A/N: Sorry nothing has been posted here for awhile. My last bit of fic was a little to adult for this site.

A response to the weekly challenge over at quietones lj community because I was bored and I just got the internet working on my fancy new computer.

Prompt: Love is like choking on stage with a mic.

Author: ideaofsarcasm

Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing them for a little while

Pairing: Hermione/Draco

Rating: PG

A/N: Rather fluffy. Hell, who am I kidding. Completely fluffy. It feels wrong.

"I love you."

Hermione coughed violently as her wine went down the wrong way. "Excuse me?" She demanded, grabbing for her glass of water to try and calm her hacking.

Draco looked at her in amusement as he leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. "You just wanted to make me repeat it, didn't you?"

"No," she replied in shock, shaking her head. "But you said….you don't….you never…."

"You thought this was just shagging then?" he made his voice light, but even she could hear the hurt behind the words.

"Yes!" She replied instinctively, "I mean no. I mean…..you never said anything."

"That's what tonight is for," he replied, gesturing to the fancy spread on the table, complete with candles and wine. Nobody could say that Malfoy's didn't do it with style. No simple moonlight walk like Viktor, no blurting it out during sex like Ron. "I know you don't like romance, but it seemed appropriate under the circumstances. I didn't know I should have gone all out and brought a diamond necklace just to make my declaration of love more palatable to you."

"It's not that," she was quick to reassure him, even though her thoughts were racing. "It's just a….surprise, that's all." And it was a bit of a shock that he would say it at all. He was far from being sentimental, and the closest he had even come to open affection in the past was telling her that he loved sex.

He seemed a little mollified at her explanation, but he still had a perplexed expression on his face. She supposed that this wasn't going according to script for him. She knew Draco liked to plan things out to the most minute detail. She was sure that if she had reacted with the expected amount of happiness at his statement, there would be violinists ready to serenade them. And she had completely ruined the moment, although with her that was to be expected.

She opened her mouth to respond in kind, knowing that was what he wanted, but the words stuck in her throat. And as Draco looked at her expectantly, the declaration he was hoping for just wouldn't come.

It made no sense. When Viktor had hesitantly declared his affection she had automatically repeated in kind, without even contemplating it. When Ron had blurted it out, she had reciprocated, laughing even as he turned beet red in embarrassment. But here was Draco, the man she had been with twice as long as the two of them combined, the man whom she had moved across the world for with no promises of commitment, the man whom she slept with despite their mutual history, and she couldn't say a thing.

The fact that she meant it more than she had ever meant anything in her entire life was probably the reason she found it so hard to say. She had never really had the appropriate sentiment behind a declaration of love before. She had cared for them, but she had never really loved the men she had been with. The words had never been more than that; three little words that meant nothing except that it made the man she was with smile.

So she felt like a deer caught in the headlights, unable to even choke out the words that Draco wanted to hear.

"You're such a girl," was all she could mutter, wiping away tears that were forming in the corners of her eyes.

She watched the expression on Draco's face change. He didn't smile - Draco Malfoy never smiled. He sneered, he smirked, but he never let his face express happiness. But as he leaned back against his chair and picked up the menu, his eyes lit up in a way she hadn't seen in a long time.

"Hermione?" he never even raised his eyes from the menu when he spoke her name.

"Yes?" she replied briskly, trying to push aside her emotional meltdown.

"Don't worry, I know."