Weaver

Chocolate Kisses

Watching Altair skate was one of the funniest things she’d ever seen. It wasn’t nice, but Alice used one hand to keep him upright and the other to stifle fits of giggles with her mitten. Altair clung to her sleeve and flailed with his other hand, his skates slipping wildly underneath him.

“You should let me go, or I’ll pull you over,” he grunted.

Alice laughed, “it’s okay, I don’t think you have much of a chance of remaining on your feet if I let go.”

They did one last shaky round around the frozen lake, dodging small children and their parents and other hand-holding couples, and then Altair suggested they go to the hot chocolate stand.

“Alright,” Alice grinned, “I guess I’ve had my fill of watching your wonderful figure skating.”

“You’re hilarious,” Altair groaned, “I think my elbow has its own heartbeat now.”

“Guess you hit it pretty hard the last time you went down, huh?”

“Hot chocolate!” Altair said enthusiastically, but his exclamation was cut short when the gesture made him overbalance, and he pitched over onto his backside. Alice asked him if he was alright, between attempting to suppress giggle fits, and Altair scrambled to his feet and indignantly brushed at his pants, even though there was nothing on the front of them.

“I did that on purpose…thought you needed a laugh.”

“That's very sweet of you,” Alice helped him off the ice, and they made their way over to the benches were Altair sat down with a groan.

“I think every part of me is bruised.”

Alice grinned and patted his arm, “Alright, I’ll unlace and go get the hot chocolate, you stay here and recover. We’ll watch other people skate.”

“That sounds a lot less painful,” Altair agreed.

She unlaced her skates and tugged them off, pulling her boots back on, “I’ll be right back with a big hot chocolate and extra whipped cream.”

Altair’s only answer was another groan as he attempted to wrestle his skates off.

The lineup for the hot chocolate stand was long, and Alice stepped in behind a young couple with their little girl. She smiled as the tiny blonde girl turned and gave her a big toothy grin, her green hat pulled down halfway over her big blue eyes.

The snow crunched behind her, and she turned slightly. A man and a woman gave her polite smiles, and she smiled back and turned away, only to do a double take. The man was bundled up in a big black coat and a plaid scarf that went up to his chin, but the woman had the collar of her coat pulled back slightly, and her necklace was visible between her collar bones. The silver sliver of a crescent moon.  Alice turned away quickly when the woman caught her staring. Her heart was beating faster all of a sudden. What did that mean? Was she one of the women in that photo? She didn’t recognize her, but then, she hadn’t looked at the other people in the photo for very long, mostly just her aunt. Why hadn’t she looked at the other women in the photo? She should have looked at it longer.

She fidgeted on the spot, wanting to look back over her shoulder again to see what the moon looked like. Did it look like the half moon on her bracelet? Surely the woman would have recognized her if she’d known Aunt Ruby. Should she say anything to the woman? What if she thought Alice was crazy?

“Ma’am? What can I get you?”

She looked up in surprise, realizing that she’d got all the way to the front of the line without noticing. On an impulse, she glanced quickly over her shoulder once more, only to see that the woman had pulled her jacket closed. Alice’s stomach flipped. Was that because she didn’t want Alice seeing the necklace, or because she thought some weird girl was staring at her?

“Ma’am?” The clerk behind the counter was staring at her from underneath his knit hat. He probably thought she was crazy too.

“Um. Yes, two hot chocolates with whipped cream and sprinkles please.”

Alice spent the next few seconds telling herself she was not allowed to turn around and stare at the woman again. When the man slid the hot chocolates across the counter, she paid him in cash and left with the cups without looking back.

Altair looked up as she approached, and gave her a wide grin, “Man, that smells great already.”

Alice handed him the drink and sat down, “yup.”

They sat and sipped at the hot chocolate in silence for a few seconds, and then Altair glanced sideways at her, “something on your mind, love?”

Alice nodded, “there’s woman over there, see the one with the man getting hot chocolate right now? She has a half-moon necklace on, maybe the same one in the photo with Aunt Ruby? Do you think she’s in…whatever that club was that my aunt was in? The one that sent me that weird knife?”

“Maybe, or maybe she just has normal taste in jewelry,” Altair grinned, “it’s a pretty common thing to wear on a necklace, right?”

“Yes, I guess that’s true,” Alice frowned down at her hot chocolate and then glanced back over at the stand. The man and women were walking away hand in hand with their hot drinks. Maybe he was right, maybe she was over thinking things and the poor woman just happened to like moon shaped jewelry.

“I think I’m over-worried about everything,” she grimaced, “my brain is too busy thinking up conspiracy and fretting about the next god who decides they want to eat me or something.”

Altair said, “you know what helps? Hot chocolate kisses.” He leaned forward, and Alice suddenly found herself held tightly, lips pressed against his, the taste of chocolate on her lips and tongue. She shut her eyes and let herself melt into him, thoughts of half moons and daggers completely forgotten.