kissing cousins
Surprise is hardly a strong enough reaction to describe Lily's reaction when she comes across Fred and Albus facing off across a broken houseplant, flinging insults at one another with the quiet intensity that has seemed so gentle until now. It might be even harder to find the word to describe how everyone else feels when it keeps happening.
Awkwardly, uncomfortably, it seems it's somehow the two of them, the sweet ones, the nice ones, who rub wrinkles into one another's calm.
It's almost impossible to make sense of - on the average day, around anyone else, they have barely enough cruelty to leave an unkind word lingering anywhere near their mouths - but what Lily can't see is that even kindness comes with a price - curbed back words and unspoken wishes and hidden desires. Some of these things they can spit out to each other in the mornings, and some they save for the night.
