To Be Loved

HarryxRabastan

BEFORE
"So... Er, Mister Potter... This is my rooms. Or, well, our rooms for now," Rabastian murmured, gesturing to the space before them.
He quickly locked the door, throwing up a multitude of wards as Harry stiffly walked over to the couch, slowly and gently setting himself down.
"Um. I... Thank you. For healing me. Arse face didn't explain apparation properly, and left as soon as I'd asked 'what'. I was actually surprised he didn't kill me on sight, but eh. Might as well live, then."
Rabastian stared at Harry for a minute, feeling a bit of disbelief well up. "Did... did you just call the Dark Lord 'arse face'? And, from the sounds of it, you don't mind dying?"
Harry shrugged, before gasping at the pain flared. "S-shit! Fuck! Goddamn it, do you have a pain potion?"
Rabastian snorted, going over to his potions corner (which actually had the majority of it hidden within a fake wall) to grab him a vial of said potion.
"Here," he said, lips quivering. "This will make it hurt half what it is now."
Harry takes it, cautious. "Will it actually?"
Rabastian nods, biting his lip.
"Then why are you laughing?"
Covering his mouth, Rabastian tried to stop his chuckles.
"It- It's just- You swore!"
Harry scowled, downing the potion. He glared at the full on guffawing Rabastian, sniffing his disapproval.
"Just because I was given a title, that's not going to stop me from swearing."
Rabastian held onto the couch's armrest, holding his stomach.
Harry carefully stood up, walking away to the kitchen. "Oh, fuck off."
Scowl deepening, Harry turned his nose up at Rabastian's howling and entered the kitchenette, looking around to get his bearings.
Two, maybe three person table, window above sink, big cupboard that might be the equivalent of a fridge, stovetop...
Harry went around, peeking into the cupboards as he ignored the insidious man's ridiculous laughter. Finding what he wanted, he grabbed a pot.
Rabastian slowly sat onto the couch, trying to calm himself down. Really, his reaction to Potter swearing was over the top, so he could understand the boy's annoyance.
It was just that everything that had happened within the past half hour was catching up to him, and he hadn't processed it yet. ...Which wasn't an excuse for laughing at Potter, but yeah.
Sighing, and wiping a last tear away, Rabastian stood once more to head into the kitchen and apologize.
"Potter, I-"
Freezing in shock, Rabastian watched as Harry continued to make what appeared to be a bread of some sort? There were two bread pans, anyhow.
"...Potter?"
Glancing over at Rabastian, Harry rolled his eyes. "What is so shocking about pumpkin loaf? Merlin, you'd think you never saw someone bake before."
"Er..."
Harry's eyebrows flew up. "Really? You haven't? Well, come here then; I'll explain it to you, assuming you don't know how to bake."
"Um... well, no."
He smiled softly. "It's easy, you'll see. Here; take this measuring cup and get me three of these of flour, into this bowl here. Got it?"
Rabastian took the measuring tool, utterly bewildered. "Um, yes, sure..."
Harry opened the flour container. "Just scoop it full, then gently shake it back and forth until it's pretty even on the top. Okay?"
Nodding slowly, Rabastian scooped the flour, carefully shaking to and fro until he thought it was good enough. Looking up at Harry, and seeing a encouraging smile and nod, he gently dumped the flour into the bowl.
"Great!" Harry exclaimed. "Two more of those, and then one of this; one-third of a cup. Alright?"
Rabastian nodded more confidently, scooping a second time. As he measured the rest of the flour into the bowl, Harry added the other spices and dry ingredients needed.
Nodding approvingly once Rabastian was done, Harry handed him a fork. "Alright, now carefully mix it all together while I finish with the wet ingredients. It's a good thing there's such things as house elves; I don't know how I would've gotten pumpkin puree, otherwise."
Rabastian carefully stirred, stirring until he wondered if he was stupid. It looked like there was nothing but flour in the bowl.
"Um, Potter..."
"Harry," he corrected.
"Uh, okay... Harry? Did I mess this up?"
Frowning, Harry looked over. "What? No, that looks perfect. Why?"
"...It just looks like flour."
Harry chuckled. "It's fine; dry ingredients tend to do that, as there's so much flour compared to the rest of the ingredients. But you did great, it's ready to mix in with what I have here. Would you like to?"
"Erm... Sure?"
Stifling a laugh, Harry handed Rabastian his mixing bowl. "Alright; trade, then. I'll pour some dry ingredients in, then you'll carefully mix it in, and we'll repeat that 'til it's all mixed together. Ready?"
Rabastian bit his lip, looking at his bowl apprehensively.
Laughing, Harry patted Rabastian's arm. "It'll be fine, you've got this. Just stir slowly so the flour doesn't poof up."
Sighing, he resignedly nodded his head. "Alright. Ready."
Harry poured some of his mix in, and Rabastian slowly, carefully stirred it in.
"Great! Just like that." Harry praised, grinning at Rabastian's proud look. Pouring in some more, he watched as the content man kept stirring, waiting until he could add the last bit.
"Last bit, then we can put it in the pans and pop them in the oven."
"Alright," Rabastian said, stirring the rest of the flour mixture into the dough until it was fully incorporated.
"Pour it half and half, now that I've oiled the pans. While you do that, I'll set the oven."
Setting the magic stove to the right temperature, Harry grinned in awe as it was ready in an instant. God, magic was the best.
"I'm done, Harry, do you want me to put them in?"
Nodding, he opened the oven door. "Sure. Put them evenly spaced on the top rack, I'll set a fifty minute timer."
Once the pans were in, the oven closed, and the timer ticking, Harry and Rabastian sat at the little table.
As they were sitting, Rabastian remembered why he came into the kitchen in the first place.
