AN: Consider this to be an early V-Day present.
Title is from the song Come to Me by the Goo Goo Dolls.
Disclaimer: I'm the proud owner of a signed Brandon Sanderson book. That's it.
Title: cover me with kisses dear
Words: 1K
Summary: Several other first kisses that Rory Weasley and Hector Granger shared. Gender-bend.
i.
Rory Weasley grows tired of reading about the various battles that goblins had fought in.
"I'm sorry," she says to the petrified Hector. She shuts the book close. "I know you would want to catch up, but this is dreadful!"
No response, what Rory sadly still expects until the antidote is ready.
Now feeling sadder, she chews on her lower lip and busies herself as a way to hold back the growing fear of a monster in her school, hurt friends, and homework. She fluffs his pillow, rearranges his pile of get well cards (making sure that hers stands out from the rest), and then fishes something from her bag.
"Here! I've found these and I thought you would like them because your hands are really cold and…and…" Rory's voice wobbles, but she continues on as she tries to stubbornly put the knitted mittens on his curled hands. "See, it's…bloody hell."
The pink fabric flops uselessly were the fingers should go through.
She looks down at him, and that fissure of fear grows when she sees the frozen expression of shock and terror on his face. Is he stuck feeling like this, or does it feel like he's asleep? Rory often has these questions on her mind, and since the smartest wizard she knows is now lost to her…
Not lost, she reminds herself. He'll wake up soon and the monster will be gone. Hector will be back; and he will nag her again about procrastinating her homework, and explaining the strange things that Muggles did. He will do this all, and his eyes will be bright and intelligent, and everything will be good again.
Sniffling, as she often is at the end of each visit, but this time Rory leaves with a quick kiss on his cheek, her tears warm on his still face.
ii.
Hector is giggling.
Hesitantly, Rory lets the anger from their argument slide away. "What's so funny?"
"Everything!" He collapses on his bed; not caring that it is covered by his many textbooks and cramped handwritten notes. He rolls to his back, and some ink smudges his worn face. "Everything is absolutely hilarious! Can't you tell?"
All Rory can tell is that he is heavily deprived of sleep.
"Maybe you should sleep?" she suggests, making a note to ask Halley if they could use the map to see what is making Hector act this way. She sits near his head on the bed, and she pats his pillow. "Doesn't this look comfy?"
Rory then notices what a mess his hair is. The corkscrew curls are bushier than usual, and looks as though it has doubled in volume could cover most of the pillow from her view. But through the cloud of hair, Rory squints to see if that is really a gold chain that is around the front of his neck.
She opens her mouth to ask him, but squeaks instead when his mouth is suddenly pressing against the corner of hers.
Rory squeaks again, but Hector stares at her with a dazed expression.
"Oh," he says. He drops his head on his pillow. "Oh, dear."
iii.
They're holding hands as they watch Halley leave with the Dursleys from the platform.
She says nervously, "This is it."
They stare at each other, lost in each other's eyes with an unknown future yawning ahead. Silent communication passes through them, and Rory throws her arms around Hector's neck, he stands on his toes and wraps his arms securely around her waist, holding each other tight as if this could be their last time together.
"You'll see me soon enough," he promises, whispering the words into her hair.
"Not bloody soon enough." She kisses his cheek. "Stay safe, okay?"
She takes a step back, her face glowing like the sun outside, but Hector laces his fingers through hers and tugs her close again, understanding flashing in his eyes.
This time she kisses him on the mouth, and he kisses her back like what he has always wanted to do all year. It is just as brilliant and nerve-wracking as Rory imagines it to be, but better because she now knows what it feels like to have his clever eyes staring at her admirably, and his ink-stained fingers giving her hands a gentle squeeze as they have their moment of solace together.
The kiss ends and their foreheads are touching, both breathing deeply.
"For luck," he tells her, kissing the freckled space between her eyes. "You'll see me again."
iv.
All Rory can think as Hector's face slowly inches closer is how she will murder her twin sisters later. But she is also thinking how lovely Hector looks in the low light, and that he smells of parchment and mint.
It helps her ignore that they have an audience.
"Make her swoon!" Felicity says.
"And kiss her already!" Georgia adds. "We need more test subjects for this mistletoe!"
Halley gulps, and Gid's voice is sharp. "What do you mean you need more—"
Georgia hushes him. "Shush you! We're all about to see true love if they stop moving like flobbberworms."
Rory huffs. "Sisters."
She grabs Hector by the front of his jumper, but he's already kissing her…
Just in time for Sirius to walk into the room with her parents.
v.
It felt like a fantastic idea when Hector saw her ex-boyfriend glowering at them, and then the awkwardness of catching her best friend and little brother snogging again.
Kiss Hector in front of everyone. Why not? He's the one who started it.
(And, of course, he's unfairly brilliant at it—the whole kissing thing.)
He has one hand cupping the back of Rory's head, the other tilting her chin, and all Rory can do is go along with whatever madness has recently gone through him.
Nervous giggles and small cheers erupt in the common room as they break apart, his one hand playing with the undone strands of her plait. There is an oddly proud look on Hector's face contrasting to Rory's spluttering and blushing one.
"I say we've danced around this long enough," he says in an oddly stiff voice.
Rory agrees by coming to her senses and furiously kisses him again, not caring that her brother was telling them to get a room.
vi.
Rory instantly melts into him. Hector laughs against her mouth, his hands skimming up her sides to hold her gently by her shoulders.
"You're fantastic, you really are," Rory babbles after they part. The pins that once held her hair up have fallen sometime during their dance. She feels like a mess with her hair falling everywhere, how sweaty she now is in her gold dress, and her face starts to resemble the color of the sun that's setting behind them. "And sweet mother of Merlin—did we really—did we—"
Hector's smile nearly outshines her own. "It only took us about six years."
Rory makes a rude hand gesture at her sisters that are cackling with laughter nearby. "We should go make up for the lost time before they start planning our own wedding."
With blushing faces and hand-in-hand, they walk past the knowing smiles that their friends wear.
Weddings, despite the initial chaos that they come with, are not so bad after all.
