InsaneJournal

Who: Hermione Granger and Zuko
When: Monday, 4/15. Tax Day!
Where: Coffee Shop
What: Catching up
Rating/Warnings: Low
Status: Complete



Hermione was sitting in the coffee shop with a coffee in front of her. It was a latte today, with some sugar. Simple. None of that crappy tea, and not the sugary kind that Zuko liked--she didn’t want to be up until midnight like she was the last time she had one with him! Coffee. Hot. Steamed Milk. Sugar. Perfect combo.

She had to admit to being curious as to what was going on in his life. His text made it seem like he’d been really occupied over the last couple of weeks, and (aside from his vacation) she wondered what was keeping him so busy.

She glanced up when the bell on the door chimed, and broke into a smile at the sight of her friend.

Zuko smiled back -- one of his nearly shy sorts of smiles; he was obviously pleased. The japanese boy gave a little wave, and then held up a finger before going to order his overly-sweet coffee.

Once that task was managed, he moved over to the table Hermione was at, and flopped down into the seat across from hers. He was tanned from his vacation -- his skin a healthy golden as opposed to his nearly pallor. “Hello,” he greeted.

“Hiiiiii.” Hermione said, giving him a grin. She’d noticed his happy demeanor, his tanned skin. “You went on vacation! Somewhere... tropical?” They’d talked about it, but she couldn’t remember if he’d said where he was going to go on vacation. The mention of Chichen Itza was stuck in her brain. (Probably because she’d done the mentioning.) “You look tan! Did you have a good time?”

“The Bahamas,” Zuko said in agreement, because they had talked about it -- but at the time he hadn’t really picked a place. In the end, Draco had decided for them. It’d been a good choice. “It was nice,” he said finally. “We had a good time. The weather was -- well -- tropical.” He gave a slight pause, but then could find no other way to bridge the subject, so just went out with it. “I got married.”

Hermione was about to ask something intellectual about the Bahamas. Really, she was. Something super smart and nerdy, but then he mentioned getting married and she turned into a girly girl. “SHUT UP.” She said, gasping, then clapped a hand over her mouth. Did I really just say that?

Then again, she was super excited for her friend, and didn’t really care if she came off like a squee’ing schoolgirl. “Seriously? You ran off to the Bahamas and got married? I must be rubbing off on you,” she added, a teasing tone in her voice. She was beaming, thrilled for Zuko and Draco.

Zuko gave a smile that was just this shy of being silly and fiddled a little absently with the ring around his finger on his left hand. “I did,” he said, although it was clear she believed him in the first place. “It wasn’t really my idea at first, but... I think it worked out well.”

“That’s wonderful, Zuko! I’m so happy for you!” She completely understood the running off and coming home married thing, as she’d done it herself over New Years. One minute she was at Harry’s football game, and twenty-four hours later she was married to Jim. “Gosh, what are you doing here with me?” She asked, teasing. “You should be off shagging your husband.” Okay, even more teasing.

Zuko rolled his eyes at that, but smiled behind his coffee anyway. “He has classes,” he said, in excuse. “It’s good. It means we both have time to regain the ability to walk.” Okay, sorry for the TMI Hermione, but Zuko really did think that was a joke.

“Classes, Smasses.” Hermione teased. She lifted her coffee cup to take a sip. Then she sputtered into it, half choking, half coughing, half laughing. Okay, that makes three halves. But she was doing that thing. Her hand reached for her napkin, then brought it up to cover her mouth.

Zuko actually laughed at that reaction, and had absolutely no good sense to feel bad about causing it, either. Instead, he innocently scratched the tip of his nose. Innocent. Really.

“Oh boy.” Hermione said, giving a couple of coughs and a few laughs at the end there. Because, really. It was funny. She was pink in her cheeks and shaking her head. “Ah, newlyweds. I remember those days.” She said. Even with the TMI, Hermione was genuinely happy for her friend. “Makes for a nice change, doesn’t it?”

As if she wasn’t still one, herself. Zuko shook his head, still vaguely amused, and sipped at his overly-sweet coffee. “It’s a bit different,” he admitted, because in some ways it was. “But not so much that it’s weird.”

