Ryou was knitting on the couch, watching a rerun of some old horror movie. Serket was next to him, watching him knit with fascination. He had already made the scorpion an ugly holiday sweater to match his- Nasir had never laughed so hard. Once in a while, Serket would carefully pinch the hanging fabric until Ryou tugged on it.
"This is for the kuribohs, silly boy." Ryou said, shaking out the fabric. "They're turning one in a couple of months, so I'm making them some hats!" Some poor victim screamed on T.V. and Serket turned to look, clicking his pincers curiously. The front door opened- and Serket whirled back around with his tail poised. In the few days since Bakhure had shown up, Serket had been extremely defensive of the apartment while Ryou was watching him.
"I come in peace." Nasir called, kicking off his shoes. Serket relaxed and scuttled down his ramp to meet Nasir at the entrance to the living room. "Hello little guardian." He scooped Serket up, letting the scorpion crawl onto his shoulders as he crossed the room to give Ryou a kiss.
"Welcome back." Ryou said, setting his knitting aside. "How was work?" Nasir sighed, leaning his head on Ryou's shoulder.
"Long." He said. Ryou carefully combed his fingers through Nasir's braids, trying not to snag any of them. "We had to go out and sedate one of the kuriboh from the farm so we could trim her claws. They were growing curled in and hurting her. But the rest of the herd was obviously not happy with that. I'm sure I have some bruises the size of basketballs from them bouncing off me."
"At least she's doing better now." Ryou soothed. "Hopefully the herd gets used to you soon. You've been out a few times, right?" Serket scuttled down into Ryou's lap, closing his eyes.
"Traitor." Nasir grumbled, nudging Serket. "This is the third time. I'm going to make some visits that aren't veterinary in nature- hopefully they won't be so jumpy." Another scream sounded from the T.V. and Serket clicked back.
"I'm sure they'll get used to you. You are all taking such good care of them." Ryou said, kissing his temple.
"What would I do without you, ya qamar?" Nasir mumbled, wrapping his arms around Ryou's waist. Just as Ryou was settling in, his phone rang. He freed an arm from Nasir's grasp to answer it.