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Witches were a hard thing to come across these days. Mark could say for a fact that including himself, there were only three true witches in L.A. Mark was the youngest of the three but by far the most intelligent and knowledgeable, but they lived in harmony all the same. They each kept to their own territory and only intervened on anyone else's life if they had to. This system had worked for Mark's father and it was going to work for Mark as long as the other two didn't get too eager.
Regardless of the hustle and bustle of L.A. Mark was very happy with his quiet existence. He inherited the magical bookstore from his father and he was content with simply gathering knowledge and lending the occasional fae or werewolf a book or two.
Mark didn't get very many human customers unless they were helping or under the spell of another creature, so when a human walked into his store one day, it took him by surprise.
At face value, his shop looked to be just a normal old classic shop with dusty books and rusty shelves in the front, but stepping through the back door to the shop was like stepping into another world altogether. It was a massive circular room with walls covered in shelves that were stacked with books. The ceiling was too far up to see with the naked eye of most creatures, and there were several columns containing spiraling shelves that were filled to the brim with books pertaining to a certain subject.
There was a column for werewolves, vampires, witches, mermaids, etc etc etc. It was a little intimidating the information that Mark's family had gathered over the years.
Needless to say, a human walking into this treasure trove of information was a little disconcerting and threw Mark off a little bit.
The human was every bit as attractive as a succubus and Mark's heart pumped in a bit of fear. Was this human transforming into something?
Turns out, the human, Whose name is Jack, had a girlfriend who was very sick and demanded that he come here and ask Mark for the information to heal her.
Jack explained what was happening to her and Mark could understand from the description that she was slowly becoming a vampire, which was weird because there hasn't been a human turned in Mark's territory since Mark's grandfather was running things. He decided to inspect things for himself and followed the poor, unsuspecting Jack back to his girlfriend's apartment.
As Mark suspected, the apartment was empty and Mark knew it would stay that way as she had more than likely gone to live with her brothers and sisters in whatever house the vamps were holed up in.
Jack had attached himself to Mark's hip from that point forward, leading him to stumble upon the amazing library in the back and to Mark being forced to explain what he was and what he did for a living.
Jack had left for a few days to process things and Mark felt the man's absence like one would miss their left arm, but Jack returned, eager for knowledge and excited to join the world he had only heard about in ghost stories and fairy tales.
A year later, he joins Mark in his studies. When Mark makes a chair of books to sit near the top of the columns to read the anatomy of the werewolf, he normally helps Jack to levitate up to him so that the adorable man may lay his head in Mark's lap and read a cheesy fairy love story and keep him company. A few times, Jack has fallen asleep in that position, with his head on Mark's thigh and a book floating before his face. Mark takes the liberty of keeping a blanket hovering near the ceiling specifically for this purpose. With a flick of his wrist, the blanket unfurls and slips around Jack to keep him comfortable and warm while Mark continues with his work.
It was in this position that they shared their first kiss. Mark had wondered what it was like to be with a human as he was in the middle of working through his feelings for Jack. Jack was snoozing and soft snores could be heard through the room. Mark, hoping that Jack was a sound sleeper, bent and pressed his lips to Jacks.
Lightning shot through him at the contact and a thunderstorm wracked his chest when Jack kissed him back, reaching up to wrap an arm around his neck and play with the softly curled strands of Mark's hair.
The imbalance in Mark threw everything off and he lost his grip on his surroundings, sending them hurtling toward the floor. Luckily, he got his shit together and Jack clung to him in fear and slowed their descent, their feet touched down gently and they were safe, but Jack clung to Mark for a little longer than necessary.
Jack still refuses to kiss him mid-air.