Defeating Inner Dragons (1/2)
(krisbaek, nc17, 11.5k, Hogwarts!AU, romance/humor/drama)
Kris is in love with Baekhyun so he invites him to spend christmas with his family in Romania. That Baekhyun happens to be a huge dragon fan and Kris the heir to the most famous dragon-taming business, of course does come in handy.
disclaimer: originally posted here for the hp-exolliarmus fic-exchange. original recipient: heavenwrites, but now for everyone :)
__
part I
It was funny how the one thing Kris had never quite liked about himself turned out to be the thing that had made his crush take interest in him in the first place. Being the one and only heir to his family's quite successful dragon-taming business - and at the same time having an unbelievable fear of fire - was of course not the best combination. Hence, he had never thought that there was ever going to be a day when he'd voluntarily speak about dragons to his crush, always afraid that the topic of his maybe too-well known fear would ever come up. Ever since the long and quite disastrous article Reeta Skeeta had published two years ago after the Wu's had provided the Triwizard tournament with four of their dragons, giving Kris the title of “the most handsome 19-year-old heir she had ever seen” - he had been 15 at that time - “but biggest crybaby when close to fire” had made a laughing-stock out of him for the following months.
Two years had had to pass for people to finally start forgetting about it. He was in his seventh year now; being a prefect and leader of his house's Quidditch team, student with the best results for his OWLs in his fifth year, and extraordinarily tall and handsome - one thing Reeta Skeeta had well spotted. There were so many things Kris would have liked to tell Baekhyun about himself - anything to make him fall for him - but there the Slytherin was, asking question after question about the fricking dragons.
“I mean, do they really eat living horses? Isn't that like totally weird?” Baekhyun was saying, having rambled on about all of the stuff he had apparently read about dragons and now stopping to wait for Kris to answer.
“They do, sometimes,” the Hufflepuff said, wishing that the boy would soon decide to change the subject, but he didn't look like he would anytime soon. His eyes were wide, glimmering with sheer interest as he looked at Kris like he was the most fascinating person on the planet.
“Man, I wish I could see that with my own eyes,” the boy almost moaned at the thought. Kris swallowed hard at a tone of voice he had only dared to imagine up until now.
“Well,” the Hufflepuff started, suddenly having the best idea of his life and hoping to god that Baekhyun wouldn't think he was crazy, “I'm going back home for Christmas, so if you are interested, you could come with me,” the Hufflepuff said, watching the Slytherin with caution as his eyes grew wide and the smile on his face disappeared, turning into a shocked and completely dazzled expression.
Oh no.
“You... are inviting me to come with you? To Romania?” Baekhyun asked quietly, giving Kris not the slightest clue if his expression was due to how crazy he thought Kris was from inviting a stranger to celebrate Christmas with his family, or how much he just couldn't believe his luck. “You would... do that?”
“I would,” of course he would, he had loved the guy for almost a year now, he'd do anything “We live in a really huge house so you'd have your own room, own bathroom, and you could go and watch dragons every day, if you wanted to,” he continued, hoping that Baekhyun was liking the idea and he wasn't adding up to the possible crazy first impression he could be making. “But you probably want to spend the time with your famil-”
“NO!” Baekhyun stammered all of a sudden, leaning over the Hufflepuff's table in the great hall and grasping a hold of both of Kris' hands, a shiver running down the older's back “I want to! Yes, I do!”
“Are you guys getting married?” Kris could hear Zi Tao mumble with a full mouth from beside him, but neither of them answered, Baekhyun filled with excitement and Kris' body threatening to overreact any second.
“That's,” the Hufflepuff started, coughing a little before he continued “really great.”
Baekhyun seemed like he was going to explode from happiness, squeezing Kris' hands in his small ones so hard it almost hurt. “Yes! Great!” Baekhyun repeated before he shot Kris a smile that was so mesmerizingly beautiful, the Hufflepuff would have loved to just cup the boy's cute face into his hands and kiss him senseless.
But of course he couldn't do that.
“Oh my, there's not even two weeks left!” Baekhyun suddenly remembered before he let go, leaving Kris' hands with a cold feeling “I need to pack. I need to tell me parents! I need to buy a lot of- Oh my!” and before he could freak out any more, Baekhyun was gone, having stormed out of the great hall, probably on his way to the dungeons.
Not quite having realized what all of this meant yet, Kris leaned against Zi Tao, closing his eyes at the thought of spending two weeks with Baekhyun... in his home in Romania... over Christmas, the probably most romantic time of the year.
Baekhyun had been right.
OH MY!
“Why don't I play Quidditch, you ask?” Baekhyun repeated, shoving a spoonful of soup into his mouth before answering “Because I'm shit at it.”
“Really?,” Kris said watching Baekhyun put down his spoon.
“I'm already not very good at flying. How on earth would I ever handle quidditch?” Kris laughed at that, imagining Baekhyun trying to avoid a quaffle with a cute scared expression on his face “Oh god, don't imagine it!”
“I'm sorry,” the Hufflepuff said not really meaning it, though, as he continued watching Baekhyun who was kind of smiling back at him now and then shaking his head to continue eating.
“Anyway. If you invited me so you'd have someone to play quidditch with on your vacation, you definitely picked the wrong person!”
“I can go two weeks without quidditch, don't worry,” Kris smiled watching Baekhyun nod almost in relief as they finished their meal in silence. They were some of the few last people at dinner that day, as most people had already left for their homes and their ride would come around tomorrow morning.
“And you parents are ok with it you said?” Kris wanted to make sure after he had watched Baekhyun lick the rest of the soup off of his spoon and almost grown a hard-on from it..
“They are. I hate our huge family Christmas parties in our mansion and they know it. Glad you invited me, I would have died of boredom.”
“Well, I'm sure the dragons won't bore you,” Kris said happily, watching Baekhyun's face slowly grow into a wide smile.
“The dragons. Of course.”
