This is an entry for the "True Colors Competion"
My colour was orange, which is supposed to symbolise Strength, Perseverance and Endurance. Meh, if that would be true, the Dutch national team should be better at a lot of things

I'm not entirely happy with the ending, but yeah.

DISCLAIMER: disclaimed? :)

Just a warning, yes, it is slash. It's about coming out, but then I ruined the ending and yeah. Maybe I'll rewrite it someday. :)

Scorpius Malfoy was easily persuaded. Or better said, he was easily persuaded by Albus. But he was actually very stubborn! Well, except if his mother asked him, or his father, or Albus's sister –Lily–, or...
But that's not the point.

Albus, the guy dancing in front of him, had thought it would be fun to go to the semi-final EuQuidLea, European Quidditch League. This was not, as Albus had said when they bought the tickets, Wales vs. Germany, but the Netherlands vs. Kazakhstan. Wales had been beaten by Belgium, due to a love struck seeker and Kazakhstan had been doing surprisingly good.

Albus had wanted to go anyway, so here they were. The game had started at 4 pm and Scorpius had seen enough orange to last him a lifetime. Even the incredibly fit players had flown by so many times he didn't care anymore. Yes, believe it or not, but even looking at Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome couldn't cheer him up.
Besides, it's kind of hard to ogle someone, if your friend is standing next to you. A very handsome friend. A friend who didn't even know Scorpius was gay, as Scorpius had only told his parents.

And Rose and Lily, but that was after they confronted him. He couldn't deny it, as they caught him staring at their posters of their favourite singers.

EuQuidLea, rhymes with stupidly, Scorpius thought, with all this orange around me, it's a surprise I'm still able to think. I hate orange. It's the most horrid colour on earth. Rose supports those orange disasters on broomsticks, the Chudley Cannons. Thank Merlin, Albus isn't as orange haired as she and the rest of those Weasleys.

"Schipper, Hillema, Gerij and he scores! What a goal, ten points to the Netherlands!"

Around them, the orange crowd exploded in laughter, song, cheers. Even Albus turned around to hug him.
A hug that warmed Scorpius to the very core of his being.

Maybe he could survive the orange attacks to his eyes a little longer...

It had been almost two days of orange and Scorpius had enough. If the seekers hadn't managed to find that damned golden winged ball before 8 o'clock he would leave.

They were still tossing that ball around! Both teams had lost a Beater, because even those had gotten bored and had decided to just play around with the Bludgers. One Beater apparently woke up, because he had hit the next Bludger a bit more forceful than his teammate had expected. The teammate had flown into his opponent and they had both crashed down.

One Seeker, the tall dark and handsome one, was flying circles far above the stadium; the other was closer to the ground and looked like he was sleeping.

Both didn't look like they could catch the Snitch, if they were even able to see it, anyway.

Half an hour later it seemed like 'Mr. Sleepflier' had woken up to find the Snitch three feet from his eyes.

"Van Bos has caught the snitch! 49 hours! What a match, ladies and gentlemen, what a match! Let's hope the final will take as long! 2070 vs. 1910. The teams were well matched, until the end a very exciting match indeed."

Scorpius didn't know what to think. He was just so tired. Also, the thing that had kept him up for the last two days was just over. He felt strangely empty.

A voice shook him out of his musing.

"Want to go to an after party Scorp? I met these cool guys when I went to get drinks; we're invited tomorrow evening at their house in Utrecht. We can get one of our dads to pull a few strings at the Ministry for a Portkey. The theme is orange."

Orange might be tolerable for a little longer after all.

Scorpius was going through his closet like a maniac.

"It has to be here somewhere! I didn't throw that away, did I?" he muttered to himself, "Oh help, what if I did? Stupid Dutch with their stupid obsession over orange!"

"Well," a voice sounded from the doorway.

Scorpius shrieked –though he'll say it was a very manly sound– and jumped in his closet.

Albus merrily continued, not really noticing, "Actually it is their national colour. At first it was in their flag too. But they were a little bit thrifty and orange paint was expensive, so it became red-white-blue. Here, you can borrow my tee. I already figured you wouldn't have anything orange."

"Thank you," Scorpius said behind his closet door. Albus looked up, a bit shocked.

"You ever coming out of that closet, mate? I mean, literally. You're not really? Not there'd be a problem with that, not at all of course! I mean, I can't really say I have a problem with you being homosexual and stuff seeing as I am– I mean Louis is a gay too! So, erm, but ah, you know, I mean, erm… I'll just go, yeah, here's the shirt, bye!"

The door closed and Scorpius let himself slide down to the ground. What was that about? Maybe he should have just told Albus. Albus had said he didn't care, right? But everybody always says they don't have a problem with gays, but they do! It does matter.

Although Albus had a point, if he was okay with Louis, he'd be okay with Scorpius, wouldn't he? After all, if there was anything Albus hated, it was hypocrites.

Maybe Scorpius just had to stop thinking, come out of this closet (literally and figurative) and just go to that party, even if it meant another migraine of all the orange.

"Dad, Mum, I'm going out tonight!" Scorpius said as he made his way to the fireplace.

"What are you wearing?"

"Al lent me his shirt, as I don't own anything orange."

Astoria cocked an eyebrow.

"Alright, if it's Albus's, it's alright. I just wondered where you got something so hideous."

"Yeah, mum, thanks. I'll be sure to pass the message on." And with those words, he stepped into the fireplace, feeling a lot more confident than an hour ago.

Scorpius and Albus were standing in front of a shabby looking pedalo rental.

"You sure this is the right one?" Scorpius asked for what like felt the 30th time this evening.

