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Peering in at the fish, Laial tilted his head in slight bewilderment. He had never seen a fish even remotely similar to the odd fish that Kay was pointing at. "Why would they walk on their fins if they're fish?" He asked the teacher, looking up at him with puzzlement. "They couldn't breathe that way, could they?"

Evan had been puttering around in his study -- surrounded by books, he often worked late into the night, taptaptapping on the keyboard of the hulking old computer on the big, battered pine desk, squinting against the dim glow of the monitor and muttering to himself. Time tended to get away from him when he was in this state, burrowed deep into the world he had created. He trusted Laial to have enough sense to know when it was near his bedtime, just as he trusted Kay not to do anything to the boy. Besides, they were just two doors away, and both doors opened into the same hall -- and were open. Quiet symphonic music from some unnamed orchestra filtered out of the battered CD player that sat on his desk, and he chewed on the end of a pencil as he wrote, mind anywhere but there.

"Yeah, but I meant how do they breathe on land if they're fish," said Laial hurriedly, recognizing the glance at the clock and not wanting to go to bed. He could really be a rather diligent student when the subject matter interested him -- even so, Heiko had already curled up in her basket and was long-since asleep. It was approaching eleven o' clock, and Laial's bedtime was ten -- it was no wonder the small nautilus boy's grey eyes had begun to droop a bit, his head lower than perhaps was necessary.

Finally, reaching a stopping point after a rather climactic scene, Evan yawned deeply, stretched arms over his head, and peered at the clock. Ten forty-seven... and he hadn't heard the door close as Laial insisted on before he slept. Climbing to his feet, he moved down the hall. "Laial? Are you still awake?" he called, his voice slightly roughened from a couple hours' silence.

"I don't wanna," pouted Laial, but he got up from his chair anyway, struggling with a yawn. "Promise we can do this again soon?" said the boy, slipping his feet out of his shoes hurriedly as he rushed over to the bed, scooting under the covers as fast as he could. "Hurry, hurry, can you turn out the lamp for me?" he said in a hushed, hurried squeak as he burrowed under the pillow, curled in both shell and blankets.

"Laial?" this time the request was quieter. If the boy hadn't answered by now...

"Oh, thank you," Evan said gratefully, smiling as he took off his reading glasses, feeling a bit embarrassed to still be wearing them with company there. "I worried he'd 'forget' to go to bed. He's a little bit notorious for that... and with us going out tomorrow to make sure he's all scheduled, it's a little bit important, that's all." He let out a sigh of relief, relaxing a little bit. "Did he have fun? He wasn't any trouble tonight, was he?"

"Oh, I'm glad," Evan said with a sheepish smile, folding the arms of the glasses and tucking them into the breast pocket of the somewhat garish short-sleeved shirt he wore over a longer-sleeved white one. "I know he can be a little bit... contrary, so I worried a little bit. Hopefully he will be as good in other classes, since heaven knows I can't have all of them come into my house..." He was somewhat aware of the other's gaze, and it had made him a little rambly as he watched that inscrutable face. "Would you like something to drink before you leave?" he finished up, ruefully, color rising in his tanned cheeks.

Padding back into the study, Evan smiled, mostly unaware of the other's scrutiny. "Something alcoholic, or not? I usually just have a glass of juice, but I do have stronger things..."

"I act meek?" Evan flushed faintly, then laughed a little awkwardly, if warmly. Reaching up onto the shelf, he took down two rather pretty, if slightly chipped, tumblers, and poured both glasses full of cranberry juice, then added a small splash of alcohol. "I didn't know that..."