▲ five time my muse thought about kissing yours, and the one time they did.
▲ five time portia thought about kissing fred…
Portia had instantly volunteered to go infiltrate the enemy camp, to see what these sky people were all about, and one of the first people she notices when she gets there is Fred Weasley. He’s quiet, but he asks all the wrong questions, and she’s panicking, worrying that she’s blown her cover. She has to think of a way to distract him, fast, before he can register just how unsatisfactory her answer really is; she’s just about to grab his face and kiss him to throw him off, but then someone interrupts, saying they need Fred’s help getting firewood, and relief courses through Portia’s body as he strides away.
Portia has to try and pretend that she’s one of these strange sky people, so on her second day at camp, she fakes an injury, pretending she twisted her ankle because she’s not used to this weird ‘earth terrain’. Fred comes to her rescue, though; he barely knows her, but he seems to trust her, and maybe even care about her, even though she’s an imposter who’s only been here for a couple of days. He scoops her up in his arms and carries her back to camp so that she doesn’t have to put weight on her foot, and she nearly leans forward to press a kiss to his lips in gratitude. She doesn’t, though; maybe that’s not the proper way to show her gratitude. Instead, she smiles and thanks him as he sets her down and hurries away again.
Commander Junior had gotten people to build houses fairly quickly -- Portia finds him particularly interesting, of all the people in the camp. She definitely will be reporting back to the other grounders about him. Yet she keeps being drawn to quiet, kind Fred instead, and one night, they all tuck into bed in the new cabins, the pair next to each other. Portia wakes up in the night, paranoid of small sounds that might be other grounders attacking, and when her eyes flutter open, Fred’s face is so close to hers, and he looks so sweet even in his sleep that she considers kissing him, just once, just to see if his lips are as soft as she imagines them to be. Then another noise in the woods wakes everyone else up, too, and there’s a flurry of movement that shakes any thoughts of kissing Fred far, far from her mind.
This time, it’s not a fake injury: it’s a real one. And it’s not Portia, it’s Fred. The night they were woken up, it was because Gracie was returning Hugo, the prisoner. And Fred went charging at the grounder to defend his cousin’s honor. Gracie didn’t take kindly to it; she’d hit him over the head, said they should be grateful she’d brought Hugo back against the commanders orders, and said not to try anything so stupid like attacking someone trained in combat again. Portia’s tending to his wounds and he’s getting sleepy and saying how grateful he is for Portia being around, and she nearly leans down to press her lips to his when his sister Roxanne barges in, wanting to check on him, and the moment’s gone.
They’re definitely having a moment. She’s never had a moment like this with someone before, but it’s practically hitting her over the head. Her heart’s racing, their faces are leaning closer to each other -- and then Portia pulls back, panicked. She likes Fred too much, respects him too much, to let this happen without being honest, and she swallows hard before apologizing, saying she can’t do this. “Fred, I’m... I’m not who I’ve been pretending to be.” And so she spills all her secrets, ever sordid one, and Fred’s too angry for anything like that kiss to ever be a possibility again... but he also understands, and he promises he won’t tell when Portia swears that she’s not going to go back to the grounders, and that she won’t turn them over to the Commander at all.
…and the one time she did.
Her cover is blown, but not because of Fred. His sister hasn’t trusted her since the second she started getting close, and now she’s followed Portia around until she saw her make contact with another grounder in the woods. Roxanne tells her that if she leaves quietly, she won’t turn her over to Chancellor Junior and his people. She hates this; she doesn’t want to leave, she’s felt more comfortable here than she’s ever felt with the grounders. But she can’t leave without saying goodbye, and as she stands at the edge of the woods, she finally gives into her urges and kisses him square on the lips. “I’m so sorry for everything,” she apologizes, whispering against his lips as she waves goodbye, her heart hurting every step of the way back to Polis.
