It felt good to return to work. Rhy Maresh’s office may have had pillows on the floor and prints of exotic, far-off places on the walls, but the desk he was currently sitting at was tidy and contained. The Troubles has been solved at last, and returned to his own body and feeling a little vulnerable, Rhy threw himself into his work - and his side project of learning Russian. Sure, there hadn’t been an explicit need for that particular language, but the Cyrillic alphabet was fascinating and far removed from anything that Arnes could produce. Some of the sounds, however, reminded him of the language of the citizens of White London. Strange how he found that comforting now when only a few months before the similarity to the world that had very nearly ended his own would have set him on edge.
He was working on writing a beautiful copy of the alphabet in scrawling, elegant ink when a knock came upon his door. Puzzled, Rhy put his quill in its pot and opened the door. Teddy Lupin. “I’m so glad you’re here when I’m tired, feel exhausted, and look worse,” he said dryly, but the smile on his face was genuine: “Come in. Ooh, what’s all that?”
Teddy froze in the doorway, paper coffee cup in one hand, bag of books in the other. He thought he’d had the perfect excuse to talk to Rhy - to see how he was feeling after everything - and a funny one at that. Only he’d second guessed his plan literally the second the door opened and now it was too late to slink away looking like somebody else.
“So I had this joke ready,” he admitted instead, shuffling into the room to set the bag of books on the ground next to Rhy’s desk. “About bodyswapping with a white girl and all the things you might be craving now. Really playing into stereotypes, yeah? Only I remembered you’re from ancient times--” Teddy waggled the fingers of his free hand for emphasis. “--And a completely different world at that, so…”
He huffed a little laugh through his nose and held out the pumpkin spice latte. “Do you like coffee?”
“I love it.” Back home, coffee was a recent addition to the trade routes, and was beginning to be adored by nobles and peasants alike. Rhy had only known of it as dark and bitter and addictive before Atlantis, but he’d discovered that the sweetened and cream-filled version of the treat a few days after arriving here.
Taking the cup gratefully, he gave it a sniff - yup, sweet. Gesturing to a set of chairs by the window, Rhy took a seat and a careful sip of coffee. “Are white girls supposed to like this? Because if so, they’re right - it’s delicious. Thank you for thinking of me… it’s been a real week. Are you finally done with reversing the damage?” Because sure, he’d had a crap week, but so had Teddy, having been one of the volunteers to help with the strange goings-on. His expression was inviting, if concerned.
“Yeah, they’re brill. I told you it wasn’t a good joke,” Teddy laughed and sat back against the edge of Rhy’s desk, tucking his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans. Moving the hem of his jumper aside to do so had exposed the wand sticking out of his left pocket, and a stray bit of relief passed through his mind that he didn’t need to worry about that here.
“Apparently something happened, got rid of the lingering ones all at once. So yeah, everyone’s okay, I think.” He reached up to scratch a hand through his violet-coloured hair. “Are you? Okay?” A belated thought made him squint one-eyed and wrinkle his nose. “ You don't look worse. Just. For the record.”
“It was awkward and strange, being someone else for a while,” Rhy answered with a loose shrug of his shoulders, “but she was nice enough, and we were fortunate to figure out the loophole that turned us right again.” He wondered, briefly, if Teddy knew of it, and decided that it was silly to keep a secret a secret when someone he barely knew was aware of the truth. Court life had taught him quickly that as soon as someone out of your inner circle knew a piece of information, it would spread.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” he added, flashing a smile that indicated just how much he liked being complimented, “even if you’re likely to take it back in a moment. The loophole was to tell a secret you’d been keeping.” This was the hard part, but Rhy knew how to plow through difficult words, how to appear light and airy and utterly in control when all you wanted was to drink yourself under the table.
“The secret that switched us back was that I’m not magical. Not in any appreciable way.” Rhy’s voice was measured without a hint of self-pity. “My parents were well-known wielders, and powerful. My lack of ability is just a fluke of genetics - magical aptitude comes and goes in family trees for no reason anyone can determine - but politically, it’s dangerous.” He should have left it there. He’d explained himself and that was all that was required of him. But dammit, he wanted Teddy to like him. It really was as simple as that. His serene expression cracked, just a little, and he added: “And personally, it’s embarrassing. I’m sorry that I lied when we first met.”
