De Die In Diem: From Day To Day

Pure Malfoy Suffering

The last couple of visits had gone on without much conflict. Lucius had passed the challenges Adriana had given him perfectly. His questions had been answered with kisses and hugs, which he really didn't mind. So Lucius had assumed that this visit would be the same as those. He quickly came to see how very wrong he was.

At around ten o'clock in the morning, Adriana had been lying on the couch, wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt, watching Gone With the Wind, and eating a tub of chocolate ice cream when Lucius came to call on her. She was not in the mood to see him. She'd been tempted to turn invisible again, but he had looked in the window and seen her before she'd had a chance. Groaning, Adriana pulled herself off the couch and walked over to the door to let Lucius in. "Hurry up, you're letting all the cold air inside!" She snapped at him while he made his way in. Leaving him in the hallway to take his cloak off and set his walking stick down, Adriana shuffled back to the couch and sat down again.

Lucius stood in the doorway of the living room and watched Adriana. She was absorbed in the movie she was watching and devouring vastly large amounts of ice cream. On the TV screen, a fiery-spirited, dark-haired woman had thrown a glass object across a room and startled a man sleeping on the couch, when Lucius moved over to the couch and sat down at the end by Adriana's feet. He looked at Adriana and wondered what she was wearing. The overalls had been bad, but this outfit was truly awful. Big and baggy, it showed off none of the beautiful curves that he enjoyed looking at so much. "Why in the world are you wearing that?" Lucius asked gesturing at Adriana's clothes, interrupting her from the movie.

Adriana looked at him with such hatred in her eyes, that he thought she might be about to hurt him and braced himself for whatever she did to him. Luckily she went back to the movie, silently, and her ice cream. He watched as she put spoonful after spoonful into her mouth. "Do you really think you need to be eating all of that?" He asked, trying to make conversation.

Adriana's eyes narrowed and Lucius couldn't be completely sure, but he thought he saw steam pouring out of her ears. It might have been his imagination though. All of a sudden, Adriana burst into tears. Lucius was shocked, he had never seen her cry before. He had no idea what to do, and no clue why she was so upset. He stood up to walk as far away from her as possible, without actually leaving the room. Lucius felt Adriana was acting very unnaturally, and he hoped she wasn't ill. "That is the cruelest thing anybody has ever said to me," Adriana sobbed.

Trying to think of what he had said, Lucius replied encouragingly, "Have some more ice cream, that'll make you feel better."

"Oh, so now you're saying I'm fat?" She glared at him.

"What?" He sputtered. "No, I never said that. Are you crazy? What makes you think I said you were fat?" Lucius asked, utterly confused.

"So, you think I'm fat and crazy?" She yelled at him.

Lucius rubbed his temples, trying to work out where the conversation had gone awry. He couldn't think of what he had said that she had taken offense at. "Look, I don't know what I said, but you're blowing this way out of proportion. I don't think you're fat, or crazy, although you are acting strange today, and I have no idea why. Do you want me to be here? I could go, come back whenever you're not like this anymore."

"That's right, just leave me. Everybody else in my life has left me, why should you be any different?" Adriana started crying again.

There was nothing Lucius could do or say to rectify the situation. No matter what he said, she would twist it around to make him sound like an insensitive pig. Fortunately, Adriana saved him from having to talk again, because she stood up and walked to the bathroom, slammed the door behind her, and left Lucius alone for a long time.

Lucius sat on the couch and looked at the TV screen, watching the man and woman fighting. He knew how that man must feel. Sighing, he grabbed the ice cream and ate a few bites. Lucius was still watching the movie when he heard the sound of cupboard doors slamming in the bathroom. He ignored it, figuring Adriana could take care of herself.

Minutes later, she reemerged from the bathroom, and walked to the writing table, found some paper and a pen and began to write something down. Turning around, Adriana looked at Lucius, and noticed he'd worn one of his new outfits for the first time. Blue jeans and a green buttoned shirt, it was a very good look for him. "Finally, you look normal now. I need to go to the chemist shop, you can come with me if you want," Adriana said.

