The Kids These Days Are Alright

By: Yidkirkin of the Warhammer

Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Here is the second chapter of this awful, incredible, terrible hellspawn of a crossover. I hope I'm not transported back to the 1600s and lynched as a witch for giving birth to this abomination.

OVER THE SPOILER WALL

When Percy returned to the apartment from a round of drinking with Penelope, completely sober and pleasantly full of bar food, he had expected for Zetton to be either sitting in the kitchen or maybe asleep in his room. What he found instead was the older man sitting at the coffee table in the living room, comforter draped over his legs and a can of beer open beside him as he read through what was either the last or the first page of a stack of what looked to be tests. Percy toed his shoes off silently and hung his coat on one of the hooks in the hallway, then cleared his throat as he stepped into the room. Zetton jumped rather comically, nearly knocking his beer over, but he recovered quickly and shot an annoyed glare at the wizard, something that made Percy inwardly smirk.

"Money matters?" He prompted, and Zetton blinked as if he had completely forgotten, which Percy wouldn't put past him.

"Oh, right, okay. Just let me finish marking last test and then I'll be ready." Percy nodded and strode off to his room, hoping to let Hermes out to hunt before the owl started squawking irritably. Thankfully it didn't come to that, as Hermes forgave him following a few minutes of feather stroking, but Percy chose to linger a few minutes more before he returned to the living room.

"So, what did you want to go through?" Percy asked immediately, sitting down cross-legged on the other side of the table. He felt a bit ridiculous sitting on the floor like this, but conceded that muggles did things differently and if he was going to live with one then he was going to have to get used to it.

"Who's going to cover what." Zetton said lazily, twirling his pen in between his fingers and slouching. "I was thinking we'd split the rent down the middle, maybe stick with buying groceries for ourselves, and pay for any shit we break or need fixing on case by case. If you've got any ideas though, lay 'em on me."

Percy hadn't even thought about it. "I think it sounds alright... though maybe along with the groceries we should pick some stuff that'll be communal instead of having two of some things." Zetton nodded in agreement, and then scribbled on one of the test in front of him. They worked out a few more things as they sat there, like when they needed quiet in the evenings and the like, before Zetton yawned tiredly.

"Sounds like a plan. Man, these kids sure aren't morons like I'm used to seeing." Percy looked at one of the tests curiously; it was asking about the use of motifs in the major literature of the 1900s. "Well, I better get to bed. Boss man wants me there even earlier tomorrow."

"I should too. Good night." Zetton grumbled a reply before he closed the door to his room and Percy did the same, falling into a deep sleep almost immediately after he hit the mattress.

Vvv

Percy was not prepared for it when, a week and a half after he and his roommate had talked over their financial issues, his mother showed up at his new residence just after they had returned from their jobs. On Mondays the two left at different times but seemed to return at the exact same hour, and Zetton was just about to start on an early dinner when a knock resounded on the front door. Zetton was the one who answered it, this being his apartment for longer, but after a minute he returned to the kitchen with an odd expression on his face. Percy didn't think much of it, because he hadn't interacted with the older man much since their talk, but he paid attention when Zetton started speaking with a rather awkward lilt to his voice.

"Hey Percy, it's... it's your mother at the door. She's a little, uh..." Percy sighed and stood up, hoping to get this out of the way without much of a fuss. When he got to the entranceway he stopped so that his mother was still outside the apartment, and then took in her appearance. She looked the same as she always had; tired, endearingly plump, expectant – she was still his mother – but Percy also noticed that her eyes were red and her expression was resigned, as if she didn't know whether she should be here or not.

"Percy..." She started, almost as if she was surprised that he had actually answered the door.

"Mum. What do you want?" Percy knew he was being cold, but what his parents seemed to think of him; that he was too foolish to know why Fudge might have wanted him, that if he took the job he would rat them out, that he believed everything the Daily Prophet reported without a second thought, well, it had hurt him more than anything he had ever felt before. He didn't want to forgive his mother just because she was his mother- he wanted her to apologize for thinking him a fool first.

"Percy, please, won't you come back home? It's alright that you were offered that job, we don't want this to break up the family when You-Know-Who's only just come back." Percy took a deep breath and attempted to calm himself, and then let it out when he realized it wouldn't work.

