The Alpha's Pretend-Boyfriend

The Date

By 3 in the afternoon on Sundays, Dane could usually be found in his bed, wearing only boxers while he played a game console and ate chips. He often used the day to sleep in, and he only went out if the staff agreed on having drinks that night. But as much as he liked staying in and bumming around after a week of work, he found himself enjoying where he was that specific Sunday afternoon.

He watched as Louie happily threw in a handful of fish food pellets into the pond, a look of amazement in his eyes as the fishes swam up to eat them. After Dane had picked him up, they headed straight to the midtown park which had a nice lovely pond in the middle where one could feed the animals. He had always gone there when he needed to relax, and he figured that Louie would appreciate it. He was right, of course, if he were to judge by the smile on Louie's face. Dane placed the Polaroid camera to his face and snapped a picture of the human, just in time as he looked up at him.

“Hey,” Louie said, his brows furrowed a little. “Did you just take a picture of me?”

Dane smiled and retrieved the warm film sheet that the camera produced. “We're here to take pictures,” he said, then handed him the photo. “How did it turn out?” he asked as he stood beside Louie so they could look at it together.

“I look weird,” Louie chuckled. The picture caught the surprise in his face just as he saw Dane.

“What are you talking about? It looks good!” Dane stole the photo from him and carefully placed it in his bag.

“What are you doing?” Louie asked.

“I’m keeping it,” Dane smiled. “Okay, come on let’s take a picture of the two of us together.” He urged Louie to stand closer, so Louie took a small step towards him and stood awkwardly rigid with his hands together in front of him.

“Don’t be too formal,” Dane chuckled, placing an arm around Louie's shoulders to pull him closer. With his other hand, he held the camera at an arm's length and pointed it at themselves. “Ready?” he asked, turning to look at Louie, whose cheeks were beginning to redden at the proximity of their faces. “Okay, three, two…”

Louie gave a timid smile next to Dane's flashy grin, and the clicking sound went off before the camera whirred and Dane let go of him to check out the product. After a few seconds of fanning the film, Dane looked at it, smiled, then showed it to Louie.

“This one's going in the living room, for sure!” he happily exclaimed, making Louie chuckle at how childlike he seemed at that moment. “Where do you want to go next? Oh, do you want to go on a rowboat? You can feed the fishes from there!”

Louie, who disliked getting wet if it wasn’t for bathing, saw how Dane badly wanted to do it, so he nodded. They went to the rental area and got a small boat for the two of them. Dane helped him get into it, and the next thing he knew, they were paddling in the middle of the pond. Louie couldn’t help but stare at the werewolf who was ecstatic about all the mundane things they were seeing and doing. Dane seemed like a jolly, energetic person who's easy to get along with—just look at the variety of characters in Hestia's with whom he’s friends with. He was also easy on the eyes. Tall, has a nice frame, and had such kind eyes and an even sweeter smile. It also helps that he was successful in his own right. So Louie couldn’t understand how he was still single in a city full if eligible creatures.

“What's on your mind?” Dane asked, surprising Louie out of his thoughts.

Louie could feel his embarrassment rise again as he realized he had been staring for a while now. “I-it's nothing,” he nervously stammered.

“You can tell me if you’d like,” Dane urged. “I can be a good sounding board, just ask Germain. I listen to his stories attentively all the time.”

Louie chuckled, thinking of how talkative Germain could get. “It's just,” he breathed out, trying to put his thoughts into words. “Don’t take this the wrong way but, how are you still single? You seem like a nice person all in all, so I don’t get it.”

“Oh,” Dane muttered, clearly not expecting that to be what was in Louie's mind. “I guess my relationships just never worked out,” he shrugged lightheartedly. “I did date and fall in love quite a number of times back then, but everything seemed to go sour after a while.”

“Why is that?” Louie frowned.

Dane sighed. “I’m honestly not too sure,” he said, “but Fig says it’s because I tend to put people into pedestals so I don’t see who they really are. He says I like to wear rose-colored glasses, and only take them off when things are already on fire.”

“Fig said that?”

“Well, he said something along the lines of it,” Dane chuckled as he threw a few pellets of food into the pond. “But he made it seem much more dramatic. How about you? You seem like an amazing guy.”

“I wouldn't say amazing,” Louie shyly muttered.

“You are! You’re a good worker, you’re cute, and you always help people out. That spells amazing to me!” Dane smiled encouragingly. “You can be a Heartbreaker if you wanted to.”

Louie chuckled. “I don’t know about that,” he said.

“So, have you dated a lot?”

“Just a few times,” Louie admitted. “Mostly humans since I come from a small town. I did go on a date with a demon and a halfling, but it turned out that they only wanted to know what it was like dating humans. They got bored soon enough.”

“What?” Dane exclaimed, rocking the boat a little. “Some creatures can really be such jerks!” he shook his head disappointedly. “Oh, but I guess I’m not one to talk since I keep putting you into difficult situations.”

“It’s fine, Dane,” Louie smiled. “I’m doing this out of my own volition since I didn’t want you to be saddled with a stranger you didn’t like—I mean, everyone deserves to find love on their own, and if I can help out just by taking pictures with you and going to a few events, I don’t mind. Besides, it’s fun to go out with you. I get to stretch my legs and see nice places.”

Dane looked at him with such dreamy eyes that he looked like he was about to cry. “Louie!” he exclaimed as he quickly reached over to bring the human into a hug. “You’re such a precious being,” he ridiculously cooed. “I’m going to hurt anyone who ever tries to get in your way.”

“D-dane,” Louie quickly patted on his shoulder. “We have to talk about personal space,” he managed to say even though he was being squished.

“Oh!” Dane immediately pulled away. “Sorry,” he sheepishly smiled, “are you okay?”

Louie inhaled and stretched his back. “Yup, I think so,” he chuckled. “But we seriously have to talk about it.”

“Right, right,” Dane nodded. “I won’t hug you too tightly anymore. I keep forgetting that humans have more fragile bodies than we do.”

“Thank you,” Louie breathed out. He could still feel his heart rate to be slightly elevated, but figured it was just from having his ribs nearly crushed.

“Ah, look here for a second. The lighting is really good right now!” Dane excitedly said as he lifted his camera once again and proceeded to take a bunch of pictures of Louie and the two of them together.

After the boat ride, let himself be carried away by Dane's energy and willingly went with him to all the places he wanted to go to. They watched as performers took the stage, they walked and talked along the bridge as they watched the sunset, then they ate at the Waffles diner that Dane loved. When it was finally time to go home, Louie found his cheeks hurting from unknowingly having a smile on his face the entire afternoon.

“Thanks again, Louie, for doing all of this,” Dane sincerely said as they stood outside of Louie's apartment. “And I’m sorry I dragged you to so many places today. You must be tired now, huh?”

“I’m fine,” Louie assured him. “I had a great time.”

Dane smiled and nodded, looking satisfied. “Me too,” he said, ruffling the top of Louie’s hair. “Ah, and you don’t need to come in early tomorrow. We’ll just be doing inventory anyway.”

“Alright, I better head in,” Louie said, and Dane waved as he slowly walked backwards to his car.

“Good night!” he called out, still brimming with energy.

“Good night,” Louie said back, opening the door. He did have a wonderful time with Dane that day, even though they only went out to take pictures for the lie they were building.