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"Deris, how many more days do we have until the end of the deadline?"
Vivian, the second eldest of the trio, rolled his entire body to face the direction his older brother was seated at. With eyebrows knitted, Deris sighs and looks at his phone, then returns his attention to the other wizard.
"Fifteen days," he says definitively, yet tone a grunt, "It's currently the fifteenth so we have half a month left to do something about our predicament."
Vivian audibly groans, rolling around the couch in frustration as if this would lessen the pressure they're already very much crunched on.
"Fuck! What are we supposed to do? I doubt Mr. Likhit likes me enough to kiss me. Let alone fuck me!"
Deris waves his hand to send a gust of wind towards Vivian's direction, a small slap landing on his brother's lips for his crude vocabulary.
"You're definitely picking up on Aphere's habits," he comments, crossing his arms, "Mother won't be happy."
Vivian finally keeps himself still and supine on the couch, letting out another frustrated groan.
"Well, mother shouldn't have made us do mission impossible! I can only do so much, you know!" Vivian sits up from his spot, "The most I can do is dress up as a secretary siren! And even then HR is always on me."
Deris shakes his head but laughs at his brother's challenges regarding his pursuit for his boss. Ah, poor him and Aphere, bound to love mortals that can barely comprehend their existence if they were to expose themselves as wizards to them one day.
But it's not like his predicament is any better. Is it better knowing his soulmate is his own mentor? He doesn't know, honestly. His challenge is definitely on another level than his younger siblings, and as much as he wants to complain about it too, if he starts whining, Aphere and Vivian would definitely feel more helpless.
"I know!" Vivian suddenly perks up, a glint in his eyes that tells Deris that he should brace himself for whatever shenanigan his brother has in mind, "Why don't we brew amortentia?"
Deris eyes look like they've fallen out of his sockets.
"Absolutely not!" he protests, "Vivian, you know mother would never approve of this!"
The younger brother begins to whine again, looking at the older in desperation.
"But we're running out of time! How else are we going to secure our lives?" Vivian rebuts, "Do you want to become an animal, phi?"
Deris shakes his head.
"But it's not right, Vi," he reasons, "Don't you think they deserve a fair game?"
The younger wizard thinks it over for only a split second before shaking his head as well.
"They're our soulmates. It was bound to be them in whatever way."
Deris sighs, "Vi, you know what the potion can do. You've seen the movies!"
Vivian only presses further on the idea.
"Those Harry Potter films aren't even accurate on wizardry anyways! Amortentia isn't as bad as how they make it out to be. The most damage that'll happen is that they get too clingy and possessive but overall, they can still think for themselves. Those pot-something films exaggerate the effects too much."
Still, Deris remains reluctant.
"Vi, there's still fifteen days."
"Yeah? And how's your progress with the mentor, huh?"
Deris stiffens at the sudden redirection.
"You— Ugh, I can't with you."
Vivian smiles triumphantly knowing that at the very least, he's won this one banter.
Deris still doesn't look convinced on the idea.
"Do you even know how to make it?"
That's when the other wizard lights up again, snapping his fingers to summon his wand. With one swift motion, he conjures a book the size of a cookbook— all pages filled with scribbles regarding spells, hexes, and potions. Vivian motions his left hand towards its direction, opening the book, causing it to flip through hundreds of pages before settling on a singular spread. Vivian reads through the passages before turning it around to show to his brother.
"Mother showed me the potion making before when I saw her making it," he mentions, then tapping on a small sticky note that's stuck in the page, "She also told me modifications that can be done to the potion to alter its potency."
Deris brings his attention to the sticky note.
"Wood shavings... cat whisker... saliva?! What the hell—"
"I know it sounds bad, phi, but I promise the saliva just mellows out the effects of the potion!"
"I don't know.... It still feels wrong, Vi."
Vivian flips the book to the next page.
"If you're worried about the potency, I'll let you know that I'm making it so that they're more affectionate with us. It won't control their minds, phi. I promise! Think of it as giving their love meter a little boost so we can win them over quicker."
Deris sighs and shakes his head.
"How sure are you that it won't go overboard?"
Vivian smiles.
"Very sure!"
Deris then knits his brows again at the confidence.
"You've done this before, haven't you?"
Vivian suddenly feels himself go small under his brother's suspicious gaze, feeling caught. Deris catches it immediately.
"Oh so you have done this before!"
Vivian waves his hand frantically in front of the other.
"It was a commission! Not for my own gain!" he defends, "A witch asked me to brew some for her because she didn't know how to alter the effects so I took her up on that job. I never used it myself, I promise!"
"Then how are you sure you can control it?" Deris rebuts.
"Because!" Vivian drags the last syllable, "The lady who commissioned me told me it did as she wanted!”
“Which was?”
“Get her crush to like her, of course! But minus any disturbing obsessions. It was just as if cupid’s arrow struck them! Except it was in the form of a roofied coffee cup. Oops.”
Deris wanted to cast a spell to make his little brother shut up.
At the sight of his silence and continued hesitation, Vivian groans and rolls his eyes.
“Okay, well do you have any other ideas?”
Deris sighs.
“This has to be considered cheating.”
“I disagree, big bro. We’re wizards! It’s literally part of our arsenal. And since when did mother say it had to be done naturally?”
That argument was, unfortunately, correct.
Deris still believed they shouldn’t do it, his moral compass to good for his own liking. But knowing the position he’s in, he would be lying if he said he’s not worried for the consequences of being unable to win over his soulmate. He doesn’t like the idea of spelling someone but he hates the idea of turning into an animal even more. He has so much aspirations right now! He doesn’t want to let all of that go.
