“Perfect! And if you’re blushing this hard, then the rumors must be true,” he says gleefully. “You do like to party.” In Wally’s mind, the other’s blushing cheeks confirmed every rumor he’s heard of Thomas’ weekend escapades into Hogsmeade. He’s not leaving until he’s done prying for all the juicy details. “What’s the craziest party you’ve ever been to?” he asks. “Come on, indulge me! You’ll indulge a sheltered pureblood, won’t you?”
“Rumors?” Teddy hisses. More than one. Plural. Doesn’t anyone in this castle have anything better to do than gossip? Apparently not, he thinks rather bitterly. “I don’t do it so much anymore.” He defends. He hasn’t gone out for at least two weekends, which is a record in his reputation. He clutches at his book the second the boy sits down, looking a little defensive and guarded. “Sheltered pure-- do you know who you’re talking to?” A little on the snobby side, but oh well. He’s only a little offended. It takes him a minute to realize this kid just wasn’t leaving so he heaves a sigh. “... since I don’t think you’re going to let this go... do you want a recent story or a wild one...”
“I do feel the same.” His confidence did a little jump as he brushed his lips against the boys’s hand and then his lips, a tiny smile threatening to show “Kiss me again, boy”
For a second, for a split second, his stomach dropped. The fond little smile on his lips fell and his whole image of calm threatened to shatter. Of course. Where did he ever get the idea Thomas felt the same-- that he wasn’t just another fun little thing like what was between him and Alec.
He was so stupid. Merlin, he’s done it now.
Teddy moves to pull away, to break contact and save his little bit of dignity that he was clinging to when Thomas tugs at his hand.
“Wha...” He breaths and feels like he has a rather thorough case of whiplash. “You... do?” He did? It takes one second, two seconds before it clicks with the soft brush of lips against his hand, a feeling that causes goosebumps to erupt.
“I...” And the smile that’s threatening to show through on Thomas’s face successfully makes its way to Teddy as the Slytherin gives a little laugh, still sounding a bit confused. “You do.” He did. He did!
He’s never allowed himself to have feelings for another past a drunken flurry, he’s never felt safe enough to do so, but now that he’s here, on his own in a peaceful little townhouse, he’s able to feel everything he’s ever wanted to and Thomas returns every bit of it. Its impossible to keep the smile off his lips.
“I’d... boy.” Another little laugh. “I’d love to, but...” and he trails off, takes in Thomas with his bag and shoes still on, the marks on him... “Let’s get you settled in first, right? Then... well, then we can do whatever you want.”
“No.” Teddy is rarely, if at all, so outright with people. Alec is simply a special case. “Don’t tell me what to do.”
It seemed any conversation the two has these days only dissolved into pointless squabbling. In Teddy’s defense, Alec has yet to one thing to make the Slytherin like him-- and everything to make him downright hate him.
(It’s important to note that he doesn't hate Alec. There is simply a strong dislike. Altercations will usually do that to a person.)
(He believes it is also important to note that Alec has never done anything while the pair were sober that Alec likes. Their track record is... lacking, overall.)
“Why?” He snips, not looking up from the letters (from his parents, of course) that he was furiously shuffling through. “You gonna hit me again?”
I want to plot with everyone but I’m a bit behind… If anyone would like a random starter you can reply with a word or phrase or just like this for me to slide into your dms!
I want to plot with everyone but I’m a bit behind... If anyone would like a random starter you can reply with a word or phrase or just like this for me to slide into your dms!
“Alright.” Teddy heaves a sigh, stretching out his arms above his head. The townhouse, a little out of bustling London downtown is picturesque, the type of place found in those home magazines every waiting room seems to acquire.
It’s a bustling neighborhood, but it’s peaceful and his.
Boxes scatter the entire place, some full of new appliances, curtains, furniture, and others with old relics he’s toted from the Min estate.
“I think that’s the last of ‘em, Cai.” Teddy calls to the other boy, shuffling over the pretty hardwood floors. He feels a little bad about stealing the boy away for a weekend, but really, who else would he ask-- would he trust with handling his possessions? “Think I straight threw out my back.” He scoffs, maneuvering around stacks and piles of things.
Everything left to be unpacked and put in its place. A little daunting, he’ll be the first to admit.
“How you doin’?” The front door is wide open, but it’s fine. He feels safe here so it doesn’t really matter. He’s not as scared of this muggle neighborhood as his parents were.
another sigh falls from his lips when he finally turns to look at teddy once more. eyes focused and serious, something that was unusual for the great alec lee.
“if thats what you want to believe then go ahead, but you and everyone knows thats not true. you’re not like your parents.” teddy even liked to remind everyone of that. alec didnt care, never had. he liked to see people for more then the name their parents carried. “i want to because thats just me, i like being everyone’s friend. call me crazy but thats just how i am”
He wanted to bite back at him. He wanted to retaliate and shout that he did know, he knew exactly why he acted the way he acted-- why he pushed people away so quickly.
