The morning sunlight shone through the tall windows and straight across the head of the bed. Tracey groaned quietly. This was something different. The sun didn't normally shine on that part of the bed, even when she did fall asleep without closing the blinds. Blinking and trying to wake herself up, she noticed a warm arm holding her close and began to remember what had happened the night before. She was in Theo's bed. Well... on it really. They must have fallen asleep on top of the bedding, though from the familiar blanket pulled up over their shoulders she figured that a house-elf must have covered them during the night.

She began to wiggle. She'd never been able to lay still once she woke up, but something familiar hit her hip and she stopped immediately. It wasn't like it was the first time she'd felt him like this, and it wasn't even like she didn't know that he was still asleep and this reaction had more to do with the time of morning than with her being so close to him, but she felt a flutter of something in the bottom of her stomach anyway.

Theo felt someone stir in his arms; opening his eyes, he saw Tracey. She was still in his arms, but awake and squirming. He dropped his arm immediately. And felt embarrassed instantly when he realized he had once again responded to having her near. Fuck! he thought to himself with aggravation. But she didn't seem to mind. "Good morning," he whispered, feeling embarrassed as he moved to lean on his arm.

Tracey turned so her back was on the bed and she could look up at him. One of her hands moved down and grabbed the hand that had just been holding her. "Good morning, Theo." She had never awoken in bed with a man before, and if it felt this good every time then she was going to start doing it more often. "Sleep well?"

He nodded. "Yes. The bed is very comfortable." He brought the hand that was holding his up and kissed it softly. Dropping the hand back down to the bed, he looked around himself. Finding the clock he turned back to Tracey. "Do you mind if we have breakfast in here?"

"I like the bed too." And the bedfellow, she finished silently with a sheepish smile. "Breakfast sounds grand, shall I call Baxter then?"

He nodded and within moments Baxter appeared. "What can we's be getting the Master and Mistress?" he asked with a nervous grin on his face. "Is the elves allowed to bring the Master's things to the right room now? Or is the Mistress moving in here? We's can-"

Tracey flushed and sat up interrupting him before he could say anything more mortifying. "Breakfast. Please. Breakfast, Baxter. To Master Nott's sitting room table please." She couldn't look at Theodore. She was dying with embarrassment.

Theo stood up, ignoring the house-elf like it hadn't made a ridiculous statement that made him furious on Tracey's behalf. He extended his hand to Tracey, who took it, and gave her unneeded assistance onto her feet. He didn't let go of her hand once she was standing in front of him; he just looked tried to catch her eye. She was avoiding his gaze. Reaching over he titled her chin so that she was looking at him and smiled softly at her. He wasn't sure why, but for some reason he felt he needed to ask permission before doing anything. I respect her... he thought to himself. I may very well be falling in fucking love with the woman, I'm falling in 'something' anyway! He mentally screamed at himself to do something, to say something. "Tracey, can I kiss you?"

The words fell into silence as she blushed. Despite his well-meaning behind them, they felt wrong. It felt like he should just know the answer without asking. He didn't allow her to reply, just took the fact she didn't move away as an answer. He slid his other arm, the one that wasn't still holding her chin, around her waist and pulled her close, his mouth easing over hers slowly. He wanted to give her room to pull away, to tell him off. But she didn't.

Tracey closed her eyes and sighed into his kiss. She hadn't really been kissed by anyone else before, Blaise didn't count, but she knew that she liked kissing Theodore a lot. She saw sparks behind her eyes and all she wanted to do was get closer to him. He was holding her softly, gently, as though he was afraid to break her, like she was the small glass flower she'd held on her night stand for ten years. She had enough of that with the way her friends treated her. Though her feet began to wobble, she leaned into him further and pulled him roughly so their bodies touched completely.

Theo pulled her closer, putting more passion into the kiss than there was before. His mouth slanted over hers again and again. He wanted her; he knew she could feel his desire for her, yet she didn't pull away, she seemed to be crying for more.

"Excuse me, the Master and Mistress's breakfasts are ready?" the house-elf's voice said from being him.

Theo pulled away, not letting go of Tracey as he did. "I told you, elf, I am not the Master. She, Tracey Davis, is the Mistress here. If you call me the Master again I might just hex you to death!" he growled, feeling angry and frustrated at the same time.

Tracey was about to hex Baxter too, and he'd been her elf since she was a child, but it was for entirely different reasons. "Baxter, Theodore would rather not be called Master Nott. Can you please refrain, so we can eat our breakfast in peace?" She looked wearily at the elf. He had no sense of timing, but he wanted to see her settled almost as much as her mother did. Looking toward the sitting room table, Tracey sighed as she walked toward it. Without releasing Theo's hand, she ended up dragging him behind her.

"It looks wonderful, Baxter. Be sure to tell Peakie thank you for the fresh raspberry scones," Tracey said without thinking as she sat down. She didn't normally thank her house-elves in front of other people. It didn't do to look too sympathetic with the help when one's personal philosophy frowned on such behaviour. Without even realizing it, Tracey had allowed him to see the real her for a brief moment.

Theo smiled. "Yes, it does look wonderful." He sat down across from her. "Do you have any plans today?"

Tracey wasn't sure if she wanted to admit that she and Greg were supposed to have a picnic that afternoon, not if it meant that she wouldn't be able to spend it with Theodore. The two men hadn't been close in school, and she was being selfish, but she wanted this time to just be about Theo without making it a pissing contest between two men she cared about. Especially when Greg was about the only one who knew how she had felt about Theo back then. "Not really. You?" she asked as she took a bite of the omelet in front of her.

"Actually do have plans to take my friend to Diagon Alley, but I was hoping you'd join us," he said lifting his cup up to take a drink of coffee. "I wouldn't be able to cancel, but I'm sure she'd love to have someone else along."

