Kendall’s palm once again proved to be a favourable spot to spend time.
“And what’s is your favourite food, Kendall?” he asked.
“Uhmmm… P-promise me you w-won’t… laugh…” she mumbled.
“I promise.” He nodded.
“Uhmmm… I haven’t eaten it in a b-bit, but… Those fish that don’t taste like fish…”
He raised an eyebrow and cocked his head.
“Y-you know! They l-like… make those high-pitched noises a-and… play and… jump above the water…”
He blinked several times. “… Dolphins?”
“Is that w-what they’re called?”
“If your description and my guess is correct at least.” He shrugged, completely dumbfounded.
“T-then dolphins. Y-you put like 10 on a stick and grill them. And t-they are s-so good… B-but I haven’t seen them in… 30 years I t-think? You know, when… when the water got b-bad they just… disappeared.”
He scratched his head, unsure if he should be concerned, amused, or horrified by that answer. Instead, he decided to ask a follow up question. “… How do they taste?”
“Uhmmm… Like a… m-mostly grilled cow and a bit liver, but with… you know that w-weird aftertaste you get from eating fish? T-that you… can’t get rid of?”
He nodded.
“W-well it… has a bit of that taste too, but… i-it leaves the aftertaste of grilled cow in your mouth instead.”
As weird as it sounded, having that strong of an aftertaste of a steak actually sounded good. And it had extra benefits for them, considering how they did not eat as often. “Curious… I will have to try one then…”
She cocked her head. “Aren’t they all… dead?”
“Well, we have a few in big aquariums.” The look on her face confirmed she didn’t know that word. “… In big, glass bowls. People go there to see sea animals that are either exotic, or extinct in the wild.”
Her eyes suddenly lit up, her twitching in excitement. “L-little one… Do you think that… o-other humans would l-let me… eat a f-few of their… d-dolphins?”
He shook his head, crushing her spirits.
“O-oh…” Her whimper was heartbreaking… No, soul-crushing. He was overcome with an extremely strong, protective need to fix it… somehow. “Ken… You know… There is a place where you can still catch wild dolphins…”
Her eyes widened with rekindled hope. “W-where?”
“On the other side of the world… There is a place. Humans have walled of a few seas between islands and continents. Water there is still good, animals are still living there. Including dolphins.”
“R-really?” she lowered her head, pushing him against her snout by an accident before pulling back. “You… y-you are not lying just to cheer me up… right?”
“I’ve been there a few years ago. I saw them myself.” He smiled.
“W… Wow… I have to tell Ichi… We have to go there after…”
“Go where?” Ichi suddenly emerged from below the rock shelf.
The fact that a 70 meters tall monster managed to somehow sneak up on him undetected was worrying, because either she was insane at stealth, or he was absolutely dogshit at hearing. The fresh carcass hanging from her hand resembled some sort of weird moose of titanic proportions… Or rather, titanic to him – Ichi held it by its hind legs like someone would hold a chicken.
“O-oh, hi Ichi!” Kendall exclaimed.
Ichi stretched the animal next to the campfire.
Ichi, d-did you know that… t-there are still those… big jumping fish that taste like cows?” Kendall stuttered, unable to contain her excitement.
“Dolphins.” He helped.
“Yes, that.” Kendall nodded vigorously.
He cleared his throat. “On the other side of the world, there is…”
“In Europe?” Ichi cut him off.
He stopped, surprised by her knowledge. “… Yes. They… We walled off a few seas and thanks to that, the water there was never poisoned.”
“Huh… interesting… And the kaijus haven’t broken those walls yet?” Ichi asked, sitting down and examining the carcass.
“I think… there are several walls one after the other or something. They just kill them when they go between…” He scratched his head. “I honestly never checked; I just know that it wor…”
Ichi suddenly bit into the animal’s neck and ripped its head off with one powerful yank. She examined the head, holding it by the antlers, before discarding it into the ocean below and wiped the blood dripping from her maw. The entire scene was intimidating to say the least. He did not anticipate such an… animalistic behaviour from her…
Once again, he caught himself thinking about her as if she was a regular woman and not a titanic dragoness… He shook his head, regaining composure.
