starlightcafe | New, and a bit alarming, who'd have ever thought that this could be?

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New, and a bit alarming, who'd have ever thought that this could be?

Lexi's first crush had come when she was about eleven, and had ended before she was twelve. Webby's interest in her and her family, though unnerving, had been flattering - and she was nice to Lexi. That went a long way to a kid who'd barely had friends outside of family prior to that. But, ultimately, it had been a passing infatuation with someone who she wasn't suited for, and who wasn't suited for her.

There had been other people in her teenage years - crushes and relationships alike - with all kinds of people, and plenty of meaningless flirtations in addition to those. For a while, she'd thought that was what she'd been doing with Gobo - flirting harmlessly. It was certainly fun, but he was, well, Gobo. It clearly didn't mean anything.

Right? The thing was, she found herself thinking about Gobo a lot, even when they weren't together. Notable experiences left her eager to tell him, and she often wondered if he'd like this or that thing... He was becoming a big part of her life. That was still a bit scary to Lexi with anyone, but in this case? Doubly so.

At least she knew who to go to when it came to any sort of strange thing like this. And she knew Louie was in town for a bit, so off to Donald's place she headed.

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He crouched so he could get a better look, watching her walk.

"Maybe if you actually tried walking heel-toe." He snickered softly and glanced up, then on seeing her face, cleared his throat and looked down again. "Here, just try it, slowly." A knelt-walk backward a few steps, to give her room.

She rolled her eyes, with a muttered comment about how he was lucky he was cute.

She took another couple of flat-fooded steps. It turned out a little angling of the ankle went a long way, though, and after a bit of pacing back and forth, she was starting to get the hang of it.

He watched her learn to walk, remaining where he was with an encouraging nod every now and then- At least, he stayed there until the third or fourth smack in the face with a barely controlled tail every time she passed him. About done spitting out bits of hair he finally stood up and moved back a bit more, laughing some.

"There ya go! I think you've about got it, now."

She couldn't help snickering each time her tail hit his face, still going even as she nodded at his conclusion. This wasn't so hard! She took a few, slightly quicker steps toward Gobo, and looped her arms around his neck.

"Yeah, I think so."

Gobo smiled, catching her as she came over to him, and nuzzling the length of her snout.

"Now we just have to work on your tail." A snickered, then he glanced at her. "I wonder if music comes naturally to you now, or we'd have to work on that, too?"

"Yeah- Oh. Good question, but I think there's an easy way to find out," she pointed out. "I could try your harmonica, or see what Louie has."

"Oh, my harmonica! It's worth a shot!"

He reached into a pocket and pulled it out, using a corner of his sleeve to wipe it off before handing it to her. A nominal gesture at best, but the thought was there?

She smiled as she took the harmonica, placing it to her mouth and exhaled a few breaths against the instrument. The first thing she noticed was how much that tickled, but then she realized... She was playing it. Actual notes that sounded good together, with no practice.

She liked that.

He smiled brightly with an excited noise in his throat, his tail waving behind him.

"That sounds great, Lexi!"

She continued to play for a couple of seconds, then lowered the harmonica with a grin. "Yeah? Thanks. Well, I guess that was effected, then, because I wouldn't usually know how to do that."

"I guess so! I wonder what else has changed, eh?" Someday soon they'd play music together, but right now the idea of experimentation was far more exciting. There were so many things to try now-

"Oh!" A quick pat over of his pockets, then he pulled a Doozer stick from one and passed it over. "Here, tell me what you think."

An amused quirk of the brow as he started searching for something, but that became a genuinely surprised look when he pulled out a Doozer stick. Those... Hadn't looked appetizing before, ever. Just kind of simple and plain, but the smell they gave off - admittedly quite faint, but perhaps her nose had improved? She wouldn't be surprised.

She took an experimental nibble, even though it was already appealing... And grinned, taking a few larger bites. All those years as a kid of avoiding eating vegetables!

He watched her curiously, nodding a bit as she took that first nibble. Then when she munched the rest of it down, he bounced a bit with a grin.

"There you go, there you go!" A little laugh followed. "You're every bit a Fraggle! I don't think anyone else would be able to tell!"

"Yeah, you think?" she chuckled, brushing Doozer dust off her hands and the front of the hoodie. Honestly, though, she was less concerned about appearing Fragglish enough and more concerned about the other Fraggles liking her, overall. It wasn't a major worry, but the thought was certainly there.

"Yeah, of course! Fraggle, Duck, or anything in between, they'd look at you and say there goes one cool Fraggle!"

He walked around her, looking at her from all sides. It was as he passed her back- and especially, her tail -that something else occurred to him, and as he came around to her front again he seemed a bit nervous.

"Though there's.. one thing, one major thing anyway, that we haven't really tested yet. But uh..."

Lexi smirked at the praise. She was very cool, no matter what species she was. But when she saw Gobo looking so worried, her smug look faltered until she was scowling a bit.

"Oh man. What is it?" She did not like the way he was fretting...

"Well, it's this." He picked up Lexi's tail and held it so she could see the poofball on the end. "This has a name, it's the belouvious. It flares out when a Fraggle gets scared, and it doing that is the mark of a healthy Fraggle.

"But er, the only way to test that IS.... to get spooked. Usually with a quick shock out of the blue."

Lexi groaned, shaking her head. "Can't we just, like... Assume I'm a healthy Fraggle?"

He was clearly conflicted over this, still holding her tail with both hands, ticking it a bit back and forth as he thought.

"We could, I guess. But a malfunctioning belouvious spells bad news."

Another groan - although it wasn't as annoyed this time, mostly because what he was doing with her tail was undeniably cute. She figured it wasn't worth the risk, and at least she'd have some warning, now?

"Just... Try not to give me a heart attack, okay?"

"Yeah. I'll try." A weak little laugh, then he released the tail to scrub his hair some, walking away a bit.

"The only thing is, it's gotta be unexpected. You can't just say 'boo' and be done with it..."

He folded his arms and sighed through his nose, looking up at the ceiling.

"Maybe if we do it later, it'll work out a bit better..." He scratched his cheek, shaking his head a bit, the idea hanging between them. Facing away from her, his eyes ticked back and forth a few times- Then he whipped around and lunged toward her with a frightening shriek, fingers curved claw-like.

The moment he said it might work out better later, Lexi wondered if something might be up, but she still leapt into the air some, tail poof flaring out.

"Okay!" she wheezed out once she'd caught her breath - and checked her tail. "Okay, there we go, it works! Never do that again!"

"Yeah! Yeah no, never again. I promise."

It took a second to catch her tail, which was still a little wildly controlled, but once he did he combed his hands over the poof, smoothing it back down. It was the least he could do after a spook like that.

"Head to toe, you're every bit a Fraggle as I am." He looked up, smiling at her. "I'm really glad the magic worked, and that Louie could help us with it!"

At that, Lexi smiled. It was shaky at first, but steadily grew warmer.

"Yeah, and he even did it free of charge," she snickered. "Really, though. I'm glad, too."

He looked up at her and smiled, a warm and affectionate one of his own.

"I'm glad.. that you're glad. And that everything that happened today, well, happened."

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getrichquick - 2020-01-23 09:34 (UTC) - Expand

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