The Art Of Us

28 • Sixteen Years

Alice strolled her way into the living room of her apartment, thinking she would find FP there trying to make some breakfast, or simply with a cup of coffee on the couch.

Instead, he was sitting fully dressed for the day at the round dinner table with tons of papers on them, that he seemed to be trying to organize.

"What's all this?" She gestured to the chaos on the table, and the first sound of her voice that morning seemed to make FP realize that he wasn't alone anymore.

"Bills, divorce papers, new idea's, sketches, press invites, some mail from fans that Hermione send over here... it's a big mess." He sighed a little, but continued to dig through the pile to make some sort of sense of it.

"Do you need my help?"

She sat down in the chair across of him, figuring that if they would work together, the mess would be organized real soon. They would have some time for the two of them today, if she would give him a hand.

"No baby, you should enjoy your day off. I promise you I'll be done before we have to go Charles' spirit week." He took her hand and kissed her knuckles without stopping to dig through the pile with his free hand.

"We are a team now, FP. You don't have to do these things alone anymore." Alice told him, as she sat down on his lap to get his attention. FP stopped his movements and let his hands rest on her waist, a place they'd rather be.

"Sorry, old habits die hard." He gave her a soft smile.

During his marriage, it was either Gladys taking full control or him taking advantage of the days she wasn't there so he could finally do things the way he wanted to.

Now he was happy in love with someone who was his equal, and somehow it made him even more embarrassed that he had let Gladys walk all over him for years.

He had never been a pushover, or shy for that matter. He had power and authority, he knew that. It was more and more reason to see how big Gladys' impact had been.

Alice would never try to walk over him, she'd always be right by his side. He was getting used to that and he couldn't wait for the day that it all felt natural to have such a loving and supporting partner.

"I'm glad to have you, Al." He said softly, pecking a sweet kiss on her cheek.

Her hair tickled his face a little, but he didn't mind as long as he could smell her hair. It made him feel like he was home.

"Feels pretty good to be this power couple together. Just like we used to be." He smirked at her and tightened his hands on her hips.

Alice giggled and took his face into her tiny hands, before kissing him deeply. Alice had never felt like that before. Being a power couple with him sounded pretty good to her.

As she kissed him, she let her hands travel from his cheeks down to his chest, where she stopped midway when her fingers traced the little piece of exposed collarbone. Even with her eyes closed and her lips chasing his, she could feel a scar there, one she hadn't noticed before.

She unlocked her lips from his to look at the piece of skin her index finger was tracing and FP gazed at her with soft, innocent eyes.

"You have these scars here... what happened?" She asked him quietly, her eyes never leaving his piece of damaged skin.

"Car accident, years ago." He told her, his hands softly stroking up and down her side. FP wasn't sure why she was looking at the scar like that, but he let her be for a little while.

"Was it bad?" Finally, she looked up to meet his eyes.

For some reason, he could see that she had tears swimming in her eyes, as if she was crying for the hurt that the scar had caused him.