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Tepid	By : KohakuShadow Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 2621 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter, I'd obviously have done it the way I wanted it the first time. That's what makes it FANfiction. And as it is a fanfic--written by the fans, for the fans--it is also obvious that it's not helping me pay any bills.

Chapter List
- 5
- 6
- 7
VI.
Talk to Me

(Paris,
France. 1/3.)

Bill
sat in the back of the cafe and tore napkin after napkin into tiny
pieces until they were too small to continue to tear. He had written
to Fleur, requested as gently as possible that they get together for
a talk. She'd replied with a date and time and the address of a
Parisian cafe. Bill's French wasn't the best, but he managed to
order a glass of water and explain that he was waiting for someone.

She
was late. Bill couldn't fight this fear that she wouldn't come. And
then he fought this bigger fear that she would. He needed to explain
things to her properly for once. If she was okay with it then
Viktor...no, one thing at a time. He took a large sip of water and
quickly dusted the napkin shreddings under the table when Fleur sat
down, hoping she hadn't noticed.

"...hey,"
he said. She'd brought the baby. Merlin, Victoire was getting so big!
He didn't realize how much he missed her until she was right here.
"Thanks for coming."

Fleur
adjusted Victoire's blanket. "You said you wanted to talk,"
Fleur said. "Somesing has changed with you."

"Yeah,
I..." Bill was normally so much more suave than this. Sometimes
he felt like falling in love had turned him into a complete buffoon.
"I guess I wanted to apologize for all that I put you through.
I never meant it to go that way. I really did think I would fall in
love with you. I mean, how could anyone not? There's so much worth
loving."

Fleur
sighed. She'd come to terms with this already, but she didn't hate
Bill or anything, so if he needed to spill it all out at her so that
he could too, then she decided she would let him. Even if his
feelings for her were only lukewarm, that didn't mean she wanted the
man she'd fallen in love with to suffer. So she listened quietly as
he explained about the past, how he'd never loved anyone, but had
liked her more than he'd ever liked a girl before, how he'd thought
that would be enough. She watched the way he would fidget and rub
the side of his neck at places to try to figure out what to say next.
He didn't seem much like the confident, smooth, brave and charming
man she had fallen for now.

He
took a deep breath, "But it kind of...well, it turns out I'm
gay," he finished awkwardly.

Fleur
blinked and then covered a demure little giggle with her hand.
Suddenly it all made sense, like the final piece of a puzzle had been
added and the picture finally became clear. Of course Bill was gay.
How had she never noticed it before?

Bill
rubbed the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "Yeah, I
guess it's pretty stupid. Most people figure out this sort of thing
when they're still in school, right? But I guess if you don't have
anything against girls, can look at them and think they're cute, then
it just sort of makes sense to assume you're, well, normal, until
something happens that says otherwise."

It
didn't take long for Fleur to figure it out. "It eez love. That
is what has changed for you. That eez why you seem so much more..."

"Clumsy?
Awkward? Moronic? Yeah, basically," Bill answered, looking down
at Victoire. "Can I hold her? Just for a minute?"

"She
eez your child too. Ze fact we are no longer togezer, does not
change zat."

Bill
gently lifted Victoire from her carriage and coddled her a bit. He
thought he would probably always miss her, but he also knew that it
was right to leave her to Fleur. She needed her mother. He would
just end up extra baggage that made things complicated, but she would
always be his daughter and he adored her. If he was honest with
himself she was always somewhere in the back of his mind.

They
sat quietly for a while before he set her back down. "You do
not have to stop being her fazer, Bill," Fleur said, fussing
with the baby's blankets again.

"I
am being her father," he answered. "I'm being her father
by making the decision that will be the easiest for the most people.
If when she's older, she decides on her own that she wants me to be
part of her life, then that's what I'll be, but for now, I think
letting her go is the best for everyone."

"It
eez not best for you."

"It
is, at least for now. I have other things going on. Really
complicated things."

"Like
zis man you love."

"Yeah,
about that..." Bill hedged. "He's a friend of yours."

Fleur
looked a bit startled. "A friend? Of mine?"

Bill
stared down at the table. "A Bulgarian friend."

Fleur's
eyes went rather wide, and Bill very nearly laughed at the cute
expression. "With Viktor? He eez a good man."

"Too
good," Bill complained. "He's too worried about hurting
you to let me anywhere near him."

"You
want me to talk to heem?"

