The day before had been an absolute disaster and Draco felt his stomach churn at the prospect of being relatively vulnerable in a common area like the kitchen had become. When he took his usual seat there, he had known that there was a very real risk of running into Potter when he sat here, but a part of him had wanted for that to happen.<br/>After all, he knew that they couldn’t keep avoiding each other forever, at least not if they wanted to solve the case, and Draco was just going to have to work on himself enough to be able to be around Potter again. He had a hard time pinpointing what exactly it was that made him so uncomfortable in his relation with Potter, but part of him knew that it was just the fact that he had shown so much of himself, and knowing that it would never amount to more. It felt like too much and Draco wanted to hide the parts of him that Potter had already seen, but it was far too late.<br/>“Good morning,” Draco said in a soft voice, trying not to be startled by Potter’s appearance in his kitchen. Even if Draco had counted on seeing Potter in the kitchen this morning, he had also known that there was a very real possibility that Potter would have gone directly to the sunroom, a room that Draco felt certain that he couldn’t bear to stay in anymore. It would make everything too real, forcing him to face what had actually happened and making him unable to hide from it.<br/>“Not yet,” Draco added, unsure why Potter wanted to know, but maybe he was just trying to gauge when Draco was going to leave for the study. Even if things were awkward between them, Draco knew that they still had to work together to some extent, time have proven again and again that their work was better when they did. It gave Draco a headache and he desperately wanted to know what on earth he was supposed to do.