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Evan throws his head back against his seat, his mouth widening with a dazed grin, the corners of his eyes crinkling and his shoulders raking with laughter as the train chugs its way to Hogsmeade station for their 7th year. At the sight of Evan, Barty's heart bursts with pride because he did that. He's the one able to make his boyfriend gasp for air from laughing so much, reddened cheeks wet with tears.
Barty feels a sick sort of possessive satisfaction when Regulus, sitting beside Barty, shakes his head at them, amused but not wanting to admit that he is—but as Barty basks in the victory of a joke well made, glancing from Regulus to look back at Evan, he spots something that makes him falter.
In the pink of Evan's open mouth, Barty could've sworn he saw a flash of silver.
In a split second, it had come and gone, so quickly that he thinks he might have imagined it, but when his eyes flick to Regulus, he sees a questioning look on his face, eyebrows furrowed and lips parted as he tries to process what he too, had seen. This is enough to confirm that Barty's not going crazy.
Yet Barty is so bewildered at the thought, that he blurts it out without being able to stop himself.
"Is that a piercing?" he chokes out.
Across from him, Evan's laughter fades, and he brings up a hand to wipe at the tears in his eyes. "Huh?" he asks.
“In your mouth,” Barty clarifies slowly with slight struggle. Feeling very dizzy all of a sudden, staring at Evan's lip where they've fallen closed before glancing up to meet his gaze. “When you laughed… It looked like—it looked like there was metal in your mouth—or something.”
A brief silence follows and Barty begins to panic but almost instantaneously, Regulus inputs, “We were probably just seeing things, a trick of the light.”
“Mhm,” Evan hums, but his lips slowly quirk upwards into a smile. “I was wondering how long it would take you both to notice," he says but he's looking more directly at Barty, which has his heart jumping in his throat quicker than he can attempt to gather his thoughts.
Barty blinks, still processing.
“What?”
Evan laughs then, loud and captivating. “You weren’t seeing things, either of you. I have a piercing in my tongue now."
He slumps back in his seat, chuckling into his fist as Barty and Regulus stare at him. Regulus starts laughing too, sounding impressed whilst shocked, and Barty would laugh with him except he's currently losing his mind and going internally ballistic.
Evan has obtained a tongue piercing . One he’s had for what, weeks? A while judging from his “wondering how long it would take you both to notice” comment. For a change, Evan and Barty hadn't seen each other much during the summer holiday because Evan had been staying with his distant relatives in Scandinavia instead of in their manor in England. So the last time they had seen each other had been in June. Had it been that long, and Evan hadn't mentioned anything about it, not even in his letters?
The thought of a tongue piercing though, makes Barty's eyes widen further, unable currently to string even a single coherent thought together. Earlier, when he and Evan had first laid eyes on each other when Evan stumbled into the compartment a few minutes after Barty and Regulus, Evan had only given Barty a small kiss to Barty’s lips before slumping into a seat across from him, and Barty had pouted briefly before the conversation between the three of them ensued and thought of it was cast to the back of his mind—but it made more sense now.
Barty looks at the man in front of him, who’s still currently hiding his grin behind his fist, a familiar mischievous glint in his eye, and even with Barty's mind in utter chaos, he is able to get his next words out.
“Show me.” He says, sounding shamefully breathless. “I want to see it.”
Evan raises his eyebrows, dropping his hand and starting to sit up more. "Yeah?”
"Yes," states Regulus, his tone demanding, and Barty swallows thickly before he's able to agree.
"Yeah.”
Evan grins before he parts his lips—so slowly it's agonising—opening his mouth and pushing out his tongue so it’s visible to the other two occupying the train carriage. Evan is still focusing predominantly on Barty, who is having a hard, hard time trying to remember exactly how to breathe.
