A/N: This was a response to a Fleurmione prompt I received a long while back. I've only started writing again and this absolutely had no beta whatsoever, any mistakes you find is mine. I know I've been really horrible with writing updates for my left out fics, life happened and I'm only getting the urge to write again now. If anyone is interested I've been posting re-written chapters of my fics on my tumblr, you can find my link via my profile page! Anyways, onto the story. I hope you enjoy the read!
Prompt: Fleurmione cuddling and comforting each other after one of them has a nightmare.
Response: Fleurmione / AU
If you're on your third year in law school, it means 30 minutes of sleep over the course of 24 hours is lucky.
And Fleur has absolutely no idea how her girlfriend does it, but she understands and she worries, and even though she has to be at the hospital for a midnight shift, she had quietly made a call to come in for another hour more. Gabrielle will be there to take care of her patients, she isn't very worried.
Hermione had been up for a little over 36 hours, she supposes even the extreme amounts of caffeine intake that Hermione have had couldn't keep her tiny brunette self up at that point– something which Fleur was extremely grateful of.
However said tiny brunette had chosen to curl up on Fleur's lap, intending to close her eyes for 'fifteen minutes only, Fleur. Please wake me up if my alarm does not; if I fail my civpro class I am not marrying you'. Cue: stern glaring. So Fleur only smiled and nodded her agreement, wrapping her arms around the brunette tightly and rubbing small comforting circles on her back.
She grinned when not five minutes later, Hermione was breathing evenly against her collarbone, making tiny sleepy noises that she has always found extremely comforting. Fleur was about to doze off herself when she realized she still had that midnight shift at the hospital.
That was at least thirty minutes ago, and Fleur intends to wake Hermione up as soon as she gets at the very least an hour of sleep. She's had enough practice with cuddling that her shoulders falling asleep does not really bother her much anymore.
She secretly loved observing the brunette sleep, she has no idea why, and Fleur was not really particularly invested in watching her previous lovers when they slept; but that was until Hermione. She loved listening to her even breathing, the tiny noises she makes that lets Fleur know she's dreaming. For a person who is so active during her waking hours, her lovely tiny brunette was as still as a Grecian statue when asleep. Beautiful. Calm. Serene. She adored counting just how many stars of freckles dusts Hermione's cheek, she loses count of course, but it was a calming task. One she has had not the pleasure of doing for quite some time now because of law school. Damn that law school. Fleur thought.
She has had lost her count at least three times already (Fleur doesn't mind, it always happens and she's always hated numbers…) when Hermione started making small whining noises. And at first she simply thought it was just a passing thing and waited for the brunette to settle down.
She didn't. Fleur could feel Hermione's hot breath against her collarbone, harshly being expelled. She could feel her lover's pulse against her shoulder through her neck, progressively building to faster rhythm. It didn't sit well with Fleur, she started rubbing constant soothing circles against Hermione's back and whispering random french phrases in calming overtones, hoping to soothe the sleeping brunette but her breath only became more ragged.
It was at that point when Hermione's grip on her side could almost be categorized as painful, where Fleur had decided to shake Hermione to consciousness. However the brunette promptly shot up (where Fleur thankfully maneuvered her head quickly out of the way as to not bump her chin against Hermione's head), eyes wide, clutching desperately at Fleur's shirt, mutely gasping a sharp 'no!' followed by a sequence of deep ragged breathing.
By instinct, Fleur pulled Hermione closer, weaving her hand around the brunette's figure, limbs tangled against her clothing, to cup her cheek tenderly, moving her thumb across the line of cheekbones she could reach, giving her lover something to focus on and murmuring her name softly to get her attention.
"Shh.. Mon amour, I'm here. What's wrong?" Fleur whispered softly as the brown eyes she'd grown to love so much focused on hers, seemingly lighting up as Hermione struggled to breathe, centering herself in that moment.
"I… I… y-you left." Hermione whispered achingly, clutching Fleur more closely, eyes brimming with tears and a small noise from her throat letting Fleur know that her lover was suppressing a sob bubbling up her throat.
Fleur's brows furrowed, extremely confused and worried but held Hermione all the more closer as the brunette buried her face against Fleur's neck. She sobbed against her skin, and Fleur wondered wildly what kind of nightmare Hermione have had that shook her up so badly.
"Baby please, talk to me, what happened in your dream?" Fleur prompted once more as Hermione's sobs eventually faded into tiny sniffles.
"I'm s-so sorry, I didn't mean what I said," was a muffled response she felt against her neck more than she heard it, Fleur pulled back and cupped her cheek once more.
"What are you apologizing for, my love?" she questioned gently, keeping her other arm wrapped snugly around the brunette's waist.
"I… I said I'm not going to marry you if I fail this class.. and I failed it in my dream, and I didn't mean it- you left, I can't- I want to marry you-" Hermione babbled, doe eyes staring up to Fleur with so much love and desperation.
And Fleur, for the life of her, tried her best but she failed. She utterly failed because she's found this Hermione so adorable and amazing and ugh, she's completely ruining her.
