"A Strange Bond"
Note: Wow, two chapters in one night! Aaand the theme for this chapter is 'Dark Times' by Kevin Macleod. Trigger warning for a panic attack and grieving. Tooth Fairy finally lets his walls down, and Alpha is there to help.
"Chapter 5: The Shadow Box"
January
January had nearly come to a close, and Alpha left The Hollow for her fourth hunt of the night. The first two had gone very well, and the butchers had their hands full with two large doe carcasses. The third hunt, however, had gone badly for her when her attention waned due to her persistent hunger, and she stepped in a bear trap. After expelling a string of swear words that could make a sailor blush, she freed herself and popped back home to clean herself up. The gash had already stopped bleeding and was just beginning to scab over when she had a chance to assess it in the light of her home, and after cleaning it she decided not to bother wrapping it. Now with a slight limp, Alpha was in an ugly humor as she used a Fairy Ring to warp to a different stretch of forest.
Her mood lifted when she found a fresh deer trail, but her temper flared again when her new cell phone rang in her pocket, scaring the deer away and giving her a pretty bad fright as well. How could humans stand being reachable wherever they went? She only had a few numbers saved on it, and she only carried the damn thing with her in case Tooth Fairy texted or called, as he frequently did.
"Swear to Christmas, if it's Curtis again..." she growled as she dug her cell out of her pocket, but her irritation quickly fell away when she recognized the number. She fumbled the phone, dropped it, then slapped her forehead as she picked it back up again and swiped at the touch screen with the pad of her finger. "Hello?"
"Alpha...It-it's me." Tooth Fairy's voice was low, almost a whisper.
"'Me' who?" Alpha smiled, knowing full well who it was. "I can hardly hear you."
"Sorry, it's...it's me, Roy," There was a tightness in his voice, which immediately put Alpha on high alert. He sounded like he was out of breath, which wasn't something that typically happened with him. "I'm on a roof. I can't talk any louder, I-I don't want the family inside to hear me. I..."
"Roy? Roy, talk to me, are you okay?" Alpha rested her weight on her uninjured leg as the fur on the back of her neck began to rise.
He panted as he replied, "No...no, I'm not okay. I..."
She heard him draw a shuddering breath, and she was utterly horrified when she heard soft, hoarse sobbing on the other end of the line. "Oh, Roy...what happened?"
"I...I...please, I can't breathe..."
She put her hand to her chest, feeling her heart begin to pound as horrible scenarios flashed through her mind, and she raised her voice a little. "Have ye been hurt?"
"No..."
"Do you know where you are?" She began to pace now.
"I...I...gimme a sec..." He tried to gather his thoughts and remember, but it took him a few moments. His vision, blurred by tears, had narrowed almost to a pinpoint, and if he'd known the term 'panic attack' he would have understood what was going on. Finally, it clicked in his brain and he gave her the address, not even sure why she was asking him for it if she didn't know how to get there.
But, as it turned out, she did know how to get there. The power over the Fairy Rings had transferred to her when she took possession of Brinna's wings and gave them a proper burial, and while The Founders had stolen that power, it had gone willingly to Alpha. Brinna was gone, but her spirit was satisfied. Alpha could now go anywhere in the world in an instant, as long as she knew exactly where to go. Of course, Tooth Fairy knew very little of this, because he refused to discuss his sister at all and hadn't learned the particulars of how the magic had affected Alpha.
"I'll be right there. Don't be startled when I show up." Alpha summoned a Fairy Ring, her ears canting back as Tooth Fairy tried to answer her but couldn't get the words out. She stepped into the Ring, then stepped out of the corresponding one that had formed on the roof where Tooth Fairy sat huddled in tears against the chimney. Her heart twisted painfully as she crossed the distance between them in three steps. "Roy..."
Tooth Fairy just sat and shook, his head buried in his arms as he hugged his knees. He heard her, but he couldn't respond. His cell phone lay abandoned between his shoes where he had dropped it.
"Roy, what happened?" Alpha sat down beside him and wrapped her arm around him. "What is it?"
He tried unsuccessfully to speak, then just gave up and shook his head without raising it.
Alpha put her other arm protectively around him, holding him close and just letting him cry it out for a few minutes. When his sobs had transitioned into sniffles and uneven breaths, she tried again. "What is it? Can you tell me?"
"I'm sorry..."
"No...no, none o' that. You've done nothin' wrong."
