Chapter Text
The room was just a tad bit stuffy, and Tooru found himself constantly rubbing his nose against his sleeve. He considered turning off the overhead fan—at this point it was probably just kicking up dust.
He was weighing the benefits of getting up from his stool and venturing over to the fan switch when a voice pulled him out of his internal debate.
“Hey, do you think you could make something for Shimizu? She caught something from one of her coworkers, but she has a huge event to run this weekend.”
Tucked away in an armchair that bordered the shopfront window, delicate fingers thumbed the pages of a book, so worn that Tooru wondered if it would survive more than one final read.
The owner wasn’t focused on the book though. He was gazing across the room at Tooru, who’d been flipping through catalogues for the past thirty minutes.
“Hm? Yeah, sure! I can drop it off tonight after work, if that’s okay?”
“Sounds perfect.” The words were parried with a grateful smile.
Even after nearly two years, it still felt uncanny having Koushi sitting so comfortably in his shop, his presence so commonplace that some of his regulars even knew him by name.
Tooru hadn't received any semblance of a warning before Koushi had shown up in his life, taking the vacant apartment that neighbored his own and managing to immediately worm his way into Tooru’s bubble. Despite Tooru’s best intentions (which were to avoid falling for his stupidly beautiful neighbor at all costs), he and Koushi became fast friends.
And his life was better for it.
Koushi had grown up in a small town nearly void of magic. When he’d moved to New York, the city and all its magical diversity had immediately enchanted him.
Tooru, on the other hand, had spent his entire life in the city.
He was used to the teenage fae that would knock on his store’s window only to flit away in a flurry of translucent wings and rackous snickering. He was used to the shoddy illusion magic that the local news stations would attempt to cast across the city’s sky whenever the weathermen happened to get the forecast wrong. He was used to the parking garages with signs that read Permits Required for Rooftop Dragon-Parking.
It’d all been incredibly average until Koushi had shown up, all wide-eyes and gaping mouth whenever they’d happen upon anything even remotely unusual on their walks to the nearby convenience store.
With Koushi, everything just became so fresh and new and marvelous all over again. It was like Koushi ignited a flame in him that Tooru himself wasn’t even aware had burned out.
Tooru watched as Koushi dog-eared one of the book pages, closing it carefully and stretching out the legs that were draped over the arm of the chair. He sighed and turned towards Tooru with a look that complained I don’t want to go back to work .
The empty takeout boxes in the trashcan by Tooru’s feet were evidence that Koushi’s lunch break was coming to an end, and Tooru couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Tooru had the luxury of breaking whenever he felt like it, whereas Koushi only managed to escape his office over lunch and take refuge in Tooru’s shop about once a week.
He stood up, collecting his jacket and messenger bag and giving Tooru a lazy wave.
“See you tonight,” he said around a yawn.
“If you manage to stay awake, that is.” Tooru cocked an eyebrow at him. “Stop staying up so late reading papers!”
Koushi only grinned as he pushed his way through the door.
“No promises!” he shouted over his shoulder.
Tooru dropped his head on the counter, sighing before he shoved aside his stack of catalogues and got to work preparing ingredients for Koushi’s potion request. With the onset of spring, one was lucky if they managed to avoid falling prey to allergies or head colds. Seems as though Koushi’s friend hadn’t been so fortunate.
After crafting the brew and bottling it up in a vial, he returned to his previous task, parsing through newly released products and ingredients. Try as he may, he often failed to hold back on buying whatever happened to catch his eye—the perilously overfilled shelves in his store were evidence of that.
But he just couldn’t help it. There was something so captivating about having an overflowing library of ingredients, combining seemingly ordinary objects and ending up with something so wildly powerful. He couldn’t imagine a future without potion-making—a future void of creativity, of patience, of control.
Yeah, that was a big part of it. The control.
Af first, back when he was still posting advertisements on Craigslist and Reddit, he’d wondered if his dreams were really feasible. But after a year or two of freelancing, he finally managed to scrape together enough money to open a proper shop. He’d always wanted to become a potion master, no matter how much his family had insisted he was destined to be an astrologer.
He loved potion-making because he got to decide the final outcome. When it came to astrology, he only felt like a pawn—and he didn’t like the thought of the stars controlling his fate.
Still, when he walked from the subway station to his apartment that night, bathed in the light of the moon, he knew there was some truth to his family’s words. He glanced up at the sky and felt his fingertips prickle and a chill roll down his spine. He shuddered, ignoring it as he entered his complex and climbed the steps up to his floor.
He opened his own apartment first, toeing his shoes off and dropping his jacket on the couch. He rummaged through his bag until he found the violet potion he’d stored at the bottom. He left his apartment, taking two steps to his left and knocking on Koushi’s door.
He heard a muffled, “It’s unlocked!”
Tooru slipped inside, the warm smell of spiced vanilla immediately curling around him like a blanket. Koushi’s apartment was cozy and achingly familiar at this point.
