After the Darkness

They always met in the darkness.

(It was how they began, and how they ended.)

It was the night, when the stars were blanketed by the heavy grey clouds that were like wool in the sky. She liked them; the sky understood her. She was clouded too, oh, was she ever. He was the stars struggling to break through, a muffled light.

(He always wanted to go public. She didn't.)

They were different, in essence. She was the night time, all quiet mystery and small smiles and gentle touches. He was the day, the bright, happy, outgoing day, with a grin as bright as the sun. They were, however, both blinding - she in the cover of darkness, and he in the sunshine of the day.

(Opposites attract, he always argued, to no avail.)

Her name was a flower - Rose, the symbol of love and passion. Her hair matched her name, a fiery red colour that touched her mid-back. She was a symbol, of two people who had been through a lot and loved each other very much. He was a constellation, Scorpius. The scorpion; a creature, while small, that was able to bite your ankles off, quite literally.

(Or, she was the fire and he was the water - a cliché, thank you very much, but clichés were made for a reason, were they not?)

They kissed and they kissed and she felt something break inside of her - a dam, a wall, something collapsing brick by brick, and the rubble was in his hands, balanced carefully, and he was going to trip and drop it, she knew it, did she ever.

(He always had a good grip on her.)

He could feel her tears, sometimes, and he didn't know why. She looked happy, she said she was happy, so why was she so sad? They had talked that night, talked like they'd never met before. Rose had told him her fears and her worries, and him. How he scared her.

(She said she was falling too fast. Couldn't think, feel, live right.)

Scorpius said that was okay; he was, too, and they would be okay. They would free-fall together, forever and ever and ever.

("What if we reach the bottom?" she asked, nothing but a fearful whisper.)

He sighed and brought her closer to him. "Well," he said, his breath skittering across the bare skin of her neck, "I'll guess I'll just have to shield you from the fall."

(Rose had laughed, and he had never heard a more beautiful sound.)

She was close, she could feel it. To saying yes, to them. Well, there was a them, already - they were together, only in darkness, only when she allowed it. But her resolve was weakening, she could feel it, could she ever, and she was so, so close to saying yes.

(What she was saying yes to? She didn't know.)

When she entwined their hands together that day after Transfiguaration, Scorpius had looked down and smiled. He knew that was her way of saying yes.

word count: 509. Review, yeah?