Someone asked me where it was that they lived exactly, I just smiled and said, "They live wherever you want them to live."

Thanks for reading!

Chapter 12: Sweets

We got out of the car and we walked over to the sidewalk. The cold air catching my hair and making in dance in the sunlight. I could feel my cheeks and nose getting pink because of the cold, and Fang's were already a lovely shade of pink.

"Ms. Ride," he said offering me his arm with such a sweet smile that I felt myself melt.

I smiled back and interlaced our arms. I pressed my side against his, trying to stay warm, and partly because I felt like I might slip on the ice.

I looked around and somehow felt like I was in a fairy tale. I mean, how couldn't you? There was a thin layer of snow covering the whole world it would seem. The Christmas decorations were everywhere and they were beautiful. Life size plastic reindeer grazed on the grass, little elves carrying presents stood on the antique lamp posts, huge Christmas tree decorations hung over our heads and they sparkled in the morning light.

There were a lot of people walking around us, some walking to their jobs, some buying presents. Kids ran around laughing and their mothers called after them. Laughter filled my ears and there were speakers everywhere playing soft Christmas melodies. I noticed there were a lot of couples too, and I blushed when I felt Fang's arm around mine and realized I was one of those couples too.

Fang looked down at me and smiled brightly, I knew he was as mesmerized as I was. We used to come here all the time with our parents when we were younger. For some reason, though, we started coming less frequently and then all together stopped. It has possibly been ten years since I've last been here and I had forgotten how magical it was.

"Let's go in there." I say, pointing at one of the stores in the open plaza.

A little bells jingles as we open the door, an old woman behind the counter smiles at us and I smile back.

"Good morning," she says in a soft voice, "May I help you with something?"

Fang shakes his head with a grin, "We're just looking around, thank you."

She nods sweetly , "Let me know if I can help."

"Thank you." I say as I led Fang into the store. It was slightly crowded with people looking for gifts.

It was a store with everything , it had toys and costumes and clothes and... hats! I stopped at the hats, they were so many! The wall was completely covered in them. From sombreros to top hats to animal hats. I looked at Fang, he had already grabbed one and tried it on. I could barely hold in my laughter when I saw him in a large Victorian hat.

"What?" He said in a terrible British accent and he batted his eyelashes.

I snorted and then tried on an elephant hat, it had huge ears that flopped around when I moved my head and a trunk that left me partly blind. Fang moved closer to me and placed his hands on my waist.

"How is it that you manage to look so cute in a ridiculous hat?" He leaned in closer but before anything could happen I burst out laughing.

"Oh God... I can't... take you seriously!" I said between fits of laughter.

Fang laughed with me and turned to get another one. We laughed until tears came out of our eyes and I finally decided to buy a panda hat. I mean pandas are awesome and it even had pockets where you could put your hands and pretend you had panda paws. I wasn't leaving without it. Fang bought Nudge a zebra hat, he knew she liked them and he wouldn't have to go looking for her Christmas present later.

I thanked the woman at the counter and she gave me my newly acquired panda hat. I swung my bag back and forth happily and wrapped my unoccupied arm around Fang's. We walked like this a little further until I saw a sweets shoppe and I nearly fainted.

I tugged on Fang's arm and he looked at me with confusion.

"Wher-?" He started but he stopped and laughed as he let himself be pulled by me, "Of course."

There was something about me and sweets, some intimate bond between us, so passionate that...

I stopped that train of thought, thinking that it might be too over the top thinking of the sensuality of candy. Not that its sensuality was nonexistent in any way. Well, I just really love candy, not wrapped in bag candy that you buy at the supermarket, but instead the one that was sold in shoppes like this one.

Fang was well aware of my infatuation over candy and was quite reluctant to walk into the shoppe with someone who will probably end in debt after one visit to it. He followed behind me nonetheless.

"Don't go too crazy now." Fang warned.

"I don't t go crazy!" I protest and release his arm just to swat it with my own.

"Okay just..." I heard him start but he was tuned out by the soft classical music inside and my gasp.

It was beautiful, like I have entered, not only into a sweets shoppe, but also the nineteenth century. When you read a lot you see places like these in you mind's eye, but being immersed into it was just something that never actually happened but when it did your heart decided to painfully skip a beat or two.

"Fang, I think I'm gonna stay here forever." I said with my eyes closed and inhaled the mixture of smells, "You can go."

I could feel Fang rolling his eyes behind me, "Whatever you say, love."

I opened my eyes and walked through the store, there were all types of sweets being displayed in large shelves covered with a thin layer of glass. There was all types of chocolate, with different things on them, or in them. There was hard candy and soft candy and pastries and an innumerable amount of things that made my mouth water. I walked over to the back and there he was, the owner himself. At least I thought that was him, he was wearing a chef hat and a stripped apron, he even had a very elaborate mustache. I smiled and found a stool behind a counter where you could see him as he made magic.

