Disclaimer – ½ Prince and all of the characters—aside from my OC's—belong to Yu Wo
I bumped the heels of my slippers against the side of the ledge just outside the window seat, looking down at the pretty garden that surrounded the Lin house. Burrowing deeper into the electric blanket I had wrapped myself up in, I silently chewed on a bite of my lunch—a bowl full of sliced, raw veggies and fruit. Something Delun always called "pet food," but something I actually liked eating. Somewhat.
The eating process itself was still annoying. If there had been a way to teleport the food directly into my stomach, I would have done it. Assuming the teleporter chewed the food first, of course—if not, that would probably be painful later on…But unfortunately, even with technology as advanced as it was, there was no such thing as a food teleporter. Even ones that didn't chew food.
Thus I was stuck eating it all the old-fashioned way—with my mouth.
After swallowing the carrot I'd been chewing, I switched my music player to the next song—one of Tchaikovsky's piano concertos—then went back to staring at the swaying trees below me, and the bright blue sky above me, feeling thankful that this guest room was situated at just the right place that it got quite a bit of sun during the mornings and afternoons. Although the day was a bit cold—when was it not?—I was feeling nice and toasty under the sun and the blanket, regardless of how I had the window wide open and my legs hanging outside.
The pretty view, music, warmth, plus yesterday's outing had helped boost my mood quite a bit. Well, at least until that annoying man at the mall had butted in. But even he hadn't been enough to completely ruin my day all over again, and, although still concerned about Jiao, I was already feeling better by the time we arrived home again and I finally got to have a shower and a nap.
A nap which had been interrupted when Delun came bursting into the guest room to drag me downstairs for dinner only a little while after I'd gone to sleep. Apparently he'd noticed that his dresser had been messed with, and then Chen had admitted that I'd borrowed some of his things, and as I had predicted, he had been very huffy about it.
However, he was glad when he heard the news that I wouldn't be stealing his clothes anymore now that I had my own for "task number one." A task I'd already started on, very unwillingly, at five this morning when Jiao and her three siblings had, regardless of my alarm being set, dragged me out of bed and forced me to join them in their morning exercises down in the basement.
And now I was very sore and tired, but glad that I had something to do.
Along with that, Chen had said I could mess around in Delun's little workshop beside the garage, where he did woodworking—Delun was very annoyed with that idea, but Chen had pressured him until he agreed. So Jiao had told me to make something for "task number two." It was difficult with only my right hand, but, unlike my in-game-only combat skills, it was relatively easy to remember the simple movements I used to make arrows.
"Task number three" had turned out to be somewhat simple, although the maids had put up a fuss. Cleaning the guest room. It really didn't need to be cleaned very often, but there was enough work to take up a bit of my time. Dusting, sweeping, changing the bedsheets, taking my laundry down to the laundry room—though I did need help with folding it all after it had been washed—the maids seemed a little too enthusiastic to help me with that—and other such things. I'd never done any sort of housework before, so it was a very interesting experience.
With those three activities in place—plus the music room, where I was a bit reluctant to return to after yesterday—I felt a tiny bit more fulfilled now that I wasn't going to be lazing about all day long. Jiao had been extremely helpful.
I popped a cube-shaped piece of watermelon into my mouth and chewed slowly, running my mind over the trip to the park. Unlike when Jiao had been bullying me in the work-out room, she'd been sweet and patient with Shuang. Although she did still tease me for being "wimpy" whenever I fell behind, unable to keep up with them as we romped all over the playground, she was also so very motherly and warm, giving a feeling of safety and care.
This new part of my family was turning out to be so different from the other part. My brother left me, my father sent me away, I didn't even have any memories of my mother, wherever she was. That part of my family was a mess. One that probably would never be cleaned up. And although this new part wasn't without its own problems, it was so much brighter.
Smiling contentedly, I bounced my heels off the side of the ledge again and returned my attention to staring at the garden. The numerous maple trees that were planted down below had changed from rich greens to fiery reds, oranges and yellows, sending even more splashes of color across the already-colorful area. With all of the leaves falling down and blanketing the ground, I could imagine Shuang—and probably Mei Rong as well—begging us to get out a leaf rake to gather together piles of the leaves to jump in.
Hopefully, if they did, they wouldn't ask me to join. They would definitely tackle me.
The mental images I had of Shuang enthusiastically leaping into the leaf piles was suddenly lost when someone behind me screamed. The sound was drowned out somewhat by the music coming through my headphones, but I heard it quite clearly all the same. Twisting about, feeling terrified at the very unexpected noise, I watched as Heng raced across the room, nearly tripping over the end of the bed in his haste to get over here.
