It only irritated him more when she didn’t so much as stir. No one should be able to sleep that soundly. She had also managed to locate a pair of atrocious pink cotton pajamas sprinkled with blue flowers. He thought he had managed to get rid of all her nightwear that reminded him that she had until very recently been a schoolgirl. It was hard to think of her as a woman when she wore what he thought of as childish nightclothes and went to bed with her hair in a low ponytail. He rolled back over, hoping he could get at least a couple hours of sleep.
He barred his teeth, she was rolling around again, bouncing the mattress. He was going to have to start slipping a very strong sleeping potion into whatever she drank at dinner… one that was time released… something to make sure that she wouldn’t move at all in her sleep. He didn’t care if he had to invent something himself, it would be well worth the full night’s rest it would provide him with.
He finally gave up around 5, she obviously wasn’t going to let him sleep at all. Growling in frustration he threw back the covers, the few he had been left with after Morgan had dragged most of them around her. If nothing else he could get some grading done. However, the stack of quizzes that he kept himself busy with for the next three hours did nothing to improve his attitude.
“Severus,” Morgan appeared around 8, her hair fluffed out around her face and a trailing a blanket wrapped around her shoulders, “are you busy?”
Severus gave her a noncommittal grunt in response, not looking up from the papers in front of him.
Morgan frowned at her husband, who appeared to be blatantly ignoring her. “I want you to clean up in here a bit,” she looked around their living room with distaste, “I invited Minerva over for tea today and your papers are everywhere.”
“They will not be in your way,” Severus said sourly. They were most certainly not everywhere as she claimed. They were neatly stacked and spaced about the room so that he could keep them separate.
Morgan resisted the temptation to stomp her foot in frustration. The man was impossible! “Put them somewhere else, I’m tired of tripping over them! And put the books back on the bookshelf. Honestly, Severus, I don’t know how you can live like this!” She swept from the room and a moment later Severus heard the water running in the bathroom.
He gritted his teeth, determined not to let himself become some hen-pecked fool like most of the other married men he knew. He was not going to move so much as a single sheet of parchment. He had been waiting for Morgan to stop acting like a child, sulking about every time he said so much as one harsh word to her. But he did not want her acting like such a… shrew! He ruthlessly put failing marks on three Gryffindor quizzes in a row without looking at the contents of them.
He heard the water stop and figured that he might as well shower himself. Perhaps it would relax him. Of course a large glass of firewhiskey could have the same calming result. He’d probably need both if Minerva was coming to tea. Unless he wasn’t invited, in which case he could barricade himself in his study… that sounded most promising.
With that happy thought in place he set aside the quizzes he had left to grade. Lucky for those students, he might be in a slightly better mood when he returned to them. He cast aside his wool frock coat and boots in his… their… bedroom, putting them neatly away. Unlike Morgan’s clothes which were scattered haphazardly across her half of the room. His lip curled in disgust. She truly had no right to complain about his few neat stacks of books and papers in the living room. How she could live like this was truly beyond him.
Feeling truly in need of that relaxing shower now he stepped into the still steamy, terra cotta bathroom. His rage exploded. “MORGAN!!!” His chest was still heaving when Morgan, wrapped in a too large robe, her hair framing her face making her look practically angelic. “WHAT. IS. THIS?!” he demanded as swept his harm to indicate the expanse of the bathroom.
“What?” Morgan asked innocently.
Severus tried to count to ten in his head, but only made it to five, “this mess, there are bottles everywhere, towels on the floor, and other… women’s things…” he honestly wasn’t sure what all of it was. What exactly did it take for a woman to get ready in the morning?
“Severus, it’s just a few things lying out, I’ll clean them up later. It’s not like they’re in anyone’s way.”
“They are in my way!”
Morgan rolled her eyes, “well, they’re not where anyone else is going to see them.”
Severus stared at her as though she had lost her senses. He had never known a more infuriating woman, or imagined that he would ever marry such a woman. He wanted a meek little housewife who wouldn’t argue with him, didn’t he? Instead he felt like the guardian of a rebellious teenager. Of course she was a teenager and she was picking fights with him.
Morgan shook her head in disgust as she retreated back to their bedroom. The man was impossible! What was wrong with a little clutter if it was out of the way? It wasn’t like anyone else would ever enter their bedroom or bath. He most certainly wouldn’t allow it. He was less then pleased when she entertained her sister in their living room! Not to mention Minerva… who was his colleague and senior… the man was… she started muttering to herself out of frustration, cursing her husband, and then cursing herself because most of the vocabulary she was using she had learned from him.
She angrily wrapped herself into a set of black robes. They matched her mood. Perhaps that was why her husband always wore black, he was such a miserable, worthless, unfeeling, bastard. She roughly pulled her hair back into a tight not, not letting any of the soft curls escape. She glared at the mirror when it tisked in disapproval. Some objects should just stay inanimate!
“Will you be joining Minerva and me for tea?” Morgan asked as her husband came from the bath, a black towel wrapped around his hips. He looked so… she frowned as she tried to quash those feelings.
“No.”
Bloody bastard! This is a stupid, petty argument and if you had only said yes… she turned on her heel as her hands shook with renewed rage. She really wanted to throw something. Preferably at her husband’s head.
Insufferable brat! Perhaps if sounded the least bit contrite… he reached for a freshly ironed shirt, his blood still boiling. He sequestered himself in his office the entire time Morgan and Minerva were in his living room.
Morgan threw the box of black lacy lingerie that Minerva brought her under the bed and vowed to never open it again. In fact she was never going to sleep with her husband again. For all she cared he could rot in hell.
By the time evening rolled around they still weren’t on speaking terms. Well… they spoke to each other, but only in clipped annoyed tones. Severus to tell Morgan that she wasn’t allowed to issue any more invitations to his rooms without his express permission. Morgan to tell Severus that if he didn’t stop treating her like an irresponsible child she would show him just how many castration spells there were.
Morgan told Severus that he could feel free the remove the broomstick from his arse anytime. Severus told Morgan that if she wanted a broomstick stuck anywhere he’d be more than happy to oblige her.
Morgan made sure to where her warm grey flannel pajamas to bed that night. The ones that left her covered from head to toe. They both fell asleep on completely opposite ends of the bed, their backs to each other.