Apples and Oranges [Drarry] ✔

Chapter 12: Intents and Purposes

"Like all good things, it seemed we had also begun to succumb to the inevitable and cruel wiles of entropy. We twisted closer and closer to each other, but it was starting to become clear that the collision – once it happened – was most likely going to be as far from my preferred outcome as you could get.

(...) We didn't fight. Couples fight and we were not a couple. But frustration is as inevitable as friction between two surfaces constantly rubbing against each other, desperate for purchase. I wanted to shake him until he admitted defeat and I could allow myself to talk to him like an adult. I wanted to admit defeat and beg him to stay.

But if there was one thing the two of us had in common it was stubbornness. And stubbornness was a breeding ground for pride."

– Apples and Oranges by Francis Gallagher

_____

"What did he say?" Hermione asks again later when Rose has been put down for a nap. "After the kiss?"

Harry sighs and then shrugs. He takes the cup of tea Ron's offered him and nods his thanks. "Nothing really."

"Nothing?"

"Well... he said I'm not getting into his pants," he murmurs into the edge of his cup. "And then for the rest of the evening, we went back to... casually hanging out? And then today he like hooked his arm with mine at one point but other than that we didn't touch at all. And we barely spoke?" He takes another sip of his tea and puts it down on the coffee table. He looks up at the two of them, sitting on the coffee table and watching him with worry. He sighs again. "I don't know what's going on – I feel like I'm losing my mind."

Hermione just frowns deeper but Ron shakes his head and scoffs. "That's some serious mixed signals."

"But that's the point!" Harry replies. "It's not any different from before! We don't touch any more or less than before! And he's not acting any different! It's me that's different. They're only mixed signals because I'm not looking at them like they're mixed signals – all those things I keep wracking my brain about now didn't mean anything two weeks ago!"

He takes off his glasses runs his hand through his hair and tries to make himself believe he's capable of changing his reaction to this whole thing. He wishes he could just... take it as it comes and not overthink every little thing. He wishes he could just come up to Draco and tell him he wants to stop the non-date nonsense and start date nonsense instead, bet be damned, but he knows that he can't because it's Draco. And that kind of thing wouldn't be welcome.

"Or maybe..." Hermione interrupts his train of thought. "Maybe they've always been mixed signals and you just didn't notice?"

Harry huffs a self-deprecating laugh. He looks down at his hands. "He sees me as a friend."

"You don't know that!" Ron groans.

"I do!" Harry replies, finally looking up at Ron with the hope that maybe that would make it more convincing even though he himself barely knows what he should and shouldn't believe. "He would have said something if he didn't – and before the kiss we had this whole "a kiss doesn't break the bet" talk and he never once indicated he felt anything but friendship about me!"

"Did you?" Hermione asks, softly. Harry looks at her, ready with a rebuttal, but hesitates.

"Well... no, but I was... omitting the truth."

Ron clicks his fingers. "So maybe he was lying –"

"Omitting the truth."

"Maybe he was omitting the truth too." Ron shrugs and Harry appreciates the feigned nonchalance even though it's not really helping.