This is a chapter in Just A Kiss by me, but it works as a one shot too so I put it up as one :D Reviews are exciting!

Baby why you wanna cry?
You really oughta know that I
Just have to walk away sometimes

Ron looked at the familiar tent and sighed. His sigh was full of contentment, but also fear. He was content, since he was home, but he was scared of her.

He hadn't meant to leave. The locket did things to his head. It made him see things he didn't want to see. It made him focus on the connection between Hermione and Harry, his love connecting with his best friend. He knew she was Harry's best friend too, but when he had the locket on it felt like more than that. He thought she was going to leave him.

So he'd left. He'd run out on her, abandoned her like she was rubbish on the street. He hadn't meant to treat her badly. He just had to walk away, and let his head air out. Once it had, he'd realized he'd made the worst mistake of his life.

We're gonna do what lovers do
We're gonna have a fight or two
But I ain't ever changing my mind

So here he was, back at the opening of the tent he'd left. It seemed like so long since he'd seen her face, even though he'd seen it in his mind every night. He clutched the broken locket a little tighter and watched Harry enter the tent first.

"Harry, where've you been? I've been worried sick." Her voice was weak and frail, not her usual proud and brilliant self. Her voice was full of self-doubt and sadness. Ron felt as though a basilisk fang had stabbed through his heart. "And why are you all wet? Come by the fire."

Harry moved to do so and Ron had a clear view of Hermione. She was facing away from him, fretting about teapot; her hand shook as she tried to light a fire under the pot. Ron held out his wand and lit the flame from where he stood.

"I'm perfectly able to light a fire myself, Harry," Hermione clucked as she turned around. Then she saw him.

Her usually bushy, vibrant hair lay flat and dull around her doll face. Her eyes had large bags under them and her cheeks were red with a rash. Her usually angelic, smiling lips were now replaced with swollen, scornful ones. She'd been crying, apparently for days. Ron felt the basilisk fang turned inside his heart, ripping and tearing as it moved. He clutched at his heart and gasped.

"Hermione…"

Her dull eyes suddenly had a fire in them. Her mouth turned to a scowl and her hair seemed to stand up on end. Ron braced himself for the attack. He wouldn't fight back, he deserved every word.

Crazy girl, don't you know that I love you?
I wouldn't dream of going nowhere

It was Harry's turn to keep watch outside the tent, so Ron allowed himself to sit beside Hermione's cot. He stared down at her pale frame and hung his head. How could he have been so selfish? Of course, he'd known he wasn't leaving forever, but she didn't know. How could he have left her without a word, a goodbye kiss, or an explanation?

He let a small tear escape as he hung his head over Hermione. The tear trickled down his cheek and dripped directly onto her small nose. She awakened with a gasp.

"Hermione, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you. The locket… it did something to me. It showed me you and Harry, and how much happier you would be." She moved to speak but Ron shushed her and continued. "It made me realize that I didn't deserve you. So I left, to give you the space I felt you needed. But, when I was gone…" he clenched his eyes shut thinking about his time alone, without Hermione.

Every night he would lie awake, on his bed made of leaves and grass. He cast a few charms around himself and waited. He would wait for morning, and then rack his brain for where they might be. His life followed this path for a long time, but every morning he was wrong. Of course he was wrong, Hermione had infinite knowledge of the uninhabited places in the world, so how was Ron supposed to have any idea where to go? So he would sit alone, and wish he was back in her arms. It went on this way until the deluminator answered his wishes.

Silly woman, come here let me hold you
Have I told you lately I love you like crazy, girl?

"When I was gone, I realized that I need to do everything I can to make you realize you've made the right choice by being with me. I promise, Hermione, you made the right choice." He finished his speech sadly, not looking into her eyes.

Hermione answered him by putting a hand on his cheek. She turned his head so he was looking at her and she grimaced. "Ron, what's this cut from?" Her finger lightly traced the puckered skin where he'd hit the ground.

"Snatcher," he answered hoarsely. "Caught me be surprise, he did. I ran away from him a bit, to give me some space to hex him right, and then I sort of tripped. Still got the git though."

Hermione smirked, and Ron felt his entire heart lighten and his mind soar. It wasn't even a full smile, and it was causing such emotion in him. He wondered how he would fare if she actually smiled.

"Ronald, I'm still mad at you for leaving me," she huffed, but her previously sullen face was now light and cheery. "But, I know I made the right choice, and you don't even know how happy I am that you're here now, safe and beside me."

Ron grinned at her. "Of course I know how happy you are. That's how I've felt ever since I got back."

Ron leaned down to kiss her, but pulled back. Maybe she was still too mad, and maybe he should give her space.

Hermione clearly wasn't mad enough, though, because she put her hand behind his neck and pulled his mouth towards hers.

