"no, vic. stop being a bitch. you don't understand." teddy insisted. it could've been considered unreasonable to call victorie a bitch, but teddy had his reasoning. she didn't know the pressure that was on him and the need he felt to get this perfect.
he wiped a bit of sweat that was forming on his forehead off with the sleeve of his denim jacket. the heat of the room was making things ten times worse so teddy shrugged the jacket off, throwing it somewhere, leaving him stood in his ripped jeans and his t-shirt.
"teddy, are you shitting me right now?" vic replied.
teddy noticed out of the corner of his eye that she caught his jacket and folded it over the dining room chair. he still didn't understand why the room was so hot.
"no i'm fucking not, hun, now grab the butter." teddy ordered, thoroughly reading the recipe in front of him.
"don't tell me what to do, twat." victoire smirked back, but opened the fridge and got the butter out for teddy's anyway.
teddy also watched and as she opened a couple of windows and shut the oven door. maybe that was why it was so bloody hot. or maybe it was because it was mid spring and they hadn't prepared for the sun that april was going to offer them. usually, it's pissing it down with rain in april. i'll let you in on a secret, that's why they call it april showers because it's rains all the fucking time.
"fuck off, victorie."
there should probably be some context behind this. in a massive state of panic and realisation that teddy had about him being bisexual, he wanted to tell jamie. they were best friends, of course he wanted to tell him. teddy was always kind of open like that. with what had been going on between the two recently, he wanted jamie to know. but only that he was bi, not that he was head over heels for the potter.
and the only way, according to teddy, to actually do that would be by baking some bi buns (try saying that five times fast). so here he was, with the aid of vic, baking some buns to tell jamie he was bisexual. what other way could there be for teddy to do so?
the choice to help him was so clearly vic because one, teddy can't bake for shit, he's used ingredients out of date and has also burnt the kitchen done, and two, because vic was one of the only people who already knew he was bi, and she could bake like mary berry.
"no, teds you're doing it wrong. here, let me." victorie took the bowl away from him and started to mix the ingredients herself. teddy didn't know what he was doing wrong, but looking at the way vic was doing it, compared to the way he was doing it, it seemed a lot less messy vic's way.
teddy decided to pass some time while vic was mixing (god help anyone who disrupted her baking). he opened up his phone and automatically went on instagram. a post from jamie showed up straight away, one of a girl. was jamie on a date?
he read down the caption and who was tagged, emily thomas-finnigan. jamie and her were always fairly close at school, he guessed they were dating now, it only seemed natural. before he could get to the comments, his scrolling got interrupted by vic grabbing his phone away and locking it.
"how do you want to make them bi? because we could separate the mixture into three bowls and use food colouring to make the mixture the bi colours and then..."
teddy dosed off halfway through her speaking, his mind occupied on jamie and this new girlfriend he apparently has. why hadn't he told him? and to think he was going to tell jamie how he felt; it seemed like absolute bullshit now.
"...so what do you think?"
"i think we should go with whatever you deem best, mary berry."
so they decided to layer the mixture into the bun cases, making it look like the bisexual pride flag when you cut into it. teddy definitely approved of vic's choice. the buns were in the oven, and the timer was set for 20 minutes. now was clean up time.
teddy got one of the piping bags full of left over blue dyed bun mixture with the intent of putting it in the bin, but then an idea struck him. he shook up behind victoire before pushing out the remaining mixture down her back.
"teddy!" she screamed and ran away. "you absolute pillock!"
she grabbed the purple mixture piping bag before squirting some out in the vague direction of teddy.
"bastard!" teddy's scooped some other mixture out of a bowl with a spoon and flung it off at vic so screamed when it hit her right in the chest.
teddy noticed vic's gaze latch onto the bag of flour left on the side. "vic, no."
vic only smirked and dashed to grab the bag of flour. as soon as it got into her hands, teddy wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and spun her around. flour was falling out in all directions, making a mess of the kitchen floor. both of them were too busy laughing to hear the front door opened and a person come into the kitchen door. they cleared their throat to get teddy and vic's attention.
"jamie!" teddy shouted, arms still around victorie. he placed her down on the floor again, careful to avoid any spilt flour or ingredients.
"hi teds." jamie said sharply, his hands balled into fists by his side. he probably didn't realise he was doing it, but teddy noticed. he noticed a lot about jamie.
like right now, how his hair was look rather disorderly, as if some girl had been playing with it. his head would've been laid in her lap, as she twirled the dark strands between her fingers. how teddy wished he could be her.
"shit!" teddy swore in realisation. "you're not meant to be here right now, you're meant to be out longer."
the buns weren't done. they'd only been in for almost all the time; they just needed a little bit longer. teddy was meant to great jamie coming home with the finished buns, a much better way of coming out that this conversation they were having now.
jamie looked sort of wounded and hurt as he replied, "do you want me to leave?"
