young prince

“I promise you won’t,” Wendy started to protest, but the boy seemed perfectly content where he was, and decided to give it up. “Well, that sounds lovely. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’ve never been very good at swimming,” she said, half-laughing. Growing up near the city, there weren’t very many opportunities to swim, and she was always afraid of drowning. “You’re right; it’s quiet today. Perfect for making new friends,” she smiled. “I’m Wendy, by the way,” she blurted, sticking out her hand to shake. “Wendy Darling. I’m a student at the University.”

Bambi kicked his legs out in front of him, partially listening to the girl and partially looking for frogs. “I used to be worse at swimming. It just takes practice. The water’s pretty calm right there, you’d be safe.” Or, there was always the pool. Some people were particular about the water they got in. Half a bite of snack in his mouth, Bambi was caught a little off guard by the introduction, but smiled as non-grossly as he could, and shook her hand. “I’m Bambi. Sun. I go there too! Do you have a major?”

Wendy flinched as the boy before her shook his hair free of the water, but took a seat on the dry bench nonetheless. If she sat far enough away, her books wouldn’t be in jeopardy of ruin. “Oh!” she exclaimed, moving her legs out of the way of the boy’s bag. She looked at him curiously as he sat on the ground, shaking her head. “No, no,” she sighed, “you don’t have to sit down there. Please, there’s plenty of room.” Wendy gestured to the space beside her, placing her books on the other side. “In all the times I’ve been down here, I don’t think I’ve ever gone for a swim before. How’s the water?”

“I don’t wanna get you or your books wet, though,” Bambi half-argued, pulling out a breakfast bar from his bag. And, in all honesty, sitting next to people could get awkward, and if he was in the grass he could pass off not making eye contact as him looking for bugs or something. Taking a bite of his little snack, Bambi gazed back at the water. “It’s nice! Not freezing or anything, and it’s clean, which is real nice for everything and everyone.” He would skip talking about the things that could be caught down there. Little critters where you swam weren’t for everyone. “And not too crowded, either.”

     It was strange to be greeted so casually. Kristoff didn’t exactly have a lot of friends—well, more like he had exactly two friends—so the guy coming over to chat with him, presumably just because he was a familiar face, was new.

    “No, uh, I’m off duty,” he answered with half a chuckle, not sure whether the question was intended seriously or as a joke. “I don’t know how much use they have for a park ranger at a carnival. Unless something goes wrong at the petting zoo…”

 Bambi took a long sip of his drink as he listened, half chewing on the straw. He’d always thought rangers would be different than this guy, and it was throwing him off a little. “I don’t think anything’s goin’ on, but I haven’t been yet. I dunno, I guess I thought maybe someone smuggled in an illegal pig or something. Or...illegal bets on the pig racing? If they do that?”

 He didn’t know...quite why he’d said that, but it didn’t matter. It had been an interesting thought, so the ranger could hear it. “That was dumb of me to think, huh?” he asked, beaming.

“Hi,” he said chirpily, sitting on the chair in front of her. “Artist’s pick please.” @glittrpines​

“Hey! Didn’t think you’d be here,” Bambi greeted, coming to a half-bouncing stop next to the man. “Are you like...supervising or what?” @rangerkristoff​

Eric laughed at his comment, nodding in agreement before speaking, “I guess so, huh?” Yeah, admittedly, Eric didn’t know much about dogs. He just really enjoyed the company, but it was nice to be around someone who could educate him more on his furry pal. “Bambi. That’s a great name,” he replied, returning the little wave, “It’s nice to meet you, too. And you know what? Maxxie will have to learn to share today,” he half-joked, starting to lead them towards his boat. “So, Bambi, tell me more about the shelter life. I can tell you that around these parts it’s one sea-worthy adventure after the next…and lots of fish. What’s it like working at the shelter?”

