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Tweak says, "Happy bunnies :("

ourking (ourking) wrote in attheclose,
@ 2011-04-17 13:29:00

Who: Ron & Hermione
What: Awkward happenings
When: Sunday, 17 April
Where: The upstairs bathroom, Shell Cottage
Rating: S for shirtless (RON, presumably NOT Hermione. If she takes her top off I'll up the rating and revise canon)

Ron didn't want to complain, for once. The floor and couches of the living room were - he hadn't thought it possible only a few weeks previously, but it was true - less comfortable than the camp beds. However, all of the proper beds in the house were filled with people who needed or deserved them more than Ron, Harry, and Dean. Bill and Fleur had their room, Ollivander and Griphook shared one with two small beds, and Hermione and Luna shared one bed in the smallest room, which Ron could not do, even should the invitation be extended.

He had woken early from his turn on the floor, and lay only for a few moments, listening to the sound of the shore in the distance, before getting to his feet, rummaging through his pile of folded clean clothes, and padding through the quiet house up to the bathroom. The benefit to sleeping on a mat on the floor and waking up far before you wanted to was that you got the first shower of the day, one when the water didn't have to be charmed hot and you weren't rushing with someone else waiting at the door for you to get out.

The one thing the cottage provided that the tent did not was lockable doors, and Ron took advantage of the uninterrupted moment of privacy before stepping into the tub and turning on the shower. This was one of the little things he was going to miss, when they did have to leave Shell Cottage. First on the list was Fleur's cooking, followed by watching her cook, followed by real showers and indoor plumbing. He wasn't sure what they were going to do after they got Hufflepuff's cup - the tent was gone, now - but whatever it was, he hoped that it could accommodate cooking food that didn't grow on stumps and indoor plumbing.

Ron turned off the taps, fetching his towel from the peg on the door and cracking it open to help clear the steam. He wiped the mirror before tucking the terrycloth sheet round his hips, and stared at his reflection, contemplating again whether he ought to shave or grow a beard. There was a creak on a floorboard in the hall, and then the door was being pushed open and Hermione was in the bathroom wearing a nightgown that gave his imagination new inspiration. Ron's hand flew to keep a tight grip on his towel, his brain only producing two succinct words in a very different pitch than usual - "Naked, Hermione!"

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hermyone
2011-04-17 09:38 pm UTC (link)

Hermione's frame of mind was not dissimilar to Ron's. Being at Bill and Fleur's house was like being in a palace after living in a tent for so long. A tent with two teenage boys.

She didn't want to think what sort of condition she would have been in if they had only the tent to go to after their ordeal at Malfoy Manor, but though she was still a little sore, Fleur had healed her really well for someone who was not a Healer. It unsettled her how Fleur was able to skew the opinions of those around her. Hermione was quite fond of her now, a far cry from her original perception.

Luxurious as it was to sleep in a bed and eat well prepared food, Hermione knew it couldn't last forever. While they were living in comfort, Voldemort was still at large. Hermione lingered for as long as she could under the covers of her single bed, but Luna was talking in her sleep about Nargles and Hermione thought she might wake her from scoffing too loudly.

Never one to be dim, Hermione saw the steam from the bathroom and knew that someone had used the shower recently. The open door–another bonus of living in a house–led her to believe that the bathroom was vacant, however. Who would shower with the door open? If they wanted to de-steam the room, why not crack a window? Hermione barely stifled her yelp by covering her mouth with her hand and turned away so violently that her face collided with the ajar door. Then she stubbed her toe.

"Ow," She hissed, hopping out of the way. "Sorry!" She hoped the flooding of colour to her cheeks could be explained away by her superficial injuries, and not the sight of Ron, damp, half-naked, little droplets of water trickling over his skin. Not that at all.

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ourking
2011-04-17 09:53 pm UTC (link)

"Oh bollocks!" Ron yelped, reaching out to steady Hermione and hoping his towel would steady itself. He turned her back around, lifting her chin up higher than usual with a slightly pruned hand, both so that she wouldn't be looking southward should the unthinkable happen, and so that he could inspect her nose once her hand had dropped away. It was red, as were her cheeks, and probably smarting, but there wasn't any blood and nothing looked off kilter. "Not bleeding, not broken," he said, trying to seem like he was calm, and the situation completely normal, despite the fact that she was standing on his clean pants.

