February 6th, 1891 - Tyb's Flat
Tybalt Kirke

What if we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine, nothing could keep us apart
You'd be the one I was meant to find
It's up to you, and it's up to me
No one can say what we get to be
So why don't we rewrite the stars?
Maybe the world could be ours
Tonight

It had taken her much longer that she would have liked to make time to see Tyb to talk about their plan to meet with her mum, but Elsie had a couple of things to do first. She'd arranged tea with her sister, needing Adella's expertise here on how best to approach the situation. Considering her sister was married already, and though Mr. Calendar had been an exemplary candidate for her sister's hand, Elsie saw that affection between them long before Mr. Calendar had proposed. She had left out most of the specifics when talking to Della, but her sister caught on pretty quickly and had some sound advice for the situation.

Next had come Harvey. He'd been the one to approach her, though to his credit had waited a couple weeks to ask if there was a reason she and Tyb always managed to run into one another at social events. Maybe Dell had mentioned it to him, but the "old school friends" card could also only be played for so long. He wasn't an idiot. Fortunately he wasn't too obnoxious about it and even mentioned how Tyb had been there when they'd gotten the news about Bentley, certainly that had to be a mark in their favor?

Oh, how she wished she could talk to Bentley about the whole thing, too.

Armed with all of that information, she'd finally been able to make time to see Tyb late one night while her mother had gone off to Liverpool to see some old friends for the weekend. She disapparated with the typical pop and landed squarely in the middle of his room, shaking off the uncomfortable feeling that always accompanied a trip like that. "Hi," She greeted softly, always aware of the late hour and how loud everything seemed when it wasn't in a whisper.

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MJ always makes her so pretty

He would feel less nervous when they had planned it out together, Tyb told himself again, but even waiting to discuss the planning had seen him lying awake on more than one night this week, imagining how the conversation might go. Not this one, the actual one - being honest to Elsie’s mother’s face after all this time.

So he was relieved when Elsie appeared in his room at last, smiling his hello back at her and stepping up to greet her with a kiss. Rare opportunities to do that, usually - but if all went right, Tyb considered in a daze, one day that could be their ordinary.

By next New Year’s. She had promised it, so it was as sure a thing as anything came. He had never known Elsie to make resolutions lightly, never not to mean it with her whole heart. And if that was so, it wasn’t ‘could be’, but would. It would be their life one day.

So, although tempted to draw the kiss out awhile, she had come for a purpose tonight and he was too impatient to hear her thoughts on the matter to push that back any further. “How are you?” he asked instead, his tone similarly gentle, too used to the secrecy and the quiet to change that now.

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Elsie melted into him instantly, everything always fading away as soon as she was in his presence. Even if the move to his own flat had had afforded them a little more leeway in visits here and there, Elsie hadn't wanted to run into anyone tonight, still a little nervous about what it was they had to discuss. She had been the one to initiate everything and she was ready, but it was all so real now.

When he pulled back, she sighed softly, still not used to the butterflies she got when he kissed her like that. "Better now," As always. She'd been a bit of a bundle of nerves lately. The last thing she wanted to do was to create waves in her family. Her mum was the last hurdle so to speak and she just wanted it to go well.

"And you?" He had to be feeling similarly, and as always, the pressure always seemed to be worse for him. Elsie had wrapped her arms around him, content to be with him and soak up the calming effect he had on her. Some day, in the next year, this would simply be going to bed, instead of talking about a mildly terrifying conversation they were about to have with her mum.

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   Tybalt Kirke

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MJ always makes her so pretty

He smiled broadly at Elsie’s answer, already in a better mood for seeing her too. Tyb slipped his arms around her waist as well, trying to keep that smile for the questioned returned, but almost sure she would know his stomach was in knots, if she couldn’t feel it.

“Glad to see you,” he said, pressing a kiss to the top of her head before he tugged her away by the hand towards his bed, albeit to flop onto it cross-legged. “And very ready to make these battle plans.” He didn’t know how ready Elsie was with a strategy, whether she had a plan already formulated and all he’d have to do was listen and take notes (which, er, she knew he wasn’t a master of), or whether she hadn’t yet figured out how to navigate this herself. (If she didn’t, if she couldn’t see the glimmer of a way through after thinking about it for as long as they had, Tyb thought it probably boded badly for his prospects.)

