Defensive Magic Chapter 27: Love Potion

WINTER TERM - January 5th

It's a Sunday. Which, at the Midnight Court, can an a lot of things. Like, there will be waffles in the dining hall, or that the clutch of Drakari will go for an afternoon flight if the weather is clear. For , it's ant staring into the scrying glass to see flashes of ho - or at least, it did last term.

Getting disinherited had really put a damper on all that. This morning I'd set the scrying glass on top of my bed and hovered around it. I only needed to focus my attention on who I'd hoped to see and they'd appear, but each thought of ho brought with it a wave of hard feelings that made turn from the glass before I saw anything at all. Maybe it was better not to know.

What happened next was an accident. I'd picked up the scrying glass. I ant to return it to its place atop my dresser and out of the way. I say I ant to, because I'd happened to be holding it on my bed, looking but not really looking...

Was Aries up yet? I wasn't intentionally asking the scrying glass. But already the image of him was forming on the glass.

I know I shouldn't have looked. It didn't even really occur to that this was an invasion of privacy. It was just Aries suddenly there. He was lying on his side, still in bed, eyelids heavy, half asleep. His room, on the opposite side of the hall, was bathed in sunlight. The light hit his hair, head set against a pillow, turning it to spun gold.

He rolled beneath the sheets, yawned, and stretched his arms up over his head. It was only then I realized he wasn't wearing a shirt.

He had a smattering of downy hair arcing up his chest. This shouldn't have felt like anything significant but I couldn't tear my eyes away. Had I ever really seen him?

He was strong. I knew that already. Broad shoulders, so noticeable muscle, but more than that, I saw the little scars and scratches too. So were new, or new-ish, the kind that had a twin sowhere on my skin, but then, there were the others - the marks from wrestling werewolves- little scars that never healed right. It ran so counter to the rest of him- the prince, the boy who never second guessed a al in his life. He was strong, sure, but also soft, lower belly rounded out. His waist was padded out with a layer of fat.

I'd always found him attractive- or at least I did now. When had that started exactly? It doesn't matter. Like his patchy stubble, or the way he made his coffee, I wanted to know every piece of him.

I was leering. I shouldn't have been but I was. Part of wanted him to kick off his bedsheets to see the rest of him. Can you bla ?

But then, Aries blinked at . His eyes t mine in a way that shouldn't have been possible through the scrying glass.

He said sothing, mute behind the glass. Line of sight never breaking. But the next thing he said I couldn't miss. "Hey, Zeph."

This wasn't how scrying glasses worked. They were one-way windows. There was no world in which he should have been able to see , yet he could.

Aries's lips curled into a lazy smirk. Now that he could tell I was watching, and was awake for it, he was preening, puffing up his chest, rolling his hips. It shouldn't have been half as effective as it was.

I let him have his fun before finally setting the scrying glass down on my dresser, letting Aries's image fade from sight. I was going to have to apologize. I knew that. Scrying had definitely crossed a line, even if he had been a good sport about it.

So I shouldn't have been surprised when monts later, I heard a knock at my door.

Aries hadn't dressed, opting instead to throw on his shower robe and a pair of slippers. He still looked a little sleepy. On any other Sunday, I wouldn't have expected to see him for hours yet.

I let him in. He normally sat on the couch but this ti, he crashed down onto my bed, on top of my neatly folded quilt.

"There are easier ways to see ," Aries said.

He rubbed his head into my pillow. I'd said before I wasn't going to do anything with Aries unless I knew for sure that he wanted to. He was lying on my bed, acting cute, and the tie of his robe was coming loose. I wanted this to be a sign. Obviously. Had this been anyone else I would have taken it as one, but Aries?

He was my friend. He was a bag of mixed signals.

"I hadn't ant to use the scrying glass on you. Sorry," I said. It was bad enough that that's what I'd done. Worse that I'd been caught. Unsure of what to do exactly, I picked up the scrying glass and brought it over to him. I sat down on the side of the bed, where I could hold it up between us. "Generally, the person I see doesn't know they're being watched."

That was another question on my mind. How did he see ? No one had done that. It went against everything Marblebrook had told about the glass. I didn't deserve an answer.

Aries laughed. "Looks like at least one of my protection sigils worked. I've been practicing for weeks and that's the thing about sigils, you kind of just have to wait and see if they do anything. So aren't exactly easy to test for."

I should have guessed sigils... He was always looking up sigils.

"You're going to have to teach so of those soti," I said. Maybe this ant I was going to have to admit he was turning into a fairly competent mage, even if casting would never be his strong suit.

"Yeah, does your ex still try dreamwalking on you? I bet so of these sigils could curb so of it."

I wasn't even really thinking about that. He was right, of course, but I also really didn't want to talk about Ianthe right now. Not when my last half conscious thought was of how I wanted to run my fingers up through his short, mouse-blond chest hair.

The wolf in my head bayed. It was really not the ti. Aries was close enough to that I could sll him. He'd been sleeping and it wasn't as though he was wearing a cologne exactly, but I could sll him.

It wasn't a bad sll. His familiar musk, a little sweat, soap, and sothing else. My nose grazed his shoulder.

I set my scrying glass on the nightstand. I had been sitting on the side of the bed before, but when had Aries and I gotten this close? He was still half reclined, sitting up on his elbows on the bed and I was... I was hunched over him sniffing the side of his neck.

