Who: Albus Dumbledore When: BACKDATED: August 28, 12:02 am Where: Albus's bungalow What: Birthday awakenings Status/Rating: Complete/Low
I know you're probably asleep right now and will likely very cross with for waking you since I already stole sleep from you these past three nights, but I simply could not help myself. Do you know what time it is? It's 12:01. So. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Albus's eyes snapped open to find the room dark, which was hardly a surprise. The same thing had happened last year, and the year before. All the way back to 1899, when an owl tapping at his bedroom window had awakened him mere moments after it had officially become his birthday. The words were blazoned into his memory, they had been since the first time he'd read the note Gellert had sent over. He'd been so exhausted, however, that he'd fallen asleep with it still in his hands the instant he'd read the last word. It still baffled him, how Gellert seemed perfectly fine with so little actual sleep.
But with the distant sound of the surf crashing against the sand, Albus's too bright, too sharp eyes found Gellert's sleeping form. Looking at him, of course, only conjured up a jarring slew of new memories-- ones he wished would relent, would simply slip to the back to his mind to be carefully tucked away with all the rest of his ruminations on precisely how Gellert's features sharpened with pleasure. Heart thumping uncomfortably fast, Albus lay back down, only then realising that he must have sat up when he'd awoken.
This was going to drive him mad. It was bad enough, each year, that his body seem to expect to be woken up, seemed to expect some owl of Gellert's to be pecking on his window even at Hogwarts. To have Gellert so close at hand, so perfectly unaware, so entirely within reach and yet wholly inaccessible in ways Albus hadn't anticipated-- it was a new sort of torture.
Closing his eyes, Albus gave a sigh and tried to will himself back to sleep. If he planned well enough, he could wake up before Gellert and simply slip away before the day properly began.