I never want to see you unhappy Who: Alex and Bella When: Midday Where: First Baptist Church
Bella truly hated this shelter business. It was horrible enough that bad things were happening and more people were going to die, but crowding a bunch of panicked, worried people into a confined space was basically hell on earth for an empath without their power under control. Bella was quite literally an emotional sponge, and being surrounded by so many negative emotions meant her nerves were basically shot. It was a small saving grace that she and her father were able to stay at their own church - they knew a lot of the people there like family, and those affiliated with the church were sensitive to Bella’s situation. Half an hour ago the youth pastor had covertly slipped Bella a set of keys to some of the rooms off limits to the public, and she had gratefully slipped away from the crowds.
She ended up in the room used for Sunday school. It was blissfully quiet, and best of all, out of range of most of the other people in the church. There was also a piano. Bella had spent many church lock-ins sneaking off to play in here. Old habits died hard. After quietly closing the door behind her, she approached the piano almost reverently. She seated herself and grazed the keys with her fingertips for a while, before finally beginning to play. When she settled on a tune, it was Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, one of her all-time favorite songs. The sound of her voice singing along was so soft it was nearly drowned out by the music, like she was scared to sing any louder. And really, she was. She didn’t think anyone could hear her in this part of the church, but you could never be too careful.
Demons were not a fond memory in the Mingan family. Staying at home at been the prime option the past times, but it wasn’t enough for Alex. They could throw up wards all they wanted, but the demons were still there. His father would have been more level-headed about the whole situation, but he wasn’t around anymore. Alex just wanted to go somewhere that was, well, better than home. The churches were a good place, right? His family wasn’t overly religious, but he knew that it was a safe place. No demon would want to waltz right inside of one to slaughter people. And being the alpha of the pack, Alex was able to put his foot down on the matter - they were going to stay at the church until the whole thing blew over.
Alex was in the middle of a conversation with a couple of his siblings, mostly distracted by the two kittens he snuck in that were batting at the strings to his hoodie. They were abandoned kittens that had been left at the shelter and were too young to leave all by themselves. Alex worried about the balls of fluff and tried to keep them concealed while they played. It was around then that he picked up her scent - Bella’s. Didn’t matter how many people were packed in there or how oblivious as fuck Alex could be on a good day; he could pinpoint her. A light smile appeared on his lips while he excused himself from his family and snuck about the church to see where the redhead wandered off to. The piano, of course. She had always been an excellent musician with the beautiful voice to match. Alex didn’t say anything, quietly opening the door enough to watch Bella. Part of him wanted to sit down next to her and just listen. He probably would have if it wasn’t for the fact one of the kittens squirmed free and made a mad dash towards the piano. Alex flailed about silently, not wanting to bolt after the kitten and make a ruckus out of it. Besides, the little kitten was doing no harm, merely intrigued with Bella’s feet as she pressed into the pedals... then eventually pounced one.
The pounce, while not at all a nuclear attack of sky-born doom, still took Bella by surprise enough to send a short-lived shriek at the end of a note. Her heart was in her throat as she jumped back, literally falling right off the piano bench and on to the floor.
Of course, this put her at eye level with a fuzzy kitten. Not a demon. Not a bomb. Not death in any form. It didn’t even look big enough to scare a mouse. And yet here she was, Bella Twight, cowering on the floor in the Sunday school room. Well. That was just splendid. She blinked at said fuzzy bringer of doom, before confusedly looking around. When her eyes settled on Alex, her face went redder than her hair. Oh my God, tell me I didn’t just do that. “...Been there long?”
Ok, that was adorable. Alex stifled a laugh, not at the fact Bella fell over, but because she shrieked over a kitten. Seriously, all it wanted to do was play with her feet because they were moving. Typical kitten stuff. Smiling in Bella’s direction, he closed the door behind him and walked on over. “Long enough to hear you play a lovely song.” Did it really matter? He loved listening to her play and could easily lose track of time when she was at the piano. Kneeling down a bit, Alex extended a hand out to Bella, keeping the other kitten secure in his arms. “Sorry if fuzzy here scared you. I’m sure he’ll make it up to you.” Hopefully it didn’t involve gnawing at Bella’s feet. And if not, then Alex would. That’s what friends were for.
