Home Is Where The Heart Is (A Drarry FanFiction)

Chapter Six

   Dinner was not in fact burnt. It was incredible. Harry had managed to make an exceptional pasta dish along with creamy garlic dough balls and a fresh salad with what he claimed were 'scraps'. Draco even felt confident enough to say he'd like to know what he could manage when he had a fully stocked kitchen.

"I'll have to show you some time," Harry replied easily, before taking a sip of his wine. Draco blushed into his penne and couldn't think of a single thing to say.

As a result, he mostly let Harry do the talking as they ate at the table. He told Draco all about his training and how he hoped one day to run his own kitchen. He was extremely confident, like it was only a matter of time before he got what he wanted, but not so much that he was arrogant. He just knew what he loved and had faith that would take him as far as he needed to go. Draco half entertained the idea of confessing he'd love to have his own studio one day, before swallowing that firmly down with another dough ball. He'd never told anybody that, it was a silly daydream.

Draco kept anxiously glancing at the baby monitor stood on the table between them, feeling its presence heavily. The more Harry talked, the more he relaxed, and without a peep from the little box for over fifteen minutes Draco tried to stop worrying about it, but it was hard. Harry eventually closed his hand over Draco's, startling him into giving him his full attention. "Teddy's fine," he assured him. "He'll call if he needs anything, I promise."

Draco wanted to argue what if he got sick and couldn't call? Worry was coiling in his stomach. What if something happened to him, and it was Draco's fault for having a nice time with Harry instead of watching his cousin? He was so small, he'd never forgive himself.

"Hey," said Harry, squeezing his hand and getting his attention again. "How about some tea, or hot chocolate maybe?"

Draco nodded and managed to smile a little. The wine wasn't sitting right with him anyway. "That sounds lovely."

"So, tell me a bit about you?" Harry surprised him by asking as he rose and took several dishes to the kitchen side of the room. "Andy said you're a designer?"

Draco bit his lip. "I make patterns for clothing and bags and stuff," he said, feeling his throat contract at risking sharing even this small bit of information. "I um, do a lot of screen printing and stuff."

"Sounds brilliant," Harry said as he set about getting mugs and coco from the cupboards. Draco shrugged. It wasn't all that impressive, he thought. Art had always made sense to him, he'd just been lucky enough to find a job that let him carry on using it. He was about to say as much, when the baby monitor actually did crackle.

"Dwaco?" a scratchy voice called, followed by the unmistakable sound of a shaky sob. Draco stood up so fast he almost banged the chair to the floor. He glanced at Harry, who only had time to raise his eyebrows before Draco had broken into a run, traversing the four floors in less than twenty seconds. He stopped at Teddy's door and forced himself to take a deep breath before pushing it open.

"Teddy?" he asked, flicking on the lamp by his cousin's bed.

His little chest was shuddering. "Bad dream," he choked out as Draco sat on the bed, and he flung his arms around his waist, burying his head into Draco's side.

"I'm sorry," Draco said, stroking his hair. Now he could see he wasn't having a seizure or anything he felt a bit stupid for running up like he had, and wasn't sure what to do next. So he continued to cuddle the little boy and stroke his back. "It's okay," he said after a while. "I get bad dreams too sometimes. My mum cuddled me when I was your age."

"I don't have a mummy," Teddy whispered. He sounded exhausted.

Draco's throat constricted and he felt completely lost. What was he supposed to say to that?

"Let's um," he started. "Let's get back into bed hey? Get you comfy."

They reshuffled so Teddy's head was back on the pillow and Draco had his back to the headboard. "Hawy doesn't have a mummy either," Teddy said, small fingers pulling at the edge of his duvet. "You have a nice mummy though." He looked up at Draco with wet, brown eyes, and the lump in Draco's throat got even bigger.

"She is nice," he said. "She'll be back soon to see you." He wanted to tell Teddy he was so sorry he'd lost his parents, and that Harry had apparently lost both of his too, that it wasn't fair, but that his nanny loved him very much, and his aunt Sissy. And his big cousin Draco. But he didn't have regular words for that, let alone words a toddler could understand. "Do you think you can go back to sleep now?" he asked.

"Can you tell me a stowy first?" Teddy asked. He'd fallen asleep so quickly before, Draco guessed that would be alright, but he couldn't see the book Harry had been reading from previously.

"Uh, sure," he said regardless. "What kind of story?"

Teddy shuffled over so his head was by Draco's hip, and he sucked at his fingers again. "A stowy about a pwince," he said around them.

Draco only knew one prince.