Reminder: (December 27th) This is Usagi's 9th day. Omg, only five left! ;(

x-x-x-x-x-

Chapter Fourteen

Relented Passion...

An uncomfortable silence had settled none too pleasantly amongst the two, the dull scraping of metal silverware against the plates being the only audible noise. Draco had gotten used to his breakfasts being filled with Usagi's rambling chatter. While he would often play off an air of annoyance, it truly kept him entertained and content to listen to the blonde girl. So much had changed... more than even he was completely willing to admit.

The silence was temporarily marred as Usagi dropped her fork soundly, the silver metal clanking with a hollow thud against the plate. She jumped slightly, realizing then just how quiet it had been. She chanced a quick glance at Draco, noticing he was idly toying with his food, not truly interested in eating. Unable to help herself, she decided to break the silence. "Crabbe-kun seems to be remembering me," she said quietly.

Draco was almost startled at hearing her speak, the worded content of her voice causing him to shift in his seat. "Is that so," he replied absently.

"Hai," she mumbled, lowering her gaze back to the plate of food. "He... He said that he keeps thinking about me and... and I think he might be remembering..."

Draco sighed softly, letting his eyes rest on her hesitant form. "It's possible the spell didn't stick as adequately as it was meant to," he reasoned in a quiet voice, taking another small bite of his food. "He cares for you very strongly. It's possible that those feelings were unable to be completely locked away." He watched as a smile spread across her lips, a fragile hope lighting within her eyes. "But he's not a good person," he found himself continuing, a frown hinting upon his lips. "He'd of end up hurting you sooner or later regardless—"

"You have no right to try and tell me what kind of person he is," she snapped, her eyes hardening to a glare. "Don't try and justify your actions with excuses of him not being a good person. Many would say the same about you."

A scowl spread menacingly upon his face, his own eyes narrowing. "I'd never try and make excuses," he snarled. "I regret nothing."

The two glared at each other for several moments, but it was Usagi who broke the gaze first. She averted her eyes back to her plate, licking her lips slightly as she spoke. "So then why did you apologize last night?" she asked very quietly.

Draco didn't respond, merely taking another bite of his food. Usagi thought he wasn't going to answer from the long silence that stretched between her spoken question and his soft reply. "I suppose a small bit of that is a lie," he admitted hesitantly. "Maybe I do regret my actions, slightly. I hadn't known things were going to escalate so far between you and I. I wanted to hurt you..." He paused for a moment, considering his words.

"I wanted you to feel an undeniable pain because you were a Gryffindor, because you were friends with Potter. I thought I'd hurt you with lust and taint your innocence and shatter your heart. But it became so much more than that, so much more complicated than I ever could have anticipated. Bloody hell," he muttered. "Had I thought first why Crabbe of all people would even hold an interest in your friendship, maybe that would have simplied things. I never thought I'd find myself so attracted to you, the person... I'm not accustomed to all of these feelings. They are weak and petty and pointless. And yet, I am not willing to ever let you go now."

Usagi tensed slightly and looked at him cautiously. "What... what do you mean?" she asked quietly.

Draco stood from his seat and she did the same, coming over to him slowly. He continued to speak in a calm voice. "I'm not willing to ever let you go," he repeated, looking at her finally. "I refuse to let anyone else ever touch or harm or care for you as I do."

Usagi frowned slightly. "You can't 'refuse' to—"

"Yes, I can. And I just did. I want you to be with me and only me. I don't want to stop teaching and learning with you. I don't want you doing these things with anyone else."

Usagi remained silent as he spoke, her heart pounding within her chest, her lips parting slightly with wonder. "Draco-kun," she murmured softly. "Do you know what you're asking...?"

He nodded wordlessly. "Yes, I fully realize what I'm asking of you." He pulled her gently against him, a smile quirking upon his lips as she stumbled. He caught her arms softly, his hands resting gently upon them. She raised her head slowly to look at him, awed by the swirl of compassionate emotions she saw reflected in his eyes. He kissed her gently, his warm mouth working slowly against hers. His tongue slid wetly against her lower lip before slipping between the pink flesh, touching against the length of her own. His grip tightened slightly on her arms as they stumbled their way to his room, barely breaking contact as the door opened and closed behind them.