The moment they arrived at platform 9 ¾ and Kris saw his father who had come to pick them up with their portkey to Romania, the Hufflepuff started to feel how real all of this truly was. Baekhyun was going to go home with him and spend two week there together with his family.
That was his big chance to make the boy fall in love not only with his family's dragons but also with Kris. And as far as the Hufflepuff was concerned, there wasn't a lot of work left for that to happen because Baekhyun was already looking at him like he was his favourite person on the planet and Kris loved that feeling.
Only a short while later did they appear in the backyard of Kris' family house with a loud crack, followed by Baekhyun stumbling against him, almost crashing down into the snow and clinging onto Kris' arm so he wouldn't fall - apparently not used to travelling such long ways with a portkey.
“Sorry, I'm a bit dizzy,” the Slytherin said, the huge smile on his face half hidden by the woolen scarf he was wearing. He was still leaning heavily against the taller guy but looking up at the villa that was only a bit of a walk away from them now.
“'Huge house, you called it...” Baekhyun said at the astonishing size of the Wu's home and looked up at Kris who was smiling, feeling all kinds of happy sparks running through his body at Baekhyun's more than satisfying reaction “Wow, I always thought that my family was rich but” he pointed to the building and then to the piece of land that belonged to them, surrounding every direction with apparently no end, “compared to this, I've been living in a cupboard under the stairs.”
“Well, my parents are really good at what they do,” Kris explained smiling and decided to take a huge risk. He wrapped an arm around the smaller boys hips, pulling him against his side to steady him “Can you walk like that?” he then asked, trying not to blush too hard as Baekhyun looked up at him, his side burning at the touch.
“Yea,” the Slytherin smiled, slightly leaning against him again “Thanks.”
The moment his mother saw them stumbling into the house as Baekhyun's arms wrapped around Kris' stomach, she shot her son a knowing grin before introducing herself and telling Kris to show Baekhyun around the house before lunch. He did, leading him to his guest room first that was right next to his own and almost as big.
“Are you sure you don't want me to pay you for this?” Baekhyun asked, letting his body drop into the soft sheets of his king sized bed and looking up at Kris before pulling up his legs “Because I can, you know.”
“I don't need any more money,” Kris laughed but stopped when he saw Baekhyun make a strange face before propping his head up on his elbow.
“Who said I was talking about money?”
The Hufflepuff swallowed hard, not sure if Baekhyun actually meant what Kris thought - hoped! - but before Kris could even think more about it the boy was laughing out loud and standing up again, walking over to the window to enjoy the view over the little river that was now completely frozen but normally flowed past their backyard.
They were silent for a minute while Baekhyun stared at his surroundings and Kris watched him do so, smiling along and thinking about how fricking lucky he was considering that until a month ago the boy probably hadn't even known his name.
The two of them had never had any kind of relationship even though they did have a lot of common friends and had hung out together because of that. It was just that Slytherins didn't really like Hufflepuffs and nobody really liked Slytherins, it was ridiculous but nevertheless how it was, that's why Kris had never really looked twice at the boy, too blinded by his greenish attire. But then, almost a year ago, Kris had seen Baekhyun dance with a Ravenclaw girl at the annual Yule ball. He had been wrapped in a black-yellow robe that had caught the Hufflepuff's attention right away and god, had he fallen hard. After that he had pretty much avoided talking or meeting up with Baekhyun, if possible, too afraid that his feelings would be too obvious and the Slytherin would find out. But then, about a month ago, the boy had suddenly started to take interest in dragons because of a project for his advanced class and yea... that's why he had approached Kris and now here they were.
“Want me to show you the rest of the house?” the Hufflepuff asked after a while.
“All of it?”
“Nah, just he important bits. Like the bathroom, my room, the kitchen, the pool.”
“You guys have a pool? Oh why am I even asking, of course you have a pool,” Baekhyun laughed seeming both amused and surprised.
“It's really nice:”
“Well, you should have told me, I didn't bring my swim trunks.”
“Oh you won't need any,” Kris said, about to tell him that there was a pair of them in his cupboard, but before he could, Baekhyun was grinning again, snorting when he saw Kris almost blush as he realized how this could have sounded. “I didn't... mean it like that.”
“I'm sure you didn't,” his voice was so sarcastic it was obvious that he didn't believe a word.
Baekhyun watched Kris unfold into an embarrassed mess, the tall guy stumbling over to the cupboard and opening the door to point at the few pieces of fabric that lay there - he had asked his mother to put some emergency clothes in Baekhyun's size, just in case.
“No, I really didn't,” the Hufflepuff pulled out the dark blue pair of swimming trunks from the lot, showing it to Baekhyun with a slight blush on his face “see?”
“Oh,” he nodded knowingly but oddly enough Baekhyun didn't seem at all embarrassed about his mistake when he smiled “Ok then. I'm looking forward to it,” he was still smiling when he passed by Kris and went to open the door “Let's finish the tour quickly so we can go down and eat lunch. I'm starving!”
“Yea,” Kris said, still slightly troubled and putting the shorts back before he followed the Slytherin out of the room “Me too.”
They spent that whole day together, most of all walking around on the Wu's properties where Kris showed Baekhyun the small Quidditch training spot his parents had had especially made for him when he had become the captain of the Hufflepuff team. The boy had tried to make Baekhyun get on one of of his brooms so he could teach him proper flying but the Slytherin had declined quiet harshly, obviously not in the mood to fly after dinner time. For a few seconds the Slytherin had seemed almost mad at Kris' attempts. The Hufflepuff's mumbled 'maybe next time' which had been returned with a flinch of Baekhyun's shoulders, had Kris note down in his head that this was apparently a sensitive subject to the boy. After that the mood between the two of them had been kind of weird, Kris afraid to say something wrong and Baekhyun complaining about being very tired.
They went to bed early that day, Kris falling asleep worrying about how he had managed to upset Baekhyun already.
