Disclaimer: I do not own Hemlock Grove or any of the characters. I only own my OC.

A/N: Hey guys! Holy Moly, I've been getting notifications for this story. Which I just want to say thanks! You guys are giving me more motivation to keep writing! Enjoy this filler chapter with more Imogen and Roman scenes. As you will soon find out, I had fun writing this chapter. *Tehehe* (;

P.S. Sorry for the small Harry Potter reference - I went to Universal Studious yesterday and I got to go on the Harry Potter ride for the first time and I loved it. I also got Luna Lovegood's wand :D I'm just very happy that is all LOL


"This connection we have isn't going away, it's only getting stronger. Because the more I spend time with her, the closer I want to be." ― Simone Elkeles, Perfect Chemistry


Chapter 8: Eyes are the windows to the soul

A few hours later

Imogen walked into Hemlock Grove's small coffee shop with a peaceful smile.

Walking in here always brighten up her mood.

She loved the smell of coffee.

Back when she lived in San Francisco (a place she considered heaven on earth in comparison to Hemlock Grove) she used to go this small Indie coffee shop that was a five minute walk away from her old apartment. She loved it there. It was her favorite hang out spot.

Well, used to be.

Ever since moving to Hemlock Grove, the raven haired girl missed that Indie coffee shop. Or to be more honest with herself, she missed living in San Francisco.

Now it's not to say she didn't like this small town's coffee shop. Imogen had to admit Hemlock Grove's coffee shop was nice and quiet. It had become her safety spot. She felt at complete ease here. Coffee was what got her through the day, and she especially needed a warm doze of caffeine after the hard day she's had so far.

However, whatever ebullient feelings Imogen was having went away as she looked around the coffee shop. It now dawned on her again why she was here. She wasn't here to relax or to read a novel of her choosing...no she was here because she needed to finish her Chemistry assignment with Roman Godfrey of all people.

Readjusting her backpack over her shoulder, Imogen sighed and walked over to the usual table she sat at. Her observations informed her the dark blonde haired boy wasn't here yet. So she was left there to wait for his appearance. It was the exact time they had agreed on to meet, yet he wasn't there. His absence just meant she was going to do the assignment by herself, but she had no problem with that. She couldn't help the feelings of relief she was having.

As she took a seat, Imogen let her backpack slide off her shoulder onto the floor. She unzipped her backpack and took out her Chemistry notebook and pencil. She then opened her notebook to the page she had left off in class. Normally she would have ordered her coffee before sitting down, but for today Imogen decided to finish her assignment first before getting her order. She just wanted to get this done with already.

Just as she was about to start writing again, Imogen was slightly startled. The familiar sound of the door bells go off filled the air. That only meant someone had entered the coffee shop. Even before looking up towards that direction, Imogen already knew who had just entered. However that didn't stop the dumbfounded expression that was being displayed on her face.

With a type of distinct swagger in his steps, Roman made his way to where she was sitting at. "Hey." He said giving her a half-hearted wave once he was standing in front of the table.

Imogen blinked a few times."Hi." She greeted shyly, surprised.

Roman found her astonishment to be cute. He let out a chuckle. "What? You think I'd bail on you?"

I was hoping you would. Imogen cleared her throat and shook her head. "No, not at all."

Roman gestured to her notebook. "Don't tell me you already starting working?"

"Uh...no." Imogen replied, embarrassed. For some reason his question had her feeling quite foolish with herself. Almost as if she had done something silly.

"Good." Roman's gaze went to the front counter and then back to her. "So, what do you want?" The Godfrey boy asked her already knowing her preferred order by heart. Except he couldn't right away order what she liked. That would look suspicious...

Thrown back by his generosity, Imogen looked at him awkwardly. "Oh, that's okay. I don't want anything." She gently protested.

From where he was standing, Roman looked right into her eyes. The same large wide dark set eyes that gave her a distinct look from all the others girls he's crossed paths with. Eyes that he was starting to like more by each passing day. "I'm not taking no for an answer." He said sounding serious. Seeing her cheeks turn a shade of pink under his stare made him want to ravish her more. He, however, controlled himself. He licked his lips, taking a softer approach. "Now what do you want?"

Naturally his intense staring made Imogen blush like crazy. She felt her stomach twist again, but she knew this time it wasn't because of her cramps. Those murky green eyes of his were leaving a heavy impact on her. She fumbled with her response. "Um, a caramel mocha latte."

"Is that all?" Roman amusingly asked. He knew her order wasn't complete. Not without the...

"With extra whip cream." Imogen bashfully told him. Why did that sound so wrong to her? It was a simple request, yet her stomach did another twist and her blushing intensified.

