It's Official

[Sakura Gemini]

It wasn't long before they were back at the manor once again and Verney seemed delighted with the progress their tour had made. She had to admit that she was a slight bit disappointed that Nicolas had not come with them but she did also know it simply wasn't his thing. At least this way, both Verney and herself had been able to enjoy themselves thoroughly.
"Oh trust me Verney, it was my pleasure. They must be the most glorious gardens I've seen in a very very long time" she was being honest with him, no matter how far she delved into the doldrums of her mind she could find no other gardens to compare it too. Even her old potions master whose gardens were extensive would have been most envious of Leven's.

She walked inside and noting the dirt encased on her boots she grimaced, flicking her hand across them she cleaned them with a nonverbal incantation before turning to Verney as she slipped them off.
"I'll head up and change again. Would you mind terribly letting Nicolas know we're back and that I'll be down shortly?" she asked with such a polite smile before heading directly back up to her room again and freshening up. The wardrobe would surely have something just as appropriate for a tour of the house as it had for a tour of the gardens and with that in mind she took a deep breath and opened the doors. Smiling broadly at the clothing inside.

"I could get very used to this" she said aloud to herself.

 

[Nicolas King]

With Sakura gone from the house, Nicolas returned up the stairs to his chambers, looking at the bed which Verney had re-made and smiling at this. In New Zealand he had to charm the bed made, so having a House Elf about was a nice return to his family home. He walked through the room, looking out over the back of the house and the gardens there as Sakura and Verney started their tour. She seemed to be in a pleasant temper, and Nicolas knew how glad Verney was with the situation as it stood, so it was with a smile on his face that he turned from the window toward the door to the study he had spent some of the prior night in.

Upon entering the study, Nicolas noted how very quickly Verney worked. The desk was completely cleared off, less an inkwell, a quill, and the post from the day on the desk. It was shocking, to say the least, to see the room in the state it was now compared to what Nicolas had always known it to be. he found it almost surreal, walking to the desk and sitting down at it, flipping through the letters that had been brought here by Nike when they'd arrived in New Zealand. A few of them seemed of relative importance, Ministry seals borne prominently on one side with his name eloquently scribed on the other. He put these aside for later reading, not desiring to have his mind clouded with affairs in New Zealand when he had so little time to spend with Sakura here, at home, in England.

After reading some of the less-pressing post he'd received, Nicolas took mental inventory of the book shelves lining the walls. That is to say, he looked to the shelves and at each obviously empty place thought of the book that had belonged there, and where it was. Most he had taken before agreeing to teach at Hogwarts and were filled with various things of questionable nature - questionable for an Auror to own, but certainly not questionable for a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor to concern himself with. Where such volumes had come from in his family, he didn't know, but he was sure when they had been purchased it was not with the good intention of learning through them. Surely there had been plenty of practitioners of Dark Arts to bear the King family name and now it seemed that their existence, and the decision not to be rid of their books, had benefited Nicolas, and possibly others in the family, greatly. Taking up the quill and pulling a roll of parchment from a drawer, Nicolas started to scribble down the titles of books he intended to return soon, before some imbecile at the Ministry got their hands on them from his office. It was as he was doing so that Verney reappeared.

Nicolas thanked Verney for taking the time to show Sakura the gardens, a thanks that was quickly shrugged off as Nicolas had suspected it would be. It was, truly, Verney's pleasure. Setting down the quill, Nicolas rose and made his way down to the living area, waiting for Sakura to return from changing.

 

[Sakura Gemini]

Sakura left the room and slowly made her way down the long stair way to the living room. Stopping on occasion to admire the portraits and other pictures hanging along the sweeping staircase. A few times she had moved closer to inspect a particular face in greater detail, amazed at the startling family likeness that some of his ancestors had to her fiancé.

Eventually she entered the room and smiled as she saw Nicolas already there before her.
"I haven't kept you waiting long?" she asked moving over to where he was, "that wardrobe is positively amazing."
She told him wondering if she could charm her own battered one in her flat to do likewise but knew it would take strong magic to pull something like that off and as good as she was, she seriously didn't think she was that good yet.

"So you wished for us to speak about dates and the honeymoon and ... a tour of the inside of the house and our honeymoon" she chuckled lightly as she reached up to kiss him tenderly, "I've been trying to imagine at least two whole weeks alone with you stranded on some desert island and simply cannot wait."