Discreetly, he glanced at a box of chocolate cauldron cakes on his bedside table he’d brought home earlier, as yet undecided as to whether this was a snack situation or not, but just in case. This was probably as close as they had come to a study session in their post-Hogwarts days, but he wasn’t sure whether Elsie still had the war flashbacks from attempting to coach him then. (This time, anyway, he was going to try like hell.)

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   Elsie Kirke

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Elsie chuckled quietly, allowing him to pull her toward the bed. She climbed up beside him, more carefully, tucking her legs beneath her and covering them up with her nightgown without thinking about it. "Battle plans," She shook her head slightly, laughing once more; he wasn't really wrong. The conversation required careful consideration and a strategy after all.

"I visited with Adella and got her to explain what she and Mr. Calendar had done," Though her brother-in-law had been in a much more permanent position to ask for Adella's hand than Tyb was, the affection between them had been just as strong as between her and Tyb. "Harvey has us pegged already," She chuckled nervously. New Year's had sealed the deal there.

Elsie had a couple of ideas to pitch to him, but she really wasn't sure how best to explain them all. "I think," This first one was her most thought-out plan. "I think maybe we should preface it like we knew one another at school," Which they had been, so that part was easy. "And we reconnected recently? Maybe the World Cup match and how you brought me home?" That would be a good specific detail. And be a reasonable amount of time for them to have "reconnected." Elsie wasn't sure if she'd mentioned who brought her home that day, but she may have mentioned an "old school friend." "We corresponded for a little while and here we are?" It seemed easy enough. Otherwise she had come up with them meeting at some event or another, but it required fabricating more details that they would both need to remember to match up.

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   Tybalt Kirke

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MJ always makes her so pretty

Well, that was a fair start, if she’d done her research with her sister - so maybe this would not need to be a battle plan after all, Tyb was thinking, until - “Harvey, how?!” he blurted out, wincing; although perhaps that was better off as a rhetorical question, because Elsie’s brother was not, as far as he knew, blind. “Is he - fine with it?” he added, a little nervously, because he had always liked both of Elsie’s brothers and if this worked and they became his brothers-in-law Tybalt would prefer they still liked him.

All the same, he knew Elsie’s mother mattered most, so he exhaled and listened attentively to her next piece. Friends at school, that was simple, that was true - and he didn’t mind the World Cup idea either, that could work, although it seemed a little mad that they had been through a world cup before that together - and Tybalt nodded along in agreement but... it just sounded so strange to pare down the last few years of their knowing each other to - just that. A chance meeting or two and a little bit of correspondence?

He supposed that was how courtships usually bloomed, out in the ordinary world where boring normal people could possibly fall in love through correspondence. “Alright, so,” Tyb said, with a little grin because he couldn’t help himself, “no telling her that I’ve been in love with you forever and we’ve been sneaking around for years, I take it?” (He had to joke about it now to scare himself, so he didn’t slip up and say something about it to her mother later.) “And I suppose that’s a hard no on mentioning the late night visits?”

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   Elsie Kirke

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Elsie's lips curved into a long, slow smile at his expressions as she spoke. Shrugging slightly and laughing quietly, the reaction to Harvey knowing was to be expected. Truth be told, he'd probably figured it out a while ago and just never said anything, too busy with his own life to give it much thought, but New Years had certainly sealed their fate in that respect. "He didn't really say much, actually, though didn't seem displeased or anything of the like." Harvey was an opinionated sort, he would have said something if he thought poorly of the situation.

Though she was sure he had heard her ideas, Tyb hadn't given her much indication of what he thought, other than to tease her of course. Then again, she would never tire of hearing him put his love for her into actual words either. "I mean some level of affection wouldn't go amiss," She mused as she reached out to brush her fingers against his. It would probably be a good thing if her mother were to believe they held some mutual admiration between them. Elsie was fairly certain, despite her recent mess ups, that her mother did simply want for her to be happy. "But probably best to leave these late night visits out." There was no reason to cause an uproar, she wanted her family to love Tyb as much as she did and that would be best accomplished by playing by the rules for the time being.

