overloaded [sienna]

[EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK]

28 August 2027

The days had been blending together, the past month and a half of his life a constant blur of agony. At least, that’s how Rob would have described it. It was the worst around the full moon, despite his studious dosage of Aware Wolf. The yawning physical and emotional distance from his mate clawed at his insides, threatening to drive him insane. But the rest of the month, there was another lingering hole in his heart.

Things had been very lonely as of late at Slug and Jiggers. Sienna had been away on holiday for what felt like years, even though it had only been a few months. She’d been such a constant in his life since he’d moved to the UK, and even before then when they’d been friends and pen pals after school. Her silence was as loud as church bells on a Sunday morning. Many times, Rob had penned a note to her, just to check in. But she’d left for a reason - she needed to focus on herself. And Rob refused to take that opportunity away from her.

As Rob prepared himself for another dull, uneventful day at the apothecary, he wondered where he’d gone wrong. Was it when he’d not shown appropriate enthusiasm at Lyra’s scheme regarding that bar? Was it when he’d chosen his own opinions over Lyra’s raw talent? When he’d found out that Sienna and Gus had broken up and been secretly delighted? Or long before that, when he’d fallen in love with his sister’s best friend despite the fact that she was subsequently in love with his best friend?

Rob closed his eyes briefly against the thoughts that swirled in his mind, stepping out of his flat and apparating to Diagon Alley. He pushed open the door to the apothecary, not clocking that it was already unlocked despite knowing he was the one scheduled to open. The bell tinkled overhead, and only when the door had shut behind him did Rob look up. The shock on his face was evident as he took her in - tanned, confident, with eyes that glowed with mischief.

”You’re back.”


Sienna Aurélie Linslee

[Sienna Aurélie Linslee]

28 August 2027

She’d been running away – enough time had passed that she could be honest with herself now about that. It was hard to pretend that everything was okay because it was absolutely unacceptable to say otherwise, and at some point it had all become too much for Sienna. The world tour, on the surface level, was to learn about all the potion-making styles of different cultures – their histories, their secrets, the untapped knowledge and potential to change the world locked in an unremarkable little bottle. But really, she’d been running away from the knowledge that she wanted something desperately, something she couldn’t have because he was happy with someone else. And it hurt to see Rob every day and pretend she was okay with her life as it was, two feet away but really much farther.

Still, over the months and somewhere along the way – it had unlocked a deep love for traveling. She’d been miserable on her first stop, and her second…but, somewhere along the way, Si found a new kind of freedom in belonging to herself and going where she wanted. She sent postcards as a way to let everyone know she was alright, Muggle ones to Heleen (who would appreciate it) and enchanted ones to Rob and Rhys that showed off all the dazzling things she’d seen. But that was all the contact she really let herself have, because the point of this trip had been a months-long attempt to redefine herself. Not to change the situation around her, but to reach some internal point of peace where she could be alright with it. So she'd absorbed herself completely in the little potion-making communities of China, and Italy, and Iceland, and all sorts of other places she'd only ever dreamed about before.

It was a new Si, and it was time to come back. Even as she walked along the beaches of Hawaii, Sienna found herself thinking about London and all the familiar places she hadn’t seen in six months. Diagon Alley, bustling with witches doing their daily shopping and screaming children. The Violet Hound for a round of after-work drinks. Her and Hel’s cozy little apartment with her cat curled up on her lap while they watched trashy reality TV together. And she thought about all the people she hadn't seen in months. Hel, who could see magic like it was a CW show and had been experimenting with it. Rhys, who was learning what it meant to be responsible for someone besides himself. And Rob, stealing glances and making faces to catch her in a laugh when she should be chopping up her beetles instead.

She hadn’t opened the apothecary in months, but the movements came naturally to her as she unlocked the door and waved her wand to dismiss the anti-burglary charms. Her cauldron was exactly where she’d left it, and the file cabinets full of notes on Aware Wolf slid right open when she tried a drawer. Sienna gave a little sigh of happiness and made to sit at her desk when she heard the light tinkle of the bell. Her spine straightened, goosebumps erupting in anticipation for who it must be. Si turned sharply on the balls of her feet and felt a brilliant smile emerge at the sight of her rather scruffy looking partner standing at the door. She practically flew across the room to wrap him in a tight hug, inhaling the familiar scent of his cologne. “That’s the first thing you say to your partner?” she demanded with a laugh. “How about something like – hi Si, you look amazing Si, did you discover the secret to the meaning of life, Si.”

EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK

[EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK]

Sienna's deafening silence had hurt, though Rob had known it was his own fault. He knew that he toed a dangerous line between friendship, professionalism and... something more. Why did something Rob knew was so wrong feel so right? And when he opened the door to the shop and spotted her there as if no time at all had passed, he froze. The first words that spilled from his mouth were not how he had imagined greeting her. It was the shock of her familiarity, even after so long away, that drew a grin to his face. And suddenly, she was upon him, hugging him tightly as if he was a best friend, a partner, a brother.

Rob knew better than to linger on the sting of defeat as he hugged her back so tightly, he lifted her off the ground. "Little monster," he said, his face cracking open wide as he appraised her. "You look very tan. What is the meaning of life? Can you share with me the secrets of immortality?" he said, his eyes roving hungrily over her face, recommitting each feature to memory.

Rob pulled away to give Sienna a full once over, then nodded. "It was getting really boring around here. I was considering poisoning myself, just to shake things up," he revealed, feeling the lightest he had in days. He glanced towards the door, considering. "How mad would they be if we opened up an hour late?" he asked, his voice hushed and conspiratorial. "I sense you have a lot to tell me," he added, drifting over to her desk where he had so often sat, just to feel close to her. He perched on the corner of the desk, his expression open an honest and even the tiniest bit longing as he surveyed her.

Sienna Aurélie Linslee

[Sienna Aurélie Linslee]

Whatever had shocked Rob into silence seemed to have passed and Si gasped as she felt her feet leave the ground for a moment. “Easy there, some of us are only human,” she teased as Rob’s arms tightened around her before he stepped back a bit to study her. Sienna struck a little pose for him as he gave her the once-over, trying not to ask herself whether he did the same thing for Heleen whenever he hadn’t seen his sister for a while. That could only lead to a rather disappointing conclusion, so she banished it to the back of her mind and shook her head at Rob. “I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you. Somehow I don’t think Rhys would appreciate losing his drinking buddy.” Then again, they both drank like fish during their pub crawls. It truly was amazing to watch two full-grown adult men turn into teenagers when they were with the other.

“No no, don’t use me as an excuse. You already poison yourself trying to do your job,” Si pointed out with a little smirk, “I haven’t been abroad long enough to forget that time you mixed up those seeds.” Not that she didn’t embarrass herself too from time to time, trying to spruce up an old-fashioned recipe or when she was too tired to notice what she was grabbing. This was why potioneering should be a group activity, if only because Sienna didn’t trust her eyes pre-coffee. But hey, that was the old her. Now she was six-months, six-continents wiser when it came to the art of potions. And the inner competitive Si, the one she kept buried whenever she found herself in decent company, couldn’t wait to show Rob how much she’d improved (more than him, obviously).

She raised an eyebrow at Rob as he put his mischievous face on. The same one that had the power to fuel a sense of dread in her stomach even as her toes curled in anticipation. He’d all but draped himself over her desk and Si found herself drinking in the sight of him. Even if she’d left to escape the sad realities of life, Merlin she’d missed him and all the time they spent together. “Well…maybe twenty minutes,” Si conceded, if only because he was right. There was so much she wanted to tell him, so she could watch his expressions of curiosity and excitement and wonder. She wanted him to feel everything she’d felt, share a little bit of her life with him so it didn’t just belong to her. “And if you play nice, I’ll show you what I got you,” Si added, brightening a little as she waved her bag tantalizingly at him. She flicked her wand at the entrance so the sign flipped back to closed, and then lightly seated herself next to him on her desk.

EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK

[EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK]

Rob narrowed his eyes at Sienna. "You couldn't kill me if you tried, Linslee. You'd miss me too much," he replied, a lightness to his tone that even he hadn't expected. Sienna's absence had clawed a hole in his heart almost as much as the soul deep tear he associated with Lyra. He rolled his eyes at her next statement. "It was one time! And I got the antidote quickly," said Rob, his brows knitting together as he spoke. "But this time I was actively going to poison myself. See? Not accidentally. Much more metal," he added, fixing her with a stare that said he shouldn't have to state the obvious. "How many potions have I made perfectly?"

