[Closed Post: Caught]

[timebethine]

Laertes is in love. He's in love, and he's carrying his whole heart tucked into his coat, held close against his chest. The pup wriggles and squirms and makes little noises that to Laertes's ears are more curious and interested than distressed. "Soon, pet," says Laertes softly as he undoes the lock on the door to his and Sagramore's rooms. Then, louder: "Sagramore! I've brought a friend for thee!"

And he pulls the tiny puppy out of his coat. It blinks ice-blue eyes at Sagramore, then gives an amiable bark.

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[timebethine]

"We'll tether each other, and swing together in our sphere," says Laertes. He leans in to add his kisses to Szarka's, then swings open the refrigerator himself, thinking of a rich, wheat-sweet bran bread that would be good to eat with butter. And as he opens the door, a loaf of dark bread lies waiting in a cardboard tray. "I envy thee, Szarike," he says. "This looks delicious."

[sagramore]

"Thou wilt be so well-fed," he agrees, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "Thy fathers will dote on thee to excess."

[timebethine]

Szarke wriggles and barks--now that The Problem seems to have been resolved, she is once more on the hunt for The Bacon. She can still smell it a little! It must have run away! She should Chase!

Setting the bread down beside the chicken, Laertes dips a finger in the broth to find it milk-warm; he turns off the heat. "Now, tell me how to assemble these things to feed our daughter."

[sagramore]

"All together, like a soup." His arms are full of puppy, so he directs. "Tear the bread into small pieces and put it in the broth with the meat, and then she'll eat on the floor."

[timebethine]

"Mostly broth, or mostly bread and meat? Or even proportions of all three?" asks Laertes as he starts tearing up the bread into puppy-sized pieces.

[sagramore]

"Two parts broth to one part meat and bread." Szarka is now about as interested in her dinner as she was in A Bacon, since the fridge has closed on its scent, and she wriggles eagerly in his arms. Sagramore laughs. "Patience, patience."

[timebethine]

Laertes tips some shreds of bread and chicken into a bowl, then covers them liberally with broth and mixes them--then he sets the bowl on the floor, while Szarka frantically kicks and wiggles and barks with a passion to consume it.

[sagramore]

"All right, we'll work on patience." He crouches down and sets her on the floor, but doesn't immediately let go. Then, "All right," in an excited, encouraging tone, releasing her so she can pelt for the bowl and begin slurping up the contents.

[timebethine]

While Szarka eats, Laertes comes over to rest his head on Sagramore's shoulder. "Is that how thou wouldst be trained?" he asks. "Made to be patient, taught when thou canst and canst not act on thy wants?"

[sagramore]

"Why, wilt thou train me alongside her? I do like that, yes."

[timebethine]

"I know not how," Laertes admits. "But I'd like to learn. Watching thee ... I think I could learn."

[sagramore]

"We'll learn to be good masters together." He turns to kiss Laertes' neck.

[timebethine]

Laertes just laughs. "I know thou dost only let me play at mastery."

[sagramore]

"What meanst thou by that?"

[timebethine]

Laertes straightens, frowning. "Didst not say it? With Grantaire?"

[sagramore]

Sagramore blinks at him. "Aye, because it pleases thee?"

[timebethine]

An equally incredulous look. "It did please me--it pleased me very well. But I knew not that it was said in play."

[sagramore]

"My heart. It's all play. Perhaps we should be clearer about when play begins and ends, I had no idea thou didst not know."

[timebethine]

"Or at least--when we might have faith that we speak from the heart, and when we might doubt." He meets Sagramore's gaze. "Art thou playing, when thou callest me master?"

The broth is slopping everywhere. Szarka's entire face is covered in chunks of bread and meat. She has never been so happy in her entire tiny life.

[sagramore]

"There's a part of me that would be glad to have thee as my master all the time and always bend towards thy service -- but I like to be thine equal, too, and stand beside thee as thy husband. So I do try to call thee master only when it's part of a game."

[timebethine]

"Ah." There's a little pang, at that, like a child's at realizing that fairies are only stories. (There's another, deeper pang, at realizing that he doesn't know what's a game--whether the tattoos on his arm mean they're a family, or whether that's just another game they play.) "I'm sorry, my heart. I think I was just swept away in it."

[sagramore]

"Laertes," softer. "What's that look?"

[timebethine]

A wry little smile. "Only ... remembering how new this is to me, and how little I know."

[sagramore]

"Didst thou want to be my master, or me thine, all the time?"

[timebethine]

He hesitates, then reaches for Sagramore's chain. "I thought that was what this meant."