Sushi
April, 2002
"Raw fish."
"Yes."
"Raw fish?"
"Yes, Ron."
Ron blinked at the plate in front of him. "Why?"
"It's sushi."
"It's sneeze-related? Oh, yeah, that stuff is all green and lumpy..."
"That's wasabi."
Ron's expression flashed horror. "What's been up where?"
Hermione crossed her arms. "Ronald."
Ron's eyes widened and met his girlfriend's. "Hermione," he said with equal seriousness.
Hermione sighed heavily and clucked her tongue. "Fine, Ron. Go back home and let your mother cook nice, safe food for you forever. Clearly you'd rather live with her than with me."
Ron blinked and shifted his expression into the familiar look of confusion. "What?"
"Go on. Go home to mummy. Let her carry on doing your laundry for you even though you're twenty-one ruddy years old."
"Where's all this coming from?"
"Where's all this coming from!" Hermione repeated, her voice becoming shrill. "Ron, I had to ask you to move in with me. I. You. After almost four years of going out, you'd think the relationship would have advanced somehow, but no, I practically had to drag you out of that house."
"I—"
"Even your little sister left the house before you, Ron. Your brothers all left at seventeen! There you were, still at twenty, perfectly content to be mummy's little Ronnikins..."
Ron's face flashed anger. "Hey—"
"Now, if you'd rather go back and have her cook for you, if the food I made doesn't meet your standards for a meal, you can just—"
"You know what, Hermione?" Ron started angrily, standing from his chair and shouting across the table from her. "The only reason I hadn't asked you to move in with me was because I was trying to find us a nice place. Something we could be in forever rather than some apartment like the one Harry and Ginny are living in, because guess what? You're worth more than that. I know you wanted a house, and my income wasn't cutting it for a long time."
Hermione's expression was shocked. "R—"
"Did you ever see me hesitate when we started looking at places? Did I ever go, 'I think we should just, erm, sit tight for a spell and, and well and see where this relationship is going'? No. I was in it the whole bloody time. Maybe you were too stuck in your self-involved control-freakish ways to notice that the first twenty places we looked at were just as good as this one. They were all just fine for the two of us. But everything I said I liked you just went, 'hmm, no, I think this is really dumb'."
Hermione frowned. "I would never say something was 'really dumb'."
"Yes, there you go. Clearly you should have the higher ground in this argument. Nevermind that I'm right."
Hermione stood now. "Don't be unreasonable."
"Unreasonable! Yes. I'm unreasonable. I'm unreasonable because raw fish and what's-up-here doesn't necessarily appeal to me as a meal. If you'd come out of your self-absorbed world to ask me what Iwanted for dinner every once in a while..."
"Self-absorbed!" Hermione shrieked. "When was the last time you..."
"What? Asked you how your day was? Oh, how about... yesterday? And you, what about you, then?"
"I..." Hermione blushed. "I'm taking exams left right and centre, Ron! I'm sorry if I don't necessarily have time to hear about yourpaperwork..."
"Right, because I'm really fascinated to hear about law cases all the time. Please, Hermione, tell me more stories about Eugene the Eulogist whose funeral speeches killed the first two rows within a month of the funeral."
Hermione blinked. "You do listen."
"Of course I bloody listen! For all the shit I do for you, you never give a damn, it's always about what I do wrong..."
"Ron."
"What? What aren't I doing now? Am I supposed to suddenly be able to afford an engagement ring? It's not like I spent the entire last four years' pay on the down payment for this house. I'm sorry that my little sister is engaged before you are. It's just something you're going to have to—"
Hermione suddenly lunged across the table, grabbed the front of Ron's robes, and pulled him towards her. Ron scrambled to gain his balance as Hermione kissed him with enough passion to make him dizzy.
"I'm sorry, what were you saying?" she asked quietly as she pulled away.
Ron skirted swiftly around the small table and backed Hermione against a wall. "You know I don't actually remember," he said huskily before kissing her with equal fervour.
The sushi lay forgotten. Hermione never served it again.
...Ron kinda wanted her to.