[C] Blood

Lyo chuckled as Tuz appeared at his side.

"Good boy. Ice cream after steak," he promised, ruffling Tuzik's hair.

"Put wedges and onion rings on tray."

Lyo began cutting mushrooms into slices, humming to himself.

Tuzik sat on the floor, setting the bag in his lap and pawing at it until it was open enough that he could lean up and pour some wedges and onion rings onto the tray.

It was a slow process and he still struggled a little to use his hands but he was slowly getting better at it.

Once he had managed to get most of them on the tray he put the bags back into the freezer.

When the tray was filled, Lyo put it in the oven.

He petted Tuz with a smile. "Good boy. Very helpful today. Maybe soon I can leave you to cook all by yourself," he teased.

The Rus returned to cutting the mushrooms for the mushroom sauce.

The day where Tuz could cook on his own was still a long way off.

Once he enjoyed being petted he went about chasing one of the onion rings he had dropped on the floor, when he was worried that Alyosha would tell him off for playing with it he promptly ate the frozen ring.

At heart he was still a dog and dropped food was fair game.

Lyo was too busy focussing on making the sauce to pay attention to what Tuzik was doing.

He wasn't the best cook, so he had to focus on what he was doing to make sure he got it right. When he focussed right, his mushroom sauce was really good.

"Will be done soon." He stirred the sauce.

Once all the frozen food that had been spilled was eaten he managed to sneak into the pantry.

He liked when Lyo was distracted because he got to play.

He sniffed around in there until a deep purr rumbled in his chest and he emerged with a peppermint teabag between his teeth, holding onto the little paper tab as he played with it.

Mushroom sauce almost done and chips and onion rings almost ready to come out, Lyo cut open the steak packet.

He grinned. He had to. Cooking steak was one of his favourite things to do in the kitchen.

This one would be nothing special, but there were times when he really went all out.

A purr sounded as he laid the steak in the pan. It began sizzling immediately.

Tuzik played in the kitchen space, just tossing around the tea back and chasing it along the floor as it skidded across the tiled surface.

He gave a happy whine at the smell of cooking steak and was by Lyo's leg in a heartbeat waiting for the food to be done.

Lyo arched a brow at Tuzik when he appeared at his side.

No surprise there. When he was cooking meat, Tuz was usually hanging around waiting for him to feed him.

"In a minute."

It take a few more minutes to cook, then he'd have to plate everything up.

He gave a pathetic whine when he had to wait, he knew how long meat took to cook but he was always impatient.

Leaning up against Lyo's leg he looked up at the man and watched him intently.

His tummy growling in anticipation.

"Patient." This was something he still struggled to teach Tuzik.

Tuzik was not a patient pup.

But his stomach was rumbling, too. He wanted the steak himself. He couldn't wait to sit down and eat it.

He pouted a little more when he was told to be patient.

Tuzik and patience did not go together very well.

Especially when he was hungry and he was very hungry right now.

"Get two plates."

Almost ready. By the time Tuzik had gotten the plates, he could start plating up.

He prodded the steaks gently with a little smile.

Very nearly done.

He moved immediately to the cupboard that held all the plates.

The hound came back moments later carefully carrying two plates in his mouth.

Leaning up he put them on the counter and set them up for Lyo to dish out.

"Good boy."

Steaks down first, then he got the onion rings and wedges out of the oven and dished those out. Tuzik got the majority of the onion rings.

Lyo smothered his steak in sauce then crouched down, holding out the pan for Tuz to sniff.

"Want some?"

Tuzik leaned in and sniffed it, it smelled heavily of mushrooms, something he definitely wasn't accustomed to eating.

"No."

He replied, shaking his head before padding into pantry and coming out with a packet of gravy mix between his teeth.

He nudged Alyosha's leg with the packet, he would prefer gravy over mushroom sauce.

Lyo watched the Hound disappear into the pantry as he put down the pan. He picked up both plates and walked them over to the table.

"Is not enough time to make gravy now. Next time, da?"

Next time he'd make sure to put some gravy on for the Hound.

This time, though, he'd have to go without.

Tuzik gave a whine and put the gravy back before heading back into the pantry and coming out with a bottle of barbecue sauce in his mouth.

This one didn't need cooking and he liked it a lot.

The pup climbed up onto his seat and waited for his food.

"Knife and fork," Lyo hinted as he cut into his steak. A pool of blood was already forming around the meat and his stomach rumbled as he lifted the steak to his lips.

The first bite was like heaven.

Nothing like a damned good steak when you're hungry.

Before even looking at his cutlery Tuz picked up the sauce bottle and spurted a large amount of it onto the food with a happy purr.

He picked up his fork and knife with a lot more skill than he had been able to do previously and carefully cut into his steak.

He had started cutting all of his food into pieces at the beginning of meals just so he could focus on eating it once all that hassle was out of the way.

"You're getting very good at that," Lyo praised. Tuzik didn't fumble much at all as he used a knife now. That was good. Lyo was always happy to see that what he taught was actually winking in.

"Maybe after we can teach you more words."

Tuzik had been really coming along with speaking a few months back, but he'd been regressing a little and speaking less recently.

He wanted to try and encourage him to speak more again.

The Hound purred as the food was all cut up and he started stabbing at it and putting it in his mouth with content little noises as he chewed and ate.

Tuzik wasn't an overly chatty person in general, he preferred to communicate with his actions and body language.

Though he was always happy to learn new things if he could.

Lyo licked the blood off his lips then speared a few wedges with his fork.

"We will have new friend staying with us soon."

It was probably a good idea to tell Tuzik about Maks before Maks got a body.

"Stay in room? Who?"

He asked, they hadn't had to share their room before, usually it was just Lyo and Tuzik.

Alyosha would sprawl out in the bed and Tuz would curl up against him where ever he could, cuddling up against the man.

"Da, stay in room."

He didn't want to say it, just in case Maks didn't want to, but Lyo seriously hoped that Maks would be staying in his bed with him.

With eight years apart, was it realistic to assume that they would just get back together again like nothing had happened?

He didn't know.

"He is old friend of mine."