Alas there is no longer any plot, just eons of angst. For those of you who stuck with me this far, hoping to hear more about cell phones or dragons or anything interesting from the earlier chapters, you have my sincerest apologies.

I disclaim.

July 2030

"ALRIGHT SCORPIUS, I'M HERE, AND IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY. TWENTY-FOUR SHOTS FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY AND HIS POSSE."

"Rose," Albus hisses. "Pipe dOWN."

"I WILL NOT!"

"Rose," Alice says in her 'reasonable doctor' voice. "We are in the middle of a residential neighborhood populated by young families. There are children who have probably already gone to bed. You're disturbing them."

Rose heaves a sigh.

"Very well. You've always been the sensible one. I feel safer knowing that you'll be at my side all evening. My heart pines for you when you're away."

"Rose, it's barely dark out. How are you already drunk?"

"I'm a lightweight baybee," Rose sings as she twirls on the sidewalk.

Scorpius, meanwhile, is standing in the doorway of his family's townhome, looking on bemusedly as he attempts to welcome his friends in to set down their overnight things before they set out for a night of debauchery. He's pretty sure that Rose hasn't had anything to drink yet, since he knows how atrocious her typing gets when she's even slightly inebriated, and they've been texting up until about two minutes ago with no glaring errors on her part.

Albus wearily pushes past Scorpius, mumbling something about, "I'm too tired to match Rose's energy right now."

Alice follows Albus in, and then it's just Rose and Scorpius left, and he asks her, "You're not actually drunk yet, are you?"

Rose only winks at him and conjures a bottle of liquor and two shot glasses, and Scorpius laughs and reaches for one as she pours.

Rose raises her glass and proclaims, "To the birthday boy!" at the same time that Scorpius toasts, "To friendships that have stood the test of time."

"Eye contact, yo, remember you gotta keep eye contact with the person you're toasting with, otherwise it's seven years' bad sex."

This gives Scorpius pause. "Oh man, I had forgotten about that."

Rose laughs. "Americans, so hilarious."

Nonetheless, when the two finally stop giggling about bad sex, they keep eye contact while downing their drinks, a moment that is, perhaps at this point, not very odd at all in how intimate it feels.

Rose interrupts the moment by burping and drawling, "Two down, twenty-two left to go!"

Then, more quietly, "It's really good to see you again, Scorpius," as she reaches out to hug him.

"It's been far too long," he responds, drawing her into his arms.

Three months earlier.

"So I'm thinking about visiting my parents in late June or mid-July," Rose interrupts a lull in her phone conversation with Scorpius.

"I won't be around for June! It's the Greengrass family reunion," and Rose can hear the pout in his voice and can imagine the adorable way that his face is scrunching up. "But if you come in July we can go out for my birthday!"

"Oh that's right! I haven't been drinking with you in aaages."

"Since that night in Vegas."

"That's right! Dang, let's make it a hard to remember night that you'll never forget."

"Riiight."

"It's okay, Scorpius, you'll be with me, and if there's anything I do well, it's keeping it together enough to get home after a night out."

"Reassuring."

"Gosh, Scorpius, it's your birthday, you could at least be a little more excited about spending it with your old friends."

Silence.

"Besides, I don't know when I'm coming home yet."

That's blatantly a lie and Rose knows it as soon as it leaves her mouth. Summer is a flexible time for vacation time at her workplace, so she's definitely going to choose July. That much was decided as soon as Scorpius said his summer plans.

"You may not even have to deal with Drunk Rose."

A heavy pause in the conversation. Is it awkward? Rose feels it's become awkward all of a sudden, but if she doesn't say that it's awkward, then it isn't… Right? That's how that works.

But the maybe-awkward pause passes, and Scorpius seems to accept Rose's dithering to close that subject and they continue talking about all of the things, like what Scorpius wants for his birthday. (For her to come home, but he'll never say that to her face.)

Rose is resting with her head on Albus' shoulder in a booth at a bar with a dance floor. Rose is pretty sloshed, and Albus less so since he's trying to stay in peak physical form and he claims that, "Overimbibing affects my training for the entire week." They've been talking about going back to Scorpius' place and watching some trash telly before turning in for the night. One thing stands between them and this plan, though, and it is Scorpius. He is standing on the other side of the table, arms waving, and mouth moving, but Rose can't hear what he's saying over the music so she opts to rest with Albus for another hot second.

