Chapter Seven
Harry saw Hermione shift and hold her menu up higher. The twins and Ron were mouthing words without sound and pointedly turning their backs to the commotion that was Draco having a 'moment'. Ginny was just watching with amusement and Seamus and Dean's chairs were unaffected by the whole thing. Though Harry suspected the former occupants of the chairs could hear the row from over by the bar, and were lingering with their drink orders to avoid the uncomfortable social situation that was a couple arguing in public. A gay couple. Oh yes, Harry was feeling like an amusement attraction. Sickle a seat?
Harry marvelled at how Draco seemed so unaffected by the attention he was creating around him. "I bet you call me flabby in your head, don't you? Well I'll tell you this! I am going to eat the special fried chow mien and you can fucking sleep on the sofa tonight - you wouldn't want to share a bed with flabby-Draco now, WOULD YOU!"
Draco stood up, stormed off to the toilets, and knocked over Qing in the process, who had come to have a closer look at the arguing couple. Harry dropped his head in his folded arms on the table. He wished Draco was disabled. Then he wouldn't need to diet for the marathon because he would be too crippled to even to turn the TV onto the sports channels that were now constantly playing in the flat. Suddenly a hand was stroking his hair and Harry looked up, hoping it was Draco.
Hermione smiled at him kindly, "Are you okay?"
"I want things to go back to normal." Harry felt like crying. Dinner that night was uncomfortable and most of his friends found excuses to leave early. Harry and Draco walked home in silence, striding metres apart, and that night Harry slept on the sofa.
xxx
Draco hadn't slept well that night either. The room was too dark, the house was too silent, and the bed was too big. He estimated he had managed to get two or three hours sleep in the wee hours of the dawn, but eventually the alarm clock buzzed and Draco was horrified to find himself awake before it went off. It must be some sort of bad luck to be already conscious when that happens.
Climbing out of bed, he went to the door and attempted to open it very quietly, chiefly out of force of habit. When the door gave its habitual creak, he whipped round to see if Harry had woken up. He almost cried when he saw the bed empty, covers ruffled only on his side. He slumped out into the corridor and went a little way down the hall, turning into the bathroom.
He stripped, showered, towel-dried, and stood naked in the mirror, sobbing. He wanted his Harry! Malfoy pride was a terrible thing however. Sniffling at his image, he turned the tap on and let the sink fill up with warm water. Sleep deprivation made him look ragged and sickly pale, and he felt terribly unsexy. If only Harry had been with him last night then he would have looked beautiful this morning. Instead he looked like those people from the pamphlets Granger had given him when he first started dating; he looked like he had AIDs. Nice.
Dipping his hands into the water and bring his face to meet the cup of his hands, Draco scrubbed at the tear tracks. Tears were salty, and mixed with the water in his hands, floating up his nose for a moment before straining down his face when he straightened up. Draco looked at himself in the mirror, studying the image.
I look poor! Gosh, my Father would be - who cares what Father would be! Still…Mother would think that I would not be fit for any - Oh Merlin's sac, is that cellulite?!
Draco almost bashed his head against the porcelain of the sink, and he moved in for closer inspection of his thigh. Smooth skin…firm thigh…no fat…oh thank god! Standing upright, Draco spun around, looking over his shoulder and twisting this way and that to conduct a full body inspection for even the slightest fold or wobble.
Just as an extra precaution, Draco pulled out the scales from under the bath.
xxx
Harry was awake when the door creaked down the hall, and he was extremely saddened to hear the shower start running instead of Draco coming into the living room to talk things over. Harry lay there, staring at the ceiling while the sound of the shower filled the flat.
Deciding that moping wasn't going to solve anything, he pushed the piles of cushions that had been arranged into a mould of a person onto the floor and stood up, stretching his arms high. Turning to look at the sofa, he saw the cause of his back ache all last night. The remote control looked like it hadn't enjoyed Harry's company through the night either because it had spewed it's batteries out in protest.
Harry walked into the kitchen and began to prepare breakfast. It was when he had cracked two eggs into the frying pan, he suddenly wondered if this fight meant that he was supposed to be cooking for only one. After this moment of confusion, Harry threw all the breakfast into the bin and put everything away before going back to the sofa and his cushion-Draco. He didn't have an appetite now.
xxx
Draco reckoned he must have done a hundred miles by now. His legs were sore, his hips and knees hurt, andhis feet felt like there were puffskiens cuddling each toe, weighing him down. All in all, he was shattered and he wanted to go home and have his huggles. Except there weren't any huggles. Here or at home. He was beginning to wish chocolate didn't taste so good.
