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Nico was in the back room, clipping leaves from his potted plants to dry them out, when the bell over the front door chimed. He called out, “Just a second!” before making his way to the counter, where a blond boy was standing, shoulders hunched like he was trying to hide in his jacket. He had to have been taller than Nico, but with the way that he appeared to be shrinking himself down, he looked so much smaller.
“Can I help you?” Nico asked. He wasn’t sure what it was about the guy in front of him, but he gave Nico an uneasy feeling.
“I, uh,” the blond said hesitantly, “I need money. Somebody told me to come here.”
Nico raised an eyebrow. “Well, I can’t just give you money. Do you have anything to exchange?”
He looked completely devastated for a moment before he started digging around in his pants pockets. His hands came up empty, and so he stuffed them back into his jacket, this time coming up with a single guitar pick.
“This is all I have,” the blond told him.
Nico plucked it out of his hand. “What’s the significance?”
“I-- What?” the boy frowned. “I got it from my brother, if that’s what you mean. It’s...the only thing of his I have left.”
“That’ll work,” Nico said. He took the pick to the back room, setting it with other objects that had been traded in based on their sentimentality, and grabbed a few supplies before heading back out to the counter. “I can make you a prosperity sachet, and you can come back to have it recharged three times. After about a week, it should need to be recharged. Any questions?”
He’d already laid out his supplies - a silver piece of fabric, a few select stones and herbs - and was starting to put it together when the blond replied, “This is going to...get me money? How?”
Nico raised his eyebrow again. Maybe the uneasiness he’d felt before was just a side-effect of having a non-magic user inside his shop. “Magic,” he said bluntly. If he believed it, great: the magic would be stronger then. If he didn’t, oh well. There were plenty of people those days pretending to be witches, so it wasn’t like Nico would appear any different than them.
“Right,” he said, sounding incredibly unsure, and looking a little scared. “Magic. Of course.”
Once Nico had tied the sachet together, he handed it over. “There you go.”
“That’s it?” the blond asked. “You’re just giving me this in exchange for an old guitar pick?”
Nico shrugged. “Sure. And I’ll need you to sign this.” He pulled out a sheet of paper from the stack behind the counter and set it down between them, then grabbed a pen and held it out.
He took the pen hesitantly. “What is it?”
“A soul contract,” Nico replied monotonously, though he felt his lips quirk up slightly at the terrified look the guy shot him. “Kidding. It’s a receipt. So I have proof when you come back for the recharge.”
“Oh. Oh, thank god.” He signed the contract in loopy cursive. Nico could make out his first name as Will, but the last name was indecipherable.
“Thank you, Will,” Nico said, pulling the two copies of the receipt apart from each other. He kept one for himself and handed the other over to Will. “See you in about a week for your recharge. Good luck.”
“Uh, yeah, thank you,” Will told him, and stuffed his hands - one of which was holding the sachet - into his pockets and turned to walk back out the door.
Just before he reached it, the bell rang, signifying somebody else walking into the shop. Nico heard two voices - Will and what sounded to be his sister, Hazel - acknowledging each other at the door, and then Hazel was skipping up to the counter. She dropped something onto the counter and slid it over to her brother.
“What is it,” Nico said, already tired of the conversation.
“You tell me,” Hazel replied, and Nico rolled his eyes. He picked up the sachet and held it in the light, seeing the pink fabric that held it all together. He sighed, already having a good idea of what this was, but he held it up to his nose anyway. It smelled of cinnamon and rose, maybe even with the slight tang of copper.
“Seriously, Hazel?” Nico asked.
“It’s a gift,” she said. “No charge, I’ll even recharge it for you for as long as it takes for you to finally get a boyfriend.” Her eyes scanned the shop critically. “And maybe find yourself a familiar, too. This place is way too big for you to be looking after on your own, and it shows.”
Nico rolled his eyes. “I’m fine on my own. I don’t need a familiar, and I really don’t need a boyfriend.” He slid the love sachet back across the counter to Hazel, but she tossed it right back at him.
“Can’t give back a gift!” Hazel told him, already backing toward the door to leave. “Just hang on to it for a little while, you won’t even know it’s there. And hey, if you don’t believe hard enough, it won’t do you any good anyway! Goodbye, my dear brother, I love you!”
“Hazel!”
Maybe she had been right. Not about the boyfriend thing, or the familiar thing, but about how disorganized his shop had become since he’d taken it over. It had been his older sister’s once, and Bianca had managed it just fine without her own familiar, so why couldn’t Nico?
He’d decided to stay late that night, just a couple of extra hours, just to tidy things up a bit. But that tidying had led to the idea that he could reorganize the entire shop, which left one corner of the room straightened up while the rest of it looked even more a disaster than usual.
Nico knew that this meant he would be spending a lot of late nights there for at least the next few days as he fixed the place up. He should have expected this, considering he could no longer see the front door from the counter, what with the overgrown plants and tightly packed shelves.