"It's alright that I took that job in the end, then?" Percy watched his mother's face flicker from pleading to briefly fearful and then back. So she really did think he was going to say something, didn't she, even after raising him for nearly two decades. "I'm not going to tell Fudge about your vigilante group, but I'm not going to abide by you either, not when you're following Dumbledore in the same way you think I follow Fudge. I stand with the Ministry, with the law. Now leave, and don't come back, my roommate isn't in the know."

"Percy, please, just listen to reason-" Percy slammed the door in his mother's face and fell silent, listening for what she would do. He heard a few muffled sobs and then footsteps going down the hall, and as soon as he was sure there was no one out there anymore Percy harshly let out the breath he had been holding. He choked on it, let out a few mangled sobs, and then rapidly composed himself, wiping his face with his sleeve and taking several long breaths to calm himself down again.

When he returned to the kitchen, Zetton was frying meat in a pan, with toast already sitting on a plate in the middle of the table. He looked mildly uncomfortable, it was likely he'd heard parts of the conversation, but Percy didn't care about that right now. Instead he cleared his throat and picked up two pieces of toast from the plate.

"I'm – I'm going to go to bed. Sorry for the – the inconvenience." Percy hated how raspy his voice sounded just then, and he hated even more how Zetton glanced over at him pityingly. Percy scowled and turned on his heel, barely managing to close his bedroom door before tears overwhelmed his vision and he had to lean against the wall, silent save for the odd hiccup every few seconds.

Vvv

For the two months following that incident, Percy and Zetton spoke sparingly and saw each other only during the odd meal they shared. While Zetton had a lot of papers to grade in the living room almost every night, Percy holed himself up in his warded room, going over reports and sending Hermes out with letters occasionally. He was assigned not only to his regular work, but also to transcribe Harry Potter's trial into the official records; a task he wasn't too keen on being given, but performed to his best ability while he also took on more reports each passing day. He was overwhelming himself with work, only going out with Penelope every so often and almost never getting a good night's sleep.

If someone had asked him why he was working so hard, he might have told them that he didn't want to let the Minister down, but that wasn't the real reason. He did want to be successful, of course, but really he was doing all this so that he didn't have to dwell on his parents and their stupid organization. If he kept this up, maybe Fudge would stop trying to pick him for blackmail and let him have some peace; maybe people would finally believe that he had cut himself off from his family and judge him on his merits alone. It stressed him out every day, going in to the office with the certainty that he would have to see his father there, or even worse but more unlikely, one of his brothers. It hadn't happened yet but it was bound to, and coming back to his room every day was a relief.

Except, even when he was in the apartment he was being stressed out, and over his roommate no less. Penelope may have sung Denise's praises originally, but Percy was sure that it was only because she hadn't needed to hide her magic for even a month, maximum. Percy had needed to make all sorts of contingencies for hiding magic from Zetton, from notice-me-not charms on his work robes and Hermes' perch, to spell locks on his desk drawers and freezing all his moving pictures. He put illusions over his books, a password spell lock on his door, and just generally kept to himself for two months.

He was being cautious, since he would really rather not have to obliviate the older man; he had never quite agreed with the practice in the first place, and besides that, he liked what he saw of Zetton. But all the secrecy, the dodging and the isolation was beginning to get to him, not even mentioning the negative energy that was accumulating in Percy's room from all the concealment spells; that may have been contributing to his paranoia more than simple vigilance.

Zetton, of course, had other thoughts about Percy's behaviour rather than 'cautious'.

Vvv

When Zetton had first met Percy Weasley, all he could think of was that he hadn't seen a scrawnier person in recent memory, and he really hoped that real estate agent hadn't just sent him some kind of teenage runaway. As they spoke for a while before dinner, Zetton conceded that it was possible for people to get jobs easily straight out of high school as Percy seemed to have done, and it was really only his years as a ronin that had caused the notion in the first place. He only felt slightly smug when his runaway theory had weight given to it by Percy's reluctance to speak about his home life, and by the time that they retreated to their respective rooms, Zetton had a pretty good grasp on what kind of guy he was going to be living with.

Percy seemed to be a quiet, easily irritated man with a respect for teachers - if how he reacted to Zetton's tale of his youth had been any indication. As the days went by and they interacted less than Zetton was expecting, he also concluded that Percy was a guy who liked his privacy, maybe he was even bad at dealing with new environments, like Bouya-san but in reverse.

