Author's Notes: … yeah. I'm getting my least favorite out of the way, now.

smile through broken façades

word count: 664

( teddy – roxanne )

Somehow he managed to capture you with one look—not that you'd ever say so, and you fell into the background, dating (and going strong, dears) a boy you didn't really like and loving a boy that was just so much more man.

You keep your head held high, but you never really look anyone in the eye, and it's no wonder when they begin to notice that your smiles aren't as cheery and your eyes aren't as bright.

You're breaking.

Roxanne sighs and glances over at Lysander, who looks nervous and maybe a little bit lost as he grips her hand. He's asking her, frantically, if it'll be okay—and she answers plainly that he'll be fine and that he should stop worrying. This isn't the first time he's met her family.

"Yeah," he says dubiously, "but this is the first time we're announcing ourselves as a couple—in front of your entire family, no less!"

"Quit your whining," she grumbles, tugging him inside and duly ignoring his protests. "You've never been like this before."

Before he can open his mouth to retort, they're swarmed with various members of the Weasley-Potter family, being asked a million questions about why they're holding hands and the like. Roxanne answers them in stride, and Lysander does well in controlling his nervousness—kind of. Finally, Teddy comes up to them, a glass of firewhiskey in his hand and a smile across his face.

Roxanne greets him thinly, but he doesn't notice.

"Congrats, you two," he says, hugging Roxanne with one arm. "I'm glad you're happy."

Roxanne smiles ruefully at him, and mumbles, "Right."

She doesn't want to know how many people can see through her not-so-elegantly poised façade.

He'll smile and you'll smile, and he'll wrap his arm around your redheaded cousin and you'll kiss your cousin's ex (oh, sorry, your boyfriend). He'll be in love with her and you'll be in love with him and yes, this is confusing, but you're a teenage girl for fuck's sake, and this is your life.

How very wonderful, you think dazedly, taking a swig from a nearly-empty butterbeer and laughing like you're drunk—which, really, you're not.

"You're so pretty," he mumbles, scooting closer, and Roxanne allows herself a girlish giggle and an, "Oh, go on," that shouldn't have been coming from her lips. He takes a sip of his alcohol—butterbeer? Firewhiskey? Something muggle? She can't remember. It's all kind of blurred around the edges, like a frayed picture.

"Mm," she mumbles, feeling the slow-and-sensual press of his lips against hers, and she's just living in the moment; she's stopped trying to pretend that this isn't Lysander, because it is.

Oh, it is, and how that burns.

You take a good look around you, and for the first time, you think that maybe the world isn't so bad. There's sunshine, pretty emerald trees, the sky is bright blue, smiles are rich—what's so bad about this world, again?

Then he walks in, and you remember.

"Fuck, Roxanne, what the hell are you doing? If Lily sees me like this—no, scratch that, if anyone sees us like this—I can't—"

"Teddy," she mumbles quietly, pressed against him, her breath smelling of alcohol and her eyes bloodshot. "Just now. Never again. Just right now."

She kisses him roughly, hands tangling in hair and arms wrapping around waists, flavours mixing with scents, and fuck it all, it doesn't even feel remotely right.

You may be bad, but you're not this bad, a distant part of her mind screams at her, indignant. Stop it—stop it now—

They simply don't realize that she's far beyond caring.

You fell in love a long, long time ago, and you'd be lying if you said you fell out of it a while back, too.

. - . - . - .