"I need to hear it from you in your own words, Scorpius," a voice filters across the dinner table calmly.

"You know I do. Shouldn't that be enough? Words are superfluous to the actions that we enact to prove them," a second voice responds, disgruntled at the request.

"That may be, but for once I just want to hear you say it to me. Say it without pretense or inebriation aiding you. Is that such a complicated task?"

Sighing, Scorpius drops his head into his hands.

"If it's this hard for you to say out loud, maybe you're simply not ready to admit the truth, or I was never your truth to begin with," Albus Potter states, turning his back on the man that he loves.

"Al, don't go, please,"

"Why, because you're afraid of being lonely?" he supplies.

"No, because I…," he trails off in a mumble.

"You what? I couldn't hear you properly," Albus teases, a slow smile spreading on his face.

"I said, you wanker, I love you. You and only sodding you, for reasons only Merlin himself seems to know. I want to fall asleep holding you, knowing that you won't be gone the next morning. I want to introduce you to my mum and dad as mine, and not as my surrogate cousin. I want to celebrate every damn cheesy holiday with you in all its glory, because I know how much you enjoy it, thanks to Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny being the holiday nuts that they are. I hope we will be lucky enough to adopt a couple of brats as rowdy as you and I were when we were kids. I want to stand at King's Cross and wish them off whilst people are staring at their dads, because I wouldn't miss it for the whole sodding world. I want to grow old and grey with you, still sitting outside on the back porch, watching the sun set as our grandchildren play Quidditch on the lawn. I want to be yours, forever and only yours, you bloody git. Are you happy, you big sap? Can we please continue on with our evening now?"

"Of course love," Albus agrees as he walks back to his spot to resume eating.

As Albus Rubeus Potter picks up his utensils, he can't help smiling down at his dinner, because he truly knows now that he has found the one.