1st Week of August 2024
Nichlas paused, his hands hovering over an ingredient. A dried sprig of thyme, he would have to pluck its dried leaves from the thin twigs without crumbling them. A meticulous task, one that felt just right for his thoughtful mind. He had pliers and a little glass container ready. He had dressed the bottom layer of the small glass jar with cotton to reduce the risk of moisture getting to the dried ingredient as it was stored away for further purposes. That, in addition to the protective charms that had been placed on the container, he felt quite assured about there being no spoiling of this ingredient in the near future.

He had this cottage, well truth to be told if there was no sudden change now with this distance between them, it would be their cottage soon to come. Well technically it already was theirs but boarding school was making things slightly more difficult on them and the miniscule age gap of a year between them. A silver chain around his neck that led beneath the collar of his shirt, kept a precious keepsake hidden and safe while he worked in his laboratory. Usually he would wear it on his finger, glancing at it occasionally as he wondered what the impish sunshine was up to, hoping he found enjoyment in his last year of school.

The silver metal of the promise ring felt cool, yet warm against his collarbone, the metal conducting his own body heat into the metal and right back at him, while serving the constant reminder of a presence in this room with him without a body, the presence of a promise made between the two of them despite the distance that was between them now.

With a soft smile, feeling secure enough to display it on his face, due to the half-welcome solitude of his workplace being unoccupied aside from himself, he resumed his work. He had to stock up his shelves and find a way he would like to sort and categorise his inventory. He had already decided that the cauldrons would be stored at the bottom most places. All kinds of cauldrons, of different sizes and materials lining the room, on the wall opposite to the entrance.

Starting at the height of his hip the shelves became more slim in width and height, resembling more cabinets. Though there was still some variation as some ingredients had to be stored in different ways and required various amounts of space, which he wished to take into account. Well it would likely take him a while until he had all of these things sorted out and under control; he had a lot of stocking up to do. He used to welcome the access of the potioneering rooms his parents had provided him with at their estate, and had slowly replaced their order with his own as he was the one making most use of those chambers, so it only felt realistic to make the room more accessible to his needs. However now he had to start from scratch, which he had welcomed even more, as it meant that the entirety of this lab would suit his and his needs alone.

The rest of their rooms, especially their living quarters had been a conjoined effort in making the rooms suitable for two souls that were meant to share these places forever more in harmony, or such was the plan.

Nichlas continued with this task now, moving toward the prepping station, a high desk that had been cleaned sufficiently to allow his next steps as he began to take the pliers. He had readied a stack of dried thyme, which he had planted over the summer to ensure its quality; something he would wish to do with most herbal ingredients as long as he could allow to spend the effort and time it would take to do so. And so he began to use his gloved hands - so as to not contaminate the fragile ingredients with residue sweat or body oils - and began to pull apart the little leaves from their sprigs, setting them into the glass jar carefully. It would take him about an hour just to go through the different stacks of the plant and by the end he had but two jars of this ingredient. Which may seem like it would not be worth the effort, but the Swede was well aware that these two jars, as long as he would continue to control their quality and ensure no excess moisture got to it, would last him for quite a long time. Depending on the potions he would be brewing, they would be able to last him years, perhaps until the next summer came around.

He began to clean up his work station. He would have to get started on the next ingredients soon enough. He had until the end of the month to set up his entire storage. After that, starting October, he would begin to receive the assignments. Some of which, of course, he would already receive the ingredients for or at least receive compensation if he had to purchase the needed ingredients himself, but part of him just wished to go ahead and brew to his heart’s content. He would likely quickly grow tired over his status as an apprentice and do his very best to rid himself of that title and progress on this career ladder at its earliest convenience. After all he would not be himself, if he was not being regarded as an overachiever by society, despite feeling like his ambitions were completely justified and achievable by his own standards.

