Fallout

[mela]

[Damien Vaisey/Gwen Weasley] [7th year] [Future] [Private]

Damian Vaisey could've called himself a lot of things before two days ago.

He was a cheat and a liar and vindictive and could be so cold that ice was uncomfortable around him and he didn't like anyone even remotely connected to the Weasleys--that included but wasn't limited to; the Potters and the Prewetts and all of their spawn--but now...

Now he wasn't so sure.

He still a cheat and a liar, that much he was sure of. Or pretty sure. Those two things hadn't been to test in those two days.

He didn't feel the need to be vindictive or cold to anyone but was also sure that if tested, he would be able to do it. Maybe with more a conscious then before. Maybe he'd think twice before saying something mean and hurtful. Or rephrase it so it wasn't that bad.

It was that hatred of Weasleys that seemed to be wavering and practically to the point of non-existance now.

And he could probably add hypocrite and coward to his list of personal attributes.

Hypocrite because he's sworn to hate all Weasleys for pretty much forever but two days ago, almost exactly since it was nearing three o'clock in the afternoon, he'd kissed Gwen Weasley. Kissed her. On the mouth. Lip on lip with a little tongue action.

He wasn't sure how it'd happened. One minute, they'd been fighting and doing it very well and so very close to pulling out their wands and finishing it that way and then--then he was practically blinded. It was hard to explain what happened. He was reaching for his wand and then he was reaching for her face and instead of slapping her like he should've, he grabbed her by the chin, pulled her close and kissed her.

Coward because after what could very well have been the best and most confusing and maybe even worst minute of his life, he'd jerked away from her, releasing her face and then he'd just ran for it. Turned on his heel and ran away from her and hadn't pulled up the nerve to talk to her for two days.

Actually, he hadn't technically pucked up and talked to her. He'd left a note in her Transfiguration book when she wasn't looking, asking her to meet him in the Owlery at three in the afternoon because 'there was stuff they needed to talk about'. He hadn't even been brave enough to write 'we need to figure out why the fuck I kissed you'.

He was a coward and a hypocrite and unbelievably confused and anxious because she was going to be there soon, if she chose to come and nervous because he wanted to see her, for God only knows why and he knew that he would be disappointed if she didn't show.

Damien sighed, and stroked the top of his owl's head absentmindedly. It was just a waiting game now. Waiting on Gwen. He was waiting on the whims of a Weasley.

It shouldn't make him sick.

It just confused him more because it didn't.

[belle]

Confused didn’t even begin to cover it.

‘What the fuck?!’ didn’t seem strong enough a phrase.

Stunned might begin to describe the feeling. Dumbfounded, astonished, maybe even flabbergasted. And oh so puzzled.

She had yet to figure out what had happened. They were there, fighting as was their usual form of communication…she was pretty sure they were literally about two seconds away from hexing each other into next Tuesday…when he pulled what was quite possibly the least expected move in the world.

Damien Vaisey kissed her.

Of course, it was highly unexpected. It was weird and confusing and random, and, to be honest, a bit awkward. But, what pained Gwen Weasley most about the whole event…was that she could not honestly say that she did not like it.

Needless to say, the two had avoided each other like the plague for the last two days. Every time she'd think she had the courage to finally say something to him, either he'd disappear or she'd lose that nerve. Gwen could never remember not being confident. Not ever. This dazed and confused feeling was rather new to her, and she was not a fan.

However, this morning in Transfiguration, when she opened her book, she'd discovered a note. "Meet me in the Owlery at three." Much to her own annoyance, she was not bothered by the fact that he'd asked to meet her. Normally any exchange of the human language between the two left her ready to kill him. Because they were supposed to hate each other. And not just because he was an obnoxious git; there was also that "I want your family dead" aspect.

Actually, annoying herself even further, she was a bit anxious about the meeting. She actually wanted to see him. What the hell was up with that? Never in her life had she WANTED to see Damien Vaisey, unless he was in some sort of pain or something.

With a small sigh, at precisely three o'clock, she found herself pushing open the door to the Owlery. There he was, sitting there all apparently innocent and petting an owl. Bastard. And then, to top it all off, there was that slight edge of contentment that went through her as she saw him.

Her life had gotten seriously fucked up in the last two days.

[mela]

Damien looked up when the door opened and visible relaxed when he saw who it was. And that was surely a sign of the end of the world because he relaxed because of Gwen Weasley. He should've reaching for his wand, tensing and preparing himself for a fight. But at the moment, he couldn't tell you if his wand was actually on him and he was so far from a fight, he couldn't even see the annoyance that came before it.

