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edenfallingSummary: Harry doesn't know if he's ticklish. Ginny thinks this is a crime. (700 words)
Note: This story was written for![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
cottoncandy_bingo Round One, in response to the prompt: tickle.
[ETA: Now crossposted here on AO3!]
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Sense and Sensitivity
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Ginny stopped halfway through putting the breakfast dishes into the sink. "Are you telling me you've never had a tickle fight?" The cleaning spell whined soundlessly, bubbles stretching upward in beseeching strands. One popped on her wrist and she blinked, then lowered the plates and flatware the rest of the way into the basin and let the magic get to work.
Harry shrugged, looking a bit baffled at her reaction. "No? I didn't have anyone I wanted to tickle, or to touch me in general. Dudley never bothered. He was more interested in ordinary fighting, or breaking things and blaming me. I suppose I wouldn't have minded if Ron or Hermione had tried to tickle me, but they never did. So, yeah. No tickle fights. Sorry."
Ginny crossed the kitchen and plucked the battered mug of tea from her boyfriend's hands.
"Ginny?" he said warily as she set the mug on the counter and started pushing him toward the tiny main room of the Diagon Alley flat he and Ron shared.
"Do you even know if you're ticklish?" she asked.
"Dunno. You can't really tickle yourself, right? I think I read that somewhere. I mean, once or twice your hair's brushed inside my elbows when we've been hugging or lying around in your mum's garden and that's felt a bit odd, but nothing I needed to laugh about."
His left leg hit the sofa. Ginny gave him one last push, and he sat down still looking puzzled.
She sat down on his lap. "Ron's out for the day, yeah?" she asked as she reached for the hem of Harry's t-shirt.
He nodded.
"Good. I'd rather not do this in your room. It's a little too... well, I'd want to push and I don't want to make you uncomfortable," she said. "But I'd also rather not have to explain to my brother why we're half naked on the sofa."
She slid her hands under the thin cotton fabric of the shirt and let her fingers and palms rest on her boyfriend's skin -- not nearly hard to enough to hurt, or light enough to tickle. Just firm, to let him feel the calluses from wand and quill and broom, to let her feel the heat of his body and the slight motion of his breathing.
Ginny was really looking forward to the day Harry felt ready to have sex. She missed getting to go further than kissing and maybe a little groping above the waist. He'd be awkward at first, just like she'd been awkward with Dean, but learning as you went was half the fun.
And that would definitely be easier if Harry was used to laughing with her at how silly human bodies could be.
Harry swallowed and set his hands on Ginny's waist, pressing the fabric of her own t-shirt to her skin with damp palms. "Er. Right. Is nakedness strictly necessary for a tickle fight?"
Ginny grinned. "Not at all. But it's easier to experiment if we can see what we're doing and don't have clothes getting in the way of any place we might want to touch. There are so many other ways to take advantage of ticklishness -- and even if you're not ticklish at all, I promise that I am. You'll just have to figure out where for yourself."
She pulled her hands out from under his shirt and grasped the hem. "May I?" she asked, tugging lightly upward.
Harry was silent for a long moment -- Ginny started to lower her hands, ready to back off -- and then he nodded, eyes clear and fearless as he caught and held her gaze. "Yeah. And thanks for not making fun of me, or making it a big deal."
Ginny thought about a little boy too isolated and neglected to realize all the parts of normal childhood he was missing. And she thought about herself after Tom and the diary, and how much she'd needed for people to treat her like she was normal instead of an irreparably broken victim.
"Any time," she said.
Then she yanked her boyfriend's shirt up and over his head, tangling his arms and knocking off his glasses in the process.
She wanted a clear shot at blowing raspberries on his stomach.
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End of Story
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I started this during an evening shift at the smoke shop last week, but broke off after about 200 words and only finished tonight, possibly spurred on by spending an hour or two crossposting some old HP stories to AO3. It feels weird to be writing new HP fic that isn't in direct response to a request from a specific person. But I guess one never really leaves one's first fandom, no matter how distant the relationship may become over the years.
(Apparently I will never get over the whole Ginny-and-Tom thing either. Well, I did spend eleven years elaborating on that topic. I really should not be surprised when it sneaks into unexpected places.)
Moving on!
I have two other Cotton Candy Bingo fills in various stages of incompleteness: headache for Aradia & Sollux (Homestuck) and clouds for Ariadne & Arthur (Inception). That leaves me with three prompts still unassigned: unexpected love, news, and WILD CARD. I continue to have no real idea what to do for them. The past suggestions that have stuck with me most are something involving people relaxing on the Enterprise between missions, and Mary Pevensie in my "As the Morning and the Night" genderswap AU, but I can't make Mary work with unexpected love (which was the suggestion) and "relaxing on the Enterprise" is too broad to catch fire in my mind. (I also want to write something for Irrylath post-The Pearl of the Soul of the World, but I need to reread that book before I commit to anything.)
I dunno. Anyone have any ideas you think I can and should try to write?
