Grindeldore // The Hallows That Divide Us

~8~

Tall, dark and handsome.

He was the epithet of intensity. Holding his valiant stature directly in front of Albus, breathing his aroma into his personal space.

Albus succumbed to silence. His open mouth obvious to Gellert, as if he were going to say something...

But he just stood there. Gellert smirking in his face. Obviously aware he had startled his friend. He almost laughed.

"Well?" He stated. "Are you going to let me in?"

The two men were symmetrical to each other in the arch of the doorway. Albus was hesitant to move, as his face was almost touching Gellert's. Aware that since he had gotten up straight from the floor, he was not sure he could move without stumbling and making a fool of himself.

Gellert realised this, so took the time to move instead, brushing his shoulder lightly past Albus as he entered the large office.

Stumbling for words, Albus eventually managed to ask one of his many questions that had been wavering on his mind. "How did you even get in here, Gellert? The castle is secured from the outside..."

Gellert had walked over to the desk in the middle of the room. Bookshelf's lined the circular circumference of the room, creating an atmosphere of seclusion and contentment.

"You've done well for yourself." Deliberately not answering the question. "I told you, didn't I." He rubbed his finger across the desk, inspecting the cleanliness like he was intending to look for dust.
Then he perched on the end of the desk, staring at his friend with justification.

Albus folded his arms. "...you did." He suddenly felt nauseous. "Perhaps your articulate charisma can provide me with some answers, Gellert. It's not like I haven't seen you in 30 years!" A hint of spite behind his voice.

Gellert raised his eyebrows.

"Well, it's not like you to hold a grudge, Albus!"

Albus closed his mouth. Even now he didn't like to see his friend angry. But now it seemed, his anger could be a bit more dangerous if he pushed too hard.

"...you're right." He stuttered. "But if you're here to talk, Gellert then please, take an actual seat. We can converse here."

The man with the pearly white locks was caught in a trance. Had Albus told him he was right?

Gellert returned a smirk. "Of course."

He took himself off the corner of the desk and sat in the seat opposite Albus' desk seat. The one in which Albus had been pointing at from the start.

Albus still leaning up against the arch that conceived the doorway, finally leant off and made a slow walk to his side of the office table. Not breaking eye contact with Gellert at any given moment.

"You don't trust me." Said Gellert.

When Albus sat down himself, he let out a breath. An indication to his anguish and fortitude. "What I don't trust is the reason for why you're here, Gellert."

"Then I shall tell you." He got up again, receiving an obvious eye roll from Albus.

He knew his friend could not stay still in one place for too long. Both on a minor scale and a major one. But he'd be lying if he said, even this brief visit from him was something he hadn't wanted.

"My escape, no thanks to you, was thankfully a success. Not that I had any doubts myself, but had I not received help, I'd of been stuck in that facetious courtroom in Europe." He was pacing now, similarly to how Albus did when he had something on his mind.

"You're in Europe now, Gellert."

"Yes, but I thought here I was in the company of my friend...someone I could trust."

Locking his gaze onto Albus when he stopped pacing, made Albus turn his head. Unbeknownst to Gellert, he was forcing away a blushed complexion.

"What I see before me is a man I once trusted, and could now, after all this time, take his certitude to accompany me..."

"Why are you here, Gellert?" There was a time where Albus would have never dreamed to have interrupted Grindelwald, but now, astonishing himself, it seemed to have ultimately slipped his mind.

"It's as much telling me your brilliant plan of escape, but what have I got to do with it?"

For the first time, Gellert was taken aback. But impressively so, as he was smirking again at the intensity that Albus was giving off.

"My, how the times have changed. I like it. This new you." He slurred, before biting the bottom of his lip to indicate a minor hostility of arousal. Not that he was ashamed.

When Albus returned a well-hidden attempt at belligerence, Gellert understood the memo. "Alright, I want you back. I need you back..."

Albus was wide-eyed. In an attempt to understand the context, his mind filled with the potentials of a prosperity relationship that he had once shared with Gellert. Perhaps being a bit optimistic, but he was hopeful before the clarification.

"What I mean is, this complex relationship that we have, still have...it can be solved." He stated. "I want you to join me. Align yourself with a cause that we had once dreamed together, and we could do it as a collaboration, a propinquity, a relationship..."

"Gellert, we both know you're idea of a relationship is completely different to my idea of a relationship." He sighed into his hands. Albus had hoped to break through that subsidiary exterior of his. "I've left those morals behind me. But this time you can't persuade me by promising something that you cannot possibly want to give me."

"How do you know?"

"How do I know what? What are you talking..?"

"I thought you'd remember..."

Gellert moved swiftly, without swaying from his usual charisma, towards a startled looking Albus. His palms neatly placed on the desktop, now clenched at what Gellert had done.

He had kissed him.

And not that Albus was against this momentous foregoing, but along with the wildly confusing sentimentalities Gellert had dropped on him that evening, the idea that this was something Gellert actually wanted was highly unlikely.

It was difficult to stop, but when he did, Albus held both confusion and questioning in his eyes. Gellert answered both looks.

"Yes this is happening because I want it too, and no I am not ploying you into some scenario where the aftermath will result in you joining me in my conquest, because I have realised that is now not what you want...but if you don't want to do this then..."

Albus laughed pushing his lips against Gellert's once more. Roughly pulling on the sharp lapels on his coat.

Glad that FINALLY something had worked in his favour.

~~~
This took me a bit longer, but we're starting to get some more character development. Hope you like it.