Closed Come Home To Me

[Professor Yvonne Dubois]

Yvonne was buzzing as she made her way up the short walk to the cottage she had bought years ago. It still felt so strange to call it home but it was one of the only places she truly felt like herself and totally at peace. The last few times she had gone back to New Orleans to visit her family the divide that had been growing since the day she left for Hogwarts, was feeling less and less closable. It was painful but gratifying knowing she had found a place that was solely hers. She knows if she had stayed at the shop she would have been confined and never had the chance to grow properly. She never would have ended up head of house. She had gotten the job and it still felt surreal. It ate at her that her advancement only came because her colleague had decided to step down, but in time the bitter part of the story would fade. When Yvonne got to front door she swung it open and made a dramatic entrance. She knew Kitty was waiting for her since, she had started to stay over more and more recently. To say they were taking it slow in their relationship would be an understatement. She was sure the moss in her front planters grew faster than they did. But they liked it that way and that was all that mattered. When she finally spotted her partner at the kitchen table she grinned. "I got the job."

 

[Kitty van Zijl]

Kitty knew it was silly at her age, feeling so shy about spending so much time at a partner's house. By this point almost everyone she knew her age had grown up and gotten married and had kids and all that kind of stuff. Occasionally she wondered what it would be like, having that kind of permanence. Very briefly. And then her skin would crawl and she would go write some self-deprecating jokes to calm down.

But Yvonne was different. Somehow Kitty had found herself in the same relationship for the better part of a decade, and the impulse to run just... wasn't there. Yvonne felt like home, someone who would meet her where she was at and never wanted more than Kitty could give. So it hadn't felt unnatural when she had started spending the night, and it hadn't felt unnatural when she had started spending the day, and... now Kitty was over here almost every day, and it didn't feel like intruding, or being forced into a role she wasn't ready for. She'd even brought her work things over, scribbling at a skit she'd been trying to make work for what felt like months when Yvonne opened the door, and Kitty felt the grin split her face wide as she looked up. The grin turned to a laugh of delight at Yvonne's announcement and Kitty bounced to her feet, hurrying over and hugging Yvonne so tight she lifted her up slightly. "I KNEW you would!" She laughed, spinning Yvonne around before setting her back down. "You're brilliant babe, it's about bloody time."