Marlowe's bedroom was completely dark when they appeared there. It was nearly midnight now.
"Woah," Caiti whispered, holding her hands out in front of her. "Where are you?"
"Right here," said Marlowe. His eyes adjusted to the dark quicker than hers ever since he'd been bitten, and he maneuvered over to her in an instant, hands finding her waist. He leaned in to kiss her. They'd been together all night and he'd only kissed her once. There had been so many people around, so many cameras.
Caiti rose up on her toes, arms around his neck, to try to reach better, but even in her heels, it only helped a little.
"God," said Marlowe, voice low. "I can't kiss you standing up. I feel like some kind of creature all hunched over like that."
Caiti giggled and Marlowe was quick to shush her. "Elliot's right next door," he said, pressing a finger against her lips, but as usual, everything seemed funnier when she was supposed to be quiet.
"Shh," Marlowe said again, though he was starting to smile himself. He sat down on the edge of the bed, tugging her towards him and tried to kiss her again, but Caiti had caught the giggles and trying to keep them under control was making it harder and harder not to escalate. She collapsed on his shoulder, hands loosely clasped around his neck, her back shaking with mostly silent laughter.
"What are you even laughing at?" Marlowe asked.
She lifted her head up, looked right at him, and said, "Shh," pressing a finger against his lips, and suddenly Marlowe was laughing too.
With the both of them going, it was even harder to stop. Caiti was nearly gasping, tears leaking out the corners of her eyes, and her stomach ached from trying so hard not to let it out. Then Marlowe accidentally snorted and she slid right down onto the floor, lying flat on her back with both hands over her mouth to try to keep the sound of her laughter under control. Her fluffy orange dress spread out around her.
"Oh my god," Marlowe gasped through his own laughter. "What's that one spell to keep people from overhearing you? I can't remember it."
"I don't know," Caiti whispered, attempting a deep breath. It didn't help.
"Sean and Evelyn used to use it at school."
"We should go to the greenhouse," Caiti managed to get out. Marlowe looked at her like she was a genius.
He rushed around the room, grabbing pajamas for himself as well as a pair she had borrowed several times, then he grabbed her hand and they disapparated. As soon as they were away, they both busted up laughing. Marlowe flicked on the lamp beside the couch.
"I don't even know what's funny!" Caiti said, trying to wipe tears away. She fell back onto the couch, arms folded over her stomach.
"I can't breathe," said Marlowe. He sat on the arm of the couch and bumped his ankle against something in the process.
"Wait, what does this do?" he asked. "There's some kind of lever down here."
Caiti turned her head and watched as he reached down and gripped it. As he did, the couch cushion Caiti was sitting on started to lift up and move forward and she shrieked. Marlowe dropped the lever in surprise and the cushion flopped back down, taking Caiti with them.
"It's a sofa bed!" Marlowe exclaimed excitedly, but Caiti had no idea what they meant.
"You almost launched me into outer space!" she said, holding onto the side of the couch like it was her one connection to earth.
"No I didn't. I almost swept you under the bed. Get up. I'll show you."
He was already up himself, pushing the round table Caiti used to prep ingredients away from the sofa.
Caiti rose up slowly. On his way back from the table, Marlowe took her by the shoulders and scooted her off to the side and then he hurried back around to the lever, this time pulling it down all the way. The couch cushion started to lift again and then unfurled into the space revealing an entire bed that had just been hiding in that couch all this time.
"What?" Caiti asked, standing up on her toes like it was some sort of creepy crawly on the floor. "What's happening?"
"It's a sofa bed," Marlowe said again. "I told you it was from my grandparents house. My mum's parents. It's a muggle thing. Like muggle transfiguration. They do it to save space, so they can have an extra space for guests but then when they don't need it, it's just a regular couch." He looked up at her and the grin from a minute ago spread back across his face. "The look on your face," he said. "You thought I was going to fling you into the wall."
"You were!" said Caiti. "You try sitting there and see how it feels to be suddenly rocketing upwards!"
"Get over here," Marlowe said, kneeling onto the bed and holding his arms out for her. A smile started to bloom back onto Caiti's face. They laid back together, but only for a second before Caiti shot back up.
"This is awful," she said.
"You can feel every bar and spring jabbing right into your back," said Marlowe, sitting up slowly with a grimace.
They looked at each other, and the laughter picked up all over again. It was a long time before either of them had calmed down enough to try a cushioning charm, which significantly improved the state of the mattress, and even afterwards, one of them would start snickering again every few minutes and set the other off.
By the time they had finally gotten control of themselves, it was after one AM. Marlowe reached for the blanket that usually lay over the back of the couch and spread it out over top of them. He opened his arm up as he laid back down and Caiti snuggled up onto his chest, her hand resting on his ribs. It was so nice to be alone with him. Really alone. That had so rarely happened.
"I can't believe it's been almost three months and I never thought of coming here," Marlowe said. "What an idiot."
"To be fair," said Caiti, "Neither of us realized the space launcher was actually a fold out bed."
"Still," said Marlowe. His fingers drew little patterns on the back of her leg, under her dress and Caiti shivered.
She focused on that feeling and almost could have let it put her to sleep, but she didn't want to waste this time with him.
