Mia set on the porch, picking at the already chipping paint on the front porch of the house she was renting a room in. Her other roommates had yet to move in, but she doubted she would be seeing much of them, at least not if she could help it. Her first day at the university was just a couple days away, no more than forty-eight hours. As slow as they went, it also felt as if they were flying by. The hands on the clock moved too slow when she watched, and moved too fast when she looked away.
The girl looked off toward where the castle loomed, a dark grayish color against the orange and yellow setting sun that cast a golden glow over everything. She imagined even she had a glow around her from the sun, a misleadingly pure glow that surrounded her as if it were a halo that had been misplaced. She stretched her legs out across the whole step she was on with her back against the post, looking back at the darkening windows of the house she would be occupying for the next five years as she worked toward a degree, and worked toward repairing her more than strained relationship with Jonathan.
There was a loud popping noise near her but out of sight, and she did not even turn to examine it until she saw a dark shadow fall across her. She could not see them for fifty years, and she would still recognize the broad shoulders that now loomed over her. She raised her head up to look at him, an arrogant smirk plastered across his face as he made his way closer. Instinctively she pulled her legs in toward her and spun, stretching them out in front of her now, the golden glow illuminating how tan her legs had become. Vincent leaned against the post opposite from her, looking down at her.
"If you are here to talk to me, at least do it at my eye level," she told him.
"What makes you so certain you’re the one I’m here for, love?" he replied.
"I do not know. Are you here to talk to me or my legs?"
Vincent let out a chuckle, the rumble of the noise falling on Mia’s ears pleasantly. “Doesn’t matter. I’m here.”
Mia gripped the post as she pulled herself up to stand, leaning back against the post so that she was facing Vincent in an almost identical position. “Why?”
He looked down but yet somehow managed to keep his chin held high and shook his head a bit. “You think I know the answer? Italy was just getting old.”
A remark about whores danced on the end of her tongue, but she held it in. She watched him, unable to see his eyes or where they looked behind those dark sunglasses he wore. “Are you going to the university?”
"Might as well, I guess."
The blonde sighed quietly, her eyes unintentionally looking over him completely for any signs of recent struggles. “Exactly how many bones did you break this summer?”
"Of my own? Hardly any." He looked back out toward the town where a few people were moving their things in and out of their new dorms and residences. "Were you here all summer?"
"Half of it," Mia replied. "I spent time at my parents’ house and then moved in here. Did you spend all summer in Italy?"
"Nah, that would get way too boring. Can’t remember half the places I went, though."
Mia rolled her eyes. “Sounds like you had fun.”
"More than you’ve ever had." She rolled her eyes yet again at his smirk and began to push herself off the post to walk back inside. "You should’ve been there, love."
Mia froze where she was, looking at Vincent carefully, trying to see through those damn sunglasses. She knew he only wore them because he knew how good he looked in them. Without thinking much about it, she stepped forward and reached out to pull off his sunglasses, holding them with a raised eyebrow for a moment before tossing them on a porch chair. The whole time he had that arrogant smirk on his face, and when she removed the glances, she saw the mischievous and daring look stretched to his eyes that were brighter than she had seen them in months.
"Those were ridiculous," she told him.
He chuckled again, the same feeling sweeping through Mia at the sound of it. “The warm weather has somehow made you more bitter.”
"I have always been this bitter."
"I can recall a time when you weren’t. It occurred just a little bit…" He pointed off into Hogsmeade. "That way."
"Is that why you came?" Her smirk now matched his. "To remind me of my bad decisions involving annoying men? If that’s the case, you should have brought a picture of Michael."
"The mutt?" Almost imperceptibly, his eyes flashed as he stood up straighter, a bit of the daring brightness starting to fade from them. His smirk turned into a grimace and then a scowl, a feeling of guilt washing over Mia when she realized what her words had done. "Of all people, Mia, you choose the fucking mutt?"
"Why should it matter?" she pressed on, the unpleasant feeling continuing to grow as she saw any traces of joking completely diminish from Vincent’s face. "Why are you here?"
Vincent began to take a step off the porch, but Mia put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. It was a simple gesture, but in a second she felt as if she was back to months before, when she had put her hand on his shoulder as he doubled over from the pain of a wound. It had taken her to see him in all that pain before she realized how much she cared about him, and now here he was, perfectly healthy, and absolutely nothing had changed. It all crashed over her like restless waves that fought to capture every emotion within her and drag it back out to the depths of the sea.
She spent all summer distracting herself, trying to get over what she continuously tried to tell herself was just a crush. She had spent months feeling guilty about never saying good-bye to him that day, about never saying a real good-bye to him at all. It was because she could not. She could not find it within herself to say the words “good-bye” to him because they seemed too permanent. He had always managed to come back, somehow, in some way, and if she said good-bye, that would not happen. If she said good-bye, he would never come back.
"Did you hear that new story?" Mia asked in an almost teasing tone, moving her hands so they rested on either side of his neck. She made him look at her, keeping her eyes locked with his, feeling as though an electric current was running through her. "About the fox and the wolf that ran in separate forests for months, feeling like it was years. And then one day the wolf found the fox hidden in her den, and he barked at her because he is an annoying wolf. Then, when the wolf decided he was done with all his barking and howling, and tried to leave, the fox reminded him why he came to the den in the first place."
"I think I have heard of it," Vincent said quietly. She watched the corners of his lips, a hint of a smirk beginning to show up as his head was inclined more toward her. "Why did the wolf come back, again?"
"It seems that the fox…Screw it." Mia raised her head to press her lips against Vincent’s, smiling into the kiss as she wrapped her arm more around his neck and felt his arms around her waist. She pulled away from him, the smile on her lips slowly fading into a more serious and softer expression. "I love you, Vincent."
He grinned slightly. “That’s a fortunate coincidence.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed him back against the post. “You are such a-“
He pulled her back against him to cut her off. “Mia, you talk too much.”
She never did finish that sentence then, but she certainly had enough opportunities in the future to repeat it as often as she pleased.
