His questions went unanswered aside from the sound of Castiel’s jaws masticating. Tiresias set his sights upon Castiel though no image passed through his visage. Reece sighed, but had swiftly gone about caring for the leftovers of his meal. One thing that he was very nearly obsessive with was the cleanliness of their cavern. It was hard given how close their den was to the ocean. The heavy deposits of salt on the brisk air left grime covering every surface of every wall of the den. Tiresias had taken to holding on to the skins of the prey that he and Cas devoured… after they were dried, they made decent rags to scrub the salt off with. But to digress, Tiresias cleaned up after himself and then waited patiently for Cas to finish his own meal. He did not have to wait long, and as soon as his companion was done, Tiresias tilted his head. The sound of Castiel approaching led to a smile on the kalak’s face, a quirky twirking of his lips that spread as the sound of Cas’ laughter reached his auditories. Pressure was placed on Tiresias’ tail and he froze briefly, but the feeling of nails coming out his fur made him relax - it was only Castiel afterall, there was nothing and no reason to cause him unease. Tiresias nearly purred, so calm was he, but it lasted but a moment. Then the pressure lifted and he heard the retreat… then an odder sound, one he did not immediately recognize. But his own attempts at emptying out the scales from his mouth had resulted in the same noises, and thus his conundrum was answered. Suddenly, he was set off balance and his paws stumbled to the right, his limbs grasping at the hard cavern floor with claws to stay on balance and his pinnae swept back and down to grace his skull. A growl leapt to his lips but it was falsely made, created only in jest and it fell away just as swiftly as it had been made.

‘Now you’re clean, but you’re an awfully messy eater!’

Tiresias scoweled and shook his head. “I beg to differ - this is an exception rather than a rule as you should well know. If you were thusly concerned with such perhaps you should have shared with me some words of wisdom prior to my first attempt instead of watching me fail succinctly.” He turned away, but his show of anger was half-hearted at best, and as soon as Castiel resumed the dialogue his body swept about so that they were facing each other once again.

‘But don’t worry, I don’t care and I can definitely show you a better way to eat fish.’

“Please, do enlighten me so.” His cranium tilted to the side so that he could better triangulate Castiel’s movements. There was a soft squish - the puncturing of the fish’s flesh by Castiel’s teeth, and then the quiet padding of Cas toward the mouth of the cavern. Tiresias followed him and stopped only when he felt Castiel’s flesh press against his own. He could feel Cas lowering himself to the ground and Tiresias was quick to follow suit. His head remained tilted toward the side to listen to the instructions that he knew would come, and like the attentive student that he was, he stayed silent and focused.

‘You can hold the fish with the claws of one paw on its side. Take your foreclaw, on the other paw and pierce the fish right underneath its jaw and pull down until you reach the tail. This makes a clean cut down the center and allows you to clean out the innards with ease and then you can eat it from the inside out without have to really mess with the scales. Or you could theoretically peel the skin back, that’s what my mother did, but I never quite figured out how she managed it.’ Even as Castiel spoke, Tiresias imitated him, his paws making the motions that Cas was describing. It felt awkward and strange, seeing as he did not have a fish to actual apply pressure to or cut through, but he had done it nonetheless - repetition was the best way to learn. It was something his parents had taught him, mainly to help him hide his blindness… but it would apply just as well to this. His ghost motions were suddenly made real though when Cas pushed the fish’s corpse in front of him. ‘Bon appetit.’ Tiresias smiled in thanks and hesitated for a moment - he had no desire to be poked and prodded and covered in scales as he had been previously, but his rumbling churning belly called for more food. He held the fish down with his paw and nudged at it with his snout until he found the slit that Castiel had carved in its flesh. With almost delicate precision, he nibbled at the fish, his incisors pulling free the flakes of meat. Here, at the vulnerable underbelly, there were no scales, and so it was only a few plates that got caught onto his face, and these few only due to his whiskers. He found it immensely more pleasurable without scales raking the inside of his mouth. Still, Tiresias left a few morsels of meat - they were too far inside for him to want to go searching for them, lest he make the mess that Cas had already taunted him for. Swiftly and silently, he cleaned his face off, his paw rubbing over his maw before being succinctly cleaned by his tongue. The first rays of light warmed the tips of his paws, and he edge nearer to the mouth of the den until his entire form was drenched in it.

“I must say, Cas, I am rather glad that winter is no more. I simply am not made for such temperatures.” Without hesitation, he laid down next to his counterpart and rolled slightly against him, his head rolled against Cas’ own. “I suppose I should thank you not for my survival, but for the comfort alloted by your warmth and company…” Laying next to him had become comfortable, and felt right. Tiresias swore to himself that it was just friendship, a kinship between the two of them - afterall they were a part of outlaws, hiding from their respective families. But his naivety hid from him the emotions elicited by Castiel's touch, keeping him innocent...

...for now...