. . .
“Well, I feel
In us the sweet illusions.”
—Giacomo Leopardi
. . .
Winters glanced up at the sound of his deliberately loud voice, an eyebrow raising as she took a slow sip from her drink, never looking away from him (and it’s sometimes seriously unfair how she can make such a simple gesture look so freaking scary and sexy—) while he only smiled innocently as he plopped down on the chair right next to her.
Their knees knocked over each other as he did, no thanks to the too-cramped space but he didn’t mind. “Coffee date?” he teased with wiggling eyebrows, barely hiding a wince at the impact.
Alastor couldn’t quite see her lips because of the coffee mug but her eyes seemed to be smiling, amused. As far as he knows, Winters wasn’t really the smiley type but being a good mood has been rare even for her these past two months after William...
He inwardly shook his head at his thoughts, don’t go there.
“Coffee date,” Winters affirmed.
…so, he’ll count this as a victory.
Anything, to cheer her up, no matter how short.
Small victories and all that.
“Nihongo wa dōdesu ka?” his mate suddenly asked as she lowered her mug, leaning expectantly as she did so.
…and Alastor had to actually stop himself from smirking smugly at the two incensed morons glowering at him from behind the counter before his brain finally registered and scrambled to process what the hell she was saying.
Nihon. Nihongo. Something to do with Japanese. Wait. Japan… Japanese? Could Winters be asking about the language?
Oh.
Oh, right.
(How is your Japanese?)
Alastor didn’t really want to look and sound like an idiot, especially in front of those brats, but Winters seemed to be genuinely curious about how much of a snail he was being with grasping the language (not like he’s letting her know that) so he instantly wracked his brain with an appropriate response―any word will do actually―before he haltingly settled with one of the few words he actually remembered reading from the book:
“Mā… mā…?” (So-so…?)
Winters nodded approvingly.
Fortunately, she said nothing more about the matter or his lame, short-ass response. And Alastor resisted the urge to pump his fist in victory.
Small victories and all that.
“Is Dionysus still there?” she inquired.
“Yeah, said I should go find you to save some ‘poor souls from you’,” Alastor said, with matching air quotes. “…but it’s okay, Win. You can go finish your coffee first.”
“…I just like the smell. You can have it.”
“No, seriously,” he protested, trying to ignore the delicious steam of the latte when she slides it directly over to him, “I’ll just get my own–”
“I should be dealing with the–”
“Pretty sure you meant ‘we’,” Alastor pointed out.
Winters sighed, not even bothering to fight him with that.  So far, Winters hasn’t minded the idea of him tagging along with her on the hunt when he proposed the idea…
Which is good, because Alastor is too damn proud of his skills as a fighter and (he didn’t really like not having his mate within his line of sight these days after… well, after) showing off is also kind of a nice bonus, if he was being honest.
“…You prefer sweetened coffee, right?” she suddenly asked.
Aaaaand Alastor pointedly decided not to pay attention to the way his heart seemed to somersault at the fact she remembered something so insignificant he had only mentioned in passing.
He flushed, “Well, that’s–”
“You’re welcome.”
 “…yeah, okay. Thanks.”
Hiding a sappy grin (that he was definitely sure was on his face right now), Alastor took a sip on her drink. He could have sworn he heard a mournful sigh somewhere behind him.
…Ha.
Are those two still watching?
That’s right, boys. This beautiful goddess over here is his mate… and that, ladies, and gentlemen, was an Indirect kiss™.
It didn’t take too long for Alastor to enjoy the coffee while talking with his mate about some random stuff he’d bring up. And by the time he had finished his drink, they had to leave. Meanwhile, the two teenagers behind the counter seemed so ridiculously sad upon seeing Winters having to actually leave with him.
But Winters, much to Alastor’s mild irritation, suddenly told them over her shoulder in perfectly fluent Japanese (and from what he can tell):
“Thank you for the coffee.”
What was supposedly a slight annoyance must have been quite obvious on his face because Winters gave him an odd glance as they stepped outside the café… Alastor raised his eyebrows questioningly at her when she didn’t even make a move to look away from him as she usually does.
“Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” he joked.
“…What is it?”
Straight to the point as usual, huh?
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking that?” Alastor chuckled, slinging a casual arm around her but not moving to reel her in close just yet, “Anyway, you’re right. Let’s wrap this up quick so we can go grab some dinner. My treat, this time.”
Her brows furrowed as she gave him a confused look, “Why are you thinking about food already? You just ate.”
“Coffee is not food—”
“You ordered donuts,” she reminded him.
“Well, you didn’t eat—”
“I already told you. I don’t need to—”
“Soooo, I was thinking of getting barbecue,” Alastor nodded to himself, then at her, “What do you think? I’m craving barbecue myself…”
Winters hummed at that, side-eyeing his arm around her for a few seconds but fortunately didn’t say or do anything about it as they walked further to the direction of said forest. And as she subtly moved closer to him so that he wouldn’t be stretching his arm quite awkwardly as they walked, Alastor couldn’t help but find it endearing how she used to tense or flinch away from sudden physical contact around him not so long ago.
Now, she seemed to not mind.
Maybe she had gotten used to it…?
Well, apparently, too much exposure to one clingy Alastor Nyx could do that to the goddess of shadows. Alastor had always been quite a touchy-feely sort of person (read: touch-starved) to people he’s grown close and comfortable with.
The moment they stepped into the woods though, Alastor felt more than saw Winters actually stiffen against him, her gloved hand gripping Thanatos, as if a second away from unsheathing it.
He wisely moved his arm off of her.
“Are we really gonna be looking for a ghost? Like… you know, like the one from The Ring?” Alastor jokes, attempting to lighten up the suddenly somber mood.
But the only response he got was her actually unsheathing Thanatos.