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“Where on earth is your father?”
Cereza turned, watching her mother look down the busy street, hand over her forehead to block the blinding sunlight from the nearly setting sun.
“How should I know? He’s usually tied to your hip anyway,” Cereza shrugged, hearing a small chuckle from behind her, Jeanne no doubt smirking. She was leaning in close, hand entwined into her lover’s soft fingers, and leaning closer in hopes to return to the conversation they were having.
“I had sent him to get the car, but it’s taking him an awfully long time. We didn’t park that far away,” Her eyes felt a relief as she looked back down to her phone, her lock screen lighting up to show her no new messages, but the time as well. “We’ll be late to our reservations if he doesn’t hurry.”
“Saturday evening traffic, you know how it goes. He’s probably just stuck behind some busy stoplight somewhere,” Jeanne waved it off, glancing around to see all the people out and about.
Cereza heard her mother sigh, watching as she slipped her phone back into her purse.
“I am going to look for him. If I find him, I’ll be sure to message you,” Turning effortlessly on her heel, Rosa set off down the sidewalk, waving back to them, “You two look around a bit more if you like, I won’t be long.”
“All fine by us, we’ll be waiting here for you!” Cereza heard another chuckle escape the woman next to her, the two chatted about the whole thing and let themselves wander in the other direction.
Despite her already naturally tall height and the heels to boot, she couldn't make out the Sage through the crowd. He was arguably taller than her, which made it all the more baffling. She scanned between the street lined with cars, the sidewalk that was crowded as is, and back to her phone to try and see if he finally remembered how to send a text. To no avail.
She was only halfway through her stride to the parking garage when through the sea of voices and conversations, a particularly high pitched squeal and chittering voice hit her ears.
“He’s so cute! Mommy, can’t we bring him home? Please?” A pleading voice of a child, a small one at that.
“James, he is too big to even live with us, I don’t think it’s even a dog, sweety…”
Something about this conversation seemed to strike with the witch, like an alarm bell began to ring in her head. Something was off…
She decided to pursue, and pinpoint the origin of the conversation.
“What do you mean? Mommy, this is what a dog looks like!”
“He’s a little too big to be a dog…it might be a wolf. He might have an owner nearby-James, don’t touch him, he could bite!”
“Mom, look, he’s friendly!”
Wolf. Ah.
Rosa took a turn around the corner, and looked at a site that nearly caused her to outwardly laugh.
A small boy, almost 8 years old it seemed, was busy petting away at the ‘dog’ that sat against the small convenience store’s wall. A dog that was in fact a wolf, just as the lady had guessed. A fur coat as white as snow, and a beautiful golden collar around his neck.
Her lips pursed, a laugh still boiling in her, threatening to be let out. But more so she was just confused as too… how he even got there.
The wolf’s head turned over, and as soon as he saw the tall woman with distinctive beehive haircut, he barked joyfully, his tail wagging. Doing so attracted the attention of the mother and son to her.
“Oh! There he is, I was getting so worried!” Rosa said, feigning a worrisome expression and tone in her voice. She walked up to Balder, leaning down to scratch the fur under his chin. “Oh, you just love to wander off, don’t you?”
Balder whined, his ears falling down to the side. His tail curled up around his legs.
“Oh! This is your dog then?” The mother had pulled her son back, despite his efforts in wanting to reach out and pet the dog again.
“Yes! Thank you so much for looking after him, terribly sorry if he was bothersome. He slipped the leash, but I lost him in the crowd before I could get him back. He’s quite friendly though, I promise,” Rosa placed a hand over heart, looking down at Balder and only watching him grow more timid. “You can pet him again, if you’d like.”
The boy’s face lit up, mouth wide with a smile as he looked at his mom. Feeling a bit more comfortable, she let him go. With the gentleness that any young child has, he stroked back on his fur with enough force that pulled the lids of his eyes back. The boy only found humor in it, and kept going.
“Oh, uh, James, be gentle when petting someone else's dog.”
“Oh, it's quite alright, he enjoys it! He’s been around children all the time, my grandchildren, in fact. He’s so good when playing with them,” Rosa smiled wide, hearing Balder grumble, but remained still and let the child pet and smack away.
“Okay, sweety, we have to get going now. Tell the nice lady thank you,” The mother took her son by the hand again, leading down the sidewalk. The boy kept waving, all smiles.
“Thank you! Bye bye doggy!” He called out, nearly tripping over his feet as her mother pulled forward.
Rosa returned with a friendly wave, but Balder let his whole head droop down, ears still to the side. A small giggle finally escaped her, as she leaned down to itch behind his ear, and began to walk.
“Come on then,” With people around, she still needed to put on the act. As well as Balder, leaving him no choice but to trot along at her feet, keeping pace with her as they make it back to the parking garage.
Hidden in a blind spot in between cars, Balder’s wolf form vanished. He stood back up and hurried to open the door to get inside, straightening his fine suit before hopping in. Rosa climbed into the passenger side, the smirk never leaving her face.
They sat in silence for a moment, the faint sounds of honking cars from a few levels above or below sounded off, headlights passing by in a fluorescent lit building.
Rosa looked over, seeing her husband was much more pale than usual, which was astounding considering his complexion already.
“Now…do you want to tell me why you were transformed into your beast form and sitting next to a convenience store? In front of everyone?”
Balder’s knuckles were white, gripping the steering wheel.
“I…well…I thought it would be faster if I just turned into my wolf form and ran over to the garage instead of trying to walk through the crowd. The problem is…that I had forgotten to go into Purgatorio. So I ended up wandering around with everyone seeing me like that, which turned out…well, you saw.”
He could see her head tilt downward slightly, knowing full well she was giving him a dumbfounded look.
“You…forgot?”
“Yes.”
“In 600 years of being a Lumen Sage and doing this in countless times-”
“Yes.”
Rosa was silent a few seconds more, and it only made Balder lose more color in his face. Embarrassment, shame, fear, all just swirling in his being as he waited.
But instead he just heard her laugh, hard. Head in her hand, she braced against the doorframe.
“It’s not that funny…”
“Of course it is!”
“Rosa-”
“Oh hush, it’s hysterical,” She pulled out her phone, quickly opening the messaging app. Balder caught a glance at what she was doing.
“Rosa, please don’t tell the girls.”
She waved him off, still beaming.
“Of course not, I’m just telling them I caught up with you and we’re on our way,” She tucked her phone back into her purse after she hit send. “Besides, I’d rather tell them over dinner than over text.”
Balder sighed, defeated. He started the car, and put in reverse to back out.
“You’ll never let me live this down, will you?”
“Of course not,” Rosa giggled.
His face was still washed with a bashful look, the jab almost being taken to heart. She rolled her eyes, and leaned over to plant a kiss on his cheek. The grimace melted, a small smirk of his own grew. There it was, under the pouting visage of a proud sage was the Balder she was looking for.
“Cheer up dear, it’s your birthday,” Rosa’s fingers toyed with his short hair.
“I know, I know…Like I could stay mad at you,” Before long they were finally out of the garage and onto the street, wedding through a thick line of traffic.
Rosa giggled again, breaking the silence as she spoke up.
“We can grab you a pup cup on the way home, if you’d like?”
“Darling, please-”
It was a futile attempt, as Rosa kept on into the evening with joke after joke. But underneath his outward scowl, he was bubbling with a serene warmth underneath.
He loved it when she laughed.