#60 Not Everything Is Magic

[exolliarmus]

Title: Not Everything is Magic
Summary: The entire set-up seemed faultless to Yixing. Right up until he saw the assignment sheet.
Pairing: Kris/Lay
Rating: NC-17
Word count: 22.3K
Disclaimers (if any): Yifan speaking in French




i.


When it had been unveiled that there was going to be a dorm for two, not one, head boys, Yixing had tingled with excitement at the prospect of having a new roommate. It hadn't been easy rooming with Jongdae, a fellow Ravenclaw who was a year younger than Yixing, for four years. It wasn't difficult in the sense that they didn't get along, the boy was one of Yixing's three closest friends but it was just very messy. It had become abundantly clear to Yixing in his first six months of sharing a room with the boy that he hadn’t ever heard of a laundry basket before, or even a mop for that matter. Clothes draped over every surface and it did not matter if they were clean or dirty, Jongdae let them all pileup and Yixing had even seen his friend lifting underwear up to his nose to gauge their freshness a few times in the second year.

Yixing loved Jongdae but not even Jongdae’s mother loved him enough to not think that his actions were sometimes a little on the gross side. Even for a teenage boy going through puberty.

In reality, the newly appointed seventh-year head boy had been enthralled by the prospect of making a new friend and bonding with another person in his year. He knew that Junmyeon, a Hufflepuff, had been a clear favourite to be the second head boy and while he didn’t know much about the Korean boy, he knew that he was neat and tidy. Most likely not the type to leave a pumpkin tart under his bed to snack on during the night―only to discover it again three months later when it was time to leave for the Christmas holidays. Like somebody Yixing knew. Jongdae.

Yixing had gone into the whole set-up expecting somebody like Junmyeon to be his new roommate and co-leader of the student population, along with the two appointed head girls. He had been so positive, so alive, about the idea that he hadn’t set himself up for disaster. He had even said okay to the term that the dorm assignment would be non-negotiable because he was so sure that he would have the perfect prefect roommate that he had dreamed of since receiving his letter to Hogwarts when he was eleven. The entire set-up seemed faultless to Yixing.

Right up until he saw the assignment sheet.


‘Zhang Yixing, Seventh-Year, Ravenclaw ― Wu Yifan, Seventh-Year, Slytherin.’


And his heart stopped.

The Ravenclaw student had nothing against Slytherins in general, as one of his other best friends, Lu Han, was one and he’d met a whole lot of other students from that house because of him. Yixing had, however, had never exactly had the wonder of meeting Wu Yifan during his years at Hogwarts but always assumed that he would find the older boy intolerable. The Slytherin student had silver hair that never seemed to grow out, long legs and one of the most prestigious surnames in the wizarding world.

Yixing didn't have anything against those born into powerful families, nobody had control over the people they were related to and the wizarding prowess they possessed. But something about Wu Yifan seemed a little off for Yixing. He was that little bit too perfect.

The Slytherin boy was fluent in French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and English, he often took advanced classes to match up with his immaculate grades and was in the Slytherin house Quidditch team as their prized Keeper. He was never pinned to be the next head boy like Yixing had, and the Ravenclaw student found his flawlessness somewhat irksome.

In Yixing's mind, Yifan was too good to be true.

Those thoughts had led to him packing up the possessions he had amongst Jongdae's junk with a sense of hesitance that he shouldn't have ever considered. He should have been overjoyed to be leaving the explosion of clothes, food wrappers and paper behind but he'd gone into the stage of reluctance where he had begun to find Jongdae's floordrobe habits endearing and wondered whether or not he would miss it. However, as he rifled through a large pile of shoes for any of his own belongings and came across a set of socks that Yixing was half certain shifted on their own with no aid of a spell, he knew he had to move on. If not for his own sanity then for his health.

He had the hands of Kim Minseok, another one of his best friends, helping him drag his trunk to the newly refurbished head boy dormitories and he was glad of that fact when he had to clamber up numerous flights of stairs to get to his desired destination. Minseok was older than Yixing and had been one of the first Ravenclaw students he'd ever come across, he was somebody most people in the school looked up to and he'd taken Yixing under his wing rather swiftly, he showed him the ropes of the school and the both of them had bonded over the fact that they were half-bloods.

There were just some things people who lived in the muggle world understood about one another. Like the lack of internet connection in the castle─Yixing hadn’t been sure if he could live through his years at the school without his Weibo or Tumblr page.

Minseok, like Yifan, Lu Han and half the seventh-year population, had been forced into repeating their last year at Hogwarts after it had been found that many N.E.W.T exams were the subject of tampering. Many parents and professors thought it best to recall those affected to re-start their seventh-year with a Ministry granted change in curriculum.

It left a bloated student population as a flurry of new first years swarmed and Yixing guessed that was why two head boys and two head girls were chosen for the very first time. While it had been a devastating blow to the plans of numerous students, Yixing had been glad to have not lost his older friends.

"Are you sure that this is all that you have?" The elder queried as he felt the relative lightness of the trunk. "There was a lot of stuff in the room you had with Dae."

"I think that was all his and anything of mine that was under or in that mess is probably contaminated beyond any kind of cleanliness and the chance of ever being usable again is long gone," Yixing shuddered as he thought of the wriggling sock he'd left behind. "It's for the best if I let those things go."

"Yeah, I wouldn't want any of that back," the elder Ravenclaw agreed with a serious nod. If there was anybody who hated Jongdae's mess more than Yixing, it had to be Minseok. He hadn't stepped into the room since the first time he'd seen what Jongdae had amassed and created.

"I think he did all of this to get the dorm to himself, you know," Yixing hummed as they finally reached the floor that Yixing would call home. He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and stared at the door in apprehension before attempted to open it up with the password he'd been given by the Headmaster in his second week of that year.

However, when Yixing opened his mouth to speak, the door flung itself open and he jolted back in surprise. His shoulders seized up as he took in the face before him with pure shock, it was Song Qian―another recalled seventh-year.

Yixing and Minseok stumbled back in apparent fashion, watching the Slytherin girl as she left and Yixing suppressed a shiver down his spine as he watched her go. Song Qian was infamous within the student population because of her family's past; the Songs were a set of wizards and witches renowned for their knowledge and development of the Dark Arts. While it had been a long time since that chapter had closed in the wizarding world, Qian had managed to unhinge many with her knowledge of the Dark Arts in her first year of study.

The two Ravenclaws shared a glance and a gulp. Wherever there was a Song Qian, there was a Wu Yifan.

The pair had grown close after Yifan had transferred to Hogwarts halfway through the second year from Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, despite how many people had warned Yifan of the girl who had swiftly grown to be synonymous with darker magic.

Yixing was bordering upon certain that Yifan and Qian were dating, given their closeness and the way they were separated from the rest of the student population. They were a couple that managed to intimidate many, Yifan with his appearance and Qian with her mesmerising yet terrifying knowledge of the Dark Arts, and to say that Yixing was slightly overawed was a severe understatement.

Minseok released him from his stupor has he set a spell onto Yixing's trunk to send it through the dorm's small common area and towards a secondary door that Yixing guessed was either for the lavatory or the bedroom. When Yifan emerged from behind it, stumbling into Yixing's case and almost hitting the floor, he knew it was the latter of the two options. Before either himself or Minseok could apologise for their actions, Yifan scowled and stormed straight out of the dormitory and in the opposite direction to what Qian took.

It was not a good way to introduce himself properly to the boy he'd be spending the rest of his year bunking down with like he had done with Jongdae most years previous.

"Well, that could have gone better," Minseok muttered like Yifan could still hear them even though he was probably well down the corridor and out of earshot. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's okay, I'll apologise to him later," Yixing dismissed, "if he lets me."


ii.


Yifan's bed was empty when Yixing returned from studying at the library when curfew struck, all of the Slytherin student's items were as neatly placed around as Yixing remembered them being when he had first seen the room and he felt a little apprehensive when he approached the half of the room that was draped in the luxuriously deep green he was familiar with. Yixing's own side was furnished with rich blue and gold detailing. The colours should have clashed where they met the forest green and sparkling silver on the other side of the room, yet they didn't.

Yifan had letters all stored on top of one another next to an inkwell and feathered quill, his owl was a large Great Grey owl that was dotted through with black and white feathers. The animal hooted gently and Yixing's own Little owl, one with fluffy feathers, responded quietly. It flooded him with relief that there was no squawking match between the two.

Yixing ran his finger down the line between their two halves, he felt the way the wallpaper didn't even have a single line down it, like his home in the muggle world. Magic, Yixing's mind smartly supplied him with.

Yixing skidded back to his side of the room when he heard the main door to the dorm open, footsteps followed swiftly after on the old stone floors and he held his breath as he waited for the other male to enter the bedroom they shared.

His breath was knocked sharply out of his chest when Yifan shuffled through the threshold with an expensive looking broomstick shining away in his hand. His hair was matted, sweat clung to it in droplets and Yixing could see the rise and fall of his chest under his quidditch robes. The green was darker as perspiration sprawled all across it.

The elder shirked off the outer cloak, the rugby shirt-type jersey that sat below it was almost drenched completely all over. It hung over Yifan's shoulders heavily and it wrapped around his body in one of the most flattering ways.

Since his first year, Yixing had always had a soft spot for quidditch players. They all had well developed and defined core muscles, firm thighs to cling around the broom and strong arms to be able to fend off whatever the opposing team threw their way. Yifan, being a Keeper, had an incredible body shape that spanned out across his shoulders and tapered down to a slender waist.

He was staring, he knew he was staring but he couldn't look away when Yifan walked across the room and set his items on the trunk at the foot of his bed, Yixing let out a half gasp as Yifan twisted around to throw his wand across his bed and onto the dresser, where it landed neatly in a holder. Yifan let out a groan, one that was reflective of overusing his muscles but Yixing's mind didn't quite filter it that way. His eyes didn't stray when Yifan disappeared through the door silently once more, the keeper was most likely going to bathe himself and Yixing's cool fingers pressed against his cheeks.

They were hot and, most probably, flushed until they matched his lips. He couldn't simmer down as his mind replayed the way Yifan moved over and over in his head, his long but clearly toned body was a wonder that had pranced right before his eyes. His heart raced, heat simmered in his lower stomach and his mind raged against the rest of his body.

It's Wu Yifan, Yixing scolded himself, the scariest male Slytherin student Hogwarts has housed in years. But he couldn't help it, he knew it was shallow to only appreciate somebody for how they looked but they way Yifan's almost white hair had clung to his forehead had Yixing wishing he could feel it under his fingers, he imagined the power housed within Yifan's body and the way the other head boy groaned replayed itself in his mind as loud as a Howler. The Ravenclaw's body began to burn as he thought of how Yifan would look sinking into one of the bubbling and steaming baths, for the crystal blue water to swallow him up inch by inch and for the water droplets to dribble down his chest.

Yixing knew since before his first year at Hogwarts that he was attracted to men, and it wasn't something he had found to be an issue because he hadn't ever been exposed to the thought of finding his roommate appealing. Jongdae―while handsome and funny―just wasn't the kind of person the older student was into.

He, Zhang Yixing, had developed some sort of instantaneous physical attraction to his counterpart. The one that had the girlfriend who was gifted beyond understanding in the Dark Arts.

Yixing was mortified by the mere thought.


iii.


The Slytherin head boy was up and out of the dormitory before Yixing was but that didn't bother him much, it meant that Yixing could get ready in peace and fit a short half an hour of pre-reading for his classes of the day. While Yixing sometimes didn't look like he was fully aware of what was going on around him, he had been put into the hardworking Ravenclaw house for a reason. He was a determined individual, he always had been, but he never quite knew how to exploit that in the muggle primary school he'd attended in London, the city his parents had moved him to when he was younger.

Boarding school, while not ideal for everybody, was the perfect environment for him. The library was constantly at his fingertips with anything he wanted to learn, he had friends and he had only ever really met praise since his first day. The professors didn't overactive minds as long as their students applied themselves to their fullest in lessons. Something Yixing always did.

Yifan didn't return to their two bed, one living area dormitory before Yixing headed down for breakfast and was surprised to see Yifan already there sat opposite Qian. There were only a handful of students in the hall, the houses didn't pay much heed to their specific tables other than on the first day of the year to welcome their new housemates and the last days to learn which house had the most points. So Yixing didn't find much trouble in finding a spot on a table away from the duo.

His cheeks were pink with how he remembered the way his body had warmed all too easily to Yifan's when he'd seen him in his quidditch uniform all damp and hanging off his flesh like a compression shirt would.

The Ravenclaw dropped his head down and poured himself a cup of the water that was in a jug in front of him. Over the rim of his goblet, he could see Yifan and Qian talking to one another. Yixing couldn't see Yifan's face but he could surely see the female Slytherin's, her dark brown hair draped over her shoulders and in front of her face but her lips were stretched apart in a wide, close-mouthed smile.

