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“I’ve been doing some counting.” Rose groaned, flopping over the back of the couch, onto the boys with a soft oft, not caring as they wriggled around her, her feet sticking up vertically in the air, her head somewhere beside their knees, her red hair spilling out.
“And…?” Albus prompted, sighing as he folded over his book slightly. He was more than used to Rose interrupting him.
“And” Rose sighed dramatically, throwing her hands up in the air, narrowly missing hitting both the boys in the face,
“It’s been almost four months since I was on a real date! Merlin knows how long it’s been since I had sex with someone I’d known for more than five hours.” Rose groaned again, as Albus rolled his eyes.
“that’s untrue rose. You went out with Connor McLaggan just last week.”
Rose motioned as though she was throwing up, spinning round slightly (managing to kick Albus in the face in the process) so she was sitting both on top of Albus and Scorpius, and between them.
“Connor McLaggan is the most boring man I have ever met, he was simply atrocious! He spent half an hour talking about his mother, then forty minutes pointing out all my physical flaws! I lost track of just about everything he said, he just kept talking and talking and talking… I ended up having to have eight flaming Dragon bombs just to stop myself from falling asleep! Then he scolded me like a child for getting ‘drunk’. Like I could’ve survived it any other way! Besides, my mum set us up. No self respecting girl dates someone their mother suggested!” Rose cried out dramatically, as Albus rolled his eyes.
“I’m going to be single forever!” Rose moaned, as Albus patted her knee.
“At least you’re not Scorpius, who hasn’t been on a good date in what, eight months? I’ll go get the icecream, and you two can have a proper pity party.” Albus grinned at Scorpius deviously, who glared back. He sighed as he ran a hand through his light blonde hair, before casually throwing his arm across the back of the couch... and Rose's shoulder.
“Okay, I call bullshit here Scorpius. You bring girls home all the time!” Rose protested, and Albus came back through with a tub, and three spoons, peeling off the cap.
“yeah, but point to one girl who’s spent more than one night in Scorpius’ bed?” Albus pointed out, as Rose eagerly dug her spoon in.
“Rose has!” Scorpius pointed out, triumphantly.
“What?” Albus glanced at the two of them, his eyes wide, a merry twinkle in them.
“She’s slept in my bed! With her clothes on! Merlin Albus!” Scorpius yelped, as Rose laughed, and Albus smirked.
“she’s only been naked in your dreams. Isn’t that right Scorpius?” Albus grinned at him slyly, as Scorpius’ mouth fell open, and Rose gasped.
“Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy!” She stared at him, hitting his chest before laughing.
“Don’t worry, everyone’s had that dream about me. Haven’t they Anna?” Rose called out, flutteringh her eyelashes at Scorpius.
“You know it!” Anna shouted back, as Albus wrinkled his nose, rather repulsed.
“I’d rather not think about my girlfriend thinking about my cousin like that.” Albus frowned again, as Anna stuck her head round the room door, her black hair tied back in a bun.
“Oh, so I’m your girlfriend now, am I?” She raised an eyebrow, and Albus almost blushed.
“Well, yeah.” He stated, shrugging slightly as though it didn’t matter.
Anna’s smile turned into a wicked grin.
“How about you get in here and prove it?” Her voice laced heavily with innuendo, Albus leapt up, striding over to her room, where they could hear her giggling away. Glancing at each other, Rose and Scorpius jumped up.
“We’ll, eh, just head out!” Scorpius shouted, grabbing his hosuekeys off the desk, as him and Rose almost ran out the flat, pausing only to grab their jackets.
“Just keep them coming.” Rose sighed, knocking back another tequila shooter, as beside her Scorpius did the same.
“I am such a catch. I don’t get why I’m single!” Rose announced ,as Lila the bartender grinned at the two of them.
“So you two aren’t a couple?” She teased, as Rose stuck her tongue out at her.
“No, we are not Lila. We were simply forced to come here by tragic events-known as my commitment-issues raddled cousin finally calling my best friend his girlfriend, and subsequent sexual activity. And I don’t know bout old Scorpy here, but I do not want to hear my best friend and my cousin having sex. So we ran outta there and now here we are. We're not safe for at least another four hours” Rose shrugged, as Lila shook her head, heading back over to the bar from their small booth.
“You know, I sorta didn’t want them to get together.” Scorpius admitted, and Rose nodded.
