Guilt was an emotion with which Fred was intimately familiar. He'd spent the better part of a year under its crushing weight, though he was unused to it having a direction other than his twin's death, or, very rarely, Percy's. Greg's abrupt departure and the subsequent lack of communication were weighing on him, though, along with the need to see Katie and ask about their unexpected acquaintance.

Further subdued by an afternoon spent in the churchyard in Ottery St. Catchpole, it was a much sobered version of himself that rapped at the door to Rose Cottage as the sun was setting, wondering idly if Katie had perhaps decided to spend the evening at the Shed rather than at home. That could be the next stop, if necessary.

Katie still felt exhausted and cold. After Greg had left her, she'd slept fitfully and hadn't been able to get warm. He was broken and he didn't want her. Or didn't think he was good enough? And he knew Fred somehow? No matter how she looked at it, it all came out the same in the end. Greg didn't want to keep her, and she was worried about him despite that.

After a visit to her mum and trying to push herself through an afternoon at the Shed, Aiden had noticed something was off, given her hugs, and sent her home not long after she'd shown up. Not able to concentrate on her books, Katie was curled up on the sofa holding Pea snugly in her arms, listening absently to the wireless, thoughts all over Greg and Fred.

A knock at the door stirred her from her reverie and she unfolded herself from the cushions, Pea under her arm, and padded towards the door to find Fred on the other side. For some reason, Katie felt better as soon as she saw him, his presence making it all seem a little bit better somehow. "Hallo, shiny boy," she said with a tired smile. "Come in, yeah?"

Frowning slightly at how tired Katie looked, Fred nodded and followed her inside, toeing off his shoes by the door once it was closed behind him. "All right, princess?" he asked, though she obviously wasn't. He reached out to scratch Pea's curly head in greeting, surprised that the little dog was docile in Katie's arms; normally she was a ball of canine energy, especially when he visited. Not good, he assessed, leading Katie to the sofa.

At his question, Katie's thoughts drifted to the night before, to being left with a swinging door in the dark. "I'm ... I'm okay," she answered after a few moments. Then, shaking herself from her thoughts, she turned to Fred sitting next to her. It wasn't so lonely now that Fred was there, but as she looked at him, she could see that something wasn't quite right with him either. "How are you, shiny boy?" she asked as she pulled Pea to her chest, absently stroking the soft fur for comfort.

Fred sighed at Katie's absent answer, scooping both her and the dog into his lap, muttering, "You aren't either." He helped her curl up against him, rubbing his hands over her arm and back since she was acting as if she felt chilled. Dropping a kiss on top of her head as she settled in his arms, he finally answered her salutation. "I'm... worried. Also more than a bit confused," he admitted. Pausing to formulate a question, as he was trying very hard not to sound accusatory, he inquired curiously, "Sweet, what've you been up to with Greg Goyle?"

Katie stilled in his arms, a little bit apprehensive. "I've ..." She didn't lie. She just didn't, especially to her friends, to Fred, and was rubbish at it anyways. "... I kinda fell into him right after I got back from Italy, and ... and I like him." She looked up at him then, feeling she had to be completely honest. "I ... I didn't do anything with him like ... like with you," she said softly through a blush, "though, I had thought he might want to keep me, that he liked me too." Her eyes dropped back to her hands running over Pea's fur as she was reminded of the night before, feeling completely empty, lost and useless all over again.

I want to keep you. Blinking at the unexpected little announcement from inside his head, Fred nodded and gathered Katie closer. He wasn't upset, and didn't want Katie to think otherwise, though he couldn't help being pleased that there'd been no one else in her bed of late. "I'm fairly sure he fancies you like mad," he informed her, remembering the strong emotion in Greg's voice as he'd claimed Katie's friendship, the way the light had died from his gaze, shuttered off, when Fred had answered that he and Katie were something more than friends. "I saw him in Diagon, on Friday," he said slowly, knowing there were likely to be questions he wouldn't want to answer. "It didn't go so well. He ran off."

Katie relaxed against Fred when he pulled her closer, unable to do anything else really, and glad that he didn't seem to be upset at the things she'd said. As he talked though, her brow furrowed in a confused frown. "I'm not so sure that he ... fancies me, like you say..." She stared hard at the sleeping puppy in her arms, willing the ball of tears threatening in her chest to go away. "... he came last night to ... say goodbye." She swallowed, able to keep it all at bay for now and looked up into blue eyes. "But he mentioned you, and now you have also ... How do you know Greg, shiny boy?"

