volumetwo | (no subject)

(no subject)

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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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.

Despite himself, Scorpius smiles against James' shoulder. He's not exactly happy that he scared James, but the way James holds him, the clutch, the tremor in his voice. It's really been too long since they saw one another, surely. That's why Scorpius got so crazy with that text.

"Just so you know, without a doubt, there is no one else," he says quietly.

"Good. There better not be." It's scoffed, and the scorn is there to hide the way the flagging adrenaline is making him go hoarse. "I sort of came out of the closet to my family for you, you know." He lingers there for another moment, before gently trying to guide Scorpius to the couch. He wants to get them both cleaned up.

Scorpius goes a bit quiet, letting James help him to the couch and sitting there being fawned over until James realises Scorpius knows how to do healing spells better than him and he actually did a fairly decent job.

Feeling a little jittery after the annoyance of their fight and then the splinching, Scorpius just stays quiet and lets James look him over to his contentment.

"My da really likes you, you know," he murmurs, stroking his fingers through Scorpius's hair now that he's finally started to relax. "There's no way he'd let me be that much of a giant ass to you. And Albus would probably kill me, too."

Not that he'd been able to tell Albus yet.

"To be fair, I was planning to kill you first," Scorpius says, offering a slight smile as he looks up. James' fingers in his hair are calming and James' voice in general soothes him easily. "But really, James. We need to work on your texting etiquette. I barely use the Muggle thing except for you and even I know what not to put in there."

"Well, I typically expect you to tell me if I do something to bother you, not to - I don't know, pretend you'd rather spend time with someone else than me."

Now that he's sure that Scorpius really is and will be fine, he's settled into frowning a little bit again- though he doesn't quite loose his hold on the other boy.

"I was a bit too angry to think to want to talk to you about it," Scorpius grumbles, glancing away. But then he shrugs. "Though, point taken. I really am sorry."

"You were too angry because I said I wanted to talk."

He's trying to sound frustrated, but it's dissolving into relief now.

"What if I needed to tell you that I - I don't know, that I've got some magical wasting illness and I've only got ten days to live? That merits a 'we need to talk,' right?"

"Okay, if ever you've come down with a case of Dragon Fever, please don't text me to say we need to talk - just come to my sodding house and talk to me like a normal bloke."

But Scorpius is sort of too happy they aren't broken up to be upset in the least.

"-- no way. I'm terrified of your dad."

Words he has never actually admitted out loud before.

"I'd rather just die of the Dragon Fever."

At that, Scorpius laughs outright. He has to bite his lip from just getting hysterical on James. "I knew it! I bloody knew it! And you call me a prat for being afraid of your dad. Hypocrite."

But instead of being angry, Scorpius leans in and presses his lips to James'.

"My father's not a bad man, you know. He'd learn to love you, because I do."