"A Strange Bond"

Note: April 9th is a 'bad day'. Tension plus flying make for back problems, and the previous day's events bring bad dreams, all of which set TF back a bit. Alpha intentionally breaks the rules this time, both to be there for him and, on some level, to thumb her nose at the man who had hurt him. She then takes him somewhere quiet, and they discuss a few things.

This chapter was a bit of a surprise for me, because I hadn't planned on writing it at all until later on. So, the original idea had to change a little bit, but I think it fits well here and sets up a bit of the groundwork for upcoming events. It took a little bit longer to finish than I thought it would. Family obligations are kicking my butt, lol. I also might have a job soon! Remember that job I was bummed out about not getting? Well, it turns out that they weren't hiring for that position at the time, but now they are! So, if I get it (still not guaranteed), I'll be working full time. And then THAT'S gonna kick my butt. But I'm determined to finish these two fics eventually, so there will still be updates. I'm thinking about changing the summary a bit, though. Thank you to everyone who drops by to read this, and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!

"Chapter 29: A Mental Health Day"

April 9th, Friday

Work had been hard. Six hours into his twelve hour shift, the tension Tooth Fairy had been carrying in his back and shoulders had finally caught up with him, and a slight wrong move in mid-air had caused his back to go into a spasm, forcing him to make an emergency landing in a tree. The pain was almost enough to bring tears to his eyes, and it reminded him of the pain he'd felt when Avery and Viola had tried to twist his wings off his back.

Is this what happened to Mom? Did her back problems cause her to fall out of the sky? I know she was in a storm, but...

And he forced all thoughts of his mother from his mind. Stress had caused him to be too tense, and these thoughts weren't helping. He tried to reach back to rub the spot that ached, but he couldn't reach it from above or from below, and he finally gave up with a growl of frustration.

Eventually, the pain abated somewhat and he was able to continue, but the next six hours were pure agony.

When he finally reached the Fairy town, he decided to walk to where he needed to go instead of flying there, and he made a clumsy landing to drop off his full pouch of teeth for processing. Then, while he trudged home in a haze of physical pain and brain fog, he sensed an approach from his right.

Ohhh, not now...

Mayor Kendrick, who had just left his house to do whatever it was that two-faced old men did, had spotted him. Although, to be fair, Tooth Fairy took a dim view of him after the night before.

"Ah, good morning, Tooth Fairy. I would have expected you to be at home resting by now. Why are you walking? It's a fine morning to fly!" Mayor Kendrick smiled, and the smile seemed genuine.

I've been flying all night, you old goat. "Morning."

"Have you been able to speak with Alpha yet?"

"Yeah," Tooth Fairy folded his arms, putting up a physical barrier between them.

"And?"

Tooth Fairy bit back a retort that would have contained language he didn't like to use. "She's agreed to a meeting, but it can't happen until after the 11th."

"That's quite a wait." The mayor frowned, but he didn't seem cross.

"I mentioned your request to tour The Hollow, and she wanted to have an answer ready for you when you asked her. Their City Council meets on Sunday, so she should have an answer for you by then." Tooth Fairy explained. He was eager to go home and go to bed, and he even thought about skipping his morning shower. Simply getting undressed would be an ordeal, he knew, and it wasn't as if he'd gotten overly sweaty. Still...he didn't like sleeping in his clothes, or going to bed dirty. It was starting to look like this would be one of his 'two shower' days; one to get clean before bed, and one to soothe his back when he woke up.

"Ah, good thinking. She plans ahead. What do you suppose her answer will be?"

The knot between his wings seem to pull even tighter, and Tooth Fairy realized it was because he was growing tense again. Instead of answering Mayor Kendrick's question, he sighed and let some of his weariness show. "I'm very tired. I would just like to go home and go to bed, please."

Mayor Kendrick's face fell, and he shook his head. "Of course. Where are my manners? Go home and rest. We'll speak later."

I'm sure we will...

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Tooth Fairy awoke to the unwelcome intrusion of his phone's alarm playing Europe's 'The Final Countdown'. He had specifically chosen that song because he was unlikely to sleep through it, and because he rather liked it. Today, however, he cracked one eye open, grumbled softly under his breath, and tapped 'Snooze' before pulling the duvet up over his head.

