Obliviate

One Year

Changmin nearly choked on his bite at the laugh that couldn’t help but bubble up within him. “That sounds far too kinky,” the younger man laughed, reaching for a drink to make sure everything washed down before he would reach for another bite. Something in the brief moment it took for Heechul to answer him did not sit easy with Changmin. It was all too likely that the older man would hide the truth from him just to keep him from worrying. Unfortunately, this only worried Changmin even more and inwardly he resolved to spend some time working out whether or not he could manage a part time job during the next school year to help out. Though such thoughts brought a weight to Changmin, the nickname that came from the other seemed to lighten it at least a little. Heechul was - and always would be - the only person that could get away with calling him that…and the younger man didn’t mind it in the slightest. “Graduated?” Changmin repeated a little wide-eyed. “Yah, she never said anything to me,” he went on looking a little hacked off. After all the bickering between him and Nicole, one might have thought it wouldn’t matter to the younger man….but she was his only ‘real’ noona at Hogwarts. “Aish, and then she wonders why I’m never nice to her…” he grumbled to himself. “So long as Chopin comes along too then, or the pin cushion’s going to start staring down on me again for leaving him alone to spend time with you.”

One Year

“Who says I’ll sleep?” the younger returned without thought. The fact of the matter was that sharing a night with Heechul much more often than not gained him plenty of rest. “Yah!” he added abruptly as the forked punched his skin, very much tempted to act like a five-year-old and do the same to the other in return. “You were complaining about it - why shouldn’t I take it?” Changmin half grumbled but compensated slightly - seemingly begrudgingly - not too long afterward by offering a bite that had been meant for himself to Heechul instead. There was a short silence in which they continued to eat - it really wasn’t all too bad - before Changmin’s old habit of speaking before wholly thinking things through kicked in. “That’s an awfully large trip for two people who haven’t even graduated yet..” the younger man pointed out quietly, trying to sound casual yet also question without truly asking whether this was something the other could really afford for them…particularly after he was no longer a teacher and therefore had no income. Shortly after bringing it up, Changmin wished he hadn’t. He was grateful for the effort that was plainly put into the planning and did not want to seem like he was rejecting what was essentially a gift. The guilt managed to turn his stomach even more as he noticed Heechul all but absently toy with the ring he himself had given him as a promise…one that he hadn’t been holding to too well. “Nevermind,” he said in a greater effort of casualness, waving his fork airily to shake off the topic before digging for another bite. “Do you think we should finally give Nicole noona her wish and let her babysit, or bring the other two along with us?” Changmin grinned softly.

One Year

“If I’ll get it later, why can’t I just have it now?” the younger questioned with a soft smirk before taking a bite - he’d never been all that great with patience. It was soon after followed by a soft scowl at the insult to his efforts so that the next bite Heechul was meant to take, Changmin had swiped from him on the way to his mouth and redirected it to his own. As he continued to eat, when his boyfriend’s unexpected plans were lain out, Changmin’s chewing slowed to a stop and he blinked several times, rather stunned. Finally, remembering to swallow, he did so without wholly having finished biting down so that he had to pound a fist against his chest to urge it through to his stomach. “Europe?” he said once he regained his voice, already large eyes rather widened, tone revealing just how surprised he was. Not only was it entirely unexpected, not only did he tend to forget just how many galleons Heechul had at his disposal, but…Changmin’s anniversary ideas were rather…stationary. He was going to have to do some adjusting. There was, admittedly, a sense of worry that weighed on Changmin at the idea of leaving where they were. He’d had more than his share of nightmares of the things that had and that he feared would happen to Heechul should his family find his boyfriend again, but at the same time…he couldn’t hide him away forever. It always left him feeling rather resentful toward himself for being the lesser wizard and therefore less capable of protecting the man that he loved, but for now…all he could do was hope that all the time and effort he had put into his O.W.L. year classes would have made at least some considerable improvement to his ability. When the initial wave of worry passed over him, Changmin at last managed a smile - a little incredulous, but a smile all the same. Europe. He’d never been anywhere beyond Hogwarts and London when it came to the country, but he’d heard enough about Venice, Rome and Athens to start to let anticipation pool within him at the thought of spending time in each of those places with Heechul. “Early honeymoon?” he asked teasingly with a small laugh as the next bite on his fork he offered out to the other to take.

