Val still looked around with awe at the dragon sprite that had flown about her and even landed on her hand. Where its serpentine body had curled, she rubbed her fingers with the other hand.

“If the sprite ever comes back to you, I am going to leave,” Tavras said. “Dragons do not like me.”

After all, he had killed a dragon. This, Val thought about, but still asked Tavras for the sake of testing his honesty with her. “Why do dragons not like you, if I may ask?”

“Dragons do not like people who have slain one of their kin.”

A sigh whooshed from her lips. It was reassuring to hear Tavras say this for himself, at the very least.

“You have slain a dragon before?” Val asked for confirmation with faux amazement.

A slight smile crept onto Tavras’s face, and it grew bigger. Despite the unfair way that he had killed Urru, Tavras could somehow smile at the memory. “I have killed a small but not-insignificant number of dragons, given how powerful they are. The most recent one that I killed was the dragon that used to accompany Arius.”

The bragging tone in his voice made her gut wrench. Not only was Tavras honest, but he was shameless. This really was not like him, the kind and happy god that she had come to know. She did not want to have to hear this.

“Tavras, now that we got the river water, let’s head back!” Again, Val forced false cheer into her voice. “I had something that I wanted to show you.”

By the time that they had arrived back at the apartment, they had furniture now. Tavras had decided to leave the door unlocked and had instructed the movers to place furniture in whatever spots that they had deemed sensible. So, their apartment had been furnished more or less. Four chairs circled the table in case they ever had guests. Everything looked fine, so they did not bother moving anything aside from tucking away the river water in a corner of the kitchen.

“You can go on ahead without me, now,” Tavras droned.

“No!” she said. “You agreed to let me show you something that would cheer you up! You’re not normally like this, Tavras.”

A hollow laugh came from him. “You’re right. Fine, I will give you that much.”

At last, they got to leave the apartment for what Val wanted to do. She led him around New Gate towards the local pet store.

“You can buy what you need to for Foofy. I will wait out here.” Tavras tried to say.

“What?” Val asked, exasperated. “No, you have to come inside!” Beyond the fact that he had the money to pay for things, she wanted to entice him with something that he would very much like inside of the pet store: fish.

Still, he did not budge but rather turned his attention to the clouded sky. It looked like there would be rain tonight.

"Come on!" She grabbed at Tavras's wrist and pulled him into the pet store. Hopefully that much physical contact between them would be acceptable, because she had already started dragging him inside.

Tavras allowed himself to be pulled into the pet store and over to the section with the fish. "Oh, right," he said, stepping closer to the glass. "There are fish here." One finger, he drew along the surface of the tank to invite some of the little, colorful fish to follow his hand around. Whether he used his ability of Marine Ally to control the fish, or they did it by their own accord, it was a mystery.

“I figured that we should get some fish for the apartment, right? They could only help cheer you up!”

A slight light started to reemerge in Tavras’s eyes, but that disappeared as he continued to stare blankly at the fish. “I just want to look at them all here.”

“Nonsense! Just look at those eyes!” Indiscriminately, Val gestured to a fish that swam around with its bulging eyes, the same as all of the others.

“It would be impractical to keep fish. They will outlive the time that we spend here. It might be hard to find new homes for the fish.”

“At least get a goldfish,” Val insisted.

One more second of consideration passed, and Tavras caved. “Fine.” Beyond a couple of fishbowls, he wanted those plus a large tank. “I’ll admit. I do want fish. I want a lot of fish!”

Given the size of the tank that he had picked out, they needed to carry it back together with numerous fishbowls stacked inside and all of the aquarium decorations. Of course, either one of them had the strength of their divine blood to carry the full fish tank on by themselves. Bulky objects were awkward to hold regardless of strength though, so carrying it together on the sidewalk gave them an easier time.

A broad smile had climbed back onto Tavras’s face again, and he started talking about all of the different fish species that he wanted to keep. “In some of the bowls, I want betta fish. Do you want a betta fish in your room? They should be kept in separate rooms unless we put their bowls next to each other to have them play.”

“Aren’t betta fish fighting fish?” Val asked. “Wouldn’t that be stressful for them?”

“No. They will have fun, and I will have fun watching them! To keep them from jumping, we will need to keep plastic wrap with air holes placed over the tops of their bowls.”

“Sure,” Val said, “I can keep one of the betta fish in my room.” A small smile pressed to her lips, because maybe the pet fish could be a random and inconsequential, but effective point of bonding for them.

The nuances of fish keeping, Tavras went on about for all of the different types that he wanted.

She just nodded along and agreed to everything. Val trusted Tavras in all things related to fish. Even if she did not have much to add on the topic. It was good that Tavras was taking this so well—better than Val had even hoped. “Honestly, I was a little worried that this plan might backfire,” she admitted with a nervous laugh. “I am so glad that you are excited for the fish!”

A tilt of his head signaled his confusion. “Why would taking me to a pet store backfire? You should have known this would happen!” Tavras let out a hearty laugh. “We are going to have so many fish!”

“I was worried that you would be upset about them being sold in the store or opposed to keeping them as pets,” Val mumbled.

“They are just fish. I love eating fish as it stands! Why would I have any issue with keeping fish in a tank?” His brow started to scrunch up, probably expecting Val to impose another arbitrary ethical standard onto him.

Fish rights were probably as irrational as human rights to a god like him, after all. Val shook her head, casting the people that Tavras had killed from her mind. She really did not understand him. Hastily, she clarified, “I did not mean anything by that!”

“Yeah. Don’t mistake me for Fang. I only get upset over serious environmental issues like water pollution and endangered, aquatic species!”

“What about endangered land animals?”

“They can all go extinct!” Having said that, his voice lifted into a happier tone and he continued to chatter about his pet fish.