That meeting with his roommate's mother had been incredibly off-putting, even with how kindly the woman seemed to be, and truthfully it made Zetton's blood boil hearing Percy make his own mother cry. But he had also heard a bit of the conversation leading up to it and a bit of something afterwards; Zetton resolved to leave it alone since it seemed that Percy was hurting equally as much over the exchange as his mother was.

Now two months had gone by since then, and while Zetton was getting settled with his new class, he had barely seen Percy at all outside of when they ate dinner. It was beginning to worry the ex-delinquent – none of his friends in high school had ever been recluses – and he wasn't sure how to deal with it. Should he get him out of his room, out of the house, should he leave him alone? When he walked to the bathroom at night he almost always saw Percy's light on, and the younger man came back from work later and later each week.

Zetton gave it another few days, so he could think it over, and then went with what had always worked for him and jumped into the fight head first.

It was late on a Friday night, that being when Zetton was sure Percy had the following day off during the week. Without letting himself think too much about it, Zetton stomped down the hallway as soon as he hung his coat up and knocked on his roommate's door, perhaps a tad harder than he should have. A minute or two passed with sounds of shuffling coming from behind the wood, before Percy – still dressed in his sweater vest and tie from this morning – opened the door with a quizzical expression on his face.

"Oh, uh- Zetton... what do you need? I was in the middle of some transcripts..." The Japanese man scoffed and crossed his arms, face unconsciously morphing into the 'considering sensei' look that he had perfected over the two years he had been studying for University and advising Hana on the side.

"You've got tomorrow off, right? Come on and have a drink with me tonight, you've been working yourself too hard, man." Percy gave him an odd look, and Zetton expected the other to vehemently refuse, maybe even close the door without comment if he really was in the middle of some work, but Percy Weasley surprised him. The redhead sighed loudly and left the door open, walking back over to his desk and shutting the light off before he returned and stepped back into the hallway. As soon as his door was closed again, he levelled Zetton with an expectant look and crossed his arms.

"Well?"

Vvv

Once they were seated at the coffee table, a beer beside each of them and two containers of take out between them, Zetton asked the only thing he could think of to start off with.

"So, tell me how work's going, I mean, you sure are putting in lot of hours." Percy frowned lightly and sipped the foreign beer, trying to ignore Zetton's curious gaze and failing spectacularly.

"It's alright I suppose."

"Bullshit." Zetton was smiling when he said that, so Percy took it to be well meant.

"It's... not entirely what I expected. My boss isn't on very good terms with my family or who they associate with, so I have to work harder to earn my keep." Percy spoke deliberately, not wanting to accidentally reveal something he wasn't supposed to. "He's also fairly... incompetent, so I'm stuck picking up after him more often than not."

Zetton nodded sympathetically; he was glad that even though the conversation was awkward, it wasn't hostile or defensive. He may still be in his springtime of youth, but he didn't always enjoy dodging punches from the people he had to live with.

"It doesn't help that my father works in the same building." Percy continued. "You saw from my mother that we don't exactly get along, it's been stressful having to go there every day... How are you doing with your new classes?"

"They all good kids, smart, easy to please." Zetton said, regarding his beer can with all the interest it was due; in other words, as a distraction. "It's bit of a drawback, to be honest."

"Why's that?"

"I want to be a teacher at the high school I went to back in Japan; Suzuran All-Boys High School. Y'ever heard of it?" Percy shook his head and Zetton shrugged. "Well, it's nicknamed the Crows school, and anyone who goes there is near guaranteed to be a moron, a delinquent, or both. Most of the guys there don't give a shit about their schooling, but that place... if they had even one teacher who didn't treat them like Ultraman did me... Anyway, since all my students now aren't like guys there, I'm gonna go soft. I gotta be prepared, right?"

"Hm..." Percy let out a noncommittal sound, eyes on his drink. He didn't know how to respond to that. Zetton continued to surprise him; he had expected a different response and was left with this. "...tell me about it. Suzuran, I mean."

Zetton grinned. "Interested are you? Well if I do, you got to tell me about your school. Okay?" Percy nodded and the older man settled back into a relaxed posture, grinning easily as he stared up at the ceiling in thought. "Suzuran had three floors, one for each grade, and the entire building was plastered with graffiti and littered with trash. A lot of rooms weren't used for classes, though they really should have been... haha, I remember Bouya-san brought a heater and kotatsu into one of the abandoned offices and no one even cared, they barely noticed! When it was warmer out, all the third year senpai- er, upperclassmen- would skip classes and hang out up on roof, though I did that even when it was fucking freezing. It was a paradise for guys like me. It's different from most high schools, I've since realized, but I'm grateful I attended there."

