Notes: Happy Kuzuhina Day!

I wanted to update Waiting for Rainbows for Kuzuhina Day this year but it was going to be a chapter with no kuzuhina in it at all and that just seemed... not the right move, haha. So instead I decided to return to this AU for the first time in like two years? (On that note, I strongly suggest reading the other fics in this AU first: Where Time Has No Name, Honey Brew, and Why You Should Fall in Love With a Hufflepuff.)

The title this time comes from the song "Zero" by BUMP OF CHICKEN.

I want to make it clear that I don't support JKR or her recent statements, but I do still quite enjoy this world that I borrowed from her. So, like, I figure continuing to play with this AU isn't financially supporting her at all, so it's fine, right? Maybe?

This is unbetaed and still a bit sloppy, especially the final half, and they all sound entirely too American, and I was two sentences away from finishing it when I realized that I had completely forgotten that Natsumi existed so... I think I'll have to come back and polish this up more later. But for now, I hope you enjoy?

The Only Place I Can Breathe

Not to be dramatic or anything, but Hajime wasn't sure he could survive if he was apart from Fuyuhiko for too long.

It wasn't out of excess sentimentality, but instead pure practicality. The other boy's presence was an active reminder of all the reasons that Hajime had fallen in love with him—his grin, his eyes, his biting wit, his comforting presence, every individual freckle dotting the bridge of his nose. They were all things that made Hajime's chest flutter in the sweetest, most wholesome way.

But without the Hufflepuff in his sights, Hajime's stupid, hormone-addled teenage brain would choose to instead focus on more carnal thoughts, and it was awful.

It was a wonder, at first, that he had managed to concentrate on studying well enough to pass his OWLs, even earning Outstandings in Charms and Transfiguration and Exceeds Expectations in four of his other subjects. He had nearly botched History of Magic, accidentally slipping into daydreams of Fuyuhiko in the middle of the exam, but even then he had managed to hold it together enough to earn an Acceptable grade.

In retrospect, it was even worse after the exams, back home for summer holidays with no studies to distract him, no friends at arms' reach to keep himself occupied. He tried to organize social gatherings as often as possible, but after returning home in the evenings, no amount of video games or family movie nights were enough to keep his mind from wandering to honey-golden eyes and freckle-dusted cheeks.

Bedtime was bad, but showers were worse. All alone, in a small, confined space, blank tile walls offering no stimulation to give any hope of chasing away the images that came to mind unbidden. Hajime had lost count of the times that he'd had to wash more than just soap and shampoo down the drain.

Fuck adolescence.

He was both relieved and terrified when, two weeks into the holidays, he received an owl from Fuyuhiko inviting him to the Quidditch World Cup finals in Argentina. He accepted immediately—of course he did—but even with the knowledge that a few of their other friends had been invited to the Kuzuryus' campsite as well, Hajime didn't entirely trust that that would be enough deterrent to keep his hands to himself.

Still, he kept quiet about his worries and the evening before the World Cup finals he stood in a hidden corner of Preston Park clustered together with Makoto and Komaru, along with his uncle and a few other local wizards. They all strained to at least keep their fingertips on the nondescript spatula they had found on the ground until a sickening tug at his belly area indicated that they were on their way.

Hajime had heard plenty of horror stories about travel sickness just from Portkeying relatively short distances, but crossing hemispheres, an entire ocean was way worse than he could have imagined. As soon as Hajime's feet were on solid ground again they immediately failed him and he collapsed into a miserable heap of unbearable nausea, just barely lucid enough to register that the air around them was suddenly a lot colder.

Even through the dizzying illness, though, he easily recognized the pair of expensive leather shoes that appeared next to his face. Right. Of course he had to make such an undignified entrance in front of the boy who had been dominating his fantasies for months.

"Nice landing, there."

Hajime groaned. "Bugger off, Fuyuhiko."

Laughing, Fuyuhiko reached down and tugged Hajime up by the elbow. The shorter boy could only hoist him up so far, of course, but Hajime didn't feel up to being fully on his feet just yet, anyway. It was a bit worrying to be leaning so heavily against him, but Fuyuhiko didn't seem to mind—if anything, Hajime might have thought that he was leaning into the contact even more.

"Shit, you can tell that it's summer where you just came from," he mumbled, still holding Hajime's arm and almost nuzzling his shoulder. "Your clothes are still so warm."

Not fair. Not fair not fair not fair. Was he trying to pull something? With a great effort, Hajime pulled away and forced himself to find his bearings again. "Yeah, but they're too light for these temperatures. Let me get a warmer coat from my bag real quick..."

