Gambling Tiger Sniper

Oh, and also...

James is about to answer, but the words die in his throat when he’s tugged closer, and he’s stunned into a temporary silence. Sebastian very rarely does anything for him that resembles affection, and when it comes to protecting his charge, he responds to orders and nothing more. The arm curling about his small frame and pulling him in against the taut strength of his body is surprising enough to send heat and color blossoming in the boy’s cheeks. 

All at once, he connects the dots, from the issue at hand back to the night the lesson in question had been ‘taught.’ James hadn’t forgotten the feel of him, the taste of him, the humiliation turned to honest-to-god thrill as he’d pursued yet another new sin there on his demon’s mattress, in the dark. On the contrary, he’s been able to think of little else.

“You told me what to do when you.. like someone.” If the reason for his mood and the source of his rather spectacular bruise had been a mystery before, they ought to be quite obvious now. 

James scowls up at Sebastian, stabbing a finger in a pointing gesture at his own face as if to say ‘clearly, it isn’t.’ 

“Ah.” The realization is there the moment James speaks, but rather than sound contrite, the demon’s tone simply conveys understanding. “I certainly did not lie.” He defends, shaking his head and shrugging his shoulders. The arm around James remains there, thoughtlessly forgotten in the casual nature of the conversation.

“You didn’t ask what might happen if they didn’t like you in return,” Sebastian explains, as though it should have been quite obvious from the off, and James should never have expected the exact same reaction in the first place. Not that he means to insinuate he might stoop so low as to do more than tolerate the child, but if James infers incorrectly again, that is his own mistake.