Rind.

Adotre hung around in animal form for the rest of the day, sometimes pawing playfully at the curls of wood on the floor whilst Kellan carved, other times following Gus from place to place as he did minor chores. Once, he tried to climb up for a nap in Kellan and Gustin's bed, but a growl from the wolfe warned him down. This made Gus stop what he was doing and look over at his mate.
"He can sleep on the bed if he wants. It doesn't bother me."
Kellan, who was looking hard at Adotre and not minding Gustin, shook his head.
"It is not a matter of easing your comfort, human. The Layer does not sleep in our bed."
Adotre lowered his head and scratched one ear guiltily.

In the afternoon, Adotre had whined that he was tired of the same old stew until Kellan got tired of his voice and agreed to let him go out and "catch something interesting" for dinner. A few hours later, he returned bearing a small but prodigious bloody bundle, which Kellan took carefully out of Gustin's sight to be cleaned and prepared. Even after these months, Gus still claimed it made him sick to clean carcass, and so Kellan suggested that now may be a convenient time for his mate to have a pre-dinner nap. Gustin agreed, not because Kellan had practically ordered him to do so, but instead because he actually did, for some reason, feel rather tired, and felt a quick rest might be properly in order.

Kellan and the Layer cooked the meat, using half for the meal, and setting aside half to go into storage. Kellan also neatly sliced up the root vegetables he'd dug up earlier, and Adotre went to the well to retrieve some fresh water. As they worked together peacefully, Adotre yapping happily about things he expected to trade for from the caravan (everything from new pots to a particular piece of cloth he'd seen last spring and hadn't been able to acquire), and Kellan nodding gruffly or grunting when appropriate. Gustin woke up when they were almost finished, and joined in the conversation, noting with only passing interest that although the Layer really needed no encouragement to keep up his chatter, Kellan still seemed to be keeping very quiet.

At dinner, Kellan's silence continued. Adotre had shifted human again and dressed, after Gus had asked the Layer to narrate some of the stories of the Layer mythology for him. Now, Gus sat opposite Adotre, listening with great interest to the riveting and ribald tale of the first Layer King, who, after choosing a bride who would not lay for him, had his stepmother (a powerful magician), turn the recalcitrant bride into a nirruk, something which Adotre described as being similar to a very large duck.
"Oh, so it's like a goose."
Adotre frowned.
"No. It is like a large duck."
Gustin let this go. He paused.
"Wait, so who was it who got turned into a large duck?"
Adotre frowned again and looked at Gus, worriedly.
"The frigid queen, of course."
"I thought you said 'he.'"
Adotre furrowed his brow, then addressed Gustin as one might a small child.
"Yes. He. The Queen. The one who wouldn't lay."
Gustin felt as if he must have missed something.
"...what?"
Kellan interrupted.
"Mate. The Layers have only one gender. They are hermaphroditic. All of them can act the role of either male or female. They are all 'he.'"
Gustin ohh'd, and Adotre looked a little relieved that his pupil seemed to have caught up. But then he seemed to reprocess the words in his mind, and turned to glare at Kellan.
"But some of us," he said pointedly, "Are more 'he' than others. We do indicate, wolfe. We won't just act whichever way."
Kellan met Adotre's eyes and something seemed to pass between them.
"Ah." was all the wolfe said, then went back to the rest of his meal.
Gustin tugged on Adotre's shirt sleeve, calling back his attention.
"Lay?"
Adotre patted Gus' hand.
"Mate with. It's our word for mating."
Kellan conspicuously cleared his throat. Adotre rolled his eyes.
"And birthing."
Gus raised an eyebrow, then turned back to Kellan.
"Do they - "
Kellan anticipated his question.
"Yes. Soft, leathery-shelled eggs, no more than three at a time, but most frequently one."
Gus jerked his attention back to Adotre, who was looking at Kellan with a strange expression.
"I don't know why this would be of interest to a human mate."
"It might be of interest to all of us, shortly." Kellan answered. Adotre stiffened, and stared at Kellan so sharply that Gus just knew if he'd been in animal form, his hackles would have been up and spiky.
"And why would that be, wolfe?"
There was no affection in his address. In response, Kellan merely shrugged, not taking his eyes off of Adotre.
"After the meal, Layer."
Adotre growled.
"No. Now."
Kellan's ears flicked just the slightest bit.
"We will talk about it after the meal."
"Maybe I want to talk about it now."
Kellan swallowed his soup and set the bowl down, his gaze focused intently on the Layer.
"I said after the meal, Nemel." Adotre's ears flicked, and he seemed to shrink back a little at the strange word, his gaze focused submissively on the ground. Kellan turned his attention back to his meal. "Finish Gustin's story."
Adotre went on, but kept glancing at the wolfe, and Gustin could tell he was tense. The story trailed off.
~:~

