She had dirt on her nose, he noticed, so he pulled out his bandanna to wipe it away. He frowned at the dirt until it disappeared and then looked up. She quirked an eyebrow and stared at him like he had gone mad, so he pulled his hand off her cheek. Her hand, smudged with mud and spotted with blood, touched the place his had been.
"Thanks," she said, unsure.
"Sorry," he answered.
"What's been up with you lately?" she asked, sliding out of the truck. He followed.
"Nothing?"
She grabbed an armful of firewood from the truck bed and narrowed her eyes. "You dying?"
He snorted. "Straight to the point, as usual. No, I'm not dying quite yet." He grabbed an arm and a leg and prayed neither came off as he dragged the decomposing body from the truck. "Do I look like I'm dying?"
She shot him a grin over her shoulder. "Not quite yet." He dropped the corpse on top of her stack of wood.
"Well I think 'almost dying' qualifies me for lighter loads. Like cooking, or something," he teased.
She laughed breathlessly as she hauled a corpse from the truck bed. "Oh, no. We need to take advantage of your muscles while we can." Draco froze - the body he was pulling from the truck did not. It fell on top of him, pushing him to the ground. He struggled back up, his face red as Hermione laughed.
"Ignore my clumsiness - were you flirting with me?"
"What? No!" she insisted, but her face turned red too.
"Oh my - you were! You like me!"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"Admit it. You like my muscles," he teased, flexing his biceps.
"Your scarred and sunburned muscles? Of course I do."
"So you admit it!"
"What? I didn't - shut up." She started dumping the gasoline onto the pile. "See, this is what I mean. You've been acting weird."
"Weird how?" Draco fiddled with the lighter.
"Just different, I guess. You're joking around and teasing me - it's different from how I remember you."
"Well, we didn't really get along before, did we?"
She looked up at him, searching his face. "No, I guess we didn't." She tossed the empty tank into the truck bed and hefted herself onto the edge. Draco threw the lighter into the pile of corpses and wood and walked back to Hermione. He gagged at the smell and pulled his bandanna over his nose. Hermione did the same.
"Maybe I've always been like this. Maybe you just never noticed," he suggested.
"Maybe," she agreed. "We never really knew each other until...this." She gestured vaguely toward the fire.
"Until the end of the world? Funny how life turns out, huh?"
Hermione smiled under her bandanna. "Fate is a fickle mistress."
"Damn straight." Draco nudged her thigh with his shoulder. "But maybe she's not all bad." She smiled again, but he didn't see.
Silently, they watched the fire until they were certain nothing dangerous remained.
Whipped up for the Fanfic Dominoes Challenge and the Return of the Daily Random Prompt Thing on HPFC!
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