The next morning, he was woken up by a loud crashing sound that made him flinch up into a sitting position, sleep still heavy on his lids when the second crash came. This time he was sure that it had come from the room right next to his which was currently occupied by Baekhyun. Only after a few moments of confused thinking did the Hufflepuff realize that something bad could have happened. He jumped out of his bed, just wearing his sweatpants as usual when he ran and opened his door just so he could storm in on Baekhyun lying on the ground, dozens of sheets and clothes having fallen on top of him, together with one of the wooden boards of the shelf, covering almost all of his body.
“Oh god, are you ok?” Kris asked, not knowing what to do or think as he walked over to the struggling mess that was Baekhyun and helped him get the board off of him.
“Sorry, I was just trying to reach a second blanket when it all came falling down on me.” There was almost an amused smile on his face as he crawled out of the clothes and stood up, Kris pulling him up by his arm, “Not my fault your family is so freakishly tall, they just put everything on the top shelf.”
“Oh yea, sorry about that,” Kris said half-joking before he saw Baekhyun reach out to rub his head where he had probably pumped together with the floor “Did you hurt yourself?”
“Nah, it's nothing.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure,” Baekhyun rubbed his head for just a few more times before he put down his arm smiling up at Kris who was smiling back, so relieved that everything was ok between them after all. But then Kris noticed something. Just a short while after exchanging those smiles, Baekhyun's eyes had wandered off, slowly gliding down his body.
Oh bullocks, Kris only then realized as he watched Baekhyun's intense stare leave a hot feeling on his body over every place his eyes had been. He was almost half-naked, chest fully exposed and his pants hanging low showing the thin trail of dark hair that was leading down from his belly button to his crotch. There was no way to cover himself now, that would just make Baekhyun think that he was some kind of uptight weirdo. He was nevertheless uncomfortable having the Slytherin look at him like that, obviously checking him out. Or maybe uncomfortable wasn't quite the right word. It was more of a 'too comfortable'.
Feeling blood rushing down in a place where it should definitely not be rushing right now, Kris was more than relieved when Baekhyun's eyes suddenly snapped up again and he said:“Breakfast,” before coughing a little, an almost-blush on the Slytherin's cheeks, “How about some breakfast. Meet you in the kitchen in five- or maybe fiveteen minutes?”
Kris didn't need to ask what those ten additional minutes were for when he nodded, trying not to look at Baekhyun any more because he was too embarrassed and quite riled up already.
“Fifteen minutes sound good,” Kris just said back before they locked eyes for just a second, a silent agreement between them and the Hufflepuff turned around and left without another word, closing the door behind him.
Rushing back into his own room, afraid that his parents could see him in such a state, he shut the door behind him quickly, leaning against it and breathing out in relief as he looked down at his half-hard penis that was forming a strikingly obvious bulge in his pants.
“Shit,” he wanted to scream in desperation because he had just basically blown his I-just-want-to-be-friends cover. “Shit shit shit!”
Kris did make it down to dinner in fifteen minutes, his little problem having taken care of itself after the Hufflepuff had started to worry too much about how he could have been so stupid. He was afraid that Baekhyun would treat him differently now, would be cautious around him and not use that uncomfortable but nevertheless really cute dirty-humor he had any longer. Just having been able to really befriend the boy he'd been in love with for over a year, Kris just didn't want it to turn awkward already.
It had, though. Baekhyun had already been seated at the breakfast table with Kris' mother, buttering his piece of toast when Kris had entered the kitchen to sit down opposite of him and Baekhyun just wouldn't look at him. The Hufflepuff wanted to cry.
“How about I take you to see the dragons today?” Kris' mother suggested after Baekhyun had emptied half his cup of pumpkin juice, looking up at her with interest, “Kris' father left before breakfast and I'm flying down there right after. You can accompany me if you want to. Corly might even let you ride her.”
“Corly?” Baekhyun asked, a smile appearing on Kris' mothers face.
“She's a six-year-old Ukrainian Ironbelly who has a thing for pretty boys.”
“I see,” Baekhyun answered followed by a nervous laugh and Kris could sense that something was wrong, “I'd really like to go with you, Mrs. Wu, to see the dragons. But riding them? I gotta pass,” he said and to both Kris' and Baekhyun's surprise, his mother just smiled.
“Not a fan of heights, I guess?” she had realized so quickly that Kris wanted to punch himself in the face for not even having thought about the possibility that there could be something more behind Baekhyun not being a fan of flying.
So he was afraid of heights.
Baekhyun didn't admit it though, as his fingers started to tense around the handle of his mug and it was obvious that he didn't really like to talk about it.
“That's ok sweetheart, everyone is afraid of something,” Kris could feel his mother's eyes on him and for a moment he was really anxious she'd bring up his little fire-fear thingy which of course wouldn't be news to Baekhyun but nevertheless the last subject Kris ever wanted to talk about now. “But you do want to come with me and look at them? I'm just going down for a few hours anyway, so you won't get bored, I hope. We can walk, it's not that far.”
“Yes, I'd love that.”
Of course he would. Because he'd not have to face Kris then.
He probably shouldn't have been so disappointed at this, after all Baekhyun had come for the dragons in the first place, but Kris nevertheless felt himself loosing his appetite at those words. Looking down at his plate of scrambled eggs, he sighed.
“Ok then I say we leave right after breakfast,” his mother sounded happy, obviously excited about the fact that she could share her work with someone who'd actually care for it, unlike Kris ever had in like ten years. She stood up, plate empty when she took a last sip of juice before she walked to the door “I'm gonna get myself ready and wait for you outside in 15 minutes. We'll be back before lunch Kris,” his mother addressed him and he nodded when she disappeared out of the room.
Kris felt Baekhyun look at him slightly taken aback.
