#wxstedwaves

Albus is very aware of his bad habits, knowing they’re not very good, that his family wasn’t fond of it. But, he thought he was doing the cool thing, letting his hair grow out this summer. It was already much longer than he’d had it ever and so far, he liked it. Sure, his fringe was over long and a bit more ragged, but, he kind of liked it.

“Albie,” Angelo says one afternoon. He’s been there for only a few days, but, it’s felt like more. And it’s been great, he’s loved it. Aside from some embarrassing skype call with his family, or being teased by Angelo’s siblings. (But they were kind about it.) “We’re going out to dinner tonight. You might want to get cleaned--” And he sighs, because his boyfriend’s new habit was to be frank, disgusting. “Albus, stop,” he says.”We’re going out to a nice place tonight, and this,” he gestures to his boyfriend’s new habit.”Can’t happen.” Sighing, he shakes his head.”Go put on something nice.” And he does like him, he’s a great person, just terrible at things that matter.

The younger one frowns, upset. He knows what Angelo is fussing at, and he shakes his head as he shuts himself in the bathroom in the room he’s staying in. He’s frustrated with everything. He can see Angelo upset at him. And he locks eyes with his ragged fringe and the nail scissors lying on the edge of the sink. His mind can’t comprehend just what he does, as he grabs the scissors and slices away at pieces of his fringe, the once long pieces uneven and splaying in various lengths around his face. He’s not a beautician at any means, and he frowns more when he realizes how much he’s fucked up.

Albus is sitting on the side of the bed frustrated and clearly upset when he hears a knock on the door.“Is Angelo in--Oh, hello, Albie.”

And he looks up to see the older sister of his boyfriend. She catches eye of his hair and the messed look it shows.And carefully she closes his door and sits down beside him.”Oh sweetheart,” she says, cooing over him like he’s sure his older female cousins would, or an aunt.”What happened?”

And he doesn’t really need to speak, but he does. He mumbles out how he tried to look nice for tonight, not mentioning how he and Angelo had a squabble.

“Oh, Sweetie,” she says again, looking at the younger male who clearly didn’t know what he was doing. “Do you want me to help you fix it?I’ll help you get ready,” she offers.

He accepts, because really, he needs help. His mum still helps him with fashion, dictating what he wears when they have formal events to attend.

“Well, lets see here,” she says,and she’s being kind and gentle. She starts off by raking her hands through the butchered fringe and softly smiles. “C’mere, sweetie,” she says, and the American accent is very clear. He follows suit, sitting in front of her as she very carefully helps Albus with his hair. “Would you be opposed if I trim it some?” She asks, and Albus shakes his head.

He used to be proud of his long messy hair, but right now, he wanted nothing to do with it. And he lets her fix it up, sitting still the best he can as she combs and trims his hair into a suiteable style.

It’s gelled and straightened and blowdried until it looks perfect and she smiles. “You’ll need a proper cut later, but this should do. Do you have clothes?” And he nods quietly, showing her the dressy muggle clothes he had packed. She smiles,showing him how the tie matches the rest of the outfit.

He nods quietly, and she carefully grabs at his hands to help him remove the varnish he has on his fingernails. She doesn’t question why, and he’s glad of that. He does the final last pieces and puts in his contacts and puts on his shoes.

He blushes, because he feels more formal than he usually does. But it’s worth it, because when he steps out Angelo’s gaping and smiling and their little fight doesn’t even matter. Albus looks gorgeous and he kisses him.

“You look great,” he says, and Albus just blushes more. The dinner goes fantastic, and all is well for a few days.

The second slump isn’t even from Angelo. It’s early on in the visit, and Angelo had been asked for a guys day out..

“Al, I haven’t spent time with Stevie in months. It’s a guys day, and, besides, the girls really want to take you out. I promise if something goes wrong, I’ll pick you up.”

And he’s crammed his hair into a beanie and wraps a finger around a stray hair that’s loose.

“‘Kay,” he whispers, but is cut off when Angelo kisses Albus goodbye.

And the girls are waiting right outside his car, cooing and giggling at the two boys. He hesitates as he gets out of the car, waving to Angelo one more time before the girls giggle and greet him,

“Hi Albie,” they greet, and he shyly waves back. The girls giggle at him and take him under their wing. He, himself just kind of blushes and follows along. He’s been going from shop to shop and they’re currently sipping drinks in the food court.

He’s only half paying attention. They’re not mean he’s just bored. But he perks up when he hears his name mentioned. He looks up from his drink, and raises a brow.

There’s some whispers and giggles and he frowns. “What’s wrong with my wardrobe?” He asks, and one of the girls speaks up.

“Nothing, but Angelo kind of...well, you’re an attractive guy but, well.“ She sighs. “You’re a great guy and he seems to care about you a lot.”