This was a bad idea. He didn't know if Fuyuhiko was trying to seduce him or if it was his overactive brain pulling tricks on him, but at this rate there was no way he'd survive two nights camping with this boy. After shrugging on his jacket, he turned back to Fuyuhiko and tried not to be too obvious about avoiding eye contact. "Right, so where is the campground, anyway?"

Fuyuhiko pointed, in the same direction as a rock formation about a hundred meters away. "Just about a kilometer that way. We'll have to scale some sand dunes, but you should still be able to see all the hubbub once we're past those rocks. Makoto, you're still not on your feet yet? I know that's not your first time Portkeying, and Byakuya's gonna give you shit again if you're such a mess when we show up."

Makoto, still crouched on the ground, gave a long-suffering sigh. "Byakuya's here too?"

"Yup, the Togamis' campsite is right next to ours."

"Oh!" That caught Komaru's attention as she helped her brother stand. "Toki must be somewhere close too then, right? She said she'd be here... or, well, she complained that the other girls were dragging her along..."

"I think I saw her earlier today, but I don't know where she's staying. I know a bunch of the girls are staying with the Neverminds, so maybe there?" Fuyuhiko spared Hajime a brief glance, as if to make sure that he was really all right on his own. "We're also near the Enoshima-Ikusaba campsite, but I'm pretty sure it's just the twins and their family there."

Hajime's gaze snapped to Fuyuhiko's then, panic setting in. "Enoshima's here too?"

Fuyuhiko gave a light laugh. "You're really jumpy around her lately, huh? Did she poison your pumpkin juice at some point or something?"

Fuuuuuck fuck fuck. Was there a way to Portkey back home immediately? Hajime would even be willing to try illegal Apparition, laws and distance and lack of technical knowledge be damned. He'd rather be irreparably splinched than let Junko Enoshima read his mind in his current state.

Knowing that it was all for naught, though, he sighed. "Just... forget about it. Let's head to the campsite."

"Right, all of you follow me then." Fuyuhiko lightly punched Hajime's shoulder as he took the lead, then dropped his voice a bit quieter. "I'll do my best to help you avoid her until this is over, all right?"

Merlin, did he want to kiss him.

Fuyuhiko had been right—as soon as they passed the rock formation, the vast expanse of tents was clearly visible, bright banners and light shows gaudily covering the desertscape. It was boisterous enough that Hajime doubted that even the desolate location and the strongest barrier spells in the world could keep it from prying eyes, but he hadn't seen any Muggle news sources running sensational headlines about unexplained phenomena in the Patagonian Desert, so it was probably fine.

"Wow," Komaru said in awe as they took their first steps into the campground, looking at all the sights surrounding them. "Y'think things will calm down after the sun sets, or will it get even crazier?"

Fuyuhiko snorted. "If it's anything like the previous nights, then definitely the latter. And since tomorrow's the final game, it'll be even worse than usual. We've put soundproofing charms on our tents, though, so at least we'll be able to sleep."

"Have you been here for all the games, then?" Makoto asked.

"Nah," Fuyuhiko said, growling in annoyance as he just barely managed to avoid crashing into an unsupervised child running wild on a toy broomstick. "Dad's had camp set up here since the semi-finals started, but I only arrived on Saturday, right before Japan vs. Bulgaria."

"Oh, you got to see that one?" spoke up Hajime's uncle from where he was trailing behind his children. "How was it? It sounded like a great game, from what I read in the Prophet..."

Hajime was only too happy to let his relatives carry the conversation, preoccupied as he was with keeping his own thoughts in line. He focused firmly instead on the pounding of his feet against the sand, the nip of the cold air against patches of exposed skin, and most certainly not on the warm body walking right by his elbow. Not at all. So there would be nothing interesting to find if any nosy blond-haired Legilimens happened to pass him by and try to—

"Hajime, you're here!"

The high-pitched lilt of a female voice made Hajime immediately stiffen in place, but a glance at his surroundings and half a second of rational thought revealed it to be Chiaki, wrapped in a puffy coat as she stepped out of a tent alongside Peko.

"Right, so that's the girls' tent," Fuyuhiko was saying—apparently they had arrived at the Kuzuryus' campsite without while Hajime had been moving on autopilot, and was now giving a quick tour of their facilities.

