Argue
She started letting him pay for her dinner and buy her things, as long as he didn't overdo it. She still refused any help with her apartment or necessities of life. That was one of the things they argued about. He at least wanted to help her get a better job but she wouldn't use him as a reference for anything. She wanted to deserve whatever she got rather than getting it based on his name.
He thought she was being stubborn and proud. If she would just let him help a little things would be so much easier for her. She was letting her Weasley pride get in the way of accepting sincere help she genuinely deserved. She thought he was being overbearing and overprotective. He kept trying to convince her to do things his way. He was always worried about her when she was fine. He kept trying to change the way she did things.
They argued a lot, about a lot of things. They got along wonderfully and neither of them could figure out why they argued so much, but they did. Sometimes they didn't even know what they were arguing about. Sometimes they just found themselves yelling at each other for no reason at all.
In the end, he would say whatever it would take to get her to stay, to keep her from walking away. She seemed too ready to give up. He seemed too desperate to hold on. She was too independent. He wanted more than he claimed. She was scared. He was impatient. She lived too much in the past and he forgot too easily.
For best friends, things didn't work out the way they wanted them to very often. There were times that he wanted to let her win and just let her go, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He loved her, and he knew she loved him. She was just scared. She was so scared of losing him. She never would tell him what had happened with her family and why she was alone. She was so scared of losing him that she kept trying to break up with him even though they never started dating.
The worst part was that they were starting to argue about the arguing. No matter what they were fighting about, it would dissolve into the fact that they were constantly fighting and she would try to convince him that things just weren't working.
He usually tried to feign ignorance, claiming that he didn't think it was as bad as she thought it was. He refused to give up on them. He just couldn't do it. He just couldn't let her go.
Finally, they had a big fight that topped them all. He had made the mistake of asking a bit too persistently what she was so afraid of. She refused to answer and said it was over. She said she couldn't take anymore and it was over and that was it. She didn't leave any room for him to talk her out of it. He would always want more and she wasn't able to give it.
His eyes stung. He hated it when his eyes stung.
