"A Strange Bond"
Note: I thought these two deserved to have some fun! Also, Cupid runs into Alpha and TF 'by accident' and brings up Valentine's Day, which gets them a bit unsettled.
"Chapter 11: Tomfoolery"
February 10th
Tooth Fairy whistled to himself as he raided his closet for some casual human clothes to wear on his not-a-date with Alpha. Since their stroll through the park had come to a premature end before, they had decided to try it again.
He noticed that she always suggested activities that wouldn't involve him having to spend money on her; the Legendary Figures ate for free in Elfsburg, and you didn't have to pay to get into a public park. He sort of felt bad about this, because he would have liked to treat her once in a while, but he accurately guessed her reasons. She felt bad because The Hollow had no money to spend, and she didn't want their friendship to be one-sided in that regard. And that was all they were. Extremely close friends, but friends nonetheless. If the lines weren't so blurred, though, it wouldn't be so confusing.
For now, free activities were just fine with him, but when he spotted his old bowling ball in the back of the closet he wondered if she might like to go bowling sometime. Actually, there was a lot of junk stashed back there, stuff he hadn't thought of in years! "Hmm..."
Tooth Fairy knelt down and reached under the hanging curtains of clothing, pulling out an old lacquered wooden box. Inside was an assortment of old baseball cards (one of which was autographed by Babe Ruth himself), a joy buzzer that no longer worked, a few buttons, and an old monogrammed handkerchief. He took this out and stared at it.
Brinna had made him a set of these for his birthday one year, and this was the only one that remained. It was so old that he was reluctant to handle it at all for fear of damaging it. The embroidery was uneven and clumsy, but his initials were unmistakable. He smiled softly and laid it back in the box.
Then his smile became a smirk when he picked up the blue, plastic water pistol he had bought thirty or so years ago for April Fool's Day. He closed the box and shoved it back into his closet, and went to try out the water pistol to see if it still worked. He filled it at his bathroom sink and gave the mirror a squirt. After all these years, it still worked just fine. "Well, whaddaya know..."
He chuckled wickedly as he concealed the toy in his jacket. He knew that Alpha had a bit of a naughty sense of humor, and he also knew that she was good-natured about it when the joke was on her. Remembering her off-hand risqué remark from a couple days ago, the one that had made him blush like a schoolboy and hide his face in the throw pillow, he decided that the time had come. "Heh heh heh...I'm gonna get her..."
The park was cold this time of year. Alpha was still fine in her denim jacket, but Tooth Fairy's warm hug provided enough of a contrast that she shivered once when she stepped back again and the wind picked up. He wore a wide grin, one that she hadn't seen often, but one that she was beginning to see more and more frequently. "Well, you're certainly cheerful today!"
"Why wouldn't I be? I get to spend the afternoon with you." Did she just blush? He thought she did!
Alpha rolled her eyes, but linked her arm in his as they began to walk. His wings, unseen for the time being, fluttered in response to the welcome contact; she felt the breeze. She was so used to seeing his wings that she thought he didn't look quite right when they were invisible as they were now. "How was work last night?"
"Oh, it was fine. One kid almost spotted me, but I managed to get out in time." He tucked his free hand in his pocket, fingering the water pistol. No...not yet. This was nice.
"Lucky. What would happen if they did spot you?" she asked.
"Ooh...well, first of all, they'd probably panic. Humans expect the Tooth Fairy to be..." He tried to think of a good way to put it, then decided to just gloss over it. "So, they'd see a big guy, a stranger, in their room, and they'd get scared. That's bad. And I'd get in trouble with Mother Nature for revealing myself to a human. Also bad."
"Mmm..." she made a slight face. "Humans can be tricky to deal with anyway...They're about the only thing I'm afraid of. Cute when they're young, though."
"You used to be one, right?" he pointed out.
"Aye," she nodded and dropped her gaze. "And if someone told me back then where I'd be today, I would've laughed and sent them on their way. The wee ones are open to magic and mystery and all those good things, but when they grow..."
"Mm-hmm," Tooth Fairy nodded in agreement. "Even the good ones would be a danger to the magical community if they knew for sure it exists. I think that's why humans stop believing as they get older."
"It's sad, in a way..." she looked pensive.
"What is?" he cocked his head.
"That they have to give that up," she stopped speaking when a human family, parents and a child, walked close enough to hear their conversation. Both she and the Tooth Fairy reddened when they overheard the mother comment in what she probably thought was a quiet whisper about their apparent age difference. Alpha defiantly kept her arm looped in his, and lifted her chin a scant inch higher. The nerve of that woman...
The family passed, and Tooth Fairy was still red in the face. "Do I really look that much older than you?"
Alpha rolled her eyes. "You're two years older; that's nothing. And anyway, it's none of her business."
"Well, I don't look two years older..." he muttered.
Alpha was furious with the woman who just might have ruined his day, but she kept it to herself. "Ye look just fine to me." And he did.
He snorted, unable to accept a compliment at the moment. "So, you're not at all bothered that she thought we were dating?"
"Are you?"
