Shadows fell over the town that evening.  The street was lit only by the dim lights on either side, casting a glowing path down the road.  It was as though a silencing spell had been placed upon the city - not one bird sang, not one car passed by.  Even their footsteps were muted as they walked quietly down the road, neither daring to speak. 

There was a quiet click as Al opened the door.  He stepped inside, sparing a short glance at Scorpius.  The simple action made his heart beat about a million times faster.  He quickly adverted his gaze, looking instead to the clock upon the wall.  It was half past eleven, and Al thought the last few days had gone by quicker than ever.  The fifteenth of December was quickly approaching, and he was dreading the events more and more each day.

He forced the thoughts out of his mind.  He had enough to worry about as it was, and he didn't need anything else to stress about.

A dark figure came slinking out of the shadows.  It slowly crossed the room, lurking in the darkest parts, hardly visible in the dim lights.  Al reached over and turned on the light, giving the room a bit more visibility.

The dark figure meowed.

"My child! I missed you!" declared Scorpius.  He scooped the cat into his arms and held him up to admire.  The poor animal gave a pitiful squeak, trying to wriggle out of his grasp.  Scorpius reluctantly released the cat, watching as he crossed the room in a couple strides. 

"Clearly it's unrequited," said Al.  The black cat made his way towards him, brushing against his legs and trying to get his attention.  "I think you and I both know who his favourite is."

"For now."

Albus smiled, but said nothing.  Instead, he sat on the couch and clicked a button to turn on the television.  The screen came to life abruptly, volume starting up and shattering the silence.  Scorpius settled into the couch beside him and spared the television a glance but paid minimal attention to it. 

"For the sixth time this week, there has been a disappearance.  This time, the victim in question is a twenty-two year old woman by the name of Isolde Burroughs from a small town called Godric's Hollow.  Little is known about. . ."

The news segment droned on and on about the latest events, but Albus could hardly bring himself to pay attention.  With every word, he found himself falling farther and farther into the black pit of hopelessness.  It was so easy to just give in and spend the rest of his days dreaming of everything that could go wrong, convincing himself of every last possible outcome, pondering Delphi's motives until it drove him to insanity.

He hadn't even worried until that week.  Well, of course he'd worried, but not like this.  As the day approached, he found himself increasingly fearful of what was going to happen.  Everything felt so wrong all the time, and he couldn't place why.

Maybe she was trying to scare them into acting.  Maybe she was trying to worry them.  Maybe she was trying to make them obsess over something useless because she found it funny.  Maybe it was all a part of something bigger.

The last one played on Albus's mind constantly.  The thought repeated itself in his head all day until he gave in and started pondering the possibilities, wondering what was going to happen.  It was beginning to feel impossible, that they would never be able to understand.

Three days.

Three more days, and then they would be able to find out.

"We don't have much time left, do we?" said Albus, very quietly.

Scorpius hesitated before responding, as though he didn't want to say the answer aloud.  "No," he said carefully, "We really don't."

Fractured memories blinked in and out like flashes of lightning.  Each sent his mind into a frenzy, a mess of incomplete, panicked thoughts.  The storm of memories flooded forward, and no matter how he fought, he couldn't seem to push them back.

Rose, lying near-dead upon the ground, eyes vacant and lifeless.

The freezing cold atmosphere as they searched frantically for Lily.

The voice that had suddenly come back to haunt his dreams after five years of quiet.

Three days.

The severity of the situation struck him just then.  If one thing went wrong, things could get so much worse.  There was so much happening, so many people being hurt.  It needed to come to an end.

People he cared about were trapped at the dead center of the problem.

He needed to stop it.

Suddenly the storm of memories was more than just that: it was an earthquake.  Ground shaking, earth trembling, world-breaking.  And then there was an avalanche of emotions, all tumbling down at once, and there was no way for him to stop it.

They had one chance.

They couldn't afford to waste it.

Albus glanced sideways.  Beside him was Scorpius, his face buried in a book.  He seemed so involved with the book he didn't notice anything outside of it - not Al's careful glances in his direction, not the unfortunate headlines on the news, and certainly not the steadily growing confusion within Albus.  Still, Al couldn't help but smile. 

That was the other matter: they'd kissed.  Twice.  Looking back on it, Albus couldn't stop himself from panicking.  Why did he do that?  Why did he have to make things so much more complicated?  Ignoring his emotions and moving on - that he could do.  But after the incident - as Al was too afraid to call it what it really was - ignoring his feelings was becoming increasingly difficult. 

