Shampoo & Coffee

One of Vin’s pillows smelled like coffee.

Well, mostly like coffee. And caramel. And a little bit of the sharp fruity tang of really good shampoo or conditioner. And a little bit of a scent he couldn’t quite describe aside from a single word.

Crys.

He had made himself go to the coffeehouse around the corner on Valentine’s day, Tzella’s gift certificate in his jacket pocket, telling himself he could have an americano and a pastry maybe, then leave. Instead he was immediately enveloped in a warm welcoming aroma of freshly ground coffee, along with something wonderful-smelling baking in the kitchen. While he stood by the doorway taking in the delicious smell of the place, he accidentally locked eyes with the pretty dark-haired barista behind the counter. When she flashed him a questioning smile, he felt his knees turn to water.

Oh. Oh shit.

He ended up sitting at the counter for about three hours, chatting with Crys between her occasional orders. Quips gave way to introductions, moving on to an easy flowing small talk, and slowly veering into a few intense, deep questions. When Vin reluctantly decided to leave lest he overstay his welcome, she scrawled her number on his receipt along with a note, which she’d handed to him with a wink.

He’d texted her as soon as he got home, noting with both dismay and excitement the strange tightening in his stomach when she texted back an hour later, having ended her shift. There was another hour of back and forth before he shyly suggested a proper date, which she enthusiastically accepted.

She came up to Vin’s place after said date, and after a few minutes of watching her circumnavigate his studio delightedly exclaiming over stuff they liked in common, she plopped herself on the edge of the bed next to him, experimentally bouncing. “Nice. Firm, but not rock hard,” she’d proclaimed solemnly before cracking a mischievous smile. “Speaking of firm and rock hard…”

Vin swallowed. “That’s a segue.”

“So it is,” she noted, scooting closer to him. “Up to exploring other firm, rock hard things?”

“…are you sure?”

She’d responded with a laugh and a kiss before, much to Vin’s complete discombobulation, she set about decisively ending his four year drought. Vin would think about one moment in particular for a long time afterward, picturing the fall of Crys’ hair curtaining both their faces as she eased Vin inside of her, answering his nervous check-in with a breathless smile.

“Don’t be so shy next time,” she’d murmured, before kissing him goodbye.

“You want a next time?” Vin asked, still thoroughly wrecked after the experience.

She’d laughed and kissed him again. “Text me later.”

He was not shy when he invited her up for a bit after her shift a few nights later, folding her up into his arms upon her arrival and kissing her until she made a soft contented noise deep in her throat. “I’m sorry,” she murmured against his mouth as his fingers released her hair from the braid she’d tied it in, the waves winding around his hands.

“Why?”

“I reek like I spent the last nine hours in a coffee shop?”

“Yeah, and?” He grinned at her, tipping his chin down to kiss her forehead. “I like coffee. And I really like how it smells on you.”

“Well, crap,” she giggled, her breath catching in her throat as Vin worked his way down the buttons of her shirt. “Maybe I should just show up after all my shifts.”

Vin laughed a little back, tracing the line of her shoulder from where it met her neck to the top of her arm with kisses, getting a lovely little sigh for his trouble. “Maybe you should.”

She didn’t stay last night either, detangling herself from Vin’s embrace and blankets sometime after midnight, laughing as he tugged her back into bed. “I can’t stay, I’ve got to open tomorrow, and now I even more desperately need a shower.”

Vin’s sleepy, mock-grumpy suggestion of packing an extra work outfit for next time had been met with a promise to consider it and a kiss goodnight. He’d gone to sleep with a no doubt dopey grin on his face, the same one that he could feel on his face now, breathing in the coffee and conditioner from the pillows.

It had been six lovely, if roller-coastery, days. Hell, he’d been so fucking distracted that even Carl’s needling little comments and another round of snowstorm mitigation didn’t get to him. The only thing off about it was that he had neither seen nor heard from Tzella since she left him the gift certificate.

Almost on cue, a soft throb of warning pulsed through his shoulder, followed a minute or so later by a delicate, throat-clearing cough. “Are you awake?”

“Allegedly,” Vin reluctantly lifted his head, spotting Tzella sitting in his gaming chair with her legs tucked up. “Everything okay? You’ve been radio silent this week.”

“I have,” she acknowledged with a nod, before a small smile pulled at one corner of her mouth. “You have been… occupied of late.”

He blushed scarlet, remembering she could sense his libido. “I have been, yeah. I met someone.”

“I know.” Tzella raised an eyebrow expectantly. “And?”

