♚░ ⁞ The raven’s words were quite funny to him, and within moments he’d begun to chuckle, sprawling the knuckles of his slender fingers across his jaw. He was positioned in his chair in such a way that Sebastian would be able to fully take in the sarcastic skepticism that altered the bearing of each and every part of his body: the way his head was craned sideways, the way his dark eyebrows creased together in mirth, and the slight flare of his nostrils as he closed his eyes and began to giggle.
“And then, I must assume that your attempt to consume me preemptively was justified by that reasoning?” Amusement was primary in his speech, although deeper lay a hint of agitation. “Do you so often fight off your beastly impulses with substantial difficulty, Sebastian?”
The sight of it was somehow wrong; laughter from a child who claimed he’d lost the ability to smile. Had Sebastian been a different man, he might have celebrated that humor on the Earl’s features.
But Sebastian was not a different man.
Cold lips held only a knowing curl and the shadowed stretch of his hair fell around a confident, too-angular face. “Given that I now know your intent, following through on the action in question would be unjustified. You requested me fit to serve you, my lord. The difficulty of your orders does not prevent my completion of them. Are you dissatisfied with my current conduct?” Asking for trouble, he realised too late.
As much as he relished evading these questions, they would surely stay on his lord’s brain, only to be raised again during supper. Sebastian’s sigh was delivered on wasted breath. “Does a hawk refrain from spearing its prey? No, for there is no obvious benefit to the predator in this delay. We differ from that model --- our interaction is one of mutual symbiosis, as it were. Your price for mine. The incident you mentioned was a lapse in understanding, not in control.”
