fields of gold | vasilia

[rhys alexander greyback]

we'll forget the sun

in his jealous sky

February 14, 2028
vasilia abigail fortescue

Rhys’s eyes watched the path in front of him, the people around him. While he perhaps wasn’t as skittish as he was as a teenager, years of working with so few people at a time still made him wary of crowds. The path from the school to the village was the same he’d walked since he was twelve, yet it was all different. The new campus was still strange to him, and it was only his second time here. He’d briefly visited when it first opened and never bothered to return. But, he supposed he would have to get used to it now. Rhys hadn’t known when he’d make it in today, if he would at all, so he had flowers sent to Vasilia’s flat so there was something in case he got held up.

But, fortunately, it had worked out. The Portkey Office hadn’t inconveniently fallen behind, and he’d gotten back to his flat in the early hours. He hadn’t bothered to unpack, leaving his bag near the door and all the sand and dirt with it. A problem for later, he sent a message to Vasilia before knocking back two glasses of whiskey to sleep for a few hours. Charlotte was with Maria until the weekend, but Rhys wondered if he might have time to drop by before the end of the day. It had been almost three weeks since he’d last been home.

Finally, he saw the animated signs announcing the festival. But you could probably see them from the campus with how brightly pink they were. Rhys managed to avoid some heart confetti landing on him as he walked toward the Three Broomsticks. There was a stand just outside with baskets of those candy hearts with charmed words. Mostly, they were cute and fluffy sayings, but the occasional rude and cynical ones appeared. They’d arranged to meet here, and since new seasonal ice cream flavors were added to the menu and brought here, he figured she’d side-along apparate with one of her brothers.

Rhys had mentioned the offer to Vasilia and his sisters the school had extended to him. While the thought of standing in front of a class and teaching horrified him, it wasn’t all that different from the training he’d been doing for years. These classes were geared toward the final exams rather than general trainee things. The thing was, he’d said ‘No’ rather quickly. But then, he’d received a message from Juniper. Rhys hadn’t known that she’d gone into teaching. Their conversations were essentially small talk as of late, and this was their first real conversation in a couple of years. And somehow, she’d convinced him to change his mind. So, rather than sleep in as he would have liked, Rhys had arrived on campus as students flooded the walkways on the way to their courses.

First, Juniper offered to give him a tour and show him around a bit. He was surprised, expecting Vector. But Juniper explained that he had lessons for a couple of hours that morning. In the meantime, she explained what she could. The details would come from Vector directly. And the last building they saw was one of the Staff buildings. The Professors from MAGIC and LIFE held offices on different parts of the campus. Still, both carried temporary offices for visiting Professors like himself or others that spent limited time on campus. Rhys had never pictured himself sitting behind a desk after graduation, yet here he was.

Finally, he spoke to Vector and thanked Juniper for showing him around. Years later, it still felt easy to talk to her, although they had that initial awkwardness of someone once so close feeling like a stranger. It had dissipated quickly, and they’d seemed to fall in step. At least staring at the floor let him try and rummage through his thoughts. Rhys only committed to a few months at LIFE that morning. He hadn’t told Vasilia or anyone yet. Well, maybe that could make up for his slightly late appearance that day, just now meeting Vasilia in the early afternoon. They still had the rest of the day, though.

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[vasilia abigail fortescue]

February 14, 2028
rhys alexander greyback

Was Vasilia one of those girls that went a little crazy on Valentines day? Yes. Yes she was. But not in the usual "today has to be perfect" sort of way. Definitely not one of those crazy girls that expected her boyfriend to go above and beyond. No, she was crazy in a very different way. As in she'd been up until probably 4 that morning baking and frosting hundreds of heart shaped cookies and giving a bag of said cookies to every single shop owner in all the magical shopping alleys, then to every patron that would frequent the pub on the holiday. There'd also been hours of testing all sorts of different cocktails to server specifically for the day, to spice up the patron's visit if they were daring. Then, of course, you can't forget her boyfriend! Because without a doubt she'd been whipping up a special Valentine's day treat for him! He wasn't one for chocolate though, so Vasilia had gone into full candy making mode. This had been where the true craziness came out. Because she'd never really made candy before (surprise!) She'd been playing around with recipes for a month leading up to today, trying to perfect the crazy sweets that Rhys would like. He didn't have too much of a sweet tooth but he did have a sour one. Trying to make extra sour candies was rather tricky though. Because... well she had a much lower sour tolerance than Rhys, so how was she supposed to know what would be too sour?! The poor fools who'd volunteers to test her almost mad scientist experiments. No doubt their taste buds were ruined for a good while.

