His cousin, Tonks, had to make a sudden trip somewhere with her husband, Remus and asked him to look after her four year old son, Ted. He didn't really have other choice than agree to babysit little Ted while they were away. Besides, it wouldn't be for more than a couple of days and he thought it wouldn't be much of a challenge, as he knew pretty well the infant's routine and even helped Tonks with it most of the times.
After all, she gladly took him under their wing and invited him to live with them, when his parents disowned and banished him from the Malfoy Manor for standing up against the "family traditions" and portraying everything that the Malfoy's were not… Throughout the years, they barely tolerated his cerulean hair, his tattoos, even his piercings. But when he came out to them, it was the last straw. They yelled and cursed because they were only allowing him to dress and act like that in the hopes that he would eventually get bored and would settle down with a high-born lady and carry the family name. "You will not bring any more dishonour upon us!" They roared as they kicked him out and threw his belongings to the streets.
Draco ended up on his cousin porch and before he could say anything, she gave him a roof and a place to stay. He owed her so much…
He handled everything perfectly for the first two days; he managed to get Ted to sleep at a reasonable hour so he could finish some essays he had to hand in by the end of the winter break. He was pretty proud of himself and he treated himself with really bad horror movies and chocolate. He could handle this. What he did not take into account was that he wouldn't be the only one babysitting Ted on Thursday afternoon.
When he came to live with Tonks, Draco left his pompous, posh academy and do his last year at a public school near his new house. He was not complaining. He never fitted in there anyways. He worked very hard to abandon some of his old habits and make at least one close friend, something he never really had at his previous school. He watched some of the popular shows on TV and subscribed to a couple Youtube channels so he could share some conversation topics for his classmates, and after a couple of weeks, even though his looks could be intimidating, people started to let him into their circles, inviting him to join them at lunch and greeting him in the hallways. Aside from some funny glares and whispers every now and then, his life there was normal. He was finally starting to feel like a normal teenager.
Even when Potter appeared on the canvas.
With his lavender hair and as many piercings as Draco himself, Potter was the unspoken leader and the most popular guy in school. He stopped the bullies from approaching Draco on his very first day at school and for that Draco was both grateful and a little bit flustered. No one would have done that at his previous school. Ever.
But when he tried to thank him when classes were over, Potter interrupted and told him to save his breath.
"The only reason I had to help you out was because Tonks asked me to. I am no babysitter, Malfoy."
"Wait, Tonks?" Draco was puzzled and tilted his head. "How do you know her?"
"I'm little Ted's godfather." Potter chuckled as he lit a cigarette and Malfoy did absolutely not think it was the most beautiful smile he had ever seen. He took the cigarette to his lips and exhaled very slowly before giving him a curious look, slightly furrowing his brow. "Seriously, you have lived with them all this time and you didn't even know it?"
No, the thought never crossed his mind nor asked about it. Draco said nothing. He just turned on his heels and left in a hurry, his ears burning and his face scarlet. His heart beating fast and filled with embarrassment.
After that, he tried to avoid the pastel guy as much as he could, which was proven difficult, as they shared most of their classes. He had already studied most of the topics the teachers were covering at his old school, so Draco didn't talk much, finished his work sooner than anyone and got bore easily. But that meant he would unconsciously let his eyes wander around the classroom and, to his annoyance, they always landed on the same lavender head each time.
"You are going to poke a hole on his nape if you keep staring at him like that." An amused voice muttered while Mr. Howlter, the Chemistry teacher, explained the text yet one more time.
"Shut up, Blaise," He hissed and averted his gaze to look at the dark boy with mischievous eyes and cunning smile beside him instead.
Blaise Zabini was quiet and tend to keep to himself and he was his unspoken seat-mate and the closest person he could call a friend ever since he arrived there. They sort of ended up sitting next to each other one day for a pair work and realised they were the perfect partner for each other. They would work fast and efficiently while in complete silence and they decided to stay together for the rest of the classes.
"If you asked him out I doubt he would turn you down." He grinned.
"Fuck off." he buffed and tried to concentrate on Mr. Howlter's lesson, with no success. He would never admit he had played that scene on his head every night when he couldn't sleep. Were Blaise to find out, he wouldn't shut up about it and would pester him for the rest of the year. His eyes laid on Potter once again, who was taking notes and chatting with his friends in hushed voices.
He groaned and rested his head on his desk, defeated. He would never confess he had a crush on the short boy nor try to chitchat and hope to become close.
Most of the times they just tried to ignore each other.
Except when the bastard showed up at his place to see Ted and play with him.
