Work Text:
It had been a busy day at the café. You typically got off before sunset, but now the windows where dark. You looked over at the clock. 9:15 pm. Shit.
Spring brought longer days, but apparently not long enough. You made a mental reminder to check in with your boss about getting someone to cover the late shifts, before accepting that you would just have to walk home in the dark.
You grab your purse and slide it over your shoulder as you flick off all the lights and check the back door to make sure its locked up. You then head out the front, flipping the sign to closed as you step out and turn around to lock the front door behind you.
A sudden, hard, cold touch at your shoulder makes you jump, instinctively jabbing your arm back and nailing someone in the ribs.
"Ai, caralho!-"
Well shit, you know that voice.
Arms slip around your waist, and you look down to see the familiar black and green heart patterned sleeves lock around you. His chin still sat on your shoulder, now adjusted to keep the hard mask from putting all the weight on one spot.
"Quite a rude thing to do, especially when I'm going out of my way to be nice"
"And how exactly are you being nice? All you've done is sneak up on me in the dark. And that had to be intentional, you're covered in more bells than Roudolph"
"Well, I'm walking you home"
He removed himself from you, letting you finish locking the door as he went to lean on the large window spanning the front if the café.
"It's late. A pretty little thing like you can't be out alone, you have no idea what kind of deplorable men are out prowling around at this hour"
The lock clicked "You mean like you?" you side eyed the spinich colored boogeyman beside you.
"Exactly"
You stuffed the keys into your purse, hearing them clink and thud against the messy contents.
"Well.. thank you. For walking me home.. And before I forget, happy birthday"
He looked at you with a mix of suprise and almost concerned warmth.
"I dont recall ever telling you what day that was. Heh, and I thought *I* was a stalker"
"Pierrot mentioned it, because its so soon after his"
He pushed off the wall and started down the sidewalk, gestureing his head for you to follow, a small jingle punctuating the movement. You jogged after him for a second or two and settled into a comfortable walking pace next to him on his right side.
"Well that was.... nice of him"
"It was. But anyways, what was your day like? Im sure you already know how mine went just based off the time I clocked out"
"Oh, you know, average, could be worse. Could have been much better if you had visited me~"
As he spoke, his arms and steps herded you away from the curb and to the inside of the sidewalk as he slipped his hand into your back pocket, or, well, the three fingers he could fit inside your usess girl pockets. His arm sat around you enough to further ward off any creeps lurking in dark alleyways. Ever the gentleman. The protective jesture quickly revealed its secondary motive as his hand squeezed your ass. Ever the perv.
You shot him a dirty look as he held up his free hand in a defensive shrug
"What? Just making sure I have a good hold incase some guy tries to grab you"
"There's already a guy grabbing me" you frowned
"Yeah, and he doesnt like to share" he bit back the urge to mark his point with another squeeze.
You rolled your eyes and kept walking beside him, not quite having the heart to shoo his hand away. And you would be lying if you said his warm arm wasnt nice in the faint coolness still lingering in the nights of late spring, before the sticky warmth of summer evenings fully took their hold over the town.
When you reached your door he paused with you as you rooted around for your keys, going off of feel because somehow using your phone flashlight was too much work. Once your fingers finally found them in the mess, you slid the key into the lock and turned it, pushing the door open.
"Well, I guess this this is goodnight"
He looked down at you, clearly disappointed. He quickly hid that behind a flirtatious smile
"What? You leave me alone all day, and you can't even give the birthday boy a little time? A little present~"
His arm slid from your pocket to your thigh, quickly being thwarted and nudged away.
"Its late. Im tired out from work. I guess you can stay here, but I really need the sleep so you can take the couch, can't have you getting up in the night and waking me up"
You tried hard not to smile, not to give away that you where being intentionally cruel to throw him off your plan.
The last of the flirty, playfull look in his eyes trickled out like water in a cracked jar. He stood back up straight, removing his hand
"Yeah. Sure. Sounds good. I probably won't stay that late anyways, I just dont wanna have to deal with Pierrot right now"
He walked inside, not waiting for you as he plopped down on the couch, pulling out his phone as you locked the front door behind yourself.
"I'm going to go shower and get ready for bed. Oh, and don't open the freezer, it gave out on me this morning and I want to keep it closed to try and keep it from defrosting"
More like you didnt want him finding his cake
"Mmmh, showering? Without me?~"
He rolled over, settling his arms over the back of the couch and laying his head over them as he watched you head to your bedroom, and the master bathroom attached to it.
"Yes, without you. Im so very sorry that the special birthday boy can't get absolutely everything he wants"
Because he would get it all later.