“Me neither. It's one step more to Anna Longbottom becoming Anna Potter.” She admitted glumly.
“I mean, for completely selfish reasons.” She shrugged, as Scorpius nodded.
“To the beginning of the end.” He held up a shot glass, and Rose clinked hers off his rather loudly, some of the precious drops of liquid dribbling down and hitting the table.
“Morning Sunshines!” Albus called out, pulling back the curtains as both Rose and Scorpius groaned loudly, Scorpius quickly retracting his hand from where it had been draped across Rose’s waist, landing just on her upper thy, her jeans lying in a discarded lump on the floor.
“Albus.” Rose glared at him venomously, as he smiled back sweetly.
“Let’s get up sleepy heads!” He crooned, as Rose glared at him, rolling back over in the bed so her and Scorpius were lying face to face.
“Scorpius. What would you say, as an auror in training, is the most horrific curse to make my dearest cousin feel real, real pain?” Rose questioned, smiling falsely.
“That’s a very good question Rose. What, as a healer in training, would you say is the most horrific injury you’ve ever gotten through? And how easily is it applied to annoying friends?”
Albus raised his hands, backing away to the other side of the room.
“Okay, okay. I’ll stay out of it.”
“Good.” Rose grumbled, before sitting up in the bed, gently slipping her feet out of the covers, groaning as she did so.
“Merlin I need a shower.” She murmered, groaning loudly as she sat up, Scorpius moving in the bed to a more upright postion, echoing Rose’s groans.
Rose wandered out the room into the bathroom, shutting the door. Scorpius heard the cascade of water bounce off the base as Rose prepared to shower.
“Oi. So what did you and my cousin get up to last night?” Albus stuck his head into the room, grinning as Scorpius rubbed his eyes.
“You look rotten mate.” Albus laughed as he threw himself down onto the bed.
“Piss off Al.” Scorpius groaned, as Albus laughed again, ruffling his hair.
“I’m gonna go get some eggs. Fancy making me a fry up?” Scorpius questioned, as he swung his feet out of his bed, stretching forward, as the sheets fell off his back.
“What the bloody hell is that?” Albus questioned, as they heard a shriek from the bathroom. Glance at each other, the two of them rushed out the room, to find Anna in the hall, knocking at the bathroom door.
“Rosie? Rosie!” She cried, before they heard the bolt slip.
“What the bloody hell is this?! Someone! Please! Wash it off!” Rose moaned, spinning round to reveal a small tattoo on her shoulder-the black outline of a scorpion.
“this isn’t funny!” Rose moaned, as Albus began to double over with laughter.
“Come on Rose, you’ve got to admit it’s kinda funny.” Scorpius chuckled slightly, before Albus thwacked his back.
“Dunno why you’re laughing Scorpy. You’ve got one too!” Albus exclaimed gleefully, as Scorpius spun round, desperately peering over his shoulder, until he saw the black outline of a Rose.
“Shit!” He yelled, desperately hitting at it. He looked rather ridiculous, dancing around in his underwear.
“Malfoys don’t get tattoos!” He moaned, as Rose groaned at the same time:
“my dad is going to murder me!”
“Oh no he’s not, because James and Freddie will murder you first.” Anna grinned at Rose, as Albus shook his head.
“Nah, nah, James and Fred will murder Scorpius, Dominique will murder you for becoming ‘such a cliché’” Albus and Anna laughed at each other.
Rose groaned loudly again, flopping back onto the couch, throwing her hands up in despair.
“So, me and Anna are going out today. Enjoy staying in the house and contemplating the life-long image you now have on your skin!” Albus proclaimed cheerfully, grabbing Anna’s hand as they made their way out of the apartment, Anna sending a sympathetic glance Rose's way as they left, the door swing shut with a loud thud.
“Merlin, I don’t even rememeber why we got tattoos!” Rose groaned again, as Scorpius paused, sitting on the edge of the couch.
“Yeah, uh, me neither.” He stated, as Rose pulled him down, lying her head on his lap.
“I blame the tequila. I now permanently have a Scorpion on my shoulder. You weren’t even named after scorpions!” Rose groaned again, as Scorpius laughed.
“It’s still relevant, considering I basically live with one.” He joked, as Rose gasped, pinching his leg, making him yelp.
“See! You sting!” He pouted, as Rose laughed, and he gently patted her thigh.
