My first published Scorbus fic! I hope it's great, because I really ship them, and there are no reasons not to as far as I'm concerned. There was chemistry in that book, I swear. It was there
I want to thank one of my friends for encouraging me to write this. (Actually, though, shame. You've brought another monster into the world, borne of my less-fast-than-lighting fingers and my hyperactive brain.)
Anyways, I hope you'll enjoy it, and maybe go so far as to read it! Wow, wouldn't that be great.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Sorry. The only thing I could've made better at all would've been the outcome of Scorbus in The Cursed Child, because that was sad, and that alone is not enough to transfer ownership...

Albus gets a cake for Scorpius on Valentine's Day. It's not a romantic gesture at all, no matter how much it might seem like one to an outsider. He just wants Scorpius to know how much he values their friendship, and he trusts that Scorpius will recognise it for what it is. They've been friends for so long that it only makes sense to celebrate it in some way.

Plus, he's really been craving cake recently.

So he goes to Luna's pastry shop, since he known how good her cakes taste, if also looking slightly unconventional. He buys a turquoise cake in the shape of a turtle, because he feels like Scorpius would like it, and pays quickly. He eagerly thinks of taking the cake to Scorpius' place and eating it, and speeds up his already fast exit.

Before he makes it out the door, Luna asks, "Getting it for anyone special?" smiling at him like she knows something that he doesn't. As usual.

"A good friend, yeah," he responds, smiling back. He's gotten used to her smiles by now.

Luna's smile turns distinctly more smug, but Albus doesn't question it. This is Luna, so that'd be pointless.

He hurries out of the door, and on the way to the nearest public floo, Albus passes by a shop that has Valentines cards on display in the window. The idea strikes him to get a card to go with the cake, and and maybe write some stuff to go along with the message the cake is supposed to convey, about how much he values Scorpius. It's mostly out of kindness, but he does also feel a little bit guilty about the fact that he got this cake partially because he was hungry.

Wait. He didn't mean to admit that.

Anyways, he gets the card and awkwardly tries to convey his message in words on a piece of paper. It's not perfect, but it's good, and all genuine, too. He sticks the note to the top of the cake box with magic and heads off again towards the nearest floo.

Scorpius has been having a fine Valentine's Day, but only fine. Nothing's happened yet, and while he wasn't really expecting anything to, it's still kind of disappointing. Pitiful as it may seem, at about noon, he had gone and bought himself some chocolate- because hey, he was hungry- and is now munching on it. He's also reading while he snuggles further into the blankets wrapped around him, and while he has to admit that he's worried about the chocolate getting on his book, the arrangement is too cozy to resist.

Just as he gets to the good part, the floo chimes, telling him that someone wants to enter. He's sorely tempted to ignore it and continue reading, but his polite side convinces him to get up.

He drags himself to the floo, realizing too late that he's still in his pajamas. Deciding he doesn't care enough to do anything about it, he presses the button to show him who it is, forcing a polite smile onto his face.

The stiff smile melts into a genuine one when he sees Albus' head looking around from wherever he is. He feels himself lightly blush at seeing Albus as well, which has, to his great dismay, become normal. He quickly let's Albus come through the floo, stepping back as his friend falls into his living room.

His blush intensifies as he sees the cake and Valentine's card in Albus' hands.

"Hi!" Albus smiles, dusting himself off with one hand as he balances the cake in the other. "I brought cake."

"Hi," Scorpius responds, still blushing.

He has to wonder what this might mean. He can objectively realize how high the chances are that Albus is just making a friendly gesture. He also knows that Albus was probably just in the mood for some cake.

Still, though.

Albus brought Scorpius a cake. And a card. A Valentine's card.

On Valentine's Day.

It doesn't just seem like a friendly gesture, okay?

He doesn't want to let himself hope this means something more than just "we're friends, let's eat cake", but it's already too late. He tries to put the unwelcome thought out of his mind as he and Albus walk to the kitchen. Judging by the red still spreading along his face and now his neck a little bit, too, it doesn't really work. Albus, having inherited some degree of thickheaded-ness (from his father, judging from the stories Scorpius has heard) doesn't notice. Scorpius is thankful for the small mercy.

When they get to the kitchen, Scorpius can't help but take a moment to appreciate the cake that Albus brought. It's clearly from Luna's, which just makes it all the better. It looks really good, and it distracts from some of the tentative hope that's been filling him since Albus arrived.