“You're not coming with us?” the Slytherin sounded more than confused and Kris did not quite know why. Everybody had read the article. Everybody knew that Kris could hardly look at a dragon without starting to shiver and freak out. His fire-phobia had not been a secret. But Baekhyun seemed absolutely clueless and almost hurt when he continued “Is it because of what happened earlier? Do I make you that uncomfortable?”
“You don't. But dragons do,” the Hufflepuff answered returning the confused stare Baekhyun was looking at him with “I don't like them, you know that.”
“I was supposed to know that? You never said a word:”
“I didn't think that was necessary. After all the article about me two years ago was pretty clear about that fact,” Kris hated talking about this. He hated it because it made him think about his horrible experience as well as how bad he'd been treated after the article came out, even by his friends. Most of them hadn’t meant any harm when they had joked about his fear but that hadn't made their comments hurt any less.
Baekhyun's confused gaze had turned more into an uncertain and sorry kind of look when he lowered his voice “I had no idea that was true. I just assumed everything Reeta Skeeta wrote was highly likely to be total crap.”
“Well, that bit was true.”
“Oh,” was all Baekhyun said before the two of them fell silent, both uncomfortable, non of them touching their food.
Kris wanted to say something but he didn't know what. First of all, he wanted to change the subject because the thick air that was surrounding them was making him almost suffocate from sudden nausea. Second of all, he had the feeling that maybe there had been some kind of misunderstanding between them. Baekhyun didn't seem to mind what had happened earlier but Kris couldn't be too sure.
“Ohm,” he started and felt Baekhyun's head flinch up, obviously having hoped that Kris would be the first one to say something “about earlier-”
“Yea, about earlier,” the Slytherin quickly said, suddenly stiff in his chair “I'm sorry about that, I can usually control myself better, you know,” that uneasy laughter was back, none of it reaching Baekhyun's eyes. Kris had no idea what all of this was about. Why was he apologizing for Kris' hard on? “It's just that I really like you,” the Hufflepuff's ears sharpened at that, not thinking about interrupting Baekhyun anymore “and you were almost naked and I'm also just a guy, you know,” he didn't dare to look up at Kris “I'm sorry, I must have freaked you out.”
Really, Kris had no idea what this was about but at that moment he wasn't sure if he cared because Baekhyun had just said that he liked him and then something about not being able to control himself when he'd seen Kris naked. This sounded so much like a confession that Kris' heart was beating so hard in his chest, he almost felt like Baekhyun could hear it too.
“Why aren't you saying anything?” the younger boy asked sounding uncertain after Kris had been busy trying to calm himself down and keeping himself from doing anything rash like leaning forward and giving Baekhyun a kiss just to see how he'd react, if he would return it or not. “It's not like I'm the only one who got hard, you could at least try to be understanding about this.”
Wait... what?
“You got hard too?” Kris asked this being brand new information to him. But now, thinking about what Baekhyun had said, it was the only thing that made sense.
“Yes?”, he said sounding almost offended that Kris hadn't noticed, “did you not listen to anything I just said?”
“Sorry Baekhyun,” he answered sincerely, still feeling a little confused but more than that relieved, “but the 'I like you a lot' part kind of left me unable to focus on anything that followed.”
And then Baekhyun's cute “Oh,” was back before he almost blushed - almost, because Baekhyun never really blushed, he was far too self-confident for that to happen - and their eyes met, Kris longing for more to happen than that.
“So... you like me?” Kris asked and he didn't even know why he continued “even though I'm afraid of fire?” That comment seemed to catch Baekhyun by surprise when he frowned.
“Why would that change my feelings?”
“I don't know,” Kris said unable to really reason with Baekhyun even though he'd always been sure that his fear was something that would somehow always stand between him and anything, really. The Hufflepuff knew that he was a good catch, he was handsome, had a lot of money and wasn't stuck-up about it, but somehow, because his fear had always been such a big deal to him it had only seemed natural that it would be to other people as well.
“Of course that doesn't matter,” Baekhyun said strongly, suddenly seeming very understanding when he saw the slight worry in Kris' eyes “Does it matter to you? That I don't like,” he paused, swallowing hard, “heights?”
“Of course not!”
“See?” he then asked back, suddenly a slight - and very relieved - smile on the Slytherin's lips. “Who cares about fears when we like each other.”
It was probably because he was so happy and compared to earlier in the best mood ever, that made him say the following words even though they were so out of character and scaring Baekhyun was the least thing he wanted to do, “I never said that I like you, though.”
And then Baekhyun snorted, leaning back in his chair confident as he spoke, “Oh please, you've been starring at me for months. And then the first time we talk to each other you offer to take me home with you for Christmas. How else would you explain that kind of behaviour?”
Kris just grinned at that. If Baekhyun had told him that he had known about Kris' feelings before their little conversation, Kris would have freaked the fuck out but now that he knew that Baekhyun liked him back, this just put a wide smile on his lips.
Kissing him was one of the things he wanted to do now. Hold his hand. Hug him. Kiss him some more. But before he could even decide what to do first, Baekhyun's eyes had suddenly gone wild as he jumped up quickly.
“Oh no your mum is waiting for me. I totally forgot!” he was already storming towards the door when Kris called “Wait!” after him and Baekhyun stopped.
“Don't go now... we just... isn't this a kind of important moment?” Kris asked scratching his head in question.
“You know what else is important?”
“Dragons?” Kris asked, almost disappointed but making sure that his voice didn't sound it.
“No. I really couldn't care any less about dragons, to be honest. I just pretended to like them to have a reason to talk to you,” Baekhyun grinned when he saw the Hufflepuff gaping at those new informations “Your mum liking me is what's important here!” Baekhyun said strongly to Kris' positive surprise “So I can't ditch her on our first date. See you later,” the Slytherin said smiling when he saw that a similar expression had appeared on Kris' face.
