Chapter 15: 13 | The Beautiful World of Target

"I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice."

~ Baby It's Cold Outside

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Her phone dinged, alerting her she had a Facebook notification, "Sandy Johnson tagged you in a post."

"What the..." Sophie drawled and tapped on the notification. Immediately, it brought her to the post, and her heart dropped to her stomach. "Oh no."

Her mom posted the picture she sent, captioned, "to those who don't know, my baby girl is married! Can't wait to see you both at Christmas!" Followed by an ungodly amount of hearts and smiley face emojis.

"What's wrong?" Cillian wondered.

"My mom told the whole world about us." She dramatized.

Sophia rarely posted on Facebook, not really enjoying the social media app as much as others. That, and whenever something was posted, it spread through her family like wildfire. She had a lot of extended family, and this was certainly the quickest way to spread the news.

"I wasn't ready for all of my family to find out yet." She explained, anxiously biting her lip as she read all the comments rolling in.

"Can't wait to meet your hubby!" One of her aunts commented.

"What!? Girl, congratulations! But WHAT!?" One of her cousins put.

"When did this happen?? Omg, congrats!" Another cousin wrote.

If aunts, uncles, and cousins were already finding out, that meant...

Her phone rang. Oh no.

Her eyes met Cillian's in a panic. "It's my brother." She sucked in a sharp breath and hesitantly hit answer. "Hello?"

"WHAT IN THE ACTUAL EVER LOVING F-"

Her phone flung out of her hands, startled by the shouting. She scrambled to pick it back up, holding it a tad farther from her ear this time.

"SOPHIA JOY JOHNSON I SWEAR WHEN I SEE YOU- no, when I see HIM, I'M GONNA!"

"Tommy, stop shouting!" She exclaimed over him.

"Is your last name even Johnson anymore!?"

Good question... "Tom-"

"Did you meet him online!? My gosh, is this some 90 Day Fiance thing!?"

"What? No, Tommy, listen-"

"Where is he? Put him on the phone."

"THOMAS, WILL YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO ME!?"

"..."

"..."

"Don't shout at me." He mumbled, quietly.

Her eye twitched. She took a deep breath to collect herself and calmly said, "Will you just let me explain please?"

At his hesitant okay, she explained everything she told Darcy and their mom. The whole time, he remained silent, listening intently. When she was done, he remained quiet a few seconds more.

Exasperated, he finally asked, "you love him?"

Her eyes snapped up to meet Cillian's briefly, before looking away. "I do." She lied.

"He take care of you?" He urged. "He's good to you?"

Her shoulders dropped, thankful for her protective big brother. "Yeah, he's great... he's a good guy, Tom." She replied, earnestly.

He released a breath he didn't know he was holding. "If that ever changes-"

"I know, I know..." she chuckled with an affectionate roll of her eyes. "Thank you for worrying about me."

"I'm still worried how incredibly stupid you are for doing this, but that's besides the point." He huffed a laugh, but she could tell he was genuinely concerned for her safety. "You coming to mom and dad's for Christmas?"

"We plan on it." She responded, playing with the hem of her shirt. "Planning to be there the twenty third."

"We'll be there Christmas Eve." He told her, we being his daughter and wife.

"Can't wait to see you guys. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

"Sophie," he said, with a brief pause. "You ever need anything..." he drawled.

"I know." She said through a smile, ending the call after saying their goodbyes. She turned to Cillian and asked, "So... what's your last name?"

"Thompson." He responded.

Sophie Thompson. That didn't sound too bad...

•••

"A bajillion shopping carts in the grocery store and I picked the one with the front wheel that likes to pirouette like a ballerina." Sophie huffed, grimacing as she got her cart back on track.

It was the following day and Sophie decided it was time to show Cillian how to shop. That, and she needed a few groceries anyway. "Well Cillian, this is it! Welcome to the beautiful world of Target! Where everything is overpriced, but very pretty, so I come here to window shop."

"Window shop?" He wondered, following beside her, but he couldn't help but guess she was walking aimlessly until she found something "pretty."

She nodded. "It's where you go to a store to admire the things they have, say you want them, but ultimately don't buy them."

Oh. He had more questions about that odd hobby, but didn't ask any more questions for now.

"Before we do that, my mom asked me to pick up a few groceries for Christmas, so we'll do that before window shopping." She told him and further explained what grocery shopping entailed of.

