A Little Bit of Happiness

          “Where are we?” Poppy asked, astonished by the place she had just stumbled into.

          The room was gorgeous. It was a tall chambered room, with high ceilings and a beautiful atmosphere. It smelled like the Forbidden Forest, with a slight glowing and green hue that added to the atmosphere. Plants and vines lined the walls, alongside the carvings of many animals like hippogriffs and phoenixes. Many potting and alchemy stations were scattered along this first room, growing an assortment of plants such as Venomous Tentacula or Chomping Cabbages.

          Along the back wall were large glass chambers with narrow but human sized doors. Each of the glass chambers were glowing, and had an assortment of vegetation spilling out of them.

          “Welcome to the Room of Requirement,” Hans said proudly, turning around to watch her excited smile, something he would pay to see for the rest of his days.

          “Wow,” Poppy whispered in awe, looking around at the glass chambers.

          “Come on, you haven’t seen the best of it,” Hans said, stepping forward and taking both of her hands in his own, pulling her along toward one of the glass chambers.

          Poppy’s face glowed as their hands held one another’s, following after him and reveling in the newfound happiness in his eyes. Poppy could still see that somewhere in there he still hurt, but she was glad that this was distracting him. Frankly she was glad this was distracting her too from the constant feelings she was getting about him.

          “What could be possibly cooler than this?” Poppy asked, amazed.

          “You’ll see,” Hans’s adorable smile(to Poppy) only got wider.

          Hans led the way into the first glass chamber, which, once on the other side, Poppy realized was some kind of enlarge vivarium. As soon as the blinding white light that met them at the doorway faded, Poppy’s jaw dropped. They were in a sunny field of grass, where many animals were moving around.

          There were Puffskiens rolling around in the grass, one that she could tell was male and the other female, with a baby one rolling between them. Nifflers were far in the back, digging little burrows and fighting over flashy treasures. Mooncalves came trotting over to them, looking at Hans expectingly, while near a small body of water a trio of Kneazles were napping.

          “Oh my- how- what- I- Hans?” Poppy stammered, her brain reeling as she looked to Hans. Hans just smiled and took her hand, summoning his tin of beast feed and handing it to her.

          “I don’t really know either, these are animals I managed to rescue, and somehow the room created a place for them,” Hans took a scoop of beast feed from the tin Poppy was now holding and threw it toward one of the mooncalves. Poppy smiled and did the same, watching with joy as the small creatures ate.

          The pair moved around the vivarium, feeding and brushing each of the creatures, taking any excess furs from the creatures and storing them away. Poppy gave him a confused look, and so Hans explained his actions, “Often when I brush them I’m able to gather a little bit of furs or such, they don’t mind, and I use the magical powers imbued in their furs and such to reinforce my gear.”

          Poppy’s face lit up with realization, exclaiming a small “oh” as she looked back to the niffler on its back, enjoying the brushing Hans was giving it.

          Once they were done with the beasts in the center vivarium, Hans began moving toward the exit in the distance, giving one of his mooncalves one last pet before continuing off. Poppy took a moment to realize he had left, and was now heading to the exit. She looked up from the niffler and frowned with disappointment, which Hans caught, as he turned back to see if she was following behind him.

          Hans laughed, and that made Poppy’s stomach do a backflip as she nervously smiled back, wondering why he was laughing at her. “Don’t be too disappointed,” he called to her, “you still have to see the others!”

          Poppy was confused. The others? She hurried alongside him, catching up to him just as he began passing through the door. “The others?” She inquired.

          Hans nodded, “you’ll see.”

          Poppy followed behind him, drawing close to him, only inches from his side. Was it on accident, or did he purposefully close that gap between them as they walked up the stairs to another vivarium on the ledge above.

            This vivarium had roots falling out of its doorway, like a bridge leading up to the Vivarium. Hans stepped up the bridge, before turning around to help Poppy up the bridge. She took his outstretched hand, failing to ignore the feeling in her fingertips as she did, and entered the vivarium.