Yixing let out a gasp. Qian was smiling. Qian never smiled.

Her mouth fell into a straight line as large groups of wizards and witches flooded in through the doors and Yixing found himself noting how her expression shifted from relaxed and almost endearing to tight and frosty. He was surprised by how soft she could look and he wondered if Yifan was the very same.

Soon, bodies blocked Yixing's line of sight and Kim Jongdae and Lu Han plonked themselves in front of Yixing with grumbled out good morning to the head boy.

They all moved forward to take their food while the room gradually got louder and louder, they ate happily and discussed the lessons for the morning before everything calmed down enough for Yixing to lean forward and attract the sight of two of his best friends.

"I saw Qian smiling," Yixing whispered to them both across the table with his eyes watching over where Yifan and Qian had secluded themselves to the very end of the far table.

"What?"

"At Yifan, she smiled at Yifan," Yixing nodded his head as if that would convince his friends further.

His fellow Ravenclaw furrowed his eyebrows so they sat in a straight line across his forehead, "Why?"

"He leant in and said something to her and then it happened," Yixing exclaimed and that gained the attention of Minseok who sat just down the table from them. He stared with a questioning expression and Jongdae called him over.

"What's up?" The elder got a few of the other pupils to move down to give him some room next to Lu Han, who poured him a fresh drink into a clean goblet.

"Xing thinks he saw Qian smile at something Yifan said."

"What did he say to her?" Minseok picked at some of the food and placed it on his plate, his fingers picked at the meat there as Yixing shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't know, I wasn't close enough to hear..."

"You know, I heard from somebody who goes to Beauxbatons that Yifan was popular when he was there," Minseok supplied suddenly and Jongdae snorted loudly into the cup he'd been drinking out of but Yixing thought of the letters, Yifan's table was piled high with letters.

"Really?" Yixing's eyes flicked over to Yifan and he saw Qian pick something out of the boy's platinum hair.

"Yeah, it's weird." Minseok dismissed as the sweater breakfast foods were brought out to the table. "It's like he's done a complete reversal from what he was like there, according to what I've been told."

Yixing watched how Yifan kept his full attention to Qian even though his back was fully facing Yixing, he could see the way his head tilted up towards the girl. It was difficult for him to think about words spilling freely between them but could not stop staring when Yifan's shoulders lifted up a little more when Qian handed him a sweeter treat from her side of the table to him.


iv.


Yifan wasn't in the dormitory much and neither was Yixing. The both of them were either fulfilling their duty as head boys, going about their respective hobbies or studying. They had small-talk between those times that were all as awkward as one another and it had grown increasingly uncomfortable when they laid across their beds in silence.

It was a Saturday morning in late September, the leaves of the deciduous trees had turned their warmer shades and Yixing was starting to see the greyness of the clouds drawing in for their permanent blanket that would only leave when the leaves grew back. Yixing was sprawled across his bed with his notes in front of him from the previous week to look over and he had one earphone plugged into his ear from his muggle iPod ― one he had managed to sneak into the school and charge with his solar charger whenever the battery died.

There were three sharp knocks on the main door of the dorm, the heavy wooden one that stopped the other students from making their way in and Yixing shuffled to open it up. They usually just got students asking for favours or a teacher coming to ask for help in something, so it wasn't out of the ordinary to be called out at random times.

Yixing, however, was startled to see Song Qian with her hair in a sloppy plait and her thin fringe sat on her brow bone. Her breathing was half haggard and her hand was supporting her on the wall by Yixing's head.

"Is Yifan here?" She panted out and Yixing was too startled to really register that he had been asked a question.

"Hello," she waved her hand in front of Yixing's face and the Ravenclaw blinked away his surprise. She was speaking in Chinese, "Is Yifan in here?"

Yixing shook his head and she let out a long groan, the head boy grew somewhat scared when Qian muttered under her breath and looked over Yixing's shoulder to see any kind of sign of Yifan in the common area the two of them also shared.

"He headed out an hour after breakfast. If that helps?" Yixing's voice was shaky and timid, the Slytherin girl flicked him a dark look before she rolled her eyes in their sockets.

"Not really," she dismissed. "Another pair of eyes could really do me some good, though?"

Yixing wanted to say no. He wasn't sure why he nodded his head or why he followed her dashing through the hallways down the stairs to get outside. The courtyard wasn't full of many students as most had gone to Hogsmeade, so it didn't attract too much attention to have Yixing tailing Song Qian across the school grounds.

"Tell me if you see any fire or smoke," she commanded without even looking to Yixing for confirmation and the head boy gulped so painfully his throat ached.

Dread and regret of his fast agreement tread heavily down his spine when Qian cut off to head into the Forbidden Forest, he stuck close to her side as the trees grew thicker and the air cooled around them. He was shocked to find them in the forest in what seemed to be in search of Yifan, especially given that the area was firmly forbidden for all students. Including the two head boys.

"Wu Yifan," Qian yelled out and he could hear the telltale sounds of somebody swearing like they'd been caught doing something they shouldn't be. There was the sound of movement that was much larger than that of what a human could make and Yixing found himself moving closer to the Dark Arts extraordinaire for a little more security.

They walked for a fifty more metres until they came to a clearing that Yifan was stood in the middle of, his head was bowed somewhat bashfully and Qian didn't hold back as she advanced towards him and hit the back of his head.

"Bring her out now, or I'll get him to report you," the girl growled with a thumb stuck pointing towards Yixing and Yifan's eyes flickered up to her then over her shoulder to meet Yixing's eyes questioningly.

Yifan watched him for a few moments before he whistled, the sound of weight shifting that Yixing had heard previously happened again and the Ravenclaw student stumbled back as a dragon shuffled out into the clearing. The creature was just taller than Yifan, not fully grown in any way but the scaled beast still cowered behind the Slytherin head boy.

"You idiot! I told you not to bring her," Qian yelled, the reptile shuffled into a smaller size and he saw Yifan's hand move over his shoulder to pet over the dragon's snout soothingly. "I knew this would happen."

"I didn't summon her," Yifan's voice was deep but gentle, the tone you'd use to avoid conflict. "She came last night and I couldn't just leave her here."

"So you're saying that a dragon, an animal that's impossible to domesticate, just happens to be so attached to you that she followed you here?"

"Yes."

"You, Wu Yifan, are unbelievable!" She threw her hands up in the air. "You told me you'd be practising for your next quidditch game today, not disappearing into the Forbidden Forest to pet a creature that would more than happily bite your hand off or set fire to you."

"Lixia would never do that," was the swift rebuttal that got.

"You don't know that, have you ever owned a dragon before? Nobody has ever had a dragon as a pet before, Yifan. Do you know how ridiculous it is for you to keep her?! Yixing, please tell me that you agree with me."

"What? Me?" The Ravenclaw boy's mouth fell open in shock.

"You're top of the Care of Magical Creatures class, aren't you?" She looked around to the shorter head boy and he nodded as calmly as he could. "Then tell him how stupid he is for letting this dragon come onto the school grounds!"

"I―," Yixing's voice died in his throat as all three pairs of eyes in front of him bored holes into his face.

"This is useless," Qian muttered. "How did this bumbling idiot ever get to be head boy?"

Yixing was sure he was supposed to take offence to what she was saying but found himself not caring too much because honestly, he wasn't quite sure how he made it either. Sure, he was a prefect with good grades and sided on the more popular edge of the spectrum but that didn't mean he was fit enough to be head boy.

"It is dangerous," Yixing mumbled after a while as he took in the dragon. A Ukrainian Ironbelly. "You're supposed to set an example to the younger students and you're meant to represent Hogwarts outside of the school grounds, by keeping a creature that shouldn't be, and can't be, tamed is not only dangerous for you but for the animal itself and the students you're supposed to safeguard. You either send her over to a dragon reserve or I will have to inform the professors."

"She's not hurting anybody," Yifan argued as the creature rumbled over his shoulder. "Lixia is a gentle dragon."

"Because she thinks you're her parent, Yifan!" Qian argued back. "You hatched her and fed her, she assumed that you were her caregiver. What happens when she's fully grown and realises that you're not what she needs to look after her?"

Something strange happened right before Yixing's eyes, something that made him blink and want to rub over his eyeballs to make sure they were working.

Wu Yifan, the steel faced Slytherin, pouted. Right at both Qian and Yixing.

"That face doesn't work on me," Qian shifted to English and Yifan pouted even more. "Stop being an idiot, you need to let her go to a reserve. Like Yixing said."

Yifan huffed and went to speak, howbeit, a series of branches snapping had the three students all starting from where they were stood and the carrying of voices through the air had Yixing stuck still where he was. Yifan and Qian both made for the opposite direction of the voices whilst Yixing tried to shake off his shock to urge himself to follow. His eyes began to tear up as the realisation that he was going to be caught breaking a rule flashed in his mind.

A large, calloused and warm closed around his wrist and he was pulled into the trees. He turned so he wasn't stumbling blindly backwards but was being pulled forward by the person running in and out of the trees ahead of him. He knew it was Yifan from the flash of silver of silver in front and he stepped faster to keep up with the Slytherin head boy's far longer legs.

They stumbled out onto the flatter plains of grass and towards the quidditch pitch, Yixing couldn't see Qian anywhere but Yifan didn't appear to be searching around for her as they pressed onwards until the Slytherin let them out onto the pitch. He fumbled but let the both of them into the changing rooms.

Only when they'd halted and caught their breaths back did Yifan release his hand.

"I'm sorry," the taller boy muttered to Yixing and the younger looked up to him with a shocked expression. "That was really stupid, you looked like you were going to cry."

"It was," Yixing agreed, his heart was still racing and he looked over to see Yifan nibbling on his lower lip. "I'm sorry you had to leave Lixia behind."

"You and Qian were right, it wasn't good for her for me to keep her. I don't even have anywhere for her at home and I don't think my mother would take too kindly to finding a dragon around the house next time she's home."

"Why did you keep her?"

"She was abandoned, I couldn't leave her where I found her," Yixing observed how Yifan's face softened slightly, obviously recalling a fond memory. "Her egg was this really beautiful shade of blue and it looked scaly, all of the designing patterned up it to a jagged tip and I knew there was something, a dragon, in there that had been left abandoned. So I took it home."

"Didn't your parents see it then?" Yixing's brow furrowed and Yifan shook his head, smiling.

"No, my mother works for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," Yifan explained softly. "She's not home a lot, I found the egg last year and I've been looking after her since."

Yixing didn't quite know what to say but moved after Yifan when he turned to leave the changing rooms, the both of them were greeted with the scene of a huddle of teachers stood off at the perimeter of the Forbidden Forest a few hundred metres away and the two of them began to head up towards the path that led around to the castle itself.

"Do you think Qian's okay?" Yixing asked once they made it in through the front doors without any detection from any of the teachers they passed.

"She's an Animagus," Yifan informed him and, just like magic, Qian was stood at the bottom of a set of stairs with her hands clenched tightly at her sides. "She's a rather small Fallow doe."

Once Qian caught sight of the two head boys, she took off towards the Slytherin dormitories and that left them to head up to their room. They knew that they'd be contacted by the professors to be informed of the happenings in the Forbidden Forest and that made Yixing feel nervous to the pit of his stomach.

When they got to their room, they sat awkwardly in the living area once Yifan had made the fire burn up and the room had gently increased in temperature since then. Yixing couldn't help but glance at the student ahead of him as his brow furrowed in thought.

"You're not going to report me, are you?" Yifan looked over to Yixing with a concerned expression. "I really can't afford to be expelled from this place."

Yixing didn't hesitate when he responded, he'd already known the question would be posed as soon as Qian had used Yixing as a threat towards Yifan. "As long as you don't do anything like that again, my lips are sealed."
"And that isn’t just because you're scared of me? Or, Qian?" Yifan questioned and Yixing took a moment to think over what the other had said.

"No, you were the one that made sure I got out of the forest without being caught. We both would have been punished for it, we were both there." The Ravenclaw began to pick at the sleeve of his cloak. "I'm sorry if I haven't been the most talkative of roommates but there are thin―"

"Don't worry about it. I know what people say about me and Qian, I don't blame you for keeping your distance," his face wore a tight smile. "Sometimes you can't help but listen to what the people around you say but we're not like how people describe us."

The jury was still out in Yixing's mind as to whether or not Yifan's words were genuine but the elder's actions from that day made him lean more towards the idea of believing him. Yifan had tried to take in an abandoned dragon, he'd saved Yixing from being caught in the forest and had even sincerely apologised to Yixing for it all. Yixing was sure that not everything about the older man could be how people painted to be; he wasn't uncaring.


v.


There were few moments in Yixing's life where he felt like he was in utter despair, he was always focused on making himself and the environment around himself better. But, like with everything, there were things not even a wizard could fix.