He abruptly stops gesturing and pulls out his phone, and pokes his tongue out in concentration as he tries to type a coherent message. Moments later they see a group message from Scorpius:

Scorpius [2333]: common yoi old farts letnus dance

Rose can't help but laugh, and the exceedingly pleasant memory of dancing with (read: being draped over) Scorpius in Vegas comes unbidden. It's enough to motivate her to heave herself out of her seat and try to drag Albus with her, but he resists, gesturing toward Alice, who is chatting up some of Scorpius' friends from uni. His message is clear: I'll stay with Alice, and you go have fun.

In response, Rose conjures a bit more water for Albus, gives his arm a squeeze, and then follows Scorpius out onto the dance floor.

Before she reaches him, though, a bro-y looking rectangle steps into her path and clamps one beefy hand onto her shoulder.

"Buy you a drink?" he slurs, breathing a heavy scent of beer and cigarette smoke into her face.

Since this is a muggle pub, it's likely that this person is also a muggle and therefore Rose should not overtly use magic to remove him. But she can use a charm that she's perfected to protect Drunk Rose from people like this, which she does, and she slips out from under his ham hand just in time to run directly into Scorpius' arms. She tows Scorpius away from the slightly bemused drunk dude and toward the other side of the dance floor, where she finally turns around and registers the expression on Scorpius' face. He seems to have adopted a small storm cloud.

Rose reaches up to lightly pat Scorpius' cheek, saying, "I'm a big girl and can protect myself. You wanted to dance, so let's dance!"

When this doesn't convince Scorpius back to his original exuberance from three and a half minutes ago, Rose reaches up to curl her hand around the nape of his neck and pull his ear down toward her. For exactly one hot second, she lets herself imagine tangling her fingers in his hair and kissing him, and her fingers tighten briefly before she reminds herself that, no matter how much she wants it, she can't risk breaking their friendship like this.

During this hot second, one of Scorpius arms has wrapped itself around Rose's waist, and pulled their bodies flush with each other, and he is gyrating with a bit more pep in his hips. Which is good. This is what she wanted. Rose has already forgotten what she was going to say, and she thinks that his renewed enthusiasm has negated the need, so she settles for the only coherent sentence she can manage at this time.

"Happy birthday, you dancing queen."

Three weeks earlier.

"Ick, Eileen, how do you stand this? Beet?! Kale?!" Rose scrunches up her nose while she tentatively takes a sip of her grass smoothie and before shoving it away from her.

"It's good for you," Eileen says blithely, sipping delicately at her drink.

"I'd rather have something hearty and meaty after we play tennis," Rose grumbles, mostly to herself."

"Yes, I know, last week was your turn to choose a lunch place, and this week it is my turn. Now shut it and enjoy your healthy smoothie."

Since enjoying her blended grass clippings is beyond her realm of reason, Rose instead tries one of her air fried French fries, and sighs. She keeps her verdict ("Needs more grease.") to herself, and dunks the sorry excuse for comfort food into her biodegradable plastic container of house-made organic heirloom tomato ketchup, and starts considering hitting up In-N-Out on her way home. Their fries might be made of cardboard, but at least there's enough grease to lubricate her old joints.

Eileen interrupts her reverie by asking, "So, how's, what's-his-face. The one who you were thinking about when you made out with Steven."

"Okay, one, I did not make out with Steven, it was a quick peck. And, two, his name is Scorpius."

"Oh, yes, thank you. How is your dear Scorpius?"

Rose sighs.

"It's okay, Rose, I am perfectly ready to press you for the juice. Which, judging from your reactions, there's a lot of today."

"Circe and Morgana, why are we friends again?"

"You love me, and you know it." Eileen bats her eyelashes coquettishly.

"Okay, okay," Rose concedes. "You're right. I do love you and I'm thankful to have you."

"When are you going to say that to your darling Scorpius?"

Ignoring this, Rose manages, "So my visit home is going to overlap with his birthday."

"Mmhm. You say this like it was by design."

"Maybe. Anyways, we are going out for his birthday."

"Ooh, exciting. Drunk Feisty Rose and her longtime crush. This will end well!"

Rose sighs.

"Hang on, let's back up a step. How do you feel about this?"

"Well, there's one more little piece of information you might like to know. We are staying the night at his parents' townhome, because we anticipate being too drunk to get anywhere safely."

"OH HOT DAYUM. THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY."

"Something like that. I worry about Drunk Cuddly Rose and breaking our friendship."

"But at the same time, this might be the push that you two need to move past being friends."

"Sure, but…"

"What are you gonna do about it? Is it just going to be the two of you?"