"Yes, just like I was sure about the portkey and the streets. Don't you trust me? That hurts, man, in here." Albus pouted and poked his own chest.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, you're always right," Scorpius took a deep breath; this might be a perfect moment. He could just tell Albus he was right about his sexuality too, right? That would just be perfect, easy.

He opened his mouth, but Albus had already taken his arm and pulled him through the door, into something, which was definitely a young wizards' hangout. A few cosy couches, some random big pillows and a lot of butterbeer crates and Firewhiskey bottles. Also some things Scorpius did not recognise, but probably contained some kind of alcohol. A table with crisps and a lot of orange, sweet looking, stuff. Everywhere were orange garlands hanging from the ceiling, red-white-blue flags, everyone was wearing either something orange, or some red-white-blue item. Scorpius was very happy he had followed the dress code.

A girl in a short orange dress smiled at him and walked over to them.

"Are you the English guys Paul was talking about?" She giggled, waving around with her glass, "I'm Eva. Can I get you something to drink?"

"No thanks. I'm Scorpius and this is Albus." She nodded.

"I'll remember that!" she didn't sound too convinced herself. "Anyway, drinks over there, food over here. Paul should be here in 5 minutes. You've been to the game right? I haven't myself, but I heard all about it of course. Have you heard about Lithuania versus Italy? Brute match, that was. I think at least five broken arms, three concussions and of course the Lithuanian Seeker who fell of his broom. I heard he's still in coma!"

"Really? But that means Lithuania won't stand a chance! So Kazakhstan will be third in the league?" Albus asked excited.

"Yeah, think so… Anyway, you probably didn't plan to see Kazakhstan – The Netherlands?"

"No, he told me it'd be Wales-Germany. Imagine my surprise when he told me three days before it were two other teams."

"Everybody said it'd be Wales-Germany. But then Wales had to go and fuck it up. Stupid Seeker." Albus replied Scorpius.

"You didn't come for Holland? Why didn't you sell the tickets then? I know lots of people who would've given you three times the prize for those tickets!"

"But it was the semi-final! We're not selling those tickets! Never mind who plays!" Albus sounded appalled at even thinking of selling tickets.

Eva laughed. It wasn't an unpleasant laugh, but it was a bit too high. It was nothing like Albus's chuckle, which was heard through her tinkling sounds.

"Well, there is Paul! Paulie, here are your English boys!"

"Hi, Eva, how are you?" he went to hug her and then shook their hands. "Hello, nice of you to come! You're Scorpius, right? Nice to meet you, mate. I'm Paul."

Paul then took them around the room, pointing out everyone and introducing Albus and Scorpius to more people than they'd remember.

The rest of the night had become a blur of Firewhiskey, people, music and orange.
At the crack of dawn they were at the trainstation. They'd take the train to an all-wizards village and then portkey back to Albus's home. Sitting on a bench, waiting for the train to come, Albus looked at Scorpius with his big, green eyes.

"Scorp?"

"Mm?" Scorpius replied, not really trusting himself to speak.

"I had a great night."

"Okay." Scorpius answered, not knowing what Albus was trying to say.

Apparently it did not matter, for Albus had fallen asleep on Scorpius's shoulder. This gave Scorpius the time to think some things over. A certain revelation he had to be precise. Scorpius had found out, he was very much in love with Albus.

He was in love with his friends deep chuckles, with his green (oh so green!) eyes, with his hopeless mop of hair, with that little jump he did whenever he got a good grade... His smell (Grass, aftershave and outside when it's freezing) even when he got angry.

But Al was first and foremost his bestfriend, so, Scorpius decided, he would first tell him he was gay. If Al's reaction were good, maybe he would tell him of his feelings. Probably not, to be honest.

Mulling everything over, he stroked Al's hair.

"Al? Al, wake up! The train has arrived. You can sleep again inside, alright?"

Albus grunted a bit, but lifted his head of Scorpius's shoulder and dragged himself in the train. The train was stuffed and they had to walk thourgh three carriages to find an empty bench.

During the search for seats, Al woke up from his sleepwalking state. When they finally found a nice place to sit, Scorp had decided he'd just go and tell Al, here, because Al wouldn't be able to escape him now.

"Hey, Al? Remember that conversation we had in my room? When you gave me my shirt?"

"When you were in the closet? And I made a complete fool of myself? Sorry Scorp, I knew I just should've told you. You're alright with it, aren't you?"

Scorp chuckled, "Are you alright with it?"

"Of course I'm alright with me being gay? I would've suffered from a lot of mental problems if I didn't, wouldn't I?"

Scorpius was shocked. His mouth opened, then closed. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out.

"Wait. You're gay?" he asked.

Albus looked slightly anxious now. "But, you knew, didn't you?"

"I was talking about me! I thought I was coming out to you!"

"Holy Merlin, Scorp. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why didn't you tell me? I didn't know until I realised I looked more at the quidditch players in the magazines, than actually read the interviews! And Mum's fashion magazines too, now I think of it."

"I thought you were going to hate me! Face it, Scorp, you have to carry on the Malfoy line or something! There's no room for a boyfriend in your life!"

"Boyfriend? You mean, you– erm…?"

"Yes, you stupid albino, I like you! Now go on, hate me! Say I've ruined our friendship, you're sorry for letting me think I actually have a chance with you, but no, it can't work, whatever!" Albus huffed then turned around.

Scorpius smirked to himself. He tapped Al on the shoulder: "Don't say that. You make it seem as if we're not compatible at all. We've been best friends since we met, haven't we? I think it could work pretty damn well."

And with those words, he kissed Albus. In a carriage full of people. With a stupid orange shirt on.

While he still hated orange with his whole heart, Albus in orange was just so adorable. And if being with Albus meant enduring lot of orange hair, well, he would just have to remember that orange was what got them together, wouldn't he?

Well,that's done! Please review, for me?

Xx,