Archive of Our Own

The night Jed met the cat for the first time was dark and stormy. Rain beat on his head and ran down his neck, soaked his socks so they squished in his shoes, and his coat with rips he’d had to sew up himself a few weeks back was leaking water through to his shirt, because he was terrible at sewing. The streetlights had gone out thanks to a fallen branch a few blocks over, so he stubbed his toe on his neighbor’s stoop and hit his elbow on a tree trunk trying to find his way back home.

He was mere feet away from the steps that led down to his basement apartment when he heard it. If the wind hadn’t died down at just the right time while he was standing in the exact right spot, he’d have kept walking. If he’d had the money to buy the junker from Kaleb’s uncle he had his eye on, he’d have driven right by. Instead, he heard a small, plaintive cry from the bushes, and so he turned on his phone’s flashlight and shined it around to check.

There in the back of the foliage was cat so wet it looked like a little gremlin, enormous blue eyes in a triangle face, whiskers sticking out at all angles, and almost half the usual cat body. It looked pitiful, squinting against the phone light, and then it made another one of those sorrowful mews, and Jed’s heart broke for it.

“Hey, buddy,” he said as quietly as he could over the rain, weaving his arm through the branches to get as close as he could to the cat. “You wanna come here?”

The cat touched its pink nose to his fingertip cautiously. Then, correctly deciding that Jed was a better option than drowning in a bush, it maneuvered its way out until Jed could reach in and pull it out and into his arms. Telling it what a good job it had done, he carried it inside.

Getting them both dry was a process. The first thing he did was wrap the cat up in a towel, letting it warm up and dry a little while he changed out of his wet clothes. He rushed through it, almost falling over trying to pull his sopping sock of his clammy foot, not wanting to leave a strange animal unattended on his couch for very long.

But when he go back, the cat was exactly where he left it, trembling a little but otherwise apparently content to wait on him. He un-swaddled it, then spent about ten minutes patting it down while it stared up at him pleadingly. When it was more damp than dripping, it curled up next to his leg and rubbed its head on his knee approvingly.

He took some pictures and sent them to his foster family group chat, then looked up what kind of cat he had, which was apparently a short haired white colorpoint. He rubbed his knuckles on its forehead, where it had a few lines of golden-tan fur, and it pushed against them and purred.

His phone buzzed within minutes with a half dozen replies. MG and Landon wanted more pictures; Lizzie was using it as an excuse to sell Hope on getting a cat of their own. Cleo was unsurprisingly the most helpful with actual tips for cat maintenance, and he got up, with protests from the cat, to put some water down and cook some chicken for both him and the cat. After dinner, he gave it a little whipped cream and took more pictures of it getting it all over its little face and trying to lick it off its own nose.

All night, the storm outside raged, but it felt cozy in his apartment. Sure, it was still drafty and the thunder rattled his not particularly sturdy front door. But reading his textbooks in bed with the cat curled up next to him was nice in a way he hadn’t had since he’d moved out of the Saltzmans three years ago. He hadn’t realized he was lonely, even with his family and Finch just a text away. Having another living thing in his space was nice.

So of course when he woke up the next morning, the cat was gone.

*

“How did it just get out?”

“I don’t know! Maybe I left a window open? Maybe there’s a hole somewhere?”

“I mean, your apartment is kinda crap, so …”

“Hey!”

Finch laughed at his indignation, but also gave him a consoling pat on the arm. “Sorry it didn’t work out with the cat.”

Jed’s jaw set stubbornly. “It could still come back. You don’t know.”

She looked dubious, but she didn’t say anything to contradict him, which he was grateful for. He knew the chances of him finding the cat again were slim. But it also wasn’t impossible. If it was a stray, it probably stuck around the same areas, it could still be nearby. Unless the storm had gotten it lost.

He wanted to bang his head against Finch’s desk in frustration, but instead he forced himself back to studying. Unlike Jed, Finch had a scholarship and therefore on campus housing, and this semester, a single. She let Jed hang out between classes and catch up on work so he didn’t have to go all the way back to his place.

When he was twelve, his father had died in a drunk driving accident; he was the one who was drunk, and fortunately he hadn’t killed anyone else, including Jed, who was in the back seat. His mom had already taken off when he was a kid, so he went into the foster system for a year. Dr. Saltzman had taken him in after that, which was when he’d found out about being a potential werewolf.

He’d met Finch in high school. She was hiding in the basement during the full moon and he was able to help her the same way Dr. Saltzman had helped him. He loved his family, but she was his first friend, and still the best friend he’d ever had. She’d encouraged him to take classes at the community college after work at Kaleb’s uncle’s garage, and then helped him with the application to Whitmore. Hope’s vast inheritance and some student loans were paying for tuition, but Finch was why he was in college.

“Maybe you should go to a shelter and get a cat. They’re low maintenance, right? I don’t know how none of us have a pet yet.”

He twisted his mouth unhappily. “Maybe,” he said, because she wasn’t wrong. He wasn’t ready to give up on this cat quite yet, though.

*

The cat didn’t come back for a few weeks. Jed was in for the night, buried in an essay on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, when he heard the small wail outside his door. When he went to open it, the cat limped in, holding its front paw aloft, until it reached Jed’s feet and hunkered down. He gently scooped it up, hugging it to his chest and making soothing noises.

The cat was surprisingly calm as he examined the paw. There was gravel and dirt and blood all over the bottom, so he carefully cleaned it off, chatting all the while, hoping it would keep the cat mollified. He told the cat about his foster family, about the new magic Cleo had discovered in her work with clay, how MG had met a nice guy named Ethan and how Jed and Kaleb had been teasing him about it, the way Lizzie and Hope didn’t look as sad anymore when they got a letter from Josie, and he thought it was probably equal parts them moving in together and the news that Josie had reconnected with her ex Penelope.

The cat watched him with ears flicking and tail whipping but no hissing, biting, or scratching, so it seemed to work. Soon the debris was gone, and Jed could see the cut underneath. It was shallow, thankfully, and the bleeding had stopped. He put a gauze pad he’d cut in half on the foot and wrapped it gently in a bandage, and then cuddled the cat close and told it how good and brave it was as it purred loudly and butted its head on his chin.

