A/N: Written for August 2018's Romance Awareness. Prompts and challenges are listed below.
from the little spark may burst a mighty flame.
George's kitchen was decorated in a warm shade of tangerine that always made Lee wince for a brief second. Then his eyes adjusted and the wooden furnishings came into focus as he stepped out of the Floo.
"The best babysitter in the Great British Isles has arrived!" he called loudly.
"Hey mate! Make yourself at home," George called from upstairs. Lee was already in the process of taking off his shoes and nodded to himself with a smile. Things had been rough recently for George. His and Angelina's relationship had never been something that Lee approved of, but when she had gotten pregnant with the twins, George had been so determined to make it work.
Last month they had started marriage counselling after he'd caught Angelina cheating for the third time. She had left the twins with George and was now living in an apartment in Newcastle with some friends. Lee always offered to babysit, especially because after the first two sessions George had come back looking haggard and destroyed. He couldn't stand to see his best friend like that and so was determined to do all he could to step in and help.
He put on the kettle, peering through the fridge and deciding to cook a big batch of lasagna. George could freeze some or eat it when he got back and Lee could put some of the peppers that were on their last legs through it so if Molly came to visit she wouldn't tell George off too much. Humming to himself, Lee left the kitchen, taking the stairs in the hallway two at a time. Upstairs the decor was no less unconventional although somehow the decorations of bees leading to the twins nursery mixed well against the mint green walls.
"How are you doing?"
George was sat on the edge of his bed, passing his wand over his shirt to try and remove some of the creases.
"It's fucking bullshit, I'm already looking forward to grabbing a beer with you when I come back here. Work okay?"
Lee nodded with a slight shrug.
"Spent the whole day in the classroom trying to get shit together. Last day of summer is now the calm before the storm."
"Professor Jordan, I still can't get over that," George said with a slight laugh before going back to glaring at some stubborn marks on his shirt that weren't coming out. "Thanks for helping out, I know you need to —"
Lee cut him off before George could continue.
"Family always comes before work, or anything else. Tomorrow evening the students arrive and then it's another day or two before they start coming to Muggle Studies. I'm going to work on some ideas for a photography class.I brought my camera with me, soif anything, you're helping me out. The twins are adorable subjects to take pictures of. Speaking of, where are they?"
George led Lee into the nursery where both twins were fast asleep in their cots.
"They've been good as gold today," he whispered. "Probably because they've been up through the night for the past couple of days. Hopefully, they'll just sleep for you."
George left shortly after. Lee got out his camera, playing with lenses and writing down ideas for lessons he could do with his class. Beyonce was playing on the radio and Lee sang along, getting up to dance around the kitchen as he started cooking. Crazy in Love was being played on the radio absolutely everywhere and Lee was fast becoming obsessed with it.
He was considering getting a bunch of disposable cameras and then doing a trip to a shopping centre to get them developed. Or perhaps he would pursue a collaboration with the Potions professor, so that the class could develop their own photographs. He was just getting into the swing of planning his lessons when the baby monitor on the side crackled to life.
Lee headed upstairs, preparing himself for wailing cries. However, what met his eyes was Roxanne sat up, clutching a stuffed lion and looking around with wide brown eyes.
"Hey little princess," Lee murmured.
"Up! Lee, up!" Roxy cried, letting go of the lion to lift her hands up demandingly.
"Alright, alright impatient one. Come on then," Lee said, lifting Roxy up. She smiled as he cradled her against his chest. He walked around the house with her, playing with some dark green blocks. Then they moved into the lounge where he conjuring a few blue lights she tried to crawl after as Lee took photos.
The first hour of babysitting ticked on into the second. Normally, George was gone for no longer than three hours, but his joke about Lee being a professor kept preying on Lee's mind. Last year he had been working with Professor Wilkinson, who had been the Muggle Studies professor for the past five years, but she had wanted to step back from teaching and go back into academic research.
This year would be the first year that Lee was the only Muggle Studies teacher. He knew that peoples opinion on the subject were hit and miss, but he had had high hopes to increase the subject's image in the public mind.
Picking Roxanne up off the floor again and swinging him in her arms until she was laughing, Lee scoffed to himself.
"I'm being ridiculous, I know I am."
