𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃 𝓅𝑜𝓈𝓉

[innerglow]

𝓉𝑒𝓍𝓉 / 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓂𝓅𝓉 / 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓇𝓉𝑒𝓇

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[innerglow]

[ he knows instantly that this poor creature is instantly smitten with him and the notion doesn't make him as uneasy as it has been with anyone else who happens to take a gander at his otherworldly face. it's the fae in him, the part of him that had been suppressed for so much of his life. he must have had another form as a child but the current one, the near-human one that he has grown up with seems to suit him the best, setting him apart from others just enough.

briar understands that feeling, being out of place, unsettled in your own skin. it's something he continues to contend with but the older he gets, the closer he comes to acceptance.

it's why he's keen to help jase, understanding inherently what he might be going through, pesky new crushes aside. it's sweet, however, the way that cat follows him in, brushes up against him in a way only a cat can get away with. he doesn't mind when he sits up on the mixing counter as briar himself begins chopping up ingredients, grinding some with a mortar and pestle. ]

Come back if this doesn't have any kind of effect in a few days. I will try another recipe.

[differs]

( it's in this moment that jase decides that he could watch briar for hours, no matter what he's doing; he has an effortless way about him, the way he moves so easily throughout this space of his, fingers plucking ingredients without taking a single glimpse at the shelves. it's such a silly, simple thing — but jase watches with wide feline eyes, bright as ever, head canted slightly to the side as his gaze flicks down towards those delicate fingers curled tightly around the pestle as each ingredient ends up ground down.

briar is fascinating — just about the epitome of everything that jase is not, with his delicate features and soft voice, his aura that's — okay, and this is cheesy, and he knows it — practically magical, alluring. maybe he's projecting all of his wide-eyed and bushy-tailed amazement onto this boy but ... who could blame him?

his tail flicks back and forth idly and jase nods, probably a weird thing to see a cat do very purposefully, but that's okay. in all honestly, he can't help but start planning his next visit to the café already; he's a sucker. )

Mrr~? ( jase asks, streeetching his neck down so he can sniff at the concoction taking shape within the mortar, too many new and different scents for him to fully parse and identify. so many that it makes him sneeze, a small, pathetic thing, and he sits up straight again, shaking it off.

what's in there? )

[innerglow]

[ that. might have been the cutest thing briar has seen all day, the sight of a curious cat sticking his nose into mysterious places, only to sneeze at the mixture of scents. he can't help himself around animals, even if animals happen to be instantly enamored boys on the inside, and he scratches jase behind his furry ears. ]

I hate to say it, they do say things about cats and curiosity, [ he teases lightly, ducking behind the counter to find little biodegradable satchels beneath, pulling out about ten of them. he begins to fill them with his crushed mixture, the leaves and such now tiny specs. ]

Root of dandelion, [ briar explains finally, tapping his tiny spoon against the rim of the bowl. ] lavender, black tea from England, aconite, a pinch of nettle...

You're to drink this as tea. I would recommend drinking with a little milk and some sugar.

[differs]

( oh, he's purring again, warmed immensely by the soft scratches behind his ears, a natural reaction to such a natural thing, the very human tendency to give animals affection and receive it in return. jase likes these silly little quips, practically preening about them and basking in their glow.

it's a weird thing, owning what he is, if only briefly. he's never fully embraced his feline side mostly out of obliviousness and then, as he grew older and learned about his family's roots, about their abilities ... he almost thought they were ashamed. but how could they be ashamed of something so wonderful that, in this moment, brings jase so much unbridled joy? he simply can't fathom it.

the dark cat eyeballs these little satchels, can hardly believe that this boy just created this magical mixture right before his eyes. with a small nod of his tiny head, jase stands up, pads delicately over the satchels so he can, unabashedly and only a little inwardly ashamedly, brush against briar's hand so he can receive one final pet from head to tail, giving this beautiful boy a small flick of his tail on that beautiful nose.

and just like that — it's in the blink of an eye but that cat shifts very quickly back into a boy, exhaling sharply because the whole thing feels so strange and it happens so fast, looking a little shellshocked, and also.

and also because he realizes that maybe he should have leapt off of the counter and onto the floor before trying to clumsily change back, if only because he's now a too-large boy sitting on the lip of a too-small counter, legs dangling off the edge and finding himself situated right in front of and extremely close to the bright-eyed shopkeeper, a tall boy made even taller by the height of his current seat. )

I, uhhhh — thank you?

[innerglow]

Everything is fairy-touched.

[ which may or may not be the answer to one of the questions that could be rolling around jase's brain. it's amusing, watching a cat have very human reactions to these things; that image doesn't get old, regardless of how long briar has embedded himself into the world that has surprisingly accepted him for who he is. or who he has shaped himself to be.

he tuts, however, at that last-ditch effort to get one more bit of affection from him – it's nothing terribly grouchy but he knows what that was about.

standing completely still, briar's expression barely changes when the cat decides to become a boy again, a hulking mass of limbs now settled on his counter and he raises his eyebrows so that they disappear behind light brown bangs, lifting his chin so that he can assess this silly stranger once more. ]

I don't think that can hold your weight for very long.