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“Big things are coming, Scorpio.” Lando scoffs to himself as he almost violently refreshes Co-Star. “Oh, that’s bullshit, that is. ‘Big things’ could mean literally anything!”
Someone behind him clears their throat, startling him. With a very manly scream, Lando flails as his chair, which was already precariously balanced on two legs, tips backward and dumps him onto the floor in a vaguely witch-shaped pile. His phone somehow bounces off of his face, which just adds damage to his pride.
“Lando?” A familiar face appears over the counter to stare at him. “You alright?”
“Oscar!”
Scrambling to his feet and brushing himself off, Lando puts on his most winsome smile and holds back a wistful sigh. Oscar looks as nice as ever, especially with that adorably concerned expression on his face. Concern for Lando. Ugh, he’s swooning.
“I’m fine, but more importantly, what brings you back here?”
Oscar fixes him with a blank look. “Clearly, I have to make sure you haven’t managed to kill yourself every once in a while.”
How romantic.
Lando leans forward on his elbows. “I mean, for a non-believer, you’re here pretty frequently. Or have you finally changed your mind? My love potions are the best in the country for a reason.”
Technically, love potions are considered dark magic—they’re in the same category as curses and things like that because they can potentially take away one’s autonomy—and having those available for purchase technically categorizes the metaphysical supply shop as illegal. But Lando never claimed to be the strictest follower of rules anyway.
As for his being a witch, he would keep it a secret from other supernaturals and humans alike, but he’s terrible at keeping secrets, and Oscar’s just the sweetest guy. Not to mention, he’s very much convinced that Lando is just keeping up a farce because magic surely cannot exist when there’s science—humans and their silly beliefs—and that he might be a little crazy in the head.
Lando is perfectly capable of being crazy and a witch at the same time, thank you very much.
“Ehh,” Oscar says with a shrug, in lieu of a proper response. He picks up a crystal and examines it. “What’s this one allegedly for?”
“Green aventurine is for luck,” Lando recites. This is stuff he learned a decade ago, before he left the nest to find himself and settle in. His mother made sure that he and his siblings knew the basics of witchcraft like the back of their hands.
“Luck… I could use some of that,” Oscar mumbles to himself. He shakes his head, and the swoop of his hair bounces with the motion.
Lando tilts his head curiously. “Why? Project gone wrong?”
“Something like that. Nobody’s listening to my ideas, and everyone keeps brushing me off. Just because I’m the newest member of the team doesn’t mean I’m fucking dumb!” Oscar throws his arms into the air for extra emphasis before sheepishly lowering them back down to his sides. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to blow up in front of you.”
Oh, Lando doesn’t mind at all. He was actually busy eyeing the stretch of Oscar’s sleeves around his biceps, and he coughs once to hide the fact that his eyes enjoy straying a bit too much. “Don’t apologize, Osc. Y’know, when I was a fledgling witch, everyone doubted my abilities too, but then I brewed the most discreetly potent uglifying potion known to my kind and slipped it in one of the coven elders’ tea. He had warts in places I don’t even want to think about, and he couldn’t sit properly for days.”
“Hm. Too bad I can’t just give my boss warts.”
“Hah, you definitely can. That brown bottle on the shelf behind you contains just enough for one dose. Just make sure you don't get caught.” Lando looks Oscar up and down. “Yeah, nah, you wouldn’t stand out at all. Can’t guarantee you’ll be respected any more, but at least your boss would suffer.”
“Thanks,” Oscar replies dryly. He looks skeptical at best, but he places the bottle on the counter next to the aventurine. “I’ll take one of these then. And maybe this crystal too. For luck, apparently.”
Lando claps his hands in excitement because what a development this is! Oscar has never bothered with purchasing anything from his shop before! “Perfect! Let me wrap these up for you, and you can just put as much as you think your goods are worth in the till for me.”
“That can’t be a good way to run a business,” Oscar remarks as he digs through the pockets of his unforgivable drawstring jeans and comes up with a twenty-pound note. “You don’t take card?”
“Oh, I do. I just knew you had cash in your pocket, so.”
“Huh.”
