One of the nice things about having their own apartment was controlling the ac. Considering the amount of animals that slept in the bed with them, all trying to take up as much space as possible, and Sabrina liking to sleep with an actual blanket even in the middle of summer, freezing was her preferred temperature. Blackout curtains were also the best purchase, one she thanked whoever for inventing them, even if the animals had their own way of making sure they were up fairly early anyway.
She shifted on the bed away from Salem’s poking nose and into Nick’s side, not wanting to leave the bed just yet. There was water in the bowls, the animals would survive for a few more minutes longer.
“We should get one of those automatic feeders,” Sabrina mumbled, pulling the comforter over her head, ignoring Salem’s meow.
Nick smiled, amused that Salem was as reliable of an alarm clock as there was. Sabrina may have just bought herself a few minutes, but that would be all. It may have bothered him more, with the long hours he was putting in now that Dorian's was open, but there was something about being out on their own, and him working to get the club going that made him overlook the early wake up calls.
Plus, he was waking up next to Sabrina, still. Life could have been worse.
"An automatic feeder or bribery," Nick replied. "Or I can just point out that Shadow doesn't demand food this early."
“That’s because Shadow is a good familiar.” Unlike her ragamuffin one without any manners. Sabrina couldn’t blame him completely. He’d gotten used to being fed by others early in the morning. Between waking up early for school or Dan heading to work or back in their world with Hilda always in the kitchen bright and early, it had been easy for Salem to get food when the sun came up.
He was going to need to learn that wouldn’t be happening anymore. Maleficent didn’t cause this much of a fuss. Though, maybe that was because she knew Salem would do it enough for the two of them.
She flicked her fingers, utilizing a little magic to open up a wet cat food can and fill the dish. Salem wasted no time crawling over them, deliberately stepping on top of her head before racing Maelficent to get to the food. She peeked out at Nick from her spot under the comforter still.
“Morning.”
"He is a good familiar, aren't you, Shadow?" Nick asked. The wolf lazily lifted his head, content to laze around until Nick was ready to get up.
"Morning," he told Sabrina. "What time is it even?" He didn't even remember what time he'd gotten back to the apartment and gone to bed. Eventually he'd be able to leave the club unattended at night.
Sabrina shrugged. She wasn’t moving from where she was, securing her leg around him and deliberately not looking toward the clock on the bedside table. “Not time to get up.”
"Good," Nick replied. "Because once I'm up it'll be time to go for a run, then time for breakfast, then time to catch up on whatever it is I used to do before I opened up a night club. Can't remember."
He yawned. Maybe he'd eat breakfast and then go on a late morning run instead.
Hearing Nick talk about a run had Sabrina groaning. She probably should get one of those in with the hounds too or they would be cranky. And they were already cranky enough with the puppies being around and hogging her attention. “My big plans are finding a bed for the other room so Claire has a place to sleep when she comes over.” And whoever else might stay over as well from time to time.
“Oh!” Sabrina pushed herself up, remembering the surprise she had tucked away in that room as well. Noah had finished the lights and she hadn’t wanted to hang them up until Nick had seen them, wanting him to help decide where they should put them. “I got you something!”
And this time it wasn’t something ridiculous like a sex swing. “I’ll be right back. Just stay there.”
Nick had enjoyed that particular surprise, and hadn't found it ridiculous at all. But given the rooms that Dorian's used to have, that shouldn't have surprised her. The fact that Sabrina was up for trying new things was a definite bonus. However, whatever he was expecting first thing in the morning, it wasn't along those lines.
"Guess we're getting up sooner rather than later," he told Shadow. But he didn't move, remaining in the bed as directed. "Should I close my eyes?" he called out.
“You don’t have to close them,” she called back. The surprise was inside of a box anyway and she headed back into the bedroom as soon as she retrieved it from the spare room closet.
She sat back down on the bed, pushing the large box over to Nick. “So. I talked to Noah and got him to custom make something for the place that I thought you’d like?” And the other guy had assured her the glitter used was biodegradable and hopefully wouldn’t end up everywhere with the materials he’d used.
“I hope you like it.” Inside of the box he’d find about five different lantern lights made out of various materials in a green and black color scheme with a lot of glitter on them.
Nick opened the box curiously. When he pulled out the first of the lanterns, he was grinning ear to ear. "These have glitter on them," he said, surprised. Given Sabrina's views on glitter, he wouldn't have expected that.
"Did Noah make these? They're fantastic."
He took them out one by one, examining each one carefully, inevitably getting some glitter on the bed which amused him. "They'd look great over the table, or over the bar in the kitchen?"
Sabrina couldn’t help but wrinkle her nose as the glitter fell on the bed. Ugh, the things she did because she loved him. The table was a much better option than their bedroom, which she might have worried a little about him picking. She was going to need to invest in a really good vacuum until she could work out a spell for glitter removal.
“They do, yeah, because you’re ridiculous and like the stuff and Noah is kind of amazing with it so I figured he’d be the best at making something that incorporated it. I’m good with either of those places though.” She brushed at the glitter that had fallen, trying to get it off the bed but it was a hopeless cause.
