Wow, guys. Your response to the first chapter has been overwhelming - thank you so much! I am so happy that you all liked it! This took a little longer than I would have liked, due to my fear of 'ruining' the story, if you will. But here it is!

For the Random Quotes Challenge, again. Using the prompts:

"Daisy chains are pretty fragile, and it turns out that families are too." - Cathy Cassidy, Summer's Dream

"An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." - Mahatma Gandhi

Also written for the Sapphire category in the Gemstone competition.

Special thanks to azura for beta-ing this for me! I wouldn't have posted it without her approval!

When they had been Young and In Love, a mere conversation with him was enough to make her feel better after a long day at work - or at least brighten her mood.

He used to bring her lunch and they'd eat outside in the sun, and passerby's would smile at them the way you smiled at young kids with chocolate ice cream on their chins. They'd bicker about evolution or the science of Astrology (or lack of), and she'd always win, but he would smile the entire time.

Sometimes he'd say something purposefully funny, or even something adorably idiotic, but she would laugh and his face would brighten, and they loved each other and both of them knew it.

Now, she came home alone because they had stop coordinating their schedules. He always stayed late now, and she didn't mind.

She turned on the radio and filled the bathtub until it threatened to spill over the moment her toe touched the water. The steam floated up like ghosts of the past, swirling about her, encasing the room and choking up her lungs.

She slipped into the water and let her mind wander back to him...

He didn't know anymore. How could he not know she loved him? She had always loved him - always - and you can't just fall out of love when you've loved someone as much as she loved him. How could he not know?

The more she thought about it, the more she wanted to just sink into the water and breathe the heat. Of course he didn't know. She hadn't told him in years - not that he'd said the words either, her defensive side piped up. More miscommunication.

She took a deep breath and submerged her head in the water. The heat was overwhelming, stinging her skin in the most comforting manner. Her heartbeats were magnified and booming; she could hear the creaks and sighs of the house. It was peaceful. She wanted to stay there forever. Her lungs burned and screamed for air, and the heat was prying apart her eyelids, exposing them to the harsh bite of her soap.

She came up with a gasp, water cascading from her hair, and her body refused to get warm again, no matter how deep she sunk in the water.

She wrapped herself in her robe and dried off her hair. She cast a Heating Charm around her room, and brought up some hot chocolate, curling in a corner chair with a blanket and a book.

.

He came home at 1 a.m., fumbling in the dark and swearing when he ran into walls. He let out a screech across the hall, followed by loud thumping, and Hermione glared at her closed door. Idiot.

The pipes creaked and moaned as they released water, and she returned to her book.

When she next looked up, it was 3 a.m. and the house was silent as death. Her muscles protested as she stood up. She closed her eyes and ran a hand through her hair. She willed her eyes not to, but they jumped to her big, empty bed the minute she opened them.

She sighed and put her book on the nightstand slowly. Her eyes flitted around the lonely room, filled with her things, only her things. Ron was in the guest room across the hall. What were they going to do when the kids came home?

She heaved another sigh and trudged to her dresser, feeling terribly weighed down. She pulled on her pajamas and turned to the mirror to braid her hair.

The broken mirror; cracked and jagged from one of their fights. Just like us, she thought wryly. Ron must have replaced hers with the broken one in the hopes that she would fix it, or merely to get back at her for making him go to the wedding.

Anger clawed up inside her chest, grief and hurt bubbling up beside it, but the anger was the harshest, biting and fueling into rage; anger at him, anger at herself, anger at this stupid, broken mirror in its stupid frame and -

"Reducto!"she screamed. And the mirror was reduced to ashes with a flash of blue and the shattering of glass. She collapsed on the floor in a ball, hugging her knees tight to her chest as sobs choked her.

The door flew open and Ron stumbled into the room with his wand at the ready, wearing only boxer shorts and socks. He was squinting in the light, and his hair was standing up at all angles. "What 's it? What's happ'ned?" He slurred, and she laughed, darkly.

"You fool! You can't even see! Who do you think you would defeat in a fight right now?" She pushed herself to her feet, wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms around the bloody idiot and let him tuck her head beneath his chin and stroke her hair and tell her he loved her, but - "Go back to bed, Ronald, before you hurt yourself."

She turned on her heel and started arranging the covers of her bed. She could hear him in the doorway for a while time, uncertain or waiting - for what, she didn't know - but she didn't need him.

"Go to bed, Ron," she repeated, softer this time, because being mad was exhausting and she just didn't have the energy right now.

"You were crying." He sounded uncertain of his duties as Husband But Not Really. She sighed.

"I'm fine. Go to bed."

He sighed behind her, and she heard his heavy footsteps walk away a few moments later.

She echoed his sigh and climbed into bed.

The pile of ashes on the floor mocked her as she searched for peace in a rest that didn't come.

*hides shyly* Leave a review and let me know what you thought, please! Did it live up to expectations? Do you still love them as much as I do?