If only he did.
And perhaps that’s what made him angry about Alec’s words. The little bit of fight that seeped from him is fired right back up. So even if it takes a bit of pushing for himself, he says it. He blurts it out for those waiting to hear. “You want to know why?” He hisses. “It’s because you’re easy.”
Maybe it was the fact that Alec just wouldn’t leave him alone or maybe it was Teddy’s own walls he’s built up, his unsure reaction to someone actually wanting to befriend him when he’s so used to being shoved away just as much as he does it. It’s new and unfamiliar.
“I can count on you when I’m blasted and can’t walk straight because you never turn me down. You’re just as easy as I am.”
He was going to leave, he was ready and even turning to do so, but Alec just keeps talking.
“No, that’s not how it is. You think I’m nice and shit, but you forget who my brother is. It’s in my blood. You shouldn’t want to be friends with me. What would your family say-- befriending a Min.” And he hates it, bringing his family, his brother into things, but if that’s what it takes to get the other off his back, then he’ll bite the bullet and do it. “It’s better if you just leave me alone.”
“but bro, i love you.”
“i’m amazing when i’m drunk.”
“i am a great person.”
“i want to sleep forever.”
“no homo, but that’s lit.”
“i’m sorry, i wasn’t listening.”
“are you flirting with me?”
“don’t you think that’s gay.”
“c'mon try to guess what.”
“don’t do that to me.”
“i didn’t think you’d care.”
“please stop losing your temper.”
“exactly, why are you awake?”
“i need some new friends.”
“don’t even think about it.”
“are you gonna stop me?”
“i’m a very neat monster.”
“fear is a powerful motivator.”
“babe, you look so cool!”
“you have so many scars.”
“you’re gonna leave me alone?”
“no, i’m not going to.”
“you’re not scared, are you?”
“it’s designed to scare you.”
“just checking up on you.”
“i am not a computer.”
“insufficient facts always invite danger”
“stay out of swinging range!”
“everyone shut up and focus!”
“have you seen these thighs?”
“this feels like a test.”
“you know i hate that.”
she nearly scoffs at his words, but keeps her face still aside from breaking eye contact. she didn’t like confrontation, and this was the exact example of why. there was nothing more she wanted to do right now than to simple turn and leave, but she needed that damn book.
“why do you insist on tormenting me like this? making me ask…” she trails off, still refusing to look him in the eye. “you should know my classes, after all the time you spent studying my schedule,” her tone comes out more bitter than she intended, but what’s done was done.
“what is it with you?” her voice nearly raises to a shout at his threat. she knew him well enough (keyword: knew) that there was no way he cared about the subject. he was just doing this to mess with her for whatever fucking reason. god, why did they turn out this way.
“do you want me to beg for it? is that really want you want?”
There’s something in Alice that brings out more in Teddy. Perhaps it’s the pang of familiarity, of times spent joking and being something more than most others see or it’s just the bitterness of her pulling away from that. It could be the household pettiness of the Mins that rears its ugly head at the memories of what once was and the reason they no longer.
Be what it may, Teddy is different with Alice. “I’m just playing the part.” He answers. The bitter ex. Just a role.
“I do. Which means I know you need this book.” He doesn’t think of days he would be waiting outside of her classrooms to walk her back to her common room or down to a nice little alcove where they could study together. He doesn’t.
Instead, he wills himself to think of the fights and pettiness they put temselves through. Sure, that worked better.
“Why not? I don’t have anywhere else to be.” He had his whole afternoon free, mostly for studying, but he could take a break for a whole.
Teddy has kissed and certainly been kissed, some remembered and some just a bit too hazy. He’s found his way around, but he’d give it all up, return every second of it if Thomas would always look at him with such fondness.
He probably looked like a sap himself, all sweet with affection and plain comfort, not that he minded. It was nice to have something he’s really only dreamed about-- a confidence that he could be himself, show his true colors and be accepted and cared for.
What would he have ever done if he had never welcomed the other in.
“It’s just...” He mumbles, but he’s already gone. He’s already in too deep because where Thomas started sweet, almost chaste in his actions, Teddy doesn’t play and really stakes a claim with a firm kiss, nothing more than a press of lips, but enough for it to really be something.
“If I start...” Another mumble and he’s kissing him again, fingers threading through soft hair because he’s greedy and always wants a little more affection. “I honestly don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”
And perhaps with the sheer will of might, he does manage to pause himself, lean back a little with searching eyes, just to make sure he’s not crossing any lines.
“It’s the same, right? You... you gotta feel the same...” Unless he’s been reading every road sign wrong.