He was greatly disappointed to learn that you couldn't eat the food before buying them. Well, besides grapes for some reason. They had a pass for only a few.

She explained quite a bit more to him, occasionally asking if he was okay with all the people around. He was, mainly because he was distracted by all the odd food he's never heard of before.

For example, marshmallow fluff in a jar... he's seen everything now. What does someone even put this on?... it didn't matter, it's going on everything.

Bacon Soda. Not baking soda, Bacon Soda... Can't tell if this is the exact opposite reason for what he's sacrificed for his country, or the perfect example of it.

Oh, and milk? Milk was four dollars. Why don't they just buy a whole cow?

He noticed everything's 'instant' now. Instant coffee, instant soup, instant noodles. It just had to be false advertising.

There was one last thing he noticed too... "Sophie?"

She hummed in response.

"I feel like everyone is... staring."

"Mm hmm, that's because they are."

His head tilted, not understanding.

"You sort of... stand out."

He frowned. "I thought you said I would blend in as a human well."

"Oh yeah, you definitely are as a human." She chuckled under her breath. In a quiet falsetto tone of voice, she conveyed, "But like... a very... attractive one."

His eyebrows pinched together, getting quite the ego boost that she thought so, but still didn't understand why people would stare. "I don't understand."

A small huff escaped her lips. She wasn't irritated at him, but was definitely uncomfortable explaining the situation. The pink dusting her cheeks gave that away. "Just think of it as they're admiring you."

He seemed to mull on that a little bit, unsure how he felt about it. "You've been getting stared at too." He finally said.

She stopped pushing the cart and turned to face him. "Are you watching people?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"They're watching us."

She opened her mouth to correct him, but he had a point. "Touché." She muttered, grabbing a candle off the shelf. "Wanna smell candles with me?"

"Candle?" He questioned.

"It's scented wax. When you burn it, it gives off different scents." She explained, popping a lid off one and gave it a sniff. When she was done, she offered it to him. "Wanna smell?"

"Do I want to smell scented wax?" He questioned, not sarcastically, but more so incredulously.

"Well when you put it like that, it does sound weird." She playfully rolled her eyes and held it up to his nose, even though with his enhanced senses, he could smell it from miles away.

He took a whiff, his nose immediately wrinkling.

Her smile dropped. "But it's pumpkin spice."

"I don't like pumpkin."

She gasped and placed a hand over her heart at the horrific news. "Tragic... here, try this one."

He did, enjoying the vanilla scent far better. "Is this a normal human thing to do?"

"Human thing to do? Yes. Normal human thing to do... debatable." She told him, sniffing another. "When I was a teenager, my friends and I would come here just to walk around, window shop, smell candles, and just goof off. We had no money then, so we couldn't buy anything even if we wanted to." She chuckled.

Speaking of teenagers, a group of giggling girls waited at the end of the aisle, too intimidated by her handsome husband to come any closer. Instead they pretended to busy themselves with random objects on the shelves, peeking over at him when they thought he wasn't looking.

"They think you're cute." Sophie whispered under her breath, holding up another candle for him to sniff. "You should wave at them and see what they do."

He raised an eyebrow, but slowly turned and gave the girls an awkward wave.

Embarrassed, the girls squealed and giggled as they retreated out of the aisle.

The pair shared a laugh and made their way to check out. On their way, they passed by the Christmas decorations and seeing some of the lights gave her an idea.

"Hey, have you ever gone to look at the Christmas lights?"

He shook his head.

Her smile grew. "Oh we're so gonna change that."

•••

Sophie paid the admission fee and thanked the person working. "Thank you, Merry Christmas!"

The teenager just blinked in return, a barely there forced smile on his lips. "Yep."

She didn't pay any mind to his grinchy attitude and turned to Cillian. "Ready? It's not too cold for you, is it?"

He shook his head and followed her to the entrance. It was a weekday and not many kids were on Christmas break yet, so it wasn't overly crowded. It gave Cillian some space from others, making him feel safe.

She cleared her throat and said, "we should probably, um... practice."

He immediately understood what she meant, having no issue with physical contact with her. He offered his arm to her, and she accepted it, her hands on his bicep. Once through the entrance, Cillian's whole expression changed. It had been over two decades since he had seen something like this. Christmas lights had probably only become more extravagant and beautiful since then too, she thought.