Like a screeching owl.

It just so happened that Yixing had two of the howling creatures on his hands as the night drew in on a Tuesday night and Yixing had a very difficult Charms class the next morning that he wanted to be fresh minded going into. He could easily silence his own owl on a normal day, he was more than coax-able when he was alone but for some reason, the two owls in the room began to cause a ruckus that Yixing was sure could be heard halfway across the castle.

He had tried feeding them, he'd tried attempted to pet them through the carriers and he'd even attempted to sing to the birds in the hope that would help to soothe whatever was ailing them. He had tried to search for whatever had them so riled up, Yixing had consulted books and thought back to when he'd first acquired his owl to see if he could remember the advice he was given. Nothing was of any use to him.

Everything he tried fell uselessly flat to the floor. If anything, he was worried that the violent flapping of the creatures was going to harm them because their cages were not enough to let them extend out to their full wingspans and there was no way Yixing was going to let them out while he was alone with them. Not when he didn't know what was even wrong in the first place. The owls had been perfectly fine in the days previous, maybe a little grouchy on Yixing's Little owl's behalf given that he hadn't been let out to fly in a while because Yixing hadn't needed to send any mail to anybody. Yifan's bird, though, had more than enough sky-time with the fact it would be gone for a day or two at a time ferrying Yifan's mail around.

Yixing guessed the grandly sized bird travelled between Hogwarts and wherever Yifan's friends from his old school were in the world, no matter the distance between them.

The Ravenclaw's only relief came when Yifan, pristinely dressed with his hair styled to perfection and his skin clear of almost every blemish, walked into the dorm with his hands covering his ears. He already looked stressed out by the noises the two animals were releasing into the room and Yixing could easily relate, they had been driving him insane for almost an hour while he was alone.

"What did you do to them?" Yifan's eyes were wide with bewilderment and all Yixing could only shrug nervously in panic as the two creatures flapped around persistently in their cages.

Yifan went to his own animal and tried to soothe her with calming words in what Yixing guessed to be French, it sounded half like a spell and half like how a parent would talk to a child. Though, Yixing wasn't sure if he thought that because the words flew into his head like a whisper against his ear. It distracted him enough from his own owl, Shixun, that the Little owl began to squawk louder than it had been before.

"Make it stop," Yifan yelled and Yixing scrambled to open the birdcage to draw Shixun out to hold against his chest.

Before he could even place his hands around the bird, the owl was flying across the room and straight towards Yifan's birdcage, the Little owl perched on Yifan's desk and pressed himself right up to the Great Grey owl who was still in her cage. The two birds quieted instantly to soft coos and hoots.

"That's weird," Yifan hummed thoughtfully.

"What do you mean?" Yixing asked, crossing from blue and gold to green and silver.

"Jia usually fights other owls, especially smaller ones," the Slytherin head boy laughed as he stuck his little finger through the wire caging to rub at her feathers.

"It's a good job they get along then," was all the other could say in response and Yifan grunted in approval of his statement. "Do you think we could let them out of their cages when they're here then? If they've bonded like this?"

"I don't see why not," Yifan shrugged his shoulder and opened the large door on the back edge of the carrier.

Jia fluttered out and sat next to Shixun on the edge of the desk, the two owls looked content being side by side and Yifan sat back on his bed. He looked like he was in disbelief and Yixing was somewhat offended that Yifan didn't think his Shixun was a good enough owl to win the Great Grey owl over to his side, which he obviously had done.

"Nobody can resist the charms of Shixun," Yixing reasoned and Yifan snorted, amused. "Hey, what's so wrong about him?"

"Nothing, he's just so small," Yifan was laughing behind his hand as he looked at the two vastly different owls on his desk.

Yixing was not impressed that his prized Shixun was being judged in such a way but couldn't resist watching the way the elder laughed. His chuckles were deep but dorky, Yixing wished he could see his mouth that was hidden away but the curve of his eyes was just enough for the younger to soften up. His heart even flitted against his chest as he smiled in response to the other head boy.

Smiling suited Yifan, Yixing thought to himself. It diffused the darker appearance of his face, it crinkled up harshly flat areas of skin to make him look younger and his cheeks puffed out a little to make them look like round apples; it was an entirely boyish expression. There was nothing more Yixing could do than shoot him his own dimple, to show him that he appreciated the gentle nature of the other's smile. It was nothing of the sneers that Yixing had thought he would receive as Yifan's roommate.

The moment was different than all of the other friendly moments they'd shared since the incident with the dragon, they maintained eye contact as they beamed like suns. Yixing's heart was palpitating with every other beat. His face flushed as warmth flooded into his body, he must have been almost bright pink when Yifan's eyes broke from his to look at his cheeks and then down to his lips. Licking the plump mounds of flesh was an automatic reaction to it and he could see the millimetres Yifan's irises moved to follow the wet, pink muscle.

He could imagine Yifan kissing him then, his mind spewed thoughts out of the handsome eighteen-year-old in front of him dragging him forward by his wrist and joining their mouths. It had anticipation bubbling up in his stomach, for some reason, as if the elder was a person was somebody he should and could kiss. For all the softness he had shown, Yixing still wasn't sure what to make of the Slytherin head boy and Yixing didn't want to kiss Yifan for it to turn into a mistake he couldn't take back. Not to mention the sudden flash of Yifan with Qian together in Yixing's mind's eye brought him well and truly back down to earth.

The Ravenclaw turned away sharply when his hands started to shake where they hung loosely at his sides and he clenched them tightly behind his back.

"Goodnight," Yifan said when Yixing took a steady step back, the younger nodded his head in response and mumbled out the same thing in return.

When the room descended into darkness, Yixing laid with his back facing towards the older male and Yixing's fingers pushed coolly to his cheeks. It was almost a repeat of what had happened when Yixing's had seen Yifan enter the room drenched in sweat from quidditch practice. The difference was that, every so often, the little fingers on Yixing's hands would brush over his lips as if Yifan had kissed him. He couldn't sleep, he knew he would probably only see Yifan in his dreams or worse, he'd wake up to see Yifan as soon as the sun rose.


vi.


It came as a slight shock to Yixing that Yifan appeared to notice their short moment on the night their owls turned into the most disruptive creatures in the castle. It was an assumption Yixing made whenever he felt heat on his skin as Yifan passed him by or the way sometimes his cheeks would flood with colour when he kept eye contact with the other boy for long enough. Yifan's fingers would brush up Yixing's arm if the elder walked past him in the corridor or leant over him in one of the infrequent classes they shared. The contact, as minimal as it was, had been enough for Yixing to knock over potions or fumble with what he was working with in Herbology.

Yifan always noticed how much it seemed to affect Yixing by retaining eye contact or showing a small smirk on his perfect mouth. Yixing often found himself staring whenever Yifan wasn't playing his little game with him, he observed how the elder always paid full attention in class despite how little he seemed to study outside of his lessons. The Slytherin was an intelligent student, he was constantly getting high grades and most others lumped it to the fact that Yifan was repeating the classes but very few of the other returning seventh years achieved the same. Especially given that a lot of the content was different from the year before.

Even Minseok and Han had to spend hours in the library to retain the information they were taught and separate that from what they had been shown in the year before.

That did not mean that those tendrils of fear that had grappled him in the beginning were gone from his mind and his nerves, he still shuddered or cowered slightly whenever he caught sight of Yifan's stern face and Qian's unsmiling one. Still, that feeling of fear was often mingled in with something that little bit uglier. He'd ignored it at first but couldn't deny it when Yifan gave the entirety of his attention to Qian whenever Yixing was close. Jealousy was the name he'd given the feeling. He wasn't sure if it was envy because jealousy implied that he had some sort of claim on Yifan's time and attention. Envy, however, was that ugly craving for something he didn't have.

He didn't even know why Yifan had started to affect him so much. He'd gone to the infirmary to check that he wasn't under the influence of some love potion he hadn't given permission to take or if he was just feeling sick in general. It was a fearful thought, Yixing found, being attracted to Yifan.

His eyes glued to the male whenever he was in seeing distance, his body reacted in the most questionable way whenever the other entered their shared room with his quidditch uniform wrapped so deliciously around him and his cheeks betrayed his nonchalant expression whenever Yifan spoke to him.

The worst thing of all, a singular action the Slytherin head boy did that was certain to be the demise of his Ravenclaw counterpart, was that Yifan had given Yixing (and his owl) the pet name of Mon Petit*. Yixing couldn't be certain of the meaning, his knowledge of the french language was no more than the very basic 'bonjour’, ‘au revoir’, ‘oui’ and ‘non', but he knew it was something on the more endearing side given how Yifan always said it with a smile.

"Yah, what are you looking at? Why are you not paying attention to me?" Jongdae whined from across the library table he and Yixing had placed themselves on. The two Ravenclaw students were often good at studying together, they kept one another motivated and didn't shy away from sitting in relative silence for hours on end as they revised numerous aspects of the curriculum.

"I was thinking," Yixing muttered, blinking.

"You should be studying, not thinking, Xing."

"I know, my thoughts just caught up with me for a little bit. You know how I am," Yixing smiled as best as he could while Jongdae narrowed his eyes in search of the truth.

Yes, Yixing was known for sometimes going a little blank in the face whenever he thought too hard or was mildly confused but it never happened when studying. It was usually just in the idle moments of nothingness where he thought too much and did too little. Though, it wasn't helped by the fact that what he had been thinking about was a man cloaked in black with green and silver detailing over the rest of his uniform.

Jongdae took his time before he hummed out a very short, "If you say so."

Yixing's eyes went back to his books and parchment when his junior started to talk about the different ways they could formulate some potion in one of their upcoming classes but Yixing's mind, once again, didn't stay in the room. He wasn't used to it, not being able to study productively and it was worsened by the fact that he couldn't even do so around Jongdae. It wasn't comforting nor was it helpful to know that it was Yifan that his mind was stuck on.

He didn't want to be thinking about his roommate, he knew a crush or any sort of attraction would be fruitless, given that the near perfect woman existed in Qian. It would only hurt if everything would be one-sided and Yixing suddenly wished that Yifan was one of the things he forgot about on a daily basis, rather than objects like his quills or specific books he would need for the classes he would have later on that day.

Thinking about Yifan was not only annoying, it was thoroughly inconvenient. As a Ravenclaw, and as the head boy chosen from said house, his focus should have been using his creative brain and hardworking nature to better the lives of his compeers. Not trying to decipher if Yifan's hands felt softer than normal on his forearm when they had brushed their teeth side by side that morning.

The more he tried to stop thinking about Yifan, the more he knew he didn't have solely platonic feeling in his body for the elder male. He had accepted his sexuality, as had most of his fellow Ravenclaws, during his time attending the school but having anything other than platonic emotions for a roommate was sure to spell disaster. Especially when the both of them had reputations around the school.

Yixing shook his head again and dipped his consciousness back into the conversation Jongdae was having with him and actually listened to what the other was saying about his new roommate and how the boy named Kyungsoo had no tolerance for the mess. The head boy found himself able to focus back to Jongdae and his studying little by little as he fought to ignore the presence of the platinum haired male in his head.


vii.


Pushing Yifan out was far easier when he wasn't present for Yixing to look at but when the elder was playing for his house in quidditch, he was impossible to ignore. Yixing barely watched his own house's players and flinched whenever a Quaffle went towards Yifan that little bit too powerfully or the bludgers aimed for him that little bit too harshly. He gripped his fists in tight balls whenever anything remotely threatening was headed Yifan's way and only ever relaxed when the elder deflected something effectively or it missed him entirely.

The extra protection he had as part of his kit wasn't any sort of help to the Ravenclaw head boy.

Yixing's wand was in one of his hands as if he could do something to help Yifan if something were to befall him during the game. He wasn't entirely sure why he felt the sense of protectiveness that he did with the Slytherin boy, especially when he was so talented at what he did. Barely anything got past him whenever he would use his hands or body to divert whatever was headed his way.

"You look like you're trying to give birth," Han observed, which snapped Yixing out of his stupor and back into the present where it wasn't just Yifan that existed. "What's got you so tense?"

"Nothing," Yixing shook his head and looked at his friend. "I'm nervous for my team. It's our first game against Slytherin this year."

"Hmm," Han didn't seem convinced, Yixing doubted that anybody would be convinced by his weak excuse. "Well, I guess I should be the same as you. Seeing as your house is playing against mine."

Yixing didn't respond but nodded as the crowd cheered for something at the other end of the field. He guessed that it was Slytherin scoring when Han hissed out a gentle 'yes' next to his ear.

"I mean, I don't think we can be so worried when we have the Keeper that we do." Yixing knew the words were likely laced with a probing undertone but he couldn't help how it caught his attention.

"What do you mean?"