“Does fucked up and shitfaced mean the same thing?” he murmurs, pressing a finger to his lips in thought. “Ah, well you get what I mean!” He takes a breath when the other mentions breaking family rules, but he’s determined to carry through with his plan despite how much it pains his Hufflepuff heart to do so. “The biggest rules are the stupidest ones,” he says. “These places you go to…are they like a Britney Spears music video? I-I want to dance on a table, if that’s not too much to ask.
“Ah... yes?” Teddy answers a bit weakly. “For the most part...” Ah, so he was one of those guys. Although rather hesitant, he still nodded, dog-earing the page of his book and closing it reluctantly. He wasn’t going to be able to get back to it for a while. He just feels it. “While I agree with you-- oh, Merlin, no! I-I mean...” He quickly retracts his statment and glares at his hands for a moment. His face is burning all of a sudden and he can’t help but remember a rather wild night in a house down at Hogsmeade. (He’s still a little bitter about losing that shirt he was wearing. It was one of his favoites.) Clearing his throat, Teddy corrects himself. “... maybe. If I can find us the right party. Sound... keen to you?”
There are a number of things off that are noticeable upon immediate entry to the Min Estate. Teddy has grown accustomed to such things. Early January is biting with cold and the halls of his home are no better off. It has always been a cold place.
“I wish to leave.” It’s with the little bit of confidence that he’s managed to scrounge up he says this. Sitting across from his mother and father in the foyer with a servant at their side. And he waits. He keeps his gaze level with his mother and dares not to look at his father. She looks passive, no emotions and way too overdressed for a visit from her son. Her emeralds glitter in the sunlight filtering through the curtains.
“Leave?” It’s his father that speaks first and the bite to his tone has Teddy flinching. “You want to leave this family?”
Yes. He screams to himself but makes a show of sitting up straighter because he’s not stupid. He’s got no money to his name yet. He’s not about to throw away parents who so easily believe his lies.
A cat saunters into the room, one of his mother's, a sleek Persian. Teddy casts a swift glance at the creature.
“No. I am a Min, father.” He’s still looking at his mother, but he can feel the disapproval seeping off of his father. “I do not intend to renounce the family name. Not when… you have given me so much.” It almost physically pains him to say such words. The only thing his parents have truly gifted him is a set of worries and scars no child should have to bear. “I do intend to make you proud.”
And, perhaps the most important gift, an ability to lie.
His mother waves a hand at the cat, a needy thing who is set to make quick work of Teddy’s pant leg. He can tell. The servant makes quick work in snatching it up to move it elsewhere. At least she cares so much to not subject him to that.
“Theodore… dear…” His mother starts and he immediately fixes his eyes on the fireplace behind her. Unlit. “What do you intend to do then? You want… to live at Hogwarts?” His mother had always had a gentle tone, yet her words would always make up for the sugar in her voice. “That… is no place for a Min to live. That school is getting… polluted.”
He bites his tongue. Teddy keeps his words to himself and instead gives a soft nod of understanding as if he agrees. As if it isn’t killing him to throw classmates under the rug simply due to their bloodline-- an attribute they cannot help.
“Yes, I’m well aware of that.” He says, voice quiet in the too big room. The servant has returned. He glances at the girl, a mousy little thing, no doubt of lesser blood. “And I do not intend to live there. You know that. I’m simply… furthering my education.”
He thinks back to Friday nights with too much alcohol in him. Furthering his education.
“But, I am a grown adult. I am a grown man.” Out of the corner of his eye, his father looks like he’s about to speak up, but Teddy continues. “I would like space of my own? My own home to date and live and make for myself, don’t you agree?”
“You wish to date?” His father scoffs. “Who? Your boyfriends?”
And Teddy freezes. His parents couldn’t-- there is no way they could possibly--
“I-i… no… I’m not…”
“Dear…” His mother speaks up, possibly to bury him or drag him out of his floundering. “He has a point. No need to be nasty.” She speaks as if that isn’t the very reason they live. “Do not assume such things of our son.” Though the way she’s glancing at him is telling Teddy she feels the same.
He keeps his mouth shut. The servant looks worried and it dawns on him that this is the same servant who caught him in the garden shed with the landscaper’s son. Teddy is ice cold.
“Dating is much different from our time.” And Merlin, his mother is still talking. Teddy clutches at the couch cushions. “There is no courting. It’s all about privacy? Theodore most likely doesn’t wish for us to know his intimate details with women… right, love?”
Teddy jerks his head in a nod. Of course. “Y-yes… mother’s right.” He forces out. “I… this home intimidates people, father… don’t you know?”
“What I don’t know, son is why you couldn’t just marry that nice Slytherin girl we had picked out for you. Your mother and I had no choice in our marriage and if your brother was here he would have no choice either.” Ah, of course. His brother, the only one they were proud of. Their pride for him was unmatched-- all because of some cruel deed.
