#aeliusavery

“Clearly, they’re so tired from being in our amazing presences all day and must recharge. However, we are too good for needing to recharge.” Rafe always loved Aelius’s smile. It was so different from the usual smile of a fourteen year old. It was refreshing how it shaped his face, making you feel like Aelius could either make your life the best it could be. Or he could tear it apart. Aelius took a spot on the bed next to Rafe, their somewhat small bodies making the space easy to inhabit.

Rafe didn’t remember how it started. Perhaps his finger had slipped and tickled Aelius’s soft bare skin on accident. Maybe he hadn’t even touched the boy at all. But as they moved to lay comfortably together in bed, something had happened and then Aelius was laughing. And believing that Rafe had tickled him, which might have been true but also might have been wrong, Aelius quickly retaliated with his hands at Rafe’s sides. Which then became Aelius straddling him as he tickled him. And then Rafe retaliated just as hard until they were both a mess of laughter and sweat.

He didn’t know how it happened. It seemed that things just happened with Aelius, the events leading up to it blurring but they had been laying there, Aelius on top of Rafe, trying to catch their breaths. And the next thing Rafe knew he was staring at a stray piece of Aelius’s platinum blonde hair sticking out in front of his face. He should move it back behind his ear, right? It just felt like the right thing to do.

And the moment that Rafe tucked that piece of hair back into place, he found a place of his own as he gently brought Aelius’s face to his and pressed his lips to his. It wasn’t fierce. It wasn’t like getting punched in the face. It was gentle and sweet and… sleepy. It turned out that they needed to recharge as well so their inexperienced lips slotted together tired from a long day until they eventually disconnected and Rafe wrapped his arms around the other boy. Yes, he’d found a place of his own. And it was by this boy’s side.

2.

Rafe couldn’t hear much over the sound of the boy’s face underneath his fist. It hurt like a bitch, the skull knocking against his knuckles. But he loved the feeling, loved the pain that it would give him as his knuckles bruised over. He pulled his fist back just enough that he’d be able to see their scared expression on the boy’s beaten face. And once he was satisfied, he got up from where he straddled the boy’s body and walked away like this was nothing more than a regular Tuesday. And to Rafe, it really was.

Checking his phone clock, he knew the Slytherins were just about to leave Arithmancy so he lingered by the doorway, not wiping the blood from his fists or from his face. His left eyebrow was bleeding because the bloke had missed his cheekbone and he had been wearing a goddamn ring. His bottom lip tasted like copper when he’d run his tongue over it. But he chose not to touch his lip, only doing so to make sure that it didn’t clot up quite yet. Aelius liked it when his lip bled beneath him.

Rafe knew that Aelius hated their uniforms as he couldn’t personalize them much at all. But Rafe was very much fond of Aelius’s tie. Made him easier to move as he guided him into a closet of some sort and then slammed him up against the door. His fingers made a mess of Aelius’s now yellow hair as Aelius licked across Rafe’s bottom lip. He’d known where he was. Rafe almost always knew where Aelius was. And Aelius… he knew where Rafe usually hung around, where he could be found over some poor bloke’s body.

When they were like this, their kisses were a frenzy of adrenaline and the taste of blood on each other’s tongues. And Rafe wouldn’t have it any other way. The only way these moments could be better were if they didn’t have any clothes on and Rafe could have Aelius moaning up against the door so that everyone knew who was in this closet and who belonged to who. But this was enough for Rafe. This was enough. Really. It was enough. It wasn’t enough.

3.

Aelius was mad at him.

And he had a right to be, Rafe knew that. He had blown off a day they had planned for a long time because he heard from his father that Cori’s letter should come that day.

So Aelius was mad. And what was Rafe supposed to say? ‘I’m sorry that I’m choosing my dying fiancee over you. Just wait a few more months and I won’t have to hide the way I feel about you anymore’ just couldn’t come out of his mouth no matter how much he would want it to.

Aelius thought he loved Cori more than him, Rafe could tell that much. He may not be a Ravenclaw but he wasn’t stupid. But it wouldn’t be fair to him. It wouldn’t be fair to go up to Aelius and pour his heart out for him about how much he loves him, about how he’d loved him ever since their first train ride, about how he wanted to be with him every second of every day, and how bad it hurt when he knew Aelius was with someone else. It wouldn’t be fair.

Because they both knew that even if Rafe professed everything that Aelius wanted to hear, that Rafe would still have principles to follow. He’d still have to marry Cori if she survived long enough. He’d still have to hide Aelius because the idea of two pureblood males together was just as disgusting as a pureblood being with a muggleborn. It didn’t matter and it wasn’t fair.

Everyone was already in their beds by the time that Rafe came into the dorm, the light from the Common Room spilling into the pitch black room. But Rafe knew the way to Aelius’s bed by heart and he knew that he was awake. He felt around until he felt the soft of the mattress before taking off his shirt and pants. Aelius had already peeled back the covers for him to slip in beside him. The dark was a familiar friend to them. It felt as if he were blind, feeling Aelius’s face until he found the sides of Aelius’s cheeks. Kissing him gently, he hoped that said enough.

