Work Text:
“Huff huff.” You had just jogged into your work, the magnificent A Cat’s Paw café. “Ah! Good morning (Name)!” Finley cried out, hopping closer to you. Hunched over, taking a couple deep breaths with your hands on your knees you smiled sloppily.
“Good morning Finley. Did I make it in time?” you asked.
“As much as you wish you were. You are late. That is the third time this week, and it is only Tuesday.” A smug voice approached you and Finley.
“Oh come on Reese. You know my house is like 15 minutes away and I don’t have transportation!” Groaning, you stood and stretched a little bit more. Glancing at him, Reese was in his usual Boy SNALKSNONSK attire, but looking a little more grumpy than usual.
“Reese, just because you are-“
“Shut up Finley, or I will write you up too.” Reese snapped. The two of you flinched at his gruff behavior. Reese was normally bossy, but it wasn’t usually this bad. You looked closer at Reese’s face, stepping even closer to him and gazing into his face. Reese sneered and began to back away. Although the action seemed aggressive, you saw a slight blush on his cheeks.
Snapping your fingers you figured it out. “Reese is a sleepy kitty!”
If he was flustered before he was surely embarrassed now. “Wha-, No I’m-, You don’t- Shut up!!” He was floundering for the proper words as Finley began laughing.
A larger voice chimed into our conversation. “Oh? Are we teasing Reese? If so count me in!” Landry beamed as he approached.
“We are doing nothing of the sort! Just… ugh just get to work already it’s time to open!” Reese shouted and stormed off. Reese was on Cat Detail today, so I presume he went off to transform.
Frowning, you turned to Finley. “I didn’t mean to make him upset… I just really don’t want to be written up. This being my third week and all…”
Finley giggled as she responded, “Oh come on (Name)! We all know that Reese has a soft spot for-“ But before she could finish her sentence there was a loud sound of tools falling, followed by a few cats yowling and scampering off. Reese appeared from the mess and hopped onto a shelf to console a stray cat. But not after giving a serious glare to Finley.
“Woops! Well that looks like my queue to clean up and grab a coffee from the kitchen. But don’t worry sweetie. He will brush it off before you know it.” Finley chimed and headed off towards the kitchen, tidying up the fallen tools on her way.
You tied a small apron around your waist before promptly sitting down and waiting for customers to arrive. From the looks of it, today would be a slow day.
A couple hours later, a few customers had gone through and the “lunch rush” was over. You sighed after having washed the tables for the third time in the past hour. Looking around you tried to find your co-workers.
Mason was for sure still in the kitchen, always working, like you should be. Hayes had gone upstairs a few minutes ago and was probably cleaning the espresso machine. You heard the telltale giggles that Finley was looking at her social media on the balcony. Reese had disappeared a while ago, when the customers filtered out, he had vanished. Landry was in the back on the floor, working on something.
“Hey Landry, do you want some help building stuff?” You called out. Landry’s head popped up from his work in constructing Grave’s newest idea; a literal cat tree. Branches and all, it would have platforms throughout, but the limbs would be large enough for the cats to walk on. Graves would shape the metal of the trees, Landry was just building the platforms, constructing several of them to look like tree houses.
“A-ah that would be fine with me. But why don’t you check if Mason needs help with the dishes first?”
After a nod, you got up. You knew that was Landry’s polite way of trying to steer you clear of his work. After the mix-up last time, you were sure he wasn’t keen on having you help him again anytime soon. You glue one hand to a piece of wood and you are doomed forever. Who knew?
After walking into the kitchen, you spotted Mason, rolling out bread dough. “Hey Mason do you need help with anything?” Her head looked in your direction.
“Coffee beans. Two bags.” She said before returning to her work.
Alright… You opened the door to the basement and started walking down the steps. With every step you began to hear a new noise. Landry had fixed these steps right?
…
That wasn’t the stairs creaking.
The basement already creeped you out, especially now that you knew that witches exist. But that was definitely something grumbling, accompanied by dim colored lights.