It was Friday, his third day alone with the baby, and Draco was cooking lunch when he heard a knock on the door and hurried to open it with Ted in his arms. He was not going to leave him unattended in his chair, with a bowl with pieces of fruit and a bottle of milk. Not again. It took him two hours to clean the whole kitchen completely after the little man decided to redecorate the walls with yoghurt.
He was somewhat confused. Tonks wouldn't be back until next week and he wasn't expecting anyone, so when Potter appeared on the threshold, he held his breath and froze on the spot.
"Hi, buddy!" He greeted happily and snatched Ted from Draco's arms and kissed him on the forehead. "Sorry I came unannounced. I didn't have your number so... May I come in?"
Draco composed himself and nodded and he immediately went back to the kitchen, where he stirred the pot and tasted it before turning the fire off. It had been a cold morning and, when Draco picked Ted up from kindergarten, he decided a nice, warm soup would be that day's menu. He was now worried because the amount he prepared would not be enough for the three of them.
"I, uh, will cook something else." He stared at the fridge and quickly took some frozen vegetables and meat and threw them on a hot pan.
They sizzled when they made contact with the hot olive oil and a nice scent started to fill the place. He added spices and stirred energetically, not minding the boy behind him. Draco loved cooking because it gave him a sense of freedom and of being in control. The kitchen became his domains the very moment he stepped inside it and put himself in charge of the meals, to Remus and Tonks' content. He had a gift for it, they said. They even bought him a book with baby food recipes for Ted when he had mastered every other one they taught him.
"Smells really good. Do you want me to set the table?" Draco was so immersed on his cooking that he didn't notice Potter standing beside him until he talked.
"Yeah, thanks." Draco answered without taking his eyes off the pan before him. "I assume you know where everything is."
"Yeah." The other one repeated and looked for everything he needed, thinking how different the cerulean boy in front of the stove was from the one from school, the one who stole glances at him in the hallways when he thought no one was looking.
Neither of them had anything to say and silence fell between them as they ate, only Ted was oblivious to the tense atmosphere and giggles and reached for both boys' attention, which he promptly gained.
"This is delicious!" Potter exclaimed, taking another mouthful. "Now I wish I has accepted Tonks' invitations to dinner. She wasn't exaggerating when she said you were an amazing cook."
"Thanks…" Draco blushed slightly as he cleaned Ted's face and helped him finish the soup. " It's the first time I've cooked for someone apart from Remus and Tonks."
"I'm honoured, then."
Draco simply nodded and took Ted in his arms once again.
"Would you mind cleaning here? I'll wash the dishes later. I want to have Ted take a nap or else he won't sleep or let sleep whole night through."
He did not wait to see his response and climbed up the stairs towards the baby's room. He tried to untangle himself from Ted and put him on his cradle but he wanted none of it. Ted pouted and tears threatened to spill so Draco sighed and crouched towards the bookshelf.
"I am spoiling you far too much." he chuckled as he picked a book and opened it at a random page. He smiled to himself in anticipation for what he was about to read. It was his favourite one. Ted stopped sobbing once he understood what was about to happen and giggled with content.
Draco cleared his throat and stepped in the middle of the room, book in hand, ready to perform to his little spectator:
"Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
He recited passionately, pouring every ounce of emotion he had onto each verse.
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade,
When in eternal lines to Time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
He bowed. Behind him, someone applauded.
Draco jumped at the sudden interruption and the book flew out of his hand and landed on the floor with a dull thud. Potter was leaning against the doorstep, with a huge smile on his face and Draco blushed furiously.
"For fuck's sake, Potter! Could you stop being so fucking stealthy?" Draco groaned angrily and crouched to grab his book and put it back in the shelf. "One of these days I'm going to have a freaking heart attack!"
"That was beautiful." The lavender boy said simply, making Draco's face an even deeper crimson. "Don't you think it was great, little man?" He asked Ted, who was far from being sleepy and tried to mimic his clapping adorably. "I don't think he's going to sleep any time soon. How about we play a little more?"
"Potter, no."
"Potter, yes." He took Ted and walked off the room. "Off we go. To the living room!" He skipped down the hallway making "whoosh" noises and Ted laughing loudly at them while Draco groaned and followed behind, swearing under his breath.
"He will be your responsibility tonight when he is restless."
"Are you inviting me over, Malfoy?" He shouted cheekily. "That's bold, even for you. I like it."
"Fuck off."
"Shh, please refrain from swearing. You don't want our little Ted to learn that kind of language, do you?" Potter was surely enjoying teasing the hell out of him, of that, Draco was certain. He gritted his teeth and entered the living room, where he found Potter sitting on the floor with his back against the couch with Ted on his legs, making him dance to a tune Potter was humming.
