Oh, Eleanor

Chapter 27: Nector and ambrosia

"Ron?" Eleanor asked in that husky voice which still was as lissom as honeydew.
"Hmm."
She didn't say further. Maybe she was just checking if he still was here or not.
Ron could feel the air around them getting denser. It was getting hard to breath.
There was some tautness around which Ron tried to avoid.
He resisted for a moment but it felt right somehow. So he wrapped an arm around her and held her close.
She didn't pull away, instead, she rested her head on his shoulder.
They were still for a fraction of a minute before melting into the embrace. He held her closer.
"I will talk to Billy...He promised me he won't hurt you again...I need to sort this out." He said, through clenched teeth.
"You can't control things. And by the way, why would you even want to?"
Ron stayed quiet. He had no answer for that.
That was right. Why would he want to? She was no one to him. He was no one to her. She was the girlfriend to his best friend. And she had a secret identity no one knew about. She had a torturing person in her house all the time. She always had a wound or two before the previous ones healed. She was still a stranger. And yet, why were they embracing each other? Why was his arm around her?
Because no matter what she was to the world or not she was the one he thought about every night before falling asleep.
The realisation struck.
He withdrew his arm from around her and stood up.
"I should go." He said, his voice was at the verge of breaking down.
Eleanor struggled but stood after him, staring at him straight.
She nodded.
Just then, the tough air became acrid. The environment radiated poison. And she looked like ambrosia. Radiating warmth and comfort. Emitting something deeper than silence. He moved closer. Held her face in his palms, just as delicately as he might hold nothing else. A flash of Chris's face crossed his mind for a nanosecond before Ron inched in and pressed his lips to hers.