“It’s an alien. Oh my gosh, I am going to get killed by an alien.” You muttered.
Stepping onto the basement floor, you turned the corner a little to see a figure hunched over a table with various glowing liquids and potions.
“No no no! It’s not supposed to do that! Dammit!”
Wait. Was that Reese’s voice?
You crouched down behind some boxes and observed what he was doing. There was an open book on the table.
“It’s supposed to be pink, not green!! That’s the opposite of what I want…” He was grumbling, obviously angry with what he was working with. You thought about sneaking up behind him and finding out exactly what he was doing. Before you could, Landry called down to Reese.
“Reese? I need help herding the cats. They are trying to climb all over my project… and I don’t know where (Name) went.”
After cursing a little bit more he called back. “I’m coming.” He threw a tarp of some kind over his experiment before walking your direction.
Panicking, you tucked yourself behind the boxes a bit more and hoped he wouldn’t notice. Thankfully, he stormed past you without a glance. You let out a little sigh before crawling out.
“Let’s look at what he was doing…” You lifted the tarp a little to look at the book. You weren’t very skilled in reading runes, but you recognized a couple words. “Love…potion?” What could he possibly…Oh. But for who?
Your heart sunk a little at the thought of him making a love potion for someone.
“Oi.”
A voice called down, causing you to jump. The coffee beans. Right. You abandoned your snooping efforts in favor of not getting pummeled by Mason.
You spent the rest of the day moving slowly, distracted by your thoughts of Reese’s potion making. Pretty soon it was closing time.
Mason was the first to leave as always. After patching things up with her grandfather, she has been spending more time with him and often leaves earlier than the rest of us. Hayes wasn’t long after, he said that he had a poetry reading and seemed quite excited about it.
Landry lingered a bit, but after cleanup he had gone to talk with Graves about their building project. He must’ve slipped out a different way because he hasn’t come down for a while. Reese appeared from the kitchen, two coffee cups in his hands, approaching you and Finley.
Finley’s eyes locked with Reese’s and then she waggled her eyebrows at you. “Well I better get going. Lots of tutorials to do now that I can control my shifting you know? Besides… Looks like that coffee is pretty HOT!” She winked at you before leaving.
Reese set down a cup of coffee in front of you. Even though coffee wasn’t your favorite, you inhaled the delicious smelling aroma. You smiled up at Reese as you grabbed the cup. He choked a little before turning his head away.
Reese cleared his throat and then tched. “You did good today. Even though it was busy. It’s not like everyone didn’t but you’re the only one left so…”
A tinge of pink appeared on your cheeks as you turned to the coffee. It looked like it had milk and sugar in it, and perhaps caramel? That smelled delicious. “Well… Thank you Reese. That was really nice of you.” As you took a sip, you didn’t notice that Reese had stopped breathing. After swallowing, you smiled dreamily and looked up at Reese.
“Delicious as always. That was very thoughtful.”
His eyes narrowed a bit as he gazed at you. “Do you feel anything?”
You cocked your head to the side in confusion. “What do you mean? I feel a little warm. Perhaps a little tingly from the taste. But otherwise… no? I don’t feel unwell. You didn’t try to poison me did you?” You grinned slyly at him.
He groaned and his grip on his coffee tightened. “Reese?” You asked, suddenly worried about his shift in behavior.
“No. I didn’t try to poison you… I just. Ugh. Nothing. Forget it. I’ll close up. You can head home tonight.” He scoffed and left you sitting there confused.
“Alright… Um. Goodnight Reese!” You exited A Cat’s Paw and walked down to the corner store. You bought a donut from Mason’s grandpa, who seemed much happier as of late, to accompany your coffee. It was only as you were leaving that you realized you left your phone at work. Shoot.
You jogged back to the building, hoping that Reese was still inside. The back door was still unlocked. As you entered in, you heard banging and thrashing from the basement. Shocked and scared, you ran to the door, ready to fight whoever had invaded. But Reese’s yelling stopped you.
