Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the plot. Thanks for reading.

Come To Dinner

Louis was working on his dining room plans when he heard the sound of someone calling out his name, a smile breaking over his face as he recognized the voice as his Aunt Ginny's. Deserting his plans for the time being the blonde got up and went in search of her, the two meeting up in the main hallway. After exchanging hugs Louis ushered her into the dining room so that he could show her his preliminary plans since she knew Teddy as well as he did. Thus far his landlord had just approved of everything he suggested without giving a solid opinion on anything but the fact that pastels were not to be used.

Carried away by his enthusiastic explanations Ginny smiled and took the seat beside him, opening the tin of cookies she'd brought with her for him and Teddy. While they munched away on the treat she looked over the plans, approving what he had thus far.

"It will be nice for at least three rooms in this place to look actually lived in." Shaking her head Ginny couldn't begin to remember just how many times she'd told Teddy that he needed to do something about turning this monstrosity into a real home.

Especially since it wasn't like her eldest was ever getting married. At least not to a woman.

Looking over at her nephew as the blonde agreed with her Ginny smiled and then turned her attention back to the plans. Unlike the majority of her relatives she thought it was a good thing that Louis had come to live with Teddy temporarily. Not that she disagreed that her nephew would drive Teddy nuts at times, because that was a given, but she was really hoping that maybe Teddy would open up to Louis about the fact that he was gay too and as a result would finally realize that he needed to come out to the rest of the family.

Of course she wasn't alone in thinking he was gay, or at least she was pretty sure she wasn't. She and Harry had decided when Teddy was a teenager that they wouldn't question him about it, but wait until he came to them.

Needless to say they'd never expected him to reach his present age without telling them.

Why Teddy thought he needed to hide his sexuality was beyond them, the only possibility she and Harry had been able to come up with was that Teddy thought that his grandmother wouldn't approve. Personally she thought that Andromeda would be able to handle the truth, but that wasn't her place to decide.

"So you really think he'll like my plans?"

Ginny nodded as she refocused on the conversation. "I do. It's going to be lovely, Louis. You'll do a great job. I'm glad you finally got through his thick skull that he needs to do some redecorating. Here's hoping you'll be a good influence on him." In more ways than one. "So do you have the rest of the day off or working later?"

"Working later. Teddy and Lucy are actually coming to the restaurant tonight, for dinner. It took some doing but I convinced him to give the place a second chance." Louis grimaced. "Apparently he went there once and swore never to go again."

"You'll change his mind, I'm sure. I heard you and the rest of the new team your owner brought in have really changed that place around."

Louis grinned. "You'll have to drop by soon and see for yourself."

"It's a deal."

)

Working away in the back of the restaurant hours later Louis had to force himself not to look at the clock again. He knew that odds were Teddy and Lucy would arrive at any moment, especially since the two were always obsessively punctual. They'd probably come early knowing them, not wanting to keep the other waiting. He was usually punctual too, and if he wasn't he always had a good reason. Life happened after all. Not everyone could have the superhuman ability to manipulate their time the way workaholics like Teddy and Lucy did.

And okay, he was nervous too. He really, really wanted their dinner to be perfect.

He wasn't even sure why it was so important, he hadn't been this nervous when his immediate family had come to their first dinner here, but then Teddy was the type to give his real opinion without humoring him which was good, but potentially harmful for his ego.

"Okay, who is the sexy man out there with your cousin Lucy?" The restaurant's hostess asked as she came over to get the details, interrupting Louis's thoughts. "He actually escorted her to their table and held the chair out for her like a gentleman. Pulled it off as completely natural too. Not to mention he can dress, which I don't need to tell you is a rare find in a not gay man. And if that weren't reason enough to go green with envy, when I flashed him my ladies he didn't even look at them. Talk about a catch."

"You flashed your tits at Teddy?"

"Teddy? Teddy Lupin? My, my, hasn't he just gotten yummier with age. I thought he looked sorta familiar, but I was too busy checking him out from the rear to put two and two together. He's dating your cousin?"

Louis frowned at her. "They are not dating."

"Could have fooled me." She shot back with a smirk. "Cause they're definitely out there giving off couple vibes."

Normally he would have taken her word for it, she had pretty good instincts about this sort of thing, but there was just no way Teddy and Lucy could be romantically involved. They definitely would have told him and even if they hadn't his cousin Molly would have blabbed it to half of London within an hour of finding out. And even if they were secretly involved he would definitely know, he lived with the guy. He would have noticed Lucy coming into or out of Teddy's bedroom, he wasn't blind after all.

Just thinking about the possibility of them becoming a couple turned his stomach.