Draco's heart did absolutely not skipped a beat at that sight.
"So" He tried to steady himself. "What do you plan on doing, if you don't want Ted to sleep?"
"Let's play house!" Ted said happily on Potter's leg. He didn't talk much, but the few words he knew, he would articulate them greatly.
"Will you say "no" to him? Will you be the bad guy who denies this precious little boy the chance to play "House"?" Gods, he was going to kill him.
"All right. But I will be the dad." He added quickly.
"What? No!" Potter began to protest but Draco interrupted him.
"Sorry, shortie. Claimers keepers." He smirked.
"But you are the one who cooks and recites Shakespeare! I should be the dad!"
By now Ted had freed himself was setting his little purple table, completely covered in toys and crayons and drawings, with plastic plates and teacups that he carefully set and then he sat on a green chair and called the older boys' attention urging them to come and start playing with him.
"Honey, you should really drop that old-fashioned gender roles." Draco said as he tried to figure out how on earth he could sit on those little chairs without falling off. He gladly accepted the cup of "tea" Ted had offered him and pretended to drink, exaggerating his reactions to make the toddler laugh.
Potter grumbled and sat on the chair opposite to his and sipped angrily at his cup. Draco discovered he loved teasing the lavender boy.
"Plus you are shorter than me. That should be reason enough." He commented innocently.
Potter snapped at him and leaned forward menacingly. Draco had touched a nerve and he was sure Potter would make him pay for that. He could have backed off and apologise, but he decided he would stand his ground for once and, with his eyes fixed on him, would wait for the lavender boy to step back. They stared intently at each other for a while, their noses almost touching, their breathing intertwining, tacitly daring each other to… what exactly? His eyes darted towards the other boy's lips for only a second and gulped at the thought of how would they feel against his own.
"You are going to be late for work!" Ted exclaimed, seemingly oblivious to the tension that had built up between the two teenagers and handed Draco a doctor bag and a toy stethoscope. "Mama, you have to say goodbye to you before you go!" he then urged Potter.
They hadn't moved an inch away from each other so his breath caressed Draco's lips as he whispered.
"Have a good day, honey" and closed the gap between them in an angry kiss.
Draco's eyed widened in shock and his mouth opened involuntarily, which the other boy took advantage of and slid his tongue inside while his hand crawled towards the back of his neck, impeding him to escape. His heart beat fast and his mind rushed, failing to understand how things had turned out this way. Harry Potter was kissing him. On their own accord, his lips started moving against Potter's, his hands grabbing his by the collar of him shirt and not letting go and his tongue battling against his, trying to dominate the kiss. For as long as it lasted, he wanted to savour it.
It ended as abruptly as it began.
Both of them seemed to have realised what they were doing and darted towards opposite corners of the room. Faces burning and too shocked to say anything, they avoided the other one's gaze long enough to notice that Ted was long gone and they could hear a soft snoring from the child's bedroom.
An unbearable silence lingered between them and Potter darted towards his backpack and, muttering a "uh, yeah, so… bye", he escaped through the door.
Draco had his back against the wall, he slid until he was sitting on the floor, embarrassed and confused, his was heart beating loudly on his ears, a swirl of emotions in his chest. Too much had happened that afternoon and his mind could process it no longer. He raised his hands to his face and it felt warm, he then hid it on his knees and tried to steady his breathing to no avail. As darkness took over, he could still not make heads or tails of anything anymore. Did that kiss mean that his feelings were mutual? If it did, then why run away in such a cowardly way? Did it mean that they were going to start dating or something? Did it mean anything at all? He could not know.
On his pocket, his phone buzzed. He grabbed it with a shaky hand. It was an unknown number.
From: xxx-xxxx-xxx
I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get way too into playing "house" and kiss you passionately. No hard feelings?
His breath was caught on his throat as he read the text over and over again, feeling his heart breaking ever so slightly. Anger boiled under his skin and he dialled before he could think twice. Once Potter picked up, he did not wait for him to say anything and began speaking.
"You think you can come and kiss me and then run like that and pretend that just by sending a shitty text, you think I'm going to forgive and forget just because you said "sorry"? You are neither sorry nor were "Way too into" shit. You messed with me and think that just because I like you and you "apologised" everything is going to change back to what it was? Well fuck you. You are a big asshole." He hung up, turned off his phone and ran to his room.
