I sat and waited for him to finish in the bathroom. I had ordered take-out; the greasiest food I could find and had found the dumbest film to take his mind off of tonight.

He came back out, towelling down his hair and horns, dropping down next to me on the sofa. He was back in his oversized t-shirt and shorts.

I handed him a box filled with chips and burgers. And a milkshake. He took it silently and immediately wrapped his lips around the straw. He glanced up at me and smiled a little.

“I don’t like it when people touch my horns.”

“I can understand that.” I lifted my hair up, showing off my very pointy ears. Which had two points instead of just one. It looked like it had been cut. But we all had ears like these. “People like to touch these too.”

“Oh, double pointed.” His smile turned genuine. “Neat.”

I snorted and took a bite of my burger.

“Another thing,” Dion said, putting his thumb and pointing finger in his nostrils. I arched a brow and then he turned a ring out. He was pierced like a bull.

“Dion, why?” I couldn’t hold back a chuckle.

“I don’t know. I needed something that was just for me and that I could hide. I was thinking a tattoo, but I’m naked on my job, so. Can’t hide a tattoo. But I can hide this little piercing.” He winked at me and shoved a chip in his mouth.

“I like it.”

“Yeah? You don’t have problems with piercings?”

“No. I’ve seen way worse. You should ask Nikon where he’s pierced.”

“Yikes,” Dion laughed and cringed at the same time. “I think I’d rather not.”

“Wise choice.”

 ***

I didn’t question why I woke up with Dion pressed to my chest that morning. I didn’t want to question it. I just wanted to revel in how nice it felt.

He made a small sound and then looked up at me with heavy eyes. I didn’t even think, I just moved in and kissed him. I felt him smile against my lips before he kissed me back. He lifted his hand and trailed his fingers over my cheek, before they ran into my hair.

“Good morning,” I murmured.

“It is,” he whispered back and kissed me again.

My stomach kept turning on its head and I couldn’t focus on anything but how soft his lips were. I couldn’t suppress this weird as hades sound. It sounded like a very content dog.

Dion didn’t stop though. He intensified the kiss, kissing me harder. He moved closer pressing himself at me.

“Dion,” I murmured.

“Yeah.” He was panting and pulled back, looking up at me.

“Not now.” I clenched my jaw. “Not yet.”

He took a deep breath and nodded. “I don’t want anything but this.” He moved in and kissed me again. My heart fluttered and I kissed him back. Passionately. And it was getting hard to not move this along. Especially because he was still so close to me.

My arm moved on its own, curling around him and pressing him to me.

“Fuck, you sure you don’t want this?” Dion laughed and pulled back a little, his brown eyes looking slightly more amber in the pale morning sunlight.

“No,” I chuckled. “Not sure at all.”

“Let me make it easier for you.” He placed a very chaste kiss on my lips, winked at me and then swung his legs over the edge of the bed. “What are you doing today?” He stretched his arms over his head and looked back at me.

“I need to go talk to the boss. About yesterday. Fill out some paperwork and stuff.”

“Oh, that sounds boring.” He rolled his eyes.

I lifted up, supporting my head on my hand. “It’s a bit boring. Wanna come? Then you can see how it all works and after we could… Go… On that… Date.” I had such a hard time getting that last bit out at the end.

Especially because he was looking at me with such a heart-warming smile. His cheeks flushed a bit and he turned around, scooting down to me again. He pushed me on my back and kissed me. Very passionately, deeply and as if he’d die if it stopped. He dug his fingers into my chest and back. My hand slipped up on the back of his head, cradling it, careful of not touching his horns.

“Yeah,” he breathed against my lips. “I’d like that.”

 ***

I opened the door for Dion, and he grinned at me as we walked into Euphoria. We found Achilleus in one of the booths, surrounded by paperwork. I dumped down in one of the chairs across from the little sofa he was sitting.

He looked up and smiled a little tiredly. “Hey.”

“Did you get claustrophobic in your office?”

“Yeah and the view is nicer down here.” He nodded towards one of the bartenders named Helena. And she was indeed pretty with her chestnut coloured hair flowing a bit past her shoulders that matched her skintone and the horns of a deer curling up towards the ceiling.

“So, there was some problems yesterday?” he asked and shifted his eyes between Dion and I.

“Yeah,” Dion said and sighed, sitting down too. “The guy was a creep and he got rough. It’s mentioned in my bio the horns are off-limits right?”

“Yeah, I made sure to put that in there.” Achilleus looked through a couple of files and then found Dion’s. He handed it to the faun and Dion opened it, reading through it. I glanced at it, catching sight of the picture they were using for his profile. It was nice.

“Okay, I just don’t want it happening again.”

“I’ll make sure to ask if they’ve read the rules,” I offered, and Dion looked up. His tense expression softened, and he nodded.

“Thanks, I’d appreciate it.”

“You two still working well together?” Achilleus looked at both of us with an intense look.

“Yeah, Arlo is a peach. I feel a lot safer with him around.”

“Dion’s easy to work with.”

Achilleus nodded and looked back down at his papers. “Well, glad to hear it. You’re both getting a couple of days off as per protocol. Don’t party too hard, ‘kay?”

Dion and I shared a grin before we left Achilleus to his paper mountains.