Opposites attract.

That has been a saying that has floated around for so long, and it has been sworn upon to be true.

Draco often questioned its meaning.

Was it supposed to be a lifelong relationship? Or a brief spur of the moment with passion and desire written over their bodies desperate and needy? Or something softer, gentle brushes and strokes, hugs and warmth.

Or was it a cruel joke?

A lie passed down to watch others as they crumble and burn in a soft orange and yellow haze?

Draco almost scoffed at the idea, of course it could've been entirely true. But he hoped it wasn't.

There was a boy laying on Draco's lap, sound asleep. His facial features were softer than Dracos sharp ones, his rested in a soft smile, Dracos in one of annoyance. Draco sat absolutely perfectly still so he wouldn't wake up the boy laying on his lap.

The boys head moved, his beautiful electric blue eyes peaking open sleepily, his blonde hair still puffy and soft like always. Draco's breath nearly caught in his throat, the boy looked up to him, and smiled at him softly.

Spark was his name, and he's been there for Draco since day one. The blonde was a softie, Draco would admit, soft enough to play with wild animals without being seen as a threat, soft enough to rock an anxious baby to sleep. He was soft, all over, his cheeks, his hands, all soft.

Draco took that back, he wasn't soft in the sense that he was fat. No, he was physically fit and all, he just looked like he worked an office job.

Softie, softie, soft soft. That was the little tease Draco had for him.

"Morning," Spark said with his soft facial features moving perfectly to form what could've only been god's idea of perfect contentment. Draco looked away and stood up suddenly, sending Spark crashing to the ground with a gentle noise of discontent, followed by a louder crash of him knocking a lamp over in his panic.

Draco turned rather sharply, ignoring Spark as he sat on the floor, his leg bleeding from shards of the shattered lamp. Walking toward the back porch, he left the sliding glass door open, so he could listen to Sparks gentle whimpers.

He could hear as Spark shakily got up, the couch creaked as the boy used it to support himself. He could hear the sound of feet padding down the hallway, the small groan of the hinges on the bathroom door, and the sound of the door closing.

Draco hadn't realized he was gripping the wooden railing hard enough to give himself a splinter, his knuckles white and his gaze far away as she imagined Spark trying to help himself.

A fish jumping in the pond under him brought him back to reality, Draco looked down at the Koi pond underneath of him. Filled with dozens of goldfish and koi, floating peacefully in the clean and perfectly kept pond.

That was Spark's idea.

The soft blonde had begged Draco for weeks, convincing him that a Koi pond would give him something to do, something to concentrate on. Spark had mild anxiety, but people thought he had ADHD more than that.

But that was just how Spark was.

He was too happy being alive to get depressed over anxiety, Draco was jealous of that. He could watch Spark be himself for hours, the boy was loud and excitable, even bordering on annoying sometimes.

But that's exactly what Draco needed in his life. He didn't need another depressed person to worry about more than himself. He wanted someone he could just chill with, listen to them explain how their day went without any offhanded comments about drinking bleach.

That was another quality Draco envied, how Spark could tell stories. The boy could talk about how he did his taxes, and Draco would be fully immersed the entire time. He wouldn't look like it, or even admit it, but he loved when Spark talked to him.

Draco wasn't depressed, he didn't have anxiety or any other type of disorder or trait that his family had. His mother borderline the fine line between being happy and falling into the deep abyss of memories from her time in war. His father was scared, nervous, anxious on a deeper level.

His elder brother had a heavy limp after he broke his leg when he came out of the womb, his elder sister was anorexic constantly being coaxed into eating enough to survive by the second youngest. His second eldest sister was abusive to everybody to the point that she had a split personality for each of them, the next sister was at high risk for every type of skin and blood cancer known to man. The second youngest brother was clinically depressed, fighting it constantly and trying to find a way to live without it.

And then there was Draco. Perfectly healthy and sane, no health problems seen in his future. He didn't even have bad eyesight, he had perfect twenty twenty vision.

That made him mad.

God, did that make Draco mad. Out off all the family he had to have the perfect health? Not his eldest brother who wanted to be doctor, but was told he couldn't because of his limp, and instead had to settle for writing about being a doctor in books. Perfectly weaved tales, perfectly executed and worded, built to enthrall the most prestigious critics. But this underlying sadness. A want could be felt in every heart spoken word is in every book published.

Or his eldest sister, who wanted to be a jockey, the best. But her anorexia shut her metabolism down, making her gain enough weight to be turned down again and again. No matter how hard she tried to lose that weight, no matter how long she ran, or how much she tried to lose those pounds. They always loomed over her, tripping up her anorexia so much she had to be watched twenty four seven.

Or his second eldest sister, they wanted to own a ranch. They wanted to take care of horses so much, raise them and keep them all to herself. But she could lose herself so often, she'd forget who she was, becoming something else than who she was. Bruises bloomed on all of the siblings from her, knowing exactly how to hurt them the most without knowing how badly she was hurting them, when she knew she would burst into tears and wail herself dry.