Even more unexpected than his scream was how he dragged me out of the window and threw me on the floor, then flopped himself down on top of me. Headphones askew and still playing very unfitting, pretty music, I stared in utter bewilderment up at the ceiling as Heng yelled, "DON'T DO IT!" over and over.
"What–" I began, but he interrupted me with more frantic yells of "NO, DON'T DO IT!"
Don't do what? I hadn't been doing anything. Unless he included eating lunch and staring at trees.
"I-I'M SORRY!" he sobbed, squeezing me so tightly that I was having trouble breathing. "I DIDN'T MEAN TO BE SO MEAN! I WON'T DO IT AGAIN! SO DON'T JUMP OUT THE WINDOW! YOU'RE STILL SO YOUNG! DON'T DO IT!"
Jump out…what the hell?
"Please, get off of me," I requested, feeling extremely agitated for many reasons.
"NO! I WON'T LET YOU JUMP!" His arms tightened even more.
"Heng–" I wheezed.
"N-O-O-O!"
Fighting to breathe under his crushing weight, I didn't try to say anything else while he rambled on about how sorry he was for being mean to me and how he'd never let me jump out the window. Just how conceited was he, thinking that I'd kill myself over something he said? My father said malicious things to me all the time, yet not once had I considered suicide. What would that accomplish, aside from making trouble for everyone around me?
"He's just a big kid." Chen's words from the afternoon before repeated themselves in my mind, and I slowly gathered together my patience with his ridiculousness. It was very difficult. Kid-like in mind or not, he certainly wasn't kid-like in his aggravatingly huge body.
It wasn't until several minutes had passed that Heng calmed slightly, face buried in the crook of my neck while he continued to cry and plead with me, sounding much more like Dib than he usually did here in real life. I would have patted him on the back, but my right arm was uncomfortably pinned between him, the electric blanket, and my stomach.
"Heng." I decided to attempt it again. This time, he didn't interrupt me.
"Hurmnyah?" he replied incoherently.
"I wasn't going to jump."
"Then why were you sitting in the window like that‽" he demanded, sounding very mistrustful, as if it was common knowledge that everyone who sat in windows was planning on killing themselves.
"Because the view of the garden is nice, so I was eating lunch there. And if I was actually contemplating suicide, which I never would," I added in annoyance, "do you really think I would bother with the electric blanket?"
"Um…" He fell silent, seemingly not able to figure out why I would wear a blanket during such a moment.
"Why did you think that I was suicidal?" I quietly asked.
"Well," he answered, hysteria once again increasing as he continued, "because all that other stuff happened at your father's house, then I was stupid and so mean and I said those horrible things, and then you looked so sad and stomped off and…and I didn't get to say sorry, and I was so worried and…and then you were dangling out the window and I got scared! I'm sorry! I really didn't mean to say that stuff. I know how important your father is to you, but I still…I just can't understand why." The arms that had loosened suddenly got tighter again. "Why am I not enough for you?"
Although confused over at that last bit, I answered seriously. "I'm a greedy person."
He snorted in disbelief. "One look at this bare room would tell anyone otherwise."
Smiling faintly, I sighed. "I didn't mean that in a materialistic sense."
Greedy for affection, acknowledgment, attention. My father's. I wanted it all so badly, though I knew already that I was never going to get it. I didn't need Heng there to point out that fact. But just because I knew it was hopeless didn't mean I wasn't going to continue to try in any and every way that I could, to make my father approve of me.
Then again, approval from that sort of sadistic person…It was a twisted and irrational want to have, I supposed.
"Anyway," I continued a moment later, "I would never ever kill myself."
…Well, not on purpose.
"Really?" His tone was hopeful, but still slightly skeptical.
"Yes," I murmured, turning my head to rest against his, since I couldn't pat him with my trapped hand. "People only get one life, after all. I plan on using mine as best I can for as long as I can. Just because things are bad from time to time doesn't mean they'll never get better. If I'm alive, I have the opportunity to turn things around."
He let out a long sigh against my neck and relaxed, heart rate noticeably slowing down. I let him lay there for a while, just giving him more time to calm down, but then glanced at the ear that was poking out of his long, wavy hair. "Heng."
"Huh?" he mumbled.
"Don't take this the wrong way," I warned, feeling extremely uncomfortable as he continued to squash me, "but you are very heavy and it's a bit difficult to breathe down here. Please, get off of me."