As Peko and Natsumi showed Komaru into the tent and Fuyuhiko moved to continue showing them around, Chiaki peered up at Hajime curiously. She broke her gaze for just long enough to glance knowingly at Fuyuhiko's back, then sighed. "You don't look like you've been getting enough sleep," she said softly and reached up as if to pat his head.

"That's pretty funny, coming from you."

Unable to reach the top of Hajime's head anymore after his growth spurt, Chiaki opted instead to pap his cheeks between her hands. "I sleep just fine, thank you. Oh— you're cold."

"We're all cold."

"Hajime!" They both looked two tents down, where Fuyuhiko was waving for their attention. "Me, you, and Makoto are in here! Come on in to warm up when you're done flirting!"

Hajime waved his assent, saving his grimace until Fuyuhiko was completely out of sight.

"You should just tell him," Chiaki urged.

Hajime hid his face in his hands and groaned. So far, aside from Junko, Chiaki was the only one who knew of his feelings for Fuyuhiko—hell, as soon as news had spread around school about the Slytherin Muggle-born being able to cast a Patronus, she had walked right up to him and bluntly said, "A wildcat doesn't suit you, I think. That's Fuyuhiko's Patronus, isn't it?"

Not that he particularly had a problem with his best friend knowing about it—though he of course spared her the more intimate details about what had been going through his head. The problem was that she seemed completely unperturbed by Fuyuhiko's assumptions that she was the one Hajime liked, and was thus frustratingly optimistic about his chances.

"It's not that easy, Chiaki."

"Why? He likes you too, I think."

"Not that way."

"How will you know until you talk to him about it?" She placed a hand on his elbow, and when Hajime dropped his hands to look at her again, she was wearing a concerned pout, her cheeks puffed. "Hajime, this was such a happy thing for you at first. Now look at what keeping it bottled up has done to you."

He sighed. "Well, it's probably gonna come bursting out when I least want it to, anyway, so I'll just let it happen when it does."

"Oh, but that's not good, either. You should put more thought into something as important as this."

He slouched into the collar of his jacket and huffed. "Honestly, Chiaki? Right now I don't want to think about it at all, if you don't mind."

She studied him for a moment longer before settling into a gentle smile. "In that case, want to hang out in the girls' tent for a little bit? We have warm butterbeer and Exploding Snap."

Finally, Hajime felt his mouth beginning to curve into a smile. "I think I'd like that."

Fortunately, after a few hours of settling into the normalcy of being continually surrounded by friends again, Hajime started to feel that he was things were steadily returning to normal. He was able to laugh over butterbeer and Exploding Snap, and when Fuyuhiko and Makoto came to fetch them to watch the adults' attempt at a Muggle-style barbeque dinner, he barely spared the blond boy any more thought than he did any of his other friends gathered at the campsite.

He only caught himself once, maybe twice, glancing for perhaps a moment too long at Fuyuhiko's lips.

But overall, it was much better. It really was so much easier when he was around Fuyuhiko, when his adoration for the boy was actively shining and blooming in his presence. He was even able to sleep just fine that night, barely minding that they were sharing the same general space.

But he still really wanted to kiss him.

In the morning, as they got ready to head towards the Quidditch stadium, Fuyuhiko suddenly spoke up. "Oh, right, Hajime. I asked Peko to keep an eye out for Enoshima today."

His stomach did little flips at the consideration, but he was equal parts embarrassed that there was any perceived weakness he would need protection from. "You didn't need to do that," he mumbled.

"Huh?" Makoto tilted his head after pulling on his hooded sweatshirt. "Is something going on with Junko?"

"He's keeping his mouth shut about it," Fuyuhiko said, jabbing his thumb in Hajime's direction, "but it's obvious that she did something to spook him. So we're trying to avoid her just in case."

"You never told me that, Hajime..." Makoto frowned, cupping his chin in thought. "Do you want me to talk to her, then? She's my friend, so I can try to get her to—"

"Please don't even bring it up to her," Hajime pleaded. "Seriously, don't remind her."

"What did she do, though?" Makoto looked even more concerned now, and Hajime had to suppress a frustrated sigh. His cousin could be incredibly persistent when something didn't make sense to him, but Hajime was confident that his own persistence could win out.

"I'm not going to talk about it, Makoto," he said firmly, trying to communicate through his gaze that this was really not the place nor the company to be revealing the details.

Apparently Makoto caught the message, because he sighed and backed down. "Well, okay. There are so many people around, chances are we won't run into her, anyway."

"Right, and speaking of all those people," Fuyuhiko cut in as he peeked out of the tent, "it looks like the path the stadium is already getting some major crowding. Let's hurry and get on our way, too."

