Unhappy Master and Sulking Hound

Though Tuzik didn't know how to use his human body and he didn't know English he was still thousands of years older than Alyosha, he did have quite a lot of intelligence he was just never given an outlet for it as a guard dog.

His old Masters would never invest this much time into letting him learn and better himself, let alone spend money on him buying him books and movies.

He nestled in against the man, propping the book up on his bent legs as he opened the first page.

The pictures always made him smile, they were large, bright and fun, unlike anything he had been allowed to experience before.

The first sentence was was easy, it was all small words he had read before, he immediately recognized them.

"In the light of the moon a little egg lay on a leaf."

He nuzzled his face in against Alyosha's shoulder, that was the first page he had ever read without making a mistake or mispronouncing something.

Alyosha smiled a little as Tuzik nuzzled against him.

He was so affectionate. He loved being able to cuddle with Tuz whenever he wanted. Alyosha loved being affectionate so he was glad he Tuz was also affectionate.

The Necromancer gave a little clap when he spoke without making a mistake.

"Well done, Tuzik."

He nuzzled against the Hound, pressing a gentle to his forehead. He was doing so well learning English.

He tilted his head up and the tip of this tongue lapped out over the underside of Lyo's chin as he was praised.

Knowing he was doing something right always made him feel better about his progress.

He turned the page, his fingers gently stroking over the page, tracing the picture of the sun and the little caterpillar walking along.

"One Sun-di mornin the warm sun came up and pup out of the egg came a tinny and very hungry cattipiller."

Though he struggled with some of the uncommon words he was fairly close.

"He st..s-t-ar-t-ed to look for some food."
He was slowly getting better at sounding words out when he didn't know what they meant, quickly grasping that some letter combinations made certain sounds like 'th' 'ed' and 'ch'.

He gave a little whine and looked up at Alyosha, unsure of the words meaning.

"Pop," he murmured in a gentle tone, touching the pad of his finger to the word.

Alyosha corrected mistakes that were words with their own meaning. Pup had its own meaning. It was its own word.

His finger moved across the page to touch tiny. "Tiny." As was tinny.

"Started." He pursed his lips and hummed. "He began doing something. So here, he began to look for food."

Hopefully that would help.

He repeated the words he got wrong, to the pronounce them the same way Alyosha did.

"Pop, tiny."

Words were harder to read when he wasn't sure of what they were spoken, learning to speak was one thing, learning to read was much more difficult.

His head tilted as the man tried to explain it, it was confusing but he sort of understood what he was trying to say.

"Initium?"

He asked, more difficult concepts were easier to understand if he knew the Latin equivalent.
_______________
To begin?

Alyosha's lips parted to reply but he he couldn't.

He didn't know any Latin whatsoever. Which mean he needed to do a little book-reading of his own.

The Necromancer reached over to pick up one of the books on his bedside table; the Latin to Russian book that Belial had given him on their first meet.

"Initium, Initium," he murmured softly as he flicked through the book, searching for the word. When he found it, his eyes flickered over the passage, translating the Russian to English.

"Da." He gave a nod as he closed the book, then smiled at Tuzik. "Da, is right."

He gave an excited little whine when he got the words meaning right, nuzzling his face in against the man's neck joyfully.

"Start, Initium."

He nodded softly as he looked down back to the book, that made sense.
The little bug was hungry so he started looking for food.

"On Mondi he ate throo one apple. But he was still hungry.
On Tuesdi he ate throo two pears but he was still hungry."

Thankfully he had been learning the alphabet, the seasons, months and the days of the week so he knew about them, though he could never recall what day it was unless Alyosha pointed it out to him on a calender.

"Apple, pears."
He muttered softly to himself, poking his finger through the hole in the apple then the pears.

Alyosha stayed silently, eyes following the words as Tuzik read them.

Throo was close enough to through that he didn't feel the need to correct him. Tuzik would learn better pronunciation the more he learnt and the more he talked to people and heard them talk.

The man started stroking Tuzik idly as he watched him read.

It was...interested watching people learn to read.

"On Wensdi he ate throo three p-l-ums, but he was still hungry.
On tursdi he ate throo four..."

The Hound gave a little whine when he say the length of the word, the long ones always intimidated him, there was more letters to get wrong.

