InsaneJournal

In the sweet by and by (Percy, Arthur, G)
Title: In the sweet by and by
Characters: Percy, Arthur
Rating: G
Word Count: 216
Warnings: None.
Disclaimer: Not mine. JKR's.
Summary: Percy likes to be alone when he visits Fred.
Notes: For nurani, who requested "Percy's relationship with his dad post war, grave".

Percy tries to visit Fred when everyone else has already come and gone, late in the evening when the sun's last feeble rays filter through the branches of the ancient apple trees, or early in the morning when everything is waking and it seems as though Fred should wake, too.

He knows full well that that thought is illogical, childish.

But when he's sitting (carefully, so as not to muss his robes) near the mound of earth that contains his brother's bones and thousands of worms, he sometimes feels a child again, in ways that he cannot (will not) attempt to explain.

The day that his father shows up, Percy scrambles to his feet, trying his damndest to look every inch the capable adult that he is, not the child lost in thought that he hopes he's left behind.

Arthur just stands there for a long moment, his mouth open, then he snaps it shut and just nods to Percy.

"I didn't expect—" Percy begins, but Arthur cuts him off.

"We all come out here," Arthur says, and that's enough for the moment, and though forgiveness is still wavering, tentative, it hovers between them, and they both sit upon the groundcover of fallen leaves and bird droppings and, after a minute or two, they begin to talk.