So I have a billion other things I should be doing, not least another fic I really ought to update. This is a bad idea because it will be multi-chartered, which is a commitment I don't need right now and may lead to disappointing more people because I have a habit of going for months without updating, plus I normally avoid pairings that already exist, but I have no choice but to write this. I just read another Albus/James/Scorpius fic (albeit only as two separate pairings and not together) and it was really dark and angsty and even though it was well-written I really needed something with a bit more of a happy ending, and bits of this were coming into my head like I was reading it, so its practically already writing itself. The main pairing in this is James.S/Albus.S, so obviously warning for incest. This relationship is established, but for those like me who cant stand established non-cannon, there is a flashback of sorts to its beginning. Eventual sexual situations (potentially with threesome) so don't read if you're a kid or don't like this idea. I clearly don't own Harry Potter and feel like its kind of sad if you can't figure out that J.K Rowling has better things to do with her time than write fan fics that are (in my opinion) just the right side of perverted. Congratulations if you got through my ramblings so far and without further ado I present to you some fluffy, smutty unrealistic goodness to cure my dislike of angst.
James smiled against his brother's lips, already on his before the door had even swung completely shut. God he had missed this. The last time Albus had been home over the holidays was Christmas and that, in James' opinion, was an excruciatingly long time. He yearned for the previous school year, his 7th year, when they had been inseparable even during term time. He missed scoffing down his dinner to allow them time to meet unseen in the room of requirement afterwards. He missed stopping midway down an empty corridor to pull his brother behind a tapestry if the Ravenclaw said said something too adorable to ignore and he simply had to kiss him. He missed sitting with him by the Black Lake, hands touching, just this side of brotherly. They had only had one year like that, and James thought it a shame.
'Mmh', the noise from Albus brought James back to the present.
He reciprocated with a moan of his own and wound his arms around his brother's waist. Albus was having none of it, impatient after their months apart, and pulled James' hands away from him long enough to tug both of thier shirts up over their heads. Then Albus drew James back towards him, the elder's hands snaking back to their previous position, tugging his brother closer. A gasp as their kiss became more heated, something hard pressing up against James' right leg, the taste of Albus on his tongue, unchanged since the last time, the burn of skin on skin. He was lost in it.
'Boys! Food's ready!' drifted up from downstairs.
These words meeting the ears of two teenage boys usually elicited a quicker reaction, but it took time for them to pull apart, breathe, recover, wait for the earth to stop turning quite so rapidly. It was always like this, like emerging from warm water. They hadn't said a word to each other since Albus got home, hadn't needed to. Now, the younger's voice was slightly husky as he spoke.
'We should head down... I'm starved.'
The second part an afterthought, pretending the interruption didn't matter. A halfhearted laugh. A nod. Pulling their shirts back on disappointedly. The door creaking open. Slow steps down the stairs. Hands clasped to the last moment, trying to hold their little bubble. Reality seeping in.
The meal was nice and the evening passed in the joyful, easy, familial way that it always did when the children returned from school. Albus moaned about exams, although they all knew he could have passed them without any of the extra effort, and in any case the bookworm enjoyed studying, for which James teased him, ruffling his hair. Lily brightly recounted anything and everything that had happened with her friends since last holidays, the others nodding and drifting in and out of actually listening to who had a crush on who, who joined the quidditch team, that hilarious incident in potions and that pointed hat she had seen someone wearing that was horribly out of fashion. Harry and Ginny smiled at each other, remembering their own time at Hogwarts like it was yesterday, focusing on the good bits and recounting stories the children had heard a thousand times before, unable to help themselves.
James liked this almost as much as the alternative reality in his mind in which he was still in his room with Albus. Almost, but not quite. It was good though, being with his family. What he felt for Albus, what they did together, it didn't mean that they weren't still family. And yet, when Harry turned the conversation to Albus' 'non-academic' activities at school, what James felt was far from brotherly protectiveness.
'So, Scorpius Malfoy hey?' Harry said unsubtly, kicked under the table by Ginny for it.
They all knew about it. Albus had written to tell them a month ago, and Lily had seen it firsthand. For their parents at least, that had been how Albus had come out, which was more than James had done. As far as the family were aware, James had no interest in boys, although to be fair he did like girls as well. Anyway, they were all well-aware of Albus' blossoming relationship with the young Hufflepuff boy. James had even seen them through the window while collecting his siblings from the station, kissing before they got off the train. Now Albus just blushed and nodded shyly. He had been nothing close to shy earlier that day when James had seen them, their kiss not even vaguely chaste and James had felt two conflicting emotions simultaneously and in equal force.