The boys nearly tripped over each other in their rush to get their shoes on, and then made their way outside to meet up with the others. Peko caught Hajime's eye and held up her arm to tap a bracelet that he recognized well—he had helped her out a few months earlier by enchanting a pair of bracelets with the Protean Charm so that she and Mukuro could arrange extra Duelling Club practice in secret, and whatever else they did together on their own time. He sighed. He could guess how those bracelets were being used today, and while he was grateful, he still felt a bit pathetic.

He doubted that even the bracelets would be much help when, minutes later, they were crammed tightly together among thousands of other witches and wizards making their way through rock formations dotting the way to the stadium. Trying to raise an arm to eye-level in that crowd would only be a practice in futility. Fortunately, he didn't see anyone around that he wouldn't be comfortable being stuck near for the time being.

Well, no, scratch that, because Fuyuhiko was pressed right up to his side and he could feel the tendrils of desire beginning to creep into his consciousness again.

He really wanted to kiss him.

It was too loud around them to hope to engage anyone in conversation, indecipherable noise drowning out anything of meaning, and at a loss, Hajime grabbed Fuyuhiko's wrist tightly.

The blond looked up at him, visibly confused, and Hajime was glad for the noise because Fuyuhiko didn't have to hear him stutter before he mouthed, "So we don't get separated."

Apparently that was enough of an explanation for the Hufflepuff, because he made no effort to pull away.

But this was bad. Hajime gripped that wrist like a lifeline, desperately willing himself not to travel away from the fabric of Fuyuhiko's jacket and into the warm palm that he so desperately wanted to envelop with his own.

This was really, really bad.

Hajime tried to focus on the Quidditch throughout the day, he really did, but even long after he had let go of Fuyuhiko he was too acutely aware of the boy's presence, sitting right next to him in the stadium, so easily within reach if Hajime didn't have the willpower to keep himself away. Willpower that he could feel being gradually chipped away whenever Fuyuhiko so much as glanced at him.

He really wanted to kiss him. He wanted to kiss him and then—

After a long day of pretending to care about Bulgaria's long sought-after World Cup trophy, they returned to the campsite for the night, fireworks of Bulgarian red booming in the sky above them. After an entire day outside, Hajime had lost almost all feeling in his nose and fingertips, and he wanted nothing more than to seek refuge in their temperature-controlled tent.

Komaru seemed to have other plans, though. "Hey, do you guys want to go see if we can get a chance to meet Dumbledore's Army?!" she asked as they entered their campsite.

"Seriously?" Fuyuhiko groaned. "No way. It's cold, and it's been a whole shitshow around the DA guys ever since they got here."

"Tell me about it," Natsumi added. "You won't be able to see them anyway, security's too tight. Just come to the girls' night at the Neverminds' camp instead."

"Aww..." Komaru put a finger to her chin and glanced in the direction of what Hajime knew to be the VIP tents. "But they're like idols to a Gryffindor like me! This is such a rare chance..."

"I'll go with you," Makoto offered, pulling his jacket closer around him as he mentally resolved himself to spending even more time out in the cold. "Would be kind of neat if we do get to see them. How about you, Hajime?"

Hajime hadn't exactly been brought up hearing grand tales of Harry Potter and Dumbledore's Army, and even after being introduced to the wizarding world he hadn't been immersed in a House that did much idolizing of them, either. "I just want to get inside, too," he said, smiling apologetically at Komaru. "You have fun, though, okay?"

After determining that they were going to split up for the time being, with the Naegi siblings heading for the VIP campsites and the girls going to the Neverminds', Hajime and Fuyuhiko made their way into their tent.

Almost immediately he realized his massive mistake.

"Hajime?" Fuyuhiko cocked an eyebrow at the brunet standing stock-still in the doorway. "Come on, get in here and close the flap. This place is only temperature-controlled as long as no gusts come blowing in."

"Ah, right," he said, pulling the flap closed and shuffling over to his sleeping bag next to Fuyuhiko's.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

Fuyuhiko wasted no time curling up in his sleeping bag for extra warmth, and at a loss of what else to do, Hajime followed suit.

He wanted to—

Determined to keep his mind on something, anything else, Hajime fished for his wand and pointed it towards the ceiling of the tent, charming it bit by bit to look like the night sky, just like the Great Hall at Hogwarts.

"Oh, wicked idea," Fuyuhiko breathed, staring upwards as the star-studded blackness gradually expanded like spilled ink seeping onto parchment. "It's too cold and noisy to do real star-gazing, so this is great."

