Exhausted from being ravished throughout the night, Theodore slept until well past noon the following day. When he awoke, his head was full of sand and his whole body ached.

Upon opening his eyes and rubbing away the blurriness, he discovered he was in an unfamiliar bed. The pillow under his head was too soft to be his, and the sheets tangled around his naked hips were of the finest weave, silky and cool against his heated flesh, not the rougher cotton that usually donned his bed. Glancing at the ceiling, he realized he wasn't in his own bedroom. He was…

Oh, Merlin.

This was Draco's bedroom.

Founders, it hadn't been a dream! It had really happened, hadn't it? He'd had sex with his best friend. And thanks to a clever charm Draco knew, Theodore had fucked and sucked his ever-loving brains out last night, all night long-

-and it had been absolutely glorious.

Sitting up, he winced and groaned, feeling the throbbing pain between his legs and the tenderness of the flesh on his backside, where Draco's belt had doled out its punishments during his instruction in proper submission just hours before. Stones, he hurt all over! But last night had been worth every ache he now felt. It had been complete and total rapture, every moment perfect. He'd come so much, loved so absolutely that he was sure nothing in his future would ever compare.

"Relax and let me inside."

He drowned in pleasure at the memory of Draco opening him and taking him over, time and again.

"Come to me, Theo, and kneel."

He'd discovered there was pleasure in surrendering his body and will to another.

"Tell me you love me."

Theodore had felt his soul had been freed when the words had tumbled from his lips that first time, with Draco's thick, long cock finally seated deep inside his burning body, and their eyes locked on each other as if the world outside didn't exist...

Now though, in the cold light of day, a sinking pit was beginning to open up inside him, leaving Theodore confused: Draco had not once told him that he loved him back. Even as he coaxed, cajoled, and seduced his innocent partner into confessing his feelings over and over again throughout the night, Draco had held that part of himself back, pledging nothing of his own feelings aloud. Why?

Yes, Theodore had gone into last night knowing his partner wouldn't be spouting any love sonnets, but why had Draco insisted that Theodore make himself emotionally vulnerable time and again in such a way? Was the man's ego really that in need of stroking, or did he really just like having that much power over another? He'd certainly enjoyed taking the dominant position in their games, and hadn't seemed to like it as much when he'd been the one on his knees, so perhaps it was all about control for him.

Control in a relationship, Theodore knew, allowed one to maintain an emotional distance.

And speaking of... Peeking through his lids, he was unsurprised to find that he was alone in the bedroom. When he reached out to touch the sheets next to him, he noted that they were cold. Draco had left the bed long ago.

Had the man even stayed five minutes past the time Theodore had fallen asleep in his arms, or had he scampered away as soon as it was clear his partner was out for the count? Theodore was betting the latter, for it was no secret that Draco had commitment issues, and that was the reason Draco had never taken another to his own bed. When the guy had had sex in the past, he'd always talked about it happening elsewhere, in some place impersonal. Doing so had allowed Draco the illusion that he was a free agent, with no strings to tie him down to any one person. It was a detail Theodore had noted years ago, and the exact reason he'd required he be brought here for his own sexual initiation. He didn't want Draco looking at what they were doing as just another experience to add to the man's collection. He'd wanted their love-making to mean something special to both of them.

He was beginning to doubt the wisdom of that plan now, wondering if instead, it had caused Draco some measure of resentment, because he knew that hereafter, there would be no place sacred for the other man to escape his personal demons. They'd tainted Draco's sanctuary with mad, desperate, purchased sex... and a hopeless, one-sided love.

Hell, he'd cocked it all up between them, hadn't he? Worse, he'd managed to bind himself up even tighter to a man who didn't want him in the same way. His feelings for Draco had magnified after having shared so much of his body, mind, and heart with him last night, and Theodore knew there was no way he could go back to them just being friends after this. Every time he'd hear about some sexual escapade that Draco took up with some easily forgotten bint or bloke, Theodore would remember what they'd shared and that he was now included in that same list. It would kill him slowly.

"...you'll never be the same after tonight."

Salazar's bane, that prediction! It had come true.

Shite, he had only to look at the "X" Draco had tattooed over his heart with his wand to know exactly how terribly, horribly true it was.

Theodore had been marked off of Draco's to-do list, and the man had let the whole world know it in bold, black, permanent ink.

Mortified and grief-stricken, Theodore rolled out of Draco's bed and moved as quickly as his protesting muscles allowed, dressing in silence. Minutes later, he made his way on stealthy feet back to the Drawing Room below, and then quickly used the Floo to return to his flat in London, over ninety miles away.

Distance, he knew, created emotional detachment – something Theodore badly needed just then.

X~~~~~X

Almost exactly an hour after Theodore had arrived home, someone set off his flat's front wards.

Fresh from a long, hot shower, with only a towel about his hips, Theodore headed for the front window to peek through the curtain to ascertain his 'guest's' identity.