“Sometimes, I send the customer along their way without asking for money in return, and when they come back because they always come back, I ask for payment based on how satisfied they are,” Lando adds. He drops the neatly wrapped parcel with the giant purple bow directly into Oscar’s waiting hands and maybe lets their fingers brush. Just for a moment. “It’s not like sourcing objects and ingredients is that expensive, anyway. Well, unicorn horns and dragon scales are near impossible to find these days, but I don’t use those as often. It’s unethical too.”
Oscar blinks at him in disbelief. He does that a lot. “Um, okay, whatever you say, Lando. I’ll be back next week either way, whether you’re scamming me or not.”
“You just say the sweetest things, Oscar!” Lando chirps, and the blush that colors Oscar’s cheeks is payment enough for a lifetime’s worth of sage bundles and love potions.
As soon as Oscar walks out the door, Lando folds himself into his chair, letting it tip backwards to rest on two legs instead of four once again. Perhaps Co-Star will give him a better reading now.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
“Your life is about to change, Scorpio.” The app crashes on Lando, who is incredibly tempted to chuck his phone across his shop. “Frickin- update? I just updated it yesterday! Useless piece of shit-”
“I hope you’re not talking about your supplies. Or me, for that matter.”
Lando glances up, pleasantly surprised to see the object of his interest peering at him. Ooh, he's in his leather jacket today too. Delicious. “‘Hi, Lando. How ya goin’, mate?’” he mocks in a terrible Australian accent.
“I don’t say that.” Oscar rolls his eyes for good measure. “But hi, Lando.”
“And the loveliest of hellos to you, Oscar. How’s your boss?”
He shrugs. “No idea. She didn’t come in at all this week. Kept nagging us through the online portal, though.”
Lando hums thoughtfully. The lady was probably too horrified by the results of the uglifying potion to even show her face. “And did the crystal work?”
“No idea,” Oscar repeats before his face suddenly brightens. For a man of so few words sometimes, his facial expressions so easily betray his emotions. “I did get another assignment, though. They want me to lead the next project because they ended up testing something I suggested last week, and to everyone’s surprise, it actually worked.”
It’s rare that Oscar says so much at once, but he continues detailing this new thing he’s working on, which Lando can very confidently say he knows nothing about. Engineer-y, science-y things that have nothing to do with alchemy tend to fly right over his head.
“I’m probably boring you,” Oscar says, gauging the blank look in Lando’s eyes. There’s a twist to his mouth when he gestures to the incense burning on the counter and points out, “I guess our interests don’t exactly align.”
“You’re not boring me!” Lando quickly exclaims. “I just have no idea what you’re talking about, but, um, I like listening to you talk…?” His voice trails off into a meek little thing at the end. “And how boring would it actually be if we were interested in the same exact things? I wouldn’t get to tell you all about the uses of all these different crystals and impress you with my bountiful knowledge of witchcraft, and you wouldn’t get to impress me with all your fancy friction and force things.”
“That’s basic physics, Lando.”
“Which I never had to study!” he protests. “I’m also very easy to impress.”
Oscar looks at him so fondly, it hurts. “I’ll still try my hardest.”
“Yeah, you do that,” Lando mumbles, sniffing haughtily to mask the way his heart flutters at Oscar's words. He checks his phone, notices that it’s still updating Co-Star, and promptly throws it over his shoulder and definitely doesn’t wince when it crashes into something. Oscar, on the other hand, jumps and stares with his brown eyes wide.
“Did today's horoscope reading piss you off or something?”
“It keeps telling me the vaguest bullshit!” he whines. “How am I supposed to let it guide me on a day-to-day basis when it won’t tell me anything useful?”
“I mean, you can always just… not?”
Lando gasps, affronted. “No, no, mate, I’m not taking advice from someone who doesn’t believe in horoscopes.”
“Do what you will, then,” Oscar says with a sigh. “I’m just saying that my life is perfectly fine without an app dictating my every action.”
“And mine isn’t,” Lando retorts. He’s trying to get the love of his life to maybe look at him in a way that isn’t only friendly, for fuck's sake, and he hasn’t the slightest idea how to begin, so naturally, he looks to the stars for guidance. “But enough of that. Aside from letting me know that the potion and crystal worked-”
“I didn’t tell you that.”
