A/N: I sincerely apologize for the delay. Life went crazy these past weeks…actually it still is. I even had to leave town for a week and I couldn't sit down to write a simple sentence. I will be posting next chapter sooner, though!

Thank you so much for the feedback. You put so many smiles on my face!! And thanks to those who have been adding me in their favorites or their alerts, although it would be nice to hear from you as well, especially to see what it is that you like from the story.

So, please, read, enjoy and tell me what you think!

Hanging by a Moment

June 7, 2020

--

Their lips fought unstoppably against each other, rescuing the long gone taste. Hands moving, skins brushing, burning each other. Small kisses being spread across her collar bone and soon down her neck; the fog of his breath branded her skin, recovering the old sensible spots. Two very familiar hands ran up and down her back, and as soon as a fainted gasp left the safeness of her throat he had returned his lips to seal hers.

Teddy's hand wondered down the long bronze strings that were Victoire's hairs, with sensible strength. Finally, his grip settled on the lines of her waist, grabbing her skin tightly, sending vivid shocks up her bones, shocks that met at the epicenter of her chest. She raised her hands from the floor and placed them on both sides of his face, securing his closeness, demanding for that to never end.

She soon lost balance, her legs weren't enough to keep her firm on the floor, and neither was her mind. The little strength she had left encouraged Teddy's arms and his entire body to press her back against the floor.

Victoire felt her lungs emptying; her breath was gone under his. His lips, again running down her neck took the little air she had left inside of her. She couldn't pronounce the words that were stuck down her throat, words that were vital to make everything stop at that very minute. The sensible words had drowned, somewhere deep inside the electric shocks of her chest and the fire of her skin.

His mouth traveled slowly to her left ear, her skin shivered.

"I can't," he whispered roughly. Victoire opened her eyes and looked up at the expectance of his own deep sight.

"I know," she murmured, the words didn't come out completely; her chest was too trapped under his to let her speak properly. "I know," she said again, breathing better. Everything was coming back to her body; her strength to her arms, her breath to her lungs, her state of mind to her head. "I know!" she said again, loudly. "Get off me!" Victoire demanded, panting hard. He recovered his sitting position in two fast moves, panting as well, faster than her.

Victoire sat on the floor, her back suddenly aching slightly from the hardness of the wood, a small pain she hadn't felt a few seconds ago, or hadn't noticed.

She looked up at Teddy, his sight was strongly fixated on the wooden floor. She frowned, her exasperation didn't allow her to speak until a minute had passed.

"What…what was that?" she said, and heard how accusing her voice sounded. He raised his head up to her, and said nothing, but the pace of his breathing was expressive enough for her. "What?" This time he shook his head, fast and shortly.

"I can't do this…" he said again, frowning, sounding very unconvinced, as if his voice was doing its best in convincing himself. Victoire took her hand to grab her hair. "Not right now…" he continued.

"This is wrong…in so many ways," she said, covering her lips with her hand.

"It is…" he panted, his own hand on his forehead. He breathed in, looking into her eyes. "…Is it?"

"What—Teddy!"

He grabbed her face with one hand, so fast she couldn't slip it away.

"Victoire…is it?" he asked slowly, as if talking to a little girl.

"Stop," she murmured once she felt his strong sight questioning her. She tried to look down but he didn't let her. "Chloe!" she said loudly. "You've got...Chloe!" Teddy shut his eyes for a brief second.

"I know…" he whispered. Another silence embraced her as his hand embraced her chin. "But…"

"But what?" she widened her eyes. "There's no but…" He finally let go of her face, and looked down, his head seemed to have suddenly been hit by something harder than the wood of the floor.

"I…I just screwed that up…" he said quietly, not in worry but in realization. Something in Victoire's chest shrunk. She nodded quickly. She could feel her throat closing, her eyes swelling. She cursed the intentions her body had of crying. That would be the cherry on top her stupid behavior.

"You…just—don't tell her. I'll go, I'll get my things and go," she said, her voice breaking, her arms searching for the box that was beside them. "Nothing happened here," she declared impulsively, swallowing hard. She really needed for those tears to crawl back up, because she wasn't planning on letting them run down.

He stopped her, grabbing both of her arms. "Wait. What do you mean don't tell her? And something did happen here…"

She was breathing fast, trying to consume the air around her. "It was a mistake," she said between short breaths. "We're not supposed to do that! What—what were you thinking? What was I thinking?"

"Victoire! You're panicking," he said, holding her arms tighter.

"And I don't see you doing the same!" she yelled.

