Chapter 7
It was snowing and Teddy was making minty hot chocolate when his phone rang.
“Alright Jamie boy?” he answered, popping the call on loudspeaker as he carefully measured out another tablespoon of toothpaste.
“Ted-aayyyyy!” James sang. “Ted, Ted, Ted, Ted, Ted, Ted!”
“Got your essay handed in then?”
“Well in, mate. Well. In.”
Teddy smiled as he listened to James dance around. There was a faint crash and an “aww fuck” from James before he was back, panting happily down the line.
“You ready to come home then?”
“Born ready, T-T-Teddy.”
“Dial is down Jamesing Bean,” Teddy laughed again as James groaned at the old nickname. “Are you coming back tonight or tomorrow?”
“Tonight, Mum’s picking me up from the station at half seven and we’re going to the Burrow, you coming over?”
“Course,” said Teddy. “It’s been a while.”
“Only three months.”
“Yeah but in uni that’s a lifetime, you’ll be a broken man.”
James laughed again and Teddy grinned at the phone, reaching over to take it off speaker and moving to the window. James was implying scandalous things about Teddy’s advancing years and Teddy let him babble on for a bit.
“-I’ve missed you, Ted.”
“What was that?” Teddy realised he’d zoned out of the conversation, watching the snow.
“Said I’ve missed you, dickhead.”
“Oy!” Teddy laughed. “How does asking you to repeat something make me a dickhead?”
“You should be hanging on my every word,” said James. “Writing it all down for posterity.”
“Which is exactly what I was doing,” said Teddy. “‘s why I got distracted. Help me catch up, yeah? How do you spell ‘vainglorious wanker’?”
“Oh that’s easy! T-E-D-D-Y-L-U-P-I-” James dissolved into giggles at Teddy’s mock outraged huff.
Shaking his head, Teddy took another sip of his hot chocolate, wincing as he realised it needed more toothpaste.
“So? Do you miss me too?”
If Teddy hadn’t been distracted by trying to open the toothpaste he would have picked up on James’ faux-casual tone.
“Course I have,” he said instead.
“How much?”
“I don’t know, Jamie. A lot.”
“But how much?”
“Not sure. Probably more than I’ve ever missed anyone?”
“Really?”
“Yeah.” Finally satisfied with the chocolate to mint ratio in his hot chocolate, Teddy leant back against the counter.
“So you fancy me?”
“What?” Teddy just about managed not to spray hot chocolate across the kitchen, catching most of it in his cupped hand. He did fancy Jamie but they always dicked around like this, competing to see who could make the most overblown declarations, it didn’t mean anything, it didn’t-”
“Ted? You still there?”
“Yeah, sorry.” Teddy grabbed a teatowel to wipe up the rest of the chocolate and dumped the mug in the sink. “Feels like I’ve missed something here. Why are you talking about fancying?”
“Dunno,” this time Teddy caught James’ faux-casual tone. Potters couldn’t subterfuge for shit. “Just, been thinking about you a bit.”
“Right,” Teddy didn’t really know what else to say so he waited, listening to James breath down the line.
“Thought I might as well ask,” James eventually said, sounding like he was regretting the entire conversation. “You know, in case you did but were too scared to tell me and we just ended up, like, pining for years.”
“Years? You reckon that’s how long it would have taken me to ask you out?” Teddy’s face felt funny and he realised that his cheeks actually hurt from smiling.
“Just trying to save you from yourself, Teddy.” James sounded like he was smiling a bit too.
“Well, thanks for that. I do fancy you, as it goes. So…”
“So what?” James asked, voice breathless.
Teddy smiled again, prodding his own cheeks and laughing as he said “So? So come the fuck home.”