John looked up from his computer to see his boss tossing a file on his desk. “What’s this,” John asked out of habit whenever someone tossed paper work at him.

“Your job,” his boss commented. “Got a possible tax evader. Need you to look into it.” John wasn’t sure why but his boss seemed to be taking this as a personal attack on himself. Sure it’s illegal to not pay taxes, but for his boss to seem so offended like the person themselves was doing this in spite of him? The older man took his job way too serious, that was for sure.

John picked up the amazingly small folder of maybe just a few papers. Normally these folder would have tons of documents or papers with evidence and other filings showing possible tax evasion or false tax reports. However this document barely had anything in it. John opened the folder and nearly gaped at the lack of information, it was less than he expected.

“Is this some sort of prank,” John asked his boss who wasn't laughing.

“You have one week,” John’s boss said before walking away.

“One week?” John muttered looking over the half a paragraph of info, and two pictures. He would probably need like a whole year just to get some actual evidence of tax evasion or fraud or something. There wasn’t a full name on the paper. All they had was a first name on the person, “Vera. Gender Male. Age 18. Residence: 228 Boxen street, apartmant 339. Social security number 777229471.” That was it, nothing else. John looked at the two pictures, one was of the building of residence and the other was of Vera. The image wasn’t a very good photo but John noticed that the person was wearing a baggy green jacket, tan pants with a couple of pockets covering the pant legs that lead down toward some shin high boots, and a beanie covering most of the top of Vera’s head. The person themselves had a very light brown skin tone with dark brown hair covering the left side of his face and eye on his face. The hair itself wasn’t long but no means short, almost what John would call tomgirl style.

John continued to look at the image and for the life of him he couldn’t tell the age or the gender for himself. If the file didn’t specifically tell John, he would be at a lose at guessing Vera’s age or even gender. Vera looked as if they were a runaway teen or something. Judging by the height and build of the person they were somewhere in their late teens. Vera’s height wasn’t the only small thing as the person look pretty thin, not like skin and bones, but it almost looked like the kid hadn’t had a big healthy meal in ages. John would have felt bad asking the person to pick up a 10 pound box. John examined the photo more and just spotted a few more things about the person, like the black nail paint on their finger nails, and the little black choker around the neck. The look on Vera’s face look kind of sad and lonely. Typical features and looks for a troubled child runaway.

John let out a sigh at not just the work he would have to do in investigating Vera, but the fact that he was investigating what looked to be a kid, barely an adult. John himself used to be that age a while back, as he just turned 24. He had been at this job for a few years now, and was still kind of new to it all. Yet he still didn’t understand why he needed to check for tax evasion on Vera, there had to be more important cases and absurd fraud out there.

Checking Vera’s social security number, the case got more interesting as it turned out that Vera had never paid taxes, ever. Yet it said that Vera had been living in the apartment for over 3 years. Which meant he had to have some kind of income to actually afford the rent. With no relatives on file, next to kin, spouse, or other family for an inheritance. Vera seemed to be getting money from somewhere. Also there was no record of Vera owning a job or anything of the sort. So Vera had to be doing something shady like robbery or possibly drugs. Either way, it seemed like illegal activity.

“Well, this does seem kind of shady,” John said as he looked over any record of information that was on Vera. There wasn’t much, it was almost like he came out of nowhere a few years ago. He had citizenship, so it wasn’t like Vera was an illegal immigrant. John mussed over what he would needed to do. If there was no evidence of tax evasion than they couldn’t file for tax fraud. It didn’t seem like Vera would be doing anything suspicious or anything that might give John evidence within a week.

“Maybe I should just take a look around the apartment,” John said looking at the address. It wasn't too far away, he could walk there in 15-20 minutes. Heck maybe he might get lucky and solve this case in less than a week…

John headed down to Vera’s residence. Sure enough the building wasn’t fancy or anything, but it sure wasn’t a place for someone with no money would be living. Even if Vera was on welfare, which Vera was not, they wouldn’t be able to pay the rent of this place. So, John figured he would check out Vera’s apartment if he was let inside. Heading up the 4 flights of stairs, John walked down a hallway toward the apartment labeled 339.

John spotted someone at the door to the apartment.

“Excuse me, are you Vera?” John asked out to the person.