Teddy didn’t bother to hide his surprise, but even that was a gentle sort of thing. His eyebrows lifted and his softly curious stare followed Rhy’s body language as he made his admission. He couldn’t even guess at the complexities of being the squib king of a magical kingdom. He could barely guess what it was like to not have magic at all.
“Hey, that’s—it’s okay, you didn’t owe me the truth. I’m glad you didn’t feel like you needed to keep hiding it from me now, though, body swap spell or not.” He gave a warm twitch of a smile.“Running a magical kingdom with no magic…I can’t imagine the kind of pressure that puts you under. You must have bollocks of steel.”
“And an excellent Royal Guard, and an extensive liquor collection.” The quip was delivered smoothly, Rhy’s confident air back in full effect, and he was relieved. Teddy’s world had had a magical war after all, about magic use and who was worthy of it. He’d known Teddy wasn’t some kind of egotistical prat, but it felt good to have it confirmed. “I wasn’t lying when I said fire is my element - it’s the only element I can manipulate - but it’s not impressive. On a good day, I might be able to light your match.”
It’d have been a lie to say that he didn’t intend for that last sentence to sound flirtatious. Rhy took a sip of his coffee and kept eye contact until the heavy bag Teddy had been holding caught his attention. “What’s that? Homework?”
I bet it’s still terrifying. Teddy didn’t voice the thought. He just snorted and let his eyes drift shut for a second. When he opened them, it was to give Rhy an amused sidelong glance at the match comment.
“And on a bad day, I…get the feeling you’d manage some other way,” he murmured distractedly, a bit of colour high in his cheeks. He’d forgotten about the bloody books. Should’ve pitched them out into the hall before he came inside. Sighing, he came out of his lean on the desk and lifted the bag to set it where he’d been sitting. “Remember the bad joke? This was part of it.” Inside the bag were such literary gems as Twilight and the The Fault in Our Stars, as well as witch-written novels If Bludgers Could Talk and The Time-Turner Curse. Teddy picked up Twilight and reached out to tap Rhy’s chest with it.
“I was going to say if you read this, do it for a laugh, cause it’s rubbish and it’s not real, but then I realised it probably is real.” He frowned down at the apple on the cover. “To somebody.”
“No, no, I respect the commitment to the theme,” Rhy assured him with a laugh, flicking through Fault in Our Stars before setting it down in favor of the ‘rubbish’ Twilight. “Oooh. Forbidden love. This’ll be a nice counterpart to slogging through Nikolai Gogol. I’m giving Russian a try.” Rhy wasn’t particularly a book snob; he liked anything, from serious works to fluffy things designed to entertain. And he was quick to chuck a book that didn’t immediate interest him (and was honestly the same with people).
He tucked the books back into the bag and set it to the side, enjoying the flush in Teddy’s cheeks. Rhy knew he could come on strong, but despite the other man’s reserved nature, he wasn’t certain that it was unwelcome. Years ago, he might have played games, going hot and cold and drawing it out, but the unexpected reunion with Alucard and the tragedies that followed in the last few months had put him in the mind of being forthright instead: “Do you want to go out for a drink sometime?” he asked, and remembering an awkward exchange: “I’d motivate you by threatening to go with Albus Potter instead because he called me pretty, but I think we both know he’s preoccupied with someone else.”
“See, you put it like that, and I almost want to see what he’d do if you did,” Teddy laughed, rubbing at the back of his neck. Albus would probably just say yes anyway, considering his apparent determination to be a dense knobhead about Scorpius. “No, I mean, yes. Yeah. A drink would be great.”
Attraction tended to be a slow meandering process for him, built more on qualities that weren’t physical at all. Rhy had ticked a few boxes early, but they were the kind of boxes that had drawn him to Vic too so Teddy wasn’t entirely sure what that meant. He did feel the pull to admit something though, just in the spirit of Rhy’s earlier honesty.
