All The Things I Hate About You, Part XIV

Rating: M

Summary: All The Things, continued. Kate Advent, Day 14.

#14 Your taste in music

It was unsurprising to Draco that he would find Granger in the living room with the speakers blasting some repugnant pop song as she silently charmed the area clean – reorganizing the bookshelf in the corner, tidying the blankets and fluffing the pillows – as she sang along at the top of her tone-deaf lungs.

"IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE ME… DANCING WITH SOMEBODY," she wailed. "DON'T SHOW UP… DON'T COME OUT… DON'T START CARING… ABOUT ME NOW…"

He gently placed his groceries down and crossed the flat to flick the volume of the music to a more appropriate level; he had been intent on teasing her for her choice in song, but then he caught the look on her face when she turned toward him.

Her eyes were bloodshot, and her cheeks were flushed a horrible speckled shade of crimson. Granger was puffy and strung out and he could see the evidence of her tears staining the old Hogwarts crewneck she wore.

"Granger?"

Draco blinked, unsure of how to handle the current situation that was the clearly wounded woman before him. It vastly depended on why she was upset as to what he should do next.

"What - "

Before he could even finish his tentative inquiry, she dug through her sweats pocket and shoved several torn-up pieces of parchment into his hand. Draco waved his wand over them in order to bring them back to their former glory.

You are cordially invited to attend the union of Lavender Brown and Ronald Bilius Weasley…

He stopped reading to meet her furious gaze.

"It's this year," she finally said, breaking the silence. "It's in SIX BLOODY MONTHS."

He gulped. What the fuck was he supposed to say to that? Yes, Granger, that is what the invitation says and yes, that probably does indicate that the fucking bimbo has been knocked up rather untimely, or worse, that their so disgustingly eager to tie themselves to one another that they couldn't possibly wait any longer than absolutely necessary.

"Do you want to… talk about it?" He tried weakly, eyes flickering over her worriedly.

"No," she snapped at him, then sighed. "You know what I want, Malfoy?"

He shook his head, barely murmuring a "No," before she rounded on him, eyes wild and hair chaotic.

Granger wiped grossly at her nose, then let her eyes wander down his face, lingering on his lips before coming back up to meet his stormy eyes; they were fixed intently on hers, and his breath fell heavy and unevenly between them.

"We should have sex," she told him. "Like scratching an itch, remember? It can be purely physical if that's a concern for you."

Draco stared at her; it was laughable, really, that while he had been plagued with his indecision on whether or not it might be worth it to ruin their friendship over a kiss, she had evidently thought it was perfectly reasonable to blurt out that they should fuck for the sake of scratching an itch.

She was nothing if not unpredictable and it drove him mad in every sense of the word.

"I - " He stammered. "You remember that? I thought you were so drunk that - "

She cut him off with an impatient nod, "Of course, I remember that."

"But you didn't say anything the next day." He pointed out.

Granger bit her lip, unhelpfully delivering him to a state of desire in which he had been fervently trying to avoid since the start of the new year. "Well, I thought you weren't interested and were simply too polite to tell me, so I… Anyway. Cleary, that's still the case, so never mind. Forget I said anything."

She turned to leave the room, and his hand shot out to close around her wrist, tugging her back to him. "I'm interested, Granger. Trust me, I am, but are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yeah," she shrugged. "I'm not interested in you like that, and I know you aren't with me. We're just friends." He let her hand drop, but she lifted it to swipe at a loose strand of hair that fell onto his forehead.

Nothing more.

Her words, not his and yet – there they were.

On the one hand, Draco had worked tirelessly to refrain from being physical with her because he knew that once he gave in to it – assuming before that she would even want to have sex with him – there would be no going back for him. He was a very touchy-feely person despite his hardened exterior and unfortunately physical intimacy was rather irresistible to him.

If they had sex, he would be fucked both literally and metaphorically because then his muddle of emotions tying themselves in knots would probably intensify, or at the very least solidify, and that wasn't something he was prepared to heal from at the moment. In fact, he was actually in quite a fragile emotional state at the moment and having sex with Granger was going to only make it worse.

So, really, he shouldn't do it. He should politely tell her that he can't do it. He would blame it on their friendship – which she probably would logically debate and shoot down – or something because it wasn't as if he could tell her that he finds her utterly repulsive anymore since he did still hope something might come of them later and that tended not to bode well with women.

He couldn't claim that it would be true even if he did tell her because, of course, he had come to find her quirks to be attractive the more time they spent together and the better he got to know her. He would also be lying if he claimed he didn't have a dream or two about having sex with her which brings him swiftly to his other, rather winning, hand.

Which was that not only did he very much want to take her in his arms and pleasure her until she called out his name like a prayer, but also he was a guy with needs – specifically needs that he wanted her to fulfil – and so it wasn't like this was as difficult a decision as it morally should have been for him.

Draco blinked.

She looked up at him, waiting. "So?"

He nodded, "Let's do it,"

"Brilliant," she replied, then she nodded toward the hallway leading to both of their bedrooms, "Well, shall we…?"

"Don't make a thing of it, Granger, I beg you."

A smirk crooked at her lips, "Begging already, Malfoy? I must say I expected you to last longer,"

He scoffed, "Believe me, I can last."

Her gaze trailed up and down his body pointedly, and when her warm, dilated eyes met his again, her lips twisted into a teasing smirk. "I hope so."

A/N - This one is for all of you that have been patiently waiting for the slow burn to evolve. Here's to the start of week two of this advent and the next phase in their relationship xx