Viktor's POV

Viktor rolled his eyes as his wife of five years, Hermione, went on about some mistake in the owl system that had disrupted her from working the whole day. She probably hadn't realised that she had told him the same information just an hour ago when she had arrived home from work, looking thoroughly exasperated and piqued about something. Work always came first for Hermione, it appeared to be what kept her alive and motivated. Even now he could see the excitement all over her face, her eyes shimmering with delight just by the talking about it. Even the word 'work' seemed to give her an orgasm of some sort. Looking at things now, Viktor realised that work was everything to her.

Hermione had lost interest in him, Viktor thought. Both in him and their relationship. All she ever talked about was work, work, work. Sometimes, she didn't even talk to him having paper work placed before her to work on. This had been going on for quite some time. Just over a year- now that he thought about it. Her interest and relationship with their sons hadn't changed though. It had always made Viktor wonder what he was doing wrong. Was he that boring to be around?

Then something happened one day. Something big. Viktor didn't know whether he was supposed to feel guilty or happy about it. He remembered walking out of the house after kissing his sons, Lyuben and Stanislav goodbye, leaving them in the care of his old friend and faithful houseelf, Twinkles, whom Hermione didn't like having around. She was very against having houselves. He remembered deciding that he was leaving the house for good, not leaving a note behind at all to explain things to Hermione. She probably didn't need an explanation, he thought. After all, she hardly talked to him now. She probably wouldn't realise that he wasn't even there.

Viktor ended up traveling around England a bit much to his own surprise- the muggle way- sometimes hitchhiked by car, sometimes by foot. He preferred traveling on foot because he got to look around and see the view. But to be honest, there wasn't much for him to see because a lot clouded his mind... like why his relationship with Hermione wasn't working. But he did remember walking through Chipping Campden, Bourton-on-the-water, Bibury, and Painswick, a few of the many fully muggle places in England. After that he didn't remember much of the places he walked by.

Hermione had tried to contact him... once to be exact. It was to ask if he was away for a Quidditch game. She had forgotten that he had retired last year. Of course, it was once again to do with work. She hadn't been able to make it to his retirement party because of some assignment with the Ministry. Work always came first.

Viktor walked up to Clovelly by chance one day. It was probably two weeks or so after leaving the house. He had been thinking about heading over to the sea to see where life decided to take him, going wherever the road led him. It was at Clovelly where he met a women around Hermione's age with dark black hair and deep blue eyes. She had very sharp look to her blue eyes, so when he had made his way down a pathway, she had immediately caught his attention.

Two days or so after that meeting, he met her again. He had decided that he was going to stay around Clovelly since it was a small and pretty place. And when he met her, they talked... and talked... and ended up in bed. They decided after that day that they would do this periodically whenever the other was available. No strings attached... friends with benefits... whatever people preferred to call it. This lasted quite a while. A month at the most? He never managed to catch her name.

Then one day, Viktor felt something stir inside of him. It was a strange feeling because it felt so foreign... it was a feeling that he hadn't felt it in a long time... it was love. He decided to follow the woman with the mysterious blue eyes one day after being in bed with her. Sex with her up to this point was all very physical... the aim really was to gain physical pleasure and so far things had gone as planned. He followed her slowly and carefully. He wasn't a stalker or anything so he didn't want to leave an impression on anyone who happened to spot him walking by. He walked as casually as possible and followed her until she got to a house, isolated from everything. It was a house a bit far from Clovelly, just by the sea. He saw her go inside and soon realised that she wasn't alone. There was another man and... a child... a young boy. He was reminded of Lyuben and Stanislav at that point and felt a painful stab to the chest. He missed them... a lot. He then decided it was time to return... to his tent just outside of Clovelly where he stayed. He couldn't bring himself to go home yet... just not yet...

The next day when Viktor was in bed with her, sex wasn't physical at all. The intimacy and emotions that had been missing was sparked between them and he found himself being brought to life. Just before she left, he told her that he was leaving for good. When she asked why, he told her the truth. He had a family of his own, he missed his kids- but he never mentioned that what had happened between them was wrong. She nodded and asked if she wanted to know her name or not, which he shook his head to. To be honest, Viktor would prefer having the woman with the blue eyes a mystery to him, so that she would end up as a distant memory somewhere deep inside of him. In all honesty, he wanted to keep her all in his head as if she was just fiction... an image made up in his mind. That way he would eventually forget her- just the way people eventually forgot about their childhood, remembering only snippets of their past.

