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"There we go," he nodded at Calder when he produced a decent note, "Usually you just move the instrument along as you breathe. It helps a lot if you pucker your lips around it," after a moment he let out a sigh, seemingly agreeing with the kelpie. He was as much a fan of perseverance as the next person, but he didn't really think that being handed an instrument out of the blue was productive for learning, "I would love it if you could teach me a bit more in private some other time, actually. As far as I'm concerned, the more instruments I learn how to play, the better for my goals," after all, his weapon, his FEAR, his... well, everything really, relied on music. It never hurt to widen one's horizons.

He had to wonder on the boil's way of phrasing things, though he chose not to comment on it. The smooth arching of a brow every time the kelpie spoke though... seemed to indicated the innuendos were not at all lost on the nix.

That said he turned to Ren, waiting out rant in silence, "Shhh... Ren it's okay, Give it another try," and when the other boil did, a nice, melodic sound was produced. The nix offered his friend a real smile as he flopped half over the desk, half on him. The new position allowed him to rest his hand on the gryphon's head, dangerously close to his ears but without quite reaching them, where he scratched, as if the other boil were a pet that needed comfort. He made sure not to reach any spot that would have been purr-inducing before turning back to Calder, "You like carrots?" he seemed amused by this; he had a few which he fed to his lepuses, "How about two then?"

Calder nearly had a heart attack and stopped, eyes wide as he looked to Gabe. The boy had nearly killed the kelpie and he stared, eyes wide and mouth opening. "Two carrots?" He whispered in disbelief.

Was it possible he could get two carrots in a day given to him freely without a fuss? Could he get two? COULD HE?!!!

Calder liked the simple things. A deep lake swim. A nice patch of moss to sleep on, and yummy foods, like carrots. Very few grew where he lived and his parents were mindful not to let him go off eating all of them when they did start planting them. It was why that, coming to school, he was overjoyed that he could pick and eat whatever he wanted without anyone wagging their finger at him and nipping at him for eating too much of this or that. If was a good thing the school rotated their vegetable selection or else he would eat nothing but the glorious, orange vegetables. Ren could testify how well the kelpie could pack them away after destroying his garden before.

"Whatever carrots you'd like to give, I'd be happy to take them off your hands." He cheerfully replied, more than eager now for this class to be over. He wanted a carrot. "And we can practice bagpipes whenever you want. Scoland the Brave is a great song to learn if you can pull it off, and it doesn't look like I'll be getting to play my pipes anytime soon in this class." he said with a huff.

Smiling, he looked to Ren and grinned. He wondered if Ren liked being petted. Leaning down, he looked sideways, trying to see Ren's face. "Can I pet you too? I never touched gryphon ears before. "

"This is way too exhausting," Ren said dismally, head still flopped down on the table, though he was leaning mostly on Gabrian. The nix's hand was on his head, gently scratching behind his ears, and the gesture was making him feel sleepy and relaxed. Luckily for him, the serpent knew well enough to steer clear of being too close to his ears, so he didn't feel a pressing need to move away or be on edge. He was half falling asleep already, not really hearing Gabrian offer Calder another carrot. He did, however, hear the next words that came out of the kelpie's mouth:

"Can I pet you too? I never touched gryphon ears before."

Crash.

In his haste to get away from Calder, shoving himself back towards the nix, Ren had, in fact, managed to knock over his chair and fall smack dab onto the floor with a loud bang! as the chair collided with the table. For a moment he sat there, blinking up at the two, his face flushing scarlet.

"E-er," he said, stammering stupidly as he got to his feet, attempting to act normal. "N-no, that's, u-um." He set the chair up right, but stood closer to Gabrian than was probably necessary, attempting to move as far away from Calder as possible, a vaguely panicked expression on his face. "I, er...i-if you don't mind, I um...don't...don't need to be petted. It's just - just a Gabrian thing, that's all."

Ren gave a small, strained laugh, attempting to sound less awkward. Which didn't exactly work, but the last thing he wanted was for the kelpie to pet him. That would be a very, very bad idea.

