Curled up in a warm pair of arms, his body still shivered with a bizarre sense of cold, though he was sweating. Sick with his stomach twisted up in knots, there was nothing that allowed him to take a full breath. His lungs were three quarters full at all times, his life was three quarters full, but he knew what he needed now, he knew, he knew, he knew! But everyone knows and there was nothing about this that was normal. There was no way he could simply express his great desire to have someone else hold him. How does one tell the sweet man who had cared for him all of this time that he needed another?

Draco was not sure, and so that first night in Blaise's bed after his mating he said nothing. Blaise kissed him and suckled on his neck and did everything that normally made the blond moan and scream his name. Moaning and screaming occurred. But that was so easily faked, it was unbelievable how quickly Blaise thought he had finished. The man's ego was in need of stroking and so Draco played the dutiful part of reliable boyfriend of three years. Gods, they had survived the Dark War together, and there was nothing about this that made him happy.

Everyone expected them to be married by now. There was a ring on Draco's finger yet looking at it made his inner self twist and writhe and scream and bawl and generally break down. He had no desire to be with his fiance, no desire to feel him pound into him with earnest desire, no arousal when he saw Blaise covered in droplets of water, all of them dripping down his freshly showered body.

It was a miracle he had gotten an erection convincing enough today to let Blaise think that Draco was okay.

There was never a time when Draco Malfoy was okay with his life.

It had been two weeks since his mating, and Draco had taken to sleeping in the bath tub. Lying in ice cold water was the only way for him to feel anything, and his shivers stopped when his nerves numbed themselves to the loss of recognition stage. Nothing within his brain was firing at this point, and no explosions of nerve to nerve, cell to cell communications were occuring in him. He lay in that bath tub happier and more numb than he had felt in two and a half weeks. He slept in the bath tub because perhaps he would fall beneath the water level and drown. This thing within him was bound to kill him anyway. He had not eaten since the second day, when he saw his Mate kissing that disgusting Weasley, she was kissing his Mate, who did she think she was-

His stomach growled and Draco grabbed his wand, murmuring a spell and slicing a small cut into his stomach. The blood tainted the water and so he smiled, thinking of what it would be like for his Mate to discover his scar there, or better, warm lips and a tongue licking and kissing over that blood. His Mate would murmur an incantation into his wound and it would seal up, and then his blood stained lips would kiss and lick down and down.

Draco jerked up, forced to stare up at Blaise. The man had been crying recently. Or maybe all the time. Draco was not sure. He rarely left the bathroom.

His fiance climbed into the tub, muttering curses under his breath before wrapping his arms around the petite blond. In Blaise's embrace, Draco realized how small he had become. Normally it took some rearranging to make them both comfortable. Now he felt like a feather in the hold of a bear's claw, a pea snuggling up to an apple, a tiny with a big. There was nothing to be said.

Blaise moved out the next day. Draco returned the ring. Nothing had been said and so there was no resolve for Blaise. Draco was a ghost.

He had not seen his child since the day of his mating, and that in and of itself hurt a different part of him. He loved Scorpius more than himself- Scorpius was something good, something smart, and had been sorted into Gryffindor in the only-on-Thursday school the three year old attended. There was nothing that could keep that little boy from being a good person. He was a good person. He inspired Draco.

The little boy with the darkened blond head and the heart of gold was Draco's son, and understood Mom and Da's strange relationship. Astoria and Draco had had a one night stand (though Scorp didn't know quite that much), and gotten pregnant on accident. Astoria hadn't wanted to terminate the pregnancy and so they got married, with an agreement.

Astoria knew Draco was gay. Draco knew Astoria was gay. They were allowed to have others but everything had to be talked about. Their son came first above all else, and that is why Draco broke his silence and finally told his wife about the problem he was currently facing. She stopped sexting Pansy long enough to respond to him with a, 'I can take S for a while. Or do you want him with you?"

Draco wanted Scorpius here, but he felt like that was unfair to the three and a half year old, so he gave Astoria permission to care for him until he said otherwise. Please dear gods, let him get better, because the longing for his baby boy curled up in his arms was too much to take alongside of this pain.

He sat up, the water splashing.

That was it, wasn't it?

In order to see his son, he needed his Mate.

Draco had taken a Calming Drought, allowing his body to stop its intense convulsions long enough for him to Floo to the Ministry and find his way to the office where he knew he would find his Mate. His moptop had not changed with age, and so the twenty five year old father approached the Savior, the man who had defeated his father in combat and then forgiven him, Draco, for all of his prior trespasses.

Draco was not sure why, after three years of working alongside of Harry Potter, his Veela had figured out that this man was his Mate. But his Veela has decided so, and there was no way of arguing with the incredibly irrational clingy thing within you that was slowly killing every happy thought you had.

He could feel his Veela purr, and his body feel more rejuvenated as he entered the fifty feet bubble between him and Harry. Harry turned around, looking exhausted with a huge smile on his face as he walks to Draco and holds up a picture.

On it was a baby, still ugly from having just entered the world but cute from it as well. Harry was a father, and the wizard actually hugged Draco. All at once, everything was different, now that Draco was in his Mate's arms. His skin regained color, his face relaxed and then smiled, and his appetite came roaring back. He could see Scorpius today.

Harry and Draco ate lunch together, sitting at the bar, the unrequited sexual tension driving the blond mad but also helping him to feel better. He did not need to tell Harry he was his Mate, did he?

No, he did not. After lunch, he took Scorpius to the zoo, and walked through the entrance to the Wizarding side. The little boy giggled and laugh, and Draco felt okay.