[sylvanSpider]

Aren readily accepted, not yet ready to return to his own bleak apartment. Granted, he had work that he could be doing there. He'd managed to bring back one of the best sealed samples (from the stalk rather than the spores, reducing risk of infection) but he could work on that in evening after the lockdown was over). He followed the brothers to their place, which, not quite unexpectedly, was a mirror image of his own, at least, so far as the layout went. They'd built it for two people and must have been assigned to the same general living quarters. It helped that they lived in the same building.

Aren offered the smallest of smiles and sat down on the couch with Tristan, “It's better than mine. Less empty, more welcoming. It actually looks lived in. My place just looks like a storage unit.” He made himself comfortable and handed one of the simplest children's books to Tristan. “Alright, so, knowing the letters and the sounds they make are only part of it. I want you to sound out the words and see if you can read and understand whole sentences. Ian might've read you bedtime stories as a kid, but now you'll get to read to him. Sound good?”

He jumped with the unexpected jolt of cold on his shoulder, but his look of surprise melted to one of gratitude and he took the bottle, opening the lid, “Thanks. All this teaching does make me hella thirsty.”