✧MY HUSBAND'S BROTHER✧

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Rhea wasn't looking forward to meeting with her seamstress, she adored Sarah of course. But it was the whole vibe she felt upon entering it the first time, and just to make matters better—She dressed the same, proving that her laid-back style didn't matter.

She wasn't knowledgeable of the fashion world, but she recalled Cissy had said she had been heavily jealous of who helped design her dress. And Rhea could hardly remember the name!

She had caught interest in a few belts at the front, only for the person at the desk had come over. "Hello Miss, can I help you today?" It was defiantly a much brighter response than the last time.

"Yes, I have a meeting with Sarah...Could I possibly take a few of these back there?" The witch agreed and escorted her to the small office once again.

And the young seamstress grinned ear to ear. "Mrs.Black, I hope your travels went well...I've gotten all your dresses ready, and started the gown just the other night." The excitement was radiating off her and Rhea couldn't help but feel it as well. Rhea expressed her interest in starting to wear belts with her dresses, and the two incorporated it into a style. "Let me get your dresses, Mrs.Black...I'll meet you by the mirrors." Upon leaving the cluttered office, she was back into the public eye and went into the back and behind the curtain.

Stripping down to her bare garments, Rhea had stared at herself in the mirror and a blush crept up on her in the last time she was nude in a mirror.

When Sarah had returned, Rhea could finally see why her mother would commission a few dresses every month. The new designs and colors were sort of addicting, and it helped Sarah tremendously that Rhea knew what she favored to what she didn't.

And the young seamstress continued to scribble down notes.

"Sarah, do you do other things besides dresses?"

"Of course, are you interested in corsets and skirts? Perhaps a cloak?" Rhea thought for a moment, she wouldn't mind a few more skirts. So she had a few of those commissioned as well.

"Are you looking for something specific?"

"I'm not sure, I caught that silk fabric and thought it would make a wonderful nightgown." Mrs.Black had been left amazed by how quickly Sarah had skipped the sketch and used the fabric to create just as Rhea had pictured.

"Hmm, could the slit be a bit higher? And then I rather liked the lace on this one to transfer here."

"Pardon my question, but is this for a certain Mr.Black?"

"Yes I'm running out and I'm not sure where to purchase lingerie...I've been gifted so much I think it's time I find my type of style." Sarah had sat on the floor in wonder, and Rhea suggested a few colors as well as the illusion of revealing to exposure. Rhea did want to step out of her comfort zone with one or two, but otherwise, Rhea was prepared to experiment.

Sarah had nearly ten thousand Galleons worth of projects to tackle, and Rhea had expressed that creations take time. And the only thing that she was thinking was in need of was the gala gown and perhaps the few intimate pieces that Rhea was excited for.

"Sarah! I have been looking for you! What is this mess—" Rhea had appeared from the side, as well as pulling up her hair into a braid down her side.

"The evidence of hard work, isn't that right, Sarah?" Of course, Victoria had been close to snapping, but the sudden realization had shifted once more.
"Mrs.Black, I'm happy that we've come to an arrangement that's best suitable for you...Sarah, the next time Mrs.Black comes, use the other dressing room." There were words behind the lines for sure, but when the witch had left. Rhea turned to Sarah and helped her with the scraps and such.

"Oh please, Mrs.Black. It's alright."
"Nonsense. I have two hands." And Sarah had been immensely thankful for the assist. And after packing her purchasing and stamping Rhea's vault slip and thus. Rhea's day had been completed.

Or would have, had she not had the sudden compulsion to head into Knockturn Alley.

Upon throwing her head over her shoulders, she gripped her wand just underneath her robe. It wasn't usually her concern in arriving with her mother, but now she thought back as to what her mother would actually do in the scenario that someone was on the hunt to rob them.

Though in technicality, Rhea knew from a lesson from Bella of all people, that asserting dominance meant retaining eye contact.

Yet under a hood, no one could tell the distance and all she had to do was keep her head level and shift when needed.

But that's not all, she hardly had any need to do so, as one look at her buckle and the entire walkway seemed to spread apart for her. Again, adding to the confusion of what the Black family insignia did to onlookers.

Upon entering her favorite shop, she caught sight of a few of the manuals still on display. It was certainly the price and the abundance of them that kept them going, but Rhea couldn't deny the genius in some of these.

Let alone the beautiful script featured in them.

With a few in hand, Rhea had used the given coins in her pocket and swiftly made her trek back up to Diagon Ally. And thankfully, she was left undisturbed and apparented home without much of an issue.

"Mistress! Good Mistress! Betty gets tea ready?"

"Oh yes please, and a bit of lemon on the side? It's getting warm out early this year." She cooed down to her beloved elf, yes they did only have a week left before Sirius and Regulus would be coming to stay with them.

