could you give us a snippet please?
I wouldn't normally do this, but I know it's been a while since the last update, so this will be a special little treat for the tumblr lovelies.
✨Fractured chap 18 snippet✨
“Can you take me up to your room?”
Oscar’s expression had changed instantly and Lando was rather pleased seeing the younger boy be so caught off guard.
The next words that follow are also ones Oscar wasn’t expecting to hear.
“I’d rather go to yours instead,” Lando said.
The younger boy hadn’t fought him too hard in his request, and Lando couldn’t have been more thrilled.
He knows the Slytherin common rooms are in the dungeons and surrounded entirely by the Black Lake, but he’s not exactly sure what he expected they’d be like inside. He didn’t quite get a good glimpse of the main common area before Oscar quickly rushed him down the prefect’s hallway. But here, inside Oscar’s room, Lando can really see the effect of being submerged underwater.
The windows on either side of the room don’t actually offer real sunlight, it’s just the filtered bluish and green glow of the lake that shines through. Oscar’s room has what Lando’s doesn’t, and that’s the faint rippling patterns of water across the stone walls inside. And it’s quiet. Lando doesn’t have that either. Even up in the tower of his room, he can still sometimes hear the rambunctious echoes of his housemates below him. But Slytherin house, he’s quickly learned, is much more subdued.
Besides how dim it is, the bed is the first thing that catches his attention. It’s not particularly dissimilar to his own, with of course the dark green sheets being the major difference. But it’s still the same size, same structure, same carved posts rising at each corner. Except Oscar’s bed is a complete mess.
The covers are half-pulled back, flashing the white from the undersheets against the green in a careless heap. Lando remembers how the younger boy had to point out that he was surprised that Lando’s bed was properly made up when he came to his room. He knew that was supposed to be a jab at him, but Lando could throw it right back, being surprised that this orderly boy is such a mess in his room. Lando’s mouth can’t help but slightly twitch in a smile.
His gaze drifts to the bedposts, noticing the small serpent emblems carved into the wood. He then sees a tall cabinet standing against the wall, its doors transparent, revealing rows of bottles inside. They’re potions, most likely, or vials of ingredients, and the glass also reflects that strange underwater light, making everything inside shimmer slightly.
And right beside it is a table where a small cauldron sits off to one side, somewhat rusty along the rim, and beside it is a cutting board littered with the remnants of crushed leaves. Tiny, delicate things, scattered and abandoned mid-task most probably.
Lando huffs softly under his breath. Of course someone like Oscar would love to take his work with him to his room. He probably sits there late at night, sleeves pushed up, completely absorbed in whatever he’s brewing, forgetting the time and forgetting everything else.
This place really is so Oscar.
Now the corners of his mouth pull into a full smile.
“Bit different from Gryffindor,” Lando says, his eyes roaming once more around the room before settling back on him.
“Sorry it’s a bit dark in here,” Oscar mutters. “Let me turn on a light.”
The boy crosses the space and sits on the edge of his bed, reaching for the lantern resting on the bedside table. A second later, the wick catches and the flame blooms to life.
The warm orange light spills outward, pushing back the cool, underwater glow that had filled the room before. Lando hadn’t realized how much the dimness had been hiding until that bright flame illuminated Oscar’s face so beautifully. It paints his skin in shades of gold and amber, absolving the pale tones of before.
Lando can see him much better this way.
“The water does get brighter on sunnier days, believe it or not,” Oscar says.
Immediately Lando can tell that Oscar’s voice doesn’t sound natural, he’s only trying to be. He looks at the younger one a bit longer and he realizes that Oscar is unmistakably nervous.
The boy is sitting stiffly on the bed, his gaze still lingering on the lantern instead of wandering back to him, and there’s that faint crease between his brows. At this point, what do they have to be nervous about?
It’s absurd, yet it’s the most endearing thing Lando’s seen all day.
He pushes himself away from the door and crosses the room before Oscar can retreat any further into his own head. The mattress dips slightly when he sits down beside him, practically glued to his side as their thighs press together immediately, leaving no space between them.
Oscar doesn’t flinch as he feels him, but he’s still not looking at Lando either. His eyes stay fixed on the lantern, watching the bright flame flicker and most definitely using it as a distraction from the boy up against him. Lando knows Oscar isn’t ready to meet his eyes just yet.
Is this one of those moments again? One where everything feels like too much at once? One where neither of them quite knows what to do with the sudden shift in air between them. Maybe it is. But he can’t let it go on any longer.
Lando leans forward, just steady enough that Oscar doesn’t startle when Lando’s lips brush against his cheek in a kiss. He stays there for a second longer, and with his nose resting against Oscar’s skin, warmth spreads through the non-existent space between them, and he instantly feels the shiver that runs through Oscar’s body.
So, he doesn’t stop, and presses another kiss to the same spot, even softer this time, then again as he lets his lips drift slightly lower, grazing the edge of Oscar’s jaw.
This tenderness is something that he’s rarely tried. That hasn’t really existed between them before. Even when they were up in Lando’s room, the tenderness usually came after everything, hardly before.
His lips brush along Oscar’s jaw again before slipping lower, the next kiss landing against the side of his neck. He keeps it slow, barely more than a warm press when he feels Oscar’s breath catch and he doesn’t rush past it.
Another kiss follows, then another, until his mouth finds the curve where Oscar’s neck meets his collarbone. The smallest breathy sigh leaves Oscar then. Lando lingers there for a moment, breathing in softly as Oscar’s warmth spreads beneath his lips.
“I know you must’ve had a lot of unpleasant memories in this room,” Lando whispers against his skin. “Every morning waking up.”
He can practically feel Oscar stop breathing.
Lando lifts his head just enough to press another slow kiss back up along the same path, stopping just beneath Oscar’s ear where he can feel the faint, uneven rhythm of his pulse.
“I wanna help make some better ones for you,” he mutters quietly.
The words sink into Oscar like a raindrop in the lake, rippling all through his body. Slowly, he finally turns his head until he meets Lando’s disarming eyes. And his stomach fucking flutters.
It’s so strange to feel so light and nervous all at once.
Erasing every bad feeling he’s ever had in here and replacing it with something good, with Lando…
He’d very much like that.
He follows his body’s instinct and leans forward to capture Lando’s lips in a kiss. Their mouths slot together like perfectly fitted puzzle pieces, and he realizes, there really is no reason to be nervous anymore.
When they pull back only slightly, Lando’s voice lowers to something softer than Oscar has ever heard from him.
“Let me take care of you,” he whispers.
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