What he didn’t expect, however, was to nearly trip over an orange cat after one of his very late nights. The cat brushed up against his legs, shooting sparks of anxiety through him for no discernible reason, and Nico found himself at a loss for what to do. Did this cat belong to someone? Would it find its way home on its own? Should he let it into the shop for the night so that it wouldn’t get too cold? No, he certainly couldn’t do that, the cat might eat his plants, and Nico sure didn’t know what cats could and couldn’t eat.
He decided eventually to pop back into the shop for a second, grabbing an empty bowl and filling it with water and bringing it back outside. He set it next to the door, and the cat brushed up against his legs before going to drink from the bowl.
Every night for the next week or so, Nico left his shop to find that same cat loitering outside, like he was waiting for Nico to come outside. He’d started looking forward to seeing the little ball of sunshine every night, and had started considering buying cat food or figuring out whether he should let Sunshine in the shop overnight. (Yes, he’d named the cat. Shut up.)
Nico had managed to organize the front of the shop enough that he could once again see the door, meaning that he was able to watch as Will walked inside. The second the door opened, Nico felt the same discomfort from the last time Will had been there.
“Hey, um,” Will said as he stepped up to the counter, holding out the sachet Nico had given him a week prior. “I’m here for a...recharge?”
“Yeah, I remember,” Nico said, and took the sachet from him. He started to head into the back of the shop, but hesitated. “What’s your past experience with magic?”
“M-magic?” Will repeated, eyes widening fearfully, though he tried to laugh it off awkwardly. “Ha, magic isn’t...real.”
Nico raised an eyebrow. He was certain that Will had to know more than he was letting on, but instead of questioning him further, he stepped into the back room with Will’s sachet. Keeping the same fabric, he replaced the ingredients before heading back to the counter to return it to Will.
“You’ve got one more recharge left,” Nico said as he passed the sachet back.
“Thanks,” Will replied, and hurried out of the shop.
Maybe he felt just as unsettled inside the shop as Nico felt having him there.
He pulled out his phone and started looking into the best brands of cat food.
Just before Nico left the shop that night, it started downpouring. He sighed at the inconvenience before he remembered that Sunshine would be waiting for him outside, and he jumped over the counter to reach the door faster.
He ran outside, scanning the parking lot for the orange cat, but didn’t immediately see him. He turned back toward the shop and found Sunshine curled up against the outer wall, shying away from the rain. The cat mewed pathetically, and Nico hurried to scoop him up and wrap him in his jacket.
Nico practically dove into his car in his haste to get Sunshine someplace dry, and carefully set the bundle of cat and jacket into the passenger’s seat so that he could start his drive home.
Once he’d gotten both Sunshine and himself all dried and warmed up, he dropped into bed, exhausted, with Sunshine curled up beside him.
In the morning when he woke up, he knew that something felt off, and as soon as he opened his eyes, he realized why. He was pressed against a bare chest, someone’s freckled arm draped over him, and Nico started to panic. He shoved himself away from the stranger in his bed, forcing himself off one side of the bed and the stranger off the other.
“How did you get in my house?” Nico demanded, jumping to his feet, and watched as Will’s confused face popped up over the other side of the bed.
“Where am I?” Will asked, slowly rising ot his feet and dragging the bedsheet up with him. “What am I doing here? Where are my clothes?”
“Are you naked?” Nico shrieked.
“I’m just as confused as you are!” Will shouted.
Nico took a few stumbling steps backwards, holding his hands up protectively, and squeezed his eyes shut. “There has to be some kind of explanation for this, some kind of magic, or--” He felt a chill up his spine as he concentrated on the magic around him, and sensed a darkness around Will - the darkness that must have been causing all of Nico’s unease.
“What are you talking about? Magic isn’t real!” Will insisted, and Nico’s eyes snapped open.
“You’re cursed,” Nico said, and watched as the color drained from Will’s face. “You-- You’re Sunshine.”
“What?”
“My cat! The cat, the one that was always outside my shop. You must’ve been cursed to transform into a cat every night, and forget everything that happens while you’re a cat.”
Will shook his head. “That’s not a curse, I’m just like that. I mean, I’m a familiar. I’ve always been able to turn into a cat, but for the last few months--” He held out one hand to Nico, the other still holding the bedsheet around his waist. “I can’t be your cat. I haven’t been able to change since my witch kicked me out.”
Nico pressed his palms to the sides of his head, rubbing his temples to fight off an impending headache. “I can’t figure this out without coffee.” He turned his back to Will, pulling open a drawer of his dresser and tossing a pair of sweatpants over his shoulder. “Put those on and come with me.”
He didn’t wait to see if Will would follow him, and headed out of his room toward the kitchen. He’d already gotten the coffee pot started by the time Will finally made it out of Nico’s room. The sweatpants were too small on him - hanging low on his hips yet still ending above his ankles - and Nico tried not to stare at the indents next to his hips.
Nico pointed to one of the chairs at his table and told Will to sit. He waited until his coffee had finished brewing and poured himself a cup before sitting down across from Will.
“Tell me everything,” Nico demanded. “About your witch, your transformation, all of it.”
Will slumped in his seat slightly. “My witch was the only magic user I’d ever met. She told me that nobody else in the world could use magic, and said that if I ever mentioned magic to another person, that I’d be...killed.”
