Chapter Text
The first time is an accident. Well. Sort of.
The entity surges out of the jamjar it had been contained in, towering over the two of them in a rage of smoke and fury.
“Who dares awaken me from my slumber?!”
“Uh,” Ace offers eloquently.
“It was an accident - we didn’t mean to wake you up, we more wanted to use the jamjar for, uh, storage?” Nancy offers, trying to keep her voice even.
“Storage?” Nancy doesn’t think she’s ever seen something so furious at the idea that its container might be about to be used for storage. Even though that’s technically what it’s already been doing.
She doesn’t think it would be wise to point that out.
“For chowder? Clam chowder.” Ace swallows audibly, and Nancy winces as the entity inhales as though preparing to thoroughly destroy them for the indignity.
But then it pauses - eyes them thoughtfully.
“Is this some kind of courtship delicacy?” “You what now?” Nancy ducks her head in a little closer, as though that might help her hear better.
“You are courting - is this some kind of ritual food consumption you must go through before you are fully bound to each other?”
Nancy blinks rapidly, her brain short circuiting. She cuts a glance over at Ace who is blushing prettily, hands fisted in his pockets, his gaze darting between her and the floor.
She scrambles desperately over the change in tone, the gentle softening of the entity as soon as it decided they were a couple, and decides to hell with it.
“Yes.” She nods once, decisively, as though that might make the lie any truer. “We are courting, and we must find a receptacle to, uh, store the chowder in, before the full moon is fully risen, to cement our love.”
She winces at the daylight streaming in behind the entity.
The entity visibly reduces in size from terrifyingly vast to just terrifying, and Nancy tries to keep the lie off her face, moving a little closer to Ace.
“Young love is so beautiful.”
Nancy watches in horror as the entity sniffs as though the sight of them standing together is moving it close to tears. She can’t look at Ace, afraid she’ll break if she does, so she reaches out blindly until she can tangle her fingers with his - another bastion to hold to in the face of this insanity.
“Yup, that’s us. Young, in love, and looking to put some chowder in a jar.”
She can hear him cough quietly what sounds alarmingly close to a laugh, and squeezes his fingers to try and communicate that he absolutely cannot crack. She doesn’t want to know what this thing can do if it works out they’re lying.
“I remember that.” The entity sounds wistful bordering on petulant, but it’s diminishing with every word out of its mouth.
Ace tugs her closer and untangles their fingers so he can slip an arm around her waist, and for a moment she stops thinking about the entity and the twin spikes of adrenaline and fear in her blood. All she can focus on is the soft warmth of him against her side, the five pointed brand of his fingers through the thin cotton of her shirt - the way she can feel his heart thundering in his chest where he’s pressed against her.
“Such a beautiful thing, to be young and in love. The press of a palm to a palm, the heat of a kiss…”
It trails off, a speculative look in its eyes, and Nancy resists the urge to step back - feels the solidness of Ace against her, lending her strength against the onslaught.
“Offer me this - a kiss, so I might be reminded of the first blush of love, and I shall leave you in peace to your courtship ritual.”
It feels, for a moment, as though Nancy’s heart stops. Stutters to a confused halt against her ribs before slamming back in triple time at the thought.
A kiss - just a kiss. Nothing new or exciting or different about that. Perfectly normal, perfectly bland, a press of lips against lips and then this whole thing will be done.
Only it isn’t any of those things, not really.
It’s Ace. Remarkable for the fact that she has actively avoided thinking about what it would be like to kiss him. As though her brain knows that the moment she does is the moment everything unravels.
She swallows, mouth suddenly dry, and glances at him to find him staring right back. A bold, slightly panicked look in his eye, but a gleam of something else, something she can’t put a finger on to name, hiding just beneath that veneer of uncertainty.
Her eyes skim over the familiar brush of hair falling over his forehead that she longs to push back. Over the cut glass score of his cheekbones, the light stubble beginning to shadow his jaw, the line of his mouth, parted on a rabbit heart breath she can feel against her lips. They’re so close already. Always so close. Falling over each other in a disregard for personal space and proximity.
She almost catches herself leaning in.
Almost.
But then she pulls herself back together, tugs her thoughts from where they’re leaning like tendrils of a plant seeking the sunlight of Ace. Turns back to the entity, eyes narrowed to try and hide the maelstrom of emotion the idea of kissing Ace has raised in her.
“If we do this - if we kiss - you leave, without hurting us, and we never see you again?” She raises an eyebrow, trying to cling to some vestiges of self preservation.
“You have my word.” It sounds almost breathless at the idea of their kiss, and Nancy wants to shout ‘you and me both’ at it, but that would expose the lie and they really just need this thing to leave them alone so they can carry on with their day as normal. And if they can get rid of it before George gets in and screams at them for breaking her restaurant then that’s even better.
“Fine.”
She tries to imbue the word with as much casual certainty as she can, as though that can ever possibly hide the tremble in her fingers, the way her heart feels like it’s leapt into her mouth to muffle her words with its staccato thrum.
She has to force herself to meet Ace’s gaze, wary of what she might see there. But then his fingers are under her chin tilting her face up and her breath catches in her throat, and it feels like her entire body has narrowed down to that single point of connection. Like the rest of her is meaningless beyond the sensations his simple touch has elicited.
There is a split second for her to wonder whether this is a terrible mistake. Whether this is going to break something fundamental between the two of them. And then his lips meet hers in a chaste brush, a barely there press that makes her gasp at the fire that licks through her blood from the contact.
And then he’s gone.
She hears the sigh of longing from the entity, and then it vanishes, leaving behind a lingering sense of unease and an inexplicable scent of vinegar.
Nancy steps back abruptly, resisting the urge to touch her fingertips to her lips. She could swear she can still feel Ace’s lips against hers. She clears her throat, blinking to try and bring the world back into focus.
“So, uh, sorry about that.” She gestures expansively. Trying to take in the sudden absence of the entity, that feels more and more like a fever dream with every passing moment.
“Don’t worry about it.” His voice is even, unbothered, as though he goes around kissing people to get supernatural beings to vanish every day of the week.
“We should - ” she reaches for the now empty jar at the same moment he does, their fingers brushing, and she jolts back as though stung.
“I’ve got it. I’ll get it cleaned up and the chowder away before George gets here.”
And then he’s gone.
Nancy finally lets herself sag against the nearest wall, brushing her fingers lightly over the tingle in her lips. It was nothing, barely even a kiss.
And yet.
No.
She shakes herself off and shoves the memory deep in her mind where she can’t take it out and turn it over every few minutes. Resolutely ignores the flare of Ace’s eyes on her during the rest of her shift.
Ignores it and ignores it and ignores it, until she can almost pretend it never happened at all.