Zetton paused for a while, as if to gather his thoughts. "I originally went there just because my upperclassman, Bouya-san, attended. It didn't take long for me to get swept up into the school's pace; soon enough I was fighting for top position just like the rest of my year mates, I even challenged Bouya-san himself."

"Top position?"

"Yeah... there's another school in Toarushi, Housen, which runs based on autocracy, one leader of the school at any time with a few officers directly underneath them. Opposed to that, Suzuran has always been split into multiple factions and until... a year ago, I guess, it has never had single leader, only the factions striving against each other for domination of the school. Does that make sense?" Percy nodded hesitantly, trying to wrap his head around the concept of student military-like structures; he wouldn't have survived long in that kind of environment. "I followed that upperclassman all through my freshman year, wanting to support him to top, but ultimately that didn't happen, Bouya-san just didn't have... the drive? Ambition? ...shit, I ended up talking more about myself than the school!"

"No, it's interesting, I liked listening to it." Percy said, and he was being truthful. He had been feeling so... stressed out lately, it was nice to sit back for a few minutes just to listen to someone ramble on. "Did you still want me to tell you about my school? I'm afraid it's not nearly as stimulating."

"Yes, go on, go on! I want to hear this." Zetton sounded incredibly eager, and Percy couldn't decide on whether the older man was making fun of him or not.

"I went to Hogwarts, which teaches students from eleven to seventeen years. It's a boarding school designed for the children of parents mainly employed by the United Kingdom's more... travel oriented conglomerates. It's in an old castle in rural Scotland; it has a lake, forest, and a small town nearby, but it's incredibly insular and difficult to get to. All six of my other siblings attended."

"Sounds far different from what I'm used to." Zetton commented, crushing his empty beer can nonchalantly between his hands.

"It's also different from most high schools, as I've found out." Percy said, echoing Zetton's words from earlier and making the Japanese man laugh. "Unfortunately, while it never had much in the way of delinquents, lately it's had a touch of a security problem. Two teachers have been absolute lunatics, another had a... contagious disease, and then there was someone lurking around, attacking students based on their heritage. Needless to say, I'm glad to have left before things got even further out of hand."

"Hm. Sure are different, aren't they... schools that is." Zetton mused, cracking his back loudly. Percy took that moment to stand, brushing off his pants as his flatmate gave him a curious look.

"I really do have to get those reports done. Sometimes my boss calls me in on my days off. But... thank you, Zetton. I think I was going a little stir crazy before you forced a break on me." Percy's ears turned red in embarrassment at his admission, but if Zetton noticed the interesting shade, he didn't comment.

"Just don't make me force you again. Next time you better be the one knocking on my door, understand? I can't keep on worrying about you working yourself to death." Percy nodded, and then silently retreated back into his room. Though it had been only a brief respite from his work, he found that now he felt exponentially better than he had before. If this was what it felt like to take a well deserved break, Percy might just follow Zetton's suggestion after all.

Vvv

In the few months that came after that encounter, Percy had resolved to take a rest from his workload at least once a week, and once he had finished transcribing Harry Potter's trial, he even started to refuse the extra work his colleagues tried to foist onto him. It was an incredibly satisfying feeling, seeing Roland's face after he had told the older man off for it as politely as possible, leaving no loopholes in his argument and then walking off before he could retort.

"Zetton. I've bought some beer if you're up for a drink." Percy said through the door, stepping back immediately in case he had woken the other up –he didn't actually want a punch to the face. It was several minutes before the shuffling from inside the room turned into steps and the door swung open, Zetton appearing with his hair in disarray and without his glasses but looking aware.

"Thought you'd never ask, Percy!" He said, clapping the wizard on the back good-naturedly. Percy's knees buckled a bit but he recovered and glared half heartedly up at the hulking man (being the shorter one was still incredibly odd).

This new resolve was resolutely supported by Penelope and Zetton both, the first because she had always said he needed to go easier on himself, and the latter because he seemed to enjoy Percy's continued company. That took a bit of getting used to –someone actually wanting to spend time with him –but Percy was liking the muggle man as well as they interacted more often. Zetton had let on to feeling some loneliness nowadays that might have led to this tentative friendship between them; he was in a new country, learning a new language, half a world away from all his friends and family. But Percy couldn't blame him, as he was feeling much the same way.

