Last Arc Family (Sirius the Jaeger)

Corvus (1/2)

"Now the next thing you add is this."

"Uh huh." Alexei mindlessly answers as his eyes drift to the window for the fifth time today, watching the sunset. The white snow was bathed in a warm orange glow. Qiuyue pauses in her demonstration, "Are you even listening? Or are you just saying 'uh huh' to keep me from nagging you?"

"Uh hu--What? No!" Alexei snaps his attention back on Qiuyue, a small blush on his cheeks. "I'm listening to you. Honest."

"Tch, sure you are." Qiuyue turns the marble pestle, letting the weight of the stone sink and roll into her palm. "Now that I have your full attention--for the next two minutes--when you're making this particular medicine there's one ingredient that you have to add in odd intervals." She reaches over for a bowl full of some type of dried fruit and dumps a few into the mortar. "If you're making one batch, the default is three. If you want to double it don't use six, use five. Because six is even and five is odd. Even though adding six would be mathematically correct when doubling three, it doesn't make it an odd number." Qiuyue's voice blends into the low sound of marble scraping against marble. "Keep this math lesson in mind when you make greater batches. So, Lex, if you want to triple the batch, how many--Lex!" Alexei pulls his gaze away from the window and focuses on the annoyed Lure seated in front of him.

The ravenette pouts and crosses her arms. "Come on, Lex, you need to know how to make more of this stuff when you run out. My tribe is leaving for the migration tonight and you're going to be on your own for six months with no help."

Alexei averts his gaze, finding the ground easier to face than Qiuyue. "Lex," A soft call is accompanied by an equally soft pair of hands cupping his cheeks and lifting his head. Deep blue eyes locking with mint green. "What's on your mind péngyǒu?"

"Nothing." He responds and earns a raised brow from the girl, as if she was silently asking 'nothing? Really?'. Alexei swallows and opens his mouth then closes it, then opens it again before closing it again like a fish. On the third time, a genuine answer slips out. "My family," Was the general answer before he elaborates, "My sisters, the circle, my parents. Just...about everything, Qiu."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Alexei shakes his head and Qiu nods, not pushing further. Silence settles between them for what seemed like an eternity to Alexei, yet Qiuyue didn't remove her hands. After a few minutes of silence and the Sirius simply enjoying the touch, the Lure squishes his cheeks a few times. "You're such a moody baby." "Am not!" The white-haired boy responds back by biting one of her thumbs, not hard to break the skin, being mindful of his canines, but enough to make her jump and drop her hands.

"Look, you're back to your old self already! Now, I can continue. After you ground the, as you liked to call them, 'dried pears', you add it to the mixture--that I showed you how to make earlier--that's been on the fire." Qiuyue picks up the mortar and pours the ground fruit into the small pot on the tiny flame, stirring a few times before tapping the stick a few times on the side when she's done. "After you mix it well, let it simmer then let it cool before you transfer it to a bottle. When you give it to your Mom, you have to reheat it and mix it with something else acting as a base, like tea or soup. You know from experience that the medicine doesn't taste so good by itself, even worse when it's cold."

"It's bitter."

"You can thank the shriveled pears for that." Qiuyue stands to stretch, "After we bottle the medicine I'll walk you back to Pup Circle."

"You don't need to do that, I can walk back by myself. Besides," Alexei looks around the room. Qiuyue's house was goldilocks size; not too big, not too small. Subjectively, Alexei thought it was too small, coming from a place where he shared a home with six other people. Qiuyue thought it was small too in the beginning, but after her parents died the house felt too big (It felt empty even though she was living in it). There were a couple small packed bags by the door while the rest of the house was left untouched--besides the ingredients and small pot in front of them--looked as if she wasn't coming back, but he knew she was. The Lures always came back. "Don't you need to finish packing or something?"