Chapter 9: Bunny slippers

A/N: My amazing beta ObsessedRHShipper helped me once again with my grammar and spelling. Thank you so much!

Ron and Hermione had shared one thousand nine hundred and sixty-one breakfasts together so far, but today's breakfast was without a doubt the most awkward. The tension between them was obvious and both of them were avoiding looking the other in the eyes.

Hermione felt embarrassed about the show she put on last night. She couldn't believe that she stooped so low as to try to "turn on" her best friend. She was aware of the awkwardness between them and she hated herself for causing it.

Last night, she didn't get much sleep, because every time she closed her eyes she would think about how Ron's touch created such a wonderful sensation throughout her body. After many hours of trying to fight the heat between her legs, she couldn't help herself and masturbated thinking about him.

She was ashamed of that, but it helped her body relax. Her mind was still restless though. She was worried about what the morning would bring. Unfortunately for her, her worst fears were realized. Ron was avoiding her gaze and she understood what that meant.

He realized what I was doing last night and it disgusted him. That's why he ran from my room. He didn't like what he saw and he doesn't know how to tell me, she thought sadly.

Ron was drowning in his own thoughts. He didn't get much sleep either. He was trying to find an answer to why he reacted the way he did.

He tried to rationalize his actions by remembering that he is young and has hormones and this encounter last night with Hermione was the closest he had been with a woman in a long time.

Plus Hermione is drop-dead gorgeous. At least, to him she is. And what guy would stay apathetic while hearing a beautiful girl moaning? It was a normal reaction.

Of course, that didn't explained why every time he closed his eyes, he thought about Hermione's freckled back and the wonderful sensation her soft skin left on his hands.

And it didn't explain why after many hours trying to ignore his hard-on, he gave up and masturbated again thinking about her.

He was ashamed of that, but it helped his body relax. His mind was still restless though. He was worried about what the morning would bring.

So, both of them were eating in silence and stealing glances whenever the other one wasn't looking. Hermione was the first to break the silence by talking.

"I'm planning to drop by the supermarket today. Do you want something?" she asked, although she knew the answer. A six pack of lemon iced tea and chocolate ice cream, she thought.

"A six pack of lemon iced tea and some chocolate ice cream," he said and Hermione had to bite her lips to keep from laughing at that.

After five years, she knew Ron too well. He was never picky about food. He would eat anything you served him, but Hermione knew that Ron couldn't live without iced tea and ice cream. She didn't know why, but she imagined it had something to do with the ice element.

"I wanted to eat some last night, but there wasn't any left," she heard him adding and she wondered how she didn't hear him going to the kitchen last night.

"What time did you get up?" she asked him curiously.

"I don't know. Late, I suppose. I was having trouble sleeping and at some point I got hungry," he said truthfully.

He was probably thinking about the blonde bimbo that he has a date with tonight. Why else would he stay awake? Surely he didn't stay up, thinking about me, Hermione thought bitterly.

"I suppose you're nervous about your date tonight and that's why you couldn't sleep, right?" she asked him, looking him in the eyes, but Ron turned his gaze to his plate.

He couldn't look her in the eyes. He was too ashamed to tell her that she was the reason he couldn't sleep last night. Truth was he didn't even remember Lavender and their date, until the very moment when Hermione mentioned her.

But it did sound like a better excuse than 'No, I couldn't sleep, because I had a permanent erection thinking about my best friend's freckled back!'

"Yes, that's why," he lied.

See, I told you, Hermione. He was thinking about her. Just accept that he doesn't see you like that and stop embarrassing yourself, she screamed inside her head.

"What time is your date?" she asked him, trying to play it cool.

"I'll pick her up at her house at 9 p.m.," he answered and Hermione almost choked on the juice she was drinking.

That is way too late. Is it supposed to be a "dinner followed by sex" date? Of course, it was. He told you yesterday that he wants to have sex with her. But doesn't he have a game tomorrow? He needs to save his strength. He mustn't have sex with her, because it might negatively affect his performance. Yeah, that's sound like a good excuse, she thought.

"Why so late, Ron?" she asked him and he raised his eyebrows.

"I mean, don't you have a game tomorrow? You need to sleep early to recharge your batteries," she said hoping that her words would make him think about it.

"It doesn't make any difference. I never sleep before a game, Hermione, especially now, that I'm playing. I'm too nervous and nothing can make me relax," he said sighing.

Hermione sighed too. She didn't like his answer. If he was sure that he would be awake no matter what, then he might think that it would be more fun if he had sex with that girl rather than spend the night in his room, eating ice cream.

"Still, you have a game tomorrow. You shouldn't stress your body with… unnecessary activities," she said, emphasizing the last two words.

