Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails (Eric)

[maxine]

Max did not like Halloween. She did not like parties. Parties were not fun. She never wanted to go to a party ever again. She did not like being Running Dog. She didn’t understand and she was afraid. She wanted to be Max, not anyone else. She did not want to be another person or another dog or another animal. She just wanted to be Max.

And now Max followed Master around the house because she didn’t want to be left alone. She didn’t want Master to leave her in case something else happened. Max was scared. So she followed Master where ever he went. She didn’t even want him to leave the house without her, because Master was the only person here who would take care of her. But at the party Max and Master had been different. They were not themselves and Max did not want that because then Master couldn’t take care of her. She didn’t want either of them to be different people again. That was scary and Max didn’t like it.

But at the moment she was content lying on the floor and coloring with the funny smelling things that Master had called crayons. She scribbled in a coloring book that he had given her and Master wasn’t far away, because she wouldn’t let him be far away. She needed Master to be close while she colored in her coloring book, completely unaware that she was supposed to color in the lines. She just liked to color the pictures of the dogs.

She flipped the page in the coloring book and found a dog that looked like her! She pointed to the dog excited and looked up at Master. “Dog look like Max!” she cried happily. “Same kind dog!” And then she quickly went back to coloring the dog. He was a very nice dog too, especially since he was the same kind as Max.

[Deleted]

Eric was pretty sure he was out of his depth here. He didn't really know that much about taking care of traumatized people. Heck, there were nights when he'd stare at the ceiling in the dark, wondering if he was really ready to rule over his kingdom, which he had to do, of course. It wasn't like his parents were going to come back to make this all easier for him. This, however, was perhaps even more important to him than his country, and you could call him selfish for it if you wanted, he wouldn't have cared. Right now, all he cared about was the fact that his Maxie was so very scared of everything right now. Under these conditions, of course, Eric had decided to take a few days off from school, seeing as he had already tried to let her come to school with him, and it just didn't work. He refused to let her be alone just yet, even though he knew he probably would have to at some point. For now, however, when he found her right at his heels, he would occassionally sigh and ruffle her hair, because he understood.

Halloween had messed everyone up. Eric was just glad that Max wasn't quite herself to see him get drained by some girl who had gone and turned into a vampire. What was especially creepy was that he had these marks on his neck that didn't seem to come off no matter how much he scrubbed. Every time he saw them in the mirror, he shuddered. It was enough to make a guy consider wearing a scarf or turtleneck for the rest of his life. It was eery, remembering being an entirely different person. What was possibly even crazier, though, was the fact that the vampire girl...she sounded like...no, nevermind. It couldn't be true.

So for now, he was getting his assignments from friends and intended to have them all handed to his professors lest Grimbsy find out (he probably would) and give him a chiding letter. It wasn't like Eric was one of those kids who couldn't handle disappointing his...okay, yes, it kind of was. Grim was what little family he had left, and even though they disagreed, flat out disappointment was a rarity and Eric intended to keep it that way. At the moment he was reading for his English class on the couch while Max drew in one of the coloring books he had recently bought for her. After all, Max pretty much had a similar mindset to a very hyper little kid, and Eric remembered that, along with playing on the beach, coloring used to make him feel a lot better when he was a kid. So maybe it'd help his Maxie, because he really didn't want her to be scared forever.

He glanced up when she remarked about how the dog she was currently coloring all over looked like her and he couldn't help but smile. "Oh yeah, he does, doesn't he?" And you know what? Dickens could wait. He slowly made his way to sit next to her and looked at the pages. "So you like the coloring book?"

[maxine]

Max was scribbling happily over the dog that looked like her with the grey crayon, because dogs like her had grey and white fur. And this dog looked like her. He was a nice dog. Max liked this dog. He was a very pretty dog too. Max liked him. He would have been her friend if he was a real dog.

“Like!” Max told Master, still scribbling on the picture of the dog. Coloring was fun! Especially pictures of dogs! Max liked to color! The crayons smelled funny, but Max liked them. They were nice. She was scribbling extra hard and suddenly the crayon broke right in half. “Broke!” she cried and held up the broken pieces for Master to see. Then she went back to coloring with the broken pieces.

But then Max did not want to color anymore. She looked up at Master. “Not want to color now,” she told him. She wiggled across the floor to lay right up against Master. It felt safe like that and she rested her head on his knee like she would sometimes when she had a dog body. “Tell Max story?” she asked quietly. “Max like stories.”

[Deleted]

Eric smiled when she exclaimed that she liked the coloring books. It wasn’t like it was going to do any good if he had gotten her anything she didn’t like. After everything that happened, and the fact that she didn’t want to leave the house, not without him, holing up with as many things to occupy them seemed like the best course of action. “Good, good,” he murmured, just moments before she cried out about the crayon breaking. “Whoops…” He resisted the urge to chuckle just a little. “Yeah, you should probably be careful, those things can be delicate sometimes.”

Then, in a seemingly random motion, she decided she was done with coloring for now and wriggled over towards him, asking for a story. “Hmm, I think I can do that,” he told her, stroking her hair like he probably would have back when she was a dog. Somehow, though, it felt more like he was comforting a little sister than just spending quality time with his dog. Don’t get him wrong, he loved Max as a dog, and it wasn’t like he loved her more as a human. It was just different. Heck, it was the only reason he had been so freaked out when he first woke up to find that there wasn’t the big fuzzball that he had raised, but this slight blonde girl. He had known that this would change things; the only difference was that he didn’t realize that it wouldn’t be so major that it changed how much he loved her.

“What kind of story do you want?”

[maxine]

Max liked when Master petted her fur. She felt safe here like this. Max wasn't going to turn into Running Dog and Master wasn't going to turn into anyone else either. This was safe and this was good. She didn't have to be afraid when Master was around. He was here with her and he would take care of her. And Max would be a very good dog and take care of him too because that's what good dogs did.

She listened quietly. She liked stories because they were nice. And Master told nice stories. Max liked his stories. "Nice story," she told Master softly. "About dog," she specified because she especially liked stories about dogs. Stories about dogs were her very favorite. "And dog friends," she added. It was always best when dogs had dogs friends to play with. Dog friends were the very best! Well, they weren't as good as Master, but they were almost as good.