Sunday 24th June
07:45am

It was quiet, but there was a definite thrum in the hospital. Cepheus left his card at the bedside of Krinkle, a female house elf who had been brought in the night before. She had been at death’s door, brutally injured, but the reason for or the means a confusion. She had been found in Diagon Alley by a wizard on his way home from a night out, and he’d sobered up quickly and carried her to safety. She was yet to wake up, but it was very early in the morning. The healers on Artefact Accidents had sedated her as she’d been in such a state when she’d begun to come round. To see such a tiny body in a bed meant for a human made the elf look like a child, though the healers suspected she was somewhere between fifteen and twenty years old.

Checking the time on his pocketwatch, Cepheus climbed the winding Victorian stairs up to the third floor. He’d dressed for work, but with the warmer weather he slung his mid sky blue suit jacket over his shoulder as he ascended. He wasn’t intending to be wearing it for more than another hour, as strictly speaking Sunday wasn’t his usual day of work. He’d hang and charm it on arriving back at the flat, ready for Monday. Nobody would notice, save for one wizard, perhaps.

“Morning,” Ceph greeted the welcome witch on the floor, who recognised and smiled at him wearily. This was the end of the night shift and the day shift were filtering in.

“Is he with patients?”
   “Brewing, I think.”
“Ah, thanks.”

He gave a polite nod, capitalising on the fact people generally liked and trusted him on this floor, and trod along the corridor, humming a tune to himself. He elbowed the door open to one of the laboratories, a favourite of the wizard’s and his features formed an automatic smile as his heart lifted at the familiar figure.

“Morning my love,” he greeted Arcturus Hollingbury, Healer in Charge of Potions and Plant Poisoning. He spoke softly, aware that it might have been a long, eventful night shift. “I had an early morning call out, so I brought breakfast.” Ceph lifted a brown paper bag, the top rolled closed. “Safe to approach?” He nodded in the direction of the equipment set up before his partner. Last thing either of them wanted was a good morning kiss interrupted by a splatter of scalding potion.

His hand hovered above the cauldron as he focused on the concoction within, keeping track of the temperature and the slow methodical stirring of the liquid within. If there was anywhere else he wanted to be right now, it would be at home, snuggled in bed with his boyfriend and deep in blessed sleep. But despite being Head of the floor he was not allowed to escape the dreaded Saturday night shift.

With all his focus into the brewing of this possible potion, he did not hear the door of the laboratory open and close. But he did hear Cepheus' voice over his measured breathing. Not for the first time was he secretly thankful for his connection with the water in the cauldron allowing him to not be startled and accidentally ruin the potion, but instead allowing him to look up, still keeping track of the number of stirs, to listen to Cepheus.

"Give me a moment." He finished off the count before leaning down to turn the heat off, levitating the cauldron off the stove and setting it aside on a cooling pad before any possible accident could happen. Then he finally turned around, a warm smile and eyes only for his partner. "Safe now. You've good timing, I just finished the last of my work."

Arcturus paused and frowned for a moment. "Why are you here?" He leaned against the table he'd been working at. "This early in the morning, too, with a coat. Surely you're not working today, or I missed something and we're going out to some event this early in the morning?"

Ceph waited thoughtfully and patiently as Arc set the cauldron aside to cool. When he turned round and their eyes met, Ceph’s face unconsciously lit up.

“No, got an owl overnight,” Ceph waved a hand, as if physically dismissing his partner’s suggestions that a work day had been forgotten. “A house elf had been brought in here seriously injured last night and there were some serious question marks over what had happened.” He dropped his folded jacket over one of the laboratory stools, and the paper bag on the edge of clear stretch of workbench. Their potions professor’s voice still echoed in his memories about the dangers of eating around the cauldron.

“I came by in the hopes that they might be well enough for a conversation, but they’ve been sedated down on Artefacts so I’ll leave it to the House Elf team to pick up. There’s not normally any need for someone specific to be on call overnight, but after being woken by the owl and reading about it, it was difficult to get back to sleep.” He approached as he spoke. “Especially with an empty bed.”

He encircled the other wizard’s waist with his arms and leaned in for a good morning kiss. Arc smelled like his work, unsurprisingly, but also love, home and deep reassurance. He embraced the healer, eyes closing as he rested his chin on Arc’s shoulder.

Arc raised his eyebrows as Cepheus explained the reason for his presence, his eyes following his partner's every move. Taking in every little detail of him - his loose dark curls, the tiredness etched into the crow's feet and eyebags upon his face, the way he set the paper bag down far from the cauldron. Oh, and how his features had lit up when he, exhausted from a long night, two-toned strands of hair escaping his ever-meticulous tie only wishing to have spent it in bed with his partner, had turned around after finishing his work.

But the fatigue fled in the warmth of his partner around and against him and in the tenderness of the kiss, and he said nothing as Cepheus remained to soak in their shared presence. Only his arms responding in kind to rest about his partner's waist, and for a blissful moment there was nothing but the comfort of each other.

