Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy this latest fanfic.

A First Date

Since Louis had never been to his office building before Teddy confirmed that he had a half an hour until his next scheduled meeting and then headed back to his domain with Louis who was looking around with a surprising amount of interest. Of course the blonde had never really had cause to be in a place like this, especially one full of Muggles. To his knowledge Louis, his personal assistant and himself were the only ones currently in the building who were actually part of the Wizarding World. Not that there was much to see, but he had to admit that he got a kick out of seeing the blonde in his space.

Putting his hands in his pockets Teddy watched the other man look over his office, smiling as the man picked up the various Muggle type photographs he had on display of his family.

Keeping his voice casual and only faintly interested Louis's eyes were deceptively amused when he looked over at Teddy. "So that Ian guy has a thing for you, doesn't he? Subtly wasn't his strong point."

Actually, the man was usually a fairly contained person except where he was concerned, but Teddy saw no reason to enlighten the blonde to that fact. "He has a romantic interest in me, yes. One I've made it clear I can't return." There, that was essentially the truth without revealing that the interest had been mutual up until Ian had made it clear that he wanted more than he had it in him to give.

"Obviously he didn't get the message." Though in the other man's shoes, which would never happen since the man had been wearing hideous wingtips, Louis knew that he would have been just as persistent and territorial in his pursuit of Teddy. Even more so probably. But apparently no one had ever told this Ian guy that you caught more bees with honey than with vinegar. It probably didn't hurt that Teddy already loved him too, Louis acknowledged, even if it wasn't a romantic sort of love.

"He will eventually." He hoped. "Sorry again for making you come all this way, I know you were looking forward to your days off."

Waving off the apology Louis just smiled. "No worries, I wanted to come see where you worked anyway. It's very impressive, very professional. I feel like I should have worn a suit."

"I think you caused enough of a stir without going the whole nine yards. You wouldn't have been able to convince those women not to fire me if they'd been passed out at your feet."

"True, true." And pleased with the backhanded compliment Louis continued to smile as he inquired as to whether or not the man's assistant was correcting in thinking that Teddy had yet to sit down and eat his lunch.

Hunching his shoulders instinctively, the answer was written all over the man's face even before Teddy admitted that he hadn't gotten around to eating yet.

"Teddy Remus Lupin, and after I slaved over a boiling hot stove to make you that lunch. For shame."

"Uhmm…I thought you said I was having a roast beef sandwich for lunch." Teddy said slowly, brows wrinkling.

"You are. And I slaved over the stove to make the roast in the first place. That it's leftovers doesn't matter. Now sit your fine ass in your chair, get out your lunch, and eat it. I'm not leaving until you do." Louis added, deliberately taking on a mom tone of voice for added emphasis.

Seeing that the man meant business Teddy shook his head ruefully but headed to his desk to retrieve his lunch and do as asked, knowing better than to argue. And once his lunch was spread out before him Teddy sent Louis a questioning look, asking if he wanted any since as he'd told the blonde countless times before, the man gave him way too much food.

"Nope, not happening. Eat it." Louis commanded, giving the other man the eagle eye before shifting the conversation over to a plan he'd formulated while waiting to see Teddy earlier. "If you really want to feed me you can take me out to dinner tonight since I don't have to work and it will be a nice change of pace, not eating my own cooking or the restaurant's." It would be their first date, even if Teddy didn't realize it.

"Sure." It would be a way for him to thank Louis too, for coming by to drop off part of his paperwork. "Where do you want to go?"

"The Leaky Cauldron?"

Teddy's surprise was in his eyes as he finished chewing his bite of sandwich before commenting. "The Leaky Cauldron? You sure? I can afford to take you somewhere nice, you know." Not that there was anything wrong with the pub or its food, but he figured the blonde had earned something better than pub grub.

"For shame, you and I grew up on that food."

"When your father or my godfather were left in charge of providing us with food you mean." Teddy pointed out wryly. Both men were as bad in the kitchen as he was. "And I don't deny I love their food, it's just not as good as say yours."

"Well that goes without saying. So I'll meet you there around...?"

Teddy mentally reviewed his schedule, wincing a little as he juggled things around in his head. "Would seven be all right?"

"I'll be there."

)

It was stupid for this to feel like a first date, Teddy told himself as he held the door open for Louis that night, following the other man into the Leaky Cauldron. For one thing, only a complete and totally idiot would consider this particular eating establishment appropriate for a first date. This was where you went when you'd been going steady for a while and you were secure in your relationship, not when you were just starting out and had yet to impress your worth on your date. Not to mention the fact that there were rooms to rent on the second floor, which girls would automatically take the wrong way and that sort of move could have the contents of your drinking glass over your head pretty damn quickly.

