[A/N: I own NOTHING relating to the Harry Potter universe, but I do own Trisha, Kimi, Cezoram, and Anluan. If you see any spelling errors or grammatical mistakes, please notify me immediately! Thank you! Comments are greatly appreciated, by the way.]
~*~
Kimi
“TRISHA! TRISHATRISHATRISHATRISHATRISHATRISHATRISHA! TIIIIIIAAAAA!!!!!” I shouted, sprinting at my best friend as she was walking to her next class. “TRISHA! I NEED YOUR HELP NOW!!!” Before she could even turn around and yell at me back, I snatched her arm and dragged her over to the adjacent hallway.
“Kimi, what-”
”I have a problem and it deals with HIM!!!!!” Both she and I knew who HE was. No, HE wasn't he evil, pale, scary guy who went by He-who-shall-not-be-named. No, HE referred to a certain black-haired, green-eyed Slytherin named Cezoram Loring.
”Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down.” She dropped her voice slightly. “People might get the wrong idea-”
“But YOU won't!” Exasperated, I sat down on a nearby ledge and crossed my arms.
“Alright, alright.” Trisha set down her books and joined me. “What happened this time?”
“He gave me this.” I dug out the letter HE gave me this morning in our first class.
She examined it and pointed out a very significant detail. “It's not open... Why?”
“Because I didn't want to open it in front of him!”
“Riiiight...” She handed it back to me. “So just open it.”
“But-”
“Kimi.” Great, the stern look has once again appeared.
“Fiiine.” I grumbled, gently tearing the outside away and unfolding the message. I nearly hesitated, but Trisha's look told me if I did, she would kill me.
Nervously, I began reading.
Meet me by the docks at nine-thirty. –Cezoram
That's all it read. Just that.
“Grrrrrrr... He's probably inviting me there to do something sketchy.” Crumpling the letter, I re-shoved it back in my pocket.
“That DOES sound like something Cezoram would do.” Trisha stood up and started to leave. “Well, I don't have study hall next like you do, so I have to get going before I'm late. See you later.”
“Trisha...” Wonderful. She left. Mumbling about him and how stupid I was to get excited like that over somehow as simple as that, I wandered my way to the library.
Taking my seat under the large windows like I normally do, I pulled out my PSP and started playing “Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core” like I always do during Study Hall.
I was in the middle of fighting Sephiroth for the eighth time when a silky, almost purring voice whispered in my ear “Hello there, Juliet. Didn't expect to see you here.”
That condescending voice could only belong to one person.
“Cezoram.” I said icily while not looking up from my game. “What can I do for you?”
“What? Don’t I warrant a hello?” With his usual smirk on his face, he slid into the seat next to mine.
“No, you don't. And stop calling me Juliet.” Frustrated with losing once again, I saved and turned off the game. “What do you want, anyways?”
“You read my letter, correct?”
“Yeah. I did.”
“And...?”
“I'm not going.” I coldly replied. There was no way in hell that was going to meet up with THIS GUY late at night!
Genuine shock crossed his face for a moment before he resumed his casual aloof-ness. “Really?”
“Yeah. It is. Now, if you don't mind,” I turned back on my system and resumed playing. “I have more important things to do.”
“What, like trying to win that game for the twentieth time?”
”For. Your. Information.” I said through clenched teeth. “It's only my NINTH time. And to answer your question, yes. Beating the crap out of Sephiroth is extremely important to me.”
“Sephiroth?” He laughed which only seemed to irritate me more. “You’re a strange one.”
“Shut up.” Infuriated, I gathered my belongings and stormed out towards the courtyard.
Of course, he followed me.
“Aw, come on. Don’t blow me off like that.” He slunk like a large cat as he trailed behind. “After all, is that how you treat someone you like?”
Someone you like? Why I- “Listen here, Cezoram.” I turned around and pointed at him, accenting what I was saying. “I don’t know WHERE you got THAT from, but I DON’T like you. I absolutely DESPISE you.”
