Chapter Text
“which one do you think looks better on me?”
fig looked up from her crystal at adaine’s question, and she leaned back in her seat and tilted her head to the side, red eyes flicking over the two hangars that adaine was holding up before raising an eyebrow.
“adaine, i’ve never seen you so nervous before.” fig sat up as best as she could in the beanbag she had commandeered, and adaine’s pale face flushed brightly before her chin fell. the tiefling was even more curious about this strange behaviour, but shrugged it off—she could’ve been nervous about an upcoming exam in class for all fig knew, really. “but the silver one brings out your eyes, wear that with those black jeans and then the jacket of useful things and it’s a good outfit.”
“maybe those boots i bought too, the new ones from when we went to the mall,” adaine said with a nod before disappearing into her bedroom, and fig hummed to herself before turning back to the crystal in her hands, pausing for a moment before typing a few more words down. maybe these lyrics would be good enough to form a song later on.
the bedroom door opened barely five minutes later, and adaine practically flew out of it, still pulling on her jacket as she made her way to the front door of their shared apartment. fig looked up and opened her mouth to say a goodbye, but the door was closing just as the first syllable left her lips.
oh well, they could talk more tomorrow—they lived together, after all.
adaine didn’t want to admit that her hands were trembling from nerves as she made her way down the stairs of her apartment building to the large car that was idling just in front of the entrance, and she tucked a lock of her blonde hair behind a pointed ear as she approached it. the driver’s side door opened, and she hesitated for a moment before eventually stopping as oisin got out of the car to approach her, a hesitant smile on his lips.
“hey.” her voice came out of her mouth breathier than normal, and adaine could feel the way her face heated up at the greeting, but it comforted her to know that oisin looked just as nervous as she did—the way his tail was swishing erratically behind him, the fins just underneath his jawline twitching with every slight movement she made, the tremble in his own hands. “you look—great, oisin, you look great.”
he had dressed pretty casual for their date just as she had—short sleeve button up and plain coloured pants, but she could see the effort. instead of his normal beige and dark green combo, his top was a shiny black with some sparkles here and there, and he had on dark ripped jeans that showed off some of his leg (and adaine had no idea his tattoos went all over his body, but now she needed to see them all in their full glory). those silver spectacles were sitting carefully on his snout as always, but there was the hint of black lining his eyes, and adaine couldn’t help but grin widely at the sight.
“you do too,” oisin said softly, taking a step forward before almost stopping himself, and adaine ducked her head for a moment at the compliment. she wasn’t much of one for makeup, but this was their first date, and she had wanted to look better than just her normal jeans and t-shirt mix for school like she usually did. she had spread silver sparkles across her eyelids to match the shirt that fig had helped her choose, hoping that it wouldn’t be a bad look, and the other day aelwyn had come over and painted her nails a blue to match oisin’s scales (but she wasn’t going to admit that to anybody).
“sorry, i’m—is it okay that i’m nervous? i really want this to go well.” adaine blurted out after they stood there in silence, and she couldn’t help but dissolve into giggles at the way that oisin’s golden eyes widened behind his glasses. soon he was laughing too, and they stood like that before adaine took the courage to step forward and curl her fingers around oisin’s, head tilted back to look at him. “i really want this date to go well.”
“you can’t see it in a vision?” oisin teased her before his other hand was coming up to cup adaine’s cheek, and she was hit with the sudden realisation that he was simply so much bigger than her, could easily injure her lethally if he so chose, but she didn’t mind—she could more than handle herself. “we already get along super well, and i think we both knew this was a long time coming.”
“yeah, years coming.” adaine agreed before she licked her lips, nodding a few times before squeezing the hand that she had in her grasp. “wait right here, i forgot something.”
oisin let his hand slide off of her cheek before she was taking a step up the stairs leading back up to her apartments, and he tilted his head in curiosity as if he wanted to ask her what it was that she had forgotten. adaine used the hold she still had on his hand to pull him back to her, closing her eyes and using her other hand to hold his face as she pressed their lips together in a soft kiss. oisin made a quiet noise of surprise before his arm was sliding around her waist, and the kiss didn’t last long, no—but adaine’s heart was beating wildly in her chest as he pulled away from her with a smile, a quiet purr rumbling in his chest.
“what did you forget?” oisin asked softly, blinking slowly at her much like a cat would, and adaine shook her head before rubbing her nose against the side of his snout in an affectionate gesture that had him shivering against her.
“just—wanted to do that before our date started, so neither of us were nervous anymore,” adaine said with a shy smile on her lips, and she could get used to this, probably—the way oisin’s golden eyes glittered in the dim lighting of her apartment building entrance as he looked at her like she had hung the stars in the night sky.
