"A Strange Bond"

Note: Mayor Kendrick finally pays his disgraced nephew a visit and lays down a few ground rules. While he's there, he learns that the rumor mill is buzzing about something new.

Meanwhile, a nice day at the mall ends on a serious note when the subject of marriage comes up. Alpha reluctantly tells Tooth Fairy about her conversation with Mayor Kendrick, and her own stance on the subject of having children. Later on, he discusses it with Neil and gets his thoughts sorted out.

And on another serious note, stay safe, wash your hands, and practice social distancing. I cannot stress this enough! Virtual hugs to anyone who needs one!

"Chapter 37: May and May Not"

May 1st

Half a month passed sleepily in the Fairy Town as the weather grew warm and people wanted to be out and about, but one person was notably absent. Mayor Kendrick had tried knocking on Aiden's door after returning from The Hollow, but there was no answer, which hadn't surprised him. Whether he was justified or not, Aiden was angry, and so Mayor Kendrick had left. He'll calm down eventually.

But Aiden had maintained radio silence for fifteen days, and now the mayor was worried. He had hoped that his nephew would come to him at some point to discuss a few matters, but this hadn't happened. So, on the first of May, the mayor rang Aiden's doorbell.

This was only a formality; he intended to go in either way, and after ringing the bell for a second time he thought it might actually come to that. Then he heard movement from within, and after seeing who it was Aiden opened the door and blocked the doorway with his body.

"What do you want?"

"Aren't you going to invite me in?" Mayor Kendrick said mildly.

Aiden drummed his fingers on the doorjamb, then turned and went inside without a word. Mayor Kendrick followed him and closed the door.

Aiden's house wasn't quite as opulent as his uncle's, and his style was more modern, but it was clear that he liked his creature comforts. An expensive flat screen TV was mounted to the wall, and an equally pricey stereo system was nearby. The living room was enormous; the perfect size for hosting a large gathering of people.

It was also clear that no one had cleaned in there for quite a while, and dust had begun to accumulate on the mini bar. The cloying stench of an overflowing garbage can permeated everything, and Mayor Kendrick coughed and covered his nose with a handkerchief. "What happened in here?"

"Shelby quit. I've been looking for someone to take her place, but for some reason I'm not getting any bites. Even the Carriers want nothing to do with me. As if they have a right to be snooty, given their-"

"Well, whose fault is that?" Mayor Kendrick picked up a dirty plate and went into the kitchen to put it in the sink, but he halted in his tracks when he saw that not only was the sink full to overflowing, but the kitchen counter was piled high with even more dishes. He waved his hand in front of his face, shooing away a cloud of fruit flies as he shook his head in disgust. "Aiden, I did not raise you to live like a pig!"

Aiden couldn't be bothered to follow. "When was the last time you lifted a finger to clean up after yourself? You always had servants to do it. And it was the servants who raised me, not you."

The boy has a point. Mayor Kendrick sighed and began to load the dishwasher. "Having no desire to live in squalor, I wouldn't have let things get this bad. Have you no pride? Get in here and help me with this."

Aiden snorted and turned on the TV. "I never learned how to do any of that, and there's no point in starting now. Give it a few more weeks, and I'll find someone to take the job."

"Not with your current reputation, you won't."

While his uncle worked in the kitchen, Aiden flipped through the channels and tried to tune out the clattering of dishes. He casually sprayed some air freshener as Mayor Kendrick stalked through the living room with three bulging trash bags in his hands, and he pursed his lips in annoyance as the man passed in front of the screen. "Why are you here, anyway? To rub it in?"

Mayor Kendrick put down one of the trash bags so that he could open the door, and he stuffed them into the garbage can before coming back in and washing his hands. Then he sat down beside his nephew, took the remote, and turned off the TV.

"Hey, Jerry Springer's on!"

"Enough."

"Excuse me?"

"You are acting like a child. Your house is a pigsty, and you still haven't apologized for making me look like a fool!" The mayor put the remote on the coffee table, then moved it away when Aiden reached for it.

"I made you look like a fool?" Aiden's face darkened. "That small-winged moron poisoned you against me! You couldn't just take my word for it, could you? Your own nephew."

"It's a good thing I didn't. That Werewolf is on the Council of Legendary Figures, and if we didn't do right by her and by the Tooth Fairy, Mother Nature would have gotten involved. We do not want to get on the bad side of a woman who can literally control the weather. The attack, I could understand. It was a reckless thing to do, and I don't condone it, but I do believe you thought she stole someone's wings. But it didn't stop there. You lied to my face, and I wanted to believe you. You've broken my trust, Aiden. Every misfortune that came home to roost for you was your own doing, and you know it."

Aiden glared at his uncle, and a small staring contest ensued, but he broke eye contact first. "I might have lied to you, but I never turned on you."