"Everybody is terrified of Yifan, why would anybody want to purposely harm him when they all think he'd be able to hex them or something," Han's eyes strayed back to the platinum-haired male on his broomstick. Yixing's eyes followed his gaze's path. "Not to mention the fact that I don't think anybody has ever managed to take him down or get more than twenty points on him in a single game. It's like he's superhuman."

"Super-Wizard," Jongdae chipped in as he moved through the rows behind to greet his two friends where they were waiting. "He's not just human. He's like some sort of quidditch god, we don't stand a chance to win this game unless we get the snitch."

"When did you become an expert on Slytherin players?" Han responded flatly to his friend.

"Yixing started living with the guy and has been acting oddly since then," Jongdae's face was almost covered completely to ward off the breezy autumn chill and Yixing wanted to laugh at how his friend looked like a human sized coil of wool.

"I've not been acting oddly," Yixing defended, rolling his eyes.

"Are you sure?" Jongdae's eyebrows moved under to disappear into the hem of his hat.

"Just shut up and watch the game, Dae," Minseok muttered from where he'd been quietly observing each of them. "He's just not living off the fumes of whatever comes out of that shit-sty that is your bedroom."

"It is not a shit-sty," Jongdae wailed, his whining echoed loudly in Korean and Yixing shuddered away from it.

"Of course not," Han rebutted quietly in English and Jongdae hit him over the head with his mittened hand.

"I lived in that wreck for almost seven years, pity me," Yixing watched the Quaffle slowly fall down from player to player until it was headed directly to the Slytherin house's posts.

"But now you live in a cloud of Dark Arts," Jongdae goaded and Yixing felt half exhausted already just from the insinuation. "Are you sure he hasn't cast a spell on you while you've been sleeping?"

"For the last time, he's nowhere near like how you think he is."

"You mean you like him?" Han looked around with wide eyes.

"That's not what I said." Yixing hoped his words were enough but his face flushed from his neck to the tip of his ears and he saw Han's lips curve up at the edges like he was imitating the way Jongdae's mouth naturally sat.

"Your face always betrays you, Zhang Yixing," the elder Chinese male singsonged in their native language. The two Koreans stared at them with confusion and Yixing was glad that Han had done enough to protect Yixing from their teasing.

"We just share a room, it's easier to get along with one another," Yixing explained calmly. "He's not as bad as people think he is, he's actually kind of soft."

The memory of Yifan interacting with the dragon and then his willingness to apologise to Yixing for getting him involved in something that was against the school rules sat in his mind, right behind the kiss Yixing had fantasised about for a whole night.

"I'm not saying that there isn’t something a little strange about him and Qian but you really shouldn't believe everything you hear from the other students. Especially when you don't know them properly," he continued. "I don't know them well enough myself yet but I know that they're probably just like us."

"Jesus, no need to get so deep, Zhang," Jongdae rolled his eyes and Yixing's arms went above his head in despair.

"But it's true," he huffed and Minseok rested a hand on his shoulder.

"Ignore him, he doesn't know how to turn his mouth off."

All of them, bar Jongdae, laughed at the statement but Han's eyes lingered on Yixing a little more before they turned to watch the game more.

Yixing cheered whenever his players did something good or well and only allowed himself limited time to watch Yifan, as he found himself coiling up with nerves whenever the elder did anything at all. It didn't help that as the game wore on, Yifan's body seemed to change to show how sweaty he was from working hard and Yixing was often noticing how his lip would be between his teeth in concentration. His own mouth copied the action but then that dissipated whenever he shifted his focus back onto the main game.

Once the match had been won, by Slytherin, Yixing disappeared off the stand to go and greet the players from his house's team and give them his support in how well they'd played despite the loss. He recognised most of their faces and knew most of their names, which made everything far easier and almost all of them met him with wide smiles that belied how popular he appeared to be.

With that done, Yixing turned away from where the changing areas were but stopped when he heard somebody say: "No well done for your roommate, Mon Petit?"

Those words alone were enough to have Yixing's stomach churning awkwardly. He still turned around to see Yifan stood there without his body padding on or the helmet that came with being in his position. His hair was stringy with sweat, his cheeks were flushed and his lips were chewed to a bruised colour.

The Ravenclaw felt his face heat up like it had when he'd been teased by Han earlier in the game. He walked forward nervously and smiled when Yifan's eyes curved upwards to display their own smile without his mouth moving.

"You played well," Yixing praised. "I was impressed."

"Impressed?" Yifan's eyebrow bent upwards.

"Ravenclaws are creative, you did well to not concede more points than you did.”

The elder's laughter was a deep vibration that had Yixing's back tingling. "I'm good at what I do."

Yifan took another step towards him, it left a pace's worth of distance between them and Yixing's hands trembled at his sides. He took in how Yifan's lips were a dappled colour of pink, red and purple from the abuse they had received during the match and Yixing couldn't help but want to touch it.

The Slytherin boy didn't recoil from Yixing's pointer finger landing on his lips, it encouraged him to feel across it more in a gentle swipe and Yifan licked his lips when Yixing pulled the digit away. It wasn't like he was washing away the feeling but more as if he was tasting over where Yixing had touched him. It was strangely exhilarating.

"Yifan," a female voice called out and Yixing stepped back as Qian barged her way through.

“Merde*,” Yifan muttered.

"I better go," Yixing nodded a quick bow to the other two and Yifan's mouth opened, Yixing waited for him to say something more but he didn't seem to. He closed his mouth and ran his tongue over his lower lip again. "I'll see you in the room later."

Yixing felt both Yifan's and Qian's eyes on him as he scrambled away to get onto the main path that led back up to the castle. His heart was hammering. It felt a little painful as the blood swished around in his ears and his fingers shook where they were by his sides. He didn't know why he acted like that with Yifan, it was as if he's been bewitched, like Jongdae had implied, to do such things around the other head boy.

No student at Hogwarts could deny that Yifan was a ridiculously handsome wizard but Yixing's mind took it to an entirely different level every time.

He escaped to their shared dorm and instantly plugged the earphones into his halfway charged iPod placed on the windowsill that crossed between both sides of the room. He sat at his desk with his books in front of him, quill in hand to make notes but all he could think of was how Yifan's face softened up when Yixing's fingers felt across the plump flesh of his lips and how his whole expression changed when Yixing paid him some attention.

It shouldn't have made him smile or melt inside, but it did.

Zhang Yixing had a crush on Wu Yifan, he couldn't deny it when he reacted like that and his heart skipped a beat.


viii.


Yixing followed after the second year Hufflepuff that led him into the library with a soft smile on his face, the student had been having difficulty with one of his assignments and had shyly approached the head boy when he had seen him pass in the corridor. The boy, Mark Lee, had smiled brightly when Yixing had agreed and they both set out to search through the books on the shelves until the younger student had everything he would need.

The head boy sat down at the long table next to the Hufflepuff and the boy whose uniform was decorated with yellow and brown looked shocked for a few moments before Yixing started to flick through the books and open them up on the pages he would need. They worked until the boy's assignment was finished and Yixing checked over everything he had written down, much like Minseok had done with him in his younger years, and couldn't help his smile when he saw how everything was almost perfectly documented.

Mark continually thanked Yixing until the Ravenclaw walked him down to the kitchens where he knew the Hufflepuff dormitory was.

A few days later, Yixing was stood talking to some of the prefects with Yifan about the rumours of there being students in the Forbidden Forest earlier in the year, where a dragon had been found, and he had been shocked when a smaller body rammed into his own with an excitable squeal. Yixing read the genuine confusion on Yifan's face before taking in who had actually burst into his bubble of personal space.

He wasn't mad when he looked down to see Mark with sheets of parchment in his hand and a perfect smile on his face as his slightly too long black hair fell into his eyes.

"I got an E.E. on this," he pushed the parchment into Yixing's hands and Yixing's face broke out into a smile as he saw the grade on the Hufflepuff's work. "That's the first time I've ever had that on an assignment so early in the year before."

"Well done," Yixing beamed with his cheeks rounding around his dimple. "I'm so happy that you got this, I'm proud of you."

"You're proud of me?" The second year gasped in shock.

"Of course I am," Yixing laughed. "You did work really hard, it would be hard not to be proud of you for being so studious."

"Oh my god," the boy's face flamed and Yixing could practically feel the heat coming from him. "You're proud of me."

"I am," Yixing nodded a bit awkwardly and he stuck his hand into Mark's hair to ruffle it a little. "Don't be late to your next class, though."

"I won't be," the boy nodded so many times that Yixing feared dizziness but couldn't help his smile as Mark scrambled back to his friends, who were all stood watching the interaction with looks of awe.

Yixing became shy himself when he realised that the two of them had an audience and instantly tried to return back to the discussion he was having previously. Yifan patted his shoulder a little and he saw how a few of the younger students held their breath, as if they thought the Slytherin head boy was going to tell them off, and the large hand slipped off Yixing's shoulder not too long after.

When they'd finished talking to the prefects, the two head boys made their way back to their dorm side by side without exchanging a word but Yixing could feel the way the other students look at them. Most specifically, Yifan. They tended to avoid him in the hallways or watched over him in some awestruck kind of fear and having managed to get to know him a little better, Yixing wondered why they regarded the silver-haired student so harshly.

It didn't seem to bother Yifan, though, as he shifted his outer cloak off his shoulders once they'd entered the common area of their shared dorm. The fire was already burning away, as October had shifted to November all too quickly and coldly for Yixing's liking. But, as time had passed, he and Yifan had built up a short routine that they followed when they were both in the room.

Yixing was usually studying whilst Yifan read books or wrote letters to whoever had mailed him that day. It was normally comfortably quiet between the two of them, not the awkward kind that it had been in the beginning but more like the rustling of parchment as a mere reminder that the other was there, not a blaring sound that ruined the silence. Their owls cooed gently at each other and Yixing was half sure that the two of them had some sort of love flowing between them, it was endearing to watch whenever his mind needed a short break from relearning whatever he had been over the day before.

They patrolled the halls together at night, the two head boys, they ensured all of the younger students were in bed and dealt with those who weren't. Yixing found that there was less whining and pleading to be let off the hook whenever Yifan was at his side, the Slytherin student claimed his reputation was a perk when being a head boy. Nobody argued to his softer side like they did with Yixing.

"That's good because you'd give into anybody who would pout at you," Yixing responded once they had guided a Gryffindor boy back to the entrance of his dorm.

"How do you know that?" Yifan questioned, the curiosity was there in his voice as well as a little teasing.

"You soften up whenever Qian pouts at you," was the immediate response that left Yixing's mouth and Yifan's eyebrows rose up in questioning. "I'm sure you'd do the same if some third year wanting to take some bread from the kitchens did the same."

Yifan let the thought linger for a while before he nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you're right."

"Though, I guess you're more likely to be more sympathetic to a pout if it's from your girlfriend, like Qian," Yixing reasoned and Yifan froze up in his spot like ice.

"Like my what?" Yifan gaped.

"Your girlfriend." Yixing squinted his eyes as Yifan let them both into their dorm and the elder turned to stand in front of the door, blocking Yixing's access. The younger frowned when Yifan started laughing. "What?"

"She's not my girlfriend."

"Wait, what?" Yixing's face fell that time around as he stopped to look up at the Slytherin.

"Song Qian is not my girlfriend," Yifan clarified, "and I don't ever plan for her to be."

"Why not?" Yixing's head tilted to the side, the affection that ran through Yifan and the Slytherin girl was clear and he couldn't imagine why Yifan wouldn't want to develop that further.

"I'm bisexual with a stronger preference towards guys," Yifan shrugged and Yixing's gut dropped right down.

"What?" The Ravenclaw's throat was dry and his word was croaked out, he couldn't believe it.

"That's not a problem for you, is it?"

"No," Yixing shook his head. "I'm gay and I really like that you're bisexual."

The shorter male's face fell again as he realised how that could have sounded to Yifan and found himself wishing to take back what he had said instantly. Yifan didn't say anything as his brain registered what Yixing had said and in that time, Yixing had brushed almost roughly past him to hide out in their shared bathroom for a few minutes before he unlocked the door again.

Almost instantly, Yifan walked in and reached out for his toothbrush and toothpaste. Yixing struggled to do the same with his face burning so hotly that he was sure his toothbrush would have melted as he put it into this mouth. They stood in silence before Yifan spat out the white foam into the sink and washed it away.

As he turned to leave, the Slytherin's fingers clasped around Yixing's and he leant in close to the younger's ear to mutter out a quiet,

"Oh, by the way, Mon Petit. I really like that you're gay."

Yixing swore his heart disappeared for a few moments as Yifan stepped away from him and left the wash area. The Ravenclaw was left dumbstruck with a blank mind focused on nothing but getting his heart back to normal because he wasn't entirely sure of what Yifan had implied by saying that. He knew it was wrong to get his hopes up but he couldn't help the smile that rested on his face as he went to sleep that night.


ix.