He made sure the windows were closed and the door was locked, and he couldn’t find any holes, but the cat was gone when he woke up. The only evidence it had ever been there was a previously half-full cup of water he had left on the counter that was now lying on the carpet below.

*

Finals hit with their usual strength and velocity, which is to say Jed felt flattened by them. In particular, he was having trouble with his presentation for his Asian Mythology course. The school library was unsurprisingly lacking, and the articles online weren’t as detailed as he was hoping.

He finally found a book online about Chinese mythology that had exactly what he was looking for, but it was out of print, so it wasn’t available in an app; it wasn’t in stock on Amazon and Barnes and Noble didn’t carry it at all. Desperate, he looked through local libraries and then, finally, an independent bookstore close to campus. Improbably, it was the last one that saved him.

An hour later, he found himself in walking into Mythos, a warm brick building with books piled around the windows. The inside had shiny dark wood floors with rugs running down the middle of them, with shelves in a pleasing disarray as far as Jed could see. He wandered in slowly, taking in the surprisingly comfortable ambiance.

“Can I help you?”

Jed turned around and promptly choked on air. The man in front of him was the most attractive person he’d ever seen. Just barely taller than Jed, broad chest and arms that pulled at the lines of his button-up, with curly close-cut dark blond hair and a crooked smile. But it was his eyes that had Jed distracted for long seconds. When he was a kid and living closer to the coast, his mom had taken him to the beach to search for sea glass. He still had a jar of them on his desk at home. The man in front of him had sea glass eyes.

When he finally emerged from his stupor, he realized that he wasn’t the only one who was preoccupied. The beautiful man was staring too. Jed cleared his throat. “Hi?”

The other man blinked rapidly. “Hello. I … so, can I? Help you?”

“God, I hope so.” He at least partly meant for his school work. But if he hadn’t had something real, he would’ve made something up. He hadn’t felt so bowled over since Alyssa in tenth grade, and hormones weren’t an excuse this time. “Yeah, um, I’m looking for a book on Chinese mythology.” He showed him where he had the title pulled up on his phone. “Your website said you had it in stock?”

“Yes. Of course. That will be in the myths and folklore section. This way.”

Jed trailed after the man as he turned on his heel and strode through the labyrinth of shelves towards the back of the store. “Cool place,” he remarked lamely, his desire to keep the conversation going barreling past his self-preservation, which insisted saying nothing was better than saying something stupid like “cool place.”

The pretty man flashed a half-smile over his shoulder. “Thank you. I know it’s a little chaotic.”

“That’s what I like,” Jed reassured him. “I don’t feel like I fit in on campus sometimes. This is better.”

What he meant was that it was bad enough going to a prestigious, imposing college that he still felt like he lucked into, but worse in the stifled library with its high vault ceilings, where he felt too big and loud and uncultured, like he was a commoner stumbling into a palace by accident. Once after a long afternoon of researching for an important paper, he’d finished early and in the thrill of victory, whooped out loud, hands pumping in the air and head thrown back. He’d then felt the disapproval around him like a physical thing, and turned to see three librarians, two professors, and a dozen or so students staring at him like a piece of gum on their collective shoe. He hadn’t gone back for weeks, and when he started again it was at night or early morning, quickly and with his head down.

“I’m glad you like it. My sister says that it looks like what she imagines her brain is like when she’s high.”

Jed barked out a laugh. “Well, my sister says that my apartment is like if depression was a physical place, so you’re doing better than me.” Lizzie had said it mostly to convince him to move back to the Saltzman house, he was pretty sure, but she also didn’t spend a lot of time at his place it she could help it, even now that she’d moved out herself.

They stopped in front of a row with a little plaque proclaiming “Myths and Folklore” on it. “I’m sure your home can’t be that bad,” the man said earnestly. “Let me know if you need any more help …”

It took him a few seconds to realize what he was waiting for. “Jed. My name is Jed.”

“Hello, Jed.” He sighed like it was something special, saying 'hello' to Jed, and treated him to a full smile. It was like being hit over the head, having the force of that beaming smile turned on him like that. “My name is Ben.” He handed Jed the book he wanted, even though Jed hadn’t seen him reach for it or even glance at the shelf.

“Hi,” he replied stupidly, and then, “thanks for helping me. Ben.”

“Trust me, there’s no need to thank me, Jed. I’d do it again anytime.”

*

Twice more before the end of the semester, Jed found himself needing a book not available in the school library or bookstore. And both times, the book was available at Mythos. Both times, Ben had lit up when he saw him, stopped whatever he was doing to come talk to him. And both times, Jed left being even more interested in Ben than when he’d gone in.

He was at Hope and Lizzie’s for the Saltzman foster kids semi-regular family dinner when he told Finch his new employment plans, which turned out to immediately be a mistake.

“Hey, Lizzie?”

“What?”

“Does it count as stalking if you get a job near your crush to have an excuse to see him more?”

“ … I’m a lesbian. And I’m taken.”

“Talking about Jed, Saltzman.”

“Wait, what?” Lizzie walked away from the kitchen, where she was warming up the food Hope had prepared the night before according to the instructions her girlfriend had left on them. Between Lizzie’s irritability and anxiety in the kitchen and Hope’s meticulous devotion to her food being served correctly, they were well on their way to being in a fight with only one of them actually in the room. “Who is Jed crushing on? And why do you know about it and I don’t?”

“I just needed a job,” Jed protested, and it was true. He couldn’t afford to keep going to Ben’s store instead of the library without one. Plus, food and rent and stuff. The coffee shop where he’d worked throughout the school year had closed down for the summer, and while Professor Vardemus had offered him a job as a research assistant starting in the fall, he had three months between now and then.

So it was serendipitous, fateful even, that after leaving Mythos last week, he’d gone into a café a little further down the same street and seen the ‘Help Wanted’ sign. He’d filled out an application that night, and was set to start in two days. He would’ve taken the job regardless because it paid a little better than the coffee shop had and was an easy walk from his place. If it was close to Ben too, was that such a bad thing?