The person at the door didn’t respond or react like they heard John.

However, looking at the clothing and the beanie that was on, this had to be Vera and so John walked up to introduce himself. As John got closer, Vera opened the door and walked into the apartment.

“Mr. Vera,” John called out again not getting a response.

Yet the door hadn’t closed all the way. John figured maybe Vera left the door open for him? Shrugging, John walked into the apartment and closed the door behind him.

Just as John closed the door shut behind him and turned around, he witness something he never would have imagined could be real. John watched as Vera had his back to him. Vera took off his beanie and gave his head a little shake to free up any flattened hair. As Vera shook his head John noticed that out from under the little hat that obscured most of Vera’s features, two pointy elf like ears poked up and out. Two white cords that John couldn’t see coming from Vera’s ears popped out.

“Ahhh, it’s so good to free up my ears,” Vera said giving the top of them a gentle rub.

John couldn’t stop himself as he asked, “Are those real-”

Vera let out a high pitched scream as he jumped up and spun around. Before anyone could react Vera flung out his hands and sparkly blue, almost magical looking light flew from his black colored finger tips. The light hit John and suddenly John was stunned.

Soon everything started to grow! No not grow, he was shrinking. John couldn’t move as he watched Vera grow bigger and larger as did the couch and TV along with the dinning table. John felt panic rise as he started to get smaller and smaller. John was less than a foot tall and John was still shrinking. He was so panicked that he couldn’t speak as he watched with horror as both he and Vera looked at each other having the same dreaded expression. Finally John could move and he found that he looked to be only 6 inches tall.

“WHO ARE YOU,” Vera pointed at John, who was cowering a little from the now large boy.

John couldn’t help but stutter at his own words, “Me-me? WHAT ARE YOU?!” John asked pointing to Vera’s ears.

Vera quickly went to cover his ears up.

“Oh no….” Vera worriedly said as he grabbed his hat and quickly hid his pointy ears under them. “You… you didn’t see anything.”

“See anything? LOOK AT ME?!” John yelled as he looked at his incredibly small body. “Did you use magic on me?”

Vera bite his lip as he held onto the hem of his cap. “Oh no, no, no… I messed up,” Vera said worried about what was going on. This was not good, not at all. Not only did someone see him as an elf, but he actually used magic on them too! He broke almost ever rule the government set for him, which would only lead to deportation.

Vera couldn’t help but recall his home land, one from another world or dimension that he had spent nearly his entire life in. That world was just horrible, especially after Vera came to this one. Here there was tons of chocolate and sweets, potato chips, french fries, and more! Back home, they had such bland foods. Vera was a common elf which meant lots of manual labor and hard work. There was also wars. So much fighting and killing, blood… so many of Vera’s family and friends gone. He just couldn’t take it anymore.

Vera, who had magic, tried to run away which ended up with him finding a way to travel between worlds, and when he arrived on Earth, he found a group of people waiting on the other side of the portal. It turned out Vera wasn’t the only one that tried to escape to this world. Apparently others with magic from Vera’s world or possibly others came over using portals, which gave off a lot of energy. The government or governments, that were waiting for Vera took him in. Vera didn’t know all the details but something about magic was a fuel source for some kind of reactors or something they use. So Vera and whoever else they knew about would dump magic into them every month to keep them powered. In exchange Vera would be giving a place to live, food, money and whatever he need. The only thing was, no one could know. They couldn’t know about his race, or the other races, and definitely not about magic.

Which Vera just broke both rules all in one.

Vera was looking at the small 6 inch man standing in his shrunken clothes who liked slightly confused but more upset if anything. Vera on the other hand was having a panic attack. He was panting heavily as he did his best not to break down in tears.

“ohhhh,” Vera moaned nervously.

“Look, just change me back. I’ll forget everything about what happened, ok,” The little guy said to Vera who started to nod his head.

“Yeah… yeah I'll change you back. We-we can pretend this never happened… uh...” Vera said hesitant.

“What?” The small man looked panicked now, “Don’t tell me you can’t undo this?!”

Vera heard the worry and something in him snapped at the accusation and judgy tone of the little person. “I-i can too!”

“Well,” The little suited man said looking at him like this was all his fault, “Hurry up kid.”