Her question brought him up short, and in a major way. He actually stopped walking. His mouth became as dry as the Sahara Desert. She surely expected a response, but all he could manage to do was stammer a bit before giving up and closing his yap.
Alpha put her hands on her hips and faced him. "I don't give a toot in a high wind what 'Princess Suburbia' with her 'can I speak to a manager' haircut thinks, and I don't see why you should either. Here's some food for thought; they think we're both human. And they're wrong about that, too."
He finally cracked a smile. "You're somethin' else, you know that?"
"I know," she grinned, taking his arm again. "Look...there's no one else I'd rather be with right now. So, let's just enjoy our day."
What had she meant by 'Are you', though? This was going to gnaw at him for the rest of the day! Oh, he could just go ahead and ask her, but if the answer wasn't what he was hoping for...No. Just no.
After a while, when their conversation still appeared to be clinically dead, Alpha spoke again. "I'm sorry."
He blinked. "For what?"
"People can be so ignorant sometimes." She could tell he was still brooding about it, and she was upset in turn, because he had seemed so happy before.
"Yeah, well...anyway, what were we talking about before?" He looked over at her.
"Something about magic, and how humans stop believing in it..." she shrugged, not really wanting to continue that discussion. She changed the subject. "Silas was asking about you, y'know."
"Oh?" Tooth Fairy was surprised by that! "What about?"
"He mentioned your illness and wanted to know how you were feeling. I swear, I didn't breathe a word of it to him, but like I said before...sometimes he just knows things."
And this reminded Tooth Fairy of her comment, and his plan. He rubbed his mouth to hide a smirk. "Well, you can tell him I'm doing great now. I had a good nurse." He playfully nudged her.
Conversation picked up again as if it had never been interrupted, and they continued this way for about half an hour until Alpha thought she spotted a deer. She wandered off a few paces to get a better look, and Tooth Fairy saw his chance. His face split in a mischievous grin, and he squirted her in the back of the head with the water pistol. She whipped around, and he quickly pocketed it before she could see it.
"What was that?" she put a hand to her hair.
"What was what?" he feigned innocence.
Her forehead creased. "It's...was it supposed to rain today?"
Tooth Fairy bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling, and he looked up at the gray sky. "Gee, I hope not."
"Huh..." She shook her head and turned back to peer through the trees.
Tooth Fairy's shoulders jiggled with silent laughter, and he got her again. This time, Alpha turned quickly enough to see him with his hand in his jacket pocket.
"Hey, what is this?" she frowned, though he could tell that she wasn't upset.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I'm just standing here." he spread his arms in a wide shrug.
"Uh-huh..." Alpha narrowed her eyes as she turned her back again. She heard fabric rustling, and she spun around to face him again. This time, she caught him in the act. "Aha! Ack!"
He got her in the face this time, and the relief of letting out the guffaw he'd been holding in was unbelievable. "Toldja I'd get ya back!"
She gaped at him in disbelief, then joined in and laughed with him...at least, until he squirted her three more times in succession, and she charged at him. "You're bad! Give me that!"
"No!" he turned and bolted.
"If ye think ye can outrun me, ye're sadly mistaken!" she hollered as she poured on the steam. She was quite correct; he was fast as a flier, but on the ground he was pretty slow. She nearly bounced off of him when he gave up and turned, hiding the water pistol behind his back. "Give it!"
"No," he turned this way and that as she tried to dodge around him to get it, then squirted her in the face with a final jet of water before he held the water pistol up in the air and just out of reach. "Uh-uh!"
"It's cold out here!" she half-whined. Then she saw that the seam in the armpit of his jacket had split, and this gave her an idea. "So, you're not goin' tae cooperate?"
"Nope!" he shook his head, still laughing a bit.
"Ye're certain ye don't want to hand it over?" she smirked.
"Mm-mmm."
Her smirk stretched into a wicked grin. "All right, then..."
His smile fell as hers grew, and the next thing he knew she had wedged her fingers through the split in the fabric and was tickling him. And he was very. Very. Ticklish! He snapped his arm down, but it was too late, and booming laughter rolled out of him as he tried to squirm away. She hooked her fingers on the fabric, and he couldn't break free without ripping his jacket.
"Oh, no ye don't! You're stayin' right here and takin' yer medicine like a good boy!" Alpha reached up with her other hand and tickled his neck, and he dropped the water pistol in the grass. She nudged it aside with her foot and gave him no mercy.
At least, not until he tickled her, and he learned that she was just as ticklish as he was. The tickle fight continued until their faces were as red as tomatoes and both were gasping for air. Finally, Tooth Fairy managed to blurt out the word 'truce', and they sat down on the short winter grass to catch their breath.
"You fight dirty," he accused her when he could finally speak.
"Says the man who squirts people with a water pistol in the middle o' winter," she lightly pushed his shoulder.
"Hey, you have to admit, I got ya good!" he nudged back.
Alpha rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Ohhh...I haven't done that since...wow, I can't even remember!"
"Yeah," Tooth Fairy sighed, leaning his weight back on his hands. "I'm usually pretty 'hands off'."