“You haven’t had a serious thing for somebody since Alyssa Chang,” Lizzie continued, eyes narrowed. “Is this guy also awful? Do I have to set his backpack on fire, too? Not that I was the one who did that,” she added loftily and unconvincingly.

“Don’t act like you didn’t want to set fire to everything Alyssa owned anyway.” Lizzie shrugged, not denying it. “And, I don’t know. We just met, we barely know each other.”

“But you like him,” Finch persisted.

“I don’t know,” Jed repeated, because it was easier than admitting the unrelenting pull he’d felt ever since he met Ben. That he might already like him more than he’d liked Alyssa, or Trey when he was a kid, or anyone else ever, and he couldn’t tell if Ben liked him back. “I guess.”

“Hi, honey, I’m home,” Hope said, walking through the kitchen door and popping up on her toes to drop a kiss on Lizzie’s cheek. “What’s going on here?”

“First, you’re late. Second, you need to go deal with the food because I do not understand your obsessively detailed directions for it and everyone else will be here in like ten minutes.” She smirked wickedly. “And Jed got a job to hang out with his new crush.”

“Oh, you mean Ben?”

Lizzie all but stamped her foot. “How does everyone know about him except me?”

“You don’t always listen when people talk,” Hope said bluntly, wrinkling her nose cutely when her girlfriend pouted. “Come on, you know it’s true. Jed has definitely mentioned Ben in front of you before. He talks about him all the time.”

“Yeah, thanks, this isn’t embarrassing at all,” Jed said, pressing his forehead to the table in defeat.

“I went by there a couple days ago to check him out,” Hope continued, causing Jed to peel himself off the table to stare at her in panic. “He seems nice. Polite. Big.”

“Big?” Hope mimicked giant arms and then put her hand way up in the air to indicate Ben’s height. Lizzie lit up, hands rubbing together. “Oh, I have to go check on him too. For Jed.”

“Hey, I’m his best friend, I get to go first,” Finch insisted.

“I’m his favorite sister and I called it, and Hope will take me, right?”

“Take you where?” And now Kaleb and Cleo were there, and MG was towing his boyfriend Ethan along behind him. Jed thumped his head back on the table.

“Jed likes a boy and he got a job near him to flirt with him and we’re all going to go to his store and check him out,” Lizzie summarized, looking delighted.

“Look what you did,” Jed muttered grumpily at Finch.

“Oh, is he the owner of Mythos?” Cleo asked. “I’ve met him. He is a nice man. And very … big.”

Lizzie, Hope and Finch laughed and Jed wished he didn’t know any of them.

*

The fifth day after Jed started working at the café, the espresso machine broke. The senior employee that was supposed to be training him, Wade, had just asked him to cover while he ran to pick up a package that had been left on his doorstep - apparently the last couple had been stolen, and his cosplay was in danger of being ruined if he didn’t go save it. Jed had shrugged, Wade promised he’d be back in twenty minutes, and as soon as he was gone the espresso machine had started making some intense and abnormal noises.

Fortunately, it was the post-breakfast, pre-lunch lull, so there weren’t any customers in the café to witness his failure. Unfortunately, he was absolutely failing, with no idea what was wrong and a burned hand from when he hit on of the handles and the hot water sprayed on it.

“Can I help you?”

Jed narrowly avoided braining himself on the machine, which he had just stuck his head under to see if the problem was down there somehow, and turned to see Ben, eyebrows raised and the corners of his mouth curled up. “I think that’s supposed to be my line now,” he said, waving his hand to indicate his name tag and apron. “And no, I’ve totally got this.”

Ben said nothing, but his eyebrows got higher.

Jed deflated. “Is it that obvious I have no idea what I’m doing?”

Ben tactfully avoided the question. “You remember I told you about my sister? Well, she works with metal and machinery in her shop and she’s taught me a few things. I might be able to help.”

With Wade gone, Jed didn’t see another option. “Sure, if you don’t mind. Give it a shot.”

Ben made his way around the counter, stripping his jacket off as he went. It made sense; the weather outside was cool for summer, but the espresso machine was steaming and hot. It also took an alarming toll on Jed’s ability to function like a person when he saw Ben’s biceps on full display in short sleeves for the first time.

And he had always thought his own arms were pretty impressive. Damn.

“Cool, so, you do that, and I’m gonna go try and find the manual.” Without waiting for Ben to reply, Jed beat a hasty and undignified retreat to the back office.

When he returned a few minutes later, calmer and with the manual - a single xeroxed page stuck to the bulletin board with the words “hit it on the side really hard” scribbled on it - to see the espresso machine quiet and cooperative, and Ben sipping a freshly brewed cup with a slight smugness to his face. His jacket was back on, a boon for Jed’s ability to form words.

“How did you do this? Thank you,” he added quickly, “but seriously, how?”

“I told you, I have experience with such things.” Ben frowned. “You’re hurt.”

“What?” Jed looked down at his hand, which had brightened to an alarming maroon color. “Oh, right, um. No, that’s nothing.” Although now that Ben had brought it up, it was a nothing that was admittedly kinda stingy and too warm and pretty damn uncomfortable.

“Do you have a first aid kit?”

“Yeah, under the counter over there, I think.” Jed waved vaguely.

Ben poked around in the indicated area and produced the kit. He pulled out some supplies and put his hand out. “Let me help,” he insisted gently when Jed hesitated. Jed nodded and put his hand in Ben’s. His fingers were gentle as he applied antiseptic and smoothed a bandage over the burn. “Is that better?”

His hand tingled but it certainly wasn’t from the burn anymore. “Yeah, actually. Thanks.”

“I appreciate the chance to, sorry, what is the saying? Pay it forward? I needed help too, recently, and someone was there for me.”

He didn’t elaborate and Jed didn’t want to pry. He settled on a simple, “Are you okay?”

“I am now.” Ben’s thumb glided back and forth over Jed’s wrist as he gazed into Jed’s eyes.

“Good,” Jed said, mostly to say something. Because he was at work, and the guy he liked was holding his hand and, if he wasn’t completely off base, starting to lean forward, and Jed really, really wanted to kiss him.

