A Talk with Scorpius
About five minutes into tossing gnomes Albus hears someone entering the garden. Thinking it's Rose and she forgot something he only starts trying to throw them harder.
"Didn't know you picked up gardening?" A sarcastic voice sounds from behind him. Albus stills, tensing up immediately. The gnome in his hand he was about to throw, bit him, causing him to fling it directly into the fence.
"Ow," he says like he's offended.
"Shit, sorry didn't mean to distract you," Scorpius says, running over to check Albus' hand.
"I'm fine Scorp, it's nothing," Albus says, pulling his hand away from Scorpius' grasp.
"Did something happen?" Scorpius asks, concern is woven in his voice as he tries to understand why his friend seems upset.
"I'm okay…James did something stupid again to piss me off," Albus says, but his eyes stay focused on the bitten hand.
"And James is the reason you're hurling these creatures into orbit?" Scorpius jokes, it seems to land well this time as Albus cracks a small smile, "sooo, is this where I say I told you so because your dad didn't ruin your holiday?" Scorp adds trying to continue their banter as he gently nudges Albus' arm with his fist.
Albus appreciates the attempts to make him feel better. He knows Scorpius isn't dumb and can tell he's hurting. It just hurts more that he's trying to not cross lines Albus kind of wants him to cross.
When Albus finally looks up at Scorpius he realizes that his friend is anything but fine and not because of the gnomes.
His pretty green eyes are rimmed red, glassy with fresh tears, his blue jumper is dark with tears in certain places, and his nose is red.
"Stop, you'll jinx it," Albus says with a small smile on his face as he grabs Scorpius' knit sweater, in a playful attempt to pull him round by it, “dad’ll send you away.”
Scorpius, deciding to play dumb, smiles back since Albus clearly doesn't want to talk about it, “Yeah, like that’ll happen,” he scoffs and Albus’ stomach flips at the cute way Scorp’s eyes crinkle when he smiles, “I haven’t even seen Rose yet, can’t pull me out of here that easily,” he says with a shrug.
Albus drops the other boy's sweater. He knows he’s mostly kidding, that Scorpius is just trying to lighten the mood and shift topics. It doesn’t dull the pain that slams through his chest. He must have let it show on his face because Scorpius is looking at him like an injured creature.
Scorpius, thinking he did something to remind Albus of whatever just happened, hugs him, not knowing what else to do with a friend on the verge of tears.
“It’ll be alright Albus, I won’t go anywhere,” Scorpius says as he starts to feel fresh tears fall into his shoulder.
…
Albus eventually calms down a few moments later and Scorpius inevitably lets him go. The air between them goes still. He’s glad Scorp doesn’t ask him to talk about it like Rose. He doesn’t trust himself too. Instead they sit together on the grass side by side. Scorpius does his best to fill the silents with the latest books he’s been reading and how terrible some of their professors are for giving them homework over holiday. Albus tries his best to pay attention to what he’s saying in order to know when to make small sounds of encouragement to keep him talking. All Albus can really focus on is questioning how James and Teddy just ruin their friendship and why they believe they have feelings for each other? He shouldn’t have to be destined to pine after his best mate.
Their knees keep bumping into each other with Scorp swaying mindlessly as he talks. Albus finds it annoying because it keeps reminding him how much he’d rather be trucked up under Scorpius’ pointy chin so he can feel his voice vibrate through his bones as the taller boy speaks.
“Albus? Are you listening? They’re calling us for dinner,” Scorpius says, snapping him out of his trance-like state.
“Hey, yeah sorry, I guess I spaced out. Please tell me more about whatever muggles sci-fi book later though, okay?”
“Oh, so you were listening to that?” Scorpius asks in a mocking tone and laughs when Albus goes red, “You know I will but if you were fully aware of what I was saying then you’d know I’m not finished with it quite yet,” he teases.
Albus’ heart races, feeling caught, “More to listen to then I suppose,” he says trying to make his voice not waver as they stand and walk together back inside.