So she threw her head back and laughed unbelieving, shaking her head and near tears in the corners of her eyes, and by the 7th second of her guffawing, Hermione has all but forgotten her depression and huffed, by the 11th second she has pulled her arms away from Fleur and has it crossed over her chest. A(n adorable) scowl already framing her beautiful face.
"It's not funny, Fleur!" Hermione protested, moving to stand up, but Fleur caught her waist in a tight squeeze, preventing her from doing so. Still chuckling to herself quietly, grin ear to ear.
"Let me go!" The brunette huffed once more, Fleur only shook her head and stared up at the love of her life, grin ear-to-ear, (beautifully) fuming.
"Baby, please grab my phone from the table and dial Gabi's number." Fleur whispered in soft pleading tones, mirth still visible in her eyes.
Hermione, irritated, stared down unbelieving at the blonde. "You're laughing at me and now you want me to-" but she never got to finish because Fleur leaned up and started kissing that patch of skin where her shoulder met her neck in just the right amount of pressure that always gets her knees weak.
"Please? It's important," Fleur whispered against her skin in between nipping it lightly with her teeth, which in turn made Hermione shudder involuntarily, "I cannot very well reach it because I simply cannot let you go," and sure, perhaps on a different situation Hermione could have denied the blonde, however her synapses firing from irritated, to scared (because of the nightmare), and then to the sudden arousal in such a small amount of time, you could not really blame her for not having a harder resolve.
So she suppressed the moan bubbling up her throat and reached for the blonde's mobile, feeling Fleur's grin against her skin as she gingerly searched for Gabi's number and pressed the green icon for a call. She had set it on loud speaker.
After the first ring, Gabrielle answered.
"Fleur, you had better be on your way or I swear to god I wi-"
"Gabu I can't," Fleur stopped her sister's rambling, still staring up at Hermione. Her tone definitely showing just how pleased she is with herself by the way she sounded, "and I will not apologize because for my absence because it is going to happen tonight." Where in the brunette's brows furrowed because that sentence sounded extremely vague and mysterious.
"What do you me-," and after two seconds of silence, a loud screeching was heard on the other line.
"OH MY GOD FLEUR TELL ME WHAT HAPPE-" this reaction only served to pique Hermione's curiosity further.
"What does that mean?" She mouthed at Fleur, the blonde only shook her head, tightened her other arm around the brunette's waist and took the phone from her hands, ending the call and dropping it somewhere in the sofa (Fleur could not care less, she has better plans for the evening, after all) before Gabrielle could finish her squealing.
And before Hermione could protest, she was suddenly lifted from her position, Fleur deftly manhandling her in such a way that she was now straddling Fleur's lap. Arms instinctively wrapping around the blonde's neck so as to keep her balance.
And when the brunette looked down to inquire about the sudden change of their position, she could have sworn time almost stopped because Fleur has her gaze transfixed on her. And Hermione wanted to burn that image on her mind forever. The blonde's nose flaring, her eyes set in a darker hue of blue as though there was a storm brewing– suddenly on her wake, her lips were parted slowly, and that sinful tongue peeking out slightly to wet her perfectly plump lips. Fleur wanted her. Hermione could feel it, her heart thudding against her chest, simply because Fleur was looking at her as if she could not see anything else.
It lasted for a moment and then none at all.
Because Fleur surged forward and captured Hermione's lips in a kiss so instantly deep and probing that made her moan against the blonde's mouth. She did not even realize when Fleur stood up, only clutching the blonde's body closer to her, instinctively following Fleur's instructions half murmured against the corner of her mouth as the blonde's attention focused on lavishing her neck with hot, wet kisses. "Wrap your legs around me," Fleur ordered. She tried to focus to do just that as she threw her head back and let out a particularly loud moan.
Time and movement was an aspect unrecognizable to the brunette because she did not even realize when Fleur had moved and how she did, because she was just suddenly deposited haphazardly onto their bed, blinking twice and now only realizing the fact that they were in their bedroom.
There was a pause when Fleur was hastily removing her clothing where Hermione had a fleeting thought that they should have been arguing because Fleur laughed silly at her dreaming and then mysteriously mentioning doing something tonight? And it was all so incredibly confusing, but as all fleeting thoughts go, it simply disappeared because here was a Fleur in all her half naked, delicious glory, nestled between her legs, resuming her frantic kissing, already pushing her hips against Hermione's, and it was all the brunette could do as she groaned in response, because time and time again the blonde proved that she was extremely skillful in leaving her quite literally breathless.
What with Fleur leaning back, clutching both sides of Hermione's shirt, and with a surprising amount of strength tore it half in the middle, buttons pinging off everywhere (which thankfully did not hit any of their eyes, or you know, shot straight through their panting mouths, because that would have completely ruined the mood. A fact which Fleur admitted to her after quite some time when she prompted her about it, adrenaline was apparently to blame but the blonde shyly admitted she has always wanted to try doing that and was only convinced she would achieve it flawlessly simply because that shirt was actually pretty old and fraying already), and then she dove in, lavishing the strip of beautifully tanned skin with playful nips and kisses, making a quick way out of the rest of her clothes (where in Hermione fleetingly surmised, that her girlfriend was extremely adept in doing so), a hot mouth moving lower against her chest, depositing love bites against her ribs and that particularly sensitive spot along her sides.
