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Chapter Text

After weeks of searching for a place that fit their various requirements, Harry and Draco had decided on a flat that took up an entire floor. It had two bedrooms and two offices. Both offices were relatively large in case they chose to work in proximity rather than separately. The windows in each room were wide enough to allow in natural light. It was close to the gallery where Draco works restoring paintings for displays, as well as organizing various exhibitions. Harry works part-time at the same gallery facilitating tours for visiting schools and coming up with new activities to complete during the tour. Harry’s other part-time job is beta-testing online for a game development company.

Harry is home a bit more than Draco is. He brings fresh flowers and places them in each room. He leaves the most flowers on Draco’s side of the bed. Harry loves the fresh smell of flowers in their home. His primary motivation for bringing home flowers is to hear Draco tell him about the meaning behind each bloom he chooses that day. He prepares fresh food for the week to supply both of their lunches. Draco bakes Harry’s favorite sweets in return. Draco keeps jars and jars of freshly dried herbs to make them tea each night, and each morning that aligns for them.

It took a long time for Draco to accept that Harry wanted to move in with him. It took him even longer to accept that they had a relationship, and it was not simply Harry being fond of his art or his mother’s kind gestures. Draco did not understand the appeal. What did he offer that Harry could not find elsewhere in half the time? Though, he understood Harry’s appeal. The charisma that drew him in. The parents that adored him and anyone he brought around. His uncles always seemed to be around his parents, and the way they were so utterly charming. Harry’s figure, his hair, his eyes, that scar on his forehead from some shenanigan in his childhood, his voice, his depth, the way he cared, the thoughtfulness, the boldness, the way he works with the children at their work, and his ability to make Draco melt easily.

Harry had been smitten with Draco from his first biting comment at the mess he left in a room after a tour with a group of reception children. Harry had worked to earn Draco’s open affection. He had worked to take him out the first time. As time went on, it became easier for him to understand how to appeal to Draco. They spent time with each other’s family, a lot of it. They spent years being friends before Sirius convinced Harry that there was definitely more there. It took months of dates, and romance for Draco to understand Harry’s intention to date him. Harry could not wrap his mind around why Draco could not see his own astonishing beauty. The man was everything Harry could have wished for. He is a challenge, a wealth of knowledge, blond, tall, slender yet muscular, he has detail himself but detailed within everything he does, artistic, and he could set Harry alight with a look alone.

Draco’s mother accepted their relationship quickly. His father took time to come around, but it was never malicious-- only protective. The first time Narcissa meets Harry, she whispers to Draco about how inspiring he must be to her son’s art. Narcissa had inspired her son’s career from his early childhood. She would go out into their small gardens to pick flowers with Draco. They would make pigments together, create and dry canvases, and stretch them over wood frames. She had been painting, drawing, and expressing creativity with her son since before he was born. Narcissa sang to her pregnant belly. She splashed paint upon her torso and pressed against a slightly stretchy canvas. This work was displayed in the hall leading to the master bedroom. The mingling of grey, green, silver, and black highlights the silhouette of her breasts, and womb at term.

Harry’s parents accepted Draco into the fold quickly. His last relationship ended with a ‘We are better off as friends,’ and it was not an enormous affair. Draco would have thought since he was Sirius’s second cousin, they would be skeptical... Sirius did not interact much with his family aside from Regulus. Regulus had a standing day each week that he spent with everyone as well. Typically, there would be a couple of hours for James and Regulus exclusively. When this happened, though it happened every time Regulus visited, Sirius behaved dramatically making appalled gestures and cuddling into Remus. It was clear that Sirius was joking, though, Lily teased him about it the most. When Lily’s friends visited, there was a dashing woman who also had a similar arrangement with her. Her name was Dorcas. It puzzled Draco that Lily, James, and Harry were okay with a full house all the time. After a couple of visits, he and Harry went on a walk around the little town. Harry pointed out how everyone stayed quite close, and they all visited their homes as well.

Draco was excited to finally meet his cousins again as an adult. Oftentimes, everyone at the house would commit to an activity together. Sirius was extremely surprised that Harry had come across someone from his family randomly. James and Lily fell for the first man that Harry brought home, and they both saw through the notion that Harry felt platonic about him.