“-and wanting to see more of my beautiful face-”
“You are really pretty, yes.”
“-what are you here for?” After a beat, Lando makes a flustered noise and flaps his hands at Oscar, who looks quietly amused at his antics. “You can’t just say things like that, Osc! I’m fragile.”
“The truth, you mean? Fine, I’ll lie next time.”
Lando blinks. Next time!
A blush is slowly settling into Oscar’s cheeks at Lando’s continued silence, and he reaches up to scratch the back of his neck. “Um, you mentioned love potions last week? Hypothetically, if you’re not making things up, how do they work, exactly?”
Lando blinks again. “Love potions? The hell do you need those for?”
“Irrelevant,” Oscar immediately answers. And then, “I’m just curious.”
Refusing to think too much into it, Lando clasps his hands together and begins, “Well, I won’t tell you the specifics on how to brew a love potion because I don’t want to risk a non-witch attempting it and fucking it up. A fucked up love potion bears serious consequences, and my shop is already ‘illegal’ enough without others getting seriously harmed in the process.” He tips forward in his chair and uncrosses his legs for good measure. “You spike exactly four drops into the drink or food of whoever you want in love with you. Hm, have you studied basic chemistry?”
“Of course I have. But what does that have to do with love potions?” Oscar asks, and he looks properly curious now.
“Turns out we do have something in common! Except I was tutored by an alchemist… anyway. Administering a love potion is like doing a tie... what is it?"
"A titration?"
Lando snaps his fingers and points at Oscar, who blinks at him, bemused. "Yes! A titration- 's not exactly the same, but the accuracy needed is still there. Any less than four drops results in infatuation, more than four results in obsession. If that person is already in love with you, four drops won’t exactly do anything, can’t make someone fall in love with you if they already are, but more or less than that will still put a problem in your hands. Love potions are virtually undetectable, which makes them so dangerous, and how potent they’re made determines how long they last.”
Oscar exhales. “Whew.”
“Mhm. I keep the things that could get me in trouble off the shelves, so if you ever need a love potion, you should let me know beforehand, and I’ll brew a fresh one just for you.”
“I don’t have your number, though. Or do witches communicate by smoke signals?” Oscar asks, sarcasm bleeding into his voice.
“No, silly. Smoke signals are for wizards.” Lando produces a pen from the pocket of his apron and neatly scrawls a series of digits across a sheet of purple stationery. “You've been coming by for over a year, and you've never asked me for my number? I don't know if I should be offended or not... and wait, you’ve literally seen me use my phone!”
Ah. Speaking of his phone. He grimaces and slides off his chair to look for his phone, cursing out loud when he sees that the screen is cracked and that there’s a dent in the corner. It’s nothing a little repair spell can’t fix, but it did also leave a sizable hole in the display case behind him, and now there are glass shards on his amulets.
Oscar nods at the phone. “Right. Good luck with that. I’ll see you next week?”
“Count on it, Osc.”
Lando hates to see him leave, but watching him go is always a pleasure, especially when he drives his motorcycle here instead of walking from wherever he works, presumably. As Oscar mounts his bike and revs the engine, Lando sucks his bottom lip between his teeth while he carefully observes through the window. It’s terribly attractive.
Motorized vehicles have nothing on his fastest broom—why remain grounded when he can fly instead—but he isn’t terribly picky about what he rides… not like that, oh my God.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
“Things will get worse before they get better, Scorpio.” At least it’s something substantial this time, but Lando doesn’t feel very comforted about his predictions today. He pockets his phone and shuffles over to the shelves near the back, humming to himself as he lights a stick of incense and sneezing when the smoke gets in his nose.
Everything gets dusted and put in its proper place. Little jars of oils are gently set out on the shelves, and bundles of sage and other herbs are stacked in neat piles. It’s not the most glamorous part about owning this shop, but it's peaceful, and Lando likes these small tasks as much as he does making potions and performing rituals.
“Lando?”
“I’m back here!” he calls out, smiling when he spots that familiar head of fluffy brown hair weaving between the displays. “How can I help you today, Osc?”
“Hey.” Oscar glances around. “It’s a lot bigger than I thought back here.”