"Now isn't that interesting." Seth commented, referring both to the woman's observant and Louis's reaction to the news. The blonde really, really didn't like the idea of anyone being romantically involved with this honorary cousin of his.

Louis aimed a dark look in his friend's direction. "Hush. We have amazing dinners to make, remember?"

"For your cousin and her sexy escort." Seth agreed with his most angelic look.

"You're lucky we're shorthanded as it is or I'd lock you in the freezer."

)

It looked as though Louis hadn't been exaggerating about the changes that had been made since the last time he'd had the misfortune to enter these particular premises. From what he'd seen on the tables of others the food was probably going to be edible. And since Louis would insist on overseeing/making a large portion of their meal Teddy figured that he was probably going to eat the majority of whatever he ended up ordering unless Louis went crazy on the portion sizes. Which the blonde tended to do where he was concerned, Teddy thought with a wry smile as he turned his attention to the menu he'd been given.

"So any idea what you're going to get?" Lucy asked as she looked over her own menu. She'd missed lunch and was more than ready to make up for it. The smells coming from the nearby kitchen were definitely whetting her appetite.

"To tell you the truth I don't have that big an appetite. Louis pushes food on me every chance he gets these days. Good food, but my stomach's not used to being filled so much, so often."

Laughing, Lucy couldn't say she was surprised since she'd heard through the office grapevine that Teddy was coming to work with a packed lunch every day. If he weren't the boss he'd have been teased like crazy over it. Teddy was not the paper bag lunch type normally, but love did crazy things to a person.

Spotting the hostess from earlier eyeballing Teddy from behind Lucy grinned that much wider as she shot her friend a knowing look. "You didn't even notice when that hostess leaned over to give you a look at her girls, did you?"

"Enough to know that given how big her girls are, she must have serious back problems."

Lucy was still chuckling over that one when the waiter came over to take their orders.

The food they ordered turned out to be as well prepared and planned as Louis had promised that it would be. Each course was thoroughly enjoyed with Lucy eating a great deal of it as they shared each other's meals so that they could try a variety of things. Louis was going to quiz them about the food later after all. They didn't doubt it for a moment.

And as expected Louis did come out to talk when they were finishing up their desserts, pulling up a chair to see how they'd enjoyed their meal and get their feedback.

Louis wasn't surprised when Lucy had nothing but nice things to say about the meal, she was too sweet to complain unless something had turned out really bad. Teddy's opinion meant way more, especially since the other man gave criticism as well as compliments about all aspects of the meal. He listened closely to everything, flattered that the man accurately guessed which aspects of their meal he'd been directly involved with even though he pouted a little when Teddy informed him that he'd put a little too much garlic in the mashed potatoes.

"It wasn't that bad." Lucy argued, giving Teddy a censoring look.

"Would you have wanted to snog a guy twenty minutes ago?"

The look on Lucy's face answered that question.

Since Louis was still pouting over his opinion Teddy dipped his spoon into the lemon soufflé they'd ordered and instead of bringing it to his lips the Gryffindor leaned forward and neatly inserted the tart treat between the other man's pouty lips.

Making a yummy sound in spite of himself Louis made another small sound of disappointment when Teddy slid the spoon out, the blonde instinctively licking his lips on the off chance that more of the delicious treat could be found there. And since there wasn't Louis went back to pouting, though he added big, shimmering puppy dog eyes to the mix as he looked from the remaining dessert to Teddy.

No one was surprised when he handed his spoon and the soufflé over to the blonde without a word of protest.

And sitting back in her seat as she watched Teddy watch Louis Lucy marveled for what seemed like the millionth time that people were largely obvious to the fact that the former was hopelessly in love with the latter. At the very least Louis should have clued in by now but that was her cousin for you. He tended to see what he wanted to see when it came to his personal life and Teddy being in love with him was problematic in so many ways that the mind boggled.

Not that that stopped her from hoping that someday the blonde would notice and fall in love with Teddy too, but what could she say, she was a hopeless romantic, Lucy thought as she turned her attention back to her own dessert, content to let the two exist in their own little world for the moment.

)

Working away as he read over the files he'd gotten from Lucy before they'd left the restaurant, Teddy looked up at the sound of knocking and sighed since there was only one person who could be knocking at his door this late at night. If Louis was going to make it a habit of coming to see him when he was in bed he was going to be in trouble. A lot of trouble. Especially if the other man came to see him in the morning when he wasn't quite awake and aware enough to watch when he said or did. In fact, now that he thought about it he was probably going to have nightmares about just that when he finally got to sleep.

Yay him.