"I don't think you touching his ear is a very goo-" Gabrian wasn't even able to finish that phrase; he hadn't gotten to the end of it before he felt the way Ren pushed himself away from the Kelpie. This, of course, landed the gryphon crashing on the ground between them, looking up at them scarlet face. Okay, so maybe he should have waited till they'd reached the room to offer the petting, but Ren had really looked like he needed them right then and there. He hadn't been expecting Calder to want to give it a try too.

The nix's hand hovered in mid air still, where his friend's head had been only seconds ago and he blinked slightly, "Err..." Gabrian only just managed to lower his hand to his desk when the gryphon all but practically tried to make himself vanish by sitting as close to him as possible, "I'm used to having one of my pets with me. I tend to scratch and pet people, yes," he shot his friend a scowl though, as if to point out that he did not wish to appear to be a creeper, thank you very much and that he owed him.

"I really don't think that-" again he was cut off when the kelpie reached out towards Ren's ear, and acting more on instinct than anything else, Gabrian was fast enough to un-clip his cloak garment, shoving the heavy cloth into the gryphon's face, "That's enough!" he was hoping to accomplish two things; one was to drown out the inevitable purr, and second was to hide Ren's red face. Of course, the motion also probably toppled poor Ren back onto the floor, but at least he'd probably be out of Calder's reach, "I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that Calder, because that just so happens to be my gryphon and I don't do well with sharing. I'm sorry," this was stated matter-of-factly before he continued, " It's quite rude to reach up and touch someone's ear without permission," that said, he turned to look at Barth, as if trying to steer the conversation as far away from this as possible, "You're doing quite well, Barth. Jack knows you're doing better than I am with the bagpipes. Did propping the tuba up on your desk help any?"

It was like watching a horror movie in slow motion. Ren's eyes widened, Calder's hand extending towards him, stretching towards his ears. The kelpie was determined, obviously, intent on petting him. One finger brushed against a furry ear, and Ren's face, already red, turned nearly crimson as he pressed frantically back against Gabrian, nails scrabbling against the tabletop. The hint of a purr began to thrum through him automatically, tail twitching behind him in agitated motions. His dirty little secret was about to be revealed.

Oh holy Jack no -

Whoosh!

Something heavy was crammed abruptly into his face and Ren staggered, losing his balance as he crashed to the floor a second time. He couldn't see what it was that was over his eyes, but one quick intake of his breath and he caught a familiar cinnamony, spicy scent - Gabrian had shoved his shoulder cloak into his face, and as Ren held it there, attempting to get his heart rate back to normal, he could hear the nix speaking to Calder:

"I'm afraid I can't allow you to do that Calder, because that just so happens to be my gryphon and I don't do well with sharing. I'm sorry. It's quite rude to reach up and touch someone's ear without permission."

This particular sentence nearly had Ren choking, and his face, which had started to turn back to its normal shade, quickly went back to its scarlet hue. Oh, jeez, Gabe, what a thing to say. Amusement mixed with gratefulness mixed with a stupid sense of happiness made him shake his head, pressing the cloak harder against his face so that no one would see him smile.

"Are you all right, my good man?"

Livi's voice, if Ren wasn't mistaken. Taking a deep breath, schooling his features back to what was hopefully a normal expression, Ren peeked out from around the cloth. Sure enough, the pale haired demon was peering down at him, looking slightly concerned.

"Er," said Ren, vaguely embarrassed. "Yes. I think." He dropped the cloth, pushing himself to his feet, and brushed off his jeans, still mildly flustered. Still facing Livi, Ren offered him a crooked smile, fingers reaching back to press lightly against Gabrian's shoulder in a silent thanks.

"Sorry about that," he said with a laugh, fingers gripping the cloak tightly. "I, er...got a bit, ah...well, n-never mind. Nothing - nothing to worry about. But I appreciate your concern. It's Livi, right? I don't believe we've met officially, but I've seen you before a few times."

This is officially the worst class ever.