RIVALRY | Co authored with Kirstenenn

T W E N T Y

Hi
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TW: discussions of addiction, violence and trauma. Viewer discretion is advised.

Dark kissed the sky, as the stars nestled in it with a cold brushed hug. The boys had been gone for a few hours, though at first, Liliya was too curious to see where they'd gone.

She followed them at first, wanting to see what their discussion was about, revealing the details, but Malfoy and the rest had a suave way to hide and run away without being seen. Even her own magic couldn't follow them.

A burden that they were skilled superiorly.

However, as she watched the sunset drawdown from the astronomy tower, the last person she thought she'd hear from was the welcoming echo of a viper himself.

"I didn't know you were here," Draco said, blinking at her dumbfoundedly. "I'll just go."

Liliya pressed her forehead against the metal rail, feeling the coldness of it do no soothing to her headache. "No, it's alright," she sighed.

Only then did she turn to face him when she finally whispered, "Stay."

When he sat beside her, something between them changed, like the air became sour, though nothing of ill will conflicted between them. There was an eerie vibe of sadness afloat his shoulders.

"You look like shit," Liliya snorted, nudging the metal box of her cigarettes. "Something the matter?"

Draco gladly took one and set alight with the edge of his wand. Mumbling a short 'thanks'.

She'd never seen him like this. So — disgruntled. As though something truly bothered him, almost as if he were cursed with poison in his blood. Hair stilted in different directions, tie loose with the first few shirt buttons undone. His watch was in his pocket rather than his wrist and veins bulged out of his skin.

There wasn't something wrong, the world could've set on fire.

Draco never took off his watch.

"Do you—" he growled a sigh. The wind blew his hair backward more.

"Draco, are you alright? You're beginning to scare me." She chuckled and leaned back with a half concerned smile. Trying, of course, not to seem too concerned.

"Do you just look at your family and—" His elbows rested against his knees, head slowly shaking, staring at the sky as if his thoughts ate at him. "Do you ever just look at them and think 'What the fuck have I been brought up in?'"

Surprise slapped across her face. Liliya blinked rapidly, a short cigarette drag of her own. "All the bloody time."

"You just— you can't help but look around you and think that what you live is just — chaos."

"Sometimes," she said plainly. "My family don't really talk to me so I don't really get to know what chaos evolves inside."

Draco snorted. "Aren't you lucky."

She shrugged back, shivering as the wind grew wilder. "It can get pretty lonely."

They share a concerned look, Draco parting his lips as if to respond, though Liliya continued as she said, "But when it wasn't lonely," she hesitated, "It wasn't fun. It was — painful."

Before Draco said anything else, the butt of the cigarette resting between his lips, he pulls out a flask from his inner pocket, unscrewing to take a sip, sharing it between Liliya and himself, a moment of silence lingers between them.

After a while, Draco cleared his throat, looking down at the ground, now cigarette free.

"My father has a gambling addiction," he blurted, causing Liliya to look up to him.