Are You Awake?

"Are you awake?" Harry asked into the dark, receiving a snore in response.

"I said," he repeated louder, "Are you awake?"

His partners breathing changed slightly, indicating that he was now, in fact, awake.

"What?" came the snappish reply.

"I can't sleep."

"Really? Couldn't tell."

"You know your sarcasm turns me on, Dray."

"Yes well, just about everything I do turns you on. I'm irresistible".

Harry snorted in an attempt not to laugh; he knew Draco was being serious.

Sad little puppy, thought Harry.

Sighing heavily, Draco sat up and stared down at his lover. "What's wrong, love?"

"Everything is wrong," replied Harry huffily, "It's the Ministry, the war, Hogwarts, The Daily Prophet…"

"Go on," Draco urged, giving him the sympathetic ear. He knew Harry was stressed and this was the first time he had opened up in nearly two months.

"I mean the endless poetry, god the poetry. I can't take much more of this."

"And you won't have to, love. The war will be over soon and everything will go back to normal. Well… except your fan girls will triple and they will probably start making movies and plays about you, with a bad actor sporting a hideous haircut singing your heroic deeds to one and all," Draco's white teeth shown in the moonlight as he smiled at his mate.

"Hmm," Harry went back to staring into the dark. "I hope it's all over soon, I really do Dray."

"It will be, and then we can get a whole night's sleep, for once…" he paused, "Well, until Isobel is born, that is," he said, sheepishly rubbing his slightly protruding stomach.

Harry rolled his head on the pillow and covered Draco's hand with his own. "Castrian," he murmured.

Silver eyes held emerald ones for long moments, then Harry sighed again, rolling back to stare at the ceiling. It had been a mutual and private decision between them to perform the rather rare spell that would give them a child of their own.

"I'm scared," he admitted finally - it was the first time he had come out and said this. "I'm scared I am not going to come back and I'm going to leave you and never see our baby grow." His eyes shone with unshed tears.

Draco leant his head on Harry's shoulder, wrapped an arm around his naked torso comfortingly and stroked his arms, which lay limp at his side.

"It won't happen, Harry, you will be here to see her grow into a beautiful young woman and we will send her off to Hogwarts together, see her fall in love for the first time and interrogate the bastard together, argue over who gets to walk her down the aisle and who gets to give her away together."

"What makes you so sure it's a she?" Harry asked; his voice husky in his manly attempt not to cry.

"Call it mother's intuition," replied Draco succinctly. "Anyway, my point is you're not going to die – I simply won't let you."

"Oh yeah? And how are you going to achieve that?" Harry asked teasingly, taking Draco's hint to lighten the mood.

"Simple, really. Potter, you must learn to trust us Malfoy's, you are one of us now," He gave the Malfoy trademark smirk as emphasis to this statement. "When you are in a situation where you think it may be your last moment on Earth, think of me."

"That's it?" Harry deadpanned.

"No, Scar-Head, that's not it," Draco said matter-of-factly, "You will just think of me lying in a bed looking like I've just been taken."

"Go on."

"Well…" Draco thought for a second, "Think of me on this bed dressed in something lacy, maybe some knee high socks, a school girl skirt … pigtails?" He left the last as a question.

Harry snorted with laughter, "Oh God, I would sell my soul to see that."

"Exactly…" Draco continued, ignoring Harry's laughter (at his expense, no less), "So you will have to survive just to see that."

"Draco…" Harry said rolling over and cradling his soul-mate in his arms.

"Yes, Harry?"

"I think we can go to sleep now, you are obviously not in your right state of mind."

"Fine."

Harry laughed and settled down in their warm bed, content enough now to get some sleep.

"Harry?" Draco asked some time later.

He received a light snore in response, huffing in annoyance and thought about treating the boy-who-left-him-horny to a little of his own medicine with a midnight wake up call he wouldn't want to sleep through.

Draco smirked in anticipation.

Thanks for reading!