Sebastian pushed himself up from where he was sitting and lowered himself down in front of her on one knee despite the sharp pain that shot up from his thigh at the movement. He took the teacup from her hands and set it aside and then held both of her hands in his, waiting until she looked at him before he spoke.

"Just as I told you before, I will help you find out what happened to her. But while I am doing that I want you to live. Let life move the way it needs to move. You said you don’t know what to do, but are you forgetting that you are a Luna? My wife." He reached up and cupped her cheek with one hand while keeping the other wrapped around hers.

"I don’t want to be a Luna anymore. I don’t know what I want." She whispered.

"Most people don’t know what they want, love. We live and we figure it out along the way. That is all any of us are doing. Don’t punish yourself for not having the answer right now. We can figure it out together." He stroked a tear from her cheek with his thumb.

"I am not good for anyone. I ruin things that get close to me. Don’t let me stay near you. Let me go away to the human world the way you suggested once before..."

Sebastian’s brows drew together. That had been said in a moment long past and he had no intention of honoring it now, not when the thought of her leaving made a string in his chest pull tight in a way it had never before. "I need you here. I don’t want you to go anywhere. I want you to stay with me."

Viola bit down on her lower lip hard enough to taste blood. He needed her? For what exactly? She was a temporary Luna and a temporary mate and she knew how that story ended, had always known, and staying would only mean hurting more when the ending finally arrived. She should go. She knew she should go.

But he had said it with such quiet sincerity that she didn’t know how to turn away from it. When had anyone ever truly wanted her to stay? She searched back through her memory and couldn’t find an answer, and the absence of one was enough to make her close her eyes and breathe through it slowly.

She would stay. Until she found out what happened to her sister. Until he stopped needing her. And then she would go quietly and not make it harder than it had to be for either of them.

"Will you stay with me?" Sebastian asked, looking into her shimmering eyes that held his favorite color even when they were full of tears.

She nodded. One small movement of her head. And she watched the tension leave his face a look that looked almost like relief softened his expression, as if her answer had been the only one he was willing to accept and he hadn’t been entirely certain it was coming.

He wiped away her tears with his hand and tucked her hair behind her ears as he stared at her face with a tender expression. ’I will take good care of you, mi amor, so you will never consider leaving me.’ Sebastian thought to himself, staring at her weary eyes.

Viola suddenly became very aware of her own state from the way he was staring at her like that. Along with it came the awareness of how long she had been lying in that bed without properly cleaning herself and washing the hair his fingers were currently running through, and the thought of a bath and warm water and starting fresh pulled at her more strongly than exhaustion did.

She looked at him and asked quietly, "I need to bathe. Will you hold me to sleep afterwards?"

Sebastian didn’t hesitate for even a second. "Of course. Do you need help bathing?" He asked, and she felt the color rise to her cheeks before she could stop it.

"I can manage on my own." She said, standing up from the bed quickly, and the movement sent a sharp pain shooting through her back that made her hiss between her teeth. Sebastian was on his feet immediately.

"Move carefully, baby. That wound still looks bad. I really think I should help you in the bath before you hurt yourself further or get water in the wound." He said with his brows pulled together, meaning every word. He was at the point where the concern he felt for her was overriding everything else and the last thing he needed was a domestic accident making things worse than they already were.

Viola’s cheeks flushed warm at the suggestion. She couldn’t begin to imagine herself undressed with him assisting her when she had perfectly functioning hands and legs, and the image that came to her mind uninvited of him running soapy hands over her naked skin made her momentarily forget every emotion she had been sitting in for the past minutes and sent heat rushing all the way to the top of her head.

She dispersed that image quickly by clearing her throat and saying, "I can bathe myself. I will be careful not to let water touch it. I just need to wash my hair and wipe the grime off my skin, that is all." And before he could insist or deny her the bath entirely, Viola moved away from him and walked briskly into the bathroom, pulling the door behind her.

Sebastian stood looking at the closing door, his eyes dropping to where his robe had swallowed her whole and made her look even smaller than she already was, and his mouth settled into a flat and worried line. His mind immediately began running through scenarios of her slipping on the wet floor or catching the wound on something and falling, and the thought made him move before he had consciously decided to.

He was at the bathroom door in a few steps. "Wear the brown shoes at the shoe rack on the side." He called through the door. "They grip the floor and make it less slippery."