"A Strange Bond"

Note: The background music for this chapter is "Lantern (Seam's Shop Theme)" from the Deltarune soundtrack. I really hope these two aren't moving unrealistically fast. Alpha is fairly gregarious when she decides she likes someone, and Tooth Fairy is just friendly in general. Also, Alpha can be a bit of a clown when she wants to be, especially when she's trying to lift someone's spirits. I might get into that a bit more later on, because there's a fairly good reason for it. She does tend to put her own problems on the back burner, though...

"Chapter 2: Wrong Number"

January

Alpha didn't really expect the Tooth Fairy to call her, and he had no intention of calling her. It wasn't that he didn't like her, and it wasn't even the awkward situation Curtis had put them both in. In truth, he didn't really want to talk to anyone, and getting snippy with Alpha and then feeling bad about it afterwards hadn't helped his morale. Had he even apologized for that? He couldn't remember! And now he had one more mistake to obsess over. No, he wouldn't call her. Why would she want to talk to him after he'd acted like such a jerk?

His days were spent either sleeping or watching TV, and his nights were spent flying all over the world to collect the baby teeth of human children and leave coins behind in their places. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Father Time had once explained how he was able to warp time and space to allow him, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus to complete their work in twelve hours or less, but neither Tooth Fairy nor Santa had been able to follow it all that well, and the Easter Bunny didn't care one way or the other. This 'time bending' allowed them to take care of their daily needs as well as have some kind of a social life outside of work, but socializing wasn't even on Tooth Fairy's list of things to do. Heck, he didn't even have a list!

This might have gone on for weeks, if not months, had the Tooth Fairy's finger not tapped the wrong number on his phone's touch screen. After three days of radio silence, the Tooth Fairy and Alpha unknowingly started something.

Alpha's bleary voice reached his ear, but he didn't recognize it at first because she spoke in a mumble. "H'lo?"

"Hi, I'd like to..." Tooth Fairy trailed off with a frown, and managed to avoid making too much of a fool of himself. "Uh...I'm sorry, is this 'Alfonso's Pizza'?"

The line was silent for about three seconds, then there was a soft laugh. "No sir, this is Alpha's room. Hi, Roy."

Alpha's room?! "Ah jeez, I'm sorry! I must've called the wrong number. Were you sleeping?"

"Aye, but it's fine. Wasn't much of a sleep," There was a rustle of blankets as she sat up. "Pretty sure it's time for me to get up anyway. What's up?"

Tooth Fairy's face burned as he sat back and closed his eyes, raking a hand through his short brown hair. "Not much...I was just trying to order some dinner. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's fine," there was a smile in her voice. "Actually, I'm glad you called. I have a bit of a dental dilemma."

"What do you mean?"

"Dental floss."

He blinked. "Huh?"

"Aye. Waxed or unwaxed? What say you?"

Was she holding in a laugh? The randomness of such a question was so absurd that he began to snicker. "Get outta here!"

"What?" And now he knew she was stifling amusement. "I'm serious. I want to know!"

He was laughing now, albeit quietly; he couldn't help it. He'd figured out that she'd only been trying to make him laugh, but he decided to answer her question anyway. "Waxed. That's just my personal preference, though. Either type is better than not flossing at all."

"Ah, good to know."

"Anything else you wanna know? I could give you some good pointers on toothpaste brands."

"Nope, I'm good. Got a brand I like already."

He chuckled again, and she joined in. They both fell silent at the same time, but neither of them ended the call. He heard her moving about in her home, and he furrowed his brow when he heard an odd sound. "What was that?"

"What was what?"

"That noise."

"Oh, that!" she said airily, "I just moved my coffee mug, and I guess it scraped on the table."

He thought it sounded more like a growling stomach, now that he went over it in his mind, but he let it drop. If she just woke up, she wouldn't have had a chance to eat breakfast yet. "Oh, okay."

"Hey," she piped up, seeming to have just thought of something.

"Yeees?"

"When do you want your book back?"

"Didn't like it, huh?" He had half expected her to dislike it, and wasn't offended.

"Actually, I did. I'm finished," she replied, "I'll admit, I skimmed through most of it, but I don't have a lot of time to read these days. Pretty fascinating stuff!"

"Now I know you're putting me on."

"No, I'm not," she denied. "Consider what I am."

"I don't follow." He crossed his ankle over his knee and pulled at a stray thread on his pant leg.

"I rely on my teeth, so the subject interests me."