Vera started to get upset as his ears were turning red. Sure his face probably had a shade of red flushing in, “I-I’m not a kid! I’m over 1000 years old, thank you!”

“Look, I don’t care if your 1000 years old or 12… just fix me,” The man in Vera’s home ordered him.

Vera finally couldn’t take it as he folded his arms over his chest, “And… what if I don’t want to?”

John paused his demands. John tried to change his tone as he realized it was just like he was dealing with a bratty kid. “Don’t want to? Kid… or elf...” This only made Vera narrow his eyes at him, “Vera. Sorry, Vera, look this wasn’t my fault. Your the one that did...” John shrugged, “This. So, can you please just change me back? Obviously it seems like you did something wrong. Just put me back to the way I was and no one gets in trouble, right?” This seemed to get to Vera as he started to calm down from his bratty like mood. His face didn’t look upset and his arms unfolded, yet he still wasn’t doing any magical things.

“I.. How do I know I can trust you,” Vera finally said as he got closer to John. Vera squatted down on his toes, rested his elbows on his knees and held his chin in his hands as he examined John closer. It was now that John saw how large Vera’s large looming face was. It was massive, especially how small Vera was to John’s normal size.

“How can you trust me,” John finally said not sure what Vera meant.

Vera raised an arching eyebrow as he said, “I mean you did just walk into my apartment-”

“Now hold on,” John said trying to defend himself, “You left he door open I thought that meant you were letting me in.”

Vera scoffed, “Why would I leave my door open to a stranger?”

“Look ki- Vera,” John said correcting himself, “I work with the IRS, I’m an agent there and I was sent to ask you questions concerning your taxes.”

Vera frowned before he scoffed, “My taxes? I don’t pay taxes.”

“My point exactly,” John told him. “I was sent here to investigate if you have been evading-”

Vera cut off John, “It sounds like your the one evading my question, why would I leave the door open to a stranger? And why should I trust that stranger, and what he is saying? Hmmm,” Vera asked acting a little smug at his questioning and thought process he had for John.

John fought back any outburst that he wanted to make, “Fine. Than what do I have to do to get you to trust me that I wont tell anyone and so you can change me back?”

After a few moments Vera pondered the question. After a even longer pause Vera just shrugged, “Don’t know.” John looked at Vera who seemed to be taking this situation almost too easy right now. “I guess I’d need a few days to know if-”

John sputtered “A few days?! Look, you can’t keep me here for that long. I had a week to file your report to my boss.”

“Yeah that would do,” Vera perked up. “A week should be plenty of time!”

“A week…” John said in disbelief. He couldn't’ be here for a week. “KID,” John quickly changed his wording, “VERA,” John called out trying to get him to understand that John was not able to stay here a week. “I can’t be here for a week.”

Vera gave him a confused look, “Why not?”

“I have a life,” John told him.

“Like, you have a family waiting for you,” Vera asked.

John paused, “Well… uh no,” John said as he recalled he lived on his own. He lived with no one, not even a roommate. His parents only checked up on him every couple of months, if even that. “But my job,” John told Vera. “They will wonder where I'm at...” John trailed off realizing that wasn't true either, as with this week long assignment, they wouldn’t check up for the whole week till it was due. “In about a week,” John finished saying.

“See,” Vera told him like it was just that simple to be stuck here with a giant elf that he knew nothing about, at the size of a small action figure. “Alright, well I’m going to change into something more comfy,” Vera said standing up and leaving John was left there as Vera started to walk away to what John could only assume was his bedroom.

And just like that John was stuck in a strange person-

No not person, elf. He was in an elf’s apartment, shrunken to 6 inches standing there alone while the child like magic caster went to change his clothing.

Trying to look on the bright side of things, “A week will be the longest I’ll be here, I can probably leave sooner. Yeah just, smile and be friendly…” John told himself as he figured the sooner he was normal sized the sooner he could leave. “Ok. So now what?” John said out loud, finding that Vera couldn’t hear him from his room. “Of course, looks like he forgot about me,” John said slightly annoyed.

Not wanting to be standing in the middle of no where, John looked around for somewhere to sit. It wasn’t till now that John finally got the lay of the apartment. It wasn't a very big one, there was the room he was standing in that had a large couch on one wall facing a pretty big flat screen TV, or maybe it was a small one? John couldn’t tell by his size, everything was big.

