Marmoris | Rabastan Lestrange [1] ✔︎

37 | RUSHING

Phoenix must have fallen asleep on the chair on his bedside too, accompanied by weird dreams about people in aggressive wheelchairs, trying to push her into the Black Lake. What woke her, was the pillow above her head slightly moving – or at least what she had thought to be her pillow. Slowly creeping out of the sudden darkness surrounding her, she felt something brush against her cheek – a cold thing softly caressing her skin.

Immediately her eyes fluttered open, adjusting to the light. It was already rather dark and it took her a moment to make out the features of her surroundings. She lifted her head, breaking the touch. The chair on the other side of the bed was empty, instead she could feel Rabastan moving again.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," he told her, his voice sounding a little hoarse.

She couldn't help but smile. "You scared me to death by falling off of your broom and the first thing you do is apologising for waking me?"

She could hear him chuckle, before sucking in a breath, most likely in pain.

"You know, getting injured has its perks. I don't have a beautiful girl by my bedside, waiting desperately for me to wake up, every day."

Phoenix was glad for the darkness surrounding them, which meant he couldn't see her cheeks turning red.

"You can't even see me," she pointed out.

"I can see enough to know you're beautiful," he retorted and she could basically imagine him smirk.

However, it only made her cheeks getting hotter. Had he ever called her beautiful before? Surely it was about the drugs clouding his mind.

"I... I'll let Madame Pomfrey know you're awake," she stuttered, pushing her hands down on the mattress to get up.

But before she was even standing, Rabastan's cold hand found hers. Taken aback, she looked up at him, realising she could in fact make out his facial expression in the darkness. "Don't."

"But I'm pretty sure she'd like to know you're awake so she can check on you."

To surprise her even more, Rabastan laced his cold fingers through hers, making her heart beat even faster in her chest. "She checked on me while you were asleep. I was actually the one, who convinced her to let you stay past curfew."

Slowly she sat back down on the chair, moving it closer to the upper part of his bed. Him not letting go of her hand, made the task quite a little more difficult. "What time is it?"

"Shortly past midnight," he shrugged.

"I should still get to bed though and you surely need rest too."

She could see him shaking his head, his white hair almost glowing in the dark. "Be a little reckless for once, Nix. You can stay here. I'm sure nobody would mind you sleeping in one of these beds."

"You're really not going to let me leave, are you?" Phoenix chuckled, slightly relaxing and placing her elbows on the bed.

Once again he shook his head with a grin, before a muffled groan left his lips, his hand tensing in hers.

"What is it? Are you alright?" Phoenix immediately wanted to know, softly gripping his forearm.

"Yeah," the boy answered with gritted teeth. "It's just the healing potion. The bones in my right arm and leg are in the process of being mended back together, just like some of the muscles and ligaments, but my back will take a little longer."

Phoenix could hear his voice being laced with bitterness. With most other people she would have felt it, but with him, among a few others, it was different. Although she could hear it in his voice or see it in his movements, there was no wave of his feelings hitting her. She tried to sound confident when reassuring him. "Hey, you're going to be alright. Madame Pomfrey is an expert at what she's doing. You'll be alright before you can say Quidditch."

"It's sad that I know you're lying, although I can't fully make out the features of your face because of the darkness." His finger brushed over the back of her hand. "You may be smarter than I am, but you know just as much about this as I do. I can barely feel my toes."

"About a few hours ago you couldn't feel any part lower than your hips, so feeling your toes at least a little should be a good sign, right? You should take baby steps for once and not rush into things."

"When do I ever rush into things?" He questioned with a short laugh.

Phoenix rose her eyebrows in disbelief. "About just as much as you wear that arrogant smirk of yours."

"So, like never?"

She couldn't hold back a laugh. "Quite the opposite, actually. May I remind you about when we were twelve and you thought sliding down the banisters at my place was a good idea and ended up breaking your arm, or about when you wanted to save a cat from a tree and fell off of said tree..."

"This was actually a hero's action, wasn't it?"

Phoenix simply rolled her eyes with a smile, although she knew he couldn't see it. "If you'd have put a little more thought into it, you might have figured out it wasn't a good idea to walk on a smaller branch than the cat was sitting on. But even if you call that a hero's action, I can go on. What about two months ago when you wanted Reg to believe you couldn't feel the cold and jumped into the Back Lake in January and came down with an awful cold you kept complaining about for at least two weeks, or-"

"Okay, okay I get your point," Rabastan chuckled lightly. "But by thinking about everything for too long you're missing out on millions of opportunities to make amazing memories."

"Memories about getting hurt? Doesn't sound that amazing to me, to be honest," Phoenix remarked, looking down at their intertwined hands.

Somehow the situation felt relaxed, although it was in the middle of the night and she was sitting at the bedside of a badly injured boy, who had a terrible habit for breaking girls' hearts. Just moments before his voice had been laced with bitterness and a tip of fear, but now he was actually laughing at her remark, which made her heart flutter strangely. Sometimes she wondered how he did it. The only thing he had to do was smile to make the world a little less dark.

"Usually you hurt yourself in such stupid ways, which makes you laugh about it when remembering. Isn't that what a good memory should look like?"

"Well, I guess you have a point," Phoenix giggled, feeling his body move as she glanced out of the huge windows.

"Besides I like rushing into things. That way you'll never know what's about to happen next," he whispered, his voice closer than before.

She turned back around to face him, just to feel his lips brush against hers. It was only a soft peck, but enough to make her freeze mid-movement. Before she could even process what was actually going on, he pulled away, lowering himself back into his pillow.

Her cheeks burned as he told her in a low voice, "Life's so much more exciting that way."

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OMG it's done. They kissed - or well he kissed her. I've planned to write this scene for so long and now I'm finally able to hit the publish button and I'm beyond excited. I'm so happy with how it turned out and I really hope you are too. 

Yours, Enya