          This time they were in a swamp that was dark and murky. Their boots splashed through puddles as they stepped into the swamp. Hans quickly let go of her hand, a slight blush on his cheeks that Poppy didn’t notice, now more enraptured by the room.

          Here in this room there, it was difficult to see, but Poppy’s eyes were quickly scanning the area. She saw dark black horses, with wings folded over her backs. Thestrals. She gave a gasp of excitement, as she saw a smaller thestral offspring between the two adults.

          With greedy eyes, Poppy turned to scan the rest of the area. She saw some purple lumps near one of the bogs. Toads. They were alright, but not her favorite.

          And then, as she looked to the very back of the swampy area, she saw pure white pelts and twinkling horns. Poppy turned and began poking Hans on the arm, whispering to him and pulling on his arm, “Hans. Those are—those are unicorns!”

          He smiled at her, looking down at her grip on his arm before back at the unicorns. “They are, why don’t you go ahead and introduce yourself?”

          Poppy grinned up at Hans with a smile that made his insides bloom with happiness, and in this moment as he watched her bounced toward the unicorns, he momentarily forgot about his pain. Hans smiled happily as she interacted with the unicorns. In the meantime, Sepulchria, the dark thestral, approached. Hans from behind, looking at Poppy from over his shoulder.

          The thestral snorted, causing him to jump and turn around. “What?” He barked to the thestral quietly.

          The horse only snorted again, shaking her head a moment, before turning away and moving back toward the male thestral and their offspring. Hans watched them for a moment, before turning back to see Poppy bounding up to him.

          Before Hans could say anything, her arms were around him, and she squealed happily, “Thank you so much for showing me this!”

          Hans grunted in surprise, looking down at her as she pressed her head against his chest, “Yeah, no problem.” Hans put his arms around her, enjoying the warmth of her body, and realizing to himself that out of everything he had found and used to cope throughout the year, this was something he would never want to give up.

           Poppy pulled away from Hans, realizing how long she was hugging him. A deep red blush had formed on her cheeks, and she used the distraction of an approaching purple toad to avoid any more awkward silence. Hans felt that without her presence, his surroundings felt rather empty.

          Eventually they left the swampy vivarium, with Hans leading her to a vivarium above the entrance door.

          “More?” Poppy asked, trailing behind Hans as he stepped through the next doorway.

          “More,” Hans smiled to her, helping her through this next door and turning about to see. Much like the first vivarium, it was flat and grassy. Near the flat patch of land there was square ruin that seemed to be centuries old.

          Poppy walked in front of him, looking about as she saw Fwoopers flying overhead, mixing in flocks with long-tailed Jobberknolls. Running along the ground was a trio of Diricawls, disappearing and reappearing every few feet. Poppy was smiling, looking up at the birds that circled overhead with excitement.

          Behind her, Poppy heard the fluttering of wings as another bird made a quiet approach. Poppy turned around and gasped, “Is that? That’s a phoenix, isn’t it?” Poppy was in awe, it was beautiful. The red and orange animal was sitting on Hans’s shoulder, gently gripping him as it steadied itself. The bird turned its head to the side, staring intently at Poppy with a heady eye.

          Hans nodded, grinning from ear to ear as he watched her awe. Poppy came close to Hans and the bird as Hans raised his arm to stroke the beautiful bird’s head, “This is Fireheart.”

          “Wow,” Poppy breathed out, looking between him and the orange bird. “Where did you find him?”

          “Some poachers were after him, and I found him hiding in a cave before they could get to him. I brought him back here, and this is where he has been ever since,” Hans stroked the bird again. He could see it in Poppy’s eyes as she looked at him once more, practically begging to interact with the bird.

          “Here,” Hans said, gently grabbing her much smaller hand from above and lifting it toward the bird. Fireheart cocked his head to the side but nothing more as Poppy’s hand gently moved along the bird’s magnificent plumage. Poppy stroked the bird for just a bit longer, who blinked his eyes lazily.