Bambi shrugged one shoulder at the compliment to his name. He could definitely have a worse name, that was for sure. With a small bounce in his step, Bambi followed a little behind the man. Okay, maybe he shouldn’t just accept food from strangers, but...well, dogs were a good judge of character, and Maxxie seemed on the level with everything. “Well, it’s a bit of a wild ride. We get animals of all kinds, and they’re all so different. Like we’ve had a mutt that looked a lot like your dog, but he wasn’t quite so nice until he got used to us.” Bambi thought for a second before continuing. “It’s nice, though. It feels like I’m helping, and I get to pet a lot of cute dogs and cats.”

task 003: happy working song

listen here (translations under readmore)

“Yeah, it is. Not too sunny but not too cloudy. Decent weather for a day at the park.” He hated this awkward small talk. Why couldn’t they just be friends? Nico supposed he ruined that though. “Oh, I didn’t come here with anything specific to draw in mind. I just had free time and thought I could find something to draw here. I saw the flowers and then the little rabbit came along and started chewing on them so I thought it would be cute.”

Bambi thought for a moment, biting on his lip. Did he want to...try and just be friendly? He wanted to be friends, that was all. Probably. So, yeah. He could show Nico the spot he was thinking about. “There’s a really pretty place not too far from here, if you wanna see if there’s something there you might wanna draw,” he said, not as confidently as he would if it wasn’t Nico, but better than he had been. “If you have time...I don’t wanna keep you, or anything.” And the confidence was gone.

“He’s an Old English Sheepdog, but he isn’t much of a sheepherder,” Eric replied, laughing a little. “You volunteer at the local shelter? That’s actually where Maxxie came from,” he proudly commented, giving the guy a little nod. “I gotta say, you guys are the best around when it comes to caring for animals in need. Keep up the great work,” he said with a grin, turning to keep his eye on Maxxie. “You’re welcomed to join Maxxie and me for some lunch by the docs if you’d. There are enough sandwiches to go around, though I don’t think Maxxie will share his,” he teased, turning to give the guy a friendly smile. “Pleasure to meet you, by the way; I’m Eric.”

“It looks like he likes to herd people,” Bambi commented. That was pretty common in herding dogs that didn’t have any cattle around. He’d personally been herded by dogs as little as a corgi called Springer. But at the comment about the shelter, Bambi found himself standing up a little straighter, proud. It was nice that someone noticed. “Yeah, I started sort of recently. And that’s okay if Maxxie won’t share, I have....my own food.” If the cereal bar in his pocket counted as lunch. Still, Bambi grinned and gave a small wave at the actual greeting. “I’m Bambi. Nice to meet you.”

     Why not? He scoffed, looking down at himself as if to make sure he had remembered to put on his uniform that morning. The guy was like a deer in headlights, freezing up as soon as he’d been caught straying from the path—which was actually unbearably endearing in itself—but that didn’t mean Kristoff wouldn’t be stern if he was questioned. “Because I said so. You’re not allowed off the trail; didn’t you read the signs?”

Bambi couldn’t help but make a face, slowly putting his leg back down so he could look a little more like a respectable human being. “But I’m not hurting nothin’,” he countered. “Plus, there’s a spot like...ten steps that way that’s real good for watching birds.” Bambi pointed directly in front of himself, making his eyes a little bit wider. Maybe he shouldn’t argue with a ranger, but he was also pretty sure he knew the woods as well as this guy. “I won’t get lost for ten steps.”

Nico felt like their air was heavy around them. He felt guilty for the way he sort of ghosted Bambi but he was just not ready to take the next step in their relationship with him. “Um, I’m fine. Been busy with school and stuff. I was just taking a break from things to sketch here. It’s peaceful this time of day.”

“Yeah, it’s...really nice out here,” Bambi conceded with a small nod, trying to think of what to say next. There were about a million things he wanted to say, but none of them were exactly right. He guessed he should just keep walking, but that wasn’t happening either. “Do you want to draw anything specific? Or are you just finding whatever?” That was a normal question, right?

Nico hadn’t realized it was Bambi who had stepped in front of him. He quickly sat up straight and tucked a stray strand of hair behind his ear. “B-Bambi. Hi. I didn’t notice you there. I mean, I did. I just didn’t notice it was you.” Guilt began seeping into him as he remembered their relationship. “It’s okay. I’ll try again later. Um, how have you been?”

Bambi felt himself look away, shy on pure instinct. This would be just his luck. Trying to think through things and running into yet another...problem? He didn’t know what it was. Whatever it was, it felt sort of awful. “Yeah, I uh...figured.” Absently, Bambi pulled on the hem of his sleeve, fighting the urge to just sort of run off. “I’ve been pretty okay. You?”