A FF requested by an anon on Tumblr.

This took me longer than I am proud of, but honestly: I am an angst-writer and not a tooth rotting fluff producer. But although this was pain, this was also fun and I hope you can swoon while reading... at least a bit. Whatever this is... I cross "SepxReader" from my request list. *phew* Only 10000 more to go.

Female Reader x Septimus, but if you are a dude and want to be the Reader, simply message me, the two words which reveal the gender can be changed.

Warning: Fluff without smut, written by someone who is as romantic as a brick wall, what do you expect here? Though you can learn something about the Bavarian culture at the end of the Fic (Notes), so be warned.

"Accidit in puncto, quod non speratur in anno."

Emperor Ferdinand I

Free translation: What you did not hope for in one year, can happen in one moment.

You look around in the Manuscriptorium, fascinated by how much it still looks like it did one and a half years ago. As if you have never left, as if your last visit was just last week... Beetle has welcomed you as warm as always, with a fast hug and with a few silly jokes on his lips.

"Twenty-two. I guess you are with one foot in the coffin now." You watch him grab the book you asked him for with a small smile on your lips. "Shall I call you grandpa now?"

"It would be my pleasure, Milady, because that's indeed how I feel most of the time." As usual, he looks for reservation marks, but doesn't seem to be able to find some; luck for you, the book will be yours. "Marcia can be a quite... demanding boss."

"I've always thought you are your own boss as the Hermetic Chief Scribe? Or have I missed a detail?" You lean with your hip against the front desk with an eyebrow raised. Hasn't the Manuscriptorium always been an own business? Marcia is known to have her fingers in every pie, but her being the official boss?

To your relief, he shakes his head. "No, but tell me one person whose boss Marcia isn't... Apropos... Do you already have a new job?"

"I've arrived yesterday morning, how fast do you think I go out and search for a new job?" A chuckle escapes your lips and you rummage in your bag to fetch the money. "But if you offer me my old job, I'd not refuse."

"That's what I wanted to hear." He grins again and places the book on the desk, ready for you to take it with you. "Monday morning, eight o'clock, don't be late."

"Have I ever been... Oha." Someone rushes through the door, the cold breeze that comes in with them makes you shiver. The morning is cool, colder than expected, but much warmer than the mornings in the region you spent your last three weeks in. Yet getting hit by freezing cool air isn't a pleasure.

There is no good morning, only a deep and stressed-sounding voice. "Beetle, I need the Prophecies of Dunmar and the copy of the report from last week." The young man claps two times into his hands, obviously more sarcastically than serious, and his face expression shows his lack of mirth. "And look smart about it."

A groan comes from Beetle, but he does as the man asked without raising an eyebrow like you. Seems like he is used to the rudeness, much in comparison to you, but from next Monday on you will have to get used again, to survive this certain kind of customers. "You know that this only confirms my assumption, don't you?"

Now it is the other man who groans. For a moment, he closes his eyes, rubs his forehead with his fingertips. "Honestly, Beetle..."

"You can't deny that she gets really narky when he is away for already quite some time." The grin is still not wiped out of the face of the Hermetic Chief Scribe, and although you can't follow the conversation due to your lack of context, you have to grin as well. "See, even she thinks it!"

"She is my boss, I can't..." Another groan from the man and finally he turns around and looks at you, for the first time since he entered the building. "Oh... You are back?"

Now that you see his whole face, you realise who stands in front of you. Septimus Heap, apprentice to the ExtraOrdinary Wizard though he is now dressed in the blue of an Ordinary Wizard.. The boy who is one of your closest friends, thanks to Jojo who has introduced you to him one day. Aaaand those damn butterflies in your stomach awake again, after being sent to sleep for one and a half years in which you lived in other countries while he stayed in the Castle with his girlfriend, to work. You look into those warm green eyes of his and every promise to yourself regarding not letting your incredible crush on him live up again gets crushed with the small smile on his lips.

Without another word he pulls you into his arms, into a long and soft hug, into one of the Septimus-hugs you have missed somehow. His arms are wrapped around you at the height of your waist, not so loosely as you expected, as you remembered from the last time he has hugged you. You smell his scent, feel the warmth of his body. The tingling you feel... It's not good, you shouldn't feel it when you are around him. You are a friend for him, a close one, why ruining it with a silly crush?