          Poppy didn’t realize how close she was to Hans, how close her face was to Hans. As she let her hand down and looked up at the taller boy, his eyes met her’s instantly. The gap between them was unimaginably small, they were so close, a gap that could be closed so fast and so desirably. They gazed into each other’s eyes, taking in both of their beauties. Poppy saw how kind, how sad and hopeful Hans’s shimmering gray eyes were, whilst Hans admired the many shades of brown and gold that danced inside her iris as the light of the vivarium shined upon them.

          The moment, to Poppy, was enchanting. How much did she want to stand up on her tiptoes and kiss the boy, to taste his lips. Her eyes traveled down from his eyes to his lips, imagining the magical moment it would be. A strange, yet overwhelmingly warm feeling had settled over her as they shared this close moment.

          And then, the fiery bird screeched and spread its wings, noisily and forcefully pushing itself off of Hans’s shoulder. The bird took flighty, knocking its wings into Hans’s head and forcing him to duck, breaking the moment. Hans laughed as the bird made its way, not too gracefully, across the field. Poppy wouldn’t know it, but Hans was laughing as to draw his own attention away from that moment. From what he wanted to do, what he wanted to feel.

          Poppy laughed with him, but much quieter as she turned her head and blushed a red just as bright as the phoenixes plumage. That moment—she was so close. She couldn’t manage to shake that hopeful and warm feeling that she had developed in that brief moment.

          “Come on,” Hans said, grabbing both of her hands and pulling her back toward the door, “there’s two more I want you to see.”

          “Two more animals or two more vivariums?” Poppy asked, trying hard not to notice how Hans’s hands seemed to hesitate just a bit longer than necessary on her own as he pulled her through the door.

          “Two animals,” the boy answered as he hurried down the stairs, turning to see her following quickly behind him. Once Poppy had descended the stared to their previous vivarium, Hans turned and continued up the stairs to another vivarium. This one, as Poppy approached, she noticed smelled a bit like seawater. Like the ocean. It was pleasant.

          Hans led the way, as always, into this next vivarium. The moment he was inside he stepped to the side, waiting for Poppy to pop in a moment later. As Poppy blinked her eyes, trying to see through the glaring sunlight, her eyes found a beautiful white beast, standing in the middle of a sandy beach.

          “Highwing!” Poppy screamed with delight and excitement, sprinting down the beach toward the bird-like beast, which cocked its head in Poppy’s direction. Hans began walking after Poppy as he watched the two reunite.

          As Hans drew near, Poppy looked back at him with her biggest smile yet. “Oh Hans, I know you said you were keeping her somewhere safe, but I never imagined- wow!” She looked back at the hippogriff, smiling contently as Highwing’s beak bumped affectionately at Poppy’s forehead.

          “You know me,” he smiled, watching her throw her arms around Highwing’s neck and secretly wishing he was in Highwing’s place, “I keep my promises.”

          Poppy lifted her head from where it was, snuggled against Highwing’s plumage as she turned back to Hans, “You did promise that.”

          “Hang on, didn’t you say you wanted to show me two more animals?” Poppy questioned, tapping her nose thoughtfully as the sun far above her cast dancing lights on her hair and changing its shade in the most beautiful of ways, making Hans wish right and then there that he could kiss her.

          “Wha- oh yeah,” Hans turned away, scanning across the beach as he evidently searched for this other animal; Poppy watched him curiously.

          At long last, Hans’s eyes landed on a mound of gray boulders, with strange curving parts that were tinged gold. “Oi!” Hans’s yelled, making Poppy jump.

          Poppy was still mightily confused, that is, until the mound of boulders began to move. She gasped, realizing that the boulders were not in fact boulders, but the body of a very large and powerful creature. A Graphorn.

          The Graphorn turned and stared at the two of them for a moment. It’s golden horns gleamed in the sunlight, and it’s amber eyes stared at them intensely from across the beach. With little more hesitation, the beast began to trot towards them. The trot turned into a run, and the run turned into a charge. The beast’s face and frontal body began to glow a fiery orange, something Poppy had only ever read about.