Or the next sister, always being tested on, being kept from her doing what she wanted to do. She wanted to be a nurse for the longest time, then a teacher, then an archeologist. She wasn't allowed to get sunburns, so she was kept inside all the time, keeping her from the sun she so desperately wanted to feel on her pale skin. She wanted to dig in the sand with her sibling at the beach, feel the hot sand under her feet and cool salty water on her shoulders. But she always had testing to do, her skin was fragile and delicate, only decorated by the occasional bruise from being poked.

Or even the second youngest, who wanted to be a baker on television. But his depression always beat him back no matter how hard he tried to overcome it, always telling him that nobody would ever watch it. Or that his food wasn't good enough for them, and they would all slowly build up a hatred for him and all he stood for. Being told he could by hundreds of friends and family, only for the one dark voice in his head to overpower them all.

And Draco didn't even know what he wanted to do. He was in perfect health, and he was jobless, dropped out of college and lives with Spark, free loading off the boy's resources.

How worthless that made Draco feel.

And then he saw Spark, happy despite his anxiety, cheerful and ready to hug everybody in the entire world. And it gave him hope.

Hope that his brother could become a doctor, his sister a jokey, the next sister could own a ranch, or that the next could become an archeologist. Hope that his mother would never fall to her PTSD, that his father would be able to gain confidence, that the second youngest brother could start that cooking show.

Spark wanted the build the Koi pond so bad, but he wanted to make sure Draco was okay with it. He wanted to make sure the worthless roommate that ate his food, slept in his house, and made messes was okay with getting a Koi pond.

Draco wondered how he got so lucky.

Anyone else would've kicked him out the moment they had the chance, Spark begged him to stay. Spark was so pure and innocent, it puzzled Draco.

Eventually Draco had succumbed to Sparks wishes and let the boy build the Koi pond. After watching Spark did for hours, watching his soft face become coated in sweat and dust, watching him plow on determined to get his Koi pond, he decided to help.

If Spark was anybody else Draco would've left him to his devices and gone to sleep, but Spark wasn't anybody else. When he came down with the offer to help, the smile that graced Sparks face was already worth whatever work Draco had to do.

Draco thought it would've been hard, making a Koi pond, but Spark was there, joking and messing around all while making more progress than Draco did. Spark made that Koi pond, and Draco helped. Despite doing so little compared to Spark, Spark made Draco feel like he did as much as the blonde did.

Spark was special.

And Draco wanted to tell him how he felt about the boy so bad, but he could barely tell himself how much he needed Spark in his life.

Draco pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, taking one out and lighting it. Holding it up to his lips, he breathed in the smoke, feeling it enter his lungs and swirling around like a warm vortex next to his heart.

The warm glow from the tip reminded him of Spark, then again, everything he could somehow pull back to Spark.

Draco was so wrapped up in his thoughts, he didn't notice Spark returning with his legs wrapped up in bandages, wearing new sweatpants. He noticed as soon as the boy leaned on the railing next to him, looking down at the Koi pond he worked so hard to maintain.

Draco looked behind him, Spark had already cleaned up the lamp. It was as if the scene had never happened in the first place. But something was off, it was like changing the color of one piece of furniture just a few shades, Draco couldn't put his finger on it.

Until he looked at Spark.

The blonde boy's soft features seemed strained, the corner of his slightly chapped but beautifully soft lips turned downwards. His smooth lined eyebrows furrowed, his soft oval shaped eyes cast down at the pond avoiding Draco. His soft cheek seemed sunken in, but Draco knew that the boy just chewed on his cheeks.

Draco was confused, he had never seen Spark like this before. The blonde boy was always smiling, or at least content. He had never seen him like this before, not even during his few panic attacks, he would laugh during them and try to brush Draco's concern away.

This was new.

This was strange.

This was bad.

Draco felt a pit sink in his stomach, he felt something bad brewing in Spark. The blonde stayed like that for a few minutes, every second felt like years to Draco. He returned to gripping the railing until his knuckles turned white from the pressure and his fingertips started to bruise.

Draco felt his heart stop with a single sentence, soft words that flowed out of Sparks soft lips and face. Hitting Draco's thought to be hard heart, the cigarette fell out of his mouth and into the Koi pond. Neither seemed to care.

"Do you like hurting me?"

The way Spark asked it, it made Draco feel like he kicked a starving puppy to death slowly. That's when he saw Sparks face change. The harsher lines that must've been consideration had melted in soft lines of sadness. That was worse than before to Draco.

Draco never meant to hurt Spark, Spark was so precious, held so close to Draco's heart that it hurt when the boy wasn't in the same room.

"No."

The words came out of his mouth meaning to sound sincere and honest, but instead they sounded hollow, choked up as if Draco was fighting back tears. As if he realized he was hurting Spark, as if he's been doing it on purpose.

Draco meant to hurt Spark every time.