Roman grinned liking her mousy tone of voice. She sounded so embarrassed and innocent. It was absolutely enthralling. "I'll be right back."

Imogen's breathing finally steadied when she watched him leave to get their orders. Once she saw him talking to the female employee behind the counter, she averted her eyes down to the table. She scolded herself for being so affected by him. Damn her shy characteristics and Roman's ability to make her shrink under his potent staring. Besides her introverted personality, she blamed those murky green eyes of his.

Overall she was different. An awkward excuse for a human being. Except she's kind of always been that way. Not so much when she had lived in San Francisco, but ever since moving to Hemlock Grove (after the car accident she was in) her self confidence went down the drain. It didn't help that most of her classmates treated her harshly or how weirdly nice and intense Roman was being to her.

The Godfrey boy was being strangely civil to her.

Imogen had a feeling it was because of the encounter she, him, and Peter had the night before. A night she didn't like to think about that. It might have been an naive thing to do but she wanted to move past that night and forget about it. Except something told her Roman wasn't about to drop anything concerning that night.

The chair next to her being pulled out made her jump a bit. Her thoughts faltered and the grip she had on her pencil loosened as she found herself looking at Roman again. Now that he was sitting down and being sort of the same height, Imogen felt less timid―well, not by a lot.

Roman slid her order of coffee to her along with the muffin he had been skillfully holding in his left hand. He then took a sip of his own order of regular coffee with his right hand. Imogen had to keep her face free from any awe because of how skilled that carrying order for him must have been like. She herself could barely carry two things without her hands shaky from nerves. The sight of her usual order of a caramel mocha latte with extra whip cream made her want to break into a smile. However no smile came, just a bemused expression. A small frown then appeared on Imogen's face from looking at the chocolate pastry next to her coffee. "What's this?"

Roman shrugged his shoulders. "A chocolate muffin." He said stating the obvious before taking another sip from his own coffee.

Imogen huffed. She knew that. She narrowed her eyes at his now sitting form. "I know that. What I mean is why did you get it?" It's not like she wasn't grateful...it just that his kindness seemed kind of iffy. Like there was something more to it...

Roman lowered his cup of coffee onto the table. He gave her a earnest expression, once again shamefully staring deep into her eyes."Chocolate's good for girls when they're on their... you know." He blandly explained to her.

Even with a cool voice, Imogen was still able to point out the teasing underneath his vocal surface. Now unlike with her classmates, she didn't get embarrassed by Roman. No instead she got irritated by the humor that was aimed towards her. And as much as she wanted to lash out, kept her composure...or at least tried to. A few seconds passed with them just staring at each other before Imogen finally decided to end the intense staring match between them.

"Geez, thanks." Imogen muttered, still feeling slightly irked.

Roman gave her a roguish smile. "You're welcome."

With attitude aimed towards him this time, Imogen made a show of ignoring the muffin and instead grabbed her coffee.

This didn't upset Roman at all. He knew him buying her that muffin would annoy herespecially after what he told her about how chocolate is good for her when she's on her period. He couldn't help teasing her a little. The raven haired girl was just too cute for him to not mess with. Besides, it wasn't harsh teasing...to him it was completely harmless. She wasn't crying her eyes out but instead looked completely done with him. Which of course just made Roman want to continue his harmless teasing on her.

Imogen took a sip of her coffee, closing her eyes for a brief second there. The familiar taste of caffeine and caramel filled her mouth. She loved this taste. Her annoyance towards Roman almost went away, but came back with full force when he opened his mouth.

"So, partner." Roman grinned, pleased to see how much she was enjoying the coffee. "Shall we start?"

Blushing, Imogen got back on track. She put her coffee back down and grabbed for her pencil and notebook again. However she looked at Roman again when she gave him a piece of paper and extra pencil to write with...since he didn't bring anything school related with him. Thank God she had the worksheet with her.

Roman gave her what she assumed was a 'thank you' grin, but to Imogen it just made that familiar twist in her stomach return. Without saying else to the Godfrey boy, Imogen focused on the assignment. And even though she wasn't looking his way, the raven haired girl once again could feel Roman's penetrating gaze.


For the next thirty minutes or so they worked silently on their Chemistry assignment. Each of them looked at the worksheet in front of them and did separate problems, dividing the work in half. Fair enough. Well, it should have been but after they had finished, Imogen wanted to double check all their work. As it turns out most of the problems Roman did were wrong. So of course Imogen went back to correct them. And as much as she didn't want to, she found herself explaining to Roman why they were wrong. Essentially offering her help...

It seemed like he was actually listening to her...which was nice.