Should she get Sirius and Rabastan a gift for managing through their OWLs?

However, Rhea had heard a voice at the end of the hall and smiled in seeing Alphard talking quickly in a hushed tone to his brother. But it wasn't Orion, even if the first glance would suggest as much.

No, it was Cygnus.

Who looked utterly thankful for spotting Rhea and turning their attention away from important manors. "Ah, there's the little wife of yours, Alphard. I had a feeling she left the second she could." Rhea had come closer and tilted her head, wondering if she should even bother giving a comment to that at all.

"Cygnus, pleasure seeing you...I don't think we spoke all that much before the wedding."
"Ah, my brother here likes to keep me hidden away." He laughed, and Rhea's gaze turned to her husband.

He looked exceedingly tired from having to deal with him for god knows how long.

"Let me get the elves to whip up a quick snack, are you hungry?" They both nodded eagerly and she shook her head before making her way into her study, while Alphard had spat a few harsh words to his brother and went into another direction.

Knowing full well that his elder brother would curse him silly if he said another cruel comment, and thus he had followed Rhea into her study. "Oh, hello...I just told the elves and it'll be a few minutes. Would you like some tea?" She questioned and gestured to the silver plater just by her desk.

"Ah, I see why my brother is so fond of you. Beautiful, witty and kind." He said with a slight chuckle. "I suppose you thought I would turn into Walburga the first chance I get?"
"Oh heavens no, my sister is a force to be reckoned with. I feel sorry for Orion year after year around this time, especially when his eldest son turns out to be a Gryffindor. What nonsense is—"
"I feel for Orion as well, for having married someone who he doesn't always see eye to eye with. On the prospect of Sirius getting a different house other than Slytherin, I don't see an issue." Rhea claimed, and once again the youngest Black son of that generation had nearly toppled over.

He had forgotten Rhea is a Ravenclaw.

"Course not, you're not a parent yet. And considering the state of things, it seems my brother is too old to—" Rhea had tuned the man out, praying to God that there would be some sort of miracle to brace her.

"...Not that I can say much, all girls. Bah, too many witches now a day."
"Yes, what a pity," Rhea said as she leaned back into her chair and looked at him, bored as could be.

"I'm having trouble to see why you're telling me all thing, or do you find that you can't voice your opinion anywhere else that you need a fresh set of ears?... If that's the case, fancy a game of chess?" Cygnus blinked, completely baffled—Hadn't Orion said that Rhea was a sweetheart young gal?
In his mind, he fabricated that she was still growing out from her years in Hogwarts.

But alas, that was not the case.

Instead, Rhea had moved her attention to the chess set that Orion had ever so sneakily gifted the couple for their wedding. Which of course he had made a comment on the matter.

"What Walburga doesn't know won't hurt her," Rhea claimed, switching the sides from Black to Ivory as she claimed her favorite color. "I heard that all the men in the Black family tend to play with their specific color." Cygnus had grinned ear to ear, and the playfulness had sparked tenfold.

He was a much tougher competitor than either Orion or Alphard, which was rather surprising, given the fact that she hadn't been nearly bested in quite a long time.

But she still managed to come out victorious.

"Fuck—Excuse my langue, that was brilliant. Suppose you go easier on your husband, aye?"
"And lose my near-decade winning streak, as if...Good game, brother." She claimed, and the light in his eager eyes had shined tenfold as he shook her hand.

The friendly competition had certainly done well for their relationship and didn't nearly tank it with the mixed emotions of his suffocating views. It was hard to overcome the fact that she married into this generation, that she would be more likely to converse with Cygnus than his daughters.

But alas, Cissy is still a very good friend.

"Smoozing up to my wife won't have you on this business venture, Cygnus. I asked you years ago if you wanted a part, and it's only when it's successful and all the work is done—That you want a piece of it." Rhea had been taken back by her husband's ability to control the room, both aroused and confused on what he meant...Rhea's gaze had caused Alphard to backtrack.

"I don't see what's wrong with Cygnus helping you, Alphard. It would give you more free time, wouldn't it? And it's better to keep it in the family than venture out." Alphard despised the ear-to-ear grin his brother bestowed, and Rhea simply shrugged her shoulders as she put the chess pieces back in order.

"But that's a conversation for after lunch, won't you two join me?" She said, leaving her study for the two to follow after her. "What the devils happened to you shy little wife?"

"There was a bit of a miscommunication at her seamstress before we left for Germany, said she wasn't high ranked enough to purchase some fabrics or some nonsense like that."
"Which? I'll tell Druella not to go there anymore."

Alphard chuckled, and did so once again as he explained that Rhea continued to go to the establishment.