“Can we go to this… yurop, Ichi?” Kendall pleaded.
Ichi sighed and scratched her head. ”Dear, it’s a very long trip…” she noticed Kendall’s puppy eyes. “… Maybe one day.”
Kendall giggled like a small girl, licking her lips.
Ichi began cutting the animal’s skin with her claws, slowly ripping it off until only the reddish glint of flesh remained. She nodded with satisfaction, before setting up the carcass over the fire.
“… This is literally the size of a dinosaur,” he commented, eyeing the animal. “And things like this just… live here?”
“… Apparently.” Ichi nodded.
He began considering the rather scary possibility of being the smallest creature on the island… “Well, at least one potential crisis is averted.” he joked, staring at the roasting meat.
“Your hunger is suddenly classified as a ‘crisis’?” Ichi mocked.
“That too,” he snickered. “But I meant… Ni returning here in full sulk and seethe mode and finding out the only edible thing is me.”
Ichi looked at him curiously, cocking her head. Then she grinned, showing off her still reddened teeth. “And here I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
“… What?”
Ichi laughed, bemused by his expression. “Ni is an ass somet…” She hesitated “… most of the time, but she wouldn’t eat you. She was just scaring you, and you sure as hell took the bait.” She chuckled. “Ni likes scaring people…and being mean in general. And she sure breaks stuff when she’s mad, but she wouldn’t actually harm you… Well, at least not on purpose.”
A pause, filled with contemplating his new knowledge and annoyance that his past self ever thought about himself as remotely competent at psychoanalysis… But then again, he was passing out from d time… Or at least his stupid ego was excusing it this way. “Well… good to know.” he muttered.
“Oh, poor little thing…” Ichi mocked. “You thought the big, scary dragon wanted to eat you? A tiny, bite-sized morsel?”
His brain informed him that getting called a ‘morsel’ by something with a gaze that intense – and a maw that bloody – should have been distressing to the extreme… And yet, he proved too annoyed to care about fear. “Yes, ha ha, giving me a traumatic memory is truly the peak of comedy.”
Ichi’s gaze softened a little. After a few seconds, she focused on the roasting meat and flipped it over. In the meantime, his mind began replaying the events of… yesterday? Wait, was it really… Yesterday?
“… Anyways, I have a question…” he mumbled.
Ichi turned her gaze towards him. “No, I didn’t want to eat you either.”
“Figured. But why did you go after my car… after me specifically? When you abducted me?”
She blinked and thought for a few seconds. “… To be completely honest… It was an accident. I knew how places where humans make their… things look like… So we went there and… I just saw a crowd of humans and you splitting off from it, so I assumed you were someone important. Someone who could help us figure out how to deal with the Kaiju.”
Oh… How nice… So, his disregard for rules and regulations was what caused his kidnapping. A bigger stick in his ass would have made this mess someone else’s problem. The longer he thought about it, the more ironic it became. “So… you didn’t know who I was… And if I wasn’t someone useful, what were you going to do?”
Ichi’s mocking attitude vanished. “Uhmmm… I would put you down and… look for someone else.”
“So… Let me get this straight.” He took a deep breath, putting his hands together. “Your plan was to… catch random humans near the factory, hoping one of them would be ‘good enough’?”
She turned her head, avoiding his gaze. “… Maybe…”
He scoffed with amusement. “Wow… And here I thought you were supposed to be smart.”
Ichi’s eyes narrowed. “Touché,” she replied half dryly, half bemused.
Suddenly, he heard familiar, titanic footsteps. Yes, this time actually heard, which erased any doubts about his earlier dilemma – Ichi was insane at stealth when she wanted to. Shortly after, the footsteps proved to belong to Ni. The dragoness climbed onto the rock shelf and slowly approached the fire, the last remnants of anger flickering on her face. “Look who’s still alive,” she commented dryly.
He ignored the remark and the traumatic memory. “You mean yourself? I was getting worried.”
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Midget, you think I could get lost in this tiny-ass forest?”
