Title: tough to be tender
Fandom: shadowhunters/the vampire diaries
Rating: teen
Length: ~600 words
Author notes: +thief for the bingo here, title from metric's help I'm alive

Jenna’s walking home from her thesis meeting, when she spots the dick teacher on the other side of the road. He might have had a point about the way she’s been raising the kids- more babysitting than parenting- but he didn’t have to be such an ass about it. She ducks into the nearest store, is spending the next ten minutes window shopping even if it’s a morgue.

It isn’t. Not even close.

An antiques shop, filled with odds and ends, gorgeous and curious at every turn. A nearby coffee table is five figures, and yeah, there’s no way she can afford anything here. Yet Jenna finds herself at the jewelry counter. There’s a gorgeous amethyst bracelet that’s probably worth more than she earns in a year sparkling up at her, and not for the first time she laments throwing away her rich douchey classmate. To have lovely things, to not worry about money, about another damn study for her thesis, about-

“Do you want to try it on?”

Jenna jumps, looking up to see a stunning woman somehow appeared behind the counter. She’s dressed in silk, head to toe, and Jenna feels warm, frumpy in her old sweater.

“Er- can I?”

The woman laughs softly, taking the bracelet out, “You aren’t a thief are you? I’ll warn you that I’m faster than I look.”

“No,” Jenna mutters, pushing her hair behind her ear.

“Good,” she declares, “I’m Camille.”

Light fingers enclose her wrist, and she blushes, stumbles over saying, “Nice- I’m Jenna. Nice to meet you. Have you uh, been here long? The shop I mean?”

Camille lets go, and she twists her wrist, marveling at how the light bounces off of it. “I moved here oh, a month ago? I own the place, I wanted to relocate to a nice quiet town.”

There’s a small smirk on her lips that doesn’t match her words, and Jenna’s cheeks burn. “How are you liking it here?”

“Well enough, how are you liking the bracelet?”

“Ha,” Jenna turns her wrist again, “well enough. It’s um, it’s really beautiful. Also really out of my price range, sorry.”

“It’s no matter. Perhaps we could work something out, Jenna?”

Her eyes go wide at the insinuation, and she hates that her automatic reaction isn’t offense. No, her traitorous body thinks about how Camille might look underneath that silk, how she might taste, if she-

“I beg your pardon?” she says, trying to inject the proper amount of ire.

Camille’s dark eyes sparkle, “You have exquisite wrists. My jewelry model never showed up, leaving me in a bind for our latest catalog.”

“You have a catalog?” Jenna blurts out, cursing her mouth. Her whole body seems to be working against her, certainly won’t let the exquisite wrist comment go without echoing, the wrists themselves tingling. She’s never been so aware of them, the cool stones on one doing nothing to bring her temperature down.

“Online,” Camille says. “Unless of course you had some other way to pay me back in mind…?”

She’s definitely smirking now, and Jenna’s sure her face is bright red, clashing horribly with her hair.

“No! Modeling’s great. Do you- when do you want me?”

“I make my own hours, come whenever you wish.”

It’s the lilt, Jenna decides. The out-of-town, from-an-actual-city lilt in her voice that’s making everything sound so sexual. That’s all. There’s no need for her face to be so hot.

She’s still smirking.

Fuck.

“Er- tomorrow afternoon?”

Camille nods, “Take the bracelet home. I know where to find you Ms. Sommers if you don’t show up.”

Jenna gulps, turned on and terrified, thanking the woman and practically running out of the store. It isn’t until she’s back home, staring in wonder at the bracelet that she realizes she never told Camille her last name.