"Well, why don't you just keep it?" he suggested. "Then you can go back to it when you do have the time."

"No, I can't take your book!" she protested.

"Sure, you can. When I said I read it a thousand times, that was pretty close to the truth."

It sounded like she switched her phone from one ear to the other, and it also sounded like she was smiling again. "Well, thanks, I appreciate it."

"Sure," he grinned.

"Listen, if you ever change your mind and want it back, I'll-"

"Nahhh...You keep it."

"Thanks."

"Mm-hmm."

His own stomach gave a long rumble and he remembered why he'd gotten on the phone in the first place, but for reasons he couldn't fathom he didn't want to end the call. "So, what're you up to?"

"Setting out my clothes for the day. Exciting, I know." Her wry voice provoked another smirk from him, but this expression faded when she went on, "Listen, I know you're probably hungry, so I won't keep ye."

"Oh...okay," he tried to hide his disappointment, but it must have come through in his voice, because she was quick to add to that.

"Feel free to call back, if you want. I'm just doing inventory today, and it was good to hear from you. Even if it was by accident."

"Heh heh...Okay, maybe I will. You have a good one."

"You, too."

They said their goodbyes and hung up, and he ordered himself a large pepperoni pizza. That would be dinner for the next week or so; his appetite was still very poor. As he ended the call with the pizza place, which was a Fairy-run establishment in his own hidden town, he felt his mood dip low again. He'd thought he didn't want to talk to anyone, but now that he was on his own again he felt lonesome. Had his house always been so quiet and cheerless?

As the Tooth Fairy waited for his dinner to arrive, he debated whether or not to call Alpha back. He knew she was very busy. With The Founders 'dethroned' and with all the changes that were being made in The Hollow, he knew she and the others had a lot on their plates. Running a city, even one as tiny as The Hollow, had to be a hectic, stressful thing! He really shouldn't bother her; she was probably just trying to be polite.

But it was so nice to be able to just talk to someone. Just to talk about inconsequential everyday matters with no pressure to discuss recent events, and to know that if he ever did decide to unburden himself she would listen. She wasn't pushing him. He liked that. He liked her.

And he'd snapped at her when all she wanted to do was help him. Maybe he should call back and apologize. Would that be weird? Probably. Maybe she'd already forgotten about it. He wished he could! There was a lot he wished he could forget.

Then his pizza came, and he decided not to bother her after all.

Tooth Fairy arrived home the next morning after work, too wired to sleep right away and unsure what he wanted to do instead. He had a shower in case anyone happened to drop by, not wanting to be caught unawares again, and he helped himself to some cold pizza from his fridge. Finally, after heading upstairs to brush and floss, Tooth Fairy sat on the edge of his bed in his blue pajamas and rubbed his face. He'd forgotten to shave, but he supposed that could wait until after he'd slept. It wasn't as if the kids would know the difference, assuming he did his job right and didn't accidentally wake one up.

He spotted his cell phone on his night stand where he had left it, and noticed that he had a voicemail. He sighed and picked it up. "Ten bucks says it's the Easter Bunny..."

But no. It was Alpha's number. "Huh..." He listened to the voicemail, unsure what to expect.

"Uh, hi. I hope this is going through, I'm not completely sure how this thing works yet. So, I just wanted to check in, see how your day went. Or night. You know what I mean. I guess I'll try back lat-"

She cut off with a loud gasp, and yelled at someone in the background. Fortunately she had lowered the phone, so she wasn't yelling in his ear!

"Robert, ye wee demon! Ahhh...Sorry, Roy, I gotta go. See you."

Tooth Fairy sat up a little straighter, somewhat alarmed now. It didn't sound like anyone had been hurt, but now he was curious. Just what was going on when she called? He called her number and she picked up on the third ring.

"Ahem. Hello, you have reached 'Alfonso's Pizza'."

"Huh?" What in the world...? It was clearly Alpha's voice, so what was she doing?

"We are currently closed at the moment due to a shortage of breadsticks, and the dish seems to have run away with the spoon."

Oh boy...

Tooth Fairy pressed his lips together as his mouth tried to smile, and he lost the battle. She sounded like she was channeling John Cleese, and that just made it even harder to keep a straight face!

"We're 'alfredo' that you will have to call back at another time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try back again tomor-hey, what are you laughing at?"

Tooth Fairy held his forehead in his hand. This was the hardest he'd laughed since his accidental pun that day at lunch! Come to think of it, other than that and these two phone calls, he hadn't laughed at all since before the last Council meeting he'd attended. "You."

