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"Little one. I've said -"
"He's not little."
Dream stops in surprise. They're in a long line at a Whole Foods store, and he'd just been about to tell the Corinthian not to steal grapes before they pay, when he'd been interrupted.
Dream looks down, to the little girl who's only slightly taller than his knee, who is looking back up at him with adorably wide eyes.
"In fact, he's bigger than you," the child continues. "You're the little one."
Dream blinks back at the Corinthian, nonplussed by her comment, only to see a knife-bright smirk cracked across his face.
"That's right," the Corinthian drawls, enunciating audaciously. "There there, little one." He pops another grape into his mouth and wipes his finger tip on Dream's sleeve.
Dream can feel his eyes bugging out, but he can't help it. Stop that and stop that too and hello human and how dare you are too much for him to do all at once.
After swelling up briefly in indignation, he decides to calm down and talk to the child. The human one.
"It's not his form that's little," he explains, going to one knee so they're eye to eye. "He's little in other ways."
"Not in that way," the Corinthian informs the rest of the line with a winning smile, and winks, to a few muffled giggles going up and down behind them.
"In what way?" the child asks curiously.
"In ways you cannot see," Dream explains patiently. "In this way." He taps his own chest, right over where his heart is.
"I'm not sure what you mean," she says solemnly. "Are you boyfriends?"
More giggles up the line. The Corinthian himself sniggers quietly as Dream tries again.
"It means that he'll always be little to me, even if he's actually bigger than me. It means that he's always precious and worth protecting."
Dream pauses, then elaborates, "you know, you're not very big yourself. One day you may get a puppy that's bigger than you, and then you'll see what I mean."
"Hm...if you say so. Okay, mister. I gotta go now. Bye bye." She waves and then walks over to where the mom's gesturing.
Dream straightens slowly until he's level with the Corinthian again. The nightmare's gone silent now.
"One-zero to me. And really, stop it with the grapes, please."