She immediately lost her smile. "Oh, should I have not..."
He snorted. "Present company excluded. Hugs from friends are good. Just watch it with the tickling. I almost socked you in the eye with my elbow."
"No, ye didn't," she grinned. "I anticipated it."
"Heh..."
"So, where'd you get that thing, anyway?" she pointed to the discarded water pistol, which he seemed to be in no hurry to reclaim. "Looks pretty old."
"I dunno. Some store that went out of business ages ago." He scooted forward and took it, then made a show of emptying it into the grass before putting it away. "Got it for April Fool's Day."
"What's that?"
"You don't know what...oh." He turned towards her, sitting cross-legged. "It's the first day of April. Some people play jokes and pranks on each other. It can be fun, as long as it isn't taken too far."
"Huh...that does sound like fun. Waaaiiiit...am I goin' tae have to keep an eye on you?" she narrowed her eyes.
Tooth Fairy just gave a coy smile and shrugged.
They both turned their heads at the sound of fluttering wings, and Tooth Fairy immediately seemed to be on the alert. When the source of the sound came into view, he glowered. "Cupid, are you nuts? You'll be seen!"
"No, I won't. I never am." Cupid hovered above them.
Alpha looked up, turned beet red when she realized she could see up his toga, and hastily covered her face. "Cuuuupiiiid...move that way a bit, will you?"
Cupid obliged, flying a bit lower. "What're you two up to?"
Tooth Fairy tightened his mouth in a disapproving frown. He didn't bother scolding Cupid, because he knew it would simply fall on deaf ears. "We were having a private conversation."
"Do tell," Cupid grinned. Neither of them said a word, and he shrugged. "Anyway...it's almost Valentine's Day. You two got plans?"
Alpha and Tooth Fairy exchanged a look, then warily asked at the same time, "Why?"
"Just being curious. Plus, it's kinda my job to know what people are doing on my own holiday. Speaking of which, Alpha, what do you have in mind for Halloween?" Cupid addressed the still-blushing Werewolf.
"I'll let ye know as soon as I know," she replied.
"Well, you better get a move on. It's already February, and you only have until October." Cupid grinned smugly.
"I'm aware of it," she informed him, plucking a blade of grass and tearing it into hair-thin strips.
Cupid folded his arms. "You don't like me very much, do you?"
Tooth Fairy snorted.
Alpha raised an eyebrow. "I don't hate you, but you haven't exactly endeared yourself."
Cupid shrugged, both accepting that and finding it rather amusing. "Fair point. So, no V-Day plans, then?"
Alpha and Tooth Fairy exchanged another look, and she replied. "Not currently."
Tooth Fairy had had enough. "Speaking of Valentine's Day, don't you have work to do? Those butts won't shoot themselves."
Alpha did a double-take, then covered her mouth with a 'snerk'. There was a pun or two to be made there, but things were awkward enough!
Cupid flew off without a word.
Tooth Fairy caught Alpha's eye and blushed. "Yeah, I know how that sounded. Shut up..."
"Hahaha!"
They waited to make sure Cupid was really gone (unknown to them, he was hiding nearby), and Alpha ventured to ask, "Roy, what's this 'Valentine's Day' thing all about, anyway?"
"Uhhh..." he shifted uncomfortably. "Well, it's...er...um...Y'know, I've never really celebrated it myself. Never had a reason to. Besides, these days it just seems to be an excuse for candy companies to make a buck."
"Oh."
Seeing that she was still a bit confused, he sighed. "It's for couples, basically. If you have someone, they're your valentine, and you do things with them on February fourteenth. Like...I dunno...go out to dinner, show each other you care...or so I hear."
His face was as red as a brick.
"Sorry if this is uncomfortable," she said, "It's just...up until now, it's all been about Halloween. Other holidays were banned. Especially Christmas. So, we don't have a whole lot of information, and I was just curious."
"No," he shook his head. "It makes sense that you'd wanna know more. I just...don't have a lot of info to give ya."
"It's fine, I think I got it." She smiled, plucking another blade of grass and shredding it.
Tooth Fairy remembered the bowling ball in the back of his closet, and an idea came to him. "On the other hand...it's not just for couples. Kids exchange valentines...that is, they give each other little cards...and it just means they're sorta acknowledging each other as friends. And I hear that friends who don't have someone will sometimes do something fun, just so they don't feel so left out."
"That sounds nice," she nodded. She had been wondering what the singletons would do on a day reserved for couples. She imagined that there were many lonely people on Valentine's Day, and this made her a bit sad. She knew all about loneliness, and she knew that he did, too.
Tooth Fairy hesitated, then seized his courage with both hands. "Hey, just for yuks, why don't we do something?"
Alpha looked up at him and smiled. By now she had picked up on his interest, and even though she wasn't ready to dive right in, she liked this idea. There was no reason to rush. If it was meant to happen, it would. "Okay. What did ye have in mind?"
"Ever been bowling?"
She tossed aside the blade of grass and nudged his arm. "You know I haven't.
He grinned. "You're gonna love it!"
Cupid left them at that point. Attaboy...now, don't screw it up!