"A Strange Bond"
Note: TF and Alpha decide to finish off their evening with a walk through the park before he has to leave for work. Will Robert's (unwanted) advice come in handy, or will Roy bungle the whole thing? Read and find out! The music for this one is, 'Last Kiss Goodnight' by Kevin MacLeod.
"Chapter 14: Confession"
February 14th
After the group left the bowling alley, Alpha and Tooth Fairy found a safe place to summon the Fairy Ring that would take Santa and Carol back to the North Pole.
"You two are welcome to come back with us," Carol said when she noticed Alpha and Tooth Fairy hanging back.
Tooth Fairy looked over at Alpha, and in truth, he hoped she would say no. This had been a lot of fun, but what he really wanted was to be alone with her for a little while before he had to go to work. It had mainly been nerves that had caused him to invite Santa and Carol, and he was feeling fine now. Still, he wanted to see what Alpha wanted to do, because this was her 'date' too.
Alpha looked back at Tooth Fairy, saw the reluctance she felt reflected in his face, and she smiled. "It's a kind offer, but..."
Tooth Fairy smiled back at her and shook his head at the other couple. "We might just take a walk before I have to start work. Why don't you two go and enjoy some alone time before you have to go and get your kid?"
Santa grinned and held out a hand, which Tooth Fairy happily shook, then both he and Carol exchanged brief hugs with Alpha. "It was great, getting together like this. We should do it more often!"
Alpha clasped her hands behind her back. "Well, I'm game if you are."
"Yeah," Tooth Fairy unconsciously did the same. "Maybe we can catch a baseball game, as long as it isn't held at night."
Santa put his arm around Carol's shoulders and nodded towards the Ring. "Come on, honey. We better get back home before someone comes along and sees us here."
They said their goodbyes, and Alpha dismissed the Ring when Santa and Carol 'disappeared'. She turned to the Tooth Fairy and quizzically raised her eyebrows. "So...ye mentioned goin' for a walk?"
"Yeah," he nodded and pointed to the park's entrance. "We never actually went through the gate like everybody else. We always just sort of appeared in the middle."
She adjusted her denim jacket, then buttoned it as the wind picked up. "All right, let's go."
Tooth Fairy knew from experience that she wouldn't accept it if he offered her his jacket, citing the fact that then he would be cold, so he did the next best thing and put his arm around her. His heart fluttered when she slipped her arm around his waist, and they were silent for a little while.
"I still feel bad about not being able to pay for anything..." Alpha finally admitted as they entered the park and walked along the path.
Tooth Fairy shook his head; he wished she could get past that! He knew she wasn't the type to use him like that. "Alpha...I don't know how to make it any clearer to you, but I don't mind treating you once in a while. In fact, I like it."
"Oh?"
"Yeah," he smiled at her. "Makes me feel good, being able to do stuff like this with you. Besides, you took care of me when I was sick, for cryin' out loud. If we were keeping score, I'd be the one who owes you, not the other way around. And I don't know about you, but I think scorekeeping belongs back at the bowling alley. Hehehe...boy, we really mopped the floor with 'em, didn't we?"
Alpha snickered. She supposed he had a point. "Aye, so we did! And thanks for a really great time."
He smiled back. "Well, thanks for coming. It was a blast."
Her smile turned mischievous. "And don't think I didn't notice, Roy."
"Hmm?" He blinked, trying to figure out what she was talking about. He hoped she wasn't talking about his accidental peek down the front of her shirt! Not that he'd minded the view, because it kept popping unbidden into his mind, but she'd never given him the 'okay' to look! "Notice what?"
"I saw you showing off out there," she teased.
Tooth Fairy laughed a little more loudly than he normally would have in his relief, and bobbed his head once in a cheeky nod. "Darn right! Impressed?"
"And modest, too..." she chuckled.
At the sound of her quiet laughter, Tooth Fairy's heart galloped in his ribcage, and his throat spasmed a little as he tried to swallow. None of the passers-by gave them more than a passing look, and that was if they looked in their direction at all, but to his mind he had the most beautiful woman in the world on his arm. And this terrified him. Robert's words came back to him. If you like her, you should tell her. But how could he get such a thing off his chest without spoiling the moment? And yet...it was so monstrously huge that he wasn't sure if he could keep it inside, either.
Alpha saw the change in his demeanor, but she wasn't sure what caused it. Had she said something wrong? He didn't seem upset, but he wasn't talking anymore, and he hardly seemed to be paying attention to where they were going. She spotted a bench just up ahead, and she cleared her throat to get his attention. "Can we sit down?"
"Hm?" he snapped out of it and looked at her in concern. "You okay?"
"Oh, aye. I just want to sit for a minute, if that's okay with you."
"Oh." he nodded, wondering if she was tired, or maybe even sore. The repetitive arm movement of rolling a heavy bowling ball down the alley was something he wasn't used to, so his right shoulder was still a little tender. "Sure, c'mon."
They sat down, and he automatically tried to fiddle with his dental floss, but then he remembered that he'd put it away. He still had it in his pocket, but he thought it would look weird if he got it out just then, and so he didn't. He picked at his thumbnail instead. Say something, stupid!
