Paws don’t fit comfortably into human shoes. This was a discovery that Pan had the misfortune of making the next morning, as they all got ready to go to the flower shop. WW and his mother were especially quiet. The young man scowled the entire time he helped Pan wrap a bandana around his head to cover the flowers on his face. WW’s cold expression didn’t bother Pan as much as it had the day before, though… He’d seen his kindness. It was hard to be afraid of someone who’d held him when he cried… Especially after he’d found him asleep on the ground in the garden, just in front of the swing, with tears in his eyes. As expected, WW hadn’t answered any questions about that.

“Do they fit?” Katelyn asked Pan, pulling on her own shoes.

“As best as they will, I-I suppose.” Pan smiled weakly.

“Wesley, we have to go! Have you eaten?” She called over toward the kitchen. WW emerged, piece of toast in hand. He raised it, and an eyebrow. “Is that all you’re having?” She frowned.

If WW’s eyes had rolled any farther back, they might have gotten stuck back in his skull. “What do you want me to do? Shove the entire loaf in my face?” He scoffed.

“You don’t want to talk about yesterday, and now—” Katelyn stopped when her husband put a hand on her shoulder, shaking his head softly.

“Leave it be, love.” He kissed her softly, but she made a disgruntled noise, and stepped out the door. Frank sighed, looking over to his son. “Walter, could you please just—”

“No! I just woke up, and we need to go.” WW scowled deeper, pulling the hem of his green crop top down. He’d paired it with baggy khaki shorts with the bottoms rolled up.

“An apple, a banana, just… Something  else.”

“I’m two seconds away from tossing this toast in the trash.” WW narrowed his eyes at his father as he pulled his shoes on.

Frank just raised his hands in surrender as he followed his wife to the car.

When his parents had left, WW went back to where he’d just come from. Pan furrowed his brows, following just enough to peek his head around the corner. He watched WW pull a granola bar from a cupboard and shove it in his pocket. “So much for not wanting to eat?” Pan raised his eyebrow at him.

“It’s for later, I might get hungry.” WW shrugged as he went back to the door. “I never said I didn’t want to eat, it just bothers me when they’re like this. I’m not a baby.” He pulled the door open and gave Pan another glance-over. “Well… You look mostly human.”

“These clothes are really  soft…” Pan mumbled, thumbing the pale orange shirt that WW had leant him. He was amazed that it fit, despite the size difference between them.

WW just nodded. “Yup. Now come on, we’ve got to get to the shop before Corinne does.”

“Who’s Corinne?” Pan asked as he led the way outside.

“She’s my cous—oof!” WW groaned when he crashed into Pan’s back. “Dude, wha--?!”

“S-Sorry. It just… That’s a very strange chariot…”

“We call them cars, now go get in.” WW huffed, nudging him in that direction.

“Right…” Pan mumbled, doing as he was told. His tail twitched, uncomfortably squeezed into his pant leg. WW had to help him open the door and buckle his seatbelt.

WW said nothing else on the way to the shop. Both of the young men simply stared out the car windows. Pan was eager to see more of the strange world he’d come into. WW was eager to get the day over with.

Everything seemed so different to the tahval, yet so similar. Pan had travelled a lot around Amarai, and seen a few capital cities… When they came out of the trees, he found that aside from the style of the architecture, it seemed the human city had a similar layout. Houses, and shops. Roads and sidewalks. They were all just made of different things. It was strangely comforting. He was suddenly glad for all the travelling he’d done for the queen…

“This all must be really strange for you, huh?” Frank asked from behind the driver’s wheel.

Pan shrugged. “No stranger than going to a new city back home… Not yet, anyway. I’ll be able to get used to it.” He smiled over to the couple seated at the front of the car.

“Oh, good…” Frank smiled.

It was half an hour before the car pulled to a stop outside the shop. It was a squat, brown building with lots of big windows all around it. The sign on the front had flowers painted all over it, and in big, bubbly green font, it read: “Coming Up Roses.’

“It looks so lovely!” Pan smiled as he walked toward it excitedly.

“Thank you!” Frank grinned, using his key to open the door.

“Hey, Pan, are you afraid of squirrels, too?” WW asked from behind him.

“Wh—Squi—AAH!” Pan leapt away from the furry grey creature with the fluffy tail. He tried to run a few paces away, but he tripped on the mis-fitted shoes and landed on his side. He yelped in pain, rolling onto his back.

“A-Are you okay?” WW’s eyes went wide as he hurried over and knelt beside him.

Pan’s eye was squeezed shut, and he was biting his lip so hard WW worried he might draw blood. Does he even have blood? “Mmf… I’m f-fine… Just l-landed on the same place I did ye-yesterday…” Pan groaned. “I’m not even scared of squirrels, the asshole just startled me…

“Do you need a hand up?”

“Please…” Pan sighed. WW was stronger than he looked, at least strong enough to pull Pan back up to his feet, even if they both did stumble when they were righted. Pan caught himself against WW’s chest. “Thanks…” He said quietly.

“N-No problem…” WW nodded, looking up at him. He hadn’t noticed how much taller than him he was, before… “Oh, one of your flowers…” WW mumbled, reaching up to tuck a flower back under the bandana.

“Thank you…” This time Pan’s voice was barely more than a whisper as he stared down at the human. He hadn’t noticed the freckles scattered across the bridge of his nose, and his cheeks. They were cute. He smiled at WW, though the human’s face remained disappointingly unreadable. WW frowned.

“The inside of your mouth is green. Your lips are green. How did we forget that?” He let out a shaky breath. “This is a bad idea… T-Try to make sure the flowers stay hidden, alright?”

Pan rolled his eye and tapped WW’s nose. “It’ll be alright, okay? Your parents said I’m staying in the back mostly, anyway.”

WW nodded slowly. “Alright…” Pan was so close… WW wanted to trace his fingers along his sharp jaw, down his neck… He stepped away. “Let’s go inside.” He didn’t even wait for a response before he started walking into the store, holding the door open for Pan, who walked in awkwardly. The shoes would take some getting used to, it seemed.