Starry Night - Lucy/Victoire

Warning for mild swearing.

Set during the summer of 2017.

Another family celebration. Teddy had just graduated; she loved him – she did – but there were only so many times that she could bear to hear how much she'd grown since they'd last gotten together – she hadn't – or how she was exactly like her father – she wasn't – and they did this at every opportunity they could get. She was bored.

They'd all moved indoors when it had gotten so dark that they couldn't see anything without the aid of the floating fairy lights someone had charmed to circle around the more populated areas of the garden, and the warmth of the summer day had left with the departure of the sun. It was crowded in the Burrow – too crowded; barely enough room for the original occupants of the house, let alone the abundance of grandchildren and almost-relatives and a few of Teddy's friends that they'd managed to cram in.

People were sitting in a wonky circle of miss-matched chairs and boxes – and a few people were sitting on the coffee table – but most had resorted to finding a spot on the floor and relying on those seated around the table – those who had gotten in first – to pass them drinks. She'd sat with them at first, but her Aunt's legs had been digging uncomfortably into her back and she had a cousin sitting on each foot – she didn't want to sit cross-legged, damnit, and it wasn't that hard to avoid a person's feet, even in the limited seating area.

After managing to extract herself from the midst of her family – with much complaining from the people she was disturbing and possibly accidentally stepping on – and fighting off the pins-and-needles in her legs, she made it into the relative peace of the kitchen. She leant against the open back door – cold drink in hand – and watched as her family continued to talk about mundane things that none of them would remember properly the next day.

It was a little lonely, but at least she could breathe properly over here without the suffocating warmth of too many people to close together. The gentle breeze made her shiver, cooling her sweat and bringing up goose-bumps along her bare arms and legs, but she'd always preferred the cold. And the night sky was beautiful.

They were far enough away from anywhere overly populated that the stars were clearly visible, shining brightly in the mid-summer night, though barely illuminating the darkness of the garden and surrounding hills. If it had been brighter she might have seen the lone silhouette of a person sooner.

Squinting into the darkness, she thought she could make out one of her cousins – probably female – sitting at the end of the garden, knees drawn up to her chest and the small spark of light from a cigarette that she knew Grandma would be angry about as it moved slowly away from her mouth with a steady exhale of smoke.

Victoire? She didn't think Victoire smoked, but she could see Molly, Dom and Fred inside laughing at something someone – Uncle George, by the looks of it – had said, and she didn't think anyone else looked old enough to pass themselves off as being eighteen. Maybe Roxanne? No; she'd managed to get a seat at the table. And all of Teddy's friends had left hours ago.

So what was Victoire doing smoking in the garden? And – if the way her shoulders were shaking was any indication – it looked like she was crying. She thought maybe she should go over – comfort her cousin, try to find out what was wrong – but what if Victoire didn't want her there? After all, they weren't that close, and she'd probably gone into the garden to be alone. And what if she was wrong? She could barely see her – she wasn't even sure if it was Victoire. For all she knew one of Teddy's friends had hung around a bit longer for a smoke.

But what if she was right?

Hesitantly, she made her way across the garden, being careful not to make a lot of noise – she didn't want anyone coming out to see what they were doing – but to still make enough that she didn't startle her cousin. And – yes – that was definitely Victoire. Long blonde hair that looked like it should be on an advert for shampoo, graceful limbs, soft curves in all the right places, and Victoire was possibly the only person she'd ever met who actually had nice feet. Maybe her mother did, too, but she couldn't ever picture Aunty Fleur walking around in neon flip-flops like her eldest daughter currently was.

She knew Victoire must have heard her approach – she'd been careful about that – but she didn't make any indication that she knew she was there. It left her wondering whether to just sit down next to her, tap her on the shoulder or call her name out to get her attention. In the end, she opted for sitting. She'd never been overly good at talking to people – in fact, she was starting to think that this had been a bad idea – and it was still dark enough that she was worried she might judge the distance wrong and end up hitting her cousin 'round the back of the head.

She waited in uncomfortable silence for a few seconds – maybe even a minute – and was starting to really regret her decision to come out here when Victoire wordlessly held the half-smoked cigarette out to her. She'd never smoked before – and she didn't particularly want to now – but she didn't want to break the silence to decline the offer, so she took it awkwardly between her index and middle fingers.

She hesitated briefly – long enough to feel Victoire's eyes slant towards her – before bringing it to her lips and inhaling cautiously. The smoke filling her lungs made her cough uncontrollably and she nearly dropped the cigarette as she battled to regain control of her breathing.

"Merlin, Luce, you could've said no," Victoire sounded irritated; what right did she have to be irritated? She wasn't the one someone had just attempted to poison. And maybe she was overreacting a little, but still... That was foul. Then again, she'd had a similar reaction to tea the first time she'd tried it but it wasn't half bad now. "Give it here. That's my last one."

"Sorry," she muttered, handing over the cigarette, pleased to be rid of it. Her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness, enough for her to see the faint trace of tears still on Victoire's face, but no other evidence that she had been crying at all – no snot or ugly red blotches for Victoire, the girl was part Veela after all. "Why are you out here, anyway?"

"I wanted to be alone." Victoire replied almost instantly, cutting a sharp look at her as she did so. Lucy remained stubbornly quiet. "Look, don't tell anyone about this," she said with a sigh, waving the cigarette slightly to clarify.

"Err... Yeah, okay..."

"It's just too crowded in there, y'know," Vic continued as if she hadn't been momentarily side-tracked. "I guess I needed some fresh air." She tried to stifle a laugh but, judging by the look Victoire gave her, she had been largely unsuccessful. "So what brings you out here?"

"Uh... I saw you?..." She stuttered, "You looked upset and I just wanted to come out and see if you were alright, but if you want me to go then that's fine, too, I wouldn't be offended or anything! It's actually pretty cold out here, but I thought you might like the company and I-"

"Woah, Luce, slow down," Vic said with a laugh, wrapping her arm around her shoulders and pulling her closer. "Don't want to hurt yourself."

"Oh, uh... sorry."

"And if you were cold you should have said something," she ignored the apology entirely. "This ain't something where I want you to feel like shit just 'cause I do."

"Really?" she asked before she could stop herself. "Uh... I mean..."

"I know what you meant, Luce. Don't worry about it." She rose to her feet in such a fluid motion that she was instantly jealous of, and dropped what was left of her cigarette in Lucy's forgotten cup.

"Hey! That's-"

"C'mon, Luce, let's go."

"What about-"

"Later. In the attic."