Smoke Circles

Disclaimer: Nope, I wish, blah blah blah…

A/N- needed new Demus stories, decided to write, no real plot…

Dean lay on the grass next to his sister. It was the summer going into seventh year, the war was over, and Voldemort no longer haunted everyone's nightmares. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and she did the same. Only a year in age difference their minds thought the same and they drank in the presence of each other, having missed it greatly while the other was away.

" You're too young to smoke" Dean whispered to her through the sweet melody of crickets and midnight air. " As are you" She whispered back. Her name is Sabien; she looks like Dean, talks like him too. Her drawings are stick figures, but her art shows through in her words, a real female version of her brother. "I missed you," She murmurs, nuzzling her soft hair against his bare shoulders. " I missed you too" He mumbles back, " I always do" She nods, and blows the smoke out of her mouth, making perfect circles against the light blue sky.

" When does Seamus arrive tomorrow?" She asks him suddenly. " Is he coming by car?" Dean shakes his head, " Portkey" He whispers. She's muggleborn and non-magical in every way, but knows all about the other world, hangs on every word her brother ever speaks of it. " At about noon. Or perhaps midnight, he simply said twelve" He looks at her with a raised eyebrow, but it goes unseen in the dark. " It would be Seamus to come at midnight" He adds, " Why do you want to know?" She shakes her head and avoids the question "We're still up and it's far past midnight" "Sab, why do you want to know honey?"

She stares off into the distance, and even with the ability to see only her silhouette, Dean is keenly aware that she knows something he doesn't. She puffs again. "I've got some weed in my room." She tells him, not as a secret but an offering. It ensures that they're staying outside until late; it's a promise that she'll whisper to him what she's hiding, even though she knows he can't possibly understand. " Want some?" He nods a little; courage is crucial to the days ahead. " Why not?" And she bolts off.

While she's gone he contemplates. It takes no more then five minutes, but that's the world to him, and he contemplates. Seamus is coming, sweet, bouncy, Irish Seamus, hyper, annoying, insane Seamus, beautiful, wonderful, perfect Seamus. It would click if he let it, but in the dark blanket of summer midnights he is scared of himself.

Sabien comes back a moment later. By now Dean has traveled to world and pondered the answers to the universe without ever leaving the grass. He hasn't moved in an hour, or two, or five, he's lost track.

They light up against a background of roses and a ceiling of stars. " You love something you feel you will never have" She whispers, barely audible over the sounds of dreaming around them. " And you're scared more then anything that you're going to loose it" She needs to say his name to make it real. For the moment all her words are simply another poem. They mean something to Dean, but only in the faded negative of a far off world. " Seamus" She says, and that's what makes him snap back. " He loves you too," she adds, and he doesn't have the energy to wonder how she knows this, or what she even bases her theory upon.

" Just don't regret your ineptitude for the rest of your life," She murmurs into his ear, and then rolls around on the grass, ignoring the itch and the stains sure to come. " Fight for your leprechaun, and maybe" She starts to giggle, and it's contagious because soon he is too. " If you're lucky, you'll get to play with his lucky charms" She giggles, he giggles and tries unsuccessfully to not imagine Seamus' 'lucky charms' it's hard when he wants them as badly as he does.

So he's coming to terms with his infatuation. That's good, one of the steps to recovery. But he doesn't remember anything, only the image of Sabien snubbing her joint in the grass and spinning around as she fell. And then another body falling onto his own. And the perfection he felt at human contact.

His eyes crack open, the stains on his pants smile to face the sun. Him and Sabien are still out on the grass, their packs of cigarettes have collected the dew from the morning cool and the birds are whispering sweet untold sorrows.

But it's the body he's interested in. The sweet soft sandy hair, beautiful in it's own right, and feeling perfect on his boxer clad legs, for the night before it had been too hot to even consider donning pants to the midnight audience of crickets and raccoons.

" Dean?" It's Seamus; of course it's Seamus. " I'm sorry I fell on top of you. Maybe you should move your fat arse" Dean smiles and reaches his hands out to stroke Seamus' hair. " How's my pet leprechaun?" He asks. Seamus glares at him. " How many times must I tell you, I'm not a pet, I'm a scary ferocious leprechaun protector." He lays a kiss soft on Dean's forehead. " I missed you" Dean laughs. " We left Hogwarts 3 days ago" He debates, but secretly he's ecstatic at the thought.

Dean is out on the grass again that night. But this time it's with Seamus instead of his sister. They're not stoned, just a little drunk, and the nicotine flows through their veins. " Dean?" Seamus asks, through the blanket of mandatory trust that came with a friendship of such multitude. " Yea Shay?" Dean answers. He wishes he were his sister, he wishes he knew the answers to every question. "What is love?" Dean especially doesn't know how to answer this question. Not with words, that's Sabine's forte. He could have painted his thoughts, hues of blue screaming memories on sleepless nights and broken hearts made of red checkers and black dots.

" Love" He begins, not knowing where this answer is coming from, and half wondering if his sister has invaded his mind. " Is when you can't picture life without the person, when everything revolves around them, when your heart drops and you can't see and they're the only thing you can ever think about." He pauses. " And you wouldn't have it any other way."

Dean hears Seamus swallow. And then much to his own horror, hears himself say the words "Seamus, I think I love you" He see Seamus stand against the light of the moon, then crawl over to him and whisper so softly in his ear " I love you too" And a tongue invades a mouth, lips whisper to each other at the same time, please let this be real.

Clothes seem to leave bodies, and two awkward sweaty and passion driven lovers dance the horizontal tango in the muddy grass that perfectly surreal summer night.

Every time Seamus visits the Thomas household, he heads straight to Sabien and hugs her first, ignoring the look of humor in Dean's eyes. At first it had offended him, but Seamus had simply explained, " Without her, I would not have you" And Dean understood.