You shut the bedroom door behind you, locking it to keep perverted clowns from sneaking in while you shower.
He sunk back down on the couch, now alone as he heard your shower come on. Sure he wasn't expecting a party, but some of your time at the least. At least a makeout, he would have settled for that. Who knows, maybe you would let him sleep with you after all. He didn't know what he expected, its not like he was your boyfriend. It's not like the two of you where anything more than a traveling circus member and his fuckbuddy in this town, just like every other fuckbuddy in every other town. Or at least thats what he told himself as he flipped through everything on the tv before deciding it still had nothing good to offer, pulling his phone back out.
As soon as you locked the door your mental stopwatch started You had half an hour, *maybe* 45 minutes before a shower of that lenght became suspicious, or at least strange. You hated leaving him sad and alone, on his birthday none the less, but if he even suspected anything, he wound find a way to ruin the suprise. The suprise that was *supposed* to get set up after you got home at your usual time, and then you would invite him over. But nooo, he just had to be a little sweetheart and walk you home.
You washed your hair that morning, and waxed everything you needed to two days ago (you where no savage who would ignore the 24 hour no sex after a Brazilian rule). So you had saved yourself maybe an hour off your suprise time crunch. As soon as you felt steam starting to heat up the room you threw yourself in the shower, your hair up in a clip as you preyed you wouldnt accidentally get it wet in your rush.
After speedrunning a forcibly shortened everything shower, you plugged in your curling iron, using its heat up time to quickly dry off and get on some eyeliner and mascara, sadly not waterproof. Who knows, maybe he's into watching your eyeliner run down. You kinda hope so.
The mix of your time restraint and the vauge idea you had of his preferences keept you from doing anything more detailed. Besides, foundation would just get all over your pillows.
You grabbed the prepped clothing pile in the corner that you had laid out that morning, most of it being bought specifically for this evening. You had special ordered one of those custom thongs, the kind with a band across the back that held metal letters spelling out whatever you paid them to. Which in your case, was Harlequin laid out in silver against black lace with a little green bow in the front. You pulled a matching guarder belt up, clipping it in the back as you carefully slid lace topped stockings up your legs and fumbled to get the rubber nib of the guarder clip to behave and hold them up.
You stood up in front of your mirror, slipping on a maxi green double slit chemise. You had made sure to get one with no lace, as to not be too much with all the lace on the rest of you. Not that he would notice or care, but you would.
It hugged you tightly, the slits starting high and giving the guarder pleanty of room to peak out. Well, you couldn't stand in the mirror and admire yourself forever.
You got to work setting and lighting cheap white taper candles over every area that wouldn't cause a house fire. Next you pulled out a bag of rose petals you had got yesterday. Was it probably cringe and a bit too much? Yes. Cliche? Definitely. But it screamed effort and thats all you needed.
You scattered a small pile on the bed and threw the rest over the floor, quietly hoping that rose petals dont somehow stain fabric.
And last, you slipped your heels on. As much as the idea of shoes on your bed pained you, these horrid, unwalkable stilettos had only seen a few hours of being outside and had since had the bottoms cleaned. They would here on out be relegated to bed heels.
Before crawling onto the bed, you pulled lube, handcuffs, rope, a gag, and whatever else he could want out of your nightstand to set it within reach atop the table.
Finally, after 29 minutes of rushing, you carefully, slowly, as silently as you coukd, unlocked your bedroom door before crawling onto the middle of the bed and settling on your stomach, folding your arms under you and kicking your legs in the air, your back to the door.
You took a deep, *deep*, slow breath, fully acknowledging and bracing for the fact that this was the last peacefull moment you would have for the rest of the night. Alright, time for an utterly Broadway worthy performance.
"Harlequiiiiin!"
"What?" was volleyed back at you by an unenthusiastic voice in the livingroom
"Spider. Big one" you yelled back.
A groan came from the livingroom as he begrudgingly got up
"Fine, I'll get it. I was about to go and I was planning on leaving out your balcony door anyways" the filthy liar
You settled into your pose, looking back at the door as you heard heavy boots get closer before the knob turned
"What are you going to do when there's a spider and your savior is nowhere to be see-.."
He paused as the door swung open.
"oh.."
He looked around awkwardly. That look was very quickly replaced by a shit eating grin as he walked in
"*oh*, you lying bitch"
Hr kicked the door shut with his heel.
"And you had me thinking you where just going to leave me alone all night~"
He walked over to the bed, each footstep loud as his boots hit the hardwood floors. He reached down, clawed fingers roughly pulling your chin up
"I'm glad you know better than to disappoint~"