“Yeah, yeah, you were right. it was good. Aside from not being able to talk while eating it. Is it supposed to do that or is it just stale?” He smiled. “Maybe you can help me find something not as sweet. You know, get me used to the less sweet and work me up. Deal?”
Before he knew it, Lydia was curled up into him, head on his arm and head on his chest. He practically stopped breathing. It was challenging enough to have his arm around her to share the bed but to be so intimately close was something he hadn’t felt in …he couldn’t count the years. And the scars to his chest. He didn’t want her to feel the scars beneath his coat. And sweater. And shirt. — he was always paranoid his scars would show if he wasn’t so layered but she was so close to him. Would she be able to feel them? Dear gods please no. He wasn’t ready for that conversation. Not in a hospital bed. Another time, maybe but not then. He closed his eyes and focused on the affection. The closeness. Her gentle way with him. That was what he needed to focus on, not his paranoia. He couldn’t live in his paranoia or he would never have any joy —
“I wouldn’t hurt the Gilderoy kid. I don’t even know him but can tell he’s just an easy target for a joke,” he shook his head as he spoke. “But, if I’m being honest —“ yes, honest, “I have a small list. It’s a very, very small list of people, I would hurt.” He lifted her chin without thinking and looked her dead in the eyes, “Please trust when I say that those very few deserve it.” He blinked softly. “Trust that I don’t hurt for the sake of hurting. It has to be horrid to get on that list.” He rubbed her cheek with his thumb, “Officially it only has two. But that’s a conversation for another day, yeah?” Funny how he was doing some of the things he had stopped himself from doing while speaking softly and totally honest about something so important.
The human condition. The irony. “Pain can shape us, yes.“ Yes. "But there are some things that just shouldn’t happen. Like what got you in this hospital bed. That was unnecessary and provoked in a way that was done simply to cause pain if not more. But the chase that brought you to me — I’ll take that.”
“When it’s fresh it melts in your mouth, and it’s just heavenly.” She promised him. “I’ll take you to Honeyduke’s some time. Maybe not a weekend though they get really crowded. And definitely not during a Hogsmeade weekend, kiddos everywhere.” She loved Honeydukes crowded full of kids but she didn’t really think that Henrick would agree.
The solid presence of Henrick’s body and the warmth of having someone there with her again made everything seem so much more bareable. The hospital was dumb and boring and sterile but now she had company and Henrick was awesome at human-pillow duties so it was going to be okay.
Lydia looked into his eyes, which were a very pretty blue did he know that?, and listened closely when he spoke. He was normally a serious type person but this seemed extra important to pay attention to. “I trust you, of course I trust you.” She had never not trusted him. Henrick had never given her a reason to do otherwise. “You don’t have to tell me ever, if you don’t want.
“I don’t know why they did that, at the fair. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to do something like that to people. Zoey’s better at that, at thinking about bad things when she has to. It’s harder for me, I guess. I’d rather just think about all the good things instead. Like, I know that pain is necessary and all that, but like, knowing it and having to live with it’s so different. But yeah. You’re definitely worth sleeping with Victor even though he’s not even that hot or that good at sex. But it’s okay, because I met you. And you’re cool.”
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