The rest of the weekend passed and Draco couldn't sleep for more than a couple of hours. He tossed and turned, far too upset to sleep, the events of that day still running in his mind. His feelings were not only one-sided but also a joke for the other boy, Draco had called and gave Potter a piece of his mind but, in the heat of the moment, he outed himself and confessed his feelings. He cringed and prayed for earth to swallow him whole. Blaise came over after noticing something was wrong and they had their first serious talk in what felt like, forever. Draco couldn't get that stupid kiss out of his head and he felt like crying every time he thought about how awkward school was about to get. He dreaded Monday and he was seriously considering feigning illness so he could be absent for a couple of days, but Blaise had none of it.
"You are not running away from something you were not responsible of." Blaise said in a hush voice from the top of the bunk bed in Draco's room after checking that Ted was asleep. "You may be a bit of an asshole sometimes but you are no coward."
His attempt succeeded when Draco's mouth twitched upward for a bit.
"You are the asshole, coming uninvited, inviting yourself to stay the night and insulting me."
"You forgot deleting those texts you didn't even want to read. But you appreciated that very much. And I'm the one who can talk you out of doing unnecessary things."
Draco sighed and did not answer.
"Trust me. Everything will be all right."
"Night, night, Blaise." Draco believed him and went to sleep.
When they arrived to the classroom, there were still ten minutes until it started, but Draco was just seconds away from a panic attack. He regretted letting Blaise convince him to attend school and giving in to his "You are no coward" speech. He wanted nothing more than turning back and run away from the absolute humiliation he was about to be subjected into.
Blaise sighed, reading Draco like an open book, and put his hand on his back and pushed him inside and they walked together towards their seats, not paying attention to the group on the front rows. They sat in silence, waiting for the rest of the students to arrive, when a note fell at Draco's feet. He looked at it suspiciously, having a strong hunch about who the sender was.
Meet me at the park near Ted's Kindergarten after school.
He sighed and crumpled it into a ball and went to throw it on the bin. As he passed next to Potter's desk, he subtly nodded.
"Why did you call me here for?" Draco asked as soon as he arrived to the park and saw Potter sitting on a bench near the entrance.
"I wanted to talk to you."
"And you needed to do it here?" He was defensive. He did not know what Potter wanted to talk about and he was trying not to drift to any dark places… yet.
"Well, you wouldn't have wanted me to show up at your place and you've ignored me the entire weekend …"
"I had nothing to say to you…" He lied.
"Did you even read any of the texts I sent?" Potter inquired.
Draco did not answer but with another question.
"What did you called me here for?" he repeated and, with what seemed to be the millionth time that day, he sat beside him.
Potter frowned and stayed silent for a moment.
"I wanted to apologise again for what happened. It was a shitty move doing it over the phone but-please let me finish." He rushed to say when he noticed that I was opening my mouth. "I know you are pissed and you have every right to be, but hear me out and believe me when I tell you that it wasn't my intention to neither hurt nor embarrass you. And yes, I already suspected about your crush on me for a while, but when you were yelling at me and confirmed it, well… I felt even worse because…"
"Okay, stop" Draco interrupted him, not wanting to hear about it anymore. "I don't need your pity, alright? I have enough on my plate to add that."
Potter grunted exasperatedly and put his face between his hands. "God dammit you are dense when you want to. I asked you to let me finish because otherwise you would jump to a conclusion like that one! I'm not pitying you, for fucks sake!"
"Then what the hell did you mean, asshole?!" Now they were both angry and their voices were now one ot two octaves higher.
"THAT I FUCKING LIKE YOU TOO" Draco froze. Wait, what? He looked at Potter, who seemed to have realized what he just said, but decided to keep on going, his face turning to a bright shade of red "A nd I didn't want our first kiss to happen like that…"
Draco was at a loss for words, his brain frantic from that bomb Potter just dropped.
"Please, believe me when I say that I'm sorry. The last thing I planned to do that day was to steal a kiss from you that way. I have no excuse, I let my emotions take over and then I felt overwhelmed and decided to run away like a coward. I understand you must be angry and I'm not going to try to push you anymore than I already have but, will you at least accept my apologies?" He was begging with his eyes, fiddling with his thumbs and not daring to move closer, waiting for Draco's response.
He slowly closed the distance between them and gave him a small peck on the lips.
"This is just too much for me to swallow and I think I need a couple of days to think and try not to make any rush decisions, but I forgive you." He smiled and got up, offering Potter his hand. "Until I'm ready to give you a definite answer, do you want us to pick up Ted and go get some ice cream?"
The lavender boy smiled too as he took the hand offered and intertwined their fingers.
"Sounds great, let's go."