Toasty Gnomes
By VirtualFaerie
Many thanks to Twilight for helping me out through this whole fic (he's such a sweetie)! And also to Heaven for making me post and helping me with the title!!
--
"And Ron Weasley steps onto the field! This is the man that's been proclaimed most eligible bachelor of the year by Witch Weekly, who's also the world's best Keeper for the Chudley Canons! The crowd goes wild; they can hardly contain their excitement as their favorite player mounts his broom! The fans are screaming and chanting 'Weasley is Our King'!!"
Ron jumped off of his bed and landed on his feet with a loud thump. He winced and waited for a moment, making sure no one had heard him before he continued. He grabbed his broom from where it was leaning against the wall and mounted it, floating a few feet off of the ground.
"Weasley circles the pitch before he stops in front of the rings, ready to--"
"Ron?" said Ginny, sticking her head in his room. "What are you doing?"
He turned and glared at her. "Bugger off, Ginny!"
Ginny raised her eyebrows and shrugged before swinging the door open wider. "I just thought I'd stop by and tell you Luna was here."
Luna appeared in the doorway, standing behind Ginny. She looked at Ron with a slightly interested expression, taking noticed of his violently orange room. "Hello, Ronald," she said.
"Luna? How long were you guys standing out there?" asked Ron, the pitch of his voice climbing.
"Long enough to know that Ron is the world's best keeper," said Ginny, grinning.
He leapt off his broom and raced to the door, shutting it soundly in their faces. The moment after, he regretted it slightly from seeing a surprised look on Luna's face. It wasn't often that she looked like that. He sighed and ran his fingers through his Weasley red hair.
"Oh well," he said to himself. "Harry and Hermione will be here in a few days...."
--
Ginny was the only person in the kitchen the next morning when Ron came plodding down the stairs. "Where's Luna?" asked Ron, pulling up a chair on the opposite side of the table.
Ginny looked at him curiously over the rim of the glass of orange juice. "And why do you care?"
"Don't be a twit," said Ron, glaring. "I was only wondering." He reached over and stole her piece of toast, jumping out of his chair and racing out of the kitchen.
"Oi!" yelled Ginny. "Give me back my toast!"
"Never!" said Ron, taking the toast and shoving half of it into his mouth. He bounded back up the stairs, hoping to escape the wrath of Ginny and ran smack into Luna, who was rubbing her sleepy eyes with back of her curled up fists.
The impact of Luna slamming into him caused the remaining bit of toast to go flying out of his mouth and hit her head.
Luna blinked and took a step back, looking at Ron dazedly. "Did a piece of toast just hit my forehead?" she asked.
Ron's mouth was still hanging open. "Uh…yeah," he said.
Luna pursed her lips together slightly and nodded slowly. "I thought so." She looked past his shoulder, the back up at his face. "If you don't mind," she said distantly. "I'd like to get down the rest of the stairs."
"Right," said Ron, moving over so that she could pass.
She gave him a lopsided smile and continued down the stairs, not even noticing that she had bread crumbs in her hair.
--
"Ginny! Ron!" called Mrs. Weasley into the living room. Ginny looked up from her chess game with Luna and Ron set down his quidditch magazine. "You need to de-gnome the garden!"
Ron groaned and heaved himself off of the couch.
Luna stood up quickly. "Can I help," she asked excitedly.
Ginny gave her a funny look. "Sure...if you want to." Luna's large, silvery eyes widened. "Come on then," said Ginny, leading them into the backyard.
Once they got outside, Ron paid the girls attention and set to catching the gnomes, dizzying them up, and letting them fly over the fence. That was his routine before he heard muffled yelling. He looked over in Luna's direction and noticed that her pockets were bulging.
"Er, are those gnomes in your pockets?" asked Ron curiously.
Luna looked over at him. "Yes. I was thinking I would just drop them off at a field on the way home. Rather depressing to just throw them over the fence." She patted her pockets, which elicited more yelling from the gnomes inside, who increased the volume of their voices.
"We have a box you could put them in instead," said Ginny, walking up to the house and retrieving a brown box.
"Perfect," said Luna dreamily, kneeling down by the box and poking small breathing holes in the top. She emptied her pockets of the gnomes and put the lid back on the box. She looked up and smiled dazedly, her large eyes seeming to bulge slightly.
Ron shifted his eyes to the garden gnome that was currently struggling in his grasp, screaming annoyingly. He flipped open the lid and dropped the gnome into the box quickly, shutting the lid.
"Thank you, Ronald!" said Luna, beaming at him.
Before he could reply, she was already leaning over to pick up another gnome. It squirmed in her hand and bit one of her fingers. Luna let out a small cry and shook her head at the gnome. "Rather...fun, isn't it?" she said conversationally.
"Your hand is bleeding," Ron pointed out.
"Thank you, Captain Obvious," said Ginny loudly, rolling her eyes.
"It is," agreed Luna, putting her recently captured gnome in the box.
Ron paused for a moment, then said: "Here, let's go inside; we've got some bandages."
Ginny shot Ron a look. "I'll just stay out here," she said, a grin tugging at the corners of her lips.
Ron glared at her and put his hand on Luna's arm to lead her into the house. She followed him into the house and up to the bathroom where he searched in the medicine cabinet behind the mirror for the box of bandages.
"Here," he said, pulling one out. "D'you want to wash off your hand first?" he asked a little awkwardly.
"Mm," Luna murmured, turning on the sink and putting her hand under the running water. She made a face. "It stings..."
"I bet," said Ron, pulling out a tube of Anita's Antibacterial Serum. Luna turned off the faucet and Ron handed her a hand towel to dry her hand off with.
"Thanks," she said quietly. Ron took her hand and turned it over, trying in vain to ignore the pleasant tingling that ran rampant through his own fingers. He placed the bandage over her cut slowly, his hands shaking. She let out a little laugh. "Are you nervous, Ronald?" she tilted her face up to his, and peered into his eyes.
Ron opened his mouth, ready to say something, but the words caught in his throat. He blinked and looked down at Luna, her large eyes boring into his. He shut his mouth, then found her standing on her tip-toes, pressing her lips against his. Ron froze, shocked; he was only dimly aware Luna had wrapped her arms lightly around his shoulders, but he was struck that it just felt right and immediately encircled his hands around her waist, leaning forward to deepen the kiss. Luna moaned lightly, weaving her fingers through his hair and Ron was lost to the world; he could only see the gorgeous woman in front of him and he could only taste her lips, the soft, wonderful lips, on his.
Ron broke away. "Luna, I --" he started.
Luna frowned and placed a finger on his lips. "Don't say you regret it, Ronald."
"I wasn't," said Ron, his voice muffled slightly by her finger. "I was only going to say that was the best damn kiss I've ever gotten." He grinned.
Luna let out a soft giggle and he brought his lips down to hers once more.