The warmth of Natalia's embrace lingered like sunlight through a window, gentle, grounding, and quietly overwhelming.
Arthur clung to her, his arms wrapped tightly around the small of her back while his cheek rested heavily against her shoulder.
He could feel the slow, rhythmic cadence of her breathing, a steady rise and fall that systematically soothed the restless, frantic flutter in his own chest.
"Hey," Natalia murmured, her voice dropping into that low, close frequency that made his ears tingle. "Still with me?"
He offered a small, muffled nod against her shirt, making no effort to shift away. "Y-Yeah… I... I just don't want to let go yet."
A soft, low laugh vibrated through her chest, a sensation he felt physically before he even heard it. Arthur squeezed his eyes shut, his brain instantly screaming at him for being so incredibly bold.
He couldn't believe he had actually articulated that out loud. But it wasn't a crime to feel a little greedy now, was it?
If she had explicitly claimed him as hers, then logic dictated she belonged to him too. Right?
God… when am I actually going to believe this is real? It still feels like my brain is pulling a massive prank on me.
"Then don't let go," Natalia said smoothly, resting her chin on his shoulder as she tightened her arms around his waist. "I happen to like holding you."
Arthur's face flushed a deeper shade of pink. "...You're l-lying just to be n-nice."
"Nope," she replied, her voice light but laced with absolute certainty. "You are incredibly comfortable. Like a warm, slightly nervous, precious little plush toy."
Arthur let out a helpless, thoroughly embarrassed squeak. "T-thanks… I-I guess?"
Asoft sigh escaped him as he leaned into her space again, their foreheads brushing lightly as their breathing synced without either of them realizing it.
The sheer proximity grounded him in a way that felt heavy, solid, and right. He felt her long fingers slide into his, her touch gentle as she laced their fingers together, saying absolutely nothing about the gesture and simply holding on.
"So…" Natalia began softly, breaking the cozy silence. "My parents still haven't given you the official schedule for tonight's dinner, have they?"
Arthur blinked, trying to clear the fog from his brain. "W-when are we leaving?"
"Around 6:00 p.m."
He cut his eyes toward the clock resting on the nearby wooden shelf. "It's only 3:30…"
"Mm. We've still got plenty of time." She gave his hand a reassuring, light squeeze. "Actually… there was something else I wanted to ask you about."
Arthur didn't pull back, but his posture went slightly alert, his ears straining to listen.
"Mom mentioned to me that you really despise going to large social gatherings. Is that true?"
Arthur hesitated, the lines of his shoulders tightening by a fraction. He lowered his gaze, staring intently at their joined fingers. "It's n-not ex-s-exactly that I des-spise th-them. I just… p-prefer my o-own company."
He purposefully kept the doors to his past firmly shut. He didn't want to drag the ghosts of Kevin's mother or his old childhood rejections into this perfect room. He simply offered the version of the truth that felt safest.
And it was true. He genuinely enjoyed his solitude. He was perfectly content spending hours talking out loud to himself while grading papers or designing jewelry.
Maybe that made him weird by society's standards. But this was who he was. An eccentric, easily startled creature.
Still… if he was going to be subjected to a dinner with people outside their immediate household, he would have to manually override his basic instincts.
He needed to remind himself not to inhale three consecutive servings of dessert like a starving gremlin. Because… manners.
Not that Auntie Kelly and Uncle Kevin ever minded his atrocious sweet tooth; they usually found his obsession hilarious unless they explicitly ordered him to behave beforehand.
Otherwise? He was a localized natural disaster when it came to sugar. He absolutely despised having limits placed on his culinary joy. Especially when it came to ice cream.
"So… you're currently working as a teacher at the local high school?" Natalia asked, a genuine thread of curiosity running through her voice.
Arthur perked up instantly, immensely relieved by the sudden pivot away from his social anxieties. Wait, she actually wanted to talk about his professional life? She wanted to know about him? A strange, beautiful flutter erupted in his stomach.
"Yeah," he said, his free hand nervously fidgeting with the seam of his trousers.
"What's your subject?"
"History."
"Ooh." Natalia tilted her head, watching his expressions change. "How long have you been handling the teenagers there?"
"About… a year now? Si-since I finished my course."
"I see. And my dad has been acting as your personal chauffeur the entire time, hasn't he?"
"Y-yeah…" Arthur offered a sheepish smile.
"I can understand why," Natalia replied, her gaze softening as she gave his knuckles another gentle squeeze.
A brief, comfortable silence settled over the room, but the gears in Arthur's head were turning.
