Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Written for Hogwarts Assignment 10. Careers Advice, Task 3: Write about someone looking through a photo album.

Word Count - 1015

Beta'd by Amber


Teach Me How


The whisky shone amber in the light of the fire. Percy shivered despite the warmth in the room, his hand shaking slightly as he wiped the dust from the top of the photo album. He hadn't looked at these photos for years.

He'd only found them now because he'd been packing his home up.

The first page he opened to was a picture of his siblings and him, in Egypt. His dad had taken the photo, and it was only later that Percy realised the twins were pulling faces behind his back.

He'd been in such a huff when he saw it.

Looking at it now, Percy can't help but linger over Fred, the playful glint in his eyes, the happiness on his face.

Percy had taken that happiness for granted. He'd complained about that happiness even, had wanted Fred and George to be more serious, to stop being so… them.

It was just another regret on a long list.

He flipped through the pages, reliving memories long put to the back of his mind. He lingered over some more than others, remembering moments that should be happy, but were now tinged with remorse.

He should have been better.

His family deserved better than he'd given them. He'd tried, after the war, after Fred… he'd tried, but he couldn't…

He didn't know how to comfort and be there for people. He didn't know how to drop the carefully crafted walls around him. They'd been there for so long, he didn't know how to begin dismantling them.

He'd tried, and he'd failed and he hadn't seen his family for months because he didn't know how to be around other people and make them happy.

The closer he got to the back of the photo album, the less he smiled in the photos. He could see the tightness in his eyes on each page, could see the tension in his frame gaining more with each snap of the camera.

Even the photos with Oliver, the man he should have been relaxed with, were tense and uncertain, fake smiles and closed off body language.

No wonder Oliver had decided he couldn't stay.

Percy hadn't given him any reason to.

As though called by Percy's thoughts, the front door to the home the two had shared for a little over a year opened.

Percy slammed the photo album shut, throwing it into the open box on the living room floor. He picked up his whisky tumbler and cradled it between both hands, hoping that having something in them would stop him from reaching for Oliver as soon as he entered the room.

Moments later, footsteps down the hall sounded and the door creaked a little as it opened.

Oliver cleared his throat when Percy didn't greet him. "Hi."

"Hi," Percy replied quietly, never looking away from his glass. "I… I didn't think you'd be here yet. I'll be done packing soon."

Oliver sighed deeply. "You do know that this… this wasn't what I wanted, right?"

Percy looked up when Oliver rounded the sofa to stand between Percy and the fire.

"I'm pretty sure 'I can't live this way anymore' was a pretty clear hint," Percy murmured. "I don't… I don't blame you, Oliver. I really don't. You deserve… you deserve more."

"So give me more, Perce!" Oliver said, his frustration clear. "I want more, but I want more from you! Why don't you understand that? You're so closed off all the time, Percy, and I just… I need to know that you love me."

"I don't know how to be anything else," Percy admitted, his words little more than a whisper.

"Just let me in," Oliver begged, dropping to his knees in front of Percy. He took the glass from Percy's hands and placed it carefully on the table. Taking Percy's hands in his own, Oliver looked up at him, a pleading look in his eyes. "Please, Percy."

Percy looked into Oliver's eyes and then closed his own. His heart hurt, his head hurt, everything hurt. He didn't want to lose Oliver, not the way he'd already lost his family but he didn't know how to do this.

"I do love you," he stuttered out eventually. "I do, Ollie."

Oliver's eyes were suspiciously bright, and Percy tried hard not to cringe away. He didn't know how to deal with tears. He looked away.

"I…" he stopped, taking a deep breath and gathering his thoughts. He had to find a way to explain this so that Oliver could understand that he wasn't the problem. "I bury myself in work, because work makes sense. It's facts, and figures, and I understand them. People… people are hard, Ollie. People are unpredictable, and I don't… I don't understand emotions very well, and I never know what to say or what to do, I never know what people want from me and-"

He was cut off when Oliver squeezed his hand.

"All I want from you is you," he said. "I just… I need to know that you're here with me, you know? That you're in this relationship as much as I am?"

Percy nodded jerkily. "I can try."

Oliver smiled and pushed up onto his knees to press a soft kiss to Percy's lips. "Then maybe stop packing, okay?"

Percy nodded again, head spinning.

Leaning over, he grasped the photo album and opened it to the back few pictures, showing them to Oliver.

"I don't… I don't want to be this anymore," he said, pointing at a photo of the two of them. Oliver looked vibrant and happy, his eyes shining, his smile wide. He looked… open. Percy stood beside him, angled slightly away, stiff and unfeeling and barely attempting a smile.

He looked… miserable.

"You can be whoever you want to be, Perce," Oliver replied, eyes on the photo. "You just have to… let go."

Percy hesitantly raised his hand and cupped Oliver's cheek, filling with warmth when Oliver leant into the touch immediately.

"Teach me how?"

Turning to press a kiss to Percy's palm, Oliver nodded. "It would be my pleasure."