“It’s not… I would like to pick my own… wife, father. The ways are different now. Please just understand.”
He was going to argue. His father has sat himself up and he was going to argue, but his mother eases the situation.
“Now, now. This isn’t the time to discuss. He’s still young. He has plenty of time to pick a wife. What we’re speaking about now if the topic of our Theodore leaving us. Where would you like to go?”
He breathes a soft sigh of relief. Though his mother was no angel she was always the more lenient of the two and he could not be more thankful for that right now. “London.” He answers simply. It’s more than a jump from his home here in Galway, he understands, but the rolling Min Estate has never been welcome to him.
“London? Why there? It’s teeming with mudbloods.”
“Yes, but father… where else will I be able to advance in my field of study.”
“Right… that…” He hisses and Teddy braces himself for the worst. “Theodore… I just ask one thing of you.” And it doesn’t come. It’s a blowout, there’s nothing harmed. “If you really wish to pursue this… medical magic nonsense, I ask only one thing.”
“... yes, father?” Perhaps this is it? He will finally disown him, throw him from the Min legacy. Teddy only dreams.
“If you go through with this and create your own practice-- which I assume you will.” And Teddy nods because he knows with that tone, there’s no room to argue. “You only treat the pure.” Ah, there it is. It takes everything in him not to argue, not to stand up and say no he will treat who he pleases, but this… this is his only way out of this cold dungeon of a home.
“Of course, father.” He sighs and the small nod on the older man’s part is enough to placate things for the moment.
“Very well. Find a home you wish to make yours and… your mother and I will finance you.” There’s a bitterness to his tone, but the room has not gone up in flames and the tension has eased.
“Thank you. I will make you proud.” Teddy insists because he knows he won’t. The second he’s got his share of the Min fortune, sitting in that gringotts until he’s nearly 25, he’ll break his parent’s hearts.
And Teddy cannot wait.
However, until then he just musters up a smile, glances at the cat that slides back into the room and tries not to shiver at the chill still inching up his back.
I guess I like you, he thought, again the blush covering his cheeks as he licked his lips and grinned, eyes forming perfect crescents as he did that. “I’m really happy to be here with you. To have someone to trust like that.”
“I didn’t though.” He insists, weakly. He didn’t at first. He just wanted an alternative route to continue on his downward spiral, but the second he welcomed Thomas into the possibility of being more than just an acquaintance-- that was when he desired change if only to be better for the other.
He wants to try and ignore the too warm feeling, but it’s really useless at this point. It’s something Teddy is just starting to accept as a result of being around Thomas.
If he was someone else, or even a remnant of his parents, he would scoff at the sentiment. But if there’so= one thing he’s glad he stood his ground on its never letting his horrible family legacy poison him so he takes it in stride.
“Alright. If that’s what you think.” He hums, though it’s all fond and sweet in the way he speaks. It’s clear he still disagrees, but it’s something that they can both believe in their different ways. He’d be lying if he didn’t actually feel his heart flutter as Thomas’s smile.
His smile always had a way of doing things to Teddy.
“It’s... me too. I wouldn’t want to spend the holiday with anyone else.” He’s admitting a lot here, but it’s alright. It’s confidence in the fact that Thomas feels the same, that’s what’s letting him speak his feelings so freely.
And honestly, he can’t help himself. He gives himself little time to think about it, a split second because it’s just all setting in-- Thomas here in his home, holding him and not having to worry about any prying eyes, any snitched looking to report back to parents and in his immediate thoughts, no repercussions.
So, he asks, bold as he’s ever been, “Can I kiss you?”
He wasn’t going to waste another second, he needed to let that out. Even though he might have been trying to steal the spotlight by bringing himself to Teddy’s house with his problems, that holiday was supposed to be theirs – and he had no intention to fail on that.
His home is nearly silent, save for the soft hum of some television show from upstairs and it’s easy to say that this is the most content he’s felt in years. If his parents could see him now.
If they could see him content and warm and cared for just as he cares for Thomas, a Gryffindor of all houses, they would nearly blow their tops. He’s sure of it, but strangely, the longer he stands here in the other’s arms, the less he cares.
And really, he’s so content he nearly doesn't register what Thomas is saying to him, but the second he gets it through his head... well, he really can't help the rush of slight embarrassment paired with... something more.
Embarrassment coming with ever showing Thomas how weak he was and the warm waves of whatever due to just the thought of making the other proud in the first place, of knowing he’s changed for the good and it was all because of the other.
“It’s...” He starts, ready to brush it off as nothing, an old habit, but stops himself. Instead, he prompts the other to lean back, he wants to look him in the eye so he knows. He wants Thomas to know.
“Than you. It’s... because of you. I’d never have been able to change for the better. I wouldn’t be here, in my own apartment, happy with myself, not a terrified mess anymore... without you. You know that, right?”
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