(A.N. A little limey here, but nothing too bad ;)

His hands began pulling gently at the hem of her shirt, slowly sliding the material upward. She quickly placed her hands on top of his own, stopping his actions. Taking a small breath, she carefully moved her own hands to his shirt instead, grasping the first button with trembling hands, unbuttoning it nervously before moving to the next. He watched her with slightly wavering breath as her hands shook, the process slow and stumbling. It took a few minutes for her to actually complete the task, but when the final button was undid, he slipped the soft material off of his shoulders, letting it fall to the floor in a silky puddle.

Usagi raised her hands timidly, placing them against his chest, feeling him tense and breathe in sharply as her hands were cold against his bare flesh. Draco watched her explore with a hidden fascination, her eyes roaming his upper body appreciateively. She layed her palm flat against his chest, running her fingers softly against the taught, soft skin that covered the smooth muscles. He placed his hands on top of her own, pressing her hands harder against his chest, her fingernails grazing the flesh now lightly.

He let his eyes drift shut as her hands continued to caress his chest on her own accord, his breath wavering slightly. He opened his eyes again after a moment and pressed his hands against both sides of her shirt, grasping the material once again. She slid her hands to rest on top of his as he grasped her shirt. He was sure she was going to stop him...

What he was not expecting was the shy little smile Usagi gave him as she raised her arms slightly, allowing him to slide it off. He took in her beautiful half-naked appearence, though still clad in a bra. "You have... absolutely no reason to be modest," he murmured appreciatively. As she lowered her gaze, he grasped her chin and forced her to look at him to see the sincerity in his eyes. She felt a strange stirring feeling as she saw this, pressing her lips to his, her breath catching as he quickly responded to the kiss with a hungry passion.

He wrapped one arm loosely around her back, drawing her close against him. Her own arms draped from his shoulders to rest against his strong upper arm muscles. They stayed together like that for several long minutes before Usagi turned her head away, gasping slightly from the lack of air. He continued however, his parted lips trailing down to the hollow of her throat before licking gently at the crook of her neck.

"Draco-kun," she breathed out, her breath trembling out against his hair. He slid his hand to the strap of her bra, slipping the thin strip downward. As he felt her tense from this, he knew he was soon reaching his current limit with how far she'd allow him to go. He knew he had to take steps with getting to a point where she was completely comfortable with him. She was doing well with how far she allowed him to go, he mused with a deep approval.

"Relax," he whispered, her breathing coming out far too erratically.

"Draco, I...I don't know... if we should..." she whispered, unable to help moaning a little as his tongue touched lightly against her skin.

"You tell me what you want to do," he spoke in a gentle murmur, "how much farther you want to go."

Usagi opened her mouth to speak before she thought better of it, her mouth closing again. Seeing her hesitation, he rolled his lips lightly and spoke again. "It's alright if this is far as you want to go—"

"No," she said quickly, looking a little nervous that he would stop. "I..." She didn't quite know how to verbally word her feelings, so she decided to try and express it in another way. She kissed him again, trailing small kisses down his chin and jaw line, opening her mouth slightly and pressing her parted lips against the hollow of his throat before trailing to side of his neck, mimicking his previous ministrations. She felt the soft vibration of his deep sigh of contentment, heard it quickly turn to a slight gasp as her hand trail from his chest to his waist and slowly lower. He hadn't expected her to take a step like that.

"Usa," he breathed out slowly. She froze for a moment as he said her name, her tongue touching lightly against his neck as she licked her lips nervously, causing him to shudder again. She slid her hand gently against the waistline of his pants. Slowly sliding it lower, it was then he placed his hand on top of her own, trying (but quite failing) to return his breathing to normal. "Usa," he groaned out in a low voice. "Are you... are you sure this is what you want to do?" He didn't want to alarm her, but if she kept going like this, he was a second away from having a 'problem' he wasn't all too certain she'd be ready to fully complete dealing with.

Usagi bit her lower lip gently, trying very hard to not seem as utterly terrified and nervous as she was. "You always make me feel so good," she whispered in a shaky voice. "I...I want to do the same for you..."

Draco tried to huff a slight laugh, but it merely came out as a low sound in his throat. "Oh, you do," he assured her. "Though what I'm fearing is, you're going to make me feel too good if you continue."

