Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2022 17:41:50 GMT -5
The cottage was cozy, and though he wouldn’t have been able to explain why, Ber immediately liked it. Despite its small size, the space had an endearingly personal quality to it that so many of the places he frequented lacked. It felt lived in, but more importantly, it also felt loved. Here was a place of safety, where stray dogs could flop to sleep across a near-stranger’s lap and stray young men could find a hearty meal. Quietly basking in that which he could never put to words, he sat obligingly in the offered seat, acknowledging Thom and Artos with a nod before turning his attention back to Ms— Temperance and Melody as they traded quips.
One of them earned Thomas a curious glance as the two women disappeared back into the kitchen. “A… songbird?” He asked the other man, not entirely sure he heard that correctly. “How did she bring home a songbird?” Men and dogs were one thing, a cat was a little trickier, but a bird was quite literally the flightiest off all. Bizarrely, he pictured Temperance with a giant net trying to catch a tiny feathered creature, but he knew immediately that wasn’t what had happened; no, he sensed that her ability to earn the tentative trust of the quietly cautious worked just as well on animals as it did young, hungry men.
Torn between wanting to help but not wanting to get in the way of two women who were clearly used to working around each other, Ber sat there while Melody brought out a chair from another room and Temperance set the table. Resisting the urge to fidget, he made himself sit politely with his hands in his lap - not poking the slightly crooked knife straight like he really wanted to - and remembered an earlier question that had received a somewhat confusing answer when he’d asked it of Temperance. Perhaps the man in question would be able to clarify things. “Temperance said you were an, um, investigator?” He began, looking over at the man trapped beneath a slumbering pile of fur. “What kinds of things do you investigate?” According to Temperance, Thom’s work wasn’t malicious but rather performed with the intent of helping the most people, which Ber supposed was good to know, even if it didn’t help him understand what the other man actually did.
When Temperance sat down and apologized for the lack of room, he shrugged, “It’s fine. I’m used to not spreading out too much.” it was true; growing up surrounded by other children and then spending his adult life surrounded by other soldiers, he was no stranger to sharing space with other people. That being said, He thought a moment later, as he moved his plate and silverware a little to the side to make room for the gravy bowl. This is certainly tight. Melody invited him to help himself, and she didn’t need to speak twice. Everything smelled delicious. “Thanks for making this, Melody,” He said, even as he gave up trying to figure out what to eat first and grabbed a little bit of everything for his plate.
He took his first bite of the pork chop and gravy and knew that if Temperance maintained that standing invitation, this would not be the last time he set foot in the homey little cottage.
As he ate, the discussion around him turned to the puppy and what to feed him, and for the first time in a long time, he thought about one of the other orphans he’d grown up with. Her name had been Evelin - or so he thought, he realized with some regret that he couldn’t remember exactly - and she had found a litter of stray puppies whose mother was nowhere to be found. Naturally, almost all of them had wanted a canine companion despite having no real understanding of how to care for them, and their joint efforts of raising the tiny little pack were the talk of the year. It, like so many things that happened on the streets of Skia, had not ended well, but he had learned that… “Dogs will eat anything,” He said, once he’d swallowed his bite of pork chop. “Meat, fruits, vegetables. You don’t even need to cook it for them.” They certainly hadn’t done any cooking, not as kids, but the puppies hadn’t seemed to mind. Shrugging, he added, “But maybe it’s better if you do? He must have liked your sandwich, Thom, if he followed you home.”