The Alpha's Pretend-Boyfriend

The Decision

For the entirety of Thursday, Dane made good on his promise to stop trying to bribe Louie into agreeing to his crazy plan. But that didn’t mean that he stood by and did nothing.

As Louie went on his business as usual, serving customers and cleaning up, he found that when he looked at Dane, he was gazing at him with large hopeful puppy-dog eyes. Louie tried to ignore this at first so his judgment wouldn’t be swayed, but whenever their eyes would meet—even if it was just a momentary glance while they were working at opposite ends of the restaurant—Dane never let up the pitiful display.

Even the other employees noticed it that Fig once walked up to Louie and whispered, “What’s his deal?” as he nodded towards Dane who was working the register then while making those eyes at the human. Louie had only sighed and shook his head. “No idea,” he muttered, and proceeded to ignore the werewolf.

There was also a point when Dane was standing in the kitchen, peeking through the service hatch at Louie while having the same expression. Gadreel had seen him then, frowned at him and asked in a monotone voice, “What are you doing?” Dane had sadly replied, “Nothing,” while keeping his eyes on Louie. Gadreel, seeing where he was looking and realizing what he was doing, sighed and kicked him out of his kitchen.

At least, Louie consoled himself, the werewolf wasn’t following him around anymore giving him food and flowers. But the display went on until the end of the day, that the soft, easily-swayed human had to keep consciously telling himself not to give in. Thankfully, he was able to last until it was time to go home.

“So, have you thought about it?” Germain discreetly asked him as they were preparing to leave the restaurant. “If you’re going to play pretend?”

Louie looked at him, surprised. “You know?”

“Everyone knows, Louie,” Germain laughed. “Angels have a keen sense of hearing,” he said, winking at Gadreel who glanced at them at that moment with a deadpan expression. Louie still couldn’t wrap his head around the fact that the two were actually together and not actual nemeses.

“I’m still thinking about it,” he replied with a sigh as he closed his locker. “I need to sleep on it.” And so he did.

Friday rolled in and Hestia's became too busy for him to even think. In fact, they were all too crowded that Dane didn’t even have the chance to flash those pitiful eyes at Louie the entire day. Before Louie knew it, it was already nighttime and everyone was dead-tired as they were closing up shop.

Louie found himself sitting by the service station, his legs having given up after hours of standing and walking. Fig had made his exit early on, saying he had a date to go to, while Gadreel and Germain were nowhere in plain sight doing God knows what. Callie approached Louie and plopped on the seat next to him. She was usually the type to shyly ask first if she could sit down, but even she had been too tired for formalities.

Louie didn’t mind and handed her a drink. “There was so much customers today,” he breathed out.

“So much,” Callie nodded in agreement. They sat there for a while in silence as they rested their weary bodies.

“Where are the others?” Louie asked. “Have they gone home?”

“Not yet, just Fig,” Callie replied with an obvious disappointment in her voice. “Gadreel and Germain are… um, talking at the back.” From the sounds of it, “talking" was not the only thing they were doing. “And Dane's asleep in the staff room floor. I told him to go home but he said he’s just going to doze off for a while.”

“Oh,” Louie muttered. “He did work nonstop today, and he always tries to help everyone out whenever he can.”

Callie turned to him and gave him a small smile. “He is a good boss and a good person. That’s why we’ve all stayed this long,” she said. “Well, except for Carl—the employee you replaced—but that was Fig's fault.”

“Fig seems to be quite a character,” Louie weakly chuckled. Callie joined along and nodded, but he had a sense that she didn’t come there to talk about the demon. So he decided to bring it up first. “Are you here to ask about the thing with Dane’s parents?” he asked, then quickly added when he saw Callie look embarrassed. “Don’t worry, it’s fine. Germain also tried to ask me before.”

“Well,” she fidgeted with her thumbs, “I wasn’t really going to ask about it exactly. I just wanted to know how you were feeling.”

“I’m honestly not sure,” Louie breathed out. “I mean, Dane told me that he's this close to getting arranged to married, and if he didn’t agree, Hestia's would be taken away from him. That’s ridiculous, isn’t it? He’s probably exaggerating.”

By the way Callie looked at him, he already found his answer. “His dad's really scary,” she said. “I heard from my cousin that one time, Dane got in trouble at school—passed a paper or a project one day late or something—and his father didn’t let him come home for three days!”

“Seriously?” Louie asked.

“Seriously! It’s a miracle he turned out to be a jolly person still,” she said pityingly. “I wouldn’t put it past his father to give him such an ultimatum and follow through with it.”

Louie went silent after that. Callie, seeing how troubled he suddenly looked, added in a panic, “But don’t worry, Louie. You shouldn’t force yourself to do something you don’t want. Dane might be trying to convince you now, but if you tell him you’ve thought about it and still want to decline, he's the type of person who would understand.”

She was right, and Louie knew it too. After Callie had left and gone home, he finally stood up from the corner where he sat and decided he should get his things and leave as well. The restaurant was quiet, but all the lights were still on. When he looked outside, he saw that Germain and Gadreel were already out on the street with their bags. He remembered Callie saying that Dane was asleep in the staff room, and judging how the building hasn’t been locked up, he was pretty sure the werewolf was still in there dozing off. So he decided to enter the room quietly.

Just as he expected, there Dane was sitting on the floor with his back on the lockers. His head awkwardly to the side, and his hair was a mess. He hadn’t even changed out of his work clothes, even though he usually couldn’t wait to get into a casual shirt and jeans at the end of the day. Louie couldn’t understand how he could sleep in an uncomfortable position, but he had witnessed Dane doing so in worse places.

Louie walked towards him, careful to keep his footsteps quiet, and placed Dane's coat back on his lap to serve as a small blanket. It had only been less than 2 weeks since he met him, but he knew that Dane was a good guy. He had helped everyone in Hestia's in one way or another, and he took a chance on Louie as well.

He watched as Dane peacefully slept. The werewolf had his faults—he can be quite clingy, he has little regard for personal space, and he can be a pushover from time to time, but he deserved to find love on his own. Someone who wouldn’t be forced to marry him just for the sake of a business. Someone who would appreciate his little quirks. Louie sighed and stood up. He knew where his train of thought was headed. He knew what his decision would be.

He carefully took his things from his locker and wore his backpack, then considered waking Dane up so he could sleep in his own home. The sudden appearance of a presence beside Louie startled him, only to see Gadreel standing there.

“Oh my—” Louie clapped a hand on his own mouth to stop himself from exclaiming. “I thought you’d left,” he whispered.

Gadreel looked at Dane then at the human. “We’ll take him home,” he said. Louie gathered that by “we,” he meant him and Germain.

“Oh, alright,” he replied. Gadreel continued to stare at him as if he was studying him, and his eyebrows furrowed a little. Louie had only heard rumors that angels could read minds or energies, but he never really knew if that were true. Or maybe Gadreel was just staring at him because he was still awkwardly standing there. “I-I’ll get going then,” Louie mumbled as he cast one last glance at Dane before walking away.