innocence - AHS ✓

episode five.

The evening of Halloween, while the fluffers were decorating the house, and Vivien and Ben were doing whatever Vivien and Ben do, Rosaline left the house. Ben knew, and if Vivien asked, she knew her father would hesitantly tell his wife that she had said earlier she would be exploring the neighborhood. The two would probably have a small argument, but while Rose was out of the house and on a real date with Tate, it was none of her concern.

As they walked down the street, hand in hand, fingers intertwined, Rosaline and Tate felt at peace. There were children already dressed and ready for trick-or-treating with their parents, some dressed as fairies, some ghosts, or vampires. Watching the kids as they strolled along the sidewalk, Tate and Rosaline glanced at one another, sharing a knowing look.

Turning their attention back ahead of them, Rose and Tate continued walking around aimlessly for a while until they came to a beach. It was darker out now, as when they had left the sun had just been in the first stages of setting, and that had been roughly an hour ago. Sitting on the sand of the beach, Rosaline was laughing as Tate jokingly serenaded her while leaning over the railing of the lifeguard stand.

"Oh Tate, what would I ever do without your wonderful singing?" Rose joked, her attention being drawn away from the boy as her phone rang. "Hello?"

"Rosaline, where are you?!" Vivien's voice rang out from the other end, making Rose sigh slightly.

"I told dad that I would be hanging out around the neighborhood tonight." She replied to her practically hysterical mother, glancing over her shoulder as Tate winked at her and then turned to come down to her level.

"Has anyone bothered you? Any... Strange people, like one of your father's patients, or anything?" Vivien asked, and Rose had to keep herself from laughing. If only she knew.

"No, no one has come up to me, why?" It was then that Tate ran up behind her and plopped down, wrapping his arms around her torso while pulling her back against him, burying his face in the side of her neck making her stifle a giggle with her hand.

"It's... It's nothing. There was just a scare back at the house while Violet was home alone, but it's fine now..." Her mother trailed off, making Rose sigh as she moved her hand from her mouth to Tate's hair, tugging on it gently to get him to pull away from her neck.

"Is this the part where you make me come home?" Rose asked, looking over at Tate with a small smile.

"Are you having fun? Staying safe?"

"Yes to both."

"Alright. I want you home in an hour." Vivien said, then hung up the phone.

Sighing, Rose put the phone in her pocket, leaning forward to peck Tate's lips repeatedly, their chaste kisses slowly becoming more pressing and feverish. "We. Need. To. Talk. About. That. Thing." Rosaline said in between their kisses, making pull back and press their foreheads together, sighing.

"Do we have to?" Tate asked, sitting up.

"We should, but that doesn't mean we have to." Rosaline said gently.

"No, we can. We can talk about it, I guess. I just... I don't know what to say about it." Tate began, his mouth hanging open for a moment as he struggled to find the words to say.

"Well, the whole reason you did it was for Nora, right? To make her happy because of what happened to Thaddeus?" Rose questioned quietly, tilting her head slightly to the side.

Tate gave a brief nod, his eyes cast down to the sand of the beach. "Yeah. She saved me, when I was a kid, so I felt like... Like I needed to repay her. And she just wanted a baby so badly, and then those fags started fighting and backed out of getting a baby, and she was so upset and I killed them. Then... Then you guys moved in. And Nora still wanted a baby. So I did it. It was before me and you really talked and I know that it was wrong..."