The living room that John was in, split off and headed to the left and right. On the left side, it lead to an open kitchen that had a dinning table with 2 chairs tucked in for eating. There was the simple kitchen set up with a fridge, sink, dishwasher, and a bunch of cabinets along the kitchen counter. On the right side, lead to a hallway with two doors. One was closed, the one that Vera was in, which John knew was the bedroom. The other room had to be a simple bathroom. That was all there was in the apartment. It seemed simple, not much was out for John to further explore or see. It almost seemed like it was lacking something. John wasn’t sure what.

“Okay, that’s better,” Vera said walking out of his room and heading toward John.

Vera had obviously taken his hat off so his elf ears were exposed. Not that it matter now, since he knew Vera’s secret. Vera had changed into some very baggy and roomy clothing, a sweatshirt that had the sleeves just long enough for his hand to be tucked into them, and some baggy pants that covered past his feet. Vera sighed and looked to be in a super comfy and relaxed state. Vera shuffled from his room toward his kitchen, looking for something to eat.

“I guess your my guest,” Vera told John who was trying to follow after Vera who slide into the kitchen. “Did you want something to eat?”

“Sure,” John said trying to keep up with the Giant elf shuffling ahead of him. Figuring that he might as well try and make conversation to befriend the elf, John continued, “What do you have? Like do elves eat something different?”

Vera looked hurt at the John’s assumption, “We eat the same thing.” Vera entered the kitchen part of his apartment and started to open up his fridge, it looked pretty empty, “ohhhh.” next he went to a cabinet and opened it up, “...hmmm I think,” Vera mused at the dilemma as he opened another pretty bare cabinet with little to no food in it, “I might be out of food,” Vera pouted. “And I could have gone to the store too,” Vera huffed as he crossed his arms and looked upset. Finally coming to terms he simply sighed, “Looks like we’re going to have to go to the store.”

“We,” John asked not sure if he heard right.

“Well, I not going to leave you here by yourself,” Vera told him. Before hurrying off to his room again before John could stop him.

John waited for what seemed like another 10 minutes as he waited a little annoyed at the elf for leaving him on the floor for so long. Finally Vera came out of his room in a new getup that was similar to his previous one. He had his coat and boats on and looked ready to go outside. When Vera came up to him, John asked the simple question he wanted to say before Vera left him on the floor, “So… your turning me back to my size to go shopping with you?”

Vera looked confused at John’s question, “Turn you back… no silly.” Before John could comment he saw Vera lift his hands and like before some blue sparkles came out and showered John. Before John could protest he felt himself starting to shrink again.

“Wh-wait,” John protested but it was too late as he lost another 3 or so inches till he was probably the size of a mouse or smaller.

“There,” Vera said sounding proud of himself as he scooped up John and held him in his hand. “Now… were to put you,” Vera pondered.

John wanted to argue or damned he was returned to his previous height 6 inches. Even thought it was still a significant less of his actual size, it was better than this finger tall form. “You just shrank me again!”

Vera ignored John’s protest as a thought came to him, “I got it, you can go here.” Vera brought John up to his head and tilted his hand. John tumbled out of Vera’s hand and landed on his soft fluffy hair. The strands of hair was like tall grass coming up to his knees at his current size. John was about to move when all of a sudden, Vera started to pull up his beanie and covered his head and ears. This time John was stuck under the massive head cap as he was pushed down into Vera’s scalp and surrounded by his dark brown hair. He couldn’t help but get the smell of his shampoo invading his nose… peach? Sure enough the hint of the peach filled John’s sense of smell. It wasn’t long before Vera started to walk toward the door.

John felt everything moving as Vera walked, it was weird, he could just barely make out the world outside the cap that covered both him and Vera’s head. Through the small fibers were just loose enough that he could just make out the door as Vera opened it and started to leave.

“Whoa...” John said out loud as he tried to brace himself from shifting with every step. He grabbed onto a good handful of hair and held on to it like reins to some kind of ride. Just as Vera spun around from closing the door John felt himself getting flung off of Vera’s head from the spin. In turn this momentum forced John to yank on the clump of hair and pull on it slightly.

