volumetwo | (no subject)

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James Potter is completely aware of the fact that he's never exactly been the poster child for emotional openness or maturity. It's taken him a little while to come into his own - maybe a little longer than most - but he feels better about his place in life lately. He's finally reconciled that he can still be himself and a Potter, that the only standards that he has to live up to are his own.

That his family will love him, no matter who he chooses to be - or be with.

Can you stop by later? he'll text Scorpius. It's late on a Sunday afternoon, right in the middle of summer - Scorpius has been out of Hogwarts for a few weeks now, which is strange and strangely thrilling all at the same time. Not that he can admit that part out loud. We need to talk.

It's a good thing, really. James just never seems to realize that 'We need to talk' is the most fear-inducing thing a person can possibly say to someone else.

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James's biggest crime: being incredibly obtuse sometimes.

He's flustered and floundering here, caught between really strange feeling of jealousy and hurt and frustration and an embarrassing sort of possessiveness.

fine then dont come over. I don't care. why should it matter to me how you spend your time thats ABSURD. I didnt even want to see you today anyway.

-- and he's going to shove his phone under one of the couch cushions. He'll relent and check to see if Scorpius has answered him in an hour or so, but for now he's going to go aggressively sulk at a comic book.

James will come back to a barrage of texts.

Wow. Punctuate much?

Did you know you're insufferable?

And now you're ignoring me, because that's the adult thing to do.

Guess I'll go back to hanging out with someone else then.

The intention was to cool down, to distract himself, but it didn't really work. Knowing that things were possibly Not Okay between the two of them has him uncomfortable and tense, and he's already scowling in anticipation as he pulls his phone out from under the cushion.

well maybe i found someone who doesn't think Im insufferable to come over. excuse me for being too busy to text

Now it's Scorpius' turn to freak out. He stares down at the text, his mind racing. Had James met someone at work? There were no shortages of interested parties, he's sure of that. But James asked for exclusivity. Why would he do this to Scorpius?

Scorpius ground his teeth tightly, eyes beginning to burn. Suddenly, he doesn't much feel like toying with James anymore.

Did you? Find someone else?

And he thinks about it - thinks about pretending, about trying to make Scorpius just as jealous, too, but that doesn't really sound fun. Not when he's feeling vaguely nauseated.

tell me who u are with first and then I'll tell you

Scorpius types out a variety of things, both mean and cautious, before deleting them all and trying new ones until he realises he can't send anything. He can't text James. He's too afraid of the answer, of the reality that James finally realised Scorpius isn't good enough for him and found someone better.

Without hesitating, Scorpius gathers himself and Apparates - directly to James' place. He's so strung out and hurting that he manages to splinch a bit of his forearm off in the process, so when he arrives, he's howling in pain and sinking to his knees.

The anger and frustration evaporate the moment that the confusion lifts enough for James to realize that Scorpius is in actual pain. He goes white, wavers for just a split second, before he grabs the throw off of the back of the couch and drops down hard in front of the other boy.

"Scorpius, shh, shh, it's okay, let me see-"

There's a firm calmness in his voice that he absolutely doesn't feel.

"How bad is it? Let me see. You're okay. You're alright."

"Don't touch me!" Scorpius hisses. The cut isn't very bad, but the amount of blood looks worrying. Scorpius had always been a bit of a bleeder, making any injury look about a thousand times worse than it actually was. He was just lucky he hadn't splinched his entire arm off.

Frantically, Scorpius looks around...the empty apartment. He glares at James steadily.

"I thought you said you were with someone."

"Don't be daft, of course I'm not with anyone, I've been cleaning all day so you could come over--"

But all of this is said distractedly, as if he doesn't care anymore. He has no idea that the wound is mostly superficial; all he can see is how bad it looks, and his blood is running cold. "Stay here, don't move, I'm getting my wand, hold this to your arm-"

James is pushing the throw blanket at him. It's a nice one, but he doesn't really care right now.

"Don't be---!"

Scorpius gapes, pressing the blanket against the wound despite how badly it stings. He watches James rush off for his wand, and Scorpius just... He can't understand it all. Looking around the room, there's no reason to suspect James is lying and hiding someone. The place looks cleaner than he's ever seen it, frankly, and suddenly he's thinking of that first text in a whole new light.

Maybe it wasn't 'we NEED to talk' but just 'let's talk' or 'i want to see you' and Scorpius bites his tongue at his own stupidity. At James's stupidity!

In James's opinion, need was very much the right word. Because he has a question for him, an important one - a very much time-sensitive one. Need seemed like the right word in the circumstance.

He's back in just a few moments, armed with his wand and some bandages. There's fear on his face, real and serious worry, but he's doing a pretty decent job at masking it.

"C'mon, Scor. Let's staunch the bleeding, then we'll get you to a healer right away. Alright? Look at me, okay?" There's just so much blood.

Scorpius doesn't look up. He stays put on his knees with the blanket pressed hard to the wound, his eyes stinging more than anything else.

