"Woah," Lena mockingly exclaimed. "That's really cool, and not sad at all."
"Thanks. It is cool," was his reply, deadpan and self-aware.
Lena couldn't help but smile. She unfolded her arms and stepped over to the bed, where Huey was packing for his Junior Woodchucks camping trip. Glancing over the myriad awards and decorations adorning his uniform, her eyes caught at a merit badge depicting an eye with six rays shining therefrom.
"What's this one for?" Lena pointed to it.
"I know this trick," Huey smirked at her, knowingly, "I'll look down and you'll flick my bill. Well, not today-"
Lena swatted the coonskin cap off his head, "Seriously, tell me."
Huey, unsurprised and with little left to lose, looked down to peep the badge she meant, "Oh, that one's for hypnosis." He paused, seeming to forget himself, then turned to see where his cap had fallen, "Now, please don't pinch me when I bend over to pick my hat up."
"Are you serious?" Lena thought the Woodchucks were just about looking at trees and rocks every other weekend.
"I am. It freaks me out when you do that," Huey quickly plucked his hat off the floor, one hand guarding his tail.
"I was talking about the badge," Lena chuckled, lightly. "You dork."
"Oh, yeah. It's the third rarest badge awarded, and the gold trim denotes that..." Huey turned up his bill, jokingly smug, "it was awarded with extreme distinction."
Lena smiled, shaking her head. She sat on the bed and leaned against the massive backpack he was packing, then said, "Okay, L. Ron Hubert. Why don't you try to hypnotize me?"
"What makes you think I haven't already?" Huey was in rare form. He put his hat on and waddled over.
"Oh, shut up," Lena giggled, pushing his shoulder.
"I knew you'd say that," flirted Huey, putting a folded tarp in his backpack. "Your mind is like putty in my hands."
Lena laughed again, but a little more softly. The room fell into a beautiful silence, both ducklings smirking coquettishly and stealing glances from each other.
She tried to look in Huey's eyes, but they darted away like they always do. Lena knew he had trouble with eye contact - with everyone, not just with her - but it was different when she looked. He didn't blush when other people stared.
It could have been worse; for a week after their night in the garden, Huey would turn red whenever Lena so much as entered the room.
"Hey," Lena said softly, almost whispering, and set a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He cast his gaze to the floor, and she thought she felt him shaking.
"I, uh-... R-really, though, the history of hypnosis is fascinating, and m-mysterious. Most people think Franz Anton Mesmer was the, uh," Huey rambled, like he always did when Lena tried to make a move. She tried not to be annoyed with him; he was nervous. She was nervous, too, of course, but she had the tools to process it - and Huey obviously didn't.
Again, Lena sympathised with him, but it felt good to have this kind of effect on Huey. She didn't know why. She thought it could have been the feeling of power over someone, but that would be a disgusting way to describe it.
Lena made Huey nervous. It felt good. It meant that he… felt the same way about her that she felt about him. But is nervousness really an indicator of someone's affection? Huey got nervous about a lot of things, usually because he didn't like them. And she made him nervous, too?
But he had to be nervous in a good way, about her, didn't he? If Huey didn't like this, he would say something, or just tell her to stop. Wouldn't he?
Slowly, torturously, a tumorous pit of doubt formed in Lena's stomach as she sat there, watching her trembling little boyfriend mumble and stutter through a lecture. Magica was the farthest thing from her mind, in this moment, and still it happened.
Lena couldn't ask herself these questions - she couldn't even think about them - and she refused to sit here and let them torment her.
"Which Paracelsus had learned from Heinrich Cornelius Agr-" Huey's impromptu dissertation ended when Lena put a hand over his bill.
"I know you get off on explaining things, Huey, and I know how you hate getting interrupted," interrupted Lena, letting go of his bill and taking his sweaty hands in her own. "But…" she struggled to continue. She didn't know why.
There was a long pause.
"What is it, Lena?" Huey asked, tenderly, and squeezed her hands. He had to have still been anxious, but his concern for her must have overcome it.
Lena looked at Huey, locking eyes with him. He didn't look away.
Not for a few seconds, anyway. He tried, though, to stare back in her eyes and show that he cared. Whatever was inside him, that urged him to look away and cast down his gaze, he struggled and fought against it, for her. It was a short gesture, and small, and would have been insignificant to anyone watching, but it meant the world to Lena.
"Huey, I…" Lena gently muttered, not even realizing she had done so until afterward. "It's just that, you're going to be gone all weekend, and, um... I'm going to miss you," she explained earnestly, pulling Huey into a hug. He wasn't shaking, anymore, though.
They lingered in one another's arms for awhile.
Lena continued, more casually, "And I would like to spend some time with you, before you go, that doesn't include getting lectured on the history of hypnosis." She guided Huey onto the bed to sit beside her, still sharing the embrace.
"I understand," Huey answered, unsure but with a furtive smile on his lips. "I'm going to miss you, too."
Lena nuzzled her cheek against Huey's head, ruffling his feathers and skewing his cap. He nuzzled back and, just as she pressed the first kiss onto his cheek, two knocks rapped against the door to his room.
"Huey, sweetie, are you almost finished packing-" Della peeked into the room and, with a look between shock and confusion, tried to ascertain what was being done to her baby boy.
Everyone froze in place, and a few very tense seconds passed.
Lena was the first to see humor in the situation. She felt Huey start to tremble again so, trying not to laugh, hugged him tighter and rubbed his back reassuringly. She stopped when she realized it would only look worse.
"Y-yeah, mom! I'm almost finished," Huey answered, unable to even look in his mother's direction.
"Packing?" Della asked without thinking.
"Yeah," Huey answered.
"O-okay, honey. Well, I'll be waiting downstairs," Della sounded just as nervous as her son. "I, uh, I'm just gonna leave this door open."
"Okay," Huey still wouldn't look, and didn't even move until he was sure his mother had turned down the hallway.
Another pause followed, long enough for Huey to breathe and come down from his anxiety trip, then Lena started laughing.