i'll tell you the truth
Jul. 2nd, 2024 02:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
agentwilighti'll tell you the truth.
pairing: isabelle ciudad / draco malfoy, mentions of isabelle ciudad / zane suwannarat.
words: 1760.
universe: meliora.
rating: t, teen and up audiences.
content warnings: none.
summary: isabelle ciudad doesn't really have the moments of her life entirely memorized; it's the reason why she always takes photos of everything so she could remember easily. however, one thing is for certain, she does remember falling very slowly in love with draco malfoy.
IT STARTS OFF AS SOMETHING TO PASS THE TIME. Isabelle Ciudad had always thought she's above dating apps until one Blaise Zabini told her that perhaps she should find some other people to talk to about her day instead of consistently running her mouth in his shop under the guise of getting a new dainty tattoo that takes less than thirty minutes to finish. Initially, it's something she didn't actually take seriously. She doesn't think she messaged half of her matches, honestly, but there's something so striking in the way he looked on his profile that she felt compelled to actually message him.
Perhaps it's in the way he responded to her unusual ways of flirting, or perhaps it's how he willingly entertained her even when she's panicking at the thought of actually flirting with someone in the internet. Isa isn't sure which one of it that made her stick around, but it has to be one of those. She wouldn't have gone to their first date, otherwise.
She remembers being taken hostage by the sound of laughter on their first date. How it felt like a lightning strike when she heard him laugh for the very first time over his attempt at speaking her second language. (She didn't have the heart to tell him that her family mostly speaks Bisaya because it's so cute that he tries, and she speaks Tagalog anyway so it's not like it's a huge deal.) Something froze in time back then and Isa had to mentally steady herself because it caught her off guard to hear something so nice. It barely lasted three seconds, but to Isa, it felt like a long time before she could recover from Draco Malfoy just... laughing.
She didn't tell Susan about this yet, but she did tell Blaise, and Blaise said she's definitely "down bad". (Maybe she is, but Isa would never admit to it. Past relationships have taught her that admitting something so carelessly puts it at the risk of disappearing. It's not exactly what happened with Zane, but it's almost like it anyway.) Isa is a hundred percent certain that at this point, she likes him. She likes him enough to fight for her life in those private messages even without his knowledge because Merlin knows Draco had already heard so much from the people around him. It doesn't matter if Blaise's words were made in jest. Isa wanted people to see him in a better light. (Although she doesn't want them to see him the way she does. For all of Isa's kindness, she can be a selfish person sometimes.)
The trip to Trowbridge is one step amongst many. He listened to her and asked questions. If this were anyone else, they probably would not have expressed the same amount of interest in her father's architecture. Isa had been on one too many dates where the people were more interested in how she fares in the bedroom than what her mind contains. To some others, what Draco is doing is the bare minimum, but not very many is capable of doing that. In fact, not a lot of people would be willing to learn Tagalog for her. A lot of her exes never did.
Nights are spent in the comfort of her one bedroom apartment's living room. Two plates on the table with different dishes each night, and differing reflections of light on their faces as they watch whatever seems interesting in wixflix on the first flatscreen TV Isa's family ever owned. Admittedly, she thought he'd be more accustomed to grander things in life. He is a Malfoy after all. But he sits on her floor with the old carpet from when she was fifteen, and watches brainless TV shows with her on an old TV with three dead pixels on three different parts of the screen and she'd never heard him complain even once. He made a joke about the mismatched spoon and fork, but the smile on his face tells her that it does not bother him in the slightest.
She's already sure that she likes him then, but there are more butterflies in the pit of her stomach than what she's used to, and she finds herself staring at him for longer than she does on a normal day.
Isa briefly entertains the idea of falling for him when she finds herself thinking about him a bit more fondly than she'd care to admit. She's in a photoshoot with an influencer and the chosen location is breathtaking. If her observations about his favorite places are right, this place could probably make it into the short list of places that could be Draco's favorite. It's peaceful and there's a tree that looks almost like it's the same tree from his favorite place back in Malfoy Manor.