The jangling bell broke the moment as Wade and his package pushed through the door. “Thanks, buddy, I brought it to show you what I … whoa, hey, I know you’re new, but not letting friends behind the counter during work hours is, like, rule one.”

“Wade, this is Ben. He helped me with the espresso machine,” Jed explained, trying not be flustered.

“Oh, yup, I should’ve warned you about that. Boss thinks it’s a cool antique but honestly it’s kinda just junk.” Wade put his package down and put his hand out. “Thanks, man. I’ve seen you around before, right?”

Ben had to let go of Jed’s hand in order to shake Wade’s, but not before he gave it one last gentle squeeze, and he let his fingertips drag along Jed’s skin. Then he was introducing himself to Wade and making small talk about the café and Mythos while Jed was trying to behave like a normal adult who wasn’t completely thrown by seeing a guy’s arm and some mild hand holding.

Soon Ben had a bag of free pastries - Wade insisted, saying he’d saved them a call to their usual repair guy - and the largest hot chocolate they sold with an alarming amount of whipped cream on top. Potentially reading the room better than Jed would have given him credit for, Wade excused himself and went to drop his package off in the back.

Jed shoved his hands in his pockets, wincing when he caught the edge of his bandage on the denim. “So … thanks again.” The bell over the door rang again as the first lunch customers trickled in. “I guess we’d both better get back to work. But, um, you said you come here a lot?”

“I do,” Ben confirmed, looking amused but also hopeful.

“I have the same shift tomorrow, so maybe I’ll see you then?”

“I think you will,” Ben said with his tucked-in half-grin, and he when he left, he turned back and waved through the window.

Working here was the best idea he’d ever had.

*

For the next few weeks, Jed fell into a comfortable routine of work, friends, and flirting with the local bookstore owner. Ben came by the café most weekdays, and Jed would use his break during his Saturday shift to walk tea or a hot chocolate with a truly impressive mound of whipped cream on top down the street to Mythos. Sometimes Ben would have time to chat for a while, and sometimes Jed would help him with the weekend rush, familiar enough with the store to point any customer in the right direction.

They rarely spent more than fifteen minutes together at a time, and Jed wasn’t even sure if Ben was flirting back. But he found out Ben had an ex-boyfriend named Ashur, his sister was named Jen, and his favorite subjects were history and mythology, just like Jed. It was a start.

The cat didn’t come back. Jed looked for it all around the neighborhood, even asked Hope if she could pick up a trail magically, but it was like the cat had disappeared off the face of the earth. He tried to accept that he probably wouldn’t see it again, but he couldn’t help keeping an eye out anyway.

During one of his visits to Mythos, Finch texted him yours? along with a picture of a cat she saw near her dorm. He grimaced when he saw it and had to text back no :(.

Ben saw the texts over his shoulder as he leaned over the front counter. “Did you lose your cat?” It sounded almost too casual, like Jed did when he tried to ask about Ben’s life, and it made him hope.

“It’s not mine, not really. It’s a stray, I think? It never sticks around for more than a night, and I haven’t even seen it in a while. I’m trying to not get attached.” He sighed and stared down at the near empty coffee cup in his hand. “I should probably just adopt a cat, right? If I want a pet, I can get one. I just … I hope its okay, that’s all.”

When he looked up from his coffee, Ben had an expression that was hard to interpret on his face. It looked like a mixture of fondness and heartbreak. “That is very sweet,” he said softly. “I think if he’s been okay this long, he should be fine.”

“You’re probably right.” He shrugged. “I wish I could know for sure.”

“I could look out for it as well, if you’d like.” Ben held out his phone, the contacts page on display, his head ducked shyly.

Jed took it eagerly. “So this is only for the cat? I shouldn’t text you for any other reason.” He raised a challenging eyebrow, trying to not show how excited he was underneath his teasing as he entered in his information

“I suppose I could stand talking to you about other things,” Ben replied nonchalantly. “Although you should know I don’t often text back at night. I have early hours, so I’m usually sleeping.”

“I can’t tell if that’s responsible or a little sad.”

The corners of Ben’s eyes crinkled with how wide he smiled. “Probably both. But I’ve never fallen asleep on this very counter during my break.”

“One Splatoon all nighter with MG and Kaleb and I never hear the end of it,” Jed complained, grinning back. Having Splatoon all nighters was kind of ridiculous, but MG wouldn’t play anything with excessive violence and whatever, it was fun. It was probably more embarrassing that he was pretty sure he’d drooled. He looked down at Ben’s phone and swore, handing it back. “Crap, I need to get back to the café.” He sighed and then threw back the last of his coffee.

When he looked back at Ben, he was pushing his empty hot chocolate cup over the edge of the table slowly, watching it with intent fascination as it fell to the ground.

He noticed Jed watching and stiffened. “It’s unprofessional to have an empty cup there.” He nudged it with his foot behind the counter and cleared his throat. “I’ll see you at the café tomorrow, Jed.” He took off towards the back of the store, head ducked down and a little patch of red on the back of his neck.

So his crush was a little weird. If anything, the fact that it didn’t put Jed off at all was proof that he was all in with this guy. Confused, but all in.

*

That night, when he finally made it home after a double shift, he heard little chirps behind him as walked down the back stairs to his apartment. There was the cat, looking completely healthy and thrilled to see him.

He let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. “I’m glad to see you too, buddy,” he told the cat, kneeling down to pet it. It chattered back at him happily, pushing back into his palm.

But when he opened the door to let it in, it rubbed its ears on his ankle one more time and took off down the street. Jed watched it sadly, then shook it off as best he could.

He spent the rest of the evening looking up cat adoption and texting pictures of the cutest ones to Ben for consideration.

*

The summer was coming to a close in a matter of days. He’d already picked up his textbooks and met with Professor Vardemus. Soon the routine he and Ben had would be over. They’d never spent enough time together for Jed to get a good read on Ben’s feelings for him; even the texting hadn’t progressed very far, staying at basically the same level of intermittent jokes and gifs as he had with Wade. But with the little time they did have about to be over, it was now or never. And Jed wasn’t the type to give up without trying.

