Title: Wax seal, line, stamp
Fandom: KHR (Katekyou Hitman Reborn) X Harry Potter
Characters: Dokuro Chrome X Hermione Granger
Rating: G
Length: 950 words
Content notes: This is all very easy and fluffy. Inspired by the following page from Jean-Michel Basquiat's notebooks

Summary: Hermione has been penning and trashing copies of the same letter for days on end. Chrome wonders what could be so important that even she would not be allowed to see.

“And, done.”

With a stamp of the seal over hot wax, Hermione sealed her letter.

“Are you sure this time?”

Hermione turned to glare and saw Chrome raise her hands defensively.

“I do have quite a bit of evidence proving that this letter might not in fact be the last one.”

Hermione very determinedly did not look at the wastebasket next to her desk. She also used a remarkable amount of self-control and didn’t vanish away the evidence. Knowing Chrome, she would just somehow put it back even though vanished objects were meant to be impossible to return back unless it was done by the caster themselves. She wasn’t done asking questions about Chrome’s powers (and by extension Mukuro’s). Not yet. But she had learned to pick her battles.

“I’ll have you know I’m penning a very important letter.”

“Penning with a quill, of that I’m sure”

“Very official, even,” Hermione continued, not letting herself be distracted by the interruption.

“So official even I’m not allowed to see it?”

Hermione flushed, and even though she knew the colour didn’t show on her face, she also knew she hadn’t controlled her expression enough for Chrome not to see it.

“See, this is why I’ve been sorely tempted to look at all your drafts,” Chrome started, before patiently retracting her statement due to the look that must’ve shown on Hermione’s face.

“I haven’t,” she clarified. “But I do sorely want to. You can’t expect to hide something like that and leave pieces of paper lying around without expecting me to want to take a look at it.”

Hermione sighed and put her face in her hands. She felt a pair of hands fall on her shoulders, moving in a way that was both familiar and comforting.

“What’s going on with that letter,” Chrome asked finally, the question that must’ve been brewing over the last few days. Hermione hadn’t been subtle after all. Although the draft factory had only been ongoing since that very morning, Hermione had been actively thinking about the contents of that letter for months, if not more. She was pulled out of her thoughts by Chrome again, whose hands had stopped moving on Hermione’s shoulders to gently grasp her upper arms.

“I won’t ask again if you want me to, you know?” she said, and Hermione just had to move one of her hands to rest over Chrome’s own.

“You can just keep your silence and I won’t insist. But if you want to…”

Chrome trailed off, and Hermione’s mouth opened and closed. She wanted to say… Something. But for some reason the words wouldn’t come. She bit her tongue, only a smidge better than actually grinding her teeth, hoping the words would come, but for once her head was empty.

A little huff over her head, and Hermione felt Chrome’s press on the top of her head, and she could picture Chrome’s face nesting in the middle of her curls.

“Did I tell you what Mukuro-sama did when he met up with Hibari-san yesterday?”

“Actually you can read the letter,” Hermione blurted out.

Chrome stopped moving, and it was then that Hermione realized she’d be gently massaging her upper arms this entire time.

“I know you dislike Mukuro-sama, but I didn’t say this to make you-“

“I don’t dislike him, I just…”

“Don’t like him?”

“Anyways, that’s not the point. The letter!”

Hermione stood up to grab the offending item and thrust it toward Chrome.

“I hadn’t planned to do it like this, but… there, take it.”

“Hermione, are you-“

“Please take it!” she sighed, finally raising her eyes up to look at Chrome’s face.

“The letter is for you. And since the content isn’t going to change anyways, I might as well…”

Chrome’s expression softened and she gently took the letter out of Hermione’s hands with a patience Hermione honestly felt she didn’t deserve (she for one, would have broken and read the content far earlier). She watched as Chrome summoned a knife and slid the edge of it carefully under the wax seal, making sure to keep it intact. She was going far too slow, and Hermione couldn’t bear it but she also didn’t dare to break the moment.

It had felt far less daunting while she’d been writing the damn letter, and now Chrome was opening the letter, and she wasn’t saying anything, and-

A gasp, and the letter dropped to the floor, landing half-opened. Hermione knew Chrome’s eyes weren’t on the letter though, even though her own were.

“Marry you?” Chrome whispered. “Hermione, is it true?”

“You didn’t read the entire thing,” Hermione protested. “I worked very hard on it, you could have taken more time-“

“Hermione, please,” Chrome cut her off, stepping forward to take her hand.

“I did,” Hermione said, having taken a deep breath. “I do,” she repeated again, softer this time as she took Chrome’s other hand.

Chrome laughed, the sound familiar and relieving, and Hermione finally relaxed.

“I should be the one to say that,” Chrome rebuked. “And I will, Hermione, I do accept your hand in marriage.”

“I wasn’t offering my hand in marriage, I was accepting yours by inviting you into my family, that’s why you’ve got to read the whole letter.”

“Hermione that doesn’t make any sense, how could you accept my hand in marriage if I haven’t offered it?”

“It makes sense in the letter, that’s why you’ve got to read it in full!”

“Fine, fine,” Chrome laughed, leaning forward to drop a short kiss on Hermione’s lips. “But I do. No matter whose hand is offered to who, I do.”

And Hermione finally felt at ease for the first time in those last few days.