It was ridiculous how being riddled with various paint sploshes could be causing her to giggle as much as she was. Sabrina was pretty sure she was going to have several bruises under her outfit as well. Paint balls were a lot harder than she’d ever thought they would be. But trying to decimate Nick in the obstacle course had been a nice little high and while she could have spun around and quickly changed, she was enjoying the smatterings as they headed out of the building and out onto the street.
She reached over, wiping her thumb against his cheek. “You’ve got some green right here.”
Wiping at it was only making more of a mess and had her laughing even harder.
"We're going back to the apartment before dinner, right?" Nick asked. He'd changed clothes, but both of them looked ridiculous. "I mean, that is the plan, right Spellman?"
They'd plan this night out before the gala, a chance to relax before Nick had to spend the next day on his toes with Vorerra headed to Dorian's for a charity event. A gesture of good will, or whatever, one he didn't want to publicly deny even if he had his suspicions.
At least the money raised would be going to a good cause. Hopefully.
But for now, the plan had worked, and even Aidan being in one of Sabrina's classes couldn't deter him. "Next time, I'm getting my revenge." There had been a clear winner in their battle, and it was definitely her. "You can be really sneaky, you know. Even without magic."
“What? You don’t want to be seen out with paint splotches all over you?” she teased, but yes, they weren’t definitely heading back to the apartment first. She wanted to get at least some of the paint out of her hair before heading off for dinner. Not that they were going anywhere overly fancy, but it still seemed like a good idea not to have paint on them.
At least she’d started to forgo the headband and began letting her hair grow out as well. Another step away from the girl she had been, hoping it’d help her stop glimpsing Sabrina Morningstar in the mirror every so often.
Sabrina took hold of Nick’s hand, tugging him in the direction of their apartment. “And you can thank Ambrose for my sneakiness. We used to play a game of who could get by the aunties without either of them seeing us. Usually with some of Aunt Hilda’s cookies as our prize.”
Nick could have gone for some of Hilda's cookies. "I should learn to bake." He'd started learning but had become distracted. It turned out there were a lot of things he could learn to do or pursue now that he wasn't trying to save the world the majority of the time.
"And no, I don't," he laughed. "I need a shower. But we have time."
“You’d probably like baking. It’s a lot like potions and you’re way better at them than I am.” Case in point the mess she’d made when they competed for Head Boy. Everything had to be precise with baking, just like it did with potion making. There wasn’t as much room for experimentation outside of adding more chocolate chips or small things like that.
“We’ve got the whole night, which is why we’re walking back instead of just teleporting.” Plus the evening was pleasant, the heat of the day not as brutal as it had been earlier on. Not quite sweater weather, but comfortable in short sleeves.
“Thanks for doing this with me though.” Sabrina knew getting Dorian’s to a point where it was successfully running on its own was important to Nick and it took up a lot of his nights. So getting him to carve out a date night for them was important for her. “Getting to do something ridiculous with you really helped with the whole squelching the urge to strangle Aidan.”
It was Friday night, and Nick hadn't left the club alone on a Friday or Saturday night yet. Was he a bit anxious about it? Yes. Had he hired people who could handle a Friday night on their own? Yes. Probably.
"Yeah, it's good," Nick said, nudging his girlfriend with his elbow. "Almost like we're normal."
The smirk was already half on his face before he finished his sentence. "Of course normal is overrated." But no, it felt good to just go out on a date night, like they were finally settling into their grooves.
"Feels weird to not be starting classes up," he admitted. But if she was concerned about the long hours he was working now, how much worse would it be with school in the mix? At some point he'd find the balance, but for now he was doing the best he could.
"We're finding our own version of normal for us." Not quite like anything they had ever had before. But something without all of the turmoil thrown in like back home.
Sabrina gave his hand a squeeze at the comment about school. "I'm sure you'll go back at some point. You like learning too much not to."
"Oh, I definitely will," Nick agreed.