The influencer she's taking a photo of decides that they want to take a twenty minute break, and Isa is quick to snap a photo of the location with lush greenery. It makes its way to Draco's inbox in a matter of seconds. This could be your new favorite place. She types, followed by a shared pin location just in case he wants to visit it by himself.
It takes someone calling her out before she realizes that she's smiling to herself. She's half-glad that her clients aren't from the Wizarding Community this time around. They'd be teasing her nonstop otherwise. Although it puts things in perspective, really. The smile on her face. The way she so fondly thought of him. The way she immediately proposed that this could be his favorite place just about says everything she needs to know. Though of course, Isa has always been in denial about these things out of fear that they would slip away from her hands the moment she acknowledges it.
She's definitely falling for him at this point, but Isa denies it to herself. Don't acknowledge it, Isa. You might jinx it otherwise.
It's her denial that leads her to pull away somehow, or actually, she isn't sure at this point. He's distanced himself from her ever so gradually and Isa already feels like she's already ruined it with her thoughts turning into actions. It's always her defense mechanisms that lead things to their inevitable end. The last time she ever seriously dated, she'd been the first one to walk away. Now it all feels like a standstill. Draco's gradually moving away and away from her, and she couldn't bring herself to take that step forward because she might as well just let this go before he's had the mind to leave the moment she tells him how much she likes him.
It's funny because it takes the two of them to not talk for two months before she realizes that she is, in fact, very much in love with him. It had been that way when she takes him to Moalboal for the first time and her cousins flocked around the tall guy, teasing Isa about being obviously vertically challenged next to him. It had been that way when she heard him talk to her mother in Tagalog, and when he actually sat down to drink red horse and gin bilog with her father and her titos.
His absence weighs heavy on the atmosphere. The thought of all of it being over leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. Did I ruin this again like everything else? The lack of his presence in her apartment is like a deafening silence that leaves your ears ringing. She watches her favorite shows and turns to her side to make a side comment only to be met with nothing but the sight of her doorway. She cooks dinner but ends up making enough for two servings and she sadly puts the excess food in the fridge for tomorrow. Should I have told him I loved him?
Then again, Isa remembers that she's not exactly the kind of girl worth staying for. She just wishes it didn't end up in her falling for him. She'd been left so many times before, but this one ends up harder than anything else. She knew it would be hard if he leaves, or if they stop talking because he'd carved such a huge space for himself in her life that it's hard to bring everything back to where they used to. Sure she has Susan, Blaise, Tracey, Audrey, and every other person she talks to on the regular... but it's never really the same is it?
One cannot simply look for a person in another person. Life just doesn't work that way. She learns that the hard way when she goes to Gwydion in black pumps and a little black dress with pearls around her neck. A guy flirts with her by the bar and she could see Ginny's concerned glances. Isa tries to flirt back, but it doesn't really feel fullfiling in any way. If anything, she just feels emptier. He does not stand the same way Draco does next to her, and he does not hold Isa's hand as warmly as Draco does. It's painstakingly obvious that she is still pining and missing Draco, because even when she's in the presence of another arguably good-looking guy, she still couldn't get past the fact that this guy doesn't have blond hair, isn't dramatic, and doesn't have the sense of humor and laughter she adores.
Isa ignores Ginny's attempts at a conversation and types up a message to Draco only to delete the entire thing. She did it the entire way back to her apartment.
After almost three months of radio silence, Isa decides that repeating her past mistakes only to wallow in self-pity and depression is not the right way to go about this. Her biggest mistake with Zane is her lack of trying. She could have gotten her answers earlier if she didn't just jump into the conclusion that he hated her, that he ghosted her, that he left her without thinking about her. Answers are meant for questions, and Isa just never seems to ask enough.
I miss you. She finally sends a text message to him and leaves her phone on Do Not Disturb just so she wouldn't anxiously wait for the notification on her phone.
