Title: Not Such A Bad Boy

Disclaimer: Is this really necessary? *sighs* Fine. Anything you recognise, I don't own.

A/N: This particular little ficlet's plotbunny bugged me at 3am last night until I'd written it. I have no idea why I wrote it…perhaps because I'd just finished reading 'Our Winter' by Jade Okelani. I don't know.

Anyway, enjoy- this is for any girl who's ever fallen in love with a bad boy.

#Arien#

Not Such A Bad Boy

The mistakes were the best things, she decided.

The pre-relationship trip-ups he'd made, accidentally letting it half-slip that he'd missed her.

The confusion in his eyes when she'd told him she'd only wanted to give him a Christmas present.

The way he'd run from her when her eyes had betrayed the truth, when she'd been unable to block the onslaught of tears as her supposed-friend giggled 'wow, you must really love him to put up with him sleeping with every girl from Fourth Year and up'. The way he'd continuously denied that he hadn't, that he only wanted her, while kneeling at her feet in a secluded part of the gardens, holding her hand against his face, clinging, needing, craving her nearness, as if she was pure warmth.

The way that, when he apologised, it meant so much more, purely and simply because he'd never willingly uttered a single apology to anyone else in his entire life.

That she was the only person he had ever cared about, with the exception of his Mother.

The way that he had trusted her like a child trusts a first teacher, when she had coaxed him into allowing her to show him that love wasn't all painful, like his upbringing had taught him.

The fact that, when she looked into her eyes, when he looked at her, it was the only time when he didn't seem dangerously beautiful- like a spider web sprinkled with dew. It was the only time he ever looked tragically beautiful, like the smile of someone who lives only to see the person they love unrequitedly. Or the dying sun on the last days of summer.

Who knew that someone like him could love so completely, so unconditionally?

She would never have guessed that waking up on a cold winter's morning with her cradled in his arms, her hair caressing his skin, the morning sunlight shining on her face; would be the one thing that sustained him, healing the deepest, darkest scars of his soul, promising him that, no matter what he had done in the past, so long as she was by his side, Draco had everything to live for.

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Think of the pairing as whoever you will.

R+r, please ^_^

#Arien#