Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters end up in.

Okay, sorry about the name mix up, I was watching 'Swiss Family Robinson' while I was writing the first chapter, hence the ex boyfriend's name screw up. I settled on Fritz for a name in honor lol.

Moving In

The next day Louis was all packed and ready to go in no time, gathering up his stuff while deliberately ignoring his ex, who was obviously keeping an eye on him to make sure he didn't pack anything that wasn't his. Normally that would have pissed him off, but Louis figured he deserved it for being dumb enough to sleep with the guy in the first place. Which was why he was swearing off men, Louis reminded himself sternly, particular those who drew him in because they were built and good at snogging his brains out.

Teddy didn't think he could handle being single, but he was determined to prove the other man wrong.

"So who are you going to live with again?" Fritz asked, still annoyed as hell that the blonde had dumped him for his job. He was going to be even more pissed if whoever Louis was going to live with wasn't family and was male.

"You don't know him. He's family of the honorary sort. He's a year older than Victoire. Scorpius Malfoy and Teddy are second cousins."

He definitely didn't like the affection in the man's voice, and Scorpius Malfoy was sorta hot, which wasn't a good sign either. "Is this Teddy guy good looking?"

"He's a Metamorphmagus, he can be as good looking as he wants to be." And knowing the way Fritz's mind worked Louis gave the other man a dark, 'don't even think about it' look. "He's straight, Fritz, and even if he wasn't he still wouldn't go for you. Teddy's picky about who he hangs out with. He probably wouldn't have much to do with me if we weren't practically family as it is. He likes his peace and quiet."

"So you've never thought of doing him?"

Louis gaped at the other man. "He's family!" Though now that the man was making him think about it…dammit, he hadn't needed any more reasons to want to regret ever hooking up with the guy. Not that Teddy would look bad naked, he'd seen the guy without a shirt on after all and the man was decently ripped, but still…it screwed with his head to see Teddy as a man instead of just Teddy.

So he wasn't going to think about it. "Feel free to starve without me. Bye."

He slammed the door behind him with everything he had. He wouldn't be back.

Walking into the elevator Louis punched for the floor level, absently fiddling with the two bags he had slung across his chest, one on either shoulder. He'd shrunk down his stuff so that they'd fit into the bags and he was eager to get to Teddy's so that he could get out his kitchen stuff. If any of his cooking tools somehow got wrecked or even scratched on the way to his new residence he was coming back to take it out on Fritz's good for nothing hide.

Swearing off men was one of the best ideas he'd had recently.

Louis was still patting himself on the back for that when he arrived at his new place of residency, not having to wait long at all before the door opened and there was Teddy, dressed in what the man probably considered casual clothing now that he was all grown up.

And thanks to stupid Fritz it was occurring to him that it made no sense for Teddy not to be dating someone. Even without using his abilities to make himself more appealing the older man was pretty damn hot now that he thought about it. The simply black shirt hugged the man's chest and arms to an appealing degree, and the tailored trousers also showed off the elegant body well. The man wasn't gorgeous or even handsome in the traditional sense, but there was something innately sexy and alluring about him when you viewed him objectively. Tall, dark, and mysterious certainly applied anyway, Louis thought ruefully, though he intended to reconnect with his friend now that he'd realized just how much they'd grown apart in the past few years.

"Hey."

Teddy smiled back. "Welcome. Is that everything?"

"Yup. I travel light. And I always seem to end up living in some place where furniture is already provided."

"That would be convenient in this case." Teddy agreed, though personally he would hate living somewhere without his own things around him. Things he'd picked out that suited him and not someone else's taste. But then he was nowhere near as adaptable as Louis was.

Stepping to the side Teddy motioned Louis inside, closing the door behind him once that was done. Not surprised when his offer to take a bag was politely declined he didn't push, instead heading for the kitchen since he figured that Louis would consider that his top priority. The blonde wasn't near the diva his sisters were, but he'd heard the man was seriously scary when it came to his kitchen equipment.

Following the man and realizing where they were headed Louis grinned. "How did you know I'd want to put my kitchen stuff away first?"

"I know you."

Apparently that was true. "I don't know you as well as you know me, do I?"

Deliberately not looking back Teddy reached for the door knob leading into the kitchen. "That's only natural; I've known you your whole life. By the time you were old enough to remember our encounters clearly I was nearly an adult."

