Prompt: "Well, that's not working, is it?" Title: Surprise Homecoming Author: Ruby Tuesday Pairing: Harry/Draco Word Count: 750ish Rating: PG Summary: Draco comes home early. Warnings: Fluff Prompt: AWDT- “Well, that’s not working, is it?” Beta: secretsolitaire Disclaimer: Not mine, I’m just having fun.
“What on earth are you doing, Potter!?” Draco cried in dismay upon walking in the front door of his flat.
Draco looked around in horror. Harry had moved all of the furniture in the whole flat to the centers of the rooms and covered them with sheets. Now he was up on a ladder smearing some opaque liquid that looked suspiciously like toothpaste all over the walls.
“Draco, shit! What are you doing here? I didn’t expect you back for at least another week!” Harry said, as he scrambled and promptly fell off the ladder he'd been perched on, landing arse-first on the floor.
“Uh… mission ended early. What the hell is all this?” Draco demanded, waving his arms.
“You uh… You said you were tired of the colors in here and uh… I um… I’m repainting your flat,” Harry stammered.
Draco looked around the room, at the uneven blotches of lime green paint on the walls. He peered into the kitchen, where the walls looked just as pathetic, only pastel yellow. Yellow!
“And… you’re trying to do this all by yourself, the Muggle way?” Draco asked incredulously.
Harry shrugged. “It was supposed to be a surprise for your birthday next week. Blaise told me that decorating spells are a poor substitute for doing things by hand. I wanted it to be perfect, so I’ve been doing it myself.”
“Well, that’s not working, is it?” Draco responded glibly.
Draco looked around the room and sighed. “Here, let me show you something.” He took Harry by the hand, pulled him up off the floor and led him into the study. “I’m sure you’ve never spent more than 15 seconds in this room before, and that was probably only while fetching me, but, believe it or not, I actually have some interesting items in here.” He pulled back the sheet that was covering his largest bookcase. “These, Potter, are called books. I have books on many topics, including wizarding decorating.” Draco pulled several tomes down off the shelf and handed them to Harry.
Harry examined the books for a few moments. “I had no idea these were here.”
“I think that’s patently clear, Potter. Really, though, think about it, how do you suppose my flat got to be so elegantly decorated to begin with?” Draco asked, gesturing widely as he spoke.
By this time, Harry was looking as if he wished the floor would swallow him up. “You like the colors, though, right? I mean, I know I didn’t get it on just right, but I tried to choose colors that would suit you.” Harry seemed to be grasping for some way to save the situation. “It’s just… You were gone for weeks and I had to do something to feel closer to you and even if we start over, we could still use the same paint, right?”
Draco looked at Harry, covered in paint in his oldest clothes… He even had paint in his hair and on his glasses. He sighed and in that moment made a decision. It was time. He’d been putting off asking for far too long.
“Harry… Oh Harry, what am I going to do with you?” Draco took Harry’s hands in his. “I don’t like the colors. Not really, not at all. But I’ll tell you what I do like. I like you. And I love it that you were thinking of me while I was away and wanted to do this for me. But what I’d love most of all is to start the whole project all over again and this time, we will do it together. And really, I think that we should choose colors we both like because…” Draco took a huge breath. Then next words all came falling out in a jumble. “Because the colors need to match all of your stuff because I want you to bring all of your stuff here because I want you to move in with me.”
Harry stared at him in silence for seemingly endless seconds. Finally, he spoke. “Really?” he asked, astonished.
“Yes.”
“You’re sure? You really want to live with me? Here, together?”
“Positive,” Draco asserted.
With that, Harry threw his arms around Draco and kissed him hard. Hard enough to try to make up for all the time he’d been gone. Then he pulled back and held Draco’s face in his hands and looked into his eyes. “I missed you,” he said.