776 words by google docs
for the houses competition, gryffindor, year 3, standard, 12:14
thanks to ck for the beta
Theo comes home on December 31st with a plan. He's been working at Muggle library for the past few months and one of his coworkers has mentioned something that peaked his attention: kissing someone right when it turns midnight.
Well, good thing Theo has a boyfriend.
Blaise is already half asleep when Theo gets home — he finishes work at 9:30 — the book in his hands slowly drooping. Theo pokes him in the cheek, which makes him jerk awake.
"What?" he asks, blinking around.
"We're staying up for midnight," Theo says, not able to stop the grin on his face.
…
Blaise isn't a fan of the whole 'let's stay up late when we're really tired and then kiss', but Theo insists. Theo knows that Blaise can't resist his puppy eyes, so he does exactly that and Blaise melts.
"Okay," Theo declares, cracking his knuckles. "We need a game plan on how to stay awake."
Blaise smirks at him, looking down quickly and then back up.
"I have a good idea."
Blaise's idea is vetoed.
"Why can't we just drink coffee to stay awake?" Blaise asks, a slight pout on his face from Theo rejecting his plan. Theo rolls his eyes.
"Because we have to go to sleep after we kiss and we'll be too hyped to do that if we drink coffee," he says, cupping his boyfriend's face in his hand. Blaise makes a little grunt.
"And you hate it," Blaise says, raising a single eyebrow.
"You taste gross once you drink it, babe," he admits.
Blaise rolls his eyes. An idea comes to Theo then, on how to stay awake: board games.
Theo happened upon board games by accident; one of his coworkers invited him for a board game night. Of course, Theo then had to go and buy a bunch of board games for him and Blaise.
"Let's play Scrabble," Theo says, still cupping Blaise's face. Blaise pulls away quickly.
"No. You have that glint in your eye. I hate that glint," Blaise says. Blaise insists that Theo gets a competitive glint which causes him to show no mercy. Theo doesn't see it.
"Come on," Theo says, looking at his watch. "We have less than two hours left. Let's just play it."
Blaise considers for a moment before groaning and giving in.
Theo grins.
…
They're a half hour into the game — an hour and fifteen minutes before midnight.
Theo is crushing Blaise. Maybe it's because he spends all day around books. He's just good with words.
It's currently Blaise's turn. He's staring hard at the rack, looking frustrated.
That's another thing that's different between him and Blaise: Blaise doesn't have the patience for long games like Scrabble. He hardly has the patience for any game.
Finally, Blaise sighs and starts placing his tiles — I-G-I-V-E-U-P.
"I'm done," Blaise says, looking at Theo. "I quit."
Theo looks at Blaise's tiles and then back at Blaise.
"I'm just impressed you had those tiles," he says. "Fine, we'll do something else."
"Let's watch a movie," Blaise suggests, already cleaning up the tiles. There's a grin on his face that Theo's not sure he likes; Blaise has an odd taste in movies.
"Fine," Theo says, mostly because he knows that he's keeping Blaise up with this 'kiss at midnight' thing.
He really wants that kiss.
…
An hour later, Blaise is sitting against Theo, their television playing Heathers. Theo really doesn't like the movie, but Blaise insists that it's a classic, so they're watching it.
Theo notices Blaise's breathing has gone silent against him and he leans over, realising that Blaise is asleep.
Fine. Theo will just wake him up in fifteen minutes for their kiss.
Theo leans back, watching the movie play out. His eyes keep on drooping and he thinks that maybe Blaise is right. Maybe a nap wouldn't be too bad.
He'll wake up in fifteen minutes.
…
Blaise is shaking him awake.
"I'm sorry," he says once Theo properly opens his eyes, gesturing towards their clock.
They missed midnight.
Theo makes a little hum noise. He's upset that he missed midnight, yes, but also he has Blaise. He can kiss him at any time.
He glances down at his watch. 12:24.
"Well," Theo says, looking into Blaise's brown eyes, "we can have a 12:24 kiss," he says.
"I'd love that," Blaise responds, smiling so that the dimple on his left cheek comes out. Theo loves that dimple.
Theo leans in and Blaise meets him with his lips. Their kisses always feel magical, but it probably would've been better at midnight, Theo thinks.
They always have next year.