Vin’s words jumbled all over themselves in his head so he just grinned at her. “Thank you for the gift certificate,” he finally managed.

“So I was correct in gently nudging you to venture out before your monastic plans for the evening?”

“You were.”

She nodded, her face satisfied yet wistful. “Good.”

“That’s… okay, right?” Vin frowned, a sudden, uncomfortable pang of guilt rising in his throat.

“Why would that not be okay?”

“I don’t know.” Vin looked down, worrying the edge of the blanket between his hands. “I guess I don’t want you to feel weird about it?”

“I do not, but it is sweet of you to consider me.” Tzella’s smile was wistful, but warm. “I am simply thankful you are no longer glowing like a small sun of sexual frustration.”

Vin winced. “Was it that bad?”

Tzella’s eyebrow returned to its elevated position. “I will put it to you this way. Humans have these blue lights in the summertime that draw in nuisance insects, am I recalling correctly?”

“A bug zapper? I don’t think I like where this metaphor is going.”

“Fine. I will simply say you are somewhat easier to be near now than you were. Only somewhat, though. You are radiating a different kind of attractive energy at the moment.”

Vin squirmed, conscious that he’d been at about half-staff before Tzella had popped in. “Uh, sorry?”

“No apology needed.” Her head tipped to the side as she looked at Vin. “You seem happy.”

Vin felt the goofy smile returning. “Happy might be pushing it. But Crys is great. And things seem to be going well.”

“I am glad to know I can still sense a potential compatibility.”

Vin groaned, realization belatedly dawning. “You set me up.”

“I did not,” Tzella huffed indignantly. “I manufactured an opportunity. I had no idea if it would work.”

“Tzella.”

She gave him a toothy grin, fangs fully visible. “Call it what you will then. At worst, you would have gotten at least one excellent cup of coffee out of it. Other things working out…” She raised one shoulder. “A fortunate bonus.”

He shook his head. “I kinda want to be annoyed, but I honestly can’t be.”

“Do not waste your time trying, then.” She unfolded from her chair a little, stretching. “I am probably about to genuinely ruin your mood, in any case. I require a favor.”

“Uh-oh. What kind of favor?”

“I need an intact, unused summoning candle. Do you have a way of obtaining another one from Carl?”

Vin groaned. “Yep. Mood thoroughly killed.”

“You were warned.”

“I can probably get one, yeah. Carl’s going to be incredibly annoying about it if I ask though, especially since the last couple of times anything came up having to do with candles or succubi, I either punched him in the face or refused to acknowledge they existed.”

One corner of Tzella’s mouth quirked back up. “Were it easy, I would be making a request, not asking a favor.”

“True. Do I get something in return for the inevitable pain in the ass, then?”

“Hmm.” Tzella thought for a moment. “Give me the candle on your dresser.”

Vin stretched over the edge of the bed, just able to reach the glass candle holder with his fingertips. Candle grabbed, he handed it to Tzella, who once again removed the candle from the holder. This time instead of stroking it, she held it loosely in both hands, closing her eyes. After a moment the candle began to soften and warp, and she began to shape it in her hands, her palms faintly glowing. Another few minutes and instead of a white pillar candle, she held a white wax sphere in her hands, ringed with a precisely etched line of tiny gold sigils at its equator. “A candle for a candle,” she said, inspecting her handiwork before handing it back to Vin.

“What does this summon?” he asked dubiously.

“Nothing.” Tzella smiled. “It’s more of an enhancement of what is already present than an invitation to something outside.”

“Meaning?”

“Light it a little bit before you have company. All it will do is elevate your experience.”

“It’s an aphrodisiac?”

“Not quite. It… quiets the distractions.”

“Interesting.” Vin sighed, placing the now rotund candle back on his dresser. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“All I can ask. Well. That and perhaps a cup of coffee, if you’re willing?”

Vin chuckled. “Sure. Give me a minute to actually get up.”

---

“Lost your pet, did you?”

Vin took a deep breath, glancing around the workshop for the fourth time to make sure no one else on shift was in earshot. It also kept him from having to look at Carl’s extremely smug face. “Not exactly,” he replied.

“Looking for something different, then?”

“Something like that.”

“I don’t know, Pecker,” Carl narrowed his eyes. “Considering I got cold-cocked the last time I went out of my way to be nice to ya, I’m somewhat disinclined to just hand you something free of charge.”

“That’s actually fair,” Vin grumbled. Expecting Carl to be difficult did not make it easier to deal with him. “What do you want?”

