The Heist

Gavin's knowing grin grew the more she rambled. It was painfully obvious that he had been right and her discomfort only boosted the boy's confidence as he watched her mouth open and close like a fish. She had released him and was standing defiantly, confirming his question with every word. You're a shit. Gavin took a step closer to her, shrugging the insult off. This wasn't exactly the first (or probably the last) time she had stooped to calling him names. And much like every weird thing she did he found it endearing in the oddest of ways.

Her half-posed questions left Gavin with endless possibilities for a reply. He could have been factual, practical, clever, witty, or romantic on any number of levels. This was their first chance at conversation in almost a decade and Gavin had no idea if or when they would be able to see each other again. But instead of spouting out some flowery speech the Gryffindor simply nodded and responded - "Okay."

Without another word Gavin moved forward again, closing the gap between them without hesitation. Their lips harshly met and after a second his hands found their way to her waist, pulling Audriana closer to him. The kiss softened as he held her close, surprised at his own boldness. As his tongue caressed upper lip he seemed to become aware of what he had really done but far from wanting to pull away the realization only made his resolve stronger.

So this was what it was like to kiss Audriana Swan. He had wondered many times throughout their time at school together. Gavin had considered going for it a couple times too - the blind euphoria of winning against Slytherin or that one time she had accepted a dance with him. He had definitely wondered what it would be like to be Keiran Hayes when the pair of them had paraded around the halls of Hogwarts together. Whatever Gavin's expectations had been, this was better.

Gavin pulled away, his arms still wrapped around her waist and currently quite unwilling to release themselves. If that didn't tell her how he felt, nothing would.

Audriana stiffened at Gavin’s approach, but only insomuch as she lifted her chin to stare at him, surprise and ill-suppressed fear flashing across her eyes. Okay? What did that even mean? Okay, he didn’t want an answer? Okay, he was-

The questions flying through her mind were effectively whisked away as he stepped even closer. Without even registering the decision, Audriana was lifting up onto her toes to meet him part way as he closed the distance between them. A jolt of shock ran through her at the contact and she inhaled sharply. The instant his arms closed around her, her hand was at his neck and pulling him closer.

Her attempt at scaring him off had clearly not worked. She couldn't say she regretted his choice, though; no indeed, she didn't mind at all. Her past kisses had been sloppy and planned - and with Keiran, to make things worse - and while this one was fairly harsh, it calmed soon enough. Audriana couldn't understand why she had ever wanted him to step away, when he could be this close instead.

They were a mass of contradictions in that moment. She was both terrified and thrilled, and while everything was so sudden, it all felt like it was the perfect moment. The way he dropped the solitary word in reply had made her stomach flip; it wasn’t some life-changing word. Or was it? It sure felt like it was. Or maybe it was her verbal attack that had changed things, and reminded him of how they used to be. She could feel the desire to think back to their school years pushing against her. Her thoughts jumped to the first time she had wanted to kiss him -

But then his tongue was brushing against her lip, and then against her own as she unwittingly gasped and allowed him entry. Her fingers threaded themselves in his hair, arching against him. Suddenly, he pulled away, and that contact that somehow felt so necessary now was gone. Audriana couldn’t quite figure out what to do aside from taking deep breaths to calm her heart, her eyes flicking between his.

They were still standing so close, his arms curled around her and her fingers brushing against his neck. Shaking her head, she looked down at their feet then back at him. “I can’t believe you wasted fifteen years. Of that.” She gasped out, practically reprimanding him in her tone. The way she put the words together didn't make perfect sense, but she hardly cared in the moment. He would certainly know what she was getting at. Besides, she was far too interested in keeping him from saying anything and keeping herself from insulting him again.

Hardly waiting a breath between speaking and moving, Audriana pulled him back towards her, taking his lower lip between her teeth. Releasing it, she passed her tongue over his lip in an almost-apology, though she was hardly sorry. Even through her pressing against him, she felt her lips curl up in a smile.

Finally.

Fifteen years. Had it really been fifteen years since Gavin had come upon her reading at their first Quidditch practice? He remembered thinking she was a little mean and more than a little weird but somehow despite their being wrapped together that hadn't changed. Audriana was still insulting him fifteen years later and her flustered responses suggested that with age did not necessarily come maturity. They were different people with different lives but they were still undoubtedly Audriana and Gavin.

But now there was kissing, an exciting new layer to the already complex dynamic that had always existed between them. Or maybe it wasn't a new layer so much as a shedding of layers that had piled up into years of repressed emotion and desire. That's what it felt like - a weight being lifted off of his shoulders as he allowed himself to become molded into the brunette's shape. I can’t believe you wasted fifteen years. Of that. Gavin couldn't believe it either. Kissing Audriana was quickly becoming a necessity.

She nipped at his lip and Gavin pressed deeper into the kiss, forgetting any obligation to his job or desires to find Ivanov. All thoughts but those of Audriana fell from his mind, unable to focus on anything but her touch.

