Title: Keeping the Stars Apart
Author: Glimmer Girl
Rating: R
Category: Romance/PWP
Pairing: Harry/Ron
Warnings: Adult Harry/Ron relationship, slash
Spoilers: none
Disclaimer: All things HP belong to JKR.
Summary: Short, sweet happy couple smut scene.
Feedback: Sure!
Archive: Please email to ask, but most likely I'll say yes.



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KEEPING THE STARS APART
~ by Glim
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The typical witch or wizard who takes a stroll down Pottery Lane, having made a left hand turn off Knockturn Alley, does not do so with a smile across their face. Pottery Lane does not invite smiles, with its ramshackle, tumbledown boarding houses and dimly lit storefronts. The jagged, broken windows of The Slippery Stoat Inn offer a broken frown of sorts. The passersby fare much better if they frown right back or at least lower their eyes along with their expectations. Smiles tend to set one up for grave disappointment in Pottery Lane.


Perhaps Ronald Weasley was not your typical wizard. From the moment he apparated at the top of Pottery Lane he wore a smile that dared the autumn sun to shine bigger and brighter. The gloom and doom of the shambles there failed to tug the corners of his mouth down. Even the sharp grimace he encountered as he ambled by the Stoat couldn't ruin his mood. In fact, he laughed a bit as he continued his walk and thought of his destination on Pottery Lane - a tiny, one room flat above a musty old bookshop. Ron would have simply apparated in the flat, if such things didn't make Harry jumpy. Nevermind, he thought, as the warm sun and light wind erased the claustrophobia he felt after a day working at the Ministry.


As Ron approached the bookshop, *Scrivendo, Estab. 1627*, he pondered how his job made even Pottery Lane look like a stroll down the High Street. Some days it felt as if the universe had quivered, shuddered, shaken, and shattered into a million tiny shards, which the Ministry of Magic was left to sweep up and reassemble. He paused, waved to his landlord, and nudged the sleeping ginger kitten off the bottom step that led to his flat. Even on days when the stars threatened to smash together in one great collision and bring the darkness, he had Pottery Lane, a frowzy flat, and Harry.


Harry Potter, who could've played Quidditch for England but decided to become an auror and fight as the universe teetered. Harry Potter, who left biscuit crumbs all over the sports section of *The Daily Prophet*. Harry, who, Ron noticed as he walked through the door to their flat, had fallen asleep at the writing desk, head pillowed on a pile of parchments. Closing the door behind him and then covering the distance between desk and door, Ron shook his head and grinned.


Carefully Ron leaned against the side of the desk, brushed the tips of his fingers through Harry's hair, and pushed it off the other man's forehead. He touched the skin, smooth and free of worry in sleep, and slid his fingers down to the wire frames of Harry's glasses. Unsure of whether or not he wanted to wake Harry, Ron pulled the glasses off and folded them up to place them on the desk. With his smallest finger, he rubbed the pink mark left on the bridge of Harry's nose. An errant beam of late day sun caught the flicker of green from between drowsy eyelids as Harry woke up. He sat up with a stiff movement and groaned in exasperation as he surveyed the mess of ink bottles, quills, and parchments that surrounded him.


"Hey, good morning for the second time today," Ron said, as he shifted positions to stand next to Harry and rub the back of his neck with one hand.


"Ummm, right. Work good?" Harry knuckled his eyes and yawned deeply, his head heavy from sleep.


"Sure, the usual. What's all this? Trouble?" One hand moved down the front of Harry's robes as Ron leaned forward and read some of the letters. "Are you leaving again?"


"Err, well, I don't know. I fell asleep before I got half way through." He yawned again, wearily, as Ron rested a cheek against the side of his head. "I hope not."


Both arms wrapped around Harry, Ron pressed his lips to the mussed, dark hair. Harry was warm from the hours of rest he stole from the afternoon. Moving his mouth, he grazed his tongue over the tip of an ear and breathed words warm and hot to his lover.


"I missed you, Harry." Exhaling a ticklish stream of air into Harry's ear, he started to fumble with the first few buttons at the top of his lover's robe. He nuzzled a little more, then turned his head to kiss Harry behind the ear and down to the jawbone.