I'm actually in love with you and I hate that we're at an impasse. Can we please try this again? Is what she does not say in favor of reserving it for when she's finally able to look at him in the face again.
pairing: isabelle ciudad / draco malfoy, mentions of isabelle ciudad / zane suwannarat.
words: 1760.
universe: meliora.
rating: t, teen and up audiences.
content warnings: none.
summary: isabelle ciudad doesn't really have the moments of her life entirely memorized; it's the reason why she always takes photos of everything so she could remember easily. however, one thing is for certain, she does remember falling very slowly in love with draco malfoy.
IT STARTS OFF AS SOMETHING TO PASS THE TIME. Isabelle Ciudad had always thought she's above dating apps until one Blaise Zabini told her that perhaps she should find some other people to talk to about her day instead of consistently running her mouth in his shop under the guise of getting a new dainty tattoo that takes less than thirty minutes to finish. Initially, it's something she didn't actually take seriously. She doesn't think she messaged half of her matches, honestly, but there's something so striking in the way he looked on his profile that she felt compelled to actually message him.
Perhaps it's in the way he responded to her unusual ways of flirting, or perhaps it's how he willingly entertained her even when she's panicking at the thought of actually flirting with someone in the internet. Isa isn't sure which one of it that made her stick around, but it has to be one of those. She wouldn't have gone to their first date, otherwise.
She remembers being taken hostage by the sound of laughter on their first date. How it felt like a lightning strike when she heard him laugh for the very first time over his attempt at speaking her second language. (She didn't have the heart to tell him that her family mostly speaks Bisaya because it's so cute that he tries, and she speaks Tagalog anyway so it's not like it's a huge deal.) Something froze in time back then and Isa had to mentally steady herself because it caught her off guard to hear something so nice. It barely lasted three seconds, but to Isa, it felt like a long time before she could recover from Draco Malfoy just... laughing.
She didn't tell Susan about this yet, but she did tell Blaise, and Blaise said she's definitely "down bad". (Maybe she is, but Isa would never admit to it. Past relationships have taught her that admitting something so carelessly puts it at the risk of disappearing. It's not exactly what happened with Zane, but it's almost like it anyway.) Isa is a hundred percent certain that at this point, she likes him. She likes him enough to fight for her life in those private messages even without his knowledge because Merlin knows Draco had already heard so much from the people around him. It doesn't matter if Blaise's words were made in jest. Isa wanted people to see him in a better light. (Although she doesn't want them to see him the way she does. For all of Isa's kindness, she can be a selfish person sometimes.)
The trip to Trowbridge is one step amongst many. He listened to her and asked questions. If this were anyone else, they probably would not have expressed the same amount of interest in her father's architecture. Isa had been on one too many dates where the people were more interested in how she fares in the bedroom than what her mind contains. To some others, what Draco is doing is the bare minimum, but not very many is capable of doing that. In fact, not a lot of people would be willing to learn Tagalog for her. A lot of her exes never did.
Nights are spent in the comfort of her one bedroom apartment's living room. Two plates on the table with different dishes each night, and differing reflections of light on their faces as they watch whatever seems interesting in wixflix on the first flatscreen TV Isa's family ever owned. Admittedly, she thought he'd be more accustomed to grander things in life. He is a Malfoy after all. But he sits on her floor with the old carpet from when she was fifteen, and watches brainless TV shows with her on an old TV with three dead pixels on three different parts of the screen and she'd never heard him complain even once. He made a joke about the mismatched spoon and fork, but the smile on his face tells her that it does not bother him in the slightest.
She's already sure that she likes him then, but there are more butterflies in the pit of her stomach than what she's used to, and she finds herself staring at him for longer than she does on a normal day.
Isa briefly entertains the idea of falling for him when she finds herself thinking about him a bit more fondly than she'd care to admit. She's in a photoshoot with an influencer and the chosen location is breathtaking. If her observations about his favorite places are right, this place could probably make it into the short list of places that could be Draco's favorite. It's peaceful and there's a tree that looks almost like it's the same tree from his favorite place back in Malfoy Manor.
