If there was one thing that had caught Nick by surprise about running a business, it was how much paperwork there was. Inventory. Payroll. Incident reports. Everything. He hated it, but it was far more economical to do it all by himself for now, especially after having to shut down a few days as magic disappeared.
Attempting to get everything situated before meeting up with Sabrina, Nick glanced at the clock. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed to himself, realizing he should have left half an hour ago, at the latest. Except he wasn't alone, as Sabrina had appeared in the doorway of his office, and she didn't look happy.
"Spellman. I'm sorry. I lost track of the time." His words flew in rapid succession. "I'm ready to go now though."
She was trying really hard not to be annoyed. Except she'd passed annoyed about thirty minutes ago and was deeply rooted in disappointed. She wasn't even angry anymore. How could she be when she knew how important running the place was to him?
Was she beginning to hate the club? Maybe. But it felt stupid to hate a building just because it seemed to occupy every minute of her boyfriend's time. And being angry would only lead to her not enjoying the evening out that maybe they could still salvage. Even if she was pretty sure they'd lost their reservations to the restaurant.
"It's fine," she murmured, even if her body language was decidedly not fine.
"No," Nick said. "It's not." He stood up from his desk and walked over to her, taking both of her hands in his and said with that mischievous glint that had been missing from his eyes until recently, "I'll make it up to you though."
Her smile was forced, though it was nice to see some of the old him in his gaze. "We can probably find another place to eat at." There were plenty of restaurants they had put on their list to try out.
"Yeah, not everywhere on the street requires reservations," Nick pointed out. "Anyway, I got you something, Spellman."
The spark in his eyes didn't fade, and he didn't give her a chance to properly respond before leading her out of his office and toward the club, when suddenly he stopped to belt out, "My gift is my song!"
Dorian's hadn't fully transitioned from bar to night club yet, so the noise level wasn't as high as it could have been but the entire place hushed over anyway as all eyes turned toward them while he turned toward Sabrina. "And this one's for you," he sang softly, directly out of Moulin Rouge, except Nicholas Scratch had never seen Moulin Rouge but that didn't stop him from launching into the movie's cover of Your Song.
Was this really happening? They’d done the song thing before back home, but it had always been a planned occasion. Sort of. At least not suddenly bursting into it in the middle of crowded rooms. Not that Sabrina was complaining. It was a little weird that everyone had stopped what they were doing and were now looking over at the two of them though.
“Um, Nick?” Sabrina tried, wondering if she could steer him out of the club and toward the street, but also kind of interested in seeing how elaborate this was going to be.
You can tell everybody that this is your song.
Nick sang the words out, not even fighting off the urge because he was feeling them, the emotion evident in his voice. It may be quite simple but now that it's done… I hope you don't mind. I hope you don't mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is now that you're in the world.
Did it matter to him that he was singing that the song was over just as it started? No. Did he know the words prior to singing them now? Also no. But there was doubt in his mind that he meant every word as he started on a verse, finally allowing Sabrina to guide him out toward the street where he took a few steps ahead of her and then stopped at a lamp post, swinging around it as he continued singing, coming to a stop when he was facing her again.
Her smile was ridiculously big as she followed after him, stopping to watch him swing around the lamppost. All of her earlier frustration had vanished, the love she felt for him shining through as she reached out to take his hand and joined him in singing the song.
It was almost freeing to be able to let the song put into words what was always there between them, even when she was frustrated with how things were. They'd come through a lot and would no doubt go through a lot more together.
"How wonderful life is," Sabrina echoed, twirling out from him and then back into him.
"Now that you're in the world," Nick finished, arms ready as Sabrina returned, the moves not previously choreographed and yet they were perfectly in tune with each other. The song came to an end but his smile didn't fade until he was kissing her, pulling back to the applause of a few random strangers who'd been paying attention once they exited the club.
"Come on, Spellman. Let's go find somewhere to eat," he said, feeling as though the weight of the past few months had finally lifted from his shoulders, at least for the night.