That night, Clover hadn't been able to get the idea of Alastor undressed out of her head.
He'd only made her situation worse by sliding his way into the seat next to her and doing his best to lean into her personal space the entirety of dinner, bumping his knee into hers with each excited twist towards Charlie as the conversation moved to further planning of the upcoming Halloween party. Clover had tried to participate, giving the odd suggestion to include a costume contest here, offering to construct a music playlist for the party there, but otherwise, she'd been too distracted by the man next to her to add anything of substance. It didn't help that she had gotten far tipsier than she'd meant to, filling the void in the conversation and trying to cool the burning beneath her skin with glass after glass of spiked lemonade.
When she stumbled slightly while standing, Alastor had refused to allow her to aid in clearing the table. The firm-but gentle push he'd given her shoulder to place her back into her chair when she'd attempted to continue had rendered her incapable of movement afterward and set a burn beneath her skin that sank into the bottom of her stomach. It was impossible to hear his gentle scolding over the blood that rushed through her ears, Clover focusing on the way his lips pressed against the rim of his glass as he finished off the last bit of drink before moving away to gather the empty glasses from the table. All she could do was watch as everyone else looked after the task of putting their meager leftovers away into the fridge, Clover staring holes into the now-empty table as the phantom feeling of claws pressing into her skin spread through her veins with its liquid heat.
After they'd been shooed out of the kitchen by Niffty, who was adamant that she was the only one allowed to do the actual cleanup, she'd ended up at the bar among friends. Happily taking the glass of dark liquor that was offered to her and commenting that they were all leading her down the path to alcoholism, Clover had attempted to drown her fluttering stomach with a couple more drinks and good conversation.
Needless to say, it didn't help that the conversation was with the smiling demon that her mind was ceaselessly attempting to picture in less-than-appropriate situations.
She was grateful that Cyrus had so graciously given her the evening shift for the rest of the week, needing the extra hours of sleep that it allotted her after the sequence of restless nights that followed. The toy hidden among her underwear in the top drawer of her dresser was taken out during a point of desperation, Clover pacing her bedroom with the cold silicone pressed between her palms as she fought against her urges. She'd nearly given in and retrieved the toy from its new hiding place beneath her pillows when she'd found herself surrounded by shadows, her lucid dreaming tricking her senses into believing the cold chill that brushed across her skin was something more than a simple breeze blowing through her open window.
Why she was fighting against falling into sin was a mystery, but one she couldn't bring herself to solve.
Finally, on the third night spent tossing and turning beneath her sheets, Clover stalked over to said window and cracked it open just enough to allow airflow before she pulled the small roll of paper Cyrus had gifted her from her bedside table. The zippo she used to light the scented candles that burned on her bookshelf was fetched from beside and held to the end of the joint, Clover stuffing a worn t-shirt underneath the small crack in the bottom of the door to keep the scent from leaking out into the hallway. Her silent, solo smoke session did little to help quell the liquid heat that continued to bubble beneath her skin, but it helped relax the tension that had been building between her thighs. Clover floated back into bed a couple of hours later, tucking her now heavy limbs beneath the blankets and falling into the first proper sleep she'd had in weeks.
The next morning, Alastor met her in the lobby, standing quickly from his place at the bar with a sharp rise in radio static as she made her way down the stairs.
"Ah! There you are! I was going to inform you that Rosie shall be expecting us at 5 o'clock sharp if that is alright."
"Sounds good, I'll be off at about four, do you just want to meet at- Uh, near the Colony entrance or…"
Alastor's head tilted fondly at her as she spoke, and she couldn't help but stutter as the motion revealed a sliver of muted skin below his high collar. His eyes darted over her carefully chosen clothing, the second-hand wrap dress swishing around her knees as she shifted her weight between her heels.
"That will be fine, dear." Extending an arm to her, Alastor swept his microphone towards the door with a smile. "Would you allow me to accompany you on your way?"
This was bad, her physical affections for the demon in front of her were growing worse by the hour, but to deny herself the joys of his presence felt counterproductive. She was sure that her carnal desires would exist whether she interacted with Alastor or not, and while spending time with him fueled the fire that was steadily burning inside of her, seeking him out seemed to soothe the ache. It was just the natural order of things for her, the moment she gave into the physicality that had formed alongside her emotional attraction to him, her fate had been sealed. Now she was just playing a waiting game to see what he would do with her.
So, her arm found its place against his, and she looked up at him with a small smile.
"I would love that."
She was thankful for the morning rush, it distracted her from the obsessive romanticism that had begun to feel like a curse upon her mental processes. Phantom touches along the small of her back melted away as sweat rolled down her skin, Clover pushing herself to the limits of her solo abilities as she strived to crush the line of people before they could spill out the doorway and onto the street. Her fingers began to ache as she swept her cleaning rag over any small spot that appeared on her bar top, the cracking of her skin banishing any thoughts of how Alastor's fingers had felt tangled with hers. By the time Cyrus showed up for their overlap in their shifts, she'd run out of things to do. Every corner of the countertop had been cleaned, bills in the cash register had been faced and sorted, every syrup, sauce, or powder had been refilled; She'd done it all to silence her busy mind, and she'd still ended up leaning against the pastry display mesmerized by the visions of dapper demons dancing across her mind's eye.