The next morning was a strange experience for Yixing, as Yifan was there when he woke up and they got ready together. Much like the night before, they cleaned their teeth side by side but the younger was in constant meltdown as Yifan's little finger curled around his as they stood in front of the ornate porcelain basin. Like everything the night before, he didn't know what any of it meant but he didn't let that stop it from making him happy.

He floated around the school all day and found himself playing with his pinky finger whenever nobody was looking, as if to sense Yifan there using Haptic memory.

Everything was perfectly fine until Yixing walked into his room and saw that Shixun was missing from his perch despite not having been let out to fly by Yixing. And given the presence of Jia and unopened letters, Yifan hadn't let either of them out for that day either. That was enough for Yixing's stomach to sink right the way down as he scoured everywhere and anywhere for the small creature.

He was frantic by the time Yifan strolled in from his quidditch practice, which seemed to shock the other head boy to no end as he held Yixing by the shoulders to stop him from running around like a headless chicken.

"What's happened?" The Slytherin boy's hands were a relaxing weight on Yixing's shoulders, more than enough to ground him from his blind panic.

"Shixun's gone," he wailed and Yifan's mouth quirked up at the side.

Yixing thought the action was rather cruel but ignored it in hopes of keeping Yifan's body closer to his. When Yifan's expression didn't change, Yixing tried to step out of his grip and over to his bed but Yifan's hold tightened to draw Yixing over to the desk that Jia was rested on.

"Look at her feet," Yifan explained and Yixing wanted to whine that looking that the Great Grey's talons would not help him in his search for this Little owl in any way.

Right up until he saw a set of feet next to Jia's on the perch. When he turned to look up at Yifan, the other head boy unfurled one of his owl's wings and Shixun was huddled up into her body under the feathers. Yixing's body flooded with relief as he took Shixun into his hands like he was a baby.

"Don't you ever hide from me again," Yixing whined, his face buried into the bird's breast. "I thought I was going to cry."

"He's been doing it often, especially since the room gets a little cold and Jia is so warm all the time," Yifan shrugged as he tethered his letters to his bird's leg and opened up the window to let her fly out of it. "She seems to like being close to him, though. My letters haven't ever sent as fast as they do now. I think she has a crush on your Shixun."

"Who wouldn't?" Yixing scoffed as he placed his bird on its own perch. "He's great."

"You really do think he's the best, don't you?"

Yixing nodded with a wide grin. "Why wouldn't I? Look at him, he's perfect."

"Votre sourire est un don*," Yifan smiled down at him and Yixing tilted his head as an expression of confusion as Yifan patted his cheek.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing too important," Yifan brushed off and Yixing pouted, it only made Yifan's break out in an even wider feature softening grin. "Tu etes radieuse*."

"You just say these things, I don't know what they mean," Yixing whined.

"That's the point," Yifan touched Yixing's cheek, right over where his dimple sat. The rest of his fingers brushed over Yixing's neck and the younger laughed as they tickled the sensitive skin there.

"Why?" Yixing laughed out when Yifan's fingertips moved more, the elder smiled in response right back. "Don't you talk to get a response?"

Yifan shrugged easily as he looked down at the younger. "Some things are too embarrassing to say when somebody can understand it."

It was quiet for a handful of seconds later until Yifan's hands touched over the Ravenclaw's neck even more than before to make Yixing convulse slightly with uncontrollable laughter.

"J'aime votre rire*," Yifan's expressed to a serious tone and Yixing only giggled more as his throat was tickled so much his knees weakened, even though he didn't know what Yifan was saying but it still brought a little warmth to his stomach.


x.


There was one night a week where Yifan would be gone from when dinner ended right up until their curfew struck, he'd not return with his quidditch equipment but would always look in slight disarray. For some reason, Yixing felt a spark of jealousy within whenever those nights swung around.

It was mainly because he knew Yifan would be with Qian. It was immature to think that way. He knew they weren't dating, Yixing should have been over thinking that way and not let their friendship bother him too much because it was irrational. His practically unexplained feelings for Yifan didn't mean he had any more right over the elder than his best friend could. If anything, he probably had less because Yixing was that newer presence and not the comforting constant Qian was.

He had never been one to fret over things that weren't to do with his future, the future he wanted in healing and potion making, but Yifan had brushed him the wrong way. Maybe not even that, Yifan had crept under his skin whenever they'd smile at each other from across the room or when Yifan's eyes would follow him around corridors if they passed each other.

Yixing still didn’t feel like he knew Yifan truly. Not mention the fact that he wasn't supposed to want Wu Yifan, the light haired and dark-eyed head boy. Yixing only ever liked softer people, those who looked like they were in a constantly serene state and not those who appeared to be plotting world domination every time their brows furrowed.

That unsubtle jealousy had Yixing going against everything he had thought acceptable as he pretended to patrol the corridors while in search of the tall, Chinese-born male. He peaked out high and low for the neatly styled platinum hair that he woke up seeing in its fluffy state nearly every morning and he was glad that it wasn't long until he came across Yifan, and by default Qian, in a dark and abandoned hallway of the school. It was a chilling place to be, one that was worsened in its aura by the fact that Yifan and Qian were stood opposite each other with their wands in hand.

Yixing licked his lips as he peeked through the gap he used to watch them, Qian looked effortlessly confident, as she always did, while Yifan looked less so. It was strange to see the other without his full-bodied composure that he usually carried, and to see him look even slightly weak in something was far more weird.

They paced around each other, their eyes were met in a fierce but silent battle and Yixing found himself needlessly holding his breath.

Qian moved to cast a spell with her wand but Yifan was faster in yelling out, "Impedimenta."

The female Slytherin was stuck in her spot as Yifan stepped back away from her and braced himself, Yixing watched on with drawn in brows and pursed lips. He couldn't quite work out what was happening in front of him but flinched when Qian could move not too long after. Yixing was half ready for the two of them to fight on when the jinx had ended. It was shocking but pleasant for his heart to see otherwise.

"Why didn't you finish it?" Qian demanded to know, surprising Yixing.

"I'm not supposed to hurt you," Yifan calmly responded. "I don't want to actually harm you while we do this."

"Come on, Yifan, you're the best spell caster I know. I need you to do this with me seriously," she pleaded.

"Qian, I'm not doing to duel with you like we would be fighting to the death."

"I'm not asking you to do that but you need to do something more while I'm jinxed," she grumbled, getting back into her stance.

Yifan did the same. He straightened himself out before his knees bent in a bracing position, Qian's eyes watched over him sharply and Yixing watched how his fellow head boy's whole demeanour darkened. Yixing's breath caught in his throat when he Yifan's voice dripped sinisterly as he flicked his hand forward. "Crucio."

"Expelliarmus," Qian retorted instantly, Yifan's wand flew out of his hand before his curse could complete itself.

Qian's face cracked wider into her smile, Yifan had an expression of pride on his and the girl clapped happily before getting back into position.

The two of them sent flurries of spells back and forth right in front of Yixing's eyes. He noted how it was always Yifan cursing Qian and her defending herself from his spells, sometimes failing to do so and falling foul to them. Yifan only used one of the three Unforgivable spells, which was understandable to Yixing right up until Qian missed out on her opportunity to disarm Yifan or protect herself from it.

Yixing watched how Yifan dropped his wand instantly when a pained scream left Qian's mouth. Once she stood back up onto her feet, Yifan stepped away from her and waited for her to catch her breath for a second.

"I don't need to catch them all, right?" She muttered and Yifan huffed out angrily.

"I don't understand why you do this with me and not a teacher."

"Didn't I say why already? You're the best spell caster. How am I going to ever be a good Defence Against The Dark Arts professor if I can't go against the best people?" She whined and Yixing could hear the genuinely concerned tones in her voice.

The male Slytherin let the silence fall for a while, which surprised Yixing more than anything but then he readied his wand in his hand to begin their duel once more. The two of them went back and forth for a long while with only short stopping periods to allow the other to recover from any particularly scathing blows. It had the Ravenclaw on edge as he witnessed the darker, far more intimidating actions of Yifan flow out easily towards the girl in front of him.

For the first time in a long while, Yixing could see why Qian and Yifan were so close. While he had been getting to know Yifan more and more, he could see that the elder only really ever had the heart to help others and it could be assumed that Qian was one of those people. She was a girl who knew what she wanted from her wizarding life, she knew how to get it and Yifan slipped into the role of the person who was willing to aid her.

It impressed Yixing to look at the both of them. They were two exceptionally talented magic wielders and they were there to bolster the other and Yixing could see it, he witnessed how they bettered each other with every swipe of their wands and every bolt of energy that flew out of the end of the implement.

Yixing was in awe, there were no two words about it. His core was shaken by their exchanges. There was none of the fear he'd carried when he first met them, he could see from the way that Qian was earnest in her rebuttals of charms and hexes that she was devoted to defending herself. A light shone in Yixing's mind when he realised that the two of them were probably talented in witchcraft and wizardry as an entirety and not solely the Dark Arts, like it had been speculated by his fellow students.

That was when he stepped back, he moved from the door and down through the corridors until he reached his room. Yixing sat at his desk petting Shixun's head a few times over until the owl nuzzled into his palm. Jia was sat not to far away to watch the interaction with her head tilted to the side and eyes rarely blinking. She was a beautiful creature, not quite up to the same standard as Shixun, in Yixing's mind, but still beautiful enough for the Ravenclaw to swoon a little.

He only had to wait for twenty minutes more before Yifan stepped into the room with his hair tamed, his cloak clean and his wand stuck into his pocket. The other head boy was smiling, the night had clearly been a success and Yixing itched to ask the other about it, to know what he would say if the questions in Yixing's head were posed to him.

His fingers itched and his face flamed when he saw Yifan take his clothing off until he was only in his undershirt and uniform trousers. The Slytherin ran his fingers through his hair and Yixing smiled when he saw how he scratched a little at his scalp in the satisfying way that the younger knew would have his own skin tingling. Yifan's arms hung limply at his sides as he began to mutter to himself in a flurry of French words that made no sense to Yixing, the sentences strung so easily from the elder's lips that Yixing was sure it was instinctive to him and he was most likely thinking in that language at that time.

The Ravenclaw head boy didn't want to disrupt the elder's flow as he got himself ready for the next morning and to go to bed. He himself decided to dress into his pyjamas and seek refuge on his comfortable mattress until the older boy turned out the lights. He watched the older boy shift around the room, how he roamed with purpose to get things done and Yixing wondered how he could move so openly and freely with the weight of a gaze on him.

It could be assumed that Yifan was used to it, either from his days as the popular boy at his old school or the number of eyes that nestled on him when he walked the hallways of Hogwarts. It was surprising to him that he found the softness of the other's features so interesting in the dulling light but he didn't mind it so much when he was on the receiving end of a goodnight smile as Yifan got ready to sleep in his own bed.

"Goodnight," the Ravenclaw called.

"Goodnight, Mon Petit," Yifan hummed and Yixing could hear the smile on his lips.

His cheeks flamed and burned as he turned over in his spot to face the other head boy in the darkness. It was a wonderful moment for him, even though Yifan was tired, he still gave a little part of his focus to Yixing and the Ravenclaw preened at the feeling.


xi.


Neither of them were quite sure how they got into the position where Yixing's toes were tilting him upwards and Yifan's head was leaning down towards the younger's face. There was the heat of their breaths fanning out and steaming in the late November air, it spiralled in a shade of grey between them and their pink noses set out a crisp contrast to it. The Ravenclaw was nervous, unbelievably so. His fingers trembled inside his thickly woven gloves and those were hooked up around the taller boy's neck, so he was certain the elder could feel how much he anticipated the moment to come.

Yixing could feel the damp wall soaking his hat and gradually seeping into his hair, not that it mattered too much when Yifan's warm body edge closer with every fleeting second. Yixing licked his lips, relieved that they weren't too roughly chapped and he saw how Yifan watched the action too.

The Slytherin boy sped up on their collision course until their lips touched together.

The Ravenclaw was still unsure of how he managed to get into that position with his fellow head boy. They had both gone to Hogsmeade separately but had bumped into one another on their way back. Yixing had experimentally dipped his hand into Yifan's, much like the elder had started doing to him in their morning routine but it was different. It was far more public and Yixing's face was hot when Yifan's larger fingers curled around his smaller knuckles.

It had taken them twice as long as normal to get from the entry gate to the little cloister they were in because they were so slow in trudging through the snow, chatting idly about nothing in particular and the things they'd both been tasked as head boys.

The memory of how the starting sequence of their kiss began was blurry and fast when Yixing tried to recount it. All he could clearly remember was when he'd shyly kissed Yifan's cheek to say thank you for picking up one of the tasks he hadn't wanted to but conceded when he saw the Ravenclaw pout. The only sound he could recall was the noise of them both laughing airily as the school wall grew closer and closer.