Lucius nodded his head, stood up and put the ice cream away in the freezer before following Adriana outside to Flynn. They drove to a small village a half an hour away from the house. Thankfully, Adriana was silent the whole time, which allowed Lucius to not say anything stupid. Pulling into the car park, Adriana parked Flynn and the two got out of the car. "All right, I wrote a list, so the fastest way to do it would be to split up. Is that all right with you?" Adriana asked. Lucius wasn't too keen on being left alone in a Muggle shop, but he wasn't about to tell her that. Nodding his head, Adriana ripped the list in half and handed him one piece of it. "I'll start at this end of the store, you start at the far end, and we'll meet in the middle, okay?"

"Sure, no problem," Lucius said, with much more confidence than he felt. Looking at his list, he read the items: toothpaste, tissue, tampons. "What in the world are tampons?" Lucius thought to himself. He began with the two other items, since he knew what they were.

Lucius walked to the aisle with dental care items. He had no idea there were so many different varieties of toothpaste. Different brands, some that whitened and brightened teeth, some that were for sensitive teeth, not to mention all the different flavours available. Walking up and down the aisle, he scanned all the different kinds, and picked out the most expensive brand there, figuring it must be the best one.

Wandering to the next aisle, Lucius looked at the shelf with tissues on it. "It's all the same thing, how can there be so many different kinds!" He thought to himself, frustrated. Again he chose the most expensive brand: "3-Ply, With Lotion". Lucius smiled to himself, he was doing very well with this list. No problems so far, and none in sight.

Looking at the next item on the list, Lucius read, "Tampons". What are those? He asked himself once again. Not willing to ask for assistance, Lucius wandered up and down all the aisles, looking for a product with that name. He found them in the aisle labeled, "Feminine Hygiene". Lucius immediately felt nervous over what this product was that Adriana wanted him to get. He had never been more glad in his life that there was nobody around him while he accomplished this humiliating task. Walking through the aisle, he looked at everything there. Lubricating jelly, sanitary pads, pregnancy tests, so many different things they used. How could women stand it? Lucius thanked the heavens above at that very moment that he was a man, and didn't have to deal with such things.

After several minutes of searching, he found what he was looking for. Choosing the most expensive box of tampons, he picked it up. Lucius looked at the box in his hands to make sure it was what Adriana had asked for. "Tampons," the box read. Turning it over, he saw a drawing of something that looked like some odd sea creature he had never seen before and found very confusing. Reading the description carefully, he saw that the drawing was a diagram of the female reproductive organs. Overcome with absolute horror, Lucius saw black spots in front of his eyes and felt light-headed. Dropping the box on the floor, he wiped his hands on his pants and took several deep breaths. The drawing seemed to have seared itself into his mind, he closed his eyes, but it was still there. A woman came down the aisle and stood a few feet away from Lucius. He looked at her and in spite of his best efforts, he couldn't stop his eyes from drifting down her body, to...there. He stooped down to pick up the box of tampons and kept his eyes on the woman. She glanced down at him and Lucius looked away quickly, not wanting her to see him staring at her.

Adriana found him standing, immobilized, in the middle of the aisle. "Lucius, are you all right?"

Lucius couldn't bring himself to look at her. "I found everything on my half of the list, how about you?"

"I'm all finished too! Are you ready to go?" Adriana asked, cheerfully.

"Yes!" Lucius handed her the items and walked behind her, keeping his eyes carefully on the floor. He had never felt so dirty in his life. All he wanted to do was to crawl into a nice warm bath and wash the horrors of his experience away.

As they moved through the line to buy the items, Adriana saw a magazine she wanted to look at. Handing the stuff to Lucius along with money, she ran off to browse through the magazine. Lucius waited his turn in the line and set the items on the counter when his turn came. When the clerk had scanned all of the items but the tampons, she tried to scan them, but nothing happened. The price wouldn't come up. She tried several times, but finally had to call over the page system for a price check. Lucius knew that every eye in the store was on him. He cringed and silently cursed faulty Muggle technology. When the price had been found out and all the items paid for, Lucius took the bag and looked around for Adriana. Not seeing her, he walked to where he had seen her go last, the magazine aisle. He found her looking through a magazine with a baby on the cover and headlines for parenting tips. She put the magazine away when she saw him and walked over to Lucius, putting her arm through his. "This is a beautiful day, isn't it?" She asked.