The first had been jealousy. It wasn't the idea that Scorpius could touch Albus in a way that he couldn't. From the beginning of their relationship, Albus had been eager and persuasive and far less hesitant than most 15-year olds. Things had been fast-paced and intense; passionate in a way that was only augmented by the forbidden nature of their attraction. James had had Albus so often, in so many ways. They had given each other everything, and he couldn't see how it could be possible for Albus to find more with someone else. Perhaps it annoyed him a little that Scorpius could show it, walk around with the dark-haired boy on his arm and kiss him passionately on a train filled with people. Perhaps it bothered him that Scorpius could tell anyone he liked that Albus was his, by choice rather than by birth, but that wasn't it either. What really made James' blood boil was the idea of having to shears him, share Albus. His Albus wasn't just his anymore, and that drove him crazy. Someone else knew what he smelt like, the feel of his skin, the little gasps he made if you kissed him just a second too long and he forgot to breathe. Someone else knew that intoxicating taste, the pressure of Albus' lips on his mouth, maybe on other parts of him too. Perhaps someone knew what it was like to hear James' little brother say 'I love you', which he knew from experience even before they were together was one of the best things in the world that you can hear. His voice would go quiet, hushed but not shy, still so sure of himself just like he was with everything he ever said, so well-thought out and breathtakingly honest, and when he had finished saying it your heart stopped for half an instant and you felt something warm like honey in your throat. Hearing those words was something that James treasured more than anything and he could barely conceive the idea of the boy saying them to somebody else.
He had to make a conscious effort to remind himself that it was just like Caroline. They had been together for almost a year now and Albus had never breathed a word of complaint, but it was hard to think of it as the same thing. He wondered if Albus had ever been jealous like this. If he had, he had hidden it well. James didn't love Caroline, not like he loved his brother, but she was so important to him. She had been his friend for so long and when she started to laugh when he spoke, a different kind of laugh, to smile whenever he looked at her and bump her hand against his when they were walking side-by-side, he had begun to see her in a different light. He hadn't thought it over really, but that was James, ever impulsive. He had just kind of blurted it out, wondering aloud what it would be like if she were his girlfriend, and just like that they had become a couple. He liked being with her, introducing her as his girlfriend, hearing people ooh and aah over them, people their own age calling them 'cute together' and older relatives discussing their wedding and children. He liked kissing her and holding her hand, not just because it was public but because of the way it made her smile and, consequently, made him smile. They hadn't slept together yet, she said she wasn't ready, but they'd been close and he'd be lying if he said he hadn't thought about it. That wasn't unpleasant. What he had with Caroline was different from what he had with Albus, but it was still something.
He imagined that what Albus and Scorpius had was different too, so how could he judge him for it? He never felt guilty for betraying Caroline's trust. What he and Albus had was so far from expected that it felt almost as though it had been left out of the rulebook for cheating in relationships, a loophole of sorts. It didn't feel at all like the same thing, and besides, he was with Albus first. He knew that Albus felt the same, and had no fear that guilt would make him want to call it quits now that he was with the Malfoy boy. If guilt was going to be a barrier for either of them, they would have never let it get to this point. He never felt guilty about being with Caroline either, because it was never hidden from Albus and he knew that the other boy understood. That in mind, he reminded himself that he couldn't let it bother him that his brother had done the same.
And so, calmly, James turned to the other emotion that had overcome him upon seeing the two boys locked together: lust. Seeing his brother's lips connect with the handsome blond boy's had made his stomach flip. When the young, sophisticated Malfoy had wound his arms around the other's neck as though they belonged there, he had felt a warm constricting in his chest. As he had watched their mouths open naturally in unison, no hint of persuasion, and seen just as flash of Albus' tongue he had held back a groan and felt himself get slightly hard. Seeing Albus like that was a completely different experience to doing those things with Albus himself, because when you are that close there's only so much you can see, but from a distance, you can see everything. It didn't hurt that his little brother's boyfriend was absolutely stunning either. James decided that, while both were dangerous, this emotion was the healthier of the two and so he decided to focus more on that than on his jealousy. He imagined over again what it had been like to watch them and let a smile creep over his lips, unnoticed by his family who had moved onto a new topic of conversation over desert. He decided that it mightn't be such a bad thing if Scorpius wanted to visit over the holidays, or that his brother seemed to have no fear of PDA. He could make this work.