Rob didn't bother trying to hide the smidgen of longing as he appraised Sienna. She was everything he wanted, but he knew he couldn't have. That much had been made clear by the passage of time and fate spinning their threads. Si conceded twenty minutes, though Rob wanted to spend the whole day listening to the adventures she'd surely had. While he had been here, ruining his relationship with his mate and botching potions. Perhaps he was just jealous she had been able to escape when he had not.

"I'm always nice," said Rob grumpily, but he shut up as she waved the bag in front of him. She sat at her desk and they were hardly a foot apart. Her proximity stoked a fire to life in his chest - it was the closest he'd been to anyone in a long time. Both emotionally and physically. And Rob hadn't lied - Sienna did look healthier. Was this what time away from him did for her? He chewed at that thought. "The anticipation is killing me," he said dryly, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sienna Aurélie Linslee

[Sienna Aurélie Linslee]

It hurt to acknowledge the fact that Rob’s words had a ring of truth to them – that it didn’t matter how much time or distance Sienna put between them because she always found herself missing him. They’d been friends for so long, partners for a good chunk of time, and something undefinable over the course of years. Teasing Rob came to her as easily as brewing a first-year potion, and the silence rang extra loud when he was out for the full moon or on a work trip to harvest the ingredients fresh. So these months away had been an exquisite torture, a constant source of pain even as she’d fed on the excitement and adrenaline of adventure. Yeah, she missed him in a way that she couldn’t capture in the cramped space of a postcard or a hurried text.

Deny, deny, deny. “I’d miss having someone else prune the Venomous Tentacula,” Si conceded, crossing her arms and forcing her tone to be casual. Super casual, the most casual. But nostalgic memories and old potion stories always got them back on track, and it did the trick now. She laughed at the memory of overturning the contents of the potions cabinet while they hunted down the antidote (it was scary then, but enough time had passed for it to be funny). Every potioneer had a story or two like that, and Sienna at least had the luck of being alone when she made her worst mistakes. Rob knew all the stories, of course, but her pride was still intact when it came to the general public.

She glanced away at his pointed question and coughed slightly. “Maybe one or two…” she acknowledged, even if they both knew the truth. Rob had already been freelancing while she was still at school, and he could take a lot of the credit for where she’d learned to be so innovative. He’d found some incalculable way to make potionmaking look cool, and he hadn’t lost any of that clout over the years. The duo settled on her desk and Si fiddled with the bag she’d been waving in front of Rob’s face. She could feel his heat even from here – werewolves did always run hot – but Sienna did her best to pretend like everything was normal. Like he was at his desk, and she at hers, and they were just friends.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Si said out-loud, deciding to neatly sidestep his grumbled assertion that he was always nice. Rob was dangerously charismatic, but he also simultaneously managed to come off as grumpy (she supposed some girls would call that ‘brooding and serious’). But she did have a thing for that kind of guy, and she supposed that was all his fault. “It’d take an hour just to tell you about China, really. I went looking for some smaller potions communities ‘cause I’d heard there were older traditions still in use out in the periphery, but then I ended up on this strange spiritual journey too.” Si made big gestures with her hands as she tried to explain, a slight frown on her face. The story was complicated and all tangled up in her head, and it was moments like this she wished she had a Pensieve. “I guess I found a mentor there? Dunno what else to call him.”

EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK

[EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK]

Rob found his heart lightening despite the trauma of the past few weeks and loneliness that had covered him like a funeral shroud. Sienna crossed her arms and gave him that look, the one that condescended and joked at the same time. "I've still got the bite marks," he replied dryly, arching a brow at her. "Someone should invent self pruning shears. Why have we got to do all the hard work?" he added after a moment, inspecting the back of his hand where the scars of teeth marks littered his skin. It had been a particularly voracious venomous tentacula - luckily Rob had found the antidote for the venom (though Sienna would claim that she had), but that didn't mean his hand had come out scot free.

"One or two..." Rob echoed, shaking his head. "I'll have you remember when I was invited to the Royal Society of Potioneers to present on my work on antidotes to love potions," said Rob with a sanctimonious little nod. Sienna finally settled into her desk, and Rob perched at the end of it, eager to see what sort of gift she'd gotten for him. She knew him so well - better than he even knew himself. She knew when to tease him, or when to coax him out of a depression so deep, he thought he'd suffocate. Sienna had always been there - constant, stoic, reliable. He tried to pinpoint the moment when their friendship had transcended into something else, but Rob thought perhaps their chemistry had been there all along. And now, despite his reverence of her, she looked confident and healthy. Like the trip around the world had cured her of his poison. He couldn't drag her down again.