And as fast and rough as Fleur started, with everything that she did there is an undertone of gentleness, you could see it always, in the corners of her eyes, and in the way that she would smile at Hermione, even when her lungs were burning for the need for the brunette, she had always sought out to make her lover comfortable, and though her passion never diminished one bit, her kisses moved slower, as if savoring every moment, memorizing every pass of her lips against Hermione's skin.
"I'm not going anywhere," Fleur husked softly against her skin, "Let me show you," murmuring with a quiet intensity that almost shook Hermione to her core, because Fleur was staring up at her with so much want and need reflected in her azure eyes which she knows the blonde could not properly express into words. And as Fleur left a particularly slow, deliberate lick against the insides of her thighs, she felt her more than she heard her, "Let me show you just how much I want and need you."
And so fleeting thoughts of silly arguments and law classes aside, or the fact that she was about to take one of her hardest exams in possibly a few hours time which could ultimately decide her chosen profession in life, she could not have had the resolve, energy or enough care in the world to refuse Fleur.
Her heart thudding against her chest and ringing against her ears, with her focus solely trained on the blonde head between her legs, lips kissing and teeth nipping and a hot insistent tongue searching for all the right places where Hermione needed Fleur the most, she leaned her head back, fingers digging against the skin on Fleur's shoulder and clutching the sheets with the other, gasping her pleasure against the night air. She only had one thought.
This was going to be a long, glorious night.
Dawn was breaking soon, and the light spilling against the window sill illuminated the sheets beautifully. They rested against each other, Fleur's head nestled comfortably against her chest, their sheets pulled up to their waist as Hermione traced slow, loving circles against the blonde's spine when a thought occurred to her.
"Fleur, what did you mean when you said you were going to do something tonight?" she inquired softly.
Fleur froze and as a few more seconds passed without the blonde answering, Hermione could feel the start of Fleur's heartbeat edging faster against her side.
"Fleur?" the blonde wordlessly stood, her eyes trained against Hermione's in an intense resolute gaze, albeit her eyes letting the brunette know that she was anxious.
"Close your eyes," Fleur whispered quietly, as if pleading Hermione to not interrupt, and as she opened her mouth to simply do just that and ask the blonde what was wrong, Fleur uttered a very quiet "please just do it for me?" that made her seem so small. And Hermione was once again powerless to deny the blonde so she did.
"Don't open them until I say so, okay?" And she heard rustling, Fleur quietly cursing against her breath as she presumably fought her way out of the tangled sheets, "Are you okay?", Hermione wanted to make sure. "Yes, yes, I'm okay." She heard a sound, presumably an opening, rustling and closing of one of the drawers in their room, until she felt the bed dip with Fleur's weight. She waited until the blonde was nestled against her comfortably in the same position as before, and smiled when she felt Fleur's lips press softly against the corner of her mouth.
"Open your eyes, beautiful." she heard Fleur murmur softly, and as she did she was met with a set of beautifully delighted eyes, Fleur's mouth curved into a pleased but nervous smile.
"I know this is not the most romantic setting I could give, and although I did not exactly write a speech for this…" the blonde uttered quietly.
Hermione's brow furrowed, feeling her heart lunge towards her throat and beat five times faster than it's normal rate. It couldn't be, could it?
Fleur propped herself up on her elbow, moving her other hand hidden beneath the sheets and placing a small rectangular box directly in Hermione's line of sight. Fleur pressed her forehead against Hermione's temple, lips but a breadth of air away from her ear.
And she spoke softly, shaking as though she were fighting the tears trying to fall from her eyes (and she already was), "I promise and swear on my life to always protect you, cherish you, forgive you and delight you, from the first moment where I laid my eyes on your unruly hair, beautiful eyes and cute freckled nose burrowed deeply against your worn out copy of Romeo and Juliet," Fleur plucked the lid of the box open, and Hermione's eyes were wide, already brimming with tears. "…until the very end of my days… so… will you…" but she was not able to finish because Hermione turned her head and captured her lips in possibly the sweetest kiss Fleur has received her whole life.
It was early in the morning when Gabrielle finished her shift, she checked her wristwatch and the black digits told her that it was currently six in the morning. She had only gotten back from the hospital, pulling a double shift.
Ah, the sacrifices siblings make.
She turned her key against the lock as she heard her mobile ping, alerting her of a text. And normally after 16 hours she would have ignored every god damn text or call because she deserved some rest. And damn it she did.
But that was not the case because she was fumbling haphazardly, reaching into her purse for her phone, her smile wide and heart anxious as she read Fleur's name indicating there was a text from her.
Fleur Delacour (Tuesday, 06:01AM)
She said yes!
Hermione aced her Civil Procedures exam. She was the top of her class again. Fleur, not even for a single second doubted that.