He buried his head deeper in his arms. "It's...Molars, I'm pathetic! This is stupid...I..."
"Hey...hey, listen to me. Whatever happened, if it has you this upset, it isn't stupid. And you are most certainly not pathetic. Do you hear me?" She told him, still speaking gently, but more firmly than before.
He gulped, then tried to explain. "The kid...there was..." He sniffled a few times and tried again. "The kid had a...a butterfly collection."
Alpha's forehead wrinkled in brief confusion, then her eyes flicked to his wings and she gasped softly. She thought back to that awful day when they found Brinna's wings perched above Viola's fireplace like a trophy, and held him a little closer. "Ohhh, stars in Heaven..."
He still kept his head down, not wanting her to see his face, but now he turned towards her and leaned into the hug, all thoughts of manly stoicism forgotten as his heart broke all over again. "And all I could see were her wings...hanging above that fireplace, and...a-and..."
"Shhh...shhh...I know...I've got ye..."
He couldn't keep himself from picturing his sister's severed wings over and over again, couldn't stop imagining them shrunken down to miniature and pinned to a card in a child's shadow box between the swallowtail and the monarch. The mental image brought on fresh waves and he buried his face in Alpha's shoulder to muffle the sounds he couldn't help making.
"I've got ye...I know...I'm here..."
He couldn't escape his own thoughts, but thoughts were all they were. She was warm, she was real, she was there, and that was all he needed to know. He was far more unglued than he had been the day he learned the truth of his sister's fate, but he simply couldn't find it in himself to care. That day in Viola's study, even after he broke down, he still fought for control of himself. Tonight, he simply held on tight and let it happen.
What a horrible night this is turning out to be. Alpha rested her cheek on top of his aviator cap, saying nothing more as centuries worth of grief poured out onto her shoulder. How long had he kept this poison buried inside? Well...at least he was getting it out now.
Alpha wasn't sure how much time had passed when he finally grew quiet, but it seemed to her that they had been there for quite a while. They stayed like that for a few minutes more, then he lifted his head and began to dry his face with the end of his scarf, but she reached into her back pocket and gave him her handkerchief. "Here, use this instead. There you go..." She sighed and continued to rub his back as he took the handkerchief and used it. "Poor fellow...you held all that in for a long time, huh?"
He half-turned away to blow his nose, then shook his head, still utterly miserable. "How am I gonna finish my rounds like this? I can't lose it like this again in some kid's house..."
"Well..." she thought a moment, somewhat torn. She thought he should be able to take just one night off and get himself settled, but on the other hand? She didn't know what further actions would be taken if he shirked his job, and she didn't want him to get in trouble. She thought that this was dreadfully unfair. Still...when was life ever fair? Maybe there could be a compromise of sorts. "You can probably afford to take a little more time to collect yourself. For now, let's just sit awhile."
He wiped at his nose again. Now that the storm had passed and his tears had subsided, he felt ashamed again. His heart was still beating a little too fast, and that worried him. Was he coming down with something? "I don't do this. I don't know what's wrong with me...I just...I couldn't breathe, and..."
"Nothing is wrong with you. You just had a nasty shock, is all..." she said. He made a small noise of disagreement, and she went on. "I think it's what they call a 'panic attack' or a 'flashback'. It's just something that can happen. Hey...you reaching out when you needed help was a really brave thing to do, you know that? I know that doesn't come easy to ye."
"Yeah?" He finally looked up at her, not at all put off by the form she was currently in. He had gotten used to seeing her switch back and forth, and either way it was still her.
"Mm-hmm. You don't strike me as the type who likes to ask, so yes. Definitely brave."
Tooth Fairy took a few more deep breaths as his heartbeat gradually returned to its normal speed. "So, that...was a panic attack..."
"Never had one before?" she guessed.
"Uh-uh," he shook his head. "I didn't know what was going on, and..."
"You got scared," she smiled gently. "It's okay. Happens to the best of us."
He wasn't sure if he agreed with her or not, but her words and her presence made him feel a little better all the same. He looked up at the night sky for a little while, his breath still occasionally shivering with an aftershock from his recent outburst, but he was pretty sure he was done. He felt wrung out and tired from having cried so hard and for so long, but there was relief too. He noticed in passing how bright the full moon was; that explained why she came to him in this form instead of her human form, like she usually did. Then he happened to glance down, and he saw what the moonlight revealed to him. A healing wound on her leg. At once, concern for his friend took over and he leaned forward to get a better look. "Hey, what happened to your foot?"
