Leon went silent, mouth slightly open to let the air in as he forgot how to think for a bit, his brain faxing a letter of remorse for the poor guy, but the mail was jammed, so Leon went to the next best thing, and gently wrapped his finger around the fifty dollar note

“C-can i?” Leon inquired.

Douglas nodded very …very slowly.

Pulling the notes slowly from the shorter one’s hand, Leon couldn’t help but stare into the fifty bucks he had just won. With glee and pent up excitement ready to burst, a celebratory fist pump ensued.

“YESS!!!!! FIFTY DOLLARS!”

Leon jumped excitedly, yelling at the top of his voice while doing so.

“Look out Red plumber! I’m coming for you!!” Seemingly not worried by the lack of funds that was originally promised, the boy continued jumping for joy.Douglas was in a complete daze as he gazed at the jumping boy in disbelief. Each jump seemingly higher than the last, each thud of the boy landing idly wandering to his mind, getting subtly stronger with each foot fall. His loss cut deep, now he had to pay the price too

Leon was so excited, that he almost forgot to thank the shortie before himself. So he stopped jumping, and gave the man a big brief hug, Douglas didn’t have the strength to fend it off…but somewhere deep inside, he didn’t think he could after this. Being pulled into the boys embrace, now was the good moment of time where he unfortunately noticed  could see how smooth the child’s hair was, like it had been washed thoroughly still getting the aroma of the shampoo that was nagged upon the boy. He even noticed the small clump of hair that was slightly longer at the center of his fringe neatly combed to the boy's left. 

Now that it was confirmed that Douglas was short (I’m sorry to the struggling readers), Doug’ started to think that the boy might as well had more girth than him, thanks to Leon being a well fed kid and his proportions as a kid, he seemed a little beefier than Douglas thanks to the flannel shirt he wore, but that brief hold he had on him during the hug  felt like his limbs were slightly bigger too. Not willing to think about the boy’s naivety about how close two men should be together,  He might be bigger too, but the thought perished.

The hug ended as quickly as it came, followed by a series of frantic excite driven handshakes that rocked Douglas’ sanity as well as his world. Was the boy’s hands bigger than his too? it sure felt like it.

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you! Now I don’t have to wait until Christmas to get a new console! Thank you ….uhhh?”

“Douglas”

“ Thank you mister Douglas! My name is Leon! Your- con-tree-bee-you-shon will be uhhmm… helpful! Very, VERY helpful!” Leon said with a giggly giddy grin, still looking at the cash in his hands. From the corner of his eye, well, bottom more like, he noticed Douglas kneeling down his head leaning towards his feet. Leon tilted his head in response.

“Uhh, Doug’? What’s wrong?”

“Kid..”

“It’s Leon”

“Liam….I’m sorr—“

“Leon”.

“Leon, sorry for-“

“Leon Neeson…Not!” The boy giggled.

“FOR PETE’S SAKE!”

The boy stopped, and zipped his lips.

“Leon, sorry for…for," a prolonged exhale of a sigh escaped Douglas' lips. " Sorry for all the trouble I caused you. Since I am a man of my word, and that I don’t have the money, now I have to…ugh…”

The boy froze, as Douglas was about to do the deed.

“Eww wait a minute!”

Leon swiftly held Douglas accidentally lifting him up in the process to look down at  him at the eyes. Douglas' legs had iven out, so he looked a little pitiful as the bigger boi gave him a scolding.

“ You can’t do that! That…that’s…. that’s only something a bully makes you do!....and I’m not a bully!”  the larger lad cried out. “ And it’s kind of gross too….” Leon looked away as he held Douglas firmly in position, thinking hard about a compromise. A thought popped up, his previous challenged seemed to work... So…

”How about….. since you don’t like being shorter… maybe you should promise me that you will get taller so you won’t be afraid any more, how’s that?”

This kid’s logic was on point. Douglas had his legs wake back up and stood from his err clutched position. He was just a kid after all, but still.

“Kid- I mean….Leon, I’m an  adult, adults don’t grow taller after they reach a certain age”. He despondently responded. Leon frowned at the man’s lack of enthusiasm.m

“ Okay…then I promise I’ll get taller to make up for it then!” Leon replied in full stride. Douglas gave up.

“That’s like promising the sky is blue, and will ya let go of me already?” Douglas shouted out.

“Oh, sorry.”

People started expressing the digressing this had lead to, some were disgruntled enough to march straight on out of there, citing casseroles in the oven and actual storm prevention activities, you know, the point of the conference. So the assistant clerk of the whatever kind propped everyone to be nice and all that stuff thenshe ushered Douglas to continue with whatever his presentation was, Not that Leon really paid attention in the first place.

Now that it was over, Leon thought he would head back to his seat, he caught a glimpse of some sort of lumberjack person looking at him. However just as the child was about to walk, Douglas grabbed Leon by the arm, it was a tough effort but he managed to stop Leon, who looked at Douglas in slight surprise.

“Hey buddy, it might not make up for the shoe thing, but… there is something you can do since you won.”