Harry’s childhood home was exceedingly comforting. His parents had an orange cat and a snowy owl. Though, why Harry’s family had gotten him an owl of all birds was odd. Harry explained to him shortly after meeting her that they had rehabilitated her when he was two. They had tried releasing her several times and she simply returned perching on Harry’s tiny shoulder. Both the cat and the owl immediately loved Draco. That was almost instantaneously enough for Peter, and Lily. Peter was more skeptical of Draco than Lily ever was. He knew of Sirius’s past with his family, and someone from that family being around Harry was absolutely and immediately of his concern.

Neither of their parents had ever seen their two men behave the way they did around one another. Neither family had witnessed this kind of relationship in either of their sons. The Potters and the Malfoys watched as their sons experienced the unrestrained closeness, and the visceral tearing down of all their walls with another person unlike any previous romance either of them had had.

Most nights that Draco was home at their flat, he followed his routine. He would change into his nightclothes, a different colored set for each day immediately as he returned home. He would shower, and take care of his skin. Then, he would prepare a custom blend of tea for him and Harry.

The rest of the night was unrestrained by routine. Some nights he would bake, others he would take Harry’s jumpers and sketch on their sofa or their bed. Most often he would throw on his artist's overalls and smock on top of his nightclothes. He would engage in one discipline or another. Draco would mess his hands with clay, paint, or charcoal. Harry’s heart would always lurch when he saw Draco’s face smeared with whatever medium he was working on that day.

Harry returns home at midday or early evening most days. He enters his office with one of Draco’s fresh baked goods and a coffee with cream and sugar. He logs into his second job’s intranet remotely. He opens the program that contains unreviewed scripts of code, and complaints about bugs in different games sorted by number of complaints. Harry generally sorts through the entire list of complaints within three hours. He averages fixing roughly 40-120 error codes each hour depending on their nuanced difficulty.

When Harry is simply fixing scripts, he will send them through an AI bot to see if they can identify what could be between 10-50 error codes. He will send it through a maximum of three times prior to fixing the remaining error codes himself. The game complaints are his favorite fixes. Usually, when he fixes several bugs for the same game, he will stream that game to test his work as soon as he has clocked out.

Streaming was something Harry had started with James, Remus, and Peter one day when he was around age 13. In truth, they had played a game together while on a voice call. Harry had enjoyed narrating his experiences in the game so much that began looking for a way to make it something he could do. Whenever his dad’s friends could not play, he would reach out to Ron, Neville, and Dean. They would spend time in the early hours of the morning playing and talking. Hermione, Luna, and Seamus preferred story-driven games, and role-playing games (RPGs) as opposed to first-person shooters (FPS).

Once Harry was of age, he created a streaming profile. He streamed often, and at first, his friends would simply watch. With time, he began to gain quite the following. Though there were phases of what that looked like. Between gaining a major following and having no following, Harry met a couple of people on his streams that seemed to be on at the same time he was. One of their gamer tags was TheoreticallyNottYours, and the other’s was BlaiseOfGlory. Unbeknownst to Harry, the two of them were Draco’s childhood friends.

Draco would sometimes sneak glances to see who Harry was playing games with on the stream. He caught the two gamer tags in one session and smirked so thoroughly at Harry. One would never know if Draco had told them that his boyfriend is a streamer. One would never know if he had told them to play with Harry or if it was another of those magical coincidences that tended to happen in their relationship.

The first phase of substantial follower gains Harry received were fans of the content and purpose of his streams. These first couple hundred followers would enjoy his testing of major bugs in various games, his continuous stream of expletives, and his expressiveness. Only a handful of them caught that all the bugs he tested were from the same game developer. Instead of agreeing with those who pointed out his tendency to play the same developers' games, he would discuss his job as a beta tester referring to the company in a code word. These followers who began his base knew every code word from the beginning.