Rob blinked twice in quick succession, focusing his thoughts as Sienna spoke of her travels. "By spiritual do you mean drugs?" Rob teased, curious to hear more. "Do they use different recepticles? I heard that the Asian communities do not commonly use wands, is that true? And sure, their raw materials are also different, what with the different climates and weather patterns," said Rob thoughtfully, forcing the mental image of Sienna surrounded by brilliant potioneers worshipping her out of his head. "A mentor?" Rob echoed. "I've been one-upped then," he added with a grin. "I've always had this image that the Chinese potioneers brewed like one would tea. Decanting various ingredients, and using water as a base." He shrugged. "Speaking of, would you like some tea?"

Sienna Aurélie Linslee

[Sienna Aurélie Linslee]

Sienna gave a little sigh at the thought of the vicious magical plant. Herbology had always gone hand-in-hand with Potions, and every potioneer needed to have their basics down if they stood a chance of making it in the business. Still, that didn’t necessarily mean that needing to be talented translated into actual talent. Si didn’t have a natural green thumb and Herbology had been a painful subject in Beauxbatons – first accepting the fact that she’d have to get dirty, and then realizing that you needed to do more than just keep the plants alive. You needed to bond with them, to understand them in order to encourage growth. Some of her friends had the natural touch, but Si had worked extra hard to get there. And the herbs garden she kept on the balcony? Well, it was just about the best she could do.

So yeah, she made Rob take care of the plants at the apothecary and loved to outsource the work when she could. “There must be a way to incorporate plant pheromones into a potion. Some way to use the plant’s chemistry to make us seem like less of a target,” Si mused out-loud, wondering if she had the time and energy to conduct any research on the subject. In all honesty, she was still worn out from Aware Wolf and the constant maintenance that the potion needed even now. She was saved from the thought of having created a new project for herself by rolling her eyes at Rob’s version of history. Which was true, but who was keeping score? “That was a brilliant paper of yours,” Si acknowledged, “I’m positive nobody else’s thought of prepping the Ashwinder eggs like that.”

Credit where credit was due – and there was no doubt that Rob was an amazing potioneer. He had plenty of good qualities, to be sure, but Sienna found it almost irresistible when he began to talk potions with her. It made the work day more complicated to be sure, at least whenever they started a discussion that went any deeper than the next step for a Cure for Boils. No, anything more and Si would stare at her cauldron intently while she reminded herself that he was taken. They finally moved into the more technical side of her travels abroad, and Si took a stabilizing breath as he began to theorize about Chinese potion techniques.

“Brewing is almost like a ceremony for them,” she confirmed, her eyes bright as she remembered the careful movements of her teachers, “But it’s more than just their ingredients. They find other mediums for their potions too…Like turn them into candles so they can burn the essence. Rob, it was incredible. They have this completely different philosophy on the purpose of potions and how they can be used.” Si contemplated this in silence for a few moments before her eyes strayed back towards Rob. She nodded along to his offer of tea and tried to ignore the flush of her cheeks. “I wish you’d seen it, you would’ve had brilliant insights too. I thought about you the whole time,” she admitted, hoping that sounded platonic enough. Friends could think about other friends, right? It wasn't like she was admitting anything.

EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK

[EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK]

Rob watched Sienna carefully, recommitting her striking features to memory. As if he could have forgotten a single bit of her face, or the way her nostrils flared when she was thinking. "Well, I'm not sure about that. Don't you think altering the plants chemistry would also alter the effects that it would have in potionmaking? For example, if you were to change the very nature of a horklump by altering it's magical defences, would that then change how it helps target different levels of pain in a healing potion?" Sienna's observation had gotten Rob thinking. It was a good idea, fundamentally. But it would take experimentation to refine and perfect, and much trial and error.

This was what Rob had missed most - the way their minds were enhanced just by being together. They complemented one another. Sienna had a great idea, and Rob could help rework it into a masterpiece. Even if the paper that Rob had written on freezing ashwinder eggs before grinding them to change the magical properties had gotten him invited to a world renowned potioneering society. "Thank you. It's always good to hear from my fans," he teased with a smirk. Their playful banter was far from the line they usually toed, but the ache in Rob's chest kept it there. He tried to keep his mate far from his thoughts, especially since he had missed Sienna so fiercely while she'd been gone. And Rob had never questioned the true nature of his relationship with Sienna - there was no unheard of magic binding them together. Just simple chemistry and combined interests.