"Er... Um, Harry... I, uh, I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have laughed, and I promise I didn't really mean to. The past half hour of crazy had just caught up to me, and... it resulted in laughter at your cussing. I'm sorry."
Harry stared at him wide eyed, shocked. No one'd ever apologized to him before; not with real meaning like this.
"I... Thank you, Rabastian. That... that meant a lot. I... you have no clue. Thank you."
Rabastian blinked. "Um... You're welcome.
...Would you like to play a card game?"
Harry's eyes widen again. He... he was so nice! Why wasn't the rest of the Wizarding World like this? Screw the Light, he would gladly stay with the Dark if it meant getting to spend all of his time with Rabastian.
Smiling shyly, he nodded. "Sure."
«~»                              «~»                             «~»
BEEP!
"Oh, bloody fuckin' hell, why is that so loud?!" Harry jumped, pressing his hands to his face as he sighed, letting the adrenaline fade.
Rabastian chuckled, shuffling the cards back together to put them away. "Scared the shit out of me, too, the first few times. Works like a charm, though; I was never late to work." (au: the author would like to say that she has only just now noticed that he used a muggle phrase, and at that about a charm itself. A thousand apologies for Rabastian's idiocy.)
Snorting, Harry got up to check on the loaves.
Opening the oven, he used the oven mitt to pull the rack forward before testing each with a toothpick.
"Perfect! They're both done. We can eat some after it cools," Harry called back to Rabastian, pulling the two pans out of the oven and setting them on top of the stove.
After setting a quick ten minute timer, he went back to the living area.
Sitting back down on the sofa beside Rabastian, Harry rolled his shoulder as he winced.
"I can put some numbing salve on it, if you'd like. Just to make the feeling fade a little."
Weighing his options - suffer in silence or accept help - Harry sighed, and nodded. Why put up with pain if someone's offering to take it away?
Rabastian got up quickly and fetched the salve, motioning for Harry to take his shirt off as he came back so that he could get to the wound.
Complying, Harry sat back and watched as the man carefully and meticulously applied the salve, making sure to get every square millimeter.
Harry felt something well up inside of him at the gentle care, and scolded himself for feeling unknown emotions at an older man helping him. While he didn't know the emotions, he sure as hell felt that such feelings probably weren't normal.
But, you know what? Screw normal. He was never normal. As a freak of a nephew, as the Golden Boy Savior; even his friendships weren't normal! Ron was always ditching him at first chance, and all Hermione did was berate him for doing as everyone expected! And Ginny... Oh god, let's leave it at that.
I'm gonna feel whatever the bloody hell I wanna feel. Happy, sad, angry, or neutral! Fuck everyone else, I'm going to do ME for once.
"Er... Harry? You oka-"
Harry jerked forward, kissing Rabastian with all he had.
Oh, shit; THAT'S what he was feeling?!
But... Rabastian was kissing back. He... he was pulling Harry closer, and a gentle hand was in his hair, and he was just melting into the other man, it-
BEEP!
"BLOODY FUCKING HELL!" Harry cried as he leapt back. "WHAT THE FUCK!?"
Rabastian looked up from where he fell back on his arse, shocked. He... he was just kissing Harry bloody Potter! And... and that stupid fucking timer ended it!
Harry moved to get up, face flushed and eyes downcast. "Cough, Excuse me-"
Bolting up, Rabastian grabbed Harry by the neck and waist and pulled him into another, deeper kiss.
Moaning, Harry wrapped his arms around the taller man's neck, giving up on his knees as Rabastian's tongue did wicked things.
Rabastian pulled him even closer, one hand sliding down to push Harry's hips into his by his right arse cheek. His mouth trailed down Harry's neck to the curve of his shoulder, harshly nipping at it as Harry quivered in his arms.
Feeling a gentle tug to his hair, Harry tilted his head further to the side, moaning long and deep as Rabastian practically ate his neck, all harsh bites and harsher licks.
"'Bastian..." Harry groaned when fingers dug into his arse and hair, trying to press him even closer.
"Harry-"
BEEP!
"FUCK!"
"FUCKIN' HELL!"
Staring at each other as they breathed heavily, having ripped apart at the loud noise. Harry smiled softly before pointing to the kitchen.
"I should probably..." he mumbled, looking at the floor.
"Yeah," Rabastian nodded, running a hand through his hair.
Harry quickly scurried into the kitchen, calming his breath as he tried not to freak out.
I was just making out with an older man!
I was just making out with a teenage!
Rabastian hung his head, but couldn't find it within himself to be guilty, or disgusted at his behavior. Harry... Harry was so sweet, and funny, and just... wonderful. Sure, he had only known him for an hour, but that was all he needed to see how amazing the teen was.
Harry was shakily slicing the loaf as he collected his thoughts.
So... You definitely like older men. He fought a wave of hysteria. Okay, okay; no jokes. But... Rabastian was so nice. And caring. And thoughtful, and just... mature. Something other's your age kinda... aren't. Hm... Maybe that's why...
Arms came around his waist, comfortably gripping him to the firm body behind him as a head plopped on his shoulder.
"We eating it, now?"
Biting his lip, Harry nodded shyly. "U-um, yeah. Could you grab some butter, please?"
The arms squeezed him gently. "Of course, Harry."
Blush rising, Harry ducked his head as he wandlessly conjured two plates and a butter knife.
Placing the slices - two each - on the plates, he accepted the butter from Rabastian and immediately swiped some on all four slices.
"Here you are; let's sit on the couch."

2,064 words