"Victoire—"

"—Just let me get out of here…" she said, seriously short of breath.

"No!"

"Teddy…please," she whispered to the proximity of his face. She pressed her lips tightly together, wrinkled her face and hated him for holding her so firmly. Petit, transparent tears slid down her cheeks. She rolled her eyes at the sensation.

Teddy looked at her silently. He never said anything stupid whenever he saw her in a state similar to that one. He had the subtleness of staying quiet until she pulled herself together. She breathed deeply and felt relieved from the tension for a moment, until he caressed her wet cheek with the back of his hand and she felt her heart flipping abruptly.

"I don't want you to go," he said, something painful in his voice.

"Teddy, this was a huge mistake."

"Stop saying that…"

"But you are with somebody else—"

"—Victoire…forget about that for a moment. What do you want?" he asked firmly. Victoire frowned. She didn't get how he could keep it so together. He breathed in as he waited for her answer.

"I—I…I don't know," she whispered.

"Yes you do," he whispered back.

"It doesn't make a difference. You're with her," she said, and accusing tone taking over her voice.

He shook his head. "Not after this."

"What—are you out of your mind? You're seriously planning on telling her?"

"Of course I am!" he said, as if it was the most obvious thing to do. And it wasn't obvious. Fifteen minutes ago they had been looking into their memories, avoiding stepping on the hurtful parts. Now they had unleashed everything that had been hidden. "I'm telling her tonight," he said with a surprising amount of decision.

"But—"

"—There is no but," he pointed out. "Let me talk to her—"

"—Teddy, I don't think—"

"—I'll go to Shell Cottage afterwards, alright? And we'll talk then. You and I. Just let me tell her first."

"But—" she said weakly, and stopped herself at the sight of his strong eyes. She shook his head, but fought with it no more, especially when he kissed the corner of her mouth softly. Victoire sighed.

"You'll wait for me there?" he asked. She nodded, although she didn't understand exactly what she was agreeing to. Was it that she was going to wait for him until he broke up with his current girlfriend so they could talk properly about their situation? Or was it that she was going to wait for him to decide what he wanted to do?

She nodded either way, because she didn't have much strength left to do anything else. He smiled widely.

"Will you let me go now…please?" she said weakly. Teddy released her, and she felt the weight of her body sinking in the hard floor. He stood up and offered her both of his hands. She took his hands and he pulled her up in a fast move. Victoire looked at him intently, wondering if she would ever breath normally again. She felt she needed to get out of the house and see if there was a way of returning herself to her normal state, although she already knew the answer to that last.

Teddy breathed out, before taking her face with his hands. She closed her eyes to the feeling. "I thought you were letting me leave…" she begged. He shook his head and leaned down, to kiss her one more time, short and tender. She smiled weakly, before he let her go.

She turned around and walked past the couch, where she spotted her purse and wand. She grabbed them in a fast move and reached for the door. Once she opened it she couldn't help but turning back, just to make sure that he was actually there, looking at her, smiling softly at her. There it was, that same adoration in his eyes, the one she had once fallen so desperately in love with. She smiled to the realization of it all, and tried not to think of how messed up things were around her. She stayed under the doorframe for a minute, but gathered the strength to walk out of the house.

--

Victoire buried her face under the pillow of her former bed.

That couldn't have happened, she was smarter than that. She had not provoked it. She was certain, no, positive. And neither had he. Images flashed across her head, she couldn't organize the last two hours properly. She couldn't remember the last thing he had said before it all became so messy.

She opened her eyes under the darkness of her pillow, her head spinning, her heart at the edge of her throat. Then, somewhere between the memory of the stuffed frog and the locket that was still hanging from her neck, Victoire remembered her childish accusations during the entire evening, how she reproached the way he had moved on with somebody else.

Victoire shut her eyes tightly. She had provoked it. She sent all the messages he needed to receive to know that he still had the power of tempting her into stupidity.

She then remembered his subtle signs. His eyes constantly set on her lips, and his hands fixated on her skin, only seconds before kissing her. She thought of his last minute retrieval and her impulse of keeping the seductive mood alive. The flirting, the smiling, the innuendoes taking over their conversations… Victoire's skin shivered at the simple thought of it all. She breathed deeply, feeling the speed of the blood that was running down her veins. Nothing was going to kill the adrenaline. But she knew that when the ecstasy left every corner of her chest, she was going to be left with nothing but a hangover.

The kiss didn't even have to mean anything. They had been walking in slippery territory and didn't handle it well, and that was all. A small mistake.

