“Let’s get moving,” he said, clicking his tongue to encourage Kai to her feet. She snapped lazily at him, clearly not happy about having to get up, but she didn’t protest.
Alexei said something in his own tongue, sounding a little amused.
“What does that mean?” Freddie blurted out, before he could think about it, and Alexei blinked at him.
“It means like … are you upset? Are you angry?”
Freddie gave him a little smile. “Really?”
Alexei shrugged. “Well, she is. Aren’t you?”
He said the same thing again, and Kai just yawned. Alexei smiled, reaching out to scratch her jaw, and said something else.
Freddie didn’t ask this time, but Alexei glanced up and he must have seen the look on his face, because he answered anyway.
Freddie huffed a faint laugh. “You’re mean to her.”
Alexei shook his head, a faint smile pulling at his lips. “She is a lazy girl. Aren’t you? Aren’t you lazy?”
Kai chirped at him, and she seemed to be intending to curl back up on the ground. Alexei shook his head, saying something else in his own tongue, and started walking again. She reluctantly drifted after him.
Freddie followed as well, stumbling a little in his haste to catch up. “Don’t be rude to her.”
“I am rude to her,” Alexei said, sounding completely unrepentant. “She deserves it.”
“She doesn’t,” Freddie insisted, putting a hand on Kai’s back. “She’s a good girl. You’re a good girl, ignore him.”
Alexei shook his head, saying something in his own tongue. “She’s lazy. I’m going to tell her she’s naughty.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Freddie told Kai, serious. “You’re a very good girl. You’ve been very helpful, helping us make it all this way.”
“She’d rather be sleeping,” Alexei told him.
“So would I,” Freddie pointed out, and that startled a laugh out of Alexei.
“Well, me too, I suppose.”
Freddie didn’t say anything for a long moment. He hadn’t heard Alexei laugh before, and it had taken him off guard. He had a nice laugh, and Freddie was delighted that he had managed to make him laugh.
He swallowed once, and again, biting his lip, and finally managed to speak. “Tell her she’s good,” he said, hoping to make Alexei smile.
It worked. Alexei smiled, just a little, and turned to Kai, saying something in his own tongue.
“Did you tell her?” Freddie asked, and Alexei nodded. “Good.”
“She doesn’t deserve it,” he said, light and a little teasing.
“She does,” Freddie insisted, and scratched her under the jaw. “She deserves to be told she’s a good girl and given little scritches.”
“You’re soft on her,” Alexei said, and Freddie huffed.
“Because she deserves it.”
“She does,” Freddie said. “She’s come all this way with us, and she let us ride her for a while.”
“I suppose,” Alexei said, a smile pulling at his mouth. “Alright. I suppose she’s a good girl.”
He turned to her and spoke in his own tongue. Freddie tried to imagine what he was saying. You hear that? Maybe. You are a good girl.
“What did you tell her?” Freddie asked, and Alexei gave him a little half-smile.
“I told her I guess you’re alright.”
“That’s still mean,” Freddie pointed out, and Alexei only hummed.
“It’s because I love her,” Alexei told her. “She doesn’t mind.”
“I bet she does,” Freddie said. He was delighted Alexei was willing to have this long of a conversation with him, to be honest. Even if Freddie had technically asked him please talk to him. But all he’d really asked was for Alexei to talk, he’d never said they actually had to have a nice conversation.
“She doesn’t,” Alexei said. “She told me.”
“Did she?” Freddie said, somewhere between curious and disbelieving. He didn’t exactly believe that Alexei understood what Kai was saying, but also Alexei had said it very seriously, and Freddie supposed that maybe there was a chance.
“She did,” Alexei told him, not giving him any indication whether or not it was a joke. “She said Alexei, I know you love me, and I don’t mind if you’re a little bit mean sometimes.”
“Really?” Freddie said, genuine, and Alexei laughed, for the second time in one conversation.
“No, of course not. She’s a wyrm.”
“Oh,” Freddie said, rubbing the back of his neck a little awkwardly, but he couldn’t exactly be upset about it. Not when it had made Alexei laugh.
you know that post thats like. one person calls the cat a precious baby boy and the other swings him around and goes ‘stinky! stinky!’