AN I don't own HP or any of the characters! Drabble for the IWSC! Enjoy!

Story Title: Unkillable Love

School and Year: Mahoutokoro - Year Two

Theme: Grammar School - Dialogue

Main Prompt: "I don't want normal and easy and simple. I want painful, difficult, devastating, life-changing, extraordinary love" - Scandal

Wordcount: 585

Draco was the first person to ever say I love you to him. Harry had grown up with his relatives who, to no one's surprise, had had a distinct lack of love when it came to their nephew/cousin. But, he'd also never heard it from anyone else. Ron and Hermione seemed to just think it was implied, and anyone else either didn't know him well enough or were too fame-crazed to even speak to him. Plenty of people told Harry that they hated him, of course, but somehow no one had ever said those precious three words.

Until Draco.

They were twenty four, but no one looking at them would have guessed their real age. There was a weight between them, and a stillness to the way they stood that screamed of forgotten wars and historic moments no one else would ever know about. People knew them, but even then it took most anyone a while to guess their ages—and, that was usually only after they'd done the math.

Harry had been living with Draco for almost two years at that point. They hadn't been together when they'd become roommates—hadn't even been friends, or on speaking terms—but they were both poor and they were both broken so they moved in together and kept out of the other's way. That had lasted for an impressive four months.

Then, the talking started, and there was really no going back from that. There were only so many midnight conversations and drunken confessions that they could spill before it became something more than bitter tolerance. Draco hadn't liked it, at first, because he still didn't like the idea of letting people get close to him.

"I'm toxic, Potter. Everyone around me ends up getting hurt, or worse—killed."

"Well, I've been unkillable so far." It was a joke, but Draco wasn't laughing. The years had been hard on the blond, and that weight still threatened to overtake his expression if he frowned too much. It was sad, honestly. The way he crinkled his expression into disbelief at even the slightest hint of trust or friendship between them. But then, suddenly, that beautiful pale face relaxed.

"Merlin, I love you, Harry." That was not at all what he'd been expecting, and Harry spit out his tea. He choked, but Draco hadn't moved.

"You…" He swallowed hard, trying to remember how to form words. "You what?!" Draco didn't seem at all concerned by his sudden outburst, but it was entirely possible that Harry was just missing whatever reaction he was having due to his own panic.

"I love you, Harry." Draco was smiling, now, but Harry couldn't understand why for the life of him. Was this some kind of joke?

"But we fight all the times and we're just roommates, we're not even friends yet and—"

"And what? I'm not saying I'm in love with you, but I do love you and I love the person you are now that I know you. Why is that so surprising? I wouldn't still live with you if I didn't like you."

"Yeah, but…" His mind reeled, but all he could come up with was that time-tested favorite he'd always heard from the Dursleys. "But I'm too hard to love." It sounded pathetic out loud, but being ashamed of it didn't mean that he didn't believe it. His cheeks felt hot. Draco just pursed his lips at him, though, and tilted his head.

"Right, because neither of us have ever done anything hard before."

Thanks so much for reading!