[ Mind marmalade earns a well deserved snort, followed up with a trail of fading laughter that yoyoed between fond and exhausted. Always good to be reminded that there was more to Yujin to appreciate than a sick mustache and a mean right hook. ]
Oh yeah, man, hang with me long enough and I'll sound like whatever relative you want. [ He counts off on his fingers, unthinkingly growing extra ones as needed. ] Moms, dads, uncles, cousins, nieces, surly stepkid... I'm fluent in all the nagging dialects, bro.
[ The joke is maybe a little hamfisted, goes on a little long, but such was the way with nerves. Jake could take solace in how comfortable Yujin looked, ignoring his slip up with aplomb. Aplomb and, dare Jake dread to notice, politeness. The sting of it was less acute now that it was localized to a single area of awkwardness, rather than the broadscale shut out from before. This was progress.
As for whatever itch was left on his brain, Jake knew it couldn't last forever. See, that's the thing about itches you can't reach: They may drive you crazy for a while, may make you act totally outside your head and make a fool of yourself trying to get at 'em, but leave them alone long enough and they just kinda... go away.
Now, as someone who could contort his body into any shape imaginable, it maybe took Jake a little longer than most to learn that lesson than most people... But he hadn't been a pup for a long, long time. So when Yujin's gaze softens, sharing things with him that he'd be pilloried for in his own time, Jake's pleased grin is more than genuine. Yujin being happy, Yujin finding someone who made him feel like he could have something he'd never grasped for in his real life (whatever that meant)...
That was worth a lifetime of itching, in this dog's humble opinion. ]
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Oh yeah, man, hang with me long enough and I'll sound like whatever relative you want. [ He counts off on his fingers, unthinkingly growing extra ones as needed. ] Moms, dads, uncles, cousins, nieces, surly stepkid... I'm fluent in all the nagging dialects, bro.
[ The joke is maybe a little hamfisted, goes on a little long, but such was the way with nerves. Jake could take solace in how comfortable Yujin looked, ignoring his slip up with aplomb. Aplomb and, dare Jake dread to notice, politeness. The sting of it was less acute now that it was localized to a single area of awkwardness, rather than the broadscale shut out from before. This was progress.
As for whatever itch was left on his brain, Jake knew it couldn't last forever. See, that's the thing about itches you can't reach: They may drive you crazy for a while, may make you act totally outside your head and make a fool of yourself trying to get at 'em, but leave them alone long enough and they just kinda... go away.
Now, as someone who could contort his body into any shape imaginable, it maybe took Jake a little longer than most to learn that lesson than most people... But he hadn't been a pup for a long, long time. So when Yujin's gaze softens, sharing things with him that he'd be pilloried for in his own time, Jake's pleased grin is more than genuine. Yujin being happy, Yujin finding someone who made him feel like he could have something he'd never grasped for in his real life (whatever that meant)...
That was worth a lifetime of itching, in this dog's humble opinion. ]