"Well, that's rude!" she kidded back, "I'm hanging up."

He waited, but sure enough she stayed on the line.

"Aaany second now." she added.

"Are you always this goofy?" He squinted one eye, still smiling.

"No," she replied, dropping the act now, but still sounding rather upbeat. "Just wanted to see what you'd do."

"Well, now you know," he scooted back to sit cross-legged on his bed. "So, what was that all about earlier? Some kind of fight?"

"Hm? Oh! Aye, Robert dumped a cup of ice water down the back of me shirt..." He could almost hear her roll her eyes.

"And he lived to tell the tale?" he snorted.

"Hard to catch a bat when you're ground-bound. I'm biding my time."

"Heh...So, was there a reason you called before?" Then he clenched his teeth. Understandably, she didn't answer at first, probably unsure if she'd annoyed him. He didn't mean it that way! Talk about rude. "I mean...ehh, that didn't come out the way I wanted it to..."

Her laugh was somewhat reassuring. "Relax, I don't bite. Well...no, that's wrong. I do bite. But you're pretty safe. No, I just wanted to say hi. If I'm botherin' ye, I can back off."

"No!" he said quickly, "Nonono, that's not what I meant. I just...I don't talk on the phone very much, so I guess I'm out of practice."

"You've still got me beat. We don't even have phones down here. 'Cept this one."

"Yeah...No, you're not bothering me. Actually, I've..." He hesitated, realizing he was admitting more than he wanted to, but then just decided to say it anyway. "I haven't really talked to anyone lately. Just...y'know, you and the pizza guy." He looked down and began to pick at an imperfection in his cheap bedspread.

"Mm..." she made a noise of sympathy, but said nothing more. Remembering his boundaries, she wasn't sure if it was safe to ask him about it; she was great with body language and facial expressions, but she hadn't quite figured out how to interpret vocal cues over the phone.

He tried to think of something to say, but it was as if his brain had stopped working. He sat, mesmerized by the pattern of his bedspread, wanting to talk but not wanting to at the same time.

"You still there?" Alpha finally asked after a few minutes had passed.

"Hm? Yeah, sorry..."

Another pause, and she asked carefully, "What's going on, Roy?"

"I don't know..." The imperfection had become a thread, and the fabric around it puckered as he pulled on it. "I don't even know what I'm doing..."

"On the phone, or in general?"

"The second one."

There was the sound of bedsprings creaking as Alpha sat down. She must have been talking to him from her house.

It sounded like he might want to talk, but was she wrong? "Do you mind if I make a guess?"

"Shoot," he said tonelessly.

"I think you don't want to bring other people down...and you don't like being unguarded when it comes to the heavy stuff...so you've pulled back, and you're trying to deal with it on your own." She waited for him to say something, but all she could hear was his quiet breathing. She wondered if she'd overstepped, and she mentally slapped herself. "Is that...Am I wrong?"

There was a heavy feeling in his chest. It was as if the weight on his heart hadn't been lifted, but had shifted a little, and he rubbed at the inner corners of his eyes. "No...that's pretty much it."

"Mm-hmm..."

He remained quiet, but still he didn't hang up. He suddenly wished she was there. Well, not right there in his bedroom, but there in person. He wondered if he should try to force himself to talk, but he wasn't ready to go there yet. "Anyway...I was just about to turn in." Then, on a sudden impulse, he asked, "Um...hey, Alpha?"

"Aye?"

"I was wondering...You think we can meet up sometime tomorrow, maybe get a bite to eat? If you're not busy, I mean." And, he thought but didn't say, he really did want company. Isolating himself like he did hadn't helped, and he thought it might have actually made his depression worse. He just hoped he wasn't imposing on her. Maybe a public setting would be good, where they could chat face-to-face but there wouldn't be any pressure to get into certain things. This wouldn't be the first time he'd asked a friend to join him for lunch.

"Uhhh..." she sounded like she might have been checking something, possibly a list or a calendar. "I have a little wiggle room for when I take my lunch break. What time would be good for you?"

He suggested a time, and they agreed to meet at the North Pole, mostly because it was a place they both knew and he wouldn't have to cast a glamour on himself to hide his wings. Outsiders generally weren't allowed in his town, and he didn't want to get himself or her in trouble. Once his people knew she was one of the Legendary Figures, it would probably be all right, but he hadn't thought to tell anyone.

As he settled in for the night, he realized that he was actually looking forward to something for the first time in nearly two months.