She snorted, tucking her leg underneath herself to hide it. "Oh, it's nothing."
"Looks like 'something' to me," He frowned at her. "Show me."
"No. Look, it's mostly healed already. It's not a big deal."
He folded his arms and pointedly raised his eyebrows. He had seen how she liked to downplay her injuries, and he wasn't playing around.
She sighed. "Bear trap. I got careless. Made me mad more than it hurt me." She realized that being so dismissive about this wasn't fooling him at all when he got to his feet and walked around to her other side. She flattened her ears and tucked her leg in a little further. "What're you doing?"
"Let me see." He made a beckoning motion.
"Oh, for Pete's sake..." she grumbled and did as he asked. It was no longer bleeding, and in truth it looked worse than it really was. She couldn't stand the look of guilt in his eyes, and she opened her mouth to reassure him, but he spoke first.
"And here I am, going on about a stupid bug collection..." he said, half to himself, kneeling down once more. "Reach into my left coat pocket."
"Say what, now?" She blinked.
His eyes flicked embarrassedly to his left, and he cleared his throat. "I just blew my nose, and I don't want to touch anything. I always carry dental gauze with me, and you should be able to tie it in place with my hankie. Er...that's...you know what, never mind..."
She tried unsuccessfully to hold back an amused smile. "Let me guess; pants pocket?"
He made an odd motion that was halfway between a shrug and a nod. Here was a dilemma! He wanted to help her bind her cut, but he was worried about getting germs in the wound, and...well, he wasn't entirely sure he was okay with having her hand on his butt-cheek, even if it was just to get a hankie! And her human form would have had him even more flustered! Indeed, he pictured Human Alpha fishing around in his back pocket, which wasn't exactly an unpleasant thought, and he felt his face begin to turn red. Thankfully, it was too dark for her to tell.
She itched to bring out her wicked sense of humor in the form of some playful teasing, but now wasn't the time. She reached into her own pocket and took something out, then offered the tiny plastic bottle of hand sanitizer. "Will this help?"
"Oh," Visibly relieved, he took the bottle, squirted a large dollop of the clear gel into his hand, and rubbed it in.
It wasn't long before Tooth Fairy had cobbled together a sort of crude bandage, and Alpha got up and tried her leg, mostly for his benefit. Having something to focus on besides what had led to him crying on a rooftop seemed to help him, at least a little bit, and she gave him an appreciative thumbs-up. "Thanks. That should hold until I get back."
He nodded, tucking his hands into his jacket pockets and looking very tired. "Thank you."
"Aye," she lightly put her arm around his shoulders, and his wings fluttered as if in response. "Anytime. You think you'll be all right to continue your rounds?"
"Yeah...I'm okay." He picked up his cell phone from where it had fallen and put it in his pocket.
This wasn't exactly true and she knew it, but she also knew what he meant. He would be able to make it through the night and get his work done. But after that? She had no idea, and she doubted even he did. Still, he was trying, and she supposed that was all anyone could do.
"Good...and remember, I'm just a phone call away."
Tooth Fairy scratched his cheek, his nails making a raspy sound on his stubble. He figured he should probably shave when he got home, but he knew he probably wouldn't. "I know." He looked over at the Eastern horizon, which was still dark but maybe a little less so, and his eyes widened. "Wow, I'm really running behind schedule! I gotta go."
Alpha nodded, sensing that dawn was only a couple hours away, at least in this timezone. "All right. Be careful."
"You too," he lowered his goggles and pointed. "Go home and rest that leg."
Alpha gave a cheeky salute, then added, "Do me a favor and shoot me a text when you get home, would you? Just so I know you got in okay."
"Will do," he nodded and took off, one hand raised in a wave before he turned mid-air and resumed his rounds.
She watched him fly off into the night, and sat down to reflect on what had just happened. She thought of the singular set circumstances that led to a Werewolf talking the Tooth Fairy down from a panic attack, and she hoped he wouldn't find anymore shadow boxes with dead butterflies inside. She didn't know if he could take it, and she wasn't sure if she could handle seeing him like that again, either.
Her stomach growled, and she got to her feet with a grunt. There was still work for her to do as well this night, but she knew her heart wouldn't be in it.