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Caleb looked at his watch and shrugged. “The Center Of Betterment is right around the corner and doesn’t close until later. If you make this quick, then yes.”
“When have I ever made anything quick?” I asked.
Caleb smirked. He didn’t take his hand from mine. “First time for everything, I guess.”
We walked into the brightly lit store, where we were greeted with shelves full of whips, dildos, butt plugs, and edible underwear. The tiger shifter behind the counter greeted me with a friendly wave, his furry ears twitching and his bright yellow feline eyes locked in on his potential customers. He had on a low-cut white tank top with a black leather harness showing underneath, likely the same harness that was for sale directly behind him.
“Looking for anything specific?” he asked as he wiped down the glass display of a rainbow assortment of vibrators.
I looked to Caleb, who no longer held my hand, the absence of it striking me. “Anything on your grocery list?” I asked him.
Caleb shook his head. I could tell he was a little more bashful about this kind of stuff than I was. I liked that about him. Liked to get him all red and bothered. It was cute.
And a huge fucking turn-on. Certainly not being helped by me picturing him trying to take the forearm-sized dildo right behind him.
“Just browsing,” I said before pivoting back to the tiger shifter. “Actually, where are your masks?”
Caleb cocked his head and narrowed his eyes. The shifter pointed us toward the back of the store. I walked with Caleb down an aisle full of different kinds of lube, commenting on which one I liked best and seeing Caleb’s cheeks continue to get redder and redder. When we reached the mask section, I turned back to him.
“And this is what really brought me in here.”
Caleb looked at the assortment of masks before looking back at me. “I’m not into being blindfolded.”
“Yet,” I said with a wink. “And don’t worry, you aren’t being blindfolded.” I grabbed two simple black masks and two shake-and-go wigs. “You’re putting on a disguise.”
Caleb cocked an eyebrow. “A… disguise? But—you know I’m a Marvel, right?”
“Yeah, and we saw what happened the last time you tried to hide.”
He scratched the back of his head and looked away.
“Sorry,” I said, drawing his attention back to me. “I just want to make things easier for you while keeping us safe.”
“Don’t you think they’re going to realize we’re coming in wearing sex masks?”
That got a laugh out of me. “I didn’t realize that’s what these were called. But no, I do, because you’re going to enchant these. You don’t have to weave a full-on illusion spell. Just change these masks so that they look like birthmarks on our faces, and also maybe give these wigs a lift or something.” I raised the matching bags of synthetic blond hair that looked piss-yellow in color. “And a new dye job.”
“I didn’t realize you know so much about how my powers work,” Caleb said. His lips twisted into a sarcastic smirk. “You practically know more than I do.”
“I used to date a blue Marvel before. They taught me quite a bit, and in turn, I taught them quite a bit.”
“About what?” Caleb asked, arms crossed and head tilted.
“Things. Physics, chemistry, math.”
“Uh-huh,” Caleb said. He snatched the wigs and masks from my hand and brought them up to the counter. Before he paid for them, I nudged him away and dropped my card.
“Oh, and can you throw that in the bag too?” I pointed over the tiger shifter’s shoulder at a rainbow-colored double-ended dildo. Caleb shot me a glance but didn’t say anything. Before the clerk finished up the purchase, another item caught my eye. “This too.” I grabbed the box of hot pink matches with the name of the store printed across it and dropped it in the black plastic bag.
Outside, Caleb asked me a question I wasn’t expecting. “Do you smoke?”
“Huh?”
“The matches. I’ve never seen you smoke. I thought it was a weird purchase.”
“But you didn’t think the double-sided dildo was weird?”
He shook his head, smiling.
“I knew I liked you,” I said with a chuckle. “And what? An ice dragon can’t crave a little flame every now and then?”
“Guess so,” he said before taking the bag from my hand. The street was busy with tourists and honking cars and people dressed in dirty mascot costumes asking for money. Two vampires, who must have been some kind of social media influencers, walked past us, speaking into their handheld cameras, wearing designer dresses that flowed behind them like capes.
“Maybe we should go somewhere quieter?” I suggested.
Caleb’s answer was quick. “No. If I want to get better at using my powers, I need to do it in any kind of environment.”
“You sure?”
Caleb didn’t answer. Instead, he handed me a mask and a wig and took his. He closed his eyes and focused. Most Marvels didn’t need to work very hard to access the invisible threads of mana floating around us, and I expected Caleb to be the same after some more practice. For now, though, he appeared to struggle to conjure up the blue threads, some of them flickering into existence around his fist before disappearing again.