"...You got a date tonight or s-s-somethin'?"
The reptile's voice beside her ear had startled her out of her thoughts, Clover spinning on her heels. Cyrus smiled from his place leaning over the glass top of their pastry case, his lean from sprawling across it as he looked down at her.
"No."
"You look like you're goin' on a date, is that why you wanted the mornin' shift?" Yellow eyes darted over her attire quickly, lingering on the buttoned collar of the shift she'd worn to hide the skin the neckline of her dress would have otherwise revealed. "Ya' gonna take that off before or-?"
"Probably."
"You woulda' made more tips if you'd've just come to work like that in the first place."
"Cyrus shut the fuck up." Clover tossed her rag into his face, watching as he fumbled to catch it before it touched his skin. He was obviously high, normally diamond-shaped pupils blown out to an almost human size and his movements slowed, which almost excused the invasive questions; Almost. "I'm just having tea with a couple of friends. Nothing too exciting."
"Whatever you s-s-say, doll."
She'd expected Cyrus to disappear into the backroom as he usually did during the overlap of their shifts, but instead, he moved to duck under the flap that separated the bar from the rest of the cafe, his limbs stretching impossibly to squeeze his height beneath it. He stood up again with a small huff, watching as she moved to take their singular customer's refill order and following after her as she began to complete it.
"You, uh- You doin' okay? I never really got to ask you personally, n' you didn't really seem to wanna talk about it after…"
"I'm fine, just- Trying to make things normal again."
Cyrus snorted a laugh, watching as she steamed her milk and waiting for the sound to die off before continuing.
"Normal isn't a thing around here."
"Well, maybe I'll be the first to achieve it."
"Good fucking luck."
Luckily, he'd waited until she'd placed the drink down on the hand-off plane to deliver the half-hearted pat to her head, sending her ears flopping forward into her face. Clover sputtered as she shook them out of her vision, turning around to take a gentle swing against his side and coming up short as he moved away from her once again.
"You want a drink, or are you satisfied with just being an asshole?" Clover called after him, wiping down her machine before it dripped milk onto her clean counters.
"S-s-surprise me, just make it have, I dunno- Zing!"
Sighing at his ambiguity, Clover stared down at her ingredients for a long moment before she moved into action. She fixed two drinks, one for herself and another for the lizard that was currently humming a far-away familiar tune in his office, the oddly low resonance drifting over the soft chiming of the cafe's bell.
"Give me just a sec'," Clover called out over the grinding of the espresso machine, making sure to stir the mix of honey and spice she'd placed in the bottom of their assigned drinkware until it all melted into the golden crema of her espresso. She poured the milk into Cyrus's mug and splashed some cream into her glass before she moved toward the register. "Sorry about that, what can I get started for-"
"Don't worry about it, dolly."
It seemed Clover couldn't catch a break.
"I, uh-" Trying her hardest to pretend that Clover wasn't aware that the person in front of her was the final, missing thorn in her side. "What can I get for you?"
The woman who she now recognized as Velvette gave her a small smile from over the top of the cell phone she was incessantly swiping at. White irises flicked back and forth between Clover and the screen for a moment before the demoness leaned an arm on the countertop and shoved the device toward her.
"I want this, to go, can ya' make it?"
Clover tried her hardest not to seem disturbed by her appearance, fighting to remain poised as she tilted her head at the recipe Velvette was showing her. The incredibly sugary mix-match of flavors alongside the campy drink name, this one called "Sweeter Than Sin", was a familiar sight. Clover pushed her glasses up further on her nose as she squinted at the too-bright screen. It seemed a pretty basic mix-up of flavors, but with incredibly specific instructions, so Clover jotted them down onto the notepad Cyrus kept beside the till. Calculating the price was possibly more difficult than making the drink was going to be, so Clover left off a couple of the added charges in the name of simplicity, reading the tall demoness her total with a smile.
"That cheap, huh?" Velvette grinned, tapping her cell phone on the touch pay device Cyrus had installed just days ago.
"I can't tell if you're sweet or just stupid."
"Just being nice, in case I make it wrong the first time."
Clover could feel her eyes on her as she began to fix the drink, moving aside her half-finished employee creations to the side. She'd barely begun to pump the mixture of syrups into the cup when Velvette spoke again,
"Don'cha' need my name or something, to like, write it on the cup? I wanna post this online, to give this little place a shout-out to my followers, get'cha some business, ya know?"
Striped arm warmers spread across the hand-off as Velvette laid across it, leaning her head into the space beyond the espresso machine to watch as Clover fetched her marker from the pocket of her apron.
