mrrr. took me a while. chapter three. wewt. fight fight fight. DING DING!

The next day, Lucius Malfoy slept in and when he woke up at noon, he wished he could go back to sleep. He didn't want to have to deal with what was bound to come that day—that thing crying, his wife cooing over it; overall, the day would pass without anyone so much as giving a thought to him. He groaned and rolled over.

The first thing he noticed was that he was lying alone in bed. The sun was pouring in through the wall of windows to his left, casting a mid-day, faux cheery tone on the room. He gave a half hearted laugh and shrank back into the bed, pulling the sheets up to his eyes.

"Hmmm." The sheets weren't the same ones that had been on the bed last night. Instead of the creamy white sheets he had fallen asleep in, he was now laying on a dark blue, nearly black set of sheets, made of silk, not linen. He rolled his eyes slightly and stifled a yawn. "Looks as if the woman's learned how to use her wand." Malfoy muttered, for surely the sheets could have only been changed during his sleep by magic, without waking him. The house elves were too loud when they carried out their tasks; if they would have changed the sheets then surely he'd have awoken. Dear, that meant Narcissa was on a cleaning frenzy today if she could be bothered with changing the sheets. Perhaps he could sleep away the rest of the day in bed, after all, he had managed to sleep half of it.

A door to the right opened and in scurried a small little house elf with floppy ears and a pink toga. It wasn't one of his, though he recognized it immediately. "FREEM!" Lucius demanded. "What are you doing here?"

The elf paused in his scurrying, balancing a glass of orange juice and a copy of the Daily Prophet on his head. "Freem is your servant, Master." And he tried to bow, but couldn't go all the way down because of the load he was carrying.

"Where did you come from?" Freem belonged to the Blacks. How could he possibly be here?

The elf looked around for a brief second before answering, "The corridor, sir. Excuse Freem, but Mistress gets angry if her paper isn't on time." And he ran out of the room and through a door to the left.

"Narcissa, reading the paper?" He questioned. Since when had the blonde been the least interested in anything going on in the world, and why was she drinking orange juice, a drink "loaded with calories" as she constantly harped every time he drank it. Lucius sighed and rolled over, grabbing the nearest pillow and hugging it to his torso. He stretched slightly and at the foot of the bed, his feet came in contact with something cold. He brushed his foot against it again. It felt like….metal…in the bed? Sitting up, he looked down at the foot of the bed to only realise that the crafted wood which had been there last night had been replaced by wrought iron bed posts. Lucius arched an eyebrow and glanced back to the headboard, which was also constructed of twisted black iron.

Pushing himself from the strange bed, he stood beside it and yelled for his wife. "NARCISSA! WHAT THE DEVIL IS GOING ON?!"

No answer.

"NARCISSA!"

Still, no answer.

"Busy with that brat." He mumbled and sat back down on the foreign bed, burying his face in his hands.

The same door that Freem had disappeared behind earlier now opened again. Looking up, he expected to see his wife, but instead got an eyeful of Bellatrix in nothing but a bathrobe.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" He demanded, quite tired of all the changes that had taken place this morning. "You can't just come barging into my house and not say anything. Did Narcissa let you in?"

She stopped in mid stride and looked at him as if he was delusional. After a long pause, she gave an answer. "I live here."

"No you don't!" Lucius snapped. She was seemingly ignoring him though and had begun looking through one of the wardrobes in the bedroom.

"I'm pretty sure I do." She muttered, not even bothering to spare him a glance before pushing herself from the open wardrobe and walking around the corner to a closet.

Lucius twisted around on the bed, looking in the direction she had gone. "Bellatrix" He said warningly.

"Yes?" Came the reply from in the closet.

He pushed himself from the bed and walked around it and into the closet where he found her looking in a chest of drawers. "Do you know where I put those underwear you gave me?"

"What….WHAT? No I don't know. I've not given you underwear in years. What the hell are you on about—DON'T TRY TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT!" He said, quite confused, so confused in fact that he had begun shaking his fore finger at her, which he had to restrain with the hand of his other arm. Lucius started looking around; this closet was a lot smaller than her remembered. And…where were all of Narcissa's clothes? This entire room was filled with nothing but reds, blacks, and green, three colors that the blonde Black never wore.