"Alphard, your wife confuses me."
"Well, good thing she isn't your wife, so you have nothing to worry about," Alphard claimed, as a matter of fact, not liking the gaze his brother was giving him. But not to anger his wife further, he followed after her pursuit to the dining room.

"I didn't get the chance to ask, love...How was Diagon Ally?" Rhea had turned up from the daily prophet and smiled.
"Yes, it was rather crowded today. I suppose it's because everyone's coming home from Hogwarts soon." She said, poking at her food while the gentlemen before her bobbed their head in thought.

"I miss those days, when my girls would come back home and stay home." Cygnus chuckled, and Rhea found the strength not to shake her head in disagreement. "You'll agree with me soon, Alphard. Once you work up the strength to impregnate your young wife."

"I would much rather change the conversation to anything else, Cygnus," Rhea said, giving a pointed look. Considering she knew how Orion operated, he wasn't much different.

"Yes, I suppose it's still early...It's not for a lack of trying, is it Alphard? I would wonder if there truly is something wrong with you." After having embraced the ability to find her voice, Rhea certainly didn't know how to act around her husband's brother. She was so sure that after the chess game she gained something with the bloke.

But now she realized, he's just an arse.

"Cygnus, I'm not above kicking you out of my manor."

"Oh please, as if you hadn't given me this full speech when I first got married...And my daughters are older than your wife! Ha!" Rhea had looked back down to her plate and felt ill, shaking her head as she wiped her mouth with her napkin.

"You certainly know how to make a witch lose her appetite." Alphard frowned, he didn't want to be too overprotective, given how they had been fully intimate since his incriminating actions. So when he caught his brother's mouth starting to open, he held his hand up.

"This is the first time you've had a full conversation with Rhea, the least you could do is be respectful, Cygnus. Or I will not be considering her kind suggestion on adding you to my business roster." The bloke grumbled like a child being denied the right to go out.

Funny how it all turned around.

"I might be younger than your own daughters, but I would assume that you would give me some method of kindness in return for mine...Alphard, I don't think we can have a decent family dinner all together. I'm sorry." She said, getting up from the table and throwing her napkin down.

She was more than done with today.

With his wife no longer being the angel on his shoulder to calm him, his jaw set into place and he glared at Cygnus. "Have you lost your mind? What's gotten into you?"

"I remember quite clearly you being the same when I married Druella—"

"Absolutely not! That was Orion you fuckin' idiot. You can forget whatever it is that you came here for. Not until you act your damn age." Alphard had remained in his seat, wondering what his brother's next course of action would be.

Guilt hadn't set in until Cygnus had caught sight of Rhea's unfinished tea or meal, and then back to the hall she disappeared down. "Where would she be?"

"If she hasn't gone to Germany already? Probably in her study or her art room. Now get going." The wizard had gone with his tail tucked between his legs as he tried to muck up the better part of his sympathetic side, and he knocked at her art room—Having been empty but filled with blank canvas' and smelled heavily of paint.

"Alphard would find a bird like him..." He hummed as he returned back to the very room where he found he liked Rhea's character and wit.

With a firm knock, he heard a heavy sigh on the other side of the door and he peeked his head in. "I believe I owe you an apology..." Rhea flickered her head up from an owl that she planned to send Mrs.Potter, as she couldn't handle another bundle of baked goods.

"You believe or did Alphard tell you to? There's a difference."

"Both, as I don't what my being a dumbarse ruin things for you and my brother—Course, it was meant to be a teasing, though I guess I've hit a bit of a brink."

"A bit?... Cygnus, the only thing people seem to catch about my person is my age, how I'm not with child, or that I'm a Ravenclaw. Those three things dictated my entire life, and you so freely threw them into a conversation. So excuse me, if I'm being bitter." He nodded, though frowned.

"It was never to make you angry, Rhea. It was more insight of pissing off Alphard."

"And you've managed to catch either, congratulations. You're brilliant in forming an apology." For a moment, he had been utterly relieved. But her firm glare, he caught that he hadn't done a single thing to push an apology.

"I'm sorry, I'm sure you haven't gotten that kind of a welcome considering who my sister is..." "No, I haven't. Though I did have a bit of hope from Alphard's younger brother. But I've been wrong before."
"I am sorry, Rhea. And not because Alphard had told me to say so, because you did show me kindness and a rather grand game of chess. You certainly aren't like your parents, are you?"

"I would hope not. I'm my own person."

"You're right again, though I did come here for another purpose than just proposing that my brother add me to the business..." Rhea had been blind sighted, and her naive question of asking, "And what would that be?"

And Cygnus had closed the gap between them and pulled her close to his figure— "Getting to know you, Rhea." And his fowl lips had come far too close for comfort.

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Date Posted: 11/27/2021

Time: 1:10

Words: 2960