Mistletoe

Mistletoe hung above them.

He blushed to the tips of his ears. She looked at a point over his shoulder instead of at him. For some reason, this pulled on his heartstrings. It was the first time he had ever seen her nervous. Maybe the two of them did have something in common after all.

*

Meanwhile, she was thinking that he really should just hurry up and give her a kiss. The nargles could reveal themselves at any moment!

*

The tension was bloody agonizing, he thought. He cursed himself in his head. It would only be a quick peck, so why wasn't he doing it?

His palms began to sweat.

*

Perhaps she should just kiss him. He wasn't making a move, was he? Wait a moment! What if he wasn't kissing her because he didn't want to kiss her? Her shoulders slumped slightly, not at all surprised. He never really had warmed to her.

*

Why wasn't she kissing him all ready? Perhaps she didn't like kissing? No, that couldn't be it...who didn't like kissing? Not that he'd actually ever been kissed before. He shifted from foot to foot. Maybe she just didn't like him anymore? Or, what if she had never liked him at all? No, he wasn't that thick. The signs had been there all last year.

*

She didn't know why she was still standing in front of him, as if she was expecting the bloody kiss. Her eyes were even beginning to tear up. She was humiliating herself in front of him for about the hundredth time. Of course he didn't like her. Why would he?

But her silly feet refused to move.

*

His whole face was on fire. Why was she doing this? Why was she putting him through this torture? She was mocking him, wasn't she? He could not stand being mocked. He opened his mouth to remind her of this fact, but all that came out of his mouth was a high pitched squeak.

*

She finally found the courage to look up at him. My, he was tall. His cheeks were rather red. He looked very cute when his cheeks were like that. She nearly got the urge to giggle, but remembered that he didn't like it when she laughed at the things he did.

He probably didn't like her laugh.

She bit down on her lip.

*

She wasn't laughing. Normally she laughed at him. She was normally the loudest. Why wasn't she laughing now? He was a funny guy, he thought. Everyone else laughed. He was confused. Why the hell wasn't she laughing?

Maybe she didn't think he was funny anymore.

*

He looked slightly angry. He wasn't even looking at her. She began to feel self-concious. He had asked Padma Patil to the Yule Ball, she knew. He liked pretty girls. She wasn't that pretty. Everyone said so.

Stupid boy, she thought. He was just like the rest of them. Her eyes teared up again, but with anger this time.

*

Well, fine, if she wanted to be like this. Other people thought he was funny. He wasn't going to allow himself to be humilated in front of her again.

So...why weren't his bloody big feet moving?

And why the heck was the crying?

*

She couldn't help it. She didn't want to cry in front of him. She never cried in front of anyone. But she wasn't able to do anything about the tears streaming down her cheeks except wipe them away.

Hopefully he wouldn't notice.

*

His eyes narrowed with concern. She looked fragile and delicate. Once again, he was taken aback by her. First she was nervous and now she was vulnerable? What was wrong with her?

He noticed her chest heaving slightly. He would have liked to have said something comforting to her, but absolutely nothing came to mind. He could pat her on the head.

But she might take that gesture to mean that he wanted her to kiss him. He didn't want her to think that.

Especially if she didn't want to kiss him back.

*

Insensitive prat. He could at least pat her on the head or something. Do something that would set him apart from other boys, like she thought he was. But he didn't.

That's when she looked up.

*

She was staring up at him, her eyes wide and sad. He liked that look. She wasn't judging him. That was a first. No one had ever looked at him like that before.

His stomach flopped. He could hardly believe it. He was attracted to her. Swallowing hard, he told himself that it was an oddly okay feeling.

*

His eyes were a startling blue. A beautiful light blue that reminded her of the sky on a summer day. Those eyes were gazing at her unblinkingly and with no restraint.

Butterflies that lay dormant, overriden by anxiety and slight nausea, awoke, and began soaring around in her belly.

A shiver ran up and down her spine.

*

Maybe she did want to kiss him...

*

Maybe he did want to kiss her...

*

Together, they leaned forward.