Chapter Text
“An attraction potion?”
Jamil eyed the small vial held in Azul’s gloved hand, his expression questioning. He eyed the dubiously glowing liquid within the heart-shaped glass, his nose wrinkling as he observed the deep hue of scarlet red.
Sitting at the other side of his desk within the Mostro Lounge’s VIP room, Azul leaned back against the plush leather of his office chair, the corner of his lip curled into a smirk. “An attraction potion,” he echoed. His gaze stayed fixated on the Scarabian vice, seeming to measure his reaction to the Scheme of the Week he was presenting to him. “Not just any attraction potion however; this one is quite unique in the sort of attraction it amplifies.”
Shifting away from the subtle glow of the vial, Jamil’s eyes flickered to meet the look Azul was giving him. Azul quirked a brow back at him, his expression reflecting the swelling pride he had in his newest product. Pride that was accompanied by a certain undertone, Jamil noted. An undertone that felt oily and slick, wrought with the flowery enthusiasm of a salesman with a quota to fill.
He wasn’t at all a stranger to his business ventures; He’d often hear about his marketing schemes in passing when they’d spend any amount of time together. It was exasperating at first - even more so when Azul’s rambling about marketing and metrics would end up going in one of Jamil’s ears and straight out the other - but he found himself being frequented more often with the intrusive thought that there was something… endearing about how enthused the housewarden was when he got worked up over the matter.
There was the way his pace would pick up while he spoke, as if his mouth was trying to keep up with the onslaught of knowledge and thoughts that came to him all at once. Or the way his arms would wave around with what he was saying, his hands circling more frequently as his entire body would sway him forward and back, adding more of an emphasis to what he was explaining.
Jamil found his enthusiasm growing contagious as he was exposed to it more frequently - to the point where he’d listen to him ramble about demand generation and churn rates just to get that sort of rise out of him.
And - as his tolerance for his talkative companion grew from obligatory compliance, to him earnestly listening throughout the entirety of his enthused rambling - he soon realized just how close they’d become. In turn, he noticed how their relationship had slowly developed into something more ambiguous.
At this point, their relationship leaned towards being official… but in an unofficial sense.
Official, because it seemed to naturally grow into something akin to a romantic one. It was implied in the way they’d spend any amount of free time they had in each other’s company, or in the way they’d naturally gravitate to one another for paired assignments in class. It was in the clumsy, grazing touches against the small of one’s back, or a hand clasped around the curve of the other’s shoulder while they stood next to one another. It was in affectionately preening the other of a loose thread or a speck of dirt on their companion’s otherwise pristine appearance, and in the soft touches to move a misplaced strand of hair away from the other person’s eyes. It was in the subconscious brush of a hand against another while they were studying, the silent bumps and nudges eventually leading to their hands intertwining loosely under a shared desk.
Unofficial, because - as organically as their relationship had grown as they transitioned and settled fully into their third year - neither of them had explicitly established the other person as a partner or a boyfriend.
They seemed contented with what they had. Neither of them were especially particular about whether or not there was a label to whatever that something happened to be.
At the same time, however, neither of them could entirely deny that the air was charged with another particular something when they began to dance around the matter. They were both as stubborn as they were infallible; Any nudges towards the massive elephant in the room almost immediately became a game of mental gymnastics, where neither of them would relent to that unspoken something they were both actively avoiding.
Still eyeing his unofficially official companion from across the desk, Jamil shifted to cross his arms over his chest. He took another moment to gauge Azul’s expression, his own eyes narrowed when he felt that there was something very slightly off about it. He eyed the familiar curve of his lips, observing the dimples that indented his cheeks when he smiled in that particular way he was smiling at him. His eyes crinkled as he returned his scrutinizing look, pointedly calm and pleasant as he always was.
Almost too pointedly calm and pleasant…
Jamil felt his frown deepen, his brows furrowed at the thought. On the surface, his homebrewed potion seemed like another one of Azul’s marketing ploys. But he couldn’t quite shake the instinct that there was a catch to it.
A catch that involved him somehow.
“Unique?” he echoed, taking care to relax his expression to keep from revealing too much of his own growing suspicion. “How so?”
Azul hummed, his free hand resting on his chest as he began his pitch. “Why, this potion is simply a step above that of a regular attraction potion. It doesn’t dubiously force a non-consenting party into developing a sudden infatuation for someone they didn’t previously have those affections for. It instead emboldens its user with the very confidence they need to make a move on the person whose very affections they are chasing after.” His lips curled up into a smirk, his eyes narrowed proudly as he held the vial up in front of him.
“It places the onus entirely on the user, invigorating them to do the very thing they are so reluctant to do. It gives them the confidence they need to fulfill their own desires.” He set the vial down in front of him, keeping his lithe fingers curled around its shape as he slid it across the length of his desk.
