Curandero

“Sounds good to me. I’d say… a little more than half an hour? Just need to do a few things before I leave to your place.” Dominic finally felt himself becoming more composed. Still, he couldn’t help the big smile on his face from getting to see Vic again.

“Well – I’ll let you get ready then. I’ll text you when I’m on m way.” One of the few times he actually used texting.

Dominic tried not to rush through getting ready, giving Vic as much time as he needed, but he couldn’t to feel as though he did rush through it. Eager was never something someone would use to describe Dominic. And yet here he was, nervously going through his clothes to get ready for a date.

December in New York was always a little rough with the cold, but being a werewolf and packing on the jackets and scarves always helped. Besides, it snowed a little last night and it left a pleasant twinkle to everything on the streets.

Soon enough Dominic found himself climbing up the stairs of the building Vic lived in and in front of Vics condo. And just before he was about to knock on the door, he remembered – he forgot to text him he was coming – really not a big deal in the grander scheme of things but he still felt bad.

He knocked anyways. “Uh – Vic? Hey, it’s Dom!”

The hard part of getting ready was actually getting out of bed. It wasn’t that he had no urge to prepare for meeting up with Dominic... his bed just made it very hard to leave. Once he finally convinced himself to part ways with his warm blankets, it all got a lot easier to start moving.

Now motivated but still a bit behind, Vic had just gotten out of the shower when he heard a knock at his door. It had to be Dominic. That was enough to get him moving faster.

“Coming! Be right there!” He called out from his bedroom, unsure if his date would hear him given how he was in the room farthest from the door. Quickly drying off and getting clothed, he hadn’t done anything with his wet hair as he rushed to the door and opened it.

Despite Dominic perking up from Vics acnswer, he tried not to let his excitement show too much. Something about wanting to keep a cool demeanor. 

“Awesome! That’s awesome.” It’s showing.”I can pick you up at your place again? I know I said that the metro nearest me could take us but I think the one by your place can do the same. It just might take a few minutes longer which should be fine…”

When he heard the last bit he couldn’t help but to chuckle a bit, but god did the thought of Angel joining them horrify him.  “No! God no.” Though he knew Vic was just teasing him.

Vic laughed quietly, probably a bit too entertained by how excitable Dominic was by all of this. He was happy to see Dominic again, of course, but he was still asleep enough that it wasn’t really showing. Not yet, at least. 

“Picking me up at my place sounds great.” Vic stretched and yawned, shaking off the last bits of sleep and finally sliding out of his best. “That gives me some more time to actually get ready.” Plus he felt strangely giddy about the idea of Dominic coming to pick him up... but he’d never say that out loud.

Dominic swore that his heart actually skipped a beat when he heard Vics voice. He sounded like he just woke up, did he wake him up? He pushed aside his own worries to respond.

“Hi!” You already said hi, pendejo. “Uh – sorry for the early call, I hope I didn’t wake you up.” Don’t. “Um – well, first off I just wanna say thaks, for last night. I had a really good time last night.” Dominic couldn’t help but to smile at the thought of last night.

“So, uh, I was wondering if you wanted to get some coffee? Maybe even take a walk through Central Park? If we catch a metro near my place we could probably get there before 1.” He caught himself getting ahead of himself. “I – If you want! I don’t wanna pressure you or anything. Or if you have work. I mean – especially if you have work.”

From the background, Angel yelled out, “Smooth! Very smooth!”

Dominic simply flips him off.

Vic stretched a bit while listening to Dominic talk. He figured he must be a bit excited about something since he was kinda rambling a bit. It worked for Vic since it actually gave him a little more time to knock off the haze from his sleepiness and actually wake up some more.

When Dominic made his proposition, Vic pulled his head away from the phone and pushed his hair our of his face as he looked at the time. “I don’t go in to work until 10 tonight.” The last word tapered off into a yawn. “I’m definitely in the mood for some coffee.” 

“Just call him.” Angel called out to him with a mild tone of annoyance to his voice.

Dominic didn’t respond, simply staring emptily into the air, phone pressed to his chin. He wasn’t sure how long he was sitting there, overthinking the whole thing probably. An unnecessary amount of overthinking no doubt. Finally he moved and next thing he knew, his phone was making the sound of calling someone. It took until the third ring that he finally pressed the phone to his ear.

