Entry for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season 6, Semifinals - Wigtown Wanderers vs Pride of Portree
Position: Captain
Prompt: Use the song any way you like as inspiration for your story - Scrubs: Superman by Lazlo Bane
Word Count: 2,845
Beta: Aya Diefair, Angel
Refurbishing
Oliver Wood had a spring in his step and a goofy grin on his face when he entered the small kitchen of their apartment, carrying a huge stack of magazines in his arms. "A wonderful good morning, precious. I didn't even notice you getting up, it's quite early, isn't it?"
A frown passed over Percy Weasley's face, if it was because of the term of endearment or his boyfriend's cheeriness at such an early hour, Oliver couldn't tell.
After draining the last bit of his coffee, Percy answered curtly. "I have to be in the office early. If I woke you, I apologise. And please stop calling me that."
"It's okay, I was just hoping we could have a look at those magazines while we have breakfast so we have some inspiration for our shopping trip in a few days."
Oliver knew that Percy was a little annoyed by his enthusiasm, but he simply couldn't help it - a few weeks ago, they'd bought a little cottage together, their future home. It was a big and exciting step, and Oliver could barely wait to get everything started. In the last weeks, they'd organised some workers to do the painting and polishing of the floors, and now it was time to fill their new home with furniture before moving into it.
"Shopping trip?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow while buttoning his waistcoat; Oliver's stomach sank.
"We... we've been planning this for so long. We talked about it on Sunday!"
Percy's empty coffee cup rattled on its saucer when Oliver let the magazines fall onto the table with a thump — Percy couldn't be serious. "I wrote the date and time into your planner and I even sent your assistant a memo."
For one moment, he dreaded that Percy wouldn't remember, used to his boyfriend being too invested in his work to notice such things, but then Percy nodded. Relief rushed through Oliver and he smiled, all excitement returning to him a second later. "I'll remember, I promise, Oliver. But now I gotta go, I have a meeting and I want to be prepared."
"Okay, awesome, Perce. I'm so excited. You should take a look at those, I marked ideas I found interesting," Oliver babbled, gesturing towards the magazines while Percy stood up and pulled his suit jacket on.
"I don't think I'll have the time for that. But I'm sure you found nice things."
Percy didn't spare a glance for the magazines while kissing Oliver goodbye and leaving the kitchen, but Oliver was too caught in his happiness to even notice. In a few days, they would be out shopping, and he had no doubt that Percy, the stickler for being on time he was, would be checking his calendar when he was in the office right away to ensure that he would be informed about their shopping date.
OoO
"And he seriously forgot about your furniture shopping date? I mean, you've been talking about it so much that I feel like I know every pro and con of different couch shapes. How could it slip his mind? You live together, after all," Katie Bell asked, her voice dripping with disbelief as she followed Oliver into the furniture boutique, clutching to the coffee cup that she'd picked up at her favourite coffee shop in Diagon Alley earlier.
"Yes, he did, even though I must have reminded him daily to make some space in his schedule," Oliver grumbled, and he knew that he was barely able to conceal his disappointment from his best friend, but he didn't care. He was starting to be fed up with the lack of interest and motivation that Percy showed towards their cottage project. It was a decision they'd made together, the one to take another step forward in their relationship, and now Percy simply left him alone with it, deeming his job to be more important.
Of course Oliver couldn't say that he was completely innocent when it came to putting work before personal matters, but at least he'd always tried to find compromises.
Katie made a disapproving noise and they stopped in the middle of the shop, letting their gazes wander over the many pieces of furniture on display.
"And why am I here?" a gruff voice behind the two former teammates asked, and they both turned around, Oliver's eyes narrowing at Marcus Flint.
"Good question indeed. Katie, why is he here? I doubt he's interested in interior design."
"Boys." Katie's voice was sharp and threatening, the tone not allowing any space for discussions. "It's been years since you two left Hogwarts, why can't your school rivalry just be left in the past? I mean, Marcus, you are my boyfriend, and Oliver, you're one of my best friends, so you're bound to see each other more often."
"He's still an asshole!" the two men answered in unison and shot each other more glares, prompting Katie to roll her eyes.
"You're both adults, and you both have more important stuff to deal with than this childish feud. Take this day as an opportunity to get used to each other, how's that, hm?"
Her gaze jumped between them, piercing, challenging one of them to talk back, and Marcus and Oliver knew in that moment that they had no other choice than to try and be civil with each other.
There went Oliver's opportunity to distract himself from his boyfriend problems.
