01 – Us Two

by Fahiru

"Hallo there! I say, I've been waiting awful long to meet you!"

Moon looked out the car window to see the button-eyed bit of tub and fluff that had come to interrupt his viewing of the new house.

"Move over, please. I can't see the gables."

Bear gave a hurt sort of growl as he ducked his head just a bit lower so as to only peer over the edge of the car door.

"Are gables very much more interesting than a Real Live Bear?" The invader wondered in surprise to himself.

"Few things could be – but you are neither real nor live," Moon apologized, "yet I'm sure with practise you could be at least as good as a gable. I know Mummy is trying very hard to make you more than so."

Mummy was indeed trying hard and felt it rather unfair that Moon was not giving her any help.

"I may surprise you," Mummy/Bear said hopefully. "I may be better than a whole house full of gables and bears."

"I shan't think it likely, but I can help you pretend to be, if you like." Moon clambered out of the car and began to stamp out the Very Angry Needles that had taken up residence in his legs. Mummy looked on for a bit, planning her next attack. After Moon's blood had decided that it would help chase the needles away – if it really must – Bear tried very sneakily to find his way to Moon's heart by way of Holding Hands Very Naturally. The attempt was valiant, but Moon could not be fooled.

"What's that, Mummy? Were you trying to tickle me?"

"Why, I only wanted to Hold Hands Very Naturally as you are my Very Dear Friend and that is what we do," Bear defended himself with great importance.

"How can it be what we do if we've only just met?" Moon paused as he saw the great hurt and offense this caused Mummy. "Of course, I could hold your paw this once seeing as the house is big and you are small and it's very easy to feel shy when meeting so many new people and things at once – even if one is neither real nor alive. So come along Bear, and we'll meet the house together."

So Moon and Bear Held Hands Very Awkwardly (as Bear huffily insisted that he wanted to hold hands because he knew that Moon was feeling shy himself) and very carefully dragged him along the garden path to the Great Big Door.

"Oh! We haven't been properly introduced!" Bear's gruff voice seemed to call softly behind them. "I am Edward Bear – and it's so lovely to meet you, Billy Moon!"

"I don't like that name," Moon said carelessly as he opened the Great Big Door. "Mummy will have to help me think of a new one. And we've only just met, so you should call me Christopher Robin. That's my name, too, but not the one that really belongs to me – so I shan't need to always answer if I sometimes forget it's mine."

Mummy was far behind now, but Moon thought he heard maybe a bit of a pleased and humble sort of growl coming from Bear – but it was also shortly past eleven, so Moon felt it really must have been his own stomach.

Try as he might, Moon eventually ran out of prayers to keep Nou in the new room with him. Never before had he wished so ardently that Nannies were for keeping midnight vigil as well as being Rather Grand Playmates. As Nou tucked Moon in and went about turning down the lights, he tried to think up ways to ward off the Dragons and other Unpleasant Animals that were surely waiting patiently in the attic for Boy to be left quite alone.

Nou had gotten all the lamps and was just about to close the nursery door when she saw Bear lying face down near the ottoman, from which he had quietly tumbled while Moon had been busily ignoring him. Nou retrieved the rejected playmate and brought him to sleep beside Moon, who felt this was not the comfort he wanted.

"Bear doesn't want to sleep in the bed, Nou. He liked the view from the ottoman."

But Nou persisted. "Bear told me quite the same thing, but since it is his first night he says that maybe he should make sure that you weren't feeling nervous."

"I'm not nervous," Moon said. "But if Bear is feeling nervous then I suppose he can stay up here and keep watch for Dragons. He tends to worry about those sorts of Bigger Animals, you know."

"That's just what I'd supposed," said Nou, and she left Boy and Bear together to bravely ignore the Dragons.

Moon did find it easier to ignore them, too, since he now found himself much too busy ignoring Bear to give the Dragons any more thought.

"It's just for tonight, you know," Moon whispered as rolled over to face away from his Awfully Persistent Companion. "Nou wants me to be kind, so I will, but you shall have to be on your own again tomorrow."

"I suppose that's just as well," grumbled Bear in Quite A Different Voice. "I only wanted to be sure you were safe to-night. I think I can manage long as I know you are somewhere beyond the ottoman tomorrow, though I do think it will bea good deal harder to hear you from there."

"What's this?" Moon was only a little surprised. "I suppose Mummy asked Nou to look after you until I fall asleep? Really, you needn't try to speak all the time."

"Oh. I'm terribly sorry, it happens sometimes when one is pretending. I can be a little quieter if you like, but I think it may be a little harder to be Very Brave if you focus too hard on Not Pretending."

Moon thought about this for a bit and tried to make a plan.

"Would it make you feel Very Much Better if I let you talk to me at night like this?"

"It would," Bear said humbly. "For I am a Bear of Great Fondness but Very Little Courage."

"I suppose it can't be helped," Moon said with Great Charity. "It's not good to be left alone when one is Very Small and sometimes Maybe a Bit Shy. And since I know –" Moon paused for a moment, choosing his words, before he continued very softly. " – I know that sometimes it's not very nice to be told to go away when one has no one else to play with, so I suppose, sometimes, I can play with you until you aren't afraid anymore."

"Oh, I'm not afraid now!" Bear puffed up Rather Proudly. "I'm never afraid with you."

"That's a silly thing to say to someone you've just met." And Boy Held Hands Very Naturally with Bear as he drifted off to sleep.

(A/N: I recently saw Goodbye, Christopher Robin and even more recently started reading The Enchanted Places by Christopher Milne. Winnie the Pooh has always had a particularly important and somewhat nostalgic place in my heart, so it has been painful to look at all the ways in which the books had a negative impact on the real Christopher Robin. There is a meeting scene between boy and bear in the film, but I wanted to rewrite it a bit after reading more from Christopher Milne's perspective. One of the most important ideas I wanted to incorporate, which I may have failed to do, was that Milne said his relationship with Pooh was born out of empathy upon realizing that Pooh probably looked up to him as a his sole source of comfort and companionship in the same way that Milne viewed his own Nanny.

Written for [Twelve Shots of Summer: GO] Week 1 [First Partner])