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The fresh spring breeze was stroking his cheeks softly, as he silently followed the 6 year old boy walking enthusiastically in front of him, stopping every now and then to watch out for his surroundings, almost as if making mental notes, and then keep on going.
Elisio wasn’t used to walking this far from the garden surrounding his house, but Antoine looked like he knew what he was doing, and the chat happening back in the living room between their parents was quite boring, so he decided to follow him: wherever that led.
From one moment to another, Antoine stopped right on his tracks, and said:
“Here!”
Elisio rushed to his side to see what this was all about, and...
Antoine spotted a Wrumple, and was staring at it with an unmatched admiration, the poor little thing... dragging itself slowly through the ground, in a way that brought back unwanted memories for Elisio.
“Ew!”
The black haired boy shook his head, “don’t be rude, Elisio! Bugs also have feelings, y’know!”
As it kept moving, Elisio crossed his arms, “Leo once caught one in the night and left it over my face when I woke up!”
His friend laughed wholeheartedly, shrugging, “cuz Leo is eeevil.”
From the pocket of his jeans, Antoine took out his magnifying lenses that surely, surely he borrowed from his dad as these were too big for his little hands, and like that knelt on the ground, to have a better look of it.
“Ah!” He exclaimed in the same fashion his dad would do when he and Mommy were working on something together. “This is amazing! Its eyes look so different like this. You should have a look, Elisio!”
He didn’t want to discourage his friend, it was just that Leo had made sure that he hated bugs for all the countless times he had brought them home and placed them in random, unexpected places.
“No, thanks.”
“Mmm...” the older boy went silent for a while, scanning the pretty common bug like it was a newly discovered legendary bug pokemon. “I gotta practice doing dex entries, mmm...”
From his other pocket, he took out a very small notebook, a chewed pencil, and lent it to him.
“What am I supposed to-”
“You’re gonna write the entry, of course.”
“But you said you-”
“My auntie Hikari is a writer, you should have some sort of writer talent in your genes.”
Was there even such a thing as that...?
Well, he didn’t want to be a bummer, and if he could engage in this bug activity by doing something as simple as writing...
“Ok, Elisio, I’m gonna tell you how it looks like and you have to make it sound even better!”
Elisio knelt down close to his friend, so he was able to hear him better, to write even better, since he was still learning to do so and had a hard time with certain traces.
“You gotta talk about how it’s got many shades of pink! And also about...”
He tried so hard keeping up with all that his friend was prompting and saying, because Elisio always wanted to seem smart to the eyes of his best friend Antoine.
Because in times like this, he couldn’t help but stop for a second and contemplate all that this boy of curly black hair and brown eyes was:
He was very smart, at his young age he was as starved for knowledge as him, he wasn’t like other boys that only ever wanted to play sports and nothing else, one could ask weird questions to Antoine, who would always flash a big smile and invent an answer, either that, or sheepishly say ‘ I’ll ask my daddy! ’
With Antoine, Elisio always felt safe to ramble about cats on and on, on and on, and he never said it was boring, if any, he tried to follow the conversation, he took books from his dad to understand better about cats, or about anything that was of Elisio’s interest, for that effect.
Antoine was really a good friend. And for a second Elisio felt a pang of fear that he was quick to put into words:
“Hey...”
“Qu’est ce que c’est, mon ami?”
Still watching with a bit of repulsion at how his friend handled the bug, Elisio said:
“You and I will always be friends, right?”
Antoine took his time to process these words as the change of topic was abrupt, quickly replying with a soft, “oh?”
The ginger boy twisted his fingers a bit, “yeah. When you become like your dad... will you still be my friend?”
Like everything in this world was perfect, Antoine nodded enthusiastically, “c’mon, Elisio! You don’t have to doubt it. You will always be my best friend!”
And those words made relief spread all over his antsy chest.
“And what about you, huh? When you become tall and grow a beard like your dad and everyone starts calling you on your phone wanting to make business with you, will you still want to be friends with me?”
Elisio wasn’t even sure that was the path he wanted to dream of.
But that wasn’t the matter here.
“Do you think I’ll have a beard? My daddy’s is so very itchy!”
Antoine laughed loudly, “my daddy’s face is also itchy when he kisses me on the cheek.”
And Elisio hummed, “I don’t know how my mommy can kiss him without having to scratch herself!”
“Maybe it's a bit like when you give kisses to Leo?”
“But Leo’s fur is soft.”
“But it burns. And you very rarely get burned, and...”
At that moment, they heard footsteps approaching them, and when they turned around, they were met with the familiar sight of their parents, and before anyone could say anything, Antoine’s dad cracked a laugh.
“Y’see? The boys were fine! Y’all worry too much!”
Elisio watched his auntie Nellcher facepalm, “Augustine, Hikari and Lys here had a bit of a point, they never allow Elisio to go further than their garden without a notice...”
And if the man seemed to take this by heart, when he noticed what they had been previously doing...
“Hah! So were you both doing field research?”
Both nodded, Antoine a tad bit more enthusiastically.
“Look at you both, if you ain’t two promising researchers!” Uncle Augustine laughed. “And you know? A good researcher never ever gets lost!”
At that moment, Daddy shook his head, “Augustine, I have many arguments that prove your sense of space doesn’t match your research skills.”
This made all of them laugh, and while they kept following the joke, he and Antoine exchanged silent glares.
Until mommy added, “Elisio, baby, please, next time give us me and Nell a heads up. Please.”
“Yes, mommy.”
“Well… now that we know the boys are fine… do y’all wanna go back inside? By this time the hot chocolate must be already done.”
His mom chuckled so endearingly when Antoine jumped in his place and clapped, “can I have some of that, auntie Hikari?”
“All that y’all want!”
That way, they all headed back inside the house, chatting animatedly, and at a certain moment, Antoine wrapped an arm around his shoulder and ruffled his hair, and this was when Elisio felt it stronger than ever.
How he wished Antoine and him could be best friends forever. Even if forever sounds like a lot when someone is just 5 years old.
And how he wished all of them, his parents, Antoine’s parents, could be best friends forever. Hopefully, life would always remain as beautiful as it was right then.