One Year

“Do you really have to let me in that way? I feel like your damn butler…” mutters as though in irritation, but nothing could truly get on his nerves that day. At least…that was what he liked to think. Stepping inside and closing the door behind him, Changmin followed after the other and set the breakfast tray down, waiting for the older man to take a seat before he took his own just across from him. “What was it that you sent off?” he asked, unable to help his curiosity at what had seemed to be a small roll of parchment in his boyfriend’s hand the moment he had stepped in. It was clear by his continually casual tone that the idea of ‘needing a small chat’ was far from worrying him. Changmin was too confident in his relationship - almost scarily so - to believe that the talk would have anything to do with it ending. “Before you ask,” he went on after they had both settled and he had taken a hold of the handle of the top that covered their shared breakfast, “yes, I made it, no, I didn’t poison it, and yes, it’s completely edible,” he smirked wryly before at last, revealing the meal. The tray was a little small - or at least seemed to be as every inch of it had been covered in as much of Heechul’s favorites as Changmin could manage to fit…and a few of his own. He had to feed his own stomach as much as the other’s, after all. There was even a small corner of it devoted to a small, baked, pound cake which Changmin was most confident in. It was his father step father’s recipe and he had mastered it before he was even ten years old. Though some of Changmin’s memories were still scattered after the events of earlier that year, it had brought a painful pang to him nonetheless when he had set to making it, his attitude shifting rather terribly so that he might have mistreated a few house-elves in the making of it….but it was something he had felt the need to share with Heechul. Simple and insignificant though it might have been, it was simply another way if giving more of himself to the man that had already given him so much.

One Year

Changmin was used to restless nights, but the kind that he’d had since having been shoved into a dormitory with Slytherin’s he had never spoken more than a handful of words to while his boyfriend had been away and then returned only to be kept seperate from him…it was of a different sort. In the end, Changmin knew he was being ridiculous and, admittedly, rather childish…but it had taken him a long time to loosen his hold even the slightest on the one thing - one person - that had come to feel like his whole world. Last night had been another of very little sleep, but this time, for a different reason - one that despite it’s anxieties, was also the one that brought a smile to Changmin’s lips as he lay awake in bed that morning. It had been one year to the day - one entire year - since he and Heechul had each taken a huge risk and despite the many highs and lows that had followed it, had come to be who they were now, as individuals and as a whole. Well…as ‘whole’ as any couple that had a sixteen year old within it could be. Recalling Heechul’s multiple efforts to hint at marriage over the year, Changmin laughed quietly to himself as he rolled out of bed (to the left so as to avoid crushing Mozart) and set to getting ready. It didn’t take long to wash up and get dressed, but the time during which Changmin looked backed over what he had prepared as an anniversary gift was what kept him. It had seemed like a good idea when he had finally conceded to the fact that nothing could truly convey to his boyfriend how much he and their time together had meant to him, but now that the time was drawing nearer to share it with the man, the younger was feeling less and less confident. Shim Changmin, how lame could you possibly get? With a light curse under his breath as his stomach turned another knot, Changmin knew that there was nothing that he could do now to change his plans. He could only hope that Heechul would enjoy it all the same…or, of course, come up with something even more lame that he could make fun of instead. So, while the rest of the occupants of the castle had headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast, Changmin had instead steered his way toward his boyfriend’s room for the start of the day and the first ‘event’ - a personalized breakfast tray that he held balanced on one hand while he raised the other and knocked upon Heechul’s door.

366 days, 8 hours and 43 minutes

It's really been that long?