Scorpal (Continued from 2.0)

Scorpius entered the dormitory, Stitch under his arm after having taken his dog for a short walk outside. Glancing around, he figured that Al still hadn't returned from class and shrugged to himself. "Alright buddy," he said, placing Stitch down on the ground. "Now sit," he said, using a commanding voice. Stitch instantly complied, his little tail wagging happily. "Alright. Now...play dead!" Scorpius said, watching in amusement as Stitch did a very dramatic reenactment where he held up his little hand/"paw" (since it's technically not really a paw since he's not a dog) to his heart and slowly fell to the ground. "Good boy, Stitch!" Scorp said proudly, grabbing a treat and giving it to his favourite little buddy.

Al walked in after class to see Scorp teaching Stitch some sort of trick, and laughed as he closed the door behind him and leaned against the wall to watch. "Very nice," he praised, applauding lightly before walking over to the middle of the room where Scorpius and Stitch were working on tricks. He still wasn't convinced that Stitch was a dog, but he'd be lying if he said the little guy hadn't started to grow on him over the past few months. "Now you just need to teach him to wash himself, and we're good to."

Scorpius glanced up when he heard Al's voice and instantly beamed at his boyfriend. "Hey you," he said softly, watching as Al moved closer. "Yeah, it'd be nice if he could do bath time on his own. Though, it is rather amusing watching all the cool things he can do with the bubbles," he said, thinking of how the last time Stitch was in the bath, a little bubble city was formed. Scorpius leaned to press a quick peck on Al's lips before asking, "How was class? I had to take Stitch outside for a walk and didn't make it back in time," he said, knowing that using the dog as excuse for missing class was a terrible thing. It wasn't like he needed potions at all in the future. He just needed to manage to pass the NEWT exam.

"Amusing or annoying?" Al laughed as he glanced down at the 'dog.' A mess was what it was, but Al never complained much. Deep down he thought Stitch was sort of awesome, but he'd never admit that out loud to anyone. He smiled as Scorpius leaned in to kiss him, but rolled his eyes at his comment. "Right. I'm sure that's what happened," he sighed, holding back his laughter as he tried to hide an amused smile. "Blame the dog, but one day you'll have to take responsibility for your actions, Scorpius."

"Oh come on, you can't deny that some of the things he makes out of the bubbles are really cool," he said, turning to glance at Stitch with a fond expression before turning back to his boyfriend. "And it totally is what happened," he replied, pulling Al close to him and lightly wrapping his arms around his boyfriend's waist. "Okay," he said with a dramatic sigh, knowing there was no use in lying. "See, this is what happened. I was on my way to potions, I really was, when as I was going through the common room I noticed a girl crying. So of course, I had to stop! The little first year girl just looked so upset, so I quickly made my way over to her and she needed some comforting because apparently her friends cat ate her pet toad, which is just horribly disgusting. So that's why I couldn't make it. I was comforting a first year," he said with a nod.

Al rolled his eyes, not wanting to admit that maybe some of the things Stitch could do with bubbles was sort of cool. Maybe. Narrowing his eyes as Scorpius pulled him close, Al tried to take his story seriously but by the time Scorpius was finished Al couldn't help but let out an amused laugh. "Is that so? I'll give you points for creativity, but I'm not buying it. Not for a second. Since when do you care about first years? Or toads, for that matter? And never have I seen a cat even look at a toad in the 'I want to eat you' sort of way. Plus, who the fuck owns a toad?"

Scorpius frowned when Al brought up all these wonderful points. Perhaps it really hadn’t been the best excuse, but it had sounded rather nice in his head. “Alright,” he said, a somewhat sheepish expression on his face. “I just didn’t want to go to class. That’s the real truth. It’s not Stitch’s fault or some random icky first year,” he sighed. “But you’re not mad, right?” he asked, subtly moving his hand so that his fingers gently moved along Al’s jawline with a soft, trailing trail.

"Oh, I'm furious," Al stated seriously, though it was obvious that he wasn't at all annoyed. His eyes flickered to Scorpius' fingers, a small smile pulling at the corner of his lips as he felt his boyfriend's hand trailing along his jaw. He paused for a moment, pursing his lips as he narrowed his eyes up at Scorpius. "Well, aren't you the charmer," he pointed out, already seeing exactly what Scorpius was doing, and sort of hating the fact that it was working.