Title: Cards on the Table

Author: lj user="eprime"

Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Teddy/James

Contains: (of age) explicit sex, swearing

Summary: James makes an unexpected announcement at a family Christmas dinner.

Word count: 2779

Disclaimer: These characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not me.

Author's Note: Written for lj: teddyjames Winter Hols Fest. Based on prompt 29 - Coming out at Christmas.

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James was having the best evening he had in a long time. It was Christmas. He was back home and well settled in after spending his gap year wandering the globe, and Teddy was back from some undisclosed location where he'd spent the better part of six months researching something he couldn't talk about for the Department of Mysteries.

In fact, Teddy sat across the table from him, and though he was constantly pulled into brief conversations by the others, most of the time he spent catching up with James. The very best thing of all was that Uncle George had let slip that Teddy had broken up with his boyfriend of over a year. James had met the boyfriend right before he'd left for Morocco, and he'd hated the man on sight. He didn't trust blonds on general principle. They tended to be sneaky and manipulative. Just look at Scorpius Malfoy and his own Aunt Fleur.

He'd managed to school his expression into a semblance of mild concern. "What happened?" Secretly, he was burning with shamefully gleeful curiosity.

Teddy shrugged. "Got back from my business trip to find him in bed with someone else."

James' mouth dropped open. "What?"

"It happens." Teddy smiled wryly. "I guess he got tired of waiting for me to come home."

"What an arsehole!"

"James!" Ginny shot him a disapproving look. "Language."

He ignored that to gape at Teddy. "I can't believe he would do that to you! He fu-shagged someone else in your bed all because you had to spend a little time away for work?"

Harry cleared his throat. "Perhaps, Teddy doesn't want-"

"The sordid details of his sex life bandied about Christmas dinner?" Lily interrupted.

James glared at her, though Teddy only chuckled. "It's all right. I'm fine, really."

Still indignant, James just stared at Teddy with a skeptical lift of his brow.

"I guess we just grew apart."

"He's still a cunt."

"James!"

"Sorry, mum. But anyone who couldn't wait a few measly months before fucking around on an ace bloke like Teddy is-"

"James, you'll leave the table if you don't watch your language right now!"

His mum's voice only barely registered. James was still watching Teddy, who was regarding him with a fond, indulgent expression.

"I do appreciate your concern, James. Very touching." Teddy grinned. "But, really, I am all right. Quite freeing, really. Possibilities stretch before me."

Possibilities. The word made James go warm all over, and he hoped the slow flush he could feel stealing over his face would be attributed to embarrassment at having put Teddy on the spot.

"Right," he said gruffly. "Good point."

Uncle George jumped in. "About that, Teddy m'lad, Colin McClaggen stopped by the shop last week and he asked about you. A word from you and he'd come running."

Before Teddy could speak, James burst out with, "McClaggen? That git? Why would Teddy want to meet up with him?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Because he's got a fit arse and a pretty face, you twit, why do you think?"

"Lily!"

At least mum was sharing around her ire now. James had plenty of his own that he wanted to vent. Unfortunately, Uncle Ron chose to put his two pence in.

"Actually, there's a bloke at work that I've been meaning to tell you about, Teddy. He's quite nice. Dresses well. Wears a lot of pastels. I don't know for sure that he's bent, but-"

"Ron!"

This time Aunt Hermione was the one to glare across the table. Grimacing apologetically, Uncle Ron continued. "I could have him round for a drink one night if you-"

"What is this?" James demanded. "Christmas dinner or the launch of the Potter-Weasley Escort Service? Don't you all already have jobs?"

Teddy threw back his head and laughed, as did several other people around the table who'd been paying attention. James narrowed his eyes. "I don't see what's so funny."

"It's just cute-nice," Teddy amended hastily when James scowled deeply. "You being all protective of me." He grinned playfully and nudged James' foot under the table. James tried not to blush. "But you do remember that I'm the one older than you, yeah? You've got our roles reversed tonight. My job to look out for you."

"I'm not a child anymore," James said with a petulance that belied his statement.

"True." Teddy gave him a genuine smile. "Well, in any case, it's nice to know someone appreciates me."

James felt his face stretch into an answering grin. If Teddy only knew.

"I hesitate to say anything now." Harry instantly commanded everyone's attention. His expression was serious, though his eyes were twinkling. "Don't want to be accused of pandering to my godson." His eyes flicked down the table to meet James' sheepish gaze. "But someone did ask me just the other day to put in a good word with you when they heard about your breakup."

"Who?" Teddy and James spoke the word simultaneously.

Albus, Lily, and Uncle George snickered.

"Young Kingsley."