Between his back pain and the nightmares, he had not slept well at all. His talk with Alpha the night before had helped him somewhat at the time, but the damage had already been done. Whatever Mayor Kendrick's intentions were, he had forced Tooth Fairy to pick at a wound that was just beginning to scab over.

Tooth Fairy remembered bits and pieces of the terrible dreams that conversation had brought about, and he honestly had no idea if the wet stain on his pillow had been caused by drool or tears. He felt a little bit congested, but this was nothing to go by; the pollen count was up.

In his dream, he'd had to relive his fight with Brinna. He knew how it would end, and yet he couldn't keep the words he'd said from leaving his dream self's mouth. He wanted to scream at himself to shut up and grow a brain; he wanted to beg his sister not to leave. If he'd known then what he knew now, he would've been down on his knees! But there was a script to be followed, and they were the actors in a play his subconscious brain had decided to put on.

Another dream memory surfaced, and Tooth Fairy squeezed his eyes shut tight. Alpha had rejected him. Mayor Kendrick had banished him from the Fairy town, and Alpha had barred him from The Hollow for some reason. She had cut him out of her life.

He'd been alone. Again. And without a place to go this time. His worst fears had been brought out to caper about on the stage of his mind, and, front and center, standing in the spotlight, was his old nemesis. Loneliness. He saw himself. Alone. Friendless. Homeless. Loveless.

I finally remember one of my dreams, and it's one of those...

Tooth Fairy curled up and hugged his other pillow to his chest. It was a habit he had adopted over the centuries of coming home to an empty house each day. A coping method that he didn't even think about when he did it. He could hardly move his wings, and the ligaments creaked when he tried.

Just five more minutes. Or ten. Or maybe I'll just reset this thing for a few hours la-

His alarm went off again, and now he growled as he poked his arm and head out of his covers and tapped 'Dismiss'. "Shut up..."

He forgot to reset his alarm, and when his phone began to play 'Last of the Wilds' by Nightwish an hour later he was tempted to just ignore it. But he recognized the ringtone, and he looked at the screen. It was Alpha. He hesitated, unsure if he wanted to talk to anyone today, but in the end he picked up and cleared his throat. "Hey, Alpha."

"Hey, Roy. I didn't wake ye up, did I?"

He stifled a yawn and tried to smooth down his hair, as if she could see it. It stuck up in comical tufts. He would need a trim soon. "Yeah, but it's fine. I meant to be up an hour ago, but my back had other ideas."

"Mm...you all right?" Alpha asked, but from her tone she already had some idea.

If it was anyone else, he would have put on his 'cheerful hat' and claimed to be fine, but he knew he couldn't fool her. He tried to swallow the lump in his throat, but his voice still sounded a bit thick to his ears. "Um...I uh..."

Don't you dare cry! He mentally scolded himself. He had been doing so well! Or he thought he had. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Not really..."

"I'm sorry, luv..." There was some rustling around, and it sounded like she might either be getting up herself or getting dressed with him on speaker. "That was a stupid question."

"Nah..." Tooth Fairy shook his head and carefully swung his legs out of bed, burying his bare toes in the thick bedside rug. It was blue; Brinna's favorite color. He turned his eyes away from it, and looked at the shiny brass doorknob instead. "It wasn't. So, what's up? Besides you, me, and the sun."

"Nothin's up, I was just thinkin' of ye."

And there was that urge again. Hadn't he cried to her enough? He fought it. The silence stretched on, and he fought it.

Alpha broke the silence first. "Roy?"

He took a deep breath, then let it out.

"Hey...what's going on?"

This was a stark contrast to his dream vision of her, who had slapped him across the face and harshly told him to get out of her life. This was one of his bad days, and he knew that she knew it. He gave up trying to shove his emotions in a box, and just let himself feel what he felt. He put his free hand over his face and sniffled sharply before tearfully admitting, "I'm not okay..."

"I know you're not..."

The compassion he heard in her voice broke him up even more, and his breath hitched twice before he could stop it.

"D'ye want to come over? Or I could come to you...You're in your room, right?"

He sniffled again, swallowing hard. "Yeah, but...the rules..."

"Fuck the rules." Somehow, she made that statement sound gentle! "He knows I've already been there before, and I won't tell if you won't. Do you need me?"

Tooth Fairy made a short, watery sound that was half-laugh, half-sob. He nodded, then realized she wouldn't see that. "Yeah."