Then they were kissing. All the fear that had once weighed like lead in Yixing's stomach was replaced by featherlight butterflies that wished to escape from his mouth when he finally tasted Yifan's lips. The elder was warm and firm opposed to the cold and hard surface behind Yixing's back, it was a comforting presence among the cold snowflakes that drifted down onto the ground around them and Yixing's gloved hands soaked up every little bit of body heat from the older boy.

When they pulled away, Yixing's pink cheeks had turned red and his mouth was split into a smile that he knew showed his dimple. Yifan's eyes watched his face seriously for a couple of breaths before his face broke out happily and he leant in to bump their noses against one another affectionately. They were puffing air harshly until they were both laughing into the cold with the chatter of their fellow students overflowing from the walkway they weren't too far from. Yixing's fingers toyed with the hair on the back of Yifan's neck, his wool-covered nails slowly made their way up until they scratched over the elder's scalp and made him press back into the touch.

"Should we go inside? It's a bit cold," Yifan suggested in a gentle manner. It wasn't quite enough to break the moment that had spurred up between them but was exactly what Yixing needed to remember where he was and who he was with.

He let his hands fall from Yifan's hair with drifting touches down the other boy’s robes until he reached where Yifan’s arms curled up to hold Yixing's jaw in his hands and moved them so their fingers could be twined together. The Ravenclaw's body flooded with warmth when Yifan's fingers tightened around his hands.

While he didn't feel like he knew Yifan as well as he should have, he had been around the elder for just long enough to know that he wanted to be closer and to know little things that other people wouldn't notice. And given the dusting of pink across the elder's cheekbones, Yixing knew that Yifan probably wasn't much different to himself.


xii.


December crept up between secretive kisses and nights spent laid across the floor with Yixing's earphones split between two different sets of ears. Yixing spent hours marvelling at the way the fire in their room reflected off Yifan's hair to look golden and Yifan's time was spent poking, or kissing, at Yixing's dimple whenever it appeared on his cheek.

They talked a lot more, they gravitated towards each other whenever they were in the same room and their fingers naturally drew together like magnets. Yixing's papers spilt over onto Yifan's desk, a few items of green had cropped up on the blue side of the bedroom and the two owls remained together at the central line going down the decorated room.

Nothing was messy, everything stayed tidy but the room merged together like the students were and Yixing found himself often wishing he could spend all of his time with his nose buried in Yifan's neck and their bodies close enough to feel every shuffled movement.

"Mon Petit," Yifan called out as Yixing's eyes focused back in on the boy laid opposite him on the rug covered stone floor, "j’adore ton sourire.*"

"I only understood a tiny bit of that," the Ravenclaw responded with a wide smile, he could feel the heat from the fire down one side of his body and his eyes slowly budded up until they were closed.

"Tu me rends fou*," Yifan whispered even more quietly as his lips found the dip in Yixing's cheek and the track on Yixing's iPod changed to play out another song that opened with softly played piano notes.

"I don't want to go home," Yixing muttered, much to his own surprise. He was usually the first in his dorm to have packed up and wrapped gifts to give to his parents once he saw them but when he was laid so closely to Yifan, he found himself wanting to stretch out every second they shared. The Ravenclaw student was finally getting to know the Slytherin head boy, they were building their way up to closeness with every word exchanged.

Yixing had never thought he would know that Yifan's favourite Every Flavour Bean was Pink Grapefruit, that he didn't like his potions lessons so much because he wasn't much good at mixing them and that he hadn't known why he was chosen to be the second head boy.

Yifan's body rumbled with a sleepy laugh before he muttered out: "I think you're one of the only students here with that sentiment."

"Probably," Yixing agreed. "I never thought I would say something like that. I love going home to see my parents and grandparents."

"Then what's different this time around?" Yifan turned over onto his side and ran his fingers over Yixing's cheeks, uncaring of how his earphone had fallen onto the thick rug from his ear.

The Ravenclaw didn't quite want to admit that he would miss Yifan, that he would actually miss walking the halls at night after curfew with somebody holding his hand, only to return to lay across the floor together until it was well past midnight. It sounded stupid when he considered it like that. It wasn't like him to have a complete mentality shift purely because of one person.

"It's my last year here, I don't want to miss a moment," the smaller lied when he found the words.

"And here I was thinking that you were going to tell me that it was because you'd miss me." Yifan's face moved closer until his nose nudged against the younger's cheek. "I know I'll miss you. I'll miss doing this."

"Really?" Yixing's fingers shook as he smoothed over the collar of Yifan's night clothes, he knew his heart would struggle with however Yifan responded.

"Yeah."

"Me too," Yixing finally admitted as the song in his ear died out to nothing.

"I'll write to you," Yifan reassured him with a kiss to seal the promise. "Now go to bed, you can barely keep your eyes open."

The younger smiled as he pushed himself off the floor with a stretch, his eyes were heavy and his limbs were too. He shuffled over to his bed and made sure to turn over to face Yifan and watch as the elder copied his actions once Yixing's iPod had been turned off and wrapped up in the earphones. Yixing's eyes blurred soon after until his sight turned to black with the fire crackling on the hearth.


xiii.


Yixing returned to the school with a bundle of handwritten letters, most of which were signed off with "Tu me manques," and those ones were all tied up with string to be kept in a separate place to the other ones in his hands. Yixing had beamed whenever he read those words, not just because of the general translation of the words but the exact ones. There was something more to reading "You are missing from me," than just a plain "I miss you."

Minseok, Jongdae and Han were all there to greet him on the train as they pulled out of the magic quarter of London and each of them observed the letters that were enveloped and detailed with a family crest they all recognised. The only reaction he got was an unsubtle wink from Han that had Yixing covering his cheeks with his hands and the other two Ravenclaw boys snickering as he tucked the letters closer to himself.

The head boy left his friends where they split off to go to their own dorms to get settled for the rest of the year, he trailed up the stairs and into his own dorm. Yifan was laid out across the long sofa they had in front of the fire in his own clothes and Yixing couldn't resist the urge to climb onto the taller male's stomach.

During their correspondence, Yixing had felt them grow closer as time passed, their letters grew longer and longer, and Yixing's feelings only delved deeper. The Ravenclaw clearly shocked Yifan with his action but the elder didn't panic in any way when he guided Yixing down by his collar to join their lips for the first time since they had said goodbye to one another in their dorm two weeks before.

"Hello, Mon Petit," Yifan hummed into Yixing's mouth and the younger cooed inside at how strangely familiar the sound was against his lips.

"Hi," he smiled back and Yifan's arms squeezed around his waist.

Yixing sprung up onto his feet and then made a strange squeaking noise as he took in how Yifan looked down on the sofa.

"Your hair," Yixing pointed out, "it's brown!"

"It is," Yifan smiled and Yixing's fingers moved forward to thread into the soft strands, it was new but Yixing liked how well it complimented the turtle neck sweater Yifan was wearing. Chocolate brown hair suited Yifan more than Yixing could have thought. "Do you like it?"

He looked softer with darker hair, especially given that it fell down onto his brow in a boyish way that Yixing's chest melted at the sight of. "I do, I really like it."

"Why the change?" Yixing's fingers tugged and plucked at the tresses, Yifan obviously liked the feeling as he essentially purred whenever Yixing touched his head a little more.

"The bleach was burning my scalp," Yifan's hand ruffled his own hair, their nails brushed past one another and Yixing licked his lips as Yifan's fingers curled around his.

"You mean that wasn't your natural colour?" Yixing questioned, the shock of never having seen Yifan's hair's roots during his time at the school shocked him.

"No, I don't think genetics would ever give me the privilege of such good hair naturally," Yifan smiled up at him.

"Huh," Yixing huffed out as he sat down on the floor next to where Yifan was placed. "I never would have known that."

"How was your Christmas?" Yifan asked as if Yixing hadn't been sending him letters every other day. The younger smiled and turned his head to look up to the other.

"It was good, I liked seeing my family," Yixing nodded with a shrug.

"That's great," Yifan hummed, he took his turn to brush his hands through Yixing's curly hair and the younger closed his eyes. The early morning travelling to get the train had been exhausting for him and he wanted nothing more than to curl up like a cat in front of the fire with Yifan petting his head.

"What about you?"

"It was good, my mother wasn't around for the second week but I went to France to see a few people," Yifan's voice was deep and soothing for the younger and he smiled as Yifan continued. "They were a little shocked to hear I had a boyfriend here, but they were happy about it."

"Boyfriend?" Yixing questioned. "You mean, we're together? Exclusively?"

"I'd like to think so. I don't plan on kissing anybody else."

"No, it's nice. You told your friends about me," Yixing smiled like an idiot with his closed eyelids only filtering in the orange of the fire. "It's cute."

"I'm not cute," Yifan laughed and Yixing couldn't have agreed less with the statement. He let it go when Yifan started to play around with the lobe of his ear, it was just mesmerising enough to have him drifting off in a nap.

Yixing woke up to a heavy feeling of warmth around him and smiled when he felt the heavy fur throw over his shoulders and Yifan was sat where he had been on the floor with a book in his hand. The Ravenclaw snuggled back down into the leather of the sofa and yanked the fur up over his back and drifted off to the smell of Yifan's minty scent.


xiv.


Yixing waited with his tongue running across his lips in the cold January air, he looked down at the path that curled down and around to the quidditch pitch but his eyes focused on the figures that trod their way back up to the main castle. There was a taller figure among them, the one that stuck out the most to the Ravenclaw and he waited by the entry door to the school for that specific person.

When Yifan reached Yixing with his broomstick in hand, the taller male looked a little taken aback when he saw the shorter one there with his mouth wide in a smile but his frown cleared up when Yixing held out his hand for the elder to hold.

The Ravenclaw was fully ready for the stares they would get but Yixing couldn't deny how much better it felt to walk up to their dorm with their fingers wrapped up together with Yifan's quidditch cooled hand between his smaller but warmer one. By the time they had entered the common area of their room, Yixing was giddy with excitement and happiness. Yifan looked no less enthralled by the experience of climbing higher in the castle and ghosting down the halls with people seeing how Yixing clung to Yifan's hand and the flared out sleeves of his cloak.

"Do you want to have dinner with me tonight?" Yixing asked in a mumble as Yifan placed all of his personal quidditch equipment away to their rightful places.

"What?" The elder responded with a vacant glance back to the younger boy.

"Do you want to sit with me in the hall tonight?" Yixing's voice cracked with nerves, he wasn't sure why he was being so awkward about everything but his fingers wouldn't stop shaking. He felt like he was eleven years old and feeling his first proper crush.

"Like, us together, in front of everybody else?" Yifan sounded shocked, he didn't turn to look at Yixing but the younger could see the way his face rounded and could easily guess that the older male was smiling.

Yixing cleared his throat, "Yeah."

Yifan looked back then, a longer and more delving stare at the younger. It was quiet, almost painfully so as Yixing waited for the elder to give his firm reply and his tongue licked his lips as his mouth grew drier and drier. The Slytherin boy seemed to soak up the suspense radiating from the Ravenclaw head boy.

"Are you sure?"

Yixing finally bit down on his lip before he nodded gently and Yifan's face softened up, he walked towards Yixing and held the smaller's jaw in his hands before laying a soft kiss into his hair.

"I'd love to," Yifan whispered into the younger's hair and Yixing smiled while he sagged down in relief. "I'll see you down there."

"You're not coming down now?" Yixing stepped back but wrapped his fingers around the front of Yifan's woollen jumper.

"I need to write something out for one of my classes, I'll be five minutes," Yifan began to usher Yixing out of the room and into the common area. "Go and save me a seat."

"I can wait if you won't be too long?" Yixing nibbled on his lip and Yifan pulled it out from between his teeth as they began to back towards the door.

"No, it's okay," Yifan nodded and Yixing edged his way out.

When the Ravenclaw walked into the dinner hall, it wasn't very busy but his three friends were huddled around their little end of one of the central tables and Yixing slid in beside them with a smile on his face. He cleared his throat in greeting and Han didn't bother to stop his story of how his herbology lesson had been an utter disaster. Yixing listened in intently but kept his eyes fixed on the door in waiting for Yifan for the second time that evening.

"Yah, Zhang Yixing," Jongdae called and the head boy snapped his eyes to his junior.

"What?"

"What are you looking at?" Jongdae looked over his shoulder to the door and returned Yixing's gaze with a frown as he saw nothing but the outer corridor.

"Nothing," he dismissed with a wave of the hand.

"Anyway, do you guys know where the word countryside comes from?" Han interjected as if it was the most interesting thing he'd heard all day, it probably was given that he had very minimal interest in any of the classes he had on a Thursday.

"No, and I don't want to be told either," Minseok mumbled as he took a sip of a drink he'd poured himself.