"I
couldn't ask you to do that," Bill protested. "I mean,
hell, I've put you through enough as it is. I'll manage."

"I
will talk to heem," Fleur said decisively. "I am no longer
angry with you, seence you did not know any better. And Viktor is my
friend, as you say, so if you are what makes heem happy, zen I zink I
should let heem have you. But! If you hurt heem, I will not forgive
you again."

Bill
couldn't help but laugh a bit. Fleur certainly was a unique woman.
"Someday, you are going to make some heterosexual man very, very
happy," he said.

"But
of course. Zat much is obvious," Fleur answered.

***

"This
is Victoire," Fleur said, depositing the baby unceremoniously
into Viktor's arms.

Viktor
scrambled a bit, and looked adorably awkward holding the infant. She
had these bright blue eyes that made him think of Bill. "She is
cute," Viktor answered, not sure why he was holding Fleur's
baby, but deciding he wouldn't question it.

Fleur
smiled. "Viktor, do not look so terrified," she said. "She
eez an important part of my life, and also Bill's life, so naturally,
she will become a part of yours. So I thought introductions were in
order."

Wait.
What? Fleur was a good friend of his, but Viktor was sure there were
times the woman made absolutely no sense. She was completely unphased
by his his confusion and just barreled onwards. "After all, no
matter what nonsense that man spouts out now, he wants to be part of
his daughter's life, and I zink he zhould be. Naturally, zat means
she will need to learn Bulgarian, and who better to teach her than
you?"

"Fleur,
vill you please slow down. Vhy does Victoire need to learn
Bulgarian?"

"Well,
because her fazer will be living in Bulgaria, of course, vorking out
of a branch of Gringotts Bank in Sofia. He eez looking to build a
house on ze Danube, near Pleven." Fleur gracefully took
Victoire back and put her down in her stroller before Viktor's shock
could make him drop her as if she hadn't said anything surprising at
all.

"I
thought he vas going back to vork in Egypt!?" Viktor exclaimed.
So why in the hell was Bill looking for a house in Bulgaria? He had
a feeling he knew, but didn't realize that Weasleys were naturally so
stubborn. His complexion lost all its color.

"Well
yes, 'e was planning that, but you see, ze person he loves is in
Bulgaria, so he naturally wants to be near heem. Oh, Bill is gay, it
turns out, but you knew zat, didn't you?" she asked casually.

"I
need to sit..." Viktor answered, flopping into one of four
armchairs set in a semi-circle around a wooden coffee table where
he'd set out tea and cakes for Fleur's visit. He had been expecting
a casual visit, not well, not this.

"If
he was not, obviously he would not be able to resist my many charms,
and we would still be togezer," Fleur continued with a flip of
her blond hair. "But, seence he prefers men, I have decided I
will forgive him, seence he gave me such a pretty little baby, who
will have many people to care for her as she grows."

"Fleur,
I..." Viktor began awkwardly. He didn't know what to say. He
was grateful that she seemed so okay with it all.

"You
love my Bill very much, yes?"

"...yes,"
he admitted quietly, staring down at his hands.

"Zen
it ees only right that you get to know his daughter, so you can bully
him into coming to visit her sometimes. Like her birthday, and
perhaps some of ze holidays. You will have no trouble with zis. He
is very smitten with you."

Viktor
colored a bit. "I...vill tell him it is important," he
answered awkwardly.

"Good!
Now we must go shopping," Fleur declared. "To find you
somezing nice to wear."

"Vhat
is wrong vith what I am wearing now?"

"Viktor!
Have you no zense of romance? I have checked his plans with heez
brother, Charlie. He eez staying with Charlie for now, in Romania.
Bill will come to you tonight, to surprise you. He vill try to woo
you, and convince you that I am quite fine with ze two of you being
togezer, which I am. Ze least you can do ees look your best when he
arrives, no? You must have somezing dashing to wear. ...but, I
zink, also somezing easy to remove," she grinned impishly.

"Fleur!"

"Do
not be so embarrassed! It is natural. Perhaps he will be so
astounded by how nice you look zat you will be able to do ze
seducing, hm? Now, come, we must find you somezing very 'andsome to
wear. You can tell me and Victoire all about Bulgaria while we shop.
And I will tell you all ze things I have learned about Bill in our
time togezer."

"I,
but, oh fine. You vin again, Fleur." Viktor knew when he was
fighting a losing battle.

The
woman giggled. "But of course, dear Viktor, you make it very
easy for me."
- 5
- 6
- 7
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