“I’ve heard you have many talents. Maybe getting lost is one of them, who knows?” He shrugged, smiling at her smugly.
Her frown deepened and when she spoke again, puffs of smoke flew out through her gritted teeth. “Are you fucking…”
“Let’s just say that we are even,” he interrupted.
“Even?! For fucking what?!” Ni punched the ground and clenched her jaws afterwards, clearly regretting smashing her hand into solid rock.
“I think you know.”
Her death stare quickly transitioned into confusion before a sliver of understanding flashed in her eyes. “Sure, whatever…” she scoffed.
“Yes Ni. Sit down, relax… There will be food soon… And don’t let him get under your skin. I don’t want you running off into the woods again.” Ichi said with a somewhat worried tone, patting Ni’s shoulder.
“Shut up! I didn’t ‘run off’, I was just… checking something out,” Ni grumbled.
“Was it interesting at least? That thing you were… definitely checking out?” he asked.
Ni turned away, trying to maintain at least a shred of dignity. “Y-yeah... it was... uh... just... just something I saw... in the distance. Nothing important...”
“Cool.”
“Yeah, it was cool,” she huffed. “But like I said, it was nothing important. So just... drop it, okay?”
Ichi sighed, taking the moose off the fire. “Okay kids, dinner is ready.”
Meat disappeared so fast one could believe it spontaneously disintegrated. Even bones couldn’t escape their wrath, with Ni specifically pouring her frustration into the act and turning them into fine powder. After an entire day of starvation, his stomach was finally satisfied. He looked up at Kendall, seeing how expertly she removed every bit of flesh off of bones.
“You’re pretty efficient,” he joked.
“We had a lot of time to practice.” Ichi replied, licking off grease from the bone.
Yes… Time... How much time will pass before his mother becomes concerned? They didn’t have the best contact, but it wasn’t bad either. And how long till something breaks in the factory? How much time until…
Wait. He saw that recording of them when he was a child, and it was already old then… So… “Can I ask something… a bit rude?” he prompted.
“Rude? You mean you’ve been polite until now?” Ichi mocked.
“Sure, whatever… How old are you?” he asked bluntly.
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She looked at him thoughtfully, before wiping her mouth. Behind her, Ni’s face evolved into a cocky smirk.
“Asking age is… rude?” Kendall chimed in.
“Sometimes?” he mumbled.
“Little one… do you really wish to know?” Ichi began slowly and seriously.
“I wouldn’t ask you, if I didn’t want to know, right?”
“You think that, but that’s because you have no idea…” Ichi sighed.
“Oh, come on. You’re young, but I know you’re way older than me. So, how old? 200? 300? Maybe even a thousand years and that’s why the stories about dragons exist in the first place.” He spread out his arms. “I just want to know. That’s all.”
Ni laughed hysterically… for whatever reason. He looked at her confused, which only intensified the laughing fit. “Get ready for his brain to break!” she snickered.
He returned his gaze to Ichi, looking for answers. She finally relented with a sigh. “Fine… We are all the same age, barring a few minutes… We hatched… around 65 million years ago.”
He gave her a tired look, fully expecting another outburst of laughter. But it never came... She just stared at him and slowly nodded. A look of realisation appeared on his face, causing Ni to giggle like a maniac. They weren’t just old – they were a literal time abyss. 65 times older than the concept of humanity itself. Tens of thousands times older than any civilisation… And millions times older than him.
Ichi’s expression turned into something directly opposite to Ni’s – the hotheaded sister was clearly mocking him, while Ichi appeared simply… concerned. Genuinely worried.
And he had to give to Ni, but she was right… almost right. His brain almost split from the revelation, the only thing preventing that being… the fact that abduction by titans was way scarier than knowing said titans’ exact age. Maybe he just got used to insanity.
Or maybe he was just built different.
He looked up at Kendall and… that pushed his brain over the edge. The idea that this sweet, pure, and dumb as a pile of bricks girl… who apparently flirted with rocks in her free time… was not only older than 15, but… was beyond ancient… It did not compute. It refused to.
He was not built different after all.