The second wave of followers came after a well-known streamer shared a clip of Harry testing a bug that he fixed. The clip featured Harry vocally rejoicing over a bug being fixed. The well-known streamer captioned the post: “Now, this guy gets it.” Harry found it quite hysterical because, of course, he got it. He had written new code to fix the issue. After this clip was shared, Harry gained a substantial following. The rest of his followers came in waves. Sometimes he would gain thousands of followers from a clip of his streams going viral.

So yes, Harry has gathered a substantial following. Substantial enough that several hundred people would watch his streams in the first few minutes from when he started them. Harry has a decent social media presence. Decent is the operative word. He is pretty awkward with his posts and is not consistent. The content he posts about varies from game discussion, posting screenshots of comments on his streams, and announcing his streaming schedule for the week. His biography in all of his social media was: Streamer, Beta Tester for [REDACTED], Partner to the lovely DLM, & Owl-Father. Sometimes, Draco would say something so lovely, or hilarious that Harry would add it to his bio in quotes.

Occasionally, he’ll engage with Theo and Blaise online. When he does, it is usually fraternal insults and sarcasm. Harry overuses tone tags in these interactions. His following tend to take the things he tweets literally, and, though Theo and Blaise can handle it, he prefers not to take chances.

Now the comments on his streams…The comments were another story altogether. A series of small stories-in fact.

Story Number One

Harry’s series of nicknames for his employer become increasingly more complex and tedious. He would change the inclination of his voice for a more dramatic annunciation when stating one of the many names. A list of examples include [REDACTED], Code Failures, The Cruel Error Makers, The Company I Clean Up For, Code Repairer AI’s Worst Nightmare, 1011101001010101010, From Whence My Time is Robbed, & The Reason My Partner Gets Fresh Dinner and Meals Packed for the Week.

Every time the nickname for his second employer changed, those die-hard fans would comment on the running list. It was as if they kept it on hand to update each time he changed it. It never failed to draw a laugh-especially as the list became longer and longer.

Story Number Two

It was rare that Harry would play any story-based game let alone a horrific one or an emotional story. For a charity event, Harry’s audience chose one horror game for him to play, and one emotionally-charged story game. Harry was not excited. Hermione, Luna, and Seamus were extremely excited. On the first day, the three of them decided to watch the stream together from one of their homes.

It was a fantastic affair of unrestrained screams, yelps, ‘oh fuck,’ ‘disgusting, bloody hell,’ and the like. Those unrestrained screams drew Draco to Harry’s office more than once.

“Bloody fuck!” Harry yelped, and his gaming chair screeched against the floor.

Draco’s agile steps, usually silent, had a slightly soft sound against the wood flooring of their flat. Harry had gifted him house shoes. Harry did not hear him with his headset on, a bead of sweat on his forehead. The headphones had HJP emblems on each ear. The H red, the J gold, and the P blue.

Draco’s eyes widened at Harry simply playing a game. Harry caught his gaze in a few moments, looking over his panicked face. Harry pauses the game and pushes one long golden finger against the key that enables his mic. A small ‘click’ sound from the keyboard and a mic enable noise from his PC.

“I will be right back.” He said to his audience.

Comments:

-No! You were about to get to the best part of this game.

-Harry, noooooo, come back, we’ll miss your voice.

-I am dying to know what happens next1!1

-Do you guys think that his partner came into the room?

-HARRRY HAS A PARTNER?!

—> Yes, it’s in every social media bio of his.

TheoreticallyNottYours: @BlaiseOfGlory, think you know who ruined a work in progress when H screamed?

BlaiseOfGlory: Either that or he forgot that today was horror game night. Knowing D, H screaming messed an art piece up.

HGranger: BOYS. Oh, D is going to freak out.

ShamelessSea: They’ve done it now, aye. GOOD WORK!

LUNAr: What a lovely way to inform the public…Without either of their knowledge…

-DID ONE OF YOU JUST SAY HE????????????

-TheoreticallyNottYours: Oh Fuck.

-BlaiseOfGlory: Fuck, indeed, T. My bad, H.

The comments raged on relentlessly. Many viewers had missed the commotion. Those who had caught it were rapidly sending questioning comments. The comments translated over to several social media platforms. The screen capture of Theo and Blaise’s comments circulated rapidly by the next day.