The sound of another knock reminded Teddy of his visitor, the man calling out for Louis to enter immediately this time.

It took all of Teddy's strength not to groan like a dying man when he saw that the blonde had showered before coming to see him, the freshly scrubbed look giving his already sexy as hell houseguest a mouthwatering edge.

Why me, Teddy silently asked the fates. Why me?

Completely unaware of the effect he was having on the other man Louis walked over to once again take a seat on the bed, a rueful smile on his face. "I'm starting to make a habit of this, aren't I? Sorry, it must be annoying. I promise this time I won't fall asleep on you or take up too much of your time. It's just that I couldn't ask you something earlier because Lucy was with you and I didn't want her to take my reaction the wrong way."

"You're used to having someone at home, waiting for you when you finish work." Teddy pointed out, not wanting to think about the men who'd stayed up in bed, waiting for Louis to come home to them. "So what's the question you want to ask?"

There was something about the other man's tone that irked him, though Louis couldn't quite figure out what that something was. And since he had promised to keep things short he got straight to the question that had been plaguing him since Seth and Kalinda had started teasing him about the possibility of Teddy and his cousin being a couple. "Are you…are you and Lucy going out?"

Teddy's mouth dropped open a little in shock at the question. "Lucy and I? What would make you think that?"

Hugely relieved by the other man's response Louis grinned smugly. He'd been over ninety five percent sure that he was right, but the two had looked pretty cozy when he'd come to see them while they were having dessert, not to mention the fact that they'd shared their food which was such a couple thing to do as Seth had pointed out to him a couple of times. And when he'd pointed out that Teddy had shared his lemon soufflé with him the other man had just grinned knowingly, which had seriously pissed him off too for some reason.

Back to the conversation at hand though. "I said you two weren't dating but Seth and Kalinda said you guys looked like a couple and didn't believe me. Kalinda was the hostess who saw you to your seats and Seth's my friend who works there."

"Ah. Well you can tell them you told them so when you see them next."

"I knew you wouldn't go for someone like her." Pleased with himself Louis turned and stretched out on top of the bed, crossing his arms in front of him as he looked up at Teddy. "Not that we don't love Lucy, cause we do, but you and her would so not make a good couple. And I'm not just saying that because Victoire would have a fit and make you both miserable." He added as a rueful look came into his eyes. "Though that would be an epic battle, wouldn't it? Victoire would win of course, but Lucy would definitely draw some serious blood."

Doing his best not to think about Victoire Teddy turned his attention to appeasing his own curiosity while ignoring the fact that the other man was stretched out on his bed again. "Why would you think she and I would make a bad couple? I've lost track of the number of times someone's suggested Lucy and I would be well suited."

"They obviously don't know you as well as me." Was his smug, I know best response to that. "You need someone like me. Well a female, slightly calmer version of me. Though not Domi. Bad idea." Just the thought of the other man with his sister upset his stomach more than the idea of Teddy with Lucy.

"Yes, I imagine that would send Victoire over the deep end, if I were interested in Dominique. Which I'm thankfully not."

Louis sighed and shook his head. "Yeah, I know. She really needs to calm down where you're concerned. We've all told her that. It's not fair, especially the way she tends to act like a jealous girlfriend even though you two never dated and she's married now. But she just can't seem to help it. The power of first love, huh?"

Teddy nodded with a knowing look in his eyes. "So don't be too hard on her. Having your heart broken, especially as carelessly as I broke hers…well I suppose I deserve at least some of the ire she bears me."

"You didn't know she was really in love with you, you thought it was just a crush like everyone else. If you'd known you would have been a lot kinder when you let her down." And the knowing look in the man's eyes had Louis realizing that he might just have been clued into the reason why Teddy had shown no interest in dating anyone in the past few years. "Did someone break your heart, Teddy? Is that why you don't date anymore?"

"Let's just say that I have some experience when it comes to having my heart damaged. I wouldn't say it's ever been broken to pieces." He'd at least escaped that thus far, though it wouldn't surprise him if that was in his future. After all, someday Louis would give his heart for real to someone to keep.

That was a blow he couldn't see himself coming back whole from.

"Who was it?" Louis wanted to know. "I don't remember the girls you dated that well since I was in Hogwarts at the time. Victoire didn't scare her off, did she?"

"No. And as to who I mean…well I'm afraid that is one matter where your insatiable curiosity is going to remain unappeased."

Automatically Louis's lips curled into a pout, which he seemed to find himself doing a lot around Teddy lately. "How come?"

"Because there are just some things about me I keep to myself. And no amount of pouting and puppy dog eyes on your part is going to change that."