“What?” Kendall asked, getting uncomfortable under his empty gaze.
He shook his head and massaged his forehead.
“Aww, what’s the matter, midget? Is yer head too small for truth?” Ni sneered.
“… 65 million years… When the asteroid hit?” he asked.
“The… asteroid?” Ichi asked curiously.
Right, they were toddlers back then at best, and most likely hatched after it hit. “Never mind… What did you do for all these… eons?” he raised his eyes at Ichi.
Ni smiled smugly. “Well, you know, we just... kinda hung out. We roamed the planet, we ate some things, kicked some ass… we fought for territory, we slept a lot, just the usual stuff.”
“I see… Just… life and routine.”
“Aye.” Ichi nodded. “Survival and day-to-day is keeping us occupied most of the time.”
Something else occurred to him. There was no intelligent life on earth until humanity emerged. And that was at best a million years ago. So for the overwhelming majority of their lives…
“You must have been… very lonely,” he muttered with immense sorrow.
Ni slightly recoiled, as if empathising with them was unthinkable. “Pfft, lonely? Us, lonely? Please. We're the biggest and the strongest creatures on this planet, we don't get lonely. We don't need anyone else,” she tried to maintain her mocking tone, but was not entirely successful.
He gave her a sad look. Not a single word was believable.
“Hey, what's with those eyes? I'm telling the truth! We don't need any company, we're fine on our own. We're totally self-sufficient and we like it that way!” Ni exclaimed defensively.
He moved his eyes and locked his gaze with Ichi’s. The context changed… everything. His perception of what happened between them. Why she was so… anxious and protective, even if she tried not to show it… And how long she was repressing herself for the sake of her sisters.
Soul crushing. He felt the rising need to cry. “Well… at least you had each other…” an almost inaudible whisper left his lips. He cleared his throat, getting a hold of himself. “There is one aspect of it all that is messing with my head…”
Ichi blinked and titled her head. “One… aspect? What is it?” she asked with both curiosity and concern.
He locked eyes with her. “It's that I've smooched an ancient granny yesterday,” he forced his sly tone seconds before tears were about to roll.
Sisters’ eyes widened. They both stared at him sheepishly for a few seconds before Ni began wheezing. “Pfft! Hahaha! Oh, man, I was not expecting that! Hahaha!” she laughed, almost choking.
Ichi tried to scorn her with her gaze, but to absolutely no effect. “Shut up! You’re the same age as me!”
At this point, Ni couldn’t even sit from laughter – he collapsed, not even trying to stop the hysterics.
Ichi crossed her arms and curled into a ball. Her face suggested an extreme urge to throw a tantrum or sulk but prevented either with sheer willpower.
“Ichi… relax dear. It’s all in good spirits,” he comforted her, still fighting not to tear up himself.
“Yeah, sis, it’s not your fault you’re so old,” Ni wheezed on the ground and quickly covered her head from the inevitable slap.
“… Bastard…” Ichi murmured.
The sun began setting, their golden scales reflecting light and illuminating the plateau, turning them into small suns in their own right. Ichi noticed him staring dreamily at them and smiled softly. “What is the plan then, little one?”
He refocused his eyes and thought for a few seconds, before clearing his throat. “First, we need to confirm that the plan will work at all. If yes, one of you will have to carry me back to the continent to get stuff I need. In the meantime, those staying here will stall the thing with its favourite food until we get back and finish preparations.”
“And if… not?” Ichi asked anxiously.
He hesitated for a few seconds. “… Then we will most likely need a LOT more stalling. Before I prepare the next best thing.”
Ichi sighed and nodded. “Get some sleep then. It will be a long day tomorrow.”
“Y-yes little one…” Kendall whispered with anticipation. “W-we should sleep now…”
‘Yes, dear.” He smiled. “We will cuddle just like you wan…”
“Hold on!” Ni straightened. “Why with you, Ken? Maybe I want him for tonight?”
He shrunk into himself. Not only because he didn’t expect this reaction, but also because what were its implications. Ichi was one thing, but Ni… He shivered. She wouldn’t hurt him on purpose, but that wasn’t giving him much confidence.