“I understand what you mean.” Very well. Hermione had been in his shoes not too long ago. It was starting to become routine for her, which was nice... but she remembered feeling astonished all the time. The ‘how on Earth did I get here?’ phase had just about worn off. She was still happy all the time, but now it was a little more commonplace. “So, you’ve moved in with Draco, or him with you?” She thought she remembered something about Draco living with his sister--who wasn’t his sister in the dreams, how Hermione knew her.

There was still that. Zuko did wake up every day and wonder what the hell exactly had happened for him to have a blond man pressed against his side. It was distractingly nice. Which was still distracting. But also nice.

“Uh-- with him. And his sister.” He sounded neutral on that topic, as if unsure how he felt about it, but then thought better of it and went on. “I-- don’t know how happy she is about that.”

Distracting and nice. That about summed it up for Hermione, too. “Right. Pansy?” Hermione asked. “That... that must get awkward, right? I can’t imagine having Jim’s brother or sister around all the time. Might make it hard to get in a quick shag before dinner, if brother- or sister-in-law’s there in the kitchen having a drink.”

Zuko’s smile was indulging in her assessment. “Pansy, yes. And it can be,” he agreed, although not really because of the sex thing. He was a teenaged boy, and so was Draco. It wasn’t hard to find time for sex basically ever. “I just think -- well. They were - are- close. I wonder if I’m not just making things a mess for them.”

Hermione and Jim’s sessions were not quick. Not quick in the slightest. Hence the worry about someone else catching them. But they moved on to another topic. Hermione’s brow furrowed. “I doubt that Draco would marry you if it wasn’t what he wanted.” She said, shaking her head. “And, from what I understand, things are a mess for them anyway, aren’t they?”

“Of course he wanted to,” Zuko said -- and it came out a little more quickly, a little more firmly than he’d intended. He sipped his coffee to regain his own admittedly quick to rise temper. “It’s not like that-- I mean. Things were hard for them? So I feel like... maybe I made it worse.”

Hermione raised both eyebrows at his insistence. She’d merely meant that if moving in with Zuko, being married to him, incorporating him into his life--all of that--wasn’t what Draco wanted, he wouldn’t have gone through with it. Nothing to do with how much they loved each other or wanted to be together. Of course, she hadn’t elaborated. She sipped from her own cup.

“I don’t know them very well. I only know what I’ve got in the dreams, and how different they seem to be in this world than they are in the other.” Hermione said, giving a little shrug. Of course, after spending a little time with Draco and reading bits on the net and the gossip rags, she’d pieced together that Pansy wasn’t blood related. (How could anyone NOT catch on?)

“Do you think maybe it’d help if you spent some one-on-one time with Pansy? How’s your relationship with her?”

Yeah, once it’d been pointed out, Zuko thought it was completely obvious. He hadn’t realized at first, of course, that the two had thought they were twins. Half siblings, he could have seen. There were stranger things.

“I’ve--- tried.” Zuko said, thoughtfully. “We don’t not get along. But we don’t have much in common, either.” Except for the fact that Pansy liked drinking and always knew what to stock up on. But that wasn’t really a hobby.

“Hmm. I can see how that might be... well, you have one thing in common,” she said, brightening a little as her mind popped to the idea. “You both love Draco, right? Maybe that’s a good place to start. You could do something together for him.” She suggested.

“I have a feeling the more you two hang out, the more you’ll find you have in common,” she added, somewhat optimistically.

“You’re probably right.” Zuko said, fidgeting with his coffee before shrugging and giving a half smile. “I’m sure I will have to work on it. We’ll all manage.” he paused and finished off his coffee. “Headed to the library? I think I am in a minute.”

Hermione smiled. She was glad that maybe she’d helped. Hopefully. And if he had any more problems, or wanted to talk about it again, she was always around. That’s what friends were for, right?

“Yeah, definitely.” Hermione said, giving a nod. “Finals are just around the corner.” She stood from her chair and motioned for him to come with her. Friends and library? Best. Combination. Ever.