"no! shit, no! i didn't mean it like tha-"
just then, the timer for the oven went off, disrupting teddy mid-sentence. "fuck, vic can you sort that out please? i need to talk to jamie."
he'd almost forgot she was in the kitchen with them. jamie was too goddamn distracting, too fit for his own good. with his messy hair and his kind of lopsided glasses and his perfect arse- not now teddy.
"sure thing, teds."
with her confirmation, teddy walked out of the kitchen, assuming jamie would follow him. he heard the click of the door behind him and was about to speak, until jamie got there before him.
"you seemed to be getting pretty cosy with vic there, something i should know about?" jamie said, a bitter edge cutting into his tone.
his arms were folded across his chest; his eyes never meeting teddy's, always glancing away. teddy didn't realise that this was because jamie didn't want him to see the pain in his eyes at even imagining teddy dating his cousin.
"wait. what are you on about?" teddy was utterly clueless to what jamie was really on about, the truth clouded by the ambiguity of his question.
jamie sighed. "it doesn't matter."
"no, james-"
"jamie!" he shouted, rather annoyed. "call me jamie, for god's sake."
"okay then, jamie. i'm not dating victorie. if that's what this is about, like i have no interest in her romantically, she's just vic. and we're definitely not dating. she was just... helping me out with something."
teddy was still hesitant to let jamie know he was bisexual. he had a plan, but that plan was now falling to pieces. improvisation was now vital for teddy as he had to come up with a way he was comfortable with. maybe he couldn't be comfortable with it.
it was always awkward coming out. he'd read other people's stories and there were a few odd ones. but he hated that he felt this way about coming out. it should be easy, he shouldn't even have to come out! straight people don't, so why do people who aren't have to come out? it never made sense.
"with what?" jamie asked, and teddy was brought back from the small rant in his head. "shit, is it dom you're dating?"
"what? no! i'm not dating anyone!" teddy rushed to say, though he wished he was dating jamie.
"then what is it, teds?"
"have you been seeing someone?" teddy asked, rather nervous and trying to change the subject. "because you posted about seamus and dean's daughter emily and your hair looks all ruffled like someone has run their fingers through it like when snogging you and it's totally cool if you are snogging emily i mean-"
"emily is ace, teds." jamie said with a smile on his face.
"well, there's no need to go on about how amazing she is." huffed teddy.
"no, teddy. she's ace as in asexual. but also polyromantic, as well as interested in fred, not me. but that's irrelevant; you're acting strange."
teddy froze, every part of his body becoming numb. his mouth felt dry and his throat was itching. all of him was just saying no, paralysed with fear.
"me? strange? i am not strange at all, i am completely and utterly normal thank you very much. nothing wrong with me." he nervously laughed, not doing much to help his situation.
"you see, that's strange, teds. you know you can tell me anything."
jamie took a step forward and started to stroke teddy's bicep lightly, then giving it a squeeze. he held onto it, and his grip almost acted like an anchor for teddy. it reminded him that it'd be alright, telling jamie that he liked men and women wouldn't change anything between them. they'd still be normal old jamie and teddy, thick as thieves.
he took in a breath that wavered as he consisted how to start coming out to jamie. he thought he'd be able to finish the buns before jamie got here. what was wrong with him.
"well, you see. vic and i were baking because i wanted to do this as something creative and fun. but they're not done so i'm just gonna come out with it. aha, come out." before jamie had time to ponder over teddy's choice of words, teddy carried on. "you know i fancy girls, but i also fancy boys. so we made some bi buns."
jamie was silent. and it was suffocating.
"and i don't want that to change anything between us, you know?" teddy babbles on. "i don't want you to think i'm gonna like grope you in the middle of the night or anything. or like have blokes or girls over every other day. and if you're uncomfortable with me being bisexual then you're a knob because there's nothing wrong with being attracted to- oh, okay."
near the end of teddy's almost rant, jamie had ambushed teddy with a sudden bear hug. teddy felt safe enclosed in jamie's arms. he wrapped his arms around jamie's waist, as the younger man's were up and around his neck, his head resting on his shoulder. it's was okay, everything was going to be okay.
"i'm not a knob," jamie joked as he pulled back from their hug. "i'm proud of you, teds. thank you for coming out to me. i would never think any less of you because you're bisexual. come on, i love you!"
teddy's heart stopped. "y-you do?"
"yeah mate, you're my best friend, of course i love you. why wouldn't i?"
his chest sank and his posture stopped. he felt utterly deflated. too high hopes had always been a flaw of teddy's, but jamie secretly loved it. he always believed in the best things happening, but that's why he felt so awful when they didn't.
"yeah, of course. love you too, mate."
but jamie didn't know how much it made teddy's heart ache.
///
SWEET BOY TEDDY LUPIN
SO CUTE
MY HEART