Adotre had quit eating some time ago, but Kellan took his time picking over his meal, ensuring he'd gotten all the meat off of the bones, then cracking them open to eat the marrow. Gus watched them both carefully. It was apparent to him that Adotre wanted to talk - he kept glancing up anxiously, scanning Kellan's plate, then his face, waiting for an indication that he was finished. Kellan, for the most part, ignored the Layer's fidgeting, only looking up again when he was finished eating, and pushing his plate away.
"Wolfe."
Kellan ignored this address. Adotre whined like a pup.
"Old Thing, please can we talk? Please."
Gus wondered what had caused this strange change of behavior in Adotre; usually, the Layer was all personality, all excited bravado. But now he was whining like a cub, abjectly begging Kellan for his attention. Gus pondered over the word Kellan had used. Nemel. It seemed familiar somehow. Something was going on.
Kellan calmly stretched, then settled into a comfortable position.
"I believe you know, Adotre, what it is we must discuss."
Gus had never heard Kellan use the Layer's name before, and looked over at his mate with interest. Adotre blanched.
"As you have surmised, my mate and I will be leaving soon."
Adotre nodded.
"We must discuss what you plan to do."
The Layer obviously hadn't been anticipating this turn to the conversation; confusion, then worry, then irritation his face.
"I plan to go with you."
Kellan shook his head.
"You can't go with me."
Adotre stopped short and stared at Kellan. Idly, he used one hand to scratch behind his own ear, a nervous tic that Gustin had noticed before.
"Why can't I go with you?"
his voice sounded strained.
Kellan's expression was unreadable.
"Because, Adotre, Gustin is my mate. My place is with him. Yours is not."
Gus schooled his expression carefully not to show a reaction to this. He could sense the tension in the words, in the scene unfolding in front of him. There was a pause, and more scratching, and then Adotre's voice, sounding pitiful, and even more strained now.
"I could be - "
"No."
the Layer swallowed, then jumped up to his feet and began pacing. Suddenly there was a rush of energy in the room; the tension turned into activity.
"But you said you wouldn't leave me."
Kellan looked up at Adotre.
"I swore that I would never abandon you, and I won't."
Adotre suddenly stopped pacing, and dropped down so that he was sitting with both hands on either side of him on a pile of furs.
"Well, then you can't go away without me."
Kellan shook his head.
"This is not your place, Adotre."
the Layer looked stricken; he squeezed his hands into fists, spastically, on the furs.
"But you can't go away from here. You can't leave me. You said you wouldn't. You promised me, Kellan!"
Adotre was becoming more and more agitated. Kellan, however, remained calm.
"No harm will come to you, Layer."
If Adotre was even a little bit relieved, it didn't show. He jumped up again and began pacing, anxiously, the ground in front of the cooking fire.
"Why can't I come with you?!"
Kellan put one hand on the table in front of him, flexing his finger out slowly.
"Because my place is with my mate."
There was a brief silence, then Adotre shifted suddenly, disentangled himself from his clothes, and turned, hackles raised and lips curled back, to snarl at Gus. Kellan, in a flash of movement, got to his feet and stood betwen them. Adotre looked, panicked, between Gus and Kellan for a minute, then focused his attention on Kellan and shifted back. His expression was pathetic; he looked searchingly into Kellan's face.
"I could have been your mate, Kuskellanar."
Gus stared open-mouthed. Every time he thought he'd got a handle on things, someone pulled out something like this.
Kellan was looking at the Layer with a mixture of love and pity.
"Adotre. That was never going to happen."
the trembling Adotre had started with became a full-on shake now, and Kellan stepped forward, reaching one hand out towards the smaller man. The Layer leapt back like a rocket.
"No! Don't touch me! I don't want you if you're just going to leave! I don't want you if you don't want me. I don't want you, either. I don't want someone who doesn't love me."
There was something that sounded mysteriously like crying present in the Layer's voice. Kellan pricked his ears and stopped moving forward. His voice was firm, but gentle.
"Adotre. Come here."
the Layer looked around himself, whined in distress, then stopped his protesting and began to come to the wolfe. When he was within reach, Kellan seized him by the back of the neck and Adotre stumbled forward, so that their faces were pressed close. The Layer did not meet Kellan's eyes.
"What have I told you about love?"
Adotre glanced once at Gustin, as if unsure whether he could say this with an audience. His voice was quiet.
"That mating isn't the only form of love." Kellan squeezed the back of his neck, and Adotre bit his lip. "That the way you love me is different; that I am in your care. That you will take care of me as you would your own cub." Kellan squeezed again, as if the action would bring answers from the Layer's recalcitrant throat. Adotre spoke hurriedly. "That you will never abandon me, or betray my trust." Kellan tightened his grip again, and Adotre looked anxiously again at Gustin before the last words crept out, whispered for wolfish ears. "That you aren't anything like my father."