He didn't hear her arrival, but it didn't surprise him when a hand settled lightly onto his shoulder before the bedsprings creaked and the mattress dipped, causing him to list slightly to his right. She took his phone and put it aside, and he leaned against her as her arms went around him. He looped his arms around her waist and wept quietly with his head nestled against the hollow of her shoulder, and for a few moments they simply sat there and said nothing at all.

"My back hurts so bad..." he finally whispered against her collarbone, "And I dreamed of my fight with Brinna. I saw us finding her wings. I just keep seeing it now. I'll never get that out of my head..."

"No," she whispered back, "Some things we never forget. Much as we might wish to."

"I dreamed the mayor did kick me out of town, and I had nowhere to go..."

Alpha passed a gentle hand over his sleep-tangled hair. "Even if it came to that, and I certainly hope it doesn't, you'll always have a place in The Hollow. You know that..."

"Not in the dream, I didn't," Tooth Fairy swallowed a sob as he remembered. He would never try to force her to stay with him if she didn't want him, but the dream had felt so real at the time. He missed his sister, and in the dream Alpha had broken his heart. He still half-felt it, even with the real Alpha there to prove it false. "I was alone..."

"Hey..." Alpha interrupted him and sat back, gently holding his damp face in her hands. He couldn't even look at her. "You will always have a place in The Hollow. And friends to turn to. And me. Whatever else we end up being, I'll always be your friend. You don't ever have to be alone again, ye hear me?"

His face twisted at the upsurge of emotion her words brought on, and he ducked his head to her shoulder again as he began to cry in earnest. Alpha held him until he was done, and it didn't take long at all. If he hadn't just woken up, and if the dreams weren't still fresh in his mind, he knew he wouldn't be doing this at all, severe back pain or no. Part of him regretted answering his phone when he did, and part of him was glad. That was the dream. She was the reality. And this was a relief.

After a minute or two, he sighed and sat back. "It's just...I go out, and I'm with friends. And then...everybody goes home for dinner, or to take care of their kids. Everyone else has people to go home to...and I'm going home by myself. Before you, I could've invited friends over more often, but...as time went on, they were always busy with something else, and I got used to that. I get it; they have lives too, and my work schedule is at odds with theirs. But I would've liked to have been invited from time to time. Even if my answer had to be no because of time constraints, it really stinks when people don't even give you a second thought anymore. It's so hard, being together with friends one minute...and then there's nobody. No family. Just an empty house."

Alpha felt her heart break a little. It was as if her own thoughts over the years had just come pouring from his mouth, and what she said next was no casual platitude. "I know exactly what you mean."

"Yeah?" He finally met her gaze, his eyes still watery and full of pain.

She nodded and tenderly dried his tears with her hands, having no handkerchief on her at the moment. "You're not the only one who's been lonely. It's hard. I know."

He nodded and looked down, unable to maintain eye contact for long. He put his hand over one of hers before she could remove it from his cheek, and pressed his lips against her palm in a soft kiss before letting go.

But now Alpha had an offer to bring to the table. "I know you said ye wouldn't want to risk anymore sleepovers just now, and I tend to agree. I want tae be sure of where we're goin' before things ever go that far. But that's sharing a bed...or, more to the point, what sharing a bed implies. Ye can still come over. Just gimme a call first, in case I'm not at home. Doesn't matter if I'm asleep; if you're upset like today, and you need me, I want ye to call me. My door's always open to ye. You don't have to rattle around your empty house like a marble in a Pringles can when sleep won't come."

Gods, I love her so much...I might have to marry this woman. He nodded, still feeling very low, but it helped that she was right there with him and understood where he was coming from.

"What d'ye think? That can be our new 'thing'." Alpha smiled, which he shyly returned.

"Yeah...I like that idea. And if they 'okay' you coming here to visit, same goes for you." Tooth Fairy sniffled and turned away to grab some tissues from his night stand, stifling a grunt of pain when his back protested at the movement, and he finally composed himself. "I'm probably not good company today, though..."

"Well, maybe I can be." Alpha rested her hand on his back, frowning at how tight his muscles were; she could feel it through his forest green pajama top. "Unless you'd rather have the day to yourself. Sometimes we need that. Whatever ye need, I'll go with it."

