I disclaim.
October 2030 – April 2031
"Do you remember that time we talked about going on another trip together?"
"Um, no, but I'd be down."
"Morgana's tits, Scorpius, how could you not remember?" Rose is smirking in their video chat, so Scorpius knows she's teasing. It's all she can do to control the flutter in her heart at his instantaneous agreement. "We talked about it for all of one split second while we were trash drunk on your birthday." But Alice overheard so I had to spill all for her over coffee. She said that I should make you follow through on this offer. She hopes these extra sentences weren't evident in her expression. Scorpius has gotten far too good at reading her.
"Well alright, sounds like a binding contract to me."
"Great! Where and when do you want to go?"
"One question at a time. Let's start with when?"
"Right. I've taken on some new teaching responsibilities at the dragon training academy that my company runs, and I've got four weeks of vacation time over the Christmas hols and into January, or two weeks in April, or two weeks any time in the summer, it's a little more flexible since I'm just working in the field."
"April sounds good, I'm probably going to leave my job around then and take a little time off before I start at my new position in Guatemala."
"What! Hold on, back up. You're what now?"
Scorpius laughs. "I'll tell you after we work out where we're going."
"So demanding," Rose pouts, but gets started brainstorming places to go.
They finally settle on Japan; it's a perfect time to view the blooming cherry blossoms. They'll follow the famous "cherry blossom front" as it moves north, and also make stops at shrines that are known to host old and powerful dragon spirits. And the rest of the time they'll spend on the rivers or the coast, learning about the fishing industry and maybe they'll even charter a fishing boat to experience it firsthand.
And when the topic of telling their parents comes up, Rose decides that they don't need to know who she's going with. They've both been legal adults for several years now, with international travel experience, and there is no need to revisit the last time that Rose's parents pressured them into bringing a third wheel.
Rose and Scorpius take separate Portkeys to Tokyo, where they plan to stay for a handful of nights before taking the Shinkansen to Kyoto and working their way back north.
When Scorpius wanders out of Wizarding Customs in the late afternoon, local time, he sees that Rose is waiting for him. Rather, he sees her curly hair slumped over a backpacking pack that he recognizes from their desert trip, although it is rather more worn than it was.
And when he sits down next to her, he senses a flicker of a personal ward which dissipates when her magic recognizes his. Slowly, Rose raises her head to gaze blearily at the intruder who passed her wards. She knows who it is; after all, she's the one who keyed her ward to allow only one person in. Anyone else, and they would have received a nasty lick of dragon fire – enough only to startle but not enough to cause permanent damage.
"Hbleftphscor," Rose greets, with a slow blink.
"Good evening, my dear. You're always so charming when you wake up. Also, you'll have to teach me that ward." He's wearing the trademark Malfoy smirk, but softer somehow, only for her.
"Mdafshuddup," Rose yawns hugely. "You'd think they'd've come up with a charm or a potion or something to help with jet lag by now. My brain thinks it's the wee hours of morning and I just want to go to bed."
"Lucky for you," Scorpius says as he digs around in an outside pouch on his bag, "I brought some Pepper Up Potion. Specifically for you. Should get you through to actual bedtime."
"Oh thank Circe, you're my hero with foresight," Rose says as she slumps onto his shoulder, reaching for the vial.
A heated moment hangs as she continues to lean on him and they brush fingers as the vial changes hands.
The moment passes.
Rose takes the potion, and stands up abruptly, extending her hand to Scorpius. He takes the vial out of it, and pushes it back into the pouch it came from.
Rose rolls her eyes. "Shall we get going, then?"
"Oh, I thought you wanted me to take your trash. Yes, let's go."
"So, tell me," Scorpius says to Rose as the lights small towns slide smoothly away on the train. "Why did you want to travel by Muggle means?"
"It's fast, it's convenient, you can see more of the country."
"That can't be your entire explanation."
"Well, most of the places we're going are tourist traps or big cities, or both. But train tracks are usually built through less affluent parts of the country, so it's a chance to see, kind of, a high-speed glimpse of the way normal people live. You could think of it as a supplement to the little towns we're going through."
"I hadn't realized that's something that you think about often."
"I was surprised last term with how much my students' background affected their ability to learn, so I realized I need to think about it more. And learn from my travels about the ways that different cultures approach learning."
A pause, then, "One of my students is Japanese, and he mentioned that his father works for Japan Rail – did you know they also have a Magical Integration department? They got started much earlier than the Americans with their cell phones, and I wanted to experience their state-of-the-art."