          Poppy realized the beast was charging, but only because Hans stood his ground did she not turn and run to the side. She couldn’t help but tremble and try and hide as much of herself behind Hans(which wasn’t difficult, with their size difference), as the Graphorn charged. She peaked out from behind his shoulder to see the creature coming to a halt in front of Hans, the red color dimming from its face, returning back to the same gray coloration.

          For what seemed to be the millionth time today, Poppy breathed out, “wow,” as she gazed up at the ginormous creature.

          “Poppy, this is the Lord of the Shore,” Hans said reaching out and touching one of the large creature’s tentacles, which caused the the great beast to release a strange hum.

          Poppy stepped out from behind Hans, looking up at the Lord in awe. Hans stepped back a little, gently prodding her toward the creature on her back, causing shivers to run down her spine. Poppy cautiously approached the great beast, noticing his bright and intelligent eyes tracking her movements. She still hadn’t made a move, and so Hans decided he would help, partially because he thought it would put both the Lord and Poppy at ease, but mostly because he wanted to have the kind of comfort that Poppy gave him near again.

          He took her hand in his own and held it so her palm was facing the hulking beast, with his palm against the back of her hand as he guided her arm towards the Graphorn. Hans gently pressed Poppy’s palm against the skin of the large creature, letting his hand stay their against his for but a moment longer, before dropping it. Poppy kept her hand in place, too focused on the sheer beauty and power of the creature before her to be disappointed in the loss of contact.

          Eventually Poppy’s hand fell to her side, and she, grinning ear to ear, turned to look at Hans. “Thank you for showing me- yeep!”

          Poppy squeaked as the Lord of Shore moved around them, bumping into Hans rather roughly with his head. Hans stumbled, not expecting it either as he fell into Poppy, knocking both her and himself over.

          The two tumbled to the ground, covering them in sand as their robes became tangled up. Poppy was lying on her back with Hans on his elbows and knees above her. His left leg was between her own, touching against her mid thigh, and she couldn’t help but notice the strange burning feeling in her core grow stronger as they both blushed profusely. Hand’s elbows were level with her chin, as he stared down at her in surprise and embarrassment.

          Hans was apologizing profusely, the red on his cheeks now quite apparent to Poppy. Poppy, I’m this moment figured that the reason he was red was because anybody in that kind of situation would be, so she shrugged it off.

          The young boy stood up, reaching forward and helping the girl up as Poppy stammered back, “It’s okay, really. I’m telling you I- I…” her voice died away as Hans stood her up, pulling her a little too close to his body(not that either of them were complaining). They were in that same situation again, before Fireheart had interrupted, where they were rooted in the same place, staring into each other’s eyes, their faces inches apart.

          Neither of them dared to break the moment as they stared into each other’s eyes. Poppy briefly looked away from his piercing stare, glancing down at his lips, before looking back up at him. Why hadn’t he pulled away? Why was he looking at her like that, like she was the only thing in the world? Is that what she looked like when she would stare at him from across the room, or noticed the little things about him or was enraptured by his gaze?

          The swirl of strange emotions inside of her, the butterflies and the fire in her core was struck by something off—hope. Could he possibly feel the same way about her, that she did about him?

          Hans too, was starting to think.About her. About them. Here he was, gazing into the most beautiful, sweet, and brightest girl’s eyes, inches from her face, and she didn’t run away. She didn’t falter, she just stared back, with a twinkle in her eyes. It couldn’t be true, but now a similar sliver of hope was sneaking into his heart. What if all this time he was wrong? What if, what if she saw him the same way he saw her?

          Utterly enchanting.

          Poppy didn’t want to break the moment they had made, but as her eyes continued to flick from his own to his lips, her burning desire started to get the better of her. She didn’t want to ruin their friendship, but what kinds of simple friends had moments like these?