“Hey! What are you doing,” Vera asked clapping down on his beanie, and in turn smacking into John.

John felt the slap crush his body with enough force that it made him wince from the massive hand clamping down on him. “ME?! You’re the one swinging your head around. Did you forget I was up here?”

“I didn’t,” Vera muttered. “Jeez, why are you so grouchy,” Vera asked as he went continued to walk.

John was tempted to yell at the elf. Who wouldn’t be upset that not only was he shrunk to 6 inches, he had to spend a week with this kid, who just shrunk him… AGAIN. Now he was riding his head like some kind of bug or something, to go to the store to buy some food. John’s life drastically changed in less than an hour of meeting Vera.

John let out a deep sigh as he started to shift slightly in the tangling sea of hair as Vera walked down the flight of stairs and back onto the street. It wasn’t until a couple of blocks of walking did John notice just how hot and warm it was under Vera’s beanie. It was just warm enough that he felt some sweat building up on him and under his small suit he was still wearing. That scent of peachy smelling shampoo grew the longer the beanie was worn. John felt like he wasn’t just eating a peach but bathing in it. Finally they arrived at the supermarket and Vera grabbed a shopping cart and started to push it throughout the store.

“Oh,” Vera said as he pushed his cart into the snack aisle. “They have a new flavor,” He said sounding excited as he grabbed a bag of potato chips.

John just ignored the comment as Vera started to put a bag or two into his cart. Vera happily pushed his cart down the aisle and went down another. “Got to get some of these...” Vera said grabbing a box of chocolate bars.

“Uh, yeah, those seem fine,” John said as he watched Vera continue to shop.

“Hmm hm hmmm,” Vera started to hum as he started to grab rice crispy treats, snickers, a couple of litters of soda, another thing of chips, and lastly a thing of doughnuts. “For breakfast,” Vera said delighted at the cart of food he now had.

“uh… where’s the vegetables? Protein? What about some fruits? You can’t be serious,” John said loud.

“What,” Vera made a sound disgusted, “Vegetables… yuck. I’ve had my fill of veggies,” Vera said sounding upset and disgusted by the idea of eating something that wasn’t sweet or salty or amazing like the many junky snack foods in his cart. “This stuff is sooooo much better, trust me. Have you ever had these,” Vera said holding a small box in front of him hoping that John could see it, “Like they are to die for.”

“I’ve had doughnuts before, but you can’t live of this trashy food,” John told him.

Vera pouted, “What are you talking about? Of course you can. I’ve been here for a few years, and this is by far the best thing I've tasted in soooooo many years.”

John sighed, “Fine, just get me like a banana, maybe some carrots, heck I don’t know a salad?”

“Fine, but you have no idea what your missing out on,” Vera taunted as he went and picked up John a simple banana and small bag of lettuce.

John watched as the elf grabbed a few supplies for him and spotted someone off to Vera’s side shopping too. Vera seemed too preoccupied with which bag of green stuff to get John, than to notice how close he was to the person. John was tempted to start shouting really loudly and get the person’s attention. To get them to save him from Vera. John took a deep breath and was about to yell as loud as he could till Vera asked, “Which one did you want?”

John took a moment. Was he really asking him what he wanted…?

“Hmm,” Vera mused, “Which one?” Vera asked again.

“uh, the roman lettuce… please,” John told him surprised that he was tossing the bag in his cart of junk food for him. Before John could try and shout for help, the shopper was already walking away from Vera leaving them both alone. His chance to escape was gone. However, he was more surprised at how Vera acted, he actually asked him for his opinion. Even if it was for something simple, at least he seemed to care…

No sooner did that thought come across his mind, Vera stopped moving his cart. “So itchy,” Vera said.

John wasn’t ready for the massive hand to come down on top of his position and pin his body to Vera’s scalp. Sure enough the little elf started to scratch and rub the irritated spot on his head, which was right where John was. John’s face was smashed into Vera’s head and rubbed up and down, left right, and all around as John was ferociously shoved into the hard scalp of Vera and scrubbed into the skin and hair. John let out a muffled cry as his body was pressed down hard and deep into the agitated spot.

