Title: Her Own Fairy Tale
Author: OCDdegrassi
Pairing: Narcissa/Frank
Rating: T
Warning: Infidelity (kind of), Mild Sexual Content, Mentions of Violence, Angst, Fluff, AU
Note: Written for Eye Greater Than Three for the March's Monthly One-Shot Exchange. Prompts Used: Narcissa/Frank, Romance, Violets. The rating is just to be safe. I have to admit that this was out of my comfort zone, so hopefully it turned out okay!
xxx
Narcissa tilts her head back, allowing her companion better access to the milky white expanse of her neck. Her cold skin feels like it is on fire wherever he presses opened-mouth kisses, and the gentle touch of his hands gliding up and down her back warm her to the very core.
Her eyes are hooded with lust, but they catch sight of the bouquet of violets placed on her dresser, and she can't stop the small smile from forming on her lips. Violets are her favorite flower, so they are the only flowers that Frank ever brings her. The bouquets usually consist of blue violets, symbolizing his devotion to her.
He doesn't just give her the flowers to say he is devoted though; he also proves it with his actions. She is set to be married in less than a week – an arrangement made by her father – and yet he has never strayed or left out of frustration. He refuses to give up, continuing to fight for her against all odds, and she loves him even more for it.
She can feel his devotion in the way that he makes love to her too; as if he is opening a precious gift that he is still in awe of receiving. He kisses down her chest reverently, eyes shining with love as he looks up at her, never breaking his gaze from her face.
Yes, blue violets are definitely fitting.
Yet tonight is different. Instead of blue violets, he brought her white, and she knew that it was not to symbolize purity; their union is anything but that given how she is promised to another. No, they are meant as an invitation to gamble on love.
He is giving her the chance to choose happiness before it is too late. He wants her to run away with him, travel the world, and eventually settle down to make a life in some distant land. They would be away from her family and society's expectations of them. Narcissa's heart is screaming at her to take his hand and never look back, but her brain is caught in uncertainty.
She loves him, truly, but she had been raised as the dutiful pureblood daughter. She is expected to marry and act as the doting wife to another aristocratic pureblood, regardless of her own feelings. Despite it's less than tempting appeal, the thought of abandoning that - of running away from everything she has ever known - is terrifying, and Narcissa isn't sure that she is brave enough to go through with it.
Frank is. He is brave in ways that she will never be capable of. He is an Auror who protects those that can't protect themselves. He is the hero, and she is just the future wife of a villain - barely a character in the story at all.
What does he see in her? She knows that she is beautiful, but she is beginning to doubt that anything inside is worthy of his adoration of her. Even in this moment, when she has the chance at freedom and love, she is hesitating like a coward. Can she truly take such a giant leap of faith?
If you had asked her that questions a few years ago, she would have thought it mad. Yet now she aches for a new life so badly that it hurts. She is terrified that Lucius – or worse, her father – will hunt them down like a predator to its prey. He would slaughter them, but not before inflicting every pain imaginable. Is it really worth the risk?
Frank kisses her then, gently and slowly, and his arms wrap around her waist protectively. Every tense muscle in her body seems to turn to liquid as she melts into the embrace. She feels safe and secure, and in that moment, all of her doubts disappear. Frank is the hero. He is trained to defeat the bad guys. He will protect her; Narcissa is sure of it.
It is ironic, because Frank is not the man that she dreamed of falling in love with as a child. Those fantasies had always been filled with men like Lucius. Yet now that she has grown, she realizes how little she actually wants that. The blonde man's exterior may be beautiful, but his interior holds a darkness that would swallow her whole.
Frank is not a breathtaking man; he doesn't have perfect skin or impeccable clothes. To many, he looks entirely average on the outside. Yet his insides shine brighter than a thousand suns, and now that Narcissa has seen that, it will forever color her image of him. When she looks at him now, he is gorgeous to her.
Now her prince charming is asking her to take a gamble - to risk it all for their love.
As Narcissa lays pressed against his body, listening to the lull of his heartbeat, she realizes that some rewards are worth the risk. She doesn't want to be a minor character in a book; she wants her own story and her own happy ending, and she is going to take a chance in order to get it. She will trust the man that she loves, and tomorrow, they will run away together.
With a smile on her face and determination in her heart, her eyes flutter shut, the image of white violets seared into her brain as an emblem of her very own fairy tale that's about to begin.
xxx
A/N: Reviews are always appreciated!