Archive of Our Own

Pepe glances over into the spell book, and then back at his materials. Isack has a boxing match tomorrow—his first one since his wrist injury. Pepe can't in good conscience just let him go back without any protection. Usually, he'll just sneak a protection charm somewhere on Isack's person, but after the injury, Pepe thinks that he needs something more intense—like a potion, except Isack refuses to drink those, so Pepe must cast a spell instead. Pepe pats the vial dry of water, then starts to mix the ingredients. Ground haematite, ground obsidian, two strands of Isack's hair, a drop of his sweat, a drop of Pepe's blood, and a few drops of Eau de Cologne. Pepe mixes everything up, and then places a rolled up sheet of paper into the vial to soak up all of the mixture. He then lights a match, and sets the paper on fire. Pepe watches the paper burn until there's nothing left except ash, and then places the vial on his alter.

Great. Isack should be all good this Friday.

Pepe cleans up his desk, safely putting away all of his materials, because his flatmates like to touch. Pepe's the only witch of the group, so they find his materials very interesting. Like Paul asking him why he has a collection of Isack's hairs, which was then followed by Paul grabbing his own head and asking if Pepe's taken any of his hair. And for Paul's information, Pepe has not taken any of his hair. Pepe finds himself using his magic on Isack frequently, so having a collection of his hair and sweat is useful. The only thing that Pepe's had trouble getting is his blood, because he kind of needs Isack to voluntarily give that up, and Isack always refuses, so if a spell he's casting on Isack ever requires blood, Pepe normally just uses his own. It's always worked just fine, so he doesn't see a point in trying to steal Isack's blood. Pepe's probably violated enough boundaries by stealing his sweat and hair from his pillows, and the line has to be drawn somewhere.

Pepe leaves his bedroom and heads out to the kitchen, where Arvid and Luke seem to be "working" on a new recipe. There's cubes of what seem to be like frozen blood in the blender, and Luke is scooping some powder into it. Pepe gags, just for him to be even further disgusted when Paul walks out of his room eating a raw T-bone steak. Pepe swears, they all treat him like he's so strange when he's literally the closest thing to a normal human in this house. Arvid and Luke are vampires and literally making blood smoothies, whilst Paul is a werewolf gnawing on a raw steak—but Pepe is the weirdo for pretty much being a normal human except for the fact that he has some spiritual abilities.

"You smell like ash." Paul walks up to Pepe and starts sniffing him, and Pepe pushes him away.

"And you smell like raw meat," he gags.

"Did you just do another spell?" Luke turns back while handing the powder scoop to Arvid, who scoops some oats into the blender.

"Are you guys making a blood protein shake?" Pepe gags again. Luckily, everyone is quite cleanly and courteous when it comes to the fridge, because it'd be a catastrophe with all of the blood bags and packages of raw meat. Still, it's always jarring to see this stuff going on.

"Yeah, want to try?" Luke jokes, gesturing to the blender. "What kind of spell did you cast?"

"Protection spell for Isack."

Luke and Arvid immediately groan. Paul is the only werewolf that they can even pretend to tolerate, and he can even see their patience running thin with him many days.

"Stop reacting like that; he's my friend," Pepe groans.

"We know, we know," Arvid sighs. Luke scoops some Greek yoghurt into the blender, and then Arvid adds some berries. "Protection spell for what?"

"He has his first fight since the injury, tomorrow," Pepe responds. He usually doesn't like watching the fights, no matter how many free tickets Isack offers him. Pepe prefers to just wait until he sees Isack's post-fight debrief online, or the incoming video call from Isack bragging about how he's won.

"So soon?" Paul asks. "I know us werewolves heal quicker, but he can fight already?"

Just what Pepe was worried about.

"He said that the doctor cleared him, so…" Pepe thinks that the doctor was just telling Isack and his team what they wanted to hear, but that's neither here nor there.

"And that's why you've done the protection spell. How sweet," Luke says. He's clearly teasing Pepe, because, again, Luke doesn't like Isack because he's a werewolf. Arvid and Luke only tolerate Paul for the sake of not having astronomically high rent, so with Isack having no leverage over them, there's no incentive for them to like him. "On another note, I smell witch blood."

Pepe looks down at his finger, where a small bead of blood is gathered at his fingertip. He pricked it while he was casting the spell to add his blood to the mixture.

"Can I try?" Luke asks. Arvid gasps, and then turns to Pepe.

"Let me try!"

"Nobody will be trying." Pepe grabs a napkin from the table and wipes his finger. Apparently, witch blood is all the rage with vampires now. It's like how humans will have food trends—vampires will have blood trends, which are just food trends for them, if you think about it. When the craze started, Pepe heard all about how apparently witch blood is so sweet and almost like a dessert. Pepe's not interested in being anyone's dessert, so the answer was immediately a no. He doesn't even know if there'd be any averse effects if he allowed Luke or Arvid to feed from him. A big part of being a witch is keeping your body sanctified, and so Pepe doesn't know where vampire bites fit into that, and he doesn't want to risk it. He knows that he said that he's quite close to a normal human being, but that doesn't mean that he wants to be one.

"How boring." Luke finally puts the top on the blender, and begins to blend his and Arvid's smoothie. Pepe can only imagine that it'll taste and smell rancid, but luckily he's not drinking it.

Pepe goes back into his room, and decides that he'll just call it a night.

In the morning, Pepe wakes up to someone shaking him. He realises that it's Arvid once he opens his eyes.

"What?" Pepe asks, swatting Arvid away from him.

"Your friend is here," Arvid says. The disgusted look on his face tells him that it's Isack.

"Okay." Pepe yawns, stretching as he sits up. "Why didn't you just let him in here?"

"I left him outside," Arvid responds.

"Why?"

"Because I wanted to."

There's no point in furthering questions Arvid, so Pepe shoos him away, before getting up. When Pepe checks the time, it's only a little past seven. He doesn't know why Isack would come here so early, but he still goes to the front door and lets him in.

"Hey," Pepe greets, rubbing Isack's hair. Isack usually hates when he does that, or anybody taller than him does that in general, because he thinks that he's being patronised for being short. And Pepe kind of is doing that, but it's also out of endearment. Isack looks quite cute from the angle Pepe views him at. Isack's usual response to the head rubs is to slap Pepe's hand away, or when he's feeling particularly scornful, he'll suddenly pick Pepe up to show off his strength, which is honestly low hanging fruit. Yeah, he's strong, but werewolves tend to be pretty strong because of genetics, so he has a biological advantage anyway.

Today, Isack doesn't do either of those things.

"Hi." He leans in for a hug.

"Why are you here so early?" Pepe asks, a little weirded out by both things. No averse reaction to the head rub, and showing up at the crack of dawn? Odd. As they're heading back to Pepe's room, Paul walks out. Usually, when he and Isack see each other, they'll have a werewolf bonding moment and roughhouse for a minute or two. Pepe pauses, expecting Isack to go over and jump onto Paul, but Isack doesn't pay him any mind.