Bella knew the crimson flush of her cheeks wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Bad enough that she was shy about playing or singing in front of people without that extra added oomph to the little performance. She smiled sheepishly and pushed herself into a sitting position, extending her hand to take Alex’s help. Okay, she would have taken his hand even though she didn’t need the help. Then she offered her other hand to the attack kitten. “Hi, fuzzy.” You tried to kill me. But at least you’re adorable.
Helping Bella up to her feet, he chuckled lightly as the kitten mewed at her and nuzzled into her hand. “Little guy just wants to play it seems.” He didn’t blame the kitten either. Being locked up in a church all day wasn’t really appealing for neither a person or cat. His hand lingered in Bella’s for a second before letting it go, then tilted his head in her direction. “How you doing? I mean... with everything going on and all.” He always worried about his friends, not wanting them to suffer the same fate his family did when the demons attacked. Bella didn’t look like she had been crying at all... just blushing a lot. It looked cute on her.
Bella settled on the floor, leaning back against one of the legs of the piano, and invited the kitten onto her lap. Her heart was still pounding, but she was getting over the scare. Maybe not the embarrassment quite yet, but she was used to being embarrassed. “I’m okay,” she said. “I just can’t take the crowds right now. How about you?” She knew any time the demons came into things that Alex would struggle. He was the one that needed to be worried about.
“I thought it was air elementals that got claustrophobic?” He teased her while taking a seat next to Bella before winking in her direction. He’d never look down on her just because she wanted some alone time. Anything that made her feel better was good in his book. Still, he was glad to hear she was doing ok. No deaths, so all was well. And then the question was thrown back to him and he let out a sigh while placing the other kitten in his lap. He never liked worrying Bella, but derpderp, he could just exist and that’d be enough for an earth elemental to worry about. No point in holding back. Besides, Bella did mention that she was there for him to vent. “It’s... It’s hard. I made the choice to come here. I didn’t feel comfortable at home, you know? I guess...” Alex looked down, a bit ashamed of himself. “I guess I was scared. Still am. Dad would know what to do right now and I just feel like I’m not doing it right. Or anything, for that matter.”
Bella wrinkled her nose up. “It’s not an earth thing, it’s an empathy thing. There’s so much going on out there,” she said, with a wide gesture towards the door, “That I can’t figure out how I feel underneath it all. I just get swept away.” Bella had let her empathy run away from her to the point of anxiety attacks before. It wasn’t fun. She frowned as Alex went on, and when the kitten ran off to investigate something else, she pulled her knees to her chest. “You can’t constantly live in his shadow. You’re not your dad, but that’s not a bad thing. I’m sure he didn’t know if he was doing the right thing at first, either.”
“Oh! Right! That.” Alex gave Bella a nervous smile. “I forgot about the empathy thing.” Just like how most of life went right over his head. So much for being a sensitive guy. Nice going. He only hoped she didn’t take it personally. Hell, she could probably feel how he felt right now - a mixture of fear and doubt and guilt. He didn’t want to overwhelm Bella at all. “I know... I guess I’m just hard on myself. There’s always these stories passed down about mighty alphas that kept everyone in order and in line and...” He looked up to Bella, a sense of sadness lingering in his eyes. “I’m not like that. Sometimes I am, like in spurts, but even then it’s like, ‘Hey I think we should totally get pizza and not Chinese’ and everyone listens because I’m the alpha.” A sigh left his lips. “I just want to make him happy... make everyone happy.”
