Percy woke up to blinding light and loud singing. He blinked and shied away from the light, snuggling deeper into-

"Good morning, Percy!" He fell off of whatever he had been sleeping on when Audrey sang at him. "Goodness, is it good to know your name! I had resorted to thinking of you as 'Weasley.' Did you know that?"

Percy should have guessed Audrey was a morning person.

He struggled through breakfast with her, squinting when he was awake enough to wonder where his glasses were.

And after she'd supplied him his glasses and they'd cleaned up, Audrey walked him up the stairs, talking faster than George when he discovered another facet of mischief.

Percy waited by his door for five minutes, his key clenched in his hand, for Audrey to stop talking. When she started stumbling over her words, Percy smiled gently and patted her on the shoulder. "I'll see you around, yes?" He winked- When had Charlie taken over my body? Percy thought worriedly.

It didn't register with Percy that Audrey was blushing until he closed his door. He dropped his forehead against his door and groaned in frustration. "I'll never understand women."

Winter began in earnest after October. Rain turned to sleet, and Percy's curls got smothered in home knitted toboggans.

Audrey, after the entire building had been evacuated because Percy had set off the fire alarm trying to heat something up, fed Percy nearly every night. She had a pile of knitted hats on her side table by what had become Percy's chair in her flat.

When Audrey, who was nearly always warm, started to feel the chill of the winter air, she began raiding Percy's forgotten hats. It took Percy nearly three weeks to notice her new accessory.

Percy frowned thoughtfully as they waked to their jobs. "Have you done something different, Audrey?" The sound of her- correct- name on his lips made her insides a little warmer.

Audrey smiled cluelessly. "What?"

Percy, whose arm was tangled with Audrey's, tugged her to a halt. He turned her to face him, the ever present umbrella resting between their joined arms. As the wind caught a few of her curls, Percy reached up to tuck them back into place behind her ear. As the back of his fingers brushed yarn, Percy gasped. "You've been wearing my hats!"

Audrey pushed his hand, which had sunk down to slide down her cheek lightly, and turned forward. "We'll be late." She hoped he couldn't tell she was blushing.

Percy fell a few steps behind her. Right as Audrey looked over her shoulder for him, he snatched the hat off her head. The bobby pins that held the too-large toboggan on her head fell and got lost in the slushy, dirty ice in the gutter. The wind immediately whipped at Audrey's uncontained locks.

When he put the hat back on her, it fell straight down to her eyes.

Percy nodded decisively after a moment of deliberation, but wouldn't tell Audrey what he'd decided, though she nagged him all the way to work.

The next day, Percy presented her with four hats. One was red and gold, another green and silver, the third blue and silver, and the last black and yellow. Percy actually just shoved them into Audrey's arms as soon as she'd opened her flat door for him.

"My mum made these for me. When I turned eleven. I thought maybe they would fit you better."

Audrey smiled when she heard the hesitant knock on her door, stopping at the hall mirror to adjust her snug, black-and-yellow hat before answering the door.

Her smiled faltered when Henry Fencor- one of her more awkward suitors who hadn't grown out of the 'gawking-at-pretty-girls' phase quite yet- was in the hall. Audrey chastised herself for being disappointed. He's a sweet kid, she thought to herself.

He was holding a wicker basket in front of him with both hands. Audrey's heart sank. Please don't let him have a picnic! After he just stared- gawked, the nasty part of her corrected- at her for a few drawn out moments. Audrey felt bad about being creeped out by him, but it didn't change the fact that he, well, creeped her out. Audrey pinched the corners of her lips back into a smile. "What can I do for you, Henry?"

His jaw fell slack, and Audrey forced herself not to wince when Henry clenched his eyes shut and groaned. She told herself it was a sound of embarrassment and not pleasure. The slightly louder moan that followed almost immediately after made Audrey want to sink through the floor. He has a crush on you. She flushed in shame for thinking mean things about Henry.

"Of- Well..." Henry stuttered a bit, waffling on his feet before opening the top of the basket and shoving it into the space between them. "I noticed your first kitten died, so I thought you'd like to choose your second one."

Audrey scrunched her lips to the side before she could grimace. Her first cat hadn't died; she'd given it to her mother because it had decided it hated her after the first week she'd owned it.

"So?" Henry jerked his head down.

"Oh, Henry, I don't ne-"

"Your last one died. This is the least I can do."

Audrey gulped and carefully reached into the basket, pulling out the first one that latched its claws into her hand.

She kept her face blank, but she'd have to patch up where the kitten was ripping into the skin on her hand. "Thanks lots, Henry. I'll... make sure it's loved." Especially if it means giving it away.

Henry blushed and made moon eyes at her as she smiled painfully and closed the door. She leaned back on her door and propped the heel of her right foot against it, letting her head fall back as she sighed. The sounds of Henry shuffling down the hall way made Audrey breathe a sigh of relief as she cradled the kitten against her chest, wincing when its teeth scrabbled over the back of her hand.

