Albus wasn't entirely certain why he had thought their break-up was easy. It was probably because he didn't want to see what it did to the both of them. And, back then, he wasn't quite in the right state to be worrying about someone else's feelings. His own had been so damn loud. And he was starting to realize that maybe Scorpius' had been, too. He just hadn't listened to them.
He had been telling himself for months that they had both agreed to this. They had come to a mutual agreement to end things. He conveniently forgot just how the conversation had actually progressed. He broke up with Scorpius. He broke up with him without asking for any input or talking things through. Selfishly, he had taken the idea of them being in love away from Scorpius and forced him back into a role he probably wasn't ready for.
The things Albus was going through now – the longing and the denial and the violent dreams – Scorpius had been through them all already. He had moved on. Albus was ready now, but he was too late. He'd blown his chance.
After he'd sobered up from the debacle outside the Quidditch pitch, Albus full-on avoided Scorpius for as long as he could. More than anything, he was embarrassed. He'd tried to be so good. Kissing Scorpius at night in his sleep wasn't all that risky. The boy was a hard sleeper most nights and hopefully didn't remember it happening. Kissing him in broad daylight while soaked in alcohol, that was stupid.
Being the absolute saint that he was, Scorpius never called attention to the incident after the fact. Things were a little tense on his end, but overall he remained cool. He remained the same. Within no time, everything was almost back to normal. Albus was pressing down his jealousy as best he could and filling his free time with knitting - his near-obsessive new hobby. It kept him distracted and concentrated on something else. It was easy to lose himself in a ball of yarn, even with Scorpius in the room. And that felt healthier than sitting and stewing his time away.
"This hat is pretty useless."
Grinning, Albus shoved at Scorpius' shoulder. The boy slipped on the icy brick beneath their first snowfall of the term, stumbling to regain his footing. "I told you not to wear it."
In the end, Scorpius lost and ended up falling backwards into the fresh powder. Louis, the ever present feature upon Scorpius' arm, rushed to help him up while Albus dissolved into a fit of giggles. Pointedly ignoring the way Louis lipped the snowflakes from Scorpius' amused grin once he was back on his feet. If he didn't look at it, it didn't make him angry. At least, that's what he had to tell himself to get through the day. Day by day….
In an attempt to bring the three of them back to a semi-platonic level, Albus snatched the cap back from Scorpius' head. "I don't get why it's unravelling. I followed the instructions…."
The attempt was futile, of course. Once the couple lost themselves in a kiss, they were practically dead to the world. Albus had stood by too many times by now to know it was useless to wait them out. Sighing softly, he shoved the sorry excuse for a hat in his pocket and crunched away through the snow. A new set of templates was calling him from his trunk, a sweet and generous gift from his grandmother who couldn't be happier to find one of her grandchildren sharing in one of her passions. At the very least, at the end of this mess, he was at least going to come out a master craftsman.