The influencer she's taking a photo of decides that they want to take a twenty minute break, and Isa is quick to snap a photo of the location with lush greenery. It makes its way to Draco's inbox in a matter of seconds. This could be your new favorite place. She types, followed by a shared pin location just in case he wants to visit it by himself.
It takes someone calling her out before she realizes that she's smiling to herself. She's half-glad that her clients aren't from the Wizarding Community this time around. They'd be teasing her nonstop otherwise. Although it puts things in perspective, really. The smile on her face. The way she so fondly thought of him. The way she immediately proposed that this could be his favorite place just about says everything she needs to know. Though of course, Isa has always been in denial about these things out of fear that they would slip away from her hands the moment she acknowledges it.
She's definitely falling for him at this point, but Isa denies it to herself. Don't acknowledge it, Isa. You might jinx it otherwise.
It's her denial that leads her to pull away somehow, or actually, she isn't sure at this point. He's distanced himself from her ever so gradually and Isa already feels like she's already ruined it with her thoughts turning into actions. It's always her defense mechanisms that lead things to their inevitable end. The last time she ever seriously dated, she'd been the first one to walk away. Now it all feels like a standstill. Draco's gradually moving away and away from her, and she couldn't bring herself to take that step forward because she might as well just let this go before he's had the mind to leave the moment she tells him how much she likes him.
It's funny because it takes the two of them to not talk for two months before she realizes that she is, in fact, very much in love with him. It had been that way when she takes him to Moalboal for the first time and her cousins flocked around the tall guy, teasing Isa about being obviously vertically challenged next to him. It had been that way when she heard him talk to her mother in Tagalog, and when he actually sat down to drink red horse and gin bilog with her father and her titos.
His absence weighs heavy on the atmosphere. The thought of all of it being over leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. Did I ruin this again like everything else? The lack of his presence in her apartment is like a deafening silence that leaves your ears ringing. She watches her favorite shows and turns to her side to make a side comment only to be met with nothing but the sight of her doorway. She cooks dinner but ends up making enough for two servings and she sadly puts the excess food in the fridge for tomorrow. Should I have told him I loved him?
Then again, Isa remembers that she's not exactly the kind of girl worth staying for. She just wishes it didn't end up in her falling for him. She'd been left so many times before, but this one ends up harder than anything else. She knew it would be hard if he leaves, or if they stop talking because he'd carved such a huge space for himself in her life that it's hard to bring everything back to where they used to. Sure she has Susan, Blaise, Tracey, Audrey, and every other person she talks to on the regular... but it's never really the same is it?
One cannot simply look for a person in another person. Life just doesn't work that way. She learns that the hard way when she goes to Gwydion in black pumps and a little black dress with pearls around her neck. A guy flirts with her by the bar and she could see Ginny's concerned glances. Isa tries to flirt back, but it doesn't really feel fullfiling in any way. If anything, she just feels emptier. He does not stand the same way Draco does next to her, and he does not hold Isa's hand as warmly as Draco does. It's painstakingly obvious that she is still pining and missing Draco, because even when she's in the presence of another arguably good-looking guy, she still couldn't get past the fact that this guy doesn't have blond hair, isn't dramatic, and doesn't have the sense of humor and laughter she adores.
Isa ignores Ginny's attempts at a conversation and types up a message to Draco only to delete the entire thing. She did it the entire way back to her apartment.
After almost three months of radio silence, Isa decides that repeating her past mistakes only to wallow in self-pity and depression is not the right way to go about this. Her biggest mistake with Zane is her lack of trying. She could have gotten her answers earlier if she didn't just jump into the conclusion that he hated her, that he ghosted her, that he left her without thinking about her. Answers are meant for questions, and Isa just never seems to ask enough.
I miss you. She finally sends a text message to him and leaves her phone on Do Not Disturb just so she wouldn't anxiously wait for the notification on her phone.
I'm actually in love with you and I hate that we're at an impasse. Can we please try this again? Is what she does not say in favor of reserving it for when she's finally able to look at him in the face again.
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