Ron took the hint. She was telling him that he shouldn't have sex with Lavender tonight. He looked at her and he saw that she had a worried look on her face. Is she really that worried about my career?

He thought about what she said. Maybe he needed to stay focused on the game. With his mind on last night's events and tonight's date with Lavender, he almost forgot that tomorrow he had a game to play.

"Hermione, it's just dinner. I'm not going to have sex with her," he said reassuringly.

"Well, you don't know that, Ron. Are you sure you want that kind of distraction before a game?" Hermione said, blushing. Because if you want, I'm available, she wanted to scream to him.

"Let me worry about that, alright?" Ron said and he left to go to his room. This morning was already too awkward and the last thing he wanted right now was to talk about sex with her.

Hermione watched him leaving, feeling tightness in her stomach. She was sure that Ron left, because he was going to have sex with that girl tonight; He didn't want to talk to her about it, because it wasn't her business.

It was half an hour before Ron's date and Hermione was snuggling on the sofa. She pretended to be watching TV, but in reality she was waiting for Ron to come out of his room, so she could see what he looked like for his date.

Ron walked into the living room and Hermione couldn't help but stare. He was wearing a black suit with a white shirt and no tie that made him look like a model from GQ. He had shaved and fixed his hair, so that it now looked perfect. In one word, he was a hunk.

"So, how do I look?" he asked her and his voice shook Hermione out of her reverie.

"You look very dashing," she said truthfully, forcing a smile.

Ron felt his ears go red and he had to look away. "I better go now, or else I'm going to be late," he said.

"Yeah, we girls hate that," she said and her eyes were glued to his. Ron wasn't looking at her, but when he did, he couldn't take his gaze away.

Neither was breaking their eye contact. It was as if their eyes were having a private party and the rest of their bodies weren't invited.

For a strange reason, Ron felt like he shouldn't leave. That he shouldn't go out with Lavender. That he should stay here, snuggle on the sofa with Hermione, and watch some lame movie on TV.

"Thanks. Hmm… goodnight," he said and he left hurriedly.

When Ron closed the door behind him, Hermione felt a knot in her throat and tears started rolling down her cheeks.

"Am I boring you?" Lavender asked him.

"No, not at all," Ron answered quickly.

"You are definitely not interested in what I'm saying," she said with a hint of bitterness in her voice.

"I'm sorry, Lavender, that I'm not a good company. I just have a lot of my mind," he said sighing and drinking a gulp of his red wine.

"What's troubling you? If you want to tell me, of course," Lavender said.

"It's my job. Lavender, I waited five years for my chance and I don't want to screw it up. I'm just nervous and I can't focus on anything else," he lied, but it was a good excuse.

Lavender jumped at the chance to talk about his job. So far, Ron hadn't told her anything about his life and she was the only one who talked. "Do you love being a goalkeeper?" she asked him.

"I wouldn't choose anything else," Ron said truthfully.

"Do you love being a model?" he asked her and Lavender smiled a bit. It was the first time during dinner that he was asking a question.

"No, I don't like it to tell you the truth, but the money is good," she said.

"You sold your soul and your perfect body for money? That's bad. You might burn in hell for that," he teased her.

"So, I have a perfect body?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Like you haven't heard that before," he said smiling.

"I have, but not from you," she said with a wink, fully aware that now they were entering the flirting zone.

Ron knew that his ears now were similar to his hair colour. It was the first time during dinner that he had relaxed and started flirting with her.

Lavender sat a little more comfortably in her chair by crossing her legs. That gave him full view of her sexy thighs.

Ron's mouth fell on the floor when he first saw her when he picked her up at her house. She was wearing a yellow, knee-length dress, with a deep V neckline that fit her perfectly and flaunted her beautiful body in a sexy, but not slutty way.

He noticed how every guy in the restaurant was stealing glances at Lavender. She was truly stunning tonight and he felt proud that she was with him.

However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't concentrate on Lavender. His mind always drifted away and he ended up thinking about Hermione again. He was thinking about how cute she looked this evening with her orange silk pajamas and her bunny slippers, which were a gift from him and she always wore around the house.

What the hell is the matter with me? I'm on a date with one of the hottest woman I've ever seen or ever will in my life. She is every man's dream and is wearing one of the sexiest dresses ever made and I can only think about my best friend in pajamas and slippers? Are you mental? He screamed at himself.

One hour after Ron left, Hermione was still on the sofa watching 'The Notebook.' She never liked the movie or the book. She was never a firm believer in soul mates and one true love. She didn't believe that you could have butterflies in your stomach when someone kisses you or that one summer could ever be enough to keep a love alive for fourteen years, like the story of Allie and Noah.

She knew that a love story like this didn't exist in the real world. She wondered if maybe she didn't believe in true love, because she hadn't met the right person yet.