“Oh, at the very least, I want out of my next two weekend rotations.”

Vin winced. While he honestly didn’t mind working over weekends when it was his turn, he was not exactly inclined to take on more of them, especially now that he had a decent reason to leave his weekends open. “Two’s a bit much, isn’t it?”

“Take it or leave it, Pecker.”

“Fine.” Vin heaved a defeated sigh.

Carl smirked. “Pleasure doing business with ya.”

---

Later that evening found him in bed again with Crys, in that quiet moment after completing a round of surprisingly energetic sex, considering both of them had come off of exhausting work shifts. Vin wasn’t sure how much of that was the chaotic excitement of a new relationship and how much was Tzella’s candle burning steadfastly on his dresser, but he did notice he spent less time quietly worrying in his head in favor of throwing himself into the experience, which was rather enthusiastically and loudly appreciated.

They lay bonelessly on each other, one of Crys’ legs twined around his, her head pillowed on his chest, hair damply in her eyes. Neither had gotten their breath back yet.

“You okay?” Vin asked, once his brain managed to reconnect the bits that powered speech.

Crys grinned. Raising one hand slightly, she quickly flashed three letters before letting her hand drop back over his chest. Wow.

Vin laughed. “So yes.”

“Mmmm,” she hummed contentedly. “I gotta get up in a minute, but my legs don’t work.”

“Oh no, you have to stay here for a minute longer. Tragic.” He dropped an arm over her shoulders, gently squeezing.

“It will be if all that grinding gives me a UTI,” she groaned, finally finding the wherewithal to untangle herself from Vin and roll to her feet. “Back in a sec.”

Vin watched her as she crossed the room to the bathroom, the last rays of afternoon catching the gold threads in her otherwise dark hair. She’d mentioned she’d been varsity volleyball through high school and college, and while she hadn’t been in full athletic training in at least three years, the muscle was still there even if now overlaid by a measure of softness. Her legs especially were still built. Vin had been half convinced he was going to end up bruised around the hips after their first time hooking up, as her thighs had clamped around him tight enough to hurt. Not that he had exactly been complaining.

The light had faded by the time Crys came out of the bathroom, and the room had a deep twilight blue glow to it, occasionally punctured by headlights reflected up from the street below. She paused by the window, delighted by the view of downtown. “Pity you said you weren’t much of a people-watcher,” she mused. “I’d never leave this window if I lived here.”

“I’ve definitely done my share of staring out the window,” he chuckled, pushing the memory of Tzella making a similar observation at the same window out of his mind. “Saturday mornings when the farmers market’s running are pretty prime for that.”

“I’ll bet,” Crys concurred. After another minute she came back across the room, pausing to switch on a floor lamp on the way before climbing back into bed with Vin. “Hi, again,” she said, kissing him.

“Hmm.” He tried to return the greeting, but she was rather intently not releasing his mouth to do so. “Did you have a good time?” he asked once she’d pulled away.

“This wasn’t enough of an indication?” She sat back with a giggle, fingerspelling wow again.

Vin grinned, then put up his hand, clumsily mimicking her. “W-O-W?”

“Yep.” Crys grinned, reaching over to turn Vin’s hand so the palm faced outward.

“How would you do my name?”

Crys pressed down her pinky and ring finger with her thumb, her pointer and middle fingers stretched out in a V. She then put her pinky up by itself, then tucked her thumb under her index and middle fingers. “V-I-N.” She then repeated the three letters super quickly. “You’re easy.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Vin quipped. “What about my whole name?”

Crys repeated the three letters slowly, followed by four more. “V-I-N-C-E-N-T. Still easy,” she declared with a smile as she repeated the sequence rapidly.

“I don’t know how you do that as fast as you do without tying your fingers into knots.”

“Oh, that’s nothing. Try spelling ‘Chrysanthemum’.” She did, fingers flying through the 13 letters.

“Fuck.”

“Yeah, this is why Jas gave me a name sign pretty much immediately after they started learning ASL.”

Vin chuckled. He’d already heard a few stories about Crys’ hard of hearing younger sibling. The lack of patience seemed to be a unifying thread. “Name signs are a thing?”

“Yep.” Crys made her hand into a C shape, then touched it to either side of her nose. “They’d just learned the sign for ‘flower’, so they just did it with the letter C instead. They learned later that a name sign is supposed to incorporate some bit of the person’s personality and not just be a sign combination, but by that time it had stuck. If they’re feeling salty at me they’ll do this instead.” She held up a C, then waved it downwards twice from her nose.

