as if to guide her to turn and exit his room. "I will see to it. Go ahead to bed. You've had a long day." When she hesitated, he very carefully rested his hand on her shoulder blade, a gentle touch of pressure and a half step toward his door meant to have her walk with him. "Thank you, for waking me. I'll make it to the bed this time, I promise."

"Okay," Emily said quietly, smiling at him again. His hands were warm. She stifled a pleasant shiver and headed out of his room. She gave another meek wave and a quiet, "good night," as she went to the stairs. Her hip bumped the corner of the banister at the top of the steps and she gasped, but steadied herself and told him, "I'm okay, I got it. G-good night." She hurried down the stairs then, mentally cursing herself. Way to ruin a nice moment. she fumed, vanishing into her own room and closing the door.


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