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The staff at Hogwarts sometimes consist of the mightiest people in the whole wizarding world, but sometimes they have quite some strange teachers with bizarre approaches to their students too. The Potion teacher, Professor Hasegawa was one of the most serious and upright people in the whole school, but he knew to make exceptions, for example. And once in a while, those two only exceptions will be sitting face-to-face in his usual classroom, so ready to get each other’s throat at any given moment. That night was no different, but their motives for arriving in the room were opposite.
“I thought that you knew this school pretty well, yes?” Hoshina grinned, putting the documents relating to the Slytherin house away after helping the professor grade them. A little errand for a little treat of sneaking out whenever he wanted, it seemed.
“Shut up,” Narumi rolled his eyes, staring at the bubbling pot as the liquid turned into a shade of purple. Partly because of how Hoshina’s eyes were ridiculously pinning on him, but the other part was because of how his aphrodisiac was smelling a lot like coffee, magnolia and sandalwood with a hint of lychee.
“I need no permission from anyone to get out on my own, unlike you” He grunted, his furrowed expression surely unsightly.
“I have permission so that I won’t need to be sneaky,” The upperclassman smirked, cracking his eyes open to take a closer look at the younger one. “And get my punishment, like you are right now”
Narumi got his mouth shut, knowing way too well that anything he dared to mutter out would be combated relentlessly, barely letting out a sound as he snapped the rose in halves. Every time, every single time, any chance that they happen to be stuck in the same room together as this would always end up with an outrageous Narumi and an amused Hoshina. Horrifying enough, Hoshina himself probably knew this quite well, considering how much chirpier he always appeared after the session. It was understandable, Narumi came into the room to finish his homework debt and Hoshina came into the room to claim an irresistible reward: A favour and his daily dose of messing around with Narumi. An absolute win
Not that he would rather have the upperclassman disappearing back to his underwater dorms. Sitting in the cave and making basic potions could be extremely boring despite how perfect it would be for a nap - which would be worst to come for him. Not because of how Hoshina’s little awe and comments were weirdly accurate and helpful for his job that day or the way he was always grinning so enthusiastically at any random success of Narumi, no, not at all.
“What’s that?” Hoshina peeked from the back of Narumi’s shoulder, tiptoeing on his feet to see without Narumi directly pushing him away, looking attentively at the pot.
“Nun,” Narumi looked up into Hoshina’s foxy eyes, seriously.
“What?”
“Nuncha business,” the younger one smirked triumphantly as he continued stirring the pot. Hoshina was definitely taken aback, but he showed nothing on the smiling laughing face. Narum despised that feature of him, no endeavours of Narumi could ever manage to shift the older one into any other feelings except for a laughing mess, and he would always be reduced into a putty facing him.
“Oh that’s new, last time was a deez nuts joke if I remember it correctly” Hoshina smiled and nodded along knowingly, tickling on the insults list he had made ever since their first session started. “And that’s aphrodisiac, isn’t it? The shimmering and silky texture look all right. You did pretty well this time, dear”
The younger one groaned at the pot, of course, Hoshina would find out that quickly. It was almost a blessing and a curse at the same time, for Narumi didn’t have to waste any second of his life working with the older one like how he had to suffer with those who were around his age but he also had to suffer from being looked inside out like a piece of glass no less.
“Hey, I’m wondering, what does that smell like?” Hoshina stood up to walk over where Narumi was standing, looking curiously into the pot.
Narumi silently prayed to whoever there was so that one specific shade of purple would not be so noticeable under the dim light of the cave. Despite how much he tried to adjust the recipe, it would always turn into the shade that Hoshina normally used for his accessories or objects. The purple shade did nothing wrong, but it was painfully effective at reminding him of the person standing in front of him.
“Smell like shit…” Narumi mumbled, thankfully that no way in hell could Hoshina could smell the fragrance lingering in his nose. He must never know or else Narumi would just perish right on the spot.
“That’s weird, is it stinky or what?”
“It smelt weird, that's what it was” Narumi lied, rolling his eyes. The smell he got was the most bearable one he had ever heard of. It smelled like coffee with some fresh notes of magnolia flowers and quite warm with some undertone of sandalwood. It easily eased his mind, so much so that Narumi randomly brought a tiny vessel of love potion with him just in case of escapism. No one should ever know that, not a single soul in this world.
“Hm…Are you into someone crazy? Aphrodisiac only reflects the good smell of the one you like, so…” Hoshina, who was crouching down to watch the bubbles looked up attentively.
“No, he’s just…too unpredictable”
“Fair point. That’s not my favourite type of person too…” Narumi silently cursed as he watched the upperclassman who was pouting his cherry-red lips. Thank you whoever there was that he had finished the potion to its best, or there would definitely be a hint of berry in it. A complete sell-away “But do you want to know how my aphrodisiac smells?”
“Like what?” Narumi silently adverted his eyes, trying to look as unbothered as possible, but everyone, however ignorant they were, would figure out how curious he was. It was strange that Hoshina’s aphrodisiac would have a smell, everyone would thought that the upperclassman’s potion would smell like nothing.
Unless…
Narumi gulped, looking at Hoshina finally.
“Tell me yours, and I’ll spill” Hoshina grinned maniacally, sticking his tongue out as he poked at Narumi’s chest. Of course, who could ever dig anything out of this guy?
“Like hell I would, idiot” Narumi scoffed, rolling his eyes.
Well, maybe it would take Narumi his whole life to actually figure out how the smell of White Musk and Vani with a hint of metal haunted Hoshina’s mind every day and night ever since his pot of aphrodisiac was made. Maybe never, Hoshina sighed.
Maybe the worst thing was how the scent smelled awfully similar to Narumi’s disgustingly heady body spray that was given to him by a secret admirer. (The said admirer now suffers from the smell every time he makes a love potion, the said admirer might be Hoshina, but to hell with it)