InsaneJournal

The Price of Happiness (Percy/Kingsley, PG)
Title: The Price of Happiness
Pairing: Percy/Kingsley
Rating: PG
Word Count: 355
Warnings: Character death.
Disclaimer: Not mine. JKR's.
Summary: Percy has seen the price of happiness.
Notes: An Advent Drabble for melusinahp, who requested Percy/Kingsley. This is probably not at all what you wanted, and I'm so sorry.

Percy's at work the very next day, eight sharp, though most of the rest of the Ministry is dark, offices deserted, parchments and quills still lying where they were dropped when their owners heard the news.

Hit by a bus. A Muggle bus. Just crossing the street, and—gone. Just like that. Only forty-six years old.

The outer office is dark, but Percy strides through it, passing his own desk without a glance. He hesitates at the door to Kingsley's office, his hand on the knob, his breathing, which has been steady since he heard the news, suddenly going ragged.

This is real, he tells himself, but he can't quite believe it.

Inside the office, a lamp is lit, its green shade casting a gentle light over Kingsley's desk. Percy stands exactly where he stood just twenty-four hours earlier to receive the first bit of life-changing news in that same span of time.

Of course I love you, Percy. I have for a long time.

Percy feels something inside him bend, not quite to the point of breaking, but nearly so. He circles the desk slowly and lowers himself into Kingsley's chair, the chair he was kissed in so very thoroughly.

He touches two fingers to his lips with a curious sense of wonderment, and then the blame begins.

The thing inside him snaps, and Percy's face goes hot. He clenches his jaw, determined not to break down, but why, why did he have to ask, why did he have to be so bold, why did they both have to be so happy when they left work that afternoon?

Said he had a smile on his face. Must not even have seen it coming.

"I never saw it coming," whispers Percy to the darkness outside his circle of green light, and he swipes an angry hand under his glasses at the tears just beginning to sting.

There's no time for tears, no time for regret, no time for any of it. Percy's seen the price of his boldness, of his tenacity.

He won't do it again.