"The cake looks good. Luna?" Scorpius asks, trying to start a conversation. Maybe it'll work as a further distraction.

"Yeah, course. Luna's great." They smile at each other, thinking of Luna. "How's your Valentine's Day been going?" Albus continues.

"Fine, I think."

"Anything planned?"

"No. You?"

"No, I was just thinking that I'd drop in over here, and maybe stay for a while and eat the cake."

"Yeah, that sounds nice. I was just relaxing and having fun reading before you got here, so you can stay however long you want. The book was getting pretty good though."

"What're you reading now?"

It's nice when they have conversations like these. Calm and casual while both of them are still engaged and genuinely interested. They continue talking while they cut the cake, trying to make the process less gruesome than simply chopping the turtle's head off.

As expected, it's delicious. After they finish the cake, they sit together and talk, and eventually just coexist. Scorpius ends up reading on the couch while Albus sits next to him, alternating between thinking, being on his phone, and reading.

At some point, Scorpius feels pressure on his shoulder and looks down to see that Albus has fallen asleep on him. He smiles and goes back to reading. Only half an hour later, when Albus wakes up, does he realize that maybe Albus wouldn't be the most comfortable with the idea of sleeping on him.

"Sorry, should I have woken you up earlier?" He asks, trying not to sound too worried.

"Nah, it's alright," Albus responds. "I should probably get home now though. Thanks for eating cake and hanging out." Albus smiles lazily at Scorpius, clearly still sleepy from his nap, and it makes Scorpius' heart flop pathetically in his chest.

"Thanks for the cake."

"No problem."

Then Albus gets up, stretches, and walks right out of the floo.

After Albus is gone, Scorpius immediately takes the card to his room to read it. He tries not to have any unrealistic expectations, but it's hard not too. As he carefully takes it out of the envelope and unfolds it, he's almost tempted to close his eyes, close the card, and just put it away. He feels like knowing that it says something bad might be worse than not knowing what it says at all.

Eventually, he gets up the nerve to read it.

It's relatively long, but he finds that in its multiple paragraphs, nothing comes off as anything past platonic. He almost feels like crying, but he can't even do that.

The card is too nice. It shows that Albus really values him, it does.

But just as a friend.

He shoves aside the part of him that is a little bit broken hearted and takes the card to his desk. He opens a drawer and takes a moment to think and reflect on everything in the drawer as he gets mentally ready to put the card away.

Scorpius doesn't want to admit to himself that the drawer is creepy. Sure, it could definitely be considered as such by anyone else… well, it is creepy, but that isn't the point. It isn't as if he's doing anything wrong. He isn't invading Albus' privacy or doing anything objectionable with the collection.

He just likes to look at it sometimes. To remind himself that he does have a best friend, and even sometimes just that not everyone dislikes him. It helps him be happy, when he needs the help, and that's all.

Still, having almost everything Albus had given him, not including things too big to fit, in a drawer in his room, is admittedly no small degree of creepy.

It's just small things, not only in size, but also in importance. Whenever Albus makes something, he always seems to want to give it to Scorpius, and no one else. Albus probably gives stuff to other people too, in all honesty, but Scorpius has yet to notice anyone. So Scorpius has a fairly large collection of small things Albus's given him over the years.

As he looks through everything, which he tends to do when he's going to add something like now, he embraces the inevitable trip down memory lane.

The first thing that stands out to him is from really long ago. When he and Scorpius were starting at Hogwarts, they were pretty shy. After finding each other, they didn't really venture out or try to connect to anyone else. That's how it had been for the first one or two years. They had an abundance of free time created by, for one, not having to save the world, and also from having absolutely no social life outside of each other. They'd often used this time to fuel projects that one of them would think of, and after proposing it to the other, they'd be off. Most of these were pretty stupid, but certain ones did yield decent results.

One such project was based around their mutual interest, at the time, in sewing, strange as it may seem. Albus had made a detailed toy in the shape of a mammal of a completely original species, as far as Scorpius could tell. Once Albus was done with it, he'd shrunk it with the help of his parents and given it to Scorpius as a present. Scorpius had put it in the drawer, and now he picks it up and admires it. Since it was originally so much bigger, the detail is really amazing. It's really soft, too, and beautiful in its color choice and combinations.