"Oh, Ron." Reaching up and clasping Ron's wrist with one hand, Harry quickly undid the buttons on his robe for Ron. "Is this what you think about at work?"


Ron stopped nibbling and licked the warm skin that tasted of soap and sleep. Pulling back, he thought a moment and then drew Harry up to stand before him.


"Yeah, maybe not exactly *this*, but you're always in my mind." He placed his hands on Harry's waist and brought their bodies together.


When he kissed Harry, Ron felt the steady pulse of a heart beating against his chest. His own or his lover's, he never stopped to take note, as mouths and tongues entwined. He didn't kiss him hard, but slow and long, so he could feel the firm pressure as their tongues slid over each other, the easy yielding as their lips met, the smile that creased both their mouths before they parted for breath.


Still smiling, Ron brought his lips forward again and kissed Harry lightly. He quickly brushed his lips over the top and bottom of Harry's lips, then the corners of his mouth. Satisfied with his work, he clasped Harry close in a tight hug and just held him as they stood in the center of the flat. Eyes shut, he let his awareness center on the man he had in his arms and suddenly, the universe fell into place. The stars and planets and worlds didn't collide and didn't fall from the heavens. Which was fine, because Ron didn't need the whole universe.


Taking a step back, Ron let his hands rest on Harry's shoulders as he looked into those green eyes. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but stopped, shut his mouth, and looked down. He clutched one of Harry's hands in his own, interlacing their fingers, and walked toward the bed. Once there, he swiftly removed his clothing and waited for Harry to do the same.


A pile of clothing at their feet and fading sunlight covering their limbs, Harry and Ron embraced again. Bare stomachs and thighs pressed together as fingertips lightly touched and breath mingled. Urgent touches led Ron closer to sit on the bed, an arm wrapped around his waist. Harry rested his head on Ron's shoulder and kissed his neck. Harry's hand then drifted over Ron's cheek, and his thumb ran down one of the tendons in his neck and across his collarbone. The flat of his palm rested against Ron's chest as fingers curled around his shoulder blade. Harry pulled him closer, entangled their feet and pressed their thighs together. A bubble of warmth spread through his stomach and groin as the warm palm slid down his chest.


Lingering strokes covered his chest and belly, teasing swirls that made Ron groan and whimper. Harry chuckled as Ron sought his mouth, but ended up kissing whatever skin he lips encountered. He painted Harry's face and chin with wet, open-mouthed kisses as Harry smoothed the back of his hand down the center of Ron's chest and then over to his thigh. His thumb rubbed circles into the hollow there as his other fingers grasped the flesh.


Kneeling between Harry's legs, Ron licked a shiny, wet trail from throat to navel. When he ran his hands up the other man's thighs and pressed his face into the muscle there, he could feel need start to throb harder inside himself. Carefully and gently, he prepared Harry for lovemaking and soon they could wait no longer. And it was wonderful, as always, to feel his body connect with his lover's, to feel the pain and pleasure of dizzying climax, to feel his limbs shudder with orgasm and then to feel the same thing rip through Harry. Wonderful because the world could turn over and it would feel nothing like this, nothing like that blinding moment when breath and feeling suspend.


"Why is it," Harry asked as he reclined, his head resting on Ron's chest after their lovemaking, "you always sleep closest to the door?"


"To protect you," Ron replied, threading his fingers through the ones that danced patterns over his skin.


"From?" Harry continued, as Ron yawned and kissed the crown of his head sleepily. He then tugged a blanket over their bodies and snuggled closer to Ron.


"Falling out of bed, I guess. You handle the rest on your own."


"I love you." Harry lifted his head and caught Ron's mouth in an awkward, wet kiss that swallowed Ron's own 'I love you'.


The stars smiled over Pottery Lane that night. Even the toothy sharp frown in The Slippery Stoat's window looked less menacing, though not by much. Maybe it didn't know what went on down the street, over old Scrivendo's, that was keeping the stars apart.


~finis~


i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
not fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

e.e. cummings