“I was surprised you called me and not Jenna,” Bridget said.  After the Omega had carried them all a sufficient distance away from the neighborhood, she’d stopped back in the mixed-class shopping center at a mostly deserted higher terrace and set down Lucy and Neil so they could all converse more easily.

            “Why?” he asked up to the titaness, clutching Lucy’s thumb to his chest as she hugged her fingers around his sides.  The Beta and Lucy could hardly wait to grab hold of one another again once the confrontation was over, and didn’t show any sign of letting go soon.

            The Omega raised an eyebrow, smirking in reference to their fellow service volunteer, and stared down at her flea-sized conversationalist with peculiar focus, despite their staggering divergence in stature.  “Not that I wasn’t happy to help, of course, but… well, you know, she’s definitely more in her element for this kind of thing.”

            “Yeah, I know,” Neil chuckled, laying his cheek on Lucy’s finger and planting a light peck before looking back up to the colossal blonde.  “I guess I figured if I asked her, she’d take the whole roof off instead of just a few shingles.”

            “Don’t let her know about any of this, then,” Bridget whispered playfully.  “She’d probably come back and do it anyway.”

            She and Neil shared a laugh, knowing full-well this wasn’t at all a joke.

            “Thanks, Bridget,” the Beta said, feeling infinitely more cheerful now than he had this morning.  “Sorry I made you guys late for your movie.”

            “You’re kidding, right?” the brunette Alpha snickered down to her new acquaintances, rising to her feet and stepping daintily across the tips of Bridget’s fingers.  “Bridge, is he kidding?”

            “No he’s not,” the Omega answered to her passenger.  She closed her eyes for a moment, reflecting with some evident remorse.  “We should’ve had you out of there a long time ago, Neil.  I’m sorry I couldn’t do anything sooner.”

            “You didn’t even know about it,” he said gently.  “It doesn’t matter now.  I’m out, thanks to you all.”

            “All you have to do is talk to your friends,” Bridget vowed.  “That’s what we’re for.”

            “Yeah,” Neil sighed, looking up to his handler’s beaming countenance.  “I think I’m starting to figure that out now.”

            “Better late than never,” Lucy whispered, softly kissing the back of the Beta’s head.

            “Oh my God, you two, stop,” the young Alpha squealed with adoration from Bridget’s palm, clasping her hands to her cheeks as she observed the affectionate pair like her own personal soap opera.

            “Don’t embarrass them, Lexi,” Bridget murmured, unable to hide her grin.

            “That would be pretty tough,” Neil admitted.

            “It really would,” Lucy smarmed, stroking the Beta’s cheek and craning her neck up to help project her voice to Bridget.  “What he said, though.  Thank you.”

            “You’re welcome,” the towering blonde said modestly.  “I doubt you even needed me, though.  It looked like you could’ve had that whole thing under control yourself.”

            “Well, this way, nobody goes to the ER or gets arrested,” Lucy said with a shrug, then frowned, clearly not having yet paused to consider the legal ramifications of terrorizing a family of Alphas, their identities as human scum notwithstanding.  “That’s… true, right?”

            There was a brief silence as Bridget and her handheld friend smirked knowingly at the concerned pair.

            “You can relax.  She’s the goodie-two-shoes,” the Alpha said, feigning trying to keep Bridget from hearing, and only giggled as the Omega’s thumb gave her a playful jab in the shoulder before proceeding to tickle the smaller girl’s stomach without mercy.  “Except to me.  She’s a freaking huge jerk to me.”

            “Nonsense.  I’m a perfect angel,” Bridget snickered dryly.

            “Could’ve fooled me,” Neil laughed.

            “Excuse me?” she said.

            “Like the time that Alpha kid was shooting spitballs into our baseball diamond and you came up behind him and picked him up by the-”

            “Hey, I thought that one was between us,” the Omega snapped jokingly, pressing her index finger against her pursed lips to shush her tiny whistleblower, then winked at him.  “She’s right, though.  You don’t have to deal with those people anymore.  If anything comes up, I’ll take care of it all.”

