Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

It's Complicated	By : KohakuShadow Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male Views: 2708 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and am not making any money off of it. The boys are all just so sexy I can't help playing with them a bit. I'll put them back when I'm done. In tact. ...probably.

Chapter List
- 1-1
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-7
- 8-8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-13
- 14-13
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter
8

Ron slapped some water on
his face and let out a deep breath.

“How is he?”

He jumped nearly out of
his skin. “Fuck, Char. Don't sneak up on me like that,”
he griped, raking his fingers back through his hair. The guilty
expression on Charlie's normally cheerful face made him regret
snapping at his surprisingly unstable older brother. He sighed.
“He'll be alright, but you really busted him up. It's going to
take a while.”

Charlie looked down,
rubbing his bicep. “...right.”

“He woke up a while
ago. His voice is kind of shot at the moment but...he's been asking
for you. You should go see him. Talk it out, or something.”

“...not yet,”
Charlie answered hesitantly. “Listen, Ron, I'm gonna head back
to Romania. Tell him...” he raked his hands through his hair
again. Tell him what? That he was sorry? Too weak. What good did
'sorry' ever do anyone, anyway? It was just an empty word that didn't
mean anything. Right now, Charlie didn't know that he wouldn't take
one look at Percy and finish what he started. “Fuck...”
He changed the subject, trying to collect his thoughts. “Aren't
you awfully calm? You saw it too. Percy and George...”

Ron tensed a bit. “I'm
not thinking about it,” he said firmly. “For tonight, at
least. In a day or two when all this calms down, I'll think about
that then. Just, don't bring it up for now. Okay? Bill will
be here soon. Do you want me to send him your way?”

“You called him
after all,” Charlie sighed. “No. Last thing I need is
one of Bill's famous lectures on personal responsibility and family.
They're two of his favorites, you know. I don't think I could handle
a double-whammy at the moment.”

Ron never understood
that. Charlie was the only one Bill ever really lectured. Everyone
else he just accepted as they were, but Charlie, who Ron had always
thought of as being really carefree, brave, and totally together...he
got lectures. Maybe Bill was the only one who really understood that
Charlie wasn't really together at all. Maybe he never had been, at
least when it came to 'family' and 'personal responsibility' as
Charlie so lovingly called the subjects Bill harped on the most.
“You should talk to Percy,” he tried again. “He
looks so...”

“Beat up. Yeah, I
figured.”

“I was going to say
lost,” Ron sighed. “You know, I always thought Percy's
confidence bordered on stupidity. Hell, all of you. You were all so
confident. Somehow it skipped me. Now it's like...I don't know, like
the world slapped us all in the face one too many times, I guess.”

Charlie smirked a bit.
“Well, it set you straight, at least,” he teased,
pulling Ron over and giving him a firm noogie. “My widdle
Wonnie, all growed up.”

Ron struggled and pushed
away. “Don't be stupid just because you think it'll distract
me.”

“Didn't work, huh?”

Ron smirked a bit,
pushing his fly-aways back into place. “Nice try, though.”

***

“Seamus?”
Harry asked quizzically. It was nearly four in the morning. He and
Snape were headed home from a little known pub and a relatively quiet
New Year's Eve – spent almost entirely in the solitude of the
pub's private rooms. When they came down, he overheard someone
talking about 'the lot of them, all at St. Mungo's. Can't miss the
Weasleys – all that red hair. One of the boys, from what I
could gather, beaten to a bloody pulp. Horrible night for it to
happen, 'eh?'

In a fit of panic, Harry
had sent a patronus to Ron, and was relieved by his prompt reply
telling him that it was Percy, and he was 'busted up, but not too bad
off, all said'. He'd told Harry not to worry and to enjoy the rest of
the holiday, that there was a enough of a crowd already. But knowing
Percy was lying in a hospital bed made the fact that Seamus was
standing here dripping wet and staring into space completely bizarre.

“Why aren't you at
the hospital?”

Seamus blinked at him,
then shook his head as droplets of water from his soaked, sandy hair
dripped down to his eyes. “Eh? Why'd I be there? 's New Year's
Harry, 'n case you forgot.”

“Your boyfriend's
in the hospital. Didn't they contact you?”

“Whut?”
Graceful, that.

“Seamus. Percy's
been hospitalized. I don't know the details, but he's pretty beat up
from what I gathered.”

The world stopped,
just...froze. Seamus had been standing in the rain – he wasn't
sure for how long – just thinking. It wasn't that he was being
emo, it was just that eight years was a lot to let go. The last one
year was a lot to let go. He felt like the second he stepped through
the floo, it would all disappear and he just wanted to have a few
minutes to think about the good times just once more, really
understand how it had all come to this. But then Harry had broken
through his uncharacteristic reverie just when he was thinking he
could come to peace with it all.

'The...hospital...'
The hospital meant a lot of things. Important things. It meant Percy
was hurt. Badly. It also meant that he hadn't stood him up; he just
couldn't come. “Feck,” Seamus cussed and apparated to St.
Mungo's before Harry could say anything else. He barreled through
the halls until he slammed face first into Bill's chest.