"Have you shrunk?" With a chuckle, he holds you away from him, one, two feet.

Oh god, you have missed him. You haven't known it when you were away, but now that you are back and he stands in front of you... "Or you have grown, ever considered this?"

"How about the two of you having dinner this evening?" Beetles look at you is nearly furtive, as if he knows what you feel, as if he can sense it, and you don't know if you want to hug him or hate him for it. "I'd come too, but you know... Having a girlfriend to take out tonight..."

"Ahm, and Rose?" You remember the beautiful girl from the Wizard Tower, the apprentice to Dandra Draa. Septimus and she have always been looking happy when you saw them together, he really admired her. She is nice, always kind to the people around her, you see why he fell in love with her, but she has never hidden her grudge whenever her boyfriend and you were alone on tour, even if it was only dinner. You don't want to interfere with their relationship, since you found good friends in both of them.

"Ah, don't worry about that. The hottest love has the coldest end... or something like that." He pulls a grimace and places his hands on his hips. "And let's just say that Foxy and I... To express it carefully, I am not very fond of him at the moment."

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that." You truly are, but your heart... has its own opinion on it. "Are you alright?"

"I can't complain." A mischievous smile appears on his face and he looks at his best friend who places the requested book and the report on the desk. "Especially not after the highlight in the infirmary."

"Ouuuh, what a drama. You should have seen this." The Hermetic Chief Scribe touches his chest and rolls his eyes dramatically, but with a grin. "It made up a lot."

"Oh yeah, it did. Can you imagine what has happened?"

You have to grin again as well, because oh yes, you can imagine what has happened. "Let me guess, it has something to do with Marcia?"

"100 points. She saw her with Foxy before she knew about the breakup." One hand of him still lies on your shoulder, so casually, so as if it belongs there. "But hearing me telling it is not half as funny as seeing it with your own eyes. I could tell you details if you want, but..."

"So, dinner? Half past six in front of the Wizard Tower? You have to give me the low-down and I have one or two stories to tell." You lean yourself against the desk again, your head dipping to the side with your look glued to him.

He seems to have to consider it, and immediately your mood drops into your stomach. Maybe he doesn't want to. You have been away for so long, the time hasn't stood still as his heigh shows you only too well, maybe he has moved on from the friendship because he has too much to do now, as the assistant of the ExtraOrdinary Wizard.

"Sure, why not.", he says slowly. Belief sounds different. "I'm positive I will make it, but only if I hurry up now."

You exhale slowly, silently. It's only that he doesn't know if he really is available, because the job is demanding, because you have to be flexible in it. It's not that he will abandon you. At least that's what you tell yourself. "Okay, I'll be there. Any idea where we want to go?"

"A surprise, but nothing too fancy? Or upscale?" He gives Beetle the money and collects his things. "Your decision."

"Something were I am not supposed to show up in a gown?" A relaxed evening with him, that would be what you want."And I'm looking forward to it."

"That was... well..." You have a hard time breathing, your hands are placed on your knees. Because of your journey, you have quite some stamina, but laughing while running away from Larry who was after Septimus... the pain in your side has made you stop in a hidden alley.

Your best friend leans against the wall behind the two of you, trying to catch his breath as well. "Awesome?", he suggests with a mischievous smile on his lips.

"Weird as usual." You stand straight again, wiping some locks out of your face for a better view. "I've missed this, you know."

"Just as I have missed you." He bumps with his side against you, smiles down at you, his pure green eyes sparkling. "Glad to have you back here, lass."

You have trouble to not loose yourself in his look, to ignore the light tingling in your stomach, but you manage it to place a hand on your chest playfully, imitating Beetle from this morning. "Oh my god, you've missed me?"

"Eh, is it so hard to believe?" He laughs again, poking with his fingers into your ribs until you start flinching away, but he follows, does not leave you alone. You half scream, half laugh, and you try to avoid his fingers that want to tickle you. But since he is taller than you, has bigger steps, it is easy for him to place his hands on your waist and pull you against him until he is able to gather you in his arms, refusing to let you go, even when you try to free yourself, half-heartedly.

