Originally written for the 2012 Charlie Ficathon. Many thanks go to my beta, xxdustnight88.

Disclaimer: I do not own any recognizable aspect from the Harry Potter world. The story plot does belong to me. I am making no profit from this writing.

The two men were waiting for the other to speak as they sat on opposite sides of the table.

Charlie regarded the younger man carefully as he sat back and thought about their turbulent history. Their families hated each other, even if the other man's mother lied to protect one of his family's closest friends. Charlie thought about one of his friends and their co-worker, who the man sitting across from him hated. To make matters worse, for the past year and a half, and up until last week, Charlie had been his mentor.

Charlie slowly closed and opened his eyes before speaking, "How did we end up here?"

The other man smirked, before commenting, "Well, I came over to your little hut to tell you that I couldn't be arsed with what everyone else thinks."

Charlie glared at him and was pleased to see that he could still silence the other man with just one look like he had been able to when they were mentor and mentee. Even though Charlie knew he could still silence the other man so easily, the dynamic of their relationship started to change a couple of months before the end of the training programme. Once Charlie was no longer his mentor, their relationship had almost completely changed in the opposite direction than it had been when Charlie was his mentor, but Charlie just confirmed that he still had some sway in their relationship.

Charlie thought back to the night where his mentee finally understood just how dangerous their job was and that no matter how much book knowledge you have, it does not prepare you for dealing with real-life dragons.

***FLASHBACK-17 MONTHS PRIOR***

Charlie was sorely tempted to let the nesting Peruvian Vipertooth finish off his new mentee, but he knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did. Charlie stepped into the pen and pulled the other man to safety, before speaking to him.

Charlie wanted his undivided attention for the following conversation. The young man started to struggle against Charlie to get back to the dragon, but Charlie being the stronger of the two men, held on and started talking.

"Hey! Hey, listen to me." When the other man continued to struggle, Charlie forced his face toward his own. "I know you want to get back in there and help, I do too, but listen to me for a moment. I'm your mentor and you need to listen to me before you kill yourself." When he received a curt nod in reply, he continued speaking, "You are a smart young man and you have a lot of book knowledge, just like Hermione does, but she has one advantage over you. She knows she does not have the personal experience to work with these creatures without some guidance. That is what this two-year training program is for, to give you the experience you need to work with dragons safely.

"You know what you're doing. Put this," Charlie tapped his head, "and these," and tapped one of his ears, "to good use. You have the potential to go very far in this field if you would just listen to me and let me help you. If you continue to fight against me and make decisions that could kill you, this instance almost becoming your second one in less than two months, then you'll either kill yourself or you won't graduate from the training programme."

The other man's eyes widened at hearing the addition to Charlie's warning, making Charlie pause in his speech.

"My father would kill me if I didn't graduate and Granger did," the young man grumbled.

Charlie glared at his mentee, effectively silencing him and remarked in a low growl, "I know you don't like her, I know you don't like me, but you will listen to me." Charlie finally let go of the younger man. "I don't want you to die, I want you to graduate, but right now we need to help Shara." Charlie headed toward the gate leading to the dragon's pen. "We will finish talking when we're done here and then I'm patching you up. Now, just follow my lead."

Charlie chuckled when he heard a groan behind him.

***END OF FLASHBACK***

Charlie ran a hand through his shaggy hair and glanced down at the table before looking back up. "Draco, I didn't mean how we ended up here at my table, but how we ended up in this quasi-relationship that everyone on the reserve seems to know about."

The grey eyes that seemed to haunt Charlie's dreams for the past nine months looked into Charlie's hazel ones. "Does it really matter?" Draco questioned. "We are two adult men who want each other and as I said earlier, I honestly don't care what the other keepers think."

Draco gave Charlie a rare grin. "To ease your mind though, the boss said that as long as this does not impede our work, he is not against us seeing each other."

Charlie watched as a smirk spread across his tablemate's face. "Also, in her own words, Hermione said that she's 'so happy for you two'."

Charlie cocked an eyebrow and gave Draco a sceptical look. "She said that? To you?"

"Yes, she did to both questions. We give each other a hard time around everyone else, but when we were in Uni, we became good mates," Draco paused and gave Charlie a wicked grin. "We even tried our hand at dating each other."

Charlie glared at that piece of information and filed it away for a future conversation with Hermione. He pulled himself from his mental filing when he heard Draco chuckling. "What?" Charlie groused.

Draco stood up, walked around the table, pushed Charlie's chair back, and sat on the edge of the table with his legs on either side of Charlie's. "Charlie, there is no need to start planning Hermione's demise. We dated a couple times that was it. She actually helped me figure out that I enjoyed the company of men more so than women, and after that, we decided to stay friends. Our time together at Uni was part of the reason why we both ended up here at the reserve in Romania rather than anywhere else."

Charlie nodded his head and looked at Draco, wondering what was going through his head now.

"So, now that all of this talk is out of the way, let's move on to more…exciting activities." Draco leaned forward and fisted his hands in Charlie's shirt, as he pulled Charlie out of his chair, Charlie cocked an eyebrow at Draco's actions. Draco smirked and pressed their lips together.