- - -

Robin made his way back down the hallway as gracefully as was possibly with a heavy sword hanging from his back. To an outsider he would have looked mad in his combination of a suit and medieval weaponry but the boy had never felt cooler. There was always some rush of ego and adrenaline after completing a robbery of any scale but the wearable prize made victory all the more sweet. Of course, the hardest part was yet to come. Getting Audriana out of the crowded ballroom, untangled from her dance partners and suitors could prove to be a challenge for even the most gallant of knights.

Of course he couldn't complain about the position he had placed her in and it really was good of her to -

Hey. That was..

Robin stopped where he was standing at the intersection of two hallways, not five feet away from a couple who were so deeply snogging that they hadn't even noticed his appearance. (But, to be fair, he was being very sneaky.) Robin drew the sword from his back and poked the slightly pointy tip into Gavin's shoulder blade. "En garde." Robin spoke blandly at the couple as Gavin jumped, pulling away from Audriana to turn around and face his challenger. His hand had had begun to reach for his wand but after seeing Robin's face it dropped in exasperation.

"What are you doing, Blackmoor? That's my date you're slobbering on." Robin questioned, trying to hide the strange discomfort that had appeared in his chest. The Ivanov was slightly in shock as he stood and stared at them, glancing back and forth between the two people who had always made it their personal mission to make his life some degree of challenging. Swan knew Blackmoor? That in itself would have been startling but paled in comparison to the fact that Swan was snogging Blackmoor.

Beyond the fact that Robin's small world had just become much smaller, he couldn't shake how unpleasant the idea of Swan kissing anybody was. She was Audriana.. she didn't just go around kissing annoying security guards. That wasn't right.

Oh shit. With the upset of what had just happened, Robin had missed one very important detail. One of the guards that he had just been plotting to outwit was now standing two feet from him, the stolen goods inches away from his chest. "But it's time to go" Robin outstretched his hand towards the girl, an unexpected need to remove her from Gavin's side filling him. "Audriana." Her name slipped out almost like a plead as Robin became more and more conscious of his empty hand out in the open.

Gavin's eyes traced Robin's gaze and instinctively he reached back to take Audriana's hand, dreading the very idea of her leaving him for Ivanov so soon after he had found her again. The Gryffindor felt far from brave as he turned to search for Audriana's expression and some hint of what she was thinking.

(OOC: For future reference, the AU starts in place of this post. Here.)

When Gavin molded against her again, the room felt vastly smaller than it really was. Footsteps sounded in the hall, but the sound was practically muffled as it hit her ears. All Audriana could focus on was keeping as close to him as possible, and keeping herself standing. In an instant, though, Gavin had jumped away and the groan that was pulled from her throat wasn’t something she could help.

She bit back a comment about her being a deal, not a date as she glanced between the two men and they stared each other down. It was like they were both trying to stake a claim over something neither technically had a right to, but something which one of them was far closer to owning. One of them had always been on the edge of owning her heart, and now he was back and standing next to her as Robin pointed a sword at his chest.

The next thing Audriana knew, Robin was asking her to come with him and looking anxious for to take his hand and say yes. Just as her eyes landed on the outstretched palm, Gavin’s hand reached for her own. The choice was hers, then. It took all of two seconds to make up her mind.

Although there would be discussions to be had between the two of them, where Audriana asked why he had never tried to find her – ignoring, of course, the fact that she had failed to send any of her letters – the struggle would be necessary if she wanted to keep from losing him. She couldn’t let Gavin get away again. Choosing Robin would be taking the easy way out; ignoring the fact that she had seemingly been so drawn to the younger man, if she went with him it would mean that she was too afraid to work through the problems that she and Gavin had always had.

As her hand reached for Gavin’s, she felt herself wanting to choose differently, if only out of fear. Pushing it away, Audriana knew she had to believe in him as she had before. Trusting Robin wasn’t something she understood (at least, not consciously). Gavin, though… He was everything.

He always had been.

Audriana laced her fingers through Gavin’s, wrapping her free hand around their joined ones to show Robin that she wouldn’t be changing her mind. Even as she did, though, she knew that this meant she was practically betraying the man who had saved her life. Over Gavin’s shoulder, Audriana passed Robin a desperately apologetic frown as she stepped closer to Gavin and pressed herself against his side.

“Robin,” she started slowly, vaguely aware that she perhaps shouldn’t have said his name first when given the option to choose someone. But she hoped that Gavin understood that she had made her choice. That she wanted him back for as long as he would keep her. “I’ve made Gavin promise to try and help work this out. I’m holding up my end of the deal.”

Her eyes searched his for any sign of acceptance, waiting for the confusion and apparent pain to fall away, replaced by one of Robin’s smirks or dark looks. Undoubtedly that’s what she would be given, right? It wasn’t like he had actually cared for her – Robin didn’t seem too keen on her, except when she was getting him what he wanted. So her strange affection must have been misplaced in the time she had known him.

Maybe, all along, Audriana had just been trying to replace Gavin in her heart. The one time she had tried to do so, she’d failed. Her grip on his hand tightened at the realization that he was truly there, standing next to her.