That isn't the only thing in the drawer, though. Among other things, there's a small glass model that Albus had made during their third year at Hogwarts. It isn't like window glass though. It is colored glass, made for melting into designs. Though it's simple, this piece, specifically, warms Scorpius' heart. It is all on one small, oblong circle. There are two purple blobs near the top end, and one grey cylinder in the middle at the bottom. These are supposed to be two bats and one stalagmite, in a cave. It's definitely simple, but Scorpius almost loves it more for that. It's one of his favorite pieces in the drawer.

He often takes it out and chuckles at it's admirable simplicity. Sometimes he entertains the idea of how nice it would be if life was that simple.

Most of the projects and the things they yielded had been art related, but there were a few that weren't at all.

One such item is a tiny model of Albus and Scorpius practicing spells animatedly in their room. It's almost eerie how detailed and realistic it is, much like the toy mammal Albus had made. If Scorpius casts a spell on the model, the tiny toy Scorpius casts the spell too. It's pretty cute, as well, since both albus and Scorpius are modeled after how they had looked third year, which was basically like small children.

There are also some food related things in the drawer. They don't contain actual food, obviously, but they're all some representations of food. There's even a small original cookbook that Scorpius had shrunk to fit the drawer since he loves it so much. In it are about 20 semi-original recipes that albus had written for Scorpius. Soon after getting the book, Scorpius had set out to cook all 20. Not at once, of course, but over time. He had managed to get through them all and had liked every single one.

There are many other things as well, even if they're not all quite as great.

Really, most of the stuff in the collection is kind of cheesy in retrospect, but Scorpius still loves it.

After the possibly unnecessarily long trip down memory lane, Scorpius gently lays down the card from Albus in the drawer. He goes to read his book but finds that he's too exhausted to enjoy it. He decides to go to sleep early, and does just that.

Albus goes to sleep sated from the cake and company, and wakes up still happy from the experience. Looking back on yesterday, he'll admit that it may have been a little bit misleading with the cake and card, but he still trusts that Scorpius understood the gesture. He wants to stop worrying about it, so he decides that for once, he'll start on his homework before the last day of break comes around. It isn't pleasant, but he feels accomplished when he finishes at about three, and he wonders if maybe it would be a good idea to contact Scorpius.

He decides to contact him first, today, because going over on announced two days in a row would be a little bit much. He thinks that maybe today, they could go out and explore the world instead of staying in. When he asks Scorpius, they agree to go out and get something to eat first. They both like the small sandwich shop near Luna's, and they haven't been there in a while, so that's where they decide to go.

When they arrive, it's pretty calm, as far as customers go, and they have an easy time finding a relatively nice spot, not too close to any other people, where they can relax in peace. Scorpius orders for both of them, since it's his turn. They always take turns ordering what they think the other might like when they eat together. They sit together in companionable silence as they wait for the order and sip at their twin sodas.

"Hey, do you think that you would ever get Valentine's chocolate for someone you liked?" asks Scorpius. Looking up, Scorpius sees Albus' startled expression- is he asking about yesterday? He clarifies, "I mean, romantically."

Good, then. So Scorpius knows that yesterday wasn't romantic.

"Would you?" Scorpius prompts, after Albus doesn't answer.

"Hm. I think so, except I can't really imagine myself liking anyone at this point. There just aren't any girls at Hogwarts, I guess, that I've met and that I'm compatible with. I kind of think that maybe I'll just have to wait until later in life if I want romance."

"Yeah." Scorpius trails off thoughtfully.

After sitting in contemplative silence for a time, their food arrives.

"Hi," the waiter says, "here's your order. I hope you enjoy your food, and feel free to ask me about anything you need."

The sandwiches look great, as always, and they both eagerly dig in.

After they're done eating, Albus wonders aloud where they should go next.

"Do you want to go to the park? Or maybe the library? You could probably find your book there, and read it."

"I already finished it, and actually I'm probably just gonna head home early today. Sorry," replies Scorpius.

"Oh, yeah, that's fine," Albus says. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Yeah, just tired."

After Scorpius leaves, Albus isn't sure what to do. Even though they've both branched out slightly since their early days at Hogwarts, Albus still doesn't have many close friends outside of Scorpius, and absolutely none even nearly as close.

Maybe he should just go home. Sure, it's break and the weekend, but it's not like he has to spend every single second he has hanging out with someone else. After all, he'shad things he likes to do independently before.

This thought in mind, Albus heads home, already formulating what he wants to make when he gets home in his head.

He finally gets home around five as he's mentally putting the final touches onto his plan. He's thinking that he wants to make something artistic this time, and is debating between putting the drawing he's decided on onto plain paper, or doing something more elaborate with it. He'll probably leave that decision until the end, though, and just get to the art. He's slowly gotten more and more into the mood to draw since he came up with the idea.