Mayor Kendrick's own face darkened, and he stuck a finger in Aiden's face. "I didn't turn on you. There were too many witnesses for me to just this go. You left me with no choice!"

"If that's what family loyalty means to you..." Aiden shrugged and walked into the kitchen, then came back with a beer. He didn't offer one to his uncle.

"That's emotional blackmail, and it doesn't work on me. Not anymore." Mayor Kendrick got up and stood in his nephew's path. "You are my family. And I should have been more involved when you were little, instead of giving you treats to make you be quiet and palming you off on the servants. That was a far greater sin than this so-called betrayal. I did you wrong. And now I'm going to do right by you."

"How's that?"

The mayor took a deep breath; he knew this wouldn't be taken well. "I've halved your allowance. If you wish to maintain this lifestyle, you must find work."

Aiden's eyes grew round. "I never learned a trade. You can't be serious!"

"I'm as serious as a heart attack. You never learned any responsibility, and it's high time you did. Tooth Fairy works himself to the bone every night to keep your ungrateful carcass hidden from the human world. If he can do that without complaint, you can muster up the fortitude to find something here. And leave the Werewolf alone."

Aiden snorted. "You know who isn't leaving her alone? Tooth Fairy."

"I already know about them."

"Oh, really? Did you know he had a coin commissioned?" Aiden crushed the empty beer can in his hand. "He's going to marry that animal."

Oh, no. The mayor's face fell. Aiden had been proven a liar, but he wasn't lying this time.

"You didn't know." Aiden snorted and shook his head. "I suppose you're going to let him get away with it. What about his job? Who's he going to pass the torch to without kids of his own?"

Mayor Kendrick recovered his wits and ran a hand over his balding pate. It was stuffy in there, and it still reeked of garbage and Lysol. He held off on cracking open a window, though, because he didn't want their conversation to be overheard. "That was never something I considered to be a possibility, given his small-winged status. If we were to take that particular law literally, it only says 'the firstborn child'. It didn't say anything about that child being a blood relation. So long as he chooses an heir before he dies, whether or not he fathers any natural children is not an issue."

"So, you're just fine with him taking up with that...woman?" Aiden caught himself at the last second, seeing his uncle's warning look. "You're not worried about her people becoming a problem?"

"Whether or not I'm 'just fine' with it is irrelevant. It's happening, regardless of what we think."

"Unless we do something about it."

The mayor scoffed and folded his arms. "What would you have me do, nephew? Cupid could tell you; the heart wants what it wants, and they want each other. Don't make that face."

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. From you of all people. Or do you want winged Werewolves flying around and biting people?" Aiden got himself another beer.

Mayor Kendrick remembered what Alpha had told him, and he was at least sanguine about this. "If they're anything like their mother, they'd be about as likely to bite as I am to sprout roots and turn into a tree. She's harmless. And as for her people and that place?" He waved a hand. "Inconsequential. They're not numerous enough to be a threat, and there's nothing they have that we would want. And, given that she's their leader, he would most likely have to move there. Ether he'll do that, or that will end up being a deal breaker for them and they'll go their separate ways. So, do as I told you. Leave them alone."

"Fine...but how am I supposed to clean this place when I don't know how?"

Mayor Kendrick sighed, ready to get out of there. "I'll send Julia over to teach you. And you are not to mistreat her."

When the mayor left, Aiden polished off his beer and picked up his phone. He dialed a number and sat down on his couch.

"Hello?" said a voice on the other line.

"William, hi. Listen, you want to make some easy cash?"

"Does a one-legged duck swim in a circle?"

Aiden propped his feet up on the coffee table. "I need you to keep an eye out for the Werewolf. If you see her in town, with or without the Tooth Fairy, make a note of what she's doing...or what they're doing...and report to me. And let me make this very clear; I want details."

"Uh-huh...And how long do I do that for?"

"Until I say so."

May 6th

So far, the therapy was going very well, and Tooth Fairy had yet to miss a session. With April behind them and June ahead of them, he and Alpha took full advantage of May's warming weather. They hadn't been back to the Fairy Town (at least, not outside of his house), but they still met up most days to walk a nature trail.

One overcast day, Tooth Fairy said that it looked like rain, and he took Alpha to one of his favorite shopping malls instead.

The first thing Alpha noticed was the conglomeration of scents, and she inhaled deeply, forgetting to be subtle about it.

Tooth Fairy noticed this, and grinned. "What are you getting from that?"

"Oh..." Alpha flushed and looked down, covering her face, then grinned back. "It's just a lot to take in."

"Heh...well, my sense of smell is about even with a human's. What are you noticing that I might be missing?"

"I thought I caught a whiff of pizza, or maybe pasta..."

