What a person needs in a relationship will change over time. When you're younger it's easier, you barely even know yourself or what you want. You're more likely to compromise, even when you shouldn't and at the same time, you're much more naive.
There isn't a real way to avoid this, no matter what people tell you that you should do, you most likely won't listen. The best and in most cases only way to learn is from your mistakes, and unfortunately, at times you have to make the same mistake more than once.
Things will get sugar-coated, they'll say how they'll love you forever, never leave you and somehow you end up believing them. Perhaps you're simply with them because you feel incomplete without them.
None of that is healthy and it wasn't what Rae needed anymore. She needed someone to tell her things as they truly were, understand that sometimes things don't work out and there was no way of telling what will or won't be forever.
Of course, there was the shared hope of forever, but both had to know that it was only a hope, a common goal they both needed to work for. Both people need to be complete without the other, they can't need the other.
But when you're with the other person you'll want to be better than complete, want to be stronger, to grow and help each other. Rae no longer needed anyone, she told herself that every day.
She wanted him though, not just physically but him. Maybe it wouldn't work out but Fred wouldn't hurt her again. He understood her, all of it and it meant that for once, Rae allowed herself to believe they had a pretty good chance of figuring it out.
Her eyes fluttered open, what had seemed to her like seconds were definitely longer, the sun was coming in at a different angle. Rae's wrists were untied as well and Fred was nowhere to be seen.
"Red?" She called out and movement could be heard coming from the living room. The door that was slightly ajar fully opened and he stepped inside with a wide grin on his face, he looked way too smug for her liking.
"Ah, the sleeping beauty's awake again... here's some water and I mixed the pain stuff into it like you did last time, just in case," He laughed as he sat down next to her on the bed, stretching the glass forward and beginning to caress her now exposed leg.
"I was afraid it was a dream," She smiled while taking the glass and thirstily chugging all of it.
"Nah, you were just completely knocked out... wasn't too much right?"
"Aww, you care for me. Little Gideon is such a nice wittle bittle sweetheart," Rae mocked and he tilted her glass slightly, causing the water-potion mix to spill all over her.
"Go back to being a bitch, that was gross... by the way, you spilt a wittle," He laughed as she gave him the stink eye.
"It's nice that you care though, and thanks for staying." He went over to the other side of her bed, joining her under the sheets once again.
"Alright now, don't make fun of me but I was slightly worried... in hindsight I should've checked out what stuff I was picking up," Fred cuddled closer to her, pulling her into him so she could rest on his clothed chest.
"I quite liked it-"
"Yeah, don't have to tell me, I was the one feeling you choke my cock to death," He laughed, his chest causing her to bounce up and down a little.
"Fuck off," Rae giggled while lightly hitting his chest.
"It was just a lot, not really meant to be like that," She smiled, sitting up in the bed and looking around. Her clock showed that it was a little later than noon so luckily, not too much of the day wasn't gone.
"George is here," Fred said, she had been about to stand up naked and the door was still wide open so he had thought to give her a little warning.
"Why's he here?" She stood up, letting the cloth drop from her body anyway as she wandered over to her closet butt naked.
"Told him to come," Fred muttered, warily watching the door.
"Mmhmmm and why was that?" Rae pulled on a pair of sweats and a random crop top, not really caring about underwear at the moment.
"Just after our little talk yesterday." He stood up from the bed moving towards the open door where he did a quick nod and George wandered into the bedroom as well. He leaned on the doorframe with his elbow, giving her a much too smug expression for her liking.
"So? Do you want me to peg both of you now?" She began fiddling with her jewellery, putting it on was probably a dumb idea. Rae really needed a shower.
George had begun laughing from her little joke, seemingly mocking Fred who was hitting him harder and harder with every word he spoke.
"Well, it isn't too far off if you reverse it," Fred shrugged after pushing George's head into the doorframe.
"We've wanted to try something for a while," George smiled as he took a couple of steps closer to her and instantly the change could be felt. He was looking down at her in a whole new way, threateningly stepping even closer to her and forcing her against the bed where she sat down.
"What's that?" She smiled as he stepped in between her legs, both hands resting on the canopy above her.
"Freddie thought it'd be fun and I'm not against it," He smiled.
"Poor little Gideon is probably going to be much too jealous for something like that," Rae innocently looked up at him.
George was attractive of course, he was Fred's brother after all but it did seem a little off to her. Maybe it was because of the feelings she was still somewhat denying for Fred or maybe it was because she and George were good friends.
She had flirted with him a bit before she and Fred got together but rather quickly he had been deemed as off-limits when that stuff started, more off-limits than any other guy. George grabbed a hold of her chin, tilting her up her head to look at him.
"It's only a proposal and if you want to of course," George spoke.