Not that he knew that from past experience, but he'd seen it happen a time or two when a girl figured out why her fellow had thought coming to the Cauldron on a date was a good idea.

The Longbottoms had loads of stories about dates gone wrong here.

So of course this wasn't a first date and he hadn't proposed coming here because of the rooms above. Unless his subconscious was working behind the scenes, which was very possible given how much that little voice in his head was constantly urging him recently to respond to the blonde's playful teasing.

Oh man but he needed a drink, Teddy thought as he joined Louis at a table, ordering a stiff drink as soon as the waitress came over to take their drink orders.

"The rest of your day was that bad?" Louis asked with sympathy as soon as the woman headed off with their orders. They both had been coming here since they were children so neither of them had needed to consult with the menus to know what they wanted.

"It could have been worse." Was the most diplomatic response Teddy could come up with.

"Ouch. Well at least it's over for the day."

Or about to get so much worse, Teddy mentally corrected, ridiculously grateful when their waitress appeared with their drink orders. "So what did you get up to after you left my office?" He asked after a fortifying drink, hoping to maneuver things so that Louis did all the talking and he just had to listen and make appropriate responses.

Always pleased to have an opportunity to talk about himself Louis immediately launched into a detailed synopsis of his day following his visit to Teddy's office, ranting about the highway robbery that was the prices at his favorite food shop and railing against a woman he'd had the misfortune to sit beside when he'd stopped in at a tea shop who'd been incredibly rude.

Listening to Louis describe how the woman had spread her work stuff all over the place, had loudly talked to the person sitting with her, AND hadn't even said thank you when Louis had picked up her keys when they fell out of her pocket, Teddy nodded and agreed with everything the blonde said. It was always easier that way and the woman did sound incredibly annoying and unaware of anyone but herself.

Thank Merlin it hadn't been his grandmother sitting near the woman or she would have let her have it.

Andromeda Tonks didn't suffer someone else's bad manners in silence.

Saying as much to Louis Teddy smiled when Louis laughed in complete agreement, relaxing a little as they started recalling all the incidents they could recall that involved Teddy's grandmother and her interactions with people whose bad behaviors had offended her sensibilities.

The recollections took them well into their starters.

Louis and Teddy had about exhausted that topic of conversation when their table was approached by someone the blonde vaguely recognized, but who Teddy knew well. When the latter made the introductions Louis realized that the girl, Penny Goodwin, had dated Teddy for a few months when the two had been in their sixth year together. Victoire had not been a fan of the girl, and Louis recalled her having a dart board with the girl's mangled picture on it. The pictures of most of Teddy's girlfriends while he'd been at school had ended up on that dart board as he recalled.

Studying the girl more closely as she chattered away about how it had been too long since she'd seen Teddy and how she'd just had to come over and say hello Louis couldn't really see the girl's appeal. She was pretty enough he supposed, but she talked and touched Teddy too much.

He wanted to bat her hand away from Teddy's shoulder so much his fingers itched.

And watching the girl talk to Teddy it didn't take Louis long to clue into the fact that the man's ex was strongly hinted that she'd like for them to start dating again. And at first Louis just assumed that the other man was pretending not to get it to spare the girl's feelings and subtly make his lack of interest known, but the blonde soon had to ditch that hypothesis and instead face the fact that Teddy just really had no idea why the woman had come over to talk to him in the first place.

The man was completely oblivious to his own appeal, Louis marveled, unable to decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. It meant he'd probably have to work harder to get him, but it also meant that he'd have less competition because Teddy had no idea there were other interested parties.

Maybe he'd been overly harsh in his mental criticisms of that Ian guy too. Maybe you had to be that obvious for Teddy to pick up on your interest.

Finally the woman gave up and slinked off with a disappointed air about her, Louis seeing no reason to enlighten Teddy as to why the man's ex had come over to see him. Why would he? Instead he used his incredible charm to distract the older man from the visit so that she was soon forgotten and the conversation revolved around them and the plans Louis had for their dining room.

By the time dessert arrived they were both relaxed and looking forward to going home and playing a few games of wizarding chess before Teddy put in a couple more hours of work before turning in for the night. That Louis thought the other man worked too hard was once again mentioned, with the blonde using his considerable sway to try and convince Teddy to take a break and just relax for the rest of the night.