"S-t-r-aw-bi-rr-i-s strawbirris."
He pawed gently at the page, poking his finger through each of the four little holes.

"but he was still hungry."

Alyosha stayed quiet as Tuzik tackled the longer word.

He stroked the Hound gently as he spelled out the word slowly. He could do it. What had he said earlier? Just keep swimming.

The more he practised reading big words the easier it would get.

"Well done," he praised when he got the world almost right, nuzzling against the Hound. He really was doing so well.

Tuzik seemed to nuzzle up against his Master constantly, he thrived from the contact, the man reassured him and built up his confidence to do something he had never dreamed of doing.

His was meant to be a mindless mutt, protect what needed to be protected, hunt what needed to be hunted and kill what needed to be killed, that was his life but now he was learning to read and speak English.

Perhaps one day he would even learn to write.

"On Fridi he ate throo five or-an-gs, but he was still hungry."

His eyes widened a little at the next page, it was covered in pictures of different foods and a rather long sentence.

"On Saterdi he ate throo one piece of cake, one ic-cream cone, one pi-ckle, one slice of swiss cheese, one slice of salami, one loll-i-pup, one piece of cheri pie, one s-aw-s age, one cup-cake, one slice of w-a-ta-me-lon.
And that night he had a stoomach ache."

He panted softly after finishing the sentence, a small whine leaving his lips as he pawed at the pictures of the food, looking up at Alyosha.

"Makes Tuzik hungry."
He muttered, all this talk of food and all the pictures had the Hound's stomach growling.

Alyosha didn't like to see intelligence wasted. Tuzik was smart and Alyosha wanted to help him to improve that.

He had spent far too many years ignoring his intelligence for the tasks that the gangs had given him through the years and he had promised that if he saw someone with potential, he'd help them reach that potential.

So if lying in bed reading kids books with Tuzik every evening was the way for him to reach his potential, then Alyosha would do just that.

Alyosha smiled when Tuzik read through the long sentence with very few mistakes. "Well done. You're improving so much." Tuzik had admirable determination. Even when he saw something troubling - like that rather long sentence - he still had a go at it.

The Necromancer laughed at Tuzik's whine.

"We can go down to kitchen after finished reading. I may even make steak." Tuzik definitely deserved a treat like that after doing so well.

He grinned up at his Master with a joyful little yap, seeing Alyosha proud of him made him happy beyond belief, his entire purpose was to make the man happy.

He knew that word all too well, steak, the Hound's favourite, he could eat it all day if he was allowed to but Lyo would get mad if he stole food from the kitchen and brought his kills up to the room.

"The next day was Sundi again. The cattipila ate throo one nice green leaf. And after that, he felt much better."

Now he wasn't hungry anymore, even though Tuzik is still hungry, and he wasn't a little cattipila any more.

He was a big, fat cattipila."

With each page his hand stroked over the picture and he smiled, he liked this book, even if it made his stomach grumble.

Alyosha laughed at the added commentary as Tuzik finished reading.

He was confident enough when reading smaller words to divert and add his own two cent. That was good.

"Well, still hungry Tuzik, finish book and we will go eat," he promised, ruffling the hounds red hair affectionately.

It looked like there was only a page or two left to read.

He leaned into the hand in his hair with a contented rumbling growl, the Hound's gruff version of a purr.

Tuzik gave a little nod and turned his currently fleeting attention to the book. He loved the book but to a dog food always won out above everything else.

"He built a small house called a c-o-c-oon, around himself. He stayed inside for more than two weeks.

Then he n-i-b-l-d nibld a hole in the cocoon and p-u-sh-ed his way out.

He was a boo-ti-ful but-ti-fli."

He tilted his head and whined soflty as he looked up at Alyosha.

"Bootiful buttifli?"
He asked, he didn't understand and the picture wasn't helping him much despite how pretty is was.

How to explain how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly...

That was easier said than done, that was for sure.

He lifted a hand and made a vague gesture before something clicked in his mind. A supernatural reference might help.

"Like Lycan. Human turn into Lycan little bit like caterpillar turn into butterfly. Big change; no go back after has happened."

When a caterpillar changed into a butterfly it couldn't be a caterpillar again just like a Lycan couldn't be a human again after it had survived it's transformation.

Hopefully that helped a little.

His head tilted as he listened intently trying to understand.

