"Why is there a dinosaur in our bathtub?"
"Alya, Nino is coming up!" Alya's mom called from downstairs.
Nino took the stairs two at a time. As soon as he hit the second floor, Alya clapped a hand over his mouth and yanked him into the bathroom.
"Don't freak out," Alya told him, putting a finger to her lips in a shushing motion. She slowly pulled her hand away from his mouth and stepped aside.
Sitting in the bathtub was a huge, gray, four foot lizard. Its claws gripped the side of the tub, and it stared straight at Nino with its little black eyes.
Nino flattened himself against the door, his heartrate tripling in speed. "Why is there a dinosaur in your bathtub?"
"Shhh!" she hissed. "It's not a dinosaur, it's a black throated monitor lizard." She slowly reached down to pet it. "He's my dad's friend, Charlie's pet. Honestly, he's really sweet as long as you don't surprise him." Her dad's friend was also a zookeeper where he worked.
"Okay, but why is he here?" Nino demanded. Although the lizard was quietly accepting Alya's pets, having a large lizard in front of him with no glass or fence to protect him was making him anxious.
"Well, Charlie's having a girl over for dinner, and he didn't want to scare her with the lizard," she replied. "So my dad said that we could keep him at our house for a day."
"And I have to be quiet because…?"
"My mom doesn't know he's here," she replied. She pulled an egg out of a carton sitting on the toilet and held it up to the lizard's mouth. He readily accepted it and started crunching on the shells. "I've known this guy since I was really little, so while my dad is at work, I'm taking care of him."
Nino still didn't move from his frozen spot. "This is a horrible idea."
She rolled her eyes. "He's really docile. Charlie got him as a baby, so he's grown up meeting a bunch of strangers. As long as you don't antagonize him, he won't bite you."
It took about twenty minutes for Alya to convince him to sit on the floor with her, and even then he wouldn't pet the lizard.
"What are you going to do when your mom has to go to the bathroom?" he asked. "And what about your sisters?'
"She has her own bathroom, and the girls are staying the night with our grandmother," she replied. "My dad planned this out very well."
The lizard suddenly crawled out of the bathtub and into Alya's lap. He was too big to fit entirely there, though, so he let his hind legs and tail rest on Nino, who sat frozen with his hands in the air.
Alya laughed. "He likes to cuddle. Why don't you try petting him?"
They sat on the bathroom floor, talking and petting the lizard, until Alya's dad came home and relieved them of their duty.
"Thanks for staying with me today," Alya told him as they settled in her room.
"That was one of the scariest few hours of my life, man," he replied, taking off his hat and flopping onto her bed. "And that's saying something, considering I live in Paris, the land of akumatized victims with crazy powers and serious grudges."
Alya sat next to him, running her fingers across his cheek. "I really appreciate it."
He caught her hand and kissed it. "My girlfriend may be crazy, but I'm crazy about her, so I guess it's okay."