“That boldness - that sudden burst of confidence - may very well be the exact thing they need to completely win over the person they’ve so adamantly been pining for.”
Jamil quirked a brow, not entirely convinced. “Wouldn’t it still be dubious for someone to force themself onto someone else? Especially if the person they’re coming on to doesn’t share the same feelings as they do?” He frowned more visibly, eyeing the vial with a doubtful look.
Azul leaned over to rest his elbows on his desk, before resting his chin atop his neatly folded hands. “Attraction is dubious in itself, isn’t it? Some people can’t help who they fall for.” Jamil found his eyes moving from the vial to meet the other boy’s intent gaze. He held his stare for a prolonged moment, his own expression still questioning.
“It defeats the entire purpose of what an attraction potion is supposed to do.” He found his doubt touched with that same suspicious feeling once again. He lowered his head slightly, his eyes narrowed at the housewarden. “The attraction’s already there. What’s the point of using a potion in the first place? Just to amplify the attraction someone already has for another person?” He scoffed under his breath.
“You don’t need a potion to get the sort of confidence you need to be blunt about your feelings.”
Azul hummed again, his gaze thoughtful as he eyed him back. “Perhaps, some people have no need for a magical potion.” He tilted his head slightly, the corner of his lip curled up into a knowing smirk. “Other people, however, need a bit more of a push before they can be so honest with their own feelings.”
Jamil’s eyes narrowed at that, feeling the weighted intent behind those ocean eyes.
“Is there something else you’re trying to say?” he snapped, his tone exasperated.
Azul chuckled, moving his hand away from where it was settled beneath his chin to wave it assuredly. “Are you suggesting that this is, somehow, a dig at you?” He shook his head, feigning hurt at Jamil’s pointed accusation. “That’s not at all my intention. I’m merely sharing my observations of other people as they navigate the emotional throughs of their romantic endeavours. After all, what is the infinite potential of magic, if not a viable solution to the daily problems we come across?” He shrugged, sighing softly under his breath. “I’m simply offering a solution to a problem I’ve observed.”
Mirroring his sigh, Jamil breathed a heavier exhale of his own. On one hand, he acknowledged how absurd it was to suspect the other boy of crafting such an elaborate plan specifically with him in mind. The idea that he would spend days - weeks, even - working and perfecting his own version of an attraction potion - no, a confidence potion - just to… what? Amplify the feelings they both knew were mutual? It seemed extremely convoluted and far-fetched.
But that was exactly why it wasn’t that far-fetched to suspect that this was an elaborate plan to get something out of him. If it were anyone else, he would have believed he was reading between lines that never existed in the first place.
But when it came to Azul Ashengrotto, the King of Convolution…
Azul wasn’t one to simply let his desires go unfulfilled. If there was something he wanted, he made it a point to stop at absolutely nothing to get that exact thing. He wasn’t above an absurdly complex plan like spending his own precious time and resources in crafting a confidence booster, pitching it to him as an attraction potion that he was potentially going to sell as a product, and… perhaps -
The unofficially official status of their undefined relationship came to mind.
Jamil kept the same frown at the other boy, leaning back into his own chair as he folded his arms over his chest. “Okay… then why aren’t you already invigorating the masses with your attraction potion?”
Once again, Azul’s hand folded neatly beneath the hand he was still resting under his chin. His gaze narrowed at him a touch, the corner of his lip curling up the slightest bit more - subtleties that Jamil would’ve easily missed if he wasn’t already so hyper-aware from trying to sort out just what exactly was going on with the other boy.
“Well,” he began, sighing dramatically when his face turned away from him. “I can’t possibly market a product like this without testing it first.”
And there it was - the echoing sound of the other shoe dropping.
Jamil’s own expression narrowed to one of visible exasperation, edged with the very suspicion that had been mounting since the potion was first presented to him. “I see,” he mumbled, his tone laced with his own doubt. “So, how are you going to test it?”
Azul moved his hands out from under his chin, holding them out in front of him as he shrugged. “With a potion this promising, I can’t trust just anyone to be the first to trial it. To properly measure its effects, I’d need someone with an acute awareness of the inner workings of their own mind -“
“Fine.”
“- and I was reflecting on who could possibly fit that sort of expectation -“
Once his immediate response hit him, Azul paused. Jamil couldn’t help the subtle snicker at seeing his composure frozen so suddenly into a look of visible surprise, his stare turning owlish for a moment. It was so deeply satisfying for him to know that Azul probably had an entire speech prepared just for this very moment, that he had probably rehearsed and considered the sort of pushback he would give him over his absurd request. Catching him off guard and getting a glimpse of him looking so genuinely dumbfounded only added to that satisfaction.
“… I beg your pardon?”
“I said ‘fine.’” Still leaning back in his own seat, he uncrossed an arm from his chest to hold his open palm out to him. “Give it to me.”
