Disclaimer: As always I own nothing but the original characters and the situations all characters find themselves in. Everything else belongs to someone else and that's the way it's gotta be according to the lawyers.

As always, due to the sexy times, this chapter can be skipped over for those who don't want to read that.

Some New Bonding

Walking into the bathroom with no idea what to expect, Scorpius gaped openly at the sight in front of him while blinking several times like a sleepy owl before his brain finally registered the fact that yes, Albus was not only in the bathroom but in the bathtub. The darkened bathroom, which he was only now really realizing was getting all its light from lit candles that casted some very interesting shadows over his very naked boyfriend who was before him, waiting for him. And it wasn't even Christmas yet.

"Well, are you coming in or aren't you?"

"I am in." Scorpius pointed out dumbly, not getting what he was being asked.

"I meant into the tub, not the room, Silly. There's plenty of room."

Eyes going as wide as a house elf's, Scorpius's cheeks went redder then they had in a long time as he realized what Albus was asking him. And while he was tempted to make a run for it, because even though they'd shagged plenty of times by now the idea of sharing a bath, naked while not shagging…oh dear Merlin…

"Are you sure we'd both fit?"

Albus couldn't help but chuckle a little, Scorpius just looked so damn adorable, but he answered the question instead of telling the blonde so. "Actually I was pretty surprised by the size too. I mean you don't expect Blacks to be the type for romantic baths with their arranged marriage spouses. Then I remembered that Sirius and Regulus's grandmother looked pretty fat in her pictures…and it all made sense."

Opening his mouth to protest that fact, he was related to the woman after all, Scorpius closed it again because yes, yes she had been very large. He couldn't argue, he'd seen the pictures too.

"So are you coming in?"

Squirming, but unable to look away from Albus, Scorpius nodded shyly, feeling rather like he always had around the Gryffindor back before they'd become parents together. Which oddly, the blond realized, somehow made it so much sexier than it had been a moment ago. Plus he was also determined not to run now, because the more he looked at his naked boyfriend the more Scorpius wanted to get in the tub with him. There was just the issue of stripping down in front of Albus, he told himself, which he should be used to by now at this point too. Only this time he wasn't getting dressed afterwards or getting immediately hot and sweaty with Albus under covers or on the floor and that made it different and scarier.

So Scorpius couldn't help but squirm some more even as he determinedly stared at a spot beside Albus's shoulder as he lifted his jumper up and over his head, folding it carefully before setting it on the bathroom counter. The rest of his clothes followed, with Scorpius still refusing to meet Albus's gaze, and then, having used up most of his courage stripping, Scorpius moved as quickly as possible over to the tub and carefully stepped in since knowing his luck he'd slip and bash his head into the tiles if he wasn't overly careful.

Reaching out to help Albus guided Scorpius down so that the blond's back was against his chest, wrapping his arms around the Slytherin's waist to keep him there. Right where he wanted him.

Blushing all the more for the position he now found himself in Scorpius blurted out the first thing that came to mind, which was that he'd never shared a bath with anyone before.

"Well I have loads of times so consider me an expert on that matter. I'll teach you everything you need to learn." Albus added as he nipped Scorpius's ear teasingly.

"What?" Scorpius tried to turn around to face Albus without a hell of a lot of success, his voice ripe both with shock and the beginnings of anger and betrayal at the thought that Albus had been splashing around in a lot of tubs with the girls the Gryffindor had dated.

A rumbly chuckle was Albus's answer, the Gryffindor keeping a pretty good grip on him. "I meant with my family, Silly. Careful or you'll hurt yourself."

Stilling, Scorpius processed that with true Slytherin suspicion. "JUST your family?"

"Well I can't remember everyone I got put into a tub with when I was little, but mainly family, yeah. Mostly Lily come to that, since we usually made messes together and putting us both in the tub at the same time saved time and water. James would probably be second, but he had a bad habit of riling me up so that we'd make messes of epic proportions in the bath. Mum didn't care for that, as you might imagine."

Thinking that he bet the combination of Lily and Albus had made quite a mess too, Scorpius relaxed against his boyfriend's chest, only really caring that this was something special Albus had thought up just for them. It was really sweet and romantic too, not that he was going to mention any of that. No, he'd much rather just enjoy the moment and the ones that would come after it. Especially since Albus was now nibbling on the side of his neck, Scorpius mentally tacked on as he tilted his head to the side to give the Gryffindor better access.

"This is nice."

"Mhhmm. This was one of the things my Dad always did after Mum had a hard day and he didn't have a proper bribe on hand. Mostly she'd just have a soak, some wine, and go to bed early without having to deal with us. Sometimes he sent us to our grandparents, which is probably when he joined her. Which I'd really rather not think about at the moment if it's all the same to you." A pause while Albus shuddered over the inadvertent mental images before he changed the topic to the fact that Scorpius was all he wanted to think about.

