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[onlyeverdoubted]

I'm just going to assume this is Hux, what do you need?

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[onlyeverdoubted]

"I can do repairs," Bodhi says lightly, trying to keep in the spirit of the thing. "Well, maybe. I have no idea what an estate actually consists of." It sounds more like something out of a bad holodrama than anything real.

[worstweasley]

He smiles, trying not to be condescending.

"Not by yourself. I know part of it was being five since I saw it last, but part of the estate was a huge building. Served as one of the Imperial academies back in the Empire's day. It was shelled over a long period, so there are likely pockmarks and cracks in its foundation. Then there are the lands surrounding it, the farms and smaller dwellings rented out for the people needed to live and work there. It's a lot to manage, and that's assuming I'm even welcomed back."

[onlyeverdoubted]

It's probably hard to not be condescending about the literal castle you used to live in. Bodhi is very tempted to tease him about this forever, but in part that's because he's a little overawed despite his better sense. "Somewhere, deep in the harmony of the Force, my mother just regained enough consciousness to tell all the other remnants and ghosts that her son landed an engineer with an estate."

[worstweasley]

Hux claps a hand over his eyes in embarrassment.

"It's not my estate, it was my father's." He murmurs a weak protest. "And technically it belonged first to the Empire who may have had to turn it over after losing a not-insignificant war."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Teasing," Bodhi says in reassuring tones, even though it's only mostly true. Sometimes he still needs to gentle Hux along a bit. "It's strictly in the maybe category, I promise. The cats would have a good time, though. All that space to ruin."

[worstweasley]

"They would be able to ruin a bedspread a week and still not run out for years." He says, slightly jostled out of his mood by talk of destructive cats.

[onlyeverdoubted]

"All the places to pop out of and attack our ankles," Bodhi agrees, backing off easily into this perfectly neutral territory. Later, about the estate.

[worstweasley]

"Precisely." Hux calms down from his ruffled feathers, sitting back and smiling at the idea of it. Cats were always the easiest subject for him, even before coming here and meeting Bodhi.

[onlyeverdoubted]

It does seem to be an automatic pressure release. Bodhi almost feels guilty for using it, but teasing has to be carefully portioned out. "Speaking of which, I don't know about Huck, but Dio takes up about three times the surface area of bed that his actual volume explains."

[worstweasley]

"Cats splay themselves out to show both dominance of space and that they're comfortable." He explains, happy to lapse into tutor mode.

"Dio likely wants to claim ownership of your bunk."

[onlyeverdoubted]

He loves tutor mode. "Well, done and done, it's not like I... Have historically used it much." He rarely actually made it all the way to the air mattress.

[worstweasley]

"He doesn't need that big a bunk." Says Hux, ever the practical one. "If you don't use it he feels he can walk all over you."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"And he obviously can," is Bodhi's answer, calm and practical from a slightly different direction.

[worstweasley]

"You are the owner, not him. He thinks he's your XO."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"I agree that that's the theory. Just, in practice, he's right."

[worstweasley]

"Well, is that beneficial to you both or are you wanting to change something about his behavior?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

"I mainly think it's funny, but, well, I won't be the only one he's aggressively sleeping on?" Despite Hux's confidence he's a little shy of the subject. Like if he says it outright he'll have misunderstood. Irrational enough that he catches himself at it.

[worstweasley]

He blinks, recognizing it for the invitation to talk about that that it is.

"Define 'aggressive sleeping'." He asks.

[onlyeverdoubted]

"I find him on my face when I wake up all the time." Might be plotting to smother him. Probably not. Too much trouble.

[worstweasley]

"Only that? He doesn't claw at you? Attack you while sleeping?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Some chewing, but no, I think you're right about him just establishing a hierarchy."

[worstweasley]

"Hmn." He turns in his chair to eye their two beds.

"Obviously he's going to still want to sleep on your face. You're his favorite and Huck has already claimed my body for warmth in the night."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"He does seem set in his ways. I just an't guarantee you won't be breathing cat fur some morning." Dio just doesn't strike him as a respecter of real estate.

[worstweasley]

"There are worse ways of waking." He permits. "Perhaps we should try it first and not borrow trouble."

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Right, let's hope harassing me is still his life's work." And now he's the one taking refuge in the cats as a subject.