That was true. And sorta weird. Though why it was weird Louis couldn't quite put his finger on, even as he mulled it over. "Well anyway, you don't have to stick around if you have stuff to do. This is going to take a while and FYI I'm going to be moving stuff around to suit me in here. Anything in here you don't want me moving?" The blonde's voice indicated plainly that it would be a major sacrifice on his part to let the other man have any say in this.

Teddy's lips couldn't help but twitch before he schooled his face back into its former, mildly interested lines. "Rearrange to your heart's content. Do you have a date book?"

Blinking in surprise Louis didn't see what one had to do with the other but played along. "No. I'm pretty good at remembering dates and stuff so I don't bother, why?"

"I'll show you when you're done in here."

)

So Louis spent over an hour rearranging Teddy's kitchen to suit him, totally approving of the clean space while shaking his head over what he found in those immaculately kept storage areas. The man had the very bare essentials and the food ran towards sandwich fixings, soups, and a freezer stocked full of food various members of their family had unloaded on the man and which, judging from the dates, he rarely remembered to eat. He knew the man wasn't hopeless in the kitchen, he'd eaten meals Teddy had prepared when he was a kid after all, so the most likely answer was that the other man just wasn't willing to spend the time to put together a proper meal.

Food had never been a major priority for the man.

And by the time he'd thoroughly explored the space to make sure he hadn't missed anything Louis was convinced that the man must take vitamins by the handful to be in as good a shape as he was considering his apparent diet deficiencies.

He was definitely going to be in a lot better shape once he was through with him, the blonde silently added to himself determinedly as he went in search of Teddy to find out what room he was in and why he'd asked him about datebooks before he'd gone off to work on something in his office.

Finding the older man hard at work, no surprise, Louis walked in and taking advantage of how absorbed Teddy was in whatever he was working on snuck into the room and coming around the desk wrapped his arms around the man as he set his chin on top of the man's head. "Hi again."

"Done in the kitchen?" Teddy asked in a voice that indicated he'd been aware of the blonde the whole time and had simply been humoring him.

Louis took a moment to pout over that before confirming that he had indeed finished up in the kitchen and would be going shopping in the morning to buy numerous things that should be in their kitchen to eat but weren't.

Not surprised at the censor in Louis's voice Teddy didn't try and justify the fact that he didn't use his kitchen for much more than storing easy to fix meals that he ate when he remembered to eat at all. Unlike most men food was not a priority for him and he imagined his personal assistant would be adding Louis to her prayers when she found out that his temporary houseguest would be seeing to it that he ate regularly. The woman was convinced it was only a matter of time before he keeled over at her feet.

"I'll give you some money for that."

"I can pay for groceries, Teddy." He'd figured this would be a matter of contention. "You can pay for the next grocery run."

Yes, he'd figured the blonde would insist on doing precisely that. "If you insist."

"I do. Now why were you asking if I had a date book earlier?"

Reaching across his desk Teddy retrieved the date book he'd bought that morning, just in case. It was purple, Louis's favorite color. "You have one now. I've magically altered it so that anything you write in it will appear in my date book and vice versa. That way we'll both know when the other is going to be here or not. I can use it to give you a heads up if something comes up that prevents me from coming home as planned and you can use it to let me know if you need me to pick up anything on the way home or if you aren't coming back here because you're sleeping elsewhere."

Taking the book and approving the color Louis ruffled Teddy's hair. "I already told you I was swearing off men. But thanks, I'll use it."

It would be nice to believe he would be able to go the full month without stumbling upon some unknown man making out with Louis or more, but Teddy was a realist. He just wasn't that lucky. But he wouldn't argue about it, he'd just say he'd told him so when it happened. That would at least alleviate the misery it would cause him a little.

For about a second.

And on that happy note Teddy pointed out to Louis that he couldn't show him where he would be sleeping until he moved back so that he could get out of his seat. Once the younger man was indeed out of the way Teddy got to his feet and with the blonde at his side headed out of his office.

He'd decided to put the blonde in the room across from his own for two reasons. The first was that Louis would think it very odd if he really did put the blonde in a room on the other side of the house, and he'd worked too damn long and hard to have Louis think even for a moment about what motive he might have to so obvious forgo sharing close quarters with him. The second was that he was seriously decreasing the chances that Louis would bring a man home with him by having their bedrooms within shouting distance.

If Louis had sex with a man other than him under his roof he'd kill the unknown son of a bitch.