"Ah... of course I miss them all." Percy said as he chopped up some bacon for the stew. Zetton was sitting at the kitchen table still in his work clothes, cradling a steaming cup of coffee in his hands. "But my living there was hurting me more than being away is. It's not as if I could never go and see them –but I don't want to and I doubt they would want me to either."

"Whatever you want, Percy, I'm not judging." Zetton said, staring at his cup with uncharacteristic concentration. "Sometimes you gotta be away from the people you love."

"Mm." Percy acknowledged, stirring the meat into the vegetables absentmindedly. "What about your family, Zetton? I don't think I've asked you about them at all."

"Not many to ask about, really." Zetton answered nonchalantly. "My Dad left when I was born, he only comes back to badger my Mum for money every so often. My Mum's a great woman, she raised me singlehandedly and's a semi professional MMA fighter, though her day job's in an office. Bouya-san was sort of like my older brother in middle school, but I haven't seen him in years, only heard of where he's been from Yasu." He tapped his spoon on the table. "Truth is, I miss my friends from Suzuran more than anyone."

In fact, this mutual understanding was actually benefiting both of them. They were both low maintenance people when it came to friendship –Percy really only needed someone to vent to every so often, and Zetton expressed that he enjoyed chattering on about his life if he had someone there to listen to him. This way, Percy was feeling less stress from his job and Zetton was able to get whatever he needed as well (whatever it was, it made his meals taste better).

"Woah! Shiiit!" Zetton shouted as the bonfire suddenly intensified, consuming the straw dummies hung above it with ruthless efficiency. He had heard of the local Bonfire Night celebrations from the kids in his class and had dragged Percy along with him to help him navigate everything –never mind the fact that Percy had never been to a Bonfire Night celebration in his life.

"This says they're doing some fireworks in an hour." Percy told him, reading the paper the older man had printed out from the computer. "Most of the stuff until then are for kids or just food vendors and trinket tables."

"From what I saw there's a bunch of stuff I haven't eaten before." Zetton said, looking over at a group of college students who had burst out into song about twenty feet over. "Maybe if I like it I can try out a recipe. And it's always fun to browse around –maybe I can grab a few souvenirs for everyone back home..."

"Then let's go and take a look." Percy said, sounding as if it was a great inconvenience for him. In a way it was –he had reports left to do still sitting on his desk, and he had to go in early tomorrow as well. But for some reason he couldn't quite manage to tell Zetton to let him head home in peace, even as it grew later and the fireworks passed, and the two of them ended up in a bar somewhere drinking ale and learning the rhymes from the other people sitting around them. By the time they had the wherewithal to start heading back it was three in the morning, and Percy called in sick for the first time in his career.

Of course, Percy did blunder a few times during the months he was giving himself a break. With more time to himself, he had heard of Ron's new prefect status and had sent him a letter that, upon later reflection, wasn't the subtlest of things and probably would have been better off thrown in the trash (although it gave the benefit of further showing to others that not only was he distancing himself from his family, the sentiment was returned just the same). To make matters worse, he had given an interview praising Dolores Umbridge's appointment to High Inquisitor, and he had done so for entirely the wrong reasons. But what was done was done.

"Fucking-! Fuck."

"Zetton?" Percy asked, having heard the expletive from his room. The man in question was leaning against the wall next to the doorway, red faced and trying to toe off his shoes and unravel his scarf at the same time –he was failing miserably. When he looked up to see Percy standing in the hallway he grinned lopsidedly and made to move closer, only to apparently forget about his loose shoes and trip on them rather spectacularly.

"Fuck me, that fucking hurt... gah, shit, shit..." Zetton grumbled, glaring at Percy with glazed eyes as the redhead started to chuckle at his expense. "Fuck off, baldy. Shit..."

"Are you drunk?" Percy asked, moving so he could help Zetton stand. The taller man was unsteady on his feet and reeked of alcohol, an unpleasant combination as he leaned on Percy's shoulder for support. "Here, get your shoes off and I'll help you go down the hall. You can sleep this off."