"Oh!" he exclaimed as if he hadn't even noticed how he was turning me into a pancake in our very misleading position, then hastily lifted himself up, giving my compressed lungs and personal space that much-needed relief. His face flushed deeply as he helped me to my feet. "Sorry…"
I nodded and sat down on the edge of the window seat, taking deep breaths while I turned off and set aside my music player, attempting to keep the discomfort off my face. My ribs had healed a great deal, but getting thrown to the floor and flattened like that had made them ache again.
Heng sat down beside me, pulled over my bowl of fruit and veggies, then set it down between us. "Sorry for interrupting your lunch," he mumbled, unfalteringly staring at some spot across the room. Now that I had the chance, I gave him a look-over. His eyes were dark, puffy, and as red as his cheeks, his whole face tired and pale, though it usually glowed with endless energy, and judging by the stubble, he hadn't shaved that morning. He also hadn't logged into Second Life last night, and I wondered if he had even slept at all. He must have been more upset yesterday than I'd thought.
Feeling a bit guilty that I'd stubbornly refused to speak to him again after our fight, I picked an apple slice out of the bowl and held it out to him. It wasn't a cookie, or a slice of cake or pie, or a bowl of ice cream, or a piece of candy, or a donut, or any of the other sugar-loaded foods he ate so often, but it was still sweet.
A faint smile found its way onto his weary face as he took the offered fruit. "Thanks." However, he paused before he ate it, giving me a suspicious glance. "You aren't just trying to get out of eating your food again, are you?"
Laughing, I shook my head, supporting my words by taking out a carrot stick and popping it into my mouth. "The bowl was full up to the rim before I started, if that gives you any indication of how much I've eaten already," I told him. Only seven pieces were left, laying in the bottom of the ceramic bowl.
"Oh, good." He finally ate the apple, slowly chewed it, then brought up the topic I'd been meaning to ask about, since here he was again, visiting in the middle of the afternoon when I'd told him not to. "I called my boss last night. She said I'll start on Monday."
"Ah," I breathed, nodding in approval. "Four more days of freedom, then."
With a small smile, Heng also nodded, then went on to describe the job—secretarial duties as well as small handyman sorts of jobs around the building—and the daycare itself. Apparently, ever since he was much younger and had been sending his brothers there, he had been friends with the woman who owned the place, as well as the part-timers who worked there nearly every day. He even knew some of the neighborhood children who attended there.
He sounded very excited about it all, and it made me relieved to know he would be okay. With my father's wealth to support me, I couldn't relate to Heng in a financial sense, worrying about bills and his brothers' school fees and simple day-to-day expenses, so I had no idea how much stress he'd been going through over the past month since he'd been fired, if it was a little stress or a lot, but I knew that it couldn't have been easy.
When the conversation slipped into a lull, I switched off the electric blanket and closed the windows, then got to my feet. "You should go."
Heng's face immediately fell. "B-but why? I…Yesterday you said I could visit in my free time."
"How much sleep did you get last night?" I asked, giving his haggard appearance another look.
"Um…well, none," he quietly admitted, glancing down at his lap. "Didn't want to login to Second Life, 'cause I thought you probably didn't want to see me, and I had trouble getting to sleep, so…I was up all night."
"I thought as much." Tugging on his arm, I pulled him to his feet and led him across the room. "You have a few hours until your brothers get out of school, so go home and take a nap. You look terrible."
Although it seemed to be a very reluctant agreement, he gave a small nod. He paused before he opened the door, turned and stared down at me, his face turning a bit pink again. "May I give you a hug?"
Feeling a bit apprehensive to be so close to him after he practically body-slammed me on the floor earlier, I took a step away and started to shake my head. "I…I don't–"
"Please?" he immediately interrupted, putting on a very cute, Dib-ish expression—how did he get his face to do that?—as he stepped forward and held up his fingers in a pinching gesture. "Just a little one?"
It was one thing to let Dib hug me; my mental view of him was, for the most part, still a little boy, so I supposed I didn't mind very much. However, the idea of having this huge man squeeze me was a very not-so-nice thought. But I had the suspicion that he was going to keep bothering me until I agreed, so I decided to get it over and done with.
"Yes…if it's small," I softly answered. "Just don't flatten me like earlier, please."
He smiled and slowly took another step forward, looping his left arm around my waist and his right around my shoulders as he pulled me against him, gently but still tightly. He hummed contentedly into my shoulder, breathing deeply, warming my neck when he exhaled. "You smell good."
