In a Cottage in the Woods There Lived a Witch

Handsome, Working Boys

We should go, Billy mumbled down the line one unseasonably warm day in April as they both lounged around Steve's shop in town. The witch had set up a nest of blankets and towels behind the counter that Billy could bed down in while he worked. Had even positioned it in a sunbeam that lingered for the majority of the day. Right then, Billy had his back end basking in the warmth of the late morning sun, but had pushed his face and shoulders into the cool shade of the shop.

He said, making no move to go, Eddie snarked back, noisily nibbling on a small bowl of fruit from his own perch on the counter itself. He liked it there best, where people could scratch his head and cheeks and sometimes his belly when they checked out. Billy, however, preferred the back end of the store, out of the way and unnoticed, except for the rotating cast of children who manned the register. Today was his favorite, Max, who bobbed her head to her 80's playlist while she worked on her homework. Billy could swear that he heard the tinny sound of Kate Bush through the buds in her ears.

He sighed deeply and she glanced over at him with a smile and then flicked him a goldfish cracker. He lifted himself enough to catch it out of the air and then flopped back down.

Warm, was Billy's only defense, however weak it was. Eddie only laughed down the line and took off, fluttering over to Steve most likely. Billy's suspicion was confirmed when Steve laughed and greeted Eddie with a chuckled, "hey there, Bud. Flight path's lookin' good!"

You keep finding excuses to stay, Eddie observed as Steve absently scratched behind Eddie's ear as he worked on... something. Billy ignored him in favor of letting the sensation of Steve's magick wash over him. He could feel it tingling gently from all the way across the shop, a sensation so far away from the millions of tiny paper cuts of Henry's witches. They had always been a thousand tiny needles puncturing his skin and his brain while they worked, but Steve... Steve's magick was like... like settling in a tub of warm, bubbling water. Like the feeling of a bonfire on a cold night except all over his nerves and on the underside of his skin.

"Aww, there's a good boy," Steve gushed, prompting Billy to peek open an eye. Eddie was rubbing his face all over Steve's pulse point, chittering happily as he goaded, I'm starting to get the feeling that you don't even want to leave.

Again, Billy ignored the vampire and instead lifted himself with a grunt to shift further out of the sun. If Billy could sweat in his furs, he'd be glistening from the heat magnified through the shop's windows. Max looked over her shoulder as he grumbled, taking an earbud out to ask him, "why're you complaining?"

Billy just fixed the kid with a look until she rolled her eyes and went back to her work.

He kinda loved her, if he was being honest with himself.

I kinda wanna ruin this man, Eddie mused as Steve walked back to the register to check the iPad for something, Eddie curled up in his breast pocket. And I kinda wanna let him ruin me. Thoughts, Wolf Man?

I think that I wanna get to New Zealand and marry you, Billy answered, laying himself flat in the shade on the wood floor to cool off, pointedly ignoring the spike of jealousy in his stomach. It wasn't the first time Eddie had mentioned something along those lines regarding Steve. It seemed like, in typical Eddie fashion, he fell hard and fast for the witch. And the topic of adding someone else also wasn't new. Eddie had talked a lot about doing that when they were free. And, at the time, Billy had just kind of nodded and smiled, telling Eddie, whatever you want, sweet thing. It was theoretical, far off, and nigh impossible. In reality, they both knew that they would die making their escape. They had confessed as much, weeping in one another's arms the night before the made their break for it.