Heaven Sent
They swiftly walked past the private showers, Draco practically dragging Fred in anticipation. That quickly disapated though, when they saw the state the baths were in.
"Fuckin' hell." Draco breathed after a minute.
The baths were covered in moss and mud, the depths darker than the night sky. Their were water bugs making their home in the swampy pools of water, and a frog or two swam through the baths.
So no bath for them.
"It's fine,"Fred tried to reason as he pulled out his wand. "I'll just use a cleaning spell and it should-"
"No!" Draco exclaimed as he cut him off. "The bath house is litterly made of magic, if you use magic to clean it, it's likely to explode."
"Okay, but how do you know?" Fred shot back, brow raised and smile adorning his features.
Draco just rolled his eyes at the antics before making his way to the pools of water. He took a deep breath before bending at the knees and reaching into the slimy liquid. He looked like he was reaching for something, like he was trying to prove his point.
"A-ha!" He shouted after a minute, standing back up with something in his hand and a smug look on his face.
He threw the object he was holding onto the ground and pointed at the Scot. "Use your cleaning charm on that tile, see what happens."
The 'tile' was barely recognizable, covered in slimy goop and moss, a dark brown in color.
Fred pointed his wand at it and muttered a "Scourgify!", effectively destroying the tile and turning it into a light blue dust on the floor.
He stared at the dust pile for a minute, he had never had a simple spell backfire like that.
"Told you." Draco stated, walking back towards Fred to direct them to the private showers.
"How did it do that?" Fred questioned after a minute of walking.
"Veelan and Wizarding magic aren't the same." Draco began to explain. " While Wizarding magic mostly relies on spells and charms, Veelan magic relies on ruins and rituals. "
"Huh... Can you do both?" The red head had quipped.
"Of course. You already know I can do Wizarding magic, and anybody with a drop of Veelan blood can do the rituals, but you need to have atleast an 8th of Veelan blood to properly make the ruins."
"How do you know all this stuff?"
"I like to read." Draco responded as they turned the corner into a private shower room.
At first glance, the private shower room looked similar to a regular everyday shower, save for the giant shower stall pushed into the far end of the room adjacent from the door.
The tiled room was a mix of light and dark oranges, almost harsh on the eyes at first glance. On the left side of the room stood a dark orange single sink with a medicine cabinate overhead, while on the right side housed a variety of soaps and towels.
"Woah... No cludgie - sorry, um toilets? Ah forget what it is in English." Fred inquired.
"It's alright. And no, we do have a public restroom down the hall, but if your going to use it I do have to warn you, the toilets are traditional Japanese toilets and their kinda situated in the floor." Draco responded, already unbuckling his belt.
"Nah, Ahm good. Thanks fer the warning though."
"Ofcourse."
Studying the showers once more, the bright orange tiles had small designs on them. Each tile had a small scene of waves drawn into the surface of the tiles, like a mini painting.
"Hot or cold?" Draco's voice snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Sorry, what?"
"Do you want the water hot or cold, I don't mind either way." Draco reiterated in a soft voice that no one would ever expect from a Malfoy.
"Just slightly ho', lukewarm."
Draco nodded and turned the foset nobs to the correct temperature, running his hand under the water to make sure it wasn't too hot.
The whole thought of it was romantic and cheesey, like some fairy tale story come to life, but it was nice.
Fred began undressing openly. They were going to get married, what's the point of modisty?
Draco turned around to the sight of a fully nude Fred looking through the variety of soaps on the right wall. He immediately turned away with a red face and an uttered apology.
Fred turned to him, chuckling to himself. "Like something ya see, love?"
"Yes-no.... Yeah." Draco stuttered out.
This just made Fred chuckle some more, before a thought of insecurity crossed his mind. "Oonless you want me to put a towel on Ah can, we donae have to do this-"
"Freddie?" This had him stopping in his tracks.
"Aye?"
"I think you look good without clothes... Not in a sexual way... Kind of a sexual way... I think I want to paint you someday... Like this." He didn't look at him once while he uttered it, chosing instead to look at the running spicket like it was the most interesting thing in the world.
This had Fred blushing like the mad man he is. "Y-you do? You want to pain' me?"
Draco nodded with a sweet little 'm-mhm.' leaving his throat. He sounded nervous even when he didn't talk.
The grin that Fred adorned had almost split his face in two. Slowly, he walked over to Draco and wrapped his arms around the shorter boys waist delicately.
Even if the touch was gentle, it still made Draco startle and flinch slightly, causing Fred to press a tender kiss to his forehead in apology.
"How would ye pain' me?" It came out rather muffled from Draco's hair, but the question reached his ears nonetheless.
"Like a Norse God. That's what you look like, after all. " Draco responded, still looking at the water and running his hand under it to feel the temperature.
Fred snorted a laugh. "Your jus' saying that." He had said.
"No," Draco began. "I'm not just saying it."
He turned around in Fred's arms and rested his palms gently on the red head's face.
