For whispered touches, whose birthday it is today

Teddy/Victoire

I don't own anything

I stand in the middle of a bustling station, waiting for the man I love to step off the train. It reminds me of Platform 9 ¾, though it was him waiting for me that time. He's returning from the Auror Academy, the part where they test out how well you can adapt to Muggle society.

Since Teddy pretty much grew up as a Muggle (until he went to Hogwarts, obviously), that can't have exactly been hard for him.

As the time elapses between the time he was supposed to get here and the current time, I get more and more worried. Maybe they kept him back because he failed, so he has to retake the entire module and they haven't allowed him to tell anyone. Maybe the train has derailed and he is either injured or helping the injured and he hasn't thought to tell me. Maybe…

Maybe he isn't coming back.

Oh, Vic, don't be so silly! Of course he's coming back; after all, how many times has he told you he loves you now? How many letters has he sent you in the three months you've been apart, evidently replying as soon as he gets your letter?

If he didn't love you, why would he have given you the promise ring?

As soon as I think of my ring, my gaze drops from the platform where he is supposed to be coming into and I lose myself in the memory of that night…

We sit at a romantic candlelit table in the centre of our shared flat, the remnants of our meal on our plates. It's the night before he has to leave for his training in the north of Scotland and it's pretty damned sad for the pair of us.

"You know I'll write to you every single day," he tells me and I nod, attempting to force the tears back from my eyes to make it easier for us to part. He has to leave really early tomorrow morning and he won't let me get up to wave him off. This is goodbye for us, right here, right now.

"And I'll write back straight away," I reply, managing a smile as I gaze into his sky blue eyes, reaching out for his hand.

"I got you this," he says, using his other hand to dig in his pocket for a box which he places on the table. It's wrapped in midnight blue shiny wrapping paper, complete with a little bow on top. "It's not an engagement ring or anything, I just… I just wanted to leave a little piece of me with you, if that's ok?" he ruins the content of the box as I take my hand from his and begin to open it.

I pretend as if I haven't heard him, simply ripping into the paper to reveal the most beautifully perfect ring I have ever seen. It's gold, inset with little diamonds and then one huge one on the very front.

I can barely breathe as I look at it. "Teddy… you shouldn't have!" I choke out, totting up how much it must have cost. "You can't afford it!"

He shakes his head and smiles, sliding around the table to stand in front of me, his tux jacket left on the seat. "I saw it and thought of you – I've been going to get you something for ages, I just didn't see anything that screamed Victoire."

The tears begin to flow as he slides it onto my finger before I leap forwards and wrap myself into his arms, burying my face in his shoulder…

The memory of the night is bittersweet: it is so perfect, so sweet, because I got to see just how much he loves me… but only because he was leaving. If he hadn't had to leave to go to this training camp far away, would he have still given me the ring, told me how he felt? I don't know.

"Someone's in her own little world," Teddy's amused voice hits me suddenly from directly in front of me. My head shoots up to look at him, unable to believe that he is really back here with me, back in good ol' Hull, where we moved last year so I could get a job at the paper here.

"You're back!" I squeal, my arms lifting up and wrapping around his neck of their own accord. He drops whatever he is holding and wraps his own arms around me, smiling into my hair – I can feel his face.

"I'm back," he agrees. "Miss me?"

"Well… actually, it was great!" I mess with him, leaning back to see his reaction. "I had nobody trying to get me to watch crummy sports; I could eat all the ice cream and the flat was even tidy! I had a great time!" I laugh at his affronted reaction, wondering how believable I was.

He shakes his head and picks up the bags in one hand, pulling me into his side with the other. He seems bigger, if that makes sense, bulkier with more muscles than I thought. "You adore the football," his only comment is to disagree with my hating of his crummy sports.

"Do I?" I retort, heading with him to my car in the car park of the Hull Interchange. "Do I really, Teddy?"

~x~

We get home after about fifteen minutes, since the traffic is always so bad on match days: Teddy spent half of the journey looking out of the window longingly at the KC Stadium, where he manages to spend every other Saturday. For a pure blood wizard, he's possibly the most Muggle like I have ever seen.

"What we doing now then?" he asks me as we Apparate into the flat straight from the car, since neither of us can be bothered lugging the case up the three flights of stairs to our flat. It's exactly like I left it: neat and perfect, with nothing out of-

"Well, I know you're picking up those magazines," I shoot at him, rolling my eyes as he manages to knock over the entire stack of magazines I had perfectly ordered on the coffee table. "How on earth you're going to manage to pass Stealth and Tracking is beyond me, but since Uncle Harry is your tester, I do have a feeling you'll get in," he laughs at me, shaking his head slightly.