Meanwhile… Draco looked down at his house-shoe-covered feet for a moment. Draco was wearing the lavender set of his nightclothes with an artist’s smock overtop. There were flecks of green and golden brown paint on his face. Harry removed his headset, straightened his back, and walked over to Draco. He cupped Draco’s face. Draco nestles his face into Harry’s hands.

“You were worried,” Harry said.

“I was, that last sound you made caused me to jump… I swiped a large paintbrush over the eyes of a portrait I am doing… Of a certain gorgeous git in my life,” Draco said, the slightest flush across his cheeks.

Harry could feel the blush as it traveled Draco’s face. He melted. He kissed Draco softly. Draco’s hands gripped gently, though, firm, on Harry’s hips. At his touch, Harry pressed his body against Draco’s. Draco chuckled into the kiss deepening it for a moment before pulling away.

“Let’s see this painting before I go back to this awful horror game.”

Draco took Harry’s hand and brought him to the adjacent office. The canvas was painted a cream color, a few shades darker than off-white. There was a wispy black line framing the portrait of Harry. It was a gorgeous rendition of him. Each curl was gorgeously shaded, the shadows in his face, his skin tone, the scar on his forehead. It was clear that Draco had been working hard on all of it but at the time on the eyes. There was a large smudge of golden brown, bright emerald green, black, and white across the portion of his face where the eyes would have been. Somehow, it looked purposeful. There were two drips from the smudge framing either side of his face. One was emerald green, and the other was a barely mixed grey mingling with swirls of white and black.

“Draco…” Harry said, breathless. “This… It’s beautiful! It looks like you did it on purpose.”

From hands cupped over his face, eyes peeking out, Draco looks at the painting.

“Really?” He asked, and he removed his hands to look at the painting again. “Oh, it does.”

Draco was pleased, Harry was utterly flattered. Both of them looked at the painting for a moment. Harry lunged at Draco and picked him up. Draco shrieked and then laughed. Harry hugged the backs of Draco’s thighs and spun him around. When he put him down, Draco lunged forward as Harry did moments before. He encloses him in a hug before giving each of Harry’s cheeks a kiss. Harry kisses him again for a brief moment.

“Now! Go back into your office, finish that charity night, and I’ll listen to your shrill screams while I bake.” Draco said, stepping back a fraction. “You’re a big baby.” He whispers as Harry begins to walk to his office.

Harry turns back and gives him a good-natured smirk-like scowl. His phone had several notifications that he quickly checked. Blaise, Theo, and Hermione were texting him about what had happened in the comments. Harry was not particularly phased. He simply finished as much of the game as he could in his stream. When it was done, he called Draco into the office. Draco finished his dark chocolate scones and hung up his apron on its usual hook in the kitchen. Harry is lounging in his chair with his hair mussed, and a slightly conflicted though happy look on his face. Draco places half of his weight on Harry’s right leg with his feet planted between Harry’s legs. He gives Harry half of a warm scone eating the other half himself. Draco smells like dark chocolate and warm sugar. They both eat in silence for a moment. Draco looks expectantly at Harry.

“Now that you’ve had your treat, Potter, do tell me what has your face half scrunched,” Draco said.

Harry blushed, sat up a bit straighter, and looped an arm around Draco’s waist.

“So… In the stream today, Blaise and Theo were commenting when I left…Blaise said something like ‘He must have forgotten today was horror game night.’ The audience went wild with it. I’m sure it will be all over any consumable media I’ve my name on tomorrow. I wanted you to know in case you come across it.” Harry said, speaking a little fast.

“Oh, well. I do not quite mind that. It does not seem as though you have an issue with that being out there. I think due to the sheer quantity of your audience… I would rather my face not be attached to this.” Draco said, a hint of a smile on his face.

“Oh! I’d say that is quite knowledgeable on your part.” Harry said, chuckling. “They can be quite vicious.”

Draco scooted them into his desk and began rifling through the comments on Harry’s latest stream. He moved to sit between Harry’s parted legs as he searched and read through. Draco found a lot of rather filthy comments… Some random ones discussed Harry’s references to his job, and some individuals corrected others on various things.

