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The night was especially cold when Lisa Lisa returned. Its unusual chill gave Suzie an uncomfortable feeling, as if something had gone wrong on her master’s mission. But her master returned that night safely with three men accompanying her. Suzie recognized Caesar, Lisa Lisa’s prized apprentice, but the other two she did not know at all.
One of them was a little taller than Caesar with messy brown hair and bright teal eyes. He wasn’t the one that caught her attention, though. Suzie stared wide-eyed at the much-taller and bulkier man, clad in only a thin covering around his shoulders. His feet were bare and the outline of his muscles were sharply cut against the cloth that covered him.
Suzie pressed her fingertips to her warm, red cheeks. Lisa Lisa ordered her to prepare two more rooms, which she promptly set out to do.
None of them came down for dinner that night except for Lisa Lisa’s new apprentice, Joseph Joestar. Though Suzie was exhausted from finding clean sheets, dusting the dressers, and searching for spare clothes suitable for the larger man, she managed to serve dinner right on schedule.
“Santana,” Lisa Lisa said his name was, the largest man. Suzie recalled his blankly curious face and his rustic colored hair. There was something beneath his eye, too, a thickly lined marking of a sort. She shrugged it off, not really caring; she was still a little disappointed that he didn’t join them at dinner.
Though it was late in the evening by the time they fiished, Suzie stayed up to clear out the table. Her master went to sleep, as well as the frumpy brunette that failed miserably at flirting with her. The attempt was endearing, however.
As Suzie made her final rounds on each floor, tidying up as much as her weary arms could, she stopped in front of an open door. She swore she closed it earlier, but then remembered that it was one of their new guests’ rooms. “Oh, have they gone for a walk?” she asked quietly, pushing the door open. It creaked quietly, catching the attention of the room’s inhabitant.
She blushed deeply and murmured an apology. The man, Santana, was staring directly at her; she could feel the intensity of his eyes boring into the crown of her skull. Suzie cautiously raised her head to meet his gaze.
She blinked at him, noticing that now he was really hardly clothed. The sheet that covered him was tossed over a chair, and the window he sat next to on the sill was open. All that covered him was an old, dirty loincloth. Suzie blushed a darker red and took a couple of steps forward.
“Um… You’re Santana, right?” she asked, but he only continued to stare. She huffed. “It’s impolite not to answer people,” she added.
Santana exhaled through his nose and turned his attention back to the starry night sky just outside. Suzie walked further into the bedroom, grabbing one of the many warm blankets she folded at the edge of the bed, and stopped a couple feet away from Santana. Goosebumps were visible down his arms and legs.
“Aren’t you a little cold?” she asked softly. He blinked up at her, but said nothing. Suzie grumbled back a frustrated sigh and sat next to him on the sill. He was wary, but allowed her to wrap the blanket around his shoulders. “There. Better?”
He looked at the fibers of the blanket closely, taking the corner of it in-between his fingers. He rubbed the fabric for a few moments and pressed it against his cheek before sighing. His gaze returned to the dark, outside world.
“What’s the matter? Do you need more blankets?” Suzie asked. She stood, ready to leave and grab another, but Santana wrapped his fingers around her wrist. His large hand overshadowed her thin wrists in its heavy grasp.
“Still cold,” he said. The words came out stiffly, as if he’d just learned the language. But Suzie was still impressed that he could speak Italian at all.
“Ah, tu parli Italiano?” she asked. Santana nodded, but his eyebrows scrunched close above the bridge of his nose like he had to work to understand the phrase. She smiled warmly and sat back down a little closer to him. He swung his legs over the sill, letting their thighs touch innocently.
“Ancora freddo, Santana?” she asked again. He nodded, this time with more authority, his lips pursing.
His fingers were still locked around her wrist. Santana’s large, roughly padded thumb rubbed along Suzie’s soft skin, the grazed across her knuckles.
“…Body heat?” She murmured the thought more to herself than Santana, but she noticed the slight nod of his head and smiled. “Sure, I can offer you that, at least. It’d be my pleasure.”
Suzie took one end of the blanket and lifted it, scooting herself closer to the gigantic man wrapped beneath it. Santana was in fact very warm. Suzie guided his large arm around her shoulders and wrapped her own around his thick middle. Suzie was unused to such forward behavior between two people, especially at this late hour of the night, but Santana’s warm body quieted her frantic thoughts. It was a wonderful feeling, she thought, to cuddle with someone for warmth. Even with the window still open, her body remained protected in an aura of heat that emanated solely from Santana, or so Suzie was convinced.
She wrapped her other arm across his front, clasping her hands together at the fingertips as her head rested on Santana’s round shoulder. His body stiffened for a moment, his arm suspended in the air. It didn’t follow the movement of her body. But after a few seconds, Santana’s arm lowered again to warm her shoulders and back. His head rested comfortably on her tiny tomato-face, which sunk down only due to the weight of his own skull. Suzie managed to squeeze out and opted to rest her head on his chest.
Santana’s pecs were soft but very firm, very strong. She pressed her cheek into it with a smile and watched the stars twinkle outside. Just before her eyes closed and she became sleepy, Suzie felt a hand on her head, gently petting, stroking through the loose strands of her hair. The tenderness lulled her to sleep, and she sighed comfortably on the pillows of her newly claimed bed.