He sits down at his desk and gets set up to concentrate on his piece. He has a way of losing track of time when he does art. First, he pulls out all of his paint that isn't black, grey, or white, and takes out some colored pencils and pens as well. He has fun for a while just mixing colors, making a background for whatever he might be adding to it later. When he's satisfied with all the colors he splattered onto the paper, he decides on instinct alone to paint and draw the rest with his eyes closed. Before doing this, though, he puts away everything he has out and gets all of the paint, pencils, and pens that he didn't have out before. Then, he sets everything around that paper and closes his eyes, taking a tool unaware of it's color and pausing over the page, trying to decide what exactly to put down. The only reason he can do this, not looking, and still knowing that not everything will go to crap, is because he's learned many spells being Harry Potter's son, and while he can't really do many of them, he does know a sensing spell that allows him to, if nothing else, not draw on the table and be able to safely pick up things and dip brushes into the water.

The whole thing might very well be a terrible idea. He wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out absolutely horrible when he opened his eyes. But it feels right. Sometimes things just do.

He lets himself get absorbed into the contentedness he gets from just putting whatever's in his mind down on paper, unencumbered by the results.

He might have to do this more often.

The next time he opens his eyes, he looks out of the window and is surprised to find that it's already quite dark. When he checks the time, it's past nine. He doesn't look at his drawing yet because he feels like it should be more of a reveal. He decides to look at it tomorrow morning, after he's rested and will be able to have a newer perspective on it, even if he hasn't seen it yet.

Scorpius feels kind of rotten. He's not exactly sure why, although he thinks he might have some idea. Getting a card and cake one day from his probably-crush, and getting invited out to eat the next, all the while knowing that none of it is romantic- it's a little bit saddening, and is also venturing in the realm of confusing and stressful. It was nice to spend time with Albus though. He just wishes that there was any chance- the tiniest chance- that his feelings would ever be reciprocated.

But there isn't, and that's just the way it is. Just the way it will always be. He just has to accept that, or else he might consider breaking off the friendship or something equally impossible like that, but he'd never want to push himself to that.

Scorpius flops down onto his bed, book already in hand, and lies on his side. When he told Albus that he had finished it, he'd been lying. He's not exactly sure why he was dishonest about it, but he really wanted to go home. Now that he's home, though, he's not so sure how he feels. About anything.

He sits up and settles into his bed to read away his troubles nonetheless.

After a couple of minutes, he still hasn't gotten to the point where he's completely immersed in the story and can't be phased by reality. It isn't any fault of the book, either. It's frustrating when even the things that he always uses to distract himself don't work. He could go to sleep, or maybe make himself something to eat, but he just doesn't find anything he could do right now appealing. He ends up just sitting on his bed, thinking about the past two days. He tries to start reading a couple of times, but he can't concentrate on the story.

Somehow, he manages to open up his Albus drawer and start looking through it without realizing what he's doing. Looking through it makes him feel a little bit sad, but the happiness it brings is overwhelmingly stronger.

It's obvious how much he values Albus.

He only wishes that he could know how much Albus values him back- and in what way.

When he sits down in bed again to read, of course he's relaxed enough from going through the drawer that he's immediately submerged in the story.

Albus is surprised how good the piece from last night looks. He's also surprised at what it looks like. In his groggy mind, which he's sure may be very inaccurate, it reminds him of a scorpion, and seems to kind of have elements of a familiar turtle, maybe?

It all, strangely enough, seems to point to Scorpius, but at the same time he's not really sure if it actually does, and even if it does, he has no idea why.

He tries to change it very little, now that he can actually see it, and can't think of very much that he'd want to add anyways.

It strikes him that maybe Scorpius would like it, and he considers fire calling him, before deciding that Scorpius might still be asleep since he was so tired yesterday. He does decide that he'll fire call him later, though.

When he finally does, having made himself wait for a couple of hours, he's disappointed to find that not only does Scorpius take forever to answer, when he sees Albus' face in the fire, he almost immediately makes a flimsy excuse about being too tired to talk, and basically hangs up.

He isn't too mad though, because he knows that everyone has their off days. Sometimes people just don't want to talk, and while it hurts more when it's your best friend, he's confident that Scorpius will go back to normal soon.

He doesn't sweat it very much until it's been more than three days and he abruptly realizes that Scorpius has been basically ignoring him, at which point he starts to get a little bit nervous. But he still isn't too worried.