"Also, I'm not too 'jealous' I'm not jealous at all actually and Rae stop calling me Gideon or I'll go through with my threat, carve it into bold letters on your bum," Fred spoke as he hopped on to the bed beside her.
"Might be right, Rae, he does seem jealous already," George laughed.
"Think of how much worse it'd get if we kissed," She chuckled.
"He might kill the both of us then."
"Right! I get it, you're both equally annoying... We just wanted to bring up the idea of it," Fred said as he flopped down on the bed after having kicked George.
"I'll have to think about it," Rae finally decided after a slight pause for thought.
"Alright, well... I should head back to the shop anyway, lunch is about to be over anyway," George laughed a little sheepishly and the three of them all left her bedroom.
"You coming home later?" He continued to Fred who looked down at her with a big question mark on his face.
"Up to you, have to speak with Verity later tonight though," She smiled while moving towards the kitchen and grabbing one of the buns that Fred or George had probably bought.
"I can keep busy for a few hours, if that's alright?" Both of them looked to her now and she happily nodded, mouth full of food already.
"Great! I'll invite Lee over then," George said as the smile spread on his face and he was about to move towards the door.
"George, why haven't you asked him out yet?" Rae spoke in her calmest tone of voice, George's nervousness was practically dripping down his face like red paint.
"Well- You know- He, I mean, he and I agreed to keep it casual," He sheepishly laughed. Fred sent her a knowing look, he was thinking exactly the same thing and probably had for a long time.
"I think you should ask him out, you complement each other," She kindly smiled and George stopped trying to say anything, simply looking at her with a strange mix between puppy eyes and a wide grin.
"Yup- alright- byeeeeee, Rae, have fun with your husband," George burst out in laughter as he rushed for the door. The bag of bread was the only thing close to her so Rae gripped it tightly and threw it towards him with all of her might.
The light bag landed about 7 feet from her as George shut the door behind him and Fred was left laughing alone at her.
"Knight- oh, right," Fred smiled to her as he manually moved his knight, sending her a dashing grin in the meantime. It had begun raining not long after George had left, the skies had showed it for a while and the heavy summer rain was now banging against the three-cornered windows they were sitting against.
"Are you sure George is actually up for that stuff? I mean with Lee and everything," Rae's eyebrows were furrowed, it seemed weird to her.
"I'll be honest, it's something I've mentioned before to him but he was the one to bring it up this time," Fred sighed, running a calm hand through his red hair as she moved her rook.
"I've tried talking to him about Lee, I know that he likes him more than he acts like but I'm just-"
"Kind of shit at talking about that stuff?" She grinned at him and he threw a pillow straight at her face.
"Fuck off!"
"I'm able to talk about it... now at least, I've been trying to help but I couldn't stop myself from joking about it at first." Fred began picking at the nail polish she had laid only a few hours earlier.
"I get it, best friend and brother right?" Rae smiled, remembering the conversation she had with George before they left quite clearly. One thing she had known for most of her life was that she definitely wasn't straight, even though her mom called it a phase and said it would pass.
The two of them had a real heart-to-heart after George was beginning to doubt his sexuality and he had turned to his brother's girlfriend at the time for that talk apparently. They had become closer as a result of it though, and he would regularly come to her with relationship squabbles.
"Yeah," Fred breathed, his defence mechanism had always been humour and at times it was bloody annoying.
"Have you tried talking to Lee? I can't read that man, we were never that close," Rae said, leaning back against the cold window, their chess game could wait so that he could get everything off his chest.
"I tried but it went about as good as you'd think," He leaned his head up against the window as well, glancing out of the window and through the rain.
"But did you get anything from it?"
"I don't think he's against it but Lee's always been a loose cannon," Fred shook his head, sitting up straight again and moving his pawn with his usual wide grin.
"What time is Verity swinging by?"
Rae was the one to open the door when verity knocked, Fred was in the restroom at the moment, perfect timing really. Serious conversations like these always sucked but she had enough experience to know that they were needed.
"How are you?" Verity cheerfully smiled, giving her one of her usual hugs.
"I'm good, Fred's here by the way." She closed the door behind the blonde woman who stepped out of her boots.
"Of course he is, I'm guessing that's why I'm here?" Verity kindly smiled even if her words were harsh.
"I think it's a dumb idea, you know all of us do," She continued and Rae rolled her eyes a little.
"Come on Ver, you know I've heard plenty of that from Draco already... I like him and I think he really likes me." The smile was impossible to wipe off of her face as she spoke of Fred, it was pretty dumb but she loved it, he was with her so how bad could it be?
"I know, just thought I'd say it once more before the two of you get married."
"What is it with every and talking about marriage today?" Fred asked as he came out of the bathroom, wiping his soaked hands in his trousers.
"I accidentally dropped the towel by the way."