"Ahh. You've come full circle now. But tell me more about teaching!"
All of the wizarding travel guides that Rose and Scorpius had pored over suggested that camping near tourist destinations was out of the question, and instead suggested using Muggle accommodations; after all, Japan has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most efficient nations in the world. Therefore, they had booked a series of business hotels.
"Tiny but with full amenities," most of the reviews read.
"Good enough for me," Scorpius commented.
"It's not like we'll be doing too much more than just sleeping and washing there," Rose added.
All of these statements and then some were running through Rose's head when she stopped short in the doorway of their room in Tokyo.
"Rose?" Scorpius sounds somewhat out of breath after having trudged up the narrow, steep stairwell to their floor. He's halfway through his motion of reaching out to knock on her head and ask, "Anyone home?" when he sees her reason for freezing. Perks of being tall.
There's exactly one bed in the room.
Granted, it's a double, and Rose has slept with Alice in a double bed before, but this is different. Alice isn't a boy, Alice isn't Scorpius, Rose hasn't got feelings for Alice. Feelings which aren't out in the open, but rapidly will be if they both sleep in that bed, for better or for worse. And Rose can hardly ask Scorpius to sleep on the floor, because there's barely enough floor space for them to both set their packs down and have room to maneuver to the bathroom.
Rose takes a calming breath.
Then another. She's not going to panic.
Surprisingly, the thing that ends up working is gentle pressure on her shoulders. Scorpius is gently rubbing them, asking, "Rose? You okay? I can go downstairs and ask them if they've got another room…"
"No, no, Scorpius, stay," a voice says, and it takes a second for Rose to realize that it's her own. Even though she's been moving confidently through this country, the unfamiliarity is slightly overwhelming and it would be comforting to have Scorpius nearby.
Asymmetric pressure on her shoulders. Scorpius is trying to turn her around. She slides her pack off her shoulders and onto the ground to give her more maneuverability, and turns to meet his eyes. His eyes are questioning. Wordlessly asking if their friendship is going to be okay with a little sleeping in the same bed. Rose manages a weak smile, then leads the way into the room.
One hot shower later, Rose is feeling a little better. Still ready to go to sleep, but being in this tiny space with Scorpius and her pent-up feelings has got her itching to get outside. While Scorpius is taking his shower, Rose is browsing things to do by night.
When he emerges, damp but decent, she asks, "Shall we get some food and see the cherry blossoms all lit up?"
"Sounds good. Where to?"
"Well, we're just a few steps away from Ueno Station – there seems to be a good deal of food options around there, and the park also lights up their cherry blossoms at night."
Scorpius grins. "Look at our impeccable planning."
It's impossible not to get caught up in the romance of the cherry blossoms. Despite the street food vendors hawking their snacks, the cherry blossom-lined path is peaceful, people strolling slowly, with benches along the way for sedentary viewing. Rose and Scorpius get some sideways glances for their obviously not-Asian looks, but they're hardly the only ones, and continue unmolested. It's just a couple minutes of walking side-by-side before they bump shoulders with each other, brush hands, and as if drawn by an inexplicable magnetism, lace fingers through the other's, and not-so-surreptitiously sneak fond glances at the other.
In one of these glances, Scorpius nods his head toward an unoccupied bench.
They spend the next undefined amount of time seated on this bench, Scorpius' arm draped around Rose's shoulder, other hand holding hers, both lost in their own thoughts and hardly noticing the cherry blossom petals falling around them, in a fragrant blizzard.
And, come bedtime, without thinking or speaking, they scoot toward each other in bed and fall asleep wrapped up around each other.
The jetlag wakes Rose up in the wee hours of morning, and to her pleasure and her alarm, Rose is still lying in Scorpius' arms. An hour later, she hasn't fallen back asleep, hasn't moved from her position of staring at the ceiling, wondering what happens next. They slept together! But not slept together. They're still fully clothed, haven't even kissed, and he's still breathing deeply, sleeping peacefully, with an arm draped over her midsection. Not wanting to disturb him, or the quiet contentment that's lurking somewhere behind her tumble of thoughts, Rose stays still.
What's the best way to say to her previously strictly platonic best friend that being in his arms is really nice and she wants to do it again… And maybe go further…?
"Do you ever think that we … that our thing from Hogwarts deserve a second chance?" No… too heavy for first thing in the morning. Also so vague. She would need to italicize her speech.
"I have a really irresponsible proposition for you." No, not that kind of proposition.
"It would be really irresponsible for us to start a relationship right now, but I want to." Circe's tits, this is getting really dark.
