collaborative_daredevil | Slavery RP Post XVIII

"Exactly. My lovely, you're going to have a nice, quiet day with Toffee, and if you're going to protest one more time I won't even let *you* be the one to order the pizza, I'll have Hendrick call it from the office," Barba said to Jamie's incredulous gasp. "We will all be fine if you rest with your pet-sib. And Toffee, once you've cleaned up and washed your face and hands, I want you in those adorable pajamas you look at like you're starving. And both of you do fun things." he pressed kisses to their foreheads, got his briefcase, locked up well, and left.

He gave Jamie one more kiss and went to clear up. There were enough dishes that he just loaded the dirty ones into the dishwasher without turning it on and then he came back to get cleaned up and changed.

Jamie sighed a little to himself, and said softly, "Toffee, could you get me the pair of pajamas I put on the bed, please, when you have a second? I'd like to change into them. Thank you," he said, in his gentlest, most beseechingly calm tone. He knew he was overreacting, and that he'd soon feel better, but at the moment everything felt like an absolute catastrophe to him.

"Of course." He had to be careful on the stairs, and he changed upstairs rather than fetching his own pajamas down, but it didn't take long to bring Jamie his pajamas.

"Thank you," Jamie murmured as he moved with agonizing care into his clean, soft, brown-with-pink-flowers pajamas and then flung his own stained ones towards the basement stairs. "I'll deal with that all later. How are you holding up? I didn't really upset you, did I? I just hate being--unproductive. There's always things to be done."

"We can do stuff without moving around too much, curl up together and relax." He hugged Jamie. "And no, you didn't really upset me, promise."

"Good," Jamie said, and hugged Toffee back. "You're so sweet, I'm sorry I snapped at you. When I--I always have these long plans for each day and when they get thrown off by my own carelessness I really resent myself for it, and it comes out. I was an absolute brat when I was recovering from my heat stroke, I honestly don't know how they put up with it."

"They love you. Come up to my crafting room maybe, and I can knit while we talk?"

"Of course," Jamie murmured. "Just let me--or you--whichever, I suppose--we should each have a water bottle up there, so we don't get too thirsty," and he stood up carefully, mindful of the crinkling bandage. He despised the noise, but began the ascent carefully and steadily, glad now of the extra treads.

He tucked the water bottles into a bag so that he'd have a hand free for the railing and followed Jamie upstairs.

"I just want to go and get my tablet, and Hendrick's favourite sweater to take some measurements." He kissed Jamie quickly before he left again.

"Hendrick's sweater?" Jamie asked, puzzled, but then blinked at his very old, holey cardigan that Toffee was carrying so carefully. "Oh, you meant that one! It's been years and years since he's worn that, it has so many holes. But he wore it all the time when he was first Master Erik's. Until he couldn't."

"Because he'd outgrown it, or because it's not in good enough condition?" Toffee asked carefully as he laid the cardigan down. "I asked Ivannya, and I'm going to do Hendrick's sweater before her top."

"Because it got all these holes and tears," Jamie said, interested by his plan. "He wore it through. Are you going to replace it? Can you really?"

"Not the exact same cardigan, but..." He pulled up the collection he had in mind. "Either the Lush cardigan, or the Windswept pullover adapter to a cardigan." And he clicked through to each pattern as he spoke. "I quite like the Bonny for myself as well."

(Collection: http://tincanknits.com/collection-handmadeUK.html)

"Bonny's very cute, very delicate," Jamie admired it warmly. "I think either would be beautiful for Hendrick--he's so used to having his pet self be kind of ignored, and those designs are gorgeous without being obnoxiously fussy," he nodded in satisfaction. "I like the roses better, but either would delight him."

"Lush it is then. That will be a bit easier than adapting Windswept to a cardigan. Can you help me get the ebook then? And I need to decide on a yarn."

"I definitely can help with both of those things, I'll need your tablet for a minute but I can do that," Jamie said confidently, holding his hands up for it. "And the yarn..hmm. I think--I'm no expert, but there are yarns that are stronger than others, aren't there? Will last longer and take a long time for any holes to show up?"

He passed the tablet over as he considered the other question.

"Yes, there's the workhorse yarns, with a tight twist and a lot of plies, and then there's the luxury end with mohair or silk blended in. Yarns with mohair blended in are heavy for how thick they are though." And there was the budget to consider as well.

"Are there any tightly plied, strong yarns that are also really soft or smooth?" Jamie asked sincerely. "I think soft would be good, but Hendrick's nowhere near as fussy as Ivannya, and being able to wear it a lot of places would be nice for him. I think he would melt in happiness if you made any sweater, though, really."

"There are, part of it's dependent on the budget as well of course. But...Cascade does good workhorse yarns, and they're widely available, do they have a silk blend yarn in the right weight? Oooh, Roslyn looks nice." He showed the yarn to Jamie while he began taking the measurements he needed.

Jamie peered at the screen, smiling at the texture. "I think the tweediness will make it really comfortable for him, I think he'll really like this," Jamie said. He hesitated, "It won't interfere with that beautiful floral lace?"

"I wouldn't think so, see there's some versions of it knitted in variegated yarn, and it doesn't interfere with the lace." He smiled at Jamie. "We can go to my yarn shop as well tomorrow and get the yarn then maybe...it's not expensive at all, not for the sort of yarn it is."

Jamie nodded thoughtfully at the examples Toffee showed him, and hummed in agreement. "I think that's a good plan--we can get the supplies and put them in here with the other sweater piles, Hendrick won't investigate here. And I haven't done much comparison, but it certainly looks within budget for a fancy, long-wearing sweater. I think he'll really appreciate it," Jamie mused. "Hendrick feels really guilty, this will help reaffirm him. He really didn't mean to hurt you, you know."

"I know. Didn't understand how overwhelming all the classes would be, and I should have tried to say something earlier. Could have handled pet protocol along with Instructor Marnie, just not the classes that were meant to be fun." He leaned against Jamie a bit. "Want to reaffirm him, didn't mean to hurt him before."

Jamie hugged him gently with one arm, and then used the other to wrap around his waist and pat his belly with a little affectionate emphasis. "I know, Toffee. It'll get better with time, hurts and misunderstandings always do. And you'll get better at expressing yourself too." He noted the language getting softer, less perfectly grammatical, and wondered to himself if it was a side-effect of not talking at all for a long time (as he feared Toffee hadn't much when he was stolen) or if it was just a habit he'd picked up from Treacle. Either way, it wasn't upsetting much, just a little different than he was used to.

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