 

[Nicolas King]

Nicolas turned around as he heard feet slowly making their way down stairs and smiled as Sakura finally made it in to the room he was standing in. "Kept me? No, no." Nicolas began as Sakura drew to where he stood, "Though your walk about the gardens could have been cut in half and I wouldn't have minded." He commented, not having expected Verney to take his intended on such a thorough tour of the gardens, though, in retrospect, he realized that that was exactly what he should have expected.

Nicolas chuckled with Sakura's comment on the wardrobe. He didn't know where it came from or who had charmed it, but it was another extraordinary thing that Nicolas had simply grown accustomed to, and its existence was no more awe-inspiring to him or flabbergasting than the existence of anything else in the mundane world. Listening to Sakura's words, Nicolas noted the emphasis on the honeymoon, how the dates discussion was shuffled past and the tour of the house was also left as a secondary idea. Nicolas wasn't extremely skilled at tour-giving, and surely the manor was nothing Sakura couldn't discover on her own, so it seemed reasonable for them to discuss what Sakura wanted to the most - the honeymoon.

Returning Sakura's tender kiss Nicolas smirked with her words. "Well, if that's what you want - you have to try to get that by Gellert and the Ministry." Nicolas replied with a wink, two weeks was quite a long time. A weekend was a long time in his work, and this was pressing it even now to how long he should be gone. He knew the letters left on the desk upstairs held some importance but had ignored them. He knew, however, that he would not be able to ignore them forever - duty would call, and now a proverb he'd heard once caused him great uneasiness. 'Fais ce que dois, advienne que pourra.' or, 'Do your duty, come what may.' Now, and certainly in the future, his duty would fall to two places. Now his fiancée and his feeble pursuit for the victory of good-over-evil (how childish it seemed now), and then it would be his wife, and family, against this ongoing battle. Surely two weeks away, then, neglected one duty far too much - a duty he would have to return to, come what may - even if Sakura found some disappointment in that. Though, Nicolas trusted standing in the room with her, that she understood what she'd signed on for, that she knew what his job entailed and that two-weeks away would be more of a task than could be dreamed, for Nicolas, at least - unless his position at the Ministry somehow changed.

"Perhaps if we discussed dates in the context of the honeymoon, then the date for the marriage would unfurl and we could manage a two-birds-one-stone scenario that the muggles always seem to srive for?"

 

[Sakura Gemini]

She wound her arms about his waist moving closer still to him, allowing her head to fall against his chest and resting there as the world seemed to still about them.
"Your gardens are beautiful, I just hope I didn't wear Verney out too much with my endless questions and constant natter" she said lifting her head up to look at him. No matter how often she looked at him, it always seemed like the first time. She looked at him now as if it was an age since she had seen him, a hand stole up to gently trace along his right cheek.

"Hmmm well I'm not exactly on first name basis with the minister but I'm sure he could spare us a week surely?" she knew Nicolas' job meant that their time together was always going to be limited but surely the world of magic could excuse him for just a short time.
"Couldn't you get an understudy in or something?" she grinned, "Do you have to be so important to everyone else as well as me?" Sakura pouted slightly, attempting to flirt shamelessly with him. Peeking up at him through her thick curled lashes as she simpered. The look never done before she didn't realise just how striking she appeared, how devastatingly beautiful. Perhaps if she had known she would have used it to her advantage many times before.

Kissing his chin tenderly she continued to gaze up at him.
"I propose a year exactly from the day you proposed. That should give us enough time to organise invitations, dress, suits, bridesmaids, groomsmen and all the other stuff that goes with it. Now our honeymoon... will our destination be a surprise?"

 

[Nicolas King]

Sakura's gentle touch on his face caused Nicolas' skin to tingle as he looked down to her with soft, loving eyes, still entirely in awe of not only his good fortune, but also how much had changed in his life in so very little time.

Nicolas chuckled with Sakura's next few remarks. The truth was, Nicolas wasn't truly on a first-name basis with Gellert. For a while he had feared the man, and now there was, or appeared to be, open animosity between them. It was with that in mind, that Nicolas kept all his discussions with the man to a very bare minimum and as professional as could be. An 'understudy', as the ever-theatrical and dramatic Sakura had put it, would not be very helpful. Memorizing lines to take a part? That was nearly insulting. However, many at the ministry ensured to have assistant department heads. Nicolas tended to be of the opinion that he needn't waste another valuable auror on the bureaucracy of things, but it appeared, if he was to be taking more and more time off, that it might be necessary after all.

