For some reason Migo couldn't get the feeling out of his head that Percy had been avoiding him for the past couple weeks. Sure he'd been all smiles when all of yetikind had walked down the mountain and introduced themselves to the humans, but Migo was beginning to suspect that was more of a diplomatic show on Percy's part rather than a reflection of his actual feelings, considering how after all the photos had been taken and all the fanfare over with he'd slipped out of sight without a word and Migo hadn't had a moment with him since.
Well, not a moment alone anyway. Sure Percy made the trip up the mountain almost every day to hang out for a few to several hours, but never one-on-one with him; always with a big group. He'd introduce yetikind to all sorts of cool concepts and inventions. A process made a lot easier since he'd figured out how to communicate with them verbally. Something about Yiddish, or Yettish? Anyway who was Migo to yank him away from all that to selfishly demand his undivided attention? I mean, he'd considered it a couple times, but quickly swatted away the notion like it was a yak fly. Instead he settled for trying to get past the human's peripheral vision and into his actual line of sight as often as he could amongst the crowd that inevitably formed around the human, one time actually managing to catch his eye, but only for the briefest of seconds, as Percy looked away almost immediately after making eye-contact and made sure to keep his attention focused anywhere but Migo's direction while teaching everyone how to use this thing called a "zip line".
Okay, so now he knew it wasn't just in his head: Percy was definitely avoiding him. And Migo needed to find out why, so he could fix it.
Luckily for him the perfect opportunity presented itself just the next day when some bad weather rolled in an hour or so after Percy had finished his climb up. Migo found him in the observatory, watching the blizzard taking place just outside, back facing him.
"Hey, uh, you doing okay?"
He saw the human visibly stiffen, but just the slightest bit, then deliberately relax. "Well of course I am; it's out there and I'm in here." Percy said with artificial nonchalance. "Why wouldn't I be?" He finished without turning to face him, back still to the yeti.
Migo ventured a couple steps closer as he went for the throat. "Well, it's just I've kinda been getting the feeling that you've been avoiding me?" He was expecting to be met with excuses, or flat-out being laughed at and told he was just being paranoid, not with the almost whispered words he got in response.
"You abandoned me." Percy said as he finally turned around to face Migo. "I thought- I thought I was going to die." His voice broke on the last word. "I thought you cared, but I was wrong." He turned away so the yeti wouldn't see the pools of tears forming in his eyes, threatening to fall at any moment.
"What, no! Of course I do." Migo replied, lurching forward and reaching out to comfort his friend, but pulling back at the last second—his outstretched fingers curling in on themselves—knowing his touch probably wouldn't be appreciated at the moment.
"Then why did you literally hand me over to the stone guy, who put me in an ice cage?" Percy asked miserably, hugging himself and clutching his jacket tightly in his hands in an unconscious effort to reaffirm it was really there.
That gave the yeti pause, remembering that moment of weakness when he'd lied to the whole village in an effort to keep them safe, all the while putting a helpless Percy in harm's way in the process. "... I made a mistake." Migo began, gaze lowering to the floor momentarily. "I was convinced you were something you weren't and it was wrong of me to have given you up. I'm so sorry I ever put you in danger, and I'd give up my horns just to be able to go back and do things differently."
"... You really mean that?" Percy unfurled enough to turn around and look Migo in the eyes, allowing the yeti to see the moisture gathered on the other's small eyelashes, causing his heart to clench inside his chest.
"Of course I do; I'd never let anything hurt you." He reached out to lift the human's chin with a single finger almost the size of his whole head. "I'll protect you from anything that threatens to hurt you." He said with feeling in every word, bringing out of Percy a small, but genuine smile.
Which soon turned into a smirk. "Just like I did with you?"
Migo couldn't keep a chuckle from escaping at that. "Yeah, but maybe with a little bit less stabbing. And falling face first into the snow, unconscious."
That brought out a good chuckle in return, which devolved into some teeth chattering accompanied by some slight shivering, causing Migo's brows to draw. "Are you cold?"
"Well of course I am. Have you ever heard of warm snow? Or ice for that matter?" Percy gestured around at the veritable ice cube they were currently standing inside of.
"What about the heat generator in your jacket?" Migo asks, remembering having heard about it.
"Got busted in the skeeball incident this morning." Percy replies easily, then worries his lip as he turns his head to eye the weather through the clear ice wall giving them a safe look into the outside. "I just hope this blizzard lets up soon; I can usually only handle staying up here a few hours, and that's with this thing working." He taps his chest a couple times, causing a small spring to pop out of his jacket. Which he then pulls out the rest of the way and chucks behind himself. "And the weather being calm."
He had a good point, Migo thought. Too much longer up here and Percy would no doubt become a popsicle, just like when he'd first tried to take the human up the mountain. Hmm, he tried to think of a solution when one suddenly popped right into his head.
"Is the cold threatening to hurt you?" He asked with just the hint of a conspiratorial smile.
"Come again?" Percy asked, rightly confused.
"Is the cold threatening to hurt you?" The yeti repeated, as if it were something completely normal to say.
"Um, yes I guess. If you want to put it that way." He mumbled the last bit bemusedly.
"Then I guess that means I have to protect you from it." Migo affects a strange voice and straightens up to his full height, putting puts his fists on his hips much in the same way a superhero would.
"What? How?" Percy asks, now turning to once again fully face his friend.
"I'm warm, aren't I?" Migo says with a self-satisfied smirk.
Percy merely raises an eyebrow in response.
A/N Wasn't Smallfoot such a good movie? I totally had to write a fic about it, and even started typing away on the drive home, lol.