The two men were still debating and finishing up their meal when Hannah Longbottom came hurry over towards their table. Both men had been wondering why they hadn't been visited by any members of her family yet, and were glad that she'd come to see them before they'd headed out.

"Good, I caught you." Running a hand through her hair Hannah gave them a frazzled look. "Sorry for not coming sooner, I've been fighting with the books for hours now. I just can't get them to balance." And now the woman's gaze turned towards Teddy. "I hate to bother you, especially since you guys are out together, but the meal is on me if you could just come to the back with me for a few minutes, Teddy, and see if you can figure out what's wrong. I'm about ready to tear my hair out."

"Of course." Teddy turned his head to meet Louis's gaze. "You can head without me if you want, in case this takes a while." He hated for their dinner to end, but Hannah obviously needed him.

"I'll stick around for a bit, finish my dessert." It wouldn't be a date if he left without Teddy after all. "Look for me when you're done."

"I will." And taking what was left of his dessert with him Teddy followed Hannah out of the room and into the back to take a look at the books.

)

Leaning back against the wall as he observed the people around him Louis sensed that he was being watched, his eyes sliding over in the direction the gaze was coming from. Quickly he evaluated the other man, a sense of dread quivering up his spine ever before the middle aged man got up from his seat and started walking towards him with a look on his face that said he thought he was hot shit. Which he so definitely wasn't, Louis thought as he wrinkled his nose in reaction. And the closer the guy got to him the surer Louis became that the guy was a little drunk, but not enough to disable him. Crap. He should have stayed at his table instead of moving off to the side to free it up for the growing crowd in the pub, who were there to enjoy the talents of a local band.

If the guy puked on him he'd break the son of a bitch's face into pieces.

"Hey, there, Sexy."

"I'm too much man for you to handle on your best day. Scram."

Moving in close the man stank of whiskey and horrible cologne. "Playing hard to get, Sweetheart?"

It was at moments like this that Louis really wished looks could maim. "What would be sweet is if you got the hell away from me."

"Now that's not very nice." The man slurred, traces of anger appearing in his voice. "Come over to the bar with me, you can buy me a drink to make it up to me."

So not only was the guy a badly dressed and mannered drunk, but the son of a bitch actually expected him to buy him more booze? Was the prat's teeny, tiny brain that pickled? Oh brother.

Blue eyes narrowing as he cursed the fact that there was a wall preventing him from backing up as the man moved in even closer, Louis's voice promised extreme punishment. "Back off or I'll introduce you to a world of pain you'll never recover from."

"Stuck up Bitch." And before Louis could register what was happening the guy had his fist drawn and was moving in to slug him. It was instinct that had the blonde moving out of the way so that the man's fist slammed into the wall instead of his head.

Bellowing his pain and outrage the man cradled his now broken hand against his chest while he half turned to face Louis, what he would have done next questionable since at that moment Teddy came out of nowhere and the man found himself pressed up against the wall with Teddy's bent arm pressing down on his windpipe to cut off his air, the Gryffindor's other hand braced against his wrist to keep it there.

His eyes black orbs without a hint of white or irises, Teddy stared into his prey's eyes like the predator he was, his voice ice cold and devoid of any sort of compassion or sense of fair play. "I'm only going to say this once, so listen closely. The only reason you're going to be able to walk out of here under your own steam is because that punch didn't land. If you'd hurt him, you'd have left here on a stretcher, you hear me?"

Since there was no way he could speak, and he was sort of too afraid to try anyway, the drunk rapidly blinked, nodding out of the question too.

"Go near him again, and I'll not only beat the living shit out of you, but I'll do it wearing the face of whoever I feel like. I'm a Metamorphmagus you see, so I can look like anyone I want to. You'll never see me coming, you won't know it's me until my fist is breaking the bones in your fucking face. The old man reading a newspaper, a school girl skipping merrily home, I can be anyone, understand?"

The fact that the man's face was going puce from lack of air was his answer.

Letting go Teddy let the man slide to collapse on the floor, moving back and out of the way.

Turning his head Teddy's eyes shifted back to normal. "You're all right, right?"

Dumbly Louis nodded, thinking that he'd just had a mini orgasm over how hot Teddy had looked, going all badass on the drunk in defense of him.

After looking him over to make sure that that was so Teddy nodded once in satisfaction, holding his hand out to the blonde without thinking. "Let's go home then."

Taking the offered hand Louis smiled and inclined his head in agreement, ignoring the man who was slinking away while Teddy was distracted.

"Yeah. Let's go home."