Every time he had the chance, every time he saw those clear and sharp blue iris' on him, Draco wanted to strangle the life out of Spark. He wanted to pin him to the ground and punch him over and over again until he couldn't see a single soft contour on the blonde's soft face.

How dare Spark give him hope, how dare the boy even act like everything was going to be okay.

How dare Spark treat Draco like he did something to help him around the house, how dare he ask him to build a Koi pond on his own property.

Spark made Draco fell special in every way that nothing else could, he made him feel special, he made him feel like his problems were as important as everyone else's.

Spark made Draco feel love.

And Draco hated it.

Draco would ruin Spark, he would slowly drag the blonde down with him into the sinking abyss of his problems and laziness. Draco would slowly drown Spark in his poorly spoken words, sloppy and messy with no style or tact to them at all.

Draco would extinguish Spark.

Draco couldn't do that. Draco couldn't be responsible for the only good left in this world, the only purity that could've helped him out of his problems. Being tarnished and broken because of him.

And every time he had the chance he hurt Spark, ramming him into walls that crumbled the drywall, pushing him down stairs that sprung off of their nails, grabbing his arms hard enough to bruise.

And every time Spark covered it up that same day, new drywall replaced the old freshly painted, stairs screwed back into place, and he'd wear his favorite yellow and blanket jacket.

The more Draco hurt Spark, the more Spark cared for Draco. The harder Draco hit, the longer Spark slept on him, the more blood Draco drew, the more food Spark would make for him. The drunker Draco got, the gentler Spark acted.

It was almost hopeless. Spark didn't care how he was bruised, battered, and cut. Sparked cared for Draco first, no matter his injuries. Draco thought Spark might've liked the pain.

But now Draco saw that he did hurt Spark, so much more than he ever thought he could, than he ever wanted to.

Spark was supposed to get mad, he was supposed to yell at him for being a useless waste of space. Give him what he deserved, maybe repay all of the bruises and cuts.

Not this, this quiet stillness made Draco want to break down in a sobbing mess right there, he wanted to get on his knees and beg for forgiveness. Spark had given him so much, and what had he done?

"You're a horrible liar."

The way Spark said it drove a nail into the coffin, soft and heartbroken. His voice cracking in the middle, and a soft intake of breath. Draco risked a glance over at him and saw the worst thing imaginable.

Running down Spark's perfectly soft cheeks were tears.

Spark had never cried around Draco before, Draco had started to think that maybe Spark just couldn't. Until now that is.

Draco responded the only way he could, tears blurred his vision and he looked down at the Koi pond. Squeezing them shut tightly, he felt them drip away.

He heard Spark make a soft gasp, and warm and soft hands wrap around him, pulling him into an embrace.

That made Draco cry harder, his breathing became jagged as he let Spark hold him. How nice it felt to be protected, to be held. He felt Sparks tears fall into the back of his neck, and he realized what he was doing.

He was baiting Spark in again, making him think it would be nice to keep Draco around more so he could hurt him more and more.

The thought made Draco sick.

Wrenching away from Spark there was a heart stopping moment with a sharp slapping noise, followed by a lounger thump as Spark hit the floor. The blonde looked up at Draco tears pouring down his face as he held his cheek, a red handprint forming.

Draco backed up quickly, breathing in heavy jagged breaths, his eyes never leaving Spark. His hand tingling from the impact of the slap.

Sparks face morphed again, and he opened his mouth, a soft exhale of air before he pulled his knees up to his chest and he started to sob. His soft body wracking with sobs, soft noises and sniffs were the only noises he made.

"Spark I'm sorr-"

Draco reached out for Spark and he flinched.

Draco's heart shattered.

Spark flinched away from him, the same Spark that let him stay in his house and eat his food, the same Spark that cared for him when he was sick and injured. The same Spark that just wanted a Koi pond.

"Spark plea-"

"Get away!"

Draco fell back himself, electric blue eyes seemed to pierce his soul and make him weaker than he already was.

What took him by surprise was the hatred in Sparks eyes.

Those blues eye filled to the spilling point with love and laughter, softness and warmth ready to wrap anybody in them and make them feel safe. Now only held fear and hatred.

"Please,"

Spark begged him as he got shakily to his feet sobbing softly the entire time, tears still flowing down his soft pink cheeks.

"Please just leave me alone."

Spark said softly before crossing his arms, wiping his face on his sleeve and walking inside.

Draco was left there shocked on the floor of the deck, new tears running down old tear streaks.

Spark didn't even tell him to leave.

Draco sat there for the longest time. He didn't want to hurt Spark like that, he wanted to get away from Spark. To save him. And Draco messed up beyond all belief.

As he sat there he saw the warm bud of his cigarette slowly dip into the water of the pond, it had landed on a rock earlier it seemed.

They had lied.

Who ever told everybody that opposites attract, they lied to see people suffer and feel their hearts get ripped out of their chest.

Spark was afraid of him now.

The embers on the tip of his cigarette fell into the water completely.

Extinguishing.