"Uh-huh. There's a Sbarro's at the other end of the mall. They have both. What else are you getting?"

She snickered. "Are you makin' fun o' me?"

"No, I'm genuinely curious!" he chuckled.

"Umm..." She sniffed again, then wrinkled her nose. "Eugh! Disinfectant? And...sour mop." Several moments later, as they came around a corner, they saw a cleaning bucket surrounded by a few caution signs. No one was cleaning anything up; it was just sitting there. "Aye, that's mildew, all right. That's not so pleasant."

"You smelled that all the way from the entrance?"

"Aye. And did ye notice that the woman who walked by us a moment ago was wearing a spritz of flowery perfume?"

He blinked in astonishment. "No. She was about twenty feet away." He thought back to that day in January when Curtis had dropped her off at his house, and his face grew hot. He had definitely been able to smell himself at the time, so he could only imagine how bad he must have smelled to her!

"Most of what I smell here is nice," She continued. "Sort of a mixture of Chinese food, burgers...and I think I can smell cinnamon and frosting. Candles...Oranges from that smoothie place over there..."

"Orange Julius." He said, helpfully.

"Aye, that. I could go on, but I'm probably boring you."

"Actually, I was just thinking about how glad I am that I showered before we met up..."

"Och," Alpha kissed his cheek. "You always smell nice."

"Not always."

Alpha remembered that he had gotten rather sweaty when his magic was in Flux, but she hadn't held it against him. "Ye get a free pass when yer sick, luv."

Tooth Fairy shrugged. "I wasn't sick the first day you visited my house, though."

Alpha slipped her hand into his. "Ye think I haven't been there, Roy? I have. I'm glad ye didn't see me the day I arrived at The Hollow. I looked like somethin' Omen dragged in, and I probably smelled about the same."

He gently squeezed her hand, and decided to change the subject. "C'mon, let's see what we can see. I wanna show you the bookstore. I think you'll really like it."

She still felt funny about letting him spend money on her, especially now that she knew he had quite a lot of it. It made her feel like she was taking advantage of him even though she wasn't, and it was something she just couldn't get past. Still, books occupied a sort of gray area with the two of them. They both enjoyed reading when they had the time, and they generally had the same taste in books, so when she showed interest in a copy of 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' they did the usual social dance of him offering and her declining.

"Okay," he winked, "I think I'll get it for myself, though. I heard good things about it. Wanna borrow it when I'm done?"

"Sure!"

"Great. C'mon, let's go pay, and we can have lunch." He was glad she at least let him do that for her. They had cooked for each other several times after that steak dinner at his place, and she had finally become comfortable with letting him treat her to lunch on the surface. He didn't take any of her reluctance personally; he knew that she and her people had had to go without many times, and with the ban on Christmas only recently having been lifted, accepting non-edible gifts of any kind was almost a foreign concept to many of them.

Alpha and Tooth Fairy left Panda Express after inhaling a sinful amount of Chinese food (or what passed for Chinese food at that restaurant chain), and they linked hands as they strolled from one end of the sprawling building to the other. The mall wasn't as busy as Tooth Fairy remembered it being just a decade ago. Certainly, there were more vacant store fronts now! "Boy, I remember when you couldn't walk five feet without having to squeeze by someone."

"I don't," Alpha smiled ruefully. "This is the first time I've been to a shopping mall."

"Get outta town! Really?" He had trouble believing that!

"Mm-hmm. Grocery stores or hardware stores, aye, but a place like this? The clothing is too pricey to be practical for us," she explained as they passed by a Spencer's Gifts. The bright, colorful sign and interesting trinkets that they could see from outside drew their attention, and they decided to check it out. They wandered in to look around, then hustled right back out again when they spotted the risqué stuff way in the back. Alpha held back a laugh at her boyfriend's incandescent blush. "Well, that was interesting!"

"I am so sorry. I had no idea...I've never been in that store before!"

Now, Alpha did laugh. "Well, I'm not a prude, luv."

"I am..."

She spotted a photo booth just then, and it was more to change the subject than out of genuine curiosity that she pointed at it an asked, "What's that?"

"Hm?" He looked, then brightened. "Oh! That's a photo booth. Wanna get our picture taken?"

"Sure, that sounds like fun."

They crowded into the booth and sat on the bench, and Tooth Fairy drew the curtain closed. "Well, this is cozy. Now, let's see...How this thing works is, you put some money in here and just follow the prompts on the screen. I think this one will spit out a strip of four."

Alpha read the instructions silently to herself, her lips moving unconsciously in a way that he found rather charming. "Okay, so, there's a timer...How should we pose?"

Tooth Fairy chuckled. She was taking it so seriously! "The point is to just have fun with it. You could smile normally, or do something silly. I think you've got 'silly' covered."

