(Lohen x Hexenzirkel apprentice!fem!reader, reader wears makeup, lohen and reader knew each other at childhood, yearning on Lohen's side, lohen pov, indirect kissing, I wanted to experiment with writing a softer lohen so uh here we are, also written at 1 am, please ignore the ooc and any other mistakes)
"So, how has being Vice Captain been so far?"
Lohen looked at you, the various desserts surrounding your cup of tea, and back at you again only to shrug, his own fingers gripping the porcelain cup. He already finished his tea from the cup you gave him, and the two of you had been sitting in a comfortable silence until you finally talked.
See, before Lohen's inevitable encounter with the Doctor, he did surprisingly have a normal childhood. Albeit, he doesn't remember much since he was less than ten at that time, nor does he care to since mourning the past has never really been his thing. However, one of the things from that lost childhood was you, who, if he were to recall with the best of his abilities, he had a mild crush on by only watching from afar.
Now, past crushes were past crushes. He could admit that you were pretty and all, but he was sure that the two of you had moved on from each other. It's been years! He doesn't even know if you knew he existed or not.
That is, right up until you nearly crashed into him while running away from Alice, begging him to hide you so that you wouldn't go along with her crazy whims. And right after that, when the coast was clear, you even invited him to a tea party as an apology for being so rash in your "first" meeting. In any case, it wasn't as if he couldn't, I mean, what normal person gets to mingle with a person associated with the Hexenzirkel no less? Not him, so he'd planned to use the opportunity to find out more about the witches.
That is, until the tea parties continued for a few more months.
You'd randomly leave through a self created portal in the midst of the party sometimes, claiming you need to "save Miss Nicole from killing herself in her wildly unnecessary excursions again". It may take a few weeks, or only a few days, but you'd always come back bearing gifts like a brand of poison that still hadn't appeared in the black market or a dagger with a different alloy used for its blade.
He didn't know when he started to keep them as memoirs instead of just tools for killing in his lodging.
So now, he's at another tea party, bored out of his mind (not really) and scrutinizing your easy smile that left his throat dry and clothes feeling quite too tight for his unusually stiff posture.
"Tell me, is working under Miss Nicole as hectic as you always make it out to be?"
A giggle escaped your throat, jostling the tea you held in your palms and he wished he could commit that sound to memory. "She's an... Adventurous spirit, but that's what I like about her. It is kinda annoying that she gets stuck in Sumeru trying to run away from a tiger at the most inopportune of times, but I respect her as my mentor."
Adventurous spirit eh? He wonders how you'd react if he told you that he was an adventurer once.
A ring erupted from your dodo communication device, and your brows furrowed with perhaps the most irritated of expressions that you could muster up without ruining your makeup. You picked up the phone, mumbled a few disgruntled sounds, put it back and shot him with an apologetic look.
"My apologies, Miss Alice seems like she needs help with something now..."
You stood up, taking your briefcase with you. "Take care, I'll bring something to make up for lost time!"
When the words "no need" began to form on his mouth, you had already left, and he could only sigh into his chair. He looked back at your tea cup, still filled to the brim with steaming hot tea even after the two of you had talked for an hour by now. His eyes narrowed at the brim, and he realized that you had indeed drawn a spell to keep refilling it. Though, the cup was losing some of the heat it retained for a while, it was because it was smudged by-
He blinked at the color of the rouge for a moment. It had become desaturated from mixing with the black pigment of the spell, but he could still tell the color was your signature one that you carried alongside your face like a second mask.
Somehow, without even realizing it, he had already brought the rapidly cooling cup closer to his face. He could swear all he wants that it was just to observe the craftsmanship of the porcelain, but he, Adorno, Theodore, heck, anyone who could spare a single glance at him could tell that he cared naught for such mundane detailing.
He can't deny the perverse feeling coiling in his gut when he pressed his lips against the rouge stained tea cup too.
The color, though splotchy, transfered onto his lips pretty easily like wet paint, and yet, despite it all he still lightly swiped his tongue over his lips to have a taste of your preferences. No matter if the color was just for aesthetics and tasted like absolute shit, he's still observing it like an alchemist with their craftsmanship.
Then, somehow not surprisingly enough, a smile broke out of his face.
Well, kid him, though he couldn't remember much, certainly had good taste when choosing the object of his fancy. After all, infatuation always works a second time around, right?
