One-Shot: Kiss Me
Ron Weasley watched as Severus Snape and the time traveling boy disappeared through the trees to save the world. He was still trying to process how, in an alternate timeline, he and his rebel colleague Hermione Granger had children together.
The time traveling boy had not mentioned anything else beyond that. Not what their children looked like or even their names. The boy hadn't even given his own name! All he had said was that he and Hermione had one of each: a boy and a girl.
And Ron was still trying to process something Hermione had said, just now: Ron, I love you, and I always have.
"You're supposed to be going too," Hermione's immaculately dark skin glowed in the moonlight as she frowned at him.
"Well, they are after me a bit and I really am in quite a bit of pain," Ron shrugged. "And, you know, I'd rather be here. Expecto -"
Hermione stopped him from casting the spell. "Let's keep them here and give the boy the best chance we can."
Ron nodded sadly. The pair regarded each other almost awkwardly. The declaration that they were married and parents in another universe had no doubt shaken Hermione to her core. Ron had known her for almost three decades, so he knew that Hermione Granger was a very practical woman. She had clear opinions on what she saw as sensible and what she saw as tomfoolery. And Ron had always assumed that a romantic relationship was one of those foolish things for her - all the more foolish to be with him! He never thought...
"A daughter," she voiced.
"And a son," he added, lest she forget. "I liked that idea too." While he was admitting things, he confessed one more. "I'm scared."
Hermione shook her head as if to clear it. "Kiss me." It was a phrase so simple that Ron almost didn't catch it. It was a command. An order, really - not unlike the ones Hermione used to give Ron for at least the last 22 years. Ron, close the trapdoor. Ron, keep your mouth shut when you're looking at me.
Ron, kiss me.
So he did. He kissed her. Hermione tasted like chocolate, her lips warm and soft and... compliant against his. She didn't exactly kiss him back, but she didn't pull away either. Ron knew that if he had ever kissed her without her explicit permission, she would have decked him. Or hexed him. Or worse.
But perhaps Hermione's sudden desire for a kiss was less about romance and more about practicality. Why, Ron, didn't know - kisses and caresses and men had never seemed to be something that was important to her. Maybe it was even tactical - for Ron to have something happy to hang onto in his last moments. Or maybe the kiss was tactical for her, as when the Dementors pulled them apart and gave each a Kiss of a very different kind, Ron noted how Hermione lasted longer against them without Expecto Patronum than she otherwise would have. It took the Dementors a long time to suck out her soul.
And Ron held onto the memory of Hermione's kiss for a long time. He held onto her last gift until he, too, succumbed. He hoped there was a better universe than this. One in which he and Hermione were husband and wife, and had two babies of their own.