With steely determination and not a small amount of anxiety, Jed walked into Mythos with a styrofoam cup that was half hot chocolate, half whipped cream. Usually on the days he had the first shift the café, Ben would stop by before going to open Mythos. Today, though, Jed had a plan.

Which was immediately derailed by the tiny woman with red hair and an oversized hoodie who was having what looked like a hushed argument with Ben. His face was stony and she wasn’t loud but she was emphatic.

He was debating leaving and trying again tomorrow when the door clicked shut behind him and both of them turned towards him. Ben’s body visibly relaxed at the sight of him, while his elfin friend looked intrigued. “Um, hey,” he said awkwardly. “I just brought …” and then he held up the hot chocolate.

The woman smirked. “Little bro, did you make a friend?”

Ben’s face clouded over again. “He’s not your concern,” he told her stiffly, gripping the counter hard enough that it creaked. “And neither am I. Thank you for your help, I’ll see you next month.”

“Whatever you say.” She reached over and squeezed his forearm. “Just be careful.” Then she swaggered out, winking at Jed as she went.

He made his way over to the counter and gingerly put the cup down. “So, you totally don’t have to tell me, but …”

“That was my sister, Jen,” Ben told him with a sigh. “She helps me keep the store open later in the fall and winter. My father knows it, and he asked her to pass along a message for him.”

“I’m sorry. Do you want me to go?”

“No,” Ben said, smiling his half-smile, though his eyes were still worried. “I like having you here. Though I thought your shift started soon?”

“It does. I thought maybe you could walk me there?” The plan had been to get them both out of work environments before he asked Ben out, so there wouldn’t be any confusion or weirdness. It felt like a bad idea now, but he didn’t see any way out but through.

“Yes, that’s probably for the best,” Ben replied cryptically.

They walked the short distance together, Jed telling Ben about his meeting with Professor Vardemus. Ben looked distracted, even paranoid, keeping an eye on the people they passed, occasionally throwing glances over his shoulder.

Before he could lose his nerve, or pry into whatever was bugging Ben, Jed stopped them on the corner in front of the cafe. “So I wanted to ask you something. Do you - do you want to maybe go to dinner sometime? With me?”

There was a pause. As it got longer Ben’s face got sadder, and Jed knew what he was going to say before he said it. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Right. Okay. Sorry, I thought … I get it.” Jed nodded a lot, too many times, then tried to smile. “I’ll guess I’ll just see you tomorrow then.”

Ben hesitated, swallowed. “Maybe that isn’t a good idea either.”

Jed’s stomach dropped. He’d hoped, he’d thought he’d seen signs, and now instead he’d lost a friend. He tried to come up with something to say, but his mouth was dry and his throat closed up.

“Jed,” Ben said tenderly, in that way that had made Jed think there was something between them in the first place.

“I should go,” he managed, even if it came out croaky.

He turned away and left Ben behind, standing alone on the sidewalk.

*

That night, Finch came to his apartment and drank beer with him and watched Avatar: The Last Airbender with him and let him talk about how Sokka was the best character; and then when he got drunk and curled up on the rest of the couch she wasn’t sitting on, she petted his head and told him it was all going to be okay.

“I’m an idiot,” he slurred.

“Because you went for it with the guy you had a thing for? I think you’re kinda badass, honestly. You never hold back. Wish I was like that sometimes.”

“You really don’t.” He picked at the threads poking out of the cushion. “I really thought he liked me,” he whispered miserably.

There wasn’t anything to say to that, so Finch didn’t try.

*

For almost two months, Jed managed to avoid going to Mythos. He even went to the library in the middle of the day and endured the glare of the one librarian who clearly remembered the “whoop” incident. But he wanted to do his job well, and eventually he ran into an obscure bit of research that Professor Vardemus needed help with that might be found in a book rare enough that he couldn’t find it even with his newly available research assistant resources. But Mythos had it in stock.

With a heavy heart and heavy feet and the feeling of being dragged down by the twin weights of mortification and heartache, Jed walked the familiar route to Mythos. He went in the middle of a Saturday, which happened to be the day before Halloween, hoping that he’d blend into the afternoon errand crowd. But somehow the shop was nearly empty when he went in, with only a couple deeply engrossed readers in the back of the store, barely visible through the stacked shelves.

In the front, there was only Ben, who looked up immediately when Jed walked through the door. His face did something complicated when he breathed out “Jed,” as confusingly intensely as he always had.

This time, though, Jed knew better than to read anything into it. Maybe Ben just expressed awkwardness differently than other people; maybe he at least had considered Jed a friend, and he missed him a little. Maybe Jed had always read something into their interactions that wasn’t there. Whatever it was, he wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. So he said “Hi, Ben,” and walked quickly to grab his book.

When he went up to pay, he kept his gaze fixed firmly on the velvet pumpkins on the counter, Ben’s only visual acknowledgement of the holiday. When Ben finished ringing him up, he mumbled his thanks. But when he reached to take the book back from him, Ben held onto it, and he looked up at him in surprise.

They stared at each other for a tension filled moment, fingertips just brushing in the middle of the book’s cover. Ben opened his mouth, closed it again, then said hoarsely, “Come again,” and let go.

Jed nodded stiffly. He turned to go, but couldn’t make his feet keep going out of the store. He scrunched his face and screwed up his determination and swung back around. “I’m sorry,” he said, meeting Ben’s eyes. “This summer I thought, or, I guess I read into some things. And I still have to come here, because you have an unreal knack for having what I’m looking for - books, I mean books, just books, anyway, um. What I wanted to say I’m not going to do anything else stupid, I promise.”

Ben looked pained, maybe even a little teary-eyed, which made everything worse. “Jed …”

“I’m sorry,” he repeated firmly. “It won’t happen again.”

Then he left, before he did anything else stupid.

*

That night, as he moped and ate the candy he was supposed to be saving for potential trick-or-treaters, the cat came back. He heard it calling out from bottom of the steps and nearly tripped over himself letting it in. The cat entered slowly, padding up to Jed and rubbing its head against his legs like an apology.

“Hey, buddy,” Jed said, crouching down to pet it. “You have no idea how good it is to see you right now.”

