“Grandfather?”

Vree looked up from his book at the sound of his human’s voice, cracking with genuine surprise. Human-Amir was supposed to be resting and was instead insisting on spending time lounging in his family’s apartments in the hours before the Naming of his newborn nephew.

The sight of a tall man, dressed in the robes of one of Humanity’s desert people, embroidered with deep shimmering flames, was somewhat unexpected.

Al’Mudhib. One of the Seven Djinn Kings.

The last time Vree saw this particular being, he was casually discussing the complete destruction of a species that dared to offend him with a dragon who was as old or older than Humanity itself.

Vree flattened his ears and tried very hard to hide behind his book. It didn’t work, there was simply too much of him, but he tried anyway.

“You were kidnapped,” Al’Mudhib said in reply to his grandson’s surprise, and came over to examine Human-Amir carefully, tutting over his injuries. “Why did you not spend your Wish?”

Wish? What was a Wish? This must be yet another oddity of Humanity’s Other community, and now Vree was wishing for something to take notes.

“I didn’t know if I would need it later,” Human-Amir admitted, as shamefaced as he ever got, and polite under the eye of his many-times-great grandfather. “I thought about it, but I decided to save it instead.”

“You would not have had a later if you died, foolish boy,” Al’Mudhib scolded him, and snapped his fingers imperiously. All of Human-Amir’s injuries healed all at once, and he was suddenly in clothing very nearly as fine as Al’Mudhib’s himself. “There. And you-“

Vree remembered that he was trying to be a chair and did his best not to scramble for cover when Al’Mudhib’s eyes landed on him.

He did not want to find out what a djinn was, please. Human-Amir was bad enough when he was killing entire crews of pirates, and this great being was infinitely more powerful.

“Sir,” he replied, and got to his feet, ignoring his trembling knees while he did it, and dropped his head politely. His official job at this event was to represent his people, and wasn’t that just a slammed door on the tail. “Greetings from Ha’reet, and my congratulations on your new grandkit.”

“You’re so polite,” Human-Amir grumbled resentfully, but he sounded amused too. “You make me look bad.”

Vree flicked an ear at him but kept his eyes on the floor, offering no challenge-gaze whatsoever.

“You are polite,” Al’Mudhib commented with something like approval. “And you do well at keeping my fool of a grandson out of trouble. I am told that you were the terror of your ship while seeking his rescue. I do not hold you responsible for his capture.”

Vree tried not to breathe a sigh of relief.

Vree definitely breathed a sigh of relief.

He did not want Human-Amir’s terrifying grandfather to do something terrible to him.

The old not-a-human looked like the vindictive sort. It was probably for the best that Human-Amir killed all of the pirates who carried him off. Whatever his grandfather did to them would certainly have been worse.

“Well,” he said at last, and clamped a hand on his grandson’s shoulder preemptively. Human-Amir wiggled somewhat, but Vree was pleased to see someone else scruff him for once. “Shall we go and meet the new child?”

“You don’t need to drag me,” Human-Amir protested as his grandfather propelled him down the long hallway with Vree trailing after them for lack of anything better to do with himself. “I want to meet the baby!”

“You always need to be scruffed.”

Human-Luka appeared out of a nearby door, for once garbed in a sharp-cut suit, the garb of a human royal, with a long red scarf around his throat rather than the tie most humans chose. He bowed his head politely to Al’Mudhib and came in for a hug from Human-Amir.

“You look better,” he commented, and came for a hug from Vree as well, who scent-marked his head in return but refrained from grooming his hair. “Hullo Vree.”

Alright, so maybe Vree was inclined to adopt Human-Luka too. He seemed much better-tempered than Human-Amir. How much worse could he be?

“Hello, Imperial Highness,” Vree said, and chuckled when the young prince scowled playfully up at him. “When you told me that Carrier Pacifica was large, you failed to mention that it is the size of a moon.”

“I thought you saw her after the Thraxxis War,” Human-Amir pointed out, and wiggled away from his overly-tolerant grandfather. “I mean, from a distance. I was on the India for that.”

“I was on Occupied Ha’reet, defending my Pride.”

They entered another sprawling set of apartments, these rooms filled with a number of people who looked very much like Human-Amir and Human-Luka.

Human-Amir made straight towards a happy, although tired-looking, woman who might easily have been his twin for how much they looked alike.

“Hi Hina,” He said, and kissed her cheek before making something he called ‘grabby hands’ at the tiny bundle in her arms. “Baby. Gimme.”

“Wretch,” the woman, who could only be his older sister, Sahina and the mother of the child in question, said, and surrendered her tiny kit with only a little hesitation. “Remember to support his head.”

“It hasn’t been that long since I held a baby,” Human-Amir complained, and cradled the child in his arms before returning to Vree’s side to show off his tiny, cooing prize. “I remember when Maggie was born. Lookit Vree. He’s the cutest little bug.”

The child was indeed adorable, as baby animals tended to be, and Vree leaned down to blink slowly at the child. The baby peered up at him through blue eyes, and immediately sneezed on his snout.

“Definitely related to you,” he told Human-Amir, while wiping his nose carefully. To Sahina, he bowed the human way. “Congratulations on your kit. He is indeed adorable.”

“Thank you,” Sahina beamed, and watched as Al’Mudhib claimed the baby next, ignoring Human-Amir’s protests that he wasn’t done. “Now all he has to do is survive our family.”