"I wanted to come and see you," Isack responds, his eyes focused on Pepe. "I have a fight today and I need to prepare, but I wanted to see you before."

Pepe furrows his eyebrows. "Really?"

They enter his room, and Isack takes a seat at his desk. Usually, Isack stays away from there, saying that he's freaked out by all of the "witchy stuff" on top of it. Isack treats him like he's one of those forest witches who have dead rabbits and stuff in their house. Pepe just has crystals, some animal hairs, and an assortment of small vials containing different spell casting materials, which are not strange at all. Pepe's more odd materials are stored out of sight in his closet—but still no dead animals or anything.

"I got you something," Isack says. He takes off his book bag and rests it on the ground, unzipping it and grabbing a paper bag from it. Pepe takes the bag, wondering what Isack could've possibly got him, and for what reason. They're not really the casual gift giving type, so this is not the norm. Pepe smiles as he sticks his hand in the bag. It's a tree figure made out of rose quartz and wire. It's larger than most that he's seen before, which causes him to wonder where Isack found something like this.

"Thank you." Pepe rests it down on his desk. "Where did you get it from?"

"I passed a shop last night." Isack's smiling up at him. "Do you like it?"

"I love it." Pepe's about to pat Isack's head again, but instead he leans over and hugs him. When they pull away, Pepe realises that he needs to go and get ready for his day. "I'm going to bathe, give me a few."

"Okay."

Pepe feels Isack staring at him as he grabs a change of clothes, which weirds him out, but he doesn't address it. He goes to the bathroom and washes up, before returning to his bedroom where Isack is sat on his bed, holding one of Pepe's pillows in his lap.

"What are you doing?" Pepe asks as he throws his old clothes into the hamper.

"Nothing," Isack responds, except he has a weirdly mischievous look on his face, as if Pepe's just caught him doing something naughty.

"What are you doing?" Pepe asks again, sitting down next to Isack.

"I'm not doing anything," Isack insists, on the verge of laughter. So he's definitely done something.

"Why do you have my pillow?" Pepe grabs the pillow, but Isack refuses to loosen his grip on it. Pepe keeps tugging, but Isack does not give it up. Obviously, his werewolf strength is making this a tough feat, so Pepe stands up, still gripping the pillow with hopes that'll give him some leverage. He pulls the pillow hard enough to force Isack to stand up, which is actually a bit disheartening since that means that Isack's grip on the pillow is so tight that it caused them to both be pulled up together.

"Give it to me!" Pepe and Isack are basically playing tug-of-war with the pillow—Isack jolly as ever as they tug the pillow back and forth. Pepe now understands that this is Isack trying to play around with him, but he usually doesn't play with Pepe like this. That doesn't mean that Pepe won't entertain this, because he's not giving up this pillow without a fight.

Until Isack ends up pulling the pillow back so hard that it sends Pepe tumbling down onto him.

"Isack!" Isack doesn't look fazed as his back hits the floor, or as Pepe falls on top of him, still smiling the entire time. Pepe finally gives up the pillow war, and tries to get up, but Isack grabs onto the bottom hem of Pepe's shirt.

Great. He's not done.

"Wait! Wait!" Isack chokes out between laughs. "You need to come to my fight tonight."

"I'm sure that you can say that without me lying on top of you," Pepe sighs, still unsure as to why Isack is grabbing onto his shirt. He won't move, though, because he doubts that the fabric can withstand as much as the pillow, and it'll rip in an instant.

"Just wait here. Why are you in a rush?"

Why are you in a rush? "Because this is uncomfortable?" Pepe's sure that Isack is uncomfortable, with Pepe's entire body weight on top of him, and the only thing separating them from being directly on each other being the pillow.

"Just wait." Isack doesn't let Pepe's shirt go. "Are you going to come to my fight tonight?"

"Why?" Pepe asks. "I usually don't."

"It's my first fight in almost three months," Isack responds. "I want you to be there."

"I don't like watching you fight," Pepe responds, honestly. Isack finally lets go of the hem of Pepe's shirt, and as Pepe's sitting up, his door opens. He looks back to see Arvid peeking into the room.

"Looks like all is well…" Arvid slowly shuts the door.

"He's so weird," Isack says, shaking his head. Pepe agrees, but he also thinks that Isack is definitely one to talk, as he's been acting pretty strange as well this morning. "But why don't you like watching me fight?"

"It makes me nervous." Pepe decides to be honest. It is jarring seeing your close friend get beat up, whether it's in a controlled environment or not.

"Why? I am a professional. Nothing will happen."

Pepe looks at Isack's wrist. "Being a professional didn't stop your last injury."

"That was a practice mistake, though. Not the actual fight."

"Still."

"Please, Pepe," Isack whines. He grabs Pepe's hands. "Please just do this for me. It is my first fight back, and I really want you to be there, just this once."

This has to be guilt tripping.

"Fine," Pepe gives in, falling for the emotional plea. He can go just this once.

"Good." Isack shoves the pillow into Pepe's arms. "I have to go now."

"Really?" So soon? It's not like he's been here for long. It's barely been an hour since he arrived.

"I just wanted to stop by and see you," Isack says, standing up. "And I'll see you at the fight later. I'll send you a ticket, by the way."

"Okay?" Pepe stands up so that he can walk Isack out.

"I also had to give you your gift," Isack explains as they leave his room. As they pass the kitchen, Luke and Arvid are making another blood concoction, whilst Paul is rummaging in the fridge.

"Why did you give it to me, by the way?" Pepe asks. Again, Isack is usually weirded out by the witchy stuff, even the stuff that's not explicitly witchy, such as crystals. Pepe couldn't see him purposely seeking that gift out.

"I just saw it and thought about you," Isack responds. "I'll see you tonight, okay?"

"Okay," Pepe responds. Just as he's closing the door, Isack says one last thing.

"Your pillow smelled really nice, by the way."

Pepe shuts the door, and then takes a moment to process what Isack's just said.

"Ew."

Pepe goes to walk back to his room, and as he passes by the kitchen again, Arvid speaks.

"Pepe and Isack were going to have sex on the floor at eight in the morning."

Paul and Luke gasp. Even Pepe gasps, stopping in his tracks.

"No we were not!" Pepe shouts. What in the world would even cause Arvid to think that? "I wouldn't even have sex. I can't have sex or else I'll lose my abilities."

Paul finally takes his head out of the fridge to actually look at them. "I have a few questions."

"So do I," Luke says. "First, what do you mean that you can't have sex or else you'll lose your powers? I thought that was a just a legend."

"It's true." And Pepe doesn't see himself ever making that sacrifice. Sex is probably good, but being able to turn people into frogs when they make you mad definitely feels better than however sex feels. "It's why there's so few witches. Not many want to give up their powers, so the population keeps decreasing since nobody is having kids."

