[From Fantastic Beasts - The Secrets of Dumbledore.
Spoilers ahead!]

The dark liquid collected in his teaspoon as Albus stirred his tea, gazing at the cup, as though the tea leaves would present him with a fortune unlike the one fate had planned. He turned his eyes to the wall clock ticking away, and some part of him hoped that the meeting wouldn't take place.

But deep inside, Dumbledore knew that it had to. Some words couldn't go unsaid, and he was willing to take the chance if it meant preventing the loss of millions of lives.
Including that of the man he had once loved.

The clock chimed loudly, bringing Albus out of his reverie. It was precisely 4 o'clock. His eyes travelled towards the entrance to the little cafe. Despite the number of visitors strolling in and out, Dumbledore's eyes instantly met those of the wizard who had just entered. Even after all these years, Gellert's punctuality remained one of his distinctive characteristics, among other things, of course.

Albus turned his attention back to his cup, stirring the liquid again. Nothing could prepare him for this meeting. He closed his eyes for a moment, and the effort it took to eliminate the thought from the past that haunted him. Although most of his attention was focused on his drink, Dumbledore became vaguely aware of a pair of polished black boots that stopped beside his table.

"Would this be one of your regular haunts?" A soft, husky voice prompted the professor to look up. Grey eyes met light brown ones as Albus hoped that his racing heart wasn't as loud as he imagined.

"I don't have any regular haunts," Dumbledore replied casually. Grindelwald slowly stepped towards the chair opposite Albus and took a seat.

"You did have that place in Hogsmeade that served the best tea according to you," the dark wizard mused, looking up as a waiter placed a cup of tea in front of him. Albus put down his spoon.

"We didn't come here to discuss my regular haunts, Gellert."

The silver-haired man stopped stirring his drink, as though Albus had hit on a memory by using that name. The name that nobody used to address the dark wizard anymore. Gellert took a sip of the hot liquid, the familiarity of the sugar ratio causing him to smile slightly. Even he had possessed certain eccentricities in his youth that had carried forward, one being his preference for sugar in his tea.

One lump of sugar, not two, and Albus had remembered it.

"Whatever we say about the muggles, they certainly make a good cup of tea," Grindelwald remarked with an amused smirk, taking in his surroundings. Albus remained silent, gazing down at the table.

"But of course, we didn't come here to discuss that," Gellert added with a curt nod.

Albus turned his gaze to the man opposite him, composing his thoughts. This was going to be every bit as difficult as he'd imagined. Gellert had always had this way of getting into his mind, boring into his soul with those very eyes that had seemed so warm only years ago.

"What you're doing is madness," Dumbledore spoke up softly.

Grindelwald didn't respond. When he was a teenager, the idea wouldn't have seemed so mad to Albus. However, seeing Gellert relentlessly pursue the cause even now, to such an adverse extent...
It stirred a thousand conflicts in Dumbledore's heart.

Grindelwald put his cup down, fixing Albus with an emotionless gaze.

"It's what we said we'd do," he replied flatly. Albus frowned slightly, leaning back in his chair. He was reminded of those words he had uttered as a young man. At that age, all one wanted was to find their destiny, and pursue the cause that would lead them there. He had been naive, like Gellert.

Albus spoke up after a spell of contemplative silence.

"I was young, I was-"

"Committed," Gellert interjected, derailing Albus's train of thoughts.

"To me."

He paused, gazing into the eyes of the wizard in front of him.
"To us."

Albus inhaled sharply, the pained frown on his face deepening. He shook his head slowly.

"No," he whispered. "I only went along because..."

Grindelwald tilted his head slightly. "Because?" he enquired, not breaking his gaze.

Albus met his eyes unhesitatingly. "Because I was in love with you."

Gellert's gaze faltered for a moment, before he regained his unfazed exterior, but Dumbledore had already seen his thoughts reflected in his pale eyes.

Grindelwald's lips curled into an unreadable smile as he weighed Albus's words. It made keeping out their past relationship all the more challenging.

He shook his head slowly.
"That's not why you went along," Gellert replied softly. "It was you who said we'd reshape the world."

He leaned forward, peering intently at the professor.
"You knew it was our birthright."

Albus sighed, looking away from the eyes of his former lover. He had indeed agreed to Grindelwald's statements as a boy, but in all fairness, the dark wizard had been extremely persuasive, even at that age.

"That was when we were young and ambitious," he stated calmly.
"People change, Gellert. I'm not willing to sacrifice a million muggle lives in unnecessary carnage, just so I can rule the world."

Grindelwald smirked, leaning back in his chair. Typical Dumbledore, unable to overlook a hundred deaths even it meant a thousand other lives.

"That's the difference between us," he mused.

"Even after we decide on acquiring power, you let some absurd morals get in your way, Albus."