"Jenn asked me out again anyway, third date so probably a good idea," Verity breathed out while moving towards the cabinet which contained Rae's alcohol.
"I was thinking I might go for the white dress and then my black corset, is that third date appropriate?" Verity chuckled, coating the glass with some vodka and pouring a bit more into it.
"Well, what are you planning on doing?" Rae and Fred both sat down on the sofa, his legs on top of her lap as he laid down.
"Her at the end of the night hopefully," Verity laughed, shaking her head as she poured a couple of different leftover fruity juices into her glass.
"We were going to eat dinner again and then watch 'The Devil Wears Prada' at her place, it's her favourite movie." The smile could easily be heard as she spoke and even Fred noticed it, lifting his eyebrows and a stupidly knowing smirk plastered on his face.
"Guess we were in a race to break it off officially, huh?" Rae chuckled while Verity sat down in the armchair.
"Guess so... I'm sure Jenn will let me make an exception for you whenever you dump carrot head though," Verity laughed.
"All I hear is jealousy and at least my hair isn't the budget version of Guy Fieri," Fred calmly said, hands resting behind his head. Christ, the smugness was practically radiating off of him.
"I think the white dress and corset is a good idea... and with the oval black stone ring aaaand those stone dangling earrings," Rae hastily spoke before they could bite each others' heads off. Work on Monday would probably be a blast for them.
Verity stayed for a bit, talking mostly with Rae, well, only with Rae, and getting a small peptalk from her so she could ready up for her date tonight. The two women had very much been on the same page, it had been a while since they had been together anyway and with how things were moving along it was inevitable. A good way to end the extra bit of their friendship and keep it platonic.
Rae rested her head against the door as she had closed it behind Verity, it was nice to get things settled and a weight she hadn't realised was there lifted from her chest.
"Everyone's assuming we're together now," Fred said, he was still lying on the couch, grin on his face as she looked back at him.
"Well, you've never been without a woman for long," She leaned against the door, playing with the strings of her sweatpants.
"That's true, you better get over here then," He hastily sat up, arms motioning for her to join him and with a giggle that surprised even herself, she sprang towards him.
"You really are going soft on me aren't you?" He teased while she straddled him, pressing a hard kiss to his lips.
"I'm definitely not going soft... I'm just happy." It was impossible to shake the giddy feeling, it was as if she was 16 all over again or maybe it was just because of how he had woken her up.
"You're a dickhead," She laughed as she ran a hand through his soft fiery hair.
"Yeah, and you're a bitch... perfect fit huh?" He grinned.
"On a more serious note though, want to get married?"
"What!?" Her voice had never been full of more disbelief, very quickly turning to annoyance as he cracked a grin.
"Might as well get it over with," Fred laughed as he started caressing her waist, fingers softly moving across her skin.
"You've already told me you love me so why not?" His face was now the one to falter and his movements pausing as well.
"So, you remember that huh?" He asked, tongue in cheek, sweeping across his teeth and then lips before he looked back at her.
Rae bit her lip, nodding as she gazed directly into his eyes. Fred's mind was once again racing with thoughts, what he had said was mostly a joke while her words were much more serious. It was something she had wanted to talk about for some time but how on earth were you supposed to address something like that?
Fred simply kept looking at her, the thoughts racing in both of their heads. Had it been an accident when he said it? She had used his old nickname so maybe it was just an old habit but he hadn't fallen into any others.
But now? Right at this moment, it was like that day at the great pond, as if they had never spent a day apart. Rae really liked him, whether her like had formed into love for her were still somewhat a mystery though... Or was it?
She was brought out her thoughts as Fred wrapped his arms tightly around her, pulling her body fully into his as he crashed his lips against hers and yet somehow it was able to remain soft. His lips were soft pillows that drove hers apart with the force of it, granting his tongue entrance and she eagerly reciprocated.
Rae's arms wrapped just as tightly around his neck. Neither of them needed to say anything, she knew what he wanted to say and he the same. It wasn't angry, sad or with even the slightest hint of restraint as their lips moved with each other.
It was full of passion, want, desperation but not in the same way as before. Instead, it was for the other person, a want for the other person and everything physical was only second in line. In hindsight it was simple, they had missed each other more than any of them realised.
Two people knowing each other like this was crazy, maybe that was what scared the both of them, without saying anything he knew what she meant.
It knocked the breath completely out of both of their bodies, forming into brushes of lips in between both of their shaking breaths until even that was impossible and they were left there, lips lingering as their panting breaths hit the others.
Fred glanced up from her lips for a second, meeting her eyes and to him, they shone of nothing but home and hope and the demand to kiss her rose up in him again.
"Can I call you mine then, Red?" Rae breathed out.
"Merlin yes," He hoarsely chuckled before kissing her again.
"And don't you dare ever calling me anything else ever again."