"That's generally what happens when one bathes regularly," I alluded, rolling my eyes when he started laughing. Was he expecting me to be stinky, with as important as hygiene was to me? He didn't smell so bad himself. Whatever cologne he used had a much more masculine scent than mine. Musky, but not overpoweringly so. It was quite the difference from Dib, who mysteriously always smelled like blueberry pie.
After a minute or so, I deemed the hug over and attempted to back away from Heng. However, he apparently wasn't finished, and tightened his arms so I couldn't escape. Although I was starting to feel a bit annoyed, I let my head flop down on his shoulder, which just so happened to be at just the right height. It wasn't exactly comfy, laying my head on his muscle-packed shoulder, but it didn't feel bad either, I supposed. It was a very sturdy feel, all of those muscles.
Jealousy started to prick at my mind for the second day in a row when I compared my extremely scrawny self to his burliness. Even if I had put on weight this month, I hadn't put on any muscle, meaning all of that new weight was…I was getting fat.
My face paled at that horrible thought and I attempted to push it from my mind, but it seemed to have gotten stuck. Was that why he liked hugging me? I was squishy and flabby?
When I started making very determined resolutions to train much harder in the work-out room every morning, Heng suddenly said, "Hey," causing me to jump slightly. "…Are you doing this only because I asked?"
"Yes," I answered at once, leaning away from him when his grip loosened. I stared up at his forlorn expression and asked in return, "Did you apologize to me earlier only because you thought I was going to kill myself?"
He immediately started shaking his head. "No! I really do feel bad about it! I was going to apologize anyway!" A desperate look taking over, he pressed his right hand to my face and shook his head one last time. "I'm sorry I said all that. I mean, well, no…Honestly, I'm not sorry about what I said, but the way I said it. I didn't mean to get so angry about it…I'm sorry."
Sighing, I leaned leaned against him again and closed my eyes, feeling a bit better now that I'd heard it again. "Apology accepted," I said quietly, smiling a little when he hugged me again, his body becoming much more relaxed. "However," I added, "about what you said–"
"Al, I–!"
"Heng," I interrupted his anxious words and he fell silent, his breathing turning shallow. "About what you said…" Taking a deep breath, I wrapped my arm around him. "I'm not going to tell you to never bring up that topic again, because I know it bothers you, but please, have more tact next time and think about what you're saying before you say it. I already feel uncomfortable enough, talking about such things with a person I barely know, but if you're just going to yell at me, then don't talk about it at all." Drawing away again, I smiled up at him. "Okay?"
Face scrunching up the way Dib's did when he was trying not to cry, Heng nodded and weakly replied, "Yeah, okay," and then hugged me a third time, swinging me back and forth. I thought about telling him to stop it and let go of me, since he was breaching the agreement of "just a little one," but stayed silent and let him do as he pleased, not wanting to start another argument.
However, it was impossible not to protest when he suddenly scraped his rough cheek across mine. "O-o-ow!" I exclaimed, shoving him away—well, as far away as he could go when he refused to let go of my waist—and then put my hand to my stinging skin while I glared up at him. "Don't rub your beard on me! It hurts! Go home and shave!"
Big kid, my ass. Kids didn't grow beards.
A gleeful grin stretched across his mouth as he bent down and started scratching it against me again. "STOP, STOP, STOP!" I yelled, attempting to push away his face. He grabbed my hand, yanked it downward and swooped toward me again. I flinched and prepared myself for the scratchiness of his stubble, but instead felt the oddly familiar sensation of something warm and slightly moist pressing against the corner of my mouth.
Eyes flying open, I stared at his much-too-close face, feeling my cheeks burn with embarrassment as he pulled away, his smile losing its playfulness, instead filling with something else entirely. Something I didn't want to see, and had never even expected to see on his face when that look was directed at me.
"What was that for‽" I asked defensively, leaning as far away from him as I possibly could in an attempt to get away from that very unwanted expression of somewhat lusty affection.
He paused a moment, pressing his lips together in a thoughtful look, and then answered, "When you know, I'll tell you."
I frowned at him. "Isn't that statement backwards?" When he shook his head, I initially felt a bit confused. How was I supposed to know if he didn't tell me first? Unless…"In that case, have you already told me?" I quietly asked.
"Not directly," he whispered, looking pleased that I'd already figured it out, "but you knew." He raised his hand again, this time running it through my hair. "And you felt the same."
