The campsite was slow to wake, a mix of kettle steam, crackling fires, and the lingering smell of smoke from last night’s celebrations. You stepped outside your tent, the early light soft and hazy, and tried not to overthink the flutter in your stomach.

Fred was already there. Sitting on a crate, hair sticking up in six different directions, twirling a leftover sparkler as if it were a quill he couldn’t put down. When he saw you, something in his posture changed—not tense, not shy, just… aware.

“Morning,” he said, quieter than usual.

It wasn’t awkward—not really. More like the air had shifted, a little heavier, a little charged. The kind of quiet that follows something meaningful. You’d been together for months, skirting around the idea of eventually, but last night hadn’t been planned. It hadn’t needed to be. It had just happened—honest, warm, a little breathless—and the both of you knew exactly what it meant, even if you hadn’t said the words out loud yet.

You walked over, and he immediately reached out—not forceful, not possessive—just a gentle hook of his fingers around your wrist, pulling you closer so your knees brushed his. Fred had always been tactile, but now there was something softer in the way he touched you. Certain. Steady.

“Did you sleep?” he murmured, thumb brushing lightly over your knuckles like he wasn’t fully aware he was doing it.

“A bit,” you said. “You?”

He huffed. “Barely. Kept checking if you were… alright.” His voice dipped. “After.”

Your chest tightened—not with nerves, but with the quiet, overwhelming truth that he cared. Really cared.

“I’m more than alright,” you said, meeting his eyes. “Last night… was everything.”

Fred’s breath caught, barely noticeable unless you knew him the way you did. His cheeks flushed—just a bit—but the grin that followed was unmistakably his. Warm, teasing, ridiculously smug in the gentlest way.

“Yeah,” he said, leaning in, shoulder nudging yours, his hand settling low on your back without asking. “Yeah, it bloody was.”

He didn’t move away. If anything, he seemed to melt against you, chin brushing your temple as he let out a content sigh. A Fred-version of clinginess: playful, comfortable, entirely unbothered by personal space now that he knew you welcomed him there.

Down the hill, someone set off a charm that made a tent collapse. Fred snorted against your ear. “Idiots.”

You laughed, and his fingers slid between yours, warm and sure. He stood and tugged you with him—not demanding, not assuming—just a natural pull, like he couldn’t help wanting you close. You didn’t resist.

And as he wrapped an arm around your waist, thumb tracing lazy circles like he wasn’t even thinking about it, he glanced down at you with that familiar spark returning to his eyes.

“We’re good, yeah?” he asked—gentle, but confident too.