You wrap your arms around his upper body and your eyes look with his nearly immediately after you looked up. His face expression is soft, a small smile plays around his lips, around the lips that you have already thought about kissing before you left for your adventure. Automatically, you have to reply it, and his is probably a result of his thoughtfulness as well. At least yours is. Your thoughts are a whirlwind, as soon as a thought manifests, it vanishes in the same moment, but he is always there. Half of you cannot believe it, cannot believe that he is here, that the situation is real, the other half of you believes it, and is overwhelmed.

"I really did miss you." He brings a hand up to your cheek, caresses your skin with his thumb; tender touches that send several shivers down your spine. "Especially now that you are back..."

"I know what you mean." Your voice is only a whisper and you step closer, lean against his warm body. "And I've missed you, too. So bloody much."

With a wide smile, he leans his forehead against yours, squeezes you for a short moment. "I..." He breathes out, needs a few moments before he continues. "No, we should go home. You live in the Ramblings, don't you?"

Immediately, the butterflies in your stomach turn into stones. He wants to flee from this moment, and he will ruin it if you let him go now, you know it. If you go now, this will always stand between you, as an awkward tension because neither does he nor do you know what this embrace, this tenderness, this velvet softness in his voice means. "Don't go." It is all you can manage to say. This moment is so damageable that only a single wrong placed sentence can shatter it into a million of pieces, and they can harm the friendship enough to change it permanently.

"It will be kinder in the long run." He takes a small step back but does not move his hands that are still around your waist. His smile is sad, suddenly. "Please, whatever this is, just... we'll burn our hands on it."

"As you wish." There is a chill inside of you that creeps through every vein, every cell of your body. "For a moment I though... doesn't matter what I thought." It is easy now to turn away from his gaze, to not look into the pure green anymore. Maybe it is better to walk away now, later might not make it any easier, rather harder and it might leave more marks than a bitter taste on your tongue and a small scratch on your heart.

His hands slide from your waist down to your hips before he gives you free, before he takes another step back to give you room. "I'm so sorry."

"Leave me be." What does a sorry change? It does not make the stitch any lighter, it does not make the fear for the future of the friendship go away, it only makes it worse, because a sorry is everything and nothing. A confession, empty words. You pull your coat closer around you, and you look at him one last time, into his pale and confused face, before you turn around and walk back to the main street. "But perhaps you are right. Perhaps it will, indeed, be kinder in the long run."

"Will I lose you?" He has to shout so you can still hear his words which are threatened to be carried away by the wind. Your breathing stops for a moment as you put your heels into the ground and turn around. Although you shouldn't. Walking away might be harder afterwards.

There Septimus stands, in the middle of the alley, with his blond curls in the usual mess, with his hands being at his sides as if he does not know what do to with them since they have left their place on your hips.

"Perhaps."

"Milo proposed to Marcia.", he says, out of nowhere. "They will marry in around seven months, and she speaks of retirement often, so she can be with her husband, so that she can live. She'll pass the leadership of the Wizard Tower on me, so my days in which I have much time for myself are counted. She'll pass it on me because there is no other chance for her to live a private life, I mean... remember Alther and Alice. He fell in love with her when he was still an apprentice and it took the death of them both for them to be together. Marcia deserves to be happy and free, she worked herself up in the last nineteen years, and being the ExtraOrdinary Wizard is what I've always wanted since I got out of the Young Army. It is my dream and the death of my private life. I cannot offer more than a friendship or a broken heart."

"Time usually shows what you can really offer. There could be more, there could be less." Hesitantly you take a few steps into his direction. "You can only make assumptions. Every relationship, be it romantic, a friendship, or between parents and their children... every relationship is individual. Circumstances matter, the parties in it matter."

"But would you have me in the knowledge that in around one year from now, you'll see me only once or twice a week and you'll live with the male version of Marcia because by then I'll have turned into a grumpy and stubborn pain in the neck? " His face expression is still marked with confusion, with him not having the slightest idea what to do or what to say or what he wants.

"It is better than forcing me to suppress my feelings because of your future duty." A snort escapes you. "We have a strong friendship, we always had. Will Beetle not be your best friend anymore when you are the ExtraOrdinary Wizard? Became Marwick less important to you after he replaced Zelda? How much different is a relationship?"