But even in her hurricane of thoughts, Victoire knew that the thing that had happened only minutes ago wasn't small. Instead, it brought her back to a place she had hidden in the back of her mind. And the sensation of drowning with every minute as she waited for him to come back to her wasn't only hurtful and confusing.

It was devastating.

Victoire threw the pillow with all the strength her adrenaline allowed her. She tossed it to other side of the room and stood up from her bed, to do nothing but walk around it. She was lucky that Teddy came to his senses fast enough. She was certain by now that her exhilaration would have led her all the way with him. The guilt and the suffocating confusion would be unbearable now if she had done what her entire body was begging her to do. Victoire sighed, wondering if the pleasure would have suppressed the guilt. She shook her head fast again, trying to get the inappropriate thoughts out of it.

Teddy's reaction had been the most disconcerting thing of all. Although guilt had covered his eyes the very second he parted his lips from hers, she didn't recall seeing him that sure about something in his life. Their last conversation had been short and confusing but his eyes were enough for her to think that he was going to put an end to his current relationship.

And what if he did? Was he going to run to her that very same day? And most important, were they supposed to start things over again? Just like that? "Oh god…" she whispered, taking her hands to her face. Up until the previous day she had been positive that the only thing healthy for her after that breakup was to be firm about moving on without him. She had made it clear to herself that there was no turning back.

And what if he was thinking that very same thing at that very same minute? What if he realized that after almost two years he was better off without her? That he was better off with the other girl…

Something inside Victoire's chest suddenly ached to the thought of Teddy choosing Chloe over her. She walked up to the window of the room she had slept in for eighteen years. She looked out the crystal and into the open sea that was sheltering the sunset. She bit her lip with unmeasured strength, but didn't notice the pressure. That same window was the one Teddy had climbed through countless times, thanks to her consistent encouragement to meet her there in the middle of the warm nights of their first summer as a couple, when Teddy was doing his best effort at treating her with respect. But after breaking into her room for two nights in a row he didn't put much more resistance to his own impulses.

She shook her head, he couldn't stay with Chloe. And then again…he should, because with Chloe he had a clean parchment to write on; with Victoire it would be like retaking from a place where the ink had spilled, tainting the entire paper.

They needed to talk. She needed to talk to him, about everything she never said because she had been either too hurt or too angry to say it all. She needed to see him simply to talk, not to touch him, or kiss him, or meddle his hair with her fingers, or smell his scent again. None of that was going to clear the storm that had settled in her head. All she asked for was the strength to talk to him, no matter what he wanted from her or what she expected from him.

"I need Evelyn…" she said out loud to the empty room. No, Evelyn would give her the most useless advice of all. She could just hear the words coming out of her friend's mouth. She would tell her to sneak inside his house, even before Chloe got back, and do everything that was in her hands to distract him from the competition.

Evelyn was too straightforward when it came to men. Victoire needed Leo.

But Leo would tell her just how stupid she was being, he would ask her to put her two feet hard on the ground. He would remind her that she was throwing away months of recovering from a wreckful breakup. That wasn't right either, because that last kiss proved how unaccomplished that recovery had been.

She wished she could put her two best friends in a cauldron and mix them up, maybe that way she could get a proper advice from the result of the two…or she would hear what she wanted to hear.

She wouldn't have been this confused two year ago. Before leaving to France she would have done anything in her hands to keep her relationship with him alive. But the present day was completely different and something inside her still told her that it was all the consequence of Teddy's reasons to break up with her, no matter how much he claimed to regret it.

"Back already?" Dominique's voice shrieked from behind her. Victoire startled and turned to see her younger sister walking inside the room.

"Yes…I—I got back a couple of minutes ago," she said turning her head towards the window again.

"So? How did it go?" her sister asked. Victoire shrugged.

"How did what go?"

"Weren't you at Teddy's place?"

Victoire's heart flipped. She decided to not face her sister to seem less obvious. "No," she lied. "I—he had things to do and so did I…"

"Oh…" Dominique sounded disappointed. "I'll tell Maman that you're here…she was wondering if you were having dinner with us."

"I'm not hungry," Victoire said, short of breath.

"Fine…" Dominique said dryly. Victoire heard her sister walking back to the door.

"Dom?" she called, turning around. Dominique's eyes widened. "Have you ever—"

"—Victoire are you alright?" she asked astonished.

"Yes! Why?" Victoire reacted disconcerted. Dominique couldn't have possibly read her that fast.