He pointed at her T-shirt as he said this. It was purple shirt with a pun-laden paragraph painted on it in yellow.

'Sweet dreams are made of cheese

who am I to diss a brie?

I cheddar the world and the feta cheese

Everybody's looking for stilton'

This shirt of hers was by far his favorite, followed closely by her 'Free Hugs' one. Eurythmics was one of his favorite bands from the late twentieth century, and changing the lyrics of 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)' to include a slew of cheese puns was delightfully...well...cheesy.

Alpha looked down at her shirt, then laughed and bumped her shoulder against his. "Should I say 'cheese'?"

Tooth Fairy fluttered his unseen wings; he didn't quite dare to make them visible for the pictures in case someone whipped open the curtain. It was very likely that they would simply assume that he had on a pair of fake wings, but he had no desire to try and explain that one. "Sure, if you want. Just have a 'Gouda' time with it."

Alpha made a face and groaned. "That's terrible! I love it."

The pictures came out well, and they looked at them after the machine spat out the strip.

The first one was a normal-looking pose; Tooth Fairy had his arm around her, and they were cheesing for the camera.

In the second one, they were caught in mid-conversation; both of them were talking at once as they playfully argued over what they should do for that one. They both ended up looking pretty silly there.

They were giving each other bunny ears in the third one, and in the fourth one he had turned his head at the very last second and was caught giving her a peck on the cheek.

"So, who takes these home?" Alpha held the photo strip behind her back and grinned.

Tooth Fairy pretended to make a grab for it, and she nimbly dodged him. "I guess that means you do." Alpha offered it to him, but he waved it off. "Nah, you keep it. Oh! Actually, do you think I could keep the top one for my wallet?"

"Sure, as soon as I can get hold of some scissors. I don't want to risk tearing it."

He took a pen knife out of his pocket and opened the little scissor attachment. "Will this do?"

"Aye, it should." Alpha grinned and cut off the topmost picture on the strip, giving it and the knife back to him. He pocketed the knife and slid the picture safely into a plastic sleeve of his wallet. She noticed that the only other pictures he had were a picture of him posing with Santa, a candid shot of him in a formal white jacket with a red flower in his lapel, and a magazine clipping of a little orange kitten. "What's the story behind those, luv? If ye don't mind my asking."

"Oh, I don't mind," He smiled. "The one with me and Santa was just Carol testing out a new camera he gave her."

Alpha grinned at that one. Tooth Fairy and Santa must have been in a silly mood that day, because they were flexing like bodybuilders as they playfully tried to outdo each other. "Was the posing your idea?"

He winked. "Yes if you were there, and no if you weren't. I just happened to be visiting that day to see the baby, and we were just kinda goofing around. This other one was taken at their wedding."

"You're very handsome there." She told him. "You look a little tired, though."

He gave a bashful shrug. "Yeah, well...That was a busy night for me, but to sum it up, her father couldn't be there to give her away. There wasn't enough time to get him there, or even tell him beforehand. Since I was already in the area, Mother Nature called me back and I stepped in." He was too modest to mention his own involvement in getting Santa and Carol back together, and admitting that he had helped save Christmas that year felt too much like bragging. "It's kinda funny, because there wasn't much time to dress up for it. I literally just had time to grab a formal jacket and get rid of my hat hair. I still had my normal clothes on underneath! Mother Nature provided the flower."

"Well, it's hard to tell it was a rush job."

"That's because they got me from the waist up. I'm still wearing my work pants. It was pretty funny."

Alpha smiled and pointed at the kitten cut-out. "What about this one? It looks like it's from a magazine."

"Oh, that..." Tooth Fairy put his wallet back in his pocket. "It's an ad for kitty litter."

"What?"

"Heh...well, I know it's silly, but that cat looks just like the one I had when I was a little kid. And since I don't have a picture of Pumpkin, I saved the magazine clipping..." He blushed.

"Aww, you named him 'Pumpkin'!"

"'Her', actually," Tooth Fairy smiled.

"I don't think it's silly at all." She looped her arm through his. "So, you're a cat person?"

"I dunno. I like most animals, really. But my sister and I found Pumpkin and her littermates one morning. We snuck out of the house to wait for our mother to come home from work. That was the day she told us about finding you. Can ya imagine that?"

"I can imagine quite a bit."

"Well...anyway, a few days later...I think it was a few days later, but this was a long time ago. Brinna came in with Pumpkin and two of her five littermates bundled up in a jacket. Some kind of animal got their mom and the others, and they were still nursing, so our dad let us keep the kittens and feed them until we could find homes for them. But that never ended up happening. Their names were Pumpkin, Walnut, and Apple. I think our dad got attached, too." Tooth Fairy smiled softly, remembering how tender Fergus, his father, would sometimes behave around little Apple when he thought no one was nearby. "It wasn't unusual to find Apple napping on his chest if he fell asleep somewhere."