"I hope the elf will be alright then," he said, looking down at Cepheus' dark curls. "And you're very kind bringing breakfast along. I was considering stopping by a bakery later to get something quick, so thank you for doing that already. Have you eaten?" They both lived busy lives and tended to sometimes forget eating, both a boon and a curse for being so invested in their work, so it was almost normal to remind each other to remember themselves. "And is it too much of me to expect you to be sharing the bed with me later when I reset my sleep schedule? Please tell me you will."

His words took on a cheeky pleading tone. Arcturus had become more confident of himself long before they had agreed to take another shot, but once their relationship had picked up the pace he turned out to be a bit more of a playful tease as well. Not too much that it would put Ceph off, but enough that he would never know when it was coming when Arc wanted to push a little bit of fun in their lives no matter how tired he was.

“… Have you eaten?”
  “Not yet, that’s why I brought some…” Cepheus answered softly, still with his had over his partner’s shoulder.

“… sharing the bed with me later…” He recognised that tone and grinned, squeezing Arc’s waist, and letting a hand all too briefly settle a little lower. They were in the hospital laboratory, and were both far too respectful Ravenclaws to risk upsetting a hot cauldron of potion in such a way. It was one way to prise Ceph’s mind off the house elf downstairs.

He leaned back far enough to share a look with his other half, all soft eyed and sincere. “You don’t have to ask me twice, darling.”

The Beings Head released his healer with one arm, the other loosely remained around the other’s hips as he surveyed the scene in the laboratory. It always reminded him a little of Hogwarts with the lines of cauldrons, only there was no sallow-faced Potions Professor snapping at them for chatting.

“How long until you’re done here, do you think?” Ceph asked, gesturing. “Was it quiet enough to work on your research?” His tone was genuinely curious, always trying to keep broadly abreast with Arc’s projects.

Cepheus didn't have to know he was working on a possible antidote for a potion malicious enough to give Arc concern, but he owed his partner an explanation, naturally.

"One of the good things about being the In-Charge is being able to delegate other healers on this floor to do your work." Arcturus gave him a brief grin before dropping it. "No, I'm not that irresponsible. Most of the late night calls on a Saturday are wixes drinking too much or swallowing something they shouldn't, either voluntarily or by accident. By the time it's well towards four in the morning the activity's died down, so I get some peace to work on my assignments." He waved a hand at the cooling cauldron not far from them.

"How long 'til I'm done here? Let me check." Arc looked up at the clock in the laboratory. "If you're wanting me to yourself, I have some good news. My shift is about to end in five, and all I have left to do is to put aside my results to cool and settle, and clean off the cauldron. That is not a problem." He waved a hand in the direction of a neat line of flasks waiting for their contents. "Not for me, as you already know. Could I trouble you to wait a little longer? You can stay."

“You can always trouble me, love.” Ceph replied easily, leaning in to leave a kiss on Arc’s cheek before he relinquished his hold. He headed in the direction of the paper bag before he realised it would be better to ask. “As long as you don’t mind me starting on breakfast?” It crinkled audibly as he took up his grasp. “Because now I’ve seen you I’m absolutely famished.”

Somewhere in one of these containers was a secret stash of tea leaves, if he remembered correctly. Secret because technically it broke the rule to brew your tea in your potions cauldron when you were a professional healer, Ceph was sure.

“Accio tea leaves?” He tried experimentally waving his spruce wand gingerly in the direction of the potential source. A couple of the jars rattled their lids and then one clattered out and slid across the worktop towards his ready hand. He lifted the lid and gave them a sniff to assess freshness and variety, tapping an empty cauldron to fill it will water and set it off to boil.

Suddenly he sensed he was being observed with more than usual interest and his lips formed an oh as he feigned a look of innocence.
“You … you don’t mind me making some tea do you? Only last time I wandered into the staff room on your floor one of your trainees tried to escort me back to bed, remember?”

Many of the Third Floor were familiar with Ceph as Arc’s partner of several years now, but some weren’t so comfortable with seeing Ceph comfortable in the hospital’s staff areas. Green robes only. Ceph being ever so polite and generally a people-pleaser sort, would rather brew tea in a cauldron and couple of glass beakers. “It’ll have to be black…”

Arcturus gave him a look. To some degree the hospital laboratories were a sort of home. A home that smelt of herbs, reagents and faintly of the stale clinical sterility that was preservation liquid - there was no mincing words on that - but it was a station where long hours were spent and thus grew to have a sort of familiarity. Even so there were rules: the tea leaf jar did exist and tea was indeed had in the early hours of the morning when no one was around, but it was still an accepted practice done on the sly.

"You can have breakfast by the side, away from the benches." There were cabinets running along the walls of the room, both mounted and on the floor. "You have less of a chance getting anywhere near a surface that could still have lingering traces of potions because we do our notes over there. I don't like to presume, but I think it's safe to say I can expect that you wouldn't like unknown substances in your breakfast."

When Ceph made to use an empty cauldron the stare at him became even more pointed. There was a bit of a pregnant pause, and then Arc waved his wand at the cauldron his partner was aiming for and whisked it off. In its place in front of Ceph he set down a small one, about the same size of a teapot.

"Same principle," he clarified, "that's the tea cauldron. I don't intend to stay here for long and that's not very good tea you're holding anyway."