"Okay…" Luke turns to Arvid. "Why would you say that they were going to have sex, then?"

"I heard a bang, and then I looked inside of Pepe's room and he was on top of Isack," Arvid answers, shrugging.

"Why were you—"

Pepe doesn't let Luke finish the question before he says, "we were playing around and fell down."

"I wonder what kind of spell Pepe really did on Isack," Arvid says.

"I told you it was a protection spell," Pepe responds.

"Are you sure?" Arvid asks.

"Of course I'm sure." Who is Arvid to question Pepe? Pepe is the witch, not Arvid the vampire.

Arvid shrugs. Pepe decides to go back to his room and work on some spell commissions. Are they the most ethical things to do? Not always, but people have low moral expectations of witches anyway, and Pepe's not interested in being the one to change their minds. Some people ask for healing spells and potions. Some people ask for aphrodisiac potions, which are actually some of Pepe's most common commissions. A little freaky, but money is money, so he doesn't judge them. Sometimes he performs love spells. There's a few different ways to go about love spells—more than one would think—which causes Pepe to get the hot gossip on people's love lives since he has to know the situation in order to cast the right spell for them. That's probably where Pepe's work starts getting unethical, since usually there's an unwilling participant. You don't put a love spell on someone who already loves you, so you're taking away someone's free will in a sense. Then there's the curses, of course. Pepe does plenty of those as well.

Pepe looks at his agenda, and sees that he has to make three aphrodisiacs, cast four love spells, and do only two curses today. The aphrodisiacs require the least amount of thought, since they just consist of mixing materials and some chants, so Pepe begins with those. Afterwards, he begins to work on the love spells. His first client wants his friend's boyfriend, which is—well—yikes, but that requires a spell to redirect their affection, because they wouldn't want to end up in a scenario where the boyfriend loves both of them. The next love spell is for a person who wants to make their coworker that hates them love them instead. Some people argue that the opposite of hate is indifference, but according to Pepe's spell casting, it actually is love, since in these situations the correct course of action is to do a spell to invert the emotion that they feel towards the person. The third love spell is for a person who wants to hook up with one of their friends, but their friend isn't attracted to them. It's not really a love spell, more like a sex spell since it's to make the person sexually attracted to them, but Pepe categorizes it under his love spell services. The last love spell is for a person who's in love with their best friend, and wants them to love them back. It's a more generic situation, and Pepe doesn't get a lot of those. There's usually a story.

As Pepe grabs the box with the last client's materials, he turns to the assigned page in the spell book. He starts to get Déjà vu as he conducts the spell, feeling like he's done this exact spell recently. As Pepe sets the paper on fire, he takes a second to think back on when he could've performed this spell.

And then, he remembers the previous night.

Wait a minute…

Once the spell is done, he searches for the page with the protection spell that he put on Isack the previous day. He cross examines the two spells, and they're almost identical. The only difference is that the protection spell calls for the blood of the recipient, while the love spell calls for the blood of the person facing the unrequited love.

And Pepe used his blood as a replacement for Isack's.

Oh shit…

"Oh my god!" Pepe put a love spell on Isack! A fucking love spell. No wonder he was acting weird!

Just before Pepe can officially spiral, his phone buzzes. And of course, it's Isack. He's sent Pepe a copy of his ticket for the fight.

What should Pepe do? There's no one way to reverse a spell. The usual method is to find another spell that would basically cancel it out. As far as Pepe knows from the top of his head, the only possible spell that he can think of would be the spell that reverse emotions, but that would make Isack hate him, and Pepe doesn't want to do that.

Pepe checks the time, and then checks the time and location on the ticket. He still has some time to spare before he needs to start getting ready, so he starts to flip through the spell book for a spell that could possibly nullify the love spell. Of course, it's not like Pepe has much of a method for finding a specific spell in the nearly 1,000 page spell book, so he's just blindly turning the pages and hoping for the next one to be it. He's never just sat and looked at every page in the book—instead relying on annotations and bookmarks that his mother left identifying which important spells are on which page. There's spells that Pepe's never even thought of casting before that he runs into, such as changing body parts. As cool as those sound right now, that's not what Pepe needs. He just tabs the interesting pages, before continuing to search.

He only gets so far into the book before he needs to get ready for Isack's fight, so he bookmarks the page that he's on, and gets ready.

Pepe's antsy he entire ride to the fight, thinking about what he's done to Isack. Pepe placing the love spell on him also means that the protection spell didn't go through, and so Pepe doesn't even have the peace of mind that everything will go well tonight. He should trust Isack, because in Isack's own words, he's a professional, but that's kind of hard. Bad stuff happens to professionals all the time!

The venue is packed, but Pepe's able to find a seat. He chooses to sit near the centre of the audience on Isack's side of the ring. Neither of the fighters have come out yet, but the anticipation is already heavy in the room.

"Who'd you bet on?" The lady next to Pepe asks. "I bet my engagement ring on Hadjar, so I hope he wins."

It takes everything in Pepe to not gasp, but he nods. "I didn't bet anything, but I'm rooting for Hadjar as well."

The lady nods. "Good decision."

Pepe doesn't know whether she's referring to his choice to root for Isack, or the fact that he didn't put anything on the line. At least he knows that there's people who have a lot of faith in Isack in this audience, because he imagines that the woman's partner would be quite upset if she lost her engagement ring in a boxing bet. That should be a testament to his skills, right? Not that Pepe ever necessarily doubted Isack and his abilities, but the extra reassurance is nice.

The fighters finally come out, and the crowd goes wild. Pepe decides to match the energy, clapping and cheering as they enter the ring. He notices Isack scanning the crowd once he gets in, and somehow he manages to spot him. Isack smiles and waves at him, and Pepe waves back. The commentator makes a remark about Isack potentially having an admirer in the crowd that he's looking to impress. The lady next to Pepe looks at him.

"Is that you?" She asks with a sly smile on her face. "Looks like we both have a lot on the line, then."

Pepe doesn't bother correcting her, especially with the current predicament they're in. With Isack under this spell, he doesn't know how he'll act or what he'll say next, and the last thing that Pepe would want to do is embarrass him more than he probably has at this point.

The match begins, and Pepe cringes at every hit that's thrown, especially when ones land on Isack. The round ends, and both of them retreat to their corners. Isack drinks some water, and his coach talks to him and pumps him up. The next round ensues, and they somehow get even more brutal. Isack's definitely in better shape than the other guy, which is reassuring. The round ends, and that's when Pepe decides to ask the lady how many round they're supposed to go for.

"Eight," she responds.

Pepe has to watch them do this eight times? God, there's a reason that he never comes to these things.

For the next two rounds, Pepe clutches his knees in anticipation. Blood spills, making him cringe, but it's all part of the sport in the end. What's a fight without a little blood?

