It took a while for the front door of 277b to come open.  The person behind it was rather shorter than the one he’d been expecting, and also the wrong gender.  For a moment, Cepheus reconsidered the number, fearing he had made a rather embarrassing mistake.  No, he was quite sure this was the doorstep he’d left Arcturus on the previous weekend[1] before carrying on home.  Perhaps he should have owled ahead specifically - he hadn’t wanted to pressure Arcturus into joining him.  This was more a ‘I was passing and wondered…’ kind of call, even if he’d walked away from the market direction to get to this front door.

“Good morning,” Cepheus greeted the petite female who clasped the door, very much clothed, but looking a little tired, “I’m calling for Arcturus Hollingbury?”

There was a pause, a look of mild surprise and then a slight shake of her head as if dismissing it.
”Right! Yes, he’s… sorry, who are you?” Her accent wasn’t English, sounded Scandinavian, lighter, regal sounding. It was precise, thoughtful, less colloquial than he might have said it. This must be Arc’s friend he’d mentioned he shared the place with.
“Cepheus,” he introduced himself with a gentle smile, “Cepheus Gamp. I’m a friend.” He swallowed and studied her expression. “If he’s not in I won’t bother you further, I was just passing-"
”He’s in.” The woman the other side of the door interrupted with a growing smile.  Cepheus tried not to blush but she was looking him up and down in a most interested manner. It was a bit awkward. ”But he’s asleep, I’m sure he wouldn’t want to miss you.  Come in, I’ll put the kettle on.”
“No, don’t wake-"
”He needs to get up anyway, and he’d hate to miss company.”

Cepheus paused on the doorstep, not sure if that was sarcasm in her tone, but she had turned away from the door and he could hear her feet climbing the wood steps within the hallway beyond.  The front door hung open invitingly. His fingers nervously ran along the collar and lapels of his smart burgundy overcoat against his beige tartan scarf.  Taking a last glance up the alley, he stepped inside, and swung the front door shut behind him.

1.	26th February, And Until We Meet Again

Arcturus Hollingbury looked beautifully at peace when he was fast asleep.  It was almost a shame to wake him.  Lix leaned on the doorframe of his room, the door ajar to let Rustle come and go.  The kneazle in question had shot downstairs soon after she had shown Cepheus into the living room.  She had left the feline supervising their guest as he sipped a cup of tea perched on the sofa.

Lix was home after a long night working at St Mungo’s.  There had been a whole party of ridiculous wizards who had experimented with alcohol and mixers of entirely the wrong type.  Between vomiting fire, rainbows and sprouting trotters for hands they were a merry mess.  She was ready for a long hot bath and climbing into her own bed.  Sometimes she’d crawl into Arc’s when she needed a hug and a warm wizard to deliver it, or he into hers, and every now and then it’d turn into something more, but not for a while now.  She wondered if the smart looking wizard downstairs was anything to do with it, but suspected it was the dementors at the foot of the bed.

Gently, she clambered onto the bed beside Arcturus and kissed his hair.  He’d dyed it not so long ago, the white was all gone.  He looked different, but she was getting used to it.  One of his unique traits gone for the moment.
“Good morning,” she greeted him quietly, her face a foot away from his, “sorry to wake you, only there’s a rather charming wizard in our living room asking for you.  Should I show him up?”

It was a big point for Arcturus that he got to sleep in on Sunday mornings. Most of the week he had less than the normal hours of sleep, so of course weekends were spent curled up in bed or on the sofa dozing. Sleep was nice. It shut off all the thoughts.

That didn't mean he slept so deeply, though. As far as he was concerned, he was still available at any time to the hospital. So when Elixa greeted him his eyes opened, though still heavy with sleep. The warmth of the bed and covers still surrounded him, with extra heat on the side where Elixa was.

"Morning, Lix." He didn't remember having her sleep with him the previous night. She was out, wasn't she? He sniffed. "You smell like burnt hair. Hmm? Wait, what?" Charming wizard asking for him?

Didn't he ask you if you wanted to go out the previous week?

"Don't show him up!" He was instantly awake, shot upright in bed and promptly got tangled with the covers, near flailing to not fall of the edge. "He stays downstairs! Wh-- Merlin, no." That was to himself on not teetering on the edge of the bed. Arcturus calmed down long enough to free his legs and ran a hand through his terribly messy hair in an attempt to tame it, getting off the bed all wobbly. "What time is it?! I didn't-- don't-- hold on." He sat back down, legs not having woken up yet at all in the process.

The healer looked up at his grinning housemate. "Don't tell him about this," he said meekly.