"Smooth, Potter. Very smooth."

)

Utterly delighted with Scorpius's slightly strangled sarcasm, he bet the Slytherin was blushing like mad now which was why he'd said it, Albus agreed that it had been pretty smooth before going back to kissing the blond's neck while his hands slid over the other teenager's torso. For the time being, anyway, since eventually Albus couldn't help but let his hands slide lower to rub up and down Scorpius's thighs, not too close to where he was hoping the Slytherin was getting hard for him, but close enough that there was no way his boyfriend wasn't thinking about what would happen if he were to move his hands closer together.

"Albus…"

Making an inquiring sound Albus deliberately shifted his hands ever so slightly closer to the goal, just to tease that much more. Plus the squirming Scorpius was doing was making the Slytherin's pretty arse rub up against him in some really good ways that he didn't want to stop any time soon.

"That's not…that's not where I want you to touch."

Okay, that was not what he expected but damn, that was hot nonetheless and had Albus eager to hear more as he outright asked where Scorpius wanted him to touch him, curious as to just what his blushing boyfriend would ask for.

He should have known that Scorpius wouldn't answer, but Albus had no problem with what Scorpius did instead.

Moving slight away from him and then getting to his feet to turn around, Scorpius couldn't help but blush some more as Albus's eyes raked up and down his now wet body before he knelt back down with his legs bracketing the Gryffindor's. Then lifting his hands Scorpius got a firm hold on Albus's thick hair before pulling his boyfriend in for a very hot kiss.

Lifting his hands to run them up and down Scorpius's spine, always a sensitive place that the Slytherin loved having touched, Albus kissed Scorpius back with equal enthusiasm, groaning into the other man's mouth when Scorpius's fingers left his hair, shortly making a far more pleasurable sound when those hands dropped down to show him exactly how Scorpius had wished he'd been touching him earlier.

Taking the hint Albus grinned against Scorpius's lips and then brought one of his hand around the blond's side to wrap his fingers around his boyfriend's erection, the two focusing only on what they were doing with their hands and the snogging they couldn't stop doing, returning to it in between breaks for some air or a startled gasp that separated them for a moment. Neither of them were interested in drawing it out, and they'd had more than enough practice with each other to know what the other liked, so while they didn't last long they were both more than happy with the way things ended.

Smiling when Scorpius relaxed against him, he definitely liked that, Albus settled back as well to simply enjoy the warmth of the water and the Slytherin all but lying against him.

Of course the peace didn't last once the sex haze left, Scorpius declaring that they couldn't lie in water that they'd messed up and in short order Albus found himself out of the tub and drying off beside it. Of course this did provide him with the opportunity of watching Scorpius do the same, which was very nice, but not quite the sexy, memorable night he'd had planned for them.

When he said as much Albus was surprised when Scorpius shook his head.

"It's plenty sexy and memorable." Scorpius told him as he finished insuring that the towel he'd wrapped around his waist would stay there until they got into the bedroom.

Moving in close under the guise of helping Scorpius dry his hair, Albus smiled at him questioningly. "Do you have plans I don't know about either?"

"We're together, that's enough."

Adoring him, how could he not when Scorpius said such adorable things, Albus had to kiss his boyfriend then, as well as undo the towel that the Slytherin had wrapped around his waist for some reason.

"Albus…"

"Night's not over yet."

After all, there was no point in wasting their teenage refractory period while they had it.

)

Waking up in his bed, though it wasn't like his other one, Phoenix stared up at the shiny things hanging above his head, pushing aside his cover so that he could stand up and touch them with his fingers. They weren't really something he could play with though, and he didn't like this room as much as his other room. He missed his other room and he missed his mummy and da, and even though they were close, he could feel them, Phoenix decided that they weren't close enough. For a moment he considered yelling until they came to him, but Phoenix decided it made more sense to go to them so that he could cuddle in a big bed with them. He didn't have a big bed in this room…or a box house either, which he was very bitter about and would get his parents to remedy as soon as possible.

Getting out of his new bed was easy, he was really good at getting out of things and places, and taking his birdie with him for company Phoenix walked across the room to the door, getting up on his tiptoes to reach the handle to open it.

Once the door was open he was out and headed for the bed his parents were sleeping in.

Knowing to approach from his mummy's side, his da always slept really deeply, Phoenix went around the bed and tugged on the covers for a little bit before it registered that his mummy wasn't rolling over to see what he wanted. That was strange. Not yet discouraged though, Phoenix started calling for his mummy, but that wasn't getting any reply either.

