It was a nice autumn afternoon. The weather had been cold for weeks, colder than usual. Two days ago, though, the wind was starting to feel less like a cold knife stabbing your throat and more like a “hug from mother nature”, like Lily said. She was probably outside, along with James, Hugo, Rose, Fred, Lucy… Well, everyone was outside, basically. To celebrate the nice weather, the chaotic Gryffindors -which, a hundred percent included James- decided to organize a non-formal Quidditch tournament between the four houses, which had quickly become a crowded event.
It really sounded fun. But the idea of being with too many people around, everyone’s bodies accumulated generating human heat… Damn, Albus couldn’t wait for winter to finally come. He had noticed that Scorpius sounded fond in the idea. He had thought about trying out for the team that year but some douchebags had made him doubt and he ended up missing the try outs. So now he wanted to participate in those kinds of events, and practice Quidditch as often as he could. That was why Albus worried a little bit when Scorpius said that he was okay with staying in the room doing nothing. The black haired boy had insisted but Scorp didn’t mind.
That was how they ended up in the blonde boy’s bed, talking, while his head was in the shorter Slytherin’s lap. They had always been the kind of best friends that showed lots of affection. Especially after realizing that both of them were into boys anyway, so no assumption people could make would actually affect them.
But Albus soon realized that maybe, it was not the best of ideas to be that close and cuddly with the best friend you had feelings for but had been trying to deny them for over a year. On the other hand, from that angle he got to see Scorpius’ eyes shining when talking about how interesting the subject that they were learning on History of Magic was, or when he told him about the vegan-friendly sweets he found in Hogsmeade last weekend… So yeah, the best option here was suffering in silence and simping in secret. No big deal.
Except.... Scorpius would move his head a lot when he was talking. And with every movement his soft, coconut smelling -”it’s not weird that i know this, we share a bathroom and i can see his shampoo”- blond hair was closer to Albus’ fingers and the temptation to touch it, comb it and bury his nose in it was every time less bearable.
He had, though, done it before. After Astoria died, Albus wanted to do anything to make his best friend feel better. When he asked, the sad blue eyed boy asked him to touch his hair, like his mum used to do when he was little and felt sad. Once in a while, even now that Scorpius was starting to be able to let go of the grief as much as possible, the world turned too loud, too big, with too many eyes. And they looked comfort in each other. Albus had also learned that Astoria sang to Scorpius, so he started doing it as well.
But now the world was not too loud, or too big. And the blue eyes could never be too much for Albus. His brain, as overthinker as always, decided that doing it was stupid and weird so he would not. His heart, on the other hand, did not give a flaming shit.
-Can I play with your hair?- the words came off from the cracked lips as if it was just a muscle doing a movement that was deep into its memory. Al, realizing this, avoided blushing as hard as he could. Scorpius looked at him, with a funny smile and big wide eyes.
-Sure- he said, after a long time. Or at least it was enough for Al’s head to imagine thousands of possible scenarios that seemed to evaporate the moment his fingertips met the soft platinum hair. Scorpius closed his eyes and remained silent while the brunette moved his fingers around the traces of the grey-ish coat. He found his eyelids battling to stay open, but he just allowed his body to un-tense.
It could have been minutes, hours, days, weeks or even years, whatever it took for Scorp’s light and soft soul to wash away every single dark tangle in Albus’, but the door opened loudly, allowing three sweaty and laughing boys in the room. He had saved himself from sharing a room with James at home but this was so much worse… Well, at least his roommates were decent people. His eyes opened quickly and so did Scorpius’.
-Spending quality couple time?- said Jack, who thought he was being funny but, oh did it hurt Albus.
-Don’t you remember, Jack? They are not dating- said Mark, sarcastically. The blonde boy had already moved his head from Al’s lap and was blushing a little.
-Yeah, Jack, they are definitely not dating at all dating- added Carl, smirking.
-The day you two understand that not every boy who likes boys likes all boys, I swear I will...tattoo your initials on my forehead.- Scorpius replied, looking for his backpack.
-We don’t say that about everyone, we just say that about you because you are shippeable- Al’s cheeks burned while Mark took off his shoes, still laughing.
-Fuck off- answered the other boy, backpack and books to return in hand, and smile in face leaving the room. Albus would never admit it, but Carl, Mark and Jack teasing them sometimes lifted his hopes up. His eyes fixated on Scorp and the way he managed to balance his books without losing his grace until the door shut closed.
-See? Ship material- Jack said, and Albus threw a pillow at him. “Yeah, hope so, some day” he thought.