Once the break after the fourth round begins, Isack retreats to his corner, and then looks around the audience. Everyone's cheering him on, and Pepe finds it in himself to do so as well despite being absolutely horrified. Isack finds him again in the audience and points at him, causing people to turn back and look at Pepe. Pepe smiles awkwardly, but thankfully the attention is taken off of him once the commentators starts counting down to the next round.

The fifth round begins and the fighting continues, and just about halfway through, Isack knocks his opponent out. The crowd starts going crazy, especially the woman next to Pepe, who's probably glad that her engagement ring is safe.

"Tell Hadjar I said thank you!" She cheers, grabbing Pepe's hand and squeezing it. Pepe cheers along with her, squeezing her hand back.

Once the match is officially over, Pepe and Isack meet up outside.

"Congratulations." Pepe leans in for a hug, which Isack gladly accepts. The embrace is tight, especially on Isack's end. His arms are locked around Pepe's waist with an iron grip.

"Thank you for coming, seriously." Isack still hasn't let go. "It's like you were my good luck charm. I've never got a knockout before."

Once they finally pull apart, Pepe leans back against his car. "I should go now, you're tired, aren't you?"

"No!" Isack exclaims, grabbing Pepe's wrist. "We need to celebrate!"

What Pepe needs to do is go home and try to figure out how to reverse this spell.

"We can go out an celebrate, or we can stay in," Isack continues, "come to my place."

Again, Pepe has to prioritise figuring out how to solve this, but it would be cruel to leave Isack after his win when he's so keen on celebrating it. That's not the right thing to, so Pepe agrees to go over to Isack's place.

Since Pepe drove himself to the match, he just follows Isack home in his own car, which gives him some much needed time to think before they reach. Pepe's never seen Isack in love before, and so he wasn't expecting him to be so obvious. People usually think that love spells automatically make people act like a caricature of a person in love, with over the top displays of affection, but in reality they make the person act how they would normally act if they were in love. Some people's outward attitudes don't change, while others become really straightforward. It looks like Isack is more on the straightforward end, because he's been acting pretty in love—especially when he singled Pepe out during the boxing match.

Pepe might really be in trouble tonight.

After finding parking, he meets Isack in front of the building.

"Did you enjoy the match?" Isack asks as they walk up the stairs.

"It was a lot," Pepe answers. "But you won, so I enjoyed it."

Isack smiles, a light blush appearing on his cheeks as he nods. "I'm glad. I really wanted to win tonight with you there."

Pepe smiles back, not wanting to say anything else.

They get inside Isack's flat, and he throws his bag down onto the sofa.

"I need to shower," he groans, looking back at Pepe. "I'll shower and then we'll celebrate, okay? Can you wait?"

"Of course." More time to think is actually perfect.

"Unless you want to join?"

Pepe freezes, his heart skipping a beat. "Excuse me?" He didn't know that Isack would be this direct.

"I am just kidding." Isack bursts out into laughter. "Unless you want to—then the offer is still there."

Pepe stares at him, aghast, until he regains his composure. "I can't do that. My power is tied to my virginity."

"Ah, yeah, you've said that before," Isack sighs, waving him off. "But that's the reason why? Not because you don't want to?"

"Mate, go and shower." Pepe grabs a pillow off of the sofa and chucks it at Isack, who runs away in a fit of laughter. He then groans loudly, and sits down on the sofa. Isack is entirely too direct. Pepe knows for a fact that all of Isack's past partners didn't have any trouble figuring his feelings out. There seems to be no such thing as getting mixed signals from him.

Pepe plans to navigate this night in the most safe way possible. He's not going to feed into Isack, because why would he? But he's also not going to alert Isack that there's anything wrong. Pepe's never seen someone who's been the victim of a love spell be confronted with the fact that they're under a spell. He's not sure what kind of effect it'll have on him, so Pepe will try not to have to do that with Isack. Then he'll go home, and search high and low for the way to reverse this. It's a reasonable and doable plan.

Isack comes out in a clean set of clothes and wet hair. He comes up behind the sofa and hugs Pepe's neck. Pepe tries pushing him away, playfully of course.

"You smell like wet dog," Pepe complains. In response, Isack nibbles on his ear. It sends a tickling sensation down Pepe's spine, but he ignores it. Silly Isack acting like a silly werewolf.

"Do you want champagne?" Isack asks, heading over to his refrigerator and grabbing the bottle.

"Can werewolves have champagne?" Pepe teases as Isack heads back over and sits down next to him. He realises that Isack didn't grab any glasses.

"Of course I can." Isack pops the cork, and then takes a swig of the champagne. He then holds the bottle up to Pepe's lips, prompting him to open his mouth so that he can pour some in. Pepe allows him to, and they go back and forth doing that until the entire champagne bottle is done.

"You're trying to force me to spend the night, aren't you?" Pepe asks, once he feels himself getting a little buzzed.

"No, never." But the tone of Isack's voice says otherwise. "Are you tired, though? You can lie down."

"Yeah." And maybe the sooner Pepe gets to sleep, he can avoid a potentially awkward situation.

They head to Isack's bedroom, and Isack starts rummaging through his drawers. He throws a shirt and shorts at Pepe.

"These aren't going to fit me," he says with a chuckle, knowing that the shirt and shorts will definitely be short on him.

"Do you want to sleep in jeans?" Isack asks. Pepe doesn't, so he just puts the clothes on, knowing that Isack is peeking back at him despite the fact that he was supposed to be looking away.

"Will you come to my next fight?" Isack asks once Pepe finally gets into bed.

"No," he answers straight up. Isack gasps lightly.

"Why not? I need my good luck charm again." Isack presses a hand to Pepe's cheek, which begins heating up. Pepe curses the alcohol for causing his skin to flush. He grabs Isack's hand and pulls it away.

"Your good luck charm was on edge the entire time." Pepe loves an adrenaline rush, but that was entirely too much. He prefers rollercoasters and things of the sort—not watching his best friend get punched in the head repeatedly.

Isack sighs. "I guess. At least you came tonight. I don't know what I would've done. I needed you there."

The words have Pepe feeling a little bashful, because even if you put the romantic implications aside, they're still incredibly kind.

"It's no problem," Pepe answers. "You were really good."

Isack laughs. "Of course I was. I'm a professional."

Pepe laughs along with him. "You are, but it's still weird to see you get hurt."

"Aw, Pepe cares about me." Isack reaches out and puts his hand on Pepe's cheek again. "I'm fine. I'm always fine after a match, even if I lose."

"I mean, I know that. I always see you afterwards." It's just hard to see it in the moment.

"Yeah." Isack pinches Pepe's cheek. "You're so sweet. You don't want to see me hurt. You must like me."

Pepe shakes his head. "You're my friend, Isack. Of course I don't want to see you hurt."

They change topics slightly, Pepe finally deciding to probe into the details of Isack's career, like compensation and what he gets for winning fights, which causes Isack to eventually circle right back into flirting.

"I think that I deserve another reward for my win," Isack says.