“It pisses me off so much!”
You froze at the top of the stairs.
“Reese… you need to calm do-“A voice said. Was that Finley? Had she come back too?
“No I won’t calm the fuck down! Nothing matters anymore!” Reese was absolutely livid. The sound of glass breaking made you cringe. What could have made him so mad?
“Just because this potion didn’t work doesn’t mean that the next one won’t! Just try again.” Finley was keeping her voice calm and even, something you haven’t heard from her before.
“I- hic. I can’t do it Finley! No matter what I do! I’m so fucking inept at everything!” Reese was crying now, evident by the hiccups and hitches in his speech.
“First there was Avery. They came along and broke the curse in two days! Two days Finley! I was trying for two years. And I couldn’t even do that! And then everyone else got their magic and theirs is so cool. I mean you can block people Finley! What the fuck can I do? I sow clothes.” He took a short pause before crying out loudly. He sounded in pain.
“I’m supposed to be an apprentice, I’ve been studying magic my whole life! I can’t even do potions anymore. Can’t make a simple love potion. And you know why I have to resort to potions?” He growled. “Because I can’t flirt without fucking everything up! I can’t talk to her without getting bossy or flustered. But why would she even like me? I’m nothing. Can’t even do anything well.” His voice had gotten small. Maybe he had curled up?
You descended the stairs and sure enough, Reese was curled into a ball on the floor. Finley had begun to approach him but saw you move closer. She gave you a sad look and nodded at you. You traded places with her and laid your hand on Reese’s shoulder. Finley retreated to the stairs.
You took a quick glance around the room. The table he was working on was flipped, various potions spilled on the ground. Hearing Reese sob made your heart hurt. Too much.
“I-I don’t think you’re nothing.” You said quietly.
Reese froze and looked up from his knees. Seeing you there, his cat-like reflexes made him jump back several feet away from you. “W-what are y-you doing here??”
“I came back for my phone and… Reese…” you tried to come closer to him but he crawled further away. “What happened? Why are you making a love potion? Who are you trying to…” you swallowed heavily. “Who are you in love with?”
Reese’s eyes were so large, he was mortified. His cheeks got red and he balled his hands into fists. “I don’t have to tell you.” He looked away from you as he spoke.
You sat down on the floor, in a pile of unidentified liquid. Crawling on your knees, you got closer to him. He had backed into the table and gotten glass into his hands. “You’re right. You don’t have to tell me. But if you tighten your fists any more, I won’t be able to get the glass out.” Your knees were now crunching on the glass, embedding it into your knees.
Small tears pricked your eyes as you reached out and grabbed his hands. “If we g-go upstairs I can get the med kit a-“
“Stop. Just stop! Why do you even care!?” he yelled at you, wrenching his hands away.
“Have you ever thought that maybe I care about you?” you snapped back at him. “Maybe I saw you experiment earlier and cry out in frustration! Maybe I heard you yell earlier, more frustrated than I have ever heard you. Maybe when I saw it was a love potion I felt like I should help you because if you were going to woo over someone else, I might as well help you. Even though it breaks my heart to see you this… broken, upset, anything over someone! Maybe I’m jealous that I can’t be the one you are in love with!”
Tears were falling on both your faces. Shock was on Reese’s face while yours was clouded by sadness and frustration. You stood up and turned from him. “I’ll go get the med kit.” Defeated, you started to leave.
“Wait.”
His voice was so small. The sounds of crunching glass echoed in your mind as he stood up. You turned to look at him to see the scared look in his eyes.
“I-.“ he had to pause for a moment. “Can you stay here?” He asked.
You were confused. “Why?” you asked. But he just walked past you upstairs. You were frozen in place. Did he just leave?
Shortly after, he came back downstairs with the med kit. “Reese, your hands.” You stepped closer.
“Don’t move. Your knees.” He said. “Just sit.”
You both sat down in awkward silence. You grabbed the med kit from him before he could start on you. “I’ll fix your hands first.”