All the girls at the table made appreciative noises. James felt his heart thud heavily in his chest. Kingsley Shacklebolt II, or K2, as he was famously known by all the people who wanted to climb his particular peak, was an auror just like his father. He had made quite the impression by single-handedly capturing not one, but two dark wizards on the Most Wanted list his first year of active duty. He was also disgustingly fit and voted Most Fanciable Wizard in Witch Weekly five months in a row just this past year.

"Really?" Teddy sounded surprised. His elbows were on the table as he leaned forward in interest.

Harry nodded. "I was thinking we could invite him over for a meal soon, if Ginny doesn't mind."

"Of course not!" She smiled warmly at Teddy. "Anytime you'd like."

"I'm gay!" James blurted the words out without thought, panic shooting a dizzying burst of adrenaline through his body.

All conversation stopped. Every eye looked at him. Taking a deep breath, James slowly let his gaze roam around the table. Some people looked amused, some looked thoughtful, a very few looked shocked. Teddy was one of the latter.

"I'm gay." James repeated, looking straight at Teddy. He heard snickering, made a mental note of the voices he recognized, and vowed to hex them later. "And I've fancied you since I was sixteen years old."

Teddy gaped at him for several long seconds, then threw an almost panicked look first at Harry and then at Ginny. They were two of the people looking most amused. His eyes locked back on James.

Harry cleared his throat again, and Teddy jerked his head around to stare at him. "Perhaps, Teddy, you and James could check on the pie Ginny has in the oven."

Teddy nodded dumbly, pushing back his chair and disappearing from the room without another glance at James. James sat there for a moment staring at the empty space where Teddy had been mere seconds before, wondering what the fuck he had just done.

"James?"

He looked at his dad, silently pushed to his feet, and followed after Teddy. At least his rotten family waited until he had cleared the door before bursting into laughter.

The door in the kitchen that opened onto the garden was wide open. The blast of cold air made James shiver, but he walked outside anyway. Former Gryffindors didn't run up to their old bedrooms and hide under the covers no matter how much they wanted to.

Teddy was standing in the middle of the yard with his back to James, but he turned when he heard James crunching through they frosty grass. His eyes were wild.

"You were eighteen. Eighteen when I saw you just after you left Hogwarts. How you'd changed so much when it hadn't even been a year since I'd seen you..." Teddy shook his head and gave a hollow laugh. "Do you have any idea how I felt? I'd grown up with you! And there I was perving over my godfather's baby boy."

James stared. Teddy had fancied him then? He had lusted after him?

"I was so relieved you were going abroad. Those three months before you left were torture. You were always coming over, wanting to spend time together, and I thought-he thinks of me like a brother, like a friend. If he knew what was really going through my mind when he sits so close to me, he'd run the other way and never come back."

Some small noise escaped James' throat, and Teddy's eyes darkened as he took a step closer. The proximity to Teddy made James feel warm despite the wind chill.

"That's why I took that assignment outside of London. I knew I'd be away when you got back. I'd have a bit more time to get you out from under my skin."

"You didn't have to," James whispered.

"What?"

"Get me out from under your skin. You didn't have to try."

Teddy laughed again, a short, incredulous bark. "Some of those people at that table might not have been surprised by your revelation in there, but I wasn't one of them."

That was a fair point, James acknowledged to himself.

"You know now. I am gay."

Teddy laughed again. "I got that."

"Did you get the second part?" James was the one to step closer this time. "You're more than welcome to think anything you like about me."

Teddy wet his lips, staring intently at James.

"You can do whatever you like to me. Anything."

"James."

James could hear the thin veneer of control shading Teddy's voice. He knew it wouldn't take much to drown his reservations under an upwelling of want.

"I'd strip off for you, right here in the open, in the cold. I'd go down on my knees and suck you until you came down my throat. I'd swallow every drop, taste you, worship your cock with my tongue until you were hard again and ready to bend me over and pound my arse as deep and rough as you wanted. I'd-"

But Teddy had lunged forward with a growl and grabbed his upper arm, spinning them in the glittery swirl of flakes that had just begun to fall. They landed with a crack in Teddy's apartment, and Teddy's mouth was on his in an instant.

Pushed up against the wall, James moaned as Teddy's thigh pressed against his groin with exquisite friction, his wrists held firmly beside his shoulders and Teddy's tongue in his mouth. When Teddy wrenched his mouth away to bite his way down James' neck, James writhed against him.

"Sure you don't want to run away?" Teddy said huskily against the skin of his throat. An inarticulate groan was Teddy's only answer, and he pushed James into the bedroom. James gasped as he landed on the bed, clothes vanished before he quit bouncing.

