House: Hufflepuff
Position: Prefect 1
Category: Short story
Prompt: [Action] Singing in the shower
Word count: 999
Romance Challenge Information:
Fill: 07
Representation: pre-polyamorous relationship
Thank you, Dann and Zoe for helping beta this!
Warnings: pre Blaise/Pansy/Draco/Theo; pre-polyamory; implied Draco/Theo; implied Blaise/Pansy
Notes: sharing beds; fluffy fluff-fluff; post-war; not-epilogue compliant; nightmares; possibly OOC; coffee addict Blaise for Aya; Theo totally doesn't eavesdrop on Draco
Draco spent the years after the War on probation. His wand had been confiscated, along with the Manor. Lucius and Narcissa weren't allowed in Britain, so they left for Italy. Draco wasn't allowed outside of Britain, and had been forced to live in Muggle London because no landlord would give him a flat, no matter how much money he still had.
The Ministry was cruel when they wanted to be.
Blaise and Theo were neutral during the War, and Pansy hadn't been charged with anything, but all three of them had been willing to leave the magical world and help Draco find his footing again.
"We're your best friends," Pansy had told him. "We won't make you do this on your own. . . not after everything we've been through together. Not after what you went through."
She didn't have to say anything about the dark circles under his eyes or how thin he'd gotten, because he already knew that she was referring to what the years Voldemort spent in the Manor had done to Draco.
It was Pansy's moment of sappy-ness that made Draco agree to it. Not that he'd really had a choice, because his friends were a force to be reckoned with, but they let him have that one small comfort.
They somehow managed to find an apartment that they could agree on. They found one that had features that each of them favored. Pansy loved the balcony, Blaise spent all of his free time in the library, Theo basically claimed the kitchen appliances, and Draco was simply content with a bedroom that he had all to himself.
Living with his three friends, Draco learned things about them that he never would've guessed.
Draco learned that they couldn't let Blaise wander off on his own in Muggle London, because the first time he came back with a TV when they didn't even know what it was. It took them a long time to figure out how to use it once Theo explained what a television was for.
The second time, Blaise bought three coffee makers because he couldn't decide which one he liked better. They would've taken them back, but one of them broke and Pansy wanted her own coffee-maker, for some reason.
Pansy was the messiest of the four of them, which surprised them all.
"I could've sworn that Blaise was gonna leave his dirty laundry everywhere!" Pansy had exclaimed, kicking a sweet wrapper under her bed when Draco had passed by her extremely messy bedroom.
Theo was the only one of them who could cook. Well, at least somewhat. That had been a huge relief, because they hadn't even stocked the refrigerator and had been pretty sure they were going to starve when Theo strode in, groceries in hand. Pansy had literally kissed him.
Draco had been miserable for the first four or so months, waking up every other night screaming. The worst part was that he couldn't cast silencing charms anymore, but even though Theo was the only one who was home during the night—Blaise and Pansy worked graveyard shifts—it was still mortifying.
It got better when Theo started slipping into bed next to him to help him sleep. Draco enjoyed that part of the night the most.
Mornings were always the same for Draco. Theo would wake him up and go to make breakfast while Draco showered.
Draco liked to sing in the shower. He was. . . a decent singer, he supposed. He enjoyed singing just as much as he loved cuddling with Theo. It was like he was in his own world when he sang.
More often than not, Theo would be humming the same song he'd been singing when Draco went to the kitchen to eat. It made Draco's heart do cartwheels when he heard it.
Pansy normally got home around the time Draco and Theo were nearly finished eating, looking dead on her feet.
"Morning, love," Theo had once chirped.
Pansy had flipped him off and disappeared into her bedroom with a slam of her door.
Theo didn't greet her as cheerfully again after that.
Blaise, the complete coffee addict he was, would always head straight for the coffee maker when he got home, forgoing sleep entirely. He was a firm believer of the "Who needs sleep when you have caffeine?" thing.
Theo was a florist, and would leave for work at around eight in the morning. Blaise would be twitching in the living room, restlessly fidgeting with a book and attempting to read it in vain. He just didn't have the patience to do it. Pansy would sleep until noon, before the smell of lunch would wake her up.
Draco spent most of the day in the kitchen, trying to teach himself how to cook. The first time he tried, he managed to start three fires and Blaise had to come rushing in each time to put them out because Draco had fled the kitchen. He didn't have the best experience with flames.
Theo would somehow just appear in their flat without anyone knowing at around three in the afternoon. Draco would leave to go to the bathroom, or to wake Pansy up again, and Theo would just be in the kitchen when he got back.
It was slightly frightening, actually, the way he just showed up sometimes.
They always spent the evening crowded around whatever new thing Blaise managed to buy.
First it was the TV, and he somehow got himself a laptop after that, and then it was an iPad.
Did they ever care that they always ended up so close together that Draco was half-in Theo's lap? No. They also didn't care that Pansy always fell asleep with her head on Draco's shoulder, legs tangling up with Blaise's.
It didn't really matter to them, because they had each other now, no reason for them to hold back, no pretending. Pansy, Theo, and Blaise were the best things in Draco's life, and he wouldn't trade them for the world.