Merry Christmas Louise!
You truly deserve a wonderful end to the year, since the rest of it has been such crap. I hope it's wonderful, love.
"I wish we could tell them," she sighs from where they're lying in side by side by the Black Lake. It's nighttime outside, and the girl's dark hair barely shows against the shadows around them.
"I know you do," he replies, playing with her hair and sighing too.
"I just-" she starts, rolling over to look him directly in the eyes and smiling slightly despite herself (because he's so him it's hard to look at sometimes), "-this is going to sound really self-centered, but I just wish telling them about us wouldn't end up destroying my family."
"I know you do," he says again, and though on most people it would seem like he's not listening, anyone who knows their relationship can tell that he just has a very acute understanding of how much is too much to say. "I know, Merlin I do, but we can't keep meeting in the dark like this, Andy. I don't like it."
There's a long pause. "They'll fight," she whispers. "I don't want them to fight. Especially not over me. I don't want to be the end of the Black family. I love them, Ted, no matter what they do, and even if I understand why I won't be able to see them once we tell them, I can't live knowing that Bella will be angry. I'm not worth the end of Bella and Cissy's relationship."
There is another long pause, while he wonders what on earth he could say in response to that that would help. There is nothing, he realizes, that would cease her worrying, and there is nothing that will speed her decision along. Both of those things are things that she must deal with herself, merely using him as a shoulder to cry on. But there is something that he disagrees with among the things she has said. "You're worth every hex, Andy," he whispers back, his breath rising into mist as it hits the cold air. "You're worth every shout, you're worth every tear, you're worth every hateful glance, because you deserve a war fought over you." He presses a kiss to her cold lips, determined to show her all that she is worth.
Though she smiles at his kiss, it is void of any real cheer, and it fails to reach her eyes. "Ted, I think that's what's going to happen." She buries herself in his chest. "Oh Ted, this isn't what I wanted at all."
He presses another kiss to her forehead. "It's what you've gotten, Andy, but we'll make it through. I promise."
It isn't much, but he's never been one with a particular way with words, so it's okay. It's enough to let her know how much he loves her, and really, that's all he wanted.