"Now..." Teddy's voice sent a shiver down James' spine. "What was that about worshipping my cock?"

James scrambled forward, kneeling on all fours and waiting eagerly as Teddy stood by the edge of the bed and unfastened his trousers. The sweet flare of arousal licked through his belly, and James parted his lips as Teddy moved closer. The glistening head of his cock was mesmerizing, and James slid his tongue over the tiny slit, moaning as the taste of it spread over his tongue.

"Suck," Teddy ordered softly, and James rocked forward, sliding his lips down the warm flesh. He was rewarded with the sound of Teddy's breath catching in his throat as James hollowed his cheeks around the shaft. His own cock was aching for touch, but he ignored it, putting all of his efforts into sucking and licking Teddy with unabashed devotion.

He must have been doing something right because Teddy was breathing hard and his hands had come to grip in James' hair. "Christ. James, wait..." He tugged, pulling an unwilling James off his cock with a muttered curse.

Splayed out on the bed, James stared at him with a hungry look that had Teddy shed of his clothes in the blink of eye. His wand was out and a jar flew to his hand as he crawled up between James' legs. His eyes were blazing, and James practically melted into the bed at the heat of it. Teddy was going to fuck him, finally, after all these years. Half-propped up on his elbows, James spread his legs wider and moaned.

"You're so fucking..." Teddy shook his head, twisting the lid off of the jar with a violent twist and digging his fingers into the gel. The jar dropped to the bed as one hand went to James' thigh, pressing it higher up the mattress, and the other dipped between the crease of James' arse. But Teddy only stared down at James' wide open expression, brow furrowing as he bit his lip. "You're not...a virgin, are you? I don't want to hurt you."

Oh, no. Teddy was not going to do this now.

"No!" James' indignation was clear. "I may have been in love with you since I was sixteen, but you were totally unobtainable and I'm not a sodding martyr."

He scowled as Teddy still looked uncertain. With a growl, he grabbed the jar from the bed and shoved his fingers viciously inside. "Anyway, it's not as if I didn't fuck myself every night with my fingers, with whatever I could find, imagining it was your cock drilling into my arse." Holding Teddy's shocked gaze, James pushed slick fingers inside himself, mouth falling open as he pumped them deep.

Teddy gasped and then James found himself practically doubled up, his knees to his shoulders and his arse lifted off the bed as Teddy slicked his cock and pushed into James' oiled hole without further preparation. James clenched his fists in the sheets and groaned as the thick, hard length filled him up. Teddy's cock was infinitely better than his own fingers, better than any dildo he'd ever used, better than anything. "Fuck, Teddy," He moaned. "Your cock isn't really this big, is it? Some metamorphmagus trick, yeah?"

"Want me to make it smaller?"

"Don't you dare."

Teddy's breathless laugh was an odd counterpoint to his almost savage thrusts. James felt like he couldn't breathe, lack of oxygen making his nerves thrum like taut wires. He reveled in it, though he managed a teasing grin. "Thought you were worried about hurting me?"

"That was before I discovered what a filthy little slut you are."

James' laugh choked off as Teddy fisted his cock and began to jerk him in time with each thrust of his hips. He could feel the pleasure building, Teddy's large, warm hand touching him like he'd imagined a thousand times over. "Come on, Jamie," Teddy whispered. "Let me see you come. Come all over yourself."

Oh, Christ. Teddy's voice was so fucking sexy, so hot. Sucking in a huge breath and holding it, James arched his neck as his cock spasmed in Teddy's hand. He felt the warm splatters across his chest, and finally released the air he'd been holding inside his lungs. Teddy's hips continued to pound against him erratically until Teddy came, too, head thrown back in a wordless moan.

James' limbs flopped like wet noodles as Teddy pulled away, but then he was there, pulling James against his side and pushing his fingers through the sweaty hair at James' temples. They lay there silently until James could once again hear more than the sound of blood pounding in his ears.

"James." The fingers in his hair stilled.

"Mm?" He turned into the touch until they started moving again.

"Did you mean what you said?"

"About what?" There had been a lot of things said in the past half hour and James wasn't sure what thing Teddy meant. Frankly, he was too caught up in his post-orgasmic haze to think too hard on it.

"About being in love with me?"

Well, that brought him out of it a bit.

"Er, yes? I mean, it's fine if you don't...you know, feel the same," James said hastily. "I'm good with just having amazing sex, too!"

Teddy laughed and rolled on top of James, grinning down at him with that same expression of fond indulgence he'd worn at dinner.

"Idiot."

Oh. This was really turning out to be the best evening ever.