"Possessing morals isn't a weakness, as you seem to assume" Dumbledore retorted, narrowing his eyes. Grindelwald smiled to himself.

"No," he muttered. "It was your greatest strength."

The two men let silence consume them as they let the implications of their conversation set in.

"Under the current circumstances, a war seems inevitable," Grindelwald remarked quietly. Dumbledore swallowed back a lump that had formed in his throat. He didn't want to acknowledge Gellert's truth.

"We can't move against each other," Albus responded impassively. "You know that."

Grindelwald's eyes flickered in slight surprise. He hadn't expected Albus to have kept it after all these years, since Gellert himself had forfeited it that cold day he tore it off his neck.

"You still have it?" he asked calmly. Dumbledore's silence answered him. He had been debating whether or not to expose the symbol of their former chief to Gellert, but it seemed prudent to do so at this time.

Albus reached into his coat pocket and withdrew a silver charm that had a chain snaking around it. Extending his hand across the table, he revealed it to Grindelwald.

Gellert leaned forward, fixing his eyes on the glowing red orb in the centre of the silver trinket. He slowly reached out for it, but didn't take it as Albus had anticipated. The wizard lightly touched it, causing the red swirls in the centre to ripple around, as though sensing his angst.

"A Blood Pact," Grindelwald whispered, a soft smile of reminiscence crossing his face.

"Sometimes, I imagine I still feel it around my neck," he continued, staring at the magical object.

Albus gazed hard at the Blood Pact, his frown deepening. Just staring at the symbol of their former relationship made the thoughts madly crash around in his head. It was unlike a turmoil he had ever experienced. Dumbledore suddenly closed his fingers around the silver object, tightening his grip around it as though breaking it would relieve him of his emotional pain right then.
His fingernails turned white, and Grindelwald didn't miss the trembling of his hands.

"What do you think...drove us to create such a thing?" Albus whispered hoarsely, the chaos in his mind straining his voice. It was as though the Blood Pact was torturing him from the inside.

Just as he was about to withdraw his hand from the table, Gellert's fingers closed around his fist.

In an instant, the pain in Dumbledore's mind vanished, and was replaced by a feeling that had lay dormant for years. He stared down at the trembling hand that Grindelwald had taken.

"Love. Arrogance. Naivety," the dark wizard replied softly, absentmindedly running his fingers over Dumbledore's knuckles.
"Pick your poison."

The two men elapsed into silence as Albus glimpsed their entwined fingers closed around the Blood Pact.

"Perhaps we were arrogant. Overambitious," Dumbledore spoke up softly, placing his other hand over Gellert's. The dark wizard gazed up at him.

"But we were never naive to have formed the love between us."

They looked down at the silver object clasped within their fingers. In a way, it prevented each of them from hurting the other. It was as though things could be resolved again, and the two men could do away with hurdles that had led to their isolation from each other.
But it was never that simple.

"Albus. This is what we planned ever since we were young boys duelling each other," Grindelwald remarked slowly, gently gripping the hands of his former lover.

"We have a purpose. It is not too late to join forces against the muggles. We could rule the world like we were meant to," he continued softly.

"Together."

Albus shut his eyes hard and leaned back in his chair, pulling his hands away from Gellert's.

"You know we have our destinies to follow," he muttered, trying to fight back his conflicting emotions.
"Our paths divulge here, Gellert. And we have no choice but to follow them."

Grindelwald looked away from the light brown eyes he had been gazing at. He absentmindedly brushed back his hair, vaguely aware of the chaos inside his heart. But the decision had been made. Emotions had to be discounted now, and both men knew there could be nothing more difficult.

"I will get to the muggles, Albus," Gellert stated calmly. He gazed at Dumbledore, regaining his emotionless exterior. It was, of course, a mere façade behind which his true feelings threatened to emerge.

"Please don't make me responsible for hurting you."

Albus looked up at Grindelwald, trying not to imagine what it would be like to fight against the man he had considered his closest friend.

"We do things for the Greater Good, don't we?" he replied softly, recalling the motto they had lived by throughout their youth. Gellert regarded the man opposite him with his inquisitive eyes.

"I will burn down their world," he continued slowly. "With or without you."

Albus's lips twisted into a slight smile.
"You'll find me to be very persistent opposition," he responded smoothly. Gellert smirked.

"I know."

The dark wizard arose from his seat, straightening his black tie.
"May the best army win," he stated, to which Dumbledore merely tilted his head in agreement. They had no choice now but to follow their chosen roads power.

Gellert took a step back and proceeded to depart. Before he walked away, however, he stopped.

Grindelwald took a few steps forward, pausing right behind Albus. He leaned down to the man's level.

"For the greater good, my love," he whispered into Dumbledore's ear. He planted a kiss on Albus's neck before disappearing into the crowd.