"Give it back!" little Dan shouted as he ran between the two bullies, an unwelcome game of monkey-in-the-middle trying to get his Winnie the Pooh plush back. He'd run at one boy, who would toss the stuffed toy to his friend just before Dan could grab it. These were Big Boys who'd approached Dan on the playground, where he'd been having fun, minding his own business on the swings with Pooh Bear in his lap. They'd grabbed the toy –so much more than a toy to the small child now crying at the idea of not getting it back. Tears and snot were running down his face as he shouted brokenly at the laughing older boys to give his Pooh Bear back.

"If you want it so badly then take it from us, Danny boy!" This boy Dan had seen at the school when he'd gone in for his introduction, but he was at least in year three –Dan was going into year one soon. Both boys were much bigger than Dan was and when they held Pooh up in the air, he could jump as high as he could and still not reach it.

"Please give it back!" His mummy had taught him that he's much more likely to get what he wants if he says please, but that teaching failed him here. The bullies kept on roaring with laughter as Dan fell to his scabby knees on the wood chips, sobbing turning to blubbering as he started to accept his fate of never getting his special toy back.

The boys high-fived right over him, a final insult to injury, and they were about to leave when something hit one of them in the shoulder. Startled, they both looked down to see it was a shoe, a small trainer with the flashy lights on the back, lit up where they lay on the ground.

"Hey!"

Dan lifted his head up to see that standing between him and the bullies was another boy, bigger than Dan was but smaller than the other two were. He had only one shoe, the other between the Big Boys like he'd thrown it at them. Dan watched from the ground, curious but scared of what might happen.

"Give him back his teddy and leave him alone!" the boy shouted at the bullies.

"Make us!" one shouted, the other waving the toy about tauntingly. The unknown child bent over and grabbed up a handful of wood chips and threw it at them. And he did it again and again, throwing more and harder until the bullies had no choice but to drop the toy and run.

Dan was done crying by now, consumed in watching this one kid fight off two bigger kids. He watched, mesmerized as this hero boy picked up Pooh Bear, brushed dirt off of it, and turned back to bring it to Dan. The smaller boy just stared up at him as he knelt down beside him, smiling and handing him his stuffed toy.

"Hi, I'm Phil."

Dan sat up quickly and grabbed his Pooh Bear, hugging it tightly. He looked back to Phil as he sat on the ground next to him. Shy, Dan buried his face into Pooh's head, mumbling a quiet thank you.

"Well, what's your name?" Phil was picking at a stray thread on his trousers. He kept smiling at Dan, hoping he would answer and maybe they could be friends.

"… Dan." Dan wasn't used to talking to other kids, just playing by himself with his toys, so this was weird to him and he wasn't sure if he liked it. But this boy was the kid to get him his Pooh Bear back, so maybe he could talk to him a little to be nice. "I'm…" He counted on his fingers and held up one hand. "Five."

Phil grinned brightly at him, and it made Dan a bit more comfortable. "I'm seven." He held up the wrong number of fingers and it made Dan giggle, hugging Pooh tighter. "I've never seen you around here before."

"I just moved into a new house with my mummy and daddy. We had to move out of our old house so now we're living with my grandma." He pointed to the middle-aged woman reading on a park bench not too far away. "That's her. She took me here to play while Mummy and Daddy are unpacking all our stuff. We brought a lot of boxes with us." He loosened his grip on the stuffed toy in his lap. "Is your mummy here with you?"

Phil shifted back and forth, looking down at his lap with guilt in his eyes. "No, she doesn't know I'm here. Sometimes when my mummy and daddy aren't looking my brother will sneak me down to the park to play. We'll be back by the time they notice we're gone. He's over there on the jungle gym."

Dan looked, but there were a lot of kids over there and he couldn't pick out which one it was. He shrugged. "Do you go to that school down the street?"

"Yeah, you're gonna love it! Everyone's really nice to each other, especially the new kids. You'll have a great time." He patted Dan on the back a little harder than Dan had anticipated. "Do you wanna come over to my house after school tomorrow?"

Dan considered it cautiously for a moment. He was still too new to know where anything was except for the school and now the playground, and he rarely went over his few friends' houses before he moved, but this boy had saved Pooh Bear. He held the toy out in front of him. "What do you think, Pooh? Should I go over Phil's house tomorrow after school?"

There was a pause, and Dan unconsciously made the thing nod its head. He smiled brightly and Phil was giggling. "I guess that's a yes!" He started giggling with the older boy, until the laughter died down and they sat in silence for a long moment.

"You wanna go build a castle?" Phil asked, hopping to his feet and reaching his hand out for Dan to take it. Dan hugged his toy tightly before taking a chance and grabbing onto Phil's hand. The boy smiled and pulled him to the sand pit.

They built a pretty simple structure in the sand, but they made up for the mediocrity with a never ending tale of the kings and queens and princes and dragons and knights that lived in and around the castle. Dan even played the part of the dragon, and got to tackle the knight, Sir Philip, into the sand. They knocked over the castle in the process, but didn't mind as they just wrestled around for a bit, laughing and giggling at their own silly antics.

Soon enough –too soon for the boys- Dan's grandmother came over and told him it was time to go home. Dan wanted to stay a little longer, but Phil had to go home, too. "Remember, I'll see you after school tomorrow!" he reminded the younger boy, crossing his heart in a promise.

Dan smiled and nodded, said goodbye to his new friend and got up to walk with his grandma over to the car. He gave one last look back to see Phil waving and he smiled and waved back as the car drove off.


A/N: Reviews = quicker updates!