"I don't know what I need..." He shook his head and pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes, then let his palms fall on his knees with a soft 'slap'. "Why'd he have to go and open his big mouth last night? I was fine..."

Alpha shook her head and began to rub his back in between his wings, lightly grazing the juncture of his right wing and his back by accident, but she immediately stopped when he tensed and his eyes widened. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

Tooth Fairy shook his head again. "No, it's...I was all uptight when I flew last night, and that always makes it worse."

"What 'it'?" Alpha frowned.

He was calmer now and no longer inclined towards tears, and he regretted his loss of emotional control almost as much as he regretted worrying her. Telling her the truth about his back problems would probably only add to her worry. But he had already said too much, so he came clean. "I fly for twelve hours every night. Every night, without fail. No nights off. Ever. My people weren't meant to do that. The men have stronger back muscles, so we have more endurance, but it's hard. My ancestors rarely had this job for more than a few hundred years before...well..."

Alpha felt a chill wash over her. How many generations of Tooth Fairies had died young because of their physical limitations, despite the conditional immortality of the job and the ageing-up?

All of them. That was the obvious answer. They quite literally worked themselves to death! Roy, as a male, was much better suited to such a rigorous job, and it was likely that he wouldn't share their fate. But that didn't mean he had it easy!

Tooth Fairy rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands. "My back's always sore. And today, it's killing me. And then you brushed a wing, which didn't hurt, and that kinda shorted out my brain for a second."

"Should I not touch, or..." Alpha shook her head, feeling her face grow warm as she wondered if she had inadvertently turned him on again, like that time she'd kissed his neck without thinking. She didn't know, nor would she ever know, what it felt like to have wings. Moreover, she didn't know if certain touches were okay while others were not. After all, he had casually offered to let her touch a wing to satisfy her curiosity back when they hardly knew each other. And it hadn't been weird at the time. She'd been too fascinated by the fact that he could make them invisible to really dwell on that. Things were different now, though.

Tooth Fairy looked over at her, thought about it for a moment, and then shook his head. "No, I'm fine with it. Actually, I think I liked it. It's just...I'm really sore back there, and I didn't expect you to touch my wing just then."

"I won't if it's...well...boundary-pushing."

Finally, he gave a soft chuckle when he realized what she was getting at. "It isn't. They're not...I mean...It's a sensitive spot, but not in that way. And I told you before; I know you won't hurt me."

"Certainly not intentionally," Alpha replied, then did a double-take when his stomach growled. She rubbed the space between his wings again, a little more gently this time, and he sighed. His flight muscles were like cement! "Want to come over to my house for breakfast?"

Tooth Fairy's eyes drifted shut as a wave of warmth spread out from his back and raised gooseflesh on his pajama-covered arms. She avoided touching his wings for the time being, which he was actually a little disappointed about, but he supposed it was for the best. Interest and readiness were not the same thing, and at the moment he wasn't even interested. He was just tired. "No thanks. I'm not really in the mood to eat. I don't know what I'm in the mood for, to be honest."

"Mm..." Alpha quirked her mouth in a half-frown and thought for a moment. "You remember that little clearing by the creek? We had our first date there."

"Sure, I remember. It was nice."

"Well, it's lovely this time o' the year. It's all green now, and the bugs aren't bad yet. You want to go there today?"

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, unsure if he was up to it or not. He didn't want to be alone, but he didn't want to bring her down either if she wanted to have fun. "To do what?"

Alpha smiled softly. "Who says we have to do anything? We can just go there and enjoy the quiet. No one'll bother us there. Might even see a deer."

Tooth Fairy raised an eyebrow and actually smirked at her. "Wouldn't a peanut butter and jelly sandwich be less messy?"

She snickered and shook her head, still rubbing his back. "I don't hunt where I play, and I don't play where I hunt."

He considered this for a moment, and decided that it might not be a bad idea. He felt a bit silly for getting this upset over a conversation and a dream, but that didn't change the fact that he was still very upset, and that it went much deeper than those two things. The past was something he would have to live with for the rest of his life, and every time he thought he was ready to move forward he was knocked back by another wave. Add a severe back spasm into the mix, and that was just a recipe for disaster. At least Alpha didn't think he was being silly. He asked, "You don't have any work to do today?"