The sheer number of books could trick one into thinking it was a library, but they were muted by the hanging plants that spilled over the bookshelves. Flowers sat in vases on his coffee table, and the entire living room was illuminated by glowing orbs. Tooru remembered the way Koushi had gushed over them at IKEA, and they’d left with a dozen in the shopping cart.
Tooru yelped when he nearly tripped over a stack of novels near the entrance to the kitchen. “Have you been buying more books you plan on never reading?”
“They’re for a rainy day.”
“I think you buy them just to plant as traps for me to hurt myself.”
“You caught me.” Koushi deadpanned. “My entire existence revolves around plotting your demise, one book at a time.”
“You’d be but one of many.” Tooru grinned as he made his way into the kitchen and saw Koushi at the stove.
“I don’t think there’s enough room in my apartment for you and your massive ego,” Koushi said with a wry smile.
“Have you eaten yet?” Koushi asked. Tooru spotted mixed vegetables in the pan, and his stomach grumbled at the sight.
Koushi laughed. “I’ll take that as a no.”
“Where do you want me to set the thing for Shimizu?” Tooru asked as he opened Koushi’s cabinets and pulled out some plates.
“Oh, just on the coffee table near my keys is fine. My wallet should be there. Just grab however much I owe you out of it.”
Tooru rolled his eyes. It was a simple enough potion to make as it was, but he never charged Koushi for anything, regardless of how much and how often the other insisted on paying him.
Koushi must have caught his eye roll because he sent a punch into Tooru’s arm.
“Ow!” Tooru whined. “You’re feeding me. That’s payment enough.”
Koushi rolled his eyes right back.
Koushi was an excellent chef, and Tooru might have painted him a kitchen witch had he not known better. Every dish he made was flavored to perfection, even if his heat tolerance was a bit higher than Tooru’s.
“How was the rest of your afternoon?”
“It was okay, except those obnoxious middle schoolers showed up again! They keep charming the flowers outside to spark every time people walk by! It’s scaring off customers!” Tooru began to blather on about the preteens who’d been terrorizing him while Koushi just hummed every now and then in reply.
“I was thinking about going to visit Tadashi this weekend. Wanna come?” Koushi asked as he plated their dinner, Tooru finally winding down from his rant.
“Sure! Business must be going well, huh?” Tooru leaned his cheek on his palm, watching from the table as Koushi scuttled around the kitchen.
“Exceedingly well! He’s having a little festival this Saturday to mark the start of spring.”
“Cute.” Tooru smiled.
And he was right. The festival had been nothing short of whimsical.
Tadashi’s nursery was about two hours outside of the city, in an area well-known for its nature magic. Tadashi fit right in—knowing how to coax any plant to grow, what they needed to flourish, and which plants made for the best potions and brews
He didn’t let Tooru and Koushi leave without stuffing the backseat of Koushi’s car full of greens. Tooru had rolled his eyes—as if Koushi needed even more plants overcrowding his apartment. Though, when they’d gotten back home, he’d shoved a particularly leafy plant into Tooru’s arms.
On Monday he brought it into the shop, making room for it near the entrance. He watched it throughout the day, marveling as its leaves faded from sage to olive to seafoam green. The colors would twist and morph as new customers filtered in and out of the shop, glimmering extra bright when anyone would stop to admire it.
Tooru’s focus was elsewhere as the day came to a close, however. He was tidying up his workstation when he heard the bell above the door jingle. A man walked in, and with him came an uneasy feeling in the pit of Tooru’s stomach.
He stopped to inspect a few shelves of products before making his way to the counter. His dark brown trench coat nearly skimmed the floor as he approached. Black bangs shadowed his face, and glasses made his already spooky gray eyes even more ominous.
“Good evening,” Tooru said, doing his best to size the man up without being too obvious. Something about him was giving Tooru the creeps. “Anything I can help you with today?”
“Tooru Oikawa?”
“That would be me, yes,” Tooru said carefully.
He dusted his hands off on his apron and made his way over to the counter. Now face-to-face with the stranger, Tooru was slightly pleased to find he was several inches taller.
“I’ve worked with your family in the past,” the stranger said.
When Tooru didn’t reply, the man paused. He looked over his shoulder to give the rest of the shop a cursory glance before turning back towards Tooru.
“They’re a poorly mismanaged bunch. Unfortunately, their power is unmatched across the country. I heard you’d cut ties with them and figured you might be interested in a proposition.”
“That’s highly unlikely.” Tooru laughed darkly.
“I match clients with readers—”
“I don’t practice astrology.”
The man scowled, clearly not used to being cut off mid-sentence. He sighed before fishing around in his pocket. He pulled out a thick business card and slid it across the counter.
“You’re wasting your powers. You should be mapping charts and reading for big clients, not—” He looked at the ingredients that littered the walls behind Tooru, “—mixing cocktails.”
Before Tooru could come up with any clever retort, the man had already turned around, the doorbell tinkling once more as he disappeared into the street.