Roxanne responded with a gummy smile.
"I just want people to respect me. I want people to not look at me as a failure who's become a teacher because I can't do anything else. That's what my parents think, I'm sure. I really believe that Muggle Studies is going to be really important as our society starts to modernise, but I want people to... to be proud of the person I see in the mirror. I'm sick of feeling like I had more potential and wasted it, or that I'm just not good enough," Lee admitted. It was rare for him to open up, he had always been the one to mask things with a laugh and smile.
Roxanne fell silent, her large dark eyes looking up at him. Lee looked down at her and the world around him shifted on its axis. Everything faded for a split second until just her face was all he could focus on and Lee smiled softly, swinging her in his arms until she was laughing again, loud squeals of joy echoing in his ears. He exhaled heavily, blinking.
He knew of soulmates. There had been all kinds of rumours at school of couples who got together in broom cupboards and then realised they were some form of 'star-crossed lovers', something he'd slightly scorned. Lee had never imagined that 'being intimate' could qualify as something so mundane as baring your soul, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised how private he was and how much he hated being vulnerable.
"Find the place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain," Lee said out loud, quoting something he'd read long ago.
A part of him was sure people wouldn't understand, but there was a reason that Lee had never thought he would find a soulmate — had never been bothered by that idea in fact. The term he'd read once in a book was asexual aromantic. He loved people, and he could appreciate beauty, but he'd never had sparks fly. He'd always been happy that way. Now, looking at Roxanne, all he felt was a deep sense of contentment. He would spend his life being the person she needed him to be, making her happy however he could.
George walked through the door as Lee had started to sing a lullaby to her, bringing in the scent of hot rain from outside.
"Well, that went about as bad as it can be expected. How're the kids?"
"Fine," Lee said softly, blinking and wondering how on earth he was going to tell his best friend that his eleven-month-old baby was his platonic soulmate.
"Fancy a beer?"
"Yeah, yeah, a beer sounds like a great idea."
If Lee said it feeling mildly hysterical, then George didn't pick up on it. He just smiled and squeezed his shoulder.
"Thanks, mate, you're a lifesaver. Oh, you beautiful man! Once again, my life has been saved by lasagna."
Lee kept Roxanne in his arms until she squirmed to be let down. If it was fate, then it was meant to be. Lee kept repeating that in his head, reminding himself he was a Gryffindor to the bone, before he walked into the kitchen to talk to George.
It was going to be a long night.
A/N:
Assignment #3: Gardening - Task 5 - Daisy: Write a fic featuring a character under 11 years old
Romance Awarness: Day 16. You don't realise that you've met your soulmate until you're having a VERY intimate moment with them (e.g. sex but doesn't have to be sex). However they realise that they've met their soulmate is up to you, but they KNOW.
Character Appreciation: 11. Relationship: Father & Daughter
Disney Challenge: T1. Write a fic about a male/female friendship. (That stays a friendship.)
Trope of the Month: Cross-Gen, (song) Beyonce - Crazy in Love
Book Club: Aunt Lydia: (colour) dark green, (au) teacher, (word) scoff
Showtime: 6. (word) Lullaby
Amber's Attic: T3. Write about innocence.
Lyric Alley: 22. Reaching for the sun
Ami's Audio Admirations: 12. Write a fic using a song for inspiration.
Em's Emporium: 9. Write about an unapologetic Gryffindor.
Angel's Arcade: 18. (color) blue, (word) princess, (action) glaring
Lo's Lowdown: Q3. "Find the place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain." - Joseph Campbell
Bex's Bazaar: D3. Write about a supportive friend.
Film Festival: 10. (plot point) Bromance
Days of Year Prompts: Garfield the Cat Day: Use the dialogue - "Once again, my life has been saved by, lasagna." [Bonus].
Colour Prompts: Tangerine
Flower Prompts: Sunflower - (creature) Bee
Element Prompts: (quote) "From the little spark may burst a mighty flame." - Dante
Shay's Musical Challenge: 33. Hello, Dolly! - write about finding love
Gryffindor Themed Prompts: Lee Jordan, (trait) Passionate, (creature) Lion
Astronomy Themed Prompts: September Equinox. Prompt: (theme) Last day of Summer