“Ooh, that’s what he said. But yeah, you’ve only ever been in the front of the shop, and I don’t blame you because that’s usually where I am,” Lando responds with a cheeky little wink.
“Uh huh. This is me letting you know that I’d like a love potion, by the way. And before you ask, I didn’t try texting the number you gave me because knowing you, you probably wrote the wrong one by accident. I didn't want to call someone that isn't you and risk sounding insane by asking for a love potion.”
“...”
“No offense!”
Lando brushes Oscar aside along with his slightly wounded pride and swans over to his work bench in a flurry of black fabric. “Take a better look around,” he sniffs, feigning hurt. “I won’t be long.”
Oscar opens his mouth, like he wants to say something else, before closing it with a snap and nodding. Hopefully he’s aware that nothing he can possibly do or say would ever make Lando truly upset with him.
Hm, that’s a lie.
He could request a love potion because he’s in love with someone who isn’t Lando and wants his affections returned. And Lando loves him too much to deny him that request, especially since Oscar rarely asks anything of him, so he begins gathering ingredients from various jars for a love potion.
“Stupid, cute boy,” he mutters under his breath as he takes his trusted knife out. “I’d do so much for him, and he doesn’t even believe in magic… wait.”
Oscar doesn’t even believe in magic. Lando can work with that.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
“It’ll all be okay soon, Scorpio.” Lando stares at the words on his cracked phone screen, wondering whether he should trust today’s horoscope reading or not. Co-Star hasn’t exactly been wrong, per se, but it really needs to stop making him read between the lines. He’s dyslexic, for fuck’s sake!
The matter of Oscar’s love life still weighs heavily on his mind, along with the guilt of sending him home with a vial that doesn’t contain a dose of love potion at all. A placebo, if you will. Lando did brew an actual love potion just in case he couldn’t follow through with his own stupid plan—tricking Oscar was far more difficult than anything he has ever faced—but he still ended up handing him a bottled up shot of vodka instead. It’s clear enough and odorless enough to resemble a love potion. The thing is, he had the completed potion in his cauldron and everything, the most potent one he’s ever brewed, yet he selfishly couldn’t bring himself to give up the love of his life just like that.
His actions may make Oscar hate him if he ever finds out, but he’s willing to take his chances.
The bell tinkling merrily fishes him out of his misery, and he wearily lifts his head off of the counter to greet whoever just came in with the fakest cheery voice he can muster.
To his dismay, Oscar is the one who peers back at him with a worried look on his face. It’s a really nice face. Too bad Lando isn’t the one who gets to stare at it for the rest of his life.
“Are you okay?”
No. “Yeah, everything’s mint.”
“That’s debatable because you don’t look okay.”
Really. What gave that away? Lando lets his head thunk back onto the counter. “Didn’t sleep at all last night. Was thinking about too many things… and I hate thinking!”
Oscar makes a sympathetic noise. “Anything I can do to take a couple of those things off your mind?”
“You can tell me what’s in that bag.”
As if suddenly remembering that he’s holding something, Oscar sets a small paper bag on the counter. He nudges it encouragingly towards Lando, who probably looks like a deer caught in headlights at the moment.
“My family’s visiting from Melbourne,” he explains. “My grandma likes baking, and she couldn't make the flight, so she made my parents bring me some stuff too. They’re rum balls—non-alcoholic ones, despite what the name suggests.”
“Oh.”
“I mean, I know you don’t have as much of a sweet tooth as I do, but they’re good, I promise, and-”
To save Oscar from embarrassing himself any further, Lando bites into one and chews, all under far too much scrutiny. He swallows. “Jesus, you don’t have to stare at me like that. Makes me too nervous to eat.”
“Sorry,” Oscar says, glancing away. “Are you feeling better now?”
“Maybe.” It was a sweet gesture. Lando frowns at the remaining half of the brown sweet in his hand, examining it. “Are you sure it’s non-alcoholic?”
“Yeah, why?”
“It… burned like alcohol does. Oscar, I told you that witches are sensitive to alcohol. And seafood. Did you-” Clocking the lack of a distinct alcoholic taste, he puts two and two together, and his eyes widen at what might be going on. If his assumptions are right, he should be more offended than he currently is—he would be if anyone aside from Oscar attempted to feed him a potion—but all he feels is elation and a tiny spark of hope. “Osc, I need you to be super honest with me, and I’ll be super honest too.”
