Vanilla Cocoa

Chapter 7

The harsh light of the Saturday morning sun peaked through my curtains, forcing me back into the waking world. I groaned and rubbed my face on my pillow, not yet ready to get out of bed. Nasos was probably still asleep in my living room. It'd be rude of me to wake him, but more than that I just didn't want to face reality.

There was a soft knock on my bedroom door. "Seth? Are you awake? Can I come in?"

I grudgingly pushed myself up and onto my feet. "Yeah, I'm up."

I opened the door before Nasos had the chance and was surprised by how close his face suddenly was to mine. We both froze, neither willing to be the one to step back. Then he kissed my cheek and smiled softly.

"Good morning."

I touched where he'd kissed, blushing slightly. "Good morning."

"I know a good place to get breakfast if you'd like. My treat."

I nodded, still too off balance to do much more than get lost in his energy. Were all phoenixes this free with their affections?

"Great! Go ahead and get dressed. It's a bit of a walk, so wear comfortable shoes."

I did as instructed, only now realizing that he was already back in his clothes from last night and smelled like my soap. Clearly my assumption that he would still be asleep at this god forsaken hour was as wrong as all the other assumptions I'd made about him so far. Maybe it was time to stop assuming things about people I didn't know that well.

That was entirely too much introspection for this early in the morning, though, so I put my fuzzy thoughts aside and slipped into some old sneakers. Maybe my next paycheck I'd finally get some new shoes.

"Ready?" Nasos asked, looking up from fawning over Stormy as I left my room.

"Just gotta feed Stormy first," I said with a yawn.

"Can I?"

His eyes were downright gleaming at the prospect. I pulled out Stormy's food and handed it to him with muttered instructions for how much to feed her. Nasos for his part eagerly portioned out her breakfast, cooing at the little lady as she chowed down.

I pushed down the warm fuzzy feelings rising up in my tired brain. "How far is this place exactly?"

He shifted his attention back to me, smiling brighter than the rising sun. "You'll see!"

***

Nasos brought me to a hole in the wall family cafe a few blocks from my apartment called Moonset. It was a cute place, just far enough outside my usual stomping grounds that I never would've found it on my own.

"Nasos!" greeted an older phoenix who looked suspiciously similar to Nasos. "You should've texted to let us know if you were going to bring a friend!"

Nasos waved off his comment and embraced the man with a quick kiss on the cheek and a warm smile. "You always fuss too much, Dad!"

"Maybe." Nasos' dad chuckled, then looked at me with a smile just as warm as his son's. "I don't think I've met you before. I'm Silas."

"I'm Seth," I replied, holding my hand out for a handshake, but Silas surprised me by taking my hand and pulling me into a bear hug.

"Good to meet you, Seth! I hope you're taking good care of Nasos. I know what a troublemaker he can be."

"Don't suffocate him, Dad!" Nasos protested with a laugh. "Is Pa here too?"

"Yeah, he's in the kitchen. Want me to grab him for you?"

"Don't let me bother him. I'll see you both at dinner anyway."

"I'll let him know our son doesn't love him anymore. Go ahead and take a seat, and I'll send one of the girls over to take your order." Silas gave us both one last dazzling smile before getting back to work.

Nasos took my hand and led me to a booth in the corner. Clearly skinship was just part of his upbringing. I had to remind myself that there was no deeper meaning. We were barely friends, much less lovers.

"Sorry about Dad," Nasos said once we'd settled at our table. "He and Pa are both old-old. I don't think they even know how many lives they've spent together at this point."

"Both your dads are phoenixes then?"

"Well, yeah, what else would they be?"

I shrugged. "My mom's a vampire and my dad's a werewolf. Anything's possible."

"Fair enough."

His smile hadn't dimmed even a little since we'd left my apartment. Was this really the same guy I'd found about to drown himself in a toilet?

His hand found mine across the table, and he laced our fingers together. "You're surprisingly easy to read. Has anyone ever told you that?"

I blushed but let him hold my hand. "No. I honestly thought I must be pretty damn difficult to read with how little people seem to care what I actually want."

His pain finally started to show through his smile, but he recovered quickly. "I think you just know some awful people. There's plenty of people in that bar who were only too happy to tell me all sorts of stories about you. Guess I shouldn't have believed them so easily-"

"They're all true."

Before Nasos could press me further, a cute high elf girl came up to our table, notebook at the ready. "What can I get for you and your friend, Nasos?"

Nasos beamed like we hadn't just been having a heavy conversation. "I'll have my usual. What would you like, Seth?"

"Do you have coffee and blood?" I asked without meeting the waitress' eyes.

"Would you like cream and sugar?"

"Yes, lots of both."

"I'll be right back with that!"

The girl disappeared as quickly as she'd come.

I glanced down at our hands still intertwined on the table. "Maybe I shouldn't be the one to ask, but what exactly do you want from this?"

"I don't know. For now, it's just comfortable. Is that okay?"

I shrugged. "I don't mind. It's probably better for me to be here with you than drinking myself under a table somewhere."

"How about this, anytime one of us feels like drinking, we call the other and spend time together instead?"

I chewed the inside of my cheek, finally looking back up at his earnest eyes. There was the faintest glimmer of fire in his irises. It still wasn't love, but there was definitely something there. Maybe using each other like this really would be better than whatever terrible mistakes we'd make on our own.

"Okay."