All The Things I Hate About You, Part XXV

Rating: M

Summary: All The Things, continued. Kate Advent, Day 25.

#25 How much I don't hate you. Not even a little bit. Not even at all.

"Hermione?"

She blinked, then bit her lip.

"Draco," she breathed. "I'm sorry. I – I lied before."

"You," he shifted. "You lied? About what?"

"About us," Granger sighed.

"Go on," Draco nodded, folding his arms over his chest and trying not to openly sound too relieved.

Earlier she had practically bulldozed over him, much like she was doing right now, though before she had appeared calm and collected and delivered her wishes for them to return to a no-sex, strictly platonic relationship. Conversely, now, she was frazzled and out-of-sorts and barely making it through her speech without pacing or subconsciously tugging at her curls and wringing them around her fingers.

"Draco," she said again, taking a deep inhale. "I lied. I lied about us. I don't want to go back to before when we were friends and nothing more. I – I like where we are now and who we've become together. I like myself when I'm with you and I like being with you."

She huffed, "I'm not good at this. I was never very good at this. Everyone says I'm so intelligent and clever and the brightest bloody witch of my age but I'm not. I look at you and – and I want to be brave and I want to be bold, but I bloody can't!"

Her eyes flickered frantically across his face, "Do you understand what I'm trying to say, Draco?"

She didn't wait for his response, and continued on, pacing the floor in front of him as he moved to sit on one end of the sofa. Evidently this might take a while.

"I just – I look at you and I see it, I didn't at first but now I do. Now, I see it. I see everything I want and everything that makes me happy and – and I don't want to ruin it or let it go and so, I had to – to find some way to protect it and – and I chickened out by not being honest with you and coming up with that fucking ridiculous friends with benefits idea – YOU, you bloody prat, you are everything I need and everything I want and - "

Hermione paused in her pacing, staring down at him with her big, brown eyes.

"You, Draco, are everything that makes me happy and that terrifies me. I'm sorry that I messed it all up earlier, it was just, you scared me. I thought, after attending the wedding how idiotic I have been to not be honest with you and then you did the whole We Need to Talk thing and I – I panicked. I couldn't let you see how bloody mental you've made me this past year."

He sat patiently, letting her get it all out of her system.

"You've made me fucking mental, Draco Malfoy." Hermione snapped, resuming her pacing and tossing her hands in the air. "You snore so loudly, you hog the blankets, you always complain that you're cold when the heating is bloody on all the time, you – YOU IRRITATE ME ON SO MANY LEVELS I DON'T EVEN HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO GET INTO ALL OF THEM."

"But you know what, Draco? You know what?" She huffed, scoffing.

He arched a silver eyebrow quizzically.

"I DON'T BLOODY CARE," Hermione announced, laughing (to herself most likely which Draco took as a very poor sign for what he thought was her approaching some form of finality or at the very least, normalcy).

"I don't care," she said again, with emphasis, "because I like when you pull me in closer to you even if I'm sweltering under the duvet, and I like when you swing by the office with lunch for me when I've forgotten to pack one, and I like that you always have a bobble on your wrist, and I like that you don't tell me to turn my rubbish pop songs off, and I like that no matter what you never let me win. Even if that means I always have to lose, and do you know want to know why?"

Draco felt a small smile creep across his lips; he'd been careful not to show how much her words meant to him until the opportune moment, lest she throw in the towel early.

"BECAUSE I BLOODY LIKE YOU, THAT'S WHY. Also, because you treat me like an equal and I can't even explain how much that means to me, Draco, but I – I can't – I can't do this anymore unless you feel the same way because I don't think I could ever be just friends with you and nothing more. I don't think that was ever possible, thinking back on it now."

Hermione stood there, curls facing every which way and enormous because of the humidity of the late summer and caught her breath; Draco watched her chest rise and fall for a full minute of silence, and then stood up, towering over her.

"Are you done?" He asked.

"I - "

"You're done," Draco told her, shaking his head. "You really aren't the brightest witch of your age, are you?"

"I – What is that supposed to mean?" She countered, sulking.

Instead of answering her, Draco took her face in his hands and brought her lips up to meet his. He stole her breath and smiled against her lips as they parted readily for him, and he shifted one hand to the small of her back to steady her as her body went partly limp against his.

"You," he murmured against her, "are an absolute idiot, Hermione Granger."

She blinked several times, and he rolled his eyes, leaning back enough to brush away stray curls and give her a judgemental smirk.

"It was never just friends between us," he supplied, "and if you think that I don't feel the same stupid fucking feelings that you feel, then you clearly aren't as clever as you claim to be."

Hermione opened her mouth to respond, closed it, then opened it again. "First of all," she began. "I never said that I was clever. Other people claimed that. Second of all," she paused, and Draco laughed, which resulted in her swatting his arm and feigning a grimace. "I loathe you."

"No, you don't," he argued.

"No," she lamented, her fingers trailing the sharp line of his jaw. "I don't. In fact," her gaze flickered sheepishly down from his grey eyes to the sliver of his lips. "I think I may very well love you."

"First of all," Draco said, a smug look of victory stretching across his lips as he tightened his grip on her hips. "You know you love me."

"Fine," she retorted. "Fine, then I love you."

He beamed.

"I know,"

She swatted his chest this time, which only made him laugh harder.

"Bloody hell, Granger, I love you too – fuck – there's no need to assault me," he said.

Hermione rolled her eyes, pouting her disapproval at him for a brief second before letting a genuine smile take its place. "Second of all?" She prompted.

Draco leaned in, stealing a quick kiss from her before breaking away to dig through his pockets.

"Second of all," he stated, intertwining their fingers while hastily scribbling something on a piece of paper and sending it through the floo to Theo's flat. "I thought of the twenty-fifth thing."

"Twenty-five things… about what?" She asked, the clockwork behind her chestnut eyes going into overdrive at what he could possibly be talking about.

He shook his head, stealing another kiss, "A story for another time, I think."

"Hm," she grunted, displeased.

"Now," Draco said, smirking and tugging her down the hallway and toward their bedrooms. "I have other ideas of what I would like to do with our time."

LA FIN

A/N - This chapter is dedicated to IndigoRed. Yes, this #Thing was influenced by the epic classic Ten Things I Hate About You which I have never seen unfortunately, but I do hope you liked it nonetheless! Also, there will be a new TAoB update tonight. I can't wait to begin all of my longer fics I have planned now, and they will be coming in the new year. Until then, loves, au revoir xx