Smolder

By Kukaburry

Chapter 3 - Settling

Aerie watched as Fred walked languidly up the stairs. Each step brought her closer to shedding tears. She knew, in her heart, that something was going to break. She simply hoped against hope that it would not be her soul.

"Hi." His single word wrenched her heart harder than if he had kicked her in the stomach.

"Hi."

"Look, we need to talk." Bingo, the exact words she had hoped he wouldn't say. Her mind mulled over her previous decision quickly, wondering if she had the guts to go through with it. There was only one way to find out.

She sighed as a small tear escaped down her cheek and dropped onto her bare knee. "Yes, I think we do."

He sat down next to her and wrapped his hands tenderly around hers. "I think it might be a good idea if we cooled it for a while." He paused to take a shaky breath. "I'm heading out tomorrow to check out Zandu's School of Wizarding Law so I'll be gone for a week." A small shard of ice slipped between Arie's ribs. "We can think about things while we're apart, okay?"

"No," she breathed a ragged breath of remorse. The words she had been pondering for the last hour escaped in a rush. "No, we shouldn't take a break. I think I'm ready to break it off." It was Fred's turn to look surprised. "We've been spiraling down for a while now, Fred. You were right when you said that I care about you too much. I've known that for a while and I think it's making our relationship difficult."

"Arie, I didn't mean it like that." Fred's breath was barely a whisper. "I didn't mean for it to come out like that."

She shook her head, telling him to be quiet. "It doesn't matter, though. We're growing apart. We've been growing apart, and I'm ready to start my own life. Everything I've done in the past couple of years was based on our future life and I want that to stop. There's this great opportunity coming up soon where I'll get to lead a team on rune expeditions. I want to look into it."

"I didn't know you were interested in that. It sounds like a good opportunity."

"I think there's a lot of things we don't know about each other, Fred. We haven't exactly been talking to each other lately."

A couple of tears finally leaked from Fred's eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that this has happened."

"No, don't be," Arie gasped. "It was a long time coming. We're on different paths right now and we're going to do our own thing and be wildly successful."

"Maybe we can talk when I get back. We'll have a week for things to sink in."

A slow, sad smile tugged on Arie's lips. "Sure."

He took an awkward step forward and pulled her close, breathing in the scent of her hair. Arie fisted his shirt and felt her wet tears soaked up by this t-shirt. She breathed in deeply, trying to capture his smell in her memory. "I love you Arie."

"I love you Fred." He placed a short, searing kiss on her lips. Several tears slid down his cheek and mingled with Arie's near the bottom of her chin.

As he walked towards the stairs, he shuffled his feet against the carpet. He turned one last time when he reached the top of the stairs. "I'll be seeing you."

When he was out of earshot Arie felt herself breathe out, "No, you won't."

She brushed her hair, washed her face for the first time in forty-eight hours, and walked downstairs to face her family. "Hey there, are you feeling alright? We haven't seen you all day."

A bright, fake smiled plastered to her face, Arie lied, "Yeah, of course. I was just tired from last night. I stayed up finishing some work," she tugged on her long ponytail. "I'm going into work for a few minutes to tie up some loose ends. I'll be back for dinner."

Diane's keen eyes caught on that something deeper was going on, but she didn't press Arie any farther. "Alright darling, don't overwork yourself."

"I never do, mom."

She stepped into the sunlight and felt it kissing her skin as though it were trying to massage away her pain. A hollow throb burned the pit of her stomach and she leaned over, dry retching. Her eyes blinked rapidly, trying to stem tears threatening to fall at any moment. Damn, what was with her? She never cried and suddenly for the last two days she had become a watering pot. She was Arie Williams, the most fiery girl in her year; she couldn't let a little breakup ruin her life.

Closing her eyes against the comforting rays of sunlight, Arie imagined the tall stone building housing her work and apparated there with a tiny 'pop'. None of the passing muggles seemed to notice that a young girl with a red nose and watery eyes suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and indeed, they barely seemed to notice the huge towering stone building that the young girl now entered.

"Good afternoon Miss Williams. You're here on the weekends now?"

"No, I'm just dropping off my runes to publishing. I won't be here long." She dropped her wand onto the metal plate for examination before entering. She dodged between departments, determined to avoid running into anyone before she reached Travel.

"Oh Arie, I didn't expect to see you here today," Joan, her co-worker, stopped in the middle of the hall to look her up and down. "Man you look rough. Too much party, too little sleep?" She winked suggestively.

"Er, yes. I was so wound up for the wedding that I barely got anything done on Friday."

Joan nodded her head. "Tell me about it. I heard it was amazing. Oh, and I heard all about the big surprise." Her face broke into a wide grin and Arie felt her heartbeat speed up. 'Please don't talk about Becky and George'. "I heard little Becky got engaged to George! Oh tell me everything, was it romantic?"

Eyes wide, Arie tried to think her way out of the situation. "Yes, yay. They got engaged." Her lack of enthusiasm was much too apparent. Joan frowned and looked ready to ask a dangerously personal question. "Sorry Joan, how about I tell you tomorrow? I just wanted to pop in and out before dinner with my family."

"Ah, sure. I'll see you tomorrow."