However, what she wasn't aware of was how Roman was discreetly looking at her lips as she explained the Chemistry problems to him. Her lips that looked so soft and were probably untainted from such intimate acts like kissing. That was something Roman wanted to be the first in doing to her. His attention then traveled to her skin. Well, only to the parts she was showing that is. As he knows know (but doesn't know why) Imogen didn't like showing her skin, and that was something that intrigued and frustrated Roman. There were many times when he wanted to feel her warmth underneath his own hands...like right now. Sadly, touching skin to skin was out of the plan...for now that is.

As Imogen had finished explaining and correcting the last problem, indicating their time together was almost over, Roman decided to do something coquettish with her. It wasn't skin to skin contact, but it was still touching. Slowly he moved his right foot underneath the table, purposely touching one of Imogen's feet.

Feeling his foot touching hers immediately made Imogen jump in her seat. Roman though played the innocent character and didn't move his foot. No, he instead brought it even more closer to her's. "Uh, Roman..." She drawled, blushing. Despite wanting to kick him away from her, she couldn't for the life of her move away.

"Yeah?" Roman replied acting unaware at how flustered he was making her.

Imogen cleared her throat. "Your foot is touching mine."

Roman chuckled dropping his act. "I know."

Imogen felt some of her shyness turn into annoyance again. This time she was able to move her foot away. She gave Roman a hard look while doing so. In return the dark blonde just grinned, his green eyes gleaming with amusement. Imogen huffed before taking one last sip from her coffee, she put the cup down unaware of the whip cream remains that stayed on her lower lip after the sip.

Using this as a opportunity to touch her lips of all places, Roman gently used one of his thumbs to wipe the whip cream off. He then licked the whip cream from his thumb, keeping eye contact with her while doing so. "Hmm." Roman hummed exhilarated that he was tasting something that had been on her lips. He flashed her another one of his grins. "Now that's sweet."

Imogen's mouth opened wide. Her cheeks burned with not only over the top shock, but from intoxicating feelings as well. She stared at the grinning Roman with a dazed look in her eye. "Uh..." She uttered out lamely. What was she supposed to say after that?

Roman, however, just continued the conversation as if nothing had happened.

"So, have you spoken to our friend, Peter?" The Godfrey boy suddenly asked out of the blue.

The way he said friendindicating Peter was his friend too, is what brought Imogen back from her stupor. She narrowed her eyes at him. "He's my friend, not yours."

Roman scoffed at how protective she sounded. "Imogen, after what happened last night with the three of us meeting at the same place, I think it's obvious we've entered friendship territory. So Peter's my friend, just like you're my friend." My special female friend who I want to get to know intimately. Roman licked his lips as he saw her take all this in. When she remained cool and distant, he spoke up again, more earnest. "Look, you can't deny we all have a connection of some sorts with each other. I mean, Peter's something different. You know he is, you can feel it. So, maybe he's a werewolf...just like how you're a witch."

Hot anger flashed through her at that accusation. Not only for Peter, but for herself as well. "I am not a witch." Imogen exasperated to him. How many times was she going to have to say this?

"Come on..." Roman said, deciding to be more forward with her. He felt now was the time to egg her on with his persistence of finding out the truth of what she was. "Tell me a spell. You must at least know one."

He wanted to hear a spell? Okay then...she'll tell him a damn spell.

Deciding to play along, just to amuse him in hopes he would drop the subject, Imogen sighed. "Fine, you want to hear one?" She got a secretive look as she leaned towards him a bit. "Expecto Patronum." She muttered looking right into his eyes.

"What does that mean?" Roman asked, totally fooled by her. That sounded like a real spell to him.

Imogen held her laughter at how excited he appeared to be. "It means..." She lost her artful demeanor and calmly leaned back against her seat. "You don't watch a lot of Harry Potter." She could have sworn he saw Roman's lips curl upwards at that comment, but Imogen didn't want to over analyze it. After she said this, Imogen grabbed their Chemistry assignment and stuffed into her backpack. "I'll be going now." She informed him adjusting her backpack over her right shoulder. "Don't worry about the assignment, I'll turn it in first thing in the morning." She grabbed her empty cup of coffee and threw into the trash can that was next to their table. Imogen then began walking away from the table.

Roman called out her name reluctantly making her stop walking to glance back at him.

"You forgot to eat your muffin." He said knowing that would irk her even more. Roman controlled the full on amusement that wanted to fill his facial features.

Imogen kept her gaze empty from any annoyance. Instead she gave him a neutral look. "You eat it. I hear eating chocolate can also enhance a person's cognitive performance."

And with that being said, Imogen left the coffee shop.

Her witty remark left Roman with a gleam in his eyes and a impressed grin of his face.

It left him pleased knowing he was getting underneath that layered covered skin of hers.