I rested my chin on my hands and perched on the edge of the stool and smiled longingly. I don't know how much time passed but once the store owner was done he looked up and smiled sweetly, just like the chocolate mixture he just did.

"Would you like a special treat?" He said in a slight french accent.

I looked around wondering who he was talking to and I realized I was the only one watching.

"Me?" I asked stupidly and pointed to myself.

He laughed, a wholesome laugh, "Yes, dear, you."

He walked over to me and sat a napkin in front of me with nothing on it. I looked at it and my brows furrowed, I looked up just in time to see he was smiling. He looked at me, studying me, and walked over the counter and sat on the stool beside me.

"I'm trying to figure out what you are." He said seriously and suddenly his face lit up.

I opened my eyes wide but kept my mouth closed, intrigued by this turn of events. He stood up and I just looked at him as he went to the oven and pulled out a fresh batch of an expensive looking pastry.

"Ah..." He sighed as he smelled it, he grabbed a knife and cut a piece, placing it lightly on my napkin.

"Fresh out of the oven." He said with a smile.

I nodded and observed it, it had many layers of fluffy bread and some sort of cream in between and on top there was a layer of white chocolate with and intricate design made with milk chocolate.

"What is-?" I started.

"A special creation." He said looking at me intently, "You'll be the first to try it."

I felt a great burden being set upon me and I nodded, "I'll do my best."

I grabbed the piece and started bringing it to my mouth slowly, it inched closer and closer... until I suddenly stopped.

"Are you sure?" I suddenly asked and he looked at me disbelievingly, he wanted me to give him the verdict, "Oh right, sorry sorry!"

I took a considerably big bite off the piece and I swear, if you could taste paradise, this was it.

"Amazing!" We both laughed and jumped and hugged each other. Oh, was I happy!

...

"Amazing!" Max yelled and she started jumping and hugging the owner.

God, was she beautiful. Fang thought.

He looked at her and he saw the woman he loved. He thought about how she could be the most serious person in the world, the most mature, and the most level-headed when she had to be. Sometimes she was obnoxious and close minded even, but honestly, she was still a child, she was still a girl who laughed and danced with the owner of a sweets shoppe.

Fang knew there was no one like her, and even if there was, he only wanted her. And he couldn't wait until she was his... forever.

He overheard her say how she thought this was the perfect pastry that "people search their whole life for, and I've found it today".

He smiled to himself and knew that he'd have to come back and get her some more for Christmas.

...

"So? How'd it go?" Fang asked me as we walked out of the store.

Mr. Maysonnave, the store owner, had ended up giving me a box full of his new treats. He had joked about naming them Les Maximums, but I know he was just joking. At least I hoped he wasn't because secretly I wanted the best pastry in the world to be named after me.

"You wish he wasn't joking, right?" Fang laughed as I told him about what Mr. Maysonnave had said about the name. Looks like it wasn't that much of a secret, or maybe Fang just knew everything.

"Well... I just- I think-" I stuttered as my cheeks burned, "Yes! I'd love it if he wasn't kidding."

Fang wrapped an arm around my shoulders, "He looked like he liked you, he probably will name them Les Maximums, and you must admit that's a pretty bad ass name."

"You know it is!" I laughed, "I'm so glad he gave me a discount too. I wouldn't have been able to buy the expensive chocolates for our moms if he hadn't."

"I don't know why you bought my mom expensive chocolate." He said kissing my head as we walked, "You shouldn't have wasted your money on her."

"Fang!" I gasped punching him softly on his abdomen, "Don't say that! Of course I'm going to spend, not waste, my money on your mom. She is like my second mom you know."

"Ew, don't say that." He laughed turning towards me and grabbing my waist, "That would mean we were like siblings and I wouldn't be able to do this."

He brought his lips to mine, they barely touched and then he brought his closer again and gave me a soft peck, he came back a third time and, honestly, I couldn't hold myself. I grabbed his neck and he crashed into my lips, I opened my mouth slightly and licked his upper lip, inviting him to do as I did. He held my waist tighter and brought me closer. When I was about to go deeper, when I was about to interlace my fingers in his hair, I felt someone bump into me bringing me back to the busy plaza.

I pulled away suddenly and Fang sighed. I was wide-eyed at how we had just made out in broad daylight, not that I cared about what people thought but because there were little kids here and I hoped we hadn't ruined the magical ambient of this place. I looked up at Fang he gave me a look and a smirk that said, 'Maybe later?' and I smiled.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me forward. We walked a little more and behind a pine tree glazed in snow there was a big wooden door that I recognized. He opened it and motioned me to go first and once I went in I knew why it looked familiar. It was an old coffee shop, where we'd always come with our mothers.

"Max, behave." My mother said in a measured toned.

"Valencia here, let me hold the door for you." Patty said as she held the door open for my mom, who was about to explode with the human growing inside of her.

