Authors Notes: Well, we are nearly in the middle of the story. For the second half, it is going to become centred strongly on Dave's romance and the scenes for Alvittany will be cut back. I have them at the point I need them at for the story to move on.

Chapter 17: Secrets Come Alive

The next morning found Brittany slowly waking up as the sunlight blared through the gap in the curtains. Her eyes fluttered open. She gave a soft yawn and went to sit up, but with a jolt she realised that a pair of arms were holding her around the waist. Brittany gently turned in her spot to see Alvin still snoozing. Her pillow had actually been his chest. She laid her head back down and could feel his heart beating against her cheek.

Slowly, piece by piece, the night before revealed itself Brittany's memory. A giddy smile traced across her lips. Last night had been the happiest she had ever felt. Not even performing at the Grammy's had made her feel this warm inside when she looked back on it. Alvin had been so gentle and caring. He must've known how scared she was to give herself to him and didn't want to add any pressure to her stress. The stress had been blissfully short lived.

The aftermath though had been quite painful. Brittany shifted her legs and sure enough, her thighs were still a little stiff and sore. Maybe it was just a sign that it was time for her act a strong adult Chipette. In Talking Chipmunk culture, the Chipettes were expected to be busy little homebodies who looked after their mates, did as they were told and bear children when their mate decided to. But luckily for her and her sisters, Brittany could be who ever she wanted in human society. Besides, Alvin would never treat her like a servant in a million years!

Speak of the handsome devil, Brittany felt movement under her and heard a soft sigh from behind. She lifted her head and sure enough her eyes met her counterparts own golden ones. Alvin's eyes were filled with a sense of warmth and Brittany couldn't help feeling secure and safe in his embrace. This wasn't normal for the outgoing Chipette, but she guessed it was just a part of their Bond.

"Do you know how wonderful it is to wake up to a beautiful face?" whispered Alvin. Brittany gave a mischievous smile.

"No, you'll have to fill me in. I'm looking now and I ain't getting anything," she teased.

Alvin rolled his eyes, "Trust you to ruin our first morning together, Britt. You're breaking my heart here..."

"Aw, I'm sorry, babe. Here, I'll make it all better," Brittany cooed. She leaned over and nuzzled his cheek lovingly and pulled back. "There is that better?"

"You work fast," Alvin remarked.

"I can't start off the day with a grumpy mate, now can I?" Brittany replied. Alvin shook his head. "Exactly. Now, let's get up and get something to eat. We have a busy day today. Not only do we have to move my stuff in here, but we've got to tell our siblings too."

Alvin let out a loud groan, "Oh man, that's going to be interesting. Eleanor will be happy for us and so will Jeanette, but I'm not sure about everyone else."

Brittany sighed, "Well, there's only one way to find out..."

9.40am

The red and pink couple had woken up significantly earlier than the others, so no one saw them leave Alvin's room together. Sure enough, Dave was already sitting on the kitchen table with his usual cup of coffee and the morning newspaper spread out under him. After a while, the others woke up too and everybody gorged themselves on toaster waffles.

"So, what's everybody getting up to today?" asked Dave, "I'm going to do some paperwork I've been neglecting for a few weeks now."

"Well, I've got this new recipe that I want to try again seeing as it failed to cook properly in Home eco," Theodore said. Saying that the cake had failed to cook was an understatement. Everybody had to clear the room because of the smoke coming from the oven!

"I'll help you Teddy," said Eleanor. She'd been there when the emergency sprinklers went off.

"I'm going to be working on the blueprints for a new project in the lab seeing as our last was a huge success," Simon added, looking over at Dave with a small smile. Dave smiled back, but barely. He hadn't been able to look at Simon properly without thinking about a cowboy due to what he had overheard.

"What about you two lovebirds?" Dave asked Alvin and Brittany, who had decided to share the same plate this morning. There was something different about them. Dave could sense a different kind of chemistry going between them and instead of two different scents, there was only the smell of strawberry and cream coming from their direction.

