LMOM #1 – Roses in December Title: Roses in December (1 of 31) Author:summerborn Rating: PG-13 Pairing: Remus/Katie Bell (later, Remus/lots of others) Kink: Kissing... until tomorrow Challenge: Lusty Month of May 2010 Word count: 560 Author's Note: Clearly I am time traveling, since there's no way it can be May again. But all I can say is, I sure do love LMOM! (p.s. We don't have a Remus/Katie tag yet... I feel honored to be first!)
"I'm sorry to just show up like this," Katie Bell said, her hands clutching the small pink handkerchief in front of her chest as she stood in Remus' doorway. "Hermione mentioned... after she and Seamus broke up..." She sniffed.
Remus smiled in understanding. Clearly she'd been crying – he needed to make her more comfortable. "Of course," he said soothingly. "Please, come inside." He held the door wider, moved to one side. When she passed him, he let one hand rest gently on the small of her back and steered her towards one of the overstuffed chairs in front of the empty fireplace.
When she was settled, still dabbing at one eye with the pink cloth, he stood back and looked at her for a moment. Her shoulder-length hair was pulled into a hasty ponytail, and her eyes were puffy and red-rimmed, but her figure was athletic – fit and lean, as only a Quidditch chaser, built for speed, can be.
She glanced up, saw him looking. Remus overcame his instinct to look away and instead sat down in the other chair, leaning forward. "Fred Weasley," he said, softly but distinctly, "is an idiot." She made a small noise and looked down, so he caught one of her hands between his and waited for her to look at him again.
"You're beautiful," he whispered.
She gazed at him for the space of a few heartbeats, and then seemed to come back to herself. "Hermione said..."
"I know." He gave her hand a pat and then released it. "We don't need to worry about Hermione right now."
"Right," she said with a self-conscious smile.
"The person I'm most worried about at the moment is you," he continued. "Do you... want to tell me what happened?"
"It's so silly," Katie said. "Fred is always... kind of a goofball, but I thought it was part of his charm, y'know?"
Remus nodded.
"But I was trying to tell him about what happened with Angelina..." She waved a hand. "It doesn't matter. I just wanted him to listen, just for a minute..." Her voice was growing thicker. "And it just kind of hit me. He'd always been like that, and he always would be."
This was the crisis moment – there was always a crisis moment. "You deserve better."
Katie started to scoff again, but Remus moved swiftly to kneel by the side of her chair, reached a hand to caress her cheek. "I'm serious," he said. "You deserve someone who listens, really listens, someone who cares about what you have to say, what you think... what you need."
Her tears of a moment ago seemed forgotten. She gazed at him breathlessly, and her eyes fluttered closed as he leaned in to kiss her.
Their lips touched. He felt her body tighten, heard the intake of breath, and then she was responding, pressing against his kiss, tentative at first but growing stronger.
Remus pulled back, looking at her intently. "Are you okay? Okay with this?" He knew what her answer would be, knew that was why she had come, but he had to ask.
She nodded, then pulled his head back to hers for another kiss.
He let her take the lead, moving his hands to her shoulders as she kissed him more forcefully, parting his lips when he felt her tongue moving across them. She certainly seemed to know what she needed.
Then she was standing next to him, running her hands over his chest, arms. "Do you... can we take this to your bedroom?"