So fucked up.

He dropped his eyes after a few moments of staring at her, returning them to his owl. Lois, his owl, wasn't anything special. A pretty ordinary spotted, brown owl. Not small but not large either. A medium sized, average looking owl. But he liked her and she did what was needed and that was that.

Quit being such a coward and talk to her. Right now.

"Hey," Damien said softly, shifting his weight to his other leg, almost like he was nervous and surely the world had to be ending now.

Say something else!

... or don't. Whatever.

[belle]

A thick awkward silence filled the air as Gwen stared quietly into the room. Well, of course there was an awkward silence. The two were supposed to hate each other. They were used to hating each other. The fiery, red hot passion of loathing was supposed to fill the both of them upon the mere sight of one another. However, Gwen, for one, was noticeably lacking such a passion. Or at least, that particular one.

At that thought, she mentally slapped herself. Hard. That was entering completely forbidden territory, there.

Though hadn't they already entered such territory? Hell, the world should have imploded when such polar opposites kissed. It was unheard of. Unthought of. Pretty much just plain, out and out fucked up. And she'd bloody liked it. This should have filled her with such shame. Such a sense of treachery...but that all seemed unimportant, for God only knew what reason. After all, he pretty much wanted her whole family dead.

Though, usually, her whole family included her. And while some people may for whatever reason disagree, Gwen did not think that it was normal behavior to spontaneously lock lips with someone you wanted to kill. But that could just be her.

Running a hand through her tell-tale Weasley-red hair, she took a step into the room, letting the door close with a soft click! behind her. Carefully meandering around the piles of owl pellets and droppings, she stopped at what she deemed was a good distance away from him. Not too close should they randomly try to murder each other, but close enough that they wouldn't need to shout across the room.

"Hi..." She blinked at him a bit anxiously, wondering if she should say anything else.

Oh well. He invited me up here, he can start the conversation.

Oh good. There was still a little bit of herself in there.

[mela]

Damien stared at her for a few seconds before looking at the ground. That held his attention for a few more seconds before he looked up at her again, a sort of shy smile playing on the corners of his lips. He should never, ever have been giving her that sort of smile but there he was, doing that exact thing and he almost hated himself for it.

If almost suddenly meant that he did. Passionately and wholly.

"I, umm..." he started, reaching a hand up to pull on his hair lightly. It seemed to help him to pull on his hair when he was stressed or confused or pretty much anything that he was feeling right then. It sucked. It sucked a lot. Especially since it was all Gwen Weasley's fault.

"How are you?"

Coward.

[belle]

How was she? Okay, she may have this newfound and highly disturbing....infatuation with Damien Vaisey, but that had to be about the dumbest question she'd ever heard. She was confused, and frustrated, and some strange emotion that made her stomach feel weird, not to mention still a bit suspicious that maybe, just maybe, he'd called her up here actually to kill her rather than just talk. From past experience, she wouldn't put it past him. How was she. Great question.

"I'm fine," Gwen avoided his gaze as she lied.

....Okay, this was ridiculous. At this rate, within the next two minutes they'd be talking about the weather, or saying something like "How 'bout them Kestrals?". They didn't choose to come to the dirty owl tower because they liked the scenery. Best just to get to the point, and get this conversation actually going.

"So..." Gwen started, finally allowing her eyes to meet his, "You wanted to talk?"

[mela]

Well... he needed to talk to her.

Whether or not, he wanted to talk to her was up for some debate. He was a little too happy with just embracing that cowardly side of himself that had been showing up for the past few days. It seemed to be working out pretty well for him because then he didn't have to think about why he'd kissed her or talk about why he'd kissed her or repeat the action of kissing her.

Which at the moment, he really wanted to do.

Damien shrugged a little, glancing at the ground for a few seconds. Okay... he could do this. He could talk to her about assaulting her mouth with his.

Oh who was he kidding? He could not do this.

No. No. He could do this. He really could. She was just a Weasley after all.

"Yeah," he said softly. "About... what happened... the other day, actually," he said, bringing his eyes back up to her face.

"And... more importantly, why?"

[belle]

She waited. And waited. And waited yet some more. He seemed reluctant to get talking. Gwen, never one for uncomfortable silences, would of course have started the conversation off, if she'd known the specifics of what he'd wanted to say. But Damien Vaisey was the one person whose mind she could never figure out (and it pissed her off to no end). So she sat quietly and as patiently as possible for her, waiting for him to begin. It was at this point that she caught herself staring at his lips, as if some small part of her was welcoming the prospect of a replay from two days ago.

