Lean on Me ||perciver

4. Nest Building

Oliver groggily emerged from his room, having slept off the effects of the terrible dust from the day before. Hopefully, he would be able to clear everything up with Percy and go back to how things had always been. He had no idea how it would play out, but he had to be confident in his and Percy's friendship.

If he could just get Percy to put down his work for two seconds, he would explain himself. Then, he would proceed to send howlers to the twins for the trouble they had caused.

With a deep breath, Oliver rolled his shoulders and took a few confident strides into the kitchen to see-

No Percy.

Maybe his room, then? He turned and marched to his flatmate's bedroom door, nervous. He could do this.

Oliver extended a shaky hand and knocked on the door, then waited for a reply, which never came.

"Percy?" He called, wondering where his flatmate had gone. He slowly turned the handle and opened the door to a Percy-less room. If he wasn't in the whole apartment, then he had either gone on a walk or work.

It was probably the latter.

Sighing with disappointment, Oliver returned to the kitchen and swept his gaze over the room. He knew that it was best to keep busy, and it was late anyway, so he may as well get started on lunch. Then he could do some cleaning, maybe rearrange his room...he just had to keep himself busy.

Oliver rolled his sweater sleeves up with determination and set to work, starting with the food. He had discussed the recipe with his mother on the phone, so he was prepared for a nice distraction from Percy's expression earlier in the bathroom...

Pushing away his dreaded thoughts, Oliver gritted his teeth and started on his dough. Personally, he liked his crusts to be crunchy, but also not to the point where it was too hard. He wondered how Percy liked his crusts-

No. Now was definitely not the time to be thinking about Percy at all. He had to focus.

That morning, Oliver spent all of his frustrations on his cooking, rolling it into the dough. He didn't know when his gut-wrenching sadness had transformed into anger, nor did he care.

Once he had slammed the pie into the oven to bake, Oliver swept to the living room and unleashed his pent up frustration into cleaning spells, fluffing up the couch cushions, dusting the shelves and clearing up whatever dirt was on the carpet and floors. He cleared off the table, spelled the plates and bowls to wash themselves in the sink, and levitated Percy's scattered work files to a corner of the coffee table.

He honestly felt ridiculous at the end of his cleaning frenzy. It was as if the older he got, the more like his mother he became, tidying up the house when under stress. It wasn't like he could take his broom out to fly when he had a pie baking in the oven, so what else was he supposed to occupy his mind with?

Feeling suddenly lost, Oliver stood in the kitchen, watching as the dishes were scrubbed, dried, and stacked away in their places. Absently, Oliver wished that he, too had a place to fit into perfectly.

Shaking his head and feeling silly for wanting to be like a plate, Oliver slid to the floor to lean against the warm oven. He wished that Percy was with him, instead of leaving him alone to stew over what had happened. How he was going to explain, or give excuses on the prior events? Whatever his reasons were for leaving, Oliver couldn't lose Percy from his life. They were best mates first and foremost, no matter how much Oliver fancied him. If it meant swallowing his feelings for the rest of his life to keep Percy close, he would do so without a second thought.

But his feelings had seemed to be reciprocated. No uninterested person would lean that close after a confession like that, and that's what scared him. Percy seemed interested, but he had left before things could be cleared up and answered for. Oliver could understand that there were valid reasons for Percy to leave, like avoidance, insecurity, or fear. He wouldn't blame Percy. Rather, Oliver would wait for him to come home, where he could speak to each other and clear the air like adults.