“Ahhhh,” Vera said scrubbing harder and rougher till the tingling went away, “Better.” Vera sighed as he continued to walk toward the checkout lane.

However, it wasn’t better for John. No… it was worse. His body felt like it was broken, crushed and mangled… but he was still in one piece. As much as his body screamed in pain, he couldn’t echo it verbally. Not with the thick strands of hair tangled and surrounding his mouth. They muffled any hint of sound his body wanted to produce. In fact the long tendrils of snake like hair wrapped around most of his body preventing any such struggles or movement. John was officially tied up by Vera’s peach smelling hair. The strands dug into his skin as he tried to break free only cutting and hurting his skin more and more. Not enough to drawl blood, but there were definitely going to be some red marks over his body.

“Mmmmm,” John shouted out for Vera to help him.

However it must have turned out he couldn’t hear a thing, even with his ears in the beanie with him. The hair must be too stifling for John to be able to speak out. Crying out one more time, John tried to bite through the long brown hair but found it was too strong to chew through. So John could do nothing as he was tied up like someone into a sexual bondage fetish. Hands and arms wrapped up and pinned down, mouth full and covered with the peachy hair and unable to break free till someone save him. Which might be a while.

Vera seemed completely oblivious to John’s predicament, “Alright anything else?”

“...”

“No?” Vera just shrugged, “K.”

Vera entered the long line of customers as waited for his turn to pay for his food. When it came to his turn, Vera saw the payment and pulled out his wallet in his pocket. “Ok, so… ummm that’s...” Vera said struggling a little to find the right amount of money. “He-here,” Vera said nervously as he held out the large bill to the cashier that looked slightly annoyed that he had to break the bill. Vera felt a wave of embarrassment hit him as he heard some grumbling from behind him and in the rest of the line. Sure enough he was making everyone wait as the cashier had to count out all the bills, that Vera nearly clean him out of.

“Th-thanks,” Vera said grabbing his money and bags and heading out of the store. Vera grumbled to himself and his little person on his head, “How was I suppose to know that was too much…” Vera wasn’t used to this world’s currency just yet. Sure he was ok with small bills, but when it was that much… Vera panicked. “Stupid money,” Vera grumbled as he recalled the looks and muttering about him taking forever. “Why didn’t you help,” Vera asked slightly upset that the human on his head decided now to be silent. “Huh,” Vera asked again giving his head a little shake to get him to speak. He felt the slight tug on his hair letting him know he was holding on to his head, but still remaining silent. This just made Vera more upset as he felt like the little person was making fun of him or something. “Meanie...”

John on the other hand tried to say something multiple times as help, but he was too tied up at the moment. It only got worse when Vera shook his head and flung him around. Still bound and tied up, John was yanked and flung around like a rag doll, having the hair only rip and pull on him even more as he got a little more tangled up. He wouldn’t be surprised if he was nothing more than a hair ball on Vera’s head. All John could do was listen to the grumbling Vera as he headed home sounding upset.

Finally after a long quite walk back to Vera’s apartment, Vera went inside and shut his door before flinging his beanie off his head and taking his hands and rubbing his scalp, “Get off my head,” Vera demanded, sounding upset.

Sure enough that was all that John needed, the two large hands rubbing and untangling him. The hair was soon unraveled from his body. With the force of Vera scrubbing his head with his hands and shaking his head, John went flying off his head and to the ground. John landed with a good thump and his back slammed into the ground bouncing him a little as he felt the hard blow of the wooden floor collide with him.

“Oof,” John said. His back stinging from the impact.

Vera didn’t say anything as he stomped away and headed into his room, presumably to get changed out of his clothes.

“Vera,” John wheezed for a little trying to get his breath back. “VERA,” John tried again but got no response.

Finally Vera came out of the room yet again in baggy clothes. The same oversize sweat shirt and pants draped over him as he exited his room, still looking upset and pouty about before. Vera didn’t bother picking up his bags from the floor as he got up on his couch and sat down, pulling his legs up to his chest and looking off at the TV as he turned it on. Completely ignoring John.

John headed over to Vera and tried to get his attention. “VERA,” John finally shouted for him to hear him, or to stop ignoring him.

“What,” Vera asked mopping.

“… can you at least talk to me or turn me back to-”

Suddenly John felt himself growing a little before he was back to his 6 inches… not normal, but more than before.