It was easy to listen to Sienna's animated tale of her travels. Rob shared that he'd always thought potioneering in the far east had been like brewing a cup of tea. She accepted his offer and he trotted over to the kettle, setting it alight and preparing two cups quickly, listening all the while. "That's incredible. Do they use potions in a preventative manner, rather than reactive?" asked Rob, turning to Sienna as the water came to a boil. "Sort of like Aware Wolf, right? Rather than righting a wrong, preventing something adverse from happening in the first place," he explained. "What did they think of Aware Wolf anyways?" he asked curiously, pouring hot water into each of their mugs, preparing their tea the way they both liked, and handing Sienna's to her.

Rob froze for a beat too long at Sienna's final admission. He looked at her, the innocent mask on her face, but the way her eyes glimmered as she peered back at him. "I wish I'd been there. I thought about you every single day too," said Rob sincerely. "Brewing potions isn't half as fun without you," he added, trying to cut the tension that had built between them. But his fingers itched to roam across her skin, and his heart pounded in his chest. It couldn't be like the last time. Their hearts couldn't break again.

Sienna Aurélie Linslee

[Sienna Aurélie Linslee]

It seemed fairly obvious to both of them that they weren’t going to launch their Next Big Project based on plant pheromones, but Si still dutifully took out her notebook to jot down the idea before she forgot. You never knew when inspiration might strike, and it was these little brainstorming sessions that could fire up her creative juices at any random moment. Rob had a way of planting seeds that later sprouted into some serious innovations – and hey, everyone knew you visited Slug and Jigger’s if you wanted the best, not just some production-line potion that would do the job. Stumbling on a note from a previous conversation was exactly how Si had gotten the idea to tweak the brining process of Fire Crab shells.

So she waved her notebook at Rob and let it fall on her desk with a satisfying thud. “There, now it’s recorded for posterity. In case future generations were wondering about the great debates between Linslee and Oppedyk.” She shared a smile with Rob and tried to ignore the way her heart was pounding. Their banter was one of the things she’d missed most since her time abroad, and the easy way they could fall into teasing and prodding the other. But Sienna couldn’t deny that something about it felt forbidden, like she shouldn’t get too comfortable with Rob again, and the thought dimmed her smile a bit. So she distracted herself by tossing a Shrivelfig at Rob when it seemed like his big head might be overinflating slightly. Who else would bring him back down to earth besides her?

Even though neither of them were English, the process of brewing a cup of tea was familiar and grounded her back into the moment. She watched him light the kettle and seized the opportunity to keep things light and easy (instead of wandering into dangerous territory and saying something she might regret). “Not using a cauldron this time? That’s too bad, I like a little hellebore in my tea.” Si hardly needed to remind him of the time she’d had to toss out a pot because it’d been a strange purple and she wasn’t sure what ingredient had contaminated it. Better safe than poisoned, after all. She made a thoughtful face at Rob’s question and tried to use her hands to demonstrate her line of thought. “It’s more like, they use potions to complement each other. They’ve got these advanced blending techniques so the different brews can actually work together to solve a problem.”

And cursing her expressive face, Sienna tried not to cringe at Rob’s question about Aware Wolf. Instead, she took the tea and sipped it quickly – focusing on the way it lit her mouth on fire instead of answering him. “Well, um, they have very…traditional thoughts about werewolves,” Si hedged, and she took another sip before looking away. She knew how much Rob struggled with his condition sometimes, the way he hated his transformation and what it made him in the eyes of some magical folk. Sienna had always tried so hard to be positive about it, but without having actually gone through it herself – there was a limit to how there she could be. So instead she grabbed his arm so she could pull him to sit next to her and (guiltily) enjoy the proximity. They’d been apart for so long that she thought she could be excused for one second of weakness. “I’m back now,” she said sincerely, letting her eyes linger on him for a moment before turning away with a little cough, “And, y’know, I missed you. All. I missed you all a lot.”

EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK

[EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK]

Without a doubt, Sienna and Rob were two of the brightest young minds in potioneering. It was what had won them both an Order of Merlin each. Their research and development had led to one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern times. A huge step onwards from the wolfsbane potion, Aware Wolf was the sort of project that brought notoriety. And Slug and Jiggers had enjoyed a nice little bump in sales when people heard that the two creators of the project were based there. Sienna's joke had set Rob's mind into gear, and he was already thinking about the ways that different receptors in the body would react to a genetically engineered plant. But that was a subject for another day. Their blessed reunion was much more exciting.

