Lee arrived with a telltale little pop and took a moment to reorient himself. Beside him, Katie had immediately burst into a fit of giggles, and, turning, he saw why. Fred lay on the couch only half dressed, underneath a girl wearing even less. Fred opened his eyes blearily and looked with mild annoyance at Lee, who by now was trying his hardest not to laugh. "Don't you knock?" he asked with a yawn.
Lee gave up and laughed aloud. "Honestly, mate, you have a bedroom; why don't you use it? Save us all a headache this early in the morning."
By now the girl had fully grasped the situation and was struggling to get up and find some clothes. Katie slipped into the kitchen as the girl began to shriek curses at the two men. Lee tried to stifle his laughter as he watched the poor girl furiously yanking on her shirt. Fred, on the other hand, did nothing to hide his large trademark grin as he took in the girl's many creative insults. She soon disapperated, her screams still echoing throughout the house.
"Aw, come on, mate," Fred said good naturedly as he followed Lee to the kitchen. "Why'd you have to go and scare her away? I really liked that one."
Lee rolled his eyes. "I doubt that. But I'll humor you anyway. What was her name, then?"
"Stella. No Celina. Or Celeste. Something like that, anyway."
"Honestly," laughed Katie, "I don't know what makes you think we scare them all away. You do that just fine on your own. And get a shirt on; there's no one left here to impress."
Fred gave a wicked grin as he noticed her eyes travel over his chest, which earned him a quick punch in the shoulder from Lee. "I'd watch that wife of yours, if I were you," Fred said casually as he slipped on a shirt from the floor.
"Don't you tease my man," Katie chided without moving her eyes from the cupboard she was looking through. "You know I only have eyes for Lee."
Fred snorted. "You have eyes for every hot guy in the country. I just happen to be one of the hotter ones."
"She may be looking at a few other guys," said Lee, moving a hand protectively around one of her hips, "But I'm the only one she ever plans on going home with. And even that weren't entirely true, which it is," and here he gave Fred a mock glare, "we all know what would happen to the man who tried to touch her."
"Mm, my hero," cooed Katie. Fred smiled at the two but turned away when they kissed. "Do you have anything in here that isn't mostly sugar?"
"I have no idea. At this point, I think you know my kitchen better than I do."
"Right, then I suppose it's French toast."
Sitting next to Fred, Lee spread out a copy of the Daily Prophet across the table and pointed to an article on the second page. "High praise for Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes." Fred nodded and feigned interest, but Lee was pretty sure that he was only staring at the page rather than actually reading it. "Fred," Lee began cautiously, not wanting to restart their argument of a week ago, "why don't you come live with us? You know we have room."
"I am not going to impose myself on my newlywed friends," Fred began in an exasperated tone, repeating the same points they had already gone over. "You two don't want someone else hanging around. And besides, I'm fine."
"You wouldn't be imposing on us," Katie responded as she moved to the fridge. She refused to look at the photos on the door before she quickly grabbed the eggs and moved back over to the counter. "We're inviting you. We want you to come."
"It's still imposing, and you are still newlyweds. It isn't polite, and I'm not going to move in with you."
"It isn't polite to refuse an invitation, either," Lee countered.
"You don't even have the room for me. You live in that nice little flat and it really isn't big enough for three."
"There's plenty of room, and you know that. When we picked the place we made sure there would always be room for you."
Fred gave a skeptical look, even though he knew perfectly well it was true. "I have to stay by the shop. I need to get here early and I stay late."
"You stay later than you need to," Katie pointed out. "Besides, we manage to get over here just about every morning before you go downstairs, anyway."
"If you still aren't happy with that arrangement, we could stay here for a while. There's room, and we wouldn't mind," Lee added.
"No, there is not any room," Fred answered a little too quickly and a little too harshly. Lee and Katie exchanged a quick look. There was a second bedroom that could have accommodated the two quite comfortably. But that was George's old room, and George was still a forbidden subject. Katie shook her head slightly, warning Lee not to press the subject. Seeming to regret that he had snapped at his friends, Fred added in a quieter tone, "I'm fine. Really."
Lee sighed and put his head in his hands. "No, mate, you're not. You're a bloody mess. You're place is a disaster, and you aren't taking care of yourself. I don't think you know what you're doing with your business anymore; you keep forgetting things that you shouldn't, and if it weren't for that girl you have keeping your books, I doubt your store could even stay open. Everyday I worry you're going to end up killing yourself with one of your stupid experiments. I don't even know if you eat when we don't come around and set food down in front of you." Raising his head, he watched his friend's expression. "You don't, do you?" When he received no answer, he gave another ragged sigh. "And as long as I've already rambled on this far, how about all those girls? Are you doing anything to protect yourself? Or them, for that matter? Do you let them know what they're getting into? That you can't make yourself stay with any of them for more than a day, maybe two, because you're still in love with you old girlfriend? I'm scared that if you don't blow yourself up in some bloody experiment, you're going to get some sort of STD, and I'm not going to be able to do anything to help you. Please, Fred. We care about you; we love you. Please try to fix yourself up, for us. Even if you don't care what the hell happens to you, we do. And it's killing me to watch you fall apart like this. Can't you at least... eat when we're not here? Something, it doesn't have to be much. Please, Fred."
The room's silence was unbroken except for the French toast frying in the pan. Katie turned around nervously and watched the two boys. Lee hadn't meant to say all of that, she knew. In fact all three had been carefully avoiding it for some time.
Katie bit her lip as her husband roughly brushed a stray tear from his cheek. And still it remained quiet. The silence seemed to last an eternity. None of them felt they could break it. When Fred finally did, his face was emotionless, unreadable. Without looking directly at either of them, he answered flatly, "I'm fine."