"Right. That's ten miles. Very good Draco! See. I told you by the end of this month you'd be able to do it. Lie down on the mat and we'll just check you over, and then we'll be done."
Draco stood still and allowed the tread to slide him off the end of the machine. The floor felt too hard and he flopped down on a nearby mat, glaring at the ceiling as Brian's hands pushed the muscle uncomfortably about his bones. After a few moments of silence, Brian spoke up.
"Draco, are you okay?"
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?"
Brian shrugged and smiled down at him. The dimple didn't appear all that impressive today. "Usually you lie there, talking about how you are one step closer to being loved by all. You've been really quiet today. Something wrong?"
Draco bit his lip. Brian was just a person trainer, he didn't really care about Draco's personal life. So long as Brian had his galleon a day for his service, Draco could be a puddle of goo. So long as goo could run. Which Draco didn't think it could, and today he felt very much like goo. Like unworthy, unsexy, stupid, stubborn goo. "I had a fight with my boyfriend yesterday," said Draco quietly.
Brain didn't bat an eyelash at Draco's sexuality, "What about?"
"Food."
"Food? That doesn't seem like a very serious thing to have an argument about. Are you sure that you're just seeing it as bigger than it is?" suggested Brian, rotating Draco's left foot. Ouch. Pain lanced through his ankle and he threw his head to the side, pressing his cheek into the cool plastic of the mat. Unfortunately, this position meant he was looking right across the way of the gym to Harry sitting on a machine, doing leg pumps. Their eyes met and Draco had to look away from the glare that was being cast in their direction.
"Hmm, food. He says I should stop eating fried food and so much chocolate."
Brian hummed and said slowly, "Well Draco…he's right."
Draco snapped his eyes up to look at Brian. What a traitor. "What?"
"Well," Brian shrugged, "You should really be eating a lot of fruit and vegetables to get that extra bit of vitamin C. You could take tablets, but as they say, au natural is better for you. And having a lot of potatoes and stuff…you know, carbohydrates are good because that keeps up your muscle glycogen. And you should really be cutting down on fatty stuff because otherwise you're going to end up using that instead of your body fat, and then you'll become stocky, and that's not exactly a look most people go for. Plus, you have to eat healthy for sports. It's just the way it is. You've probably been too hard on your boyfriend. He's just looking out for you."
Draco had no idea what muscle glipoman was, but whatever it was sounded important because Draco so desperately did not want to become stocky. He liked his build. Very much so. And Harry hadn't said he was fat…he'd just said that maybe he should eat some celery for the marathon…
"So…I shouldn't eat meat?"
"Gosh, eat all the meat you like. Protein is very good for you. Do you want me to get you a leaflet?"
xxx
Harry wasn't quite sure what had changed so much, but whatever it was had been drastic. One moment Draco wouldn't look at or acknowledge him, and the next he was being snogged senseless in the car park of the gym.
"I am so sorry! I will eat celery if you want, but we need plenty of mayonnaise to disguise the plant taste. We need potatoes as well. And maybe we could go to Jenroy's for dinner, they have a meat fondue there. Is that healthy?"
"Erm…" Harry didn't know the answers, and didn't know the question, he was too busy holding the slim body in his grasp. Nestling his face into Draco's neck, he breathed in the smell that made him giddy every time. "I am so sorry, I didn't ever mean to imply anything about your weight!" said Harry sincerely, he nodded, "and Draco, know, that I will love you even if you were fatter than my cousin."
On the way home, as Harry navigated the car at high speed through the streets in his haste to get home and have gloriously violent make-up sex, he noticed that Draco was reading a pamphlet.
"What's that?" he asked, indicating right.
"Dieting leaflet. Brian gave it to me."
"…That's what made you change your mind?"
"Yep. If anyone knows what they are talking about, it's got to be Brian."
Harry was going to murder Brian.
xxx
"There, there…don't cry." Harry rocked Draco in his arms, hushing soothing tones down the back of his neck as they cuddled on the sofa. Draco's eyes were big and watery as he peered over the back of the couch to towards the kitchen.
"Oh Seamus, look! Chocolate chip ice cream!"
Draco howled and threw his head into Harry's shoulder, clutching him tighter. Harry just held him tighter as they allowed his friends to ransack their kitchen for all the unhealthy foods.
Hermione didn't quite understand what she was suppose to be doing and took with her most of the broccoli. When Seamus, Dean and Ron left with boxes of hidden sweets and goodies of all sorts, Draco stood in the centre of the desolate kitchen, cupboard doors slung open to reveal empty shelves...and wept like a little girl.
xxx
End-eth chapter seven
Author's Note: Aww, poor Draco. If you feel sorry for him, leave a review! Next chapter up Monday