Oscar looks a bit nervous now, but he nods reluctantly. “Sure.”
“Did you, by any chance, spike this with the ‘love potion’ I gave you last time?” Lando asks, trying to keep his voice neutral. Unfortunately, he has never been as good at doing that as Oscar, so a bit of excitement bleeds into it.
“I’m sorry, I-”
“Shh. It’s fine. Seriously. Better than fine, actually, if it was intended for me. I suppose I should apologize too.”
“Huh?”
Lando paces back and forth and bites his nails, but as soon as he drops his hands, a torrent of words come flooding out of his mouth. “I didn’t really give you a love potion. And even if it was a real potion inside that bottle, the witch that brews the potion would be the first to notice its presence, so I would've known immediately if you were trying to give me my own brews. Forgot to tell you that bit. Sorry. In fact, all this is what’s been on my mind recently. Just me being a selfish idiot. But, ugh, I couldn’t think about anything other than you being in love with someone who isn’t me because they won’t love you like I love you- wait, you are in love with me, right?”
Finally, Oscar’s expression settles back into one of calm exasperation. Familiar ground. “Yes, Lando. I’m so in love with you that I asked you for a love potion that I didn’t think would actually work to use on you because I was that desperate. And it looks like we’ll never find out because it wasn’t a love potion to begin with.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that none of this is a farce?” Lando cries, throwing his hands into the air in frustration. “I’ll spend the rest of my life convincing you that I'm a frickin' witch if that’s what it takes- mmph! ”
He’s rudely interrupted by a pair of hands yanking him forward by the front of his apron and a pair of lips pressed firmly to his. Oh.
Before Lando can even react, Oscar pulls away, red-cheeked and breathing deeply. “Erm.”
Helpless to do anything else, Lando makes a noise in the back of his throat because he loves this dumb, smart boy enough to drag him into another kiss. It’s better this time, their lips slotting together perfectly. After a moment of hesitation, Oscar puts his hands on Lando’s waist to pull him closer, and Lando, made clumsy by the warm mouth on his, helplessly stumbles and falls into his chest. They nearly knock over a shelf full of candles.
“Please be my boyfriend,” he gasps in between kisses. "Oh God, please."
Oscar smiles against his lips and runs a gentle hand up his back. “I honestly thought you were never going to ask.” Another kiss. “I thought I was being obvious about how I feel about you, but turns out you’re just oblivious.”
“Hey!” Lando protests, stepping backwards. He still ends up very much trapped in the circle of Oscar’s arms. No complaints there. “Okay, fine, maybe I am, but Co-Star didn’t prepare me for you potentially loving me back. Though when I think about it, it didn’t prepare me for much at all…”
A faint shattering sound by Oscar’s feet makes them both look down, nearly bumping their heads together in the process. Green shards litter the carpet, remnants of a crystal that has been drained of its beneficial properties.
“Was that your aventurine?”
Oscar feels around in his pocket and raises an eyebrow when he comes up empty. “Huh, I suppose it was. Must’ve used up all its luck." He smiles and kisses Lando's cheek. "Eh, it’s not like I need any more of that when I already have everything I could possibly want.”
And, oh, that is by far the most romantic thing that Lando has ever heard, and he covers his face to hide how giddy Oscar's words make him feel. He peeks between his fingers and tilts his head questioningly when Oscar peels one of his hands away from his face and places a ten-pound note in his palm. “What’s this for?”
“Consider me a satisfied customer. I don’t suppose I’ll need to pay for the ‘love potion’ too?” Oscar asks, sounding a little smug.
“I already told you that it’s just vodka, and you can have your money back. Take whatever you need as long as you keep kissing me as payment. For the rest of our lives, preferably.”
“Lando, that’s really a terrible way to run a business.”
“Funny, that- oh, wait, I still need to check my daily horoscope!” Lando scrambles for his phone and opens Co-Star, shoving his new boyfriend’s face away to give it his undivided attention. Oscar makes a disgruntled noise.
“Lan-”
“You finally managed to find love and get yourself a boyfriend, Scorpio. Fucking congratulations.”