The Twilight Twenty-Five ( )
Prompt: #5 Growing Up
Pen Name: Maddie-the-Muse
Pairing/Character(s): Quil Ateara / Claire Young
Rating: K
Word Count: 315
Photo prompts can be found here: /round-eight/prompts
"Stop! Put me down!" Claire squirmed and kicked as Quil swooped down and tossed her over his shoulder. She pounded her fists against his back without getting so much as an acknowledgment from the bone-headed wolf boy. "I mean is, Quil. Stop!" She resorted to hiking up the tail end of his t-shirt and pinching him on the side in order to finally get a reaction.
He squawked and placed her back on her feet. The joyful grin fell from his face as he looked at Claire and realized she was actually upset with him. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't hurt you, did I?" He asked, genuinely worried at her sever reaction. He reached out and ran his hand affectionately over her cheek, trying to get her to look at him. "Claire-Bear?"
"Don't call me Claire-Bear," Claire huffed, brushing his hand from her face. "I'm not a baby anymore, Quil. You have to stop treating me like I am."
She turned and started to walk away, leaving Quil standing with a dumbfounded look on his face. He watched as Claire, now a young woman, walked away from him, and wondered how he hadn't noticed.
"Claire, wait up." She was only a short distance away when he called out to her. She turned to wait as he jogged to catch up. "I'm sorry. Please don't be mad at me?" Quil asked her with a sincere apologetic look. "You're not a kid anymore," Quil agreed with her earlier statement. "That's going to take some getting used to, I guess, but I'll work on it, okay. Be patient with me?"
Claire watched Quil's earnest face a moment and thought he looked like a puppy that had been caught being bad. She smiled; never able to stay mad at him for long. "Okay," she agreed with a nod and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug.