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For as much as Essek was usually enthused to have foster kittens around the house, this batch really was looking like one he'd have trouble sending to new homes. He hadn't bled this much since the last trip to Aeor.
He'd never met such a small creature that wished for him to suffer quite so badly. And there were five of them, all only just old enough to know how to hiss up a storm, and just young enough to still need a significant amount of help (which was clearly unwanted).
"I'm trying to feed you," Essek insisted, bent down on his knees and peering under the dresser. "You need to come out if you want dinner."
"Try a softer tone," came Caleb's voice from a room over. "They understand tone more than words, even at that age."
"I feel like they hate me too much to listen."
Giving up for the moment, Essek straightened up, drifting upwards rather than forcing his knees to endure the rough task of standing back up. They'd already been protesting the wooden floor, and he didn't want to aggravate his body further- dunamancy could pick up the slack where his physical strength was lacking.
Making sure to latch the hip-height gate behind him as he left the spare room, he made his way to where he'd heard his partner's voice in their study.
Caleb was finishing up grading a lengthy stack of papers- one he'd been working on for several days. Midterms, if Essek remembered correctly. The Soltryce Academy ran on different class schedules than any of his formal teachings in Rosohna had, but it hadn't been too difficult to learn them just by way of learning Caleb's schedules.
The table the two of them frequently used together for spell transcribing had mostly been taken over by school things. Books, folders of already finished work, two cups of tea (one warm and the other long cold and half empty). Still, there was enough room, and a spare chair, for Essek to drop down and join him for a moment to pout.
"They hate me," His shoulders slumped, "I don't know how I'm going to get them tame enough for you to send home with your students in just a few weeks."
Caleb smiled, looking up from the papers in front of him and taking his pen off the sheet.
"They want nothing to do with me, and bite me when I try and get close." Essek knew he sounded like a petulant child, but it was incredibly discouraging. It was one thing for a person to dislike him, another for a baby animal with no understanding of the world or the scale of his past transgressions to loathe him in the way that these kittens seemed to.
"They're afraid, is all. They don't hate you, they're just scared to let you get close," By this point in knowing each other, it didn't need to be voiced specifically for Caleb to catch the hint that help was needed in the spare room. "It's not actually personal."
He scrunched up his nose, as if to protest that assessment, but no. Caleb was probably right.
"I guess I'd be a little scared of me too, if I were a kitten." Essek conceded, watching as the other wizard tidied his papers before standing from his seat. Caleb didn't walk right to the other room immediately, though it was clear he meant to. Instead he stopped by the drow still slumped at the table, chin in his hands, and paused for a moment.
Then he leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to the top of Essek's head before continuing on his way.
"Come on, let's get them fed."
If Essek watched him go for a moment before joining him, well, it wasn't worth commenting on. But he certainly did watch, fond and warm in the middle of his chest.
Request for assistance accepted, then.
"I give it maybe five days more of the kittens fussing, and then they'll be squabbling over who gets to you first." Caleb's voice came from the other room, prompting Essek to leave his seat.
"I don't know how you're still so confident that you can turn them around, but I suppose I've seen you do crazier things." He said, once again latching the gate behind himself. He was thankful it kept the kittens contained to one area of the house, but it was certainly getting tedious to lock and unlock when he had to enter that room so frequently.
"It's not as difficult as it seems."
"Caleb Widowgast, if you tell me 'it takes time', I may not be responsible for my eyes rolling." Essek warned, carefully easing himself back down onto the floor next to where Caleb lay, one arm stuck under the dresser, hand reaching around blindly in an attempt to locate the source of the displeased cat noises.
This sight was a bit ridiculous; seeing a well respected professor sprawled out on the hardwood. Caleb certainly hadn't stopped diving right into trouble in every facet of his life, after all. He winced briefly, but eventually pulled his arm back, spitting kitten caught in hand.
"Well it does, and I promise you're capable of taming kittens too." He assured him, reaching for the still warm bottle nearby.
"I'm doubtful."
"You just have to get them to trust you, and I think you know better than anyone that if you are persistent enough," He paused, and Essek passed him a small towel to lay in his lap, "And frankly, annoying enough, eventually they just get used to it."
"I accepted my fate, but it wasn't something that happened in only a couple weeks." Essek admitted, rolling his eyes. He had warned Caleb, and by now the human had to know the dramatics were just a part of him. "And there is no Jester Lavorre around to talk in their ears as if they are her best friend and only gossip partner."
"No, so I think you will have to be doing most of the talking while I am teaching."
Oh. Right.
"Soft voice?" A nod, and then Essek got to watch the kitten actually stop fighting the bottle in its face, instead beginning to drink. "What do I talk to them about?"
"Anything, as I said. It's more the tone than the words that are important." Caleb's voice went soft, just as he'd instructed Essek to do, "Here, pet her, just a little while she eats. She's distracted and might get used to it faster this way, since she's not trying to slay you currently."
Doing as he was told, Essek reached across his partner's lap.
She wasn't as soft as the past litters the two of them had fostered- likely because of where her and her siblings had come from. But, baths were not yet on the table- not when the kittens didn't trust well enough yet. She was very cute, though.
He only got a few pets in before she began to squirm, and he pulled back quickly.
"Can you grab me another kitten?"
Several moments and bitten fingers later, Essek found that he could, actually, provide kitten number two for feeding. The first one tore off across the room and under the bed the moment Caleb released her. This kitten struggled against Essek's grasp, then Caleb's as it was passed from one to the other.
"You pushed me away once upon a time as well, remember?"
Essek smiled, looking down at his hands as he nodded.
"I did. I was scared to let you and the Nein get too close." When he looked up, Caleb wasn't watching him, his eyes focused on the kitten in his lap. "You made it pretty impossible to get away from you. And then once you were out of reach, I didn't want to be so far away anymore."
"And that's exactly how you tame feral kittens." He looked up and met Essek's gaze, "You bother them every day until they love you."
Cheeks warm, the drow found he couldn't keep their eyes locked, though he smiled sheepishly as he leaned his shoulder against Caleb's. The floor was far from comfortable, and he knew his knees would certainly be bruised, but he didn't mind staying like this for a while.
"So you're a little proud of taming me then? Is that what this is?" Essek stole another look towards Caleb's face, at the new grey hairs beginning to peek through the copper at his temples, and found Caleb hadn't looked away from him at all.
"I wouldn't call you tame," The kitten squirmed in his hands, and without looking, he released it, paying it no mind as it joined it's littermate under the bed.
"No?" Essek leaned a little closer, the beat in his chest quickening as Caleb mirrored him. He loved this- of all their time together, he truly favored the quiet moments like this.
"Still trouble," There was fondness and teasing wrapped into the tone of Caleb's voice, though his tone remained just as soft and sweet as it had been for the kitten, "But at least you're polite enough to ask before you bite me."
Still not breaking eye contact, and their foreheads gently pressed together, Caleb held up his hand which was visibly covered in small bite marks.
"That kitten bit the shit out of my knuckles. Very rude."