InsaneJournal

Who: Alfie and Julien
What: Alfie's kitten went exploring.
Where: Abandoned classroom
When: After the Quidditch Game
Warnings: TBA, snogging



The first thing Julien expected when coming out of his third consecutive Daydream Charm daydream (of which he'd now run out) was not a whiskered face pressed up against his and making a noise like an earthmover... moving earth. He pulled back groggily - it probably wasn't a good idea to do quite so many of those charms in a row, but Julien didn't really care - and blinked at the animal which unhelpfully tried to put it's foot in his mouth.

"Ptfh... Puddle?" he asked it, like it could answer. It just put it's paw back on Julien's mouth and caught Julien's lip with it's claw. "OW!" Julien sat up and Puddle leapt away and off the bed, skittering underneath it and waiting there for about five minutes before it couldn't take anymore and jumped back on the bed, pouncing onto a scarf on Julien's bed.

Julien rubbed a hand through his hair and studied the kitten for a second before looking around for the kitten's owner. "Alfie?" he called out, but there wasn't a response. Thoughts were coming to him slowly, but he realised that the most likely reason was that Puddle had, for some reason, run off and come to him.

Julien sighed and got up, wobbling unsteadily on his feet to get a scrap of parchment and his quill and scribbling a note for Alfie.

"Alfie, I've got someone with me who belongs to you. Want him back?"

He opened his window and whistled for his owl, knowing that the bird was perched up on the roof above him. Apparently Frankie felt the same way about his fellow owls as Julien did about his fellow people and preferred the solitary option. It gave him better hunting options anyway. The barn owl glided down soundlessly and landed on the window, allowing Julien to tie the note to his leg after Julien fed him half a mouse.

"Take this to Alfie, please?" he asked, petting the owl's feathered head before stepping back and watching Frankie fly away.

"Right... crap.. Puddle?" Now where had that kitten got to?

Alfie was trudging back from the Quidditch match - disappointed, but then again he'd have been disappointed no matter who won today. He couldn't root for Slytherins, because they were gits, and he couldn't root for Gryffindor because of Weasley! - when the owl found him. He didn't recognize it, but he took the note and patted it. "I don't have any treats for you, sorry." Which sent it flying off in a huff.

He unrolled the little note and blinked at it. It wasn't signed. How was he supposed to figure out who it belonged to or what they had of his.

He whistled then, for the owl, who was cirlcing still and who came back to him after a second while he dug out a pen and scribbled on the back of the note - "Who is this? What do you have?" and then as an afterthought, "Where?"

He tied it back to the owl's leg and sent it off again, then he started back toward the castle... I little faster than he'd been before. The owl had weirded him out a bit.

Julien was watching out for Frankie, Puddle now secure on his bed which had been charmed to stop the kitten jumping off, so he saw when the bird was coming and had his arm up and ready (and protected) for Frankie to land on. He fed the owl the other half of the mouse and took the note, reading it and then actually smacked himself in the forehead. 'Stupid fucking Ravenclaw' he scolded himself as he got a new piece of parchment ready.

"It's Julien. I've got Puddle. He came to see me, I can bring him back to you if you want, or we can meet somewhere and I can give him back or someone else could take him back for you so you don't have to see me, just let me know."

He reattached the note to Frankie's leg and apologised to his owl before sending him off again.

When the owl found him the second time, he was on the front steps of the castle, sitting on a stairwell and waiting for it. No need to get chased through the halls by an angry owl.

This time he took the note and unrolled it slowly - a little nervously - but when he saw Julien's name he could have kicked himself for not reconizing the handwriting write off. Obviously it was his.

Meet him. He bit his lip, thinking about it. He could tell him to just put Puddle out in the hallway. The kitten loved to run off, but it always found it's way back to his bed by nightime... He started writing an answer, though, and found himself writing "our room" instead. And he tied it back to the owl and started that direction before he could remind himself what a horrible, awful idea that really was.

When Julien got the owl he had to check the writing against the first note Alfie had sent him, just in case it was a forgery. It wasn't.

Why the hell Alfie even wanted to be alone in that room with him he didn't know, but he supposed he wanted the kitten back more than he hated Julien.

He picked Puddle up and wrapped him in an old sweater so that the kitten was all warm and comfortable and then took a breath and started off towards the room. He'd been steeling himself for Alfie to be there, give the Hufflepuff the kitten, and then go home... but his plans were scuppered because Alfie wasn't there. He took a seat on the sofa, put the kitten in his lap (where it curled up and napped) and waited for Alfie to stop by.

Puddle was soft and his fur was warm and silky under Julien's fingers, and he wondered if he should get one of those Pygmy Puffs after all...

As Alfie walked to the room, a lot of things swam in his head. Kissing Julien, the way it had felt, Drew asking him if he liked it more than kissing Audrey - and he had to say yes, because kissing Audrey wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing, and he'd never something as electric as kissing Julien even the way he'd tingled somehow when Drew had brushed against him the other night.

Kissing Audrey. Kissing Evie. Kissing Julien and wanting to keep kissing him until he couldn't breathe, until his lungs were burning. Drew saying that he could be more than someone's second best and he didn't think he was that for Audrey, but Audrey wanted Sam bloody Capper and he wanted.... to be less confused. To not have to think about this anymore.