I thought imdiately of the Masquerade, of how Stellan hovered close to . I thought then he was going to kiss , but that hadn't been it, had it? He'd sniffed.

This was a werewolf thing, wasn't it?

I also didn't really care. I should have. I normally would have. Even with the wolf awake and watching behind my eyes, I didn't care.

I heard Aries laugh, a little awkward. I was starting to rub my nose into the side of his neck, breathing him in deeply.

"Sll sothing you like?" he asked.

"You..." I said. I dared dart my tongue out, not quite a kiss, but not quite licking up the side of his neck.

Aries tensed. "This was a mistake..."

"Fine, I won't lick you," I muttered, nuzzling my face up into the underside of his jaw.

Aries wriggled out from under . Between the thin robe and the thinner boxer shorts, there was no hiding that he was hard.

"I don't an you, Zeph," he said. "This wasn't how I'd pictured this... Do you even like ?"

I was back to mouthing his neck. He was being ridiculous. "Of course I like you, Aries. I love you." It had slipped out. Did I an it? It felt like I ant it.

But Aries shoved back.

"I knew this was such bullshit," he muttered. He shuffled into his slippers and was rushing for the door.

I needed to go after him. I knew that. But I also needed a minute to adjust myself, untuck my shirt, sothing to hide the obvious boner. I chased him to the bathroom and found him at the sink, faucets streaming. He splashed water on his neck.

It'd been love potion. He was wearing his love potion this morning. The one Kelyn had given him must have been so kind of perfu. It didn't sll like anything really. I hadn't expected that. He'd caught scrying on him and then showed up at my door wearing a love potion. If I'd been waiting for a sign, this was it.

He was scrubbing at his neck with his hands. "You don't love . I just wanted..." he huffed.

"I like you," I anded. "I like you a lot, Aries." I hadn't been under the sway of a love potion when I'd been ogling him through the scrying glass this morning at least.

"You sure that's not the love potion talking?" He rubbed a bar of soap over his neck.

"Aries." I wasn't going to tell him I was in love with him. That was too much too fast. But I was also so done with all this dancing around each other. Especially now, when I knew better. He'd put on love potion before coming to see . He hadn't even been keen on using it. He wanted sothing.

I couldn't even sll the love potion now. I told him that. He slled the way he always did, only now, every note was less pronounced. The sll of him wasn't nearly as strong. I still liked it, don't get wrong, but it was ordinary.

"I still don't know if I've gotten it all off," he said.

If that was the sticking point, I could work with that. I pulled Aries along into a shower stall. "Let help," I said.

We were both far too dressed. I helped Aries out of his robe. Down to his shorts and slippers. At least he was still aroused. I kissed him. If he wanted to pull away, he could any ti now. He didn't. I turned on the water.

"Are you getting in?" Aries asked.

"Do you want to?"

He was pulling at my shirt. Yes. I helped with my shirt. The way he was pulling it, it was going to get caught on my horns. He touched my chest. Six months ago, I'd say I was thin, a little scrawny, too awkward to be fashionably waifish to fit with the Stag's Court's beauty standards, but wrestling Aries on the regular and eating three als a day had bulked up.

The shower was starting to steam. There wasn't a lot of room outside of the water's spray, but I was trying very hard not to rush him. Aries's hands drifted down to my belt.

I let him unfasten it, unbutton my pants. I let him touch , explore my body with his hands, only taking a mont for myself to step out of my pants and toss them out of the water's spray.

Aries pulled off his shorts too. I'd been hoping he would. I'd imagined how he'd look naked, but this was always going to be better. He was real and in front of , naked and sexy as hell. I pulled us both under the water, closing the space between us.

I'd told him I'd help get the love potion off of him, and I intended to do that. I soaped up my hands and lathered it over him, starting with his neck. I couldn't feel the pull of the love potion at this point anyway, so it was more for Aries's benefit than mine.

Aries was more interested in than the soap anyway. He wrapped a hand around my dick and gave it a tentative tug. I moaned into his ear a little more than it warranted but I wanted him to keep going.

I soaped up the front of his chest, enjoying the way the suds clung to his chest hair. And I'd ant to keep washing him, but I montarily lost track of what I'd been doing, lost in the feeling of his hands on .

After I'd finished, I pulled him into a kiss under the shower head. "That was okay?" I hate that he had to ask.

"More than okay," I said. He was still awkward and nervous even if he had just made co. These weren't the kind of feelings I could talk him down from. But I had another thing in mind.

I got down on my knees. The shower floor was gross, but I could always wash up after, right? I pet his thighs. I was doing what I could to keep from surprising him, but he still audibly stuttered when I took him into my mouth. I sucked hard. He was radiating heat. Between him, the steam, the water streaming down between us, this wasn't going to take long.

His toes curled on the tiles. His hands went to my horns, not pulling , but just holding on. He moaned, a little breathless. It was the kind of sound you really didn't want to hear in a shared hall bathroom. What we were up to would have been unfortunately obvious to anyone. I don't know if anyone overheard. It was still relatively early.

And after, Aries cald down quite a bit. We both took so ti to wash up again and later, grabbed brunch with Noodle and Aisling.

They said nothing about us arriving together, both freshly showered. And when Aries grabbed my hand on the table, just to hold it, I let him. They would have noticed that too, but so be it.