It took a moment for Arcturus to become fully awake, more concerned for the possibility that her hair might be on fire than for the fact there was a visitor.  She grinned at the fact, on the one hand glad that he had more concern for his housemate and close friend than he did a relatively new one, but on the other found it typically Arcturus to be concerned with a detail rather than the social matter.

His panic about the possibility of someone being shown up to his bedroom only made her giggle, and she rolled onto her back on the bed.  Her black hair pressed against the adjacent pillow around her as she brought both hands up to her mouth beneath her tired eyes.
“It’s alright,” she assured him, once she stopped laughing.  Elixa smiled as she dropped her hands over her stomach, “I made him a cup of tea.  Rustle’s keeping him company.”

Much as she was tempted to stay put, for Arc’s bed was very comfortable and warm still from him being in it, she swung her feet back off and onto the floor the other side to him and ambled to the bedroom door, calling out down the hallway,
“He’ll be down in a minute!”

There was a distant polite acknowledgement from below the floorboards of Arc’s bedroom which was over the living room.  As Arcturus came round and thought to become presentable, Lix began to do the opposite, peeling off layers without a thought in the bedroom doorway, hoping to glean a little more information about their guest and why they’d called round. She’d considered going back down to keep the wizard company, only she could foresee a possible flustered meltdown from Arcturus at the rate he was going.

“Date number two then?”

“Hello.” Cepheus addressed the enormous ginger cat which had taken up residence in one of the armchairs before the fire.  It was studying him with lamplike eyes.  He set his mug of tea down on his knee and looked about the living room.  It was homely without being overdressed, simple and yet there were hints of two personalities.  The coat rack he had passed by the front door was well stocked with cloaks, though most of them looked too feminine to be Arc’s.  However the bookcase looked much more likely.

Above him was the sound of muffled voices, a bump right above and more muffled voices.  Cepheus lifted the mug from his knee and got to his feet just as Elixa called down to him.  She had introduced herself eventually while making tea, asking a few probing questions as she did.  Had they enjoyed their evening last week, had they met at school like Arc had mentioned, had he said anything about coming round at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning?  He hoped he’d answered them all with good grace.

His coat and scarf were folded carefully over the back of the sofa, a little too warm to wear indoors.  Beneath he wore a simple black v-neck jumper over a white t-shirt and blue jeans.  He’d opted not to go for smarter shoes, recalling Arc’s casual attire when they’d met in the Alley that evening, and wore a pair of what his sister called sneakers.  They were rather popular with muggles.

As he approached the bookshelves and began to read the spines, a smile grew on Ceph’s pale face, curious to discover Arc’s library.  He anticipated Hollingbury to be well read, and he already knew the other wizard had a keen interest in charms, and a professional interest in healing, so it was not altogether surprising to discover The Joye of Charmes (Uncut Edition) taking up shelf space. Further over he found The Book of Enchanting and Extracting Blood which piqued his interest momentarily given his work with the St Mungo’s blood bank for vampires.  Only when he slid it out, he discovered that although it was with illustrations for the Advanced Student it clearly stated Vampires Not Included.

Controlling the Tide: A Hawaiian Guide on Surfing Magic received a surprised hum from the former Ravenclaw, not anticipating that title.  He wondered if Arcturus surfed? He’d not been all that interested in Ceph’s tidal interest of the British Isles.  He lifted his mug to his lips to take a more generous sip, and placed it down on the side table beside the armchair the kneazle had sat upon before fishing one title of interest[1] out from between two others.

1.	How to Dynamically Manage Charms for Dynamic Results in an Efficient Empowering Way in Quite a Short Time Dynamically - All of these lovely titles are created by Neon

"It's not a date!" Arc exclaimed as he tried to clean up his hair. "Just something we agreed to at the end of last time! Not a big deal, alright?" He stopped, abruptly aware that he was less mortified by Elixa's laughing than her question of it being a date. He wasn't going to just say it outright now.

"If I'm not wrong it's the book market," he continued, in a soft attempt to stave off the fluster from before. "I can't say no to books, you know me. How was last night? And why do you smell of burnt hair? Did someone spontaneously combust in the hospital last night?"

He hadn't planned for any of this at all, but somehow that didn't concern him as much as it would have before. Either it was wilfully ignoring the nature of this outing, or it was a Sunday and he couldn't be half as bothered as he would've been any other day, but for now this topic did not occur to him. Cold outside, a coat and scarf would do. Hoodie? Something in him cringed; Cepheus did not deserve the visage of that.

Merlin this really was a date in every definition of the word.

Not wanting to keep the wizard downstairs waiting, Arc opted for a jumper and jeans. "Where's Rustle? Oh, he's downstairs. Alright." He threw a half-hearted glare in Elixa's direction, but the two of them knew just as much that he didn't mean it. A glimpse in the mirror informed him that while his hair was not bed in nature, it was still suddenly a lot. He usually tied his hair up when he went out. The healer hastily cast a glance around his room.

