Title: The New Kid on the Block
Author: Saappaaton
Beta: LillaMyy
Rating: S
Genre: mildly fluffy drama with childish humor
A/N: This is written for "And Nellie's Your Aunt!" challenge a while back. This also goes to Ficlet300 and Teelusikan tunneskaala with reluctance (vastahakoisuus).
The New Kid on the Block
It was looking at him, that weird kid with freckles and a fiery red hair. Henry’s mom had arranged a playdate with the new kid next door, but Henry wasn’t interested. The new kid had a weird face and he smelled funny, not to mention that his name sounded like someone was sneezing. Charles.
Henry had said “bless you” after the boy had introduced himself, and Henry’s mom had tugged his hair gently, reminding him to behave. Henry rubbed the back of his head and looked at Charles, who had hastily become hostile after Henry’s response to him.
Standing next to him Henry’s mom pushed him gently towards Charles, but Henry only agreed to take a half a step towards him. Other boy’s smell was disturbing him for some reason. Didn’t mom smell that?
“Go on, get to know him, will you? I bet you’ll have fun playing together.”
“But mom, he smells funny”, Henry insisted and looked at his mom, like she was somehow at fault.
Then it happened. Charles’ brown eyes flashed with uncontrollable anger and with a silent ‘poof’ there was a small fox cub in front of them. He was showing his teeth like he could easily use them to tear Henry apart. A tiny smile found its way to Henry’s lips, not because he would’ve made fun of Charles’ fox form, but because it made sense now.
Charles was a fox and Henry hadn’t met a fox before. That’s why he smelled so funny.
Happily Henry grinned and with a similar silent ‘poof’ he turned to a wolf cub, bottom up, tail wiggling and ready to play. Charles was taken by surprise, but Henry’s high-pitched bark shook him out of it and without hesitation Charles jumped on Henry’s back.