Ron didn't want to make it worse, but perhaps per usual, he opened his mouth and did so anyhow, unable to suppress a grin or a little dig. "Graceful, that."

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hermyone
2011-04-17 10:30 pm UTC (link)

Hermione's eyes widened when Ron came closer, then promptly snapped shut. She kept them closed out of respect for her semi-naked friend, and to keep temptation at bay. Hermione had an idea that Ron finally felt the way she did, but there never seemed to be a right time to address the issue, mid-war as they were. True as that might be, Ron in a towel while she damaged herself did not scream romance. This was not the moment.

Exhaling, Hermione peeked through one eye at Ron. Her nose felt broken, but Ron was right. It felt enormous. She really wanted to leave the room, but Ron was still prodding her face. It would be rude to pull away. She rolled her eyes and stifled a laugh, smacking Ron's hand away. "Cheers. Maybe if you didn't shower with the door open, my gracelessness wouldn't be an issue."

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ourking
2011-04-17 11:25 pm UTC (link)

"I shower with the door shut. I opened it to get the steam aired out, while you were all asleep," emphasized Ron. He let go of Hermione's shoulder, grabbing a flannel from the basket of clean ones Fleur had taken to leaving out with so many people invading her home, running it under cold water and wringing it out before passing it to her. "At least, I thought you were asleep. Put this on it," he suggested. The last thing Hermione needed now was a sore swollen face, and while Ron hadn't been able to do very much for her after they arrived, five brothers gave him enough experience with blows to the face to feel confident treating this one.

Was it obvious that he was trying very hard to keep his eyes confined to her neck and face, and not lingering on the wider than usual expanse of bare skin paired with breasts he felt instinctively positive were not covered by a bra?

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hermyone
2011-04-17 11:41 pm UTC (link)

"Why didn't you just open the window? I think you wanted to get caught," Hermione grinned. She should leave. She really ought to leave. It would be a very wise thing to do, to back out of the bathroom and return to her bed. Instead, she took the flannel from Ron and, after a lot of shuffle-footing and nervous laughter, managed to manoeuvre her way around Ron and in front of the mirror.

Hermione lowered the flannel and made a disgusted little tch under her breath. She leaned over the basin and squinted at her face, letting out a short groan. Sleep had messed her hair to twice its regular size, which was impressive by itself, but now her nose was as red as a clowns to boot. "I expect Fleur will be able to get the swelling down in a jiffy. We're lucky she's so good at all this sort of thing. I was reading through her books she had in school. Did you know they learned First Aid? That would be far more practical than..." Hermione racked her brain for a subject she could live without, "Divination, I suppose. Or maybe they could just add another class."

Looking at Ron in the mirror, she noticed his shoulder, so poorly mended by her and her lack of proper training, "I'd have done a better job on that otherwise. Maybe Fleur should take a look at it?"

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ourking
2011-04-18 03:08 am UTC (link)

Scoffing as she asserted that he had wanted to have someone walk in on him, Ron snatched his pants up from the floor while she looked in the mirror, tugging them awkwardly on underneath the towel, and re-adjusting it rather than abandoning it entirely to stand about in shorts that would leave nothing to Hermione's own imagination. In truth he just had been near the door and thought to crack it rather than the window, but so long as she didn't see anything that would put them in a truly uncomfortable position - now that he had his pants on - Ron wasn't too worried.

"Look at what?" he asked, glancing over his shoulder and seeing Hermione's gaze lingering on it in the mirror. "Oh, yeah. I don't know, I mean, s'alright, it doesn't hurt or anything anymore." It wasn't as though he spent a good deal of time with his shirt off, and with half a year since the injury, Ron didn't think there was much to be done now. "If you really want to keep the swelling off, I'll get one of Bill's steaks for you."

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