Amidst all her bickering with herself, Rose didn't immediately notice the change in Scorpius' breathing, signaling that he'd woken up. But she did notice when the hand draped across her midsection started rubbing circles lightly against her rib cage. That got her attention quickly enough, and she twitched.
"Rose?" Scorpius' voice is thick with sleep, like she's heard so many times before over the telephone. If she wasn't so distracted, she would have paid more attention to the way that she could feel his voice through all the places they were still touching, thanks to his embrace.
"Rose, what's wrong?"
"Wrong?" Rose's voice sounds too high to herself. "There's nothing wrong."
"The stiffness of your posture suggests otherwise." His voice has gone slightly frosty. No, no, no, that's not what she wants at all.
"No, don't go, this is really nice." She hasn't moved her limbs to echo her words. "No, I was just thinking."
Scorpius has rolled over onto his stomach and is propped up on his elbows. Their legs are still touching under the blanket, but Rose already misses the feel of his arm around her waist.
"About?" he prompts when she's said nothing for a minute.
Rose sighs.
Well, might as well spit it out, then.
"About how much I like you."
"What are we, sixteen?"
"Merlin's saggy left bollock, Scorpius, I was just confessing something deep here and you have to go and spoil it?"
"Rose, will you be my girlfriend?" Scorpius asks at the same time that Rose tries to resume whatever her train of thought was.
Train derailed. Understatement of the year. More like, train sprouted wings and started flying.
Rose splutters.
"Wait, what."
Scorpius looks at her expectantly.
"Surely it couldn't have been that easy."
"I guess I'll take that as a no…" Scorpius moves to get out of bed, but he's not moving very fast and his eyes are twinkling.
"Yes, you dummy, I'd love to be your girlfriend. Now come back here."
And he does.
Several hours of kissing and other activities later, Rose is lying in the same position that she was in when Scorpius woke up. She's staring at the ceiling, but this time, Scorpius' face is buried in her neck and she suspects she's going to be well-decorated there when she looks. Later.
"You're thinking again," comes Scorpius' muffled voice, between kisses.
"You know me too well."
Scorpius moves so that he can meet her eyes.
"So tell me what you were thinking about when I woke up this morning."
Rose drags memories that have since been clouded by other happier memories out. "Well. Mostly enjoying the feeling of being in your arms." This earns her a kiss.
"And wanting the feeling to last forever, but wondering if it would be really irresponsible -" Scorpius snickers at this, "- shut it, you. You know what I mean. We live thousands of kilometers apart and you're starting in a new position in a new city where there will be more young people than there are in your little Farmville, so I didn't want to tie you down when you have this new opportunity -"
Here Scorpius cuts her off completely with another breathless round of snogging.
When they finally come up for air, Scorpius says, "Maybe I haven't been completely honest with you."
Rose freezes.
"No, silly, there's no one else for me but you. Haven't the last, what, several minutes –" he checks the time and has the decency to look surprised, "- well, several hours convinced you otherwise? I guess I've been leading you to believe that there haven't really been any dating opportunities for me, which is not exactly true. I do hang out with some people our age. Some of the women even flirt with me. I tried flirting back, a couple times, but, well, every time, I would just think about how you wouldn't put up with that sweet talk that was giving me cavities and how you'd sass me, and don't you see? You're in my head, and I can't get you out, but I don't really want to."
Every time something big like this comes out, Rose learns more about Scorpius' body, and he about hers, and she's decided that she'll never get tired of these earth-shattering secrets. Seriously. She feels like her world is falling apart and being reassembled every time.
"So what I'm trying to say," he continues conversationally, still connected to her, "is that there's no one else for me. How would there be? Why should I take the time to make friends with someone entirely new when I have the perfect woman in my arms right now?"
Rose hums in response, more or less having forgotten how they arrived at this topic. Not that it matters.
"And if you're worried about long distance, it's never been a problem for us before. We call each other often enough, and text the rest of the time."
Oh. Serious talk. Just when Rose was trying to enjoy this thing that she's wanted for years. She hides her face in his chest, and grumbles something incoherent.
"Rose, look at me."
He has to do all of the moving to achieve his request, but he holds her eyes with his own, and says, "Rose, you said you wanted to do something irresponsible. Well, I want to do this right and prove to you that it's a good move for us."
Us. There's an us now. Rose doesn't think she'll ever get used to this.
"You lead with your mind and not your heart. I know that now, and I want to start us out on the right foot.
A/N: :3