It suddenly dragged its tongue across her wrist- Did it like her now? She looked down in confusion, wrapping her free hand around its chest and tugging it off of her when she realized it was lapping the blood off her skin.

The kitten mewled pitifully when Audrey left its paws hanging in the air where it couldn't scratch her anymore.

"Bloody cat," she muttered. It blinked up at her with green eyes, and she felt her- pitifully weak- resolve disappearing. Her hand was going to be in ribbons-

There was a knock at her door right before she sacrificed her hand to the bloody cat in her arms.

She froze with the kitten staring expectantly at her hand just out of its reach. Did Henry come back? She was suddenly aware of how loud each of her breaths was. She bit her bottom lip and pushed herself closer to the door, listening for anything on the other side. Why does this remind her so much of her schoolgirl years? Her arms floated into her chest and the kitten stretched out of her slack hand toward her torn-up skin.

Another knock sounded on the wood behind her, more hesitant than the last. "Audrey?" Percy's voice floated through the door. "I can see the shadow your foot is casting in the hall. Have I done something-"

Audrey turned and threw the door open, hissing out a mild curse when the kitten dug its claws deeper into her skin.

"-wrong." The end of his question went flat when Percy was suddenly faced with a poorly-balanced Audrey with a rather irate kitten yowling as it ripped its claws deeper into her wrist.

When Audrey started whining quietly in the back of her throat, tears welling up in her eyes and blood dripping onto the hardwood under their feet, Percy's brows went up.

"Well, someone did something wrong."

The kitten purred contently as Percy's fingers flitted gently over its fur before he left it in the tall cardboard box he'd unearthed from Audrey's hall closet. He set it on one of her barstools, pushing the stool away from where Audrey was sitting on the counter of her island.

"Bloody cat." Audrey glared at the box as Percy poked around in the first-aid kit he'd found in her bathroom. Oh God. He'd thought he'd understood what a girl's bathroom would hold. He'd been the only one of his brothers to not throw a fit after finding Ginny's pads, tampons, and razors in their communal bathroom during the summers. But Ginny never left her matching lingerie set hanging on the back of the door where any unsuspecting male- Awkward, stick-bug Percy- to accidently trip, knock it off the door and somehow twist himself as he fell so the panties momentarily blinded him, thus forcing him to pick the lacey bra and practically non-existent panties and replace them exactly where he'd found them while trying to wash that encounter from his memory banks.

Eying Audrey's stormy face, Percy pushed the barstool a few more feet away from her with his foot before taking the gauze out of the first-aid kit and laying it on the counter beside Audrey's thigh. He tore a rectangle of paper towel off the roll and folded into halves three times before running under her tap.

Percy stepped back over to her, holding out his hand. When she only pouted up at him with her injured hand cradled between her chest and her other hand, he sighed and stepped closer to her and tugged her arm toward him.

"Ow!" Audrey tried to yank it back.

"It's still bleeding, Audrey! As it is, you're going to have to get rid of that- very lovely- magenta turtleneck. You're lucky you don't have a carpet to get stained! I can't fix it if you don't let me!"

More tears welled in Audrey's grey-blue eyes, and Percy pulled her clawed hand into one of his, reaching up to cradle her cheek with the other, swiping away her tears with the pad of his thumb.

"Once I wrap it up, we can order in Chinese and binge on lo Mein." Her lower lip trembled, and Percy's good intentions with it.

Percy jerked his hand off her cheek like something had burned him and focused on tending to Audrey. He picked up the paper towel and started wiping away the blood.

"Why do you have a cat, Audrey?"

She mumbled something unintelligible.

Percy pulled the towel away, unfolding and refolding it to a clean section. He let a few minutes of silence between them as he finished washing the blood away from Audrey's wounds.

"It would seem that cats do not like you."

A half-sob, half-laugh worked its way out of Audrey's throat as she hung her head so Percy couldn't see her face.

Once she stopped bleeding, Percy looked carefully at each of her scratches before tying her hand up in gauze. She kept her gaze on his work with serious intent, tears still dripping down her cheeks and into her lap on occasion. Audrey slowly looked up after Percy finished bandaging her up, his long fingers stroking over her wrist. Both of them blushed and Percy shuffled back when they realized that he was standing with her legs on either side of his hips.

"Well... I…" Percy rubbed a hand through the curls at the back of his head. "I hope your hand feels better. I-" He straightened up suddenly. "I'll... go get the Chinese food. We'll get cat food tomorrow.

Audrey glared at the cardboard box on the barstool in the middle of her kitchen as Percy grabbed her extra key off the hook on her wall before heading out the door, the latch clicking closed behind him.

"Bloody cat."

[A/N:] So... I didn't intend to take nearly two months with this. But... things happen... Sorry. And I kind of damaged Audrey a little bit. Um...

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