"Where's-- I can't find my hair tie." He suddenly remembered Rustle had been toying with it last night and sighed. Things pawed by Rustle tended to get hoarded, he didn't have time to go look now. "I'll deal. I'll see you later, Elixa."

The stairs heralded his arrival to the living room better than he would have done; Arc was not one for shouting in the flat unless it was at Rustle. "Sorry for the wait. I hope she treated you fine?" Rustle tried to rub against him and deposit ginger hairs, but he intercepted with a head scratch. "And Rustle. I hope Rustle treated you fine as well." Hope against hope Cepheus didn't notice the slight nervous edge in his tone. If he himself could hear it, obviously it would be...obvious.

“Near enough,” Lix replied, not confirming whether she meant date or combust, but grinned cheekily. She disappeared momentarily from the bedroom to draw a bath, and wandered back in just her top and nothing else, unbraiding her hair. She offered Arc her own hair tie, but in his distraction about a visitor who was not his date he seemed to miss the. She shrugged at him and flicked her wand at him as he hurried down the upstairs hallway. The label of his jumper at the neck tucked itself in and she smiled to herself.
“Good luck!” She called softly, slipping into the bathroom and locking the door behind her.

Cepheus heard feet and observed a shadow descending down the stairs before he saw Arcturus. He was dressed comfortably in jeans and a jumper, looking ever so slightly flustered. Cepheus realised he was smiling happily only after he took it all in consciously.

"Sorry for the wait. I hope she treated you fine?” For a moment, Cepheus was not sure if Arcturus meant his housemate, or the kneazle. He paused, lips apart, charms book snapping shut in his hands.
“Oh, Elixa? Oh, yes.”
"And Rustle. I hope Rustle treated you fine as well.” He definitely meant the cat this time.
“He’s lovely. And, she insisted I come in. I’m so sorry if I woke you up, I probably should have owled ahead to see if you would like to come with me.” Cepheus explained politely, and turned to slide the book back into place, taking care to line the spine up neatly with the others. “Please don’t feel obliged, I…”

He met the healer’s gaze across the room and fell quiet. It dawned on him that this was the first time he’d seen Arcturus in daylight in their recent meetings. Arcturus had changed his hair - it was back to how it had been when they were at school, dark again. There had been a shade of white in it the last weekend, though he hadn’t commented or asked about it.
“Morning.” He greeted properly, smiling gently at Hollingbury. “How are you?”

He had to admire Elixa's ability for ambiguous words.

"I’m so sorry if I woke you up, I probably should have owled ahead to see if you would like to come with me.” Had Cepheus not kept talking, Arc would have said exactly what was on his mind right then - but he'd hesitated for a fraction of a second and the moment had passed. Damn. The pause dropped him back into the room with Cepheus, where the two just looked across the room.

“Morning. How are you?”

"I'm...good." Arc nodded as he said it, half a smile turning the corner of his mouth up briefly. "It slipped my mind, I tend to sleep in on weekends, but it's alright. I would have come with you, owl or not." He smiled, properly this time. "You?"

"I'm well too, thank you." Cepheus replied ever so politely, giving Arcturus a respectful nod. "I'll just finish this tea and then we can go then. Catch some breakfast out, if that's alright with you?" He asked the other former Ravenclaw. There was a little ritual in the Sunday morning book fair which Cepheus observed with eating out. It would be good to share it with a friend, look over their purchases together.

"Sorry to have woken you, either way." He reiterated, mug on its way back to his lips from the table beside Arc's preferred armchair. When there was a pregnant pause of the two of them, Cepheus raised both eyebrows as he drank, trying to diffuse the strange energy in the room of Arc watching him neck a cup of warm tea.

"There, lovely," Cepheus strode softly into the kitchen, figuring out the protocol of the space. It was neat, though homely, and there was a familiar sight of a St Mungo's charity calendar pinned up, partially obscured. "Gosh, you've got one of those too." Ceph remarked, setting the mug down beside the sink with his left hand, gesturing towards the calendar with is right, extending his finger to point. "Mine had an unfortunate accident. You're not in it though - you escaped?" He figured he might have recognised his old school friend's face back at the time he'd been issued with it if Arcturus was in it.

His route back from the kitchen, round the kitchen table, took him closer to Arcturus, and his face adopted the same warm smile which had appeared automatically on seeing him appear from upstairs. As he listened to the response, Ceph lifted his coat and scarf from the back of the sofa, looking to Arcturus to ready for departure. 


End