"Your lip is bleeding," she pointed out, wrinkling her face. Victoire took the tip of her fingers to her lower lip, to feel nothing but the warm blood she hadn't noticed before. "Are you sure you're alright? You seem…"

Stressed? Unsteady? Going out of her mind?

"I'm just…a bit worried, that's all. You know…work stuff…"

"Oh…" Dominique frowned. "So? You were asking me something…"

"Right…" Victoire stopped to reconsider, but her despair gave her the little push she needed. "Have you ever done something really wrong but really good at the same time?"

"What?" Dominique frowned deeper. "What are you talking about?"Victoire looked at her sister, but didn't answer. Dominique waited a few seconds. "Just how good was it?" she asked suspiciously.

Victoire breathed in as deeply as her lungs allowed her. "Really, really…great."

"Then why would it be wrong?" Dominique asked. Victoire sighed.

"Because it is Dominique…"

"Maybe if you told me what you're talking about…" her sister offered, finding a spot to sit at the edge of Victoire's old bed. There was no way she was going to tell Dominique what had just happened. Her sister might have grown with the years, but her mouth was still too big for her size, and Victoire couldn't afford her secret being out in the open. Besides, Dominique adored Teddy and she would meddle in the situation trying to get them back together. And that was none of her business.

"Well…actually," Victoire started, sitting by her sister. "You know when you love something but you don't remember how much you love it until you have it again?"

Dominique's estranged face was a poem to read. "Um…I really don't know what you're talking about…"

"Right…" Victoire said, insisting on explaining this to Dominique without having to confess the actual story. "Well…you love cinnamon blueberry tarts, right?" she asked, remembering how Dominique ate an entire tray once when she was left alone for an entire afternoon with a fresh badge.

"Merlin, yes…" Dominique said. "Whipped cream on top?"

"Urgh, I still don't get how you can put whipped—never mind, yes with whipped cream on top."

"I love them…" said Dominique with a satisfied smile. Victoire hid her disgust.

"Alright then, imagine having to live without it for a long time. But then you suddenly get a chance to try it again, and you just don't see how you went on without it…and you see that all you want is…more. Get it?"

Dominique was quiet for a moment. "No. I would never survive too long without blueberry tarts."

Victoire sighed and rolled her eyes. "What if you were forced to?"

"Why would I be forced to?"

"Because you are! It's a metaphor!" Victoire said entering desperation. She was strongly regretting having compared Teddy to a blueberry tart. Besides, Dominique would never understand until she found a man significant enough for her to put sweets in second place.

"Well…if it is a metaphor then just take the damn tart if it's so damn good!" Dominique retorted. "I really don't get it. You're going to have to explain it in good old English."

"I can't Dominique…" Victoire murmured. "I'm sorry…"

"Are you sure this has nothing to do with Teddy?"

"Of course not!" she reacted, with a laugh that tried to simulate mockery, but came out of her lips filled with cynicism. "Not everything has something to do with Teddy…"

"Well…then I think I just lost interest," her sister said. Victoire chuckled and looked out the window, her hands playing on her lap. Dominique took one of Victoire's nervous hands. "I just want to make sure you are alright…" she said, sounding concerned. Victoire smiled.

"I'm fine," she said, staring at the window one more time, wondering how long it would be until she heard from Teddy again. She wished she could be more like Evelyn or even like Leo. That way she would still be at Teddy's place or she would already be on her way back to Paris.

Truth was that staying in the middle, with nothing but uncertainty was eating her alive, and that meant only one thing: she didn't want things to go back to normal yet. She wanted and needed to face Teddy before giving the subject more inner thought.

She breathed deeply as she felt Dominique leaving the room. The memories of the last two hours had cleared up, organizing inside her head. She recalled her attitude towards the kiss, how she froze to the situation, to the feelings it unleashed. She remembered Teddy's patience, his steady attitude, while she was breaking like a cracker.

Now, in the sudden darkness of her room she hated the way she had reacted. The need of staying beside him, close to him took over her. She couldn't stand it one more minute. She needed him back.

--

Teddy lifted the two glasses and the empty bottle of wine from the floor. He took them to the kitchen and walked back to the living room to throw himself on the green couch. He breathed deeply and closed his eyes, almost grateful for the silence of the room, a silence that soon broke when the main door opened.

Chloe walked in and turned the light of the living room on, she startled once she saw that Teddy was in it.

"What are you doing here in the dark?" she laughed softly. Teddy shrugged, giving her a small smile.

"How was the game?" he managed to ask, as she took off her light jacket and walked to the coat closet.