He bit his lip, a nervous, long-standing curiosity finally overriding his discretion. He glanced up at her through his eyelashes.
"…Um. When she, a-unt Kelly calls you… does s-she ever… mention m-e?"
He had been dying to know for long. Whenever Auntie Kelly was on the phone with Natalia, Arthur would inevitably catch snippets of his own name echoing from the receiver.
But he had never possessed the nerve to ask what kind of data was being transmitted across state lines.
Natalia's eyes blinked wide for a second before a wicked, thoroughly delighted smirk split across her face. "Oh, literally all the time, Arthur."
Arthur's spine went completely rigid, his stomach dropping into his shoes. He instantly regretted every life choice that had led to this question. "Wait- s-seriously?"
Natalia leaned in a little closer, clearly weaponizing the information for her own amusement. "Mmhmm. You make up approximately 50% of our weekly call volume. Minimum."
Arthur made a quiet, strangled sound in the back of his throat, his hands flying up to cover his burning ears. "Oh, sweet mercy, no…"
"She provides me with comprehensive, highly detailed updates, Arthur," Natalia chuckled, her eyes sparkling. "It's like you're a very rare, very fragile, highly precious zoo animal she's been personally tasked with monitoring for scientific research."
His entire face felt like it was on fire. "P-please stop d-sescribing it like that…"
"I'm just reporting the facts," Natalia laughed, thoroughly enjoying his distress. "She told me all about the incident last semester when you nearly took off your eyebrows trying to toast a slice of bread directly over the open flame of the gas stove."
Arthur snapped his head up, his eyes wide with absolute, unadulterated horror. No, no, no… Oh my god, she didn't. He let out a pathetic groan, trying to physically dissolve into the fabric of the sofa. "I- I calculated that it would toast faster that way!"
"She also explicitly stated that you stood in the center of the kitchen for a full sixty seconds aggressively arguing with a plastic spatula."
"Okay, look! That spatula melted onto the burner and I panicked!" Arthur defended himself frantically, his voice hitting a comical treble. "It was a high-stress scenario!"
"Oh, and my personal favorite," Natalia continuous, leaning her cheek against her palm, "she mentioned that you are fully capable of destroying an entire family-sized tub of mint chocolate chip ice cream in a single sitting if there isn't a designated supervisor in the room."
Arthur promptly covered his face with both hands, his muffled voice leaking out through his fingers. "S-she completely compromised my dignity, didn't she? She told you everything!"
"Pretty much," Natalia murmured, her gaze turning incredibly gentle as she watched him try to hide from her. "There was a lot more, too."
The truth was, Natalia had entered this house already possessing an entire dossier on Arthur's quirks. But it was only within the last twenty-four hours that those details had suddenly transformed into something she actively craved.
It felt slightly unsettling to admit that to herself, but she was a pragmatist. Before yesterday, Arthur had simply been… a concept.
A kind, soft-spoken boy who helped keep her parents company while she was building her career. She had been vaguely grateful for his existence, sure, but she hadn't truly seen him.
Not as an eligible Omega. Not as someone so painfully adorable. Not as someone who could completely destabilize her routine.
God… my self-control has officially left the building, Natalia thought, a wry smile touching her lips as she watched him curl into a ball of sheer embarrassment. I explicitly swore to myself that I wouldn't get entangled again. No more Omegas. No more dramatic heartaches. So how on earth did this specific idiot completely dismantle my rules in a single afternoon? How did I fall this hard?
Arthur peeked out through the tiny gap between his fingers, his expression utterly mortified. "…W-why would you ever want to be around me after hearing all those terrible things?"
"Why wouldn't I want to?"
He blinked at her, searching her features for any sign of a joke, completely out of his depth.
"Honestly," Natalia added, her voice softening into something real and heavy as her thumb stroked across the sensitive skin on the back of his hand, "you are kind of… endlessly lovable, Arthur."
Arthur choked on his own saliva. "I- I'm w-what?"
Natalia's smirk returned, smug, deliberate, and entirely certain of her target. "Endlessly. Lovable."
"T-that… Mmhmm…" Arthur scrambled for a coherent syllable, failing completely as a massive wave of heat rushed straight to his hairline. Defeated, he hid behind his hands once more, his heart hammering a chaotic, ecstatic rhythm against his ribs.
Natalia simply giggled at his reaction, leaning her head sideways until it rested comfortably against his.
He didn't pull away this time. He didn't want to.
God... Arthur thought, the initial sting of embarrassment melting away into a deep, consuming sense of safety as he let her weight hold him steady. I did say I was mortified… but this actually feels incredibly nice.