Of all the things Harry had lacked during his childhood, books, funnily enough, had not been one of them. Anyone clueless enough to buy Dudley Dursley anything to read were probably unaware that such a gift would be treated with the uttermost contempt and derision, before being unceremoniously thrown into the second bedroom with all the other discarded and broken possessions to be forgotten.

To Harry, this abandoned library was one of his only joys in the sparse moments he was allowed to indulge in any time alone to himself. When not being bullied into cleaning the toilets by his aunt, or chased around alleyways by Dudley and his gang, there were sometimes a precious hour or two where he could lose himself in a faraway land, leaving all his troubles behind, for just a while,

Now though, as he stared over the lush green vista of 'deepest, darkest Peru', he found he didn't need any help leaving his troubles behind. Because just then, it seemed like all his troubles had melted far away all by themselves.

"What are you doing?" Draco asked fondly, coming up behind him and snaking his arms around his waist.

"Looking for a talking teddy bear in a rain mac," Harry replied glibly, then turned to kiss his boyfriend's confused face.

"I think you've lost the plot," Draco said, but he grinned and allowed himself to be kissed properly nonetheless.

Harry pulled away after a time and brushed Draco's damp blond hair back. "How's the collection going?" he asked, indicating the staked pyramid of jars on the forest floor, all filled with different kinds of samples.

Draco nodded. "Excellent, I think I'm finally done."

Harry though wasn't convinced. "This is our last day," he said, indicating the jungle that currently enveloped them. "Are you sure you don't want to try one more site?"

"What I want," Draco growled, hugging him close and kissing his neck so Harry shivered. "Is to take you back to the lodge and enjoy our final night on holiday. You've put up with me rummaging around for fungus and bark for a week now, I think you deserve a reward."

Harry's skin, already flush and sweaty from the humidity and blazing sunshine, lit up with a whole different kind of warmth. "It's important," he managed to mumble through his grin. "You need supplies for your research, I haven't minded tagging along – I mean, look at this place, it's incredible."

Unlike Draco, Harry had never set foot outside the UK until last week. So when Draco had eventually plucked up the courage to invite Harry along on his research trip after graduation, he had jumped at the chance, and he had to admit he had not been disappointed at all with their South American adventure. It was true, most of the days he had spent following Draco around various hotspots in the Amazonian rainforest on the hunt for several key ingredients that he hoped would impress prospective employers when he made his potion-maker applications. But Harry had got to sunbathe with a number of books to read, and in one location there had even been some ancient ruins to explore that had delighted him no end.

Even if Draco had seen this as some sort of hardship though, Harry had got him all to himself every evening, when they had apparated to various towns to see the sights and eat in all kinds of different restaurants. They still had to be reasonably careful in public so as not to draw any kind of unwanted attention for being two men together, but at least here on the other side of the world no one so far had recognised them. No one had shouted their names out in the street or felt they could come over and start talking to them as if they wanted nothing more than to hear the opinions of complete strangers. The anonymity had been wonderful, and Harry was already feeling apprehensive about heading back to England the next day.

Draco rolled his eyes in response to his deflection and rocked them back and forth. "You're incredible," he said pointedly. "And I don't care if you think it was no big deal to hang around while I did my thing, I think it was a huge deal, so I would like to take you home now and say thank you."

Harry smiled and squeezed Draco's arse cheeks fondly. "Do you want to go somewhere nice for dinner first?" he asked, thinking of a couple of places he'd spotted throughout the week. But Draco shook his head.

"I organised some food to be dropped off at the lodge. I'm going to cook for you and I'm not going to worry about trying to keep my hands off you because there won't be a soul around for miles. In fact," he added wickedly with a flick of an eyebrow. "I might insist that clothes are strictly optional as of..." He glanced at his watch. "Now. How does that sound?"

Harry smirked, his whole body tingling. "That sounds delicious," he said.