Unspoken Love

21: TATTOOS

"This is a letter from Jacob?" Scorpius asked, holding the letter in his open palms gingerly as if it would zap him with electricity if he touched it anymore. He looked up at Albus who was standing before him, pacing back and forth, waiting for Scorpius to open it. 

"Yes and I meant to show it to you sooner but things just got in the way and I figured I just had to do it and I'm sorry it had to be tonight after you made seeker and everything, I never meant to ruin your mood or anything but please just read it." Albus spilled quickly, hardly taking a breath between sentences. Scorpius raised his eyebrows, prepared for the worst as a reflection of Albus's apparent anxiety. 

"No...you read it to me." he said after staring down at the envelope for a moment. Scorpius held out his hands for Albus to retrieve the letter and for a second the two boys only stared at each other. 

"You want me to...read it out loud?" Albus asked tensely, "But Scorpius I don't want to read it again. It-It scares me."

"It scares you? Why?" The blonde asked, suddenly concerned by his boyfriend's reaction. Scorpius had been preparing for a letter outlining some sort of scandal, something that might break them up again, not something that was making Albus's shoulders touch his ears in nervousness and his throat to tighten up at the thought. 

"When did you get this?" Scorpius asked when Albus didn't answer. 

"Um," Albus said hoarsely, the contents of the letter were already fogging up his brain again and he didn't like it at all, "Before we got back together again...maybe a week before that-"

"You got this nearly 2 months ago and you didn't tell me?" Scorpius demanded, forgetting Albus's obvious discomfort about the entire situation. 

"Please don't be angry with me," Albus pleaded, his eyes filling up with tears. His anxiety had always been constant...a daily interference, and could get intense quite quickly. 

"I'm not," Scorpius said more gently, "I'm just confused."

"After I got it and read it...I wanted to just...burn it or something but I couldn't stop thinking about what Jacob had written and it was freaking me out so I just put it in my drawer and forgot about it the best that I could...and obviously it was easier to just put it behind me once we got back together but I didn't want you to accidentally find it and wonder why I hid it from you because that's not what I was doing!" Albus explained, his voice rising with every word. Scorpius reached out to hold his hand and this seemed to prompt Albus to take a deep breath. 

"And anyways...I wasn't hiding it from you. I was more hiding it from myself and I just happened to remember it again a few days ago. I don't want to read it again, it makes me remember what he did and just...please don't make me read it."

"I won't," Scorpius said softly, bringing Albus's fingers to his lips for a comforting kiss, "Here, sit here while I read. Don't worry. I'm not mad...and this letter can't hurt you, okay?"

     Albus nodded and followed where Scorpius had patted his hand beside him on his bed. The brunette curled up beside his boyfriend and watched him unfold the envelope and pull out the parchment inside that held scrawling, entitled handwriting:

To Albus Potter, 

     My headmaster forced me to write you this letter apologizing for my childish attitude back at Hogwarts. Luckily I've got every Professor in this castle charmed and they trust me so much that they aren't going to proof read so instead I'd like to tell you what I wish I could've said before our untimely separation. When I first entered your school I was impressed. The architecture was grand and the magic was especially powerful. Scorpius was the first one to say hello to me in your own common room and to be quite honest, it was obvious he was trying too hard. Now that I look back I can't help but wonder if it was because he was on the prowl for a new best friend, or maybe new boyfriend. Maybe you were wondering that too.