"Well, it's from when the church funded some guy to walk around Britain and document what he saw outside of the cities and towns in the fifteenth century," Han started. "Or was it the fourteenth? Actually, it could have been the seventeenth, but anyway, when it was written doesn't matter. The guy walked from place to place and noted down what he saw but named the rural areas the 'country adjacent', so that's where the word countryside comes from."

"But not really," Minseok inserted quickly after.

"What do you mean 'but not really'?" Han sounded affronted, almost as if Minseok had directly offended him.

"Well, it is where the idea of the word countryside came from but it's probably not the direct history of the word, it wasn't the coining of the word. It was the mere suggestion that the countryside is something that lives in tandem with cities and towns," the eldest shrugged his shoulders and Han groaned where he was sat.

Not too long after, Yixing felt a presence by his side and looked away from his friends to see Yifan with his eyes downcast and his hand instantly searching for Yixing's. The tall head boy appeared nervous and Yixing took in how he looked. His tousled hair was straighter, his uniform was perfectly done up and his body was squared off with immaculate posture. Qian sat opposite him, right beside Han and Jongdae, who had both frozen up with shock at the presence of the female Slytherin there.

"Don't stop talking because of us," Qian smiled awkwardly, her voice was shaky with nerves and Yixing could see how she reached forward a little more to seek comfort with Yifan.

The three other students both seemed to be internally freaking out as they sent wide-eyed looks to the Ravenclaw head boy. Their faces were all pictures of complete dumbfounded expressions of panic. They didn't know what to do and were clearly looking at Yixing to initiate a course of action.

Rather than doing what was expected of him, Yixing ignored the looks from his friends and the rest of the people that were watching the interaction, he moved towards the other head boy with a tentative shuffle. The Ravenclaw drew their hands out from under the table and set them down on top of it. The heat from the stares at both his and Yifan's faces slipped down and he could feel the burning sensation of sight on his knuckles and Yifan pressed their palms together far more tightly than they had been before.

"Yifan, Qian," Yixing spoke quietly, "these are my friends: Jongdae, Han and Minseok."

"Hello," the two best friends whispered as they gained more attention from those around them and those entering the hall.

"Jongdae, Han and Minseok," Yixing continued introducing as confidently as he could, "this is Qian and Yifan, my boyfriend."

Yixing saw the slight twitch at the the edge of Han's lips when he used the word boyfriend and the Slytherin boy leant in towards Qian with a confidence Yixing could only have wished for. He was thankful for Lu Han.

"Do you know the history of the word countryside?"

Minseok and Jongdae groaned as Han recounted his short story from before the entrance of Yifan and Qian, the female Slytherin was swiftly pulled into the debate over whether or not what he had even said could count as part of the word's etymology. Yixing felt relief as Jongdae deflated with visible relaxation and the two older ones of Yixing's friends settled into the conversation easily.

"You dressed up," Yixing teased Yifan in a whisper as he moved his hand up to touch at the straightened strands on Yifan's forehead. "You wanted to impress my friends."

"Is that a bad thing?" the elder worried as he shifted his head down to take in what Yixing was saying.

"Of course not," the Ravenclaw clarified. "I think it's cute."

"I'm not cute," Yifan argued back.

The elder's eyebrows furrowed downwards into an even more stern expression and Yixing bit his lip before blurting out a very uncertain,

"Tu est trop mignon*."

Yifan's expression faltered for a second and Yixing felt like his heart was going to explode in his chest, he feared he had said something wrong but the gargantuan grin that split Yifan's face in half told him otherwise.

"When did you learn that?" Yifan asked as softly as he could, he moved discreetly to lift the back of Yixing's hand up to his lips and press a small kiss to it, though the younger was certain that most of the people present in the room saw the action and his face flamed in a violent blush.

"Over the holidays," he explained. "I wanted to surprise you."

Yifan's whole face broke out into a smile as he looked at Yixing at such close proximity, the moment was dashed when Minseok cleared his throat.

"Did you know that they've done research that shows that people with blue eyes are likely to have only one common ancestor?"

Qian's question instantly had Han's attention and the two of them didn’t waste a second before they started to discuss numerous other random facts they both knew in order to try to shock the other. Jongdae and Minseok tried to look interested and Yixing was sure what he heard come from somebody was a soft mutter of: "Finally, he has somebody to talk rubbish with."


xv.


"So, you and Yifan, huh?" Han brought up unabashedly as Yixing was stood beside him in the quidditch stands while the Slytherin Keeper got prepared for the match against Hufflepuff. Yixing was draped in a long green and silver scarf that smelt a lot like mint, a sign of support for his boyfriend in the cold weather.

"Yeah," Yixing nodded, his face was half covered by the scarf and it muffled his voice as well as covered up the pink smattering of blush on his face.

"When did that happen? Why didn't you say anything?" Minseok was huddled up between Han and Jongdae, his scarf was a little lower than Yixing's and his pink nose could be seen easily under his eyes.

Yixing thought back to the first times Yifan had openly, and obviously, expressed affection towards him. Not their first kiss but those first moments of tenderness. "November."

"You went almost three months without telling us anything?!" Jongdae's yell caught the attention of one of the nearby professors and their group got a stern glance to be quieter while the quidditch players got ready.

"We didn't know how people would react," the Ravenclaw head boy shrugged. "He's not what people think. Neither is Qian."

"We can see that for ourselves now," Minseok reassured him and Yixing smiled gently at him, even though he couldn't see it under the scarf he had on. "Don't worry."

"What I want to know is if you've put that room for two to good use yet?" The wink Han paired with his words made it more than obvious what he was talking about and Yixing groaned with an eye roll. "What? Have you?"

"Kind of...?" Yixing's head tilted to the side and the gasp from the louder of his three best friends was more than audible.

"What do you mean 'kind of'? Zhang Yixing, you better explain yourself."

Yixing held his gloved hands up to his cheeks and pressed on them firmly to stop the burning feeling from erupting there. "This is so embarrassing."

"Have you touched each other's dicks?" The Slytherin demanded to know and Yixing suddenly forgot what had made Han stand out as somebody he would want to be friends with when they first met at eleven years old.

"Lu Han," Minseok exclaimed, verbalising Yixing's mortification.

"But have you?" Jongdae stage whispered under a laugh.

"I'm not saying," Yixing muttered, his eyes fell to the floor and his mouth was far drier than it had been before.

"Oh my god," Han yelled.

"You have!" Jongdae screamed, it was loud enough in the pre-match warm-up that even the students on the pitch turned to look up at the stand the loud voice had come from.

"Don't be so loud," Minseok scolded, he hit both of them across the backs of their heads lightly with the handle end of his wand. "Can't you see that he's embarrassed?"

"We just want to know," Han whined at the eldest of the quartet.

Jongdae ignored his elder all together to focus on Yixing with a levelly questioned,

"Have you had sex yet?"

Yixing didn't answer but his blush had made its way up to his forehead and the three others' eyes all widened to show thick white rims around their eyes. He clearly did not have to verbally respond for them to know.

"Oh my god," Han repeated identically to how he had spoken previously.

"Yixing!" Minseok looked so scandalised that the Ravenclaw head boy had to hide his face completely.

"Who topped who?"

Yixing heard Minseok hit the back of the youngest's head again but Han had begun to tug on Yixing's sleeve to urge him into talking.

"Tell us," Han sang teasingly, "and we'll stop."

Yixing took a long breath in before muttering out: "We take it in turns."

It was, apparently, more than loud enough for his friends to hear as two of them howled out in delight.

"You've done it more than once?” Minseok looked horrified, a little like a parent who was being told of his son's sexual escapades and Yixing wanted to bury himself in his clothing until Han and Jongdae stopped being so annoying.

"Why are you saying that like you don't know that Yixing can be a little devious when he wants to be?" Jongdae turned to Minseok with a disapproving expression. "He probably initiated it every time."

Yixing wasn't sure why he said, "I've never initiated it, it's always been Yifan."

But he did, and he couldn't take it back once it had escaped out.

"What? Why not?" Han's neck pulled his head around with a pronounced snap.

"I don't know, I guess I've never had to because he's always wanted it when I have," Yixing covered his mouth to stop any more words from slipping out and adding to his embarrassment.

"So you want to?" Jongdae's eyes had a glint that Yixing both didn't like and found intriguing.

He nodded and knew he shouldn't have as soon as Han and Jongdae glanced at one another with dark looks and delighted laughs.

"How do you feel about giving Slytherin's star player a little treat later on?"

He made eye contact with Minseok, they both knew it was too late to stop the endlessly talking duo and Yixing resigned himself to listening into their plan.

"He speaks French, right?"

Yixing closed his eyes for a few moments, he knew his next action would rope him firmly into their idea and he nodded slowly in confirmation.


xvi.


Yixing, bright red and feeling kind of stupid, was sat on Yifan's bed. He had the elder's cloak settled on his shoulders, his hands balled tightly into the fabric as he tried not to look down at how naked he was. The Ravenclaw had no idea when Yifan would be back from his quidditch training, as they had been working somewhat harder than ever after their win against Hufflepuff a handful of days earlier. He had needed to wait a few days because of the plan his two friends had devised.

Their brilliant idea had been for Yixing to find who Yifan had the most correspondence with in French and Yixing had lucked out when he's found it to be a boy named Zitao who wrote to Yifan in a mix of Chinese and French.

Yixing had awkwardly let his friends pen him a letter to Zitao and they had been emphatically delighted when the stranger had responded with utter glee over their plans. Apparently, Zitao shared the same devious tendencies as Han and Jongdae, which made Yixing both pity Yifan and want to scold him for willingly jumping into friendship with two more boys that were out to make everybody miserable for their own amusement.

Zitao had, in fact, been very helpful to their cause and Yixing had found himself resenting the boy for that without meeting him. It meant he couldn't back out. Not that he wanted to but it was no less embarrassing to think about everything as he sat there on Yifan's bed.

When Yifan walked into the room there was a spluttering sound as Yixing looked at him rather shyly.

"Venir ici et me taquiner*," Yixing tried to use the most seductive voice he could muster and he would have enjoyed the way Yifan's eyebrows furrowed if he hadn't been so wrecked with nerves.

Yifan gulped. "What?"

"Venir ici et me taquiner," Yixing reiterated and Yifan's jaw fell unhinged.

"You do realise what you're saying, right?"

Yixing nodded gently in response and rose up onto his hands and knees to crawl the short way to the edge of the bed. It was not only that little bit closer to Yifan but doing it helped him to expel a little of his nervous energy.

"Jesus Christ, Yixing," Yifan groaned as he made his way towards the bed Yixing was on, the way the words vibrated through the air told him that it was a more than positive reaction to what he was doing.

Then next words were spoken from Yixing's lips when Yifan was close enough to drag closer, which had the elder yelping, and Yixing was half sure that what he was going to say would confirm in Yifan's mind exactly what was going on.

"Prends-moi*."

"Tu me rends fou," Yifan muttered into the air as Yixing pulled him down to the bed so he was on top of the Ravenclaw.

"What does that mean?" Yixing asked, his legs opened up to give Yifan's hips room to press down more comfortably. His nerves simmered down a little bit when he felt just how physically affected Yifan was by the few words Yixing had spoken.

"It means that you're driving me crazy," Yifan explained deeply as he pulled himself away a little to look down Yixing's body. The Ravenclaw wasn't too insecure about his body, as he was one to try to keep himself fit in between bouts of studying, so he unfurled that tiny bit more under Yifan's eyes to show that he was fully appreciative of the hungry stare posed towards him.

"Am I? Because it feels like I am," Yixing simpered and Yifan's fingers soon took over the route his eyes had been taking over Yixing's body.

"Yeah," Yifan cleared his throat awkwardly as if he had only just realised that Yixing could feel how aroused he had become and how quickly it had happened. "Do you know how to say anything else?"

Yixing had one more thing in his mind but he knew it wasn't the time to say it, so he shook his head and Yifan moved forward to kiss his neck with an open mouth.

"Would you like me to teach you some more?" Yifan queried with a smirk against Yixing's throat, the younger shuddered at the way his breath felt cool on the kiss wetted patches of skin.

He let out a small chuckle as Yixing became the one who was gulping in anticipation. "Please."

One of Yifan's hands crept downwards until it was wrapped firmly around Yixing's thigh, that alone was normally enough to have Yixing whimper slightly but when he felt Yifan's clothed hips grind downwards, his eyes went a little hazy for a second. Yixing was hard, suddenly so, and the feeling of having Yifan rub up against him was more than enough to stop the thick feeling of nervousness from flooding into his stomach.

"Tu me fais bander," Yifan whispered into Yixing's left ear as he took the lobe into his mouth with a tug. The elder swooped around to Yixing's other ear and muttered into it. "That means that you're making me hard."

