The Boy Who Cried Wolf

Follow That Dream

Elijah and Teddy emerged from the Historical Society into the cold of the late afternoon air. On the street they walked side by side, arms occasionally bumping as they went. After each time it happened Elijah felt a jolt of wonderful electricity spar through his arm so he began intentionally walking slightly too close to Teddy so that it would happen more often. They were so close they could well have been holding hands, and yet they were still so far away. For Elijah it was moving painfully slow. Usually wolves met and immediately both knew they were mates, he was constantly reminding himself that Teddy was human and very new to everything they were trying to do. He had to rebel against his every instinct and take it slow. 

"Is there anything in particular that you'd like to see?" Teddy asked as they walked, realizing he didn't really have a destination in mind. Out of habit he'd turned in the direction of the church, but if he was going to give Elijah a good tour, he ought to let the man decide where they were going. 

"Doesn't matter," Elijah said.

Teddy eyed the sky for a moment. Years of walking in the forest and getting lost among the trees had taught him to be able to understand a likely estimate of the time based on the position of the sun in the sky. It was to the West but hadn't yet dipped down to touch the horizon, which meant that they were beginning their journey just as the afternoon began to wane and make way for the evening. 

"Town Hall," Teddy said firmly, looking to the sky once more for some type of reassurance. "You should see Town Hall."

Elijah nodded. He had no real interest in seeing some silly human meeting house, but he could barely focus on making longer sentences with his attention so much on not staring at Teddy. All he wanted to do was look at the boy, but humans found that strange and unnerving. He busied himself by looking at the numerous colored buildings and trying to count the paned windows. Elijah would be glad when the day would come that he could marvel at his mate unabashedly.

"Sounds Good," Elijah chocked out, trying to keep his voice steady and deep. Teddy looked at him strangely, but said nothing on the matter. 

They fell back into their silent walk and Elijah's brain ran calculations on all the things he could say that might sound awkward, and whether that was worse than just walking in silence. 

"Do you like working at the Historical Society?" He asked after a moment. It wasn't a super exciting question, but it was at least something to say. Elijah wasn't much of a dater.

"It's a job," Teddy shrugged, eyes following the lone man who walked by on the edge of the pier. The man was an interruption to the otherwise perfectly serene empty stone streets. "I wanted to work at the restaurant--- that's where most of the students here work--- but Fr. Charles wouldn't let me."

"Why not?"

"Cause it's also a pub," Teddy smiled mischievously. "He didn't want me around all those drunk people... but he's there now anyway."

"Does Fr. Charles drink?"

"Oh no!" Teddy exclaimed. "He's never touched the stuff, unless you count church wine, of course. I guess I probably shouldn't have said that... that came off harsher than I meant it to. He just goes to be a part of the community."

"Ah," Elijah sounded. 

"--But I like the Historical society... and it's open until seven on weekdays; I only wanted to work at Terry's because it had later hours so I could work more and still go to school."

"Terry's?"

"The restaurant," Teddy confirmed. 

Elijah paused, before echoing Teddy's earlier question, "Are you in college?"