"Yes, yes, I've heard it all," Illari snapped. His next words were fast, feverish - as if he was afraid that he won't be able to say it all before some rationality would come back to his head and make him stop. "My face is a prettier version of my Dad's and my olive skin is my Mom's. I'm similar to them, alright. But not where it matters! The twins look like Mum and have big cats like Dad! Mum and Arusha and Ilma and Kenya all have the same green eyes and powerful earth magic. Dad and Leo and Ivor and Kolya have the same copper eyes and powerful fire magic. And me? I have water magic that's almost as weak as someone with double or triple elemental attributes, and a small cat who hates water! And Alair and I have blue eyes! No one in my family ever had blue eyes! And this stupid silver hair like an old man...on Alair, this silver fur looks so pretty, and on me - it makes me look ninety!! Look at Dad's nice golden hair and Mum's lovely red hair. Even the twins have such pretty black hair...and you, too! Kai has orange and black stripes, but you got the cool black hair...even Ivor's got hair like Kolya's black spots rather than the mustard yellow fur! But I'm stuck with silver - even though Alair has a bit of black on the tip of his tail!"
Ilari breathed heavily, finishing off his rant. And then he flushed red, ah, the rationality was back. What was he doing? He'd just met Kir and they'd known each other for less than a day - and there he was, ranting away at the poor man!
"I'm sorry, please ignore that," Ilari mumbled, hanging his head.
"Yes, of course, let's ignore everything after everyone within a five-mile radius heard your complaints," Alair mocked. He leapt at Ilari's face and swiped at him with his paw, claws extended. Ilari barely managed to shield his face and ended up with five bloody scratches on his forearm. For a moment, he wished he'd not taken off his big jacket that he wore outside. If he'd had full sleeves, at least the sleeve would have taken some of the damage for him.
"What the hell are you doing?" he shouted at the silver cat.
"Well, you're dissatisfied with this 'small cat' - and I'm disappointed in this silly human!" Alair retorted. He hissed angrily at Ilari when the latter tried to approach him.
"Oh," Ilari said. "I didn't mean it like that."
Alair turned away and walked out of the room, his fluffy tail erect and showing his displeasure with his human.
The golden gazes of Kir and Kai met each other. Kir nodded, and Kai followed the miffed cat quickly to appease him.
"Let me take a look at your arm," Kir said gently.
Ilari smiled and shook his head. "I guess I deserved it."
Kir held out his hand silently.
Ilari blinked. "You have healing magic?" he asked, surprised. "I thought only earth elementals had that…"
"Space is flexible," Kir said lightly.
Ilari watched with admiring eyes as his fiancé healed the scratches in an instant. "Wow," he said, looking at his unblemished forearm. "That didn't even sting...it always stings when Mum or Ilma do it!"
The other man looked surprised but didn't comment.
They sat in silence for a while and then, Kir said softly, "I think your silver hair is very beautiful."
Ilari blushed furiously.
"And, Ilari?"
As it turned out, hearing his name from Kir was… an experience. Ilari froze, wide-eyed.
"You're a great cook," the man said earnestly but at the same time, it seemed like a personal joke just between the two of them, warm and domestic.
After all, Ilari himself told him to say that after dinner so there he was.
Ilari glanced at his fiancé's smile and his sparkling eyes and oh, yeah, he was a looker, unfashionable glasses and all. Ilari's poor heart suddenly felt like playing dead right after jumping into his throat. The silence stretched a bit. Then, after the fuzzy feeling disappeared and he had remembered how this whole thing started, Ilari sighed, "I should probably apologize to Alair."
Kir shook his head.
"Let him calm down first. Kai will bring him back when he's ready to face you. Then you can apologize."
As it turned out around two hours later, Kir was right in a pretty literal way. Ilari was showing his fiancé some of his unpublished research materials, both of them sitting on the soft carpet on the floor, when Kai carried Alair in. He held the smaller cat by the neck as if the other was a kitten.
Ilari was one step from panicking and running up to them before a frosty, sapphire glare rooted him in place.
"Um," Ilari started hesitantly after Kai deposited Alair next to his leg. The clearly still offended cat curled into a ball, ignoring his human.
"Alair, I...ouch!" Ilari yelped inelegantly as Kai flopped down on the carpet next to him, putting his big head onto his human's fiancé's lap.
"Kai?"
"Don't bother yourself. We, cats, need our cat naps."
Ilari glanced at Kir but the other man only shrugged slightly.
Some time later, as Kir started his lecture-like explanation about the magic lines' movements after a particularly bloody battle during the final years of the Age of Wars that he mentioned briefly during the shopping, Ilari found himself with one hand buried into the soft fur on Kai's neck and the other scratching behind his familiar's ear. He had no new claw-induced gashes on the offending hand so he assumed Alair had nothing against it, despite ignoring him still.
Ilari ended up apologizing much later in the night after they all went to sleep (he and Kir exchanged their phone numbers just before going to bed and Ilari barely stopped himself from sending a "goodnight" text, despite wishing it to the man himself just a few minutes ago). The only indication that the cat heard and accepted his words was how he curled on his pillow, no longer facing his human only with his back. Ilari counted it as a crisis averted.