Hajime gulped, feeling his Adam's apple bob painfully, and nodded. "Yeah..." He found it hard to force any further words from his throat, so he continued to paint a sky just for them.

As he began to run out of space on the ceiling, he made the mistake of glancing over to Fuyuhiko and his breathing stopped altogether.

His smile was so soft, defenses lowered in a way that Hajime had never seen around anyone else, and his golden eyes were widened with awe, reflecting artificial stars that made them seem to glitter.

"Fuyuhiko," he breathed out. "Can I kiss you?"

Fuyuhiko was silent a moment, continuing to stare at the ceiling; a slight furrowing of his brows was the only indication that he had heard what Hajime said. "Do you want to kiss me?" he countered.

Hajime faltered a bit, not entirely sure of what he was doing, but figuring that he'd finally reached that "come bursting out" point; he was too far in to back off. "Yeah, I— I do. Is that weird?"

"A little, yeah." Fuyuhiko was still and silent for a moment longer. Then, he let out a soft exhale and shifted, turning in his sleeping bag to face Hajime. His cheeks glowed pink and, stgrangely, even turned away from the stars, his golden eyes were glittering. "I don't really care though. You can kiss me if you want."

Hajime's heart jumped into his throat. "Ah," he managed, "uh, okay." That response was so unexpected, it felt like his brain had stopped functioning altogether. But, well, he had permission...

He scooted closer to Fuyuhiko, only emerging from his sleeping bag just enough to sit up and lean over his friend. Those golden eyes glittered for just a half second longer before they closed, and Hajime leaned down—

He was relieved, when their lips touched, that his body didn't do anything stupid like demand for more; in fact, in that moment, that sweet, chaste contact was almost more than Hajime could bear. Only five seconds later he shot upward again and shifted away. "Okay, thanks!" he all but spat out, lying down and curling away from Fuyuhiko, nerves roiling in his stomach as if he had just circumnavigated the entire globe via Portkey.

What. What. Had he just done that? It all felt so surreal. If this was another one of his fantasies, it was both too believable and not believable enough.

The silence settling between them was almost deafening, and Hajime wasn't sure how much time had passed before Fuyuhiko cleared his throat. "So... do you make a habit of just randomly kissing people like that?"

"Huh?" Hajime looked over his shoulder, but Fuyuhiko had turned away as well. "No...?"

"Then why do you care so little that you'd just turn away as if it never happened?" His voice cracked on the last syllable, telling Hajime what he had failed to notice through his own self-centered concerns: Fuyuhiko was upset.

Alarmed, he scrambled back into a sitting position. "Hold on, do you really think I wouldn't care about kissing someone?!"

"Shit, I don't know what to expect of you cunning fuckers in Slytherin!" Fuyuhiko finally turned towards Hajime, only to glare up at him fiercely. "Care to explain why this whole thing even happened when you have Chiaki?!"

"I don't 'have' Chiaki!" Hajime insisted. "I don't want Chiaki as anything more than a friend! The one I want is you, and that's why I kissed you! So maybe you can explain why you let me?!"

Fuyuhiko frowned further, his cheeks growing steadily pinker. "So I'm supposed to believe you want me."

Hajime could feel himself flushing to the tips of his ears. "I mean, I'd hope you would. It's the truth, after all."

His mouth still set into a firm frown and eyes guarded, Fuyuhiko sat up. "So then what if I tried kissing you again, huh?"

Hajime's breath caught in his throat, but he managed to force words to form. "I— I'd like that. A lot." Taking a deep breath, he continued, "I'd like to keep kissing you forever, if I could."

Fuyuhiko's eyes dropped down, and he tentatively reached over, settling his fingers upon Hajime's. "Uh-huh. And no one else?"

"There isn't anyone else who matters."

In the next breath, Fuyuhiko had connected their lips again, stronger than the first feather-light kiss. Hajime eagerly answered in kind as it quickly turned into an open-mouthed meeting of lips and teeth and tongue, flavored with youthful inexperience. The force of Fuyuhiko's enthusiasm pushed Hajime back onto the floor of the tent, but he held fast to Fuyuhiko, relishing in the warm weight upon him as they continued their ministrations.

Eventually they had to separate for air, puffs of warm breath tickling their faces as they gazed in amazement at each other.

"Merlin," Hajime gasped, "I've been so terrified of Enoshima seeing all the things I've been thinking I want to do with you."