"Nah, he won't give me special treatment – too sick of it himself, I guess," he shrugs, his voice nondescript and devoid of any extreme emotion. "Look, Vic, I've been thinking… something's not right," his words instantly send ice into my heart: does he want to break up with me?

My hand slides over to the other, to cradle the ring protectively in it. He can't want to break up after only three months apart! He can't!

"What do you mean?" I whisper, not trusting myself to say anything more or in a louder voice since I'm afraid it will crack.

"I know you got that job offer in Australia," he tells me softly, standing up and turning to face me, his eyes soft. The ice retracts and as soon as it has gone, my heart seems to freeze, an expression of shock etched onto my face: how did he find out?

"Who told you?"

"Dad… or maybe it was Lily, I don't know," he waves his hand noncommittally; shrugging his shoulders as if it doesn't matter. "All I know is that it's a damned good job, perfect for your journalism skills, and you declined it without even telling me about it. Why?" his voice cracks slightly and he looks away from me, turning the other way to face the huge fireplace in the corner. Soon, people will be coming to congratulate him on returning, but all I can focus on is the fact that he knows that I could have gone to Australia.

"I… we're happy here; you're in the Auror Academy and it's working for you. All I am is a journalist! I can get work anywhere; you can't," I say in response, not knowing what he wants me to say. "You mean you want me to say that I'm moving to Australia, that I'm leaving you even though I love you more than anything?" my voice breaks by the end and tears brim in my eyes, falling down my cheeks in rivulets.

He turns back to me and shakes his head again, shaking and shaking until I can only see a blur. "No, what I want you to say is: Teddy, I have a job offer in Australia to be a senior editor on their version of the Daily Prophet. Then I would say, Vic, that's amazing – I'm so happy, you deserve it," he takes a step towards me, smiling slightly before continuing. "You'd then say: Teddy, how can I take it if we want to stay together? Then I would say, Vic, if you really want this job, which I know you do in your heart, I can transfer to the Auror Academy there, which I already checked is able to accept me, if you want to go, along with a flat just waiting for us."

He takes another step towards me, taking my hand and smiling again.

"You've really thought this through," I whisper, unable to comprehend how much he has planned this. He's asked to be able to go to the Auror Academy there; he's even sorted out somewhere for us to live!

"I just want you to be happy, Vic," he tells me honestly.

"I am happy," I protest, knowing this is the truth. I have an interesting job here, one that lets me do pretty much what I want, and he's settled into the Auror Academy here. Our entire lives are in England: how can we just up and leave?

"You say that now, Victoire, but as the years pass, you'll regret the opportunity," he tells me gently, pulling me into his arms as he leans against the sofa. "You'll realise that you put your life on hold for mine and I don't want that, I don't want there to ever be resentment between us. So we're moving to Australia, if you want the job in the slightest." His authorative tone gets me to think how much I did want the job when I got the letter, when I realised I would do almost anything to get there, until practicalities overtook.

For the first time in my life, I think, I agree without thinking about it. I agree without debating the costs to live there, the homesickness I will feel, the worry that it won't work out.

I just agree with Teddy.

He kisses me softly at first and I swoon in his arms, shutting my eyes as I imagine Australia, what it will be like to live there!

~x~

Three weeks later and we're arriving in our new flat overlooking the harbour in Sydney. It must have cost a bomb, but apparently we're getting it cheaper because the owner is some friend of Dad's or someone in our family (can't have done what they did without making a few friends) so it's fine.

I step out onto the balcony and breathe in the fresh air, slightly salty from the vast expanse of water below us. The day is bright and sunny and truly amazing, just like I imagined Australia would be.

In the few daydreams I did have about Australia, I never imagined this: me and Teddy, together here, happy.

He slips out and together we admire the view, letting the wind ruffle our hair up better than we could have done ourselves.

Then the door slams shut… it's self locking… and we haven't got a key.

"Oops," he laughs, pulling me in for a hug. "But we're here, Vic, we did it. It's going to be great," he urges, just as he has for the past three weeks of indecision on my part. Only when we had the leaving party did it really feel like we were coming here…

It would be scary if Teddy wasn't here.

But he is.

And it just feels like life is moving on, in the direction it should.

It's perfect.

Please don't fav without reviewing.

Vicky xx