He hoped that Aelius could hear the ‘I’m sorry’ on his lips. He hoped that Aelius could understand that he wanted him as he licked into his mouth. He hoped that Aelius knew how much he loved him in how his fingers tangled into his hair. He hoped that Aelius knew.

4.

The dorm was empty. The Common Room was empty. Everyone was gone in classes or off finding their friends to talk in the hallways or studying in the library. And Rafe couldn’t be happier to find the abandoned dorm as he and Aelius giggled together like they had some secret that no one else knew. But by now, he was sure that everyone else knew that they snuck in here to be with each other for just an hour or two.

Rafe pulled Aelius on top of him, teenage hormones making a mess of his resolve. Moving up his body, Aelius already ran his fingers through Rafe’s hair as if they hadn’t done this a million times before. As if they hadn’t tangled themselves together before until they’d become nothing more than a knot together that Rafe would have to untie later. “You really have a thing for my hair, don’t ya’?” Rafe grinned up at the boy, pressing a kiss at Aelius’s shoulder.

“What can I say? It’s hot as fuck,” Aelius’s lips turned up cheekily and Rafe wanted nothing more than to kiss that off of him.

“So you only like me for my hair, huh?”

“It’s definitely a strong factor.”

“What would you do if I shaved it all off?”

Then the only sound was Aelius’s laughter and if it wasn’t one of the most delicious sounds in the world then he didn’t know what was. Granted, it was ridiculous to think about. He spent an hour every day making sure that his hair looked amazing. The number of times that Lucius, Aelius, and Rafe had fought over whose hair looked the best was far too ridiculous with far too many threats that ‘we cannot remain friends if you do not properly respect my hair.’

“You little–” Rafe came up to crash his lips on Aelius’s, his hand going to the back of Aelius’s neck and his fingers trailing at the base of his hair there. How long they kissed was unknown to Rafe. What he did know was that eventually they had to breathe, leading to Rafe making little marks in the other boy’s neck. And then wanting more room to mark up, they pushed Aelius’s shirt over his head, followed by Rafe’s. And fuck, how did anyone regard the boy on top of him as anything less than a god meant to be worshipped?

And then the feeling of Aelius’s fingers trailing down his skin to undo his pants and Rafe could only wrap his hand around Aelius’s wrist. “I’m sorry. I can’t. I l–” I love you. He couldn’t because he loves Aelius. And the look of hurt on Aelius’s face made Rafe want to tear the hair that the boy loved so much out of his skull. But he loved the boy too much to let him become another person that he tossed out of his bed when it was time for his roommates to come in. So he stared as Aelius pulled his shirt back on. He stared as Aelius hid the look of hurt from him. He stared as Aelius shut the door on him. All because he loves him.

5.

The past had always seemed so dark compared to now. How he and Aelius had to hide how they felt about each other. When the idea of a dying fiancee and a looming war was hanging over their heads. There were happy moments but they could only pale in comparison to the ones that he had now.

The sun shined through their window, making Rafe squeeze his eyes tighter and cuddle closer to the body next to him. The sound of running feet was the only thing that he could hear other than the steady breathing of the person beside him. “She’s awake, you know. Is it your turn to cook breakfast or mine?” Aelius’s sleepy voice was muffled as he buried his face into Rafe’s neck, hiding from the light of the sun.

“As if you ever cook breakfast, you lump,” Rafe chuckled, Aelius’s hands moving to wrap around him and the feeling of the smooth silver ring on one of Aelius’s fingers tickling the nape of his neck.

“You love me.” His husband’s eyes peeked open in the slightest, looking innocent despite overall looking absolutely debauched from a long night of… activities.

“I do,” Rafe grinned before leaning down over Aelius and pressing a sweet kiss onto his lips like he did every morning without fail.

Finally, the footsteps came to a stop outside their bedroom door, pausing before the couple was greeted by the sound of little knocks. “Come in,” Aelius smiled, slipping a pair of underwear on underneath the covers as Rafe did the same.

“Daddy! Daffy! I’m hungryyyy! Get out of bed please?” The little girl was no older than nine, hitting the edge of her eighth birthday in a month. Her hair was messily tied into a ponytail as no child of Aelius and Rafe’s was going to deprive their hair.

“Alright, alright. But first, come over here so Daffy can fix your hair,” Aelius grinned and Cassiopeia practically jumped into the bed, happy to oblige as Rafe untied the child’s messy brown hair before redoing it. Despite wanting to fall back in bed and sleep until it was time for lunch, Cassie wasn’t taking no for an answer, pulling onto Rafe’s arms and legs when he fell back until he had no choice but to get up.

“Let Daddy sleep a little longer, squirt. He had a very long night,” he couldn’t resist winking towards his husband and laughing when Aelius slapped a hand over his eyes. Letting Cassie run out of their room to the kitchen, Rafe took a few more steps to the bed, taking one more kiss from Aelius’s lips before he’d have to meet Cassie downstairs. “I love you,” he whispered with a smile before closing the door behind him so Aelius could sleep a little longer.