Of course, Vasilia hadn't actually been sure if she'd get to give Rhys the (extremely) sour candies today. He'd been so busy with work lately. She'd been at her family's ice cream parlour, helping out with finishing some of the Valentine's flavors to be taken to Hogsmeade, when her phone buzzed and she saw Rhys' message. It made her already far to excite heart skip with joy. She hadn't planned on going to Hogsmeade initially for the drop off, but now, after arranging the time and place, she'd tag along for a quick trip to Scotland. Being a squib could be inconvenient in terms of not being able to apparate herself, but she had two brothers to help with that and side-along apparation didn't bother her at all at this point after doing it so much.

While she waited for Rhys, she chatted with the owner of the Three Broomsticks, going over the flavors they'd brought and then letting them taste each one. While Vasilia had taken more of a step back from running her family's shop like she had before, she wasn't completely out of the business. She'd always have one foot in the door, always helping out as needed. It was in her nature. The young woman was just far to business focused to really stop. But not only that, it would always be the family business, and thus she'd never be able to truly step back from it. Plus... it helped her feel close to her father. Though he'd passed away she had countless memories with him in the parlour. It'd always be a home to her.

She'd actually completely lost track of time in her conversation when she finally noticed Rhys arrive. Immediately Vasilia's face lit up. It'd been so long since she'd seen her boyfriend, you couldn't really blame the girl for being a little excited! She immediately said her goodbye from the conversation she'd been in and hurried over to Rhys. Upon reaching him she immediately threw her arms around his shoulders and kissed him. It was pretty forward for Vasilia, who was normally on the shier side when it came to PDA (as Rhys knew) but clearly the holiday and his absence had gotten her over it at least for today. "Welcome back!" She breathed, with both excitement and affection in her voice, after pulling back from the kiss she'd very much forced on him.

[rhys alexander greyback]

we'll forget the sun

in his jealous sky

February 14, 2028
vasilia abigail fortescue

No sooner had Rhys walked into the Three Broomsticks had he spotted the red hair and gold eyes glimmering even in the dim light. But then it took only a fraction of a second for Vasilia to launch herself at him. Three weeks halfway across the world did that, apparently. But after two years, he’d figured she’d grown accustomed to his schedule by now. Evidently not, because Vasilia was never one to react in such a way. Not that Rhys minded, of course. He’d always been the more physical of the pair, but he found her shyness and how bashful it all made her quite endearing.

But any time a separation existed for some lengthy time, it was bound to ignite something within them. It certainly did for Rhys, but he’d always been a red-blooded male. He kissed her back without hesitation before she pulled away. With his face still lingering close to hers, he saw and felt the genuineness of her words. Rhys sometimes still couldn’t believe or get over how happy someone could be to see him. Perhaps because it still felt like some ancient emotion doomed to stay in his past forever.

He grinned. Valentine’s day was just another thing on the list of things he did because it made Vasilia happy. It stood alongside his birthday and a few other holidays, although he put his foot down on ridiculous Christmas outfits, sweaters, or hats. And that was a hill he would die on. But he’d missed Valentine’s day last year. And out of all the fights they’d had recently, the thought of the one after his birthday gave him a headache. ”I missed you.” Rhys spoke softly, though not quietly. And the truth was that he did. For someone that traveled so often, he didn’t like being alone.

And unfortunately, they were in public. For a moment, Rhys’ grin turned more mischievous. ”I’ll show you how much later.” Rhys spoke in a low voice, not quite a whisper, and into her ear as he hugged her. It amused him how easy it was to make her blush. Especially since her fair skin would turn the color of her hair so quickly. Pulling away, he could see the place was full of other couples so focused on one another that they paid no attention to Rhys and Vasilia. Truthfully, he didn’t really know the plan for the day. Such festivals and events like this were not things he typically attended on purpose, but he supposed he had the energy to endure it. ”I walked up from the school. I didn’t imagine the village would get so crowded.” Then again, he wasn’t sure what he’d expected.

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