"What is that?" Pepe asks.

Despite almost anticipating it, Pepe's still taken aback when Isack leans in. He's even more taken aback when he allows Isack to kiss him. And then some more when Isack escalates it from what was originally just a chaste peck, into their lips moving against one another's. Isack's hand creeps up Pepe's side, under his shirt. His fingers feel heavy, like weights pressing into Pepe's skin. Then, Isack tries to get more risqué, dragging his hand down to the waistband of Pepe's shorts. When his fingers start to dip under it, Pepe finally snaps out of it.

"Isack—No—" He pushes Isack away from him. "My powers. No."

Isack sighs. "Right…"

Isack steals another kiss, and Pepe allows him to, before Isack finally rests his head on the pillow.

"Goodnight."

Pepe sighs heavily, with dread filling his body.

"Night, Isack."

In the morning, before Isack wakes up, Pepe hurries up and leaves. He doesn't even bother grabbing the clothes that he changed out of the night before, just putting his shoes on and heading down to his car. Regret is bubbling up in his system, despite the fact that not much even happened. It was still too much, though. Way too much.

"Pepe, come here," Luke says as soon as Pepe enters the flat. Pepe drags his feet over to the kitchen, and Luke grabs his hand, and then uses the knife that he's holding to prick Pepe's finger.

"Ouch," Pepe whines as Luke takes a whiff of the blood leaking out. "Why would you do that? Are you taking my blood by force, now?"

"I was just making sure that you were still a witch, but since you're offering." Luke licks away the drop of blood, and a pleased expression spreads on his face. "Now that was delicious."

"Why wouldn't I be a witch anymore?" Pepe groans, rubbing a hand on his forehead. He has a little bit of a hangover, which isn't being helped by Luke and his nonsense.

"You've just arrived home wearing Isack's clothing, and don't try to deny it, because by it's quite obvious since your shirt is nearly cropped, and your shorts are really short." Luke looks Pepe up and down. "I thought that you gave it up."

If only Luke knew.

"Well, I'm still virginal and a witch."

Luke nods. "Nice to know. Couldn't let you go before I got a taste of your blood. Also, the dog was asking about a potion."

"Why are you calling him that?" Luke and Arvid have this habit of calling Paul that, as if he's their family dog or something. "And what does he want?"

"He wants to make someone forget something," Luke responds. "And he is a dog, is he not? Would you not call him a dog? He smells like one."

Pepe shakes his head. "Luke, bye."

He goes into his room and sits down at his desk, resuming his browsing through the spell book. He's sure that he'll run into the recipe for the potion that Paul needs, so he'll just wait until he comes across it to make it.

And Pepe spends the next hour browsing the book, before taking a break to make Paul his potion. Just as he's about to jump back into the book, he gets a call from Isack. It takes Pepe a moment to pick up, because he's honestly debating just letting the phone ring, but he told himself that he wouldn't be cold or anything towards Isack, because it's Pepe's fault that this is even happening. It'd be wrong to take it out on Isack, who's honestly just a victim of Pepe's misstep.

"Hello?" Pepe greets once he picks up the phone.

"Hey, you left your clothes," Isack says. Pepe sighs.

"Yeah, I was rushing out," Pepe responds. "I have to work on some spell commissions today. A lot, actually."

"I see," Isack responds. "I'll leave you to it, then. I'll see you soon."

"See you." Pepe hangs up.

Hours pass by as Pepe continues to search the spell book, to no avail. Paul comes in to retrieve his potion, and Pepe gets his payment in the form of an affectionate ear bite, and an offer to pay for dinner, which he of course accepts.

Eventually, Pepe gives up on this spell book. He has another one given to him by his father which he barely uses, but it's getting to the point where he thinks that he may need to check that instead.

He doesn't like to think about the case where he's not able to find a favourable inverse to the spell. The only one that he can think of is the emotion reversal spell, and he doesn't want Isack to hate him. He doesn't want Isack to love him, either, though. It's not fair to Isack to have his emotions manipulated like this, and to ruin his abilities to genuinely fall in love with someone. He's being deprived of his free will, and Pepe doubts that they can be happy together in the case that he leaves Isack as is.

If Pepe can't find another way to fix this, then his only option is to make Isack hate him.

That evening Paul buys Pepe some Chinese takeaway, and they have dinner together on the sofa. Paul just ordered a side of fried rice to have with his chopped up raw ribeye. As Pepe eats his chicken, he decides that he can confide in Paul. He's less judgemental than Arvid and Luke, especially since they already have their whole bias against werewolves. He just wants to get this off of his chest without a lecture, so Paul it is.

"I accidentally put a love spell on Isack," Pepe confesses.

"Really?" Paul asks, raising his eyebrows. "He did seem weird yesterday."

"Yeah," Pepe sighs. "I'm trying to find a way to reverse it, but it's not going well."

"So what if you can't fix it?" Paul takes a bite of his raw ribeye, and a small squirt of blood streams out. Gross.

"I don't know." Pepe doesn't really feel like explaining all of the mechanics of spell casting to Paul, so he leaves things vague.

"Will you guys be together?" Paul asks. "Do you love Isack?"

"That's not the point," Pepe responds, losing his appetite. "Do you think it's fair to him? He probably has a real soulmate out there that he'll never get to be with because I messed around with his feelings." Pepe could've just ruined a future family because of his mistake.

Paul shrugs. "I guess not, but it is what it is, no?"

"No, it's not." Pepe closes the food container and places it to the side. "It's not fair. Plus, a relationship would probably never even work. Is he going to stay celibate forever? I'm not giving up my powers, you know?"

"I mean, he's kind of cursed to loving you, so he'll love you regardless." Maybe Paul wasn't a great choice in confidant, because he's a bit simple minded in this aspect, it seems.

"Just because you love someone doesn't mean that you'll be fulfilled in your relationship with them no matter what." Love alone is never enough, and that's something that he always reminds his clients. Just because you two love each other doesn't mean that you will be in a happy relationship. Circumstances matter, and if you guys aren't aligned in terms of goals and desires, the relationship won't work. They'll still love you through it all, but it doesn't guarantee happiness.

"So Isack will just be left as your admirer for the rest of his life?" Paul asks.

"I don't know." With the way things are looking, it looks like Pepe should start detaching himself from Isack now, because the reversal seems like the only way.

Pepe stays up all night searching through both spell books for a spell that could reverse the effects, but nothing. He ends up falling asleep at his desk at an ungodly hour, yet still manages to wake up just as the sun is rising outside. He gets up and drags himself to his bed, ready to lay down and sleep, until he hears a knock at the door.

"Pepe." Arvid cracks the door open and peeks inside.

"Come in," Pepe sighs. Arvid opens the door wider, and in his hand is a brown paper bag.