“Let’s see here,” Draco says, sarcastically. “I want to make you scream like that Harry… Your voice is like honey dripping on my tongue… I would pay to hear you read…Oh, now that is a good one. …Scream for us, Harry!”

Draco speaks in a tone that is silky, smooth, and sensual. After the first comment he read, Harry is blushing. He spluttered after the second and choked half on a laugh at the last one. As soon as Draco finished speaking he grabbed him by the hips and pulled him onto the chair completely. They had mere moments of cuddling, and the beginning of a soft kiss when the chair fell backwards. The sound of plastic cracking, a sharp noise of cast aluminum bending, then snapping, and they were on the floor. Harry burst into laughter, and Draco followed suit. Both of them move to the unobstructed floor. Draco immediately on top of Harry again.

“Don’t think I will be letting your fans get away with e-ravishing you, Potter!” Draco said between laughs.

“Okay, Okay,” Harry said, catching his breath. “We’re going to need a stronger chair that can fit both of us though.”

Story Number Three

The second day of Harry’s charity event was for the story game. Harry knew nothing of the game. It was titled ‘The Circle of Love.’ Hermione, Luna, and Neville had played the game and refused vehemently to give Harry any details. When Draco asked the three of them for details, they gave them to him happily knowing he would be able to keep a secret.

Draco’s ulterior motives for details of the game were clear to him, and him only. The game began with quick scenes of a relationship being established. The first 10% of the game was a buildup of the relationship between the two main characters, there was intimacy, and a continued progression of their relationship strengthening. This was why he would be present during this streaming event. There was sure to be e-ravishing from Harry’s fans.

As soon as the relationship seemed stable, the main character’s partner had to travel to see a family member who was ill. The main character has to cope with the absence of their partner and the death of their dog. The main character remained in their home. The next portion of the story unfolded through the main character living in their home while their partner was away. The main character would write letters to their partner. When their partner returns the two pour into one another and heal together.

As the game progresses, the garden outside of their home expands. Then, the main character’s partner dies unexpectedly. The story once again progresses through the changes in their home through the main character’s eyes.

When Harry began streaming that day, Draco insisted that he would be working on his projects within Harry’s office. Draco pays attention to Harry’s voice as he talks through the game. As soon as he hears his voice drop several octaves, Draco places his chin on Harry’s shoulder.

“You will be allowing me to speak with your fans, Harry,” Draco said, planting a kiss on his jaw.

“Draco, are you sure?” Harry asked, voice still low.

“I am deadly sure.”

Harry presses the button to enable the microphone. Draco speaks in his poshest tone.

“Attention fans of Harry, this is his partner speaking. You will cease your commentary on his lovely voice. You will also cease your comments regarding fantasies including him,” Draco said.

Harry blushed, the heat traveled down his neck. Draco could feel it. Harry’s finger did not leave the button enabling his microphone. Draco kisses the corner of his jaw with a graze of teeth. It would be fair game whether his microphone picked up on that. Considering his high-quality headset, and the proximity of the mic to his jaw, it was a sure thing. Harry makes a small noise.

“Dearest, I believe you are providing them with more auditory content,” Draco said, still posh as ever, voice lower and a bit more self-satisfied.

Harry’s finger flew off of the microphone enabling button.

-HIS PARTNER’S VOICE!1!!!

-IS JUST AS HOT AS HIS

-WHAT ARE THEY DOING?

-His partner definitely just kissed him, and it could not have been a simple peck.

-WHY DID HARRY MAKE THAT NOISE?/?

-AUDITORY CONTENT obtained.

BlaiseOfGlory: Christ, the two of them are disgustingly in love.

TheoreticallyNottYours: Yeah, well, can’t disagree with the fans either.

BlaiseOfGlory: T????

TheoreticallyNottYours: I didn’t say anything, @BlaiseOfGlory

-If they do not do a stream together soon, I will ***.

-VOICE CONTENT

-Harry’s partner is mad possessive. (;

-I would be too tf

-Don’t stop now Harry, we were just getting to the delectable levels of voice content.

