A/N: Thanx for the reviews. Midterms suckity suck suck.
Disclaimer: If only Flint was mine… If only. Curses.
Meeting Mates
Someone was knocking on the door to his flat. Well, it started out as knocking, now it sounded like plain cursing and smacking and kicking.
Of all the days to get a fucking morning visitor…
Flint looked livid as he rolled out of bed and slipped into the closest pair of pants. He took a quiet moment to stare at Katie's peaceful form asleep beneath the covers before turning around and stalking out of the bedroom. He closed the door behind him softly, wary of waking her when he turned around and came face-to-face with Terence Higgs, an old school mate and close friend of his.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Flint muttered. He shot Higgs a furious look.
"I let myself in, thanks," Higgs said cheerfully.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Flint repeated, slightly louder.
"Thought you were having troubles," Higgs shrugged as he noisily slumped into one of the couches littered around the practically bare room.
"Would you quiet down?" Flint snapped.
"Why? Ya got company?" Higgs grinned wryly as he kicked off his shoes and reached for a pack of cigarettes smashed into his coat pocket.
"As a matter of fact, I do." His tone was arctic. On a regular day, a visit from the Arrows' Seeker would've made him grin and given him liable reason to get pissed out of his mind, but now was not a good time.
"That's no way to greet an old mate, mate."
Higgs yawned and placed the fag in his mouth, snapping his brown eyes shut, and leaning backwards onto the couch.
"I'm not having any fucking troubles," Flint said dryly.
"Well that's obvious," Higgs said sarcastically.
Flint flipped him off as he sat down in the chair across from the cocky Seeker.
"Trouble's a-comin,'" Higgs said with a slight tilt of his head.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Puce rang the other day and said we should give you a bell to see how you were about." Higgs lit the cigarette with a small charm from the tip of his wand and frowned.
"Why the hell would Adrian "God" Pucey want to do that?" Flint smirked.
Higgs continued, "Well, he said he'd gotten a visit from, wouldn't ya know it, Katie Bell. This was odd because it just so happened that she'd been to see me, too, so this wasn't coincidence or anything. We owled the rest of the boys and it turned out she'd been to see Montague, Warrington, Bletchley, Derrick, Bole, Nott, Goyle… You name it, she's been there! Even fucking Malfoy. She's been traipsing around our backyards asking all of us if we've seen ya, know where you are and whatnot."
With that, Higgs rolled his eyes.
"And?" Flint prompted.
"And… we didn't know if we should tell her or not so I decided to drop by and ask you myself, like the great man I am. We want to know what the fuck is up? What the hell does she want with you, mate? Is she sniffing out the will?" Higgs drawled.
Flint stiffened.
"Shut your trap if you know what's good for you, Higgs," Flint growled.
"Well, does she know about it or not?" Higgs rolled his eyes in exasperation.
Flint scowled.
"Y'know, if getting a good fuck still puts you in such a bad mood, I think I liked you loads better when you were just plain randy," Higgs snickered.
"She's in there."
Higgs sat up after that comment, his face thunderstruck, the cigarette dangling from his open mouth. He shot Flint an impressed look and finally got the hint to lower his voice into a whisper, rasping out, "You fucked the Katie Bell?"
"Shut your trap, Higgs."
"Holy fuckaroo, mate. And she has no idea about the money?"
Flint was on the verge of beating the damn Seeker's face in.
"No, she doesn't know, and it's going to stay that way," Flint grated out in irritancy.
"I bow to your superior will. Y'know we had a pool going, right? Or a bet, at least. Looks like Montague takes the cake. He was the only one that said you'd be able to do it," Higgs grinned.
"I'm going to kill all of you," Flint muttered.
"Nott said you might. But shit, fuck no. I never thought you'd get her in your bed so fast," Higgs shook his head with a slight chuckle.
"How many days left?" Flint asked.
"Seventeen I think, at most anyway," Higgs shrugged.
"Seventeen..."
"So when's the wedding?"
Katie awoke to the sound of a glass smashing.
