Heart-to-Heart

Jael hugged the flannel blanket closer to her as she turned onto her side on the couch. She had fallen asleep half-way through an episode of some crime drama Draco couldn't have been bothered to really pay all that much attention to. There had been something about a diseased woman needing human blood to sustain her, however by the time Jael had fallen asleep, Draco had long since lost interest. His attention had been given completely to the young lady curled up in a bundle of brown and white.

He hoisted himself off the chair he had been sitting on and crouched beside her for a moment. On impulse, he reached out and tucked the blanket in against her side, assuring her the warmth she had desperately sought all day. He hadn't understood the desperation, either. The temperature in the house had caused him discomfort most of the day. The turtleneck and slacks he had started his day with had been traded in for a loose t-shirt and jeans. Then the tee was shed for a tank top, which he still wore despite the way the simulated heat in the house made it cling uncomfortably to his body.

“Just walk around shirtless,” Jael had said early in the day when she'd seen him come out of the bedroom, tugging down the tank top. She'd hugged her arms around herself tighter at the mere thought of ridding herself of the warmth of her woolen sweater.

“Excuse me?” He had asked in response, grip tightening on the hem of the black material.

“You're a guy. Guys walk around without shirts all the time,” she shrugged.

“I've more decency than that, little one,” Draco had assured her. “It wouldn't be proper to expose myself in such a way in front of a lady.”

Jael had laughed a little at that. “When you were all scaly, you were walking around naked.”

“And the scales hid that which should remain hidden.”

Jael rose an eyebrow and grinned at him. “You mean your di–”

“Jael!”

The young woman had chuckled and left it at that. They had only known each other for a little less than a three weeks and Jael already knew that once his mind was made up, there would be no changing it. So if he didn't want to swallow his pride and lose the shirt for the sake of comfort, Jael figured it was as simple as letting him suffer.

But now it seemed the longer he stared at her tucked beneath the blanket, the longer his palm rested against the warm material, the hotter he felt. A trick of the mind, he knew, but that knowledge didn't make the strange sensations fade away. Pulling his hand back, he ran it through his bangs, sighing quietly. It couldn't hurt, he thought – and she is sleeping.

Shifting into a steadied squat, Draco caught the hem of the tank top in his hands again and tugged upward, slowly sloughing off the shirt. He then bunched it in one hand and quietly tossed it back to the chair he had been sitting in minutes ago, catching a glimpse of the crime drama again. Now the detective was searching the ill woman's home, finding quite a few refrigerated containers filled with human organs and blood.

“Thought you didn't wanna take your shirt off,” Jael's sleepy voice dragged his attention back to her. She pushed the blanket down and slipped one arm out, the other a make-shift pillow for the time being.

“I thought you were sleeping,” Draco admitted sheepishly, fighting the urge to go pick up his shirt and put it back on. Instead he shifted to his knees, fists clenched loosely against his lap.

“I was dozing,” she said, brushing a lock of her bangs out of her face and tucking it behind her ear.

“I'm sorry if I woke you.”

“You didn't,” she smiled at him and pushed herself up, keeping the blanket wrapped around her legs even as she bent them under her. She patted the void space beside her and Draco obliged, getting up to sit beside her. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.”

Her eyes were on his chest. “How'd you get that scar?”

Draco felt something inside twist into an ugly knot that reminded him too much of another scar from long ago. “It is a long story, my dear. I doubt you'd care to hear it.”

“Try me,” Jael said, twisting around to rest her side to the back of the couch, drawing her knees up and wrapping her arms around her bundled legs.

Draco eyed her. He knew from the look on her face she truly did want to hear about it. He also knew she would pester him until she got it out of him. He sighed and nodded, raising a hand to run his fingertips lightly over the paler skin.

“A long, long time ago, a queen brought her son to me. The boy had been mortally wounded. He was dying. She asked me to save him.” There was a pause, and Jael could tell this was the part Draco didn't like remembering.

“And did you?” Jael asked.

“I most certainly did.” His eyes met hers and he caught the dreaded question: how? He hesitated before answering quietly, “I gave the boy-king half of my heart.”

Jael's dumbfounded stare came as no surprise, neither did her lack of coherent words. But she did manage, in a hush, “what?”

Draco nodded. “Half of my heart beat within his wicked breast for years.”

Jael decided she didn't care to know the great details, but she pressed on cautiously. “So, what happened?”

Catching the uncertainty in her voice, Draco kept the rest of it vague. “A rebellion stormed the castle one day, and a brave knight killed the king, freeing the people of his cruel tyranny.”

“Oh,” Jael murmured and Draco idly thought she wouldn't look half as relieved if she knew just how the knight had slain the king. Her hand suddenly on his chest brought him back to the present.

“What are you doing?” He asked, brow furrowing in slight confusion and slight agitation.

“Your heart,” she said after a few seconds of silence, “it beats... different.”

Draco found a small smile on his lips for reasons he couldn't really pinpoint. “Well, child, it's not all there. Of course it beats strangely.” He took her hand in his, brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it gently, causing her to blush faintly. “Enough about me. It's come to my attention that, though I've been staying with you for quite some time, I know nothing of your past.”

Jael chuckled a little and tugged her hand from him. “Not much to say, really.”

“Tell me, anyway.”

She made a face. “I'm a born loner. I never bothered with people enough to come up with a super exciting past for myself. If anything, it's just plain boring and kind of – ”

“Lonely?”

She flinched. “Yeah, I guess. It didn't really bother me, though.”

“And does it now?”

“Not really,” Jael said. “Because I'm not lonely anymore. And life's sure as hell not boring.”

Draco arched an eyebrow, a smile creeping onto his lips again. “Since when?”

Jael gnawed on her bottom lip for a moment. It was a simple and honest answer she had in mind, but it made her heart pound like a war-drum and the was afraid the pink stain on her cheeks would give away more than she bargained for.

“Since you.”