Lucius was glad she was in a good mood finally, and moved his arm to entwine his fingers in hers. She squeezed his hand encouragingly and smiled at him. The drive home was pleasant. The two joked, laughed, and made pleasant small talk. When Adriana parked Flynn in the driveway, she leaned over to Lucius and kissed him. "I know I've been a little difficult to handle today, but you've been wonderful. I just wanted you to know that," Adriana hugged him and smiled once again.

Once inside the house, Adriana and Lucius prepared lunch together. She walked him through the steps of making soup. It was complicated work, opening the can, pouring it into a pan, adding water, and heating it up, but Lucius rose to the challenge beautifully.

Within minutes, a delicious meal was ready to eat. They carried trays of food into the living room and watched the rest of Gone With the Wind. Lucius had no idea that a movie could be so long, but found it interesting. He wasn't too impressed in the love story, but did like all the parts about war. The Burning of Atlanta was his favourite scene. "So was that about a real war?" Lucius asked, when the movie had ended.

Looking at Lucius blankly for a moment, Adriana responded. "I keep forgetting you wouldn't have been there then. Yes, that was the American Civil War. The country had split in two and were warring against each other. The Northern states wanted to end slavery, while the Southern states wanted to keep it. The North won."

"Why would they want to end slavery? I don't know how I'd live without my house elves. I still don't see how you live without them," Lucius said.

Adriana looked at him with shock on her face. "They didn't have house elves, Lucius. They had humans."

Lucius looked shocked this time. "Really? Enslaving humans? They'd be capable of much more work than house elves..." Lucius sat and thought of what he'd make Muggles build for him if he had some human slaves of his own, perhaps a pyramid in his honour.

Adriana saw that Lucius was enjoying his thoughts far too much, and felt it best to change the subject. "So, you did a good job today. Shopping for me, sitting through a very long movie. I suppose you deserve some reward," She hoped that would snap Lucius out of his reverie.

"Well, it wasn't too bad. You are a whole lot easier to deal with when you act normally. You were just being such a bitch earlier, and I had no idea why! But now you're all better. So what reward do you want to give me?"

Adriana's jaw dropped as fury took over her whole body. Without thinking, she balled up her right hand into a fist and punched Lucius in the face. Lucius jumped up, putting a hand over his left eye. "What did you do that for? What the hell's the matter with you?"

Standing up and facing Lucius, she replied, "How dare you call me that name! I should have done much worse than give you a black eye! That is the worst thing you could ever call me!" Adriana looked at Lucius as he held his face in his hand. "Did I hurt you?" She asked quietly, her expression turning from fury to compassionate.

"Yes!" Lucius pulled away from Adriana as she reached out to touch him.

"I hurt you. I caused you pain! Oh, Lucius, I'm so sorry," Adriana sniffled, tears welling in her eyes. "Please, let me help." She gently removed Lucius's hand and replaced it with her own. Instantly the pain dissolved. Lucius opened his eye and blinked. Everything seemed to be normal again.

Adriana was crying still, she seemed very upset to Lucius. Sighing, he pulled her to himself and hugged her. "It's all right. Don't be upset, it was all my fault, I deserved it," Lucius wondered if he'd actually just said that or not. He couldn't believe those words had actually come out of his mouth.

Lucius sat back down on the couch and patted the seat next to him. Adriana snuggled up against Lucius and put her arm around his stomach. She rested her head against his chest and continued to cry, more softly this time. Instead of feeling annoyed or uncomfortable, a feeling completely foreign to Lucius emerged. He couldn't even put a word to it. He didn't like that Adriana was upset, he wanted her to feel better, but didn't know how to help her. He wanted to take care of her, and make her smile. But he had no idea how to do any of that. So he just put his arms around her and held her close, saying nothing while she cried her heart out on his chest. After a time, the crying subsided and Lucius heard Adriana breathing steadily and quietly, she had fallen asleep.

Carefully picking her up in his arms, Lucius carried Adriana to her bedroom. Opening the door and finding the light, he gently set her down on the bed. He hadn't been inside this room before and had the distinct feeling of violating something intimate and precious to Adriana. Quickly, he put the bed covers over her, kissed her goodnight, turned off the light and shut the door. As he had been leaving, he noticed something lying on the night stand next to the bed that caught his eye: the bracelet he had given her. He flushed as he realized she'd kept it after their fight. He wondered what that meant as he apparated back to Malfoy Manor.