-Screaming. Crying. Throwing Up.

-I am feral for these two, and I haven’t seen either of their faces.

HGranger: This is quite the comment section tonight.

ShamelessSea: Classic Drarry.

TheoreticallyNotYours: @ShamelessSea, what did you just call them?

-DRARRY??????????

The stream continued. Harry had to laugh at several of the comments. Draco abandoned his project to sit next to Harry and read through the comments. Occasionally, a pleased little laugh would be caught in the mic from Draco.

Harry reached the sadder portions of the game. He was unable to hold in soft dry sobs when the dog died. When the main character’s partner died, Draco provided a freshly baked scone from the day prior and a box of tissues.

“Why did you all vote for this game? Do you want to hear me cry over the stream?” Harry asked into the mic, voice watery.

-Share our pain, Harry.

-We only wanted you to enjoy something different.

HGranger: It is a good game, Harry.

LUNAr: The nature of life has sadness, dear.

-ShamelessSea: Bet you all that D is sitting right next to H, still.

-YES

-WE ALL SOBBED OVER THIS GAME, YOUR TURN

“Okay, okay. I’ll keep playing,” Harry said, sniffling.

***

With his charity event over, Harry went back to streaming first-person-shooter games and testing his fixes. It was often Blaise and Theo that played with him. After the event with the chair breaking, Harry and Draco invested in a chair that would support their combined weight. One late night after Draco finished baking an immaculately rich cheesecake, he entered Harry’s office.

Draco. He smelled of coffee, graham crackers, and sugar were Harry’s first thoughts. Then, he looked up. Draco glowed in the light of the office, standing in the doorway- posture relaxed; a cream-colored blanket on his shoulders. He held a small hardcover sketchbook in his right hand with his aluminum case of charcoal pencils secured by an index finger. His face held a question. Harry knew. Harry’s strong fingers glide over the mechanical keyboard, messaging Blaise and Theo.

One finger pressing the mic-enabling button, “Will be AFK for a couple of minutes.”

Draco walked over to Harry. Harry backs his chair up from his desk. Draco sits down on his lap. They share a quick kiss. Draco placed himself onto Harry in a functional embrace. His head lays against Harry’s left shoulder, body pressed against him. Draco pulls both of his arms over Harry’s shoulder. Draco’s legs hang down. It was a position that would allow him to draw whilst Harry games. Harry scoots his chair back in. His fingers run over the keyboard eliciting soft sounds. Draco shifts in their embrace tucking his legs against Harry’s hips.

“Ever coming back, Potter?” Blaise asked in a characteristic drawl.

“Back now, Zabini? Use my surname and I’ll use yours,” Harry said.

“You monster! They will never leave me alone again,” Blaise said.

Draco’s pencil begins to glide over the page as he draws. Harry resumes his game. Occasionally, Harry’s movements jolt Draco’s pencil around the page. Draco wished he could mind when Harry messed with his drawing, but he could not.

“We lost this raid because of you, Harry,’ Theo said.

“Perhaps distracted by someone,” Blaise said.

Draco chuckles fondly. Harry presses the enable microphone button.

“Fuck off, mate,” Harry said.

The next day after Harry’s fans found Blaise’s Twitter account, he posted something. He vaguely asked permission from the two of them prior to sharing the images. It was an image of Draco tucked into Harry like he had been last night. Harry’s headset was on, arms secured around him while his fingers rested on the keyboard. Draco’s fingers smudged with charcoal, blissfully drawing while close to his love. The next image was taken moments after. Draco’s sketchbook was carefully abandoned on Harry's desk beside his keyboard. Harry’s headset sitting on the monitor, and the game paused. Draco had one hand on Harry’s jaw, the other on his hip. Harry tugged gently on the collar of Draco’s gunmetal grey nightshirt. The tweet read: Payback, Harry. Your move. Apologies, my dearest Draco.

Chapter Text

See the link below for the podic, hope you enjoy. https://audio.com/rapidlyobsessed/audio/the-clicking-of-keys-and-smudge-of-paints