I own nothing
Crystals. Lucy always rolled her eyes at the boring name for the shop, but it was still the only place to get stones on the island. It was a large, three story building with shelves upon shelves of every stone imaginable. They were organized by type and priced by size, type, and quality. The one thing that she was grateful for was that despite it being a maze of shelves and the sheer size, they had maps by the door.
There were probably a half-dozen of the maps floating around the house but she never remembered to grab one before leaving.
She had already grabbed the quartz that she needed and was attempting to find the beryl section on the map when someone grabbed her before she could run into a shelf. That didn't stop the basket from dumping.
"Th-" The word stopped before she finished the utterance. Looking down at her with an amused half-smile was Zen. Somehow, she'd forgotten how beautiful his eyes were. "Thanks for saving me. Again."
"You're welcome. I haven't seen you since you snuck out."
Lucy blushed as she said, "Your magic and my magic and we should decide if we wanna be stuck together 'cause I'm not entirely certain that if we had sex that we wouldn't automatically mate and that's really something should be decided while awake and alert and not still partially drunk even though I'm not sure there'd be enough intent there if we were drunk and-"
"You should probably breathe now."
"Right. Um… I need to pick up my stones." They collected the stones. "I can't find the quartz."
"Here, it is," he said, picking it. When he placed it in her palm, his fingers brushed her pulse in wrist. The subtle touch made her heart stutter.
"Thank you," she said again, not caring that she was breathless.
He leaned forward and whispered, "And if you ask, I'll always catch you."
She stood frozen and watched him leave. Once he was out of sight, the adrenaline disappeared and she sat in the middle of the aisle.
.~*~.
While sorting the crystals at home, she realized the quartz was damaged. She picked it for its clarity but now, shot through it were bits of yellow-gold and light gray. Holding it up to the light, she realized the quartz had captured a bit of hers and Zen's magic. It was unusable now, so she set it on her bedside table.