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“Oops!” Hop said, tripping over his own feet. Again. And then, he had the nerve to laugh about it! Did he take nothing seriously, at all?
“You’ll get it next time,” Neige said, smiling as he helped the clumsy idiot to his feet. Didn’t Hop see how hard Neige was working? At least Timmy had an excuse, since he could barely see through his long bangs. And Shelpie…well, when he wasn’t falling asleep, he was a decent enough dancer. But Hop…Hop was born to dance. Besides Neige, he was probably the best dancer out of all of them. He just needed to take this whole thing more seriously!
“Grum,” Neige said, his face turning serious at once. “Is something wrong?”
Grum wanted to point out that everything was wrong. They weren’t all on beat with the music, and Toby might have benefitted from counting the steps, but he kept forgetting where he left off. Snick would do fine until he was beset with a fit of sneezing, and Dominic…
Well. Dominic might be book smart, but he did not have the best sense of rhythm. They’d already been rehearsing this song all day, and still, they were a mess.
How Hop could smile at any of that was beyond Grum.
“Meow’s it going?”
And that would be Neige’s friend, Che’nya, who was, quite possibly, the most annoying student at Royal Sword Academy.
Next to Hop, probably.
“Our hard work is paying off!” Neige said brightly. “We’ve stumble a few times, but everyone is having fun. Isn’t that right, Grum?”
Grum could feel his cheeks growing warm. “I suppose,” he relented, only to be rewarded by Hop throwing his arm around Grum’s shoulders.
“Tons of fun!” Hop added.
Grum turned his head to glare at Hop, who was completely unbothered. It was almost impressive, how oblivious he was to the ire of others.
“We have some serious competition,” Neige added. “I saw Vil earlier, and he has always had a gift for song and dance. I’m sure his team’s performance will be amazing!”
“You’re purr-obably right,” Che’nya agreed. “What say you, sunshine?”
That was directed at Grum. Why Che’nya always singled him out for attention, Grum would never know.
“I agree with Neige,” Grum said, lifting his chin defiantly. “We will stomp these Night Raven College students into dust!”
Neige shook his head, but he was still smiling. “Of course, it doesn’t really matter who wins or loses, as long as everyone does their very best and has fun doing it!”
Grum disagreed, but that was one of the things that made Neige special. To Neige, true victory wasn’t coming in first, it was making people smile. He’d always been like that, ever since they’d known him.
It took a special kind of person to work as hard as Neige and not be bitter about his lack of free time. Neige had the ability to make chores fun, even after being on set all day for this movie or that television special. Grum was glad that Dominic had convinced Neige to take a break on occasion. Neige was special, but he was still only human and lacked the stamina that fae had.
Even dwarf fae like Grum and the others.
“I think being a little silly will make everyone laugh,” Hop chimed in.
Grum could feel his face scrunching up when Neige gave Hop the biggest, brightest smile that he’d shown all day.
“I still think you should stop falling over. And that goes for you, too, Shelpie!”
Shelpie yawned. “Sorry. I was just really sleepy.”
Neige patted him on the shoulder. “I know you’re trying. That’s all anyone can ask for.”
Grum felt the muscles in his face relax. He still didn’t agree, not entirely, but if Neige was happy, then Grum supposed that counted for something.
Hop—whose arm had been around Grum this entire time—gave Grum’s shoulder a squeeze. “Grum and I will stay a little later to practice our part!”
“Only if you don’t push yourselves too hard,” Neige cautioned them.
“He’s right,” Che’nya said. “You want to save some for your purrrr-formance.”
And then he looked straight at Grum. Or, more specifically, at Hop’s arm draped carelessly around Grum. If that wasn’t bad enough, he had the nerve to grin at Grum, a wide, toothy grin that suggested nothing but mischief.
“We can’t wait to show you what we’ve been working on,” Neige told Che’nya.
“Can’t wait to see it. I’m sure it will be purr-fect,” Che’nya said…or at least, his mouth said, since the rest of him had already faded out of sight.
Could he see the way Neige was waving at him, when his eyes weren’t there?
Or maybe his eyes were still there, but invisible. Grum wasn’t sure how Che’nya’s unique magic worked, outside of allowing him to transport. Mostly, he seemed to use his special magic just to be annoying.
At least Hop was able to do that just by being himself.
Snick sneezed, and Neige crouched down to help him wipe at his nose. Timmy was fussing with his hair, as if by tugging on the strands, he could better hide his face, and Toby was walking around in a circle waiting for someone to tell him what to do.
That someone was Dominic, who turned him around and gave him a gentle shove in Neige’s direction.
“Let’s give them some space to rehearse,” Neige said, and just like that, everyone followed Neige, with Dominic bringing up the rear. Every few steps, Shelpie’s head would nod forward, and Dominic would pat him on the back to make sure he didn’t fall asleep.
Grum shook Hop’s arm off him and turned to face him.
“Why did you volunteer us for extra practice?”
Hop’s eyes widened. “You were complaining about the steps.”
“Not mine!”
“Oh. My bad!”
Grum shook his head. “You are ridiculous,” he said.
Hop ignored the insult—honestly, he probably didn’t even think of it as such—and began scrolling through his phone. Once he found what he was looking for, he hit Play and set the phone down.
“This isn’t the song we’re doing,” Grum pointed out.
“I know,” Hop said. “But sometimes it’s fun to mix it up a little!”
There was no use arguing with Hop. Grum had tried plenty of times, and he had yet to get anything through Hop’s thick head.
It was a good thing he was cute.
“You know I hate this song,” he reminded Hop.
“You do?” Hop asked, wide-eyed as ever. “Why?”
“Because it’s a song about taking a bath.”
“I know! Doesn’t that make bath time sound fun?”