“Is that the sign for ‘sneeze’?”

“Uh-huh.” Crys rolled her eyes. “It works. I’m horribly allergic to pollen. But the other one has a cuter story, so I use that.”

Vin laughed. “Show me mine again.”

“Here, follow me.” Crys scooted herself around next to Vin and slowly spelled his name again, pausing to make sure Vin was keeping up before moving on to the next letter. “As for how to get it fluid… just practice. Two letters at a time. Then three, then work up to entire words. But for now, just do each one slowly.”

Vin tried again, laughing as Crys corrected his N. “I’m gonna need a lot of practice. I was born with a negative DEX stat.”

“I have faith in you. Want to try a whole sentence?”

“Sure.”

“Okay. Do what I’m doing.” She pressed her hand flat against her chest, then stuck both pairs of middle and index fingers out and tapped them against each other in an X shape before spelling out his name. “‘My name is Vin.'”

“You only did two signs before spelling, though?”

“Good catch. You don’t sign ‘is.'”

“Oh.” Vin repeated the five signs. “How do I ask you yours?”

Crys rapidly signed Your name what? her face pulled into a curious frown. “Make sure when you’re asking a question that you frown a little.”

“You sign a question mark by frowning?“

“Most of the time. If it’s a yes/no question, you raise your eyebrows instead.” She laughed at Vin’s panicked face. “I know, I know. You do get it with practice. You try.”

Vin pulled his face into a ferocious scowl and mimicked her, which sent her into a fit of giggles. “Slight frown, sweetie. You want someone to tell you their name, not give up their country’s espionage operations. Pretend you saw a mildly confusing bug.”

He tried again, and she raised both her hands, rapidly twisting them back and forth. “Awesome. You’ll be able to do that when you meet Jas.”

Vin raised an eyebrow, covering the pleased but terrified thrill at the implication. “When, not if?”

Crys turned pink. “Shush.”

“Date number three and you’re already planning on me meeting your family? You must like me.”

“I like you, yes,” she replied. She kissed him, then, a long sweet press of her lips against his. It still made him faintly dizzy.

“So how do you sign that?”

She giggled, then tapped her chest with one finger, pulled her hand away from her body while pinching her middle finger and thumb together, then pointed to Vin. “I… like… you.”

Vin grinned, signing it back. I like you.

“Certainly hope so, considering,” she replied, scooting down enough to grab Vin around the torso with both arms, pressing her head into his shoulder. He wrapped one arm around her, bringing her in close enough to drop his chin onto the top of her head, happily inhaling the caramel, coffee and conditioner of her hair. He did like her, far more than he was willing to fully admit at this stage.

“Can I ask you a potentially insane question?” she murmured, lifting her head.

“Uh-oh. Sure?”

“Am I fucking hallucinating or does your tattoo change colors?”

Vin sucked in his breath hard through his teeth. He’d been low-key worrying how on earth he was going to knit Crys into the intense supernatural bullshit in his life, but hadn’t expected it to come up this soon. He’d forgotten about the glaring evidence of said bullshit emblazoned on his body.

Crys sat back, concern making her eyes even bigger than they normally were. “Not a hallucination, then?”

Vin shook his head. “I’m not sure I can say why yet. The answer is significantly more insane than the question.”

“Okay.” Crys nodded. “For what it’s worth though, I’ve definitely seen some shit that defies reasonable explanation in my life, so when you’re ready, try me, okay? No matter how out there it seems.”

“It’s pretty out there.”

“No shit. Color isn’t the only thing that changes about your tattoo, it’s just the easiest thing to ask about without looking completely non compos mentis.” Crys reached out, gently tracing the circle encasing Vin’s tattoo with a hesitant finger, brows furrowing as it pulsed a fiery orange in response before settling into a dark red ripple, like a banked coal. “Interesting.”

“It’s a very long story,” Vin sighed.

“Must be.” Crys looked up, her face unusually serious. “Tell me one thing and I’ll stop asking questions. Are you safe?”

Vin frowned, weighing the question. “I think so, yeah. But that might change. I don’t really know.”

“Keep me updated. And someday, when you’re ready, I would like to hear the story, no matter how long it is.”

Vin breathed out a sigh of relief. “Okay. Thank you.”

“Sure. By the way?” Crys’ smile was equal parts delight and mischievousness. “I brought my work clothes with me.”

“Oh, you did?”

“Yep. I don’t have to go home.” She kissed him again. “That said… Up for round 2?”