"Human get bit, turn Lycan, cattipila get fat, turn buttifli?"

He asked, trying to grasp onto the concept of a creature changing without an outside influence like getting bitten by a Vampire or Lycan.

Tuzik closed his book carefully having finished the story and nudged it towards Alyosha to place with the rest of his books, neatly stacked on the shelf.

"Tuzik like dis one."

He added, nuzzling against the Necromancer's neck with a happy whine, this book was one of his favourites now, even if it made him hungry, perhaps next time he would read it after dinner.

"Da." He gave a nod.

That was close enough to what really happened for Tuzik to be able to understand it. he didn't need to know the ins and outs of how a caterpillar turned into a butterfly.

He picked up the book carefully when Tuzik nudged it towards him.

He had learnt very quickly that Tuzik had the same love of books as he did. Touch his books in the wrong way and you were a dead person.

"Wasn't all that bad." Some of the kids books that he had had to read were mind numbingly boring. He was just thankful that Tuzik wasn't too much of a slow reader. If he was, it would have dragged on a lot longer.

He placed the book on the top of the pile carefully, being sure to make it line up with the other books so the pile stayed neat. Tuzik wouldn't have been very happy if he hadn't done that.

"Down to kitchen, then. Put shirt back on." He arched a brow and crossed his arms as he waited for the Hound to do as he was told.

Tuzik gave a happy little yap as the book was placed neatly on the pile, slowly his pile was getting bigger and the books slightly more difficult.

He crawled back onto the floor, grudgingly picking up his shirt and wiggling his head into it until it popped out the correct hole.

Lyo had a difficult time teaching him how to dress himself, mainly because he wasn't interested in learning, he still disliked clothing immensely. Though it was much easier getting him into a hoody without a shirt on than anything else, he liked the feeling of the fuzzy material against his skin.

He struggled slightly getting his hands through the arm holes but eventually managed after checking for the tag on the shirt.
He had quickly learned one little thing, the tags go out the back.

Tuzik scampered over to the door and sat on the ground, looking up at the man, whining for him to hurry up.

Alyosha watched the Hound as he pulled on his shirt.

He was getting better at dressing himself. Probably because he always got a reward for dressing himself. Todays reward would be a larger steak than he had been given before.

The Necromancer arched a brow as he whined for him to hurry up.

"All right, all right, let's go."

Alyosha opened the door, waiting for Tuzik to dash off down the hall like he'd been fired from a gun before closing it and following after the excited Hound.

As soon as the door open he bolted towards this kitchen, besides their bedroom it was his favourite place in the mansion.

Even in human form he was extremely fast on all fours, bounding down the hall on his hands and feet, making the rather awkward position look completely natural.

He skidded along the tiled floor and then started sniffing around excitedly, rubbing the length of his body up against the fridge.

"Tuz, down," he ordered as he entered the kitchen.

He was rubbing against the fridge like a cat in heat. Alyosha really didn't want to see that. Tuz could do things like that when Lyo wasn't around.

He rifled through the fridge, pulling out two large steaks - one considerably larger than the other - and an assortment of vegetables.

He knew Tuz wouldn't be amused at the amount of vegetables he was going to cook but the Hound would just have to suck it up. He wouldn't be allowed to leave the table until he finished the entire plate.

The Necromancer hummed softly as he began preparing the vegetables.

He whined as he was told off and padded away from the fridge, instead moving to sitting at the leg of the table for a moment, until he saw the steak in the necromancer's hand and began following him around the kitchen.

He sat on the floor next to the counter and watched the man prepare the food intently.

Tuzik was hungry and pressed his paws up against the side of the cupboards, leaning up on his knees to get a better look.

"Be patient, Tuzik."

It wouldn't take too long to cook. He just needed to be patient.

The Necromancer moved around the kitchen, slowly preparing everything and placing it in the oven or on the hob.

He leaned against the counter, reaching down to stroke the Hounds head idly as his eyes turned to the clock.

He gave a grumbling purr as he looked up at the man, soon the food would be ready and he would be able to eat until he was full and ready to relax.

The Hell hound was easier to be around when he was full, he was calm and more than happy to lay down for a while and be quiet.

Tuzik leaned into the hand stroking his head, rubbing up against it before turning his head and lapping his tongue across Alyosha's fingers, the taste of steak lingering on them.