Page 53 of Legends and Longing

“That’s going to wait for another time, though.” Something about Raxius’ tone got a giggle from our hiding mate. “Right now you need a bath. You are surprisingly dirty.”

Turning to focus on me, Raxius indicated confusion. “Did you know to expect this level of mess from this meal? I did not.”

Returning the show of confusion, I also shrugged in case Shiloh could see me. “No, but I am starting to wonder if I should have.”

Shiloh’s giggle said he was not worried about our mess discussion but it was not helpful in general. As I rose, Raxius studied our mate again. “I think we will have to work out a schedule where during little times, an evening meal is immediately followed by bathtime.”

“It seems logical.” Cleaning up the kitchen quickly was also logical, so Raxius helped me as Shiloh alternated between hiding and peeking out of his shirt.

Which was even dirtier by the time everything else was clean.

“I think there is some kind of dirt magic at play here.” My exaggerated thinking sound got more giggles from our little mate. “He may be doing this to himself.”

Shiloh hadn’t talked much about his own skills. He changed the topic every time it came up, sometimes in oddly obvious ways, so I did not know how strong of a mage he actually was. “I may need to look for a spell someone has placed on him.”

“Wren did it.” Raxius’ well-timed response had Shiloh laughing so hard his binkie fell out. “Oops.”

Raxius had quick reflexes from his physical work and caught it in midair as it fell from under Shiloh’s shirt. “Here we go.”

“That was remarkable.” Being nice meant he needed praise. “I think the English term is good catch.”

They played games with balls and it seemed like their sports words had seeped into their everyday language.

Shiloh thought that was funny as well but his sounds shifted into a squeak as Raxius picked him up again. “You are a very dirty little ostrich.”

The hiding bird that did not actually seem to hide, if I understood the explanation I had been given from Beatrice.

“That is not how you would carry an ostrich.” Shiloh thought I was funny as well and hid his dirty face against his Master’s neck as we walked to the bathroom. “You will need to be washed too if we are not careful.”

That should not have been funny.

Raxius seemed to understand the humor based on what I was feeling, though. “Your tub is not big enough for that.”

I still did not understand.

Before I could ask for clarification, Raxius turned to me and I could feel his focus through the bond. It was almost like he was forcing it to stretch. For a moment it was wide and strong, and his thoughts came through to me. “You need to be confident about his nakedness. He fears upsetting his Daddy. Your feelings are important to him.”

His body visibly strained from the effort but it was back to being a quiet, thin strand of a bond before I could do more than jolt from the shock. I had no idea how he had done it, so all I could do was send approval through the bond and give him the human nod since Shiloh was still hiding.

Raxius swallowed hard then sent back through a warm feeling that was nearly as shocking as hearing him. “None of these units are built for three mates. We will need to consider practical things like tub-sizing when we decide where to live.”

Something had Shiloh snickering again but questioning feelings flickered through the bond. “I can easily travel to my work. Yours is the most difficult to move. What the Earthlings call our home base on this planet shall be your home.”

He made a groaning sound that delighted Shiloh as he set our boy down in the bathroom. “My home is not big enough for his toys and your books. I’ve heard rumors about those.”

That had Shiloh’s head popping out of his shirt as he looked between us. It took a moment to realize what he was curious about, however. “My books?”

Distracting him seemed like the best plan, so as Raxius moved to change the shower into a tub for Shiloh, I frowned. “I like books.”

The vague answer had him scrunching up his face and stomping over like a frustrated little dinosaur. Raxius was struggling not to laugh but I had to do what was called playing dumb. I did it well, though, because I had done it in the past without having an Earth word for it. “What?”

It seemed like people from both planets would eventually get frustrated and leave when someone appeared unintelligent about a topic. The language English just had wording to specifically describe the action.

They had words for everything because they stole them from others.

It seemed like dragons had possibly designed English.

Shiloh would not leave because he was frustrated, however. He was still set on keeping his binkie in place, but he poked me and made grunts while sending more curious feelings through the bond. I looked down at where his finger was and pretended to look excited. “Oh, you like my shirt. Thank you.”