Alpha nodded, glad to see that he could remember these things and smile about it. "Bet you wish ye had a camera then!"

He nodded. "Yeah...I wish cameras did exist back then. I could show you what my family looked like, instead of just trying to tell you."

"I know what ye mean."

They walked past the mall's water fountain, and Alpha noticed the coins sitting at the bottom. Most of them were copper pennies, but she could see a glint of silver here and there. There was even a dollar bill lying at the bottom near one of the lights. "Why would humans throw their money away like that?"

He smiled as they sat on the granite wall that surrounded the fountain. "Every coin represents a wish. They take a coin, make a silent wish, and toss the coin in. Usually, it's a penny. Something small. It's just for fun, really. I've made a few wishes myself."

Alpha smiled back. "It's a nice idea, though. A fun game to play. But what happens to the coins? I mean...I imagine that they'd pile up after a while."

"From what I heard, they either get donated to a local charity, or they go towards fountain upkeep. But don't quote me." He shrugged, then dug around in his pocket. "How would you like to make a wish?"

"Hm...What did you wish for in the past?"

"Can't tell ya." He gave her a cheeky smile.

"Why not?"

"It's a rule. If you tell someone what you wished for, your wish won't come true." Of course, he had never told anyone what any of his wishes were, and only one of them had come true, but he didn't take it all that seriously.

"Hm. All right, then. I know what to wish for."

"What?"

Alpha smirked. "Can't tell ye."

"Heh, touché. But if you didn't make the wish yet, I think it's okay." Tooth Fairy handed her a penny, envisioning the same thing taking place during the Summer Solstice with a very special coin. He wondered how it would go! He was sure of how he felt about her and how she felt about him, but there was still a tiny element of doubt. She could say no. After all, they had only been dating since Valentine's Day! That wasn't very long at all.

"Nice try, Wintergreen." Alpha held the penny in her fist for a moment and closed her eyes. I wish for us to end this year better than how we started it. She tossed the coin into the fountain, and it hit the water with a tiny 'plop' before sinking to the bottom.

They had already seen everything they wanted to see, and Tooth Fairy gave her knee a pat. "C'mon, let's go outside and walk off this enormous lunch."

"Sounds good to me." She linked her fingers in his again, and gave him a peck on the cheek before they got up.

They passed a bridal shop after they left the mall, and his thoughts once again turned to marriage. That tiny bit of doubt resurfaced. Why was he in such a hurry to propose to her? It wasn't the physical aspect of things, he knew; he had gone without that for five hundred years, and he could wait a little longer. Even if that never happened, he just wanted to be with her. And they had plenty of time, didn't they?

But what if we don't? What if something happens? Maybe I am rushing into things. We haven't even known each other for a full six months. And she's had three mates, but didn't marry them. I wonder why, though...

"You've got that look," Alpha told him as they approached a park. It wasn't 'their' park, but it was beautiful all the same, and they naturally gravitated towards it.

"What look?"

"That look that either says 'I ate too much', or 'there's something on my mind'."

Tooth Fairy snickered. "Right on both counts...I want to ask you something kinda personal. And you don't have to answer."

She shrugged. "Ask away."

He licked his lips as he gathered his courage. "Well...you've had three mates in the past. How come you never got married?"

Alpha hadn't seen that coming, but she recovered quickly. "I don't mind answering that one. Well...part of pairing off with Alexander meant becoming what he was. We could have had a ceremony, but we were only posing as humans, and it wouldn't have actually been legal. And we were together, regardless. I don't need a ceremony or a document to tell me who my mate is."

Tooth Fairy nodded slowly, just taking it in. He was more comfortable with the idea of a wife than a mate, but either way he hoped she would say yes when he eventually did ask her. If only he wouldn't screw up and ask her at the wrong time...

She continued. "And with Gerald and Brian, it was just a personal choice. Weddings do happen in The Hollow, but they aren't mandatory, and our weddings are only recognized there. I guess what we have down there is more in line with the human common law marriage." Alpha glanced over at him, noticing his introspective mood. "Why d'ye ask?"

He blushed and looked away. "No reason. Just wondering."

Her pulse quickened. Is he thinking about us, or is he just curious about them? "Is that all it is?"

He stopped, and they looked at each other for a long moment. "For now. I was just...y'know, thinking ahead a bit. Hypothetical stuff."

"I see." She remembered her conversation with Mayor Kendrick and her own resolve to be honest with Tooth fairy, and her stomach dropped. Given his mental state up until the past week or so, it never seemed like a good time to bring it up, and eventually she had simply forgotten about it. He was doing a lot better now, though, and if he was seriously thinking about asking her to marry him at some point, she owed him the truth. He has the right to make an informed decision, same as anyone...and I'd want him to tell me.