“What?” Ichi turned to her with an annoyed expression.
“Oh, don’t give me that look, you had your share yesterday, now it’s my turn!” Ni scoffed.
Share… Great. He facepalmed, realising something. He was getting reduced to some kind of personal relief toy.
“It’s not that.” Ichi shook her head. “Don’t you think that HE should be the one who decides what he wants and doesn’t want?”
He respectfully decided not to point out the massive hypocrisy of this statement. Ni looked at her and scoffed.
“Ni… why?” he asked curiously.
Ni looked at him and… blushed just a tiny bit.
“Oh… You were playing hard to get, eh?”
“Shut up!” she mumbled.
He couldn’t help but laugh. Anxiously, but still.
“B-but… I wanted him tonight… You… You promised…” Kendall stuttered, her gaze snapping between all three.
“No, I didn’t. And neither did he.” scoffed Ni.
“I did,” he quickly added.
Ni looked at him angrily. “NO! You said that… she would have her turn soon. Not that it would be tonight!”
Running through his memories he realised that she was right. He said that it would be ‘soon’. No mention of the specific time. He sighed, massaging his forehead. “… Fine… I guess I can do it…But I won’t choose. You do it.”
Ni looked at Kendall, attempting to intimidate her with gaze alone, but the only thing it achieved was Kendall squeezing him a bit tighter.
”Just play a game or something…” Ichi proposed with defeat, before giving him a look of anxiety and apology.
“Rock paper scissors?” he offered.
Ni looked at him and slowly nodded.
“Three wins?” he continued.
“Bet yer ass.”
He glanced up at Kendall and saw pure determination. Kendall and Ni raised their fists, their eyes locked, with Ni still trying to intimidate her. They both began the game by shouting "Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot!". Both threw out scissors. They immediately went for a new round, with Ni throwing out rock while Kendall used paper, winning the first round. Ni huffed in annoyance.
Determination in Kendall’s eyes turned into competitiveness.
Next round went equally poorly for Ni, with her choosing scissors and Kendall choosing rock. Ni loudly growled. In the fourth round, Ni chose paper, while Kendall returned to scissors.
“THIS IS BULLSHIT!” Ni yelled, standing up.
Kendall just grinned at her, savouring the victory.
“Well, that was decisive.” He sighed with relief, happy to survive one more day.
“Bullshit not decisive! I want a rematch!” yelled Ni.
“And if you win, she will demand a rematch,” Ichi scoffed, but with audible relief. “She won Ni, get over it.”
Ni threw her hands into the air and marched straight into her tent, sulking and cursing the entire time.
Ichi sighed and shook her head. “Have good night.” she said, also retreating inside.
Just like that, he was alone with Kendall once again.
“You really went into her mind, didn’t you?” he asked, looking up at her with relief and admiration.
She chuckled with newfound confidence. “I guess I did… It’s nice to win against Ni, you know… She almost never loses at… anything, really.”
“Enjoy the win all the more.” He smiled.
She stood up and carried him to her own tent, where she laid herself on her bedroll and placed him next to her head and smiled with both gentleness and excitement.
Despite her size and age, he just couldn’t bring himself to see her as anything else than a pure, precious little girl. For the sake of his mental health, he hoped she wouldn’t want anything more than just flirting and cuddling…
“Are y-you comfortable, little o-one?” she asked, already blushing.
He sat down and smiled at her, then patted her snout. “Yes, very. A cozy place with a good company.”
She grinned, as if her greatest dream was unfolding right before her eyes. It probably was to be honest. If she really was desperate enough to regularly flirt with inanimate objects, then having something that could actually… talk back…
He suddenly felt bad for her again… And that feeling made him determined to give her the best evening he could. “Have I even told you how gorgeous you are, dear?”
She turned red and hid her face in her hands, giggling like crazy. He moved a bit closer to her snout.
“S-stop… I’m g-gonna burn to death…” she squeaked.
“And you are extremely cute as well, you know?” he continued.
