Unhappy Master and Sulking Hound

Alyosha had gotten back from town after being through the torture of going to another children's store to pick up a few more books for Tuzik just to find his shoe chewed up.

He was not impressed. Not impressed at all.

The Necromancer was now lying in wait, propped up on the headboard of his bed, arms crossed over his broad chest, staring at the door waiting for Tuzik to return.

He had the sad remains of his shoe sat in his lap.

It would be pretty obvious why he didn't look amused.

Tuzik looked defeated and upset as he made his way back to the room.

With a little practice he had learned how to open doors from his crouched position and did so, pushing it open and shut again before his eyes landed on Alyosha.

The hound already looked upset but when he saw his Master's expression and the torn up shoe he whined and dropped to the floor.

If he had his tail it would've been tucked between his legs.

"What did I tell you about chewing shoe, Tuzik?" he asked sternly, picking up the torn shoe and waving it at the Hound.

"Is bad thing to do. Not good, Tuzik."

Now he had to go out and buy a new pair of shoes. It was a pain trying to find shoes that fit him. he was by no means a small man and most places did't stock his size shoes.

The man sighed and ran a hand through his dirty blond hair.

"Why did you do it, Tuz?"

He gave a soft whimper and placed his head on the floor, looking up at him with large red eyes.

"Lonely."

He muttered softly, he had learned that word from one of his colourful books about an ugly bird that no one liked.

He had felt bored and alone with his Master gone, he wanted to play and the shoe was the closest thing to him so he had played with it.

After it was destroyed he went into the yard to find friends, that hadn't turned out well either.

Alyosha gave a little groan when the Hound looked up at him with sad red eyes.

Those eyes. It was almost painful to look at Tuzik so sad.

"C'mere," he sighed softly, motioning for the Hound to come up onto the bed and curl in his lap.

He didn't want to see Tuzik so sad.

That Hound had him wrapped around his little finger.

Tuzik got to his feet and crawled over to the man, his body low to the ground as he jumped up onto the bed and curled up in his lap.

The hound managed to worm his way out of his t-shirt, letting it fall off the edge of the bed.

Alyosha didn't seem to get as mad when he took his clothes off inside, he liked not wearing them.

His hand reached out to paw at one of the books on the chair beside the bed.

"Not good, bad."
He muttered softly, sighing as his hid his face under the Necromancer's arm.

Alyosha hugged the Hound closer, nuzzling into his red hair.

"Don't chew shoes any more, Tuzik. It takes long time to buy new ones. I don't want to have to do that."

He stroked the Hound's back and neck gently.

"You're not bad. You just do bad things sometimes. You have heart of gold." He was like a child. He did thing when he was bored that he wouldn't usually do otherwise. Things that he didn't know were bad.

"No more play with clothes."
He muttered in a little promise as he sat up in Alyosha's lap and wrapped his arms around the man, burying his face in against his neck.

He shook his head softly as the man spoke again, he wasn't talking about his behaviour, he was referring to what happened in the garden.

"Tuzik bad speaking, he didn't understand."

The Hound sniffed softly, he really thought he was getting good at English but as soon as he tried to speak to someone for the first time since Alyosha started teaching him, he had failed and been mocked.

"Thank you. Good boy."

He'd be happy if Tuzik didn't destroy his shoes any more. That was all he wanted from the Hound.

"Speaking? Didn't understand who?" Had he gone out and tried to speak with people when he knew so little of the language?

That was a brave thing to do.

Alyosha began scratching behind Tuzik's ear idly.

He shifted a little in the man's lap, leaning into the scratching behind his ear, a soft purr leaving his lips.

"Both."

He explained, he hadn't understood what Aodh had said and Aodh hadn't understood what he had been saying.

Even with Maccon helping him he hadn't done well at all.

"I'm no good."

He muttered, nuzzling into his Master's neck, his tongue lapping out affectionately over the tattooed skin.

"Shh, you're very good," he dismissed.

He just hadn't learned all that he needed to yet. He had a lot ahead of him and it would take some time to learn it all.

But for what he had learned, he could string together some sentences and he could reply to most things. He was doing extremely well. Alyosha definitely hadn't been that good in a month after he had started learning English.

"Give it some time, Tuz, and you will speak very clear English. Everyone will understand. Promise."

He gave a hesitant little nod, if Alyosha said it then it had to be true, his Master wouldn't lie to him, or break a promise.

If he said he was good and would be able to speak English clearly then he would be able to in time.

He pressed a soft kiss to the man's cheek before curling back up in his lap, his head nestling up against Lyo's stomach.

"Keep swimming?"

He asked, looking up at him with bright eyes, he was referring to a movie he had watched a few times now, he had liked it a lot.

It was about fish and when things got hard the blue one told them to just keep swimming.

Though he didn't understand the words he understood the meaning behind it, he just had to keep trying.

Alyosha chuckled softly, stroking Tuzik's head.

It seemed he had done good getting a few movies for the Hound to watch when they were lounging around the room together with nothing to do.

He had enjoyed them and it seemed he was picking out important themes and messages in the movies. That was very good. Perhaps he'd learn right and wrong through Disney movies.

"Da. Just keep swimming."

If he carried on through all these troubles then he'd come out on top and be able to speak English well. He just needed to work for it.

