Lesson 30- Ask before borrowing someone's toys, sharing is a two-way street.

When I finish eating, Laura volunteers to take my plate to the kitchen so I can go shower and get dressed. I gather my things and make it to my bedroom doorway before hesitating. My thoughts flash back to the shiny gold coin under my pillow. I’m weirdly reluctant to leave it behind. Well, I guess there’s no harm in taking it with me. I grab the coin and place it carefully on top of my towel. Perfect. In the bathroom, I place the coin carefully on the edge of the sink, careful to position it where I will still be able to see it. On some level I’m aware that it’s weird that I don’t want to let the thing out of my sight, but at the same time it seems perfectly normal to me and not like something I should worry about. So I don’t worry about it. Much. I might wash my hair twice though, I’m not sure. I was shampooing it and then I found myself glancing at the coin to make sure it hadn’t gone missing. Then I couldn’t remember if I conditioned my hair yet or not. So I just… Did it again.

After my shower, I return to my room and get dressed. I pull on another set of reasonably comfortable clothes as well as my shoes. I tuck the gold coin carefully into my bra again, happy that it’s safely tucked away again. It just feels better that way. Out of the corner of my eye, I notice a vase of pretty pink and white flowers has been placed on top of my little bookshelf. Who put that there? I decide it has to be Laura. They’re so… Girly. I can’t imagine anyone other than her picking them out. She did say that she wanted to try to be friends with me, maybe this is another attempt from her? I step out into the hallway and run face first into Torin who catches me by the shoulders and steadies me. Damn, walking into that guy is like walking straight into a brick wall. Seriously, scary or not, I don’t understand why all the women at the bar aren’t constantly hitting on him. Are they all just blind or something? This baffles me. I’ve seen women date men who were much MUCH creepier than Torin. Men who legitimately treated them terribly and weren’t even that attractive and still they went back to them. As far as I can see, Torin is handsome, generous, has a successful business and isn’t physically abusive or cruel. So he is kind of intimidating, and sure he’s a demon. But if witches and werewolves are accepted as part of this society then why not demons?
“Hello, I was about to come find you.” I greet him. Torin nods his greeting and waits for me to ask. It feels weird to hang out in the middle of the hallway so I invite him into my room.
“Come sit down.” I suggest. Torin takes a seat in the recliner and I perch on my bed. He seems tense.
“Well… First, I wanted to ask, did you know that there’s a trap door behind the bar with a… You know I’m not sure what exactly.. A creature underneath it?” I demand. Torin relaxes a little.
“Oh that. Yes I knew.” He responds. I raise an eyebrow.
“And?” I prompt him to continue.
“Well… I don’t actually know what it is either actually. But it’s always been here since long before I came along. I’ve never actually been down there either. Since it was here first and it’s never caused trouble or tried to hurt anyone, I didn’t see any reason to kick it out or intrude on it’s territory.” He explains. I stare at him. He doesn’t KNOW what it is? For a guy who isn’t comfortable leaving strangers in his territory, he’s weirdly relaxed about a giant, tentacled, shadow creature living in his basement. Without thinking, I reach down my shirt and dig around in my bra to find the gold coin. I pull it out and when I look back at Torin, he’s frozen in place and is staring at my chest. His ears are a little pink. Hmm… Interesting. I clear my throat and his eyes dart up to my face then away to look somewhere over my shoulder.
“Sorry.” He mutters quietly, avoiding my gaze. I smirk a little but don’t call him out on it. I mean hello I have ogled him on more than one occasion, and I did shove my hand down my shirt in front of him, where else was he supposed to be looking? Still, I feel a little validated. Maybe I’m not the only one doing my fair share of staring.

“I was cleaning and I opened the trap door because I was curious. The creature ate some empty bottles and I fed it some leftovers on a whim. I promised to feed it again and it gave me this.” I hold out the coin for his viewing. Torin leans forward curiously and goes to take the coin but I immediately snatch it away and hold it against my chest out of his sight. He frowns but leans back rather than insisting on looking at it more closely.
“I didn’t realise that there was gold down there. I suppose I have no idea what else is down there, it could be anything.” He says curiously. I shrug.
“I guess so. It’s strange though… I can’t seem to leave the coin behind, I slept with it under my pillow and even took it with me to shower. And as you’ve just experienced, I’m apparently very reluctant to let anyone else touch it. But at the same time… I don’t care about that. Like that’s weird, I should be concerned about it. But I’m not.” I mention. I legitimately am not worried about it, I just feel like I should explain my strange reaction before he starts thinking that I hate him… Again.
“Hmm… That is strange. It probably has a charm on it or something to stop you from losing it. You could have Laura take a look at it sometime… Assuming you can bring yourself to show it to her.” He says dryly.
“Why would someone put a charm like that on a coin? It seems odd.” I wonder aloud.
“Someone might put a charm like that on something small that they’re particularly attached to. Maybe that coin was someone’s lucky coin at some point.” He suggests.
“I guess that makes sense. But… Oh, I just realised. Technically this coin belongs to you, doesn’t it? I mean it’s on your territory or whatever, so it’s yours. Do… Do you want it?” I offer reluctantly. I hold my breath as I wait for his answer. He better say no, because I’m not totally sure I’ll be able to convince myself to hand it over if he does say that he wants it. Torin raises an eyebrow.
“COULD you give it to me?” He asks. I shrug.
“I could try.” I say reluctantly. Torin shakes his head.
“Nah, it’s alright. The creature has been here for such a long time, I might legally own the basement, but I don’t consider it to be part of my territory, not really. It belongs to the creature, and the creature gave that coin to you. It’s yours. The fact that the charm on it has stuck to you so strongly is just further proof that it really does belong to you, the spell believes it’s yours. If it’s what I think it is, you will probably feel the need to keep it close unless the spell is broken or you choose to give it away to someone else.” He informs me.
“Well… At least it’s small, it shouldn’t be hard to keep on me.” I decide as I slip it back down my bra, trying to be a little more careful this time to maintain at least some dignity. Torin gets to his feet and heads to the door, apparently sensing that the conversation is over. He’s halfway out the door when I stop him.
“Wait, you don’t mind if I keep feeding the creature, do you? It seemed… Lonely.” As I speak I realise it’s true. The creature had no interest in hurting me or anything, but it seemed happy to interact with me.
“You can do as you like. Just… Don’t fall in.” He advises before walking out and closing the door behind him.