She sat up sharply and glanced nervously at the clock on the bedstand. It was almost noon. She'd never slept that late before. She smiled wryly to herself, but quickly frowned when she realized she was naked in Flint's bed and he was probably throwing a tantrum in the next room. Dear Godric, what had she gotten herself into? The last thing she wanted was to confront him now, but she'd asked for it. She didn't have much choice after what happened last night. Thinking about it could make her blush… She was proving it by the second.
He had been insatiable last night. She had the marks to prove it.
She slipped out from beneath the rumpled covers and reached for an oversized button-down of his thrown casually over a chair. She looked avidly for her knickers before finally finding them tucked beneath the bed.
Katie straightened her hair restlessly and took a deep breath before reaching for the doorknob.
Here goes nothing…
She opened the door and was greeted by the sound of laughter.
Katie froze in shock at the sight of Flint laughing. Marcus Flint. Laughing. His face was broken out into a smile, his white slightly-crooked teeth peeked through, and the edges of his eyes crinkled in amusement. Thank Godric he never smiled. She would've fallen too hard too fast for the wrong person. Like you aren't doing it anyway, she frowned. She'd never been so stunned in her life and at that moment, she wished everything could be different. She wished that she could see him laugh all the time. She wished she could be the one making him do so. And she wished she could laugh with him.
There was another man in the room, too. Terence Higgs. He'd been at least three or four years ahead of her when she'd attended Hogwarts. She remembered he had played Seeker for the vicious Slytherin team before graduating and being recruited by the Appleby Reserve.
Higgs cleared his throat as his puppy brown eyes caught sight of Katie in the bedroom doorway.
Flint stopped abruptly and Katie blushed when he caught her eye.
"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know I was interrupting anything," Katie stammered.
Flint lowered his gaze and stood up.
"This is Higgs. Or Terence," Flint said, clearing his throat.
"Terence," Higgs said as he followed Flint's lead and stood up. He offered a handshake and watched as she chewed the bottom of her lip nervously and reached for his hand. They shook, with Flint's stony gaze settling on her again.
"I remember you. Do you still play?" Katie asked.
Higgs winced and dramatically held a hand to his heart as if she'd just shot him.
"A true blow," Higgs grinned, shaking his head playfully.
"Now you've gone and offended him," Flint snorted.
"Well, if you can't answer an honest-to-Godric question like that, maybe you're not good enough for me to remember," Katie said as she rolled her eyes.
Flint snickered. Higgs stared at her in disbelief, then burst out into laughter.
"Oh, I like her," Higgs grinned.
"Should I be flattered?" Katie smiled, despite herself. For the first time in months, years even, she was smiling because she was actually happy.
"Oh, yeah, Higgs is a woman-hater," Flint said. His lip twisted up sardonically as he sat back down to the couch and picked up another bottle of firewhiskey. Katie frowned at the bottle but soon found his thick arm circled around her waist and pulling her down onto his lap.
Higgs snorted and retorted with a, "Tell that to my fanclub."
"So you do still play. For the Arrows then?" Katie asked.
"Yeah, starting Seeker, thank you very much," Higgs grinned cheekily as he settled back into his seat, too.
Higgs watched in veiled disinterest at the possessive stance Flint maintained on Bell. Flint was blatantly staring at his quarry and she didn't even notice it. That was a bit funny, but then again, Higgs had been told he had a poor sense of humour.
"You shouldn't drink in the morning," Katie frowned as she stared at the bottle in growing disapproval.
"It wakes me up," Flint said flatly.
"There are other ways to wake up," she said pointedly.
Flint growled in response.
Higgs couldn't help grinning.
He had thought that Flint would have a hard time with his father's will, but apparently, he was very, very wrong. Flint was obviously going to breeze through his little clause without a single flinch and it was all so apparent…
"I should get going," Higgs said as he stood up, stretching out his lanky form.
Flint frowned but nodded. He stood up and the two gave each other a quick, brotherly embrace.
"Good luck, mate," Higgs said with a shake of his head, secretly thinking… In more ways then one.
He Apparated and left Flint and Bell alone. Again.