“Is that so?” With sudden force, he slammed his hands against the wall next me, preventing me from escaping and pinning me where I was. “Then why don’t you prove it.”
“P-Prove it…?” I trailed, thoughts racing, heart pounding, and in full-out panic mode.
“Yeah.” He leaned in closer to me and I franticly searched for a way out of this. “If you dislike me so much, then why are you blushing?”
“I am not blushing!” Sure, it was a terrible cover since I could feel the heat radiating off my cheeks, but I tried. My pitiful attempt at covering only caused him to lean in even closer to me. Close enough, that if he went one centimeter closer, he would kiss me.
There was NO WAY I was about to let THAT happen!
“If you hate me so much, why don’t you call for help?”
Irk. That got me. Why AREN’T I calling for help? “What’s your point?!”
“You can’t lie to me.” A scary glimmer of lust shone in his eyes. “I know you like me. You just don’t know it yet.”
That lust… it really terrified me. I was never intimidated by him, but for once, I was literally scared stiff. I couldn’t move a muscle, even if I wanted to.
Luckily, Vivi appeared to body check him into the ground.
However, he backed off right before she got close enough to carry through the action, leaving me to collapse to my knees in relief (despite the fact he was still there).
“Kimi!” Vivian (Vivi) asked me before glaring at Cezoram again. “What did you do to her, you bastard?!”
“Me? Nothing.” He held his hands up, feigning innocence. “I’ll see you later, Juliet.” With a wink and wave, he left.
“Come on.” I regained my composure after a second and made my way with her in tow to the next class where there was no tall, dark and insanely hot Cezoram to distract me.
~*~
Somehow, I found myself walking down to the docks that night.
“So you decided to come.” Cezoram, wearing only his black shirt, pants and smirk, was leaning against the wall of the boat house.
“Don’t get me wrong!” I defiantly crossed my arms and looked away. “I was only curious! Now that I think about it, why DID you want me to come down here?”
“I wanted to tell you something.” Unusually serious, he walked around the boats toward me.
“Which is…?”
My breath hitched when he suddenly brushed back a loose bang of mine. “I love you.”
H…Huh? He-He loved me? Where did this come from? “W… What?”
“You heard me,” He quickly pecked my cheek, as if wary of scaring me off with a real kiss. “I love you.”
“Y-you’re messing with me!” I shouted, backing up.
“Do I look like I’m joking?” He really didn’t. His bright green eyes were definitely not kidding around. There were unusually serious. They weren’t lust-filled like earlier today, but they weren’t sparkling with mischief, either. I had never seen him serious. Even during classes or tests, he was just as cocky as per usual. Seeing him like this unnerved me.
“N-No…” A lump in my throat formed, causing me to involuntarily swallow.
“Then why don’t you believe me?”
“Because… because…” I couldn’t find the words to explain. At the time, I didn’t believe him because I honestly thought he was lying. But when I think about it today, I didn’t believe him because I was afraid to.
“Because why?”
“… I don’t know.” I admitted, keeping my eyes averted. “I honestly don’t know.”
“Do you remember what I told you this morning?” He resumed his smirking which, odd enough, calmed me down a bit. “About how I know you like me, but just don’t know it yet?”
The sudden change in mood surprised me. “What? Uh, yeah.”
“Good.” He ruffled my hair and started walking up the steps. “Then maybe it was too soon.”
“Too soon?” Curiosity taking over, I followed him. “Too soon for what?”
“You’ll find out eventually. All you have to do is keep in mind what I told you tonight.” Turning around, he gave me a heart-stopping, genuine smile and extended his hand in a princely manner. “Now come on, we’re going to be late for curfew. And I know you, a goody-goody, would HATE to break said curfew.”
I never really knew what he said then, because I was too entranced by how he looked at that moment. His hair, shining like onyx in the pale moonlight, was being tossed by the cool night breeze. The entire aura around him reminded me of a fairy tale. So I guess it came as no surprise when I unconsciously took his hand and he led me back to the main castle.
~*~
The next day, all hell broke loose.
“You can’t be serious!!!”
“Come on, tell us the truth!”
