True Love Gave To Me by epitomereally (24k, E)
Tags: Christmas, Time Loop, Kidfic, Grief/Mourning, Pining, Getting Together
“You did it!” Potter shouts. “How did you—” His grin stretches across his whole face; Draco has never seen Potter smile so large. Tears are starting to run down his face, amplifying his green eyes, snot bubbling out of one nostril. It should be horrifying, but it is the most gorgeous Draco has ever seen Potter. “You actually fucking did it. I can’t believe—you absolute genius—fuck!” And then Potter is sobbing, and the magic is roaring all around them, pressure building on their shoulders, distorting and compressing their faces, and Potter is reaching out, grabbing Draco around the shoulder. Potter pulls him in. Draco stumbles into his arms. And then. And then Potter’s kissing him; his lips are soft and chapped and his breath tastes like the massive amount of peppermint they had to ingest to ward off the Krampus. His stubble is scratchy against Draco’s chin, and Draco can feel the warm damp of Potter’s tears against his cheek—and Draco doesn’t know why, but maybe he’s crying a little bit too. And, incomprehensibly, Draco is kissing Potter back, filled with the golden glow of the day, in the intoxicating rush of Potter’s confidence in him, in the absolute majesty of the moment. The pressure mounts—Draco’s skull feels like it might crack. The roaring, babbling rush of magic about them is loud enough to burst Draco’s ear drums. The light is now blindingly bright behind Draco’s closed lids. And still, gloriously, he’s kissing Potter. And then everything goes to black, and Draco startles awake in his bed.
the holidays are kind of a complicated time for me in recent years, so i absolutely loved having a christmas story that made me want to laugh as much as it made me want to cry. the bulk of this fic rests on a very fun question in regards to a time loop story––what comes after a time loop stops? and more specifically, what comes after someone else's time loop stops?
epitomereally crafted this story with excellently balanced servings of hilarious and heartbreaking, a dash of casefic, and a pleasant little sprinkling of magical theory. i love everyone's characterizations so much (especially sweet little scorpius 💜)
(rec by @pocket-lin)