          Eventually Poppy decided to act, for the desire was too much. The two had been so distracted by the other’s gaze that neither of them realized that Poppy’s small hand was still clasped by both of Hans’s larger ones. Poppy was surprised, when she focused her attention on the embrace her hand was wrapped in, but still she did not break her gaze on his.

          The small girl extricated her hand from his grasp, which seemed to bring him to his senses, as he began to pull away, casting his gaze down to his empty hands. In the brief moment that her touch left his, Hans’s heart stopped, as he feared her to move away, and his hopes were nothing but lies. Before Hans could move away, before his disappointment got the better of him, she brought her hand up to his cheek and gently cupped it. Her thumb ran along the rise of his cheekbone, gently stroking through a means that turned Hans’s brain to fog.

          “No,” Poppy whispered, forcing his gaze back to her eyes, “don’t go.”

          For a moment the two continued to hold their intense stares, before Poppy’s eyes dropped to his lips one last time. With little more thinking going through either of their heads, Poppy applied a slight pressure to Hans’s cheek, tilting his head down as she stood up on her tiptoes.

          Their heads tilted as Hans’s dropped his head, lowering it as to close the gap between them. Poppy watched Hans’s eyes flutter close, and in only a fraction of a second later, hers were closed too. The gap between them became small, before none existent at last, and their lips gently met.

          For the two of them, it was as if time was frozen. As if they had all the time in the world, together, in each other’s arms. One of Hans’s hands snaked around her waist, pulling her close as the kiss deepened, and her hand slid back to his neck. Poppy’s other hand wrapped around the other side of his neck, her fingers interlocking and pressing against the back of it

          The kiss lasted long, and to both of them, was magical. An electrical shock surged between them both the moment their lips touched, coursing through the whole of them. The kiss was soft and gentle, with both being timid and cautious in the exchange, yet all the more loving. They swayed from side to side, holding the kiss for as long as both of them could.

          At last, it was Poppy who resurfaced, pulling herself away from the kiss, yet still hanging onto his neck. Their eyes opened, and they exchanged the same passionate stare as before. Both of their smiles were soft and gentle as both of them reveled in the experience they just shared.

          “That was…” Poppy began, not knowing where to finish her sentence.

          “Amazing? Terrific? Perfect?” Hans amusingly said, leaning his head forward and resting his forehead against hers whilst he stared still passionately into her eyes.

          Poppy found that the weight of his forehead against hers was quite comforting, as if here they were one, and meant only to be one. “Yes, definitely, and absolutely.”

          Hans laughed, wrapping his other hand around her waist and swaying on the spot, enjoying this intimate experience with her. They stood there for far longer, enjoying each other’s presence, and the peaceful time together as they listened to the sounds of the shore.

          At long last, they heard a sharp squawk from Highwing where she stood on a rock face not far behind Hans. The two of them left each other’s embrace and looked to the hippogriff, laughing as Poppy exclaimed, “somebody feels left out!”

          Their gaze turned to the Lord of the Shore, who was sitting like a dog near the beach, watching them with deep amber eyes. If Hans didn’t know any better, he could swear that the expression the creature was making was quite smug, as if the majestic beast had intended this all along.

          Hans and Poppy turned back to one another, their hands on each other’s hips as they gazed deep into each other’s eyes. Now, as if the kiss had lifted some sort of mask, they could both see the love and compassion for one another shining in each other’s eyes.

          Hans pulled Poppy into his embrace, hugging her tight as if there was no tomorrow. As Poppy buried her head into his shoulder, taking in his sharp evergreen smell, she thought of how happy she felt now. So many questions and so many worries were gone without a trace, filled now by new worries and new questions, but mostly filled by pure happiness.

          With his chin resting on the top of her head, Hans stared out across the shore, thinking about how he had lost so much. His lost family. His los friends. His lost time. Now Poppy was just one more thing he could lose, one more thing he could have taken from him.

          He couldn’t let that happen. Ever.

          Hans’s eyes closed as he tightened his embrace on her, enjoying her pleasant honey-like scent. The two stood there in the same spot, swaying in the seaside sun, wishing that this moment would last forever.