Kris expected Baekhyun to disappear right that moment, out of the door, but instead he leaped forward, soft fingers hard against his neck, and pressed his lips to Kris' for only a second. The touch was gone before Kris' could return it and Baekhyun had shown him one more toothy grin before sprinting out of the door.
part II
Kris is in love with Baekhyun so he invites him to spend christmas with his family in Romania. That Baekhyun happens to be a huge dragon fan and Kris the heir to the most famous dragon-taming business, of course does come in handy.
disclaimer: originally posted here for the hp-exolliarmus fic-exchange. original recipient: heavenwrites, but now for everyone :)
__
part I
It was funny how the one thing Kris had never quite liked about himself turned out to be the thing that had made his crush take interest in him in the first place. Being the one and only heir to his family's quite successful dragon-taming business - and at the same time having an unbelievable fear of fire - was of course not the best combination. Hence, he had never thought that there was ever going to be a day when he'd voluntarily speak about dragons to his crush, always afraid that the topic of his maybe too-well known fear would ever come up. Ever since the long and quite disastrous article Reeta Skeeta had published two years ago after the Wu's had provided the Triwizard tournament with four of their dragons, giving Kris the title of “the most handsome 19-year-old heir she had ever seen” - he had been 15 at that time - “but biggest crybaby when close to fire” had made a laughing-stock out of him for the following months.
Two years had had to pass for people to finally start forgetting about it. He was in his seventh year now; being a prefect and leader of his house's Quidditch team, student with the best results for his OWLs in his fifth year, and extraordinarily tall and handsome - one thing Reeta Skeeta had well spotted. There were so many things Kris would have liked to tell Baekhyun about himself - anything to make him fall for him - but there the Slytherin was, asking question after question about the fricking dragons.
“I mean, do they really eat living horses? Isn't that like totally weird?” Baekhyun was saying, having rambled on about all of the stuff he had apparently read about dragons and now stopping to wait for Kris to answer.
“They do, sometimes,” the Hufflepuff said, wishing that the boy would soon decide to change the subject, but he didn't look like he would anytime soon. His eyes were wide, glimmering with sheer interest as he looked at Kris like he was the most fascinating person on the planet.
“Man, I wish I could see that with my own eyes,” the boy almost moaned at the thought. Kris swallowed hard at a tone of voice he had only dared to imagine up until now.
“Well,” the Hufflepuff started, suddenly having the best idea of his life and hoping to god that Baekhyun wouldn't think he was crazy, “I'm going back home for Christmas, so if you are interested, you could come with me,” the Hufflepuff said, watching the Slytherin with caution as his eyes grew wide and the smile on his face disappeared, turning into a shocked and completely dazzled expression.
Oh no.
“You... are inviting me to come with you? To Romania?” Baekhyun asked quietly, giving Kris not the slightest clue if his expression was due to how crazy he thought Kris was from inviting a stranger to celebrate Christmas with his family, or how much he just couldn't believe his luck. “You would... do that?”
“I would,” of course he would, he had loved the guy for almost a year now, he'd do anything “We live in a really huge house so you'd have your own room, own bathroom, and you could go and watch dragons every day, if you wanted to,” he continued, hoping that Baekhyun was liking the idea and he wasn't adding up to the possible crazy first impression he could be making. “But you probably want to spend the time with your famil-”
“NO!” Baekhyun stammered all of a sudden, leaning over the Hufflepuff's table in the great hall and grasping a hold of both of Kris' hands, a shiver running down the older's back “I want to! Yes, I do!”
“Are you guys getting married?” Kris could hear Zi Tao mumble with a full mouth from beside him, but neither of them answered, Baekhyun filled with excitement and Kris' body threatening to overreact any second.
“That's,” the Hufflepuff started, coughing a little before he continued “really great.”
Baekhyun seemed like he was going to explode from happiness, squeezing Kris' hands in his small ones so hard it almost hurt. “Yes! Great!” Baekhyun repeated before he shot Kris a smile that was so mesmerizingly beautiful, the Hufflepuff would have loved to just cup the boy's cute face into his hands and kiss him senseless.
But of course he couldn't do that.
“Oh my, there's not even two weeks left!” Baekhyun suddenly remembered before he let go, leaving Kris' hands with a cold feeling “I need to pack. I need to tell me parents! I need to buy a lot of- Oh my!” and before he could freak out any more, Baekhyun was gone, having stormed out of the great hall, probably on his way to the dungeons.
Not quite having realized what all of this meant yet, Kris leaned against Zi Tao, closing his eyes at the thought of spending two weeks with Baekhyun... in his home in Romania... over Christmas, the probably most romantic time of the year.
Baekhyun had been right.
OH MY!
“Why don't I play Quidditch, you ask?” Baekhyun repeated, shoving a spoonful of soup into his mouth before answering “Because I'm shit at it.”
“Really?,” Kris said watching Baekhyun put down his spoon.
“I'm already not very good at flying. How on earth would I ever handle quidditch?” Kris laughed at that, imagining Baekhyun trying to avoid a quaffle with a cute scared expression on his face “Oh god, don't imagine it!”
“I'm sorry,” the Hufflepuff said not really meaning it, though, as he continued watching Baekhyun who was kind of smiling back at him now and then shaking his head to continue eating.
“Anyway. If you invited me so you'd have someone to play quidditch with on your vacation, you definitely picked the wrong person!”
“I can go two weeks without quidditch, don't worry,” Kris smiled watching Baekhyun nod almost in relief as they finished their meal in silence. They were some of the few last people at dinner that day, as most people had already left for their homes and their ride would come around tomorrow morning.
“And you parents are ok with it you said?” Kris wanted to make sure after he had watched Baekhyun lick the rest of the soup off of his spoon and almost grown a hard-on from it..
“They are. I hate our huge family Christmas parties in our mansion and they know it. Glad you invited me, I would have died of boredom.”
“Well, I'm sure the dragons won't bore you,” Kris said happily, watching Baekhyun's face slowly grow into a wide smile.
“The dragons. Of course.”
