"Are you sure this is necessary, Lila?" Nathanaël asked as the little girl adjusted his fox ears.
She sat back to admire her work and nodded eagerly. "If you don't look like a fox, then the other foxes won't accept you as their prince, duh," she explained. Lila pulled out a little tail as well and gave it to the boy. He sighed and fastened it around his waist, twisting the tail around to dangle over his bottom.
"How do I go potty with this thing?" he whined, stamping a foot and twisting his hips.
"You hold it!" Lila said, crossing her arms.
Nathanaël wasn't going to hold it. If he had to go, he had to go! How could Lila even suggest something like that?!
"C'mon, let's go play arts 'nd crafts!" Lila squealed. She took the boy's hand and dragged him to the tarp set up on the floor.
Nathanaël smiled at being in his element. All around them were big bottles of paint. Red, green, blue, yellow, even purple. He loved purple! So, Nathanaël immediately went for the best color in the world and squirted a big blob of it onto a paper plate. Then he grabbed a canvas and tossed it down at his knees.
"Are you gonna paint me?" Lila asked with a giggle.
Nathanaël looked up with a wrinkle of his nose, "I already drew you, though," he said.
Lila huffed, muttering about rudeness, something, blah, blah, Nathanaël stopped listening. Instead he started painting. On the canvas, Nathanaël appeared. Well, Super Nathan. The little boy giggled at the picture, proud of his own painting.
"It kind of looks like a villain like that," Lila commented. "Why's your skin purple?" she asked, leaning over his shoulder.
"Because it's a disguise," Nathanaël explained. "Superheroes gotta change what they look like or the evil people'll get them when they're aren't ready!"
Crap. He needed black. Where was it?
Spinning around, Nathanaël spotted the big bottle. He crawled over and grabbed it, squirting a big dollop onto a new paper plate. He plopped down in front of his masterpiece and got back to work. Only after Lila started to giggle did he stop again. "What?" he questioned with a harsh tone.
"Y-you got paint on your tail!" Lila said before bursting into laughter.
He did what?
Looking down, Nathanaël saw the tip of his tail covered in purple paint. He squeaked and grabbed it, dropping his paint brush on the plate. His head went down to examine the paint splotches, which made his fox ears slip off his head. "Agh!" he groaned in frustration. The ears landed in the purple paint, coloring the backs. "Sorry, sorry, Lila!"
Meanwhile, the little girl was curled up on the floor laughing and clutching her stomach. Their whole class turned to look at them, and all the eyes had Nathanaël blushing. Just great. Just perfect. This was what it was like to be a prince? He wasn't so sure he wanted to be one anymore!
"Why you laughing?!" Nathanaël barked, covering his red face with his barely brighter red hair. Dumb Lila, laughing at him.
Lila regained some of her composure, enough to sit up and to speak, anyway. "Purple Prince!" she squealed, covering her mouth and again laughing loudly. She took the now-purple ears and wiped them off, sticking them back in Nathanaël's hair. "That was cute, mio principe."
Poor Nathanaël was too busy trying to calm himself down to pay attention. He just wanted to paint! Now his ears and tail were messed up!
If he sniffled and bit back tears, they were justified.
I did another chapter!