"It was great…" she said, before stopping cold, her expression changing drastically. She turned to him, and Teddy kept his glance firm and steady.

"So…Victoire was here," she stated. Teddy nodded once. Chloe leaned down and picked up a picture from the pile that held Teddy's share of the belongings. He assumed the picture was the one of Victoire in the Palace of Versailles. Chloe studied the photograph intently.

"She really is beautiful, isn't she?" she said smoothly. Teddy frowned and said nothing to that statement. Chloe let the picture fall off her hands and into the pile of things. "She seems to have left in a hurry. She didn't take anything, or you didn't let her take anything. Which one it is?" she asked coldly, raising her eyes up to him. She walked towards Teddy and stood close to him.

"A bit of both," he answered roughly, his throat feeling dry. A small, angry smile grew on her face.

"You were expecting me right now, weren't you?" she said sharply, sitting on the coffee table in front of him.

"I was…"

"I knew I shouldn't have gone to that game," she said with the same cynical smile she wore before.

"Chloe, it's not your fault."

"I know it isn't," she said acidly. Chloe crossed her arms, her eyes were accusing Teddy of everything he had done, thought and felt in the past hours. Her solid sight was not encouraging at all. He took a moment. He hadn't been given the time to put his thoughts in order, although he didn't feel like he needed that. He knew what he wanted, he had always known and the possibility of having it again was beginning to seem real. He wasn't going to waste that small chance, the only chance he had been given since the day he realized that letting Victoire go off without him was the hardest thing he had ever done.

He didn't need to think things through anymore, he had done a lot of thinking in the past years. To hell with all that maddening introspection.

"So?" Chloe demanded, clearly sick if his silent episode.

"What do you want to know?" he asked, giving the subject a little more time.

"Did you kiss her?" she said firmly. He was already familiar with her solid character, but her cold attitude towards the subject amazed him.

Short silence.

"Yes."

Chloe looked down at the floor. She breathed out, her sarcastic smile had become part of her. "That was… straightforward. I would have preferred it if you lied," she admitted. The guilt Teddy had been managing to control began to take over him, filling every part of his body.

"Chloe…I'm sorry, but I'm not going to lie to you," he said softly. She nodded a few times and took a deep breath. "You don't deserve that." Chloe's sarcastic laugh filled the room.

"Did you two--"

"--No," he answered fast. He knew well what she was attempting to ask. A trace of relief filled her face for a few seconds.

"Would you have…done it—"

"—How's that relevant?" he frowned.

"I guess it isn't. You're a guy…I should ask her instead if she was willing to—"

"—You don't have to ask her anything. This is between you and me," he said calmly.

"It was until this weekend, now it seems like a three people ride."

Teddy breathed out strongly. He again fell into absolute silence. Chloe looked down at the floor, but it wasn't long before she lifted her head up again and looked strongly into his eyes.

"I'm going to be straight and clear about this," she announced coldly. "I'm willing to pretend like nothing happened here," she breathed in. Something in her rigid posture told Teddy that she was bottling her anger. Her cold way of solving things still surprised him. "I'm willing to...understand why you did this, as long as you promise me that it won't happen again."

He tried to get something out of her steady eyes. She was negotiating, offering a fair bargain. He had the option of taking it and leaving the past events as a result of a moment of weakness.

"But…I need you to promise me that it won't be like this every time she comes back," she said then, although she didn't understand just how wise her words were. Victoire was always going to come back, and he was always going to be expecting her to come back. That was never going to change, and he could either assume this reality or fool himself to think he could pull off another pointless separation.

Victoire had changed in the past year. She went away as a girl and came back as a woman. There were things he didn't know about her, things that might have changed significantly, things he wanted to find out for himself. Teddy knew very little about those changes, but he was able to see more than that. He knew her better than anybody else, and now he knew the things she had been hiding from him. She wasn't over them, just like him. She wouldn't admit it but it wasn't necessary to admit anything, holding her in his arms had been more than enough to know, even it was for a very brief moment.

"Chloe…" he began. "I'm really sorry," he said, shaking his head. "I really am sorry."

--

Artist: Lifehouse

Lyrics:

Desperate for changing
Starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
Chasing after you

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

Forgetting all I'm lacking
Completely incomplete
I'll take your invitation
You take all of me now

I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here until you make me move
I'm hanging by a moment here with you
I'm living for the only thing I know
I'm running and not quite sure where to go
And I don't know what I'm diving in to
I'm hanging by a moment here with you

There's nothing else to lose
There's nothing else to find
There's nothing in the world
That could change my mind
There is nothing else...