What the-this had never happened before! What was going on?

Phoenix considered yelling now, but he still didn't want to scare them, and when he yelled his parents usually got really upset, especially if they didn't think he had a good reason to yell.

Putting his hands on his hips Phoenix pondered what to do and then decided that he was just going to have to find his own way onto the bed and then he would shake his mummy awake just like mummy sometimes had to shake da awake.

Heading back into his room since there was more light in there, Phoenix looked around for something that he could use, his eyes falling on the small suitcase that had held his stuff earlier. That could work.

Running over Phoenix started to tug and then pull the suitcase across the room, calling his mummy some not entirely nice names in his head for making him go to all this trouble to get to him. And while there was another voice in his head that said he should really just yell, there was a louder voice that said he'd be a baby if he just gave up. He was a big boy now, he could definitely do this.

Maybe.

It took some doing, and he was definitely feeling more than a little cranky by the time he'd managed to get the suitcase beside the bed his parents were sleeping in, but he'd done it and Phoenix found there was some satisfaction in that. And his parents better be impressed when he showed them what he'd done in the morning or he was going to frown at them a LOT.

Climbing up on the suitcase Phoenix had to use the blankets quite a bit, but he managed to reach the top of the bed without falling, though he had a couple close calls along the way. And mission accomplished he stomped up the bed to where his mummy's head rested, da cuddled up against him and looking very happy color wise. But it wasn't da he wanted right now so Phoenix grabbed ahold of his mummy shoulder and started pulling on it with all his weight, which nearly ended in him going flying off the bed because his mummy rolled over in reaction. Then he was nearly squashed under his mummy, who thankfully immediately shifted back into his earlier position.

What the heck?

Sniffling a little, he didn't know what was going on here and he didn't like it one little bit, Phoenix sat down and thought that he was sorry he'd left his birdie in his bedroom before. He really wanted to hug it right now.

Deciding that he would try Da, though it was probably a lost cause, Phoenix walked back down the bed, crawled over their legs, and then staying on his hands and knees headed back up his da's side of the bed until he'd reached the end of the covers. Sliding under them since it was a little cool in the room Phoenix edged over until he was face to face with his da, reaching out to gently pat his cheek as he called for his da to wake up.

"Hey, Baby." His eyes staying close Da surprised Phoenix by responding immediately, and then arms were coming up to draw him in close so that his head was under his da's chin, snuggled in tight against his da's body the way he was snuggled up against mummy. "Go to sleep now, I've got you. Da's here."

Eyes closing automatically, his da's voice was so soothing and he was so warm, Phoenix decided that he should do as his da said and just relax and go to sleep. Everything was good now.

Though he was going to have some words for his mummy in the morning; that was for sure.

)

Feeling very relaxed and inclined to simply go back to sleep, Albus opened his eyes to half mast as he debated doing exactly that or getting up. He should probably do the latter, or at least go into the other room to check on Phoenix before going back to bed. Or he could check on Phoenix and then maybe wake Scorpius up for a morning shag, as he certainly had the morning wood to be interested in that. Yes, that did indeed sound like a brilliant idea now that he'd had it.

Sliding out from under his side of the covers Albus turned and set his feet on the carpeted floor, blinking around sleepily and then focusing his attention solely on the fact that sometime during the night Phoenix's suitcase had magically found its way to the side of the bed. Now how the heck had that happened?

Scratching his head Albus put on his glasses and then found some pajama bottoms to slip on just in case Phoenix was already awake, taking the suitcase with him since he didn't want to accidentally trip over it later.

It took no time at all for him to arrive at Phoenix's room, Albus's eyes widening even more behind his glasses as he took in the fact that not only was his son not in his bed, but when he checked the covers were cool which suggested that the boy hadn't been under them in quite a while.

What the hell?

Dropping the suitcase on the floor Albus spun around and ran back out the door and over to the bed where Scorpius was still sleeping, that being the most logical and safest place to be even though Phoenix didn't normally bother Scorpius during the night because the Slytherin was hard to wake up once he was out for the count.

Catching sight of the small blond head visible under Scorpius's chin right away Albus gave a big sigh of relief before taking a seat on the side of the bed, leaning over to push the covers down a little more just so that he could see for himself that yes, Phoenix looked absolutely fine where he was.

"You're just determined to scare the heck out of us, aren't you?" Mock scowling at their son Albus was about to get up, use the loo, and then go back to bed before it occurred to him that Scorpius was still naked under the covers.

Yeah…first things first he better find the other man's pajama bottoms and get him in them before Phoenix or Scorpius woke up and that nakedness became known to both of them.

Getting Scorpius naked and in bed with him any time soon depended on it.