Salai slams a book on top of Leonardo's desk- covering and smearing whatever had been underneath it. His maestro responds with a soft glare but he ignores it. He requires his full attention and he will sure he gets it.
"Maestro!" His voice is of a starving cat being given a bowl of milk; mirthful and excited. "Allow me to read to you!"
Leonardo raises a brow and looks from Salai to the book, then back to Salai. He raises a hand to his own lips which are now pressed in a fine line. Yes, true, his apprentice had improved his reading ability in the past several months but, he doubted he was ready to read anovel. Still, he takes the current appearance of Salai in to consideration.
Like a child, he thinks. Salai may have been young but he was not a kid. Despite this, that glittering in his brown eyes makes it impossible to say no.
"Are you sure?" He asks. He eyes the book for a moment and silently reads the title. Rose D'amore. A cliché title and it sounds like a romance. He doubts that Salai even knows what he's grabbed.
However, Salai replies with a sneer and a haughty puff of his chest. "Si! Of course!"
Leonardo nods and sighs. He leans back in his chair and waves his hand with a flick of his wrist to signal his apprentice to start whenever he feels. Salai's grin stretches from ear-to-ear. He climbs on top of the artist's desk and sits there with his back facing his maestro. He grabs the book from on top his now-smeared sketch and opens it somewhere in the middle. Leonardo opens his mouth to say something about it but quickly closes it soon after. It's best not to, he decides.
Salai is already stuttering against the first words of the paragraph he chose to start at. Every word spoken after is said confidently, however most are pronounced incorrectly.
"Softly I…Cah…" He pauses at the unfamiliar word and begins to slowly form his lips against it, "Cah..reesed-"
Immediately Leonardo knows what word his apprentice is attempting to say and quickly corrects him. "Caressed."
"Caressed. Her…bur…ber..breasts!" He continues, "Softly I caressed her breasts…"
As he continues, Leonardo leans over to the side to glance past Salai and to the book he's reading. The words are too small and too far away for him to see. He hopes those were just some questionable lines.
"I roobed my tuh…Tuh-huh-mmb…"
"Thumb."
"Thumb oh-ver her…" He pauses again and squints at the word. "Clee…Clee-toe…"
Leonardo is unable to decipher the word Salai is trying to say. Instead, he gives him a confused glance in which he returns before going back to reading.
"Clee-toe-reese?" Salai says the word as a question; Asking if that's right.
"Pardon me?" Leonardo furrows his brows and attempts to get a glance at the book once more, "Could you repeat that line?"
"I roobed a th…thumb over her clee-toe-reese-"
Quickly, Leonardo snatches the book from Salai's hand and slams it shut. The apprentice shoots and icy glare cold enough to freeze the desert but it quickly morphs in to something for confused as he notices a pale pink spread over his maestro's face.
"Y - You should not be reading novels like these!"