Hands trembling slightly, Arie hurried into her office around the corner and closed the door. No matter how hard she held back the flow of emotions, she knew that eventually the dam would burst, but she didn't want it to happen when she was making the biggest life-altering decision of her life. Once she composed herself, she peeked her head out to scan if the coast was clear then walked quickly to the Travel office to meet with her contact.

She slipped through the double glass doors and saw him sitting exactly where he always sat, blonde hair smoothed down and collared shirt slightly askew, Marty Liebowitz. At the sound of footsteps, he turned in his chair and narrowed his eyes in interest. "Arie Williams, I never expected to see you here."

"Yeah, I didn't expect to find myself here, either." They stared at each other for a few moments before Marty cleared his throat expectantly. "Ah, right. Remember when you told me about that job in Egypt?"

His face grew wary. "Yeah."

"Well, I was wondering if you were serious about having me come along."

Marty leaned back in his chair, trying to assess the situation thoroughly. "Did something happen?"

"No," she snapped just a little too quickly.

He held up his hands in mock defense. "Alright, sensitive topic, I'll stay out of it." He pulled a couple of files from underneath his desk. "Yes, I was serious about you coming with us. You're one of the better Junior Runes specialists we have, and you're still young enough to enjoy the experience."

"You make it sound like you're fifty or something."

He gave her a wry smile. "Sometimes I wish I was. If you're serious about coming then you have to sign the paperwork by tomorrow. Our portkey is leaving next Tuesday."

"Can't I catch another portkey later?" She asked hesitantly.

"Have you heard how dangerous it is in Egypt right now? We're lucky we're being allowed to take this portkey over. We had to fight Cornelius Fudge himself for permission." His rant startled Arie. "Sorry, I got carried away there." She gave him a faint smile. "Like I said you'll have to get all the documents taken care of by tomorrow afternoon."

Arie looked at the fifteen documents piled in front of her, some color-coded for signing areas and others simply instruction sheets.

"Can I sign them right now?"

Marty's eyebrows shot together, but he managed to hold back most of his questions. "Are you sure you don't want to read them and bring them in tomorrow?"

"No. I want to sign them and get out of this country as soon as possible."

"If you want to, there's a desk over there," he pointed to a glass-top desk on the right. Shuffling the pages together, she took a quill and began speed reading the documents and signing them with haste. "Is there something you want to talk about?" Marty queried as he watched her page through the documents. "Did something happen with that Weasley kid?"

He knew he had hit a nerve when she stilled so quickly that she might've become a statue. "Marty.. do you remember when I hexed your fingers to stick to your face?" Her blue eyes pierced him with an angry stare. "Don't make me do it again."

Instead of looking concerned, Marty returned her glare with a lazy smile. "My mistake. Continue writing."

Anger abating, Arie scribbled her name on line after line, barely reading the passages above and below the signature lines. Pictures of Fred flashed in her mind and she dug her quill into the parchment forcefully, willing the images to disappear. She could imagine the look on Fred's face when he found out she was gone for two years. It would serve him right, the oblivious bastard.

The last signature line appeared and Arie carefully signed her name before collecting the papers together and handing them over to Marty. "So you read and understand everything?" He asked curiously.

"Yeah. What should I bring with me?"

Marty's lip quirked. "Well on the fourth page there was a list of necessities we provide you with in the standard-issued pouch." He rummaged around in a cardboard box and withdrew a black pouch. "We have a first aid kit, linens, soap and shampoo, extra clothing, rune dictionaries, and other knick-knacks."

Arie looked at the pouch dubiously so Marty held it open for her to reach into and she withdrew a long robe. "Oh, I forgot we had these," she said while pushing the robe back into the depths of the pouch.

"We recommend you try keeping the rest of your luggage to one suitcase full since the max size allotted in the pouch is three suitcases full."

"I think I can manage that. Is that it?"

Marty pulled out one final parchment and a quill. "Just one more signature stating that you are aware of the dangers of Egypt and Africa and we're all set." He placed Arie's stack of papers on a little tray and they vanished a few seconds later. "Looks like you'll get an early approval," he said after he noticed the missing papers.

Arie scanned the parchment and signed the blank space at the bottom. "Well that's that," she sighed as she set the quill down.

"You're all set. If you need any help with packing just ask me and I'll come by to help." His sly grin set her stomach roiling.

"I don't think that will be necessary Marty."

"Ah well, my offer stands anyways," the sound of fluttering papers caught their attention and Arie's papers reappeared with a large golden seal stamped on the front. "And now it's official. Welcome aboard explorer." He held his hand out in comradery while Arie hesitated for a moment. This was it, this was her chance to get away from her life, from her family, and from Fred. It was the absolute chance of a lifetime, but why did it feel like she was making a deal with the devil?

She looked into Marty's sharp brown eyes and felt herself smile in spite of herself then shook his hand. "Explorers ahoy."

Reviews and/or comments are welcome!

That only took me… a year? Don't kill me, pretty please? It was so hard to write because it's based on some personal things that happened to me. I hope it was worth the wait at any rate. I tried to make it as exciting as possible since you were all so patient with me. ~Kukaburry