Honor shook her head while explaining, "No, we can't just take them, that's stealing. And I'm paying for them because you don't have any money or a job." She held out her hands to take the box from him, getting ready to pay so he could put his new shoes on.
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Oscar hesitated. "I didn't know that. Can I…..give you something then, since you're getting something for me? Um…..even though I don't have any money?"
She smiled and shrugged, still holding out her hands, "You don't have to, it's alright, just make sure you get some use out of these, that's good enough to give me in return."
After a moment, Oscar nodded slowly and handed her the shoes, still clearly thinking hard. "Okay, I will. Thank-you." Privately, he made a mental note to think of something to give her later on, because he still didn't think the transaction was fair. For the moment, however, this would have to do.
(Off to bed, seeya!)
"You're welcome, Oscar," Honor replied, walking to the checkout and paying for the shoes. The cashier smiled at her and handed her the bag containing the shoe box as she looked at Oscar and walked out of the store, "There you go, some new shoes."
Oscar smiled despite himself, following with a spring in his step. "That wasn't so hard. Where are we going to go next, then?"
"I'm not sure, I want to just walk around the mall for a while and window shop, but if you want to leave we can." She shrugged and looked around, thinking about anything she needed to get while they were here.
"I don't mind looking around," Oscar replied, eyeing the other stores curiously. "I feel better about all the people now, I think."
Honor nodded, motioning to his shoes, "Alright, tell me if you want to leave though. Also, you can put those on if you want, they're all yours now."
"Oh." Oscar quickly looked around and found a set of benches in the center of the walkway. Sitting down, he switched out his old shoes for his new pair happily. "What do I do with the shoes I don't want anymore? Can I just leave them here?"
"You could probably keep them just in case you need a second pair for something, but otherwise we can throw them away," She replied, grabbing the now empty box and putting his old pair inside, "Up to you Oscar." Honor sat down by him and looked around, just watching the people as they went by.
"I guess I'll keep them," he decided, following Honor's gaze. All at once his eyes widened. "What is that!?" he hissed. "It looks like a person but….tiny." He was looking straight at a toddler that had just walked out of a store with her family, waving a stuffed animal in the air.
Honor couldn't help but laugh at his reaction to the kid, explaining calmly, "That's a child, a little girl to be exact, it is a person but she's just young and hasn't grown into an adult yet. She's a little kid." She hoped the explanation would help but she would explain it better if he still didn't understand.
"A….little kid?" Oscar peered at the small girl uneasily, and after a minute she noticed him staring. Unperturbed, she stared right back, her eyes large and unblinking. Oscar shifted with discomfort. "…Are kids dangerous?" he whispered.
"No they're not dangerous, in fact, they're the least dangerous." Honor smiled at the little girl before tapping Oscar's shoulder to try to break their eye contact, "We'll get a book that can explain it better when we visit the library if you want."
"Okay…" Oscar watched the girl stumble off after her parents, relaxing slightly. "So….humans grow? Does that mean that I grow too? Or am I all done growing?"
She nodded in response to the first question and watched her follow after her parents before turning back to Oscar, "Yes, humans grow, and yes it would mean you would grow..at least I think. I think you're done growing though, you seem like you're done growing at least."
"Huh. I didn't know humans changed size–there's another one!" All his attention went to a young boy boredly kicking a display stand several feet away. Oscar watched with fascination, and his eyes began to darken slightly, like they had on the way to the store. "It's bored……and angry. It wants to go look at the toys in the store. It wants the food in the store too. It wants so many things." He pulled back and blinked. "Its mind is different…..it's simpler than the bigger humans. I don't trust it at all, it would probably attack me if I made it mad."
Honor followed Oscar's eyes to the little boy and smiled lightly before glancing back at him. She seemed startled to see his dark eyes again and watched to see if anyone around them noticed as he talked. "Oscar…you did the eye thing again," She said, fiddling with the box in her hands and shaking her head, "You can't keep doing that, otherwise you'll get caught. And no, he wouldn't attack you, kids are harmless at that age, the most they could do is bug you."
Oscar blinked a few times, quickly looking away from the little boy. "Still think they're weird," he muttered. "Were you a kid once? Do you remember what it was like?"
"Didn't say they're not weird," She replied, noddinging and smiling when he asked if she had been a kid, "Yeah, I used to be a kid, and it was really fun. I wish I could go back to being a kid sometimes."
"Really?" Oscar asked dubiously. "What was so fun about it? Seems like you're too small and weak to do anything by yourself."
Honor shrugged, "I don't really know how to explain it, but when I was a kid, I didn't have to worry about a lot of things and even though I was small and not as strong, I still could run around and have fun."
"Oh….huh." Oscar was still puzzled. "Why didn't you have to worry about anything? Didn't you still have to find food and worry about getting hurt and stuff like that?"
"Your parents take care of food and help you when you get hurt, you're taken care of while you grow and you get to explore and have fun with friends." She looked over at him before back around at the stores in the mall, trying to decide where to go first while explaining to him.
"Ohhhh. Is that what parents do? I wasn't really understanding that." Oscar set his mind to the concept with interest. "But how do you get parents? Do you have to find them and convince them to take care of you?"
Honor stood up once again and motioned for him to come with her as she talked, "Yes, parents take care of you and protect you when you're young. Your parents are the usually the people that actually created you and you're their biological child, though there are exceptions."
Oscar followed her, opening his mouth to ask how parents created people. But then he remembered some relevant definitions he'd read in the dictionary and decided to swerve away from that topic for now. "We're still going to meet your parents today, right?"
She nodded, leading him to a store that sold clothing, "Yeah, I'll have to call them and make sure they're not busy, but we should be able to see them. If they're not home then we'll just stop by and see the animals." Honor didn't really know if he was going to follow her as she went over to the womens clothing and started looking around.