"What if I just held this over your head for a while, all lit up?" Nick teased, but he leaned in and kissed Sabrina's cheek. "I know what I'm doing this morning. Breakfast, lanterns, and then a run." Or would it be breakfast, a run, a shower, then the lanterns? Or maybe the shower should be last since he'd have glitter on him?
Or he could just go to work with glitter in his hair. That seemed like the best option.
"Thank you, I love them," he said, smiling as he carefully placed them back into the box. "We'll have to have Noah over to let him see how we're showing off his work."
She had made such a face at his question before he kissed her cheek. It would have been such a shame to make the things disappear after all of Noah’s hard work with them, but she’d been prepared to do so. “I need to go check on the hounds at some point, but mind if I join you guys for your run?”
“Or I can make breakfast while you two get your run in.” She knew Shadow needed the run as much as the hounds did most days, especially now that they were in the apartment. “And also...there’s something I wanted to talk to you about.” Something she’d been mulling over for awhile and wanted his opinion on.
“It’s nothing bad!” she hurriedly added. With their luck the last few weeks, that probably needed to be said.
"I was going to take the hounds out with us," Nick said, as he rarely went running without them. When he was in the woods they found him anyway, so it was better to include them from the beginning. He could run through the park, but Shadow tended to scare kids when he ran at full speed.
Of course, the one hound wouldn't be joining them, and Sabrina would probably still need to check on her and her puppies, but he could at least get the other two some exercise.
"Oh?" he said, grateful as she immediately clarified. "We can talk at breakfast then? Then run afterward."
“Mmmm, so much for trying to sleep in,” she murmured as she got off the bed. It was her own fault but his enjoyment of the lanterns had been worth a little less time laying around in the bed together.
It didn’t take her long to cook french toast for the two of them, ignoring Salem’s meows for a taste of the buttery toast as he continuously wrapped around her feet as she brought two plates over to the dining table. “So. Beketh offered spots to join their coven. Like as an official member.”
She sat down in one of the chairs, letting Salem hop up onto her lap. “But I’m not sure how I feel about joining a coven? Like I enjoy them, I feel like I learn a lot when we do rituals and other magic with them but the Church of Night turned out to be a horrible situation and the Order of Hecate or whatever Aunt Zelda called it wasn’t much better?”
"That… didn't take long?" Nick asked, slightly surprised. "I mean, I thought they were all selective and everything…" They had done a few things with the coven, and had been along for more than the average person, but something about that didn't sit well with him.
"How is it going to go over if one or both of us turns that down?" She had mentioned spots, after all. And he wasn't ready to join.
Sabrina had been doing things with them for over a year now. She’d been one of the first they had let into their cave dwellings and while she preferred them to most of the others, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to tie herself to one over the others. Aside from Vorerra for obvious reasons. “They’ve been interested in me for awhile, but I’d created the Outlander coven so that was where my focus was when I was first here. But I didn’t want to lead it anymore after my birthday, so I gave it to Bonnie.”
The politics of getting along with every coven and trying to go between each of them and not play favorites had been annoying. She’d missed just hanging out with the different ones and attending events instead of helping to coordinate everything.
“And yeah, I’m not sure? I don’t think they’ll blacklist us or anything if we decline politely and don’t run off to join something else. I like being able to work with everyone and I don’t think I could as easily if I joined them. But...I wasn’t sure what you wanted?” She poked at her french toast. “I know you did enjoy the coven back home at one point.” He’d been devastated when they’d both been temporarily expelled.
That was true, Sabrina had been around much longer than him. He hadn't realized she'd been working with them that long though. "I don't want to join anything. Not yet, anyway." For many of the same reasons. The only group he disliked was the Vorerra, the other covens had been patronizing the club. (So had some members of the Vorerra but as long as they didn't stir things up, he had left them alone.)
He laughed though, at the thought of the covens back home. "Yeah, well, nothing back home turned out to be that great," he offered. "I like that we're doing our own thing here and I like working with them, especially. But I'm not rushing into anything. It'll probably be a lot easier to not join than to do so and want to leave later on."
She was glad that they were on the same page. “Maybe that’s just what we need to tell them then? That we’re not looking to join any coven right now? That we’re still figuring everything out.” It wasn’t a lie. If the time ever came, Sabrina was pretty sure Beketh would be the one she’d want to eventually join.
But they were both still young with centuries ahead of them. Deciding something so huge after everything they had learned seemed too daunting to her, a step that neither of them were ready to make.
"This is really, really good, by the way," Nick said, momentarily distracted by breakfast. "And yeah, that works. They can't be mad, right?" Cause if they were, he didn't want to deal with them anyway. He'd had enough of controlling covens for one lifetime.
Sabrina grinned at the compliment. She could cook, just never really had a reason to do so. Not with Hilda and then Dan around. She’d learned quite a bit of them from both. “No, I don’t think they’ll be mad.” At least she really hoped not. They seemed like they would be understanding, definitely more than if Vorerra had asked. “If they do, then...well, even better that we said no, yeah?”
"Exactly," Nick agreed. They had time to make those decisions. Even with the idea that anyone could disappear at any time, he was starting to believe that they really did have a long future ahead of them here, and he was going to make the most of it.