It chirruped back and leapt onto his desk, pawing at the air until Jed walked over to scratch its ears. Behind the cat was the jar of sea glass, and for the first time he noticed the cats’ eyes were the same color. Something niggled at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite figure out what it was.

In the morning, he was woken up by persistent meows and a paw pushing at his shoulder. He shivered and sat up to see his blanket was on the floor. Apparently convinced that Jed was awake, the cat jumped off the bed and slunk under the blanket.

The first light of the sun shone through Jed’s small window.

Underneath the blanket, the small lump began to change. It grew and spread until the blanket barely covered what was underneath it anymore and a dark blond head popped out from one side. Slowly, hesitantly, the man stood up, wrapping the blanket around himself as he did. With a bone deep, shaky sigh, he turned around, and there they were. The sea glass eyes.

Jed swallowed. “Ben.”

“Hello, Jed,” said the bookstore owner who had been his cat.

“Hi.” They stared at each other. “I’ll go get you pants.”

*

The sputter of the kettle as it finished heating broke the growing tension between the two men sitting in the tiny kitchenette. Jed scraped back his chair back and went to go pour the water, grateful for the extra time to wrap his head around Ben’s story.

“Here you go,” he said, setting a mug down in front of Ben. “Sorry it’s instant.”

“I don’t mind.” Ben took a sip of coffee, eyes darting around to avoid looking at Jed. While the sweats Jed has leant him fit fine, since Jed tended to prefer them oversized anyway, the t-shirt was tight across his chest and shoulders and stretched around his arms. He was squeezed into a corner, large hands overlapped as he nursed the Snorlax mug Jed had gotten from the sale section at Target. It was an objectively silly picture, or it would have been if Ben hadn’t looked so achingly tired.

“So your dad did this to you?”

“Yes.” He put Snorlax on the table, but didn’t let go. If anything, his grip tightened. “He’s a very old warlock, not that you could tell looking at him. He has many children and very specific ideas of the kinds of talents we are supposed to pursue - whatever will help make him more powerful,” he added bitterly. “I refused, he got angry and tried to back me into a proverbial corner. I’ve tried to break the curse ever since, but nothing has worked.”

“The curse being … you turning into a cat? Is it every night?”

Ben nodded. “It’s unobtrusive, being a cat; it lets me still show up where I’m supposed to and it doesn’t lend to anyone asking any unnecessary questions so long as I avoid people at night. But it’s exhausting, demoralizing. Isolating, since it limits when and how I can engage with people especially while keeping a business running.” He gave Jed a ghost of a smile. “But you knew that part already.”

“Wow. I’m sorry, that’s … I can’t believe your dad did that to you.” His eyebrows pinched together. “That doesn’t explain you showing up here, though.”

“When I change, my mind becomes … simple. Not completely gone, not out of my control, but at a diminished capacity. My father had started showing up at my home just before nightfall, hoping to catch me in a vulnerable state and force the issue. I snuck out of the back through a secret entrance I created after he cursed me. The first few times it happened, I hid in a nearby alley, but the night I met you, it flooded. I ran until I found someplace to hide, which happened to be in your front yard.” He ducked his head. “After that, when I got hurt, returning here was an instinct. This apartment felt safe. You felt safe.”

“But then you stopped coming when I came to the store,” Jed realized.

Ben tilted his head in acknowledgement, looking rueful. “I don’t know if I’d have come here regardless outside of those specific circumstances, but it also seemed like a violation when you didn’t know it was me. The only exception was when you told me how worried you were when you didn’t see me again after I was injured.”

“And now,” Jed pointed out. “So why did you come back? Was it for Hope?” It would make sense. Hope in particular, but also Lizzie and Cleo, had gotten reputations as curse-breakers, and word had spreading in magical circles, from what they’d told him.

But Ben looked confused. “Your foster sister Hope? Why would it be about her?”

Well, there went that theory. “Then why?”

“The day you asked me to dinner, Jen came into my shop, do you remember?” When Jed nodded, Ben continued. “She brought a warning from my father. That I had until the end of the year to do what he wanted, or things would get worse for me. And then she saw you. I love my sister, but she isn’t very good at standing up to our father. I didn’t want her to know what you were to me because she might tell him, so I pushed you away. I’m so sorry, Jed.”

Jed’s head was spinning. He was getting way too much information for having been woken up at the exact crack of dawn. But he did figure out one thing. “You’re worried about what your father’s gonna do to you at the end of the year. Did you … God, Ben, did you come here to say goodbye to me?”

Ben swallowed and stared down at his Snorlax mug. “You’ve talked about your family being magic, so I knew that wouldn’t be a shock to you. And when you came in today, I realized that it wasn’t fair to leave you thinking you’d done something wrong.”

“You aren’t leaving,” Jed told him. “We’re going to break your curse.”

“That’s sweet,” Ben said with a mixture of fondness and sadness, “but it’s not that simple. My father is one of the most skilled warlocks to have ever existed. My sister and I are very powerful, and even working together we would have no chance.”

“No offense to you or your sister, but you haven’t met my sisters yet. They can break your curse. The same way they broke mine.”

*

Werewolves came of age and turned for the first time at fifteen. Or, that was what Dr. Saltzman had found in his research; there weren’t actually that many bloodlines around any more and the ability often skipped a generation or two, so it was hard to corroborate. Jed, Finch, and Raf, before he and Landon had gone to college across the country, were probably the only werewolves in the state, and Dr. Saltzman only knew of a couple dozen more on the entire east coast.

A werewolf curse could be dealt with in two ways. The first was like Finch, who had a charm to keep her mind during the turn so she could spend full moons at the Saltzman home or now with Lizzie and Hope, a completely harmless if alarmingly large wolf.

Jed and Raf had gone with the more difficult option and had their curses broken entirely. Jed didn’t want to be anything that reminded him of his father at fourteen, still haunted by the accident. If he’d been older, he might have felt differently, but in his pain and fear he’d pushed until Hope and the twins had agreed to help him. None of them knew how difficult a curse it was to break until Dr. Saltzman told them they shouldn’t have been able to do it at all. Now, Jed had enhanced eyesight and strength, slightly above average hearing and sense of smell, but he’d lost any chance of changing. He didn’t miss it most days, though, and especially not after hearing what Ben had been through.

