The Gourmet's Lil'snack

Kids talk

"She isn't one of your kind, right?" Alex turns to them.
Both his guardians stayed quiet at that. Kaël rolled his eyes as Zalifer gave a worried glance at both of them. "You know, dude, that there is some secret that we can't share with anyone..." She finally lets out, looking apologetic that she can't share everything she knows with him.
"And I think you specifically know that..." Kaël adds, matter of fact, tone.
Alex nods, a little sour that he had to admit that. But goes to his room. Sure enough, Thorne was already there.

She smiled up at him from his desk. It was a shy, awkward smile though. As much as she wanted to try making friends she had no idea how or what to do. She felt a lot like Stitch in that movie she watched with Humbert the other day. "Um...s-so....did uh....you need something or...?" He had asked her to follow along, so he probably had an idea or a plan, right?

He nods as he asks "You said that you arrived here like a month ago. What did you do before?" Although he was still a little mad that she didn't tell the truth from the beginning, he was now even more curious about her.

Her ears twitched a little. Ah, maybe that had been the wrong info to give up. Oh well, too late to take it back. "I was living in a restaurant." She blinked up at him and shrugged as if it were obvious. "That's where I met Humbert."

He approaches his seat, eager to hear the rest. And he was not the only one.

She went pale. Damn, she said too much again. She couldn't tell him the whole truth without revealing what Humbert was, so she'd have to paraphrase. "Well....h-he came to the restaurant to critique the food I guess and uh...I-I fell on the plate being served to him....that's...kinda the only reason he saw me...." She rubbed her neck awkwardly and glanced away. "N-not sure why but he decided to take me back here and I've been living with you guys ever since."

"Suspicious" State Kaël, sensing she wasn't telling the full truth.

"I'm more surprised that The Humbert has decided to take her back with him..." Zalifer informs her face is a little dark. But Kaël nods at that info too. Alex hummed.

"Did he treat you well?" He inquires but he doesn't believe that Humbert doesn't care for her as he remembers when he first meets Thorne.

She rubbed her neck. "N-not entirely at first....kinda scared the crap outta me when he took me with him. I'm....not really supposed to show myself to humans...hell, you're not technically supposed to know I exist so this is all....kinda breaking the rules but...y-yeah, he's been pretty nice since I've been here. H-he got really mad at me when he found out I wasn't eating proper meals." She ducked her head as if she had gotten scolded again. "I-I tried telling him that it's normal for me, b-but he ended up insisting...that....that's actually when you first saw me. I-in the kitchen."

"huh...Well..." Kaël started to say but Zalifer continued. "...the way she says...Doesn't that sound like-"
"Make him sound like a parent. I mean, when he learned that you don't eat properly. It just makes me think about what a parent would do, no?" Finish Alex, tilting his head.

"Huh?" Thorne blinked up at him. A parent? Really? "But...h-he's not my dad or anything...." She rubbed at her neck again. "I don't even remember what it's like to have a dad...." she mumbled, glancing away. How many years had it been since she'd lived with her family in that restaurant? She couldn't even remember anymore. Was Humbert's behavior really like a dad or a parent? "What....what do parents normally do?"

He thought for a moment. The first example he has in mind is Raymond, his legal guardian. But that question is hard for Alex who has been an orphan since birth and never got into adoption procedures. "I-I dunno? I guess it is a person that worries about you and t-take care of you?" he asks hesitantly.

"I guess someone like Raymond?" he tries again.

She hummed, nodding and thinking for a moment. If that was the case, then Humbert was a lot like a parent in that case. He made sure she was safe, ate proper meals, that she was clean and dressed warmly. He even helped her sleep and feel better when she had that nightmare and he wasn't even fully awake. Before she could open her mouth to speak though, Alex said Raymond and she looked at him funny. "Him? Really??"

His ears become red. "I-well yes? Is there something wrong with him?" he asks, suddenly worried that he got into a mess bigger than usual by accepting to live here with him as his guardian.

Thorne huffed and shrugged. Maybe there was more to him than she first thought. "N-no....we just didn't have the best first meeting and I haven't seen much from him since to change that. He seems like a bit of a hardass and I guess I just don't see him the same way you do." She sighed. "He's not a bad person." Maybe she should give the guy more of a chance sometime. "A-anyway, I...I dunno about the parent thing. H-Humbert's my friend....m-my first friend...a-actually....now that I think about it...."

"Oh..." he lets out as a realization hits him. "Then maybe I'm wrong... Friends also worry and care for each other, now that I think about it," he explains but...

"That doesn't feel like it tho," Zalifer says what he was thinking.

She wasn't sure she wanted to tell him about her current emotional conundrum. "I-I'm....still figuring that all out, b-but I'll take what you said into consideration. Th-thanks." Thorne sat down on the desk, looking up at him. "W-was there anything else?"

"Well that you will be lucky to get adopted by him I guess," He says what he was thinking. If Humbert truly sees her as his child, he can't help but be envious of her...

Thorne looked up at him and blinked. "A...adopted?" She tilted her head to one side. They'd talked about that in the movie, right? But that had been with the dogs at the shelter and she wasn't a dog. She huffed at him. "I'm not a pet!"