“Want some fry up Rosie? We can’t get rid of the tattoos but at least we can eat.” He joked, and Rose grinned, sitting up slightly to let him move before flopping back down.
“You’re a life saver Scorpy."
“So how ya coping?” Albus grinned, flopping down on Scorpius’ bed, as he rolled his eyes from his position at his desk.
“Yeah I’m okay, my hangover’s gone now, thank god, I-“
“Scorp mate you know that’s not what I meant. I was talking about the fact you now have a visual representation of our best friend, the girl you’ve been in love with since fourth year, stuck on your body permanently, and she still doesn't know.”
“Oh, that.” Scorpius shrugged slightly.
“Scorpius, you’ve got to tell her! Rose is a catch, she’s gonna get snapped up soon, and if you don’t make your move you’ll miss it. She's too good to stay single for much longer. And probably, the reason she hasn't had a successful relationship is because she loves you too.” Albus promised, as Scorpius groaned, running a hand through his blonde hair.
“She just likes me as a mate.” Scorpius sighed, glancing back down at his paper.
“Scorp. She has a tattoo of you. I’ve been her best mate, literally since she was born, and she refused to even get matching jumpers with me. Why did you get tattoos anyway?” Albus questioned, and Scorpius shrugged.
“We got drunk, and we got talking, and we, uh, well you guys had just started going out properly and-“
Albus held out a hand.
“Scorpius, don’t you think this would be much better as part of your proclamation of love to Rosie?” he suggested, and Scorpius shrugged, sighing slightly.
“I don’t know, I mean-“
Suddenly, Anna burst in through his door.
“Merlin’s balls Scorpius! Stop being such a fucking wimp and go do it!” She commanded, as Scorpius, suddenly filled with both confidence and dread, strolled out into the living room, where Rose was sitting on the couch, his feet moving despite the protest from his brain.
“Scorp! You can help me choose what to watch, I was thinking either Made of Honour, or the Perks of being a Wallflower, or-“
“I lied.” Scorpius stated, dropping dramatically to the couch next to Rosie. Inside his bedroom, Al rolled his eyes.
“Merlin, we should’ve known that Scorpius would be a fucking drama queen about it.”
“What do you mean you lied?” Rose questioned raising an eyebrow at Scorpius, twisting round to face him as he let out a shaky breath.
“I mean I remember why we got the tattoos. You remember being at the bar right, us getting out of our faces drunk?” Scorpius asked, as Rose nodded, pushing a strand of her dark red hair behind her ear, her eyes filling up with worry.
“Yeah?” She prompted him, as he smiled at her softly.
“We were cut off, and decided to go for a walk. We were talking about Albus and Anna, and how we’d both sorta lost best friends. We were talking about the future, and how work was going, and how if they got married things would change, and how them dating changed things, and then you spun towards me-I mean that literally, you pirouetted across the street, and you grabbed my face, and you said, ‘Scorp, we only have each other. Forever. We should commemorate that.’ So we ran into the tattoo parlour. And we got our tattoos, and I’m glad we did, because we are forever.” Scorpius paused slightly, as Rose stared at him intensely.
“I uh, I guess what I’m trying to say is, well, uh, Rosie you may not feel the same way but I’m in-“ Scorpius was cut off as Rose brought her hand up to Scorpius’ slightly flushed cheek, pressing her lips against his. She pulled back slightly, as if to say something, before Scorpius threw his arm around her neck, pulling her back in tightly, kissing her until he was dizzy, the two of them breaking apart, panting slightly.
“Excellent!” Albus cheered, as he flung open the door to his room.
“The two of you have fixed your little single problem, you’ve finally gotten together, and all your problems are solved!” He cheered, as he and Anna high fived.
“And especially considering both of you have been in love with the other since Hogwarts, it’s about time!” Anna exclaimed, as Albus grinned.
“At least now your only problem is trying to explain to your parents why you got a tattoo of the person you’ve been dating for less than a day!” Albus exclaimed cheerfully, as Scorpius shook his head.
“it’ll be easy. I’ll just explain to them it’s a tattoo of my childhood friend, my best friend, my lunch date, my soul mate, and the girl I’m in love with. The girl I want to be with.” He smiled at Rose sweetly, as the two of them embraced.
“And I’ll explain to mine that I’m not single anymore and they won’t even care about the tattoo.”