"I still can't believe you built this whole thing," she said after a while. Her voice came out slow and sleepy.
"This was just the practice round."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it was kind of fun," said Marlowe. "And now I've learned how to do all this stuff. I want to build more things."
Caiti slid back off his chest and lay on her side so she could look at him while they talked. Marlowe rolled over to face her. He was backlit by the warm glow of the lamp, but she could still see his eyes glowing.
"So what are you going to build next?" she asked.
"Well I don't know about next," he said, reaching out to tuck her hair behind her ear. "But someday when we're old and married, I'll build us a house. However you want it to be."
"A cottage," Caiti said. "With green shutters on the windows."
"And trees all around it."
Caiti started to smile. "And a big front porch we can sit on in the mornings."
"And a little cobblestone path leading up to the front door."
Caiti's stomach was full of butterflies. She couldn't have kept the goofy smile off her face if she tried. They went back and forth like this for a while until Marlowe suddenly kissed her, his hand cupping her cheek. Something about it made Caiti's face heat up and when they broke apart and she looked at him, it was with this terrifying realization that she was really, truly in love with him, that he had more power to hurt her that probably anyone else in the world and she was willing to risk it.
Their relationship had felt serious for a long time, but in the couple of months since she'd come home something had really started to sink in. There was this permanence and comfort with him that Caiti had never even imagined feeling.
Marlowe was her best friend. He had been for such a long time. She had been comfortable with him from day one, but not like this. This was a level of comfort where Caiti felt she could say or do anything, where she could be honest about everything, and whatever she shared with him, no matter how she shared it, would be safe.
"Marlowe," she said quickly.
"Hmm?" he asked. His fingers were trailing down her back again and it made it hard to focus. She lost what she'd been about to say.
"I don't know," she whispered. "I forgot." Instead, she kissed him again and let Marlowe pull her on top of him. It felt intense, the way he kissed her back. It made her head spin. Her hair fell over his face, but Marlowe didn't try to brush it away. His hands slid under the straps of her dress, hot on her skin.
Without thinking about it first, she sat up, unzipped her dress, and pulled it over her head. She had never done anything like this before and her heart was beating extraordinarily fast to prove it.
Marlowe seemed a little speechless at first, but he recovered himself quickly. "I fucking love you, Caiti," he said, pulling her back down to him.
"More than anything," Caiti said back.
—-
Marlowe had laid awake for a long time after Caiti had fallen asleep. They had gone back and forth between kissing and talking late into the night. Caiti had this effortless confidence that Marlowe didn't think she'd had even a few months ago.
She was magnetic, irresistible.
He finally fell asleep well after three, visions of that house they'd described dotting his dreams, but was woken again only a few hours later by bright orange light streaming through the window. Caiti had her face down in his chest, her hair covering her eyes so she hadn't noticed it yet.
"Caiti," he murmured, blinking sleep out of his eyes. He smoothed his hand over her back. Her skin was warm and smooth. He had to say her name a few more times before she stirred, lifting her head to look at him. He pushed her hair out of her face, kissed her once, because how could he not, and then said, "Sunrise."
While Caiti roused herself, Marlowe somewhat regretfully found the little bag of clothes he'd brought that they'd never used and passed her a t-shirt and a pair of flannel pajama pants that Caiti would need to roll six or seven times at the waist for her feet to poke out. He tugged on his own t-shirt and then they made their way out to the back of the greenhouse.
Marlowe sat in the grass, leaning against the glass. He yawned deeply. Caiti made to sit next to him, but he said "Nope," and pulled her to sit sideways across his lap instead. He wanted her close. Caiti positioned herself low so she could lean her head back on his shoulder and he wrapped his arms around her waist. She took one of his hands between both of hers and traced soft little circles on his palm.
Neither of them spoke at all. They just sat there listening to the birds and watched the sun creep up behind the trees in the distance. A deep orange layer hovered behind the upper branches, fading into peach, and then periwinkle as he looked further up. A thin sliver of a crescent moon was positioned in the darkest blue.
Marlowe pressed his lips to the top of Caiti's head as he looked at it. It was getting a little easier all the time, but there was still something about seeing the actual moon that stopped his heart at first. He stared and stared at it, hoping it would get a little easier still if he desensitized himself, if it wasn't a shock. And he had to admit, there was beauty in it, especially in the midst of this perfect sunrise following a perfect night. There was something particularly special about seeing the moon while the sun came up, like a reminder that the sun always did come up. The next day always came. The full moon never hung on longer than a night.
"I really love having you home, Caiti," Marlowe said when the orange had all faded out of the sky. Caiti just turned and hugged him in response. It was a hug that said a lot more than he had.
Entire minutes passed like this before Caiti lifted her head back up. "Remember when you almost launched me into outer space?" She had this mischievous smile on her face and Marlowe busted up laughing.
—-
Two days later when Caiti came into the office in the morning to get some work done, she found a drawing sitting on the table waiting for her. It was of the house they had described the other night, exactly as she had imagined it. Caiti felt as nervous and excited as she had just before she'd kissed Marlowe that first time at the Yule Ball. Like a kid about to do something they were just now big enough for, that they'd wanted to try a long time but now the time had come, it felt more scary than expected. Looking at that drawing felt like stepping into a new stage of her life.