Disclaimer: I don't own squat. Not even the title.
A/N: Because I haven't written them in a long, long time. And because I've been hating absolutely everything that I've been writing, so I just let myself go and finish this piece of... something. This is the result of that. Also, ending was a cop out. Could you tell? Beware of melodrama, and also, please review. I know this is bad, but I've written worse. :/
Love the Way You Lie
I love you.
Three words, eight letters, and it hurts like hell coming out.
He tells her how he feels and he's not sure what he expects, exactly. Joy? Anger? Sadness? Maybe even excitement. He doesn't know anything other than the fact that he expected some kind of reaction. Rose Weasley has never been the type to take something quietly.
Instead what he gets is a blank face and eyes that are saying a million things that he just can't quite read.
"Why?" she asks, her voice cracking on the last syllable. "Why would you tell me something like that, Scorpius?"
"Because it's true," he answers simply, and watches in horror as a crystal tear makes its way down her freckled cheek.
"I just wanted to try to be your friend, Scorpius. You weren't supposed to fall in love with me."
"What's wrong with that?" He doesn't like the look in her eyes now. He doesn't like how this is going. He doesn't like what they're doing, this game that they're playing. To him this isn't a game, not anymore. It's the real fucking deal.
"Because you're just going to break my heart," she answers, and she walks away.
She wasn't lying. He has broken hearts, lots of them, and he knows this. Scorpius Malfoy knows that the human heart is the most fragile in the human body and that it needs constant care and easy handling.
He would have taken care of hers. He would have worn kid gloves and bought extra cushioning. If she had just given hers to him like he had given his to her she would have known that. Instead she kept her heart selfishly in her chest and refuses to even give him a peek.
The next day he sees her in Charms and she won't look at him. They were supposed to be partners for this class, and here they are, unable to look at each other in the eye.
Professor Quinnstool tells them all to get to work and they have to sit at the same table together. As soon as they get together Rose sticks her head into her bag searching, searching, searching for a quill.
Silently he slides an extra one that he has on him like he doesn't know that she's just trying to avoid him even though they're only three feet from each other. When she sees the feather her cheeks turn red and she bites her lip, looking more beautiful to him than even her part Veela cousins.
"Let's just get this done," she whispers, her head practically glued to the piece of parchment that's right in front of her. "Okay?"
"No."
That gets her attention and she looks up at him. "Why not?"
"I won't help you with this until you tell me something about what I told you last night."
Her brows furrow and she opens her mouth, closes it, and then opens it again. "What do you want me to say? Do you want me to repeat it back to you? Look, Scorpius, I just wanted to try to be your friend. That's all. When this whole project started you promised me that you wouldn't try those kind of tricks on me like you do on those other girls."
He remembers promising that. But he promised that before he found out how funny Rose is, how she is one of the few people that can actually make him laugh. He made that promise before he realized that she can look beautiful even with ink smeared on her cheek.
He made that promise before he knew that there was no way that he could keep it, back when they were strangers.
"This is different. You're different."
"Tell me, how many times have you used that line? And how many times has it actually worked? I know all about you, Scorpius Malfoy, and all about the words you use to make people fall in love with you."
Professor Quinnstool then dismisses them and she leaves him, along with his quill and the piece of parchment that she had gotten out. There's a word scribbled in the corner.
No.
That's all it says.
One word, two letters. He's pretty sure it doesn't hurt when it comes out.
He grabs her arm and drags her into an empty corridor. She looks absolutely furious and he knows that he has no coherent reason for why he just did this. So he grabs her face and kisses her.
No more layers between them.
At first she seems like she's going to fight him, and he can feel her hand turn into a fist. But then, oddly, she lets go and kisses him back, hesitantly but still hungrily, like she doesn't know what she's doing but she wants this.
But then she realizes what's she done and she pulls away from him. She doesn't even spare him one last glare. Instead she just leaves him, just one more time, and leaves him with twice as much frustration as before.
Finally, he just gives up any pretense of pretending. He's Scorpius Malfoy, breaker of hearts and Potions master, but he's waiting in front of the Gryffindor Common Room for her like some pathetic little fan boy.
He cant stand this anymore. He can't stand not knowing and he knows that he won't be able to stand watching her be with someone else.
There's one fact that's sticking out in his mind, though. She never said that she didn't love him back. She just said that he was going to break her heart.
And that's good enough for him, because he knows better. She might be the one to break his, but he'll never break hers.
He just wishes that she knew that.
She comes out with her cousin Albus and her brother Hugo. As soon as she's within three feet of her he asks, "Can we talk? Please?" He hates the note of desperation in his voice.
He has never ever been like this about a girl, ever. He's never cared this much about a girl though, either, and he knows that Rose is worth it. She's the one that made him realize that he even had a heart to begin with.
Albus's black eyebrows rise up but he shrugs. Hugo looks at him suspiciously, they both know Scorpius's reputation as a heart breaker, but before he can say anything Albus leads him away. Scorpius has never been so thankful for Potter spawn.
"Just talk to me. Please."
"I think that I've already made myself clear."
Scorpius just wants to laugh because, she hasn't made anything clear, not at all. She kisses him back and then ignores him for a week, becomes his friend but can't even respond when he tells her the truth.
"Clear as mud maybe."
He can tell that she wants to smile, but she doesn't dare.
"Leave me alone."
"No. Not before you tell me the truth. Do you love me back?"
The expression on her face is heartbreaking. Her mouth opens slowly. "You've already broken one promise to me, remember?" she asks, reminding him of when she made him promise not to fall in love with her. It had been a joke then because he hadn't thought that it could ever happen to him. Not with her anyway.
"Why won't you just let me love you?" His mouth is dry when he asks this. He almost doesn't want to hear the answer- she's in love with someone else, she's a lesbian, she's asexual, she just doesn't like him- but they all swirl in his head anyway.
"Because I love you back," Rose whispers, and then she pushes past him as if nothing in the world would make her happier than getting away from him.
Please.
One word, six letters, and it hurts like hell coming out.
He can tell that Rose is desperate; it's been months now.
"Fine."
I love you.
Three words, eight letters. It doesn't hurt anymore.