“Iiiii’ve only been on one thing that even vaguely resembled a date since I broke up with my ex-girlfriend of three years?” He grimaced and smiled at the same time. “That feels like it needs to be said even if it’s probably also more than you really wanted to know.”
The corner of Rhy’s mouth rose at Teddy’s admission. Truth be told, he had no idea what he was doing - introverts generally did not find themselves within his social circle back home. You had to be loud, flashy, and too bothersome to murder in a back-alley to be successful in any house of nobility. Rhy hadn’t had any romantic relationships in the four years since he and Alucard had first broken up, but he surely had cut a swath through Arnes’s prettier population in the meantime.
“I recently had to team up with my ex to prevent the end of the world,” Rhy replied, the wry tone to his voice truthful. “The ex, I should add, that had ghosted me so hard he literally bought the hardiest and fastest ship in the fleet to get as far away from me as he geographically could.” A demonstrative pause. “...I have no desire to rush anything, despite coming on strong.”
“Wow,” Teddy coughed out a laugh. “That’s….I think your ex and mine should date. I mean, we drifted apart so there wasn’t a speedy boat involved, but she reacted to our break up by setting everything I ever gave her on fire so...I feel like she’d appreciate his dramatic flare.”
Joking aside, he had to figure that history left its mark on Rhy and it made his expression shift from teasing to understanding. He’d loved Vic once, in the way teenagers loved at least, and mentioning her even now made something pinch inside his chest, so he gave it a mental shrug and leaned sideways to nudge Rhy with a shoulder.
“Slow is good.” He smiled, warm and a little mischievous. “I don’t know how to sail anyway.”
“It’s my favorite of your good qualities,” Rhy answered with a tilted grin, and nudged him back. “I’m sure you could cobble together some sort of epic escape given your resources and particular skill set, but rest assured, I won’t ever set anything on fire.” A self-deprecating shrug following a mean grin: “...I can’t.”
It was such a relief, being able to be honest. He could already hear his brother in his head, bitching that he’d taken too much of a chance on this, but Rhy didn’t think so. He had a good feeling about it, actually, even if the notion of going slow was going to take some practice.
“Hey, you don’t need magic to set things on fire,” Teddy snorted. “And even if you did, I’m sure you could use this face of yours--” He made a vaguely circular wave around Rhy’s face. “--To talk someone else into doing it for you.”
Flirting had never been his best skill. It had never needed to be. He was fairly sure Rhy could flirt his way out of a paper bag though. Which did raise some questions why he’d bother with an introverted librarian, but...well, a drink was just a drink and Teddy enjoyed talking to him too much to shoot himself in the foot just yet.
“I...should let you get back to work,” he murmured, though he didn’t actually make a move to leave.
Teddy had him pegged; Rhy was comfortable with flirting in at least seven languages, and could do it silently as well. Teddy’s obvious awkwardness with it was endearing. Rhy had spent most of his life surrounded by people who always knew the right thing to say, with little regard as to whether or not it was the true thing. Teddy, at least, seemed to think things through before he said them, and his flattery was never over-the-top.
And Rhy liked it when people noticed his face.
“I should let you go,” he agreed, a shrug on his shoulders, a grin on his lips. Rhy was a hard worker, but rarely a glutton for punishment, particularly when the current object of his attentions was dragging his feet about leaving. “But I prefer a grander exit, first.” His earlier promise about keeping things slow in mind prohibited him from anything too scandalous, but there was nothing untoward about a perfectly-performed bow, a smooth reach for Teddy’s hand and a brush of a kiss over his knuckles.
Torn between being amused and being charmed, Teddy let out a breathy little laugh. Rhy had nice hands. It was probably a weird thing to focus on but it made the uncharacteristic flutter of nerves in his abdomen settled down. He twisted his hand in Rhy’s grip to pull him just a little closer, leaning in to whisper.
“Slow or not, you can aim a little higher next time.” Teddy flashed a warm grin and reluctantly pulled away. He pointed at Rhy with both pointer fingers as he turned to go. “Like the wrist. That’s definitely safe.”