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Epilogue

A Little Over A Year Later

Head pounding, body aching, and a bad taste in his mouth just to add insult to injury, Scorpius opened his eyes to mere slits to get some sense of his surroundings before closing his eyelids once more when the light streaming through the nearest window damn near blinded him. Why were the bloody curtains not drawn?! And just how late in the day was it, exactly? Scorpius was fairly sure it was Saturday and Christmas holidays to boot, which meant no classes to teach, but still, he wasn't Albus, who could knowingly spend a day in bed just lazing around like a bloody bump on a log.

Speaking of which…

Turning a little, and keeping his gaze hooded to protect himself from the sun's harmful rays, Scorpius studied the man stretched out beside him, and debated the pros and cons of poking the other man in the shoulder until the idiot woke up. He wanted those drapes closed, ASAP. And he needed someone to tell him what time it was so that he didn't have to open his eyes or move to find out himself.

But after months spent sleeping beside the Gryffindor Scorpius knew that getting the spiky haired menace up would take more effort than he wanted to spend at the moment. Especially when he was hungover, which was all Potter's fault in the first place, thought of course Albus wouldn't accept the blame. No, his on again, off again lover was very good when it came to the shifting blame onto others. Usually him.

Why oh why had he ever let himself be talked into dating Potter again? Oh right. The stupid reverse psychology trick the bastard had used against him so effectively. Or at least that's what Rorake had called it, since he apparently used that against Louis often.

Groaning low in his throat, Scorpius still couldn't believe that he'd fallen for it all those months ago. Not that he hadn't been aware he was being manipulated, he had, obviously, to some degree, but the full extent of the Gryffindor's ploy hadn't hit Scorpius until after he'd taken the bait.

If only he hadn't been lured in by the food Albus had brought him that night, Scorpius mused with a sigh, imagining how things would have been different if he'd turned the other man away or had kicked him out once they'd eaten, rather than let himself be seduced by the 'goodnight' kiss Albus had sneakily planted on him once dinner was over. But no, one kiss had led to another, as it so often did between them, and then before you could say 'bad life choices', they'd ended up in his bed and orgasms were had and former lines in the sand blown away.

Afterwards, when he'd tried to kick the Gryffindor out by reminding him of his damaged hand and how things were only going to get worse for the other man if he didn't give up on his crazy idea that they should start dating…well that had led to Albus giving him his whole spiel about how he appreciated how much Scorpius cared about him. Which he had naturally denied, of course, which was when Albus had pointed out that rather than warn him off, Scorpius should be dating him willingly to make him suffer both his wrath and everyone else's. That was if Scorpius was serious about disliking him.

His response that he preferred to be the one making Albus suffer, rather than letting other people have all the fun, had been brushed aside with Albus pointing out that if that were true he would have hunted him down for all the courting he'd tried to do, rather than just talk about how he was going to maim him to everyone who would listen.

How he'd gotten talked into dating Albus just to prove that he didn't like him Scorpius still wasn't sure, the whole argument had been pretty ludicrous, but all he did know was that it had been over a year since they'd started 'dating', and they were still doing this weird little dating dance of theirs.

Not that he hadn't tried to dump the stubborn idiot a number of times since then. He had. The break ups just never seemed to last long for some reason. And it had been a while since the last time, though the headache he was dealing with at the moment made Scorpius think that maybe they were passed due there.

Sitting up slowly and carefully, his arm in front of him to block out the sun for the most part, Scorpius scanned the bedcovers, just in case, and was relieved to see that neither of their pets was sleeping on said bed with them. Yue always found some way to punish him if he accidentally jostled or kicked the kneazle in his sleep. Like losing at chess to the damn creature regularly wasn't bad enough.

Gingerly making his way out of bed and across the room, Scorpius let himself out and then headed for the loo to relieve his bladder and get a potion and some water into him. He had vague recollections of Albus getting him to drink water before he'd passed out the night before, which was probably why his head didn't hurt more considering the amount of liquor he'd ended up drinking. Stupid New Year's party. And stupid Albus for dragging him to it in the first place. Especially since Great Aunt Andromeda and Teddy had both left early, worn out from the insanity that was a house full of Weasleys and Potters. Well the very pregnant Victoire had been tired, and Teddy had left with her since he was the one who'd gotten his wife up the duff in the first place, but that wasn't important.

He and Alexei had both been in complete agreement that one of the rare silver lining about having been sucked into dating members of that family was that at least their partners were male and therefore they couldn't knock them up, if nothing else. Rorake hadn't agreed with them, but living with Louis had obviously driven him mad so his opinion didn't count. Especially since Louis Weasley would be even more high maintenance pregnant, which was too terrifying a thought to ponder.

Lifting his hands to scrub over his face as he struggled to wake up a little more, Scorpius went unnaturally still, both physically and mentally, as the feel of something cool and metal against his skin registered.

Very, very slowly, Scorpius lowered his hands to his sides as he stared unseeingly at his pale reflection in the mirror, and then just as carefully the Slytherin brought up his left hand to eye level, the silver band on his finger not disappearing no matter how long he stared at it.

And then the memories of just how that ring had gotten on his finger in the first place started to come together in a way that had a cold shiver racing down his spine as he opened his mouth to yell.

"ALBUS SEVERUS POTTER!"

)

Having spent the night catnapping, he wasn't an idiot, after all, Albus's eyes snapped open immediately to prove that he was awake and aware as Scorpius's furious calling of his name reached his ears, despite the fact that the Slytherin was in another room. Sitting up and throwing off the covers as fast as he could, Albus slid out of bed and grabbing his wand from his bedside table shoved it into his pajama bottom pocket. Just to be on the safe side, of course, as he braced for the coming storm.

