"I HAVE BEEN WAITING SINCE YOU TURNED 16!" Ikuto yelled at Draco. "Do you not understand how much restraint it takes to not be able to walk up to you between classes and kiss you? DO YOU? If I was a year older I would deliberately fail a year to be with you. Just please. Please can we make this public?" Ikuto lowered his voice to a whisper. "Please, Draco. Because it's killing me."
Ikuto fell to the floor, just as Draco turned to see him.
"Ikuto… I'm sorry… I didn't know that you felt like this… If I had…" Draco lowered his eyes. "Please know I love you. I always will."
"Draco… Don't leave me," Ikuto raised his eyes to see Draco looking at him, falling to his knees beside him and wrapping his arms around him.
"I won't," Draco said, holding his lover close. "You know what happened at the Ministry at the end of last year. You know Voldemort's back. You know my father's in Azkaban. My family is in the Dark Lord's clutches. There is nothing that we can do, my mother and I, to get out, except play a double role. I will protect you, I will stay good. But I have to do the Dark Lord's wishes too. I was forced…"
Ikuto looked up and searched his face. "No… You didn't… No."
Draco nodded slowly. "I'm sorry. I had no choice. He would have killed me. And I couldn't leave you alone." He rolled up his sleeve to show Ikuto the mark that was there. Permanent. The Dark Mark.
Ikuto kissed the tears that were streaming down Draco's face. Then he kissed him. A possessive yet gentle kiss. One that said you're mine, and I'm never letting you go. "I will help you with your mission. With whatever you have to do. But we need Dumbledore's help."
Ikuto stood up and helped Draco to his feet. Hand in hand they made their way to Dumbledore's office. Ignoring the looks from the other students on their way.
"Liquorice snaps," Ikuto told the statue that guarded the staircase to Dumbledore's office, and they watched as it let them through. There was only one person in the office. They could hear that from the scratching of a quill on paper as they neared the door, and the lack of voices.
"Mr Malfoy, Mr Tsukiyomi, please come in." Draco gripped Ikuto's hand as they made their way into the Headmaster's office, greeted by a smiling Dumbledore.
"It's kind of good that he knew, if you think about it, Draco," Ikuto managed to say. Draco was still in shock, so he nodded. Help from Dumbledore and Snape was exactly what they needed at that moment.
The Slytherin common room was empty when the two boys entered, so they decided to cuddle on one of the sofas there. They knew the rest of the house would be returning soon from dinner, but as they had just had a hearty meal in Dumbledore's office, they didn't really want to move. So they just stayed there.
The two boys were sharing gentle kisses when the rest of the house stumbled in. It was when Pansy Parkinson and the Greengrass sisters entered that the room seemed to turn deathly cold.
"WHAT do you THINK you are doing?" Pansy shouted at Draco. "You are MEANT to marry one of us? A girl! You shouldn't be kissing a boy!"
Ikuto suddenly got angry. More than he had ever been. Standing up he pulled Draco behind him. "Don't talk to my boyfriend like that," he growled. Pansy looked taken aback. "He's mine. Always will be. And no girl is going to take him from me." At this Draco wrapped his arms around Ikuto and held him tighter than ever before. Never before had Ikuto been this angry and Draco needed to calm him down. Spinning his boyfriend around, Draco pressed him lips harshly against Ikuto's and felt him kiss back just as furiously. They didn't hear the hush descend the room as Professor Snape entered.
"Please boys," the Professor coughed. "Not here. That's what you have a bedroom for."