Nothing Without You
Written for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Round 2 for Puddlemere United.
Beater 1 Task: Write a story set near the water
Prompts: (color) forest green & (color) turquoise
Thank you so very much to June, who beta-ed my crappy tense errors and crappy fic, motivated me, and helped me get above 1,000 words. You are truly a gem. :3
Also shay i won the bet admit it because what even is this fic but you already wrote me a lovely fic (which is amazing) so … ;)
Word Count without A/N's: 1,236
"What do you want?"
The look on Oliver Wood's face told Percy Weasley all: that he'd screwed up and ruined everything.
(He knew he did. Percy had sacrificed many things to follow his ambitious career, and the love of his life had been one of them. Oh, how stupid he was.)
Part of Percy knew that Oliver would never forgive him. Percy had been the one to end the relationship. He had been the one to leave Oliver brokenhearted. And in a way, he knew that he'd never get the relationship he had had with Oliver back. He knew he had had his chance, and he had ruined it.
He'd merely came to reflect on what they had before, and what they didn't have now, by a creek near Hogsmeade. Their special spot.
He didn't expect to see Oliver there. And Oliver was not happy to see Percy in the slightest.
Percy took a breath, noticing that Oliver was still giving him a death stare. "I — uh — just came here to think."
"Think?" spat Oliver, his voice laced with hatred and disgust. "Why didn't you do that before you ended things with me to pursue your fancy Ministry career, Weasley? I'm assuming that now that the war's over, you're crawling back to me?"
The use of 'Weasley' instead of 'Percy' hurt, but Percy knew he deserved it. He deserved everything that Oliver could ever throw at him.
"No," said Percy finally, clearing his throat. "In fact, I didn't even think you'd be here."
Oliver merely turned away, and Percy noticed the tears in his eyes as he did so. Percy stared at his reflection in the turquoise-colored creek. The two just sat there in silence for a moment, not even acknowledging each other's presence.
(Back in 1995, he had had two very important — and very regretful — rows. One had been with his father, and the other one had been with Oliver. And both ended up changing his life in negative ways.)
Oliver turned to Percy, saying, "You know, I was in a brief relationship with Katie Bell, but it didn't work out. You know why it didn't work out?"
Percy remained silent, preferring to just let Oliver talk.
"Because of you. I couldn't stop thinking about you." While a lot of people would be extremely happy to hear those words come out of a loved one's mouth, the way Oliver said those words were full of hatred. Venom. "And I felt bloody terrible. I felt like I was taking advantage of her. Whenever we kissed, nothing sparked. But I stayed with her; I thought 'true love takes time'. I was wrong. Instead, true love fucked me right over."
Percy took a breath. "I know," he said finally. "The things I did to you were unforgivable. You want me out of your life permanently, and I think you're right."
"I loved you," said Oliver, his voice tight. "We had a good thing going on, Perce. And then, at the worst time of my life, you fucking just added on to the stress by saying you never wanted to see me again. And now, when I've finally moved on, you're here again."
"If you've moved on," ventured Percy, knowing he had absolutely no right to speak at the moment, "why are you at our spot?"
Oliver turned his head slowly in order to give a cold and deadly glare that made Percy flinch.
"I just came here to think," he finally said. "That's all."
"Me too," nodded Percy quietly, and that was the end of the conversation, as both boys stared at the turquoise-colored creek, their backs to each other. His lips moved in order to whisper a tiny phrase.
"It should have been me."
(One thing that he knew for sure is that it should have been him that died in the war, not Fred).
Oliver twisted his head sharply, looking at Percy. "What did you say?" he asked, his voice having a cold edge to it.
"Nothing," said Percy, turning back to his side of the creek. He glared at his reflection.
"I don't want you to say or think shit like that," said Oliver finally. "Fred's death wasn't anyone's fault except the Death Eater that killed him, understand?"
Percy didn't say anything, but he looked up to see that Oliver was fixing him with a death stare.
"What?"
"Understand?"
Percy took a breath and nodded. He didn't understand, not at all, but he never really liked it when Oliver was upset at him. Well, it was a bit too late for that, but he might as well start small.
(He had always wanted to be perfect. Perfect in his studies, perfect in his career, and perfect for Oliver. And when he failed, he just couldn't take it.)
"Good," said Oliver evenly, before turning to his side of the creek once again.
(Should he give Percy another chance?)
The question had been pestering him for the past ten minutes — when he had been forced to see the person that had ruined everything for him.
And the worse thing was that he felt like a jerk for even being mad at him for lashing out — not when he was in this state. Not when he was blaming himself for Fred's death.
The truth was that he wanted Percy back, he's wanted him ever since seventh year. And while Percy was the one to finally snap and end it, he hadn't been that good of a boyfriend either.
He had made the old mistake, the mistake that he had made with literally every other relationship he'd had before Percy: putting Quidditch first.
The truth was that Percy had not been the only one that had put his career first. So why was he mad at Percy in the first place? For acknowledging that their relationship was fucked up all along?
"I could've done better, too," he said, loud enough for Percy to hear him. It pained him to admit it, but after seeing how Percy was at the current moment, he had to. "Don't take the full blame. I know you tend to blame yourself for everything and I tend to — run away from it and blame the other person. It's not okay. I — I also put my career before us. You just — you opened my eyes to it and ended it. We both screwed up here."
(There was a moment of silence between the two, and it was clear both men were thinking, reflecting, on where they were going to go from this point.)
"It's going to take time to go back to where we were before," said Percy finally, his voice cracking. "Three years. Three years of us being idiots."
Oliver smirked. "I know. We were colossal idiots. It can't hurt to start over slowly, right? It's gonna be different this time."
Percy looked at Oliver. "We may have both screwed up, put our careers first — but I was the one who cut you off entirely. Are you sure you want to actually start over with —"
And Oliver strode over to where Percy was and immediately pulled him into a kiss. "Please shut up, or I just might throw you into this creek."
(They both stood on the forest-green grass, thinking of their newfound-shaky relationship. After all, the grass is always greener on the other side, right?)
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry Assignment # 11 - Career Advice Task # 3 - write about Oliver Wood.
Insane House Challenge - 654. (dialogue) "It's gonna be different this time."
365 Prompts - 263. (sexuality) gay
Days of the Year - National Kissing Day - write about someone being kissed.
Shay's Musical Challenge - RENT - write about a slash couple.
World Cup: Belgium 28th - (genre) Hurt/Comfort
Build a Zoo Challenge - pond - (word) disgust
Thirty Days of the Gays - (sexual orientation) gay
Writing Club:
Disney Challenge - Kristoff - write about the Weasleys (any of them)
Showtime - 14. Hold Me In Your Heart - (plot point) Making up after a falling out
Amber's Attic - Dysfunctional: write about someone lashing out
Lyric Alley - 5. That we still could be
Ami's Audio Admirations - 11. 5.0. It's really good. Fact. - Write about loving something/ someone
Em's Emporium - 5. (character) Scorpius Malfoy - write a fandom pairing
Lo's Lowdown - 8. (character) Gaila: (trait) redhead
Please R&R :)
-Ana