A.N.: Surprise, surprise. A story for HPFC the Ultimate Het Love Competition.
Stormy Night
Summary: Katie hates storms. But that particular night she realized, they might not be so bad after all.
Prompts: storm warning, classic, turn-about is fair play, hinder
Thump. Thump. Thump. The sound of rain pattering against the window was eliciting a migraine in her head. She groaned as she lay in the hotel bed and hit her head on the pillow, punching the satin covered mattresses. She did not even like purple, why were the sheets purple? She sat up on the bed and pulled her waist length black hair in a knot. With a determined expression on her face she got out of the bed and slipped on her flip-flops. She was not going to get any sleep in the storm anyways, so might as well stop trying to. She sighed and made her way to the sitting room of the extravagant suite she resided in.
Katie Bell was a successful chaser for Falmouth Falcons. She was the star chaser and well it came with its benefits. She went and sat in the armchair of dimly lit room. The only source of light was the fireplace beside the armchair. She pulled her knees upto her chest and wrapped her arms around it. She shuddered as a thunder resounded. She hated thunderstorm. After the thunderous roar, the room became silent except for the pattering of rain drops. But the room was silent enough to hear the footsteps resounding behind her. She took a deep breath and braced herself for the coming insult.
No lunches are free lunches. The law of benefits goes on; when you gain something you definitely lose something. Well the loss in being the star-chaser of Falmouth Falcons was working with the other star-chaser, Marcus Flint. Well she wouldn't have minded working with him that much but becoming his fake girlfriend was a totally different story. She and Marcus were supposed to pretend they were in love. This gave promotion to their team, increased the fan-following and increased the sale of Falmouth Falcons merchandise. And it suited, didn't it? War-heroine and reformed Death Eater... Star-crossed lovers, a classic love story...
So here she was living her dream of being a star-chaser, playing for an international team and while she was at it, she was living her worst nightmare as she pretended to be the girlfriend of the boy who tormented her in school.
She wouldn't have minded it as much as she did now if Flint had been ready to comply. He complied; he was really sweet in public, and a real gentleman. He did not help matters some strange magic on his protruding jaw, which made his face look completely flawless, which made it hard for her to concentrate on anything but him. His blue eyes with green flecks in it, his Quidditch acquired physique. She did remember their beach outing for the publicity and hating herself for literally drooling at him as he looked like some Ancient Greek God in just shorts. The most distracting feature was his lips, no they were not perfect, on the other his lower lip was bigger than the upper lip, which seemed completely kissable. But she hated him; she hated him because it was hard to hate him when he became so different from the bully at school. But it broke her heart when they were alone, because her good version of Marcus Flint disappeared and came back the bully. The boy who called her a mud-blood and made sure her life was hell, the boy who had made sure she ended up in Hospital Wing after every Quidditch Match against him. Want to know a scary thing? It didn't even matter to her. She fell in love with Marcus and it broke her when she saw Flint.
"Still up, Bell?" Marcus asked as he came in her view, settling himself on the armchair opposite to her.
Katie looked at him as his pale skin glowed in the fire-light. His features sort of magnified in the yellow-orange light. Katie was about to be rude and say something sarcastic but instead she found herself being honest.
"I am scared of storms, can't sleep through them..." She mumbled anticipating his laughter.
But she was surprised when she heard just a thoughtful, "Oh"
They were silent for a while as Katie listened to the pattering of the rain.
Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap. Tip. Tap. She groaned. She could not take the pattering or the awkward silence anymore.
"Shouldn't they give a storm-warning!" She said, angrily.
Marcus looked up surprised and bit back a chuckle, "You grew up in England, too... Storm warnings don't work here." He said in an amused voice.
"Ugh!" Katie exclaimed, throwing up her hands up.
"Mature, Bell..." Marcus chuckled.
Katie looked up surprised at him, his fun banter was usually for the public eye. He never was Marcus just for her; he was always Flint for her when they were alone.
She couldn't help the smile when she looked at Marcus and not Flint.
"Cat got your tongue, Katie?" He asked with a smirk. Katie's stomach did a flip when she heard her name pronounced by him.
'This is madness.' She thought.
"I hate storms." She said weakly.
'Wow, what a nice come-back.' She thought mentally slapping herself.
"Well, we have established that, Katie." Marcus smiled.
"Why are you up?" Katie asked.
"Uh... I couldn't sleep..." Marcus said, uncomfortably.