The moment they arrived at platform 9 ¾ and Kris saw his father who had come to pick them up with their portkey to Romania, the Hufflepuff started to feel how real all of this truly was. Baekhyun was going to go home with him and spend two week there together with his family.
That was his big chance to make the boy fall in love not only with his family's dragons but also with Kris. And as far as the Hufflepuff was concerned, there wasn't a lot of work left for that to happen because Baekhyun was already looking at him like he was his favourite person on the planet and Kris loved that feeling.
Only a short while later did they appear in the backyard of Kris' family house with a loud crack, followed by Baekhyun stumbling against him, almost crashing down into the snow and clinging onto Kris' arm so he wouldn't fall - apparently not used to travelling such long ways with a portkey.
“Sorry, I'm a bit dizzy,” the Slytherin said, the huge smile on his face half hidden by the woolen scarf he was wearing. He was still leaning heavily against the taller guy but looking up at the villa that was only a bit of a walk away from them now.
“'Huge house, you called it...” Baekhyun said at the astonishing size of the Wu's home and looked up at Kris who was smiling, feeling all kinds of happy sparks running through his body at Baekhyun's more than satisfying reaction “Wow, I always thought that my family was rich but” he pointed to the building and then to the piece of land that belonged to them, surrounding every direction with apparently no end, “compared to this, I've been living in a cupboard under the stairs.”
“Well, my parents are really good at what they do,” Kris explained smiling and decided to take a huge risk. He wrapped an arm around the smaller boys hips, pulling him against his side to steady him “Can you walk like that?” he then asked, trying not to blush too hard as Baekhyun looked up at him, his side burning at the touch.
“Yea,” the Slytherin smiled, slightly leaning against him again “Thanks.”
The moment his mother saw them stumbling into the house as Baekhyun's arms wrapped around Kris' stomach, she shot her son a knowing grin before introducing herself and telling Kris to show Baekhyun around the house before lunch. He did, leading him to his guest room first that was right next to his own and almost as big.
“Are you sure you don't want me to pay you for this?” Baekhyun asked, letting his body drop into the soft sheets of his king sized bed and looking up at Kris before pulling up his legs “Because I can, you know.”
“I don't need any more money,” Kris laughed but stopped when he saw Baekhyun make a strange face before propping his head up on his elbow.
“Who said I was talking about money?”
The Hufflepuff swallowed hard, not sure if Baekhyun actually meant what Kris thought - hoped! - but before Kris could even think more about it the boy was laughing out loud and standing up again, walking over to the window to enjoy the view over the little river that was now completely frozen but normally flowed past their backyard.
They were silent for a minute while Baekhyun stared at his surroundings and Kris watched him do so, smiling along and thinking about how fricking lucky he was considering that until a month ago the boy probably hadn't even known his name.
The two of them had never had any kind of relationship even though they did have a lot of common friends and had hung out together because of that. It was just that Slytherins didn't really like Hufflepuffs and nobody really liked Slytherins, it was ridiculous but nevertheless how it was, that's why Kris had never really looked twice at the boy, too blinded by his greenish attire. But then, almost a year ago, Kris had seen Baekhyun dance with a Ravenclaw girl at the annual Yule ball. He had been wrapped in a black-yellow robe that had caught the Hufflepuff's attention right away and god, had he fallen hard. After that he had pretty much avoided talking or meeting up with Baekhyun, if possible, too afraid that his feelings would be too obvious and the Slytherin would find out. But then, about a month ago, the boy had suddenly started to take interest in dragons because of a project for his advanced class and yea... that's why he had approached Kris and now here they were.
“Want me to show you the rest of the house?” the Hufflepuff asked after a while.
“All of it?”
“Nah, just he important bits. Like the bathroom, my room, the kitchen, the pool.”
“You guys have a pool? Oh why am I even asking, of course you have a pool,” Baekhyun laughed seeming both amused and surprised.
“It's really nice:”
“Well, you should have told me, I didn't bring my swim trunks.”
“Oh you won't need any,” Kris said, about to tell him that there was a pair of them in his cupboard, but before he could, Baekhyun was grinning again, snorting when he saw Kris almost blush as he realized how this could have sounded. “I didn't... mean it like that.”
“I'm sure you didn't,” his voice was so sarcastic it was obvious that he didn't believe a word.
Baekhyun watched Kris unfold into an embarrassed mess, the tall guy stumbling over to the cupboard and opening the door to point at the few pieces of fabric that lay there - he had asked his mother to put some emergency clothes in Baekhyun's size, just in case.
“No, I really didn't,” the Hufflepuff pulled out the dark blue pair of swimming trunks from the lot, showing it to Baekhyun with a slight blush on his face “see?”
“Oh,” he nodded knowingly but oddly enough Baekhyun didn't seem at all embarrassed about his mistake when he smiled “Ok then. I'm looking forward to it,” he was still smiling when he passed by Kris and went to open the door “Let's finish the tour quickly so we can go down and eat lunch. I'm starving!”
“Yea,” Kris said, still slightly troubled and putting the shorts back before he followed the Slytherin out of the room “Me too.”
They spent that whole day together, most of all walking around on the Wu's properties where Kris showed Baekhyun the small Quidditch training spot his parents had had especially made for him when he had become the captain of the Hufflepuff team. The boy had tried to make Baekhyun get on one of of his brooms so he could teach him proper flying but the Slytherin had declined quiet harshly, obviously not in the mood to fly after dinner time. For a few seconds the Slytherin had seemed almost mad at Kris' attempts. The Hufflepuff's mumbled 'maybe next time' which had been returned with a flinch of Baekhyun's shoulders, had Kris note down in his head that this was apparently a sensitive subject to the boy. After that the mood between the two of them had been kind of weird, Kris afraid to say something wrong and Baekhyun complaining about being very tired.
They went to bed early that day, Kris falling asleep worrying about how he had managed to upset Baekhyun already.