“M…M-me? I’m cute t-to you? B-but you… I’m s-so big to y-you…”
“Dear…” he stopped her. “You being huge does give you strength, but it doesn’t take away anything from who you are. And you are a cute girl with a heart more golden than your scales.”
She looked at him sheepishly and gently nudged him with her snout. “You are so s-sweet… Humans u-usually just… scream and run away when they s-see me…”
“That’s because they do not know you, dear…” he rubbed her snout.
She let out a small titter and pressed him against it. “Y-you are cute t-too… and brave… a b-brave little one…”
“I don’t have to be brave… Not when I’m in your hands…” he said, cuddling up to her.
“You… you really f-felt… comfortable? S-safe? W-when I w-was carrying you l-like a… doll?” she asked, visibly surprised.
“The safest I’ve felt in my entire life.”
That was a lie of course, but excluding a few incidents, close enough to the truth. She wrapped her titanic fingers around him, holding him tightly, but stopping short of pain. “I-I will… keep you safe… I promise…”
“I know. I never doubted it…”
She exhaled shakily and tittered, moving her other hand to also cradle him. “L-little one… can... can we stay like this… for a while?”
“As long as you want, dear…”
She let out a happy sigh and began nuzzling him, her hands shivering from happiness around him. He tried to reciprocate by rubbing his cheek into her snout. After a while, he placed a kiss on her snout, between her nostrils.
She let out a whimper. “W-was t-that a… a k-kiss little one?”
“Yes… You didn’t like it?”
“I… I did… c-can you… d-do it again?”
He obliged and kissed her once more, which resulted in another happy squeak.
“You can kiss me too, if you want…” he offered and considered something. “… Try aiming for the head.”
Her eyes widened and after a second of hesitation, she pulled him down ever so slightly, before placing her humongous lips around his head. She momentarily enveloped his entire face, the suction pulling his head inside her mouth in an instant, but not deep enough to hit her teeth. Smelling her still meaty breath and seeing himself between the monstrous fangs, his instincts finally decided it was too much and kicked in. He desperately pushed against her lips, trying to free his head and get away.
She realised that he was struggling and opened her mouth. “I’m so s-sorry little one! I didn’t m-mean to…”
He plopped his head out and fell backwards, feeling rejuvenated by the successful escape attempt. “It’s… fine. You can… continue if you want.” He wiped his head from dragon spit.
“A-are you… s-sure, little o-one? I… I d-don’t want to hurt you…”
He forced himself to smile. “And you won’t. It’s just a kiss. The worst that could happen is me ending up on your tongue and you pulling me out… right?”
He could see that scenario very well and – while not exactly a fan – judged that it wasn’t really dangerous.
“I… A-alright…” She once again kissed him, but this time far more gently. Her lips pressed even harder against themselves than the last time, creating a tight seal around his head, not letting him slip inside again.
Finally, his vision returned as she pulled out, looking at his red from underpressure face with mild concern. “Are… a-are you alright, little o-one? I… didn’t hurt y-you?”
“Not at all dear…” He smiled. “Damn, what a kiss.”
Kendall let out a small titter, her face blushing furiously. “I-it was… nice… right?”
“It was… though it was a bit scary seeing your teeth in all their glory,” he admitted.
“I-I promise, I w-would never u-use them on y-you… I… I would never hurt y-you like t-that…” She started hyperventilating.
“Shhh…” He placed his hand on her snout again. “I know dear. I know.”
Kendall took a deep breath and then let out a relieved sigh, the air washing over his body. And then, tears rolled out of her eyes. “Thank you… thank you for not being… afraid of me… For… trusting me…” she pressed him against her snout again.
Her expression was a mixture of relief and the purest tenderness he had ever seen. He smiled at her gently, looking at her tears rolling down her cheeks and snout, each of them large enough to fill a bucket.
“I would say that you are welcome… But that would imply that I had anything to do with the outcome. I didn’t. You did it yourself.”