A small stud sits near the end of Evan's tongue, the silver of the ball and the visible parts of the bar glinting as the light of the lamp above him reflects off the metal slicked with spit. It’s so unexpected that Barty is absolutely speechless. Then again, if any of them were going to get a tongue piercing, Barty supposes it would be Evan who did it first. So, maybe he shouldn't be all that surprised, but that fact does nothing to stop the tensing of his own muscles at the sight. It’s like it's triggered his fight or flight sense or something, though, at the moment, the urge to make out with Evan is stronger than anything.
“When did you get it?” He manages to ask, using all of his effort to keep his voice steady, though he’s certain it still sounds strained.
Evan’s tongue retreats back into his mouth so he can answer, and Barty’s eyes follow its movement so closely he feels humbled when Evan’s tongue is fully out of sight. He misses it, actually, when it’s gone, but knowing Regulus and Evan are both looking at him, he doesn't react.
“Couple of weeks ago,” Evan shrugs, seemingly not entirely sure when, which is so painfully Evan of him that it makes Barty’s stomach churn as he watches Evan’s mouth for a flash of metal as he speaks. “It didn't hurt too much when I first got it but the days after were awful. Hurt so much I could barely talk, I didn't want to do anything unless I had some healing potion to replenish myself.”
Barty vaguely remembers a letter from the man mentioning that he felt unwell, but Barty hadn't thought too much of it. He even remembers telling him to get well soon, but to think it was a tongue piercing that had him feeling that way? Barty could never have guessed, and now his world was being turned upside down apparently. Before today, Barty doubted anything could change how attracted he was to Evan, but this changed many things.
“How does it–feel?” Barty asks, feeling numb and at the same time, feeling way too much.
“It was weird at first,” Evan answers. “Hard to get used to, you know, but I barely noticed it after a while, now it’s just fun to play with,” he further explains. Then he opens his mouth and flicks his tongue around to demonstrate, the metal knocking against his teeth.
“Disgusting,” Regulus says and turns to the window with his nose up in the air. Apparently, the piercing is cool enough but Evan displaying it wide-mouthed is enough to repel him.
Barty almost wishes he could relate, but instead, he’s struck by the urge to know exactly what it feels like. He wants to push his tongue past Evan’s lips and teeth and feel for himself—a relief, however, is that Evan is looking back at him with a glint in his heterochromatic eyes that suggests he’ll let Barty do just that.
“Do you like it?” Evan asks him, cocking his head to the side before his tongue flicks out between his lips to wet them.
Barty catches another flash of metal, and his head spins. He’s speechless, hot around the collar of his school uniform that he had arrived on the platform in as Evan’s metal embellished tongue overtakes his every thought.
“Yeah,” he croaks. “It’s cool.”
“Good to know,” Evan says, attention averting away from Barty for the first time and to the floor of the compartment like he’s hiding his smile. “Good to know.”
By nightfall, the Hogwarts Express arrives at Hogsmeade station and Barty is relatively tired from the journey. He's even tempted to retire to the dorm and eat leftover snacks from the train trolley rather than have dinner in the Great Hall, sitting through a whole welcome—or welcome back in their case—feast, but when he suggests the idea to Regulus and Evan, they’re both in disagreement and are eager to have a “normal” meal after six weeks of formal dinners.
Although Barty can’t relate, he can understand, so he’s about to walk begrudgingly behind Evan and Regulus as they sweep into the Great Hall when Evan holds him back for a moment, his lips pulled into a crooked smile, looking at Barty through pretty eyelashes.
Evan pulls him to the side away from the doorway, allowing people to continue into the hall, and Barty arches into him.
“Yes?” he asks, fingers gripping Evan’s robes like he’s scared he might run away. Which is really quite irrational of him.
Evan’s mouth twitches with a smile before he leans across to whisper into Barty’s ear, his breath fanning across Barty's skin. “Maybe back in the dorm, after we’ve eaten, you can find out what my piercing feels like for yourself.”
Just as soon as the words have been uttered, Evan swings back and kisses another delicate kiss on the corner of Barty’s mouth. Then he gives Barty a once over and flounces his way into the crowd still heading into the hall before disappearing through the doors.
Fuck,
Barty thinks. Evan will be the death of him.