"Just think, this will no longer be just a once-in-a-while-thing by the end of the year." No worrying about it, no dreading the possible consequences if things got heated, no need to rush home in the wee hours of the morning. This would simply be going to bed after the workday, nothing furtive or unusual about it and Elsie couldn't wait. 

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MJ always makes her so pretty

If her brother had not made a thing of it, then that was good, then they had come a long way since her cousin had caught them in her library. They had barely known where they were going, then, and now - she was right, it felt so much closer to real. By the end of the year.

“Some level of affection,” he echoed eventually, teasingly, twining his fingers between hers and trying not to laugh. “Noted. I think I can manage that.” He did chuckle slightly, and as it faded back to a grin, let out a sigh that was more in anticipation than anything.

“Can manage all of that, I think,” Tyb added, jerking his head to mean ‘the whole strategy, the world cup reconnection’, the details to a minimum. “Sounds simple enough.” Hopefully her mother would not have too many questions or judgements about anything else - his career, the quidditch, his finances now, the future - and the affection would be enough for her. Elsie had already turned down one proposal, after all. It had to be enough.

“‘Just think’,” he quoted, pitching a little closer to nudge her and shaking his head as if to say please, you have no idea. “You say that as if it isn’t the only thing on my mind every minute of my life,” Tyb declared, wide-eyed and only exaggerating a little. They had maybe cheated a little in the long-term, but still: crumbs, compared to what it would be like later, when they were married and actually living together. He was practically a master of delayed gratification by now.

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   Elsie Kirke

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Elsie sighed softly in relief. At least he agreed, they could manage somehow. They couldn't keep going like this for much longer.

Squeezing his hand, she leaned into him, grateful for him, as always. "Every minute, huh?" She teased, looking up at him with a smile. Their future occupied most of her free thoughts too, especially after their conversation about the little house filled with books and brooms and the swing in the garden. She dreamt about it often enough too.

"We could always elope?" She quirked an eyebrow at him. She was mostly kidding. Mostly. But not really. She'd asked to gauge his reaction. If, for whatever reason, things didn't go well with her mother, that was her next idea...

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MJ always makes her so pretty

“Well, many minutes,” Tyb amended, rolling his eyes gently. “Many, many minutes.” Wouldn’t it be nice to have that freedom? The ease of having her around all the time? To not be rushed and secretive all the time, and to not be bound up, anymore, by any worry of losing this.

There was no way he was prepared to lose this, though, so even her joke about eloping didn’t see him flinch. If anything, there was a small smile playing on his mouth at the idea she could happily joke about going through with that. Elsie would really do it, he thought, for him, if they had to; and that made something in his chest burst in the best kind of way. “I am going to marry you one way or another,” he said, laughing a little - there was no backing out now, she must know that - but for her sake, practically speaking, it was much, much better that her family was on side. And they were nearly there now. Elopement could surely be set aside as a back-up plan. He grinned, pretending to be the sensible one for just a minute. “But I don’t mind waiting until the end of the year.” 

If they got Mrs. Beauregard’s permission, of course - and then a short courtship, a brief engagement, a wedding, and they’d be there, without even having broken Elsie’s New Year Resolution. “I love you,” he added nonetheless, leaning in towards her. (Eloping tonight might be excessive, but he didn’t have the self-control to let the moment pass without at least stealing another kiss.)

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   Elsie Kirke

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"Good answer." She chuckled, kissing his cheek as she did so. Not that she had ever doubted him, ever. They just needed to make the decision and go for it. With her twenty-fifth birthday looming in the next few months, certainly her mother was ready to be shot of her.

"I'm tired of waiting," She whined, but laughed quickly after. It was funny that she was the impatient one here. He was likely teasing her too though. This was a solid plan, once they figured out her mother, everything would go from there. Though Elsie really didn't have any reason to believe that her mother would outright say no, at least they were also on the same page about eloping. It wouldn't be the best solution, but it was an option.

Whatever retort she had on the tip of her tongue went left unsaid as he leaned in with those three little words she loved to hear so much. Soon enough this would just be going to bed. Soon enough. For tonight though, she was content to lean back and pull him down to the pillows with her and soak up as much of him as she could before she had to go home again.

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MJ always makes her so pretty