"Oh...Uh...Well, I'm cleaning out my room this morning," Brittany half lied.

Her sisters immediately gave her unbelieving looks.

"You're cleaning out your room...voluntarily?" asked Eleanor suspiciously.

Brittany nodded nervously. Her sisters immediately turned to Alvin, who showed no emotion and shrugged. Jeanette gave Eleanor that look they had seen on Brittany only too many times before.

They were going to get to the bottom of this.

10:30AM

Brittany was still finding all of this surreal. What an odd thing it was to know that she would never have a room to herself again and yet, she didn't mind. In fact, she was excited. Stacking her clothes into a skateboard was taking longer than she thought. Alvin had already taken three trips down the hallway to drop the load off and they weren't even halfway!

They hadn't even made it five minutes before they had an argument about which posters Brittany could hang up. Alvin had already suggested that they could made a collage of all their favourite photos and hang it up, but Justin Bieber, Zac Efron and One Direction posters were out! In retaliation, Brittany had banned him from keeping up a poster of Pamela Anderson in her Bay Watch days. Both reluctantly agreed on their part because they knew that it would save them from any future fights.

"Sweetheart, are you sure you need all these clothes?" Alvin asked wearily as he returned with the skateboard in tow, "I don't think you've even worn all of them."

"Yes, I'm sure!" Brittany exclaimed, picking up the last two skirts from the drawers next to her bed, "Do you want your mate to look boring, wearing the same clothes day after day?"

"Britt, I love you no matter how you look," Alvin replied softly, "But I think the rest will have to stay here until we redecorate. We'll get a bigger wardrobe."

Brittany sighed in defeat, "Okay, fine." She placed the skirts on the skateboard and threw on the case full of her makeup, "Let's get my jewellery box on here then..."

Ten minutes later, Alvin pushed the 4th load of stuff down the hallway. Brittany started to get all of the electronic stuff together, contemplating on what colour they should paint the room when her train of thought was broken by a small knock on the open door. Brittany jumped and spun around to see her sisters and Theodore staring in at her.

"Wow, when you clean you room, you really go all out!" Eleanor remarked. Brittany followed her gaze to see the green clad Chipette observing her half empty wardrobe.

Brittany flushed. She knew she couldn't hide their secret and was just waiting for the question to pop up. She decided to just play along with it, "I thought you two were baking this morning," she looked at the green clad couple questioningly. They both shrugged.

"We're waiting for the ingredients to soak in for a little while," Theodore replied.

"We thought we could help you while we waited, but it doesn't seem like you need it," Eleanor added, "Where did your clothes go?"

Brittany caught Jeanette's eye. The bespectacled Chipette was giving her the x-ray look; she was trying to work out what was going on by looking at Brittany's body language. Brittany immediately straightened up, hoping Jeanette didn't notice.

"There's something different about you, Britt," Jeanette enquired softly, "In fact there was something different about Alvin too."

"Was there now?" Alvin came striding in. He was smart enough to leave the skateboard outside, "And what exactly was that, Jean?"

Alvin could sense his mates' anxiety and was quick to grab her paw and squeeze it. He felt her fingers clench tightly on his. Alvin wasn't really bothered that his family wanted to know what was going on. He knew Brittany was nervous, but the sooner they learned the better.

"Well, you for starters seem to be holding yourself straighter," Jeanette began, "You're looking as if you're feeling proud of yourself."

"Well, I certainly do have something to be proud of," Alvin chuckled. Brittany elbowed him in the stomach.

"And you Brittany," Jeanette continued as if she hadn't been interrupted, "I can't pinpoint exactly what it is...but, you look even prettier this morning than usual. I may sound stupid when I say this, but you have this radiant glow."

Brittany smiled in spite of herself. "You think I'm radiant?" she asked softly.

Everybody nodded. Alvin grasped her other paw, leaned forward and whispered, "Come on Britt, let's tell them. They have us cornered and you know they'll stick to us like Velcro until they know."

