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They hadn’t seen each other in over a year now, but there he was sitting in Neville’s section. He hadn’t expected to see the redheaded boy there at all, in fact he’d purposefully gone out of his way to avoid Ron Weasley since the battle of Hogwarts. Often Ginny had wondered aloud how he thought that he’d be able to make that work, but as he’d pointed out more than once, Ron hadn’t returned to Hogwarts for their eighth year when Neville had. There were no other real reasons that he needed to see Ron so in actual fact, avoiding him had been easy.
He didn’t have anything against Ron, just the opposite actually. He really really liked Ron, but of course he was too much of a good guy and respected the fact that Hermione had ‘dibs’. Dibs was not generally something that he believed in but the fact that Hermione had more of a chance with the boy had been enough to make him back off. He'd heard, through Ginny and Luna, that Hermione had since left Ron for her old flame Viktor.
"Oi, Longbottom. You have a customer." The gruff voice of the diner's chef called from behind him, snapping Neville out of his thoughts.
Neville took a deep breath and made himself walk over to Ron's table. He cleared his throat, briefly wondering if there was a chance that he wouldn't even recognise him, though he knew that was far-fetched. They'd shared a dorm room for six years after all.
"What can I get you?" Neville asked as he took his pad out of his apron pocket.
Ron did a double take as he looked up. "Uh. The chicken and a chocolate milkshake." He said slowly after a moment or two in which Neville just about managed not to tap his pen on the pad. He wasn't trying to be impatient, it was more that his nerves were taking over.
"Coming up." Neville said with a small smile. It was clear to him that Ron recognised him, but fortunately he didn't seem to have anything to say about it and Neville managed to put the order in and serve it to Ron without the need for anything other than pleasantries being exchanged.
In the meantime, Neville had managed to keep busy by serving other tables but when it came to giving Ron his check, the redhead seemed to actually want to talk.
"So you work here now?" Ron asked as he pulled up his wallet and began counting Muggle money out slowly.
Neville nodded, though he's neatly the answer to that question should have been obvious, shouldn't it? "Just for the summer, yeah." He hadn't really needed the money but he had needed the distraction, with school being over and him not exactly knowing what he wanted to do next. He was sort of enjoying working in the Muggle world and being able to dedicate his evenings to researching all the plants that he wanted.
Ron gave a small nod, fidgeting slightly with one of the notes he held in his palm before he handed the money over. "What time do you finish?"
Neville blinked rapidly at that question. He hadn't expected Ron to take an interest in his life, let alone seemingly ask to spend time with him. It certainly was how he had expected today to go when he'd woken up. "Uh, at five."
"I'll see you then." Ron said with a smile as he got up, flashing Neville a smile before he left.
Neville watched him go and only managed to shake himself free of his thoughts when he heard the bell on the back counter ding, indicating that someone's order was ready.
Neville didn't know what to expect when he finished work. Part of him had actually assumed that Ron was playing some sort of trick on him. He was sure that he had somehow managed to trick Ginny into telling him about Neville's crush and now the redhead was using it against him. He pulled in a deep breath as he stepped out onto the street and wrapped his jacket around himself just that little bit more tightly.
Summer was such a weird concept to him now that he was working. The sun seemed to beat down on the streets making every customer he served resemble candyfloss when they sat and ordered their ice creams, but the nights were cold and often resulted in him wishing that he had extra layers. The kicker, of course, was that it wasn't even all that late yet and the sun was still in the sky. He'd just formed this idea of how everything was meant to be now that he'd become a working member of society.
He started to walk towards his usual apparation spot when he didn't immediately see Ron outside the cafe. He supposed that the other man had probably come to his senses and shrugged it off when he felt a tap on his shoulder. Neville stopped in his tracks, turning his head ever-so-slightly to see Ron was now falling into step beside him.
"Thought we had a date?" The redhead asked, an eyebrow lifting in a way that would have made Neville blush had his words not already done the trick.
"A date?" He repeated as he looked Ron up and down, his eyes wide. Was this part of the somewhat cruel and twisted joke?
"Yeah. A date. You know, I take you out for dinner somewhere nice and then I manage to sneak a kiss at the end of the night before you go home." Ron was grinning but he seemed to be sincere, or at least Neville couldn't see anything that could indicate that he was leading him on.
Neville allowed himself a small smile as he actually seemed to manage to relax. "Okay, dinner. Sure. Where are we going?"
"I know a place." Ron grinned and suddenly his hand had slipped into Neville's.
Neville didn't pull away and instead followed Ron down the street towards a small restaurant. It wasn't where he had expected to spend his evening but he couldn't complain. A date with the boy he'd been crushing on for years was better than another dinner with his grandmother.
Ron walked Neville home after what he could only describe as a lovely dinner. They'd talked about their current lives; how Neville wanted to teach; how Ron had spent the last year helping to piece his family back together but was still hoping to become an auror. They hadn't talked about the past, which Neville was more than grateful for.
Ron had been everything that Neville had hoped for as well. He hadn't expected the redhead to be such a gentleman, and yet he had been. He'd pulled out chairs and opened doors and even offered Neville his jacket when it hard turned a little colder as the sun had started to set.
Neville was more or less convinced that this was all a dream when they reached his grandmother's house, but he wasn't ready for this dream to end yet. Ron had followed him up the front steps and onto the old fashioned porch where they stood for a few moments, just looking at each other.
Neville opened his mouth after a few moments as he realised that one of them needed to say something before it got weird but before he could do that, Ron's lips were pressed to his. Neville closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Ron, pulling his closer as he kissed him back. He wanted this moment to last forever.