Bella smiled brightly and shook her head. “It’s okay,” she said. It wasn’t like she talked about the empathy as much as the elemental thing. Or even the magic she studied. Her empathy was so out of control that more often than not, it was simply a hindrance. It was natural that she avoided the topic a lot. “You can never make everybody happy, Alex. Nobody knows that better than an empath.” Or, maybe a telepath, but not the point. “Right now everybody out there wants a million different things. If the people in charge were worried about what people wanted, as opposed to what they need... we might not be safe here. When you make a decision you do it with good intentions, and because you want people to be safe. That’s all anybody could ever ask for.”
She had a point and Alex was thankful for her honesty. He smiled in response, a weak one, but a smile nonetheless. The silence that surrounded him stayed for a moment before being lifted by his words, “...I hope I can at least make you happy.” Bella was as good as pack to him and he had known her since freaking diapers. If he couldn’t put a smile on her face, then what was the point in smiling himself?
The butterflies went crazy, and naturally, Bella smiled brightly. “You do,” she promised. More than he would ever know, really. More than she ever wanted him to know. Sometimes she had nightmares about him finding out. “You never need to worry about that much, you silly dog.”
Being called a silly dog just made Alex smile more. “I’m glad I can make someone happy.” He was no empath, but he could still hear her hearbeat and smell her. She definitely seemed happy to him, even in the middle of the whole demon thing. “So,” his eyes flicked on over to the piano, then back to Bella, “have you worked on anything new lately? You know I’d love to hear you play.” She was one of those few people who had a hidden talent, unlike a lot of people he knew. Kind of like some of the creative writing majors who couldn’t write a decent story if their life depended on it. Bella had a lot more feeling in what she wrote and played.
“Not really,” Bella answered, feeling her face flush again. “There hasn’t been a ton of time for that kind of stuff.” And sometimes it felt so pointless, considering there were so few people she could bring herself to share with. The list of people she trusted enough not to laugh at her was rather short. Flora encouraged her to play a lot, but the familiar liked to sing along. Bella couldn’t be surprised that she got the familiar straight out of a Disney movie.
That was a shame - he did like Bella’s work. And then something hit him and he gave her a bit of a sly smile. “What about now? No one in here but you and me. Oh! And these guys.” He picked up the one fluffball in his lap, who just mewed, and showed him off to Bella. “I think they’d love to hear the lovely lady compose a piece for them to hear.” After a light chuckle, his eyes softened and locked onto Bella’s. She had nothing to be afraid of with him around. The door was closed and everyone was too busy thinking about demons to even care about what was going on outside of their little bubbles.
Bella grinned, though the expression still had a shy quality to it. She couldn’t very easily say no to Alex. She reached out to pet the kitten, and offered a dramatic sigh. “Nothing like being put on the spot,” she teased, even if it had a bit of truth to it. The creation process was a very personal thing, and not one she was used to sharing. She pushed up to her feet though, reclaiming her place at the bench. “What are you going to do?” she asked him.
“You mean aside from listen?” Tilting his head to the side, he shot Bella an adoring smile. Seriously! That was all he truly wanted to do. “Well, I suppose I could keep guard on the door, make sure no one else pokes in, right? What else is a big, fluffy wolf suppose to do?” Picking up both the kittens, he settled them on the bench. They looked confused at first, but then they started mewing, like they were encouraging Bella to do something. Brushing off his pants, Alex gave the redhead a thumbs up. “You just pretend I’m not here, ok?”
That was an impossibility, but she could pretend. Bella smiled and conceded, ignoring the flutter of warmth she felt inside. Silly, fluffy wolf. He was completely oblivious. She sighed and turned back around, facing the keys and only staring at them for a moment while she tried to force her brain to clear itself of thought. When her brain felt as clear as it ever would be, she started to play.
As much as he wanted to sit next to Bella, Alex actually took a seat back onto the floor, back against the piano bench. Best not be in her face while she was playing. She was suppose to be pretending that he wasn’t there. Alex liked to think he was doing a good job at being invisible, just sitting there and watching the door to make sure no one came in. All while listening to her play. Honestly, Bella had such a gift. Having her play with him around felt like an immense honor and Alex couldn’t help but smile, tilting his head back to relax and enjoy.