Usagi pulled away slightly to look at him, tilting her head. "'Too good?' " she repeated with slight confusion, a shadowing of innocence in her eyes that completely awed him. "What do you..." Her words trailed off to a gasp as his own hand slid gently down the front of her skirt. Her breath caught as his hand began to move slowly.

"Too good," he repeated in a murmur, watching as her lips parted and her eyes drifted to lazy half-lids.

"I feel strange," she whispered in a quivering voice, trying to drift her thoughts somewhat, but unable to concentrate on anything else than the feel of him touching her. They each had one arm wrapped loosely against the other's back for support, their foreheads touching just slightly.

"You're feeling lust for me," he explained quietly, cautiously biting his lower lip to prevent a groan from slipping out as she gradually began moving her own hand again. "Just as I'm feeling for you."

Usagi replied fully as his mouth claimed her own then, kissing deeply as they began a dexterous exploration of fulfilling pleasure and undeniable lust.

x-x-x-x-

Harry crumpled up the ink-stained parchment, tossing it unceremoniously with the several other balled scraps, resembling in appearence. He knew perhaps he should merely use a spell to clear away the words when dissatisfied (he could practically hear Hermione if she was here, complaining about the wasting he was doing), but throwing the paper the short distance to his personal garbage allowed him to get out a small bit of his discontent. "Why is writing a simple letter so hard?" he grumbled aloud with frustrated annoyance.

Perhaps because it wasn't quite so simple of a letter, he mused bitterly. He wanted this letter to adequately convey something... He had to give it to her when she came back from the vacation. He'd never be able to work up the nerve to verbalize it on his own. But how exactly to proceed? That was the horrid dilemma he currently faced.

Harry dipped the end of his feathery quill back into the small jar of ink, pulling it out slowly. He watched idly for a moment as the wet blackness of its ink-coated tip threatened to drip upon the new piece of parchment should it not be put in use soon. Taking a small breath, he began writing again:

' My dearest Usagi-chan...'

He groaned as he read over the words. "Too forward," he concluded, scribbling it out and trying again.

' Dear Usagi,

I bet after spending two agonizing weeks with Malfoy you'll be happy to see me again... '

He scribbled out the second line quickly. "Too conceited," he sighed. He read over the first two words, nodding as he continued.

I really hope things did actually go well at Malfoy's. I merely wanted to let you know how much I missed you... I dreamed about you every night and thought about you all of the moments I was awake... '

He let out a groan of frustration and crumpled up the parchment. "Too obsessive," he muttered. Picking up the last piece of parchment in the stack, he placed it in front of him and stared at it for a few moments. Licking his lips slightly, he pressed the quill's blackened tip to its rough surface.

'Dear Usagi...

I love you.'

x-x-x-x-x-x-

Aww, so happy for Draco and Usagi, so sad for Harry. Most guys will use candies or flowers or dates to ask someone out... Draco just kinda says "You can never leave me, so there." xD Lol. I hope you guys are satisfied with this chapter; I tried to keep it not too too bad. .:blush:. I dunno... lol. Well, lemme know whatcha think ;)

To: Silver Moon Goddess1, humuhumunukunukuapuaa, Silver Moon Lit Goddess, fallen-anqel, Serenity Usagi Malfoy, Saris Yui, Goth-Punk-Princess, FallenLuminary, samisweet, Kawaii Usa, Usagi no Megami, Draysa, Flame Ivy Moon, oO (lol), Ivy Tearen, koldy, Not a flame, Raylinz, RtisTykSyko, Miko11, liza, sailorveggie, Lucilia-chan, Allison, Seren Lunar Echo, MFlower, anonymous, k-sullivan, Katrina, Kallista Starshooter, Cheerios... Thank you so much!

(.:spooky narrative voice:.) Next time on...Slave...

The key to the past is sometimes locked away within the present. The key in the present may have been discovered within the power of a kiss... As the pieces slowly fall into place for one bitter soul, the additional pieces to the jigsaw puzzle may leave emotions frayed and regretful sorrow to guilt at a few hearts... The struggle continues in next time's chapter, "Shadow On My Sweet Memories."