The moment Robin left, Gavin could choose to do the same. Audriana knew that. But what kind of Gryffindor was she if she didn’t take a risk with him? After effectively, single-handedly ruining things their seventh year, it felt very much like it was her obligation to ensure that he never left. Not because of something she did or didn’t do. If Gavin ever chose to leave her again, it would be because she simply wasn’t enough for him. Because she didn't know how to be enough. While she knew that to be true, of course, it didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to try and hide that fact from Gavin for as long as she could manage.

Their fingers laced tighter, skin pressed to closely together that it was barely discernible where one Gryffindor ended and the next began as they held on to each other in defiance against the other man's request. At least that was how it felt to Gavin - the lion heart - who was finally living out his daydreams of getting the princess and battling off the evils that threatened to take her away. He was sure he was the hero of this story and, not for the first time, his dislike of Ivanov felt justified as he acted the villain in the scene that was playing out.

But Robin was standing and staring, his hand outstretched for just a second or two too long after Audriana had sunk into Gavin's shelter. He jerked back, burned by the icy, empty air. A forced shrug, a joyless smirk, and a step back. There was no twinkle in his eye or giggy sarcasm in his smile as he stared at the united couple before him. If he was the villain in this story than his unhappy ending should have been a triumph but his uncharacteristically angry (and, ironically, villain-like) behavior gave off the feeling that a puppy had been kicked before them.

Robin's gaze turned to Audriana. "Make sure you get the dress dry cleaned before you send it back to me, love." The endearment was a hollow, final claim on the woman who was wrapped to delicately in her new man and Robin was able to direct a final smirk towards Gavin, having the slight pleasure of knowing he felt justified in addressing as such. Gavin absorbed the look, too comforted by Audriana's touch to be moved to real anger with the younger man. He watched him turn and walk down the hall, a swagger lacking in his step as the sword swung in his hand.

Just as quickly as he had come, he was gone. Gavin had no intentions of alerting his coworkers or going after Robin himself. The sword had no real value, just a silly heirloom for silly families to squabble over and Gavin felt no moral pull to return it to his employer. No, there were much more important things to do right now.

Gavin raised the knot of hands and kissed where the top of Audriana's hand rested. "Okay?" he murmured to her. Gavin felt light, lighter than he had in a long time, as years of wonder and worry faded into a new hope. Knowing that she was so close and had chosen him was a pure, simple happiness. He hadn't been this 'okay' since sixth year. But as hard as he tried, Gavin wasn't blind. Robin's expressions, the softness of Audriana's voice.. something told him that right now the woman beside him might not feel quite as elated as he did.

Audriana's breathing hitched as Robin addressed her, wanting to glance down at the dress but unable to rip her gaze away from the younger man. He shouldn't have looked pained. It didn't make sense, she thought, because he shouldn't have cared. But as she looked at him, Audriana couldn't find reason to believe the absent look in his eyes or the apparent need to come off as strong and unaffected in front of Gavin. She shouldn't have stared, but she did.

And she shouldn't have felt guilty tears sting in her eyes. Lifting her chin to blink them back, Audriana focused on the ceiling as Robin walked away, not having been able to find a reply. There was nothing suitable; nothing that would make the situation okay. He knew it was just a business deal, didn't he? There had been no talk of anything else. None. Sure there had been... hints. But hints weren't quite what Audriana and Gavin seemed to have. Not even close.

That wasn't to say that she might not have considered Robin were it not for Gavin falling back into her life - onto her radar - and quite effectively blocking out anyone else who could have mattered before then. But she couldn't look after Robin as he left, as much as she felt obligated to. Gavin lifted their connected hands, though, drawing her attention to the kiss he pressed into the back of her fingers. Tilting her head gently, she blinked a few times to make sure all signs of tears were missing.

"Guilty," Audriana mumbled, squeezing his hand and dropping her gaze to the floor. "It'll be fine," she added, mostly for her own benefit. Clearing her throat, Audriana wrapped her free arm around his middle,  curling into his gold all the more. Her forehead came to rest against his neck and she found herself feeling much smaller than she really was. "How late do you have to stay? I sort of lost my way home... and my place to stay... Oh, and my overnight bag," she realized, frowning.

It surprised her belatedly that she had so quickly taken to him as if they had always been so close. But, even in school she had never had the tendency to cling to him. She rarely even touched him back then - no matter how badly she had always wanted to. Leaning back just enough to look up at him, Audriana found herself biting her lip. Way to ruin the moment, she chided herself.

"Sorry... It's been a strange day." Wiggling her hand free from his, she lifted it to his jaw, brushing her thumb over his chin as she had thought about doing for so many years. Realizing she might have overstepped some invisible boundaries, Audriana stepped away, trailing her hand down his arm before giving a weak smile and clasping her hands in front of her. "Sorry," she repeated, cheeks heating up with the sudden embarrassment and awkwardness. "I wasn't thinking- I just- ...Nevermind. I just need to find a way home."