"Since when?" He snapped.

"Since when have you bought me underwear?" Bellatrix asked, pausing and looking puzzlingly up at him.

"SINCE WHEN HAVE YOU LIVED HERE?!" Lucius all but screamed. If Narcissa had moved that thing into his house over night, well, he couldn't be held responsible for what he did.

She hadn't even gone back to looking for her miss undergarment, watching Lucius with slight apprehension, she began counting on her fingers. "Six years."

"Six…six….si..LIAR!" And that time, he did scream. How dare she lie to him! He was tired of her stupid little games. Lucius Malfoy wasn't her fool.

"Are you o-"

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE THIS INSTANT YOU LYING WHORE!" Lucius thrust his index finger in the direction of the door. "GET OUT!"

Bellatrix stood up slowly and calmly. With eyes like ice she stared him down. "What is wrong with you?" Her eyebrows were knitted together in confusion. "No wait, on second thought: Fine." And she pushed past him into the outer room before wheeling around on him. "But I'm not leaving because this is your house. I'm leaving because I just realised I married the same bastard I hated in school and I don't want to spend another second with you." She turned on her heal and stormed out of the room and down the stairs, taking two at a time.

"Crazy bitch." He muttered after she had left the room. It wasn't until he had run a hand through his hair and then sat down inside the closet that her words hit him—head on. "What the hell?" Lucius jumped from the floor like a lighted fuse, ran out of the room, and once he saw the front door below him shut, sprinted down the stairs. She wasn't crazy. Dear God. He was married to Bellatrix Black, well, most likely Bellatrix Malfoy now, or was he Lucius Black? Would she have taken his last name? Whatever, details didn't matter. Everything suddenly made sense to him and Lucius could only hope he wasn't about to make a complete moron of himself.

Reaching the front door, he ripped it open and looked around wildly. He spotted Bellatrix, stomping down the long driveway, wand out, and still in a bathrobe.

"BELLATRIX!"

He mounted the gravel and ran as fast as he could, rocks digging into his feet, which were most likely getting cut.

"BELLATRIX!" Why wasn't she looking back? Oh Merlin he had fucked up, and he had only been married to her for a few minutes, well six years according to her, but he had only known for a few minutes.

Sprinting the remaining distance to her, Lucius bit his lips for fear of crying out as the rough gravel dug into his feet. "STOP!" He came up behind her, barely stopping himself before he slammed into her. "Stop." Lucius threw his arms around her shoulders in an attempt to hold her back.

She whirled around him and fought to push him arms from her. It became apparent that he wasn't letting her go though, so Bellatrix settled for a scathing reply and a scowl. "What?"

"Stop." He repeated.

"Yeah, I got that part."

If he was going to get anywhere with this, he couldn't get angry with her. "Don't leave. I…I….I didn't mean to."

"Didn't mean to what? Snap at me for no apparent reason? Act like a complete lunatic? Tell me to get out?" She screamed. "Didn't mean to WHAT?"

"I didn't know." Lucius muttered. "I didn't know, Bellatrix." He hung his head, hoping he looked the part of an injured puppy, a very cute injured puppy.

"What didn't you know?" He felt her push his hands from him and untangle herself from his grasp.

Lucius didn't answer. He had messed up. He had had her. He had gotten what he had asked for last night, and within five minutes, he had fucked it up so bad that there was no hope of getting her back. It wasn't meant to be. It was just wishful thinking. Him….her….they couldn't work.

"What didn't you know?"

He didn't even hear her. Lucius Malfoy had screwed things up began all recognition. He always ruined everything. Count on him to screw something into the ground. Good Job Lucius.

He looked up and saw her shake her head and turn her back on him. She was walking away, for the hundredth time probably. He knew what her backed looked like more than her knew what her face looked like. She always walked away from him. Always.

"Bella." He softly spoke the name he was never allowed to call her. "Don't leave."

He looked back down at the ground, his expression that of a kicked down before he looked back up again. He made eye contact and said something he knew he had never before said in his life.

"I'm sorry."