Fuyuhiko barked out a laugh. "Is that what that's all been about?"

"Pretty much."

"Hmmm." His eyes half-lidded, and with a sleepy smile, Fuyuhiko placed one hand flat against Hajime's chest while the other flicked the zipper pull on his sleeping bag. "In that case, why don't I join you in there and we can give her something really good to see?"

Blood rushed in Hajime's ears, and he was certain he must resemble a tomato by this point. It was a tempting offer—very tempting—but even with the devilish warmth coiling in his stomach he knew what the answer had to be. "Makoto will be back soon."

Fuyuhiko kept fiddling with the zipper pull and didn't look particularly put off by that information.

"Fuyuhiko."

"No, yeah, you're right." With a sigh, Fuyuhiko rolled off of Hajime, but he laid close enough that they could keep their fingers entwined—and close enough, Hajime couldn't help but notice, that they could easily steal a light kiss or two whenever the desire arose.

It was nice. Really nice. But there was still something missing, something that he felt he hadn't made clear enough.

Kissing was fine and all, but had he done enough to make sure Fuyuhiko knew he really cared about him?

It was hard to think through the euphoria of new steps taken in their relationship, but there was one way Hajime knew for sure would express how deeply he felt.

"Um," he started. "By the way. Your Patronus is a wildcat."

There was a pause before Fuyuhiko shifted onto his elbows to stare down at him, confused. "What are you talking about? I can't cast a Patronus. Your Patronus is a wildcat."

Hajime shook his head. "My Patronus was a dog of some sort. It changed before I could make it fully corporeal."

"It changed..." Hajime could almost see the cogs working, Fuyuhiko's eyes widening as his face turned red behind the freckles. "It... changed?! Hajime, what the fuck, your Patronus changed?!"

Hajime gave a small grin. "Yeah. It changed into yours."

"Hajime what the fuck!" Turning ever redder, Fuyuhiko lurched upwards and away from their little space of warmth. "A Patronus doesn't change for just... What you're saying right now is that this isn't just a little teenage crush!"

It finally dawned upon Hajime that perhaps it hadn't been the right time to drop that particular bombshell. "Ah... yeah."

"So you for real love me?!"

"That's... pretty much what that means, yeah."

"You... you..." Fuyuhiko's face went slack as he continued to process the confession. "Hold the fucking phone, didn't you first cast your Patronus in February?"

"Uh... yeah."

"Seriously? You've been in love with me—not just a crush, but in love with me—for at least five months, and that's the best confession you came up with?! 'I want to kiss you, is that weird'?!"

Hajime shrank into his sleeping bag. "I mean, when you put it that way I guess it does sound kind of pathetic..."

"No shit!"

"Should I Obliviate you and try again?"

"Wh— no!" Hajime hadn't thought it possible, but Fuyuhiko went even redder. "I'm not letting anyone take away that memory of my boyfriend being dumb as shit!"

Hajime blinked, not quite believing the title that hat so easily fallen from Fuyuhiko's lips, before laugher came bubbling from his chest. "Well, good. I don't want my boyfriend forgetting any moment we spend together, either."

Fuyuhiko let out a long, weary breath before lying down at Hajime's side again, hesitantly putting his hand back in Hajime's palm where it belonged. "You're bloody unbelievable."

"Sorry."

In stark contrast to the petulant words, Fuyuhiko moved closer to gingerly place their foreheads together. "You're visiting me in Sicily again this year."

"Is that a command or a threat?"

"It's an offer, fuckface."

"All right, then I accept."

"Good." Fuyuhiko yawned, covering his mouth with the hand that wasn't entwined in Hajime's. "Now look what you did, tiring me out with your clumsy-ass attempts at courtship."

"Sorry," Hajime laughed. "Let's get to sleep then."

"Mm. Yeah."

It occurred to Hajime, as he drifted off to sleep with Fuyuhiko by his side, their bodies curled towards each other, that Makoto was going to walk in and immediately piece together the situation. It was entirely possible that Komaru would see too, and then Chiaki, Peko, and Natsumi would inevitably be clued in as well.

He found that he didn't really mind, though. At the very least, it wasn't nearly enough motivation to draw away from the comfort, the warmth, the intoxicating bliss of being accepted by the boy he loved.

Notes: JKR why the hell did you decide to have a Quidditch World Cup in a cold winter desert in the southern hemisphere in July.

I do appreciate the excuse to write yet another one of these winter romance fics that I love so much but the more years go by the more I think we all realize she's kind of an idiot.