Opening the med kit you pulled out what was necessary. No words were spoken as you worked on his hands. He avoided your gaze the entire time, muscles tense as you tore out glass.
After bandaging his hands, you pulled them close and kissed each of his fingers. Reese’s face exploded in red, heavily embarrassed. His fingers began to tingle and soon his hands were engulfed in a warm, fuzzy feeling.
“You aren’t the only one who has been practicing magic.” You said softly. Your magic was based on healing others and helping to comfort them.
Reese began to cry again, softer this time, as he pulled out a needle and thread. Carefully, he reached forward and extended your leg so he could work on your knee. He must’ve done something to the thread as well because it was glowing and your knees were healing slowly.
After both of you had been patched up, you stared at the ground. Reese extended his hand to you and after you took it he cleared his throat.
“I’m not amazing at magic, or suave, or cool even.” You shook your head at his words but he stopped you. “I know but… I’m working on it. I’ve been…” he sighed and looked back at his destroyed experiment.
“I tried to make a love potion. I’ve been up the past three nights trying to even get it to the right consistency. I’m so tired… But I got it to work this afternoon. And I finally tried to implement my plan. But it didn’t work. I was so frustrated. First, I can’t do simple magic anymore. And it is even worse that I have to resort to making love potions because… I’m too scared to talk to you.” He confessed.
You jumped a little at his words, your cheeks flushing. “You’re beautiful and talented… I didn’t even know you were studying magic. But every time I try to talk to you… I get flustered and boss you around to cover up for my actions.” He stared at your connected hands and rubbed his thumb slowly across the back of your hand.
“I decided to make a love potion to cheat my way out of trying to flirt with you. It was physically painful how embarrassing I act around you so…” Reese huffed and looked up. “Y-you were… jealous or something?” He asked about your last comment from your lecture.
You laughed awkwardly and blushed. “A-ah… yeah. Um… Look Reese. I don’t think you are nothing. You are so talented. Apprentice witch, wizard? And assistant manager. You can transform into a cat, you can rip portals through space? How cool of a power! I know that you might be upset but… People learn at different paces you know? Just because you couldn’t break the curse immediately doesn’t mean you aren’t powerful. I mean, Graves had a curse on him for years and he’s super powerful too! But…” You bashfully looked down. “Graves isn’t half as cute as you are.”
Both of you blushed heavily and looked away from each other. When Reese squeezed your hand you looked back at him. “I guess we are both talented idiots then.” He joked. You laughed at his comment which caused him to smile.
You squeezed his hand back and smiled brightly. “So you did try to poison me with the coffee.”
He began sputtering and denying his actions which only made you laugh more.
“Well assistant manager. I guess we should clean up and get home. I couldn’t possibly be late tomorrow and get punished…” you grinned mischievously.
He froze for a second before smirking back. “I’d only punish you if you came as a co-worker. If you came as my girlfriend on the other hand…”
Brazenly, you stepped forward and kissed him on the cheek. “I guess, boyfriend.” You bounced away from him and upstairs to get cleaning supplies, leaving him dumbstruck in your wake.
Reese smiled widely and fist pumped the air in celebration, chasing after you shortly after.
You guess that maybe the love potion worked in a different way after all.
Extended:
When you arrived at work the next morning, you were greeted by hearts strewn about the café and an omelet with a ketchup heart on top. Finley, dressed in all pink and white, bounced up to you. “Like the café? I decorated it after the lovey-dovey connection you and Reese had last night…” She smirked.
You blushed and heard a scream as the door opened. You saw Reese, flushed from head to toe, as everyone turned to look at him.
He glared at Finley. “I want this all gone in the next half hour.” He growled.
Graves’s voice chimed in from the second floor. “Leave it Reese. After all, it isn’t every day that cupid’s arrow successfully strikes a couple.”
Even more embarrassed now, you smiled shyly and walked up to him. “I guess if they are going to tease, we might as well give them a show.” You whispered and leaned in to kiss your handsome new boyfriend.