Heart pounding, I averted my eyes and stared at his chest instead, feeling utterly bewildered. Before that last addition, the suspicions had started whirling up. Suspicions that his reasons for getting close to me had finally surfaced. He was just like the other people who were after me for their own selfish wants. Those select few who had been daring enough to ask for, not money, but my body.
However, that suspicion was completely eliminated if the feelings had been mutual. I didn't know if Heng was that sort of shallow person—he didn't seem like it—but I most certainly wasn't. I would never involve myself with someone else when I felt no commitment to them. But why had I allowed myself to feel something like that in the first place? That was completely…idiotic. Why would I have ever involved myself with anyone else when I knew perfectly well that I was engaged? I had never ever done that before. I'd never wanted to before.
Thus I was completely confused; this situation had never happened. I didn't know what to do, what to say, where I was supposed to look—why did the patch of his chest I could see peeking out of the top of his button-up shirt have to be so damn nice and well-toned‽
I quickly moved my gaze to the wall, feeling my face burn even hotter. I barely refrained from yelling at him not to touch me when he gave my hair one last ruffle, then finally stepped toward the door, waving his hand. "See you later, Al."
"B-bye," I stiffly replied, watching while he opened the door, left the room and disappeared into the hallway. I waited until I couldn't hear his footsteps anymore, then hastily shut the door and ran to the bathroom, turning on the faucet and running cold water all over a hand towel. Slapping it on my face afterward, I took several deep breaths, glaring angrily at the inside of the towel. "Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit! What the hell is wrong with you‽" I snapped at myself, furiously rubbing the cold cloth all over my flushed face as I inwardly cursed Heng for making me think about unwanted things. If he hadn't kissed me and said that stuff, I could have gone on in blissful ignorance. Now my mind was all muddled.
The towel-scrubbing method of cooling myself down didn't work, so I draped the towel over the side of the rectangular tub, then hurried out of the bathroom, out of the guest room, through the hall and down the stairs, only pausing to throw off my slippers and cram my feet into my shoes before running outside to hide in the garden until everyone else came home.
That night in Second Life, I nervously walked with the other four toward that house the Odd Squad was using as temporary headquarters. Dib had sent us an annoyingly cheery message that said he was eating dinner in there, so there we went. I hadn't wanted to see him the night before, and now I wanted to see him even less, although for much different reasons. But I wouldn't be able to avoid him forever, so…
Wei Bo opened the door and they all filed inside. Taking a deep breath, I reluctantly followed after. A very long, drawn-out, echoing yell of "A-A-A-AL!" greeted us as Dib stampeded in our—well, my direction, an insufferably ecstatic smile on his face. The other four jumped out of his way, and I thought about doing the same, or maybe logging off, but resigned myself to my fate when he launched himself into the air and crashed into my chest, tightly wrapping his arms and legs around me while I attempted to keep myself from falling over backward. Now that I actually took the time to think about it, I felt like an idiot for not noticing before now how abnormal his behavior toward me was.
"I see you two made up," Xiu Chen happily observed.
Glancing down at Dib, who was holding onto me so tightly that I didn't even need to support him, I then gave the priest a sarcastic look and flatly inquired, "How did you guess?"
"Oh, well, you know," she replied with a chuckle, waving a hand as she turned to continue on toward the Odd Squad. "I just had a small suspicion."
"It must be a woman's intuition!" Avila added, laughing as she hurried after her sisters. Wei Bo gave me a confused look before turning to follow.
Sighing deeply, I gave an experimental tug to the back of Dib's top, but the only thing that accomplished was getting Dib to squish me further, so I dropped my hand and gave up on trying to pry him off as I continued forward, coming to a halt beside the other team, who were all seated around a table, eating dinner like Dib had been before our arrival.
"Sit there!" Dib ordered, pointing at an empty chair, which was knocked over. Feeling all the more annoyed, I put the chair in its correct position and sat. Dib finally let go of me and turned around, using me as a booster seat as he started eating again.
While the other four sat down around the table and started chatting with the other team, I glanced up when I heard someone sniggering. Lolidragon stared back at me, smirking. "Such a pushover," she remarked, dropping her eyes to her food afterward.
Knowing that her goal was to rile me up, I resolutely didn't respond and instead looked at Gui. "Hello, Gui Wen…" I greeted over Dib's purposefully noisy chewing sounds.
He took a moment to chew his food, swallowed, then replied, "Hi, Zian," with a small smile as he popped another bite into his mouth.
"How come," Lolidragon asked, pointing her chopsticks at us both in turn, "you two always call each other by your real names?"
