Chapter Text
The buzzing of the phone broke through his daydreaming. Water unlocked the screen to find a text from Ellie waiting for him.
Did you decide what you’re going to buy her?
He tapped out a fast reply.
no ur supposed to help me
He pressed send and adjusted his head on the pillow. Hiding behind the curtain of his bunk was a signal to the others that he wanted time to recharge. He could have stayed behind in the hotel but they shared rooms when they had a day off and he didn’t want Earth coming back early and bothering him. Occasionally he needed his space from everyone, especially Alpha. Omega had always been so good at controlling him but now that he was taking a break there was no one to soften the Fire Ghoul’s boisterous nature.
Not, he thought, that he didn’t love him like a brother. Brothers were supposed to get on your nerves, and he had four with very distinct and, ah, interesting, personalities. At one point he’d considered the man Papa inhabited a brother, but he was gone and Water didn’t like to think about it. He also supposed he had a sister too…though that wasn’t how he liked to think of her.
His stomach clenched as he imagined Mist the night they met. Even from a distance he could see how beautiful she was, and her raw wild power reached across the empty space to punch him in the heart. He ignored it then, thinking it some trick of Belial’s, but now he saw she had been on their side that night and it thrilled him to know he wasn’t falling in love with a monster.
Love.
It felt silly to say he loved someone he’d only known for a few months but this was real. It wasn’t like the time he thought he’d fallen for that waitress in Germany…or the bartender in California…the record store clerk, the nurse, a vet tech, a venue owner, a couple of fans or his old lovers. His brothers were never supportive of his potential relationships and often pestered him endlessly with their good-humored taunts. He was well aware the ridicule he would face from falling in love with Mist would be far worse than the others, but for her? He would suffer through anything.
His phone lit up again, this time announcing an incoming call.
“Hi, Ellie.” He thought he had a crush on her too, until Omega found them alone together in the Keepers locker room and all but peed on her to mark his territory.
Ellie coughed slightly before responding, “Hi, Water. You finally going to tell me about this mysterious lady of yours?”
She had been grilling him on and off since he accidentally let it slip he was interested in someone again. She was generally more supportive than his other friends but there was no way even she would be fine with his involvement with Mist.
“You don’t need to know anything about her to help me pick out a gift.” He was going to have to play this very carefully.
Ellie coughed again. “Well, what’s the present for? Birthday? Holiday?” She sounded tired.
Water hesitated for a second, but figured there was no harm in answering her question. “I’m ready to tell her how I feel. I need something special to show her I’m serious.”
Silence met him from the other end of the line. “You – you haven’t told her yet?” He could almost hear her thinking. “It’s been a while since you told me about her, Water. This is completely unlike you. Usually you forget about them as soon as you move to the next city.”
“Hey!” He wasn’t that bad. Each person who touched his heart remained there, and he told Ellie as much. Her response was a snort of derision. “Oh please. I think me and the guys remember your escapades better than you do.” Water tried to defend himself again but she was on a roll. “And how exactly are you going to give this girl a gift? I’m almost certain Air won’t play taxi for you, especially over a woman I know for a fact you haven’t told him about.”
Uh oh. Water was going to have to stop her or she was going to figure it all out. “Ellie, you don’t sound so good. Are you sick?”
“I’m not sleeping very well, and don’t you try to distract me.” Her excitement made her cough more, but she kept going. “If Air won’t take you then that means she’s easily accessible…someone who’s easily accessible and you don’t want your friends to know…” She gasped out a ‘no’, a harsh and overly exaggerated sound.
He wracked his brain frantically for any excuse but none came to him. “It’s not what you think. I-” but it was no use. He had to pull the phone away from his ear so her shrieking didn't do permanent damage. “WATER “If YOU HAD A MIDDLE NAME I WOULD USE IT RIGHT NOW” GHOUL! Tell me this instant I am wrong. Tell me the woman you want to be with is NOT Mist.”
But he couldn’t deny it. It would be wrong of him to hide something he felt so strongly. Besides, he was going to tell Mist tonight anyways so everyone would know soon enough. His bandmates would just have to get used to the idea of them as a couple.
His lack of response must have answered her question. “Oh Water, you poor fool.” She said weakly.
That was the kind of reaction he’d been expecting and it made him more angry than he realized. “What’s so wrong with falling in love with her? Mist isn’t a bad person! She was going to help us against her own father!” Ellie tried to interrupt but now it was his turn to steamroll the conversation. “No! You can’t come up with any decent reasons why we shouldn’t be together. Or is it because she’s so much older than me? She can’t possibly love someone like me because I’m not worldly enough, or sophisticated enough for her?”
“YES,” Ellie had to shout to make herself heard.
Water was taken aback; usually friends were supposed to say “of course not” to those kinds of questions.
His “friend” was still talking. “Those are the exact reasons why it could never work! You said she isn’t a bad person – we don’t even know if she is a person! And she isn’t just twenty or thirty years older than you. Dude, she probably knew Moses on a personal level.”
Okay, so she was making some decent points, but it didn’t matter to him. Love was love…or at least he believed it was.
Ellie wasn’t finished, though. “Plus, I’ve seen you fall in love with a dozen different people in the few months you have been back after recovering. Remember how upset you were when the guy you met after the show in New York wouldn’t drop everything and come on the rest of the tour with you?”
Water scoffed, “I chose to leave him behind. He had no sense of adventure.”
“He was eighteen and just started college.” It felt like she had a list of his flaws right in front of her. “How will this debacle be any different than the others?”
“Because I love her.” There. She couldn’t argue with that.
Oh, but she could. “And what about Air? You can’t tell me you haven’t realized he and Mist had some kind of relationship in the past.”
Air was a hitch in his master plan. He was lucky he was able to discover he loved Mist at all, what with his oldest bandmate skulking around. He was always following her, always hovering and watching her closely. He made it almost impossible for Water to steal a few moments alone with her.
“Air doesn’t have feelings for Mist. C’mon El, now you’re reaching. He’s probably paranoid because they worked for the same demons.” Water dropped his voice to a near whisper. “I know she did some bad stuff in the past but I’m positive it’s all behind her.”
Ellie wanted to reach through the phone and shake him into oblivion. “Gods almighty, I knew you were a hopeless romantic but I didn’t figure you were a stupid, hopeless romantic.” She sighed and muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like “musicians”.
He decided to cut her off before she could keep berating him and told her, “I didn’t ask for permission. I’m going to tell her tonight exactly how I feel and then you’ll all have to apologize for being wrong.” He ended the call and threw the phone to the bottom of the bunk.
He managed to ignore it for a few minutes, but soon snatched it up and opened his messages.
She’s old. Buy her something old
Er, antique
He laughed and gave her the name of a tea he used to help with colds and insomnia.