At a rare loss for words, Azul kept giving him the same staring look. Jamil, in turn, raised his brows impatiently, his hand cupping and uncupping the air as it remained held out in front of him.
“What? Do you need a little push before you can be honest about what you want?”
The housewarden tsked, nearly glowering as he adjusted the way his glasses sat atop his nose. Regardless, he leaned over to take a hold of the vial once again, before leaning further to place it atop the other boy’s open palm. Jamil noted how his eyes had slid away from him as he did so, seeming to focus on nothing in particular as his gaze moved down to his desk.
“It wasn’t meant to be a dig at you,” he repeated, his tone mumbling when his hand lingered over his. Jamil scoffed, his fingers curling around the vial when he kept his own sharp gaze on the other’s lowered eyes.
“Sure.” His own tone was flat, hardly believing his repeated assurance.
With the vial in hand, he frowned at the dull glow it emitted against his bare palm. He pulled his arm back so he could take a closer look at it, holding its heart-shaped body between his fingers. When he swirled the bright red liquid, it was slightly translucent, and seemed as viscous as water.
His eyes flickered from the flask to glance over at Azul once again. He caught the other boy’s eyes darting away the moment he looked towards him. His expression looked strained, touched with a discreet nervousness that Jamil was able to pick up on.
If he wasn’t already so sensitive to the subtleties in the housewarden’s expressions, the touch of fluster at the tips of his ears gave him away completely.
“This is supposed to embolden me with - what - confidence? To make a move on the person I have feelings for?” he mused, holding the vial between both of his hands. He couldn’t help the sprinkle of smugness in his tone.
Azul nodded. He coughed lightly to clear his throat, shifting in his chair to straighten his posture. His hands rested atop his desk, gloved hands intertwining as he did so.
“Yes. So if you walk out of this room to go to someone who you fancy -“
“If I drink this, I’m not going to walk out of this room.”
There came another long stretch of silence, Jamil refusing to break eye contact when Azul stared at him pointedly. He could feel how charged the shared gaze was, how it became a silent exchange of that wordless something they were both acutely aware of.
Azul swallowed, lips pressed together into a tight-lipped frown. Jamil took that as a cue that he wasn’t going to break the silence this time.
“So,” Jamil began, leaning off from his chair so he could straighten up as well, “Do you want me to drink this?”
Another moment of silence. Azul kept his hands laced together atop his desk. Jamil noticed the strain in his grasp, mostly in the way his fingers clenched almost anxiously against the fabric of his gloves.
“… -alf,” Azul mumbled eventually, his tone much quieter than usual.
“What?”
He sighed, looking away when the curves of his cheeks began to tinge with the warmth of a blush. “Half. Drink half of it.”
Jamil raised a brow, looking towards the vial again. He began to consider that - perhaps - what he was holding was actually some sort of placebo that Azul had created as a means for his elaborate plot. He frowned more visibly at the thought.
Seeming to catch onto his lingering suspicion, Azul cleared his throat once again. “It’s a genuinely made attraction potion.” His tone came clearer, and was louder with his assertion. He unclenched a hand to wave it slightly, motioning vaguely towards the vial.
“A confidence potion,” Jamil clarified flatly.
Azul leaned back in his own chair, his gaze seeming to shift with a touch of pensiveness as he looked towards the heart-shaped bottle once again. He didn’t acknowledge his comment, seemingly preoccupied with whatever he was considering as he stared at it.
“I would like you to drink it.” His hand shifted to adjust his glasses again - a nervous habit. “Half of it. And I do want you to tell me the effects you feel from it.”
Following the other boy’s fixated look, Jamil looked to the bottle once again. He frowned thoughtfully at it, his eyes narrowing with a more scrutinizing look. He shook it once, observing the dull glow within the glass confines for another long moment, before he turned it in his hands to remove the cork from its lip.
“Half the bottle…” Jamil mused, his tone slightly curious.
“Half the bottle,” came Azul’s echo. His tone was assertive.
They shared another look at one another. Azul’s gaze seemed more intense than usual, his blue eyes wordlessly meeting Jamil’s scrutinizing look evenly this time.
Exhaling shortly through his nose, Jamil raised his arm. The glowing substance stirred as he motioned for a toast towards the housewarden. Azul, in turn, lowered his head once with a curt nod, his hand waving vaguely in front of him, as if he were motioning for him to get on with it.
“To confidently, honestly, and - of course - emboldening oneself to come onto the object of their affection,” came Jamil’s sarcastic toast, audibly mimicking the sing-song tone of the other boy’s usual voice.
He brought the vial to his lips, taking care to consume exactly half of it.
From over the lip of the bottle, he caught the same lingering intensity from Azul’s gaze. His attention remained fixated on him completely as he swallowed down his potion.