Note: This story was written for
cottoncandy_bingo Round One, in response to the prompt: tickle.[ETA: Now crossposted here on AO3!]
---------------------------------------------
Sense and Sensitivity
---------------------------------------------
Ginny stopped halfway through putting the breakfast dishes into the sink. "Are you telling me you've never had a tickle fight?" The cleaning spell whined soundlessly, bubbles stretching upward in beseeching strands. One popped on her wrist and she blinked, then lowered the plates and flatware the rest of the way into the basin and let the magic get to work.
Harry shrugged, looking a bit baffled at her reaction. "No? I didn't have anyone I wanted to tickle, or to touch me in general. Dudley never bothered. He was more interested in ordinary fighting, or breaking things and blaming me. I suppose I wouldn't have minded if Ron or Hermione had tried to tickle me, but they never did. So, yeah. No tickle fights. Sorry."
Ginny crossed the kitchen and plucked the battered mug of tea from her boyfriend's hands.
"Ginny?" he said warily as she set the mug on the counter and started pushing him toward the tiny main room of the Diagon Alley flat he and Ron shared.
"Do you even know if you're ticklish?" she asked.
"Dunno. You can't really tickle yourself, right? I think I read that somewhere. I mean, once or twice your hair's brushed inside my elbows when we've been hugging or lying around in your mum's garden and that's felt a bit odd, but nothing I needed to laugh about."
His left leg hit the sofa. Ginny gave him one last push, and he sat down still looking puzzled.
She sat down on his lap. "Ron's out for the day, yeah?" she asked as she reached for the hem of Harry's t-shirt.
He nodded.
"Good. I'd rather not do this in your room. It's a little too... well, I'd want to push and I don't want to make you uncomfortable," she said. "But I'd also rather not have to explain to my brother why we're half naked on the sofa."
She slid her hands under the thin cotton fabric of the shirt and let her fingers and palms rest on her boyfriend's skin -- not nearly hard to enough to hurt, or light enough to tickle. Just firm, to let him feel the calluses from wand and quill and broom, to let her feel the heat of his body and the slight motion of his breathing.
Ginny was really looking forward to the day Harry felt ready to have sex. She missed getting to go further than kissing and maybe a little groping above the waist. He'd be awkward at first, just like she'd been awkward with Dean, but learning as you went was half the fun.
And that would definitely be easier if Harry was used to laughing with her at how silly human bodies could be.
Harry swallowed and set his hands on Ginny's waist, pressing the fabric of her own t-shirt to her skin with damp palms. "Er. Right. Is nakedness strictly necessary for a tickle fight?"
Ginny grinned. "Not at all. But it's easier to experiment if we can see what we're doing and don't have clothes getting in the way of any place we might want to touch. There are so many other ways to take advantage of ticklishness -- and even if you're not ticklish at all, I promise that I am. You'll just have to figure out where for yourself."
She pulled her hands out from under his shirt and grasped the hem. "May I?" she asked, tugging lightly upward.
Harry was silent for a long moment -- Ginny started to lower her hands, ready to back off -- and then he nodded, eyes clear and fearless as he caught and held her gaze. "Yeah. And thanks for not making fun of me, or making it a big deal."
Ginny thought about a little boy too isolated and neglected to realize all the parts of normal childhood he was missing. And she thought about herself after Tom and the diary, and how much she'd needed for people to treat her like she was normal instead of an irreparably broken victim.
"Any time," she said.
Then she yanked her boyfriend's shirt up and over his head, tangling his arms and knocking off his glasses in the process.
She wanted a clear shot at blowing raspberries on his stomach.
---------------------------------------------
End of Story
---------------------------------------------
I started this during an evening shift at the smoke shop last week, but broke off after about 200 words and only finished tonight, possibly spurred on by spending an hour or two crossposting some old HP stories to AO3. It feels weird to be writing new HP fic that isn't in direct response to a request from a specific person. But I guess one never really leaves one's first fandom, no matter how distant the relationship may become over the years.
(Apparently I will never get over the whole Ginny-and-Tom thing either. Well, I did spend eleven years elaborating on that topic. I really should not be surprised when it sneaks into unexpected places.)
Moving on!
I have two other Cotton Candy Bingo fills in various stages of incompleteness: headache for Aradia & Sollux (Homestuck) and clouds for Ariadne & Arthur (Inception). That leaves me with three prompts still unassigned: unexpected love, news, and WILD CARD. I continue to have no real idea what to do for them. The past suggestions that have stuck with me most are something involving people relaxing on the Enterprise between missions, and Mary Pevensie in my "As the Morning and the Night" genderswap AU, but I can't make Mary work with unexpected love (which was the suggestion) and "relaxing on the Enterprise" is too broad to catch fire in my mind. (I also want to write something for Irrylath post-The Pearl of the Soul of the World, but I need to reread that book before I commit to anything.)
I dunno. Anyone have any ideas you think I can and should try to write?