Sienna tossed a shrivelfig at Rob, and he batted it away with a grin. "You don't want me getting a scar. I'll be the next chosen one," he teased. She always did manage to bring him back to himself and keep his ego in check. He was nearly overwhelmed by the need to draw closer to her, to prod and poke at her until she cracked open and bared her soul to him. But it wouldn't be fair. It never really was fair with the pair of them, was it?

Mussing his hair, Rob heaved a sigh at Sienna's quip regarding his tea. "I'm trying to adapt!" he crowed, not looking at her. "Leave me be, pest," he added. But Rob was certain that Sienna could hear the smile in his voice. "You're welcome to add your own hellebore syrup, but try not to overdose. I wouldn't want to be blamed for such a mishap and have my Order of Merlin revoked," he continued dryly, dropping two tea bags into mugs and pouring over the boiling water. He could have done it by magic, but Rob needed something to busy his hands.

Rob's brow creased, and he had difficulty pulling apart Sienna's observations. "Like how the antidote for a blended poison is greater than the sum of it's parts?" asked Rob, trying to make sense of it. "Complementing something doesn't mean the opposite," he added thoughtfully. Naturally, his next query was about Aware Wolf, and by the uncomfortable look on Sienna's face, it hadn't gone very well. Rob's expression fell and he looked down at the ground. Traditional thoughts? That translated to thinking he was a monster. And Rob understood. With heathens like Greyback running around, it was no wonder that Werewolves had a bad name. But he had tried so hard to turn around that opinion, to frame himself and those afflicted like him as victims and decent people. Change was the hardest thing, it seemed. No matter how hard Rob tried, it wouldn't be until he found a cure that he would stop facing criticisms.

Rob brightened slightly as Sienna stated that she missed him. "You were very missed," he replied in kind, offering her a crooked half smile. A part of him still hurt to know about the blanket discrimination of werewolves, but wasn't that why he wanted to find a cure? "But I bet you missed Amelia the most."

Sienna Aurélie Linslee

[Sienna Aurélie Linslee]

Sienna scoffed into her tea at Rob’s crack about overdosing on hellebore, and bringing the cup to her lips managed to hide her smile. He knew he was funny, and sometimes she mentioned it to him when he needed a pick-me-up, but doing that too much ran the risk of overinflating his ego. Besides, the fact of the matter was that most potioneers accidentally poisoned themselves at least once during their career. Si had always been her own taste-tester after all, and while potions was definitely an art – it was also a science. And measuring out ingredients wasn’t as easy as it seemed. At any rate, she took a dignified sip of tea and then rolled her eyes at Rob. “I’ve already hidden a note in my desk telling the Aurors that you’re responsible if I die suddenly. If I go, you’re coming with me,” Si informed him, doing her best to keep a straight face.

She nodded along to Rob’s observations and scrunched up her face as she tried to think of the best way to explain it. “Potions can work together to solve a problem, but it can be dangerous too. Some ingredients are innocent by themselves but can do a lot of damage when you mix them together. You have to know exactly what you’ve put in Potion A and Potion B, since combining them will create something completely new.” Si thought over that answer for a moment, but it was the best she could do. The easier route would’ve been to tease Rob with ‘you had to be there’ but she wasn’t that mean. There were things that kept him in London, and maybe even things he hadn’t told her (not that she’d ever asked for details of his relationships before).

Her heart sunk a little at the thought but she shooed that feeling away. Especially because she recognized the look on Rob’s face and it would be too easy to spiral into a loaded conversation about werewolf stigmas. She was there for him when he needed to vent, but it was preaching to the choir with her. He didn’t need to convince her that he wasn’t a monster (but he did need to convince himself). Instead, Si took the opportunity to sigh over the thought of baby Amelia. “She’s getting so good at grabbing things!” Si gushed, “And she looks too cute in the little onesie I got her.” Rhys was one of the first people Sienna had seen once she’d gotten back from her trip – sure, because they’d gotten pretty close over the last few years, but it was mostly because of the baby. And Rhys knew what his place was in the hierarchy. “Did Rhys behave himself while I was gone?” Si asked, a little more sternly now. His life had gotten a little more stable over the last couple years, but Amelia still deserved the best.

EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK