HPFC: 5 Drabbles Comp ["you loved me once"]
For all the evenings spent together, they've been growing apart. He's pressured into the Dark route, not through his will but by his brother. She plants herself at the entrance to the common room, determined to fix it. He comes through and avoids her eyes.
"I can't talk to you now," he whispers.
So she drags him out onto the grounds, making him go first and walking far enough behind that she can see him but it doesn't look like she's following him. Even so, the corridor bubbles with gossip. It's only when they are out of everyone else's sight and hearing that he speaks. "We can't do this anymore. Meda."
"If you say you don't care for me, you're lying to yourself."
"I don't want either of us to get in trouble."
"You loved me once," she says. "Are you going to throw that all away because you're scared?"
"That's it? That's the only reason you want to end what we have?"
"What do we have?"
"Friendship." She steps closer. "Love."
"I'm not selfish enough to prioritize loving you over keeping you alive."
"I know a way we can have both," she says. She tells him about her plan, and his smile widens with every sentence.
"Well, aren't you a genius."
"I just think about it a lot," she grins.
"Really?" he says. "So do I."
He leans in and kisses her like he's been waiting to do it for ages.