            As small as he was, everyone present could see the pressure visibly deflate from Neil.

            “Your movie probably only started a little while ago.  You could still catch it if you hurried,” Lucy said after another pause.  “I guess you’ll have to just look up what happened at the start.”

            “Who cares about how it started?  This was way more worth watching than some rom-com anyway,” Bridget’s friend said as she casually reclined again in the massive palm such that she could continue dreamily spectating the gentle PDA below.

            “Seriously,” the Omega chuckled.  “And anyway, I take long steps.  We’ll make up the time.”

            “I’ll see you Tuesday at the next school, then,” Neil said, waving as the mighty young woman began to turn around, practically blotting out the sun behind her with her statuesque frame.  The Beta’s eye caught on Bridget’s friend peering over the edge of the gargantuan curled fingers, and quickly added: “And it was good to meet you, Lexi.”

            “Nice to meet you, too.  Both of you,” Alexandra Warren said sweetly, waving goodbye in unison with her towering best friend’s opposite hand.  She and Bridget exchanged adoringly cheeky glances, fawning over the clearly star-crossed lovebirds, as they made their way back down the street.

            And finally, Lucy and Neil were left alone on the bricked terrace.  Turning away from the railing, the Alpha began strolling pointedly down the empty cobblestone path, forcing herself to focus on taking precise steps rather than the tingling sensation of her adoring Beta’s chest rising and falling against her finger.  Placing him back in the headband seat by her ear was an option as well, but Lucy doubted she had the willpower to let Neil out of her palm again for the foreseeable future.  Eventually, it got too difficult trying to multi-task like this.

            “Where can I sit?” she asked distractedly.

            “Uhh… about fourteen steps away, eleven o’clock,” he mumbled, just as half-concentrated as she was.

            As though walking on a cloud, Lucy made the journey and pivoted at the supposed destination, feeling the soft wood of the bench against her hamstrings right where Neil had said.  Somehow managing to widen the smile that was already permanently etched on her lips, the girl lowered herself into the seat in order to put her full focus at last into feeling Neil nuzzling against her fingers.  He really was as good at estimating distance by now as she was at interpreting the words into motion, and she knew now she’d never want anyone else to be her navigator.

            By the way he was embracing her fingers and gently kissing the ends of each, she had a hunch his feelings on the matter were similar to hers.          

            “Neil?” she breathed contentedly, cuddling her cheek back against his head.

            “Luce?”

            There were so many words she wanted to say to him now that she’d been protecting silently for years, but in the wonderful surprise of this whole day, they’d come jumbled impossibly together.  She held them in the back of her mouth, rolled the potential syllables around with her tongue, and settled herself with an absolving exhalation instead.  At last, Lucy managed to piece together two coherent sounds: “Trivia game?”

            “Trivia game,” Neil responded, not missing a beat.

            “Strong coffee?”

            “Strong coffee.”

            “Sleepover?”

            “Sleepover.”

            Bowing her head lower, Lucy pressed her tender lower lip against Neil’s cheek.

            “Maybe some more of this, too,” Neil suggested as he reciprocated the kiss, hardly able to form words either.  “You know, if you want, too.”

            “Oh, gee,” Lucy murmured lovingly.  “I guess so.”

            The sun had shifted now over the concrete canyons and found the pair again after their retreat from under the umbrella less than an hour ago.  Feeling its warmth on her cheeks, Lucy turned her face up and soaked it up, curling her fingers over the Beta just enough that he had the option of shade.  Like her, though, he chose to remain in the rays.

            This was all new, even for two people who’d known each other for more than ten years and had probably been pining for one another for just as long.  Words would wait.  Now that they’d started off Neil’s freshly independent life with a glorious bang, there would be more than enough time to discover for themselves what the future held rather than rushing headlong into it now.  And they’d have each other to provide directions every step of the way.