the zoo

[instar]

There is one visit during the day from a lady down the street who has made the girls a casserole, on the grounds that it can be hard to remember to eat when bereaved. Bella thanks her sincerely, sniffles a little, and sends her on her way. The casserole is shared around for lunch. Bella asks Ax what Andalites eat, and when she finds out, she locates a bag of grass clippings in the backyard that he pronounces acceptable. She also asks him how he eats them. By way of illustration, he steps both forehooves into the bag of clippings.

Night falls.

They can all go to the Seattle zoo and acquire everything they can get their hands on.

Comments

[instar]

"On?"

[aeskhyne]

He considers this question for a few seconds, and then says, "Stress level. If you're asking if I'm gonna wake up if somebody breaks in while I'm napping on the couch, the answer's 'probably'."

[instar]

"Okay. The alternative involves moderately uncomfortable bed-shuffling shenanigans to put Andi who wakes up when people breathe on the couch."

[pandion]

"I manage to sleep through you listing random words all night long," says Andi. "But yeah."

[aeskhyne]

"I'm not gonna sleep in the same room as your dad, either," he adds. "Nothing against your dad, I'm just - not. But I'll take the couch if that's fine with everybody."

[instar]

"Couch it is."

Couch-sleeping accessories are procured.

[pandion]

Andi wanders upstairs while Bella's doing that.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble snuggles up on the couch.

"G'night, Bella. You still want to talk about that thing from the other day?"

[instar]

"Yeah. Is now a good time?"

[aeskhyne]

"Sure, if we're quiet."

[instar]

"Sure," she murmurs.

[aeskhyne]

"Okay. ...I don't really know where to start," he admits.

[instar]

"Well - what's your take on what happened?"

[aeskhyne]

"Ax asked me to do something I wasn't gonna do, and I didn't feel like sticking around to explain why, so I bailed," he says quietly. "Being able to just leave a conversation I don't wanna be in anymore is kind of a big thing for me."

[instar]

"Meanwhile," says Bella, "today while Ax was hanging around in the garage being bored, I talked to him about it, and - well, it took a while to get his entire perspective because he kept framing it in terms of what kind of organizational structure are we working with here, do humans have a concept of 'pride', etcetera, but as far as he can tell you insulted him for no reason, and for the sake of inter-Animorph unity he refrained from challenging you to a duel and just asked you not to do that, instead, and then you said you could do whatever you wanted and flew away and for some reason the resident princess didn't reprimand you or him so he was wondering if humans just prefer to exist in environments of social hostility or something. I guess the difference might just boil down to that if I tell Ax he needs to fix this interpersonal conflict on his end, he might do something other than metaphorically flipping me off. I told him you were an unusual human, but - well, I understand you well enough to do some things, but 'explain you to an alien' isn't one of them."

[aeskhyne]

He snorts.

"And I could explain me to the alien, but I don't see why he'd give a fuck. What's a duel? If he wants to beat me up every time I piss him off, I can work with that. As long as he doesn't want to fuck me too."

[instar]

"I'm not confident, but I have the impression that the general Andalite dueling setup ends with somebody dead or permanently maimed," says Bella.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble shrugs. "Okay, no, then."

[instar]

Bella drops her forehead into her hand. "So, I go tell him that you're going to be insulting him whenever you like and he is to ignore it and see if I can still get a 'yes Princess' to that, is that where we are, here?"

[aeskhyne]

Trouble sighs. "I'll talk to him if you want. I just don't promise he's gonna come out of it any happier than he would if you did that."

[instar]

"What would you say?"

[aeskhyne]

"I have no idea."

[instar]

Bella is silent, staring into space, for a long moment of thought.

[aeskhyne]

Trouble waits with infinite patience.

[instar]

"Do you think you'd make anything worse?"