The next morning, he was woken up by a loud crashing sound that made him flinch up into a sitting position, sleep still heavy on his lids when the second crash came. This time he was sure that it had come from the room right next to his which was currently occupied by Baekhyun. Only after a few moments of confused thinking did the Hufflepuff realize that something bad could have happened. He jumped out of his bed, just wearing his sweatpants as usual when he ran and opened his door just so he could storm in on Baekhyun lying on the ground, dozens of sheets and clothes having fallen on top of him, together with one of the wooden boards of the shelf, covering almost all of his body.
“Oh god, are you ok?” Kris asked, not knowing what to do or think as he walked over to the struggling mess that was Baekhyun and helped him get the board off of him.
“Sorry, I was just trying to reach a second blanket when it all came falling down on me.” There was almost an amused smile on his face as he crawled out of the clothes and stood up, Kris pulling him up by his arm, “Not my fault your family is so freakishly tall, they just put everything on the top shelf.”
“Oh yea, sorry about that,” Kris said half-joking before he saw Baekhyun reach out to rub his head where he had probably pumped together with the floor “Did you hurt yourself?”
“Nah, it's nothing.”
“You sure?”
“I’m sure,” Baekhyun rubbed his head for just a few more times before he put down his arm smiling up at Kris who was smiling back, so relieved that everything was ok between them after all. But then Kris noticed something. Just a short while after exchanging those smiles, Baekhyun's eyes had wandered off, slowly gliding down his body.
Oh bullocks, Kris only then realized as he watched Baekhyun's intense stare leave a hot feeling on his body over every place his eyes had been. He was almost half-naked, chest fully exposed and his pants hanging low showing the thin trail of dark hair that was leading down from his belly button to his crotch. There was no way to cover himself now, that would just make Baekhyun think that he was some kind of uptight weirdo. He was nevertheless uncomfortable having the Slytherin look at him like that, obviously checking him out. Or maybe uncomfortable wasn't quite the right word. It was more of a 'too comfortable'.
Feeling blood rushing down in a place where it should definitely not be rushing right now, Kris was more than relieved when Baekhyun's eyes suddenly snapped up again and he said:“Breakfast,” before coughing a little, an almost-blush on the Slytherin's cheeks, “How about some breakfast. Meet you in the kitchen in five- or maybe fiveteen minutes?”
Kris didn't need to ask what those ten additional minutes were for when he nodded, trying not to look at Baekhyun any more because he was too embarrassed and quite riled up already.
“Fifteen minutes sound good,” Kris just said back before they locked eyes for just a second, a silent agreement between them and the Hufflepuff turned around and left without another word, closing the door behind him.
Rushing back into his own room, afraid that his parents could see him in such a state, he shut the door behind him quickly, leaning against it and breathing out in relief as he looked down at his half-hard penis that was forming a strikingly obvious bulge in his pants.
“Shit,” he wanted to scream in desperation because he had just basically blown his I-just-want-to-be-friends cover. “Shit shit shit!”
Kris did make it down to dinner in fifteen minutes, his little problem having taken care of itself after the Hufflepuff had started to worry too much about how he could have been so stupid. He was afraid that Baekhyun would treat him differently now, would be cautious around him and not use that uncomfortable but nevertheless really cute dirty-humor he had any longer. Just having been able to really befriend the boy he'd been in love with for over a year, Kris just didn't want it to turn awkward already.
It had, though. Baekhyun had already been seated at the breakfast table with Kris' mother, buttering his piece of toast when Kris had entered the kitchen to sit down opposite of him and Baekhyun just wouldn't look at him. The Hufflepuff wanted to cry.
“How about I take you to see the dragons today?” Kris' mother suggested after Baekhyun had emptied half his cup of pumpkin juice, looking up at her with interest, “Kris' father left before breakfast and I'm flying down there right after. You can accompany me if you want to. Corly might even let you ride her.”
“Corly?” Baekhyun asked, a smile appearing on Kris' mothers face.
“She's a six-year-old Ukrainian Ironbelly who has a thing for pretty boys.”
“I see,” Baekhyun answered followed by a nervous laugh and Kris could sense that something was wrong, “I'd really like to go with you, Mrs. Wu, to see the dragons. But riding them? I gotta pass,” he said and to both Kris' and Baekhyun's surprise, his mother just smiled.
“Not a fan of heights, I guess?” she had realized so quickly that Kris wanted to punch himself in the face for not even having thought about the possibility that there could be something more behind Baekhyun not being a fan of flying.
So he was afraid of heights.
Baekhyun didn't admit it though, as his fingers started to tense around the handle of his mug and it was obvious that he didn't really like to talk about it.
“That's ok sweetheart, everyone is afraid of something,” Kris could feel his mother's eyes on him and for a moment he was really anxious she'd bring up his little fire-fear thingy which of course wouldn't be news to Baekhyun but nevertheless the last subject Kris ever wanted to talk about now. “But you do want to come with me and look at them? I'm just going down for a few hours anyway, so you won't get bored, I hope. We can walk, it's not that far.”
“Yes, I'd love that.”
Of course he would. Because he'd not have to face Kris then.
He probably shouldn't have been so disappointed at this, after all Baekhyun had come for the dragons in the first place, but Kris nevertheless felt himself loosing his appetite at those words. Looking down at his plate of scrambled eggs, he sighed.
“Ok then I say we leave right after breakfast,” his mother sounded happy, obviously excited about the fact that she could share her work with someone who'd actually care for it, unlike Kris ever had in like ten years. She stood up, plate empty when she took a last sip of juice before she walked to the door “I'm gonna get myself ready and wait for you outside in 15 minutes. We'll be back before lunch Kris,” his mother addressed him and he nodded when she disappeared out of the room.
Kris felt Baekhyun look at him slightly taken aback.
“You're not coming with us?” the Slytherin sounded more than confused and Kris did not quite know why. Everybody had read the article. Everybody knew that Kris could hardly look at a dragon without starting to shiver and freak out. His fire-phobia had not been a secret. But Baekhyun seemed absolutely clueless and almost hurt when he continued “Is it because of what happened earlier? Do I make you that uncomfortable?”
