Potions & Charms

Falling

Avi was watching Scott closely as he was buttoning up the oversized flannel shirt. It kept sliding off his shoulders but at some point he had stopped holding it up, his body was still weak from the long walk and the encounter with the dark creature and all he wanted to do was crawl back under the blanket and close his eyes. And maybe be close to Scott. Maybe he wanted that too. 

When Scott closed the last button he smiled. "All done. Do you wanna sleep some more?"

Avi hummed lightly and scooted from the edge of the mattress back to the headboard and buried his face in the puffy pillow. It smelled of Scott, of comfort and safety, and he couldn't help but close his eyes. 

The charms teacher stood up and pulled the blanket over Avi's body. When he walked towards the door he heard him speak up. 

"Where are you going?"

"To the living room, I want to make some tea for you." 

Avi hesitated. "Can you...hurry up? Please? I-" He paused, but Scott knew what he wanted to say. 

"I'll be right back, Avi. No worries. Five minutes. And I have to get you some more chocolate, hm?"

The bearded man hummed before he put his head back on the pillow and sighed softly. He wanted Scott to come back quickly so he had a chance to get warm again and while he waited the Potion Master dragged the sleeves of the hoodie he was wearing over the pajama shirt over his hands to his fingertips.

Scott returned a few minutes later. He was holding two cups, both filled not with tea but hot chocolate and he handed Avi his mug before he carefully climbed on the bed to get comfortable again. "Good?" he asked Avi once he was sitting against the headboard and looked at him. 

"Yeah." Avi smiled lightly. "Thank you. I haven't had a cup of chocolate in years." 

"Do you remember when you had your last cup?"

"Mhm. It was on the last Christmas I spent with my parents" he mumbled and held the mug with both hands, took a sip and closed his eyes when the hot liquid touched his tongue. "Goodness, this is so good." 

Scott stayed silent for a while. He watched the way Avi's lips curled whenever he took another sip of the hot liquid, the way his delicate fingers were wrapped around the mug. Avi still looked rather pale, more than usually, but the baritone knew that he was slowly recovering from the incident. 

When they were finished Avi sat his mug down on the small nightstand and slid back down into the pillows. He got comfortable, then looked at Scott before he slowly scooted closer. "Scott?"

"What's up?"

"Can- uh, I- I'm-" Avi sighed and stopped but Scott understood and smiled softly. 

He opened his arms. "C'mere, Avi. Hugging is nothing bad and I hope that at some point you are able to just do what you feel like without having to overthink everything. I know that you're working on it and I am proud of you. Okay?"

The bearded man nodded. He moved until his head ended up on Scott's collarbone and their thighs touched. "Thank you, Scott. For everything you've done for me."

Scott ran his hand over Avi's side and smiled. "Of course" he said softly. "You matter."

Avi fell asleep again and didn't wake up until the Charms teacher gently touched his cheek. 

"Avriel?"

He needed a moment to understand what was happening and sat up quickly. He looked at Scott with wide eyes, then scooted back until he slid off the mattress and fell to the floor. "Ouch!"

"Avi, oh God!" Scott got up quickly and rushed around the bed. He reached under Avi's arms and pulled him up until he stood on his legs. "Are you alright?"

He rubbed his shoulder and nodded slowly. "Yes. Sorry. I- I just didn't expect to be woken up by something other than the weird dungeon noises."

Scott couldn't hold back a chuckle. "It's fine. Now that you're up - maybe we should have breakfast? It's almost noon and I am starving."

Avriel found himself in front of a full English breakfast at Scott's kitchen table five minutes later. He hummed in approval and reached for his silverware to dig in. "Did Winky prepare this?"

"I think so, she brought it over ten minutes ago because she couldn't find you in the dungeons." The Charms Professor sat down after making tea for both of them and started eating as well. "Did you have any bad dreams over the course of the night?"

"No, none. Not that I remember. Maybe because of the hot chocolate? I slept like a baby."

Scott smiled lightly. "Good. I really enjoyed our cuddles yesterday, by the way. How are you feeling in general?"

Avi shrugged and chewed on a piece of hash brown. "Still shaken up."

"May I ask why you didn't defend yourself? You're a great wizard, Avi.." Scott paused and looked at the bearded man on the other side of the table. 

But the other wizard kept his eyes on the plate and sighed softly.