Gus kept his silence throughout the exchange, busying himself making an extensive list of question to ask Kellan when they were alone. He also made some notes on the Wolfe-Layer interaction; first hand observations like this could provide one-of-a-kind information, and could make him a mint when he finally had to run again. In the brain space outside of this that was unoccupied with thought, he wondered about Adotre's father, and how Kellan had come to (apparently) play that role. He would have to ask later. Kellan released the back of the Layer's neck.
"Apologize for your words to me."
"I'm sorry."
"As a Layer."
Adotre hesistated.
"I'm sorry, Airu."
"Now Gustin."
Adotre lifted his head to look at Kellan, and for a moment, there was an angry, challenging look in his eyes, but Kellan met it evenly, and Adotre turned his head away. When he spoke, it was reluctant and stilted.
"I apologize, Human. For my anger. And what I said. I don't want your mate. He's mean. You can keep him."
Gustin inclined his head in polite thanks. Kellan grunted gruffly and moved to his carving bench.
"Sit."
Adotre knelt instead, on the floor in front of Kellan, and Gustin noticed that he was still shivering slightly, with fear or anger or some other emotion. Kellan stared hard at the Layer.
"Arrangements must be made before I go, Nemel."
Adotre looked up at him, then dropped his gaze back to the floor. His heart began to pound in his chest. Kellan was looking gently at him; Adotre refused to look away from the ground.
"I can no longer act Airu for you."
Adotre tried to breathe through his fear. He felt sick; vulnerable and frightened, like he was a cub all over again, crouching in his mother's bedroom.
"Old Thing, please - "
Kellan raised a hand to stop him.
"You understand, I am sure, what the most appropriate solution would be." Adotre shook more visibly now. He scratched one ear, then rubbed his eyes. Kellan waited patiently. Gustin stared. Finally, the Layer spoke in a whisper.
"Airu..."
"You are old enough, Adotre."
the Layer didn't move, or raise his head. There was a low keening, which trickled off, then silence, then Adotre's voice.
"Who, Airu?"
Kellan settled his hands on his knees.
"The wolfe Iorir."
Adotre glanced hopefully up at Kellan, then away, to the side, then back at the floor in front of him. Kellan exhaled quietly. Gustin sensed it was an expression of relief.
"You know him well. His exile ends soon. He will be kind to you. And he has inquired."
At that, Adotre looked up.
"What...what did he ask?"
There was a pause.
"Whether or not you were mature."
Gus listened with some interest, trying to piece together the puzzle. Adotre focused on something near a fire pit and began to scratch his ear furiously.
"But I am not lay-expressive, Airu."
Kellan's hands flexed just the tiniest bit, a gesture, Gus knew, of annoyance.
"That charade is over, Adotre. The time for games is past."
Adotre looked up at the wolfe, the challenge back in his eyes. Kellan growled. Adotre snapped back into submission, eyes on the floor. But the Layer's uneasiness broadcasted strongly through his posture.
"But...he'll make me lay for him, Airu."
Kellan looked at Gustin, suddenly, catching him off-guard, then back to Adotre.
"And would that be such a bad thing, Nemel?"
Adotre looked helplessly around. Kellan leaned forward, speaking to him gently. "You cannot deny your nature forever, Zerrena."
Adotre made a weird motion with his body, as if trying to dodge the wolfe's attack. Kellan patiently waited for him to finish and come back to sitting.
"You will be happy, Adotre. More so if you do not fight it, and learn to let yourself appreciate what you are." Adotre looked up at Kellan almost desperately, as if willing the wolfe to make the words come true. Kellan inclined his head towards Gustin. "Gus is happy, isn't he?"
Gus started at suddenly being included in the conversation. Kellan looked at him expectantly, and briefly, he thought about giving a more thorough and considered answer, but Adotre looked so pitifully up at him that the only thing he could think of was to agree.
"Yes. Very happy. It's weird, but...I am happy here, with Kellan."
Adotre bit his lip and looked back to the floor.
"Can I sleep with you tonight, Airu?"
Kellan frowned, then seemed to relent. He met Gus' eyes. Gus shrugged.
"Tomorrow, you will go home. Pack. Return by nightfall. In the morning, I will send word for Iorir."
Adotre nodded, but still looked worried.
"When you return, tomorrow night, you may sleep with us."
Adotre nodded, and, conversation apparently over, slunk off to the opposite side of the main room, towards the baths, where a hot shower would await him. Kellan silently watched him go. Gus waited patiently for him to disappear behind the curtained bathroom doors. It was the perfect time to ask Kellan about everything.

~:~