Work Text:
How anyone could talk so much without running out of air would forever be a mystery to Blaise. By any normal human standards, Luna should’ve fainted five minutes ago. (Alright, maybe that was a little overdramatic, but still, it was impressive.)
“You see, that’s why they don’t like Gurdyroots,” Luna was saying, pale eyes wide and serene.
“Nargles don’t like Gurdyroots.”
“No, silly, Nargles have no problem with Gurdyroots, why would they — Gulping Plimpys don’t like them,” she corrected, unfazed by his obvious failure to keep up.
“Right,” said Blaise with a light chuckle. “But weren’t we talking about Nargles?”
“Yes, well,” Luna started once again, and Blaise truly did his utmost to follow.
The thing was that Luna’s explanations seemed to assume all sorts of previous knowledge of other supposed creatures and charms and plants, all of which would probably have earned a scoff from Pansy. (They probably would’ve earned a scoff from almost anyone, to be fair, but Blaise had no doubt that Pansy would be appropriately impolite about it, as was expected of her.) It was difficult to keep up if Blaise didn’t know half the words that came out of Luna’s mouth, but he did try. Really, he did.
At the very least, Luna was enthusiastic about it, which undoubtedly helped to hold Blaise’s attention. The way her entire face lit up as she explained how Spectrespecs would render Wrackspurts visible.
Such a beautiful face, with those large, intriguing eyes. Blaise didn’t understand how he had ever considered them creepy. Granted, the iris was so pale that they appeared almost transparent which could be mildly unsettling, but still, Blaise was mesmerised.
And the way she smiled. Broad and genuine, yet still somehow detached, as though the banality of excitement was too simplistic for her to truly lose herself in it the way other people did. She didn’t seem arrogant, though, on the contrary. Arrogance would’ve required that she cared about such classifications as better- or worse-than in the first place, and Blaise was convinced that Luna didn’t even understand the concept of that.
As he kept staring at her, his expression must’ve given some of his distraction away, because Luna suddenly slowed down and went quiet. The glimmer in her eyes faded, the smile on her lips withered into a pale echo of itself.
Startled, Blaise blinked, straightening up a bit in concern. “What is it?”
“It’s alright, we can talk about something else,” replied Luna. The smile she gave him was so sad Blaise had to bite back a wince.
“What? Why would you say that?”
“I know it isn’t interesting for you — or anyone, really — but it was nice of you to pretend to listen for a little while. You don’t have to, though, we can talk about something else.”
Her nonchalant tone nearly took Blaise’s breath away. Alright, yes, perhaps half the things she said were a bit … out there, but who cared about regular, boring topics anyway? Especially when those topics didn’t make her light up as though she’d been born a fae.
“I did not pretend,” Blaise retorted, frantically trying to remember the last thing she’d said. Honestly, he wasn’t sure how he did it, but after merely a moment, he added, “Nargles stay away from the cork necklace because the corks smell like withering mistletoe and they obviously wouldn’t want to stay in a dying home.”
Surprise, if not shock, was written all over her face.
Blaise smiled and, not caring how ridiculous it would look as long as she would smile at him again, added, “Would you show me how to make myself a necklace, too?”
For a moment, Luna just stared at him, speechless — which, it should be said, was a truly rare thing; a speechless Luna Lovegood. Then, without any trace of hesitation, she leaned in and kissed him. Square on the lips and none too shy, one of her hands coming up to hold him in place gently, but firmly.
Somewhere in the back of his head a part of him complained that this was supposed to be his move, his step to take; he was supposed to do the work and win her over, as he knew he could because he was good at it. He knew how to flirt and seduce, knew how to charm and enchant a person to earn their affection, and yet—
With a happy sigh, Blaise returned the kiss, wrapping an arm around Luna’s waist to pull her closer. Perhaps — just this once, just with her — him being the one to be enchanted was not so bad.