Surely it wasn't Adam. She met him in college and he was her first in a lot of areas. Hermione was always a closed-off person and she thought she didn't need a guy in her life. Adam was her closest friend and they were both members of the book club. One night they both talked about how they were both virgins and the next thing she knew, she wasn't a virgin anymore. They started dating for a while after that, but it was obvious that neither of them felt any strong emotions for the other.

Surely it wasn't John, her boss's son. He was sweet and nice with her; In a way, he was the only real romantic relationship so far in her life. Her mother loved him, but the problem was that there was no chemistry or passion between them. They both realized that eventually and decided it was best to separate and stay friends. Of course, they were never friends before they got together and that's why Hermione hadn't seen him over the last two years. Her boss told her that he married a few months ago and he moved to the U.S., not that she really cared.

Without a shadow of a doubt, it wasn't Viktor. She still couldn't believe how she allowed herself to lose three whole months of her life by going out with him. He was Ron's teammate at the time. Ron warned her that he wasn't good enough for her and that he only wanted to have fun with her. Foolishly, Hermione didn't listen to him. She thought that Ron was speaking out of spite, because Viktor had already agreed to transfer to Arsenal in a few months and Ron was still on Millwall's bench.

She still remembered how Ron never said anything when she told him that she caught him cheating on her. Ron just hugged her for hours until she had shed her last tear.

What she never told Ron was that she didn't cry for Viktor that night, but for him. She almost ruined her friendship with him. He tried to warn her and protect her from that jerk and she just ignored him. She even brought him home and had sex with him, while Ron was in the next room; Ron had always hated Viktor and she knew it.

She would never forgive herself for those three months and her behaviour towards Ron, but maybe her punishment was that she had to have sex with Viktor. Throughout the three months, he never gave her an orgasm. He was a terrible kisser and a lousy, selfish lover. Hermione started to wonder if she was ever going to find someone who would make her feel complete.

It was at that time when she had called her mother and told her that she had a boyfriend, and her mother asked her to bring him home so they could meet him. She didn't know how to tell her mother that once again she failed in another relationship. She couldn't believe it when Ron agreed to pretend to be her boyfriend after the Viktor issue.

She felt blessed to have a great friend like Ron and she made a promise to herself to never hurt him again.

Hermione saw it was getting late and believed that Ron wasn't coming home. She decided to drink a shot of whiskey to calm herself, but it was pointless. Dark thoughts of Ron having sex with that girl right now were on her mind. Before she knew it, the one shot become nine and she was totally pissed. It wasn't a surprise that she fell asleep on the couch a little while later.

Ron came home around midnight. He tried to be quiet, so he wouldn't wake up Hermione. When he saw her on the sofa, he thought she just had fallen asleep, but when he went closer, he smelled the alcohol on her breath. He saw the bottle of whiskey half-empty and he wondered if she could have drunk that much.

The most important question was why she was drinking. He knew that Hermione never drank alcohol; in order for her to do so, something must have happened. He wondered if she had problems at work or if it was something personal. He made a mental note to ask her about that tomorrow.

He tried to wake her up and tell her to go to her room, but she wasn't responding to his joggles. She only mumbled some things that Ron couldn't understand. He decided to carry her to her room. He laid her down on her bed gently and threw a blanket over her.

That caused Hermione to open her eyes. Everything was blurry and she shut them again. She felt that someone was lifting her head to place a pillow under her. "Ron, is that you?" she asked.

"Yes, it's me. It's okay. Go back to sleep," he whispered.

"Did you sleep with her, Ron?" He heard her asking the question with her eyes shut. Ron didn't understand why she asked him that, but without knowing why he wanted to tell her the truth.

"No, I didn't," he answered.

He saw a smile forming on Hermione's sleeping face and heard her whispering "That's good," before she started snoring softly.

Ron didn't understand why a drunken Hermione was happy with his not very active sexual life, but he chose to ignore it. He decided to spend the rest of the night in the living room, so he could be right next to Hermione's room. He wasn't going to sleep anyway, and he was worried about Hermione's drunken state.

He put a bucket next to her bed just in case she needed it, and he turned on the TV. A few hours later, Hermione needed the bucket. Ron was with her and he wiped the vomit from her face and hair. When she finished, she just fell asleep again. Ron was sure that Hermione wasn't going to remember that tomorrow; this was lucky for both of them, because he didn't want her to feel embarrassed.

I think there is a progress in R/Hr relationship, dont you think? I think I'm going to change the rating to M later in my story. Don't expect anything hardcore, but there would be some very intense scenes in the future.

A huge thank to everyone who left me a review. I hope you'll like this chapter. And if you do, REVIEW!