“Sweets, listen to us.”
I thanked my lucky stars for having braced myself for the lecture coming from my friends. I kind of figured that they would explode when I told them, but not exactly like this.
“I’m serious!” I defended myself. “I don’t know how or why, but I am!”
Brianna let out a big sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose. “You can do SO much better than that.”
“Yeah, I mean, we love your big heart and all, but you’re always falling for the charity cases!” Vivian piped up.
“Look, all’s we’re saying is that if we can’t get you to give up on him, then you should be careful.” Trisha said in her disappointed-motherly way. “After all, he’s a Slytherin and you know how they are. He may turn around and break your heart if you’re not careful.”
Right, now would probably be a good time to mention what exactly was going on. I had just realized that I had the biggest crush on Cezoram. Of course I knew that was a stupid idea, but my heart is retarded and likes to make me fall in love with really any guy that shows affection to me. And having Cezoram confess to me the night before wasn’t going to help fix that issue. Please God, have someone walk by to distract my friends and get their minds off of giving me a lecture on what I already know-
“What’s going on here?” That voiced proved to me that there really is a God and He is looking after me because in about three seconds, Trisha’s mind would break. Three, two, one…
“H-Hi, Fred!” And there went her mind~ You see, the first sign that her voice goes up about ten octaves. Or more. Probably more.
“Hey, Trisha. So, what’s with the group meeting, hm?” He – Fred Weasly, Trisha’s major crush – smiled and I could have sworn I saw Trisha’s soul left her body momentarily in ecstasy that he was talking to her.
“It’s nothing, nothing at all!” That’s a lie. I thought, backing away in hope that she wouldn’t notice me leaving. Sadly, Brianna caught my cloak and dragged me back to suffer at the hands of a fangirl who would be returning to reality soon.
“Ah. That’s a bit of a shame. I was wondering if something interesting was going on. Well, if that’s the case, I should be going. Jokes to plan and such.”
I saw her happiness disappear when he turned to leave. Her face seemed to be saying – or rather shouting – “No! Don’t go!” but she couldn’t summon up the courage to actually say it. I couldn’t blame her though; if I was in the same situation, albeit with a different guy, I would probably do the exact same thing, only with less adorable-sweet-shyness and more yelling-dismissive-abusive-stubbornness.
“Anyways,” Vivi reminded us she was still there after Fred was out of earshot. “What were we talking about again?”
“He’s so cute…” Cloud Nine takes a while to come back to earth, apparently.
“PAY ATTENTION WIFE.” Trisha snapped out of her Fred Weasly-induced walking coma and glared at Bri. “We were concentrating on what to do about Kimi’s newest obsession-”
“Crush.” I corrected her.
“On one of the biggest arseholes in our ENTIRE school-”
“Only our year.”
“And yet for some reason he’s yet another ‘charity case’ you fell for.”
“Oh, come on.” I sighed, exhausted with trying to change their minds. “He’s not THAT bad. He can be really nice.”
“Kimi, a nice Slytherin has yet to exist.”
“Yeah, well Cezoram does.” Everyone around me facepalmed at the same time.
“You know, it’s weird,” Vivian thought out loud innocently. “I honestly thought that you two were together already.”
“What are you talking about?” I said. “We haven’t gotten together yet; I just realized how I felt about him.”
“I know. But you two looked so cute together and he was always being touchy-feely with you, so I just assumed-”
“HE WAS BEING TOUCHY-FEELY?!?!?!?!” Oh, no. And there went my previous thought on that there really was a God having vanished with my “parents” exploding. I really wish I could have gone back in time and prevented Vivi from destroying whatever minor good impression Cezoram made on Trisha and Bri so that way the next part wouldn’t have happened.
“Kimi! You are NOT going to ask that Slytherin out!”
“Sweets, he will probably – and I’m not going to censor anything – he will probably make you have sex with him if he’s being freaking touchy-feely with you.”
“SAY WHAT?! Okay, Kimi, GIVE UP ON HIM NOW.”