I always wondered how that was possible, how a human like me, like Fang, or like my mom herself, could grown inside of her! That was crazy and I won't even get started on the how it happened. Fang said it was because my mom did something really good and she deserved a prize so she got a little human. Iggy was telling me about it but Mom stopped him. He said Mommy and Daddy were playing and then he didn't get further than that because Mom stopped him and grounded him for 'knowing something he shouldn't know', I wonder what that was. And why would she want to win another baby in the first place when she already had Gazzy, was she that eager to win prizes?

"Oh Patty, please, you're pregnant too. Iggy will you be a gentleman and hold the door for Mommy and Auntie Patty?" Mom said with a smile.

Prepubescent Iggy groaned but smiled nonetheless at Patty and held the door open for her to go in.

"Why thank you, Iggy." Patty said.

I started walking through the door but Iggy let go of it and I huffed, but before I could open the door Fang pushed me back.

"Let me." He said and tried his hardest to open the heavy door with one arm and I giggled when he had to use both.

Whenever Fang actually managed to open the door we went in and sat on our own table, just the two of us. It made me feel like a grown up, I felt free to even ask the waiter for coffee. I would have if my mom allowed me to, she said something about people not letting their children drink coffee because it was bad for them but she didn't let me because I get unmanageable, intolerable and insufferable, whatever those words meant.

Ten years later here we were again, just Fang and I this time. We sat on the table we sat on that day, right next to a window that overlooked the back of the store, it was just as beautiful as everywhere else.

"You didn't have trouble opening the door this time, did you?" I laughed.

Fang rolled his eyes, "I told you, I was sick and a little weak."

"Sure you were." I laughed even louder.

"May I get you anything?" A waitress asked giving Fang and extra 'sweet' smile. Ugh...

"Sweetheart?" Fang said not even noticing and the waitress' face fell.

I smiled and looked at her, "Hot chocolate and do you have brownies?"

"Yes," She looked at Fang, "And for you?"

"Same." She pursed her lips and started walking away.

Before she could get too far Fang said, "Oh and," she turned around with a bright smile, "can you put whipped cream on those hot chocolates?"

I nearly snorted and the waitress eyed me suspiciously with her fallen face.

"Sure thing!" She said and walked away.

When she was gone I looked at Fang and smirked.

"What?"

"You do know she was hitting on you?" my smirk grew bigger.

"Who?" He asked honestly confused.

I sighed, very happy because he hadn't noticed, and changed the subject, "It's been a while."

"It has, it's crazy though. So much has changed but this little place looks like it froze in time."

He was right, of course. There had been so much that had changed that it felt like we were completely different people but once we stepped into this shop it was like we were our eight year old selves, just with boobs and muscles of course. And honestly, being able to forget everything that's going on in the world and just being here with Fang was exactly what I needed. This place had too many memories attached to it, and today it felt like it was just us two in a place where time had stopped.

We talked about everything and nothing, and time seemed to go by so fast. The sun wasn't as high and the light was beginning to fade. We payed for our four hot chocolates and brownies and left. I couldn't be happier and there was nothing that could dampen my mood. We walked arm in arm back to the car, the bags of what we had bought dangling on our sides.

I took a deep breath and let my eyes feast on the magical place I had forgotten and swore to come back soon. On our way to the car I saw that the number of people had dwindled but there still was that echo of laughter resounding in the air.

"Today was real," I said and looked up at Fang.

"Bet," He laughed and bent down.

He looked me in the eyes, our noses slightly touching and our warm breaths mixing, "I wouldn't have wanted to spend it with anyone else."

My eyes fluttered as I inched forward and lightly gasped when our lips met. It was a sweet thank you kiss, thanks for giving me such a great day kiss. And I smiled into it, before nibbling his lower lip and pulling away. Fang looked down at me and smiled, pulled on my arm and walked to my side of the car. He opened the door and motioned me to get it, he closed it and came to his side. I saw him open his door and something caught my eye. Both our phones in the cup holder.

"Oh, wow! I forgot my phone in the car." I laughed and grabbed mine, when I turned standby off and the screen lit up my smile faltered.

I had five missed calls from Dad and eight from Iggy. What would be so important? It's not like Fang and I never left on a whim, and why would it be dad? He never minded if we left, Mom, however, went hysterical and she'd be the one calling me twenty times. I let out a shaky laugh and called Iggy. I swallowed and held my breath. Why was it that I felt this way? Why did I have goosebumps and why was the back of my neck prickling? Fang had stopped whatever he was doing as he stared at his phone, he probably had missed calls too.

Ring... ring... ri-

"Max." Iggy said in a strained voice, and if it was possible to hear pain... I just did.

I felt my own heart stop when Iggy said her name.

Maybe I went too FLUFF -y, but I think I owed it to you. And sorry for changing it to third person, but I thought you should know how Fang felt about the sweets shoppe episode.

Oh and if you don't mind my asking I need a list of songs, I'll be using the best one next chapter so make sure the lyrics are THE BEST!

I'll try to be back as soon as possible, but until then be safe and have a great day!

-foreverandalways'7