"I'm fine, you dolt," he says stiffly. "I bleed a lot. It's fine. Look, I only took a little off. It'll heal." He removes the blanket long enough to show James that it's not as bad as he thought, despite all the blood, and then sulks. "Tell me something straight, James: are you planning to break up with me?"

"--what?" James sounds first aghast, then has the audacity to sound a little offended. He hasn't quite stopped fussing over the injury yet, though, trying to gently take Scorpius's arm in his hand, to get a better look at it. Merlin, he hates blood, but this is more important than that. "Why the hell would you think that? Of course not!"

"Why the hell would I--"

Scorpius can't even finish. He doesn't know how to come back from this. A whole stupid fight and an injury just because he took a text the wrong way. What the hell was wrong with him??

Bowing his head, he gave his arm over for inspection.

"-- so I was right? You are mad at me?"

James considers the wound, shuddering slightly, before he removes the throw and presses some gauze and a bandage firmly against it. He wasn't great with this, but he did have some basic first aid abilities, at least.

A spell probably would've helped more, but he was never great with healing; no sense in risking making it worse.

"'Cause I'm sorry for whatever it is I did, and can we just wait to fight about it until you're done bleeding, please?"

"Whatever," Scorpius says dully, head still bowed and no. No. He is not crying. He is not crying!! Those sniffles have nothing to do with anything. His eyes aren't even red, really.

"Scor--"

Okay, that worry is starting to knife through him again. There's a slight shakiness in his hand that belies the gentle firmness in his voice as he reaches forward, trying to tip the Malfoy boy's chin up, to get him to look at him.

"Hey. Don't lie to me. If it hurts this bad, we can go find someone. I'll bring someone here."

Scorpius jerks his face away and uses his free hand to wipe his eyes with the back of his arm. See. No tears.

"I'm physically fine," he says, glaring at how gentle James is when he touches him. "Mentally, I'd be worried if I were you. Apparently, I don't know how to read very simple text messages."

"--did I say something stupid?"

That had to be it, didn't it? With the way his own blood is pounding in his ears, James can't even remember specifically what he'd said to Scorpius. This has pretty much consumed him, here. He doesn't know if he's ever seen him in physical pain like this before, and it's sort of terrified him.

"I'm sorry, it was dumb, it was - my lease is up soon, I wanted to know if you'd want to - maybe look for a place where we could both - it doesn't matter. Let's move you to the couch, ok?"

The bottom drops out from under Scorpius' stomach. Not only is James not breaking up with him but he was planning to ask him to move in??? Scorpius can't even fathom how far off course this all went, just because he apparently can't be happy in life without adding drama and angst to every single situation.

"Hang on," Scorpius says. He gets out his own wand, holds his arm out, and starts whispering incantations that sound something like a song. The flesh stitches together, imperfectly but sterile and enough to ease the flow of blood. He winces and makes faces while he does it - it isn't pleasant to have to do this kind of thing himself - but once it's done, he relaxes visibly and leans in to butt his forehead to James' shoulder. "You said we need to talk. That's, like, Breakup 101, James."

"Sorry, I should have..." James trails off and curses himself softly under his breath. First aid spells. He's going to have to practice his first aid spells, because he's faintly afraid he's going to give himself a heart attack if this happens again and he's unable to do anything about it.

He swallows hard, reaching up to catch the back of Scorpius's head, holding it gently against his shoulder. His fingers are shaking a little more now as they stroke through his hair. "Then what am I supposed to say if we need to talk?"

Scorpius laughs. It's a wet sound, but he's all too happy to cry now if it's because he's happy. "How in Merlin did I fall for such an idiot?" he purrs, no malice to the words, only a gentle tease. "Maybe start with, what are you up to or hi or, I don't know, fancy moving in with me."

"Well, I didn't just want to come out and say it like that, I didn't want to put you on the spot if you didn't want to do it--"

He's defensive, but it's all in a scattered rush. The purr in Scorpius's voice is reassuring, but he can hear the crying, too, and he has no idea how to parse it at all. "Look, just - shh, don't cry, we can talk about it later, okay?"

Scorpius scoots a little closer, bringing his good arm around James. Curling into him, he nods. "Later. Yes." And it's embarrassing that he's crying, but he really sort of thought James was being a huge prick to him and breaking up over text while seeing someone else, and it didn't even occur to Scorpius until now how much he really does love James.

How jealous and crazy it makes him to think of James with anyone else.

"I'm sorry. I'm fine. Really, I am. Bloody embarrassed, but fine."

"You scared the shit of me, you arsehole." It's whispered against the side of Scorpius's head, and he's finally starting to relax a little himself, his fingers catching the back of the other boy's shirt. Gripping it, trying to use that to put some weight into his words.

This is weird for him, weird to think that the boy he'd resented, the boy he'd barely been able to look at for so long had become so critically important to him, but here they were.