Every time he so much as looked at Scorpius, his heart started racing.  It was all he could think about.  The memory kept coming back like a recurring dream.  In fact, he was beginning to think that was all it was.  It had been a few hours and they'd both skillfully avoided the subject, neither of them sure how to bring it up.  And Albus swore it was killing him, pretending it didn't happen.

He was beginning to think he was more worried about that than he was about the whole Delphi situation.

That was certainly not a good sign.

"You're doing it again."

Albus's attention snapped back to reality.  He'd been so distracted he hadn't even noticed that Scorpius had put his book down and now somehow the television was shut off.  "Doing what again?"

Scorpius gestured towards Al's hands, giving a small smile.  "You're doing what you always do when you're worried.  You stare off into space and fidget with anything you can get to." He paused, and Albus hesitantly moved his hands back to his sides, setting his phone down on the coffee table.  He'd been turning the item over in his hands nervously for the last ten minutes, and he hadn't even realized he'd been doing it.  "Are you okay?"

The room suddenly felt very small.  "As okay as I can be, all things considered.  You?"

Scorpius really smiled this time.  "Yeah, I think so."

They both fell silent. 

Albus took the moment to observe Scorpius, taking in every detail like it was the last time he'd ever see him.  He tried to commit every last bit to memory, painting a clear picture.  There was a part of him that worried - that always worried.  Somehow, though, all that fear slipped his mind.  He couldn't tear his gaze away - not from the pretty blue eyes looking back at him, not from the boy he was so desperately in love with.

"What are you thinking about?"

Albus froze, not ready for the question.  He blinked, trying to come up with a decent response, but nothing felt like a good enough answer.  "A lot of things."

"So. . . Same as usual?" said Scorpius.  He laughed.

"No," said Al.  The words felt distant, as if someone else had spoken them in his place.  "I think it's different."

"What's changed, then?"

"You."

He forced himself to look away.  His gaze drifted away - down to his lips, and -

He wasn't sure why he did it.  No, that's a lie, he knew exactly why.  He just couldn't place why it was then, of all the times.  But he couldn't stop himself from staring.  He could never stop staring at this impossibly beautiful boy he'd been lucky enough to be friends with, could never stop smiling so much it hurts every time he was around him, couldn't stop being so in love he thought he might die from it.

So, he thought, that might explain it.

He leaned forward, not really thinking, and pressed his lips against Scorpius's.  It was barely a kiss - just a hint of one, a ghost of a memory brought back to remind them of everything they'd tried to forget.  It was soft and short and lasted mere seconds, so small it hardly even counted.  And yet it mattered so, so much - with every moment that passed Albus was falling further and further away, losing sight of what was safe and what was so far past reality he couldn't even remember what it looked like. 

But finally - finally he kissed him, for real this time, and that was what did it. 

If the last one was a ghost, this kiss was alive, so loving and full of life that Albus was drowning in it.  He loved him.  He loved him so much and he couldn't keep the words off his mind.  This time, he didn't even try to fight it. 

I love you, he wanted to cry, but the words felt too great for the small room, and for the small moment captured in its story.  I will love you until my heart fractures from the weight of it, and even then I will love you.  It tumbled silently into reality in the way each kiss recited the words so loudly his lips bled (and his heart did, too), in the way his fingers wound into the fabric of Scorpius's shirt, pulling him closer and closer until he wasn't sure it was possible to be any nearer, and then some. 

After what felt simultaneously like eternity and not nearly enough time, the two broke apart.  Albus found himself wishing they hadn't - his eyes drifted back down to Scorpius's lips again, then back up to his eyes.  He debated what to say, or whether to say anything.  But as the two made eye contact, his breath caught, and suddenly any thoughts of saying anything were far gone.

"So - in case you haven't noticed by now, I think I might be in love with you," Scorpius said softly.  His face flushed pink and he looked down, carefully looking at anything but Al.  "I mean, not that I expect you to know or not know, it's just - well, it's rather obvious.  I think everybody's realized by now.  I'm awful at concealing my emotions, have you noticed?  I don't understand how anybody trusts me to keep a secret, I couldn't lie to save my life.  And I think half your family has been betting on us for a while, if what Lily told me is true -"

"You're rambling," said Albus.  A smile lit up his face as he spoke, green eyes glowing with joy. 

"I know, I'm sorry, I do that when I'm nervous," said Scorpius.  He finally looked up again, and Albus was more than a little tempted to kiss him yet again.

