Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rhea laughed. "Somehow that doesn't surprise me," she grinned. "Though she calls him ada now ..."

She smiled at Miyuki. "Everything you can do, walk, talk, eat, drink, crawl ... even smiling ... everything you can do, babies have to learn how to do. It takes a while for them to learn how to use their muscles. Even just to hold things. They'll learn soon enough."

Rhea pursed her lips thoughtfully. "Not so much teach them," she mused, "but rather, they learn simply by watching. Like you - when you learned to speak, no one sat down with you to teach you every single word you can say now. You simply heard and repeated. Right? It's the same with everything else. Slowly, they learn to do things on their own. Not everything, but enough that we can start to teach them things for real."

Rhea giggled. "They just learn by how we speak to them," she answered, her eyes sparkling with amusement. "As we speak, so they learn. Just like no one told you how to speak, you just learned by listening and repeating. It's-"

She was cut off by a knock at the door, and she turned her eyes towards it.

"Come in," she called out, raising her voice slightly.

The door opened halfway, and Aethos's face appeared in the doorway.

"Good morning," he said hesitantly. "I ... Captain Striate asked me to check in on you, I - I hope I'm not interrupting ..."

Rhea touched one finger to her lips and looked at Miyuki. "Aethos-sola," she corrected her. "We must show respect to those of rank."

With Miyuki growing up with a prince as a father, perhaps it was to be expected, but really in this place, as guests, they did need to remember to use titles. Especially since Miyuki was a child.

Aethos hesitated. "I ... I don't know ... I should get back to-"

"Nonsense," Rhea interrupted him quietly. "Aethos-sola, you always say the same thing, and yet you have nothing to get back to. At least most of the time. Now come, you have some time, you can visit with us."

Aethos looked a bit sheepish, but he entered the room, leaving the door open, and sat down in a chair across from the two women. "If you insist."

Rhea smiled to herself when Miyuki called Aethos by his title, but she said nothing.

Aethos blinked at Miyuki. "So ... I see." He stared at the twins as they started kicking again, but he didn't offer any other comment.

Rhea grinned and leaned closer to Lin. "He's scared of them," she murmured softly. "He's never been around children before, he really has no idea what to do."

Rhea nodded. "I think it's awkward for him. He knows his life has been one of abuse, whether physical or emotional, and he doesn't want to pass it on."

She pursed her lips thoughtfully. "He needs kids of his own."

Aethos stared at Miyuki. "Tickled?" he repeated as if he had never heard the term before.

Not that the children were actually tickled, per se, it was just one of those reaction to being touched sort of things.

Rhea grinned at Lin and winked. "That's the idea. Try introducing him to some people, see if anything happens."

She laughed. "I'm so horrible. But it's true."

Aethos stared at Miyuki. "No ... I can't say that I have." Not that anyone would ever dare to touch him inappropriately, or without his invitation.

"I beg to differ," Rhea replied softly. "I'm sure you've heard the story between Elrohir and Haradhel. Both stiff and proper until they met and started doing things together. Neko always told me he didn't recognize Elrohir the first time he came to the ranch. And there are other cases, too - my father being one of them. It's easier to relax when you have someone to relax with."

She cut herself off, then shrugged. "Either way. I just meant introduce him to people and let things run their course. If something happens, if not then not."

Aethos's brow furrowed deeply with confusion. "I'd always heard it was akin to torture," he replied. "That makes no sense to me."