“A lot,” one of the other girls chimes in.

“But, the problem isn’t him really. If you don’t get more on point you’ll end up losing him,” she says. “Because if you don’t present yourself better you’ll end up losing him and hurting both of you.”

“So I’m ugly?” He says with a frown.

And they all shake their heads.

“If you don’t get more on point with things you’ll drive him away.” And Albus frowns, because he doesn’t have to worry about that where he’s from. His name speaks for him and he can get away with just about anything. He raises a brow as they continue. “It’s not hard, not at all. You just have to put more effort in yourself.” And they smile.“You just need more confidence.”

He’s heard that before, countless of times. And he’s a little stubborn normally, but, he sighs and agrees.

And he feels a little insulted, as the girls whisk him away to all sorts of fancy shops. He can’t help but blush at the models in some of the pictures in the shops. They’re showing so much more skin than he’s used to clothing models showing. Though, to be fair, he didn’t really go into many muggle shops. Most of his muggle clothes were band shirts and ripped jeans and all sorts of stuff. 

The girls stock him up in ways he didn’t even know he needed. Everything from nice button ups to polos and trousers, to some ties and they were kind enough to embrace his more dorky side that he knew Angelo adored and got him the t-shirts and skinny jeans he liked. And he liked it all, odd enough. (Which was strange because he normally hated clothes shopping).

“See,” one of the girls says as they’re back in the food court for a drink. “Even the most casual of clothes can look good and make you appear put together.” And she smiles at him again.

He reaches up to scratch at his head, the beanie covering a majority of his hair. There’s a frown, because they’ve see his long hair before. It was wet and limpy, but, was still long and scraggly and at the time covered in sea water and sand.

They look at him with hopeful eyes and he just sighs, removing the beanie as the girls poke around at his hair. It’s clean, just not put together. “When’s the last time you’ve had it cut?” And he has to think, because really, the last time was about a year ago with his Gran.He had managed to avoid her nearly all the time before the trip, and during holidays.

“Last year,” he mumbles, because he doesn’t really think the trim Angelo’s sister did a few days ago really counted. She claims it was a trim, but, really, it was just cut enough to make him appear a little more put together for the dinner. And the hopeful eyes bore into him, and they’re like Lily: all pouty and sweet and ways he wants to be an arse but really can’t.

“Sure,” he sighs, and the replies are squeals and giggles and it’s a whirlwind as all the girls throw words around that he really doesn’t know much about. He’s heard his sister talk about quiffs and highlights before, but, he doesn’t know too much about what they are.

He raises a brow.”Can I make a suggestion?” He asks softer, but wanting to be heard. And they all look at him, waiting for him to reply. He figures they should at least let him have this, because he’s going to be stuck with this shit on his head, so he might as well have some say. “Can I be blond?”  And there’s a giggle, because he kind of has always liked Scorpius’ blond hair.

“How light?” Is the question, and he hands over his phone to show the few pictures of his best friend. It’s a new phone, so they don’t question why most of his pictures and things don’t go past a certain date.(And of they  ask, he figures that maybe the excuse of his parents being old fashioned helps. Right?)

“That won’t work,” one of them says. “That’s almost white. But a warmer blond would.” There’s a shrug.”We could try it.”

And he doesn’t get to say much as he’s whisked away into one of the salons, being thrusted into a chair in a whirlwind of emotions.

“Grab his phone!” One of the girls squeaks, taking the green iphone from the wizard’s hands and giggling as they take a picture right when Albus’ scraggly ponytail is being cut off. “Awh, he calls him Angie Love,” she coos to the other girls, as they text his boyfriend,

And his heart pounds, not just because holy shit that was my hair but because holy shit, we talk about school. And luckily, none of the girls question him about the words like muggle and what not.

“How come we can’t reach Angelo at school?” They ask, and he wants to shrug, but, he can’t. His hair is being chopped at and his neck positioned downwards.

“No um,” and he struggles, not knowing the words for these sort of things. Luckily, one of the other girls must know what he means because talks for him,

“No Wifi? Or signal?”

“Both,” he responds, because he’s pretty sure that’s what the words are. And he doesn’t really grasp that, so he thinks its the right answer,

“Really? That sucks, How come?”

“It’s really old,” he says, and is that even a reason? He hopes it is. “My parents and Grandparents went there.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they’re kind of traditional and stuff. The school.”

“Ew,” she says, and he kind of agrees that Hogwarts needs updating. But he’s used to it.”So, is it really in England?”

“Scotland,” he corrects. “But you have to take a train to school. And the station is in England. They’re really strict about students getting there on the train.”

“Out of all the schools, why did his parents send him there? No offense, Albie, since yours is all family related and stuff. But why Angelo?”