“Thanks,” John said. “Look about before, I tried to help-”

“No you didn’t,” Vera said sounding upset, “You didn’t say anything… you didn’t try to help.”

John should be the one upset, his skin still hurt where he was tied up by the hair. “Look,” John said trying to get Vera to literally look at him. When Vera didn’t John said again, “Look, like seriously look at me.”

This time Vera did and it was now he saw the red marks that were left on his skin from the rope like hair, “What happen to you?”

“I was stuck in your hair. Literately, when you scratched your head, you tangled me up. I could barely breath.”

This time Vera seemed to understand. He instantly looked worried, “...I, I didn’t mean to. I just… I kind of forgot,” Vera said looking sad. “Sorry, I- I thought you were...” Vera didn’t finished as he just as sad if not sadder. “I don’t have a lot of friends, or anyone. I thought we were getting friendly, and than when you didn’t help...”

John tried to connect with Vera, if not just a little, “Yeah, I understand. I’m kind of the same, with not a lot of friends. It’s alright, I just thought you were going to kill me with all that hair wrapped around-”

Vera cut him off, “Well you can’t really die.”

John frowned, “What? What do you mean?”

“Well, your kind of,” Vera did air quotes with his fingers, “Invulnerable.”

“Invulnerable? That shit hurt,” John argued.

Vera gave him a nervous laugh, “Invulnerable isn’t unhurtable… or maybe it does mean that? I just know you can’t break.”

Break? John wasn’t sure if he liked the way he said “break” so carelessly. It almost sounded like he viewed him as a toy or something, rather than a person. “Riiiight, ok, anyway yeah I couldn’t speak at all. If I could I would have told you to use the 50 instead.”

“The 50? Oh the other green thing?”

“Green thing...” John repeated, “Cash. Bills. Money. Yes, the green thing in your wallet. Do you not know much about our currency?”

“… a little.” Vera told him.

John rubbed at some of the red marks that were starting to fade, “Ok, look, Vera… If I teach you how to use our currency, will you trust me more?”

Vera seemed to light up at the idea of learning about their money system. “OH yeah definitely!”

John felt good about this situation now. He had a use for the elf and that meant that he could teach him a few other things that maybe he doesn't know about. Heck he could show him how to do taxes too. Than he would have to be grateful or at least see him as a helpful friend and turn him back. At least he hoped.

“Alright so let’s get started-” John said only to be cut off by Vera kicking his feet out from the couch and standing up looking happier now.

“BUT FIRST,” Vera said excited looking at the TV and pointing his finger at the screen. “I GOT to watch this movie! I’ve never seen this one before! Oh here,” Vera said picking up John with no effort and setting him down on the couch. Vera headed over to the bags on the floor and grabbed one of his many snacks and headed over to the couch. Vera plopped down on the couch. John felt himself bounce as the massive elf gleefully sat on the couch and started to kick his feet up. Soon the large elf was laying down lengthwise on the sofa with a bag of chips popped open and looking at the TV. His attention was solely on the movie playing, some SciFi movie that John didn’t care for.

John wanted to get his attention as he sat there on the edge of the couch with Vera laying behind him. His stomach region was behind him with a bag of chips in between John and Vera as he shoved his hand into the bag and started to munch on the salty potato based food. “Hey Vera-”

A loud crunching sound cut him off as Vera munched on the greasy junk food. The sound of the crunching soon turned to chewing and slight gulp was heard. John tried to say something when the belly behind him let out a rumbling sound, at the delight of receiving the insanely salty treat. Vera’s hand was already back in the bag before John could speak over the stomach sounds or the TV’s loud noises.

John just let out an annoyed sigh as the Elf was too busy with watching the lame-

Suddenly a large hand offered some chips for him. John looked to see Vera giving him a small pile of chips to eat, while they watched the movie.

Through a mouthful of food, “It’s good. Try some.”

John was hesitant, he wasn’t much of a junk food guy… but what the heck. Taking some chips he started to eat some. They were very salty, but it wasn’t that bad.

With nothing else he could do, John just sat there and watched the silly science fiction film that Vera seemed so preoccupied with. Well, they could always learn about money and stuff tomorrow…