"Great, now that we got that sorted out, we should get back to the reason why we're here in the first place," Katie said cheerfully and pulled the two men closer to her, steering them towards a horribly pink and plushy couch, letting herself fall onto it. "Of whom does this couch remind you?"
A laugh bubbled out of her and both Oliver and Marcus couldn't suppress grins. "I doubt it'll match your wall colours, Wood. And you don't wanna be reminded of the pink terror every day."
"What do you know about my renovations, Flint? But yeah, I don't have the cat pictures to match it," Oliver snarked and Marcus shrugged.
"Katie's been showing me samples because she seemed under the impression that I cared. Or maybe it was to hint that I should give our walls a refreshing too."
Katie chuckled and pressed into her boyfriend's side, kissing his cheek. "I only needed someone to discuss it with, but I'm impressed. And here everybody says you're not using the space between your ears."
A grimace passed over Marcus' face but it couldn't conceal the traces of a smile — and a subtle blush — and Oliver turned his head away, a knot suddenly forming inside his stomach. It had been some time since Percy and him had last sat together without one of them having somewhere to go, and thus it stung a little to see Katie and Marcus be so affectionate with each other.
Luckily, Katie noticed how uncomfortable he was and pushed herself off the hideous couch, clapping her hands while facing the two men. "Okay, boys, no more chilling, we got some shopping to do! We'll find you some awesome furniture, have a lot of fun and eat tons of junk food afterwards."
For a moment, it was just too tempting for Oliver to dive right into that heavy feeling of bitterness that was spreading inside him at the thought that Percy should be the one with him right now. However, the prospect of scaring the people who'd been so friendly to accompany him away with his gloomy mood wasn't appealing, so he forced the thoughts into the back of his mind.
"Yeah, let's do this," he said and forced a smile onto his face. He couldn't let Percy ruin all his days with his absence and the negative feelings it caused.
OoO
Oliver had never been the kind of person to give up quickly. There was a lot of overwhelming stuff that he'd been able to handle on his own in the end, making him pride himself for his endurance. But right now, sitting in their future living room by candlelight surrounded by dozens of packages containing their furniture, he felt like he wouldn't be able to finish this. An open bottle of wine stood next to him and some interior design catalogues were lying in his lap, but his dark glare was directed down at a note resting on top of them, having arrived minutes earlier by owl.
"I believe I forgot about our appointment concerning the living room furniture. Please bear in mind that I highly dislike leather couches.
Yours, Percy
P.S. I'll be late tonight, don't wait for me with the dinner."
"Bloody idiot," Oliver grumbled and took a big swig from the wine bottle, some of the red liquid dripping from the corner of his mouth. Only hours ago, he'd signed a contract about a gorgeous leather couch — found, surprisingly, by Flint, who'd been suspiciously friendly towards the end of the shopping tour — and he'd been excited to tell Percy about it.
And now this.
"He better not be comin' home at all or I'll make him sleep in the dog house," he drawled to himself and crumbled the note once he'd put the bottle down. He couldn't believe that this was truly happening, that Percy had the audacity to not accompany him for the shopping, make Oliver assume that he would have to make the decisions on his own, and then send a note with restrictions. It was too late anyway.
Oliver couldn't remember the last time he'd been so angry with Percy, and he knew that he couldn't go on like this, with Percy not taking any responsibility while Oliver's pent up frustration got worse with every day.
He had to do something about this, he had to confront Percy with what his indifference was doing to him. Maybe he'd been a little naive when they'd bought the house about how it would change their life, but Oliver didn't think that it was delusional to expect his boyfriend to take part in the renovation and furnishing of their future home. This cottage was their future, and Percy didn't seem to think that it was necessary for him to involve himself in the process of picking furniture and decorations. Was this a bad dream? Or maybe he'd stumbled into an alternate reality, because Marcus 'The Troll' Flint being more invested into the interior design of their cottage — though obviously reluctantly — than his own boyfriend, was such a ridiculous and unlikely occurrence that the earth had to have shifted from its usual axis.
Taking another frustrated gulp from the wine bottle, Oliver decided that it was time for a confrontation. This whole situation was unfair to him, and he wouldn't let this slide.
OoO
It was in the middle of the night when Percy stepped out of the fireplace of their small flat and brushed the ash from his perfectly tailored blue suit.
His sleepy mind was already anticipating to cuddle under the warm blankets and get some hours of sleep, thus he was so startled that he drew his wand when a few lamps suddenly flickered to life. The sparse light fell onto a figure sitting on the couch, and milliseconds before firing a curse to defend himself from an intruder, Percy's gaze focused and he realised that it was Oliver.
