InsaneJournal

When Lisa woke up, the guilt was starting to set in even more than it had been the night prior. She knew that she had been unfair to Seamus, but she was also fairly convinced that he ought to have just played along and not made such a big deal of things - even if she had made just as big a deal of the situation. That little twinge of annoyance was what drove her to disentangle herself from her husband and not giving him a first or second glance. She paused at the side of the bed for only a half a second to adjust her t-shirt around her and hurry through the bedroom to go downstairs and make some coffee.

As she walked down the staircase, her fingers of one hand trailing along the banister and the other down the wall, Lisa blinked a few times to will the slight headache that beer always gave her to go away. She had been careful not to spend her short spell out with Liz and Wayne complaining about Seamus as both of them were closer to him than her, but it was what she had needed. As she stepped off the landing of the bottom step and strode toward the kitchen, she knew that she had come home in a much better place than she had left.

Entering the room, Lisa didn't even make it to the coffee to make any when she saw the little package and the note on the counter. Biting gently on her lip and giving a glance over her shoulder as though she was peeking in on something that wasn't hers to peek in on, she squinted down at the note. Even without her glasses she could read it easily and that guilt that had been setting in since the night before was full blown. She briefly closed her eyes after finishing the sonnet, biting softly on her lower lip before opening the small box and seeing the necklace.

"Oh, God," Lisa murmured, her fingers running over the necklace as her eyes glanced back at the sonnet. She was an awful, awful wife.

Knowing what she had to do, she didn't waste any time with the staircase and Apparated back up in their bedroom with the paper and necklace in hand. As she took a few steps toward her husband, she blinked and saw his hair. "Oh, Seamus," Lisa breathed as a sigh before sitting on the edge of the bed and reaching up to push that short hair back.

"Mrrph?" After getting Leanne to cut his hair and having a bit of scotch with her, Seamus had simply come home and gone to sleep. He was still asleep when Lisa came back to bed, and at being awakened he looked a little confused.

"Mornin'," Seamus mumbled as reality set in and his brain settled on where he was and what was going on. He felt rather bad about their fight as well, and he really didn't want them to spend their first anniversary at odds over something that stupid. When he saw the look on Lisa's face and the present and note in her hand, he offered a slight smile. "Happy anniversary."

Lisa's eyes flickered down to her hands as soon as he offered that sentiment and the smile. Damn, she felt so bad. Her eyes began to swim and she struggled not to blink and spill those tears over. When she looked back up at him, though, she had to blink and she glanced away once more for a fraction of a second out of embarrassment.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. "I was.. that was stupid."

Seamus knew what Lisa-about-to-cry looked like, and he was a sucker for it every time. He'd never been able to stay angry at a crying girl. Not that he was all that angry anymore anyway. He sighed and sat up, wrapping his arms around her. "Yeah," he admitted quietly. "But so was I, so let's not beat ourselves up about it too much, all right?"

"All right," Lisa agreed, leaning into Seamus and resting her head on his shoulder. She craned her head back and pressed a soft kiss against his neck before letting out a short sigh. She had long accepted that Seamus loved her despite her more daft moments in her past and were still to come..she just wished that this moment hadn't happened when it did.

"Thank you for these, by the way," she backed away from Seamus just slightly, glancing down at her hands. She she looked up at him again, she looked like she was going to cry once more, but this time for an entirely different reason and it was obvious with the small smile on her lips. "They're beautiful."

That was exactly the reaction Seamus had been hoping for when he'd gotten the gift, and it was certainly a lot better than what he'd been afraid he might get when she was still all hacked off at him. "Well, ye said ye wanted sapphires," he said, chuckling a little bit. He kissed her lightly and squeezed his arms once around her. "'m glad ye like 'em...and my very bad sonnet. I actually woke up in the middle of the night an' realized I should've rewritten that last line so the meter worked out better. 's a good thing I'm not tryin' to make a living as a poet."

"It's not bad," Lisa murmured, leaning in to kiss him gently again. She paused to take a deep breath before she leaned forward the rest of the way and rested her head on his shoulder again, setting the gifts aside and letting her arms settle around him. Then, she finally added, "It's beautiful even if the meter is a little off." She paused for a second before asking, "Do you want your gift now?"

"Only if ye can get it without gettin' up," Seamus said, nuzzling her hair. "For right now, I like ye right where y'are." As was usual after they'd had an argument, he was in an inordinately affectionate frame of mind. He didn't particularly want to let go of Lisa yet.