And wasn't he just so mature and reasonable, Teddy thought with dark humor that didn't show on his face. But oh boy, had he ever been an idiot for agreeing to this in the first place. There were just no words, really. Because he really would want to kill the unknown man who would eventually appear for him to deal with. To his knowledge Louis had never gone more than a couple weeks dateless since the boy had started dating in his mid teens. The younger man wasn't promiscuous, he was…the type to live in the moment, Teddy decided, though even that didn't quite fit. Falling in and out of 'love' with extreme regularity and rarely with hurt feelings was Louis's standard M.O.

You couldn't stay mad at Louis either because you were always too busy being ridiculously grateful that this wonderful person had included you in his life. The man was still friends with most of his exes and that, more than anything, was a good indication of the good core the blonde had under his often shallow seeming exterior.

Or at least that was his opinion. He was biased and knew it.

Sensing that Teddy was deep in thought about something Louis kept quiet, looking around him as he took in the small changes that had occurred since the last time he'd been by. It had actually been a couple years since he'd stepped foot in the place but little had been done to make the place any more welcoming or homey. Teddy wasn't the type to care or bother about that sort of thing, and now that he thought about it Louis figured that what changes he'd noted were the work of their relatives or the house elf Teddy had mentioned came in once a week to give the place a cleaning.

"Teddy, why haven't you hired someone to decorate this place for you if you don't want to do it yourself? Don't you find it a little depressing?" It was like the place had been designed to seem foreboding.

A sentiment he'd heard often from members of their shared family Teddy just shrugged his shoulders slightly. "I'm not here enough to care what it looks like. And I would never hire a decorator." He'd made that mistake with the penthouse he owned and used when he needed to entertain Muggle clients. Not that the company had done a bad job, but it was, in its way, even more lifeless than his main residence.

Which was rather disturbing when he thought about it. Maybe he should do something about the place when he had some time.

Immediately following that thought was the fact that it wasn't the first time he'd had it. He just never cared long enough to actually do something about it.

"But, Teddy, it's your HOME." Louis pointed out, interrupting Teddy's thoughts.

Perhaps it was for the moment, Teddy thought as he attempted to steer the conversation in another direction. After all, they said that home was where your heart was.

And for the moment Louis was under his roof.

)

Lying in his new bed that night Louis tried to settle without much luck. The bed was super comfy and one of the quilts his gran had made for him was covering him so he was snug as a bug in a rug. But he was in a new place and he'd lived with Fritz long enough to have gotten use to having someone sleeping beside him. Though his ex had been a covers hog so it was nice not to have to fight for his fair share, Louis thought with a grin.

Idly wondering what time it was Louis also wondered if Teddy was asleep already or working on something in that office of his. That room had at least looked lived in, unlike so many of the other rooms which was just sad as far as he was concerned. Even if the same could be said about him when it came to his own workplace, the Gryffindor admitted to himself with a wry grin. But he wasn't a workaholic and everything he'd seen in the few hours he'd been living with Teddy had indicated that the man might even be worse than they'd all previously thought.

Ears picking up on the sound of his door being opened Louis automatically closed his eyes to feign sleep, knowing it was Teddy. And when he'd been younger playing at being asleep when the man came to check on him had been instinctual.

That the man was still doing it even though he all grown up was both adorable and cause for eye rolling.

Continuing the charade for the fun of it Louis's lips twitched when he heard the older man mutter under his breath about the fact that he'd left his window open just like he'd expected. He'd always preferred his window open and Teddy had always come in and closed said window when he'd babysat, convinced he'd catch his death of cold otherwise.

Listening to the sound of the window being closed Louis couldn't help but go all gooey inside when Teddy came over to the bed to pull the covers up a little more.

And remembering another childhood tradition they'd had back in the day Louis gave into impulse, even if they were doing things slightly out of order.

Reaching up Louis pulled the startled older man's down, giving Teddy a smacking kiss on the cheek. "Night, night, Teddy bear."

The silence that greeted the action had Louis thinking indignantly that the man had forgotten the bedtime ritual, but then Teddy shifted over and the blonde felt the brief brush of the other man's lips across his own cheek.

"Night, night, Hummingbird." Teddy said in a voice just above a whisper. "Sweet dreams."

"And to you. Love you muchly."

"Love you muchly too."

Letting go of Teddy now that the ritual was completely Louis snuggled back into his bed with a wide grin on his face, listening as the man left the room before closing his eyes with a sound on contentment.