Night
Percy wakes up to warm fingers on his chest under his shirt. He jerks, surprised by the feeling. For a moment he’s not sure where he is. In the dim light of the room, offered by the streetlight outside, he can just make out his wife’s figure. She’s leaning over him, a small smile on her face.
“Hey Perce,” she purrs, tracing circular lines on his chest. Something about it- the dark look, being surprised like this, makes Percy feel ill.
“Audrey-,” he starts to say, but Audrey leans down and kisses him, hard and wet on the mouth.
“Aud-,” he tries again, but his voice is muffled. She doesn’t stop, so he places two firm hands on her shoulders and gently pushes her off him.
“What?” she asks, flipping her long hair over her shoulder. She looks beautiful in the lamplight, all soft curves and tanned, perfect skin.
“I’m…” how was he going to put this? “I’m not in the mood.”
She blinks at him, like the idea that he’d ever not be interested in her had never occurred to him. She frowns.
“What?”
She crawls off him and sits up on her side of the bed, her legs still tangled in the sheets. Audrey looks almost… offended. Percy takes the opportunity to sit up find his glasses on the nightstand. Audrey flicks on the small bedside lamp. She’s frowning, almost scowling.
“You’re ‘not in the mood’?”
“Audrey, I just-,” Percy sighs and runs a hand through his curls, which are damp with sweat. He’d been having that dream again, about the rigged trials of the Muggleborns. He can’t remember the finer details, but the sounds of wands snapping still ring in his ears.
“Sometimes I just don’t feel like having sex.”
She gets the odd look on her face again, no longer frowning. It’s almost like a blank mask. There’s no decipherable emotion there. “You don’t feel like having sex? Are you kidding me?”
He shrugs uselessly. “Sometimes I just feel like crap and the way you talk to me sometimes...It doesn’t really put me in the mood.”
“I have never heard of a husband not wanting to have sex. Are you sure you’re a man?”
“Audrey it’s comments like that, exactly, that that make me don’t want to do it.” He says gently.
“Comments like what? Oh my god, you’re so sensitive.” She sits on the backs of heels and crosses her arms.
“Look, not all men are in the mood 24/7!”
“Maybe you’re gay. Are you gay?”
“No, I’m not gay, Audrey. We have two children for Merlin’s sake. I just don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night and find-,”
“I’m your wife! We’re married, married couples have sex.”
“This is what I’m talking about! You keep saying stuff like that. It makes me feel like sleeping with you is an obligation.”
She scoffs and runs her hand through her own hair, which even in the middle of the night is sleek and shiny.
“Can you just grow up and be a man? Don’t make me find it somewhere else.”
“So now you’re threatening to cheat on me?”
“I’ll I’m saying is a real man wouldn’t turn me down.”
There comes a high-pitched cry from the baby monitor. Audrey groans and throws her hands up in the air.
“Great. Just great.”
Percy starts to take the covers off, but Audrey waves him off, throwing the blanket off her.
“It’s fine, I’ll get them. Go back to bed.” She says bitterly.
“Audrey-,” he starts to say.
“It’s fine!”
She stands and leaves the room without another word. Percy hears her shushing Molly over the baby monitor.
Percy puts his head in his hands. He had really screwed things up this time, hadn’t he?
Maybe if he had just let her… Well, they had done it many times before, right?
What was the difference between then and now?