He saw hope in her eyes, which made his spirits soar. But then he saw dread, which made him wonder what she was worried about. "Is something wrong? Did I say something wrong?"

"No...you didn't say anything wrong."

Tooth fairy easily read between the lines. "But something is wrong. What is it?"

Alpha craned her neck to look at the path ahead of them (he turned to do the same, wondering what she was looking at), and then she turned to look back the way they had come. Seeing no one close by, she led him over to a stone bench on the side of the path. It was bracketed and backed up by thick yew hedges, so they were more or less hidden from view.

Uh-oh...If she's asking me to sit down, it can't be something good. "What?"

"Okay...so, you were asking me about marriage."

"Well, just hypothetically. I wasn't leading up to anything." He ran a hand through his hair, which had recently had a trim. Did I already blow it?

"Well...I'd like to get this out in the open now, before things go that far. It's about children." Alpha folded her hands in her lap.

Tooth Fairy shook his head in confusion. "But you know we can't have children. It's possible we could adopt at some point, but it's way too early to be thinking about that."

"No, I agree. Except..." She was finding it harder and harder to get the words out. "It's something Mayor Kendrick said when we were alone."

"Did he threaten you?" Tooth Fairy's eyes hardened.

"No, he didn't. He told me that humans and Fairies have had children in the past. The very distant past, if virtually no one knows about it. And I'm not human, but I used to be. So, it might be possible. In theory. But-"

"Wait...what?" Tooth Fairy listened as she repeated herself, and even after she had, he still wasn't sure he heard right. "If this is true...why would he lie to us? And how is he the only one who knows?"

Alpha shook her head. "I'm guessing the lie is only to keep the Fairy race going. And I don't know if he's the only one who knows or not. He's just the one who told me. Do you think he'd lie about that?"

"I...no. I guess if it was switched around so that he was saying, no, it isn't possible, that would be lying. Why tell you it's possible if it isn't true?" He broke eye contact and stared straight ahead, his face drawn and pale. Humans and Fairies can have kids? What happened to them?

Alpha waited for him to speak, but he didn't. She touched his shoulder, and this startled him. "Are you all right?"

Tooth Fairy shook his head. "I don't know. I just learned we've been living with a lie. I guess I get why, but...it's a lot to swallow."

"Aye..."

"So...we can have kids?" He began to look hopeful now, but frowned when she looked down. "What is it?"

"When I tell you this...I want you to know that I'll accept whatever you decide to do from here."

Tooth Fairy put a gentle hand under her chin and turned her head so that he could see her face. "Now you're really starting to scare me. What's wrong?"

Alpha took his hand and licked her dry lips with an equally dry tongue. "I can't."

He didn't understand. "You can't what?"

"You don't know what it's like...to carry a child in your body, to love it...and then lose it. Twice. I can't go through that again. I'm sorry, I just can't." She looked down at her hands, her dark brown eyes brimming with tears. "I know how badly you'd like to be a father someday. If ye want to go after hearing that, I won't stop you."

Tooth Fairy's heart turned over in his chest, and he shook his head. He pulled her close and held her tight. "No, Alpha...no..."

She turned and hugged back, resting her cheek against his chest. "I know it's selfish of me, but I just can't. I'm sorry...You could be throwing away your chance to have children..."

"What chance? A Fairy woman wouldn't want to have my children because of my wings. And I don't want a Fairy woman. Or a human, or a Sprite. I just want you...And if you ever did change your mind about having kids-"

"No..." She shook her head.

That was a quick no. Tooth Fairy nodded, knowing that this was something he didn't have the final say in, and understanding why she was against it. He knew that pregnancy was taxing on a woman, both physically and emotionally. And he understood that childbirth was incredibly painful, and that he, as a male, would never be able to understand it firsthand. He couldn't imagine losing a child! Or having one, for that matter.

The image of him cradling a newborn while Alpha rested after a long delivery flitted into his mind, and he pushed it away. If he wasn't sure if he was ready to propose or not, he knew he wasn't anywhere near ready to become a father, whether she was willing to carry his children or not! "Okay. It'll just be us, then. C'mon, it's okay..."

He's disappointed. I can hear it in his voice. "No, it's not...You deserve that, and I can't give it to you..."

I think it hurt her a lot more to tell me this than it hurt me to hear it. Tooth Fairy rubbed her back as he shook his head again. "Sweetheart, you don't owe me that. I never thought it was possible anyway, so really, nothing's changed, right? I love you. Let's just enjoy each other for the time being, okay? And if we did get married someday, I'm fine with it being just us."

