rewrite the stars [open]

open // wearing

changing the world to be ours

Cleo yawned as she unlocked the front door, flipping the sign to read 'open' in cursive, glimmering gold letters. She'd drawn the short straw and wound up with the morning shift for the day - and going out last night had definitely been a mistake. She could feel the hangover settling in, a dull throbbing at her temples as she wanered around the shop, setting things to rights. Thankfully at this time of day it was usually pretty quiet, and she could collapse onto a stool behind the counter and pretend like she was a functioning human.

If only she hadn't run out of pepper-up potion.

Satisfied with the shop's appearance and the displays in the window and the glass case, Cleo settled herself behind the counter, her beloved and well-worn recipe notebook out in front of her. With a flick of her wand, the shutters came rolling up, ready for the day to start. She wasn't expecting customers just yet - it was a smidgen too early for those picking up breakfast pastries and so she helped herself to a croissant, putting the plate next to the mug of coffee she'd brought down with her. She wrapped her hands around the mug with a quiet hum of content, delighting in the warmth as she waited for it to cool to a drinkable temperature.

As she took her first sip though, the bell above the door rang and she winced internally, having been hoping for the quiet to last a little longer. "Hiya!" She said, feigning brightness as she sat up a little straighter. "What can I get you? Something from the case or a custom order?" It was unlikely to be the latter, given that it was seven in the morning - but stranger things had happened.

?

It felt like Kjerstin had been up since way before dawn, at this point. But then, she'd ended up slipping out of bed early enough to beat Cleo out of the house. She had had to pick up the new ingredients that she had ordered for the shop, and doing a bit of shopping for herself. She'd made it to the Owl Post Center in good time to pick up the flour and other fresh fruit. Enough to keep them stocked for maybe a week depending on how many customers they ended up with. That had always ended up being a bit of a gamble, trying to estimate if it'd be a good week or a bad week. If she'd end up being pleased and happy with the decision to open the shop in the first place, or if she'd be regretting the decision and instead of celebrating curling up with their finances for the week and figuring out if everything was going to work out. It had its highs and lows.

Her second stop had, of course, been Honeydukes. Every time she visited the shop it felt a bit like she was cheating on her own. Undermining the quality of the chocolate that she could make, and she most certainly could make fantastic chocolate from scratch. Still, there was nothing that was quite like Chocolate Frogs fresh out of the box. Kjerstin had most certainly had to take the chance and make the stop to collect a few to last her through the week, assuming she used the proper cooling charms and didn't decide have a bit of a binge of her own. Soon enough afterwards Kjerstin had been setting off back to The Dough Knot to properly start out her day and get the ingredients all sorted out.

Kjerstin grinned broadly at the sight of Cleo at the counter when she reentered the shop, "Well, I certainly wouldn't mind a nice coffee if you can manage that." She replied cheerfully, walking around the counter to set down the shrunken ingredients and set about to resizing them. Once she had finished that task she turned around and arched an eyebrow at Cleo, "Soo, how was your night?" Because Kjerstin had been more than amused to hear Cleo rolling in so late last night, and having been utterly unwilling to offer to take the early shift so Cleo could recover. She had her own things to do, too.