"You nose," Draco traced the hooked cartilage and bone, touch gentle like a feather. "It's perfect. And your eyes and hair," He said as he began trying his thumbs over Fred's eyebrows. " Not to mention your lips... Angelic. That's the only way I know how to describe it in English."
"Then describe it in a better way in a different language." Fred said, face blushing like a teen.
"天が送った. That's what you are." Draco responded while looking him straight in the eyes.
Fred just smiled and pulled him ever closer. "Tha's the first time Ah thing Ah've ever heard you speak Japanese. What's it mean?"
"Heaven sent."
Fred's blush somehow got darker. "Th-" His voice cracked so he cleared his throat while letting go of Draco's waist. "Thanks."
Draco smiled lightly at him before undressing the rest of the way and pulling him by the hand into the warm shower. There weren't any curtains or a sliding glass door, likely because there were ruins that kept the water in the shower, so if anyone were to walk into this particular bathroom they would definitely get an eye full.
Draco leaned over to the small table just outside the tiled shower and retrieved a bottle of 2 in 1 shampoo.
"Ah always thought you would 'ave fancy hair products." Fred stated, a little too in his mind.
"Can't afford it right now. I try to make sure that Akihiko and the girls have what they need to keep clean over my own comforts most days." Draco responded as he began to scrub the coconut smelling shampoo into his damp hair.
"Wha'd ya mean ya cannae afford it?" Fred asked, now concerned.
"Well I don't get any of the money from the 'Malfoy Family Vaults' until we actually get married, and University students can only work so much on top of their classes." Draco stated it like it was obvious, but somehow not in a rude tone.
"What aboot yer parents?" The Scot questioned.
"Dad's at work all the time and he pays the bills, which takes up most of the money he makes in a month. Mum's never home, she works a lot too, but she never spends money on any of the kids unless it's for the holidays or one of their birthday's. And I usually end up picking up another shift at work for grocery money and clothes."
Fred looked at him as if he had grown another head. It never occurred to hime that Draco Malfoy, of all people, could live in a family with financial struggles.
"Ah had no idea." He said after a moment.
It's not like it was a foreign concept to him. His Mam used to work a couple of odd jobs here and there while his Da' busted his ass off at work trying to help provide for them. Most of his clothes were hand-me-downs growing up, and he knew what the joy of new shoes felt like, so why was this so hard to grasp in his mind?
"Yeah," Draco began. "Not a lot of people put 'Malfoy' and 'below the poverty line' in the same thought."
Fred hummed thoughtfully. He reached for his own soap - 'Salon Selectives' - and started scrubbing it into his damp hair.
Fred was off in his own little world, thinking. Thinking about Draco.
....Not like that.
"Draco?" He asked suddenly.
"Hm?" Came the hummed response he got.
"D' ya like bein' poor more than ya like bein' well off?" It was a complicated question, but if anyone could answer it, it was his Draco.
"Yeah, it's nicer. More of a real community of people you can rely on." Draco answered truthfully.
"If ya donnea min', what was it like - living in a manor, I mean. You don't 'ave to answer-" He was cut off, once again being saved from over thinking out loud.
"It was okay. Scary at times, but it wasn't horrible. It's not like I got everything I ever wanted, though. It was my Father's world and I was just livin' innit." Draco looked away as he said it, as if ashamed.
"He never got ye things ye wanted?" Fred questioned.
"No," Draco said with a sad smile adorning his face. "He only ever bought things he thought that a Malfoy should wear. Like robes and expensive clothes that make my skin itch. I used to get in trouble for wearing anything under 50 galleons."
"Tha's horrible." Fred didn't mean to say it aloud.
"Not as horrible as the things I've done to your friends and family." Draco mumbled out, barely audible with the sound of the water spraying their backs and the tiles.
"Hey, we ken you didnae want to do it." Fred reassured, cleaning his hands of conditioner before cradling Draco's face. "Hermione forgave you, Ginny forgave you, my parents, Percy, George, Bill- we all know that you only did it because you were a scared kid. It's not your fault-"
"But I could have tried to fight back! I didn't have to act like a total git constantly but I did. I've done horrible things, Fred. I've said horrible things that I can't take back, no matter how much I wish I could." Draco's lip started to tremble as he got the last words out. He tried not to make eye contact with Fred, choosing instead to examine the shower tiles.
"I ken." Fred began. "But we've all lost too much to focus on what could 'ave been. We need to focus on what's going on now." He ended the sentence by putting his hand over Draco's heart, bringing the boy's eyes to his in a meaningful gaze. "As long as you make up for the hurt that you caused, Ah promise they will fully forgive you. "
Draco looked at him with teary eyes, whether from emotions or the shampoo that seemed to be running into his eyes, he didn't know, but they were there nonetheless.
He pulled the boy into a hug and pressed a kiss to his soapy temple. Draco hugged him back with as much strength, holding onto him as if he would disappear any minute.