Growling low and very softly as Katie mentioned Greg visiting to say goodbye, Fred bit back his reaction, sucking in a breath through his nose and releasing it slowly, refusing to get angry at the way things had turned out when Katie was already upset. He was irritated that Greg had disappeared instead of talking to him, to either of them, but that was neither here nor there, and he owed Katie an answer. He ran his hands over her back, starting at the soft skin of her neck and sweeping down her spine, over her shoulders, as he tried to puzzle out a way to answer that wouldn't have Katie blushing and tripping over her words for the next ten minutes. "We ended up in the same place at the same time at Gringotts about two weeks ago. He's a lot more interesting than I remembered him from school, not to mention prettier."

"Prettier?" she echoed softly, before shaking her head and trying again. "I'm ... I'm still confused," Katie began hesitantly, trying to work it all out in her head. "How exactly did I come up, and why did ..." she scrunched her nose as she thought back to the night before, something Greg had said just out of reach. "... why did he say ... that he didn't deserve either of us?" Her eyes widened even as she asked the question. "Did he mean that you, that he ... oh," she finished softly.

"You came up because we were accosted by one of the people flinging the Witches of Quidditch calendar around, and I happened to notice the picture of you in that bathing costume I don't approve of you wearing in front of other people," Fred explained. He said what?! Forcing himself to stay calm, though he dearly wanted to pop off to Greg's flat immediately and demand to know what the hell he was on about, he curled a finger under Katie's chin to bring her eyes back to his. "Yes, princess, that means we've been bedding each other," he said evenly, "though apparently he believes he's no longer welcome to do so."

His fingers under her chin wouldn't allow her to look down, and all she could do was look into Fred's blue eyes full of lots of stormy emotions. "Oh ... oh." Fred and Greg together, in bed. Oh. It was a pretty thought and she felt her cheeks stain again as her mind briefly flicked over the picture in her head. Dismissing that train of thought before it really had time to develop, Katie tried to get a hold of the confusing things in front of her, this moment. "I ... well, you don't have to tell me anymore. I ... he, he said goodbye to me." She could feel that teary ball in her chest again. "Just, I think he's broken a little bit, and he needs someone there for when he falls, is all. When you see him again, you can do that, yeah?"

Smiling wryly for a moment as comprehension and something else dawned on Katie's face, Fred slid one hand up to her cheek, tracing the pink tint with his fingertips. He hunted for words, trying to fill in the bit she was missing from what he was trying to say. "He's said goodbye to me too, sweet, or as good as. The last thing he actually said was that you and I deserve each other, then he popped off before I could catch up to him." He sighed, ignoring the images his mind was replaying of that conversation. "That's why I mentioned I was worried. He's... I don't think he's very good for himself right now. Like I wasn't; you remember," he reminded her, knowing she did.

"Yes, I remember," she replied, voice soft as her mind drifted back. Fred had been ... she didn't like much to think about what he'd been like when George died, but she hadn't been able to leave him. Even though she hadn't had words to say to him, Katie couldn't leave him all alone. She'd wanted him to know she was there, if nothing else. But he had let her. He may not have wanted her there at times, but he hadn't pushed her away or run. And she had needed him to pull through ... She'd have been lost herself if ... she wouldn't go there. It hadn't happened.

Katie turned glassy eyes up to his, unable to hold it all in now that Fred was making her talk about it. "I'm worried too. He ..." He fell apart all over me. She didn't think Greg would want her to share that with anyone though, especially since he didn't want to share with her anymore. "... He's broken, and ... and there's alcohol and ... maybe other things, I don't know. I thought that maybe he might let me be there," she paused, a hesitation, "let you be there too, I guess, but ... you and I deserve each other? That's why he's ... gone? Because he thinks ... that we're taken by each other?" She reached up to wipe away the tears threatening to spill over with the back of her hand, voice almost inaudible in an afterthought, "But I don't belong to anyone..."

The play of emotion, memory, over Katie's face pulled at Fred. He knew what would be looping through her thoughts, had his own demons still in those memories; sitting in his flat, out on the cliffs, down by the pond near the Burrow, Katie always in the background, even when his anger was so destructive he'd wished she'd go and save herself the chance of getting hurt. The only place he'd never allowed her to follow him was the churchyard; it was too hard to be angry there, to do anything besides let his hurt happen, and he thought she'd understood that. It had taken him years to realize, to accept, that she was so much more than a friend - friends had visited for condolences, apologies, to see that he wasn't what they remembered. Some, like Angelina, had tried harder, tolerating his moods to stay in touch, learning who he was alone when there'd always been two. Katie was his sunshine.