When he heard the ringing stop, as if someone had just picked up, he spoke into the phone. “V–Vic? Uh – hi! It’s um, Dominic. From last night?” Of course he knew it was last night, you idiot.

It’s a good thing Vic couldn’t see how nervous he was. Angel was certainly amused!

Vic wasn’t much of a fan of sleeping in late but when he had as good of a night as he did the night before, he’s willing to indulge a bit. He didn’t get calls all that often in the morning so it was confusing at first when it was going off.

He looked at his phone.

He rubbed his face over his hands.

He looked at his phone again, noticed the name and picked up.

He didn’t even get a chance to say anything before the man on the other end started talking. That wasn’t a problem since he really liked Dominic’s voice. 

“ A party huh? Sure, but I guarantee you Chalk is gonna wanna play with every single person who’s present there. “

“ He does like you a lot. I think it’s cause you spoil him more than I do. Alright, just for you I’ll bring him in next time I stop by. “

“Well, uh...”

“ You’re fine. But honestly, you’re right, there are a lot of families and married people in the force. Me? I’m just here to rant about how my dog chewed up my sandal and how my roommate won’t stop complaining. Lucky you. “

That got a slightly bigger laugh from the werewolf.

“ Yea and every cop on TV is white, out of shape, and has a big moustache. Me? I only got like a half of that list down. “

Vic laughed right back.

Dominic laughed a bit at his question. He needed that laughing, feeling himself ease up after their last subject of conversation.

“ You can just say boyfriend. And uh, I don’t have one. “

He holds in the little sigh that instinctively wants to come out.

“ No I’m apologizing for making you feel bad. I didn’t mean to… “

“It’s not your fault, seriously. I was the one who brought it up.”

A short pause as Vic really wished he had some more alcohol in his system before asking.

Realizing that he made the other feel bad, Dominics expression changed to somber to surprise to then a rare smile. “Oh uh – you don’t have to be sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. It’s just – you’re fine! You weren’t asking too many questions. It’s just –” He wanted to find other ways to say that he doesn’t have to worry – why was he even so flustered by this?

“Just um – sorry, for making you feel bad. You shouldn’t.” Okay I’m good now.

Vic snorted.

His face sombered a bit when the subject changed to Angel.

“Yea, interesting is one way to describe him. Friend? Eh… getting there I guess. Our arrangement is… kinda weird. We kinda had no choice. Well I mean –  we had a choice, it’s just – !” He sighed a bit. “It’s a long story, but basically we begrudgingly became roommates. He doesn’t like it but I’m just tryin’ to make the best of it.”

“Oh, ah. Uh...”

Now that drew out an actual laugh from the moody werewolf.

“Yea – he’s a puppy. I’m still trying to get him to pee in the right spots and not chew up my roommates sandals but I think it’s going well! My brothers a vet, so he kinda deals with animals on a daily basis.”

Ah, a “roommate.”

He frowned a lil when he heard about the cat with the bad family. Dominic hated seeing or even just hearing about hurt animals.

“2 months. My brother gave him to me when he was just a month old.” Seeing him pour out a drink for someone else reminded him of his own, almost done but still had a few swigs in it. He brought the glass to his lips and finished about half of what was inside. “Got him from work and asked me if I wanted a puppy. I think he knew the answer before he even asked the question.”

“Aw, he’s a puppy!” Vic couldn’t help himself. 

That got another small laugh from him. “You have cats? That’s cute.” He meant that too, given the inflection in his voice. “You seem like a cat person honestly. Well, an animal person but you look like you’d have a cat. I like cats too it’s just –”

Then he realized he was rambling slightly. He stopped himself, and fought off another blush. “Sorry, rambling – I’ll stop.”

“I only have ‘em for a little while, usually. The longest I had the same one was... seven weeks? Little guy needed a little rehabbing after a bad family.”  Vic shrugged. “Probably for the best. I usually don’t have a lot of free time between my jobs.”

The smile was slightly infectious, making the lycanthrope smile just a little bit wider. Just a little. Genuine compliments were usually no big deal, he’d just shrug them off. But from Vic? They brought out a different reaction from Dominic.

“I’m sure you would’ve. I’m not that creativity and you seem like the really creative type. People who can sing are usually creative.”

“Nah, I’m really bad at it, actually.”