Holy fuck. It was Draco. And his friend looked seriously angry.

Red was definitely not a good colour for the man.

Aware of the state of his undress, as well as the shaky state of his nerves, Theodore took the coward's way out: he summoning his Patronus and sent it out with a message, asking Draco why he'd come. The wispy shape of a Kneazle bounded through the glass and outside, past the wards. He watched as it delivered his words, and as Draco countered by summoning his own Patronus and sending back a message with it.

"I told you I wouldn't stop until this is finished between us," Draco's voice came out of the fox's grinning mouth. The magic dissipated as soon as its task was complete.

Theodore's heart started pounding and his mouth went three shades of hot and dry. He summoned his Patronus again and sent it back out, letting Draco know that he'd been under the assumption that their interaction had finished when he'd woken up to an empty bed.

From his hiding spot at the window he watched as Draco's scowl darkened, and the man summoned his Patronus again. It bounded across the empty air between them and crossed through the building in seconds, stopping before him and sitting back on its haunches.

"You assumed wrong. Let me in and I'll explain."

When he glanced back out the window, Draco was glaring at him. He tapped his wand against the invisible barrier in a silent command to let him through, his expression one of supreme arrogance, as if he expected to be obeyed.

Theodore closed his eyes and pressed his forehead to the glass. Could this really be happening? Had he completely over-thought the situation and misconstrued everything this morning? Or, had he correctly interpreted the situation and Draco was here because he simply hadn't gotten his fill last night?

Honestly, he was afraid to know the real answer.

Another fox came in, glowing with the same incandescence as a ghost.

"Stop analysing the situation, and lower the bloody wards, Theo."

Summoning some clothes from his bedroom, Theodore hastily dressed as he dropped the enchantments protecting his home. He'd barely gotten his trousers over his hips by the time the front door had been magically unlocked and thrown open. Draco strolled in, took one look at Theodore as he hastily buttoned and zipped his fly, and pulled the door shut behind him. The click of the lock bolting into place was loud in the silence between them.

"Don't bother. I want you undressed," his lover commanded, reaching for the hem of his own shirt and pulling it out of his slacks, quickly unbuttoning it. "Now,Theo."

Shaking his head, Theodore reached for his shirt, fitting his arms through the sleeves. "I don't believe you have the right to demand such a thing of me," he stated with more bravado than he felt. His insides were quivering with both nervousness and growing arousal.

With a wave of Draco's wand, the shirt was torn from Theodore's hands and tossed across the room.

"The hell I don't," Draco countered, shucking his shirt from his shoulders and dropping it to the floor behind him as he crossed the distance between them. "You're mine, Theo. From the time we were children, we both knew it. You were mine then, you were mine last night, and you're still mine today. Every fucking inch of you is mine, and I want you - starting with that smart mouth of yours."

"Go to hell, Draco," Theodore countered, angry at being considered little more than a possession. "We're not children anymore, and I'm certainly not some sex toy you can own, use, and toss away at your discretion! You didn't buy me, as I recall, so you have no right-"

He never finished that sentence. His lover moved too fast, and Theodore's limbs were still too tired and sore to dodge with any sort of speed after the night he'd had. Before he could react, he was dragged to the carpet, and his mouth was once again enslaved by Draco's fierce, commanding insistence.

There was no finesse to the kiss. It was an angry claim of ownership, pure and simple, and it demanded Theodore's submission to the idea.

A whimper of denial escaped his throat, even as his hands tightened on Draco's shoulders and pulled him in, closing the gap between their bodies. Pressed intimately together, Theodore bore Draco's weight without complaint, arching his hips so their matching erections were forced together. His partner groaned in approval, and reached down to pull Theodore's leg up and over his hip to give them a better angle and friction.

"This makes three times you've made me desperate to have you in some way," Draco grunted as he ground his pelvis into Theodore's. "This time, though, I'm not going to be placated with a bribe."

Three times. Ah, so that explained the counting thing…

"This time, I'm going to stripe your arse, just as I wanted to the first two times you challenged me," Draco warned.

"What makes you think I'm going to let you belt me again?" Theodore asked. "And what slight did I commit this time to deserve such a punishment?"

"You dared to get out of my bed without my permission."

"But… our night was up. You gave me everything we'd agreed to – everything I paid you for." Theodore tilted his head and let Draco suck and nibble on his throat. "And frankly, I wasn't going to hang around waiting for you to kick me out while you moved on to the next conquest."

Draco stilled above him, pulling his mouth away. "Was that all it meant to you? Buy the man-whore and see if the rumours were all true? You told me you loved me!"

He sounded accusatory... and hurt.

Tears filled Theodore's eyes. It was too much. Too many years of wanting this, of watching this man fuck his way through partners without a care, of denying himself any sexual pleasure in the wishful hopes that someday, maybe Draco would want him back, and of finally having him, but only as a result of having paid for the privilege... it all swept over him, pulling him under.