"As a matter of fact," Lisa replied, backing slightly away from him but linking his hand with hers so that she would still be touching him as she leaned over the side of the bed. She flashed him a smile before she plunged her hand under the mattress directly under where her head normally rested at night and pulled out a pamphlet and some papers. She hid the itinerary for a trip to China behind her back and gave him a cheeky look before she retook her previous place.

"Happy anniversary," she said quietly with a smile as she held the papers out to him and let her cheek rest on his shoulder again.

Seamus took the papers, and as soon as he read the first word his face lit up. "China?!" he exclaimed. "We're goin' to China?" Seamus laughed with pure joy, hugged Lisa tightly, then decided that wasn't sufficient and kissed her soundly. "Lisa, that's fuckin' brilliant," he declared once he was done. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Lisa grinned, positively beaming at that point. It was nice to know that even though she could mess some things up, she could still do right with others. She glanced down at the papers again, her smile toning down as she explained, "The dates are tentative since I know that you have a lot going on right now and I didn't want to ask you when you'd want to go as that ruins the surprise. But once things go relatively back to normal or when you decide you'd like to go I can contact the travel agency and make everything finalized." And then, because she couldn't handle waiting any longer, she kissed him again.

"That is bloody amazing," Seamus said, grinning broadly. "Seriously, I can't wait. I'll try to decipher my calendar and we'll have it figured out by the end of the day." They'd need to, because this was the only day Seamus wasn't swamped with various and sundry things to do for the remainder of the week - and in the weeks following the book's release, it was possible that he'd be equally busy. He hoped he would, anyway.

"Good plan," Lisa replied with a nod. She took his gift from him with a smile and set it aside so she could push him back onto the bed and properly cuddle against him with both of them laying down and her head on his chest. After a night of being at odds, she needed to have him right there with her arms around him. It was comforting and reminded her all over again that even though she was an idiot from time to time, he still loved her.

Which was a thought that made her grin, remembering all over again that this was their anniversary. They had been married for an entire year. "Wow," she said quietly before voicing that exact thought. "One year, hey?"

"One year," he agreed with a smile. "Somethin' else, huh? It doesn't seem like that long." Their first year together had flown by at light speed. It had been both happy and exciting, which probably served to explain why.

"It went by so fast," Lisa replied, releasing a content sigh. "Actually, the past four years have gone by so fast. It honest to Merlin feels like it was yesterday that I saw you at the bookshop and tried to shove titles down your throat." She chuckled to herself, shaking her head. "That's what happens when a dorky Ravenclaw tries to be flirty."

Seamus laughed. "Yeah, but it totally worked on me," he replied with a grin. "I was all 'Oh wow, she's hot and smart!' and was about to fall all over m'self to ask ye out. The word dorky never even crossed my mind."

Lisa chuckled, finding one of his hands and splaying his fingers out to press her hand against his. "That's pretty much what I was thinking once I figured out you weren't just looking at the pictures," she teased, her fingers lacing with his. She glanced up to give him a tilted smile. "Before that I just thought you were hot."

"Hot and not so bright," Seamus teased back as he laced his fingers through hers. "Admit it. Ye thought I was the Charms Class Fuck-Up with no thoughts outside o' girls and whiskey."

"All right, you caught me," Lisa laughed, craning her neck to place a kiss on his jaw to emphasize that she was only teasing. "Fortunately for you, though, I soon realized that was an unfair assessment and there's a brain in that nice body, too." She paused and let out a sigh that was almost a bit mournful. "It's a really nice body."

"Shallow," he joked. Seamus apparently didn't mind this alleged shallowness, though, because he kissed her again and this time started laying her back on the bed. He paused the kiss to grin down from above her. "So, like the hair? Leanne did it."

"She did a good job," Lisa nodded with a slight smile that turned a bit pained. As she reached up to run her fingers through his hair, she sighed. "I'm sorry. I just..." She paused, her fingers still curled into his hair before shaking her head. "I don't have an excuse. I'm just sorry."

"Just keep it out o' the journal next time?" Seamus requested hopefully. "That was all that really got to me about it." He gave her a quick kiss, just to make sure she knew he wasn't really mad about it anymore.

"Okay," Lisa replied, tilting her head back a bit into the pillows and bringing her hand that was in his hair around to cup his cheek. He wasn't mad, but she still felt a bit guilty. She always did after they had fights, especially when they were her own fault. She had all sorts of excuses the night prior, but now they just seemed daft. All that really mattered was, well. "I love you, Shay."

"Love you too," he murmured back, and then he began a kiss that would keep them from talking for a good long time.