#4 IN VINO VERITAS

Rating: This is a short fic, hence T.

AN: This was my entry for the Rare Pair Roulette Flash Fic Comp. It won the Best-Feel Good Fic award, with others great works as there was a four-way tie. ;) This was such a great fest, thank you so much the mods for hosting it!

My Prompt was "Luna and Theo staying in a small town and exploring the little shops and cute restaurants".

Beta love to: cinnamonbun24 & Postal Ninja.

In Vinos Veritas

OS.

"You're following me." It wasn't a question. Luna was no fool. She certainly already knew the correct answer. The man shrugged easily, his dark hair falling on his shoulders.

"What if I am? Aren't I allowed to spend my holidays here as well?" Her piercing stare looked right through him; any other man might have backed down.

T

"You're following me."

It wasn't a question. Luna was no fool. She certainly already knew the correct answer.

The man shrugged easily, his dark hair falling across his shoulders.

"What if I am? Aren't I allowed to spend my holidays here as well?"

Her piercing stare looked right through him; any other man might have backed down.

But not Theo, for he had seen worse, much worse, over the last few years. He simply arched a questioning brow as she smiled easily.

"You could have just asked."

She turned back and sauntered away but not before looking back at him over her shoulder.

"Well, aren't you coming then?"

Theo paused and blinked quickly, bemused, before jogging to catch up to her as she pushed open the door of yet another shop.

"I was nine."

She was sipping her water with a faraway look on her face, one which Theo had become intimately familiar with. The look that said she was lost deep in thought. The look that would grace her whenever she decided to share some uncommon story. Often a personal or a deep one. He didn't dare interrupt, simply letting her talk. He'd gladly let her talk every day, all the time, just to hear the sound of her chiming voice.

"She was experimenting, as she often was. Always was, actually. She was so curious. So brave. So full of life."

Theo's fingers squeezed his cutlery just a bit tighter as her gaze slid over him, like a heavy curtain engulfing his whole being.

"My dad used to be very invested in the newspaper. He would spend the day in his office, forget to eat, and come back late… All of which he still does, in fact, but he isn't as keen as he used to be."

She glanced around the restaurant; the other tourists enjoying their radicchio and their lasagne, the beautiful landscape that could be seen through the large windows, the children playing under the starry sky.

"I loved to help Mum. I would always sit by her side and watch her work. It was incredible. It's what I miss the most."

She put her glass down, her delicate fingers tracing the rim of it before she looked back at him. He tipped back his own glass and swallowed the wine with the familiarity of habit, that befell the rich and the pureblood.

"It was an accident."

Her bright blue eyes met his green ones, his drink suddenly hard to swallow, tasting sour on his tongue, in his throat, in the pit of his stomach.

"What about you?"

Theo's lips thinned. He didn't talk about her death. He never did.

"It wasn't."

Luna nodded dutifully, before passing him the Italian vermouth pitcher.

Her hands were resting on her lap, sitting idly as he lay on the beach, his head turned up to the sky while she looked at the waves.

"Do you think they see us? Watch over us?"

She had that dreamy stare on her face and Theo's empty heart filled with hope, joy, deep longing even. He again marvelled at his luck, the fact that she had chosen to spend any time with someone as broken, as unimportant as him. The boy who hadn't done anything right, nor anything wrong. The one who had always been a recluse, who had become a man that had fled his obligations and wasn't even bothered with finding a job in their new society where he could, he should... Whereas she was a war heroine, contributing to their magical world much more than he ever did, and ever would now that his last name was all but a sham.

"Because I believe so."

She turned her gaze upon the stars too.

"Don't you, Theo?"

"I wasn't."

She looked at him, a surprised smile tugging at her lips as it was unusual that he addressed her first. He had been trailing behind her without saying much these past days. Ever since she had asked about his mother, sharing about hers instead.

"Blaise told me you were going to Italy, but I never thought you'd be here as well. That first day, I wasn't following you."

Luna merely grinned.

"I know."

Frowning, Theo caught her wrist delicately, bringing her closer to him before she could stroll along to the next shop, the next spot, the next restaurant she had set her eye on.

"I had hoped to get away from everything back home… Away from the pressure, the stares, the expectations…"

He didn't say it but she just knew he meant his father's death in Azkaban.

"It's okay, Theo."

She put her other hand on both of his, as gently as she could.

"I knew that."

Her smile widened, as she nudged him in the direction she had chosen.

"But I'm kind of happy that you told me."

"What do you think about this one?"

He felt as if he just couldn't shut up after that last day having disclosed the truth about their first meeting, making Luna so very happy, but his social awkwardness was making him cringe.

"Isn't that the same jeweller, though?"

Theo's eyes sparkled with mischief. He so looked forward to that discussion. Luna would again prove to be so funny in there.

"Humour me, Lovegood."

"I rather prefer the earrings, Theo."

He rested his hand on her arm, placed in the crook of his elbow – something his father had never done with his mother, as they walked away from the gioielliere's shop.

"The blue ones?"

She had a cheerful laugh, shaking her head.

"Oh no, the purple ones."

She turned to face him, a playful smile on her lips.

"Shouldn't we stop pretending our houses colours are the only colours for us?"

Oh, he could kiss her.

"Let's go."

Her blue eyes looked up from her book as she got up, ready to follow him it seemed.

"Where?"

His heart missed a beat at how sincere and forthright she was. Did he deserve her solace, her friendship, and what seemed to be her love, with how jaded he was?

"Wherever you want."

She smiled sweetly at him, fastening her cloak on her neck, where the pendant he had gifted her, enclosing the pictures of both their mothers, lay.

"I may take you up on that."