"Dominus Alyosha help talk to Aodh? Maccon upset."

He asked looking up at the man, perhaps later he could help him talk to the Lycan.

Tuzik wanted to be friends with Maccon but it seemed like her Master didn't like him very much and he didn't understand enough to be able to explain that he could actually talk to the husky.

Though if he had Alyosha's help he knew he might be able to sort the mess out.

Aodh?

Was that the person that he had tried to talk to?

"Da. We will talk tomorrow." Today he just wanted to spend some quality time with the Hound. Talk to him, teach him to read a little more, hug him. Perhaps watch a movie together later.

"Bought you new book today."

He nodded as Alyosha spoke, he was happy waiting until tomorrow, he didn't want to go back and try to talk to anyone else just yet, his Master was enough.

The hound perked up immediately and he sat up on the Necromancer's lap, sniffing the air as he looked around, excitedly trying to find his new book.

Tuzik may not be the best reader but he loved books, he loved the stories and the pictures, best of all he loved that they meant him and Alyosha were going to spend time together reading it in bed or curled up in the library.

Alyosha laughed as he watched Tuzik look around excitedly.

He nudged the hound off his lap and leaned over to pull a bag from under the bed, hidden inside his empty suitcase.

Alyosha held up the bag then gave a thoughtful him.

"Do not think I should give it to Tuzik." He shook his head and pursed his lips as he hugged the back to his chest. "Will keep it to myself. Alyosha's book."

A little grin curled his lips.

The Hound yapped excitedly as he saw the bag, plastic bags always meant that Alyosha had brought something home, food, movies, toys or books, it was always something good, unless of course, if he had been clothes shopping.

A loud whine left the man's lips as he sat on the bed looking up at Alyosha with a kicked puppy expression, his hand reaching out to paw at the bag.

"Tuzik's book, mine."

He whined again as he pawed at the bag insistently.

"Pleaseeeee."
He begged softly his eyes focused solely on the book shape in the bag.

"Hmmmmm, I don't know."

He arched a brow high. "Is Tuzik good boy? Does he deserve book?"

He loved playing with Tuzik like this. Seeing his wide eyes and hearing the soft little whimpers made him chuckle inwardly.

Alyosha opened the bag and peered inside.

"Alyosha's book looks good. Does Tuzik wish it was his book?"

Tuzik knelt up on the bed as high as he could when Alyosha open the bag and peaked inside, he wanted to see it, he wanted to what what book he head brought home this time.

He slumped back and pawed at the man's shirt, trying to grip him and pull him closer as he looked up at him with those large pleading eyes.

He hated it when there was something for him but he had to wait for it. This was how Alyosha forced him to bathe.

If he had a bath he got a treat of some sort and he would be taunted by it until he was nice and clean.

"Please Alyosha, Tuzik's book, mine."
He whined again, pawing at the bag, he wanted to see.
He may be rough with everything else but he treated his books specially, his pile was stacked neatly on the bookshelf where he could still reach them, yet none had any stains, tears of damage of any kind.

Please, Alyosha, Tuzik's book, mine.

Please, Alyosha.

Alyosha.

He had called him by his name for the first time. He had had Tuzik for weeks and he had only called him by his first name for the first time today.

"Well... Alyosha really wants this book."

He rested a hand on Tuzikes head and ruffled his long red hair. "But Tuzik can have it." He held out the bag for the Hound to take with a little smile.

The largest smile spread across the hounds face as his hair was ruffled and the bag handed over.

He gave a happy whine as he excitedly took the handle of the bag in his mouth and placed it on the bed.

With the utmost care he pulled the book from the bag, after being cleaned his hands off on his jeans.

He still wasn't great with his hands but he was good enough to be able to get it out and place it on the bed.

The bright colours of the cover always made his face light up but his brows furrowed slightly as he tried to sound out the title.

Alyosha smiled as he watched Tuzik pull the book from the bag carefully.

He was so careful with his books. It was great to see someone so playful and careless be so gentle and careful with something.

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar," he told the Hound after a few moments of listening to him trying to sound out the title.

A little help ow and again wasn't a bad thing. if he was struggling too much with a word, Alyosha stepped in and helped. But he always told him the title of the book after he had tried on his own.

Tuzik copied how Alyosha said the title, copying him fairly well, the world caterpillar was pronounced more like cattipiller but he was very close considering this was the first time encountering that word.

He looked back up at his Master and smiled widely, though he got frustrated easily he was always overjoyed when he learned a new word and could say it properly.

"Cattipiller?"
He asked, pointing to the drawing of the caterpillar on the front.

It was the only word there he didn't know so he was guess that the bug on the front was a caterpillar, otherwise he was confused.

The hound lay down on the bed as he cuddles up against the headboard in his usual reading position waiting for Lyo to sit with him.

"Da, that is caterpillar."

He was glad Tuzik was intelligent. He could string things together and work them out from there. He knew all the words in that title but the last one and since there were something he hadn't seen on the cover, he had put two and two together and guessed that the picture on the cover was a caterpillar.

Alyosha was proud of him for being that smart; possibly smarter than him. he didn't know. The language barrier between then made Alyosha seem like the smarter of the two but there was a big possibility that Tuzik was the smarter of the two.

The Necromancer moved to take his usual seat next to the Hound then smiled down at him, waiting for him to open the book and start reading.