It wasn't a new idea; he'd thought of her that way for some time, to himself, had even mentioned it to her once or twice when he'd done something particularly ungrateful, but it was since they'd broken that familiar garden wall that separated them as friends that he'd understood what it meant. "He's not thinking," Fred answered, picturing the cold resolve on Greg's face before he'd slipped away, just out of reach. "I can't say I know him that well, but I know what I'd have done... he's convinced himself neither of us want him around if we're thinking of each other, and he's not willing to take the chance of it being otherwise." He carded his fingers through Katie's hair, gently, wondering if there was any way to get to Greg that he couldn't just ignore, until he was startled out of his thoughts by Katie's forlorn whisper. Catching her face between both his hands, he wiped away the tears sneaking past her guard, bending to press his lips to hers. "Don't say that." One fingertip moved to brush over the faded bruise on her throat, and he voiced what had been in his mind since the night it had been made. "I didn't give this lightly... I never have. I don't know if it's enough promise for you right now, but it means something. Mine."

"Yours?" she echoed, eyes a little wide, startled. "A little bit, like you're a little bit mine?" She liked the way that thought felt. She wanted to belong to someone like that, and even a small bit to Fred was ... she liked it. But Greg? "Can I ... can I want him around if we're thinking of each other, if we belong to each other just a little bit?" Katie wasn't sure, elated and a tad confused still. She would give herself completely to someone who wanted to keep her completely, someone she wanted to belong to, but ... what if they didn't?

More than that, but it wasn't the time to say so. Nodding, his hands still stroking lightly over her face, Fred let the tiny smile he felt at her hesitant question show through. "Yes. I think I'd rather you did, actually. I'm... I don't know what it is, but I'm fair fond of him myself, and..." He shrugged, not knowing a better way to express his worries. "You're good for him, if he'll let you be. You were for me..." he trailed off into a murmur, getting trapped briefly in his thoughts once more before he shook himself out of it.

Fred's light touches were comforting and Katie felt the ball of tears slide away again, hidden for now. "We could both take care of him, then, if he'd let us," she sighed.

Continuing to pet Katie as she relaxed, the motion soothing to him as he sorted through the thoughts whirling around in his head like a pensieve recently stirred, Fred stilled as her words filtered into the foreground. He tipped her face up, wanting to watch her reaction as he asked carefully, "You'd want that?"

Katie's brow furrowed slightly in a confused frown, not quite sure what Fred was asking as she knew there was more than his words. His body was still as if he was waiting for something. "He's been ..." she blushed, "... spending time with both of us, and it's okay to want him around even when we're thinking on each other ... couldn't we both help him? Take care of him?" Her eyes dropped as she thought. "That's if he'd even see us again, I guess."

Fred nodded, acknowledging the obstacle there. "You're right, and that's likely to take a bit of work, as I'm not sure he-" he stopped the thought from forming verbally, not wanting to worry Katie more than she already was. "He's in a bad place over something, but he was there before this... now he seems to think there's nothing for him to have." He knew she wasn't following all the he'd implied, and couldn't quite suppress a smirk as he clarified, "We could, if he'd let us. When I asked if you'd want to, though, I meant other things as well." His hand moved to trace the mark on her neck again, testing the idea for himself as he spoke. "You liked when I touched you, gave you this. Would you want that from him, too?"

At his question, his implications, Katie stilled in Fred's arms, eyes flying to his, a little wide. Yesss. His fingers lightly tracing the bruise on her neck reminded her of when she had gotten it, that she had actually offered the same to Greg, that she wouldn't mind belonging to both of them like that. The thought of Greg's mark next to Fred's made her breathing pick up, barely noticeable, and she gave him a little nod.

A pleased, slightly wicked little smile curled Fred's lips as Katie nodded, her wide eyes telling him what he wanted to know. "I thought you would." He couldn't help teasing her, just a bit, as he was quite fascinated by the idea, albeit surprised that he didn't mind the thought of Greg's hands on Katie, his mouth, his mark, on her skin. Fingertip still toying with her neck, almost too lightly to feel, he asked, very softly, "You'd come to my bed, with him there?"

Katie's thoughts drifted to those ideas again, the ones of Fred and Greg in bed together, the pretty ones. She felt her skin heat again under his fingers as brief pictures of ginger and shaggy brown and muscled skin danced through her head. Very pretty pictures. Would she? With Fred and Greg, together, with her? She wasn't quite sure what it said about her, but yesss. Eyes still locked with his, tingles running under her skin where he was barely touching her, his mark, she gave him another small nod.