“Where?” he
asked breathlessly.

Bill looked relieved to
see him. But then, Bill, for once, didn't know the whole story. “In
there,” he gestured with a thumb. “He's awake. I'm sure
he'll be glad to see you.” Oh Bill, if only you knew.

Seamus nodded and slammed
recklessly through the door. George's gaze shot up from the bedside
and his complexion paled as he took in the sopping Irish boyfriend
that – in George's opinion – had been the sole cause of
all their trouble. If Percy wasn't dating him, if Charlie wasn't
strangely obsessed with him, then none of this would have happened.
Percy wouldn't be here.

Percy's head rolled to
the side. He'd been hoping it was Charlie. He needed to talk to
Charlie, get the air cleared up, but it was Seamus rushing to his
bedside. It was Seamus clasping his hand a little too tightly and
looking like he was about to be sick from the worry. All his resolve
to cast his sandy-haired boyfriend aside once and for all vanished as
if he'd never thought to do so in the first place and he weakly
squeezed the hand. How could he possibly hurt Seamus any more than
he already had?

“Seamus...”
his throat hurt. He couldn't seem to raise his voice above a
whisper, but at least it seemed audible now.

“Perce...feck...”
Seamus said, his voice a bit broken. How could he have possibly
thought about casting Percy out of his life once and for all? Eight
years! No, nine. It was nine years now. He kept forgetting they'd had
another anniversary that neither of them mentioned. Maybe they'd
both forgotten the actual date already and just didn't want to admit
it. Seamus thought it might have been October, but he couldn't be
sure. He caressed the older man's cheek gingerly, careful to avoid a
large welt on his cheekbone. 'Shortest lived resolution
ever,' he told himself.

Fists
clenched, George rose sharply. “Well, I'll just leave you two
lovebirds alone,”
he said, storming from the room. Seamus was just daft enough not to
realize it was more than just a brother complex.

“Sorry,”
Percy rasped in that barely audible tone after a long time of just
looking into each other's eyes, lost in all that had been good about
them once, deluding themselves into believing it would be good again.
Drama always makes the impossible seem possible. “I stood you
up again.”

“Shite. Don't
apologize. You would've come if you could.”

“...I might not
have,” Percy admitted reluctantly. “I probably wouldn't
have.” He should sit up. This is a conversation he shouldn't
be having laying there like a lump, but he had a few broken ribs and
couldn't bear to move until they fully mended.

“Perce, calm down.
That's the pain-killing potion talking, yeah? Damn things always make
me loopy.”

Percy shook his head and
instantly regretted it. It made the room spin. “I was already
really late when this happened,” he rasped. “I was...”
he had to admit it. Had to get it out there. If they didn't face up
to it, it would just be a repeat of the same old thing. “...I
was with someone else. Again. Just like last year. Just like all the
years before that.”

Seamus didn't know why he
was such a girl anymore. He lifted his hand and wiped at his eyes,
which were threatening tears. Again.

“I'm
sorry,” Percy rasped. “I'm so fucking sorry. You have
no idea.” 'I'm sorry,'
he thought. 'But I can't stop myself, not if it's him.'

Seamus was quiet for a
long time. “Same guy?” he asked finally. He didn't want
to know, but he needed to.

Not able to trust his
voice, Percy nodded. He regretted it again. Merlin, Charlie'd really
done a job on him. He felt like the room would never stop spinning.

Seamus wanted to be
pissed. He should be pissed. Four years sitting alone while Percy
was with someone else. Every New Year's for four years. Other
holidays, too. Valentine's, and such. He couldn't be mad when Percy
was lying here like this though. Even if he wasn't, Seamus didn't
think he had any mad left in him – not over something he'd
suspected all along. He wished he could be mad. Mad would be so
much easier. “...shite.”

He let out a breath. “I
guess I'd be a damned hypocrite to hate you for it, after this past
year,” he muttered under his breath. “That guy...the one
I shagged last New Year's...I shagged him more than just the one
time,” he admitted. There was no point in not fessing up now.
“...a lot more.”

“How
much more?” Percy didn't know why he'd asked. It didn't
matter. He knew who 'that guy' was. Had to be,
but he wouldn't bring it up. There was no point.

Seamus worried his lower
lip for a minute before taking a deep breath. “Three or four
times...” he said.

“That's not...”
Percy started to say that it wasn't that bad at all.

“...a week,”
Seamus finished.

“...oh.”

“...yeah. You?”

Percy
thought about George. How often he tried, how often he'd fended him
off. How many times a month, on average, he failed to fend him off.
How many times he wished he hadn't... “...not quite that
many,” he said. “But as many times as I've cheated on
you before him, why don't we just call it even?”

Seamus offered a weak
laugh. “So...”

“So,” Percy
echoed. “We should probably...”

“Maybe it's okay,”
Seamus blurted abruptly.