He pulled back and gave her an enquiring look. Brittany gazed into his trustful eyes and nodded, "Okay, but I want to tell my sisters alone. Take Theodore and tell him, Simon and Dave."

Alvin nodded and walked over to his baby brother, "Come on Theo, I gotta tell you something." They disappeared, leaving the Chipettes alone.

"So are you going to spill?" demanded Eleanor.

Brittany swallowed and her voice shook as she spoke, "Well, yesterday afternoon Alvin came up to me when I was doing my makeup and told me to meet him in the paddock at midnight. The way he said it let me know that he had something romantic in mind, so, of course I went along with it. So I met up with him at said time and...well..."

"'Well' what?" asked Jeanette impatiently. She had an inkling of where this was going and wanted to know if she was right.

Brittany felt better now that she was getting this out in the open, so she decided to finish strongly. "Girls," she stated proudly, "Alvin claimed me last night!"

There was a shocked silence. Jeanette and Eleanor, jaws dropped, looked at each other, than at their sister, to each other again, than burst forward and nearly knocked Brittany senseless with their embrace. The sisters tumbled to the floor in their excitement. Brittany laughed with all the wind that wasn't knocked out of her.

"Oh, my goodness! Brittany!" Eleanor squeaked loudly. She had gotten to her first and was squeezing the death out of the pink clad Chipette, "That's brilliant! No wonder you're glowing! You're an adult now!"

"That's fantastic, Britt!" Jeanette exclaimed, happy for her sister and relieved that she wasn't the only one anymore, "I knew it was only a matter of weeks! Alvin will be such a good mate for you, I know it!"

"Aww thanks girls!" Brittany gushed. She gently shoved them off and got back on her feet, "I'm glad you approve. I was so nervous about your reaction."

"You shouldn't be. We're your sisters and we love you no matter what you do," Jeanette said. Eleanor nodded vigorously.

"Aw, I love you girls too." And they grouped together for a big hug.

In the late afternoon...

It turned out to be a big day for all of the Seville's. Alvin's confession to his brothers and Dave went just as smoothly as Brittany's. Dave, who already knew about it in the first place, clapped him on the back and boasted his congratulations. Theodore was overjoyed for his brother while Simon was shocked, but like Jeanette, felt a relief that he wasn't the only one anymore.

Uplifted by the union of two of their family members, everybody joined in with moving all of Brittany's things into Alvin's room. It would have taken only a quarter of the time with human help, but they got there eventually. The boys did all the heavy lifting and moving, while the girls were left to rearrange everything to fit Brittany's limitless amount of clothes and various other items.

Everybody chatted loudly and laughed at the littlest of things. They sang, hummed, whistled, teased Alvin, screamed at a spider hiding in a corner, sang some more, teased Alvin, argued over what colour the walls should be painted. They scrubbed Alvin's desk down and changed the bed so it had a more neutral colour until new bedspreads were bought.

Just when everyone thought the atmosphere couldn't get any lighter, it turned out that in the chaos of finishing the room, Simon had taken Jeanette aside and they agreed to tell the truth. This had a similar reaction to Alvin and Brittany's announcement.

"I can't believe you guys kept this a secret for so long!"Brittany cried out in shock.

"I know, but we were so scared that you guys would think that it happened too soon or something," replied Simon. He hated criticism above everything else in the world.

"We would've supported you all the way bro," admitted Alvin. Simon grinned awkwardly.

Dave had congratulated Simon and Jeanette, but he was still stewing on whether or not to tell them that he already knew. One side of him wanted to comply, but the other was telling him to keep it as an embarrassing story to tell after a few drinks on Simon's 18th birthday. He quite liked the thought of the latter idea and decided to save it.

Well, two couples in one day! According to chipmunk law, this caused for a celebration! By the end of the night, the Seville's were already planning for a night out the next weekend. But before that could happen, they were in for a very interesting week...

A/N: Well, there you have it. This week, the bullying problem will be solved once and for all and school won't be included much in the chapters after that. A dark change is coming and Dave is the only one who can solve it.

This week's question: What colour should Alvin and Brittany paint their room?