Alpha could see that he wasn't going to get this started, and she thought she had some idea why, so she leaned forward to better see his face. "Where'd ye go?"
"Huh?" He looked over, saw her look of concern, and smiled gently. She smiled back, and he wondered if her lips were as soft as they looked. Would this be the night he found out? Or would he be heading off to work with a broken heart? He knew she would be kind if her answer was no, but it would still hurt. Was he ready and able to bear it? "Nowhere."
"Ye got very quiet all of a sudden. Is somethin' on yer mind?"
Tooth Fairy was silent for so long that Alpha thought he wouldn't answer her, then he sat up straighter and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah. And I'm not sure how you're gonna take it."
A frown line appeared between Alpha's eyebrows and she folded her hands on her lap as she sat back a bit. "Neither am I, because I don't know what 'it' is. But ye know me, right? If there's a problem-"
"No...no, not a problem. Not really." His heart hadn't slowed down at all. If anything, it had picked up speed. If you like her, you should tell her.
Could he, though?
Alpha shook her head. "Then what is it?"
Tooth Fairy realized that he'd already said too much, and that she would be worried or curious now that he had, so he turned a bit in his seat to face her. "I got somethin' to tell ya."
"All right," Alpha turned towards him as well, as patient as ever. She thought she knew what was coming, but she didn't want to assume or put him on the spot by trying to guess.
"There's something I need," he wasn't looking at her, but at his own hand, which rested on the cold, splintery wood of the bench.
"What do you need?"
He took a deep breath. It was now or never...and Heaven help his heart if this went South! "You in my life."
Alpha opened her mouth, then closed it again. Her own heart began to flutter, and she waited for him to continue.
His eyes met hers as he came clean. "Even if it's just as a friend. That's fine. But the way I feel about you, it's...well, it's more than that. A lot more. I'm not expecting anything from you, I just...I wanted you to know. Because not knowing for sure if you just saw me as a friend or...whatever...has really been buggin' me."
Alpha's reaction wasn't at all what he expected. He did expect her to turn him down. He wasn't sure what would be worse; laughter or pity. He got neither. And she didn't turn him down. Instead, she reached over and took his hand, linking her fingers through his. Her warm smile told him all he needed to know before she even spoke. "Well, I'm glad you said it first, because I was havin' trouble workin' up to it."
He blinked, thinking that, surely, he must have heard wrong. "You..."
She nodded. "I feel the same way about you. I haven't said anything because...well, it's still very new. And with everything else that's been going on...everything you've gone through lately...I wasn't sure of the timing. I didn't know what I wanted yet, either, and..."
She trailed off. They had held hands many times before, mostly when one wanted to comfort the other, but this was different. She felt him stroke the back of her thumb with the pad of his, and she broke out in gooseflesh.
She inched a little closer to him on the bench, trying to think of how to finish her sentence, but for the life of her she couldn't come up with the words. In fact, talking no longer seemed important. He moved as if to lean in, then stopped himself.
He doesn't know I just gave him the 'green light'. He really is new to this.
She moved her face close to his instead, and paused; she didn't want to spook him if he wasn't ready for that.
Tooth Fairy's mind turned to his unwelcome conversation with Robert when he saw Alpha's eyes flick to his mouth and back, and he firmly pushed all thoughts of the Vampire from his mind. He gave an almost imperceptible nod, and when Alpha angled her head he followed suit and closed his eyes. Her lips were every bit as soft as they looked, and his free hand went up to cradle her face. His heart still pounded, but the calm that settled over him was unlike anything he had ever experienced before. This was good. This was right. What on Earth had he been so afraid of?
Alpha let her doubts fall away and simply enjoyed the moment. Enjoyed him. The future was always uncertain; this she knew very well. Wasted moments could never be recovered. And she didn't intend to waste a single one.
When they finally ended the kiss, it wasn't because they wanted to; Tooth Fairy's unseen wings vigorously fluttered, as they sometimes did when he was very happy, and he began to lift up from the bench. Alpha quickly put a hand on his shoulder and forced him back down, looking frantically around to make sure that no humans had seen, but she saw no one nearby. She turned back to him, wide-eyed, and gaped. Then they both began to laugh, him with a touch of embarrassment mixed in with his amusement.
"Sorry," he chortled, rubbing the back of his neck. "They have a mind of their own sometimes!"
She leaned forward and whispered, "So does my tail. Thankfully, I'm not wearing it today."
He pressed his forehead against hers as they laughed again, then gave her a light peck on the cheek. Her consent had made him brave. "So...where do we go from here?"
"You mean, tonight, or in general?" she returned.
"Both, I guess."
Alpha took his left hand, turning it so that she could look at his watch. "Well...we, or, rather, you, don't have much time. Unfortunately. You'll have to go to work soon, so that's one question answered. As for the other...I really don't know."
He didn't either, but she seemed like she had more to say, so he nodded for her to continue.
"I wasn't looking for this. It sort of caught me by surprise. And there's still so much we don't know about each other." She linked her fingers in his again. "But I'd like to."
