Ride or Die

Blood is Thicker

Chapter 25: Blood is Thicker

It took a moment - several moments - for Theo to stop pacing; Fleur, in the meantime, sat herself down on the bed, crossing her legs and letting her gaze follow him warily throughout the room.

"Your phone's buzzing," she informed him, gesturing to where he'd thrown it down on the duvet. "Draco's texting you."

"Yeah," Theo muttered, rubbing his forehead. "I just - I need to - "

He broke off, and Fleur shrugged, somewhat sympathetically.

"Take a minute," she agreed. "God knows that man could learn to wait."

Theo sighed, shaking his head.

"Was I too hard on the doctor?" he asked, spinning to face Fleur. "She's new to all this, and she's - " he grimaced. "You know. Normal."

Fleur shrugged again; this time it was nonchalance. "How normal can she be?" she prompted dubiously. "She knew what she was getting into when she met Draco, didn't she?"

"Nobody knows what they're getting into with this shit," Theo retorted, massaging the bridge of his nose. "Even I still fucking don't - and by the way," he interrupted himself sharply, recalling his earlier irritation. "Were you really not going to tell me about Marvolo Gaunt?"

Fleur said nothing, her expression coolly fixed, and Theo glared unhappily down at her.

"What's the point of swimming in the same fucking underbelly if you're just - " he faltered, stammering. "What's the point," Theo blurted out, "if you're just going to let me drown?"

The words had come out louder - firmer, or, perhaps, harsher - than he'd intended, but he steadied himself, readying for a fight. Fleur, on the other hand, leaned back onto her elbows, giving him a careful, scrutinizing glance.

"You're being unreasonable," she remarked eventually. "I gave you my reasons."

Theo stared, wanting to scowl at her, but found the effort hard to conjure; instead, he threw himself down on the bed beside her, bringing his hands to his face.

"I know," he muttered, the words smuggling their way through the gaps in his fingers. "I guess I just forgot you don't play for my team."

She let out a long, burdened sigh, and then rolled over, propping her head up on her elbow to look at him.

"I do," she murmured, resting her hand on his chest. "Not this team," she said, flicking lightly against his Dark Mark tattoo, "but yours. Your team. Ours." She swallowed heavily, shifting over to rest her head against his shoulder. "Perhaps I forgot for a moment."

Theo, who had never been particularly picky with apologies, found the statement satisfactory, smoothing her hair under his fingers; then he remembered, with a sudden flash of clarity, that he'd been in the middle of something before being held captive by an ill-timed existential crisis.

"Phone?" he prompted, and she reached over and handed it to him, slapping it down in his palm. He tapped on the messages, reading the one he'd sent - Ever heard of Marvolo Gaunt? - followed by Draco's response:

Yeah

"Verbose, Draco," he muttered, shaking his head as he freed his arm from around Fleur's torso, raising the phone over his face to type in an answer.

well who the fuck is he you dick, Theo replied.

"Succinct," Fleur noted.