He knows how to answer that, but he can’t. Not with real answers. “It’s a good school, one of the best. And if you qualify to get in, you really don’t want to turn it down.“

And they stop pestering about school when one of the girls squeaks at the buzz from a reply from Angelo. wow :)  is the response, and Albus still can’t see. After what feels like forever, he’s finished and he just stares.

He can’t really believe what he’s seeing. It’s short and blond and short and blond. And he can feel the breeze on the back of his neck and the fringe is done up in a fancy quiff and it’s short and it’s blond and he thinks the blond is kind of cool. And the last bit of hair spray is added to his hair in quick bursts, and he just awkwardly laughs because he’s not so sure what to do.

“Don’t,” one of the girls warns him. “Let it be a surprise.” And they won’t let him text Angelo until later. They grin more at him as he walks around the mall awkwardly slurping on some sweet milkshake-y beverage from Starbucks. And when it’s almost time for Angelo to come,they push him to the restrooms to change.

He puts on some of the more casual clothing. The girls were hoping for one of the nicer pieces, but, with the weather the way it was, they settled on one of the t-shirts and skinny jeans. And while they may be dorky, they’ still make him look very on point and put together. The girls taught him how to at least match his clothes and he knows this skill will be loved by many parties he knows.

He’s slurping on his drink when Angelo arrives. The beanie is off, tucked away in one of his shopping bags. And he sees Angelo coming and he wants to hide but he doesn’t. He just slurps more on his drink.

“Albus?!” And it comes out in a shocked voice. There’s laughter behind it, not knowing just what to say. His boyfriend is blond. His boyfriend is well dressed and oh my god am I being punk’d?

“Hi,” the once brunette wizard says. And he’s sheepish and blushing and Angelo thinks this is probably one of the most surreal things he’s seen in a long time.

“Twirl around,”one of the girls tells Albus, and he kind of does it slowly.

And Angelo laughs because he doesn’t know what to say.

“Wow,” he manages, still a bit speechless.”It’s gone?” He questions, seeing how short his boyfriend cut his hair.

“Yeah,” Albus mumbles. He’s sad about it, but at the same time he likes how happy Angelo looks right now. And he’s kind of proud that he did that.

“Wow,” Angelo repeats with more laughter. “You look wow,” he says again. And he cups his hand around the back of his boyfriends neck, still in awe how he doesn’t have that little nub to grab at or get tangled in. Albus looks like a model even if the clothes are the same nerdy things he likes.

“The girls say this is on point,” he mumbles with a blush.

“It is,” he says, smiling.”You look great,” he says, going to whisper in his ear.

Albus giggles.

Because maybe this wasn’t  such a bad change after all.

The third slump wasn’t even Albus’ fault. It wasn’t Angelo’s either. It just was.

The faux blond and asian male had gotten tickets to Disney, just the two of them. It was a date day, and Disney just so happened to be their date. It was cute, since Albus wasn’t very knowledgeable about many muggle things. Disney was one of the few things he really knew about, and it was cute how the boy was interested. Both had woken up early, and Albus had wanted to go in some sort of cute matching style attire. 

The best that could be done were similar t-shirts, but, it didn’t matter. The minute Albus arrived at Disneyland he squealed in excitement. “Take my picture!” He demanded of his boyfriend, smiling big in front of the castle. “We should get hats, Angie,” he squeaks, and he’s all bubbly and excitement.

“Oh my gosh, they have superheros here!” And Albus is suddenly more excited than he really wanted to be seen as.

Angelo laughs because his boyfriend is so cute and there’s very little he can do about this moment.

“We can see them,” he says. Because Albus is super joyful like a child.And he’s at the happiest place on earth, and Albus really does look that happy. And he jumps very excited and grabs onto his boyfriend. “But lets get hats first,” he says, and Albus nods. Because he’s getting Mickey Ears, and he’s very excited about it. And they get to the store and they get customized Mickey Ears because no one ever has things named Albus, let alone Albie. And Angelo laughs more, because Albus is being so adorable and he’s so giddy and when they’re asked if they’ve been before and it’s his first time, more of a deal is made.

There’s a smile that’s said, when he gets his hat and places it on his head. He’s grinning wide, and Angelo can’t help it but place a kiss on his cheek.

“Now where too, babe?” Angelo asks, and he laughs again, because Albus is so all over the place. But then, he kind of is too, so it works.

And the two go around from ride to ride, from character to character. Albus forces Angelo to pose with Eeyore, who he claimed was his favourite, Albus poses with Pooh. He laughs because the princesses are smiling at them, When he says he’s my prince others coo and grin at the two.

They’re making magic, and Albus loves it.

The two had just finished lunch and on their way to a ride when Albus stopped to tie his shoe. When he looked up, he saw Angelo beside him as well as some older guy. He’s not from the park, he’s just a regular guest.