"My 'day' doesn't technically start until the evening. Your schedule is fixed, so I rearranged mine so we'd have more time. We don't really have 'day' or 'night' down below anyway, so there's always someone up. The important thing is to get it done, and it gets done on time more often than not." she explained. "And I get to spend more time with you."

She rearranged her whole schedule just to be with me? "You're gonna make me cry again."

Alpha could feel the rock-hard muscles slowly begin to relax as some of the tension left them, and his back began to feel less like warm concrete and more like flesh and blood. She discovered the mother of all knots, nestled right in between his wings where he couldn't reach it, and she braced her palm against it. "You've got a huge knot back here. I might be able to get it to ease up a bit, but it'll hurt at first. Do you want me to try?"

He remembered when she had done something similar for a knot he'd had in his shoulder at the bowling alley, and he remembered that it had felt better afterwards. He didn't steel himself, because that would have meant tensing up, but he did take in a deep breath before nodding. "Go ahead."

Alpha pressed down on the knot, lightly at first, but with gradually increasing pressure. "Don't hold your breath, luv. Ye need to breathe for this."

"Okay," Tooth Fairy felt a sharp, deep pain in his back when she did this, but it was a different sort of pain, and not exactly like that of a cramping muscle. His muscles resisted, purely out of reflex, and he breathed shallowly through is mouth as he had second thoughts. Okay, this really hurts...

Alpha kept the pressure on, but didn't increase it; she paused. "Deep breaths. You all right?"

"Yeah," he gasped, then forced himself to do as she said and take deep breaths rather than shallow ones.

"Should I continue?"

He nodded again, and she nodded back.

Alpha didn't add much more pressure, but she didn't release him either, and slowly he found relief. The knot yielded, little by little, and he sighed deeply. She began to rub her hand over the spot, and while she couldn't make it go away completely (this would take several sessions, and a professional who could do it better), he wore a look of blissful relief. "How does it feel now?"

"Ahhh...I don't know if I should thank you for doing it, or Pearl for teaching you..." he sighed again.

She smiled. "You should probably take a warm shower after this. Not a hot one, that might make you dizzy. And drink some water. I'll just pop back home for a bit to get a few things, and you can let me know when you're ready to go, okay?"

He nodded, brightening a bit when she kissed him and got to her feet. "Thanks, Alpha."

His smile disappeared when she did, but he did feel a little better, and his severe back pain had been reduced to a dull, throbbing ache. He would certainly take the ache over what he'd had before! A hot shower really would have felt good just then, but something about her advice had jogged his memory. He recalled something he had read long ago when he was flipping through a book on massage therapy he'd bought on a whim. He had lost interest in the subject rather quickly, not wanting to be seen in such a state of undress by a stranger, and not having anyone special in his life to practice on.

Now he wondered if he still had that book somewhere. Alpha had already seen him shirtless when he was ill, but hadn't been put off by it. And the way things were progressing between them...

But now he was getting a bit ahead of himself. And the fact that this train of thought hadn't led to him internally fretting about 'will we or won't we' spoke volumes about his state of mind. In truth, all he really wanted to do was go back to sleep. But he'd already said he would go, and he liked that idea too.

Maybe Alpha wouldn't mind if he took a nap while they were there. Although, that would probably be bad for his back, because who brings an air mattress into the woods when they're not camping? Also, he didn't have one of those, and he doubted that she did, and this was a more ridiculous train of thought than the last one!

He went to have his shower.

The clearing by the stream had changed a lot since wintertime, but it was still recognizable, and Tooth Fairy sat beside Alpha on a picnic blanket in silence. Alpha had brought a pack containing snacks for herself (and for him, in case he changed his mind), and this she had stashed behind them.

Tooth Fairy hugged his knees, gazing into the stream as if hypnotized. The water was so clear that he could see the stones and mud that lay beneath the surface, and it flowed over them like liquid glass. Here and there, wisps of green algae grew on the stones and fallen branches. They moved with the current but kept their place, never once being swept off downstream despite the creek's best efforts. Every now and then, a minnow would swim into view, and at one point he saw a crayfish crawl out from under one rock only to hide beneath another. A red-eared slider sunned itself on one of the half-submerged branches of the old fallen tree.

A whole little world existed in that unassuming little creek, if one only paused to look.

The breeze that blew over the water was pleasantly cool, and the trees provided shade from the sun. The honeysuckle wasn't in bloom yet, and wouldn't be until the summer, but his mind could easily call up that familiar scent.