"Does it matter? You don't love me back," he whispered, raw and aching. He shut his eyes to the hot drip as his tears fell. "It's just sex to you. I'm just like everyone else who's ever loved you."

Shite, he felt like a first-rate pussy... but he was so tired, and so very hurt by the truth.

Draco's fingers gently turned his head, so Theodore was forced to blink through his beaded lashes up at him. His lover's face was scrunched with a matching agony.

"You're not like anyone else, Theo. Not to me." His voice was hoarse with emotion. "You're… what I want." He bent his head and placed tender kisses along Theodore's lips and chin. His mouth lowered, trailing wet, sweet kisses in a path towards his heart. He traced the "X" tattoo with his tongue. "Since we were children, your stubbornness and your surrender is everything I've ever wanted. No one else infuriates and arouses me at the same time, like you do. I thought you understood that by now."

"Apparently not."

Because, really, Theodore hadn't know his best friend burned for him in the same way he did for Draco.

"And everyone always said you were the 'smart one'," Draco commented, as he continued on his way down the long length of Theodore's body. His lover's fingers made quick work of the button and zip that Theodore had earlier hurried to do up, and then Draco dropped his head and picked right back up where they'd left off earlier that morning.

X~~~~~X

Draco was wrapped around Theodore in the aftermath of their rough, desperate love-making, refusing to give him any sort of distance to calm his racing heart and mind. Pale arms and strong legs held tight to Theodore, refusing to allow him to get away.

Theodore's hands shook as the last of the sexual adrenaline left his system. Merlin, he was a mess inside and out. His hair was dishevelled and plastered to his forehead from sweat. His trousers were tangled up with Draco's down around their crossed ankles. And he was covered in bruises; fingertip-shaped marks donned his hips and upper arms, and love bites decorated his neck on both sides, his chest above his heart, and the insides of his thighs. He'd been well and truly owned once more by Draco-

-and there was no doubt any longer that walking away again from this wasn't going to happen. His lover wouldn't let it, and honestly, Theodore didn't think he had the strength to brave trying one more time.

"Why did you come here?" he asked, resigned to his fate.

There really was no going back to the way things had been between them yesterday afternoon, just as Draco had predicted. There was no going forward either, though, as Theodore knew that someday in the not-too-distant future, Draco would marry the witch his parents had picked out for him. He'd then suffer in silence as his best friend bound his life up to some woman he hardly knew… knowing that it was only a matter of time after that before things returned to platonic between them, if not sooner, for no self-respecting pure-blood witch would allow her husband to keep a man, even in secret, on the side. Children would inevitably follow, and the distance between he and his best friend would further widen, until Theodore was relegated to the role of "Uncle", and invited over only on special occasions.

As if sensing the dark turn that his lover's thoughts had run, Draco fisted a handful of Theodore's hair and, with gentle pressure, pulled until Theodore's neck lolled back and their eyes met. "I told you I wouldn't let you go until it was finished between us." His cloud-grey, lazy dragon eyes stared into Theodore's soul as he slowly leaned forward until their lips touched. "By my count, you still have seven chances before I get serious and permanently strap you to my bed."

Theodore frowned at that. Seven, huh? "So, you're counting backwards from ten, not forwards from zero? Why?"

"Because ten is our number," Draco told him, licking over Theodore's mouth, teasing, coaxing him to come out and play. "If you think about it, I'm sure it'll come to you why."

Theodore nodded in understanding. "Ten months, ten years, ten coins... Somehow, the number's always brought us together, despite the distances between us." He gasped, as another realisation dawned on him. "The tattoo - it's the Roman numeral for 'ten'!"

A wicked, amused chuckle escaped Draco's lips. "Let me guess: you thought it meant I'd crossed you off my to-do list?"

Theodore flushed from head-to-toe with embarrassment for not having put it together sooner... and for Draco knowing him well enough to have been correct. "Shut up, you great ponce." Using the advantage of the angle he was currently in, he rolled them so Draco was under him, and kicked off his slacks so that he was free to move as he wanted. Pressing his growing arousal against Draco's, he whispered, "Gotcha."

Lying back in the dark green carpet, Draco stared up at him in first surprise, and then with sinful heat. "I told you once before: I don't mind."

"Which remind me: you still owe me ten Sickles," Theodore said, recalling the memory of the money that had been blackmailed from him and then lost in the grass that afternoon ten years prior.

"I'll work it off," his lover pronounced with a full-body stretch and a lusty sigh. "Tell me what you want."

Theodore did better than that. He showed him.

It took only ten deep, slow thrusts and a handful of kisses, and then they were both coming together.

Ten heartbeats after that, Draco told Theodore that he loved him, too.

TO BE CONCLUDED...

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

One more chapter, my lovelies, then this tale will reach its end.

Please review!