This is for Anonymity Effect's July 30th prompt:
Pairings: RonHermione
Prompts: "The world doesn't revolve around you", relative stranger, slant, bubble, maybe, classic
Color: Midnight blue
Hermione Granger sat in her favorite Muggle café. She was suffering severely from sleep deprivation and was hoping that, perhaps, some caffeine would take the edge of the migraine that was currently assaulting her head.
It wasn't only her head that was in pain, but her neck, and her back, too. Her knuckles were swollen and there was a constant bubble of anxiety in her chest. It may have been the fact that she had been sleeping at her office for the past week and she felt unwelcome in her own house. Her husband was, in cold fact, a relative stranger these days, hardly speaking and always staying late at work.
She sighed, running her fingers through her hair. It had been the worst fight they'd ever had, and he hadn't even argued back. She wasn't really sure what to make of it. Her heart broke every time she thought about him; ergo, the countless days at her job: anything was better than thinking of Ron.
But Harry had gone to speak to him, to talk some sense into the man. Apparently there had been a lot of yelling, physical blows, threats. She hadn't wanted to get Harry involved, but he was always the successful mediator.
She had been rather wary when she had received Ron's owl asking her to meet with him to work it out. She had almost said no; she wasn't really ready to make up yet, not after what he had said to her. But he was her husband, and she loved him more than the world.
She took another sip of her coffee, sighing quietly as it soothed her throat and sent a warmness through her body.
When she looked up from her glass, her heart was suddenly in her throat, for there he stood, a rumpled, midnight blue flannel shirt tucked half-way into his jeans. The sun slanted through the window, alighting his violent red hair like a fire. He had an anxious expression on his face.
"Hi," he said quietly, simultaneously shoving his hands into his pockets. Hermione swallowed hard.
"Hi," she repeated. It was hard to look at him, so she didn't, instead staring into the depths of her half-empty coffee cup. Opposite her, Ron slowly sank into the chair.
"How-" Ron coughed, then tried again. "You haven't been home. I—" he paused, a pale, freckled hand reaching out towards hers but diverting to the napkin dispenser at the last moment. "Hermione, I miss you."
She hated that she couldn't respond with the biting comments she had been rehearsing in her head all week. She hated that the only thing she wanted to do was to throw herself into his arms. She hated that she was almost failing at forcing back her tears.
"You couldn't have said something a week ago?" She managed to get that much out, withdrawing into herself. She thought she could do this, but she didn't know if she really could.
"I didn't know what to say to you." She laughed bitterly.
"Anything would have been better than nothing!"
"I—Hermione, Hermione I'm sorry. This was kind of big, and you kind of dropped it at a bad time—"
"Oh, I'm sorry," he flinched back at her vicious sarcasm. "Was there a better time for you? When, Ron, would it have been convenient to tell you?" It was so much easier to be angry at him.
"Please, I don't want to fight anymore." She barked out another bitter laugh. Classic Ron, make it seem like it's all her fault.
"Maybe we wouldn't have to fight if you realized the world does not revolve around you!" She threw a galleon onto the table and left without looking back. She knew that this had been a stupid idea. He never changed, never realized that she wasn't always as stupid and stubborn as he liked to think she was.
"Hermione!" He pursued her quickly out of the shop, and she wished she were in Diagon Alley, if only so she could disapperate without any repercussions. "Hermione, please!" His hand appeared on her shoulder and he pulled her into his arms.
She stuggled angrily, kicking, punching, and she even tried to bite him, but he kept saying something, and eventually it just drained the fight out of her: "I'm sorry. Hermione, I love you. I'm sorry."
She collapsed against him, her tears falling freely into his shoulder as he stroked her hair.
"I'm sorry that I'm so stupid, Hermione. I know that I haven't handled this very well, and I know that I should have spent all week chasing after you. I won't make excuses, but I'm scared of this, Hermione. I—the department is requiring more trips out of the country, and I didn't want to start a family like this if I was going to be gone all the time. I'm sorry. I know you think I was being selfish, but I was only thinking of you, of us, of our little Weasley." He held her tighter as she clutched at his shirtfront, her crying picking up.
"I'll talk to Harry, I think he'll understand."
They stood like that, wrapped around each other, in the middle of a busy London street, until she stopped crying.
"I love you, Hermione. I just want to take good care of you." She looked up at him, more beautiful to him than any other thing he had ever seen, even if her eyes were red and her nose was running.
"I love you too, Ron. I'm sorry." He shook his head.
"Don't be." And then he kissed her, short and sweet, and meaningful in a way that almost made her want to cry for another reason.
And she thought that maybe she had been the stupid one, reacting before she had seen it from every angle.
And, maybe, they would be okay.
Just maybe, they would make it.
Ahh, this one isn't my favorite…it's a lot like The Courage of Responsibility, but it just happened that the prompts pointed me in that direction….But, let me know what you think, if you get a moment. Let me know if I should scrap this whole thing and start over :)