There were many things on his to do list yet, many of which he was aware would not be able to get finished within this one day. However the Swede would hope that it would take him a mere week before he could begin his first brewing projects within his own four walls, their own four walls, the latter he had to keep reminding himself of, yet every time he did there was a comfortable amount of warmth that seemed to spread through his chest, making him look forward to the years yet to come. The years, of which he was sure, they both seemed to be looking forward to. It would also mark an exception to his life, that he had not expected would be a choice that was quite so easy, inviting a seemingly unpredictable amount of chaos into his home and quite gladly too, if it came with the expectation of being brought into his life by one person he would happily allow to remain his unpredictable self.

2nd Week of September
To the surprise of none, Nichlas had made progress in building up his own potioneering laboratory to suit his needs and his alone. He would, for the most part, be the only person to ever step foot into this room, it was in a way his sanctuary. He had always loved potion laboratories but he never had one he could call truly his own. He was the only one to truly make use of the one he had at his parents place and they had grown accustomed to asking him to brew for him, if they required any potion, salve or concoction, however it had still belonged to his parents most of all. While he had arranged it to his needs, he had not been able to call it entirely his. This would be different. And while this place would be, eventually, theirs, this would be his.

He had made progress in the cottage’s garden too. The grounds had been fertilized, some transfigured worms had been released to soften the soil and dig their tunnels through which the roots of herbs, plants and crops could soon travel. Greenhouses had been erected and a little well, accessing water from a closeby stream, had become the eyecatcher of the cottage’s humble garden.

The garden was not huge, as he would have to maintain it mostly on his own, for a year at the very least and then it would be up to them to decide how extensive they wished their voluntary workload to be. Though there were vacations and holidays to be had, in which another resident or future resident truth to be told would grace these halls with momentary presence, for visits or so the Swede hoped, before the school of Durmstrang called the Russian back to finish what would be his last year. Nichlas, while not necessarily showing it much, would look forward to those moments of time, in which he could see Slava. He had quickly grown accustomed to having the other around, so not being able to enjoy each other's company or challenges was quite unusual now.. Nichlas quite liked the additional task of gardening as it allowed him to source many ingredients on his own and be assured of their topmost quality whenever he would use them in his brews or his cooking for that matter. He had procured seeds and starter plants, some of which had already found their spaces and plots on the garden grounds. Of course even here he had a system, though as this area was more shared than his brewing chamber, and shared with a chaos bringer no less, he had gone lighter on the system and took more precaution in communicating any plans he would have had for the garden. He was well aware, and pained, of the fact that regardless of all precautions that he could not make the gardens a glitter and chaos free zone as Slava also needed and deserved space to express himself. A place such as the interior and free garden space would allow both of their personalities to flourish or so they could hope.

Aside from that he had managed to mostly stock up his potion lab with the most common ingredients, procuring them from trustworthy traders and closeby farmers, herbologists and magizoologists. Needless to say, his mentor had provided him with contacts, most of which he had to work for after being provided with ingredients for brewing concoctions or making deliveries to said contacts. Most of which, in return, would send him onto quests or require assistance, which due to his previous lack of a laboratory at all, had resulted in much more tedious tasks that required him to run errands for them instead.

The shelves in his laboratory now had a variety of the most common and some of the less common ingredients, that had been prepared and stored in various ways. Some more delicate and vulnerable ingredients had been stored away in tightly sealed jars or shielded from light, whereas other ingredients, such as sprigs of herbs had been strung across the space of a little alcove with a sitting area with a desk covered in neatly sorted stationary, allowing them to dry and preserve in peace, away from any potion smokes and fumes that could tamper with their shelf lives.

The regular ingredient shelf had been sorted and alphabetized, the multiple work stations had been cleaned spotless and would continue to be cleaned in such manner before and after every cleaning session, he would not trust specks of dust or residue glitter that could have gotten into the room through its ventilation system and would therefore use this extra caution and simply because the methodical approached was something he had grown accustomed to from the use of shared brewing appliances in the past and was an extra effort he would not quite mind but embrace instead. Even if it would cost him an extra few minutes before each brewing session it would be time well spent and would allow him to go through the steps and process of the brewing ahead of him, allowing him to gather and expand on his thoughts which would without a chance for failure, allow him to brew even the most difficult of potions. He would still have a many more things to prepare until he could consider himself satisfied with the set up of things, but rest assured, he would get there in no time.