Tooru picked up the business card, bending one of the corners and twisting around towards the trash can. But, at the last second, he pocketed it instead. His eyes trailed over to the plant, still sitting snugly by the door.
It’d gone a sickly dark green.
Tooru frowned.
“Jeez, it sounds like his approach was less than tactful, huh?”
Koushi had settled in on Tooru’s couch that evening, sipping on a mug of tea and giving Tooru a light smile.
“Yeah,” Tooru agreed. He was sitting cross-legged on the opposite end of the couch, picking at a loose thread on his jeans. “He definitely wasn’t selling his offer very well.”
“So?”
“So?” Tooru’s eyebrows drew together as he looked up at Koushi.
“So, what do you think? About his offer?”
Tooru groaned and let his head flop against the couch. He frowned, cheek pressing against the scratchy upholstery.
“I mean, I definitely have no interest in working as a paid astrologist. It’s…”
He trailed off, but Koushi met him halfway with an understanding, “Yeah.”
Koushi had told Tooru within weeks of meeting each other that he had been born without any magical abilities. No mystical parentage. No werewolf blood. No fae ancestors. Just a plain, regular human.
Tooru, in turn, had told him about his family’s legacy as one of the strongest magical family’s on the continent and the expectations his family had laid out for him. He always felt at a loss for words when it came to explaining his aversion to astrology, but Koushi had given him a safe space to let it all out.
Just like he was giving him now.
“I mean, there are times…” Tooru licked at his lips, wrinkled his nose. “There are times when I want to connect with that part of me and dip back into the practice, but…”
“Your family,” Koushi said.
“My family.” Tooru agreed. “I’ve just seen the way it consumes them, all the damage it's inflicted on them. I don’t want…to let the celestial world control my world. I know that’s stupid. My life is so interwoven with magic anyway, so it only makes sense that celestial magic should control it, but—”
“I don’t think it’s stupid.”
“No?”
“It’s not stupid to want to control your destiny.” Koushi shrugged. “I love getting readings, honestly. To me, it’s always felt more like guidance or a set of options, rather than an absolute.”
“You don’t think the stars control your destiny?” Tooru asked. His tone edged on that of teasing, but it was a genuine question. He always felt compelled to avoid astrology lest he fall victim to it controlling his every move.
The sparks from the candle on the coffee table reflected in Koushi’s hazel eyes, his gaze far more serious than Tooru expected. The flicker of the flames danced across Koushi’s cheeks, his entire being warm and ethereal beneath the glow of the living room.
“Do I look like someone who’d let the stars stop them?”
The beeping of the oven, alerting them that it was finally preheated, led Koushi to jump. A bright laugh shook his body free of its momentary earnestness.
“Ah, that was almost the perfect dramatic moment, huh?”
He set his mug on the coffee table and set off into the kitchen to pop their leftovers into the oven. Tooru could only watch, overwhelmed by the fact that Koushi always looked far too comfortable—far too much like he belonged—in Tooru’s apartment.
Tooru would have bet anything at that moment that Koushi was magic incarnate.
“So, I’ve been thinking a bit about what you said.”
They were shuffling out of the subway station, the crowds of fellow commuters moving in waves around them. They were headed home later than usual—Koushi’s shift as a vet tech had dragged on, his report on color-changing dragon scales taking far longer than he’d anticipated.
They used to commute together pretty frequently, but Koushi’s hours had become erratic, and Tooru hardly worked on a set schedule anymore himself. The nights when they managed to travel home together had become increasingly rare.
That’s why Tooru had stuck around in his shop that night, milling about and rearranging merchandise, until Koushi had shown up to drag him out.
Walking home at night always made him feel jumpy—the way the stars lit up the sky made his skin feel electric. Walking home at night with Koushi? Well, that made him even more wired, the slightest brush of hands making him feel like he was going to start short-circuiting.
“Oh? What exactly did I say?”
“How you don’t think astrology has to be an absolute, unchangeable thing. That it’s more like guidance.”
“Ah, yeah. I think it’s really only recently that people have started to use it to dictate their every move.” Koushi said, scratching at his cheek. “Magic is all about manipulation and using it to your advantage, right? There’s no reason you can’t adhere that same principle to astrology.”
“Let me practice giving readings on you!” Tooru blurted out.
Koushi blinked in surprise. “Oh, um. Sure?”
“Sorry, I just thought since you said you enjoyed getting readings,” Tooru ran a hand through his hair nervously, “and since you’re really one of the only people I’ve relayed my whole life story to.”
“So, this is supposed to be my compensation for putting up with you for the past two years?” Koushi teased, raising an eyebrow.
“Putting up with me?” Tooru asked indignantly, earning a laugh from Koushi. “Excuse me, but if I recall correctly, it was you who badgered me into being friends with you.”
“Semantics.” Koushi grinned. “I’d be fine with that though. Helping you practice giving readings, I mean.”
The mock offense fell from Tooru’s face and he couldn’t help smiling back. Above him, the moon glittered, and he wondered if it was smiling too.