✓ dark blue -h.s. au- short story

1 "you're shaking."

C E C I L Y

Cecily doesn't know what time it is. Doesn't know why she's standing on a roof with so many people. She takes one slow step forward and looks down at the cracked ice before carefully walking forward again.

There are streamers hooked to lamps and she stares at them just for a moment before bringing her arms around her chest, watching her breath go white as she exhales because she's just so cold.

She thinks she feels someone looking at her, so she looks up and keeps to herself, delicately walking over the slippery ice as she passes groups of people.

It's hard to tell what time it is, but then her eyes lock on someone else's and she doesn't even care what day it is because the person looking at her looks just as confused as she is and she can see the green pigment of his eyes even through the lengthy distance. She walks toward him just as he does the same, the both of them meeting in the middle but not saying anything.

He has really long hair that ends a little past his shoulders, his height very noticeable as she has to crane her head back just to look at him. He also has a sharp jawline, but it looks like his eyes hurt, or something close to them because he's squinting and holding onto the side of his neck like he's trying to protect it.

"Hi," he breathes out finally, bringing his free hand to her hair and feeling it. "Are you okay?"

She makes a face. She doesn't know how she got on the top of the roof or why she's surrounded by too many guys in too many different fraternity sweatshirts or why she feels so cold. And she's really not okay. Not at all. But- "I'm fine."

He shakes his head and looks over his shoulder with raised eyebrows before looking back at her with a side- smile. She thinks he's beautiful. She thinks she's pretty enough to not feel bad for flirting with him. "You're cold. I could see you shaking from a mile away."

"Is that how far away you've been staring at me?" She asks.

"I've been staring at you?" He asks, taking off his black sweater with a confused expression etched onto his face.

Something is off about the night, but Cecily thinks she likes that. "You're not going to offer me your sweater, are you?"

"I would offer my jacket," he lets out, eyes searching the crowd like he's looking for something he must have missed. "But I think I gave it to someone else. Deja vu, is it just me?"

"What part of this?" She asks, only partially feeling like the moment is replaying. She's too focused on staying warm, and normally, she would decline the offer of someone's sweater. But she's so, so cold and she feels it everywhere. Her eyes feel like ice. Like they'd been glossed over with a temperature below 10°.

He looks down at her and drops his sweater into her arms. "Every part from the sky color right down to your gray-washed, blue eyes."

She doesn't think twice before shimmying smoothly right into the large sweatshirt. But when her head resurfaces, her wide eyes reach his green ones because she definitely does not have gray eyes. Never has, so it must be the lighting. "I don't have gray eyes," she informs him, looking toward a light so he can see them better.

"Yes you do. You have really nice gray eyes. Like Mercury only a bit blue- tinted."

"You must not be seeing them very well. Just blue. Dark blue, at that."

"Okay," is what he says. She pretends he doesn't sound like he's pacifying her and instead marvels at his own eyes. She thinks she's getting colder. Could feel it creeping in from the inside out. Her fingers are numb and her chest is like an ice sculpture that melts and becomes the blood in her veins. The sweater makes it feel like its trapping the cold inside rather than making her warmer.

The guy takes a step forward and closes his hands around hers, rubbing them tenderly while his eyes lock on hers. "What are you doing?"

"You're shaking."

"I. I am f-fine, thank you."

"You don't sound fine," he brings her closer, pushing her against his chest placing his head in the crook of her neck. He's very outgoing, she thinks. She feels his breathing against her neck and tries not to show that it's actually helping her. Actually making her feel less like a snow storm and more like rain.

The crowd kind of stops moving. Or maybe they're moving less, but either way she notices that they're not moving as much as they were before, and the sky looks like it's breaking. Like there's lightning tearing right through the midnight blue and leaving behind streaks of smoke and cloud. She ignores it and settles back into the guy.

His hand moves up and behind her neck and it's his watch. It's his watch ticking by her ear that makes her jump a little. It's his watch and the way it goes off as the small hand finally moves over to 12 that she feels it, and she feels him, and- "Who are you?"

The crowd bellows out a "Happy New Year!" and the beat of her heart feels like a drum that cracks the ice around it and her. And yeah, she does feel that deja vu moment.

She pushes away slightly. "Who are you?" She looks up at him.

"Harry."

"Harry, what are we doing on a roof?"

"New Years party," he breaths out, words sounding unsure. His fingers feel the fabric of his sweater as he looks down at her again.

His lips part and as everyone begins to yell and scream and laugh and the streamers begin to fall and the sky continues to crack with lightning and flakes, and the cement begins to thicken with ice like her skin is, she thinks she wants to stay against Harry for a bit longer.

"Can I kiss you?" He asks.

She doesn't trust her voice and decides to just nod, catching the side of his face as he leans down to connect their lips.

His skin feels wet with something thick, but her fingers must be really numb because when she pulls away for a second to look at him, she doesn't see anything.

She closes her eyes and when she opens them, he's already turning and walking away. He's already disappearing. He's morphing into the crowd and she's standing with her hands in the air as the crowd swallows him.

(Meet Cecily (face claim: Ashley Moore) (we need more p.o.c. as mains))