Quiproquo

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/33282.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: M/M
Fandom: Harry Potter - Fandom
Relationship: Marcus Flint/Oliver Wood
Characters: Marcus Flint, Oliver Wood
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2002-07-22 Words: 452 Chapters: 1/1
 Quiproquo
by V (gethporno)

Summary

Quiproquo: a comic misunderstanding between two characters often resulting in tragedy.

Oliver had always believed that when Marcus said, "I love you," he'd meant, "I'll never
betray you."

It only made sense, then, that Oliver would be wrong.

Oliver thought of war as a permanent kind of thing, with stark divisions and cold calculations
by competent people, people who knew what they wanted and how to get it and what was
needed to win. War was a distant thing, something people only whispered about when he was
young, something they said they hoped never came again, something Oliver never deserved
to witness.

So Oliver should have been surprised to be proven wrong, to hear Marcus say, "My loyalties
don't lie with you anymore." But he wasn't, because it was Marcus, and Marcus could change
everything, and did.

"Sometimes," Marcus would whisper, lips pressed hot against Oliver's skin, "sometimes I feel
like I've been waiting my whole life for you." And Oliver would breathe in the quiet in the
dark, and memorize the maps scrawled upon Marcus' body, and know exactly what he meant.

In the morning, Marcus will crawl out from behind their tangled curtain of linen and throw it
all away, and Oliver will wonder when life became worth so little.

There was a time when Oliver could not distinguish between fantasy and reality, dreaming
and waking, because they all ran together; they were one and same.

There was a time when the boundaries between skin and body and spirit and mind were
indistinct and blurred, and Oliver did not know where he ended and Marcus began. He
reached out and touched and didn't know who felt the sensation. He breathed out and said I-
love-you and didn't know who meant the words.

There was a time, but not anymore.

"This is a bad idea," Marcus had said, but he hadn't meant it for any of the reasons Oliver had
come up with.

"This is a bad idea," Oliver had said, because he'd thought someone would find out, someone
would ruin them, someone anyone everyone but him, but him or Marcus. "This is a bad idea,"
Oliver had said, because he hadn't thought he could keep the secret.
"This is a bad idea," Marcus had said, and Oliver had nodded, but Marcus had meant that he
hadn't thought he could keep from falling in love.

In the end, it's not going to matter what Marcus says or what Marcus means, and whether or
not Oliver believes him. It won't matter who says which words and who hears which
meaning, because they will all be senseless, all wrong.

It won't matter if Marcus says, "I love you," or, "I'm just doing the right thing," because
Oliver won't believe him, anyway. He'll learn not to.
Please drop by the Archive and comment to let the creator know if you enjoyed their work!