Linny Oneshots

deep blue but you painted me golden

Title, once more, from Taylor Swift. This one is from "Dancing with Our Hands Tied."

Oneshot Info: 3.3k, Love Confessions, Treasure Hunters AU

The water rushed around Ginny's ankles, ice-cold. It numbed Ginny's bare feet, turning her toes pink. The stream took rocks with it, small bits of wood and leaves tickling the tops of her feet and rocks jutting up sharply under her heels as she waded across, her breeches rolled to her knees.

This was nature in its purest form, not the sort of place Ginny went looking for things she might sell. Luna had chosen this direction.

"I'm looking for Earth's treasures," she'd said.

She'd heard this before– this was why they each hunted on their own sometimes: Ginny for a living, Luna for the wonder of it. They had different ideas of treasure. This was why they weren't together, hunting in the same places for the same things, and Ginny loved the idea of Earth's treasures, of course, but it was a complicated relationship.

After all, they kept Luna flitting around, never tied to anywhere for long. After all, they kept Luna from Ginny.

Luna's soft white dress had already gotten soaked to the knee as she splashed through, smiling at Ginny, unruffled by the wet hem of her dress. She looked like a daydream or a well-orchestrated photograph, standing in a flowing white dress in the middle of a bubbling stream, surrounded by the green forest and smiling like that.

Sometimes, Ginny wondered if places like this were where Luna disappeared to when she didn't turn up for weeks. She was the only one who could find all the Earth's little secrets, Ginny thought.

"We're not looking for me," her light voice teased, and Ginny looked away, back down the direction of the stream. "Not that way." Luna closed her eyes as Ginny turned back to her, holding her arms out and fluttering her fingers, the water on her arms sparkling in the sunlight that made its way through the leaves above.

She turned and turned, until her back was to Ginny so Ginny could stare at the rippling dirty blond hair that tumbled loosely down her back. "This way." She gestured upstream, and Ginny sighed, following her.

It was ridiculous, and Ginny still didn't believe it worked, really. But Luna always insisted she had a gut feeling, and they always did find things, which was what they did for a living. Once, Luna had led them right to a small cave, and in the floor of it, they'd found a wealth of uncut diamonds.

But while she led them to treasure, it wasn't always... treasure. It was what Luna considered treasure, which could mean anything. She felt a pull towards something beautiful and worth treasuring, and...

"Look," Luna gasped delightedly as they came to the mouth of the stream. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"Oh," Ginny breathed. It was.

The mouth of the stream opened into a large, serene pool, or maybe a small, serene lake. Silverfish darted around in it, slim and quick. Luna had a way of finding places like this, things that should only exist in the unreal realms of dreams and faeries– the Muggle kind, which Luna was convinced actually existed and Ginny wasn't so sure. The bank was dotted with flowers, blooming because of the sunlight that came in from the open sky over the lake.

Ginny could picture her standing here, all alone and happy in the moonlight, while Ginny turned in her bed, all alone and in her bed, wondering where Luna had gone this time.

It wasn't exactly the monetary kind of treasure, but it was a treasure nonetheless, a picture-perfect moment.

An Earth treasure.