Murder to Malfoy - D.MALFOY

[51]

"I was wondering if you wanted to come to mine?" Draco asked softly, Ivy laying against his chest as soft and peaceful breaths escaped her slightly parted lips. She brushed the frizzier curls, that caught the light that flooded through the window and turned slight auburn, from her face and bought the small flower-covered duvet closer to her face.

"How come you never asked me before?" she replied in a whisper, so soft that he would not be able to hear it if it wasn't for their close proximity.

He shrugged as she started to trace lines on his torso with her fingertip, leaving trails of fluttering nerves in her path. "I just assumed you wouldn't want to go there."

She smiled, turning her head up toward where his was, "Draco, it's your home. If you wanted me to go there I gladly would."

He raised a brow before leaning down to press a brief kiss on her forehead, "Tomorrow?"

Her brow wrinkled directly, eyes half blurred in thought as she tried to remember what she had planned. "I have the dentist at four, after that?"

"Okay," he nodded and she settled back against his chest, her silver necklace pendant turning an area of his torso cool. "And then we leave for Italy the day after."

"Oh I forgot about that," she muttered, yawning softly. "Shit I need to pack."

"I'll help if you want."

"You'd just pack me bikinis and dresses," she chuckled softly, sighing as she sat up while making sure the sheets still covered her up.

"You don't need anything else," he laughed in such a way that she knew he was joking, though she had some sort of sense to know that there was an essence of truthtelling to what he was saying.

She raised a brow as she tugged her shirt back over her head, "Oh yeah? What am I going to use as a cover-up when it's not as hot?"

"One of my white shirts."

She sighed dramatically, "Bien sûr."

-

"How was the dentist?" he asked as she walked through the door to his house, making the conscious effort to not look directly at him. It wasn't that she didn't want to see him or anything, just that she didn't want him to read into the expression that was undoubtedly plastered on her face.

"I have to get a tooth taken out," she sighed, the corner of her lips turning down into a frown. She shrugged, "It like grew funny or something I don't even know."

He wrapped a comforting arm across her shoulders, pulling her into a side hug that did make her feel somewhat better as they both progressed into the house, "When?"

"A few weeks after we go back to school, I get like three days off for it." Ivy took a second to look around the house, pausing to really et a sense of the home that she had stepped into. She quickly came to the conclusion that Narcissa must have gone on a decorating spree to sort her mind out - much like how Ivy's Maman dealt with things. The place looked less drab and posh, less like it was some ridiculous show of power and money to whoever set foot in it. This place looked like it actually had an ounce of love within it, maybe less than that but she felt it was still rather prominent. Draco hadn't noticed it at all, he still saw it as a veiled place of cold and unloving areas. He could not ever change that opinion. "Mum's not home so you don't have to worry about her being all questioning or anything," he stated, totally misreading her expression.

"Draco, I like Narcissa. She's sweet and I do feel bad for her," she smiled softly, reassuringly almost.

As he opened the door to his room, Ivy found herself hit with a soft and welcoming wave of his cologne and a brief appley aroma that instantly tied her stomach into knots. Without even looking inside she could tell that it was his room, it just smelt so entirely different to their est of the house and did not have the black painted walls that Narcissa had been working to get rid of. Ivy looked around the room silently: looking out of the open window, across the walls, over all the photo frames he had littered around (some of which included her) and over all the books on the shelves. She traced the tops with her finger, reading nearly every title when suddenly she stopped and plucked one from the shelf. "I can get her to sign this for you, if you want," she laughed, waving her mother's book in her hand. It looked majorly untouched by everything, dust included, yet she could tell from the slight creases in the spine that it had been well-loved. "Seens as it is so precious."

As he laughed, she slotted the book back in its place on the shelf and moved toward his nightstand. She smiled brightly as she looked at the blue bear and photograph of the two of them from when they were younger on display. "How long has that been there?" she asked quizzically.

"The photo since Christmas," he trailed off while wrapping his arms around her waist, hugging her from behind. "The bear since I got back from the hospital," he replied softly, pressing soft kisses across her neck.

"Cute," she smiled, heart beating a little faster than beforehand. "I want to see the gardens and the archways."

He laughed softly, head buried in the crook of her neck. "Come on then."

-

They both did not leave the gardens after that. They spent hours walking around or playing an impromptu game of hide and seek )very much mirroring the one that they had when they were children) and even had food ordered to the house so they didn't have to go inside to cook or anything similar. But now, they both lay in the softer grass of one of the areas in the garden. Ivy hadn't slept very well the night before, due to dental anxiety, so as she lay there the weight of her eyelids only seemed to increase with every passing second. "I'm tired," she muttered, sighing softly as she repositioned her head on his chest while gently clutching onto his shirt.

"Mh," he hummed, the sound rumbled in her ears, creating where relaxation that she could only achieve on Sundays in a warm bed made of fresh sheets."Okay but after your nap, would you like to go out to a restaurant with me?"

She nodded, head only moving the smallest amount possible. "Course,' she replied, in a half-asleep half-awake state.

"Just to be clear, I just asked you on a date," he whispered, smiling to himself.

"Clear as the sky," she whispered back, voice overwhelmed with sleep.

"It's cloudy," he chuckled to himself, hoping the sudden movement would not awaken her.

"Ok," she murmured and seconds later, her lips parted with soft yet heavy sleeping breaths.

He smiled to himself once more, admiring the look of complete peace that she had and how weirdly easy it was for her to fall asleep that quickly. "Night beautiful," he whispered as he brushed a few curls from her face, tucking them behind her ear.

He remained in some form of silence for twenty minutes. He was silent, the room was not and his thoughts definitely weren't. All he could think about was the girl sleeping against him, looking ever so peaceful in a place that he thought would bring about the opposite feeling in her. It made him feel awful after all. After the twenty minutes, he could be sure that she was asleep, like fully asleep and in a state where she could not be woken up. And he found himself wanting to confess the thoughts in his mind. He whispered, "I think I've loved you in some way for a long while now. And I know that's quick but I just-" he paused sighing deeply. "Merlin Cadieux, the things you do to me."