Hermione snapped her eyes open and saw that her bed was empty. She sat up and saw that his clothes were missing. His wand too. She quickly scrambled out of bed, not even bothering to dress but taking her thin bedsheet and wrapping it around herself. She hurried her steps as though her life depended on it and nearly tripped in the process. She didn't, and she gathered the sheet tighter around her until she stumbled out into the living room. She spotted him right at the fireplace with his hand gravitating to the Floo pot and her heart froze mid-beat.

"You take your hand away from that right now." Hermione said with a voice that scared even her. Draco had flinched, and even from behind she knew that he had taken a deep swallow.

"Hermione,-"

"No."

"Hermione, please." Draco said again, turning this time as he did. The hurt was living in his face. In his neck. In his heavy breaths. In the clenching of his hands.

"I said no. Draco Malfoy you find your way to me every night. Every night. You kiss me like I'm the only person that cares about you. And I kiss you back because I do. You can't run from something that makes you happy."

"I'll only hurt you. You know that."

"I don't care."

"Yes, you do."

"No, I don't!" Hermione screamed at him. Draco hadn't been prepared for her yell. It sounded like a strangled cry and his chest tightened with it. "Merlin, why do you have to be so stubborn? Every time you leave you're hurting yourself and me."

"You see?" Draco said as he took a step back towards the fireplace. "I've already hurt you."

"Only when you go."

"I'll hurt you more if I stay. This," he pointed to the Dark Mark his forearm. "This guarantees that."

"That only means you need me more."

Draco tried to slip his hand into the Floo pot as fast as he could, but Hermione was quick on her feet. She had grabbed his face and made him look at her –at her face, in her determined eyes. And with said eyes she could see his scared ones.

"You need me, Draco." She told him. He tried to avert his gaze, but her hands held him steady. "You need me. Say it." She kissed his cheek. "Say it." His jaw. His neck with a quick caress of her tongue. "Say that you need me."

Draco closed his eyes. He wanted to savor every press of her lips. Every touch of her tongue. The heat of her skin. Yes, her skin, because somewhere along the line the witch had let her bedsheet slip to her waist. He could feel every curve of her chest as though he was wearing nothing. As though it was a mere two hours ago when he had showed up in her bedroom begging to be touched.

"I need you." Draco found himself saying and he opened his eyes. They were still for no more than a second before he kissed her with all the urgency in the world. Because yes, this was an emergency. His life was a physical and emotional rollercoaster, and the only antidote to it all resided in her lips, the teasing of her tongue, and subtle moans elicited from her throat.

Hermione broke the kiss to let her bedsheet fall completely to the floor. She took his hand and led him to the bedroom that he had run from. The bedroom that, he truly believed, had been the catalyst to his crumbling resolve.

When the door closed behind him, Draco soaked in the naked form of the woman who was responsible for weakening rest of him.

"You need me." Hermione said again.

Draco cracked.

"I need you."

Draco stripped himself of his shirt and met her across the room lips first. Hermione busied her hands ridding him of his pants and he shimmied out of them quickly. They fell back onto her bed, her legs wrapped around him, he inside her, and pouring everything he felt –his love, his hate, his frustration, his confusion –into every thrust he gave. His hope, in the end, being that her cries of pleasure would somehow hold an answer.

He felt her come undone around him once, twice…he honestly lost count. All Draco cared about was getting lost and forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be here. That he wasn't supposed to be relishing in her warmth. That he wasn't supposed to be falling in love with her…

The Dark Lord had no idea what he'd done when he had sent Draco to kill her.

Author's note: A random, 6am, "I need to write this out" super-short one-shot lol. I may write more. I honestly don't know since this came out of the blue. I had The Weekend ft. Daft Punk's "I Feel It Coming" on repeat while writing this. It's the chorus that really got me going with this and echoes the feel that I wanted. Particularly about running and that "simple touch." (I LOVE this song!).

-WP :)