collaborative_daredevil | Slavery RP Post XVIII

"But...you're certain the pizza guy won't be creepy at all about it?" He still remembered how some of the people making deliveries to Danny had problems taking no for an answer.

Hendrick and Jamie traded puzzled looks. "We have security, and if he got grabby we'd just yell and they and Master would be there in an instant," Jamie said with absolute confusion. "What are you worried is going to happen to us?"

"I just don't like how some delivery people can look at you." He shrugged uncertainly.

"How about you hang back and watch for us?" Jamie suggested gently. "Be the lookout. Can you do that?" he asked, nuzzling him to reassure poor Toffee. He himself felt very warm and safe, a fuzziness at the back of his mind from all the kneeling and kissing.

"Uh-huh, I can do that." He agreed, watching Jamie a bit anxiously, he was acting a bit like Matt sometimes did, sort of vague, but not quite the way he did on his bad days.

And then the doorbell rang.

Hendrick and Jamie glanced at each other, Jamie crawled efficiently to the kitchen to get the petty cash for the order, and Hendrick to the door to get the food. He sat up on his knees and opened the door, winning smile on his face.

"Uh...do you need me to bring the delivery in for you?" He asked the pet in front of him with a sense of confusion.

Hendrick dazzled him with a smile, unable to keep his dreamy, giggly excitement from showing in his voice and body language, "Um, you can put it on the side table there," and he pointed accurately, to the table just inside, "Sorry, not allowed to stand up at the moment," he giggled, and Jamie came with the money wallet in his pocket.

He watched warily as the delivery guy set their meal down on the table, but he was being polite, petting Hendrick briefly once his hands were empty then petting Jamie when he paid for the meal.

And Jamie heard soft footsteps as he was being petted, so delicately and gently it made him only more fuzzy than before, and he barely comprehended the words his master was saying as he came over and spoke in a quiet, testing voice to the person whose hands were scratching Jamie so gently--he said something about kneeling and Jamie hardly knew what, he just settled backwards against Master's legs and gazed at him adoringly, and in the background heard Hendrick teasingly, sweetly saying that he'd never said they were allowed to get up off their knees, and Master's hands weren't angry but they were...contemplative as they gently but firmly shut the door and tugged at Jamie's collar.

He moved over to join Jamie, looking at him anxiously.

"Do you think he might have hit his head too and we didn't notice?" He asked Master Erik, trying not to sound too worried about his mental state.

"No, he's just being down very deep in himself," Barba said, not worried precisely, and petted Jamie's head and tapped his side gently to urge him to stick to Barba's legs. "It's alright, it means he's trusting me to take care of the situation," and he leaned and kissed Hendrick's hair. "My greedy pets," he said, warm and fond as he picked up the food and neatly put the pizza boxes open on the coffee table, the wings next to the container of wet wipes, and the churros and soda at the other end.

Ivannya, flushed and smiling lazily now, followed him in and poured the drinks into plastic cups and passed them over. Jamie looked dazed and curled in close to Barba's legs, eating only when Barba started to feed him rather firmly, with gentle touches to his jaw.

"Oh. Matt only got that way on his bad days." He commented softly as he began eating himself, starting with a piece of pizza.

"He doesn't do it very often, normally he's just a bit fuzzy, not so...quiet," Barba said carefully, feeding Jamie and letting the others get all their own food and drink. "I don't think he's gone down like this for months--not since we started looking at you, trying to get you," he mused.

"But it means he feels safe now," Ivannya said where she was eagerly gobbling up a wing, "And Master will keep a good eye on him. He's really good at taking care of us," and she gave an exaggerated wink at that, glowing with her own deep satisfaction.

"I can see that." He smiled at Ivannya as he took his own first wing, glancing over at Hendrick to make sure he was feeling okay, not neglected.

"I'm glad Jamie's feeling safe and comfortable."

Jamie was currently leaning towards him with his mouth open, eyes a little dizzy and soft, and hands twitching in his lap. Barba hummed and directed the hands to hold each other behind his back, which Jamie did eagerly, with a smile.

"What a good boy I have," Barba murmured softly. "Just stay right like that, I'll get you a little more," and began feeding him another piece of pepperoni, and nodding at Hendrick to take another. "Did it scare you when Matt was like this?" he asked Toffee directly. "Or that Jamie's all quiet now?" Not talking usually meant this was restorative after a bit too long trying to take care of every household need.

"Danny explained that it was a sort of resting for him. So not really. With Jamie I was worried because with Matt I only saw it on bad days, and he'd fallen recently." Toffee explained slowly.

(OOC: And of course if Danny and Matt had introduced it to Toffee on days that Matt wasn't doing badly it wouldn't have upset Toffee to see it in Jamie)

"Well, he does have some stuff left over from the heat stroke," Ivannya said gently. "Nowhere near what Matt has, from just what I know, but still. And he does find it very relaxing too. Running the house part means he has to do stuff, like, all day, and coordinate and decide everything."

"So we should take care of him when he needs to relax like this." Toffee nodded understandingly.

"Yes, we should just take care of him," she nodded immediately, smiling at his immediate flexibility. "Just like how if you wanted to perhaps let go a little, we'd do that for you too. It's fine to want to be taken care of; we're pets here," she said happily, and started in on pizza after licking her fingers to make Toffee and Hendrick flush a little.

"And pets help each other." He added one of Matt's favourite sayings, even if it only really applied inside a household.

"And pets help each other," she echoed back, recognizing the cadence as being a proverb, rather than a statement of uncertainty. "Did Matt teach you that too?" she asked, trying to make a little conversation to keep the dinner from being either awkward or tense again.

"Uh-huh. Except that Matt Murdock and Dove warned me that you can't always be certain of pets outside the household."

"Indeed not always," Ivannya said slowly, glancing at the others in the room, a little worried by his words. "Who's Dove, then, Toffee?" she asked, keeping it calm and casual. He seemed to have several mistrustful, wary pet-friends.

"Another friend of Danny's Matt I only met him once but he's a favourite - only I think he might have been redesignated as a pet for his patron rather than being trained as one."

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