“A song about soap and lather! You might as well find a song about a rubber duck!”
Hop looked at him thoughtfully. “Is there a song about a rubber duck?”
“How would I know?”
“You’re the one who brought it up.”
“Forget I said anything,” Grum said. “Let’s just get this over with.”
Hop smiled and grabbed both of Grum’s hands to spin him around in a circle. It was annoying the way Hop’s entire face lit up when he was happy. His expression wasn’t quite as bright as Neige’s, but Hop had always had his own brand of sunshine.
(Maybe Che’nya had actually been looking at Hop when he’d used that nickname.
But knowing Che’nya…probably not.)
And then…Hop began singing the most annoying song known to dwarf-kind.
“…sputter and splash all over the tub!” he sang, his voice practically vibrating with good cheer.
Grum would never understand how Hop could find joy in pretty much everything, but he supposed he’d found himself smiling a little bit more ever since Neige had started living with them. It was hard to remember a time before Neige, a time when Grum and the others, all of them orphans, had decided that it was better to fend for themselves together.
What Grum did remember was that when Neige had first stumbled into their lives, he’d erroneously assumed, as most humans did, that Grum and the others were siblings. Siblings, when none of them looked alike at all!
Of course, Neige, an only child, had no basis for comparison, but Grum had found the assumption insulting anyway. How could anyone think that Grum was related to someone like Hop. Or Shelpie. Or Toby.
Or Hop.
Who had always gotten under Grum’s nerves with his irritating ability to look on the bright side of anything and everything.
At least he was able to follow directions, whether they came from Dominic or Neige. Or even Grum, when he wasn’t trying to get Grum to smile by touching the corners of his mouth and pushing them up.
Grum remembered the time he’d had enough of Hop’s silly behavior and had given him a shove. Neige had chided him for retaliating in such a way, but he’d also scolded Hop for his part in the incident. Hop had apologized, his lips curving in the completely wrong direction, and Grum had forgiven him, as long as he promised not to do it again. Hop had eagerly agreed, and true to his word, had never again tried to make Grum smile by touching his face.
Grum didn’t miss it one bit, especially not when Hop still had the inability to stop touching Grum in other ways. Like earlier, when he’d thrown his arm around Grum’s shoulders, as easily as breathing.
The problem was that Hop was cute. And worse, not cute in the way that humans looked at them, as if they were children. It didn’t help when Toby walked around wearing a confused expression all the time, but it was infuriating the way humans expected fae to age the same way, or to have the same proportions. And if they were familiar with any fae, they thought of the winged fairies that were even smaller than dwarfs, or the much larger nocturnal fae. And Grum was still fuming over their run-in with those Night Raven College beastmen. If Grum had called them all puppies, he was sure they would have been just as offended.
Grum was seventeen—almost eighteen—years old! He was not a child, and neither was Hop!
Even if Hop sometimes acted like one. But then, Grum could say the same thing about Che’nya and his love for practical jokes, and he was already eighteen!
Hop stopped suddenly, causing Grum to bump into him.
“Grum, can I ask you a question?”
Neige would be very proud of Grum for not pointing out that Hop had just asked him a question.
“Go ahead.”
“Are you mad at me? For making you dance to a song you hate?”
Ya sputter and splash all over the tub, the song continued in the background. You may be cold and wet when your done, but ya gotta admit it's good clean fun!
“I’m not mad,” Grum said, feeling a little guilty. “I’m grumpy.”
“Because of me?”
In a way, yes, but not because of anything Hop had done in particular.
Except for the whole putting his arm around Grum in front of Che’nya.
Except for putting his arm around Grum, period, when Grum was finding it more and more difficult to be close to Hop. It wasn’t Hop’s fault, at least…Grum didn’t think it was. Neige would probably know, but Grum wasn’t about to ask him about it. He wasn’t going to ask Dominic, either.
And he couldn’t, he shouldn’t, he wouldn’t, mention it to Hop!
“No,” Grum said. “Not because of you.”
Neige would be disappointed in him for lying, but it was only a little white lie.
Hop held up his pinky, and with a sigh, Grum hooked it with his own. Like it or not, they were stuck with each other. Not just until the end of the competition, not just until graduation. Grum couldn’t imagine life without Hop and the others.
“It's good for the soul,” Hop murmured. “We don’t have to dance anymore, just sing the rest of it with me.”
Grum rolled his eyes, but he did as Hop asked.
“Bud-dle-ud-dle-ud-dle, ud-dle-um-dum.”
It wasn’t exactly singing…it was more like a recitation of a poem, but Hop was smiling, and that was all that mattered.
And then, out of the blue, Hop pressed his lips against Grum’s cheek.
“Thank you,” Hop said. “I knew you had it in you!” He laced his fingers with Grum’s and swung their arms back and forth.
Grum looked at their joined hands.
“Now we can rejoin the others!” Hop said, oblivious, as always. “Unless…”
Hop licked his lips, and Grum couldn’t do anything but follow the path of his tongue.
“Unless?” Grum prompted.
“Unless you want to keep rehearsing!”
Is that what they’d been doing this whole time?
“No,” Grum said. “I think we’re done for today.”
Hop beamed at him, and when he started walking, there was nothing Grum could do except walk with him. Not when his hand was held captive in Hop’s.
Hop had just kissed him, right? Even if it was on the cheek, that still counted? Right?
Grum would pick that apart later.
After they showed those jerks at Night Raven College what a real song and dance number was! With Neige,
…and with Hop
…and fine, with the others, too
there was no way they would lose, and especially not to Night Raven College!
With his free hand, Grum touched his cheek, where he could still feel the ghost of Hop’s lips against his skin.
They wouldn’t lose, but…in a way…it felt like they’d already won.