“Guys, guys, calm down.” Please believe me, please believe me… “He has never done that. EVER. He’s never pressured me into doing anything and not once has he stepped over the line and if he ever does, I’ll tell him and he’ll back off. Guaranteed. I don’t know what you guys think, but Cezoram really is a good guy.”
“Talking about me?” As if Apparating out of nowhere, Cezoram placed a warm and comforting hand on my shoulder, causing me to jump about three feet into the air while simultaneously suffering from a massive heart attack.
“No! Not… really…” I stammered meekly, looking away from his sharp green eyes that I knew could pierce my façade and see the true feeling I was hiding. And boy, did I not want him to find that out.
“Your stubbornness is almost too cute, you know.” Nuzzling my cheek, he snaked his arms around my waist and pulled me closer.
“HEY!”
“Hm?” Lazily and irritated in a way, Cezoram looked at my friends like they were bugs.
“What do you think you’re doing?!” Suddenly, he jumped away as both Vivi and Bri tried to body-slam him into the ground for touching me.
“You have no right to do that, Cezoram!”
“No right? Has she not told you yet?” He dramatically bowed and kissed the top of my hand, causing me to flinch from the sudden heat of his lips. “She is Juliet and I am Romeo in this production.”
“Like hell you are!” NO! Not my stubborn side! Indeed, my stubborn side took over and I snatched my hand back and turn around. “Just what do you think you’re saying?!”
“How about I put it like this?” He ruffled my hair and I could tell he smiled, even if I couldn’t see him. “You know I like you, a lot in fact, and I’m going to win you over no matter what.”
“Don’t touch me!” I shouted, but not moving. I hated it when I was like this. Why? Because once I get like this, no guy wants me. Not even the most desperate of the desperate. It’s pitiful, really. All I want is someone to love me, someone to hold me. But whenever someone gets too close, even if they have good intentions, I shove them away because I’m too stubborn to admit I need them. Or, perhaps it was less stubbornness and more fear. I desire that connection with someone so much and here was someone that could give me that. But I’m so dense, prideful, scared or whatever you want to call me that I pushed him away.
No, not now. I could feel the tears start to build up from the realization of how pathetic I really was. However, I couldn’t cry because once I show emotions like that, everything around me shatters. Every wall I’ve built crumbles into dust and every curtain I shut and every mirror I put up is torn down and broken into a thousand pieces.
“Kimi.” His soft voice whispering in my ear broke through my thoughts and his embrace softly enveloped me in warmth. “I can tell what you’re thinking and you need to get yourself out of this spiral.”
“H-How do you know-”
“Don’t talk.” Cezoram pulled me closer to him and let me lean my head on his chest. “Just listen. You’re fine how you are. You’re strong, intelligent, beautiful, kind and no matter what you or anyone may say, you’re perfect just how you are. So what if you’re dismissive or stubborn? You’re just scared. No one wants to get hurt, and that’s just your way of preventing that from happening. So don’t be too hard on yourself, alright? It’s not worth it.”
Even if I had only known him for a short time, he had already figured out how to get past everything I put up in his way and learned how exactly my mind worked. I don’t think that I ever learned how he did it, but somehow, he did. From that day on, he knew whenever I lied or whenever I hid the pain. Not even my best friends could have learned that in the same span of time.
He survived his first trial of learning how I was, but a hell of a lot of questions remained. Could I survive learning about him, would my friends finally accept him and if this was only the first challenge, exactly how many are there?
~*~
There is something you should know about me: I hate being late. Hate it. Hate, hate, hate, hate, HATE. It. I hate it when I’m late, I hate it when others are late and I especially hate it when someone is late and they don’t even know it.