He stole a glance at Alpha, and caught her turning her eyes away from him. She had been watching him. He felt guilty, and more than a little self-conscious. Once they had seated themselves, which he now realized was over an hour ago, he hadn't said so much as a word to her. "I'm sorry."

Alpha turned her head and looked at him with a frown. "Whatever for, luv?"

"I told you I wasn't good company today." He looked away.

"Roy..." Alpha touched his shoulder, but he didn't respond to that, and she asked, "After everything that's happened since we met, do you honestly think I'd only stick around when ye are good company? You're not bad company now. You're just going through a bad time. And I'm no' afraid of silence."

The lower half of his face itched, and he rubbed it with his hands to relieve it; his stubble rasped audibly. For the first time in many weeks, he had forgotten to shave. No. I can't go back to being in that mindset. I won't. "All this because of a bad dream and a backache."

"You're talkin' to someone who bawled on your shoulder after a nightmare of her own," she reminded him, "and knowin' what you have to do every night, it's a wonder you don't have more back problems than ye do now. You're allowed to have a bad day."

Tooth Fairy looked at her, then finally he cracked a tiny smile and scooted a little closer so that their sides touched. "It's not all bad."

He kissed her, and they both said 'I love you' at the same time before cracking up a little at that. Then he grew serious again. "Alpha?"

"Aye?"

Tooth Fairy hadn't wanted to dwell on such an unsavory subject, but maybe if he got to the bottom of why he was so rattled after the night before, this cold dread might go away. "I...I don't know what to expect from the mayor. I thought I did, but I don't. No matter what, it seemed like Aiden could do no wrong when he was a kid. He only got worse as he grew up. And he hates our guts."

"He's not one o' my favorites either."

"Me neither, I can't stand him. But he's high up on the social ladder. I would be too, because of my job, but I never played the 'I'm better than you' game. My parents made sure I never got a high-and-mighty attitude. I just kinda faded into the background after Brinna left...But he's got a lot of supporters. And the mayor won't stand up to him." Tooth Fairy began to play with his floss.

"What are ye sayin'?"

"I'm saying that I wasn't kidding about Fairies being dangerous. You saw me fight, and I'm not even a fighter. I'm just big, and I happen to have magic. Some of 'em are bigger than me, and all of 'em have magic. And look what The Founders were able to do with Brinna's magic!"

Alpha frowned, and now she was the one who looked away. She stared at the far bank and drew her knees up to rest her forearms on them. "If we'd known that they were acting with a show of more power than they actually had, we could've overthrown them long ago."

"Alpha, you're not listening-"

"I was. If all Fairies have magic, and they decide that I'm the enemy, it'd be like walking into a hornet's nest. Is that what you mean?" She looked at him again, and he nodded.

"Yeah. But it's more than just that. The Hollow is several miles below the Fairy market. Almost directly below it. You're almost in our town, and they don't know it. But when they do, and if they decide they want you gone..."

Alpha's expression turned hard. "They can bloody well try."

"No." Tooth Fairy said sharply, surprising her into silence. He lowered his voice, but the fear in his eyes was obvious. "Our people can't get to a point where they try to fight each other, but that's exactly what I'm afraid will end up happening, and we can't let it."

"Roy..."

But more of his dream was coming back to him now. Up until this moment, he hadn't remembered what had actually made Alpha turn him away in his dream, but now he knew. "They won't be able to make you leave The Hollow. Mother Nature would never allow it, for one thing. But if there's a loophole, any loophole, that lets certain Fairies make trouble, and they decide that they want to...they will. And if it gets to the point where you have to ban Fairies from The Hollow entirely..."

Alpha's face went pale, and she couldn't speak.

"You'd have to ban me, too." Tooth Fairy looked out over the water as his heart sank like a stone.

"Never."

"Never?" He didn't look back at her now. "If you had to choose between me and The Hollow...if you were ever forced to choose, if they forced your hand...I know you'd choose The Hollow. And...I...I think I'd be disappointed in you if you didn't. There are good people in both places. Children. Babies. They don't deserve to be caught up in some kind of conflict just because a spoiled rich boy got his bell rung by a girl."