"I love you, too..." Alpha sniffled and wiped her face without breaking the hug, then nestled in closer. "You mentioned adoption..."

"Yeah...what about it?"

"I might be open to that someday. I've raised a few Halloween orphans over the centuries..." She sniffled again, remembering her lost sons and daughters who now rested in the cemetery. Their descendants still roamed The Hollow. It had hurt just as much to lose those children as it had to lose her own biological babies, but pregnancy and birth had been extremely hard on her, and the terror of having another stillborn baby simply wouldn't leave her. But to adopt a child? Yes...she could do that again, if he had his heart set on it.

He kissed her hair, an odd mix of powerful love and intense sorrow squeezing his heart. "My beautiful Alpha...We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, let's just focus on us."

"Aye..."

May 8th

Tooth Fairy and Neil had already fallen into a sort of routine, and they sat in the study with their coffee after he greeted the Miller family. Laura had sent them in a plate of homemade peanut butter cookies, and Lucy was sent upstairs to work on a book report that was due next Friday.

"So, the weather's been great. Have you had a chance to get out and enjoy it?" Neil asked, dunking a cookie into his coffee.

"Yeah. I usually spend a lot of time outside, if it isn't raining. Except when I'm working, then I have no choice." Tooth Fairy smiled wryly. He eyed the plate of cookies, then finally caved and took one. He could brush his teeth when they were done here.

"Did you do anything interesting this week?" Neil bit off a mushy chunk of his cookie.

"Mm-hmm." Tooth Fairy's mouth was full, and he swallowed before speaking. "Alpha and I spend a lot of time going on nature hikes. And on Thursday, I took her to the mall."

Neil saw a subtle change in Tooth Fairy's expression, and he furrowed his brow. "How did that go?"

Tooth Fairy shrugged. "It went great, at first. We just sort of walked around and looked at things. Had lunch. Did the whole 'photo booth' thing. Hey, you wanna see a picture?"

"Sure." Neil took the photo Tooth Fairy held out, and he smiled. Tooth Fairy had his arm around Alpha, and they were leaning into each other as they smiled for the camera. She looked significantly younger than Tooth Fairy, but Neil knew from previous conversations that there was only a two year age gap. "Nice to have a face to go with the name. Are you sure she's a Werewolf? She looks pretty normal to me."

Tooth Fairy laughed and nodded. "Trust me, I'm sure. Transformed, she's bigger than I am! You should see her with little kids, though..."

Neil handed back the photo, and he noticed that Tooth Fairy seemed wistful when he said that. "They're not afraid of her?"

"Pff, nah. Well...there was this one time. The Founders told some of the kids that Alpha would eat them if they didn't behave, and the poor tykes believed it. Alpha set the record straight as soon as she found out, but she was pretty upset about it..." He folded his hands and looked out the window.

Neil shook his head. The thought of anyone intentionally harming a child disgusted him. And he remembered how he and Laura had unintentionally harmed Charlie when Scott first became Santa and they didn't believe. The emotional damage they had caused while trying to do the right thing was bad enough, but it sounded to him like those two Dark Elves had actually enjoyed causing pain. "Any decent person would be."

"Yeah..." Tooth Fairy sipped his coffee and leaned forward. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course."

"Okay, well, you're a married man, right?"

It was a rhetorical question, but Neil answered it anyway. "Yes."

"Well...Alpha and I have only been dating since Valentine's Day, and we've only known each other since last November. And the Summer Solstice is June twenty-first. It's sort of a Fairy tradition for proposals to happen on that day. It's not a rule or anything, but...do you think it's too soon?"

Neil pursed his lips and thought as he leaned back in his chair. "That's really up to the two of you. For some, it's way too soon. Others know early on what they want."

"That's not really helpful. No offense." Tooth Fairy dunked his cookie as he spoke, but he wasn't paying close enough attention and when he went to take a bite half of it plopped back into the mug. "Aww..."

Neil snickered and cleared his throat. "Sorry. You can go get a spoon for that, if you want."

"It's fine." Tooth Fairy ate the bit of cookie he held, and sipped his coffee again.

"Getting back to what you asked me, there's really no easy answer. It's about what's right for you. But the fact that you're asking me that is very telling. And I think it's a good sign. It means that, whatever you decide, you're putting a lot of thought into it."

"Uh-huh...Excuse this." Tooth Fairy had drained his mug, and he tipped his head back to let gravity take care of the cookie mush at the bottom of his cup.

"You're fine. You know, a colleague of mine met his wife in a bar over thirty years ago. They talked for hours, exchanged numbers, and after two weeks he went away to work for a few months. He was the head cook on an oil tanker before he changed professions and got into psychiatry. They talked on the phone as much as they could get away with during the time he was away, and he proposed when he came back. She said yes, and they were engaged for a little over a year before they married. And they're still going strong."

