Work Text:
"Thank you, kind sir!" James ran his tongue around the base of the vanilla cone while Teddy stood by to pay. He was so distracted by the sight of James, Teddy almost handed the Muggle a galleon, but he caught himself just in time.
"Glad you're enjoying yourself."
James thrust his arms wide. "What's not to love? The sun, the sand, the ice cream!"
"The company?" Teddy asked, peeking over his sunglasses and then deciding that was a bad idea. Why did people sit out in the glaring sun all day? This was why he preferred night shift.
"The company is lovely," James agreed. He winked at Teddy, sending butterflies through Teddy's stomach for the fourth time that afternoon, and reminding Teddy why he was sitting in the glaring sun all day. Because James had asked him to and because Teddy had a massive, massive crush on James.
James led the way back to their lounge chairs, where they had already erected a magically enlarged umbrella and deposited their towels and a cooler. The ice cream had been a good idea, even if this ice cream melted instead of staying cold and perfectly shaped as Honeydukes' No Melt Ice Cream always did.
James sat sideways on the lounge and wiggled his toes into the sand. Teddy joined him, his feet framing either side of James's.
"You're going to lose your scoop," James said just before a cold sticky trickle hit Teddy's finger.
"Gah!" The ice cream dribbled to the next finger, no stopping it now.
"Teddy," James chastised a moment before leaning in to lick the ice cream off Teddy's fingers and short-circuit Teddy's brain. "Mmm, I should've gotten the orange smash. That's better than the vanilla."
Teddy couldn't respond in a coherent manner, so he shoved the top of the ice cream in his mouth to excuse his silence. What did you say when your best friend suddenly cleaned your hand with his tongue? Thank you? Please do that again? This time over my lips, which are also oh-so sticky with orange-flavored ice cream? Teddy doubted any of those responses were terribly appropriate.
"Could I have some more of that?"
Somehow James made that question seem innocent, but it was loaded in everything Teddy wanted, if only he would be so bold—offer it on his finger, offer it on his tongue! Teddy shook himself, embarrassed that he was almost thirty years old and couldn't just tell James he fancied him. He held out the cone to James.
"Help yourself."
James licked a swath around the base, catching up all the dribbles and brushing his tongue against Teddy's finger again. He didn't react. Teddy didn't react. Mostly Teddy didn't react because Teddy was frozen, which was more than he could say for the ice cream.
"Mmm, that's so good. And it's good with the vanilla." James's tongue darted out to catch a drip at the corner of his mouth. "You want some of mine?"
Mesmerized by James's tongue, Teddy leaned in, realized he hadn't said yes a moment before his mouth was about to touch the ice cream, and then tried to say yes, getting vanilla ice cream all over his lips. Well, that was incredibly smooth.
He tried to cover his mouth as he pulled back, hurriedly licking his lips, but James had already seen, was laughing, and tugging at Teddy's hand.
"Teddy, Teddy! What did you do?" James laughed, his smile light-hearted and beautiful, and Teddy let his hand be pulled from his face.
"Ice cream fail," he confessed. He could feel a glob of ice cream making an escape down his chin.
"I'll say. Let me help." James swiped his finger up Teddy's chin, and pushed the cold ice cream into Teddy's mouth, the pad of James's finger pressing against Teddy's tongue. His finger moved slowly across Teddy's lower lip, eyes trained precisely on Teddy's mouth, and Teddy once again wasn't certain he was breathing.
James switched lounges, sitting next to Teddy to finish cleaning up his face with his fingers. His bare knee touched Teddy's knee, the brush of hair sending a prickling of gooseflesh along Teddy's calf, but he shifted his leg before James could see.
"That's better," James said when he pulled his hand away from Teddy's face. "Though you might still be a little sticky."
"Very sticky," Teddy repeated, still in a trance. He shook his head when he realized what he had said and blushed. "I mean, napkins. Did we get any?"
"No," James laughed. "But we can wash off in the water when we're done."
Teddy could barely survive James licking an ice cream cone, how was he going to survive when James pulled off his shirt and dove into the water?
"Did you like it at least?"
"What?"
James waved his ice cream cone. "Did you like it? Even though it got all over you?"
"I, uh, actually didn't get to taste very much. Your finger was in my mouth." Teddy resisted the urge to smack his forehead and swore to never again speak.
James laughed harder. "Then maybe I should ask if you liked the taste of my finger."
"Delicious," Teddy said, trying to deadpan his answer, but also fighting to remember exactly if James had been salty from sweat or sweet from the ice cream. Mostly he remembered the texture of James's skin and that he hadn't flinched from pressing so intimately into Teddy's mouth.
James's eyebrows arched with surprised. "Was it?" He tilted his head, sunglasses sliding down his nose so that he looked over the rims. "Would you like another taste then?"
Teddy fish-mouthed a moment, not sure when the script flipped.
James held up his ice cream, his smile drawing his face into sharp edges. "Tongue first this time, mate. It's safer to go in for a lick than a bite."
Disappointment, please make your acquaintance with Teddy Lupin.
"Right," Teddy said, ignoring the hollow feeling in his stomach. "Sound advice." He went for James's ice cream again, but James pulled it away, wrapped his free hand behind Teddy's neck and leaned in to press a soft kiss to his lips. Teddy kissed back reflexively, not quite able to process what was happening—the kiss was too quick and his brain felt like it was melting faster than the ice cream, and then it was over.
"Was I wrong?" James's voice was soft, his face close enough to Teddy's that his vanilla scented breath cooled Teddy's lips.
Teddy licked his lips, catching tastes of both of their ice creams and a residual taste of salt that must have been from James. From his lips. From kissing Teddy. After purposefully licking and touching Teddy and getting him into a bathing suit and—Merlin, sometimes he was so thick.
"No," Teddy said, tapping into the swagger one single kiss had restored. "The orange and vanilla work very well together."
James's grin lit his face and he leaned in for another kiss, but this time Teddy was ready and he cupped James's cheek, completely forgetting about the ice cream cone in his other hand.