Zetton did as he said with little complaint, contentedly mumbling about someone named 'King Joe' and how much he wanted to have a rematch, interspersed with all manner of swears and uncomplimentary descriptions. Percy ignored it and pulled him along carefully, grateful when they finally reached Zetton's sparsely decorated bedroom and he could set him down on the edge of the bed.

"Alright, get undressed and go to sleep. I have something that'll help your hangover in the morning." Percy told him, mind drifting to the few vials of hangover dampener he had brewed after he'd begun to have a few beers every now and then.

"Thanks, Perce..." Zetton mumbled, grinning far too cheerily for someone who had been running an ill tempered commentary the past few minutes. "You're great, fuff...fuckin' great. You a great guy..."

"...thanks. G'night." Percy said, ears a bit red as he retreated from the room and went back to his reports.

On the overall though, Percy was quite content with how things were in his life. He got along with his roommate, had drinks on occasion with Penelope and actually felt satisfaction from his work every now and again. It was an altogether... different sort of state of mind to have, when barely months before he had felt so desperate that he had simply sat against Penelope's front door and cried. Of course, this shift in his everyday wasn't about to make him reconcile with his family –far from it –but now he wasn't so concerned with the prospect of seeing his father or brothers at the Ministry, and was also finding it easier to curb Fudge's continued attempts at wheedling him for information on the Order or his family's business.

"Oh, you brought takeout." Percy noticed immediately after taking off his boots and shaking his coat free of snow. It was early December now, and the snow had gotten to be a constant presence on his commute to work –though thankfully there was an awning outside of the apartment's front door, so there was no obligation for them to shovel any of it. Zetton was currently seated at the kitchen table with several takeout boxes scattered about the surface around his now trademark stack of papers he was grading. Percy often wondered whether or not he was taking work from other departments on the sly, he always had so much of it.

"It's Indian, though I didn't get much in the way of spicy." Zetton said, not looking up. Percy went over to the cupboard nearest the fridge and retrieved a plate and some cutlery before busying himself with the coffee maker –it was one of the first muggle appliances he had learned to use, courtesy of a smugly laughing Zetton who had found it utterly hilarious that he didn't know how to use a lot of commonplace modern technology.

"That's fine, I can only tolerate a bit of it anyways." Percy replied. He spooned the rice and curry onto his plate first, leaving it to cool a moment as he made up his coffee the way he liked it. "Big test to mark I take it?"

"Nah, this is just a personal project I got assigned. For how much I complain about him, the boss does want me to learn, so now I reading short stories the students picked to get my comprehension skills up." Zetton sighed and flipped the paper he'd just been perusing to the bottom of the stack. "Ah, sometimes I miss being a ronin..."

"A what?" Percy asked; in the past few months, Zetton had proved to have a penchant for enjoying the oddest of things –one of which being explaining the occasional Japanese phrase or concept he brought up in conversation.

"A ronin's a high school graduate who fail a college entrance exam. I was one for a few years before I got accepted to the teaching abroad program I'm in now." Zetton squinted at the page and snorted. "Little bastard's trying to make me read a romance..."

"Wouldn't you have had to study more though?" Percy asked further, now halfway through his meal and feeling more relaxed. "If you kept having to take the exam, I mean?"

"Yeah, but at least I was studying to try and get something more. I hate studying to hone a skill I've already got." Zetton paused a second and then pushed the stack to the side. "I'll finish it later, I've got all weekend. Did your boss giving you shit again today?"

"Not so much, no. I think he's starting to realize he can't get blackmail from me anymore than he could get it from the source. I'm starting to be able to take my lunch break now in peace."

"I was going to suggest you quit. He relies on you so much, you should stick it to him for treating you like that!" Zetton said vehemently, jabbing his fork in Percy's face. "Heck, I would've kicked his ass by now. Gave him the old Fujinami's Dragon Suplex Hold!"

"If I did that I'd get arrested." Percy assumed since he had no idea what Zetton was talking about, smiling though after a moment at the attempt to cheer him up. "But I do appreciate the sentiment. And anyway it's hard to find a job nowadays –I'd be better off bearing it until he gets switched out or something better pops up elsewhere."

Their friendship was easy and Percy always enjoyed the little breaks it provided him from his ever present work load. Once you got past his rough and eccentric tendencies, Zetton was actually a fairly reasonable man to get along with, though there were times when they argued or couldn't be near each other without discontent brewing. On the whole, Percy had his work and his privacy, and now he had someone to talk to who didn't make him feel as if he were an idiot for how he liked doing things.