Tooth Fairy couldn't fight back a smile. He didn't like to advertise it in case he got some teasing for it, but he had always been something of a hopeless romantic. "Why'd he change professions? To be closer to his wife?"

Neil nodded. "Yeah, in part. But the final straw was actually his daughter. I think she was two years old, and they were going to take a vacation somewhere. He set out his suitcase to pack, and the poor kid misunderstood, because this was what he did whenever he was getting ready to go back on the ship."

"Oh, no..." Tooth Fairy winced.

"Yeah...He came back and saw her sitting by the suitcase with her head down, and these huge tears running down her cheeks. And when he picked her up and asked her what was the matter, she said, 'My daddy's going away again'. And then they were both crying. It just got to be too hard, so he took night classes and got into a different line of work." Neil took another cookie.

Tooth Fairy shook his head, "That's gotta hurt...but I won't have to worry about that."

"What do you mean by that?"

Tooth Fairy hadn't meant to say that, but Alpha had told him that she wouldn't impose any restrictions on him for these sessions, other than to not disclose the location of The Hollow. He certainly hoped he hadn't misunderstood her! "Up until a few days ago, I thought Fairies couldn't have children with other races. It's what we were all told, going back I don't know how many generations. Then Alpha and I just found out that we could probably have children together...but she's afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

Tooth Fairy offered up a silent apology to Alpha, then pressed forward. "A long time ago, long before we knew each other, she had a mate. Another Werewolf. They had two children together. The first...well...didn't survive the birth. And her son lived to be five, but The Founders somehow let it slip to the humans that there were Werewolves nearby, and...Alpha came home to find...well...she was alone for a while after that."

Neil tried to conceal how horrified he was at hearing that, but it must've shown on his face, because Tooth Fairy nodded.

"I know. There's no getting over that. I don't need to have had it to know that. It was the mayor who told her the truth about kids, and I think she didn't tell me before because I was in kind of a bad way."

"And how do you feel about that?" Neil asked.

Tooth Fairy shrugged. "I don't know. I know why she told me, but...to be honest, I almost wish she'd kept it to herself."

Neil nodded and asked, "Are you angry with her?"

Tooth Fairy scoffed. "Of course not!"

"But you seem conflicted..." Neil persisted, and when Tooth Fairy said nothing, pressed, "Do you in any way resent her for not wanting to have children?"

"No, I..." Tooth Fairy began, but that wasn't entirely true. He put his analytical faculties to work and turned the matter over, examining it from all sides. "I don't resent her. I resent what happened to her to make her feel this way. If it hadn't, we wouldn't have ended up together, but...I'd give all that up if that meant she could've watched her son grow up. And I resent the mayor for telling her. There was no reason for it, or at least there was no reason I can think of. She said she would be open to adopting a child, but...I don't know. It's too soon for that, and it got me wondering if I should propose as soon as I was thinking of doing."

"Hm." Neil nodded again. He took a moment to digest this before speaking again. "Well, I think you're approaching this from a very healthy place. You want what's best for both of you."

"But I think she feels guilty."

"She very well might, but neither of you did anything wrong."

"So, what should I do?"

Neil finished his coffee and wiped his mouth with a napkin. "Exactly what you've been doing. Be there for her. Listen to her, and be a 'safe' person for her to confide in, just as she's done for you. It sounds like you're already doing that. That's what marriage is all about; taking care of each other. A spouse, or a mate, or whatever name you choose to call yourselves, that's your life partner. No relationship is perfect, but that's why you put in the work to get past these hurdles. And you do it together."

Tooth Fairy nodded slowly, taking it all in. "So...should I propose on the Solstice, or wait a bit?"

"Hmmm...I'd say there's a bit of work to be done before you're stable enough to embark on such a venture. But a proposal is not a wedding. It's a promise to marry in the future, and the two of you are the only ones who can decide how far in the future it'll be."

"So, that's a non-answer," Tooth Fairy chuckled.

"My answer is, it's up to you." Neil smiled back. "And my question is this; do you want to spend the rest of your life with this woman?"

"Yeah. I do. And I think she feels the same."

Neil's watch beeped, signaling the end of the session, and he silenced it. "Then hold on to that coin when you get it, and just wait to see how things play out. I think you'll know what to do when the time comes. Staying for dinner?"

"No thanks, I'm taking Alpha to a seafood restaurant. She likes it, but hardly ever gets to have it." Tooth Fairy picked up his mug to put it in the dishwasher, but Neil took it from him.

"Here, I'll get that. Take care, Roy."

"Thanks, you too."

Note: I actually have that T-shirt. And I'm a little bummed that I can't go out and show it off! Say safe, everyone!