4.
Sayo was reading. Slowly, of course, mouthing each syllable with a furrowed brow. It would have been cute before her species' puberty hit her like a truck full of makeup and pheromones. He could ignore those now, but he couldn't ignore that she was cute.
"What are you doing out in public?"
"Reading." She sounded amused, which meant she wasn't offended, which was good enough for him.
"Hadn't guessed. Anything good?" He sat beside her on the squishy chair, making it squish and squirm a little.
"That depends, you want to read some with me?"
"Is water wet?" He settled in beside her, waiting for the inevitable lurch of the body, on his back, in everything he is.
But it didn't, and so he cracked the spine of the book and read about-
"Magic."
Sayo twitched, tail and ears both and lidded eyes glanced up at him again. "Ah. Teaching."
"Yikes."
She smiled bitterly and it was true it should have hurt more than it did. "I know right?"