By the time he got to the door of the abandoned classroom and knocked, not sure if Julien was there yet or if someone else was that he'd have to run off or something, his head was spinning and he already had the start of another headache.

Julien heard the knock on the door and carefully put the kitten down on the sofa (where it yawned and stretched, curled up backwards over itself in that 'fuck you skeleton' way of cats and went back to sleep) and went over to answer the door. He'd been planning on just standing back to let Alfie in to get the kitten, but he saw him standing there and he couldn't stop speaking - whether it was because he didn't want to give Alfie a chance to say anything to him first, or if it was just nerves, Julien started babbling.

"So I don't know how he managed to get in, I woke up and he was just there and I thought I should give him back to you instead of just letting him roam around on his own with things that might eat him and I didn't think you'd want to see me here, but you don't have to say anything, he's just over there so I can just leave him here with you and go-"

Alfie wasn't prepared for Julien opening the door, really. He'd seen him since the last time - in classes and in halls where he'd been able to look away or go the other direction or run out of class the moment it was over - but one on one, face to face, with Julien looking like he'd just woken up and talking... the babbling almost incoherent because Alfie wasn't paying attention. The last time he'd talked it had been to tell him he'd taken advantage of him and now he was just talking, and talking, and all Alfie had been thinking of for weeks was kissing him and there he was just talking away.

And then he couldn't talk. Because Alfie had stepped through the door and against him and caught his mouth without thinking about anything but shutting him up and Oh fucking Merlin kissing him again.

It was unsure and confused and harder than Alfie would have meant it to be if he'd known he was going to do that at all. But he kept kissing him, and he would until Julien pushed him away or punched him or something. Because he knew he shouldn't, but it was just as bloody electric as it had been before.

Julien was cut off with Alfie's mouth and the shock of it truly shut him up. He couldn't move away and at first he couldn't respond to the kiss, just shocked that someone who he thought felt that he'd taken advantage of them was actually willingly kissing him... he was kissing back before he knew how he even felt about what was happening, relaxing in against Alfie and closing his eyes, letting himself give in to what was happening.

If this was some kind of weird Daydream flashback he was going to be very unhappy.

Julien didn't kiss him back or respond at all, just froze like he had before and what more could Alfie have expected, anyway, and past that what did it matter since it had already been obvious they'd never be mates again and now he was just kissing him to get proof of what he knew and get what he wanted and -

But then Julien moved. Relaxed against him and moved his mouth against his and if it had been electric before now it was a fire burning right in Alfie's spine. He made a little noise, something like a moan, against Julien's mouth and then his hands were in the other boy's hair without him sure how they'd gotten there. All he was sure of was that he was kissing him, and Julien was kissing him back, and it was terrifying and dizzying and he felt like his heart would burst from pounding.

And it felt bloody perfect.

Julien whimpered as Alfie's hands went into his hair and his own hands came up to hold onto Alfie, curling timidly against the other boy's waist. Hs brain was firmly off, almost purposefully... he didn't want to break out of his shock and remember that Alfie had a girlfriend, that he'd done a very bad thing to this boy and that Alfie, as far as he knew, hated him for it. The kiss made him feel right in a way that even the Daydream Charms couldn't, and he'd stay in it for as long as he humanly could.

Alfie wasn't entirely sure how long he kissed him. His brain short circuited about the time Julien started to kiss him back. But some vague part of him was sure this was going to be the only time he had this chance, and he wanted to get as much as he could before Julien came to his senses. His tongue claimed the other boy's mouth, and the kiss was rough and breathless and hungry and he'd never snogged anyone like this, wasn't even sure what he was doing except that it felt right and he wanted more, and deeper, and by the time he was breathless too and his lungs were burning he didn't want to let Julien go.

He had to, though. And when he finally broke away from the kiss he was panting for air and his forehead against Julien's because he didn't know what else to do, but he had to breathe, and he was pretty sure that Julien was going to punch him in a second, but he couldn't be arsed to care.

Alfie kissed Julien like he wanted to take him and Julien, a kid who found it so hard to relax that he hard to drug himself with charms in order to get away from it all, just wanted to let him.

He had his eyes closed when Alfie broke away, felt the pressure of the other boy's head against his and didn't want to move, didn't want to blink... slowly opened his eyes and looked back at Alfie and waited...

Alfie opened his eyes after a minute, still struggling for breath, and Julien was looking at him like he was waiting for him to say something - he had no idea what to say, though, or what to do, or how he felt. Except that he was pretty sure he felt... relieved. And terrified.

"I - " he started, and his fingers left Julien's hair, and he took a little step back which put him back into the doorway of the room. The door was still open, he absently realised. Someone could have seen! And that still didn't scare him as much as that kiss had. "I'm not sorry." He finally finished, when he was pretty sure he'd meant to apologize.

Alfie was breathing hard, Julien was in no better condition and in the silence of the room that was left behind after that kiss was almost as loud as a shout. Until Alfie spoke and it shattered that. He licked his lips nervously and when Alfie stepped back he felt bereft, wrapping his arms around himself in lieu of Alfie's nearness.

He wasn't expecting that to come out of Alfie's mouth though. He had to stammer something back. "N-neither am I."

Alfie didn't know what to say about that. He at least had the presence of mind to pull the door closed and lock it, then he just leaned against it and stared at Julien for a few minutes. Long minutes. Longer than he meant to go without saying something. Finally he cleared his throat and looked down at his feet.

"Oh."