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"Mione?" Fred hadn't been able to find his girlfriend when she woke up, there was just an empty space in the bed between him and his brother. He had tried not to let himself worry, but it was still the middle of the night and he had seen how tired she was yesterday. He'd gotten out of bed himself and ventured off to find her in the living room of the flat, her arms wrapped around her legs which she had pulled up to her chest. "Everything okay, love?" He asked as he knelt down in front of her and took her hands into his own.
"Just couldn't sleep." She told him, the ghost of a smile flickering across her lips for a moment. Fred wanted to ask her what was wrong, but at the same time he knew that he couldn't pry; if she had wanted to tell him then she would have.
Slowly he reached up and swept a strand of hair away from her face. She still looked exhausted, which he knew made sense considering that she was under a considerate amount of stress but he had hoped that their new plans for buying a house would have helped to make her feel a little more secure. He wasn't a fool though, he knew that it wouldn't make all of her worries disappear just like that. She still had to deal with the fact that she was now pregnant and he knew that if he was having trouble letting that sink in then she probably was too.
"Do you need anything?" He ended up asking when he couldn't think of any way to make her feel better on his own. He really wanted to take all of her pain and worries away.
"Sit with me?" It was a simple request, but one that did warm his heart. He knew that he wasn't really one to sit still for long, not was he especially cuddly, but he would do anything for Hermione, and it wasn't as if he could just go and get George this time anyway. His twin was fast asleep, which was fair enough considering he was going to be the one to open up the shop in the morning.
"Of course." He said softly as he moved to sit up on the sofa beside her and wrapped his arms around her, giving her a gentle squeeze. Not for the first time he found himself wondering what was going on inside of her head. He was very aware of the fact that he probably wouldn't have been able to handle the vast majority of thoughts that were swirling around inside there, however.
Eventually Hermione fell asleep curled up against him and Fred carefully lifted her to take her back through to his room. George was sitting upright when he laid Hermione down on the bed and tucked her in. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head before he gave his twin a smile. He knew that George was worried - he was the over-thinker after all whereas Fred was decidedly more laissez-faire about things.
"Do you really think this is going to work out?" Fred heard George ask as he lay down next to Hermione, his arms wrapped around the girl and the question did make him tense up for a moment. He wasn't entirely sure how to answer at first.
"I love her, you love her, Ron's her best friend." He said quietly, as if it were the most simple thing, because to him it was. It might not have made a lot of sense to an outsider but he had thought that George could at least see things from the same side that he could see them.
"I know all that." Fred heard George let out a sigh and felt the bed shift slightly as his twin lay back down. "My worry is that love just isn't enough."
Fred paused for a moment to collect his thoughts before he let himself talk, hoping that he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. "Love is the reason that I'm alive, the reason that Harry is alive - the reason that we won the war. Love will always be enough."
George was silent for a moment and Fred hoped that was because his words had been enough to soothe his qualms, but he knew that that probably wasn't the case. Once George got an idea into his head, it was often very difficult for him to just walk away from it.
"Freddie?" Fred had almost dozed off when George's voice pulled him back to the land of the living. "You're okay, right?"
Fred propped himself up slightly so that he could see his twin's figure. "Why wouldn't I be okay?" He asked slowly, wondering what he had done to give the impression that he wasn't okay. The truth was that he was a little nervous about the prospect of being a father, but that was it. He didn't at all regret his relationship with Hermione and he was proud of the way that he and George were making it work so well so far.
"I don't know." George admitted. "I guess I just need to hear you say it."
Fred lay back down and looked up at the darkened ceiling. "I'm okay, Georgie. I'm doing just fine." It was the honest truth. He reckoned that he wouldn't have been quite so carefree if the other man in Hermione's life was someone other than his twin - or even if the father of her baby was someone other than their brother. These were people he knew that he could trust to keep not only the love of his life safe, but their tiny bundle of joy too. There was no point in getting upset about it, not when the situation was what it was.
"You're okay too?" He didn't need to hear George say it but he figured that there was a chance that George needed to say the words aloud, or maybe he needed the prompt to be able to process his own thoughts.
"Yeah. I think so." George hummed, his fingers lacing into the sheets. Fred knew that people often thought that the two of them were interchangeable but those were people who didn't spend enough time to know that if the twins were fireworks then Fred would be a Catherine Wheel while George would be a sparkler. George was the one that grounded them both at the end of the day, and that was something that Fred was more than grateful for - and why he knew that their arrangement, their relationship with Hermione was going to work so well.
"If ever you're not you can tell me, you know that, right?" Fred said quietly.
He knew that there was a chance that George might actually need an extra little push to admit if there was a problem. But all that George said was a soft "I know" so Fred dropped the subject and let his eyes close.
"Love you, Georgie." He whispered. He knew that was something else that didn't need to be said either, but at the same time he felt as if it needed to be said more often.
"Love you too, Freddie." He heard his twin say just before sleep took him under its spell, his head filling with visions of both the past and what the future might hold for all of them. His dreams were his safe space.