"Are you attracted to me, or something?"
Draco lowered his eyes. "I…was scared of rejection, so I chose to be alone." Harry took a startled breath at the unexpected answer to a sarcastic question in the break room concerning the blond's recent avoidance of Harry.
Draco was still choosing to be alone, made apparent by his gaze that never averted from the floor. "And even if someone were to accept me, all of me, Dark Mark and all, the chance of that someone being you was extremely unlikely."
Harry stared at the man who he had been yearning after. "You should have asked me if I was interested, Draco, instead of avoiding me at the office for months. If you had asked, I would have told you I was as interested in you as you were in me." Harry's proclamation was true. For the last two months at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, Harry had wondered why his fellow Auror, Draco Malfoy (who had not had an easy time joining the Aurors), would be avoiding him. After an almost brawl at the Leakey Cauldron while at a work-mandated "pub night" soon after Draco joined the MLE, the two had agreed to be civil to each other inside the walls of the Ministry. Civility had turned into respect and then into friendship, as unlikely as it would have seemed to their respective Hogwarts-aged selves. Before Draco's unexpected silence and return to his former – if not to the same extent – hostility, Harry had been working up the courage to ask the man out for a drink.
Draco met his gaze, his red-tinged grey eyes the only indication he was upset. Apparently, the Malfoy behaviours were well ingrained. "You're lying," he whispered. "You couldn't possibly…"
"I assure you, Draco, I am completely serious. Confusion was my only emotion when the man I had my eyes on started ignoring me."
"You never said anything…"
"I had the same reasons you seem to have had, Draco. What would you ever see in me? I'm average-looking, not as clever as you, and a Gryffindor."
Draco's small smile, snarky as it was, convinced Harry to finally step closer. "Well, I'll give you two, Harry; at least I know that you are better than average-looking. And I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave."
Heart pounding from the idea that Draco found him fit (or, at least, "better than average-looking"), Harry asked, "And that makes it my responsibility to ask you out?"
"I'm not going to ruin my standing in the department by sexually harassing the next Head Auror."
It was Harry's turn to avert his gaze. "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm not Head anything."
"Please, Harry." Draco released a sigh that could only be described as fond. "Robards and Shacklebolt have been hinting for months."
Harry blushed, and then felt Draco's hand reach under his chin and pull his gaze back to the blond's. "Are you? Are you really interested, Harry?" There was so much undisguised hope in Draco's eyes at that moment that Harry had no other choice. He leaned forward and pressed his mouth against Draco's, revelling in the startled whimper from the blond before losing himself in the sensation of the kiss, pulling back only once to meet Draco's eyes and firmly state "Yes."