And Scorpius didn't disappoint when the blond came storming into the room like a natural disaster waiting to happen, looking sexy as hell regardless of his tired and hungover state. Albus had come to appreciate the beauty of Scorpius's grey eyes when he was angry over the past year. Once the edge of fear had finally been worn away.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?!"

Doing his best to look as innocent and clueless as possible, Albus pretended to take a moment to comprehend what he was being asked before answering the question.

"Your engagement ring?"

The strangled sound Scorpius made wasn't terribly flattering, but it was better than being cursed at physically or magically, so Albus wasn't going to complain. At least not outloud. For now. Later might be a different story once they got over this first hurdle.

"WE ARE NOT ENGAGED!"

"Actually, we are. You said yes and everything. I have witnesses, Luv."

And there was the eye twitch that tended to accompany the L word in any of its forms. Classic Malfoy.

"We are not engaged! It doesn't count! I was drunk at the time!"

"I asked you if you were pissed, you said no." In truth Scorpius had been pleasantly buzzed at the time, but Albus HAD asked before the Slytherin was truly drunk. He might have to fight dirty when it came to getting the stupid man in front of him to let him further into his life, but even he wouldn't propose while Scorpius was drunk off his fine arse.

Watching Scorpius's face flush with furious color, Albus couldn't help himself. "And really, you know that its tradition for us at this point, to make life changing decisions while under the influence of alcohol."

"Dammit, Potter!"

"Oh calm down, Malfoy. Look at it this way, the way I proposed gives you an excuse for saying yes and being stuck with me because you gave your word. Or at least stop shouting at me, if nothing else. You know how that upsets the children."

The look Malfoy gave him suggested that Scorpius thought he'd taken leave of his senses even more than normal, so Albus turned his head and nodded in the direction of said 'children', Scorpius groaning when he saw that Yue and Snow were indeed in the room and watching. Of course Yue was obviously not thrilled to be called a child, while Snow was all big eyed and worried looking from his spot between Yue's front legs. His safe place, as Snow liked to put it.

"Shit."

"Quite."

A dark look in his direction, and then Scorpius walked over and squatting down retrieved Snow and cuddled the ball of fluff against his chest, the two having really bonded by now, since Scorpius had an always sympathetic and attentive listener in Snow. And Scorpius needed someone to bitch about him to, Albus acknowledged with a smirk, though it was softened with affection as he watched his fiancé give him his back while he soothed Snow with pets and murmured nonsense Albus couldn't hear. So cute.

Five minutes or so of that, and then finally Scorpius turned around to glare at him.

"I can't believe you proposed to me like I'm some girl."

"If you wanted to do the proposing you should have done it earlier."

Angry muttering. "We'll kill each other within a year."

Judging the situation, and pretty sure that the first and worst wave was over, Albus dared to approach, wrapping his arms around the Slytherin's waist as soon as he was close enough to do so. And Scorpius let him, though the blond was still scowling at him.

"I'm willing to risk it. And so are you, Mr. Grumpy."

More glaring, but Scorpius didn't protest when Albus retrieved Snow from Scorpius's hands, set the cat on the floor, and then pulled Scorpius in for a kiss.

)

Snow paused for a moment to make sure that the two were really kissing and making up before hurrying over to Yue, who wasn't even looking at their humans. But then Yue didn't get upset when their persons argued. Yue said it was just their way of showing their affection, and that Snow should get used to it. And Snow knew that Yue was right, his person did tend to yell a lot for no reason that Snow could see, but he still didn't like it. Especially since sometimes it meant that their persons wouldn't talk or play with each other for a while. His person was always very miserable when that happened, and Snow hated when his person was so unhappy.

"What's going on? Why was my person upset about the shiny thing on his finger?"

Yawning widely, Yue shook his head over the whole thing. "You really need to stop worrying so much. You don't want all your fur to fall out from stress, do you?"

Though the puffball had so much fur he probably wouldn't even notice if he lost half of it, Yue silently snickered to himself.

Eyes going huge, Snow's voice quivered as he asked if that could really happen.

"It's possible." Probably. "But either way you need to get used to your person shouting like an idiot for no good reason, since he and Albus are going to be living together soon. Permanently."

Just the thought of it had Yue wanting to hide under a bed somewhere, but he was too cool for that.

"We're all going to live together? Really?" Now Snow quivered in excitement, his little face beaming with happiness. "How come?"

"Our persons are getting married. That will make us all…family." That was the best explanation Yue could come up with that Snow would understand.

Naturally it took a couple minutes for that to sink in, Yue calmly groom his paw while he waited for the no doubt loud and entertaining reaction that was sure to follow.

And he wasn't wrong about that.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so happy! This is the bestest thing to ever happen, EVER! We gotta sing about it, Yue!"

It wasn't normal for Yue to sing, and when he did, was because he'd heard some song that he couldn't get out of his head, and was pretty sure he wouldn't be overheard. But as he looked into Snow's shining eyes, and he thought about how, despite all the reasons it was horrible, it would be nice for them all to be a family, Yue decided to give in, a little. Just this once.

Insofar as a song he'd heard once popped into his head, and changing part of the lyrics wasn't exactly trying on his brilliant brain.

"We are family, I got our persons and Snow with me.
We are family, get up ev'rybody and sing."

And beaming that much wider, Snow sang it back to him.

"We are family, I got our persons and Yue with me.
We are family, get up ev'rybody and sing."

Naturally their humans didn't sing, the two didn't speak kneazle, after all, but Albus and Scorpius stopped their debate about who was going to make brunch for the other, and instead smiled down at their pets while the two kneazles sang together.

Cause they were family.

The End