“If you’re a familiar, why wouldn’t you have met any other witches?” Nico asked. “My sister has been trying to set me up with familiars ever since she found hers.”
Will slumped further. “She didn’t give me a chance to,” he mumbled. “She… She kicked me out for no reason, she was crazy. She was laughing like a Disney villain when she threw some kind of powder in my face and shoved me out the door. I couldn’t transform after that, and I thought it was because… I dunno, I thought she had all the magic, and that I was just borrowing it, or something.
“I didn’t have anywhere to go, and I barely had enough money to get the cheapest apartment I could find. They had a no-pets policy, but I figured that didn’t matter if I couldn’t turn into a cat anymore anyway, but then I got kicked out with no warning because a bunch of my neighbors ratted me out for having a cat. I guess… I guess that makes sense, now.”
“That powder must’ve been the curse,” Nico thought out loud. “It must be preventing you from changing at will, and it might have separated your memories between your two selves.”
“You… You must be a witch, right?” Will asked. “You could tell I was cursed, and you gave me a prosperity sachet, so you can un curse me, right? Please.”
Nico sipped his coffee. “I don’t see why not.”
After a few minutes, Nico had finished his cup of coffee. He got up to find a shirt for Will to wear and then the two of them made their way to Nico’s car to drive to the shop.
He had Will sit on the counter nearby as Nico worked on the curse-breaking potion, occasionally taking a moment to gauge Will’s aura to determine how to break the curse. Eventually, he deemed the potion complete, and handed it to Will to drink.
“What is it?” Will asked, hesitantly sniffing the potion.
“It’s the potion,” Nico told him, like it was obvious - and really, it should have been. “Drink it.”
“But...what’s in it?”
“Do you want the curse to be broken, or not?” Nico said, and he watched Will flush before downing the potion.
He hunched over, coughing immediately after drinking it, and was soon coughing up a thick, black smoke that dissipated before it hit the ground.
Will gasped like he was fighting for air. Nico set his hands on Will’s shoulders and helped him straighten up, already feeling the tension in the air between them fading. Nico grabbed Will’s face between his hands, feeling no remaining traces of the curse, but he still asked, “How are you feeling?”
Will took a moment to answer. “Lighter.”
“That’s…” Nico realized how close they were to each other, how he could feel Will’s breath puffing on his cheeks, could feel the gentle prickle of Will’s stubble against his hands. “Good.”
“Thanks for...this,” Will said softly. “I should, um. I should probably head out and try to get my old apartment back. And find a job. Or maybe see if my witch will take me back.”
“No,” Nico said harshly. He didn’t even know Will, but he couldn’t let him go back to her. He let go of Will’s face and took a few steps back, crossing his arms and glancing away. “I mean-- Potion’s aren’t free, you know. And since that guitar pick was all you had, I guess you’ll just have to work off the debt. I’ve been...looking for a familiar, anyway.”
Will beamed.
Nico had quickly gotten used to having someone wrapped around him while he slept. Whether he was a cat or a person, Will was always trying to sap the warmth out of him. It was practically impossible for Nico to get out of bed on those mornings - usually because he could barely manage to pull himself out of his boyfriend’s grasp, both physically and emotionally.
When he could, he would get out of bed at least an hour before Will, always returning to find him stretched out on the sunniest part of the bed, still fast asleep.
Maybe it was a good thing that Hazel had given him that love sachet after all.
Will found almost immediately that working for Nico was a million times better than working for his old witch. Nico never yelled or gave him more jobs than he could handle, and didn’t care of Will was slacking off because Nico was usually slacking, too - which was probably why the shop had been such a disaster the first time Will had gone inside.
He was mainly responsible for keeping the place tidy, though sometimes Nico asked for his help to make potions and sachets and things, having Will gather the ingredients for Nico to mix together.
Every time Will handed an ingredient to Nico, he kissed him on the cheek. Or the nose. Or the forehead. He knew enough about magic to know that the potion would be stronger if the spellcaster was in the better mood. Plus, after each magic item was made, Will was rewarded with a kiss on the lips.
Hazel hadn’t heard from her brother in a few weeks, which wasn’t common for them. She’d decided to drop by Nico’s shop to check in on him, and when she stepped inside, she saw a tall blond sitting on the counter with his back to the door.
She watched Nico come in from the back of the shop and step right up to the blond, smiling as he spoke too softly for Hazel to hear. She let the door fall shut, the bell at the top ringing to announce her entrance to the two of them.
“Hazel!” Nico called, jumping away from the blond like he’d been caught doing something he shouldn’t. “What are you doing here?”
“Can’t I visit my brother at his place of business?” Hazel said innocently. “I’m just checking in on a certain investment I made.”
“Oh, you mean this?” Nico asked, pulling the love sachet out of his pocket. He tossed it to his sister. “I won’t be needing it anymore, but thanks.”
Hazel raised an eyebrow. “You won’t be needing it?”
The blond hopped down from the counter and turned to face Hazel with a smile, holding out his hand in greeting. “I’m Will, it’s nice to meet you.”