Tooth Fairy gave her hand a squeeze and nodded thoughtfully. "And you know more about me than I do about you."
"Well," she squeezed back, "we'll have to fix that, then."
"Yeah..." He released her hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and she leaned against him and put her arm around his waist. He heaved a deep sigh of contentment, taking in the scent of her hair and thinking that there was no other place he'd rather be. But it couldn't last. "Y'know, I like making the kids happy...but I wish I could just stay here with you instead. Just for one night."
"Mm..." she gave a sympathetic murmur. She wished he could stay a bit longer, too, but she knew how it was. "Maybe we can meet up tomorrow. I won't have as long as I did today, but I can get away for about an hour."
"Yeah." He brightened at the thought, and his next question came out easily. "So, now that we know...why don't we go on a date? A real one."
"Aye," she nodded.
"Well, I picked tonight's activity. Whaddaya wanna do tomorrow?" he asked.
"Well," she leaned back from their embrace, "I had an idea. There's a place I'd like to show you. Maybe we can pack a lunch and go there."
Tooth Fairy grinned. "Sounds great, but where's 'there'?"
"I'll have to take ye there myself. It's a little off the beaten path, but for all I know, you've flown over it." she continued.
He chuckled. "Odds are, I have. But if it's under the trees, I probably missed it."
"Well, there are trees there. It's near a creek. Humans don't find their way there often, and I'll sometimes go there and have a swim when it's hot. It's too cold for that now, but it'd be a nice place to have lunch and a chat. What do ye think?"
"I like it. Sounds like a nice place." Tooth Fairy replied, already looking forward to seeing it. As someone who met Mother Nature as a child and grew up in a place that blended the natural and the hand-made, he had a special affinity for the outdoors, as did most members of his race.
"You should see it in the early summer." She was about to say something else when Tooth Fairy's phone began to beep.
He took out his phone and silenced the alarm with a sigh. "Well...duty calls."
"Aye..."
Tooth Fairy stood up and turned to her, hesitated, then decided it was way too soon to say out loud that he loved her. He thought it was fairly obvious anyway, and as new as things were he didn't want to spoil the moment by laying it on too thick. Besides, they most likely had centuries to tell each other that, so really, what was the hurry? "Say, what time?"
She loosely wrapped her arms around his neck and crossed her wrists at his nape. "Mm...how does one o'clock sound? Come by my place, and I'll take ye to it."
"Sounds great." And without any fuss or fanfare, their goodbye hug was thrown out in favor of a goodbye kiss.
"See ye tomorrow, Wintergreen. Happy Valentine's Day."
When they left, Cupid flew down from the tree that had served as his perch and texted Jack Frost. "'We...have...a...kiss...!' Aaand, send."
His phone went off three times just as he stashed it in his quiver, and he took it out again with a grumble. Jack's first message was just a string of various kinds of happy emojis, followed by a message that said, 'Who kissed who first?' and then one that said, 'DETAILS!'.
Cupid sighed. He really should have known better. He called Jack instead, lacking the patience to text back and forth.
Jack answered before the first ring had ended. "Well?!"
"Well, settle down, it's not like you won the lottery!" Cupid flew back up into the tree. "And there's not much to tell. He told her, she told him, and they met in the middle. Standard procedure, really. We can probably stop spying on them for now. I'm starting to get a little weirded out by it all anyway."
"Didn't I tell ya they'd be great together?" Jack couldn't resist gloating.
"Yeah, yeah...it's always great when you start out. But it don't always end that way. It's why I have two different arrows; one to cause love, and one to get rid of it. If things turn sour, I'm not gonna be able to fix it for them. The lead-tipped arrow won't have any effect on them."
Jack scoffed. "You're always such a buzzkill. You know, Santa and Carol had a fight three years ago, and some might have called it a deal-breaker. It almost was..." He grew somber as he recalled the part he'd played in that. "But they worked it out. Alpha and the Tooth Fairy are both reasonable people. I'm sure they'll be fine."
"Even reasonable people have their limits," Cupid replied, equally serious. "Alpha's a Werewolf, don't forget. And we don't know much about her life before she joined us. What happens if she has some kind of dark secret in her past, like so many of us do? I mean, the guy's such a softie, he might not look at her the same after that."
"Hmm..." Jack frowned. "You have a point, but you're worrying about things that haven't happened. For now, can't you just be happy for them?"
"Who says I'm not?" Cupid shrugged. "I'm just not gonna get too excited over a little smooch. If it fizzles, it fizzles. And you know what that means."
"I'm not streaking."
Cupid smirked and hung up on him.
Note: I don't think these two would consider themselves to be 'boyfriend' and 'girlfriend' at this point, mostly because they haven't discussed it, but c'mon. They've pretty much been dating without calling it that for several weeks. XD I just want to make it clear that no seriously risqué stuff will happen in this story (at least, not on camera). What I've posted before is most likely about as racy as things will get, and in my opinion, that isn't much at all. But anyway! He finally told her. And it didn't go as badly as he had feared! I intentionally avoided naming the location of Alpha's chill-out spot, mostly because I haven't done a lot of traveling, and so that people can imagine for themselves where it might be.