“well, now you’ve—now i want to skip the date so we can sit in my car and keep kissing,” oisin said playfully, and the elven wizard threw her head back in bright laughter before her hand was tugged on. she followed oisin back to the car and giggled excitedly when he opened the passenger side door for her, biting her lip with an indulgent smile as she climbed into the car.
adaine shifted slightly in her seat as she buckled up, hoping that oisin was at least a better driver than both fig and riz were. oisin got into the driver’s seat and smiled at her before getting his seatbelt on, moving the car into drive before setting off. he had one hand on the steering wheel, and the other instantly went up to tap their destination onto his crystal for a map before he was reaching out to place his palm over her thigh, and adaine’s breath caught in surprise.
“oh, i can move—”
“no, it’s—it’s fine.”
she was sure that her face was bright red as her hand landed on top of his, and she sat back in her seat as they drove off through bastion city. adaine’s crystal chimed with a text notification, and she pulled it out to look at the message, seeing that fig had texted her.
wut time ru gonna be back?
shaking her head at the abysmal spelling that both her and kristen loved to type with, adaine used one hand to type back before pausing. she turned her head to look at oisin’s profile as they pulled onto the highway, unsure if they were going to come back from their date at a semi-reasonable time or if she was going to have to make the walk of shame. as though he could feel the weight of her eyes on him, oisin glanced at her with a smile before looking back at the road, opening his mouth to talk about something they were currently learning in their shared magic theory class, and adaine looked back down at her crystal with a smile.
not sure. don’t wait up!
fig couldn’t help but be worried when she woke up the next morning and adaine still wasn’t in the apartment, her bedroom door wide open, but she didn’t pay it much attention as she pulled up uber eats on her crystal to get something for breakfast. if anything, she could order them both something and adaine could eat it later, if she was hungry—they had to go grocery shopping anyway, and fig was not enthused about the trip that was going to be.
it wasn’t until her crystal chimed with the notification that her food had been delivered that the front door opened, and fig looked up from where she had slumped over into the couch cushions to see her friend walk in. she had the bags of food in one hand and the jacket of useful things draped over her other arm, and fig stood up with a grin before grabbing the food.
“i got some for you too, since we have to grocery shop later. probably today, honestly,” fig said with a frown before going to the kitchen counter to unpack the food she had bought, and adaine slowly followed behind her, sitting down on one of their mismatched kitchen countertop stools.
“yeah, probably early afternoon before people get off of work is good.” adaine draped her jacket over the back of the other chair and ran a hand through her hair, and fig blinked when she noticed just how unruly it was—usually adaine took care to have a put together appearance, even if it wasn’t the same as their freshman year of high school where she was wearing a school uniform, but she looked like she had just woken up.
“is that—adaine, do you have sparkles on your face?” the tiefling asked in surprise, and then adaine did another thing fig was surprised about—she blushed, her entire face turning red up to the very pointed tips of her ears. fig really looked adaine up and down, attempting to put the pieces together in her head, but nothing was adding up. she was sure that adaine had been wearing a silver shirt when she left, but the black button-up that hung on her small frame was oversized with a few of the buttons missing, so it was barely clinging shut on her torso. there were bandages around her hands and wrists that looked like they had just been changed with how stark white they were, and there were large bruises on her neck. “and the bruises—gods adaine, did you get into a fight last night and that’s why you were gone for so long?”
“no!” adaine exclaimed as she brought her hands up to cover her face for a moment, and fig tilted her head to the side before taking a big bite of the breakfast sandwich she had ordered. she had to thank riz once again for suggesting this place, because it was simply too good for her to never go back to.
slowly, fig pushed a sandwich over to adaine, and the elven wizard sighed heavily before dropping her hands and picking it up. her hands were shaking a bit as she unwrapped it, and fig couldn’t help but notice the way her lips were red and almost swollen as adaine took a large bite of her own.
“no, i was just—you remember oisin from junior year, right?” adaine spoke almost too quickly, but fig’s brain was still booting up from her hard sleep, and she nodded slowly. “well, he’s—the rat grinders have all transferred to bastion city university, and he’s in some of my classes cause we’re both wizards right? and we went out for dinner last night.”
“the rat grinders.” fig repeated quietly before blinking once again, and she grinned widely. “right, oisin! yeah, of course i remember him, we killed his grandma.” at that, adaine winced, but fig barely noticed it as she continued. “hell yeah, it’s nice that you’re branching out to make friends outside of us bad kids. i mean, tracker and ragh aren’t bad kids but they basically are, and you don’t really talk about hanging out with anybody else.”
“well, actually—”
“hold on, ayda’s sending me.”
fig cleared her throat before her own face burned in surprise at the message that ayda was relaying in her head, and she cleared her throat before picking up the food she had ordered that was hers.
“i gotta—don’t need me for the next hour or so. maybe you should put headphones on, actually. we’ll continue this later!” the bard grinned toothily before shuffling into her own bedroom and shutting the door, making sure to lock it before picking up her crystal to call ayda so she could come over—having sex with her girlfriend was more important to her than whatever wizard stuff adaine and oisin had probably talked about over dinner, anyway.