"Can I please feed off of you?" Arvid pouts and does his best rendition of puppy eyes, despite his own being cold and dead. He's acting as if asking Pepe a million times will cause him to say yes. "I just had some deer blood and it was really gross, but Luke is going to get mad at me if I drink another bag of blood to try and cleanse my palate. He says that I'm being gluttonous and drinking too much of our supply too fast."

Luckily for Arvid, Pepe is genuinely at his breaking point. Between exhausting himself trying to find a way to reverse the love spell on Isack without ending their friendship, and just dealing with his own dumb emotions, he can't even be bothered to put up a fight.

"Whatever. Sure."

Arvid's eyes light up, and he shuts the bedroom door before sitting next to Pepe on his bed.

"Perfect. I bought this stuff." Arvid holds up the bag. "You should drink and eat this after I finish feeding."

He hands Pepe the bag, before enthusiastically grabbing Pepe's chin and positioning his head at an angle that gives him ample access to his neck.

"I'm about to bite you, okay?" Arvid alerts him.

"Okay," Pepe yawns.

"It might hurt a little bit. Not much, just a pinch and then you may feel the blood coming out—"

"Just do it before I change my mind."

Arvid doesn't waste time and sinks his teeth into Pepe's neck. Indeed, it does hurt. Tears involuntarily prickle up in the corner of Pepe's eyes at the pinch of Arvid's canines breaking his skin. The pain subsides quickly, but the sensation of the blood being sucked out of him is quite uncomfortable.

A knock sounds on the door, but Pepe doesn't have the energy to respond, and Arvid is clearly preoccupied.

It takes Arvid a little over a minute to feed, and once he's done, he removes his teeth from Pepe's neck.

"That was delicious," he says, wiping his mouth. "Almost couldn't stop myself there, mate."

Pepe nods sleepily, while Arvid grabs a napkin and starts to pat the bite on Pepe's neck. "It should stop bleeding in a moment. Just hold this here, and then drink and eat the stuff in the bag. Thank you!"

Arvid then hops off of the bed and opens the door to leave, where he's met with Isack. Arvid turns his nose up and the werewolf and walks around him, while Isack enters the room.

"What happened?" He asks, his voiced laced with concern. "You look pale."

Isack then notices Pepe holding the napkin to his neck. "Did he bite you?"

"Yeah." Pepe uses his free hand to look into the bag that Arvid gave him. He starts pulling out items, which include a bottle of apple juice, some green juice, an unlabelled bottle with some pale yellow liquid, along with some fruits and dried chickpeas.

"Why would you let him do that?" Isack grabs the napkin and removes it from Pepe's neck, inspecting the wound.

Pepe shrugs, opening the bottle of apple juice and chugging it. He was already feeling fatigued from all of the stress and lack of rest, and now he's definitely feeling weak and on the verge of sleep. He moves to lie down, and Isack watches him, still looking concerned.

"Are you feeling okay?" Isack asks, pressing a hand to Pepe's forehead. Pepe nods.

"I'm just tired." Pepe pulls up his blanket to cover his body. "Why are you here so early?"

"I wanted to see you." Isack runs his finger through Pepe's hair. Pepe closes his eyes, too tired to say anything else.

When Pepe wakes up hours later, Isack is laying next to him on his phone. Pepe's almost surprised that he didn't leave, but it makes sense with their current predicament in mind. Pepe sits up and reaches for the bag that Arvid gave him, still feeling fatigued despite just waking up after hours of rest. He opens the bottle of the yellow liquid and sniffs it, which causes him to realise that it's some sort of broth. He puts that back inside the bag in favour of the green juice, which he chugs just like he did the apple juice earlier.

"Are you hungry?" Isack asks.

"Yeah," Pepe responds, feeling his stomach grumble. "I have some food from yester—"

"We can go out and eat," Isack suggests. "It's just about lunch time. And you need something with iron. We can get steak—my treat."

"Of course you'd want steak," Pepe teases. Isack laughs shyly, playfully nudging Pepe's shoulder.

"You need red meat. This is for you, not me, trust me."

Pepe gathers his things and heads to the bathroom to get ready. He looks at his neck in the mirror, and surprisingly, the bite mark is already all healed, no evidence of what happened earlier besides the residual dried blood that hadn't got cleaned off.

Pepe cleans himself and gets dressed up, before returning to his room so that he and Isack can go.

"Why did you let Arvid feed off of you?" Isack asks once they get into the car.

"He and Luke have been annoying me lately," Pepe explains. "Apparently witch blood is really good. I already know that Luke's going to be knocking at my door later because Arvid's bragged to him about getting to feed off of me."

Isack's face morphs into a disapproving one, and Pepe imagines that he's jealous. It's unreasonable, but love makes you feel things that don't make any sense.

"He was so happy. Vampires are so weird." Isack shakes his head in disgust.

"You're all weird, honestly." Isack is relatively normal for a werewolf, as in he doesn't walk around eating raw T-bone steaks that are dripping in blood like Paul, but he still does some silly things, like biting Pepe as a way to be playful or friendly. Or sniffing people's dirty clothes as a way of becoming acquainted with them. Pepe was definitely taken aback the first time that he invited Isack over and he started sniffing one of his shirts.

Pepe expects Isack to make a snarky remark about witchcraft, because that's what he usually does, but instead he just laughs.

They end up at some nice restaurant, which must mean that this is supposed to be like a "date." Pepe doesn't ask, though. He doesn't want to egg this on anymore than he should, and hopefully make things as painless as possible if this doesn't end the way that he wants it to.

Just like Isack said, they order steaks. Isack gets his blue, which is how most werewolves who don't want to eat a raw steak in public order it.

"A lady at the boxing match bet her engagement ring on you winning." Pepe doesn't know why he's just remembered that. Maybe because of how ridiculous it was. But Isack delivered, and that lady got to keep her engagement ring, as well as receive whatever else was in the betting pool. If that lady put her ring on the line, Pepe can't imagine what else was put up as well.

"Really?" Isack chuckles. "You see how good I am? People are betting a lot on me."

"Yeah. She told me to thank you on her behalf."

"She should've been thanking you for being there," Isack responds, eliciting a sigh out of Pepe. He knows where this is going again. "You were my motivation."

Pepe smiles softly. "Thanks." Of course it's a good feeling being told this, but he's not supposed to feed into Isack any more than he already has.

"How's your wrist feeling?" Pepe reaches across the table and grabs Isack's hand, lifting it up to examine his wrist. Not that he's a doctor or nurse or anything, but he wants to see if there's any physical damage. Especially after his first fight back.

"It's fine, it's fine," Isack reassures. "No pain. I'm healed fully."

Pepe's not sure if Isack is fully telling the truth, but he has no choice but to take his word for it, because of course, he's not a medical professional. He also doesn't want to try and cast any more spells on Isack. Pepe did do some healing spells on him, but those are always more effective in potion form, and Isack refused to drink any of Pepe's concoctions.

Just as Pepe's about to pull his hand away, Isack moves his hand and interlaces their fingers. He winks at Pepe, which causes Pepe to look away and pull their hands apart.