Gwen slapped herself mentally. And then followed through with several shoves, a karate chop, and a roundhouse kick. Look at his eyes, dumbass! A tiny voice in her head urged, and quickly she averted her eyes upward, meeting his gaze.

Oh, good. He was talking. Now they were finally getting somewhere.

After all, she wasn't sure how much longer she could just sit here like this. Her mind was starting to wander into waaay forbidden territory.

"Yes, good question. Why?" After all, he couldn't expect her to answer. He'd started it.

[mela]

Okay, so she had no idea why that had happened either. Not good since he was expecting her to be able to explain what the hell happened. She was one half of the whole thing. She should logically be able to tell him why his mouth had landed on hers and better yet, why he'd liked it.

Of course, Damien couldn't tell her why he'd done it, so he wasn't pulling his weight either.

"You didn't do anything?" he asked, lifting his chin at her a little. It was a defensive move. Since it clearly couldn't be his fault that they'd kissed. That'd be ridiculous since he still wanted her family dead.

"No charm or potion in my drink?"

[belle]

"What?!"

Charm or potion in his drink??

"You can't possibly think that I actually wanted you to do that! What kind of masochistic person do you think I am? A) I hate you. B ) You hate me. C) You want my family dead. D) I don't know where the hell that mouth of yours has been. For all I know, I could be carrying twenty different diseases by now." Egotistical prat. How could he possibly think that she, Gwen Weasley, would want to kiss him? Ignoring the fact that she was now subconsciously admitting she liked it, at least. Because as far as she knew, he had no access to her subconscious.

No, there was no way this nonsense could be put on her. The best thing to do would be to turn, right now, and walk out. Forget the whole ordeal completely. Completely ignore the fact that whenever she thought of him now, all she thought about was that one freak moment two days ago. Just go back to tossing hexes in each others' direction between classes.

She should just leave now. She urged herself mentally to storm out, slamming the door on that weird random little voice in her head for all eternity.

But she couldn't make her feet move.

[mela]

"I don't have any diseases," Damien retorted hotly, narrowing his eyes at her to the point where he was definitely glaring at her so hard that he could've cut her in half if his gaze was made out of daggers. Or something like that. He wasn't entirely sure how that went.

He glared at her for a few more seconds before making an aggravated noise under his breath and swiping his hand through his hair roughly. No matter what she said, this whole thing was definitely her fault. There was no way that he kissed her out of his own free will.

"You had to have done something," Damien told her, with slightly less bite in his voice. He was getting a little desperate at this point.

"I can't have done... that if you didn't."

[belle]

Gwen rolled her eyes, returning his glare with equal intensity, and snapped; "You're missing the part where I didn't want you to kiss me!" she stopped, and blinked a few times. It was the first either of them had mentioned the actual act out loud.

Now that the actual word was out there, the whole atmosphere felt different. If possible, it was almost more awkward. For the first time in ages, the normal super confident Gwen Weasley looked intensely uncomfortable. She wanted so much to be somewhere else right now. She even attempted to think herself into disappearing. Of course, that didn't work.

"I didn't do anything," she stated, completely honestly and lacking the former snappishness that'd been there.

[mela]

"Yeah, well..." Damien retorted, completely floudering at this point. He had nothing to say in response to that. He'd flinched when she said the 'k' word even, which was a little ridiculous because he could think it now without cringing. Apparently hearing it was something completely different.

"It felt like you did!" he told her.

And that was him acknowledging that he'd paid attention to how she'd responded.

[belle]

She was pretty sure her blood had frozen cold. He had noticed that she'd kissed back. Fuck. Gwen didn't know why she'd expected him not too, as it'd been obvious...but a girl could hope. But why had he paid attention to how she reacted? Probably just to throw it back at her, as he was doing now. But the fact still remained that he'd started it. There was no way she could accept any sort of blame for that.

"Yeah, well, I didn't."

Great comeback, Weasley.

[mela]

"I didn't imagine it," Damien retorted viciously. If he was going to admit to kissing her, then he was going to drag her down with him. He might've started the kiss, and he hated himself for it every time he thought about it, but she'd responded and he'd be damned if she got away scot free. She was a Weasley after all. He couldn't let her get away with this.

"You...." he paused, almost literally choking on the word 'kiss'. Probably best to change it to another one.

"... returned the gesture," he finished, narrowing his eyes at her. A little bit like he was daring her to lie to his face and tell him that she didn't. At this point, he would've welcomed the lie. Because then maybe he was crazy and he could live with crazy over being attracted to Gwen Weasley.