It had been too long since he kissed her, too long since he'd felt her soft lips on his own. Too long since her slender fingers ran through his hair, and too long since he'd felt the curve of her neck. He kissed her with a passion that threatened to spiral out of control, when Hermione pulled away. She moved over on her cot and motioned for Ron to join her. He climbed in beside her and wrapped his arms around her slender frame. She nuzzled into his cheek and they lay in silence.

I wouldn't last a single day
I'd probably just fade away
Without you I'd lose my mind

"Ron," Hermione said after a few moments, to which Ron grunted. "What happened, while you were gone? How did you find us?"

Ron took a deep breath and told her about his run in with the snatchers. He told her about how every night he longed to be back with her, and how whenever he got scared he would clench his eyes shut, and imagine Hermione telling him off about something or other, and that calmed his racing heart. He told her about how every morning he would apparate to as many places as he could think of, trying to find them, and he told her about the deluminator, and how he heard her speak. He told her of the silver doe, and saving Harry from the frozen lake. He told her of his thoughts upon returning to the tent, and how scared he was when he saw her. "I thought you were gonna kill me right on the spot!" he said.

"I was debating it," she tried to smile but her eyes were solemn. "Ron, you shouldn't have gone off. Who knows what could have happened to you? If I never got to see you again, or hold you…" She buried her face in his chest and he stroked her hair. "I cried every day, Ron. The day after you left, we had to choose another spot… I cried for an hour. I didn't want to leave, because then you'd never find us. I tied my favorite scarf to a tree, but as we apparated I saw the wind take it away."

"I know," he cooed into her hair. "I'm so sorry. It was the dumbest thing I will ever do in my entire life, I know it. But I'll never leave you again. You don't have to believe me; I'll prove it to you. No matter how long it takes, you will believe me."

Before you ever came along
I was living life all wrong
The smartest thing I ever did was make you all mine

The next day Ron and Hermione weren't able to have much time alone, as Harry was always moving about. It seemed the destruction of the locket seemed to have cheered him up a bit, as he was bustling about, talking to himself about the possible whereabouts of other horcruxes.

Hermione gazed into a notebook, where she had been writing all her clues, and Harry was in deep concentration about something, and Ron was getting incredibly bored. He jumped up loudly, causing his stool to clatter to the ground behind him.

"Right, I'm going for a walk, all this silence is bloody maddening. Hermione, want to come?"

Hermione nodded and closed her notebook. "Here, Harry, look through that and see if you can find anything." She handed it to Harry before rushing out the tent flap after Ron.

Crazy girl, don't you know that I love you?
I wouldn't dream of going nowhere

Ron was incredibly quiet as he and Hermione sat on a nearby tree stump, staring at the silvery sky. He was thinking about the two of them, and their relationship. There was something heavy weighing on his mind and he couldn't quite seem to put his finger on it. There was something left unsaid, something that he knew he needed to say. He felt like they were quickly reaching another horcrux and it felt like they were running out of time. He huffed for a while, thinking back to his own parents, trying to think of what he was trying to express.

Giving up on that, he took to studying Hermione, and decided to make a list of what he liked about her. He liked her bushy hair, it seemed to him that the more angry or flustered she got, the bigger her hair got. Also, when she was learning something new, her hair seemed to grow. It held all her knowledge. He liked how smart she was, even though he acted like he didn't. He liked how they bickered and argued, it seemed like the best way to express feelings. He liked how she never backed down when they fought. It was always Ron who walked away, or gave in to her, and she always won. He liked how she kissed him with a little nervousness and a lot of happiness. She liked how her eyes closed when they kissed, just as his did, as though nothing else mattered. He liked her deep eyes, that showed everything she was thinking and feeling. And he loved the way it felt when he held her.

At this last revelation, Ron gulped. That was it, what he was missing. That's what he needed to say.

Silly woman, come here let me hold you
Have I told you lately I love you like crazy, girl?

Ron grabbed Hermione's hand suddenly and she giggled. "Ron, I'm not mad at you anymore, you can talk to me." She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and chuckled.

"Hermione, there's something I wanted to tell you."

She sighed happily, "what is it?"

"Well, I uh… I just wanted to say… that I um…"

"Well, out with it!" She laughed. He leaned forward and kissed her as passionately as he could. He tried to put all his feelings into his mouth, hoping that maybe she would feel it too. He let the little fire in his stomach, which had been put out the entire time he'd been away, flame up again, and he reveled in its heat. He put his heart and soul into the kiss and he knew he could feel hers too. As their tongues moved in sync he could feel her smiling. He pulled away and grinned at her. Next time, maybe he would just let the fire take over; she didn't seem to mind…

"Hermione, I love you."

Like crazy, girl.

Well I hope it was good :)

-Bryonie :)