Alex would never admit it, but his upcoming event to try fulfil June's capacity for wonder was probably the start of this instances end. Not the entire end, but an end all the same.
It was as sweet a gesture as any, Alex finally having the opportunity to take June out on what he was calling to all of his friends, a date. He followed every rule his sisters told him about: being there on time, complimenting her, even giving her flowers when he picked her up.
The water residue from the tulips rested softly against his hand, and he thought they might be there because of how tightly he grasped onto the stems as his fist knocked against the door.
He'd been here before. But there was no frantic voices or relentless knocking this time, no need for Nico to come out and check that June's door was still in tact -- because she answered.
His fist raised again, to rattle another light knock against the door before it opened.
"Nico texted and told me you were here." She told him as she pushed his hand down.
"Is that your newest way of saying hello?"
She nodded with a laugh now and he took the chance to look at her as his walls dropped from the defensive mode against her jabs. She'd obviously made an effort as he had requested her to, her hair curled as it had been the first time they met.
"You look nice." He added now as he smiled down at her, pulling her out of her apartment gently as his hand took hers in his grasp.
"You still have it on?" She asked as she held their hands up, her thumb running over the silver on his left ring finger.
"I switch it to my middle finger most of the time, but yeah, I still wear it." He told her as she asked him all sorts of questions surrounding his plans for the day. He answered them as much as she answered any question, ignoring her pleas for details as he encouraged small conversation. The kind that mattered and didn't, about her favourite colours, and foods, and seasons, and jewellery.
(He remembers her answers are navy and burgundy of the red variety, her sisters steak pie, winter and the necklace her sister gave her, but she liked any kind of the silver variation.)
"It's about the wonder we bring to other people too." He started as they rounded the corner to a bustling restaurant where the customers flowed onto the tables on the street. The solace of it all seemed to focus on a table that remained uninhabited, it's 'reserved' sign providing its vacancy. "I realised that when I shared my family with you."
His arm wrapped around her side now as she began to look around anxiously, where the amount of people made her feel engulfed. Reminiscent of the times her mother cornered her into a table at a restaurant at University and begged for her to stay in, demanded it almost.
It hadn't even registered through her mind that they'd been seated, she'd heard and responded to the hostess as she guided them to the table but she didn't think she'd become conscious again until he squeezed her hand as they sat down.
"You're disappearing on me." He told her gently, looking across at her now. The cynicism wasn't lost on her here -- because she hadn't disappeared like she had before. He didn't have to ask Charlotte where she was, something she was later informed of, because she was in front of him. She couldn't escape it even if it had been her deepest desire.
"I'm here."
He nodded now, looking up from his menu to look at her with a smile. "Good."
+
She'd never been so unsure as to what he was planning. They'd been sat there a while and though the food was nice -- expensive, but nice, it wasn't anything that filled her capacity to any extent.
YOU ARE READING
CAPACITY FOR WONDER. | alex albon
Fanfiction"every time you try to fill the other with wonder, you give a piece of yourself to them, with how you attempt to do so." (IN WHICH!) june maddox decides to teach alex albon there is more wonder in life than ju...