"Storms?" Katie asked.
"Nightmares" Marcus found himself answering.
Suddenly, comprehension lighted in Katie's head.
"War?" She asked.
Marcus nodded. She was surprised to see the vulnerable look he was wearing. She reached out and held his hand trying to comfort him.
Marcus looked surprised but did not pull his hand away, which surprised her in return.
"It's all over." Katie said soothingly, "And we will never be in that situation again."
"It's easier for you to say, you were fighting for the good in people, not for some stupid blood supremacy, which didn't even matter in the end." Marcus said, "You were the heroes, we were the villains and are supposed to live with the guilt for our actions."
"One is judged on the person he has become not on the things he did in the past. You are not what you've been, atleast not until you let your past cloud your present..." Katie said.
Marcus looked at their clasped hands and realized how close they were sitting. He had to control himself from not kissing her as her creamy skin looked almost golden, illuminated by the fire, her black hair tied in a knot while a few stubborn strands escaped settling on her cheek, which was slightly tinged with pink.
"Since when you were so wise, Katie?" Marcus asked, resolutely looking at their hands.
"I was always wise, you just noticed now." Katie said.
"Why didn't I?" Marcus wondered, still looking at their hands.
"Because..." Katie said, thinking for a reason, "because you were around blonde bimbos with zero brains for too long." She told him, teasing.
Marcus looked up and was lost in the depths of her coco coloured eyes.
"Jealous, Katie?" He asked a bit breathless.
"You wish..." She whispered, weakly not even convincing herself.
His eyes flicked to her lips as her tongue darted out to moist her lips and he couldn't take it anymore. He leaned in to kiss her and was surprised when she met him halfway.
Her lips were soft as they moved against his. He cradled the back of her neck, bringing her close. His other hand went to her hips bringing her on his lap as he played with the edge of her shorts and traced circles on her thigh.
She moaned as he artistically worked with his hands, whilst she felt his hard chest and toned abs through the t-shirt he was wearing.
His tongue brushed against her lips asking for entrance which she granted. She tasted like honey-suckle and... Katie... he decided.
After what felt like an eternity they pulled apart only because oxygen became necessity.
"Why aren't you always like this?" Katie asked before she could stop herself. She was surprised at how husky her voice sounded, it was almost seductive.
Marcus rested his fore-head against hers and asked, "What do you mean?"
"You are not Marcus around me, when we are alone..." She said and Marcus looked confused. "When we are alone you go back to being mean and calling me names and teasing me and... do you even know how frustrating that is? You torture me, you realize that?" She said, disentangling herself from him as she stood up looking frustrated. "I fall in love with Marcus, when we are in public and when they leave us alone; Flint comes back and breaks my heart, because he is not the guy I love. Who are you? Who are you, really? Are you my Marcus or are you the bully Flint?"
Marcus looked up at her, shocked.
'Did she just say...?' He thought.
"I never thought..." he said quietly, "I never thought you would ever love me... you turned me down once and what was stopping you to do that again? The only way I found to keep me sane was to push you away..."
Katie looked confused but then her mind flashed to her third year and his fifth. He had asked her out. She had thought it was a joke and turned him down. She felt guilty and then her guilt turned into anger...
"So you decided that turn-about is fair play?" She screamed at him, "You tortured me for that? I was thirteen, how was I supposed to know you were saying the truth? Did you ever talk to me nicely before that?" She asked her voice getting quieter with every word.
"Don't you realize?" Marcus asked holding her by her shoulders, "I loved you since I saw you at that Gryffindor trials but you were a muggle-born, forbidden for me! But even then I asked you out, I told you how I felt and you... you turned me down..."
"I never realized..." She replied quietly and looked down at her flip-flops.
They stood there just like that, he glaring at her and her memorizing flowers on her flip-flops. And then he started laughing suddenly. She looked up at him as he shook with laughter. She couldn't help but smile at how angelic his face looked when he laughed. His head thrown back and signs of worry gone from his face...
"We are a pair, aren't we?" He asked smiling.
Katie looked confused and he elaborated, "Do you realize we just confessed our love to each other?" he asked.
As soon as it home, Katie started laughing, too. His hands travelled from his shoulders to her waist as he held her. She wound her arms slowly round his neck and looked up at him, smiling.
"I love you..." he said.
"I love you." She echoed.
And again their lips met.
'Stormy nights are not so bad after all...' Katie thought before losing herself in the kiss.
Word Count: 1832.