Teddy's presence on Nico's floor was short-lived. After the initial night, Nico managed to wrangle up a couch for Teddy to sleep on to appease the ingrained politeness of both parties and by the end of the week, he had moved into the guest quarters with the rest of the Aurors. It wasn't a particularly large change; the guest quarters were down a separate hallway from the staff rooms, and they shared a horrendously outdated common room.
They sat next to each other at dinner, and no one thought anything different of it. The other Aurors, the overly-muscled Magnus Shacklebolt and a pair of twins named Hazel and Briar Tennyson, took their dinner whenever they could in between scouring documents for information on the disappearance of Prudence Greengrass. Teddy was still in training and somehow managed to slip away.
The Aurors noticed this.
The staff table wasn't small, but they squeezed in another seat on the end next to Nico's. When Teddy couldn't reach a dish he wanted, he'd steal it off of Nico's plate with a cheeky grin.
Nico noticed this.
"Eat your own food, dumbass," Nico said. He pushed Teddy's head away but it was a half-hearted effort.
"Can't reach the chicken, mate," Teddy replied. "And you've got a whole pile right there that you're not even touching."
Nico glanced at his shoes but was forced to pull his head up when Junebug began pawing at his neck. He flicked her with his fingers. "Hey, stop that."
"Why is that?" Teddy asked as he ate another piece of Nico's chicken. "You've always got a pile of food you send back down. The house elves won't like that, you know."
Nico cracked a woeful smile. "House elves? Now you're just messing with me."
Teddy shook his head. "Nah, they live under the castle next to the kitchens; where the Hufflepuff dormitories are. You've never met any of the house elves?"
"Why would I?" Nico shrugged.
Teddy took the last piece of chicken from Nico's plate. He'd been letting the elves burn the offerings for him since every incendio spell he'd tried had gone up in smoke. Literally. As the food rapidly disappeared from his plate and his stomach stayed empty, he realized that Teddy was a way of burning an offering.
At least, it went to an equally useless place.
"Maybe next time I'll get extra so you're not stealing my dinner." Nico looked directly ahead.
"No use," Teddy reached over him, his lanky body near draping across Nico's lap as he speared the final piece of chicken from the serving plate. "You can't stop me."
He leaned back in his seat, observing the way Teddy positively tore into his food and it occurred to him that his words had more than one meaning.
Even as the weather turned dark in the throes of autumn, they used Nico's minimal breaks in the afternoon and Teddy's flexible schedule to relax on the quidditch pitch. It began when Teddy noticed that Nico tended to practice after his classes let out, sparring while the quidditch teams practiced during all hours of the day.
"Does that ever tire you out?" Teddy asked as he laid back in the waning grass. Magic kept it green, but it didn't keep it healthy. He'd been cloud-gazing, but the sky had turned into one large cloud and the game had grown boring.
"What?" Nico did a set of parries and thrusts as a warm-up, testing the balance of his sword again. It felt heavy in his arms, but he chalked that up to the restricted training hours he was afforded.
Teddy leaned up on his elbows, looking Nico up and down. "That sword thing? All the medieval whotsit."
Nico scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Firstly, it's hardly medieval; this sword is thousands of years old." He threw it into the air and caught it tip-down. "And secondly: I'm not a wuss like you."
This caught Teddy's attention. "If I'm such a wuss, as you put it, then why haven't we ever dueled?"
Parry. Thrust. "You wouldn't want that."
He leaned his head to the side with a lopsided grin. "Afraid I'll beat you?"
"Hardly." Parry. Thrust. "Afraid I'll kill you."
Teddy stood, brushing grass from his trousers. "You've said a lot of stupid things, trouble. But that's by far the stupidest. Get your wand."
"Wand?" Nico let his sword drop and it implanted itself in the grass. "I don't duel with a wand, Lupin."
"Right," Teddy nodded. He put his hands on his hips. "Sword. So, where can I get a sword like that?"
"You can't." Nico pulled his sword out of the grass and handed it to Teddy. "You can hold it if you want, but it won't do anything for you."
Teddy took the sword and held it aloft, examining it closely. "What's so special about you, sword?"
The sword hummed angrily in response. Teddy looked taken aback. "I think it likes me."
He did an experimental thrust and fell forward, the sword dipping closely to the ground. Nico fought to hold back laughter.
"You've really got a knack for sword fighting there, Teds," he said. "I'd be afraid to take you on in a fight."
Something sparked in Teddy's eyes. "Oh yeah?"
As Nico stretched his hands up towards the darkening sky, Teddy launched himself at Nico. The flat of the sword hit him and made him stumble a few paces backward.
"Fuck." Nico muttered. He rubbed his ribs with a scowl. "You weren't even holding it correctly."
"Come on," Teddy slipped into a fighting stance. He swung the sword in a wide arc. "Fight me, di Angelo."
Nico rolled his eyes. "Give me back my sword, Lupin."
Teddy grinned. "Make me."
