The twins stared in vague shock at the door long after it had been slammed shut infront of them. They could hear the angry footsteps on the other side, as their older brother paced the small bedroom, the russling of his paperwork and the occasional thump as he tossed something across the room.

They had never seen Percy so upset before in their life as they could remember. Granted, he was under a lot of pressure, mostly self-inflicted of course, but pressure nontheless. You could think this would make the twins leave him alone out of sympathy, but their reasoning was quite the opposite. Instead of backing off, they increased the number and force of the pranks they pulled, not out of spite or dislike mind you, but because they believed they could help him thus to loosen up a little, which they felt their older brother sincerely needed. The result of their labour so far however, had not met that particular goal. Yet.

"What's with him, d'you reckon Forge?" Fred asked somewhat lazily, and not sounding all that concerned at all. George shrugged with the same air of casual boredom before turning towards his brother, "Beats me Gred" he replied. Fred shrugged aswell, and they both turned on their heel after a silent agreement to go and watch som muggle television, and left for the living room, forgetting all about their big brother and his misguided ambition for the time being.

But in the middle of a, to them, hilarious cooking program, George was hit by a most unsettling unease, along with the image of Percy sitting hunched over his desk, literally pulling his hair in frustration, tears of despair glittering in his redrimmed eyes, framed with shadows of exhaustion. The image in itself was disturbing enough, the nagging feeling in the pit of George's stomach did not make it better. Briefly he wondered if this this was a feeling and thought he shared with his twin, but glancing sideways at the other boy he instantly knew that wasn't so. That made it even more unbearable.

George never was good at dealing with things on his own, mainly because he never really had had to with Fred around. Ever since he was a child he had been part of a twosome, and there was comfort in that, a safety insurance of sorts. With Fred he was never truly on his own, never completely alone, even when he was techniqually.

But now, for some reason, he felt almost that all of the sudden. Alone. And lost.

For a minute he considered discussing the whole Percy situation with Fred more seriously, just to get the nagging worry out of his system. Just because they weren't already sharing it, didn't mean they couldn't talk about it like normal people do. But still he hesitated. For some reason it didn't feel like it was something he could talk about with Fred. Now, that realization was the scariest thing George had ever experienced.

"What?" Fred spoke into the silence between them all of the sudden, breaking George out of his thoughts. George started, but quickly hid it and cleared his throat, "I didn't say anything" he replied casually.

"I know you didn't, but you were thinking" Fred replied. George rolled his eyes, "Yes, a nasty habit of mine" he muttered back sarcastically. Fred tore his eyes from the TV screen then, a look of real concern on his face, "What's wrong?" he asked, and suddenly George felt completely exposed in his brother's company.

He stood up quickly, avoiding Fred's worried gaze and flashing a strained smile, "Nothing, I'm a bit knackered, think I'll take a nap"

"Okay" Fred muttered doubtfully, but he didn't press the matter, for which George was very grateful as he left the room and headed back upstairs.

He was really planning on going to their bedroom and take a nap, thinking that was probably what he really needed, and that everything would be back to normal once he woke up again. But his legs seemed to have misunderstood his intentions for suddenly he found himself staring at Percy's bedroom door again, this time in a true state of shock.

He stood there for what felt like ages, feeling his heartrate quicken for some reason, and sub-consciously considering his options, though as he was aware of consciously, he couldn't think at all.

"Who is it?" Percy called out from within the room, he sounded irritated and exhausted at the same time, and George didn't actualy know what to answer to that question at the time being, so instead he reached out and opened the door.

Percy was, just as in the image George had gotten of him earlier, hunched over his desk. When George opened the door and stepped inside the room, his head snapped up. They stared at each other for half a minute in surprise, as if either of them could really understand how they could find themselves in such a surreal situation, but them Percy scowled, "Why can't you guys just leave me alone? What the hell have I ever done to you? What do you want now?" he all but skrieked. George was taken aback at the outburst just as much as he was at hearing Percy swear, and probably managed to look hurt because Percy's features immediatly softened a little, "What do you want?" he repeated.

"I-" George began, then hesitated before starting over, "Why don't you take break? It is the weekend, and I'm sure whatever it is you're working on now can wait atleast a few minutes"

Percy blinked twice in shock, and didn't answer for long while, when he did his voice had lost all of its irritation and some of its exhaustion aswell, "I can't, this is due on Monday, first thing"

"So? You'll do a better job if you've had a break anyway" george persisted, and he was well aware of the fact that he was practically begging, and perhaps he was, because Percy taking a break had never felt more important than at that particular moment. Percy blinked again, then frowned, "I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else until I knew it was done anyway" he murmured uncertainly.

"I'll keep you company?"

"What?"

"We could talk. Please?"

"What are you- What is this? Some new kind of sick joke? What is wrong with you two-"

"I'm only one person"

"What?"

"Fred is downstairs watching the television, I wanted to spend some time with you for a change, but if you're too busy or you don't want to, that's fine." He turned on his heel and was out of the door and halfway down the hall when Percy called out, "Wait!"

George waited.

Percy came out of his bedroom, and stopped in the doorway. They stood watching each other almost shyly, feeling something unfamiliar pulse in between them, something powerful, almost on the brink of scary, but intruiging at the same time.

"So" Percy murmed at last, "What did you want to talk about?"

TBC