His Paper Heart ✓

•32|His Sad Kids Club

"LITTLE ARIEL," GRAY WHISPERS AS HE TAPS MY SHOULDER. "It seems you've gotten yourself into a tiny jam so I'm going to leave you alone to deal with your sister, alright? I'm heading to my parlour."

"You're not going anywhere," I whisper back and he grunts. "You're going to help me look for whatever it is Darlene wants."

"Come to my room when you're ready or you can just let me marry Gray." Darlene shrugs, before running out of the kitchen.

"Maybe I might do just that," I mutter to myself. Gray puts his arms around me and nibbles the crook of my neck as I erupt with laughter. "I can't believe my little sister is blackmailing me right now. She used to love me so much," I whisper.

"She still loves you."

I turn around and wrap my arms around his neck, grinning. "How can you tell? Did you read her microexpressions?" I press my lips on his and he thoughtfully furrows his eyebrows for a second.

"Yeah." he nods.

"What are my microexpressions telling you now?"

"You love your Captain Cuddles too much that you'd rather do your little sister's bidding than give it away," he whispers as I sigh. "Don't you think it's time you gave it away?" he asks.

"I'm not giving her my teddy bear. Captain Cuddles is my best. . ." I stop and quickly pull away from Gray as he smiles. "Did you just give me another clue? Teddy bear and 5am kisses," I mutter. "Does the story have anything to do with my teddy bear?" I question but he just shrugs his shoulder. "It has something to do with my sister? Or whatever she wants me to help her find?"

"I don't know." he starts walking out of the kitchen toward Darlene's room.

"Just tell me please!" I whine.

"No."

"I'll do anything!"

"Tempting but no." he pushes Darlene's door open.

"Welcome simpletons!" Darlene shouts, making me jump up slightly in fright. She has her blanket draped around her shoulder like a cape and a banana skin on her head, symbolizing a crown, I guess. "You're here to do my bidding, now bow to me!"

"We're not going to bow—"

"Silence!" she screams and the banana skin falls from her head onto the carpeted floor. "Before we start looking for this treasure, I need you to say this after me, "Darlene is the most creative person I've ever met". Not you Gray, you smell nice."

Gray grins at me as I sigh. "Darlene is the most creative person I've ever met," I say.

"Good." she nods. She takes the blanket off her shoulders and throws it on her bed. "I need you to help me find a picture."

"What picture are we looking for?" I ask, taking a seat on the bed. Darlene plops down heavily beside me and flips one of our many family albums open.

"The picture of me winning last year's karaoke competition. I want to put it into this year's trophy so the person who wins will have a stunning picture of my face. I'll win obviously, but still," she explains.

"So you want to see a picture of you in the trophy you win?" Gray asks.

"Yes because I'm adorable."

"Can't argue with that." Gray smiles.

"Every year, during the first week it snows in December, we have a karaoke competition one of the nights. It's sort of a family tradition," I say to Gray. "And Darlene has been winning every single year since she started to speak." I glare at my little sister.