Breaking a shifting spell was well within his sisters capabilities, it was only a question of if their magic was stronger than Ben’s dad. And Jed would bet on his family any day of the week.

Even with Hope, Lizzie, and Cleo agreeing to help when they’d called and asked, Ben was still pacing across Jed’s kitchen. “We need to get going,” Jed said as patiently as he could, “so if you’ve got something to say, say it now.”

“Two things.” Ben’s jaw set seriously. “First, if your family decide that breaking my curse is too dangerous, promise you’ll let it go. I will not risk your safety for this.”

“No.” Jed shrugged off Ben’s glare. “If they say no to breaking the curse today, I won’t try anything else until we come up with a better idea, I can promise that. But I won’t give up on trying to help you. No way.”

“Oh.” Ben looked pleased in spite of himself.

“What was the other thing?”

“This.” Ben reached out and cupped Jed’s chin, fingers playing briefly in Jed’s hair before he gently pulled him forward and kissed him.

Heat sparked in Jed’s chest and he pressed closer, tentatively placing his hands on Ben’s waist. Everything from happiness to confusion to vindication burned through him as Ben’s grip tightened, his mouth opened, and a sound pulled from his chest that made it feel like Jed hadn’t been alone in his feeling after all, that Ben had always been as caught up in this as Jed.

“Wait,” Jed said breathily, breaking away reluctantly. “Sorry, but we do really need to go soon.”

“You’re right,” Ben said, even as his thumb stroked up and down Jed’s neck. “I had to, though. At least once.”

“It’s not going to be just be once,” Jed replied fiercely, pushing forward to kiss him again as proof. Then something occurred to him. “Hold on. Did you pretend to help look for yourself to get my number?”

A sly quirk of Ben’s eyebrow and another kiss was the only answer he got.

*

Hope and Lizzie lived in a cottage in the woods like storybook witches. Jed thought it was funny, but he could see that a drive through twisted barren trees in the grey, foggy Halloween morning wasn’t helpful for Ben’s nerves. He had one hand on the wheel of his truck while the other’s nails were dug into his knees and he stared forward with dinner plate sized eyes.

Jed reached over and pried his hand up and folded his fingers into his own. Ben’s grip was just shy of painful, but his shoulders finally loosened and he was looking more at the road than the creepy trees, so it was worth it.

They turned the last corner and there the cottage was in front of them. Ben’s hand squeezed tight.

The three witches were waiting for them by the door when they walked in. Cleo was friendly when she introduced herself, and Hope was polite. Lizzie was glaring daggers and had to be introduced by Jed.

Ben looked them all over curiously. “I’ve met you before. You all came into my store.” He tilted his head at Lizzie. “When you left, the box of books I had behind the counter disappeared.”

“That was a mistake,” Lizzie told him sweetly, arms crossed. “I was aiming for your cash register.”

“Seriously, Lizzie?” Jed shook his head in exasperation as she smiled and shrugged. “I told you no vengeance. You promised.”

“I promised no fire, and nothing was set on fire. Yet.”

“Lizzie, please,” Jed pleaded. Ben was already skittish, he didn’t need the needling right now.

“Ugh, fine, whatever. Let’s go break your curse, man mountain.” Lizzie rolled her eyes and walked away, with a “And take off your shoes, it makes kneeling easier,” tossed over her shoulder as she went. Hope followed her, smirking.

Cleo, at least, had some kind words for Ben. “Lizzie and I are masters of the craft, and Hope is one of the most powerful witches to have ever lived. We have counteracted many curses together. We will break yours too.”

“My father is powerful as well. Old and powerful and ruthless. I don’t doubt your abilities,” he assured her, “but I worry you underestimate him. I don’t want any of you hurt trying to help me.”

“It’s what we do,” Hope said, leaning on the entrance to the living room. She smiled her ethereal smile. “And Jed asked. Jed basically never asks for help, so you must be worth the risk.” She straightened up and her smile turned cold. “Besides, if you’re not, you should have a demonstration of what the people who care about him are capable of.”

Ben didn’t flinch. “Noted. But keeping Jed safe is the most important thing to me. Promise me that I’m not risking him by attempting to thwart my father.”

Hope eyed him before her face rearranged into something like approval. “We’d never let him get hurt. He’s family.”

Jed frowned. “I’m standing right here. And I can protect myself fine. Can we focus on breaking Ben’s curse, please?”

“Of course. Let’s go get started, shall we?” Cleo walked into the living room followed by Hope, leaving Ben and Jed alone in the foyer.

“Are you ready?” Jed asked quietly.

“I’m not sure if I can ever be ready. I want to try though. I want to be free from my father.” Cautiously, Ben slid his hand onto Jed’s hip. “I want to spend the night with you properly.”

A pleasant shiver ran through Jed’s body, and he couldn’t help but kiss him. When he pulled back, their eyes met, and Jed swayed forward towards him without a conscious thought.

“Gross.” He turned his head to see Lizzie looking throughly unimpressed. “Seriously, we don’t have a lot of time, make googly eyes later. Lose the shoes and we’ll get this over with.”

They followed her into the living room. The coffee table had been dragged in the middle of the room. There was chalk circle drawn on top with a pentagram inside. At the top of the pentagram lay a sapphire pendant. Curses didn’t dissipate when they broke; they had to go somewhere, and hard stones worked best to contain them. Jed had his moms diamond ring, which she threw at his dad before she took off, with his curse attached in box in his closet.

The witches settled at three of the other points of the pentagram, Ben at the fourth, Jed standing a few feet back so his residual magical energy wouldn’t interfere. Hope looked around. “Are we ready?” Everyone nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Hope began chanting in Latin and after a few repetitions the others joined in. All the lights in the house flickered out.

One by one, the three witches eyes lit from within, glowing unnaturally in the near dark. Ben’s followed suit, the blue turning crystalline and otherworldly, and the coffee table started to shake. The chanting grew louder, echoed and harmonized, like there were a thousand more voices joining theirs.

