Disclaimer: JKR owns it all.

Written for The Pairing One Hour Challenge/The Hardest Challenge (Sadly I couldn't complete it in an hour…but hey, I'll try again!)

Pairing: Lorcan/Rose

Song: Mary Can You Come Outside

Written for Song-fic Boot Camp Challenge

Prompt: Stand(13/50)

(Song prompt of my choice: Same as above)

Crushed Petals

At least I have my own place, he reminded himself repeatedly as he climbed up to the third floor.

Having some place was better than having no place or worse, living with your parents at the age of nineteen. So, he shouldn't really care if it had to be a muggle one, it was alright. He would have to minimize the use of magic though; but that wouldn't be much problem since he would be at the Ministry the whole day, and come home only during night, but he still hoped that he wouldn't have to stay here for long. He wished to find a place in a Wizarding settlement soon, but real estate among wizards was a novelty. Nobody sold one bedroom apartments, hence, at the moment this was all he could afford.

Panting heavily, he put the box down, why did he have to bring his weights? He shouldn't have kept them to the last, tiring himself by carrying mundane objects up and down. He was really starting to feel for the muggles, how did they manage their lives without magic?

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, he took a deep breath. He had already passed the second floor and now just few more steps were remaining and then he could collapse on his bed. Lifting the box once again, he walked up wanting to dump it in his room as soon as possible.

"Aha! Finally!" he hooted, placing the box in front of his apartment door. The corridor, was tiny too, there was hardly enough space for two people to pass by with ease. While he was opening his apartment door, he realized that next to him, a girl was doing the same. Her red hair covered her face, but there was something familiar about her.

"Hey," he said genially.

Her form froze, and then she fumbled with her key, dropping it to the ground. Curious, he watched her. Mumbling something she stood up, and then glanced up at him…shyly?

"Rose!" he exclaimed in surprise.

"Lorcan," she simply said, a smile creeping up on her face.

"How have you been? I haven't seen you since ages!" he spoke, feeling excited he pulled her into a hug. There was a weird tugging in his heart, which he couldn't point out, but shrugged it off.

"I'm good," she nodded, smiling still but something was off in her tone. "How are you?"

"I'm great! I can't believe you are here!" he grinned excitedly.

"Yeah…" her voice trailed, not at all as excited as he was.

They were silent for a moment, Rose was looking at her feet now, and he was studying her. She seemed different, she had thinned down from the last time he had seen her, and also seemed to have lost her ability to fill silences. But of one thing he was sure, despite the change in her looks and behavior, he realized that he had never truly appreciated how beautiful she was, he wanted to hug her again. But it wouldn't be appropriate if he kept hugging her, they were just friends, not very close…just alright friends.

"So, want to come in? We can have butter beer or something?" he suggested nervously.

"Are still outside?!" came a roar from the stairs.

"I have to go," Rose mumbled to him, and turned toward her apartment door.

"But-"

"Bye!" she said, hastily and walked into her apartment, leaving him disappointed.

Covered in sweat, Lorcan woke up; this was the third night in a row. It wasn't some nightmare that had woken him up; it was just his neighbors, her screams…his shouts. It wasn't like they were having some hardcore sex (thank god for that), it was just that they fought…every night.

The fact that they were fighting made him feel extremely good, he felt a little guilty that he wanted Rose and her boyfriend to break up, but their break up meant that he could have a chance with her.

Yep.

So much for the guilt.

"Hey," Lorcan greeted Rose while on his way for work. It had been almost a week since he moved here, and this was the first time he was seeing Rose after seeing her for the first time.

Startled, she dropped her plastic bags she was holding in her arms. Automatically, Lorcan knelt down, to help her pick the vegetables that had fallen out.

"It's been-" he started speaking, but stopped as soon as he realized that the bruise similar to finger marks on her arm. Feeling his gaze, she immediately covered her arms, pulling down the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

At loss for words, Lorcan simply stared at Rose with wide eyes. With a resigned look, "aren't you late for work?" she asked.

"Umm…are you okay?" he asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, see you later," she waved and walked into her apartment.

"Bye," he mumbled, reluctantly.

He stood there watching the closed door, a frown etched on his face.

Finally, realizing that he was getting late for work, he walked toward the steps.

Ever since he had seen the bruise Rose's arm, Lorcan waited for her every morning before he left for work, and also every evening after he returned home. He tried to catch her, but it seemed as if Rose was avoiding him as hard as he was trying run into her. He did hear them fight in the night though…suddenly every noise he heard jolted his heart and he feared that Rose was being hurt at the very moment while he was lying on the bed next door, and doing nothing.

"What are you-" before Rose could say much, he pulled her into his apartment and locked the door.

"What the hell?" Rose almost screamed.

"I just wanted to speak," he shrugged, trying not to look sheepish.

"So you have to pull me in here?" he rolled her eyes and huffed.

"I wouldn't have had to do this if you hadn't been avoiding me," he replied confidently.

"I-uh…I haven't been," she disagreed not meeting his eyes.

"Liar," he simply said.

"I have to go," she whispered.

"No you don't," he blocked her path by standing in front of her.

"Lorcan what-"

"Let me help you…" he lifted her chin with one hand, and moved the locks of hair covering her forehead with his other hand behind her ear. There was a light pink scar lining her forehead, he gently touched it feeling sad. "Let me help you," he repeated, moving close to her.

Rose continued to look up, straight into his eyes in shock. As he looked into her pale blue eyes, he felt extremely close to her. At that moment all he could think was that he wanted her. He could imagine them together…he could imagine himself loving her…never hurting her.

Without speaking and withholding the spell around them, he bent down and brought his lips close to her; her lower lip trembled, and her breath fanned his face. Not delaying any longer, he pressed his lips to hers.

A/N: Well, well, well…I guess I could have gone further into this, but I just couldn't come up with some decent writing and it would have taken me lots longer! So, yeah, decided to end it here. You guys can come up with your own scenarios as to how Lorcan helps Rose.

I hope you liked it!

Please leave a review!

Love,

Nik