Things Unknown but Longed for Still
Chapters: 7/7 Fandom: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter Characters: Harry Potter, Draco Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Ron Weasley Additional Tags: Texting, Secret Identity, Identity Reveal, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Famous Harry, Fame, mentions of canonical child abuse, Depression, Online Dating, Dating, Explicit Sexual Content, Oral Sex, Anal Sex, Roleplay, Light Dom/sub, Bottom Harry Potter, Top Draco Malfoy, Spanking, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Hair-pulling, Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Recovery, Mental Health Issues, Getting Together
Summary:
Harry feels trapped by the unwanted fame he received after the war. Everyone has an expectation of who he is before they meet him, and they all want a piece of the famous Harry Potter. Feeling unable to connect to anyone and imprisoned in the life of someone he doesn’t recognise as himself, Harry turns to Ron and Hermione who set him up on an anonymous dating site and helps him find a place to escape. Free from all the expectations placed on him Harry starts to heal, and the anonymous man he meets on the dating site shows him love might not be as impossible as he’d feared.
Excerpt:
“Remember when we were talking about things we’re really attracted to?” Harry asked, his blush returning in full. “And how I said I have this weird thing for men in fancy shirts rolling up their sleeves?”
Draco gave a bark of laughter so loud they both jumped, and Harry was glad he’d paused his work with the knife.
“I need to work on this whole instinct where I instantly think you hate me,” Draco said. He rolled the sleeve back up to his elbow and walked close enough to lean on the kitchen counter next to Harry.
“Please do, so I don’t have to keep making embarrassing admissions,” Harry laughed, reaching for a new tomato.
Draco smiled at him with a glint in his eyes that made Harry want to keep looking at him, instead of focusing on his work.
“I do really like it when you blush though,” Draco admitted. “And I enjoy hearing what you like.”
Harry remembered that conversation. How Draco loved to make his sexual partners talk about what they enjoyed, how he liked to see them a little flustered with it. The reminder made his cheeks even warmer, and if he wasn’t careful, he’d end up matching the tomatoes in colour.
Harry diced another tomato and some basil, gently tossing them together with some salt and olive oil and spooning them onto toast. Draco watched him work in silence, and Harry could feel the eyes on him. Draco’s gaze made Harry’s skin tingle, and he felt overheated despite his light clothes. The small mention that he was attracted to Draco seemed to have opened the door to the three months of attraction that had accumulated between them, and Harry was burning with it. Burning with how Draco looked at him, clearly affected as much as Harry.
Draco moaned when he took the first bite of his food, and Harry swore he did it on purpose just to make Harry ache to hear that sound in a different setting.
“Merlin, that’s good,” Draco said. He picked up a piece of tomato with his fingers and placed it delicately in his mouth, closing his eyes and sighing at the taste before licking his fingers clean.
Harry took a bite as well, and yeah, the tomatoes were good. Fresh and with more taste than any tomato he’d bought at the store. Still, they weren’t that good. They weren’t good enough to make Harry want to keep eating them when he could use his mouth for things that looked so much more appetising. Like kissing Draco or licking his neck along the collar of his shirt. Or sucking Draco’s fingers into his mouth, or gasping for air while Draco made him see stars.
Draco kept picking up pieces of tomato and putting them in his mouth, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Harry had gripped onto the table to keep from getting up and throwing himself at the other man. It was their first date, technically. The start of their first date at that. Harry was going to let Draco finish his meal. He wasn’t going to throw himself at him right after they’d properly met.
“So, are you being quiet because you don’t know how to talk to me in person – or because you’re feeling all the attraction we’ve built up over the past few months with no-one to direct it to hit you like a Bombarda to the chest?” Draco said it casually, like admitting to growing hard watching another man eat tomatoes was a completely normal thing to do. Harry thought he could hear the slight worry beneath the casual tone though, and he appreciated that Draco was at least asking, instead of jumping to the conclusion that Harry didn’t like him.
“The second one,” Harry admitted, eyes fixed on Draco’s lips as his tongue darted out to lick away a stray drop of juice.
“Good,” Draco said, lips twisting into a smirk. “Me too.”
“I know it’s supposed to be our first date,” Harry said, “but it doesn’t feel like a first date.”
Draco reached out across the table and intertwined his fingers with Harry’s. “I don’t see why all the moments we shared on the site can’t be dates. We shared meals, we shared conversations. We even shared emotions and personal struggles. It’s hardly a first date if we’re already in love, is it?”
“So, if I kissed you right now, you wouldn’t mind?” Harry asked. He tore his gaze from Draco’s lips to look at his eyes, and they were smouldering with suppressed heat. Draco wanted this just as much as Harry did.
In response to Harry’s question Draco stood from the table so fast his chair wobbled and almost fell to the ground and used the hand that was holding Harry’s to drag him to his feet as well. They stood close. Close enough that Harry could see the faint freckles on Draco’s nose, and how his pupils widened at their proximity. They breathed hard and fast, and Harry could feel his chest brush up against Draco when they both inhaled at the same time.
“Kiss me?” Draco asked, and it was all Harry needed to hear to close the small bit of distance between them. He reached up to place his free hand on the back of Draco’s neck and pulled him down at the same time as he stood up on his tiptoes to bring their mouths together.
The second their lips touched, the heat that had been brewing in Harry’s stomach flared up, like the kiss was oxygen feeding his arousal. Draco kissed him like he’d been starving for it, releasing Harry’s hand and putting a firm grip on Harry’s hips to pull him closer. Harry sank into the kiss, letting the lips moving against his and the tongue gently asking for entrance to his mouth become his sole point of focus. His glasses dug painfully into his nose, and with a sound of frustration he broke the kiss to take them off and toss them on the table. Draco kept kissing him though, lowering his head to kiss, lick, and gently bite his way down Harry’s neck. With his mouth free Harry couldn’t stop the gasps or the way his breath shuddered every time Draco’s tongue, lips, or teeth grazed over his neck. The sensations sent shivers down his whole body, and his cock was already achingly hard and pressing painfully against the zipper of his shorts.
