Page 14 of The Teddy Bear's Prize

Mia laughs, “Yeah, you’re right. I think I’d be more freaked out if I woke up with a random guy in my bed. Thanks for that. Still, you’re going to need real clothes.”

She turns, going back towards her bedroom.

I follow her like a pup following its master, watching as she digs through her closet, until she emerges again with an arm full of black clothing and some old sneakers.

“Here.” Mia shoves the shirts into my arms and drops the shoes on the floor, “Those belonged to an ex boyfriend, don’t ask, hopefully they’ll fit.”

I look through the black shirts, choosing one that has a single phrase on it, ‘HIM’, then slip my feet into the black-and-white checkered sneakers. They’retight at first, but anything on my body feels restrictive right now. I cannot fathom that mortals spend most of their lives wearing such things.

When I look over, Mia has already changed into a pair of black jeans that hug her hips and thighs in all the right places and a black t-shirt that features a photo of three wolves howling up at the full moon. She looks at me, tucking her black hair behind her ear before she smiles.

“How much of our world have you seen?”

“A little. It has been a few hundred years or so.”

Most of my knowledge of the mortal world is filtered through the lens of others’ dreams, distorted beyond recognition. Their subconscious is beautiful, turning the mundane into art in the most unique ways.

Still, I feel a tiny shock of excitement to step out into the world and see it with my own eyes and experience everything I have only brushed with my fingertips.

“Yes, well, a lot has changed in a few hundred years.” Mia grabs the keys, then checks the house before she walks out the front door and looks back at me expectantly.

“I hope so.”

NINE

Mia

These aren'tthe worst looks I’ve gotten walking around Walmart, but the comically large man next to me is garnering more attention than the nights Erika and I would make midnight snack runs in our pajamas pre-pandemic. On the bright side, most of the people I do make eye contact with accidentally seem to smile at us. As in, me and Tobias as a couple, but I still can’t help but feel a little self conscious.

Not that he notices. Tobias is more interested in all the advancements made in the last hundred years. He wasn’t exaggerating when he said he hadn’t been in the mortal realm in a while. It took twenty minutes to get him into my tiny Nissan Versa because it looked like a “strange metal cage”.

I watch as he walks through the men’s section, his brows creased in concentration or derision, I can’t tell which.

“What are these numbers for?” he asks, holding a pairof jeans, “Do I have to solve this equation to figure out what size I wear?”

Concentration, it is.

“You don’t know your size?”

Tobias shakes his head, “It just manifests.”

Of course. I grab the jeans and unfold them, holding them up to his hips, “The first is your waist, the second is the inseam. Let’s pick a few and we can take them to the dressing room.”

Tobias watches me with rapt attention as I fold that pair and put it away, then grab the next two sizes up, handing them to him.

Somewhere along the way to the fitting room, I stopped caring about the looks I’m getting from strangers, and instead focus on him. He is so cautious to interact with anything, always pausing for a second as if he doesn’t know what would happen if he touches it. It makes sense when I think about it, Tobias has mainly seen our world in dreams.

I wonder what his realm looks like, is it all fire and brimstone or is it just like a normal city? Is it just him or is there a Mrs. Tobias? A sharp pang of jealousy lances through my chest at the thought.

Oh. Do I have a crush on a demon? Truthfully, I might have also had a crush on the teddy bear too.

Probably because it's been him by my side all along, just in teddy bear form. Does that mean he’s been able to hear me this entire time? See me? I guess the only downside is that he’s not supposed to be in our realm. I will ultimately have to say goodbye.

What kind of supernatural avoidant attachment bullshit is this? I haven’t felt this level of connection with any of my exes and when I do, it’s a demon who will only leave me and break my heart.

Tobias disappears into the fitting rooms to try on the jeans and I stick close, looking at men’s underwear. Can’t say I’ve shopped for boxers before. I pick up a package of regular boxers and a package of boxer briefs, trying to remember what my exes wore, but all I see is Tobias laying naked on my bed in his full demon glory.

I blush so hard that my cheeks hurt. You’d think that I haven’t seen a dick before. I put the plain boxers back and keep the pack of black boxer briefs, plucking a bag of black socks from the end cap just for good measure.

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