Self-control, Albus reminded himself, as much as he maybe didn't like it.  He reached forward and intertwined his fingers with Scorpius's, smiling softly.  He kissed him one more time.  One small, short kiss, and he almost struggled to pull away and end it.  "I love you."

It was too easy.  The words left Al breathless, spilling from his heart as easily as they had appeared there.  The short moment that passed tugged at the strings of time, extending mere seconds to unbearable eternities as his heartbeat raced, each beat making Albus sure his heart just might stop.

And when Scorpius answered with "I love you too," Al thought there could be nothing better than this.

It was all a little too much.  He pressed a tiny, soft kiss against Scorpius's lips; the kind as miniscule as a shard of shattered glass, shimmering in cold sunshine, but enough to send cities toppling to their demise.  It was the kind that brought universes to the ground, castles crumbling and realities tumbling into one lovely moment.  He shifted closer, leaning their foreheads together and shutting his eyes as he tried to catch his breath.  He felt Scorpius's fingers brushing against his skin, tracing his features as if it was the last time he'd ever get to observe them; they touched the curves of jis lips, the faint freckles scattered on his skin, and finally tangling into his hair and Albus swore the emotion had taken a life of its own.  The feeling clawed its way from his heart up.  His eyes stung.  "I mean it," he whispered.  Yes, he thought, it was too much for him.  He didn't think he could live without it now; he wondered how he ever had.  "I really love you."

A soft laugh fell into the silence.  Not one of humor, but the kind that overflows from aching hearts when their emotions have brewed too long; when the fire burning beneath their hearts makes the overwhelming feeling come spilling out.  Scorpius leaned away, and just the few centimeters between them made Al long for the closeness again, to never be away.  "I know," replied Scorpius, so softly Al thought his heart might burst.  He placed gentle kisses against Al's face as he spoke, words fractured but neither could find it in them to care.  "I've always, always loved you."

And then one kiss turnee into two, and two turned into so many neither of them cared to keep count - hell, even if Al wanted to keep count, he didn't think he could.  All thoughts had vacated his mind, save for the little confessions of adoration that would slip from his mind into the silence.  For those few moments - or, well, however many moments it was - it felt as though everything would be alright.  He was sure of it.

Then, there was a knock at the door.

It was Scorpius who pulled away.  Albus reluctantly let go and took a breath, but still held onto his hand, keeping him from getting off the sofa.  He pressed a kiss to Scorpius's cheek.  "You don't actually have to answer the door, you know that, right?"  I don't want to let you go yet.  His face was set aflame as a scarlet blush crept up his skin, even though he hadn't said the words aloud.  He didn't need to, really, the message was clear.

"It's Rose," said Scorpius.  He didn't seem to inclined to leave, either - not with Albus leaning forward and kissing him between every other word, not like this.

"...and?"

Scorpius laughed, sparing one short glance towards the door.  "And if we don't let her in, she'll break down the door and come in herself.  We promised her we'd watch her weird muggle movies."

Albeit reluctantly, Albus moved back and let go.  He grabbed a blanket from the side of the couch and pulled it over himself, falling back into the pillows.  "Remind me to cancel movie nights from now on."

Once Scorpius had disappeared from sight, Albus leaned back into the couch and shifted his gaze around the room.  He heard the front door open and then two muffled voices.  Still, he couldn't bring himself to clear the smile from his face.

A few moments later, Scorpius reappeared with Rose at his side.  The girl waved a small rectangular box in her hand, a big grin etched into her face.  "I bring gifts in the form of my presence!"

"I don't think that counts as a gift," said Al.

Rose rolled her eyes and collapsed into the sofa beside him.  "Whatever.  We're watching Ant-Man and The Wasp, and you're not allowed to complain."

The rest of the night was filled with a combination of things - Albus and Scorpius sneaking kisses when Rose wasn't paying attention, Albus pretending to be interested in the movie, Rose insisting on giving unnecessary commentary, and Scorpius politely agreeing with her because he didn't have the heart to tell her no one cares. 

In that moment, it felt like things were finally looking better for once.  It was as if just the one good thing had somehow turned everything around it to gold.  One little ray of sunlight, illuminating the whole world.

It wasn't over yet - but almost

Almost.

a/n
HI I FINALLY WROTE IT

i felt so awkward the whole time i was writing and also this chapter is awful and needs severe editing but uhh

i wrote it and that's what matters

i cannot write romance, honestly.  I procrastinated so long because I was too scared to write it

but anyway....yeah!

thanks for reading

-v