A Touch of Life

6

Since Fleur had nowhere else to go, considering she was no longer meant to be alive, Emmie invited Fleur to live with him.

"Are you sure? I don't want to just barge back into your life again," asked Fleur nervously.

"I'm sure. It'll be nice to finally have company. And I'd love to have you barge back into my life again," Emmie replied shyly, his cheeks heating up. Fleur positively grinned in return, and Seamus rolled his eyes, making a disgusted sound.

Luckily, Emmie had a spare bedroom that had slowly turned into a sort of personal scrap heap over the years. Since he was too lazy to sort through his things properly, and was always too sentimental to throw anything away, all of the junk he hardly used resided in that room. Emmie was not looking forward to cleaning that all out to make room for Fleur, but he was genuinely happy to have her around again, even under very odd circumstances.

Emmie liked being alone most of the time, but sometimes it left him lost in his own thoughts; more often than he'd like to admit, he really did crave human contact. His bakery satisfied that in a way, since he'd spend the entire day surrounded by people, receiving polite smiles and overhearing the various types of conversations his customers had, but that wasn't quite the same as being part of one of those conversations.

Emmie had two people in his life that he would call friends, though both were only really his friends by default because he worked with them. Their company was familiar and comfortable enough to be dubbed as friendship. The only real friend Emmie had ever had was Fleur, but it had never really seemed quite right, because the distance between them was far too far. Now, Fleur was right there with Emmie, and they could live together and spend time together and have their own various kinds of conversations. Of course, it was bittersweet, since Emmie would be in constant fear of touching Fleur, as well as always wishing so badly that he could, but it was better than not having Fleur at all.

"Do you mind sleeping on the sofa tonight? I can clear your new room out tomorrow," called Emmie. Fleur had disappeared into the flat to look around, whilst Emmie had gone to collect some sheets and pillows.

Emmie headed round the corner, carrying the bundle of sheets, and he only spotted Fleur coming around the other corner to face her at the very last minute, just before they collided into each other. Emmie gasped and skidded to a stop, and over the sheets he saw Fleur yelp and fall to the floor with a thud.

Emmie's heart stopped. Had his hand touched Fleur's just before he could stop in time? Oh god, had he killed her already? Emmie dropped the sheets and knelt down beside Fleur. Fleur had her eyes shut, and Emmie prayed to every god that he didn't believe in that Fleur hadn't died again.

"That was close," breathed Fleur, cracking one eye open and grinning at Emmie.

Emmie let out a shaky breath and swore, falling backwards against the carpet beside Fleur and laughing hysterically.

"Oh my god, I thought it was game over already. We need to get some bells or something to wear so we don't walk into each other," muttered Emmie, and Fleur giggled.

"That might be a good idea. I'm clumsy as it is, and now my life literally relies on me not being such a klutz."

Emmie sighed with relief again, shaking off any of the dark thoughts whirring in his head of how he would be able to explain how the dead body of an already deceased girl who had been buried had ended up on his kitchen floor.