Chapter Text
"Why do you and Atta hang out so much?"
A smile played along Flik's lips. He glanced over at the small princess sitting beside him on the bank of a puddle, her feet swinging back and forth over the water below them like tiny pendulums. Her eyes were concealed by the sunglasses he'd made for her out of berry stems and translucent flower petals.
Instead of answering Dot's question, Flik asked one in return. "Why do you think we hang out so much?"
"I dunno," she replied with a shrug. Sunlight bounced off her glasses and into Flik's eyes, making him squint. "She's pretty boring, if you ask me. What do you even do when you're together for all that time?"
Flik was glad for the tinted lenses that kept her from seeing the pink in his cheeks. "Oh...we find things to do. You'll understand someday."
Dot wrinkled her nose at the suggestion. Flik loved the way this made her freckles fold into the creases of her skin, like they were playing a game of hide-and-seek.
"Come on, there's no one in your class you're interested in?" he prodded, giving the princess a gentle nudge with his shoulder. "No boys you like spending time with?"
Dot reached up and lowered the sunglasses to the tip of her nose. It took everything in Flik not to burst out laughing at the incredulous look she was giving him.
"The only boys I like are Miss Francis and Dim," she said, her matter-of-fact tone daring him to argue. "The rest of them are dummies."
Flik gasped and put his hand over his heart. "I'm offended!"
A mischievous dimple appeared at the corner of Dot's mouth. She pushed her sunglasses back up to the bridge of her nose, then turned to gaze out over the water.
"You're not a boy. You're Flik."