Alpha stared at him, expressionless, then frowned and turned to fully face him. "Well, that's a defeatist attitude if ever I did hear one. For one thing, I could just deny them access in the first place, and that would be that."

"That would cause a grudge."

"So? They don't know where we are yet. What could they possibly do to us if they don't know where to look?"

"Well..."

Alpha wasn't finished. "And either way, none of this has even happened. If it ever did come down to a choice, I decide who we ban and who we don't. Well, the Council decides. And we'll take it on a case by case basis, because as you said, there are good people there as well. That has to be true, because you came from there. I choose you...and I choose The Hollow. And anyone who doesn't like it can go to Hell."

Tooth Fairy chuckled at that and shook his head. He didn't know if she was right about this or if he was, but he liked the sound of her 'speech' better. "What did I do to deserve you?"

Alpha grinned and leaned over, kissing his sandpapery cheek. "You're cute, that's what."

"I'm not," he scowled.

"Handsome, then."

"You really think so?" he squinted. "Because you'd be the only woman I'm not related to who's ever said so."

Alpha shrugged and turned towards the water again. When she'd first met him, aside from the wings, which had been a curiosity, he hadn't particularly stood out to her as being 'attractive'. In truth, no one did.

"What?" Tooth Fairy could see that there was something she wasn't saying.

Alpha didn't know if she should tell him this or not. It might actually hurt his feelings in the long run if he took it wrong. "Nothing."

"Come on..." Tooth Fairy wrapped an arm around her, but only as a pretext to tickle her side.

"Ack! No!"

"Tell me, and I'll stop," He grinned, holding her against his side so that she couldn't get away (well, she could, but not without injuring him), and kept tickling her.

"All right! All right! Hahaha! I'll t-tell ye!" Alpha twisted in his grip, then lightly batted his hands away when he let go. She couldn't be too irritated, though; it was nice to see him smiling again.

"I'm listening."

"You cheated," she accused, but she decided to just go ahead and tell him. "Well...all right, maybe I'm a little weird in this regard, but...I've never been physically attracted to someone without having an emotional bond with them first. I mean, ever. I'll notice if someone looks conventionally attractive, but...I'll admire them the same way you might admire a painting in a gallery. Appreciate it for what it is, but ye don't want to take it home with ye. But if there's a bond with someone...and it's only happened a few times...the more I see of who they are, the more attractive they become to me. Looks don't even factor into it. It's the person. But for me, this only extends towards men. I've never had it happen with a woman..."

Tooth Fairy nodded slowly; it actually did make sense to him. "Maybe I've spent too much time around Cupid..."

"Hm?"

"Yeah, he's spoken about attraction before, and the different kinds of love, and so on. But it seems kinda rude to slap a label on people..." he shrugged.

She decided to play along. "Well, label me; what am I?"

"He'd probably call you a 'heteromantic demisexual'. Means pretty much what you said. Which means I'm handsome to you but probably to no one else." he explained.

"Good, I don't like competition," Alpha smiled, but followed it up with a compliment. "But even before I really got to know ye, I thought you had very kind eyes. And I like your face when ye smile."

And he had to smile then. "Anyway, that's not what I'd call you."

"Oh? What would you call me, then?"

Tooth Fairy tucked a lock of her hair behind her ear and kissed her before whispering in her ear. "You're the best thing that's ever happened to me. And I'll love you forever."

"Mm," Alpha kissed him again. "I like yours better."

But things didn't escalate any further than that, and they simply sat for a while in a comforting embrace that he probably needed more than she did. His worries hadn't been silenced, but they had been reduced to background noise, and instead of listening to them and getting all worked up he focused on the here and now.

"It is really nice here. I don't wanna leave..."

"Aye," Alpha sat back first, and reached for her pack. "I always want to stay 'just a little bit longer'. You in the mood for a sandwich?"

"Sure, what kind?"

"Peanut butter and jelly." Alpha smirked. "Since Bambi never showed up."

"Heh! Well, we're having venison tomorrow, if dinner's still on, so hopefully you can hold out that long." He accepted his sandwich with a grin.

"It is, and I'll try to hang on."

"Carnivore." He tapped her on the nose with a finger.

"Rude," she tapped him right back. "I'm an omnivore."

"I stand corrected," he chuckled, unwrapping his sandwich. All things considered, he was in a much better mood than the one he woke up in, and he was glad he'd answered his phone.