Gift-Fic: A Man and His Dog
by: Flaming Trails

Ah – what a nice, quiet day.

Victor smiled as he glanced up from his book. It was an absolutely lovely spring afternoon, with a warm breeze wafting in the scent of the flowers in the garden through the open study windows. Around him, the house was pleasantly calm – Alice was off at Richard’s haberdashery, earning her daily bread; Chester was off visiting his new girlfriend Allison at her house; Vincent was in his room working on a new song; Lorina was in her room working on some new project; Ferdinand was laying flat in the garden, soaking up the sun like only a giant butterfly could; and even Lightning, having completed his morning wrangling of his humans and post-lunch walk, was having a nap in his bed. Not even Victor’s thoughts were excited for once – instead of the usual whirling storm of new ideas, full of lightning flashes of brilliance and madness, the inside of his skull was as sunny and still as the day outside. Feels good to have a moment where everything just – is, he thought, rolling his neck to get rid of a little stiffness. We don’t get those much in this house anymore. I like it. He took a deep sniff of the flowers, then proceeded to go back to his book –

Only to spot something scurry past the study door out of the corner of his eye.

Victor’s head snapped up, and he stared at the open door for a second, blinking. What the – what was that? he thought, putting the book aside. It wasn’t very big...was it a rat? A mouse? Oh dear, the last thing we need is – no, wait. If it was vermin, Lightning would have already caught the damn thing’s scent and been on it in a moment. Though I don’t know if he would have tried to snap it up or play with it...either way, we would have known before now. So what else – oh, damn it, did I not put the lid back on the army ants’ terrarium properly? Are they on the hunt for new lands to conquer? Suddenly very concerned, he got up and hurried to the door, looking around for anything unusual –

Just in time to see a bright red something hurry away around the corner, toward the kitchen.

Victor blinked again, processing what he’d just seen. Okay, uh, definitely not mine – but then whose is it? The only other Touched in the house doesn’t usually make things that are ambulatory, and we don’t have any scientist neighbors over here...I think... He shook his head. Only one way to find out!

He set off after the creature, relying on his extremely long stride to catch up. Within seconds, he’d gotten around the corner, where he spotted the something running toward the kitchen door – which Victor noted with interest was already slightly ajar. “Hey!” he called, walking up to the creature.

The creature – which Victor could now see vaguely resembled a person, with a long nose and a leaf sticking out of its head on a stem – looked up at him, jumped, then tried to run away. Victor put his hand in front of it and scooped it up before it could get very far. “Hello there,” he said, bringing it up to his face to examine it. “What are you, and why are you in my house?”

The creature whimpered, then pointed at the kitchen door, shaking its little leaf head. “Oh, don’t be afraid – I don’t want to hurt you,” Victor assured it, lightly stroking it with a finger. “I just don’t know what you’re doing here. Can’t you talk?”

The creature squeaked, then pointed at the door again. “I take it that’s a no,” Victor said, carrying it over and opening the door. “All right then, what’s so important in – oh!”

Victor started – as did all the other little brightly-colored creatures currently invading his kitchen. There were a bunch more of the pointy-nosed red ones, helping each other climb up onto the counter...then a passel of pink-mouthed blue ones, which had commandeered the cookie jar and gotten the lid off it...and then a crowd of big-eared yellow ones, which were hoisting cookies out of it. Two of them had in fact frozen mid-hoist, staring at Victor with big eyes. For a moment, all was silence.

“Guys? What’s taking so long? I know you’re small, but – oh! Oh. Uh – hi, Dad.”

Victor turned around to see his daughter standing behind him, expression sheepish – and with a copule more of the strange creatures sitting on her shoulders, these sporting little white flowers instead of leaves. “...getting a snack?” he asked blandly after a moment.

Lorina went pink as the creatures squeaked. “I, um, was going to tell you about them,” she said, lightly patting one on the head with a finger. “Just – later. When I was certain they could do all the things I wanted them to do.”

Victor laughed softly and shook his head. “Lorina, you should know there’s no hiding any Touched shenanigans in this house.” He offered her the little red creature he’d captured, whose leaf perked up as she accepted it. “How about your little friends finish getting those cookies, and then you can tell me all about them?”

That got a grin. “Sounds good to me. Hey, Pikmin! Two more cookies for Dad, please!”

The End