"Goodbye, Teacher Arthur!"
The final bell cut through the afternoon slump, and the schoolyard instantly erupted into a chaotic symphony of slamming lockers, echoing footsteps, and bright, unburdened laughter.
Arthur stood just inside the heavy iron gates, waving a fond goodbye to his students as they dashed past, entirely consumed by the intoxicating freedom of the weekend.
Typically, Arthur didn't have to wait long at the entrance. Truthfully, calling it a "wait" was a massive stretch; Uncle Kevin was notoriously early, often idling by the curb before the final period even ended.
But today, the familiar sedan was nowhere to be seen.
The old man is actually late, Arthur realized, pulling his phone from his pocket to check in. Just as his fingers brushed the screen, a sharp, familiar honk cut through the noise of traffic. He froze, a brilliant, childlike grin overtaking his face.
Shoving his phone away, he jogged toward the passenger side with the eager energy of a kid chasing an ice cream truck. He yanked the door open, already priming his teasing remark. "Old man, I thought you forgot about"
The words died a violent death in his throat.
Arthur stopped dead in his tracks, his entire body locking up. Sitting in the driver's seat wasn't Uncle Kevin.
"N-Natalia…" he stammered.
A fierce, localized heat wave rushed straight up his neck, coloring his cheeks a brilliant crimson as her cool, calculating eyes met his.
"You should probably get in first," she noted, tilting her head slightly toward the car's interior.
Arthur jolted back to reality like he'd been struck by lightning. "O-oh! Right!"
In his frantic rush to comply, he misjudged the clearance of the doorframe. A loud, sickening thud echoed through the cabin as his forehead collided squarely with the roof of the car.
Fuck. Please let the ground swallow me whole.
"...Are you okay?" Natalia asked.
Arthur winced, squeezing his eyes shut. Her tone was perfectly calm, even concerned, but he could practically feel the mocking laughter vibrating beneath her composure.
Internally, he groaned a long, agonizing prayer to the universe. Why does it have to be her? Of all the people on this planet, why does she have to witness every single one of my mortifying disasters? The stuttering. The clumsiness. The total loss of basic human motor skills.
Of course it had to happen in front of the one Alpha who had somehow managed to completely compromise his sanity in less than twenty-four hours.
Why, God? Do you want me to die single? Can't you spare me even a microscopic shred of dignity?
"I'm okay," he muttered, carefully sliding into the leather seat and pulling the door shut. "Thank you."
He immediately turned his face toward the passenger window, desperately hoping the cool glass might absorb some of his blinding shame. But it was useless; the damage was done, and she had enjoyed a front-row seat to the entire spectacle.
"W-where's Uncle Kevin?" he asked, desperately tossing a question into the heavy silence stretching between them. If they started talking, maybe the sheer awkwardness would dissipate. Maybe they could actually keep a normal conversation going until they reached the house.
And... maybe he could steal just a little bit more of her attention.
"Why? Do you object to riding with me?" she teased, her voice dropping into that low, dangerously smooth register.
"No, no!" Arthur corrected in a panicked rush. Then, catching himself, he lowered his voice, his cheeks burning a fresh shade of pink. "I... I like it."
Shit. Arthur mentally slapped himself. Why did that sound so entirely suggestive? Why did his voice betray him like that, carrying a breathless, almost desperate weight?
He squeezed his eyes shut, practically pressing his nose against the windowpane to hide his face. Natalia, meanwhile, kept her eyes on the road, though the corner of her mouth twitched upward into a thoroughly satisfied smirk.
"Dad went to the mall," she explained, steering the car smoothly into the flow of traffic. "He wanted to pick up some proper host gifts for the dinner tonight and completely lost track of time. So, I offered to play chauffeur."
"Oh, the mall?" Arthur's head perked up, his previous embarrassment momentarily eclipsed by a far more pressing matter. "Do you think he's back home yet?"
The sudden spike of anxiety in his voice was hilariously transparent. He didn't forget my ice cream, right? He wouldn't just abandon my dessert at the mall.
Natalia, having already been thoroughly briefed by her mother on Arthur's critical dependencies, let out a knowing chuckle. "He said he'd text me when he got back. Check and see."
Arthur blinked, turning to look at her profile. "Huh?"
"My phone," Natalia said casually, gesturing with her chin. "It's in my trouser pocket. Go ahead and grab it."
Arthur froze.
Her pocket. Her front trouser pocket.
His heart gave a violent, erratic thud against his ribs. She's really asking me to... to put my hand in there?
It felt wrong. It felt intensely, completely inappropriate for a casual car ride. And yet, looking at her composed, indifferent expression, he found himself utterly incapable of saying no.
Am I really this pathetic? God, I'm acting like a total creep...
With his fingers trembling slightly, Arthur cautiously extended his hand toward the edge of her seat. He slipped his fingers past the tight fabric of her pocket opening, but the space was entirely unforgiving.
The material hugged her frame closely, and as his fingers ventured deeper, he realized the phone was buried far lower than he anticipated.
Her phone is resting directly against her thigh... How on earth am I supposed to reach down there without touching her?
Arthur stared at her hip as if he were trying to defuse a live bomb with his bare hands. He was paralyzed, his hand stuck halfway into the pocket, his breath completely hitched in his throat.
What he failed to notice, however, was the sudden, subtle shift across the console.
Behind her flawlessly detached, professional exterior, Natalia's cheeks had flushed a distinct, pale pink.
Shit... she thought, her fingers tightening slightly against the leather of the steering wheel.
She had fully expected him to stutter, get flustered, and stubbornly refuse to touch her. She hadn't anticipated that the innocent, easily startled omega would actually go for it with such quiet, trembling determination.
The proximity of his hand, the warmth of his fingers shifting against the fabric just inches from her skin, was suddenly doing wild, dangerous things to her focus.
Clearing her throat to break the suffocating tension, Natalia reached down, her large hand gently but firmly wrapping around Arthur's wrist. She smoothly pulled his hand out of her pocket.
"I'll get it," she murmured, her voice a fraction deeper than usual.
With a quick, practiced motion, she retrieved the sleek device herself and handed it over. Arthur accepted it with both hands, cradling the piece of tech as if it were a priceless, fragile relic.
Natalia focused her attention back on the road, though a small, frustrated part of her wished she could just pull over and watch his expressions change in the dim light of the dashboard.
Why does he do this? she wondered, a quiet sigh caught in her throat. How can someone be so effortlessly, naturally distracting?
Six years of rigid, military-grade emotional discipline were currently crumbling faster than she could reinforce the walls. And the terrifying part was, she didn't even mind.
While Natalia fought to regain her inner Zen, Arthur was staring down at the phone in his lap, a silly, hyper-fixated thought blooming in his mind.
She just handed me her unlocked phone. Doesn't that mean she trusts me? Like, really trusts me?
He held it gingerly, terrified of dropping it, while his traitorous nose registered the faint, intoxicating scent of woody cedar and crisp rain clinging to the glass. No! No sniffing the phone, Arthur! Don't be a perverted weirdo!
Shaking the thoughts away, he squinted at the lock screen. A text notification from Kevin was visible, but the crucial details were cut off by the privacy preview.
"Uh... I can't read the whole thing," Arthur mumbled, looking over at her. "Can you unlock it?"
Natalia didn't even hesitate. "0817."
"Huh?"
"The password. It's 0817."
Arthur's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "Uncle and Auntie's wedding date?"
Natalia spared him a quick, intrigued glance. "You actually knew that?"
Arthur shrugged, a small, proud smile tugging at the corners of his lips as his shoulders squared up. "Mmm. Of course I did."
He quickly punched in the four digits, unlocking the device. But the moment the messaging application loaded, his triumphant smile instantly vanished. He blinked, staring at the screen in absolute disbelief.
Right there, at the very top of her recent chats, his contact info was displayed in bold, unambiguous letters.
Baby Boy.
"H-Hey!" Arthur erupted, snapping the phone around and thrusting the screen directly into her field of vision. He pouted so hard his lower lip practically doubled in size. "I told you yesterday, I am not a baby boy!"
Natalia let out a low, caught-off-guard chuckle, not even bothering to deny it. "You weren't supposed to see that."
She shrugged, her expression shifting into a thoroughly unapologetic, teasing smirk. "But hey, my phone, my rules. I can save a number under whatever name I see fit."
Arthur huffed, crossing his arms tightly as he glared out the windshield. "Fine. If that's how we're playing, I'll just do the exact same thing. I get to name you whatever I want, too!"
He grabbed his own phone from his blazer, deliberately turning his back toward her and shielding the screen with his shoulder like a suspicious student hiding an exam paper.
His thumbs flew across the digital keyboard, typing with a furious, vengeful speed.
Natalia raised a singular, amused eyebrow, thoroughly enjoying the sheer pettiness of his retaliation. "Oh, really? And what exactly am I being downgraded to, hmm?"
Arthur remained stubbornly silent, refusing to utter a word until he hit the save button with a definitive, dramatic tap.
"This is you now!" he declared triumphantly, twisting around and proudly shoving his glowing screen directly in front of her face.
Natalia took a quick, casual glance at the display, and her entire body instantly went rigid.
Her grip on the steering wheel tightened so violently her knuckles turned a stark, bloodless white. Her pulse execution hit a sudden, deafening rhythm in her ears, a jolt of pure adrenaline shooting straight down her spine.
There it was. Bold, capitalized, and utterly shameless:
MOMMY
...What in the absolute hell? Natalia's mind entirely stalled. Is this guy completely, blissfully clueless... or is he intentionally trying to test the absolute limits of my sanity?
She tore her eyes away, blinked hard, and sneaked another sharp glance just to ensure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her.
Nope. Still there. MOMMY.
In the close, confined space of the car cabin, Natalia's hidden Alpha pheromones flared instinctively, a thick, heavy wave of cedar and dark smoke stirring in the air as her hardless composure threatened to fracture completely.
She clamped her jaw shut, gripping the steering wheel as if it were the only anchor preventing her from doing something incredibly reckless.
Damn it. Focus, Natalia. Keep it together, she ordered herself, taking a slow, measured breath through her nose. He's just being a brat. He's trying to be petty. He has absolutely no idea what that word means coming from an omega's phone.
But as she stole one last glance at his incredibly smug, victorious grin, she knew the drive home was about to become an exercise in absolute survival.
Sigh...