Challenge: Fire the Canon's Character of the Week Drabble Competition (week 8) on HPFC
Character: Arabella Figg, Argus Filch
Prompt: Romantic relationship.
Word count: 188
A/N: I wanted to watch Filch/Arabella, then saw the character prompt I'd unwittingly signed up for. Well done on my part, if I do say so myself. Whether I quite managed to portray it how I wanted to, I'm still undecided.
"Please, please, Argus, love, let me in. For me. Please, I'm begging you; let me see what's happened."
The door remained closed for what felt like hours, before he finally let it open. The man she just couldn't bring herself to stop loving was leaning back against the ivory bath, one of his eyes swollen shut. One of the students must have done this, she thought as her heart swelled with pity, as if trying to match the injury. Silently, she knelt beside him, finding the bruise-removal paste on the counter and beginning to tend to it.
"Those damn kids," he muttered. "Arabella, it's those good-for-nothing brats. They don't know when to stop."
"They're just children, love," she whispered, though he continued to mutter dark, threatening things that made her blood turn to ice in her veins. "They don't know any better," she went on, finishing up.
He reached out and pulled his auburn-haired lover over to sit on his lap, leaning her back against his chest. In moments like this, she could almost convince herself that he wasn't consumed with the idea that he was weak.
Almost.