"Tu-tu me f-f-fais b-bander," Yixing stuttered out as Yifan sucked on the sensitive spot just beneath his jaw, his arousal was hotter than before and Yixing couldn't stop himself from grinding upwards slightly.

The elder pulled back to remove the layers of his uniform from the upper half of his body and Yixing's hands were immediately covering the warm skin, much like they always did when Yifan would be shirtless in front of him. The Slytherin boy swooped back in and plastered kisses all along Yixing's jaw. Yifan growled and Yixing's back arched into his chest with enough time to feel the words resound in Yifan's ribcage.

The words from then on set out from Yifan's lips like a stream and each of them wore away at Yixing's sanity a little more every time.

"Je veux te lécher des hanches jusqu’aux pieds."

"I want to lick you from your hips to your toes."

"Tu êtes mon fantasme devenu réalité."

"You're my fantasy come true."

"Je te veux vraiment."

"I really want you."

Yixing's body was wrought with arousal when Yifan's hips ground against his more firmly and in rapid succession, he always enjoyed that part of their foreplay. Their sex without having sex. It was more about friction, pressure and laughing into each other's mouths as they released breathy moans. It drove him to the point of near insanity that he felt like he was high on Yifan's minty scent.

"J'ai envie de toi*," Yixing spoke as best as he could with his breath having and he felt the way that Yifan froze above him.

"I thought you didn't know any more things," Yifan's words fluttered over Yixing's skin and the younger allowed himself a teasing giggle to escape.

Jongdae was right, it would get easier to do as things progressed.

Nothing much more was said as Yixing leant upwards to press his lips to Yifan's, their tongues met directly in the middle as Yixing's hands moved down to undo Yifan's uniform trousers and tug them down from his pelvis. The elder took over removing the garment as he shuffled his legs out of them and kicked them to the floor. Yixing was relieved to see that Yifan's underwear had followed the slacks down.

Yixing made sure to wrap one of his legs around the elder's waist to bring their bare skin together, the heat that passed between them was suffocating but Yixing wanted it even closer as he tilted Yifan's hips down with the back of his foot. Yifan took the cue and held his hand in direction to the table that sat between their beds. The lubricant whirled through the air and into his hands. He took no time at all in squirting some of the thick fluid out into the palm of his hand.

"You just need to put it in," Yixing mumbled rather unsexily and Yifan nodded his head as his hands moved around to coat himself in the lube and to guide himself into Yixing. It wasn’t enough to ruin the moment but Yixing knew he wouldn’t have been able to bring himself to say anything else lewdly just yet.

The younger felt the head breach his rim and made sure to relax himself enough for the rest of Yifan's entry, it was probably the least arousing part for Yixing as he concentrated so much on not causing himself discomfort that the pleasure of feeling Yifan inside him wasn't there for the first few breaths.

They were panting as Yifan drew out and pushed back in, the elder's eyes were screwed shut and he was muttering things in a language Yixing couldn't decipher. He hooked his arms around Yifan's neck and kept himself grounded with one of his legs pressed firmly into the mattress as Yifan's hips rolled on top of his. He could feel every moment but his moans were drowned out when Yifan kissed him. It was far slower than Yixing expected it to be but that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy it, he relished in how Yifan's body seemed to glide over him and how his own could respond evenly to bring them both heightened pleasure.

Every so often, the Slytherin head boy would shudder or shiver as Yixing felt himself momentarily tighten up around the cock inside of him, his prostate was rubbed up against as Yifan tilted his hips upwards and Yixing pushed himself back into the duvet.

His orgasm was neither a surprise or one of the ones that blindsided him, it was one where his body clung to Yifan's and he twitched all over. The build up of Yifan's cock moving in and out and his own hand moving down to jerk himself off had him shuddering like a braking train into releasing the amassed heat from within himself. It was his boiling point, the sensation of his body being joined with Yifan's and the instant fire of self-pleasure that had him erupting in a splatter of white up between his own and Yifan's bodies. The shuddering didn't stop as thick ropes of cum turned to smaller spurted dribbles that strung into a puddle on his stomach. Yifan didn't stop as Yixing's orgasm flooded through his body. His spine rippled numerous times over as the pleasure reached its claws into the very depths of Yixing's body.

The orgasm was drawn out, the dribbles of cum turned to single beads of translucent fluid and still the feeling zinged through his nerves and bubbled in his blood. While not violent, it wasn't anything limp but more on the intense spectrum as he cried out deeply into Yifan's ear.

Once Yixing's dick had gone completely limp, Yifan pulled out and took to stroking himself furiously over Yixing's body and the younger wizard reached his hand out to brush his thumb over the tip of Yifan's erection and the organ twitched in both of their hands. The Ravenclaw student did that a handful more times to make sure the twitching continued right up until Yifan came with a low grumble in the back of his throat across Yixing's stomach and down his navel.

The elder took his wand out of the pile of clothes by the side of the bed and directed it at Yixing before muttering 'Tergeo' to clean up the mess that had been spilt across the younger. Yifan settled down on top of Yixing with his arms tightly around him and his legs woven between Yixing's. He turned them over and Yixing squeaked at the sudden movement but didn't fight it when he knew he could curl up on Yifan's chest like a little kitten. Yifan brought the covers over them. Yixing's toes were already curling in on themselves in the cold of the old castle but tucking them between Yifan's calves was more than enough to soothe them again.

"I can't believe you did that," Yifan suddenly laughed out when Yixing's hands went up to undo the cloak that was still draped over his back.

"Me either," Yixing buried his head shyly into the elder's throat and was relieved that they wouldn't have to worry about cleaning up because of the power of magic. "How embarrassing."

"Hey," Yifan tilted his head up and pressed their lips together for a few seconds. "Don't be embarrassed, it was a nice gesture but speaking in Chinese would have had the same impact."

"So you didn't like the French?" Yixing raised a single brow upwards but his sleepy eyes betrayed him as he felt himself melt tiredly into the elder.

"No, no, the French was good," Yifan confirmed with a laugh as his hand stroked through Yixing's hair. "It's what you were saying that did the most impact, not the language you spoke in."

"I have that noted for next time."

Yixing adored how Yifan's body felt beneath his, it was large and comforting. It felt better than he could have imagined and he mentally scolded himself for being so afraid of the elder in the past without knowing him. It was the best way to fall asleep, pressed up against his boyfriend with the evening's fire burning up across the room and duvet keeping them was warm as they could keep each other.


xvii.


Yixing couldn't stop his smile as he sat down on the Hogwarts Express with his hand luggage on his lap and his head pressed against the pane of thin glass that separated him from the outside world. He probably would have slept had it not been for the fidgeting body beside his own.

"Would you stay still?" He scolded as he looked over at his boyfriend who was tugging on the hem of his thin summer shirt. "I want to have a nap."

"I'm sorry," Yifan mumbled as he smoothed over the tiny crinkles of his shirt. "I'm nervous."

"Why?" Yixing snorted as he returning his gaze back out to the forest that surrounded Hogsmeade station.

"I've never been outside of the wizarding world and I'm going to be meeting your parents," Yifan was grumbling as the summer air flowed in through the open windows of the compartment.

Yixing and Yifan had left on the boats back to the station, leaving the school as they arrived, and had escaped the hugging hordes of students to find a place on the train and have their few moments of peace before their friends turned up. It had been Yifan's idea to do so and Yixing was starting to think that it was because he didn't want their peers to see how nervy he was about leaving the school with a destination that wasn't his own home.

The Ravenclaw had been trying to teach Yifan about the muggle world as best as he could but even the concept of a television was enough to baffle Yifan into feeling like he was rather stupid. Yixing tried not to laugh when he had first given Yifan his iPod to play around with and the elder had almost deafened himself by turning up one of the louder songs onto the highest setting. The concept of the internet, that was one Yixing hadn't even bothered with because he knew it would be better to just show Yifan rather than use words.

Once they were far enough away from the castle's magic, he had promised to show Yifan how his iPhone worked.

They had both decided that Yixing teaching Yifan such things would mean for less embarrassment for the both of them when Yifan went to Yixing's family home and met all the muggles in Yixing's life. Yifan had told Yixing that he didn't want to look like an idiot in front of Yixing's mother, a muggle, too.

Yifan had got the hang of most of the things Yixing had shown him but he was still nervous, much as Yixing had expected because he wouldn't have been too different if he were the one meeting Yifan's mother in the large estate of the Wu family.

Yixing tucked his arm into Yifan's and brought the elder closer for a short peck on the lips. "My parents will be just as nervous as you are. My father nearly wet himself when I told him your family name."

"That doesn't make it any easier," Yifan tugged on the open collar of his shirt. "It means there's expectation already there."

"You won't disappoint them," Yixing moved closer and pressed his mouth more firmly to Yifan's with his lips parted slightly for Yifan's tongue to slither against his own.

It was nothing passionate or ferocious but it was enough for Yixing to feel the tension leave Yifan's shoulders as the train began to pull out of the station and head down the tracks in the direction of London.

"Woah, keep it PG-13, guys," an all too familiar voice broke through the moment Yifan and Yixing were having as the younger's fingers curled into Yifan's shirt and Yifan's hand rested on the back of Yixing's neck.

They pulled apart as Qian sat across from the couple with her cat in her hand, Yixing's friends followed in a half second later with boisterous smiles on their faces.

"Or don't, Minseok hasn't got any for a while and he could really do with witnessing some action," Jongdae's eyebrows rose up and down suggestively and he was shoved so sharply by Minseok that he fell into the cushioned chairs that lined the two longer walls of the compartment.

Han, who was cackling like an evil witch toppled in after them and plonked himself down beside Yifan and curled up to him like Yixing had.

"So, has Yixing explained the internet to you yet?"

Yixing closed his eyes and his fists as he wondered why he befriended somebody who went by the name of Lu Han for the millionth time in his life. Yixing felt Yifan's head whip around and his wide eyes showed fear of the unknown.

"What's 'The Internet'?" Qian asked, her voice was just as confused as Yifan's expression displayed.

"It's a muggle thing, don't worry," Minseok swooped in to calm the situation once he'd kicked Han in the knee. "It's nothing scary."

"Yeah," Han nodded. "You can use it to watch people have sex, it's great."

"You can what?" Yifan's mouth hung open in horror. "This 'Internet' watches people have sex? Will it watch us?"

While Yixing wanted to laugh at Yifan's fears, he knew the other was most likely going through a moment of genuine fear. Jongdae, on the other hand, didn't care so much.

"Well, isn't that just a little presumptuous," the youngest in the carriage scoffed. "Maybe Yixing doesn't want to have sex with you, and maybe people don't want to see your orgasm face, Yifan."

"But no," Yixing soothed into Yifan's ear, "nobody and nothing will be watching us do that."

"Okay," Yifan relaxed a little and listened in to Minseok's explanation of the internet as Yixing scowled at a smirking Han.

"I don't know why you're so smug," Yixing snorted, "you're the one who cried when I showed you my phone."

"It was possessed," Han defended.

"It vibrated because my dad was calling me," Yixing rolled his eyes and Han huffed back down into his chair and settled his head on Yifan's shoulder.

Han and Yifan had developed a strange bond where one second they were teasing each other to death but the next Han was enjoying having a friend much taller than himself by using Yifan as a leaning post. It was weird for Yixing at first but it was easy to get used to when Yifan would thank him for introducing him to the two devils and Minseok.

Qian had once commented to Yixing that she had thought that they would have all been very different to what they were really like, apparently the quartet were one of the more popular groups in the school and had their own reputation. She had also said that she never expected Han to have such a deep interest in things that most people often thought as being dull, much like she did.

Most of them had decided to sleep as their journey went further and further south but Yixing stayed awake as Yifan continued to shift around uncomfortably beside him. The elder had Yixing's phone in his hands as he tapped around on the different apps and fiddled with numerous things. Yixing had taken a few photos of them together and set a particularly cute one of Yifan poking Yixing's dimple as his lockscreen, which he caught Yifan looking at every so often.

"I don't understand," Yifan had said. "Why doesn't it move?"

Yixing wasn't quite sure what to say, he didn't know how to explain it himself. The photo showed him with his black hair curled up on his head and Yifan with his hair looking soft and brown draped thickly down his forehead. He knew their smiles and curved eyes weren’t under any influence of spells or curses. So he left it with a simple,

"Not everything is magic."





Translations:

1 - Mon Petit - My Little One
2 - Merde - Shit
3 - Votre sourire est un don - Your smile is a gift
4 - Tu etes radieuse - You’re radiant
5 - J'aime votre rire- I love your laugh
6 - J’adore ton sourire - I love your smile
7 - Tu me rends fou - You drive me crazy
8 - Tu est trop mignon - You’re so cute
9 - Venir ici et me taquiner - Come here and tease me
10 - Prends-moi - Take me
11 - J'ai envie de toi - I want you