Seeing his face light up like a kid on Christmas, the countless colored lights glistening in his golden eyes, she knew then and there... she had to make this the best Christmas ever for him.

He remained fascinated the whole walk, in awe of the gorgeous scenery around him. He admired all the lights while she admired him, elated to see him so at peace and happy.

Towards the end of their walk, she couldn't help but ask, "Hey Cillian?"

He glanced at her in reply.

"Why don't you like the cold?"

"Does anyone?"

She kicked an imaginary pebble with her boot and continued. "Well, it's just... I read you're able to withstand the cold far better than a human.... But in 40 degree (4 degrees Celsius?) weather, you dress as if it's below zero (-17 Celsius?)." She chuckled to make it lighthearted.

His eyes had that glazed over look to them again, telling her his mind was somewhere else right now.

She felt bad for asking and mumbled, "sorry, shouldn't have asked. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, it's okay. It's..." he sighed, collecting his thoughts. "They did a lot of experiments on me. They used different drugs to see how much it would take to sedate me, how much silver it would take to restrain me, tied me to a treadmill to see how fast I could run until my legs gave out on me..." he listed off just a few of the things. "To see how much cold I could withstand, I was locked in a room that was much like a walk in freezer. Throughout the day, they would gradually lower the temperature. It wasn't bad at first. I know I can withstand it far better than most, but they wouldn't stop when I felt I was at my limit. They had to see exactly how far they could push me."

Thoughts of him relentlessly shivering filled his mind. His body shook so violently, it hurt. He felt as if he couldn't catch his breath and he lost feeling in his toes and fingertips. He didn't know it then, but there comes a point when your body can only shiver so much to get warm. Once you stop shivering, that's when your body starts to shut down. After that, he briefly remembers humans coming in to drag him out of the room, in and out of unconsciousness. His fingers and toes were blue for days.

"I almost lost my fingers." He said, no emotion in his tone. He held out his left pinky and she noticed something she hadn't before. "I lost the tip of this one."

That he had. The tip of his pinky was gone. It was a tiny bit, hardly noticeable, but nonetheless it was gone.

Wordlessly, her fingers intertwined with his, flooding his chest with a warmth that wasn't there previously. "I'm so sorry." Was all she could bring herself to say. "I... I'll get you all the sweaters you want."

He nearly smiled at the sincerity to her words, his thumb absentmindedly running over her knuckles. "Physically, this weather doesn't affect me. It would have to be far more cold than this."

"But mentally it does." She more so stated than asked.

He nodded, and smiled at her in thanks at her understanding.

"If I... if you ever feel like we getting to your threshold of what you can withstand, will you let me know?" She asked, peeking up at him through her lashes. "Have we done anything that you feel is too much-"

"No, it's been- it's been great." He reassured her. "I would let you know if it was too much."

"Fancy seeing you guys here."

As if on instinct and in one swift movement, Cillian guided Sophie by the waist to stand behind him, taking a protective stance in front of her. Peeking out from behind him, she found the source of the voice, one he knew all too well.

"Hey, now. I just wanted to say hi." Carlos teased, his hands up in mock surrender.

Snarling nearly as much as Cillian was, Sophie spoke up. "We have until April, what are you doing here?"

Carlos eyed the lycanthrope up and down. "Down boy. We wouldn't want to cause a scene now, would we?"

Sophie gave his arm a gentle squeeze, silently- unfortunately- agreeing with Carlos. Only slightly, he relaxed enough to not scare any one that passed by.

His head tilted up in the cockiest was possible, Carlos explained, "I'm not gonna take away your rescue mutt, don't worry. Only dropping by to see how he's progressing. By the looks of it, I gotta say, I'm impressed. You have him trained fairly well already."

With a stern finger pointed in his direction, Sophie seethed, "we have until April. I don't want to see you again until then."

He chuckled. "Alright, I'll make sure you don't see me next time. Have a good night, newlyweds." He tipped his head in goodbye and left without another word.

Now begs the question, how did he find them? And how often were they watched without knowing?

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Thank you for 3.1k reads!! Please don't forget to drop a comment and let me know what you think! The more comments I get, the sooner I post!

I don't love this chapter, but I'm so excited for the next few!!!

Question of the chapter: do you use Celsius or Fahrenheit? I use Fahrenheit but I think the majority of y'all use Celsius

Are you ready for some fluffy Christmas chapters coming up!?

Clues for next chapter: 🏠👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🛏️💪🏻