Their food comes, and they have their lunch. Isack talks about his next fight, and also implies that they should do this more often. Pepe tries to keep the conversation focused on the fight, but oh so in love Isack always finds a way to bring it back to him and Pepe.

"Enough about the fight," Isack says, "what are you going to be up to?"

"The usual," Pepe answers. "Doing commissions."

"Which type is your favourite?" Isack asks. They haven't really spoken about this before, with their conversations about Pepe's witchcraft usually being quite vague unless he has a particularly funny story to tell, or when he's trying to convince Isack drink a potion that he made for him. The question is a funny one because of their predicament, as Pepe does regard love spells as his favourite because of the stories that he hears.

"Love spells." He decides not to lie, because it's not like Isack knows that he's under one anyone to be put off by the mention of one. "I get to hear a lot of funny or sometimes pathetic stories from the people commissioning them."

"Like what?" Isack asks.

Pepe recalls one of the clients that he did a spell for on the day that he realised what he did to Isack. "One of my clients was in love with their friend's boyfriend, and so they asked me to make the boyfriend fall in love with them instead. They sent me a follow up email earlier, but I haven't got a chance to open it yet."

"Whoa," Isack gasps. "That's crazy. You need to read the email and tell me what it says, now. I'm invested."

Pepe laughs. "I need to do that once I get home."

"Do you have any more that you need to finish today?" Isack asks.

Pepe doesn't have any that need to be done imminently. If he weren't so busy trying to resolve this whole Isack situation, then he could probably get ahead on some commissions. Alas, he has something really important that he needs to handle, so he's prioritising getting this under control. Honestly, Pepe might need to do the one thing that he was avoiding.

He might have to ask his parents.

The thought is just so dreadful, because he knows that they're going to probe him for details, and Pepe is not a good liar, so he'll have to admit to his parents that he accidentally love spelled Isack. And he knows that he'll get teased for that, as well as scolded for not following the book when it comes to spells.

"I have a big one that I need to finish." Hopefully because Pepe said that, Isack won't insist on holding him hostage all day. He did ride here with Isack, so he's depending on him for a ride him.

"What is it?" Isack asks.

"Another love spell," Pepe answers. Isack laughs.

"Tell me the story of this one when you get a chance," Isack says, "since it's so big."

Pepe actually doesn't need to tell Isack a thing, because he's living it right now, even if he doesn't know it.

"I will," Pepe agrees, knowing that he won't.

After they conclude their lunch, Isack drives Pepe back home since he has to work on his "big" commission.

"I'll see you again tomorrow?" Isack asks before Pepe exits the car.

"You want to see me everyday." Pepe doesn't know why he's pretending like he doesn't know the reason why.

"I do."

Pepe is still surprised by how straightforward in-love Isack is.

"Maybe," Pepe responds. "Okay?"

"Okay."

Before Pepe opens the car door, Isack leans over and presses a peck to his lips.

Pepe then leaves the car, and as soon as he steps onto the sidewalk, he's met with the sight of Arvid and Luke standing out on the sidewalk, holding parasols.

"What are you guys doing?" Pepe asks, flustered. He can only hope that they didn't just see that.

"Getting fresh air," Luke answers.

"Looks like Pepe was getting fresh air as well," Arvid says. "And some lips."

"That's not true." Pepe chooses to deny it. Maybe if he lies enough they'll begin to think that what they saw didn't actually happen. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Humph," Luke hums.

Thankfully, it seems like neither of them want to probe any deeper. Pepe walks past them and into the building, feeling two sets of eyes following him as he enters.

Everyone is seriously so strange.

Pepe gets back up to his room, and immediately pulls out his phone. He debates whether he should call his mother or his father. He knows that once he gets the query out, one will call over the other, but he's considering who will have the better initial reaction. So Pepe decides on his mother. He rings her up, and asks if there's any way to reverse a love spell besides doing a feeling reversal spell. Of course, she starts asking for more details, and then she calls over his dad. Pepe continues trying to be vague, but then they keep asking for the entire story, because they need to know everything in order to come to a decision. He ends up confessing, telling about his mistake, and how Isack is now in love with him, and he wants to find a way to reverse the spell without having to make Isack hate him.

His parents become much more calm after Pepe admits that. Part of it is probably because they're at least reassured that Pepe didn't fuck up a commission and ruin the lives of two people. The other part is probably because they're now recognise how personal this is to Pepe, and don't want to stress him out even more.

Pepe ends up having to stay on the phone with his parents for over two hours while they contact other witches that they know, as well as go through their own records to see if it's been done before. Witches are a rapidly decreasing group, so it's not like they have a large network that'd be able to have something like this figured out, if a real resolution even exists.

All of that is for nothing, though, because they come to the conclusion that Pepe only has three options. Option one is to leave Isack as is. Option two is to do the reversal and make Isack hate him. Option three is to cast the spell again and redirect his affection towards someone else.

Three is off the table, because the whole point of Pepe wanting to reverse this is to give Isack back his autonomy in his love life, and redirecting the spell to someone else wouldn't fix anything. The problem isn't that he's in love with Pepe—it's the fact that he's in love with him because of a spell. One is off of the table for the same reason.

Pepe abruptly hangs up the phone on the verge of tears, because he know what he has to do. It doesn't feel good at all, but it's only right.

He looks at the quartz tree that Isack gave him the morning after the spell was cast. It was meant as a gesture of love, but in reality marks beginning of the end of their friendship.

All Pepe wanted was for Isack to be safe, and now their friendship is about to end for good. He meant well, but his minuscule mistake caused this.

Pepe rests his head on the desk, trying to come to terms with the fact that his friendship with Isack is pretty much over. Obviously, that goes as well as it sounds like it would, and Pepe starts crying.

The problem about crying in this flat, though, is that everyone has such a keen sense of hearing, so it only takes a few moments for knocking to be heard at Pepe's door. The door cracks opens, and Pepe can't even bring himself to lift his head up.

"Can we come in?" Luke asks. Pepe doesn't answer, so Arvid and Luke are stuck at the door.

"What's wrong?" Paul's voice sounds from next to Pepe as a hand comes to rest on his back. "Is it what we spoke about last night?"

"What did you speak about last night?" Arvid asks.

Paul ignores him, bending down so that he can whisper to Pepe. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Pepe lifts his head up and looks at Paul. "I'm fine."

"Not very convincing," Paul mutters once he sees Pepe's tear stained face. He leans in for a hug, which Pepe accepts despite it being kind of awkward because they've never hugged before. They're all on good terms, but besides Luke and Arvid being close because they're the same species, it's not like they're best friends or anything. But they do try for each other in the moments that matter, like this one.

"I have to reverse the spell and make him hate me," Pepe explains, knowing that Arvid and Luke can hear him. He wouldn't even be surprised if they actually heard his entire end of his conversation with his parents. Pepe thinks that they did, because nobody asks for any further clarification.