"I was considering warning him about Drunk Cuddly Rose in advance, but I don't want the night to start off on an awkward note. And, as of right now, we haven't talked about other people coming? But I know it would be easier to stay away if there are other people around."

"Alright, those both sound like good options. What's the worst that could happen if you do make a move?"

"I don't want to go through another period of not speaking to him." Rose has filled Eileen in on her entire questionable history with Scorpius, so she knows what Rose is referring to.

"So don't."

"What? How?"

"You're an adult, you can use your words. Talk to him afterwards. Just like with Steven, you guys are basically on speaking and flirting terms again."

Rose groans.

"What? Am I wrong?"

"Enough about me. Thanks for entertaining my insanity. But what about you? What's up with you and Kei? You guys hang out. All. The. Time."

Eventually, Alice tells the group that she has to get to bed, because she has work in the morning. So the four of them stagger out of the bar, Alice with several phone numbers from Scorpius' uni friends and leaving promises to hang out again some other time, Rose and Scorpius draped over each other and hoarsely braying lyrics to the last song that was playing before they walked out, and Albus tailing behind the group, herding cats like the Responsible Parent that he will be very soon.

Back at the house, Albus and Alice turn in pretty quickly, but Rose and Scorpius exchange a glance, and Scorpius jerks his head at the television set.

"Have you seen the latest episode of that show?"

"No, want to watch it?"

"Yes, let's!"

Rose stretches out across the sofa, and gets cozy by tucking her feet underneath the cushions to warm them up.

Scorpius looks at her. Looks at the couch. Looks at the rocking chair. Takes one step toward the rocking chair, but Rose interrupts his slow progress.

"Merlin, sit on the couch."

"What? You've taken up the entire space."

"No, there's plenty space."

"Where?"

Rose scoots down the couch, so that her knees are bent, and there's space for Scorpius to sit next to her head.

And looks at him again.

And continues looking at him until he gives a miniscule smile and steps toward the couch, plopping down and settling into the couch. Once he's done this, Rose scoots back up the couch and puts her head into his lap.

Scorpius freezes for a second, but relaxes as the opening credits give way to characters arguing and having shenanigans. They're both drawn into the drama, and Scorpius' fingers are playing lightly with Rose's curls.

She doesn't recall anything that happened in that episode.

Two nights earlier.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Rose, it's Scorpius."

"Oh, hi! Happy actual birthday! Sorry, I got caught up watching the weather channel with my father, he still calls it divination, and my mother really hates that subject and calls it fakery so they got into a rather one-sided shouting match with the telly and, well, I had forgotten that I was supposed to call you, I'm sorry, but oh my Merlin thank you for saving me from that nonsense… I think I still hear them going on downstairs." She holds the phone away from her face, microphone pointed in the direction of "downstairs," but Scorpius' muffled voice on the line prompts her to reunite her ear with her phone.

"Yeah, sorry, can you say that bit again?"

"I was just saying that I invited a couple of my mates from uni, but most of them say they'll meet up with us after dinner. Is there anyone else you'd want to invite?"

Rose supposes it was a little too much to hope to have him all to herself on his birthday, when he has no idea of her ulterior motives… But she keeps it together to respond, "Scorpius, it's your birthday, your party, your guest list. Wait, what about Albus?"

"Oh yeah, I had forgotten about him! We put him through a lot during that trip. Yeah, I'll definitely ask him."

"I'm having trouble getting ahold of him, and we're family. I wonder what's up with him and Vivian these days."

"Hmm, think he'll invite her?"

"Maybe, but I doubt she'd come. She's even more of a homebody than he is, and he even has trouble getting her to come out to Weasley clan events. Grandma Molly is, well, a little skeptical."

"Okay, I'll still invite Albus, it sounds like it would be nice for both of us to catch up with him. Any other Hogwarts classmates?"

"How about Alice?"

"Sure, you ladies were really close in school, right?"

Rose is somewhat surprised that he noticed, much less remembered, but she speaks her assent.

"Alright, then that's settled. So, how are you, Rose?"

"You know, things are not bad. I've been over to see both sets of grandparents and they're feeding me up a storm, I swear I've gained a couple kilos just in the last week or so."

Scorpius interrupts by laughing, not unpleasantly. "Have I ever told you how jealous I am of your relatives who can cook, and cook well?"

"Once… Twice… Maybe three times, maybe fifteen." Rose's tone is light, teasing.

"And how's that kid brother of yours?"

"Hugo's around, he's starting out at his job and trying to make a good impression by staying late, but I think he's gonna be great once he gets into the swing of things and his bosses see that he's more than just the progeny of war heroes."