“What?”

“I mean, you know,
we're not mollies, we're blokes. Maybe it's okay if we have a go on
the side now and again, as long as it ain't overboard. I mean, maybe
not everybody is the monogamous sort. Maybe we're just tryin' to fit
into a mold that doesn't suit, or something.”

“Seamus...”

“That
don't mean I'll stand for being left in the cold again, mind,”
Seamus said firmly. “But we can loosen it up a bit, see if we
get on better. I still wanna be the main deal,” he clarified.
“I'm yer
boyfriend...but...what we're doin' ain't workin' for either of us, so
if you want a little arse on the side once in a while that ain't
mine, then I think if we're open about it, and careful not ta do
anything stupid, catch anything weird from some strange bloke, then
maybe it'll work. It'll be like takin' a break, without the actual
breakin' part and without the whole messa guilt we got ourselves
into. And...and maybe when you're all patched up, we can go
somewhere together. Take a holiday, really spend some time getting
to know all the things about each other we were too embarrassed to
talk about until now.”

Percy's lips curled
slightly upward. “...and try out some of those other toys we
never got around to last time, I imagine?”

Seamus
grinned at the dirty joke. Percy wasn't the sort who usually opened
up enough to offer one. “Or buy a few new ones,” he
quipped. “Go somewhere sunny. Conveniently forget our swim
trunks when we just happen
to be passin' by a nude beach...drink somma those fruity things with
the little umbrellas and get burnt up in all the wrong places. Spend
the night rubbing aloe and soothing balms all over each other...and
jus'...talkin' about things. Everything. Nothin', too.”

“Seamus...kiss me?”

Seamus didn't have to be
asked. They were having such a great moment, best one since that
afternoon in the hotel, and in some ways so much better in spite of
the circumstances. He leaned down over Percy and gently pressed their
lips together, smiled into the kiss and opened his mouth when Percy
swept his tongue between his lips. He wouldn't exactly call it a
passionate kiss, but it was warm and inviting. It was the way,
Seamus realized, that Percy used to kiss him. It wasn't even a
shadow of the way Charlie kissed him, but for the first time in a
long time, Seamus wasn't thinking about Charlie all that much. Not
thinking about Charlie, it turned out, made him feel more like
himself than he had in a good, long while.

***

Charlie
finally let Ron bully him and his god-forsaken conscience into going
to see Percy. He shuffled along, hands in his pockets, and glanced
to the side where Viktor was resting a coffee to the side of Bill –
asleep in the waiting room with his long legs stretched out before
him. Viktor settled beside him, just close enough to absorb his body
heat without disturbing him, and held his own cup in his big hands,
trying to look as unobtrusive as a hulking Bulgarian Quidditch Player
possibly can – which, for the record, isn't very unobtrusive at
all. 'Merlin, they're sweet. If I can clear the air with
Percy, maybe I can have that with Seamus someday.'
He realized he wanted that more than he'd ever wanted anything. A
surge of optimism overcame him as he watched them for a moment, but
when Viktor looked up at him inquiringly, he shrugged and offered a
bland smile before gently opening the hospital door. He'd apologize.
He'd grovel if he had to. And they'd get this shit all sorted out
once and for a--

Charlie was faced with
the second shock of the New Year. Seamus was there. He and Percy
were kissing. Percy's bandaged arm had lifted carefully to curl into
Seamus' sopping hair. Even from the doorway he could tell there were
tongues involved.

“Good?” Percy
asked, his voice harsh and barely audible.

“Good,”
Seamus confirmed a bit breathlessly before lowering his head for a
second kiss.

Charlie
clenched his fist and just managed the resolve to quietly close the
door so they'd never know he'd been there. He even managed a good
ten measured, if robotic, paces away from the door and down the hall
before he made a mad dash to the bathroom to vomit. 'Why?!
Why does he always forgive him? Why can't he end it? It's shite for
both of them most of the time...and Percy's...George...and...'
He let out a strangled, frustrated scream and broke the handle of
the toilet off when he flushed too forcefully. “Shite. You've
gotta give it up, Charlie. He's Percy's. That's all he's ever going
to be, no matter how many times your fucking prat brother walks all
over him. Just...accept it.”

But he couldn't. It was
love, after all – deep, intense, obsessive, beat the snot out
of your kid brother, puke your guts up, heart-wrenching, true love.
Charlie just hoped Seamus realized it before he puked away every last
ounce of his podge. Seamus had always liked his podge. He wanted it
to be there when the daft, yet adorable, Irishman found his way back
into his arms.

'...if that ever
happens...' Charlie sulked.

“Charlie?”
Ron asked tentatively, pushing open the stall door to find his
brother seated on the grotty floor, staring off into space.
“Alright?”

“I could go for a
strong drink and a hard shag,” Charlie offered with a weak, yet
playful smile. “But I'll live, Ronnie. I'll live.”
- 7
- 8
- 9
You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.You need to be logged in to leave a review for this story.
Report Story

It's Complicated