This is my response to day 9 of Siriusly Smart's iPod challenge.

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"Every time the pleasure turns into pain,

I'm more inclined to stand and take it."

-Texas, 'Can't Resist'.

Pansy waited. She stood by the window and looked out into the dark of the night. Her eyes flicked back and forth rather desperately, scanning the deserted street below for any sign of him, stopping only when she caught sight of herself, a faint reflection in the glass.

She looked like a child, dressed up in her mother's clothes; pale against the twilight backdrop and uncertain of what the night would hold.

Not the woman Pansy thought she was, especially not after having worked on making herself beautiful, tempting. After she had returned from the office, Pansy had dressed up in an ornately tailored gown – because it made her feel good, she told herself – and applied make up until the image of the sultry seductress was complete.

Movement caught her eye, and Pansy ceased considering herself as a brief blur of platinum blonde caught her attention. Draco. He always came back to her, because she, Pansy, loved him more than that cold little wife of his ever would. And he loved her too...

Didn't he?

"Come off it Pansy – it's nothing serious. Astoria Greengrass is just a girl. You're my woman." He had caressed her so adoringly, and looked at her with those piercing grey eyes until Pansy's anger had slipped away.

She heard the front door creak open.

Of course Draco loved her. It had always been – was meant to be – Draco and Pansy. Pansy and Draco.

"You're marrying her?" Pansy pushed his hands away, folding over in pain. She gave in to tears, unable to think.

"It's nothing." Draco sighed, impatient. She felt his fingers in her hair. "You're the one I love."

In her heart, she knew that it was true. Pansy allowed him to kiss her. She was an adult now, and too old for doubts.

She heard his footsteps on the stairs. He was hurrying to her. Draco wanted to be with her.

Did he need it as much as she did?

As soon as he opened the door to her bedroom, dropping his cloak over the back of her chair in a fountain of plush, dark material. Immediately Pansy crossed the room, initiating a deep, lingering kiss. Draco wrapped his arms around her back, a gesture that made her feel at once secure and trapped.

"Pansy." He broke away from her kiss, something unreadable passing behind his stormy eyes.

"Yes?" Breathless, she looked up at him, taking in his sculpted features and well defined body.

Tonight he would tell her. Tonight he would tell her that he loved her.

He looked uncomfortable. Draco never had dealt well with emotional situations, even when they were children.

"Astoria's pregnant." There was an awful silence. He looked bored, uninterested, as though he couldn't see the cold, pure agony that was eating her from the inside.

Astoria carried his child.

Pansy carried his hurt.

She laughed, knowing that she should be sad. She should be angry. She should end it. All Pansy could feel was emptiness, and she wouldn't, couldn't, lose Draco and live with this. No love.

"Fine." The word was spoken quietly, brokenly. "I don't care."

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Thanks for reading. Please review.