"Don't cry. It'll be okay," Paul comforts, rubbing Pepe's back.

It won't be, but it's what has to happen.

After Pepe's adequately comforted, or really just enough for his flatmates to not feel guilty leaving him alone, he grabs his phone to message Isack. Maybe the actual right thing to do would be to just do the spell and release Isack from this, but Pepe needs some type of closure, even if Isack won't know that's what it is. Pepe needs it. It's like when you give a dog a piece of chocolate before you put it down. This will be Pepe's piece of chocolate.

Pepe asks Isack if he can come over the next day, and Isack responds immediately saying that he can.

Pepe has trouble going to sleep knowing that it'll be his and Isack's last night as friends, but again, it's necessary. Isack doesn't deserve this, and it's not his fault that Pepe fucked up a spell.

"Where are you going?" Arvid asks from his place on the sofa as Pepe passes through the living room.

"Isack's," Pepe answers. Arvid nods solemnly.

"Will you be confessing your love for him?" Arvid questions. "Or have you done that already?"

"Arvid, I'm not in the mood—"

"It's a real question," Arvid interjects calmly. "You know that you love him. It's unfortunate that this has to be how it goes, but you're very selfless for not allowing the curse to remain just because you love him."

Pepe's chest starts to get heavy as Arvid speaks. "I have to go."

Sometimes Arvid does remind Pepe that he's like a hundred years old despite his youthful appearance, but he thankfully chooses not to continue his lecture. "I'll see you later."

"Bye."

Pepe's grim feeling on the drive to Isack's makes it feel more like he's going to a funeral than to meet up with his best friend. He finds parking around Isack's building and then sends him a text to let him know that he's heading up to his flat. Isack meets him at the door with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Hey," Pepe greets, wondering why Isack is just standing in the doorway mischievously.

"Hello, Pepe," Isack responds, before moving to the side and revealing that his living room has been turned into a movie theatre. "The movies, but at home. Do you like it?"

"It's lovely." Isack is not doing anything to make things easier, but Pepe supposes that this was the point of him coming over today. It's not supposed to make this easier, but supposed to be a good last memory. Pepe keeps beating himself up for acting like Isack is dying or something, but after Pepe finishes casting the spell once he goes home, they might as well be dead to each other. Isack's really in love with Pepe right now, and soon he'll really hate him. Pepe will probably never hear from him again. It's not like they're in any common social circles or anything that would keep them in proximity to one another so that Pepe can keep an eye on him. Maybe that's actually a good thing, because it'd probably hurt more that way if they kept seeing each other; where Pepe would have to be confronted by Isack's hatred for him.

Pepe kicks off his shoes, and takes a seat on the floor in front of the projector. Isack disappears to the kitchen and returns with freshly popped popcorn, as well as assorted candies. It's not hot outside at all, but for the sake of the ambiance, Isack has the air conditioning on so that they can wrap themselves in blankets as if they're staying in on a cold winter day.

"I found the Hunter X Hunter movies," Isack says. "We can watch those."

Pepe and Isack end up having a movie marathon. They begin with the Hunter X Hunter movies, which aren't the best in Pepe's humble opinion, but watching them with the commentary from himself and Isack make the viewing experience invaluable despite it. When Isack asks what they should watch next, Pepe wants it to be something that Isack will be interested in, so he suggests Rocky or Creed. Isack chooses Creed, and they sit and watch while Isack explains all of the movie, as well as boxing lore. At some points, Pepe finds himself paying more attention to Isack than he is the movie, resting his head on his bent knees and staring at Isack as he goes on about some boxing technicalities.

Once Creed is done, Isack wants to watch the next two movies, but instead he asks what Pepe wants to watch. Since Isack wants to watch the next film, Pepe pretends that he can't go without knowing what happens next, so Isack plays the next film. The same happens once the second film finishes, with Pepe saying that it's only right that they finish the trilogy.

"Do you think I could beat Donnie?" Isack asks, shadowboxing. Pepe shakes his head at the ridiculousness of the question, but he plays along.

"Of course," Pepe answers. Isack nods proudly.

"If you say that I can, then I can." Isack looks at the time, and then looks out of the window. "Oh, it's late. We were having so much fun that we didn't even realise!"

"Right," Pepe plays along, despite the fact that he had noticed the sky darkening by the time they were halfway through Creed II; he just didn't say anything. He didn't want to rush anything—savouring what will probably be their last moments together, or in the case that they see each other again after this, their last pleasant ones. "You came up with such a good date idea."

"Date," Isack repeats, nodding enthusiastically. "Yeah—a date."

Pepe shouldn't have phrased it like that, but it's too late now, isn't it?

"When will our next date be?" Isack asks. "Maybe tomorrow?"

"That's so soon," Pepe responds, ignoring how his chest is tightening up.

"Okay, the day after tomorrow, then," Isack says, bursting out into laughter and rubbing Pepe's shoulder.

"Maybe," Pepe responds. "Let's see how I feel."

"Okay," Isack sings, turning off the projector. "But you had fun, right?"

"I had a lot of fun." Pepe senses what's coming next, and he's dreading it more than anything. "You went out of your way and planned all of this even though all I said was that I'm coming over. Thank you."

"No problem."

Isack leans in for a kiss, and Pepe meets him halfway. He cups Isack's face, feeling his cheeks warm up as their lips connect, moving against one another's. At least Pepe has some confirmation that this Isack can get flustered just like anyone else. Once they pull away, Pepe pulls Isack into a hug.

"I'll see you in two days?" Isack asks.

"Yeah." Pepe doubts it.

They finally pull away, and Pepe stands up, grabbing his things and heading to the door. Isack opens the door for him, and Pepe steps out. He turns back to say one last goodbye, but he can barely get it out. Isack looks a bit concerned, but still smiles at Pepe.

"Later, Pepe."

Pepe waves, and then hurries away from the door. He's already a few steps away when he hears the click shut, and it's like his entire body becomes weak. Pepe pushes through it, and heads downstairs, back outside and to his car.

The ride home is in complete silence, the air in the car tense despite it being only Pepe. When he enters the flat, the living room is empty, which he's glad for—feeling like if anyone speaks to him, he'll immediately break down.

Pepe sits down at his desk, where the spell book is already opened to the page with the reversal spell. He prepared the ingredients for it early this morning, and so everything is already laid out for him. He precisely follows every line on the page, extra conscious about messing up yet again. With each step he completes, his eyes feel heavier and heavier, but he pushes through, combining everything in the vial in front of him. Just like the initial spell that Pepe cast on Isack, he's required to burn a roll of paper that's been stuck into the opening of the vial. Pepe's hands shake as he strikes the match. He lights the edge of the paper, watching the edges turn black as the orange flame begins to engulf it. A single tear falls, but in the end, Pepe just wants to do right by Isack, just as he always has.