Surely he could be forgiven for not quite realising that the source of the extra-tigery scent wasn't his own scatterbrained (scattercookied?) panic over his well earned treats crumbling around him. These weren't exactly cheap cookies! So he was busy thinking it was her loss that she didn't want a not-quite-floor cookie, chewing the one hastily stuffed into his mouth quick so it wouldn't cause an obstruction when he had to speak.
Because she was asking him a question, and it was kind of rude not to answer.
And she was holding a hand out to help him up, which would have been even more rude to smack away, so he didn't do that.
Taking it firmly, that was the moment he figured it out, swallowing his cookie and filling his lungs with cat-scented air, like his mother, but not like her.
Actually he more air he took in, nothing like her, but tiger all the same.
His owlish eyes widened somehow more than they already were, a contrast to her almost squinting glare.
Tigers!
How had he never picked up on tigers around here before??
“Oh - wow - I mean yes, but kinda,” he said, which explained a lot and nothing. Stuffing the crumbling cookies into free pockets - gross, he hated the thought of having to clean these jeans later - he dusted his palms off and then wiped cookie debris off his shirt. “A few months. I've been here, I mean. You? I mean I'm guessing you're not new, because of the whole, like. The thing.” The question, and the tigers.
Because she was asking him a question, and it was kind of rude not to answer.
And she was holding a hand out to help him up, which would have been even more rude to smack away, so he didn't do that.
Taking it firmly, that was the moment he figured it out, swallowing his cookie and filling his lungs with cat-scented air, like his mother, but not like her.
Actually he more air he took in, nothing like her, but tiger all the same.
His owlish eyes widened somehow more than they already were, a contrast to her almost squinting glare.
Tigers!
How had he never picked up on tigers around here before??
“Oh - wow - I mean yes, but kinda,” he said, which explained a lot and nothing. Stuffing the crumbling cookies into free pockets - gross, he hated the thought of having to clean these jeans later - he dusted his palms off and then wiped cookie debris off his shirt. “A few months. I've been here, I mean. You? I mean I'm guessing you're not new, because of the whole, like. The thing.” The question, and the tigers.