Her mind thought over his words as she chewed. She? Interesting. Why did my stomach flip at that? I haven't felt that way about Theo in years... no need to start getting jealous when there is nothing to fret over. chided herself before smiling at him. Her face was more open than she usually allowed it to be, and she was being honest when she said, "That sounds wonderful. What are we going to be doing in Diagon?"

"She just wants to look around. I'm planning to take her to Flourish and Blott's so she can see the books... the Quidditch supplies shop... oh and I must show her Gringotts, of course." He smiled softly. "She'll get a kick out of the goblins." Tracey looked a bit confused at that. "She's a Muggle. And she's eleven."

Tracey's eyebrows reached the sky. When had Theodore made friends with an eleven-year-old Muggle? Still, she grinned. "I was terrified of the goblins the first time I saw them." Theo smiled at her and she continued, "What's her name? The little girl?"

"Chi. I met her when I was in Beijing for business. We kind of accidentally formed a friendship," Theo said, leaning back in his seat.

"You worked in Beijing? That must have been fascinating. How long were you there? I was able to speak with the Chinese Minister of Magic at a fundraiser for children left orphaned after the Brethi attack in Shanxi. He told me about four times that I would have to come visit them one year. I never did go, though I always wished I could. You said you were there for work?" Her eyes were lit up. She hadn't known he was such a world traveller, but she wanted to know every thing there was to know about him.

"I was there for close to a year. It was just charm work. If last night was any indication, you'd think it boring. However, Beijing is a lovely city full of wonderful people. You should go; you'd love it." He smiled at her.

Grinning open mouthed at him, Tracey threw a piece of raspberry scone at him, which he caught in his mouth with a cheeky smile. "It was late, and I had just helped some bloke move into my house. I do not think your work is boring."

He shrugged, grinning. "I don't mind if you do. However, I would be sad if you thought I was boring. My work is only part of my life; a relatively big part, mind you, but still, it's still not my whole life." He sighed. "Well, would you like to accompany Chi and I in Diagon Alley?"

Tracey nodded. "I would like to, as long as you're sure it won't cause any problems with your little girlfriend. She won't mind me being there, will she?" Though she was grinning at him, she wasn't completely sure that she should have said that. Tracey wasn't very very worried, but she didn't want to impose upon him. "Just because you're staying with me doesn't mean that you have to entertain me when you have set plans."

"I'm sure Chi will adore you, so I'm sure it will be no problem." He smiled. "Though I must add, she is not my girlfriend, I'm not that kind of bloke. I'm picking her up at noon. I want to take her to lunch to the Leaky Cauldron first, so I can treat her to ice cream." He sighed, feeling slightly awkward at spilling his plans to Tracey. He was excited for her to come, but he was different when he was around Chi. In fact, he felt different when he was around Chi. Yet, lately it seemed that there was a small part of him that felt the same way when he was around Tracey. "I should explain before hand, in case you want to change your mind, that we will actually be meeting her at the London Zoo and I'll be Apparating her to the Leaky Cauldron. Her sister will be dropping her off and while her parents have no objects to Chi seeing the wizarding world, her sister does."

"Is her sister a witch then? A Muggle-born?" Tracey asked with delicacy. She was fairly confident that he had changed his stance on dirty blood from when they had been in school, or perhaps he'd never bought into it as the rest of them had, so she didn't want to sound particularly catty. She couldn't remember the last time she'd been so delicate about the word Mudblood. She just asked simply and hoped that he would recognise that she was trying. "And you're taking her little sister into our world against her sister's wishes?"

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that. But yes, her sister is a Muggle-born witch. Su Li, if you know her." He cleared his throat as she shook her head. "Her parents have no objections, but ever since what happened in Beijing, Su is hell-bent on trying to protect her from everything in the world, and she finds the idea of Chi in the wizarding world without having magic herself as frightening. I understand this, as do Chi's parents, but I hardly think having Chi ignorant will help matters. If Chi's parents' were against it I would certainly not be doing this, but I've talked to her parents, and they think it's a great idea." He shrugged. He knew the topic of blood was not something he wanted to discuss with Tracey. She believed in the purity of blood and that Muggle-borns were truly of a lower class. He did not. He always played along with the other Slytherins, but once his father was captured and then killed in Azbakan, he figured out blood meant nothing about someone's ability or value to society.

She nodded. It was the child's parents who should make decisions for their daughter, and if Theo said it was all right with them, then who was she to argue? "What time are we meeting little Miss Li, then?"

"Noon at the gates of the London Zoo."

"We don't have much time then, do we? Isn't it nearly ten now?" Tracey bent forward to read the clock on Theo's far wall.

He leaned forward when she did automatically, inhaling the scent that blew toward him from her hair. When she leaned back, he jerked backward, acutely aware of the situation. He cleared his throat. "Yes, I think I should be getting ready." He stood up and she followed suit.

Baxter appeared and Tracey told him to remove the dishes before turning to Theodore. "So... I'll just go to my room and get ready then." And try not to think about kissing you again...

He sighed. "Tracey..." His voice trailed off. "I'll talk to you when you're ready," he finished awkward. Leaning over, he brushed his lips against hers then pulled back quickly and took two steps away from her.

Her face flushed and she ducked her head a bit before moving toward the open door. She stopped herself from leaving only to turn back and tell him softly that she wouldn't be long and that she'd wait for him in the library. "Thank you for breakfast, Theodore. I'm... I'm glad you're here."

He nodded. "Thank you for allowing me to stay here." He watched her leave, wishing he could just say what he really wanted. I think I'm falling for you...



(Summary: Tracey wakes in Theo's arms and they plan their not so lazy Sunday)