"Do you know how weird it is to speak of a relationship?" Suddenly he grins this silly grin of him, the one that you always admired, that always makes you at least smile as well, although it is still so sad. "We haven't seen us in over one year and now we talk about such serious things like this."

Your eyes are glimmering as you look at him, with your arms wrapped around yourself. "You brought it up. I'd simply have kissed you without thinking about a future no one can really predict."

He doesn't answer, only smiles at you for a few seconds before approaching, slowly, carefully, and you watch him, asking yourself what he will do now, your heartbeat racing inside of your chest and the stones turning into butterflies again. His long, elegant fingers close around your wrists and entangle you from your own hug. His skin is warm, and so are his lips as he brushes them over yours, testing if you will punch him because he goes too far, or if you will allow him to kiss you. Your hands find his waist again, under his open coat, over his loose tunic. With the tension of excitement and nervousness building inside of you, your breathing becomes flat and fast. If someone had told you this morning...

Now his lips capture yours, not hard, not soft, still testing and unconfindent, but as soon as you respond the kiss, sweetly and delicately, he wraps his arms around you, pulls you even closer than before. He breathes out loudly, as if it is an exhale of relief, and you can feel his hot breath against your cheek. Your lips curl into a smile, and you pull back to tilt your head to the other side. As you feel his skin on yours again, a positive dizziness makes your knees go weak, because the sensation of the kiss alone is overwhelming. You've wanted this for so long and now it is here and it feels good and right.

"Hey, beautiful." He wraps his strong arms around you from behind and breathes a kiss on your cheek. Immediately, there is the well-known tingling on your skin, and a smile plays around your lips. "You should wear such a pretty dress more often."

"You flatter me." You turn around and kiss him sweetly, softly. His response involves a hum of satisfaction, and he presses you against him for a short moment. It always amazes you how his kisses can be so prudish, then again so passionate, but always with his feelings for you poured into them, as a silent declaration of love and a promise. His hands wander from your back to your waist, and one of them travels up your side until his palm cups your cheek, but he never pulls away, keeps you as close as he can without making it uncomfortable for both of you. With every second that passes the kiss becomes deeper and deeper, and you forget everything around you, he makes you forget everything around you. You've never expected him to seek after body contact that much, but he does to your surprise; be it a hug whenever he is worried or sad, or be it him playing with your hair whenever he is bored. Be it grabbing your hand whenever you go for a walk, or be it pulling you in for a fast kiss when you pass by each other during work after not seeing each other for a while, both of you in the usual hurry.

"Are you trying to outdo the bridal pair with your sickly sweet behaviour? Because congratulations, you are on your best way to accomplish it." The amused voice of Marcia Overstrand causes you to be startled while Septimus only chuckles and turns his head towards his tutor. "Though that's not a big challenge, I assume. The bride is a house dragon, if you ask me."

"Has the bride finally arrived?", he asks without letting go of your waist.

The soon-to-be ex-ExtraOrdinary Wizard places her hands on her hips and turns her head to look down the hallway of the Palace. "No idea, but since the two of you are standing here quite decorative I decided to ask you if you know anything. Foolish of me to think you have any capacity left to focus on anything else that is not your companion..."

"Eh, at least I am not tiptoeing around my lover as if she is the embodiment of all my problems."

"First of all: It is husband now, not lover anymore." Marcia examines him with a disparaging expression from his scalp to his toes and back up again. "And instead of declaring my love by being an insufferable sweet talker, I did it twice in more enchanting ways; One time I married him, the other time I messed up the contract with an organisation on the feast land with panache to save his bacon. What do you have to offer?"

"I'm waiting with my special declaration of love until it is my turn to abuse my power as the ExtraOrdinary Wizard." Septimus grins and squeezes your hand. "Thank you for the inspiration, Marcia."

"Don't you dare! I got out of this with flying colours, but only because of my father's old connection over which I stumbled by accident. " Marcia raises one of her eyebrows but has a smile around her lips. Since she announced her retirement two months after her own wedding, she is so much more relaxed and sociable. It is probably the loss of the heavy weight on her shoulders, the weight that her apprentice has to deal with now. "But without wanting to bring up an unpleasant topic, but... Will the two of you move in together as soon as I moved out?"