After a moment of thought, I answered, "Because it feels more natural." Much to my surprise, Gui had said the same thing at the same time. He shot me a perturbed look.
"Are you two sure you're not twins?" Yu Lian quietly added, smiling in amusement.
"We're not," we both answered, Gui sounding much more irritated.
Dib tilted his head back to stare up at me with wide eyes, then laughed. "It's like a surround-sound stereo system…Quick! What's the first word you both think of when I say 'cheese'?"
"Cheese," Gui and I answered. Gui glared at me as if I was doing it on purpose.
"That's not what I meant!" Dib snapped.
Sighing deeply, I explained, "If you tell us one word and ask us what the first word we think of is–"
"The first word we think of will always be that one word," Gui ended for me, nodding. I gave him a glare in return for the one he'd given me.
"If you want us to think of something different, give us an entire phrase," I suggested.
"I don't want him to," Gui huffed, "you'll just copy me again!"
"How was I copying you‽" I demanded. "We said the stuff at the same time!"
Gui's mouth opened and shut several times, then he pointed one of his chopsticks at me and loftily declared, "I'm older than you, therefore you're copying me! I was here first!"
"So what if I'm younger than you‽ Age has nothing to do with this," I snapped. "You're being completely irrational!"
"Am not!"
Irritation taking over, I stole Dib's chopsticks, used them to pick up a dumpling off his plate, then threw it at Gui. He caught it in his mouth and gave me a muffled, triumphant "Ha-HA!" while Dib let out an anguished yell over his dinner being eaten by someone else. Ignoring Dib's distress, I quickly picked up a second dumpling and threw it at Gui before he could finish chewing the first. My second attack struck him on the nose, much to my satisfaction.
Eyes burning with anger and competitiveness, Gui stood up and drew his hand back to throw a piece of chicken at me, so I dropped the chopsticks and shielded myself with Dib. Someone yanked my chair backward a second later, and I looked upward to find a very annoyed Ugly Wolf staring down at me. "Stop the food fight!" he sternly ordered, then gave Gui a reproachful look and sat down again.
"Thank you, dear." Yu Lian gave his arm a fond pat.
Settling down on the chair again, I sighed and looked downward, just now noticing that Dib was crying. "Y-you…you big f-fat jerk, Al…!"
"What'd I do?" I asked innocently, feeling somewhat worried about how he'd just called me fat.
He pointed a shaky finger at his plate. "You messed up my dumplings!" he screamed. "I had them all perfectly arranged, then you stole two and wasted them on the purple meanie over there!"
I stared down at him for a moment while he covered his face and dramatically continued to weep, then I picked up his chopsticks, leaned forward and grabbed another dumpling off the large platter on the middle of the table, and set it down on his plate. After putting on a second one, I leaned back in the chair and handed back his eating utensils. "There. I replaced them."
"THEY'RE NOT THE SA-A-AME!" he wailed. "I spent so-o-o-o long picking out the dumplings I especially wanted to eat!"
"You did not," Gui denied. "You immediately grabbed all the ones nearest to yourself."
Dib fell silent, gave a glance to his plate, then let out another yell. "THAT ONE'S TOUCHING THE RICE! NOW IT'S RUINED!"
Frowning in disbelief, I looked at his plate. One of the dumplings I'd set there was indeed touching one grain of the pile of rice he'd heaped onto his plate instead of using a bowl.
How terrible.
Picking it up with my bare hands, I ate the soiled dumpling and narrowed my eyes at the unreasonable boy. "There. It's not contaminating your plate anymore. Now stop whining and just eat." Since when had he been so picky, anyway? He'd eaten that apple slice from my lunch earlier, and it had been touching other fruits and veggies, as well as laying in juice from the watermelon pieces.
After a great deal of coaxing, pleading, and threatening, Dib finally, with a lot of grumbling, ate the rest of his dinner and at last our whole team left the city to go train. While we walked along, I gave a small glance to the boy as he lay curled up in my arms, eyes tightly shut, arms crossed, and lower lip sticking out in a pout. Inwardly rolling my eyes, I ran my mind over the things he'd said before he'd gone home. Although earlier it had flustered me, now it all seemed a bit absurd.
If he was telling the truth and I had interpreted his words correctly, in the past I must have been out of my mind.
When I was a child, I never wanted one type of food touching another type on my plate. xD It was completely unacceptable and caused both foods to be inedible afterward. In this case, Dib didn't really care, but just wanted to cause more trouble in revenge for Al stealing his dumplings.