A/N: The final installment.

He eventually turned round to face her. They stood so close together, yet they were so far apart.

"I needed air," Harry muttered, shrugging his shoulders slightly as he justified his untimely exit.

Ruth laughed softly and tilted her head to one side.

"So it wasn't my awful singing that made you leave then?"

Harry smiled briefly before dropping his gaze to the floor. He studied the ground beneath him for a time before looking back up to face her. It was clear by the look on her face she would be expecting a better excuse than needing air before any steps were taken in defining the new turn their relationship seemed to be taking. He sighed loudly and bit his bottom lip as he hurriedly tried to think of something to say.

Ruth watched Harry struggle to articulate a sentence. It wasn't that he didn't know what to say, of that she was certain. No, it was more saying what he wanted to and then watching her reject his advances that he didn't want to experience. She didn't believe for one second his excuse of needing air; the look on his face and the way his eyes had been drawn to her had begged to differ. The wind was beginning to pick up around them, and although the night clear and peaceful, the idea of freezing to death at the MI5 annual party wasn't too appealing.

"What happened?" Ruth whispered, hoping the tone of her voice would calm Harry's obvious nerves. "You were ok earlier, in fact you more than ok." She grinned slightly as she allowed herself to remember their earlier encounter.

She sighed with frustration as she watched Harry stand motionless in front of her. It was clear he wasn't going to make any effort to speak; he never was one to jump into personal conversations. She heard the hitch in his breathing as she stepped closer. She hoped her actions would prove to him that whatever he felt for her was most certainly not unrequited.

Harry watched as Ruth stepped closer and closed his eyes as he willed his body not to react to her proximity. The way Ruth had been looking at him as she was singing would be forever engraved into his memory, and as she stepped closer to him, he didn't know how much more of this he could take before he finally blurted out the true extent of his feelings for her.

"You." His voice sounded strangled as he looked her dead in the eye. There was something there that was unidentifiable, something that she was sure she had seen in a past life. He'd told her everything she'd wanted to hear him say in one word. It didn't need explaining. The look in his eye, the nerves betraying his confident stance and the quiver in his voice meant more to her than anything she had ever received. It was confirmation that he had been so overcome with desire he couldn't bear to be in the same room as her. She was proud of herself for getting him into that state.

She laughed shakily as she reached out hesitantly and ran the fingers on her right hand down his cheek. She didn't need words. Their relationship didn't need words. It had always been based on so much more than that. Harry inched closer to her and closed his eyes as he dared himself to graze his hands ever so slightly over Ruth's hips. There was definitely no hiding of feelings now. She gasped slightly as he pulled her softly towards him. They were so close now. She laughed softly as she removed her hand from his cheek and placed it down by her side. She still couldn't quite believe the evening had actually happened, but she was never one to complain. She leant forward slightly so their foreheads met and sighed his name as her arms snaked around the back of his neck.

"Ruth," Harry whispered hoarsely as he searched her eyes for confirmation of her feelings.

He felt her nod against him, and without hesitation adjusted himself enough so that one move would bring their lips together in a fleeting moment of contact. He felt her smile against his skin as he finally closed the gap and he gripped her tightly against his body as years of torment and fantasy finally turned into reality.

End