Something like dark smoke began to leech out of Ben, making him tremble, and Jed had to clench his fists to keep from reaching out to him. The pendant turned a murky grey as the curse poured itself into it. The shaking increased and the three witches radiance turned muddy in a way that Jed had never seen before.

And then the pendant cracked and broke.

The smoke rose up to the ceiling and billowed out, pressing against the bounds of the circle, swirling and eddying over the four magic users like a murky sea trying to drown them all. The voices lost their power and became singular again; the table splintered.

Ben’s glow began to die, and his shoulders slumped. The smoke whirled around him more and more, a dark storm cloud above his head, and Ben folded under the weight of it. This time Jed couldn’t help himself - he knelt down behind Ben and wrapped his arms around him, trying to hold him up.

Sparks flew as the smoke was driven back. Ben became illuminated everywhere Jed was touching him, and it spread through the circle until all five of them burned brightly.

Then Hope’s eyes flashed gold and in a boundless voice she commanded, “Return.”

The smoke vanished. The lights turned back on. They were sitting on the floor in Hope and Lizzie’s home, around a slightly damaged coffee table, with nothing to show for their supernatural misadventures besides the broken sapphire and Ben still leaning back in Jed’s arms.

“What the hell just happened?” Jed asked into the sudden quiet.

“I had to do something with it once the pendant broke,” Hope explained quietly, looking surprised at herself. “So I sent it back to the original castor. I think your dad has your curse now.”

Cleo shook her head disbelievingly. “Rebounded curses are very rare, but very potent. I would not be surprised if your father was a cat permanently.”

Ben titled his head up to look at Jed. “You weren’t wrong when you said they were powerful.”

“Neither were you. Maybe we underestimated your dad a little,” Lizzie said, still a little breathless. She finally seemed to notice the position Ben and Jed were in. “Huh.”

Jed flushed. “What?”

“What you did, the way you helped Ben repel the curse, that takes a strong connection,” Hope explained, smiling at them. “Lizzie and I have that, so do Lizzie and Josie, but you two have only known each other for a few months.” She shrugged. “It’s a little impressive.”

Lizzie scoffed but didn’t contradict her. Cleo, however, seemed preoccupied. “Ben,” she said slowly, “did you know that your curse was not the only magic that has been done to you?”

“Oh, yeah,” Hope said, squinting. “I can see it too, now that the curse is gone.”

Ben sat up straighter but held onto the arm Jed had wrapped around him. “What is it?”

Cleo’s hummed contemplatively. “I’m not sure. It is a spell to help you, I think. To find something you need. Or something that’s meant for you, perhaps.”

“Jen,” Ben said simply. “I think Jen tried to help me after all.” He leaned back into Jed, looking dazed. “I’m free.”

Jed hugged him tighter. “You’re free,” he reassured him. Then he chuckled. “Happy Halloween.”

*

Jed took Ben home to his apartment and pushed him against the door as soon as it was closed. They stumbled the short walk to his bed and promptly discovered that it didn’t fit two overly grown men as well as one man and a cat. They made do anyway.

The next day Jed walked Ben back to his townhouse, which was in the next neighborhood over. When Ben opened the door, they were greeted by destruction. Shredded couch cushions and blankets, pictures smashed, books littering the floor.

“It looks like it was nice?” Jed winced. “Sorry. You think your dad …”

“I may need to find somewhere else to be for a while, yes.”

“Wow. First using your curse to get my phone number, now using your evil dad to shack up with me.”

“Not what I was doing,” Ben insisted, then brushed a light kiss on Jed’s jaw. "But would you be complaining if I was?”

They cleaned up what they could of Ben’s things, and left with a gym bag of stuff in each of their hands.

For a few months, Ben alternated between Jed’s place and staying at Jen’s metal shop with her until Jed asked him to move in officially. Because he was an asshole, he bought him a cat bed to celebrate.

*

On a rainy afternoon, Jed parked on the street and pulled his hood up on his new coat. Being able to drive everywhere was a luxury he hadn’t yet learned to take for granted. His life was a treasure trove of improvements since he and Ben had started dating. They’d lived on top of each other in his small apartment that was in no way built for two six-foot-plus men to occupy for three months before admitting they needed to find somewhere new. They had found a different townhouse to rent nearby, and though it was narrow and had the creaks and cracks of an old home, Jed adored it. He also had access to every reference book he could want through Ben’s magically enhanced supply lines, and was beloved by Professor Vardemus as a result.

Of course, nothing compared to just having Ben. Even if he and Lizzie still sniped at each other at the foster family dinners, and he’d had to learn to keep cups away from table edges. And even if he had two or three cans of whipped cream in his fridge at all times, an addiction that apparently he’d accidentally started the first night they met. But waking up to Ben’s widest, happiest smile, hearing him say Jed’s name like it was precious, bantering before class and being kissed breathless when he came home at night - it was everything.

There was only thing he wanted to change. He’d been hinting at adopting an actual cat for several weeks, but Ben kept making faces and then distracting him with sex. Which he wasn’t complaining about, but he was pretty sure Ben was trying not to admit that he was jealous of Jed getting another cat, which was both weird and hilarious. He was missing prime teasing opportunities as well as the possibility of getting a cat, because he couldn’t figure out how to not get distracted when Ben took his shirt off.

So wrapped up in trying figure out to circumvent his crafty boyfriend was Jed that he missed the disheveled brown creature stalking him from behind. Or he did until it launched itself at him with a screeching yowl of imminent destruction.

And promptly bounced off, landed on its paws in a puddle, hissed and dragged itself out while glaring at Jed with the most hatred he’d ever seen from anyone or anything besides Lizzie glaring at Alyssa Chang.

Behind him, Ben opened the door. “Hey, what are you doing out … is that a cat?"

The cat’s back lifted up the moment Ben entered its sight. It tried to run at Ben this time, but it was repelled again. With a wavering snarl of rage, it took off down sidewalk, its scream echoing long after the sight of it was lost to the rain.

“What the hell was that?” Jed asked, staring after the demon cat.

“Cleo was possibly right about the returned curse,” Ben said faintly. “I think you just met my father.”

“Oh. Huh.” Jed looked at Ben sideways. “So … maybe we should get a dog?”

“Agreed.”