THC: Round 4

House: Ravenclaw

Class subject: Herbology

Story Category: drabble

Prompt(s): [object] coffee mug

Word count: 735

Notes: Unhealthy coping mechanisms and work habits please take care of yourselves and don't be like Percy. Also non-magic/modern AU.

A Coffee Stained Heart

Percy remembers sitting in his tenth grade English class and his teacher telling him that it wasn't necessary to wash a coffee mug after each use. Of course, it came with a few disclaimers: the mug couldn't be shared between people, and it was best if the coffee had been black.

He thinks about it a lot when he's at the office late at night, refilling his mug several times. It's a bad habit – the amount of caffeine he consumes on the regular, but it's one he probably won't stop any time soon. Sometimes the ever-changing stains in his coffee mug distract him long enough that he'll pull his eyes away from his computer screen. Or he'll get lost in the soulless black coffee that had gone cold ages ago, watching as it stays stagnant in the mug.

Growing up, he had been praised for working himself to the bone. Now, as an adult, he couldn't help but stick to the same patterns. Late nights, copious amounts of bitter coffee, and the drive to do better. He knew he was the only one left in the building. The glass walls of his personal office only reflected his image back to him, seeing as darkness lay behind them. Normally, the silence was calming but that evening, it ate away at Percy. The occasional clack of his mug hitting the desk and the clicking of his keyboard were the only sounds filling the office.

Everyone had told him to go home when they all left hours ago, but Percy had just waved them on and refilled his coffee mug. He had a report to finish, and he wouldn't be able to rest until it was completed. Sure, he had a team to help him, but Percy wasn't the best at relying on people. He ran his team well but at the end of the day, he spent hours poring over their work and double-checking it.

The rim of the mug clacked against his teeth and he winced, before letting out a sigh when the mug came up empty. The time in the corner of his computer screen blinked mockingly at him: 12:45 am. Any normal person would have stopped making coffee hours ago, but Percy stood from his seat to brew another cup. His personal coffee machine sat on one of the tables in the corner of his office. Frankly, the machine was horrendously loud and made low-quality coffee, but Percy didn't need it to taste nice. He needed something quick so he could keep caffeine in his system. The mixture of the coffee hitting the porcelain mug and the horrible whirring of the machine caused his mind to wander.

Only alone in his dark office, several cups of coffee in, would he let himself think like this. About how the rest of his family had someone to go home to at night, and all he had was an empty bed he hated.

In the back of his mind, he knew who he would want to come home to every night. It's something he won't allow himself to admit out loud. It's the same person who gifted him the mug he's staring at. The sole reason why he refuses to use any other mug. That, and it's the perfect mug. It's a muted green color, which fits the color scheme of his office, it holds about twelve ounces of coffee, and sits comfortably in his grasp. Everyone in the office knew not to touch it – not like it ever left Percy's desk anyway. He only washed it at home, not trusting anything in the communal kitchen sink. It had been a graduation gift, and unbeknownst to Percy at the time, a parting gift.

He finally pulled himself from his thoughts and went to retrieve his cup of coffee. Maybe it was an act of fate, or possibly Percy did it on purpose, but the mug tumbled from his grasp and shattered on the floor. Black coffee and shards of porcelain stared up at him as he began to cry. All these years, he hadn't let himself cry over it. Told himself to suck it up and carry on with life, because at the end of the day, if he had wanted to stay, he would have.

The only thing he had left to remind him of Oliver lay on the floor, broken and unrepairable like Percy's heart.