It wasn't a matter of if, just when. "In the meantime, a weekend is much easier to work with, and hopefully tonight goes well so this can happen sooner rather than later, but I believe I lost to you Spellman, so we may have a weekend getaway in our future."
It had been a good bet and one she knew she was bound to win one way or another. “Do I get to pick where we’re doing our weekend getaway or is it going to be a surprise?” she asked as they arrived at their building. Either was good with her, but a surprise weekend seemed like it’d be fun and also drive her crazy while she tried to figure out what he had planned.
“So shower, change clothes and then head to dinner?” she reiterated when they got up to their door. “We need to be stern and tell the puppies no when they try to come with us.” Or well, she needed to be stern and say no.
"I don't know yet," Nick said, having not planned anything out. "You'll see." He was leaning toward making her guess because if she guessed enough ideas he'd know what she wanted to do and could choose the option that sounded best to him. But he'd give it a shot, first.
"Those dogs are spoiled, Spellman." And no, they were not coming to dinner. Eventually there'd be less of them, or so he hoped. Not that they weren't adorable, but they hadn't chosen an apartment to fit a zoo.
"But we'll save time if we shower together," he smirked. "And I am hungry."
Sabrina couldn’t dispute that the dogs were spoiled. She couldn’t help it. They’d been so tiny and defenseless at first. Well, maybe not defenseless, but the tiny part held up. So when they had started following her places she hadn’t put a stop to it. It hadn’t mattered much when they were little, but they were steadily getting bigger and would need to start residing in Pandemonium like the others did. Their bed might have been big, but it definitely couldn’t handle the two of them, Salem, Shadow and three growing hellhounds.
Sabrina snorted at the shower idea though. She highly doubted that it would help them save time considering what usually happened when they showered together. Not that she was going to complain about that, leaning up to kiss him. It wasn't like they had reservations and could head out for food once they were ready. No matter how long they took.
An hour or so later and she was slipping her hand into his back pocket as they headed back down the street to find dinner.
After the last time they'd made reservations, Nick was hesitant to do so again. And that had turned out alright, with them discovering a small cafe that they loved, and that apparently people didn't consider a top option on their street lined with options.
He was hoping today panned out as well, looking for the places that seemed less crowded, with less of a wait time and more of an opportunity to just spend time with Sabrina. "How about here?" Nick asked, in front of a vegetarian place. "Seems like an adventure?"
Vegetarian wasn’t usually Sabrina’s go-to but the outside menu looked interesting. “It’s always an adventure with you,” she teased even as she nodded. The little places that not everyone frequented were turning out to be some of her favorites. They were usually quieter, less pretentious, and the two of them could actually have a conversation in some of them.
Though there was a karaoke bar that she wanted them to try out some other night when paintball wasn’t on the agenda.
“They have smoothies and those are close enough to milkshakes.”
"Some smoothies have vegetables in them," Nick teased. "If you drink one, I'm so telling Dan so he can be proud."
They were eating vegetarian food. That was also enough reason. He was fairly certain he'd be alright, Sabrina, on the other hand? Far more of a picky eater. But she was also willing to try things at least once so he was taking advantage of that.
It wasn't long until they were seated and had ordered, which was already a plus in the restaurant's favor, and Nick did in fact order a smoothie.
"So, if you were going to guess where I was taking you, what would you guess?"
Yeah, he was going that route.
Had she stuck her tongue out at him over the Dan comment? Yes, yes she had. She wasn’t that bad about vegetables. She just didn’t want them in things they shouldn’t be in. Like pancakes. Or cake. Or whatever else Dan had managed to sneak them into.
Sabrina had ordered herself a smoothie as well and a pasta dish that had plenty of vegetables in it as well. But she held the line at adding tofu. She eyed Nick carefully at his question though, lips pursed as she considered it. Where could they go for a full weekend?
“There’s always camping again.” They had enjoyed it when they had done it. “The place Dan and Allison had their honeymoon is really nice and you can do a weekend there. Maybe one of the hotels in the city.” One that wasn’t owned by Vorerra. “Or Silniara has cabins at its vineyards.”