She took a shaky breath and shook her head. “I didn’t d-do anything special… I… I just treated you the way y-you deserve to be treated… That’s all…”
He nuzzled her snout again. “Dear, don’t you see it? You believe that a tiny and completely helpless creature like me DESERVES to be treated with kindness. With compassion. With dignity. That I deserve to be listened to. You didn’t have to do any of that. I couldn’t stop or force you to do anything. But you did all of those things anyway. I could not ask for more.”
Even more tears rolled out of her eyes. Some even reached him, making his attire completely wet. At the very least, the water was warm.
“You are treating me way better than I deserve, sweetie. And far better than I expected. You are just so kind…” he hugged her again.
She shook her head, her eyes still closed. “N-no… You deserve to be t-treated well… Y-you are so… small a-and… fragile…”
“And that’s exactly why you are such a good person. An angel, really,” he retorted.
She finally opened her eyes, giving him a loving and thankful expression. He rubbed his face into her snout again.
“I want this to never end…” she mumbled dreamily.
“Oh? So, you would like a facemask made out of me then, huh?” he snickered.
Kendall opened her eyes and looked at him, contemplating the idea, while at the same time blushing furiously. “I… yes!” she exclaimed. “I could p-put little strings on your arms and legs and then we would be snuggling the entire day…” she squeaked, loving the idea more and more.
For a moment, he wondered if she was joking but then remembered how… slow she could be at times. Unless he protested fast, she’d absolutely go for it. And as enjoyable as the snuggling was, he was quite certain that hanging suspended by threads from her face would get more than uncomfortable rather quickly.
“Dear… you would get tired of my smell after a day at most…” he replied, trying not to inform her that he wasn’t a fan of the idea.
She thought for a moment and sighed. “… You a-are probably right… But we can still c-cuddle right now… right?”
“Of course. We can cuddle as long as you want…” He locked his gaze with hers, silently thanking all non-existent gods for making it out of this one.
They lied like this for quite some time, nuzzling each other and enjoying each other’s company.
“You h-have pretty eyes, l-little one… S-so… warm… and gentle…”
“Not nearly as beautiful as yours are, dear.”
Her blush deepened for a few seconds, with even a noticeable increase in temperature of the exhaled air. “M-my eyes are… n-nothing special…” She sighed. “But y-yours are… pretty.”
“Kendall, sweetie… You are forgetting that I am much smaller than you. You barely see my eyes… But I can see every single detail of yours. They are gorgeous. Just like the rest of you.”
She blinked, flattered, but unsure. “N-no, I like your eyes, little one. T-they are p-pretty.”
“Really now? What colour are they?” he asked smugly.
The question got her visibly anxious and forced her to focus even more intensely on his eyes. Soon, she realised that squinting alone wouldn’t cut it and moved him towards one of her eyes. He soon felt like Frodo must have felt in the movies whenever he put on the ring – a giant eye with a vertical pupil took up his entire field of view, staring at his very soul. Only difference was that this eye was blue. And still squinting.
He decided to help and opened his eyes as wide as he could.
“They are… uhmmm… black?” she responded.
“No. Those are my pupils.”
“Then… they are…” She squinted even more, her irises twitching from effort. “… I’m s-sorry, little o-one… I… c-can’t see…”
Her eye began watering.
“They are grey,” he quickly explained, patting her. “Grey eyes with tints of brown and green.
Her eye opened again, focusing on his face. “They a-are… very pretty…”
“Thank you. Your eyes are also very pretty, you know. I can see every detail… every fiber of your irises…” he said.
“R-really? A-and… how do t-they look?”
“Big. Deep. Blue. But not perfect blue. There are dark and light spots. You have different fibers too. Some of them are green and it makes your eyes look like the sea… Like a coral reef from above. And all those fibers change colour near the very edge of your pupil. They all become golden. It’s like your pupil has a halo of pure light around it. It makes them look even deeper.”
She smiled… at least he thought she did, he couldn’t really see much aside from her eye. But it did look like she was smiling. After a few seconds, she moved him again and put him down next to her snout He cuddled up against her, making himself cozy.
“Good night, little one… thank you for… everything.”
“Good night, dear…”
As they drifted to sleep, he wondered for how long she wanted a friend… And how much it meant. He couldn’t even imagine…
***