Watching the blush bloom on Katie's skin as she considered his question, her facing giving away some of the images in her head, Fred curled his fingers around the back of her neck as she nodded. He liked the curiosity, the desire he read in her reaction; it wasn't something he'd even have mentioned if Katie was likely to be uncomfortable, but he'd been with Greg, talked with him, and somehow he knew Greg could be one to take care of Katie, once he decided to take care of himself. He drew Katie, too, if her answers were anything to go by, in the same way that Fred himself did. That was something to consider, to test. "Both of ours," he ventured, turning the idea over in his own mind at the same time and finding it intriguing. "Mine and his."

Katie didn't say anything, but she watched the thoughts and emotions play over his face, her heart beating a little faster at his absent words. He said it like keeping her was more than just the little bit she had assumed, like she'd be only his, only Greg's, only their marks on her skin, only them in her bed. Now that the idea had been presented, she wanted it, wanted to belong to both of them. "Yours and his? My shiny and my puppy?" she asked softy, making sure she was hearing what she thought.

Though he arched an eyebrow at Katie's nickname for Greg, Fred nodded, seeing that she'd caught the rest of his meaning. "Yes. Just ours." And just yours. If he agrees. "He'll need a chance to think about it, I imagine, but from what he said, before he left, he just thought we'd ignore him for each other. If he finds that's not true..."

"Then maybe he'll stop running? Maybe he'll come back?" Katie asked around the little flutters inside at the implications of what Fred had said. "Maybe we can take care of him together? You and me and him?"

"Maybe all of those things, princess," Fred confirmed, already going back over the ideas he'd formed and discarded with regard to finding Greg. For any of this to work, they had to be able to talk to the man, and that involved something that would be harder to ignore than owl post. He ran his hand down Katie's spine, trying to calm some of the renewed nervous tension he felt from her. He was still worried, but also pleased and hopeful, and at the moment it was keeping him all in balance.

Katie laid her head on his shoulder, a flurry of thoughts running through her mind. Greg had still left her, said goodbye, but ... it seemed that Fred was there too. It was a bit overwhelming how they had gone from finding out about how they had Greg in common to actually thinking of both being with him, together, but Katie couldn't find it in herself to care too much about that. She just felt ... right with both of them, and Fred made it okay to think that maybe that could happen. She wasn't sure how, just yet, which made her worried all over again. Greg was locking himself away with his pain and misunderstandings and a plethora of other things that just made her stomach clench - alcohol and more, she was sure. She knew. She'd been around more than one person in pain after the war, herself included.

Cheek resting on his shoulder, she turned her face up to his, the worry still in her eyes but the tears completely gone. "I just want him not to hurt anymore, most of all, or as little as possible. I know that hurt doesn't go away, but ... it helps when you let yourself be taken care of or just watched over, even a little bit."

Brushing kisses across Katie's forehead, Fred let himself think of how true her words were, just for a moment. "I know, sweetness. It's something he has to decide, though, to let anyone near enough." Greg's self-destructive tendencies gave him pause, however, and he decided to test the flat's wards the next day, just in case Greg had forgotten to reset them. Getting through would be worth the likely hexing. He knew well enough how easy it could be to let pain and alcohol drag down and down until living seemed like too much trouble, had seen the potential for those thoughts in Greg's eyes the day he'd answered the owl invitation. It had taken months of Katie's quiet patience, Ginny's constant attempts at comfort, for him to acknowledge anyone around him after George was gone. Greg was obviously carrying his pain around with him, unhealed, and that was a brilliant way to end up testing the height of the cliffs in one way or another. Fred sighed and nuzzled Katie's temple, grateful to have her close to him.

Katie's eyes fluttered closed as Fred nuzzled her, relaxed in his arms and sleepy now that distressing thoughts had been talked out, not keeping her awake through exhaustion. Pea was sleeping soundly in her arms and it sounded like an amazing idea to do the same in Fred's. "I hope he decides for near enough. I think I want to keep my puppy," she said after awhile, voice soft with near sleep.

Smiling at Katie's words and her apparent plan to use him as a pillow, Fred shifted them to lie on the sofa, careful to jostle neither Katie nor the sleeping Yorkie too much. "I hope so too," he said softly, rearranging Pea so that her pointy little foot was no longer digging into his stomach. He pressed a last kiss to Katie's hair, knowing she'd be fast asleep within moments. "Sweet dreams, princess."

SUMMARY: Fred visits Katie looking for some answers and they both find some they weren't expecting.