He walked all the way back home from Clovelly... to Muggle London to Magic London. If people had known of his journey back and forth, they would have thought that he was crazy. To Viktor, the journey was a way to clear himself up. He wanted to forget about what had happened... what had become of his life. But at the same time, the journey made him realise how much his family meant to him. Maybe things would change between Hermione and himself. After all, things wouldn't had happened between them if some sort of spark hadn't been around, and the mess they had gotten into wouldn't have happened if they hadn't gotten together. Life was strange...

When he opened the door the muggle way to enter his home, he saw a teary eyed Hermione sat clumsily on the floor. It took her a while to notice he was even there since she appeared to have lost focus, and when she did notice him, she ran over and literally jumped onto him, flinging her arms around his neck.

Hermione didn't say anything at first. Just cried and cried and cried. She must have realised that she missed him, Viktor thought. That she loved him. He didn't hug her back though and instead, pushed her arms gently away from him before walking into the living room, as he shut the door behind him. Hermione walked up to him without saying a word. She was pretty much silent.

The moment of silence between them seemed to have sprung up on them, almost as if it were giving them a chance to think things through before saying anything. Breathe, he thought, breathe...

"Viktor... I'm so sorry for ignoring you... I love you... I really do. I know I've acted as if you didn't exist- but I really do love you. Honestly! I know that I've hurt you and put work before everything and I'm sorry to have caused you so much pain and I..."

Viktor looked at her and brushed a tear off of her cheek. The act between them- touching- he didn't remember the last time they had been intimate with each other. It brought a warmth to his heart as he looked into her eyes. Hermione was the love of his life, his first love. He was suddenly reminded of the blue eyed woman at that moment. Yes, he had loved her, but it wasn't the love that he wanted. It was just a desperate kind of love that sprang out slowly over time. He had wanted to be in love and be loved by somebody and she had just happened to be there at that moment. He felt disgusted at himself at the thought of her.

"I love you too. I'm sorry for walking out and leaving you alone."

She hugged him again and this time, he hugged her back. At that moment he saw his four year old Lyuben run up to him with little two year old Stanislav toddling after his bother petulantly, asking him to slow down for him through his moaning.

"*Tatko*!" Lyuben and Stanslav screamed when they spotted him standing with their mother.

Viktor smiled as he bent down to their level, spreading his arms out so that they could run into him. He hugged them tightly when they got to him, telling them how much he loved and missed them while he was away. Seeing his two young son up close now, he suddenly realised just how much the had grown over the period of time he had been away. It made him smile.

He could feel the longing emotion all over again as a quick flash of the memory of seeing the son of the woman with blue eyes came to him. How could he ever had left his two children? He hugged them again and kissed them, telling them how he wouldn't go away again for a long long time. They meant too much to him.

Later, when his sons went to bed, Viktor found himself alone with Hermione again. He realised at that moment that Hermione hadn't mentioned work once or even done any work. He raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Hermione asked.

He shook his head.

"Go on. Tell me."

"It's nothing. I'm just wondering why you aren't working."

She sighed, and he smiled as he noticed how gracefully she breathed.

"I quit."

Viktor gave her a look.

"I quite work."

She returned him one.

"I'm serious," she continued. "We've got enough money to get on anyway... I want to spend all the time I have with you and the kids. I put a lot of thought into this and I mean it."

"Really?"

"Really."

Viktor smiled. Maybe leaving hadn't been such a idea after all- not in that sense but the other sense...

"Do you want to travel all over the world then?" Viktor asked her as an idea sprung into his mind. "You, me and the kids. Just the four of us. We could do whatever we want- we can do this until the kids have to go to school. I want them to experience everything before school ruins it for them."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his last comment but agreed. "Yes, I do want to. And I'm sure the kids will love to. I mean... there are so many places I haven't been to yet!"

Viktor then leaned forward and kissed Hermione for the first time in probably over a year. It was intoxicating, almost unbelievable. After all this time, he still couldn't believe the magic between them was still there, even when they had fallen apart for a while.

When they parted, they smiled at each other.

"Do you want to start packing now?" Hermione asked.

He nodded. "I'd love to."

A/N Been on fanfic for a while. This is my first story and will be a two chapter fic. Hope you liked it. But if it's not your cup of tea, whatever.

tatko= Dad in Bulgarian. It's the colloquial term for Dad.