April's Patreon exclusive story is live!
Content: cis female reader (though that really comes in right at the end with the nsfw and anatomy to be honest. I'm so used to writing gn readers by this point!). Reader is one of the quiet and reserved types, who prefers to have a meaningful connection with someone before taking things further than friendship, and sometimes it makes her feel a little bit lonely. Her bestie is a big, girlie orc lass with confidence to spare, and there's a goblin and a gargoyle in there too.
Cassia peered over the shoulders of the remaining three people — the two excitable gnolls included — in front of you and began rattling off the labels of the ice cream in the glass-fronted freezer, but you had eyes only for the lich.
The way their delicate finger bones moved, connected to each other by magic instead of tendons and muscles; the way they held the ice cream scoop and moved it with such precision to create wonderful, glassy balls of ice cream to set delicately atop the cone in teetering arrangements; the way they squeezed syrup from the bottles and let it zig-zag across their ice cream masterpieces without once spilling a drop… They were enchanting.
The light of their magic — the magic that kept them in their state of permanent un-death — glowed a minty green in the depths of their eye-sockets, and it added to the vivacious aura that emanated from them. They talked constantly while they worked, chatting with customers and hardly breaking off to quip a quick retort at the goblin, who matched them for speed in both ice cream preparation and banter, until you were almost dizzy with it all. Combined with the glorious scent in the air, you were almost overwhelmed.
When it was your turn, they shifted their magical gaze to your face and you watched a slight change come over them.
Before you and Cassia had reached the head of the queue, they’d seemed tense and almost frantic, their shoulders held high and their movements a blur, but when they spotted you, they seemed to stall for a moment. The light grew minutely brighter in their skull, illuminating the curve of their eye sockets and the dainty line of their nasal cavity, and although they had no mouth with which to articulate a smile, you got the impression of a beaming, blinding smile all the same.
“Well there,” they said in that intriguing, slightly husky alto. They had the faintest trace of an accent, though you couldn’t place it. “What can we get for you, lovely?”
The final word, so casually but so sincerely added, threw you off balance, so you looked up at Cassia and begged her with silent, wide eyes to go first. She did, and you took a second to compose yourself. Social interactions weren’t really your thing. That was why you worked at a garden centre. The most you had to do there was point someone in the direction of the petunias, or advise someone on organic slug repellents. You didn’t want to be thinking about organic slug repellent at that moment though, and dragged your brain back into the present.
With your own order awkwardly given, the lich nodded and waggled the freshly-cleaned scoop at you. “Fabulous choice, I must say.”
And because you had the social range of a butter knife, you blurted, “Bet you say that to all your customers.”
They laughed. “Only the cute ones. You want a free flake with that?”
You eyed the jar of flaky, crumbly chocolate bars and nodded. “Thanks.”
The light in one of their eyes went out briefly in what you could only assume was a wink, and as they handed you the teetering cone of ice cream a second later, they also slid a little card across the counter with the delicate fingertip of their other hand. “Come back for a freebie,” they whispered, leaning close.
