rarepair_shorts Ficlet- PG-13- It's not that I'm scared to learn just why I'm empty
Title: It's not that I'm scared to learn just why I'm empty inside
Character Pairing: Luna/Blaise
Prompt: some people stay
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 688
Summary: Blaise Zabini is an enigma, even to those closest to him. He also get bored very easily. Luna Lovegood is anything but boring. Best read while listening to this song, to know Luna's mental state currently.
Author's Notes: Yeah, 'forget most of canon' still applies. ;)
Link to Prompt Table: This way...
Blaise was still struggling with how to explain to Luna that he loved her. It had been six months since his little fit in front of his mother and he'd yet to gather up the courage to say those three little words. They'd returned to London, to The Vale, weeks ago and he'd been forced to watch her slipping away more and more everyday. For the past week she hadn't left her room.
The clock chimed three as he slipped out of bed and made his way down to Luna's suite, using the lightening to navigate. He knew, he just knew, that the storm would have woken her and when she'd not come running to him, his concern deepened. As tired as he was from the long day of meetings the day before, he knew finding Luna was far more important than sleeping. He'd been given control of the family company by his mother who had decided he was 'bloody well old enough to run things' and that she was 'taking a well deserved vacation' and that he was to contact her when he 'finally got his head out of his arse and asked Luna to marry him'.
He opened her door quietly calling out, "Luna?"
He scanned the room, his throat tightening when he saw that the bed was empty and stripped of all the blankets. Stepping inside, he made his way over to the darkest corner of the room. There he spotted her, wrapped up in the blankets, staring wide-eyed at the storm outside the windows.
Cautiously, he knelt before her. "Luna, love, why don't we get off the cold floor?"
--
Luna blinked, slowly turning from the storm, pulling herself out of her thoughts and focusing on on Blaise's voice. "I don't like storms," she whispered. "They bring back the bad memories."
He scooted closer, holding his arms open for her. "Come here, love."
She sniffed, scooting toward him, the blankets wrapped around her rather like a cocoon, only her face and tousled hair visible. "I'm scared. I'm sorry."
He lifted her into his arms and stood. He mulled over what she had said, finally deciding that the only thing he could say was, "No sorries, Luna. You've nothing to be sorry for."
She shook her head, pulling her arms from the blankets, pushing against his chest until he set her on her feet, the blankets falling to pool at her feet. She stood there, her anger and disgust clear in her expression. "I'm insane! Nutters! Mad as a bloody hatter!"
"What?" he nearly shrieked, appalled that she would say such things about herself. That she even thought them.
A large clap of thunder caused her to jump and start shaking. "S-see," she stuttered. "Bloody mental!"
He reached out for her and to his shock and dismay, she stepped back. It was something that had never ever happened before. She always ran to him, never from him.
"It's a storm," she snapped. "Toddlers aren't half as scared of them as I am. It is ridiculous."
"Luna," he began softly, not trying to move closer. He knew that only logic would help him now. There was a damn good reason she was his little Raven and not Snake. "You were traumatised at a very young age. Storms are a trigger for you. That isn't an indication that you're mental."
Nodding slowly, she literally threw herself into his arms, sobbing. She needed to hear him say it. Say it and really mean it. She should never have let what she'd overheard at The Quibbler get to her this way. "I'm not mental?" she mumbled, burying her face in his neck.
He blinked back tears as he ran a hand over her hair. "No, not in the least, love."
"Okay, lay down with me?" she whispered. "Hold me until the storm passes?"
"Of course," he replied incredulously, lifting her into his arms. "I'll always be here to hold you. I love you, Luna."
He looked down to see why she hadn't reacted to his confession, only to find her drifting off to sleep.