"Stop smiling."
"I'm not smiling." The child said with a huge grin on his face.
Was he bullshitting him?
What the hell was he so happy about?
No, seriously, what did he have to smile about?
It was since he had shown himself in his human form that he had started training Little Thing, and in those two weeks Small Disaster had not completed a single spell without something exploding, changing colour or starting to glow. In short, there was absolutely nothing to be happy about.
And yet, Little Thing did nothing but look at him as he flashed that big bright smile of his, and have that sparkle in his eyes.
Maybe that was the side effect of some spell he had gone wrong.
"Do you ever have nausea? Feel dizzy or lightheaded?"
The human looked perplexed and shook his head in denial.
"Are you sure? You're starting to worry me."
The brat, completely ignoring what he had just said, leaned towards him and his thumb and forefinger squeezed both his cheeks, flashing that same troubling smile.
That was another new bad habit of his. Whenever he took his human form in front of him, the child pinched his cheeks.
Irritated by Tiny's new annoying habit - could he stop making him regret showing him his human form?-, he took his chubby cheeks between two fingers and squeezed them until the kid's lips formed a tight, twisted O.
He let it go after a few more seconds and Little Thing rubbed his cheek, with a pout on his face,
"I didn't do it that hard."
"It wasn't that strong." It was. "You're just to frail."
"I'm not." Little Thing's pout grew bigger. "I'm strong. I have to be. I have to protect you."
He scoffed. A small smile crept to his lips. "First learn to protect yourself, then we'll talk about this again."
"Just wait, I'll protect you well one day." He said with a proud smile.
Kongpob couldn't help but smile, too, when he found himself staring after the cheeky human. As soon as he realised it, he hid it behind a scowl, and with a firm but surprisingly gentle hand, pushed his head down to hide his tender expression.
Being surrounded by all those humans was making him soft... or maybe it was just Little Thing's fault... yeah, it was all Little Thing's fault.
"Littl-"
The sound of Tiny's room door slamming against the wall interrupted him.
"Arthit!" Kong's least favourite among Tiny's friend exclaimed in an exaggeratedly indignant tone. "You told me to stop hitting on older guys, and then you're the one staying alone in your room with a boy! And not any boy, with Praipalin's hot friend!" He crossed his arms indignantly. "If you like him, you could just have said it, you know."
"I... what? No! It's not like that!"
Little Thing vehemently denied it, blushing like crazy. He stopped in mid-sentence and looked back at him, frowning. "Praipailin's friend?"
"Yes, I saw them the day you went out with Namtarn. He was with Praipailin and another girl. Didn't you meet him there?"
Kongpob glared at the little busybody. Seriously, he was worse than Loudmouth, which was saying something.
"No, he's... Kong... my familiar." Little Thing said dazedly, blinking repeatedly as though to make sense of what was happening.
Busybody ignored the problem he had caused, and curled on himself mumbling incoherent words that sounded too much like idiocy. "Oh no, this is a nightmare. It's not possibly... the grumpy lizard..."
Kongpob raised an eyebrow. The one who should complain was him.
"Wait, did you flirt with the lizard?" Loudmouth decided that was a good time to open his mouth. He was wrong, obviously.
"I didn't... flirt with him." He said even more indignantly.
Kongpob scoffed. Yes, he was definitely his least favourite Little Thing's friend.
The more the kids stood there, the more fiercely his temples throbbed. He was ready to burn something down.
Since the annoying humans had left, Little Thing had barely looked at him. That bothered him, a lot.
As if he wasn't already pissed off enough.
Irked, he sat up on his bed.
Could Tiny also have had the unhealthy idea he was following him that day?
Of course, that wasn't true. It was just a coincidence that he was in the town square... and before in the boutique where that girl was looking for a new dress.
"Little Thing?"
That little insolent pulled the blanket over his head and ignored him.
Brat of my boots!
"Tiny!" He growled his words with a blast of hot air from his nostrils.
He didn't like being ignored.
"Shh, I'm trying to sleep."
'Shh?' Did he just...? Did he just shush him?
He reached the small human in two gigantic strides, grabbing his shirt and lifting him from the bed.
"Don't ignore me kid." He snarled.
He must have sounded really angry, because Little Thing didn't answer. He just stared at him with wide eyes. Then -instead of begging for forgiveness like any normal human- he put his hands on his cheeks and pulled his face close, too close.
What the...?
He threw him back on the bed.
"Ehi!" The human protested briefly
Then he quickly stood up on the bed to get eye level with him. "You're eyes..."
Oh, his gold fiery eyes. People were scared of them. Justifiably.
"They're cute."
Exactly they're- WHAT!?
He squeezed his chubby cheek tightly.
Infuriating brat.
He went back to his own bed. If Tiny didn't want to tell him what was he thinking, it didn't matter. He wasn't his babysitter.
He pulled up the covers and lay down with his back to the kid. A long silence enveloped them. He heard only Tiny's breathing and heartbeat.
"You said you wait to transform because you didn't like humans." Tiny murmured, and if it weren't for his dragon's sharp hearing, he would have not caught it.
He grumbled, acting as if he wasn't paying attention.
"But maybe... it's me the one you don't like?"
Silence enveloped them again, only their breathing and heartbeats and muffled exterior sounds from the road could be heard.
As soon as Tiny realized he wasn't going to answer, he muttered defeated. "It doesn't matter. It was a stupid thing to say."
"Yes." The dragon finally said. "It was. Stop worrying about ridiculous things."
And he added no more. There was no need. If Tiny was the main problem he would have left years ago.
"Aww." He thrilled happily. "So cute!"
Kongpob rolled his eyes but said nothing.
He didn't say nothing, even when the small ball of joy run to lie next to him on the bed and hugged his arm.
"You really are a strange familiar." The cosy human mumbled, closing his eyes.
They stood there in the silence again. This time the silence felt so warm and comfortable and so healing he almost fell asleep...
"Little Thing... what if I'm no-" He was interrupted by a strong kick into his stomach.
His eyes snapped down to it and saw Arthit's leg rest peacefully on his stomach. Not only he had fallen asleep clinging to his arm, but he clung to him like a koala bear cub with separation anxiety.
He put his free arm under his head and snorted in amusement.
Unbelievable.
He closed his eyes. And when a small smile crept to his lips, he knew he had already lost.
NOTE
Um... I'm afraid my characters are too similar to the others in my stories... I just hope they're not the same 🥺
Anyway, I hope you're all well 🍫💪
Stay safe 💜