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“I’m not upset, Daddy.” But rocking was always nice, and it got me out of explaining why he shouldn’t be frustrated at me for taking out the trash on my own earlier.
He’d still been kind of huffy about that and I wasn’t sure it was going to change anytime soon.
“Please explain the variability in your emotional well-being.” His words came out slightly skeptically, like he wasn’t sure if there was something he should be worried about.
With a human partner, I would’ve assumed he thought I was lying, but Daddy seemed to think I didn’t always know when I needed his help.
Since his thoughts were interesting at the best of times, I did my best to focus on happy memories and plans and let him cuddle me for a few moments before I tried to answer him.
When he was more relaxed and his tentacles were doing a ripply caress over me, I nuzzled against him. “I was thinking about what Amy said the other day and trying to figure out what I thought of us going to the next meetup at the bookstore.”
Daddy made a low, thinking sound and the tentacles started petting over me again like I needed to be soothed or distracted. “I do not understand why that produced such swings in your thoughts and emotions.”
Me neither.
“Um, I think I was feeling guilty for not wanting to go.” I had several things I was feeling guilty over on that front. “And I was worried about possibly offending her. I was also thinking about what we talked about with wanting to meet other couples socially and was frustrated with myself for not wanting to take the opportunity that was right in front of us.”
And that was probably just the tip of the iceberg.
“Ah.” Daddy stroked my back and snuggled me tighter against his body. “And the flash of innocent pleasure that may have been delight or amusement?”
Those were different?
No, I was not going to get into a what do I smell like when I’m happy discussion.
“I like the bookstore and James said something funny that I remembered. It was nothing relevant to the discussion.” That seemed to make Daddy happy and earned me another hug. The only thing I could think of was that he was pleased to have been able to toss out the one emotion that hadn’t fit with the others.
As the Sesame Street song about one thing not belonging played in the back of my head, I stroked my hand over the tentacle that I could touch without trying to escape his hold. “So, nothing big or wrong was going through my head…just lots of random stuff that all piled together.”
I was going to have to remember not to think too much the next time I tried to sweep the kitchen or Daddy would start to think that was an emotionally dangerous activity.
Like cleaning the shower because, evidently, that made me too grumpy to function?
“I am glad to know there were not significant fears or worries that I neglected to monitor, my Dane.” A few things fell into place as he hugged me tight again. “Is the topic of our social schedule a mental debate you are having on your own or one I may join?”
“Huh?” As I tried to piece together what he said versus what he might mean, he was sweet and explained what had been going through his head.
“Humans often feel the need to have internal debates about topics to arrange their thoughts and beliefs before they bring the discussion to other individuals.” As he gave me a new human fun fact lecture, he started to sound like one of my professors from college. “This happens in work and social environments, primarily with the branch of humans labeled introverts.”
Wait.
Did he think they were another species of humans?
No.
Not getting distracted.
Nope.
We were going to stay on track.
“I don’t need to process it on my own. It just kind of popped up in my head as I was sweeping.” When he went still, I realized he didn’t understand how one thing related to the other. “Um, when humans are doing something physically repetitive it can make our brains frustrated and it seems to find something random to focus on.”
“Ah.” The rippling caressing started up again as he nodded. “Repetitive physical movements prompt additional brain activity. Is this why a human who is not assigned janitorial tasks may decide to clean random spaces?”
He knew the strangest people.
“Yeah, like cleaning the breakroom or something like that?” My question had him nodding again and making his humans are interesting sigh.
“Yes, my Dane. It was highly curious but he would not explain.” Daddy huffed and shook his head. “His physical responses indicated embarrassment without arousal being present and he refused to expound on the phenomenon.”
Laughing wouldn’t have been the right response but I knew Daddy had probably driven that guy nuts. “Some humans just aren’t good at describing things.”