Nicolas stood mesmerized by Sakura's gaze a moment before looking away ever-so-slightly and suggesting that she put that look away for another time, and that avoiding his questions would only be successful for so long. As she proposed the date, Nicolas was visibly surprised. 'A year? She honestly expects me to wait another year?' Nicolas pondered. He would, of course. He would wait for her quite a while longer than a year, if necessary - but even that, a year, seemed so very long and unnecessary in the moment. It was certainly Nicolas' turn to play games as he broke free of Sakura's embrace and walked nearer to the fireplace. They had only dated six months, that was true enough, but it seemed so utterly ridiculous to set a date a year away. Sure, it held some meaning to it - but wouldn't any date chosen hold some meaning? It would be their wedding day! Certainly no other meanings were required than that?

It was with a heavy sigh that Nicolas turned about once more to face Sakura. He was obviously not upset, and he trusted Sakura would be able to tell that even his annoyance was well exaggerated. "Should it honestly take that long?" He enquired, dismay held in his tone.

 

[Sakura Gemini]

She wondered just what that 'other time' might be that he would rather her simper and pout but decided it was probably safer not to ask him just yet. Sakura was feeling decidedly more bold around him for some bizarre reason and would have loved nothing more than to be wrapped up in his arms and kissed good and proper until there was nothing left of her. With a gentle sigh she watched him move away from her then.

She hadn't wanted any distance between them, feeling the time apart when she had been in the gardens had been more than enough but he walked to the fireplace and Sakura watched his every movement. Had she said something wrong? She heard the sigh and bit her lower lip, Nicolas was not known for 'sighs' of any kind, but it was his words and the wounded tone they were said in that caused a smile to slowly shine on her face. Deliberately she approached him with hesitant steps and when again she found herself standing before him she reached up and taking his face in both her hands, Sakura tilted her head and kissed him

Soft and gentle her lips stole across his, moving with a patient delicacy as if erasing any doubt from his mind that what she wanted was him and only him. The kiss seemed to lengthen past what she had initially intended but such was the way whenever she kissed the man she loved. A gentle moan of pleasure escaped her as her hands moved from his face and slid around his neck. Eventually the need to breathe caused her to break her lips free of his but they hovered so dangerously close still.
"It will take as long as it takes my love, my family will want the white wedding and for that to happen then planning time is essential. The perfect gown needs to be gotten ... it is only time Nicolas, considering we will be together for the rest of our lives. A few more months should not really make so much of a difference should it? I've never organized a wedding before ... so I don't know how long it all takes. Give me a date and I'll try to get everything settled for then" she looked up into his brown eyes then. Was it truly possible to be happy for the rest of your life to just one person? She believed it could be and with Nicolas she firmly believed that she would be. Why then could not everyone else be as happy as she?

"I'd marry you tomorrow if I could" she grinned then placing her lips over his once more relishing the delicious taste of him.

It felt as if forever was stretched out before them as Nicolas and Sakura spent the next hour walking throughout the beautiful mansion. She was in awe of it's splendour but knew it was nothing compared to the awe she felt for the man beside her. They discussed dates once again for their wedding, finally settling on a winter wedding. Sakura had loved the imagery it evoked, snowflakes and mistletoe. It just all seemed so romantic. Verney called them to lunch soon enough and they retired to the dining room this time to eat. The lavishly long table did not phase her and though Verney had positioned them at either end, she smiled and with a flick of her wand had her cutlery and ware moved up to the seat alongside of Nicolas.

They chatted once again as if they had not seen one another in days, the conversation flowed smoothly. Laughter ringing out through the large room every now and then, until Verney entered once again to hand an envelope to Nicolas. He soon revealed it to be from the ministry and that he would have to return. Sakura stood with him, she wasn't very well letting him return alone.

With their farewells said to the loyal house elf the couple held one another as they apparated to New Zealand. After a brief moment of saying their own hasty farewells Nicolas went directly to the ministry while Sakura walked ... no, floated back to her dingy little flat. It would from now on look decidedly much smaller to her, but for now her head was taken up with images of a white dress and plans for their wedding.

----- Finite -----​