He gives himself a moment to think it over before looking at Vivian’s face riddled with so much expectation and promise. He thinks it over in Aphere’s shoes but, knowing those two younger brothers of his, he’d definitely agree with Vivian’s idea to spell their soulmates. In fact, Aphere would have proposed something far worse than just spelling if he was in the discussion.
With a sigh and a silent apology to the heavens, Deris looks at Vivian and gives him a stern look.
“Just this once. I’ll let you do your crazy ideas just this once.”
Deris didn’t have to say the rest before Vivian began cheering in triumph, summoning his wand once again before conjuring a cauldron at the center of their living room this time. As the younger of the two happily took out his bag of potion ingredients, Deris made sure to keep his conditions knows.
“If anything happens, I am telling mother that this was all of your idea! I have no part in this!”
Vivian waves him off dismissively as he keeps his attention between the spell book and cauldron.
“Sure, whatever you say, phi,” Vivian responds, “Hey, phi, can you get the pearl dust from my bag?”
“Vi, just use your wand.”
“Yeah but I’m already using it to flip the pages, pour the ingredients, and stir, so my mana is kind of limited right now.”
Deris rolls his eyes but summons his wand to hand over the ingredient. In no time, Vivian was able to create the base of the potion, the entire house basked in different scents, some that neither of them would want to acknowledge out loud.
Deris would never admit that it started smelling like cedar wood and citrus, something so familiar to a certain samoyed mentor. And Vivian, for the life of him, would never admit that it started smelling like a certain CEO’s perfume— Oud Vibrant Leather that he catches himself sniffing whenever he stands a little too close to his boss as his heart thrums against his chest against his will.
If the two of them noticed the other becoming flustered, then neither of them are willing to tease the other for it. Both of them were at a losing stance anyway. No point in starting a war that neither would win.
As the potion’s smoke swirl in front of them, the brothers knew the potion was done at the very least.
“Alright,” Vivian coughs out in embarrassment, head slightly spinning at the fact the whole house smells like Mr. Lee to him, “We’ll let the potion simmer for now to let it mellow out. Tampering a newly brewed amortentia can cause the added ingredients to be overpowered so it’s best to let most of its effects die down.”
Deris, just as flustered at smelling his mentor whichever way he turned his head, simply nodded.
“A-And how long would that be?”
“Just give it half an hour of simmering. The uh… aromatic aspect of it will mellow down as well by then so uh,” another cough, “Let’s just let it die down.”
With that, both brothers decided to leave the living room for some peace of mind.
Not after long, their front door then opens with a tired Aphere throwing his school bag to the nearest couch, complaints of his school day already spewing out of his mouth as he walked in.
“God, I’m so tired. PE sucked the life out of me and I can’t believe I have to take that stupid class again! Like broom riding class in the academy was already tough enough but having to actually run and use your legs? That’s torture. Can’t believe humans put themselves through this shit. And math class was so boring that I almost fell asleep but then that poser Ongsa just—”
Before Aphere could even fully close the door, his nose gets hit with an overwhelming scent that he couldn’t ignore. Frustrated and tired, he groans.
“What the— Why the hell does it smell like Ongsa in here?”
Deris and Vivian perk up at that sudden mention of their brother’s mate’s name. They both don’t say anything, giggling at what this means.
“Vivian, did you buy the same perfume as him or something? Why does it smell like his cologne?”
The mentioned brother couldn’t hold in his laugh any longer and lets it all out, Deris following afterwards. Aphere, clearly puzzled by their weird behavior, throws his bag over to their direction.
“What the hell is going on with you two?”
Still, the two older brothers don’t say a word, reveling in Aphere’s confusion and unexpected confession.
As Aphere was about to summon his wand to conjure a vase to throw at them, he stops in his tracks when he finally saw the elephant in the room. There, in the middle of their house, was a cauldron simmering with a pink-colored water. As his eyes scan the spiraling smoke emitting out of the pot accompanied by the sight of pearl dust right beside it, his brain finally clicked and put 2 and 2 together.
The pot was brewing amortentia.
The scent he smelled from that potion was Ongsa.
He basically confessed to his two older brothers that he likes Ongsa.
Embarrassed and absolutely mortified, Aphere summons his broom and speeds out of the house, leaving his laughing brothers behind, cursing them in the skies as he continues to surge higher and higher in the air to scream out his frustrations.
Out of all people— it just had to be Ongsa.
That annoying poser was the one he smelled when they brew that potion and he wants to kick himself so much for it because he feels pathetic now! Sure, yes, Ongsa is his soulmate, but for it to be deeper than his one-way ticket to freedom is making him lose control.
Ongsa is annoying, that much Aphere will gladly say, but for him to be faced with the music is killing him. He’d rather eat nails than ever admit out loud that he likes that guy. He’d rather break his wand in half than admit that Ongsa is handsome and he can’t help but steal glances his way. He’d rather live as a muggle than ever admit that he annoys Ongsa just to get his attention.
Because Aphere likes it when Ongsa’s whole world zeroes in on him.
He likes it when Ongsa pins him to the wall and tells him to watch himself before pulling away.
He likes it when Ongsa is focused on proving him wrong.
He likes it when Ongsa has his way.
And that one incident in the locker room when Ongsa had Aphere caged between him and the locker still replays in his mind like a broken record. The way he felt the metal wall behind him as Ongsa’s temperament slowly frays at the seams. Aphere could barely remember what the other was saying but he did remember how he felt. He remembered feeling himself go weak, heart beating against his ears, until all he wanted to do was pull Ongsa closer until he’d suffocate.
Aphere would never admit these things out loud.
But as luck would have it, he just did.
He’ll probably wander around the sky for another hour before heading back home to his brothers. He’s sure they won’t ever let him die this one down.