They continue in this vein (which is, no vein at all) until there's a long pause on Scorpius' end.

"Sorry, that was my mum, she says dear old Aunt Daphne is on the house line and wants to talk."

"You should probably take that, then…?"

"Yeah. See you in a couple days, Rose."

Rose must have fallen asleep watching the show, because even before she opens her eyes, she can tell that light is streaming in through the windows. She takes stock of her position: she seems to still be on the couch but tucked under a blanket with her head on a couch cushion. A fuzzy memory comes back to her of the episode ending and Scorpius jostling her, trying to talk her into bed but her resisting and snuggling deeper into his lap.

And now she's here.

She hears the reason that she woke up – footsteps in the next room, and all of a sudden she remembers that Alice needed to go in to work early today, and in the absolutely least smooth motion she's ever executed in her entire life, she tumbles off the couch and does a half somersault to a toppled over position with her cheek in something soft and warm.

She hears slow applause and cracks an eye to realize that she's landed smack in Scorpius' stomach. He looks like he slept on the floor, but, what, there were enough beds to go around for the four of them…

"Scorpius, why didn't you sleep in a bed like a normal person?"

"Man, Rose, you sound like a chain smoker."

"Shut it. You do too."

"And I was too tired after that episode to walk more than a few steps." Lie. He wanted to sleep with her.

"Oh, fair. Should we go say goodbye to Alice?"

They find Alice in the kitchen, preparing a mug of coffee. From her raised eyebrow directed at Rose, Rose knows that Alice saw them sleeping next to each other in the television room. But Rose shrugs it off as a conversation she doesn't want to have in front of Scorpius, and the three make small talk before Alice heads out.

As soon as the door closes, Rose yawns and turns back toward the couch. After spending the night on it, she has to say that it is pretty comfortable and envisions a couple more hours of sleep on it. She plops down on it with her feet tucked between the cushions again, and looks expectantly at Scorpius, who doesn't need prompting this time to take a seat near her head, and Rose curls up contentedly at his side.

Unfortunately, Rose is just drifting off when Albus wanders down the stairs, saying something about getting home to Viv for brunch.

"She's making shakshuka, and hers is my absolute favorite."

The fireplace is on the same wall as the television, so Albus shoots the two of them (they haven't moved from their cuddle) a funny look before shouting his address and disappearing in a burst of green flame.

Rose stretches against Scorpius' leg.

"So much excitement, I don't know if I can get back to sleep. But with Albus' talk of brunch, I'm realizing that I could eat. Potatoes?"

"There's a cute little muggle café down the street from here that does a really excellent Western brunch."

"Oh man, have those barbaric American customs made it all the way to the motherland?"

"Sad, but true. Actually, not that sad. I find it pretty tasty. And they do a really excellent French toast."

"Let's go, then."

After a truly excellent (and full of twice-cooked potatoes) brunch, and some haggling over who's paying (Scorpius paid in the end, because Rose paid for drinks the previous night, and protested that she did it because he wasn't supposed to pay for drinks on his birthday), the two of them find themselves with a couple hours before Scorpius returns to spend the rest of the afternoon with his family, and Rose meets up with Hugo.

"What's there to do in town today?"

"Want to walk around the harbor and just look around?"

"Sure."

"Even though I've just eaten, I could really go for a bowl of clam chowder."

It turns out there's a Latin fair on the harbor, featuring food stalls and artists, and Rose's eyes light up when she sees.

"Oh man! Flavorful food! Let's go!"

And without waiting for his response, Rose plunges into the crowd. She slows only a little when Scorpius tugs on her sleeve, and she drops one hand behind her, as she has previously done many times with her girlfriends at clubs. But Scorpius is not a girlfriend, and when he takes her hand, it's electrifying. When he laces his fingers with hers and gives her hand a squeeze, she knows she never wants to let go.

But they have to let go, to eat their seafood paella, and when they part ways for the day. They still haven't talked about the cuddles, or the hand-holding, but if that's all Rose is going to get before they part ways to opposite ends of the world for another year and a half, she'll cherish this day.

Maybe Scorpius will too, if his good-bye bear hug that lasts a little longer than if they were just friends is anything to go by.

A/N:

1. "Night That You'll Never Forget," by Love and Theft.

2. "That show" is "Camp Camp," "RWBY" or "You're The Worst." Take your pick.

3. They might actually Do The Thing That We've All Been Waiting For in the next chapter. Stay tuned!