IN NOX, SUM VERITAS━━DRACO MALFOY

sixteen. cwtch

━━━━  · 。ﾟ☆ .☽ .* ☆ﾟ. ━━━━

(n.) more than a cuddle or a hug,
when you give someone a cwtch,
you figuratively give them a "safe place"

THE FIRST CHRISTMAS LOUIS COULD REMEMBER SPENDING WITH HIS MOTHER HAD TO HAVE BEEN WHEN HE WAS SEVEN. Snow had been falling and Saturn, his old Scottish terrier, had been scampering around the house without a care in the world. It had been the first Christmas Louis had been able to remember spending without his father, despite his leaving when Louis had only been a year old.

Louis hadn't begun to question why his father was no longer in the picture until he was about twelve, when he was truly able to recognize that someone had been missing from his life. His mother hadn't been able to sit him down and tell him what happened due to the reason that he was already on the Hogwarts Express, heading back to school to finish off his first year. So when he had gotten a letter from his mother the following week, his world had shifted to the nth degree, the sun that had shone over him dampening a bit.

Christmases had been different after that. Good—great, even—but different. The veil that was Louis's blissful ignorance had been lifted before his eyes and forced him to take a pill that was so hard to swallow at such a young age. It had made him grow a little too quickly and it had taken him a few sob sessions to get him back down.

So for Louis to hear that he wouldn't be able to spend Christmas with his mother did upset him. But to know that she was spending with it someone who loved her just as much as he did made up for it. And before he had gotten to where he is, he didn't know what he was going to do with himself for the rest of the month.

However, here he was on Christmas Eve, spread across the couch in the library, random book in his hands that Draco had picked off one of the numerous shelves that lined the vicinity, Draco tucked into his side, still donning the hoodie Louis had lent him three days prior, leaving Louis to wonder how he wasn't sweating, considering that they were once again in front of the fireplace and that Louis threw off more heat than he cared to admit.

"How aren't you sweating?" Louis mumbled, resting a gentle hand against the top of Draco's head and softly moving his thumb back and forth. The action elicited a response from Draco, who began to stir until he was brought into consciousness, albeit struggling due to the overwhelming and comforting warmth that surrounded him.

"Must you continue to wake me?" Draco's grip tightened around Louis's middle before loosening and letting out a huff of a breath.

"Sometimes I have to wake you to make sure you're not dying on me. Like now, for instance. How are you not frying yourself?"

"It's practically the middle of winter. How are you not freezing? All you've got on is a t-shirt."

"Maybe it's because this is the season in which I thrive."