Only when break has ended and it's been well over a week since Albus and Scorpius have really spoken does he start to get quite worried, and more than a little bit hurt.

Albus doesn't usually feel like he's being clingy or overly affectionate, and he certainly doesn't like when he does feel like that.

That's what he feels like now.

He thinks that maybe he'd stop talking to Scorpius altogether for a while if he wasn't such good friends with him. Maybe giving him space would make him more responsive, maybe he just needs time, but Albus can't figure out which of those or the many other existing options is the right one for the life of him. Since there's also a possibility that the best thing for Scorpius would be to talk to him as much as he can, Albus feels very conflicted.

It would be so easy to just let the monotony of school take over, to stop trying to talk to Scorpius and settle into a less fun routine, and just live like that. But he just wants them to be normal again.

They used to talk to each other at least once a day almost everyday for, if not actually seeing each other, and their talks were usually at least half an hour.

In the week before break ended, Albus hadn't talked to Scorpius for more than five minutes at a time even once.

They used to always meet each other the day before they went back to school, much to the annoyance of their civil but not friendly families. They used to ride together and spend basically the whole day after their ride together.

Albus rides back to school with Lily and James, and other than the music he doesn't even like playing quietly out of the speakers, there are no sounds at all in the magical car. He's never been very close to his siblings, and he feels distinctly unwanted and alone as he rides in the back.

Even so, when they arrive at Hogwarts still without having said a single word and all get out, Lily makes a sound that indicates, from what he's noticed, that she wants to talk, much to Albus' surprise.

"Hey, thanks for riding with us."

He looks at her for a second, confused and startled.

"Ye-yeah. Sure. You're welcome?" He's sure his awkward side is showing through, and he feels suddenly frustrated with himself. Why can't he even be civil to his own sister?

As an afterthought, he adds, "Thanks for taking me, you two."

"No problem," replies James, face turning a little bit less cold and mean. Lily is even smiling at him.

Even though they part immediately after the encounter, Albus walks away smiling, and thinking that maybe his short-term estrangement from Scorpius isn't such a bad thing.

He has changed his mind since this morning.

He misses Scorpius. A lot. They had three classes together today, and Albus didn't end up talking to Scorpius any more than he did to anyone else. He's getting frustrated. He decides that it's probably best to try to talk to Scorpius about it if he can, even if it's hard to get a response.

While everyone in their dorm is getting ready for bed, Albus tries to subtly and non-threateningly corner Scorpius so that he can finally talk to him. When Scorpius freezes up, Albus tries to show him that he doesn't mean any harm, which is a strange thing to have to do.

"Hey. We haven't really talked in awhile."

Scorpius mumbles something affirmative.

"Well, I was just wondering… Is anything the matter? You seem kind of closed off."

Scorpius finally looks up, meeting Albus' eyes with surprising ferocity.

"No, nothing. I'm fine."

Albus can tell immediately that it is definitely not nothing.

It occurs to him that maybe this whole thing has less to do with him, really, and more to do with Scorpius.

So, the real question then, must be…

Why is Scorpius doing this?

Scorpius has felt himself building distance in between himself and Albus, but he hasn't seemed to be able to do anything to stop it. That, or it's too hard, or he doesn't want to.

He's just having a hard time, a really hard time, with his feelings. They hadn't been fully formed before, when Albus brought the cake and card, and not nearly as powerful as they are now, but that's not true anymore. They're raging and taking over him, and he can't bring himself to talk to Albus anymore. It would be so painful to reconcile with his crush just to inevitable confess, get his heart broken, and have the friendship end because his lingering feelings make it too awkward. As much as he wants to be friends with Albus, he doesn't want to become friends and end their friendship soon after it restarts with even more passion.

He is, though, feeling the loneliness that comes from essentially cutting ties with your best friend. It probably hasn't been two weeks since he abruptly cut Albus off, and already he's closing off from the rest of the school, getting slightly worse grades, and reading probably too much as a way to try to distract himself. He's gone through about ten books in the last two weeks alone. They've actually all been pretty dang good.

Albus makes multiple attempts to talk to him, to figure out what's wrong, but Scorpius doesn't respond to any of them in a productive way.

He can't even say he doesn't have the confidence or bravery to initiate anything anymore. He is actively rejecting the friendship that he'd been building for many years, and he doesn't know why!

Scorpius has to ask himself.

Why is he doing this?