“You don't. But dragons do,” the Hufflepuff answered returning the confused stare Baekhyun was looking at him with “I don't like them, you know that.”
“I was supposed to know that? You never said a word:”
“I didn't think that was necessary. After all the article about me two years ago was pretty clear about that fact,” Kris hated talking about this. He hated it because it made him think about his horrible experience as well as how bad he'd been treated after the article came out, even by his friends. Most of them hadn’t meant any harm when they had joked about his fear but that hadn't made their comments hurt any less.
Baekhyun's confused gaze had turned more into an uncertain and sorry kind of look when he lowered his voice “I had no idea that was true. I just assumed everything Reeta Skeeta wrote was highly likely to be total crap.”
“Well, that bit was true.”
“Oh,” was all Baekhyun said before the two of them fell silent, both uncomfortable, non of them touching their food.
Kris wanted to say something but he didn't know what. First of all, he wanted to change the subject because the thick air that was surrounding them was making him almost suffocate from sudden nausea. Second of all, he had the feeling that maybe there had been some kind of misunderstanding between them. Baekhyun didn't seem to mind what had happened earlier but Kris couldn't be too sure.
“Ohm,” he started and felt Baekhyun's head flinch up, obviously having hoped that Kris would be the first one to say something “about earlier-”
“Yea, about earlier,” the Slytherin quickly said, suddenly stiff in his chair “I'm sorry about that, I can usually control myself better, you know,” that uneasy laughter was back, none of it reaching Baekhyun's eyes. Kris had no idea what all of this was about. Why was he apologizing for Kris' hard on? “It's just that I really like you,” the Hufflepuff's ears sharpened at that, not thinking about interrupting Baekhyun anymore “and you were almost naked and I'm also just a guy, you know,” he didn't dare to look up at Kris “I'm sorry, I must have freaked you out.”
Really, Kris had no idea what this was about but at that moment he wasn't sure if he cared because Baekhyun had just said that he liked him and then something about not being able to control himself when he'd seen Kris naked. This sounded so much like a confession that Kris' heart was beating so hard in his chest, he almost felt like Baekhyun could hear it too.
“Why aren't you saying anything?” the younger boy asked sounding uncertain after Kris had been busy trying to calm himself down and keeping himself from doing anything rash like leaning forward and giving Baekhyun a kiss just to see how he'd react, if he would return it or not. “It's not like I'm the only one who got hard, you could at least try to be understanding about this.”
Wait... what?
“You got hard too?” Kris asked this being brand new information to him. But now, thinking about what Baekhyun had said, it was the only thing that made sense.
“Yes?”, he said sounding almost offended that Kris hadn't noticed, “did you not listen to anything I just said?”
“Sorry Baekhyun,” he answered sincerely, still feeling a little confused but more than that relieved, “but the 'I like you a lot' part kind of left me unable to focus on anything that followed.”
And then Baekhyun's cute “Oh,” was back before he almost blushed - almost, because Baekhyun never really blushed, he was far too self-confident for that to happen - and their eyes met, Kris longing for more to happen than that.
“So... you like me?” Kris asked and he didn't even know why he continued “even though I'm afraid of fire?” That comment seemed to catch Baekhyun by surprise when he frowned.
“Why would that change my feelings?”
“I don't know,” Kris said unable to really reason with Baekhyun even though he'd always been sure that his fear was something that would somehow always stand between him and anything, really. The Hufflepuff knew that he was a good catch, he was handsome, had a lot of money and wasn't stuck-up about it, but somehow, because his fear had always been such a big deal to him it had only seemed natural that it would be to other people as well.
“Of course that doesn't matter,” Baekhyun said strongly, suddenly seeming very understanding when he saw the slight worry in Kris' eyes “Does it matter to you? That I don't like,” he paused, swallowing hard, “heights?”
“Of course not!”
“See?” he then asked back, suddenly a slight - and very relieved - smile on the Slytherin's lips. “Who cares about fears when we like each other.”
It was probably because he was so happy and compared to earlier in the best mood ever, that made him say the following words even though they were so out of character and scaring Baekhyun was the least thing he wanted to do, “I never said that I like you, though.”
And then Baekhyun snorted, leaning back in his chair confident as he spoke, “Oh please, you've been starring at me for months. And then the first time we talk to each other you offer to take me home with you for Christmas. How else would you explain that kind of behaviour?”
Kris just grinned at that. If Baekhyun had told him that he had known about Kris' feelings before their little conversation, Kris would have freaked the fuck out but now that he knew that Baekhyun liked him back, this just put a wide smile on his lips.
Kissing him was one of the things he wanted to do now. Hold his hand. Hug him. Kiss him some more. But before he could even decide what to do first, Baekhyun's eyes had suddenly gone wild as he jumped up quickly.
“Oh no your mum is waiting for me. I totally forgot!” he was already storming towards the door when Kris called “Wait!” after him and Baekhyun stopped.
“Don't go now... we just... isn't this a kind of important moment?” Kris asked scratching his head in question.
“You know what else is important?”
“Dragons?” Kris asked, almost disappointed but making sure that his voice didn't sound it.
“No. I really couldn't care any less about dragons, to be honest. I just pretended to like them to have a reason to talk to you,” Baekhyun grinned when he saw the Hufflepuff gaping at those new informations “Your mum liking me is what's important here!” Baekhyun said strongly to Kris' positive surprise “So I can't ditch her on our first date. See you later,” the Slytherin said smiling when he saw that a similar expression had appeared on Kris' face.
Kris expected Baekhyun to disappear right that moment, out of the door, but instead he leaped forward, soft fingers hard against his neck, and pressed his lips to Kris' for only a second. The touch was gone before Kris' could return it and Baekhyun had shown him one more toothy grin before sprinting out of the door.
part II