“Hey,” he hisses and Albus frowns. “This is a family park. Your kind, just..the children,” he hisses.”You fags need to get out.” And they’re glaring at him like he caused the second wizarding war.

Albus is confused. First off, isn’t a fag a cigarette? But secondly, he’s hurt because this hasn’t happened to him ever. He never had to fear for his life out at home. Everyone knew, and no one cared. There were some who were rude, but, no one ever said anything. No one targeted him. And now, here he was getting yelled at and being picked on for something he can’t control, doesn’t understand why he’s being told such things.

It’s enough to make him slump back from Angelo, even though all he wants to do is hug him and be comforted. It’s enough to make his lip tremble and when the guy leaves them alone finally he slumps to a bench upset.

Angelo goes over to him and wraps his arms around his boyfriend.Albus is freaked out, traumatized even. He runs his fingers through the blond hair and just comforts him like he did when it stormed. Albus is so hurt and Angelo is tempted to take him home.

They’re both cuddled on the bench together, Angelo comforting his upset boyfriend and he himself a little peeved. Albus blinks up when the girl from the ice cream cart comes over.

“Hi,” she says to them.”I uh, I saw what happened and let me assure you, we don’t think that. Here,” she says. “It’s on us,” and she hands him one of the infamous mickey ice creams. “You guys are really cute by the way,” she adds, after handing Angelo one as well. “And I hope this doesn’t ruin Disney for you,” she adds for Albus.”Are you boys headed anywhere?” She asks, and Albus is sucking on his ice cream like a child. Angeo explains and she nods, handing him a piece of paper. She then walks back to the cart and gives him a wave.

It’s nothing too much, just a voucher and fast pass. But, he graciously accepts and he’s kind of happy that it’ll work at Albie’s favourite Disney movie place.

He walks with Albus to the ride, still not holding his hand. Albus is busy slurping on his ice cream and Angelo’s finished his. They go on the ride, and all is fine,though Albus is still shyer and more timid.

And he really doesn’t want the day to be ruined so when it’s time to eat he smiles at Albus, grabbing his hand and not letting go. He walks the boy inside the restaurant and Albus’ smile starts to creep in.

“You mentioned how this was your favourite movie growing up, right?” And Albus just smiles and nods. And honestly, he’s feeling better some. Aside from that one jerk, it was a great day, really. And while the food wasn’t glamorous at all, it was fun. Plus, Albus kind of really liked Toy Story growing up. And the Aliens hanging around makes him giggle.

“I still got to get some stuff, though,” he says, and Angelo smiles back.

They spend nearly the rest of the time shopping.

The fourth and final slump was both their faults. But, more so Albus’ than anything. He had to go back home at some point, and the three weeks without Angelo seemed like hell would be arriving.(He’s got a week with Scorpius, so that’s good.)

His family was kind enough to send Angelo up to school with them, so he gets to come back a week early and stay at the Potters before they go to school. (So does Scorpius, but him and Angelo get along pretty well.)

He’s clutching his rolling suitcase, and he’s not as tastefully dressed like he’s been a majority of the trip. (He’s learned how to be on point, and Angelo is so proud. He can tell.) He’s got a beanie over his hair, the regrowth showing slightly.

They’re at the airport, and his family was kind enough to say goodbyes and good wishes, hoping he’d come back again. Angelo took him to the airport, parking and walking all the way he could.

“Do you have your passport?” He asks, Albus nods, showing him the green case and the dorky photo of him.”Bags and things? Gifts?” Because the boy had spoiled himself at Disney (and some other places) as well as family. He nods again.”Well, I guess it’s everything,” Angelo says softly.”Have fun with Scorpius,” he says, and he’s trying not to tear up.

“I will,” he says softly.

“Oh, and tell your Gran I’m to thank for that mess leaving,” he says, trying to mask sadness behind a joke.

“I will,” Albus repeats.

And they’re stalling. He’s stalling and he’s trying to stop time.

“You have your wand, right?” Angelo’s whispers and Albus nods once more.They’re procrastinating so much and he doesn’t want Albus to leave and vice versa.

“I had a great time,” Albus says.

“Me too.”

“See you soon?” And oh fuck, are good byes hard.

“Yeah. Week before school.”

He hears the warning about boarding soon. Albus has about forty minutes, and he has to say good bye soon.

The younger boy clutches onto the other tightly as he can’t help but be tearful. Sure, he’s going home, but, Angelo’s not there yet.

Angelo bends down to kiss him, longer than usual.  He breaks apart and there are specks of tears in his eyes.

“I’ll see you in a few weeks. Bye Albie,” he says, like he’s holding back.

And when they break away at security, Albus feels like he’s lived a dream. He goes through security and smiles sadly at the text Angelo just sent, scrolling through the pictures and memories.