I Have No Excuse

Untitled Part 23

I walked in that morning with a large smile. I really wanted to see what Prowl would think of puzzles. I didn't doubt it would take some time for him to figure it out, but he was smart. If he could figure out doors then he could figure out this. It was just a picture that had been cut into pieces. Putting them back together was a pretty simple concept. He'd get it eventually.

"Hey, Prowl." I called as I approached the tank. "I got something for ya."

He slipped out of his nest and followed me along like he always did now. Just the glass wall between us. Still silent and pressing as close to the glass as he could. Rising with me as I climbed, puzzles and his breakfast in hand. Then he jumped up onto the stand when I came up the last few steps. I set the boxes behind me as I sat down. Prowl settled across my lap.

"Alright first of all ya need breakfast. Then I've got something I want to show ya."

Prowl never moved from my lap, but he ate absentmindedly when I shoved the fish in front of him. It was like he had no interest in eating anymore, and only did so for Blaster and I. If anyone else tried to feed him he'd just ignore it. I guess it was kind of the same thing that happened with Barricade. Prowl was worried and tried to get him to eat and so now he didn't want us to feel how he felt or something. It wasn't exactly a comforting thought, but at least he was eating. I would hate to see him being force fed like Barricade had. He'd probably find a way to escape or even hurt himself with it eventually if he really wanted to give up.

I sighed when he poked at the bones. I tossed them each over my shoulder and onto the floor below. I'd pick it up later. Right now Prowl was far more important than the floor and if some fish bones were going to be a distraction then they needed to go.

"Ok you're done. Now then This is what I wanted to show ya."

He barely glanced at the box. He had no interest in it at all, but hopefully that would change. I carefully opened the box and poured the contents where we could both reached it. It was a small one, but starting with the simple 75 and 100 piece ones was better than giving him a hard one and expecting him to get it. It would be like giving a fourth grader trig problems and expecting them to understand it. If you don't have any prior knowledge on a subject then you can't just jump right in. This puzzle was of a grassy meadow with flowers and a kitten in the center.

"And this right here is a puzzle. Ya remember what I was talking about yesterday, right? Of course ya do. I talked about puzzles until ya were probably thinking of shoving me into your tank to get me to shut up."

Prowl just watched me flip over the pieces until they were face up. Still no interest. At least he was watching. That was something.

"So the point of this is to put all the pieces together and make the picture that appears on the cover of the box. See? That right there is what we're going to make with all of these. It's time consuming to find what pieces fit, but it's fun. Ok so I'll start and ya can just join in whenever."

I doubted he'd get it from just the explanation anyway. So I started fitting some of the pieces together. Prowl didn't even seem the slightest bit interested until the picture started coming together. I had a bit of a 'U' shape going on by this point and Prowl lifted his head up a little.

"See?" I pointed to the picture on the box and then the scattered puzzle. "Ya get it now? It's neat, right? I figured ya would like something like this."

I ended up finishing that puzzle on my own. At least he seemed a little curious now. So I slid that one back into the box, kind of folding it in half so it would fit. I'd take it apart later. I pulled over another one and dumped that one out and started on it. This one was a little Disney movie puzzle. It was the desert in Aladdin with one of the cave of wonders scenes. I started putting it together. Nearly all the pieces looked the same. Just a golden color of the sand. I had a few pieces together when Prowl moved. My face split with a grin when he picked up one of the pieces to look at it before setting it back down. He looked over the mess of pieces, his eyes darting about like he was looking for something. Then he started sliding some of the pieces over to one side and I didn't care for the reason too much. He was doing something and this was a big step. I didn't say anything though as I didn't want to spoil it. It took me a while to realize that he was separating and putting together the edge and corner pieces. He had the frame done rather quickly that way. Yep. Smart. He already had a strategy down. Then we started filling it in. I felt a spark of pride at our first finished puzzle.

"Well I think we'll get this one framed for ya. A little line on the bottom saying Prowls first puzzle. What do ya think?"

As expected he didn't really give me a response to my joke though I didn't care. Nothing could ruin my mood right now. Prowl was doing something. So I folded that one and returned it to the box before bringing out the next.