Cyan P.O.V.

"You should have backed up and accidentally hit him with the car," I say after dropping the sentient shit stain along the curbside. Should have left him closer to the trash where he belongs if you ask me.

"It wouldn't have been an accident if I did it on purpose," Arline argues.

"That's what lying is for."

Arline rolls her eyes, although her lips twitch upwards slightly. "I've got a few items for school I need to pick up. What do you need?"

"Some equipment for the lab," I reply, then cross my arms and grumble. "Because that fumbling nincompoop snuck into my lab the other day to talk--"

"And you blew shit up? Yeah, I heard from Draven."

I squirm at the mere mention of his name, then glance curiously at her out of the corner of my eye. "What did he say... about that?"

"Nothing, just that you caused another fire hazard."

Of course. As if Draven would have anything more to say. He's probably relieved that he hasn't been waking me up anymore. I'm a useless thing off his ever growing list.

Rather than think about the bastard who takes up way too much space in my head to begin with, I gesture towards an upcoming street and say, "If you take that street, you can drop me off on the next block and I'll get what I need."

Arline takes one glance at said street, spots a plethora of graffiti and dirty pamphlets on the walls, and shakes her head. "I'm not leaving you in a dangerous part of town on your own."

Gasping, I flutter my eyelashes at her and proclaim, "Aw, you do care about me! As sweet as that notion is, I am perfectly capable of handling myself. No need to worry your pretty little head--ouch!"

Arline slapped me upside the head. I rub my poor abused noggin while she huffs, "If something happens to you while we were meant to be together, Lore will be pissed. Specifically at me." She waves her hand ahead of us. "Just come with me to get a few things, then we'll take the scenic route and maybe grab something to eat before heading over to your freaky science shops."

"They aren't freaky. You're just stupid--ouch! Stop hitting me!"

"Stop being annoying!"

"Your fucking face is annoying!"

This goes on for a further five minutes before we reach our first destination. I follow Arline into a shop where she has already informed the owners about our arrival. She stands at the counter chatting with the young girl who brought up some updated textbooks while I peruse the shop.

A textbook on divinity catches my attention. And by attention I mean the intense need to burn it. There are far too many of these biased texts forced out by the church while others that simply use the word magic or mana are condemned. What a load of bullarky.

"Gah!" I jolt back in surprise from a gentle touch against my arm. A worker stares at me in concern, retreating his hand while donning a polite smile, which makes him even easier on the eyes.

"My apologies, I was calling for you, but you didn't seem to hear me. I just wanted to ask if you needed help with anything," he says. Although he didn't touch my skin, I still get an insistent urge to scratch. It's worse with strangers, especially when I haven't been going out very often.

"Uh, no, I was just looking." I swiftly put the book back where I found it before I cause a fire hazard here too. "Sorry, I was a little lost in thought there."

"That's quite alright. Happens to me all the time." The stud of a shop worker doesn't leave. He looks me up and down. I never know if I like or dislike the attention. It's a strange combination of wanting it while also being utterly terrified of the implications.

"Are you interested in magic?" He asks, gesturing at the book I previously held.

"A bit."

He smirks. "That look you had says it's more than a bit."

"Well, not to sound too egotistical, but I would describe myself as a bit of an eccentric mage with a plethora of fine skills."

Hottie here laughs. That makes me nervous, and regretful, because what the fuck do I expect to happen? Stand here and flirt with him until one of us asks the other out for a drink where I'll inevitably tell him that I can barely stand the touch of another, let alone whatever he, and honestly I, have our minds on.

"Cyan," Arline calls, coming to my rescue whether she realized it or not. I glance back to find her with the textbooks in a bag. She gestures at the door. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I'll be right there." I face the shop worker who offers a polite smile when I wave and back away. "Have a nice day."

"You too." Before he can consider asking anything, I rush after Arline and head out the door. She puts the books in the backseat. I hop into the passenger side.

"You're doing it again," she states when getting into the driver's seat.

I stare at her, puzzled. She points at my arm where I'm furiously scratching at the spot the hot shop worker barely touched me. Although my reactions used to be much worse, as in scrubbing my own skin off kind of worse, from time to time I still get like this. On a bad day when someone happens to brush by me, I'm itching all afternoon. Sometimes even the kids grasping my hands, wanting absolutely nothing more than to walk down the hall with me, makes me rub my hands raw under a faucet. I fucking hate it. And I fucking hate myself for doing it.

It takes all my will power to drop my hand. Arline knows it too. It's why she removed some packing paper from the bag to hand to me. Keeping my hands busy helps me forget. I pick the paper apart, shredding it into tiny pieces so ferociously that I'll run out in seconds, but then Arline says, "Be careful or Draven might get jealous."

"What shit are you spewing now?" I huff, resting the wrinkled paper in my lap.

Arline scoffs. "Don't play dumb. I saw you flirting with that guy earlier. I guess you have a thing for vampires, huh?"

"I'd smack that smirk off your face if it didn't risk getting us into a wreck. This face of mine is too pretty to scar." I grumble, then notice Arline's smirk growing until it hits me. "And I don't have a thing for vampires! The shop guy just happened to be a hot vampire, which isn't even that unusual. You guys are stupidly blessed when it comes to your looks."

She sits a little taller and beams brightly. "While that is very true, my statement still stands. Draven will be very jealous to learn you were cheating on him."

"How can I be cheating on him when there's nothing between us? Not to mention, we aren't even talking right now."

Arline clicks her tongue in a very disbelieving manner. Her tone even mirrors the sound; "Officially dating or not, you two have some weird unspoken thing that has been going on for too long. Get over yourselves and date already."

"There is no unspoken thing!" I bellow. Although there is an Unspeakable Incident that has caused this misunderstanding.

"Besides, you seem to be forgetting who you are speaking about. Draven, the emotionless Draven who drives us both mad. He doesn't have feelings for anything, especially not romantic ones and especially not towards me. Who in their right mind would want to date someone who can't stand most physical contact? Who wants to scratch their skin off from a mere touch and can't kiss, let alone fuck?" I'm tearing up the paper again then crushing it all into a little ball while wishing I could do the same to my feelings. Crush them. Toss them out the window. Maybe dunk them into a tub of acid. Something to get rid of them once and for all.

"First off, not everyone is interested or desires physical contact in a relationship," Arline lectures, which may or may not ease the overwhelming dread and disgust growing in my gut. "Second off, Draven isn't as emotionless as you think, especially towards you. Need I remind you how often he keeps his eye on you?"

"Because he treats me like a child."

"And yet he doesn't watch over the actual children like he does you because you--" she taps my nose and giggles. "Are special."

"Don't say special with that weird tone."

"Special," she repeats, laughing. "Hey, let's grab lunch. My treat for getting you all riled up."

"I hate how you treat me like an animal and expect food to be an acceptable form of an apology."

"Are you saying no to free food?"

"Do I look like an idiot to you? Of course not!" I huff and she laughs.

I wish free food was enough to clear my head, but even as Arline and I bicker over a meal, I think back on what she said.

Draven, jealous of me? As if. He had his chance to show he felt anything for me other than a forced acquaintanceship and he chose to keep things as they've always been. I'm nothing more than a hindrance to his life, someone he watches out of duty. Not respect or even care. I'm nothing to him... I just wish he could hurry up and be nothing to me too.

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We've got another Cyan chapter! He's fun to write lol What do you think about Cyan's aversion to physical contact and how he feels about it? How are we feeling about his complicated relationship with Draven? ;D I'm planning to add a lot more about these two eventually so prepare yourselves~