B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

123. Non-threat

I holed up in my room with my kids for the next day and left the Bard and Qin to Winston and Harvey. 

Bard wasn't totally broken. Not like King was anyway. Maybe he can be useful. Or maybe Qin will make a real decision regarding him. Who knows, maybe those two will actually talk to each other like equals instead of master and slave...

I'll give them the chance to fix their mess. If they make me step in to clean it up, I'll be thorough this time. 

Cooper came in carrying a plate of food while I watched my girls cheep at their littlest brother. Guess my girls are birds today. As long as they don't try to fly...

I invited Cooper to sit and eat with us to take a break.  He may not have to cook for all of the guys now--as they helped lighten Cooper's load by eating raw--but he had to make enough at breakfast and dinner so that we could all, at least, have a bowl. 

The older boys were also quite happy to eat raw. Although, they would indulge when certain meals were made. It still came out to be quiet the chore at times, so Harvey pitched in a lot.  The clinic was typically quiet and the two apprentices could handle a lot of basic things now.  

Pee-wee and Chub joined us, rubbing against whichever of us was most likely to offer them a bite.  Our boys were ever hungry.  Probably because they never stopped running around and playing with their cousins.

"Okay.  Okay.  It's coming you two." I told the boys.  

Cooper not-so-stealthily added more meat from the serving plate to Grace's to replace what his sons were eating.  His ail flicked around as he happily enjoyed the task. He even fed Grace a bight when he felt brave enough and she let him.  His satisfaction was evident.  He hoped to enjoy lots of lunches like this in the future too. 

For the rest of the week, I only did rounds in the morning. Class was also in the morning and only lasted an hour at the most. I was running out of general material and switched to drawing, writing, and more advanced math. Workshop was typically more productive than that, but I wasn't up for it that week.

I met with Sieg and shared breakfast every morning with him, as had been our routine since he started guarding the cove. He wasn't much of a talker but he was much more vocal than he was two years ago.

He was also pretty direct, although I had to turn him down whenever the topic of joining my family came up. It's been two years since I told him no, but he was still here. He didn't insist persistently. Had he, I had a couple of eager mates who were willing to see if Crocodiles made good food. It was actually me, who picked up on the lingering interest that would remind him that my behavior in no way meant I was considering him as a suitor.

It wasn't that I didn't like him enough, it just wasn't so easy to add another spouse when all of mine were itching for more attention.

I kept how I really felt to myself since it was ridiculous to ask for him to wait years until I was ready to consider it. I was not going to sell him on the promise of a maybe. But here he was anyway. Putting away bowls of Cooper's food every day with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Castor agreed," Sieg said as he downed another bowl of meat and rice porridge. "Will I still get breakfast?"

The seriousness of his question had me stifling a laugh. I'm pretty sure he liked the cooking more than me. "Yes, Sieg, you'll get breakfast for as long as you work."

The corner of Sieg's lips tilted up. "Okay. If I bring more sea findings, can I get lunch too?"

I found myself grinning. "Maybe dinner, depending on what you bring."