"Ah, is this an actual choice we have?" You tilt your head and look at her. To be honest, the two of you have never talked about it, for one thing because it is a problem you hoped it would just... go away, though this is not how things work, and another thing is that neither of you have been sure about the rules for the apartment. Milo has never moved in, Alther never had an active relationship in his time, so there has never been a comparison for the two of you. Is it allowed? Does it work?

A snort escapes Marcia. "Of course. If you want you can have twenty kids as well... Though I do not think this would be recommendable."

"Twenty? Hell, we should start with thinking in smaller dimensions... how about one or two for the beginning?" His eyes are wide open, but you both know that he is only joking... Though the thought is a quite interesting one. Your relationship is not that old. It is established, but still as young as a cherry tree blossom; a too severe storm might destroy it with ease. But whether you want children or not, the fact that he is thinking about a future in which you have a fixed place by his side... It is rather nice. Does he sometimes daydream about starting a family, later in his life? Does he see himself in a marriage in a few years? You've never talked about it, not even jokingly.

"Eh, there you are!" A low voice from the other end of the corridor makes all three of you turn. It is Milo, obviously on the search for you, or at least for his wife. "How about...?" He gestures into the direction of the long staircase towards the entrance halls quite enthusiastically. Seems like the bride finally showed up. Marcia gives the two of you a last glance before she walks away with her usual long steps to join him; she is happy, and you hope to be it, too, once you have mastered so many obstacles like them. Or preferably, you will never have obstacles at all, or at least not as big ones.

"Let's talk about this later, okay?", Septimus whispers into your ear and places a kiss on it. "There is much to plan."

"I'd like that." Your lips find his for one last kiss before you walk towards the hall.

The ceremony is wonderful, even emotional to you, a person who does not know the bridal couple very well. The bride is an Ordinary Wizard, the groom is someone who worked once in the military on the feast land, but stranded in the Castle eventually, and decided to stay, with the love of his life. A real love story. The wedding has its usual ups and downs, but the lengths get shortened by Marcia's sass, by Dandra's insider information on several guests and the bride, by Beetle's knowledge on weird wedding traditions he has read about over the course of the years ("Did you know that they crashed porcelain on the evening before the wedding, to banish ghosts? And the bridal couple had to gather the pieces." "Wait, were you the one who tried to talk people into placing the trunk of a thin tree into my garden? With all that creepy baby stuff on it as decoration?") and Septimus' family who always has a story to tell, as well as with Milo. It amazes you how fast the Heaps have accepted you in their family, it feels like you are a part of them now, just as Lucy and Marwick and all the other girlfriends are... You have lost the overview, to be honest.

"May I have this dance, my lady?" Septimus is on his feet already, holds his hands into your direction so you can take them and get pulled up from your seat. It is already late, but the dances have started not so many minutes ago, the mood is fantastic. Your glance brushes the crowd; Marcellus dances with one of the groom's sisters, quite professional and enthusiastic. Sarah and Silas are somewhere in the middle of the happening, as well as Dandra and a woman you don't know. Jenna pulls Beetle towards one of the few free spaces left, laughing and trying to motivate him.

"I'd love to." You smile at him and place your cold hands in his warm ones, and immediately they close around yours.

He leads you into the crowd, as if he is not holding the hand of a random girl, but the one of the Queen. His touch is feathery, at the same time there and not there, until he pulls you in, places his hand on the small of your back, waits for you to place yours on his shoulder before he fully takes your hand into his and makes the first step. His hands gently pull and push you into the right direction, into the figures without him saying one single word if you have to spin after the next step, or if he wants you to do a rock turn. It all relies on his body language, and you harmonise, better than you have ever expected. Although you have never really danced with him before – this one time where you waltzed through your flat without music playing does not count – you know what he wants from you. Even when he captured you in a longing kiss, he still leads you save through the other couples around you. To you, the world stands still. All that matters are his soft lips, and his leadership in the dance, as well as in the upcoming years you will hopefully live by his side. Only he matters, right here and right now. You do not hear the cheers of a few people around you, you do not hear the half laugh, half groan of Jenna, you do not see the look another young woman shoots you, and you do not see Simon rolling his eyes before his wife kisses him as well.