Damn it! Where is he? I fumed, throwing a pebble into the lake. He’s late! Tonight marked the third night of our secret meetings. It was getting even later than usual, and I had begun expecting the worse. I always had this habit of overreacting and easily panicking when it came to someone being late for a meeting. What if… he forgot about me? I lost my anger and sat down on the shore where the dark waves lapped up near my feet. I… don’t want that to happen. Not now, not ever. I thought back to how I was always the forgotten one, being so good and so kind that no one gave me a passing glance. Everyone always paid attention to my younger brother, who was the bad child and always monopolized everyone’s time. Even when I tried to stand out by not being quite normal, it never worked. All of my efforts were in vain. In my first year, whenever I would send a letter home, I would never get a reply. Eventually, I just stopped sending them, realizing it wasn’t worth it. They’re probably still fussing about him anyways…
“Thinking about what’s wrong isn’t going to help fix it.”
“GOD DAMMIT CEZORAM! STOP SNEAKING UP ON ME!” I shouted, not even bothering to jump up (though I did tense up in surprise).
“But then where’s the fun in that?” He smiled, taking a seat next to me.
“It’s not a matter of fun; it’s a matter of my sanity.” Murmuring, I looked away.
“So, anyways, what are your plans for break?” Oh yeah. I had totally forgotten, Christmas break was coming up and I had no idea what my plans were.
Mom and Dad will probably want me back for Christmas…
“I think I’m heading home.” I tossed another rock at the water.
“You think?”
“Yeah.” I buried my head in my knees. “I have a… tense family situation – for lack of better words – so I’m not sure if I’m actually heading home or not.”
A warm hand was placed on my head. “You can always come home with me if you like.”
“WHAT.”
“Calm down, Miss Shy~.” He teased. “I meant that my family probably won’t be having any company, so you can stay with us if you have too much on your plate at your house.”
I blushed at the thought. Me? Staying with him? At his house?
Yeah, right.
~*~
“My parents haven’t responded so…” A few weeks later and I found myself in this situation.
This situation being Cezoram hugging me to death at the train station in front of several passer-byes and me yelling at him to let go because I couldn’t breathe.
“Cezoram! Let me go!”
“But you’re so cute~!” He nuzzled his face next to my face. I was prepared for his sly-cat attitude, but instead I was met with his almost overbearing fondness. When I expect one thing, I get another with him.
“No excuse! Now, let go or we’re gonna miss our train!”
“It can wait.” He gently kissed me on the cheek. “Ah, I just want to eat you up. You’re so damned cute~. You know, when you blush like that you really turn me on. I’m starting to wonder if you do that on purpose.”
“CEZORAM! For the love of-!” As per usual, I raised my hand up to smack him (or at least try to since my arms were constricted).
“Just kidding~” His tone of voice made me doubt that and hit him anyway. “So violent~.”
“It’s your fault.” I huffed, crossing over to get my bag which dropped when he tackle-hugged me to the ground.
“What a tiny bag. Are you sure that’s all you have?”
“Yes. It is.” My black and red duffle bag was soon thrown over my shoulder. “I don’t need much; it’s just a week.”
“Just a week…?” His puzzled expression followed me as I boarded the train. “What do you mean, just a week?”
“I mean just that. Isn’t break or vacation or whatever you guys call it here a week?” He helped me get my bag up into the storage compartment while I took my seat. I hadn’t noticed it before, but he was actually rather athletic. Well, I had supposed that was to be expected; he was the beater for the Slytherin team. Still, he was athletic, but not buff. More like, athletic but in a lean way.
“Kimi, the holidays last two weeks, not just one.”
“… Huh?” The thought barely registered. I fuzzily remembered Headmaster saying something like that one day, but I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before and nodded off (much to my dismay) so the whole “two weeks’ vacation” thing didn’t exactly work out well in my brain.
“Wow, I guess you really did transfer here from the States.”
“Don’t remind me.” I grumbled, looking out the window at the passing scenery.
“Well, break is two weeks; that’s why I was kind of surprised that you agreed. Happy, but surprised.”
Dejected, I increased my downcast stare out the window. Lord above, did he make me feel like an idiot. I should’ve known it was two weeks. Damn I’m so stupid! My frustrations getting the better of me, I said “Screw manners” and hurriedly pulled out my ever-present PSP and resumed my game of Dissidia: Final Fantasy and continued my method of “hack and slash” to vent.