Though he had known it wouldn't last for very long.

vvv

"You look angry." Zetton observed from his place at the kitchen counter, having decided to try and make dinner tonight –something that wasn't omurice, in fact. Percy was red faced and had just stomped in without so much as a 'good day', only pausing when he noticed Zetton standing with a chopping knife and several bowls littering the counter behind him, watching him apprehensively. "Dinner's nearly ready, if you want to take a minute to calm down."

"Quite!" Percy fumed, kicking his shoes in the direction of the door and storming down the hall with an open package under his arm. Zetton whistled lowly and decided to set the places anyway –if only so that when Percy inevitably came back still frustrated, he wouldn't be tempted to throw any of the dishes he might have needed to grab from the cupboard. He had just set the bowl of coleslaw on the table when Percy came back into the room, only his ears red now and dressed in a threadbare sweater and jeans.

"Beer?" Zetton asked unnecessarily –Percy had already opened the fridge and grabbed one himself. "Alright. Well, help yourself, there's a lot here."

There was a few minutes of awkward silence as they took what they wanted from the spread –fried fish, chips and coleslaw –and started eating. Every so often Zetton glanced up at Percy and noticed that his face was slowly turning redder and redder, and whether or not it was from the alcohol or his previous anger, it didn't look at all healthy.

"Want to talk about it?" Zetton offered neutrally.

"Yes." Percy said emphatically, and Zetton made a 'go on' motion with his hand. "It's my parents –no, my entire family. They just expect me to accept it, not even question –not even want to go and-" Percy choked a little bit and breathed deeply, face suddenly going pale, making his freckles stand out starkly on his cheeks. "It's... they sent me a damn Christmas sweater like Mum does every year. But this time there was a note with it saying –'we want you to come home for the family dinner, your father's getting out of the hospital and we want everyone there'?! I had to pull in a favour from someone I know in reception just to figure out what they meant! Apparently my Dad's been holed up in the 'Serious Bites' ward for the past week, nearly died once over and they've already been to see him! And no one told me!"

"Everyone else already knew?" Zetton asked, making Percy twitch and take a big drink of the beer; he flushed with colour again, and Zetton suddenly realized that his oh-so mature roommate was a lightweight.

"Not only that, but everyone in that stupid group of theirs knew too! Jeremy said he saw Moody and Kingsley visiting –they're both Au-Cops! They could've notified me officially! Do they really-" Percy's face crumpled a bit and Zetton jolted at the fat tears that started rolling to drip onto his fish. "-think I don't care? They think I'm an idiot! They think I'll sell them out as soon as Fudge waves a pay raise in my face like I didn't work so hard just trying to impress them!"

"Kami, Percy. C'mon, don't talk like that." Zetton tried to soothe, scrambling to remember how he handled Bouya when he got to be like this. "You're not an idiot, and you certainly wouldn't sell your own family out for any reason. Even I know that. Here, give me the beer, I think you've had enough..."

"But they think I will!" Percy protested, handing Zetton the empty can regardless. "I tried to like what Bill and Charlie did, but they never wanted me around! I kept Fred and George from hurting themselves and they call me a prick! Ron thinks I'm the biggest ponce alive because I took pride in my grades and I barely know Ginny at all anymore! Now Mum thinks I'm going to tell my boss about their efforts and Dad thinks I'm too stupid to realize when I'm being manipulated because of what happened with Crouch!"

"You're dropping a lot of names I'm not familiar with and this seems to be turning into a pity party." Zetton deadpanned as he stood up. One second Percy looked ready to retort and the next he was squawking, having been picked up and flung over the man's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "You are going to sleep, now. And you're sleeping in my room, because you obviously need a break from your work before you can think clearly again."

"Zetton! Put me down or I'll hex you!" Percy hissed, punching the larger man in the small of the back to no avail.

"Hex? Are you one of those New Age types Perce?" Zetton teased, flinging the redhead onto the bed and then flopping over horizontally so he pinned Percy down with his stomach. "Now go to sleep, because I know your twig arms aren't going to be moving me even an inch."

Percy sniffed and seemed to lose all his fire in that moment, raising his arms to wipe away the wet patches on his face. "I wish I hated them."

"No, you don't." Zetton told him simply, and Percy hiccupped a few times but remained silent after that, breath evening out after a few minutes as he obligingly fell asleep.