Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me.
Notes: Wow. This is a birthday fic for -TheSingingBlob-, which I was supposed to write TWO MONTHS AGO. *winces* In my defense, Sarah, White Collar hijacked my attention and refused to let it go. XD Please take note that I managed to refrain from slipping any kind of slash into this fic; I hope I get credit for that, at least. XD
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Their relationship is nothing like either of their parents' marriages, so for a while Rose worries because she has no basis by which to measure it. Her parents are so in love it's sickening to watch sometimes, but they still fight with each other like they want to tear each other's hair out. Rose remembers when she was nine years old, terrified and firmly convinced that her parents were going to get divorced and tear her family apart; her father had laughed and said, "If we never fought the two of us would be bored out of our minds, Rosie-love. Don't you worry; there isn't a person in this world I love more than your mum."
She'd put her hands on her hips, scowling to mask her relief, and asked, "Well, what about me and Hugo, then?" Her dad winked at her and mock-whispered, "Don't tell your mum, but I might love you two just a little bit more." Rose could see her mum listening intently from the kitchen, and she watched as a tender smile took over her face.
She and Scorpius aren't like that, but they aren't like his parents either. She can see that his parents are in love, still, but it's in a much quieter way—his father doesn't kiss his mum in the morning over breakfast, or wrap an arm around her waist when they stand together; but he does reach for her hand when they walk down Diagon Alley, glaring at no one in particular in case anyone thinks of commenting, and he brings her tea in the evenings before she even asks him. They smile at each other like they can't see anyone else in the room, and that's the part Rose wants, right there.
When she and Scorpius fight it's not familiar to them; it scares her, because he always goes quiet and disappears for a while, sorting things out in his own head, but she always worries that this time he might not come back to her. It might be better for them if they screamed things out at each other like her parents, so that there's no doubt exactly what is troubling them, but that's not how they are. They don't fight like her parents, but they don't act like his either. Scorpius kisses her no matter who might be watching, and when they go to her Grandma Weasley's house for Christmas, he twirls her around the living room to the sound of the radio, making a rude gesture at a laughing Albus over her shoulder when he thinks she won't notice.
She has nothing with which to compare their relationship, so she doesn't know how to tell if what they have will last, and that scares her.
"You think too much," Scorpius says one night when they're lying in bed. He traces the curve of her cheek and says, "I love you, and I don't say that lightly."
Rose swallows, and brushes a kiss across his fingers. "How do you know?" she asks him, trying not to let her voice waver. "How do you know this is forever?"
She can feel his shoulders move up-and-down as he shrugs. "I just do," he tells her. "You know it too; you just have to let yourself stop thinking for a moment and feel."
Scorpius brings dinner to her desk and eats next to her when she's busy working but wants him close to her; he brushes her hair out for her slowly, untangling it and running his fingers through it gently; he sits by her dad when they're at her parents' house and argues with him good-naturedly over the Cannons' chances. Her mum is one of the smartest people Rose knows, and she thinks Scorpius is wonderful.
When Scorpius kisses Rose, she forgets there's anyone else in the world, never mind the room.
"All right, so sometimes you catch on a little quicker than I do," she whispers to him, pinching his arm when he huffs out a laugh against her hair.
"Can I get that in writing?" he asks teasingly, and tugs her closer when she growls at him.
The two of them together, they don't follow the pattern of any relationship she's seen in her life; but all that means is that they've found a different path to happiness.
There's no longer any question in her mind that they're meant to last forever.
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