With shaking fingers, he slipped his wand back into his pocket; his heart was racing and he needed a few deep breaths to get the terror out of his system. "Oliver, by Merlin, you scared me. Why are you still up?"
"Because I was waiting for you."
"Oh. You didn't need to, I mean, it's really late and you're probably tired."
"I am," Oliver answered curtly, crossing his arms in front of his chest, and he didn't even feel guilty when confusion passed over Percy's face at the cool tone of his voice.
"What's going on?"
"We have to talk, Percy. We can't go on like this, with you being away the whole day and part of the night, leaving me alone with the renovations."
Percy shook his head, immediately getting defensive. "You know how important my job…"
"My job is important, too! And this cottage, it's a project we both agreed on! We wanted to build a home together — together! You remember the definition of that word, right? But now all that's happening is that you're leaving me alone with everything and I'm forced to cut back on my training to make sure the most important things about the cottage are ready when we have to move out of the apartment!"
Oliver felt a grim satisfaction inside of him when Percy shuffled and barely met his eyes — at least he knew that he was in the wrong. But on the other hand, why hadn't he tried to change anything if he knew that it wasn't right to leave Oliver alone with everything?
"It would have been okay for me to take care of some stuff without you, if you'd done the same to give me time for my work! Also, there are a lot of decisions I just don't want and also can't make on my own. Organising renovations and furnishing a whole cottage is hard work, I can't do this all on my own, Percy, I'm no damn superman! I needed your support!"
Everything that Oliver had kept inside of him, all the frustration and loneliness and helplessness, flowed out of him in that moment, breaking all barriers. Only now did he realise how much pressure he'd felt to manage everything lately, and throwing it all at Percy made his heart a little lighter.
For a very long moment, Percy didn't say anything at all, too stunned by his boyfriend's outburst, and a part of Oliver feared that he wouldn't understand. Percy had always been so ambitious that private matters, in one phase even his family, had always had little priority — what if Percy had gone back to that state of mind and was about to tell him that he should be more understanding and supportive? That a career in the Ministry required engagement and hard work, that Oliver was exaggerating how much pressure he'd felt about getting their cottage ready…
Percy's shoulders sank in defeat and he closed his eyes as realisation hit him hard, smothering all possible defensive remarks that had been lingering on his tongue. Oliver's expression was filled with so much disappointment and frustration that the full consequences of his lately returning habit of burying himself in work became obvious to him. Ever since his ambitions to become a valuable Ministry employee had destroyed his relationship with his family, before the war, he'd been determined to never let something like this happen again.
And yet here he stood, confronted with his failure.
He tried to come up with an apology that justified his behaviour, but everything sounded hollow and wrong when he said it inside his head, and he knew that there was no way he could explain this.
"I'm sorry, Oliver. I disappointed you," he said quietly after a few minutes of silence and Oliver staring at him expectantly; there was nothing else he could do but apologise and hope that Oliver would forgive him. "I forgot about everything and left you alone… there's nothing else I can do to change that. All I can say is that I am genuinely sorry and that I'll try to make up for everything."
Silence fell over them again while Oliver stared at Percy, as if he was considering his words, checking them for their sincerity, and the tension rose yet again for a moment. Deep inside, Percy feared that he wouldn't be forgiven, that he'd hurt Oliver too deeply...
"I'll forgive you, Percy. But only under one condition."
"Whatever you ask of me, I'll do it," Percy blurted without a second thought, desperately holding on to this little bit of hope that Oliver was extending towards him.
"We keep that leather couch I bought."
Even though Oliver glared at him, Percy couldn't stop the relieved chuckles that broke out of him once he'd progressed his boyfriends words. "Leather couch. Is... is that really all you're asking for? No problem."
"This is serious, Percival," Oliver said dryly, and Percy coughed his last chuckles away, his heart feeling a lot lighter.
"Okay."
Oliver patted the seat next to him, still a serious expression on his face, and Percy sat down quickly. "From now on, we'll do this together. You won't cancel on shopping trips because of work, the Ministry won't collapse just because you aren't there for a few hours."
"I promise I will. I'm sorry, Olli... I... I can't believe this happened again."
Percy looked down at his hands in shame, gulping hard, and a moment later, Oliver's strong arms wrapped around him and pulled him into a tight embrace. His body relaxed, and while he wordlessly cuddled into Oliver, he knew that he was forgiven.