Something about the situation made her feel like she was reaching for a loaded gun, her fingers fumbling with the cap as she prepared to defend herself.
"Sorry, we're not super busy so I didn't even think about it. We'd appreciate the advertisement though, thank you." Clover was clinging to her customer service persona like a lifeline, trying her best to maintain her pleasant, unperturbed demeanor. "Now, what's the name?"
"You don't recognize me? I have like, thousands of followers on Sinstagram."
Clover tried her best to hide the twitching that began to twist the corner of her eye with a shrug of her shoulders.
"Sorry, I don't really pay attention to that kind of thing."
"...You're new here, right?"
"New-ish. I'm not quite sure what constitutes being new here, people die every day." This conversation was feeling more loaded by the second and Clover was trying her hardest to defuse it. "Name?"
Eyeing the way Clover kept her marker hovering near the cup's surface, Velvette seemed to finally grow tired of their less-than-witty banter. She lifted herself from the countertop, nimble fingers unlocking her phone so she could go back to scrolling while she spelled.
"Velvette, V-e-l-v-e-t-t-e. Don't get it wrong."
The scraping of a chair from the office signaled that Cyrus had finally realized the threat that had once again entered his café. Clover didn't dare look towards the sound, not even as Velvette turned towards the addition to the room with a fanged, flirtatious grin.
"Do you want me to write your username too?" Clover asked, hoping to hold her attention and signal her high-strung superior that there was no need to ring any alarms; Not yet.
Velvette turned back to her with what she supposed could have been a genuine sparkle to her smile, her pigtails whipping around her shoulders as she bounced on her heels.
"Now you're catchin' on!"
Using her best handwriting, Clover wrote down the handle Velvette read off to her and quickly got to work on making the drink. The beverage made Clover's palette ache, the swirl of white chocolate and excess of caramel too much for even her sugary tastes. Tossing her blender onto its rinser after topping the iced beverage with a layer of sweetened milk foam, Clover carefully dusted the top with a line of cinnamon sugar before handing it off to the waiting Overlord.
Velvette regarded the drink with a small quirk of her brow while Clover stood waiting for her to try it, just in case. She was positive that she'd done it correctly, but if she'd learned anything from years in customer service, it was that sometimes a job well done wasn't enough for those who came looking for trouble.
Even so, she wasn't expecting what came next.
"Smile!"
Before she could even think to refuse, Velvette spun around and snapped a photo with her front-facing camera. Through the blooming color the flash had blossomed across her vision, Clover caught a glimpse of the photo among the familiar buttons of the Sinstagram story options, the coffee shop's location tagged with lighting-fast precision alongside a vacant but quirky caption before it began its upload into the endless depths of social media. Clover's dumbfounded expression was clear in the uppermost left corner, Velvette making a small heart with her thumb and forefinger just below where her beverage sat in the frame.
"Wait, I didn't agree t-"
"This is great! See you around!" Velvette called over her shoulder, her drink dangling from her fingertips as she unceremoniously nudged the door open with her hip. She was gone before the door had time to shut.
"...That can't be good."
Cyrus's voice came from somewhere near the cash register, exactly where she found him when she turned around. Clover sighed, running her fingers through her bangs and pulling at them for good measure before she turned back to her espresso bar to finish their coffees. She could feel Cyrus watching her, catching blonde hair barely brushing the countertop out of the corner of her eye as he leaned into the bar space. It felt best to ignore him until she was ready, funneling her anxious energy into creating an acceptably soothing drink for them both before approaching whatever conversation he was preparing for her. The leftover sweetened cold foam from Velvette's monstrosity of a midday pick-me-up was deposited on top of her drink, Clover grating nutmeg alongside a piece of candied ginger she'd brought in to add to teas on top of their drinks before setting Cyrus's mug in front of him.
The lizard looked down at it with a small smile, his sigh fluttering off into a chuckle as he brought it to his lips and took a small sip before speaking.
"Do you want me to call the Ra-"
"No, it's fine. I'll tell him tonight when I see him."
She didn't mean to sound so irritated, even if she was. What was supposed to have been a good day was quickly turning sour and Clover drowned the flavor that was developing with a long sip of her pleasantly spiced coffee, humming softly as it settled the buzzing beneath her skin. The silent scenario they settled into was almost soothing, the two demons standing beside each other sipping their coffee to the melodic strumming of a guitar while the world outside whizzed by.
It was too bad her boss was what she would call, affectionately, an asshole.
"So you are going on a date," Cyrus muttered into his coffee, long tongue licking the whipped cream that had stuck to his nose after an especially deep drink.
Clover did her best to glare at him as she continued to suck on her straw, watching as he missed the spot that was stuck just below his bottom lip time and time again.
"I hate you."
Cyrus chuckled, wiping away the offending spot with his sleeve.
"No, you don't."
(We stan Cyrus)