There was a time where you have played with the thought of staying on the feast land, maybe for forever, maybe for at least a few more months or even years. Times where you did not know if your place is still in the Castle or somewhere else. For your former home, you gave up a good work and the opportunities to see more of the world, to make many more unique experiences that the Castle cannot provide. Life had been good there.

But he made returning worth it, together with Beetle's friendship and job offer. So much has changed during your time away, all your friends changed, but they all welcomed you with open arms. The only friend that was circling around you and you around her had been Rose, but Jenna poured oil on troubled waters. Rose is happy with Foxy, no one doubts it, but hanging out with the ex-girlfriend of your boyfriend is kind of weird, for both parties, especially if your boyfriend is out of sorts with the other woman. Which is the case with Septimus. But he will eventually come around.

The kiss lasts until you nearly trip over his feet; he catches and steadies you with his arms, half laughing, half surprised. "Eh, do not want this evening to end in a Massenkarambolage, do we?" His arms stay wrapped around you, and as you look up into his face you see his amusement glimmering in his eyes.

"Massenkarambolage means mass collision, right? I think, I've heard it in another country once." You cross your arms behind his neck. That you are still standing on the dance floor doesn't seem to bother him as he presses a soft kiss to your lips. "I found it written on a small piece of paper somewhere in your mess. Marcia was kindly enough to translate it for me and since then it sticks inside of my head. That's the drama with having a moody eidetic memory; I can't remember where I placed my toothbrush this morning, but I can recall and use a foreign word that I read somewhere weeks ago."

"What a poor thing you are." You cannot suppress a grin. He has a better memory than anyone else you know, especially when he wants to remember things, but in the end, he always manages to lose things that are daily enough that he uses them in an automatic mode. "Someone should hand you a small bag of pity."

"Ah, how funny you are today." He rolls his eyes while he takes your left hand and places it on his shoulder so he can dance with you once more. This time, it is a slow waltz that makes having a conversation easier. "But... uh... About the issue Marcia brought up today..."

"That she screwed up that treaty with some organisation that could chop her head off if it wanted?" You cock your eyebrows. What does he mean exactly? The organisation really was a problem, especially the rumours about an assassin being sent out for her, but she solved the problem somehow. Why would he want to talk about that?

"No... I mean the you-moving-in thing." You could swear that he blushes. If only the light was better in here! "I... gave it a thought or two and... You know... I will not have much time for visiting you in the Ramblings as soon as I am the ExtraOrdinary Wizard and... aehm... my apartment would be nearer to your working place. And if you decide to keep me, you will either spend money on a rent of a flat you barely live in or we will not see each other as often as we could because you live in the Ramblings."

"So you want me to live with you?" Although you did not assess his opinion on the matter at all when you thought about it a few times in the last hours, you are surprised that he feels this way. But the imagination of you sharing a home with him...

He draws you one step closer before he whispers into your ear, his hot breath tickling your skin and causing shivers to travel down your spine. "Of course, I do. I don't want to move on. Not from you. So this is the best compromise for me, isn't it?" His lips brush your cheek as he draws back. "Though I'd totally understand if you don't want to make this big step. There is also time later, in a few years. The extraordinarily huge free space in the apartment will not get filled so fast that there will not be enough space for my love. Although I intend to throw out some of the furniture and replace it with something more... fancy. But don't tell Marcia, please, She'll have me hung alone for playing with the thought."

There is no other way to response left inside of you: Throwing him half out of his balance, you wrap your arms around him and kiss him, passionate enough to make him moan silently before he pulls you in and replies it with a smile.

Notes:

The two wedding traditions that I mentioned do exist. They are from Bavaria:

The Polterabend: On the evening before the wedding, the guests of the bridal couple throw porcelain plates, cups, etc. on the ground (outside of a house), because shards bring luck. Then, the couple has to clean the mess up, together.

The Kindsbaum: Is indeed the trunk of a thin tree. It is coloured in blue and white and it is decorated. There is usually a stork and many many many things for children: playsuits, soother, baby bottle,... Friends and family of the bridal couple place it in the garden of the newly wedded couple and its meaning is the following: If the bride does not get pregnant during her first year of the marriage, the couple has to buy the friends and family beer and a Brotzeit/snack. Especially funny nowadays, because most wives do not get pregnant in their first year, so the snack and the beer are a safe thing.