If I Ain't Got You
Cho/Cedric
[Off The Block Competition: Freestyle, Easy - write your OTP]
[The Book Thief Quote Competition: "Two weeks to change the world, fourteen days to destroy it."]
[Legendary Gods & Goddesses Challenge: Aruna-Write about something that happens during the sunrise.]
[Interesting Words Challenge: Oriflamme (latin and French) - a symbol or standard that inspires confidence, devotion, or courage]
[Disney Character Competition: Nala -write about Cho Chang.]
[Oh The Thinks You Can Think Challenge: The Grinch - write about someone who feels alone]
[Fan-Fiction Terms Category Competition: Ship - write about someone popular]
Some people want diamond rings…
They were sitting by the lake and talking about everything and nothing.
"Look," she said when gold began to stain the sky. "Sunrise. So much for staying out here for five minutes, eh?"
He threaded her ringless fingers through his, gently crushing her left hand against his right one. "Mmmm. But it's beautiful, right?"
"Beautiful," she echoed, meeting his blue eyes. "I could sit here forever."
He kissed her.
A thought surfaced in her mine, one she'd had about him before but never quite knew how to ask. "Do you want to?" she asked.
"Hmm?"
"Sit here. With me. Forever." Til death do us part.
He squeezed her hand. "I do."
She was suddenly aware of her heartbeat. "Really?"
A nod. A quick kiss.
She couldn't breathe. She waited for him to continue, to finish the vow, but the silence was already settling in around them again, and as the stars melted into the dawn, the promise quietly died. "I love you, you know," she told him.
"I love you, too. Always will."
(And neither one knew it, but he only had 131 days left to live.)
Some just want everything...
They were sitting by the fire in her common room after the Second Task.
She was wrapped up in a giant fizzy robe, and he was wrapped up in her, and she'd never been quite so content. "So I'm the one thing you'd sorely miss," she teased, gathering her wet hair into a bun on the top of her head.
He kissed her temple. She snuggled closer to him. "You're my everything," he said. "I love you."
Under the robe, she began to twist her still-ringless fingers together. "I love you more."
He grinned. "That will never be a possibility."
"That's the only possibility." I know it is. I know I love you more. Because you haven't asked me to marry you yet.
Never mind that they were only sixteen. Never mind that she was going to into Magical Law Enforcement and he wanted to stick with Quidditch. Never mind that they had their whole lives ahead of them. She was ready to let it all end here.
"You won't win this battle," Cedric told her.
"Ah." She smiled. "It's adorable that you think that."
"It's adorable that you don't realize I've already won."
The silence settled in again as they gazed, lost in thought, at the fire.
"You should go back to your common room," Cho said when sunlight began to stream through the window. "You've been here all night." She stood and offered him her hand.
He took it - and pulled her back down into his lap. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm with you. Wherever you go."
Is that your way of proposing? She wanted to ask it so badly, but she swallowed the question and kissed him instead.
(And neither one knew it, but he only had 119 days to live.)
Some people want it all,
But I don't want nothing at all
If I ain't got you, baby
They were standing out on the Quidditch pitch, looking up at the stars.
"Two weeks until you have to go in there," Cho reminded him, pointing at the giant maze.
He snorted. "Two weeks until I emerge in triumph, you mean."
She leaned her head on his shoulder. "How d'you think the others will do?"
"All right, I think."
She laughed. "That's quite vague. Don't be so nice all the time. Tell me what you really think."
"What I really think?" He shrugged her off so he could look into her eyes. "I think the others haven't got a prayer compared to me, because I've got the best prize in the world waiting for me when I come out, and I'd give up a thousand Triwizard Tournaments for her."
Cho let her ringless fingers lie still. "Let me guess, you're talking about Susan Bones, right?" she teased.
He smirked. "I'm talking about the one thing I'd sorely miss, actually."
"Ah, so pudding in the Great Hall?"
He shook his head and stood up. His hand went into his pocket at the same time as he lowered himself onto one knee. "You. All of you. Every single piece of you. Your face, and your heart, and your mind, and the things I haven't even discovered yet. And all I want is to keep you, and hold you, and cherish you for the rest of my life."
She swallowed as he pulled out the box with the ring in it.
"Will you make me the luckiest man alive and marry me?"
"Oh, Ced. . ."
"Not now, of course," he added hastily. "We'd finish Hogwarts first. I know this is abrupt, I just . . . Something told me if I didn't do it now, I'd never get the chance."
"It took you long enough," she whispered with a teary giggle, and he caught her up in his arms. "I love you," she said over and over against his lips as the sun broke the horizon, and a beautiful silence settled over them as they lost themselves in kisses.
(And neither one knew it, but he only had fourteen days - two weeks - not long enough - left to live.)
Everything means nothing if I ain't got you.
She was sitting by the lake, her ringless fingers clenched in a fist around the engagement band she could no longer wear.
And the world was so miserable that not even the rising sun could pierce the darkness.
And the silence was everywhere.
(Because both of them knew now that he was out of time to live.)