Innocent

Chapter 19 - So This Isn't Love

I hadn't ever kissed anyone before, so I didn't know exactly what to expect. Maybe something slow and tender. It would be romantic, and soft. With this kiss, I was expecting him to pull away, tell me to leave him alone.

But neither of those happened.

Alexi wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer, kissing me deeper. My head went fuzzy for a moment, caught up in the moment. My fingers laced into his soft hair and it felt like my heart was going to explode.

But then the moment faded. I tasted the potion on my lips and I remembered what I was doing. I wasn't here for love. I was here for Alexi. Well, and love, but not in that way. The kiss changed as the potion took affect. It became more slow and tender like I had imagined in my head.

I pulled away, mission complete.

"Dris." All of the anger melted away from his face and he gave me a look of pure adoration. The potion had worked. But for some reason it made me sad.

"What is going on?" The human sister woman on the couch interrupted.

"We'll be going now." I leaned around Alexi to wave at her. "Bye bye."

I summoned a portal right there in her living room and stepped though and back into my castle.

"You're so beautiful." Alexi sighed, staring at me. Yeah, the potion was pretty strong. He followed me back down the the conference room where Rilo was waiting. As soon as we stepped inside Rilo exploded.

"You gave him a love potion?"

"Yes, it was the easiest solution. I needed something fast and effective. I didn't see you contributing any good ideas." I flopped down in a chair and Alexi immediately sat beside me.

"I think you might have overdone the potion." Rilo looked Alexi over. "You do know it can have dangerous side effects."

"Shut up, I don't want to hear it." I waived my hand, dismissing it. I hope he doesn't know I took it too. Of course as soon as it became a secret, Rilo knew about it.

"Are you kidding me? You ingested it too! What were you thinking?" He pulled at his hair.

"You know what I was thinking." Alexi started to play with my hair, humming softly. I giggled, blushing at his touch. "Besides, I was already in love. What did it matter?"

Alexi scooted his chair closer and I slipped my hand into his.

"You're so beautiful." He leaned in and whispered in my ear.

"Hmm. Thank you, darling." Wrapped my arms around his neck, about to kiss him again.

"Stop it!" Rilo physically pulled up apart. I didn't like this. "Give me one good reason for me not to kill you for what you just did."

"You need to do your plan before it's too late. You can snuggle later." I really didn't want to wait until later to be with Alexi, but Rilo was right. I needed to focus.

"I'm sorry. It's just really hard to focus." I picked up the parchment form earlier, relieved that I wrote everything down. My brain was too preoccupied by thoughts of a certain someone. "Oh, Alexi, love?"

"Yes?" He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"We have a few errands to run. Would you be a dear and help me?" I clasped his hands in mine.

"Anything for you."

"Perfect."

***

I stood in front of my regular closet's mirror. My skin was colored a light green and I had flowers woven in my now brown hair. I hated it. But, it was a spot on impersonation of of a woodland fae. Which was exactly what I needed to look like.

It was a bit easier to concentrate without Alexi in the room. The potion was still strong. I had this overwhelming need to find Alexi, but since I was aware of the fact that I was under a love potion, it was easier to resist. Besides, I've been squishing back feelings in regards to Alexi for a bit now. These were different that my normal ones, I'm sure. I didn't feel love for Alexi normally. Right? I'm wasn't sure I knew anymore.

I really needed to focus. This was going to be hard enough as it was. I needed Alexi to do exactly what I said. Hopefully he would be able to hold back his feelings long enough to get the job done. Hopefully I would be able to as well. The odds weren't looking so great now.

Well, too late to recalculate now. It was time to go.

I marched out of my room, as ready as I was going to get.

"Dris!" It was like being attacked by a golden retriever. Only this, I didn't mind. He pounced on my, hugging me tight. "Hi! I missed you."

"I missed you, too." I painfully detached myself from his warm embrace. "Remember when I asked you to do me a favor earlier? Well, it's time now."

"Okay. What do you need me to do?"

I quickly explained the plan to him, leaving out the why we were doing this. He was in love, not stupid. Well, love did make him a little stupid.

"This sounds fun. I did theater in high school, you know. I was pretty good." Alexi bragged, trying to impress me. At least I think that was the intent. When you're immortal, theatrics become a sacred art. High school theater doesn't have a chance to compare to passionate actors with a thousand years of experience.

"That... great, huh." I lead him into the conference room again, closing the door behind us. Rilo was already there waiting for us.

"I like the new getup." Rilo commented, not daring to meet my eyes as he spoke.

"Shut up." I conjured a portal. "Let's get this over with."