Prince of Ruin

Chapter Twenty-Five: Coco

"I have a surprise for you."

"Yeah?" I asked with a wide grin, I tucked in closer to his side, we'd gone out to dinner in a wonderful restaurant in Muggle London. A place I had never been to before in my life. It had been delicious.

It was my first night out with Calvin since I finished school.

"Yeah, I think you're going to love it."

"As long as you're there I will." He stopped walking to kiss me. His kisses were always hungry, always excited, and passionate. Always a little pushy- but I knew it was just because he loved me. He told me he loved me in his letters... I mean he hadn't actually written out the words, but I could tell he did. I could read between the lines. He also hadn't said it out loud yet- but I knew he would.

Eventually.

We apparated- he had a habit of doing that, of apparating without warning me. I told him to stop doing that, but I was so excited for a surprise, I let it go. I wasn't stable when we landed and I learned on him to keep from falling over as my heels hit cobblestones.

"Tada!" He gestured.

"Is this it?" I asked, excited. "This is your house?"

"No." He admitted. "This is our place. A home for you and me to hide away in. No one can touch us here." I frowned, about to ask who we would be hiding from but- it felt obvious. He was quite a bit older than me. He was probably worried that my mother and Baz wouldn't approve. Well the joke was on him, I knew my mom would be thrilled. And Baz would be happy as long as I was happy.

"I want to see inside." He held out the key to me and I took it, running for the cottage, running for our safe place.

"I want to see inside." He held out the key to me and I took it, running for the cottage, running for our safe place.

I walked in and my heart soured. It was perfect, and I told him as much. There was a couch sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, though it was summer and daytime so the fire wasn't super necessary, it simply added to the cozy feel of the room.

There were bookcases begging to be filled. I could already see in my head how I would design the room to make it look perfect. The place was a bit... small but it would work for a starter house.

"When do we move in?" I asked. An odd look flashed over his features but it was gone in the blink of an eye.

"Soon, darling. I have another surprise, a surprise within the surprise." He took my hand and led me through the living room to the kitchen, sat in the middle of the kitchen island was a cake.

"For us?" I asked, walking over, there were two paper plates and a knife sitting next to it. "Forks."

He frowned.

"Dammit, I forgot." He realized,

"It's fine, we can eat it with our hands." I reasoned,

"We can feed each other." A slow grin spread over his lips.

"We can." I agreed, reaching out and running one finger through the icing, sucking it into my mouth. it was smooth and perfectly sweet. I closed my eyes and groaned.

"You can't do that, Cordelia." He warned. "Making noises like that, we won't end up eating cake." He shook his head. I smirked and swiped another fingerful, offering it to him. He walked over, taking my finger into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the digit as he sucked it clean.