Nico let his shoulders slump and looked off to the side before suddenly springing into action, grabbing Teddy around the waist. Startled, Teddy dropped Nico's sword and his ankles turned, sending them both onto the grass.
"No one gets the drop on me!" Teddy shouted. He wrestled with Nico until he had him pinned to the grass.
It wasn't all at once, that feeling of bewilderment. It crept up on Nico like the ocean on a pebbled shore, his wrists held to the ground by a surprisingly strong grip, Teddy's right knee between his own. A strand of teal hair drifted down and tickled the tip of Nico's nose. He could feel all of Teddy's weight against him and he wasn't sure it was much of a bother to begin with. Something twisted deep in Nico's gut.
"Ready to concede?" Teddy asked, breathless.
He could touch his lips if he just moved the slightest bit upwards.
"Professor!"
A voice cut through the air. Nico threw Teddy off of him with little effort and stood, brushing grass from his trousers. In the distance, he could see one of his students jogging towards him.
"Professor," said James Potter, decidedly out of breath and panting. "McGonagall... wants... to see you."
Nico nodded curtly. He picked his sword up off the ground next to an astonished Teddy. "Right. Thank you, Mr Potter."
They won't find Prudence Greengrass.
It's something Nico knows that the Aurors aren't aware of yet, but he was familiar with this feeling: the chilled absence of something that used to be a part of the world you live in. When someone died on a quest, he felt it. When they never came back, he knew.
On a Wednesday, his students asked him if he could do a lesson on locating spells and curse-breaking. On Thursday, Nico was pouring over ancient textbooks he'd dragged from the depths of the library in the staff common room. They'd looked so scared, he couldn't say no.
And that was where he found Teddy again, as he always did. They orbited around each other, a gravitational pull that neither of them fully comprehended and didn't bother overthinking, or, at least, didn't have time to even think about.
"Those a big books you've got there," Teddy said as he sat in front of the fireplace.
"I don't have time right now," Nico said curtly. He scratched down a note from one of the tomes. Then, a hastily muttered, "Sorry."
Teddy leaned over, glancing at one. "Advanced curse breaking? Is that what they teach in DADA these days?"
"Kids asked me to prep a lesson on it." Nico continued writing. "They're- they're really scared."
"Yeah, I guess." Teddy sat back in his chair. "This kind of stuff hasn't happened since... Well, since Harry Potter was a student here." He made a noise. "Odd. His second boy started this year."
"Maybe bad luck runs in the family." Nico nearly smiled at the thought. It wasn't too far off from his current situation.
Teddy scoffed. He pulled a cigarette from his back pocket and lit it using the fire. "I wouldn't put it past them."
They sat, the fire crackling away as Nico wrote his notes and smoke curled from Teddy's cigarette up to the low ceiling.
He put down his pencil. "By the way, who's Harry Potter?"
"What?" Teddy burst out laughing. "Are you serious?"
Nico looked off to the side, clearly annoyed. "As serious as a heart attack. People keep mentioning him."
"He's like, the greatest Auror to ever live," Teddy said. "Harry Potter is a big fucking deal. He destroyed the Dark Lord when he was only seventeen." His voice trailed off. "And he's my godfather."
"Cool," Nico said distractedly.
"Did you no hear me? Dark Lord at seventeen?" Teddy leaned forward in his seat.
"Sure," Nico shrugged. "I did something similar when I was thirteen. It's not so special."
Teddy put his cigarette to his lips. "How many dark lords do you have over in America?"
"Besides my dad?" Nico began. "A lot. Too many, to be honest. You'd think they'd regulate that kind of thing. It's not like you can get godly powers on a whim."
"You did," Teddy said.
"I'm sure having two children with the same woman was a very calculated move on Hades's part," Nico said sarcastically.
"You never said you had any siblings."
Nico cast his gaze downwards. He cleared his throat. "Had."
A moment passed and Teddy gestured for Nico to join him over on the small sofa he was lounging on. "Come on. I'll help you with those plans."
He didn't move and Teddy took this as stubbornness instead of refusal. He stood and carried Nico's books over for him.
"Trust me on this, I know more about curse breaking than you do," Teddy said with a pointed glance.
Nico grumbled. "Alright, fine."
They sat a little closer than seemed normal, touching more than seemed necessary. Teddy scribbled tips down on the piece of paper that Nico had been using, his handwriting nearly indecipherable, and when he asked Nico when was the last time he slept, Nico didn't respond with a growl, but a yawn.
And when the coals grew dim, Teddy let a sleeping Nico rest on his shoulder, their hands brushing against each other, the soft touch of Nico's head against his neck, even when his feet became numb. Even when he also fell asleep, his head lolling off the back of the couch, the books spread around them.
Even when they were awoken by the booming voice of Magnus Shacklebolt, yelling that two more students had gone missing.
This chapter was entirely fluff, but some action-packed shit is coming in the next chapter. Chills, thrills, tears, a mongoose. Nico may or may not wear leather pants. Will's terrible fate. Nico throws Neville off the Astronomy Tower. Junebug will probably return. Where is that cat, anyway?