"All good guesses, Spellman," Nick replied, making a note to see where Dan and Allison honeymooned and also to check out the cabins. That was easy. "I'm surprised you didn't guess Dinosaur Island," he added, throwing something ridiculous into the mix. He hadn't been there for the dinosaurs, after all.
“You’re really not as cute as you think you are,” Sabrina told him. The dinosaurs had been ridiculous, but she’d gotten to see Allison’s rumoring powers really be put in action when the velociraptors had surrounded her and Claire. It had been pretty epic, but Sabrina had no desire to recreate that event.
“Honestly it could be the two of us holed up in the apartment for the weekend and I’d be good with that,” she admitted. No work, no school. Just the two of them together.
And their million animals.
"More than that," Nick said. "I want to get away. I love our apartment." He really did. Living with Sabrina, even when things had gotten rough, was still the best thing they could have decided on. Venturing out on their own had made them stronger, and they still had family they could count on with Ambrose and Dan and Allison and Lucifer all close by.
"The apartment really made this place home. And I was worried that I was changing Dorian's too much, but I really love what I've turned it into." He wasn't sure Dorian would if he ever showed up, but that was a problem not worth worrying about until it happened.
He was right, the apartment really had become a home for the two of them. Something separate from their pasts and given them a place in Vallo to call their own. It really had been exactly what they needed after everything had come out. A new start in some ways while still letting them have those they loved close by. Part of Sabrina wished she’d been able to work things out with her aunt before she’d left as well, but it wasn’t something she lingered on long. Her aunt had shown up three times already. She probably would again at some point in the future.
“I think he’d appreciate that you kept it going and didn’t change the name on him.” Dorian might not love it all but the club was becoming a hot spot in the city and Sabrina thought the warlock would have enjoyed that. “You’ve done a really amazing job with it, babe.”
She didn’t know of anywhere else in the city quite like it.
"It's doing better than I had expected," Nick said. But in a city so teeming with magic, most of the clubs that had a magical focus tended to be more exclusive. Or Vorerra owned. He'd opened the doors to Vallo and Vallo was responding.
Which meant that he was going to be profitable sooner rather than later.
"I'm glad I waited until I had a solid idea of what I wanted. It's paying off." And that meant he could start to easily envision a future where they could live comfortably without relying on outside money.
"I think we may actually get the hang of this, Spellman," he offered.
It was nice hearing Nick talk enthusiastically about the club and not in a way that was full of worry over how it was running or paperwork or anything. His vision was working, thriving even, and she had seen him acting more like his old self since their worlds had turned upside down with their updates. All she wanted was for him to find happiness in Vallo.
“There will be bumps but I think we can do anything we put our minds to.” Especially when they had eachother backing the other up.
Sabrina winked at him. “Still want to hold off on kids until we’re at least 300 though.”
"Deal," Nick said, as their food arrived. "But also, no more animals for a while."
“I can promise not to pick up any animals from Vallo but I cannot promise that it won’t send us any more.” Or well. Send her another one. It’d sent her four. Five if she counted Salem. The puppies had been born there and Maleficent was a native cat. “And I am going to get the puppies to stay in Pandemonium.”
How long it would take to actually do that was anyone’s guess. “Or maybe dad will want one.” And Beketh was supposed to get one.
Then maybe she could keep the other at the apartment?
“You should probably take a picture now though so Dan believes you when you tell him I ate at a vegetarian restaurant,” Sabrina told him as she nodded at her dish.
"I really want your dad to adopt Lucifer," Nick grinned. "Just for the 'Lucifer, don't chew my shoe' insanity that would definitely happen." But he did as she suggested, pulling out his phone and snapping a photo of Sabrina grinning, fork in hand with a vegetarian dish in front of her. He sent it to Dan without further explanation, and then put his phone away.
"We definitely picked the right apartment."
Sure they could teleport to anywhere in town. But sometimes it was nice just to walk to and from dinner. Especially with Sabrina as his company.