Cranberry Juice [ On Hold ]

2. The Market

(Warning - misgendering, bit of transphobia)

Soren awoke facing the dew-misted windows, the sky painted a ghost grey. He rubbed his eyes, and took in the view for a few minutes. When was the last time he'd let himself do this?

As he turned back to his laptop, however, he caught site of something terrifying.

"Morning!" a muffled voice called. The noise seemed to be coming from a heap of clothes. A ski jacket, scarf, huge mittens, thick sunglasses, clunky pants - were those his Doc Martens? - and an enormous sun hat. It didn't take Soren very long to figure out who it was.

"What are you wearing?" Soren asked exasperatedly.

The pile - Crow - offered a scarf-submerged, fanged grin. "Well, I know you've been working hard, and you probably get really bored at that library - what do you do, there anyways? Look for abandoned monsters?"

"I'm a library technician," Soren deadpanned.

Crow tilted his head. "I don't know what that is, and I do not care. Anyways, I want to help you! Consider it my way of paying you back for everything you've done!"

Soren shook his head. A wisp of his dyed-green hair fell to frame his face. "You don't need to pay me back. And I was only gonna get the groceries today - it's my day off. Besides, you'll burn to a crisp before we get ten steps out of the building."

His roommate's grin only got bigger. "That's why I'm wearing this! I didn't even steal your clothes this time. This jacket's my own!" (It was not. He just found it in the gutter one night, and took it home. Although, in his defence, there's a fair argument to say "finders, keepers.")

Soren sighed. "Fine. I could try to take you with me. But you'll probably get really hot," he warned.

Crow just kept grinning. "Aren't I already?" This was met with a glare. "Okay, I'm sorry. But don't worry. I'm dead, I probably don't have a temperature or whatever."

He didn't sound very sure, but that was okay. He was pulling off the look in his head, and he felt good, and that's all that mattered to the both of them.

"Whatever you say, king." Soren patted Crow on the back awkwardly. "Go get the grocery bags. The farmer's market is five minutes away if we walk quickly."

-

They got there in four. The best Crow could manage in his outfit was a waddle, but it was a pretty fast waddle.

The first thing Crow noticed was the colours. Everything was painted in technicolour rainbow. Flower boxes the hue of the sunset outside their window, stalls and tents every shade of green and teal he could think of.

He hadn't seen stuff like this since before he was... whatever he was. He couldn't remember. It didn't matter. Now, he was in a modern-day world of wonders, roaming amongst the trees as their leaves began to catch brown at the culmination of the season.

This was better than his dancing. This was sun speckled, vibrant colour, a prismatic lightshow composed just for him.

He couldn't help but draw associations to the stuff he'd seen online - he called one particularly bright bloom "sus red" and Soren just frowned at him.

The market seemed so bright, even under the thick grey of the clouds. More than anything, Crow wanted to feel the slivers of sunlight on his skin. The one thing he couldn't do. It stabbed him in the gut, but he swallowed it down.

Luckily, Soren was there to bring him back up. "Okay. You're more than welcome to check this place out. Don't go too far, though. I don't want anyone giving you shit," he told Crow.

"I won't. I'll be on my best behaviour," Crow said. His roommate wasn't convinced, but decided it a little less creepy to just let him explore on his own. He already felt guilty enough for being so overprotective.

While Soren was browsing a comic stand, Crow moved to inspect a fruit stand. The vendor was scrolling through their phone, leaving Crow to his own devices. The fruits were so vivid, blood-red apples, orange... oranges (???). He took an apple and ran to find his roommate at the comic stand.

Soren was considerably pissed. He put down the comic he was flicking through, and gazed down at the apple. "Dude, did you just take that?" He facepalmed, looking tiredly at the apple.

"I thought it was okay to steal from the rich?" Crow said, visibly confused, even from behind his thick sunglasses. Soren frowned.

"These guys are small businesses! They're not doing anything wrong. Now we have to pay for this. Oh man, that vendor's going to be pissed," Soren sighed, looking over Crow's shoulder at the fruit stand.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. It's been a while since I've had to go out and buy stuff, I guess," Crow said, dipping his head.

Soren put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay. You didn't know. I'll go pay, you keep exploring - don't touch anything," he said. He shuddered, and approached the stand. Crow watched him, trying to take note of his actions.

"Hey, um, I think we forgot to pay for this," Soren stammered to the woman of the fruit stand, in the deepest, calmest voice he could manage.

The woman looked up from her phone. She blinked at Soren. "Oh. That'll be 90 cents, ma'am," she said. Her voice was passive, but there was something woven into it - scorn? Contempt?

That hit Soren like a truck. He could feel himself shiver as he fished out a few coins. "Ah, okay. Knew I had a baby face, but not that much," he said, trying his best to keep his cool. He rarely corrected people, he didn't know why he'd even said it.

The woman seemed unfazed by this. A smile crept up her face. "Oh, of course, ma'am. Have a lovely day."

Soren blinked, and tried to smile. He turned away, hurrying back to the safety of Crow, who had been watching this from afar.

"That's the first time it's happened in a few days. I didn't expect it, I shouldn't have corrected her, I-"

Crow stopped him, and dew him into a hug, right in the middle of the market. "I think we should head home," he said.

Soren spluttered. "No, it's fine, you're still exploring, we can stay out-"

"Nah. It's getting really hot in this anyways. Let's go home, Soren," Crow said reassuringly. The vampire patted his roommate on the back, and took his hand. The two started the journey home, Crow looking behind him if only to have one last peek at the picturesque markets. Despite the beads of sweat rolling down his face, he felt genuinely happy.

A/N: Sorry about that. I'll write some fluff next to make up for it :)