[he automatically reaches for the teapot once the staff have left - force of habit - but Zuko gets there first]

Oh-- thank you.

[almost sheepishly, withdrawing his hands, though his familiar does flutter in to check. The cream jug is too heavy, but she is able to deposit two sugar lumps in the cup for Linneus - in two separate trips, and to Linneus' gentle amusement.]

I arrived before the castes changed - I took on a Pet myself and then when the castes inverted so did the ownership. Makoto left a little after you and I met, but it was a little over a year. Katze I met a lot earlier - there was a terrible run of these cameras being where the shouldn't and-- broad-casting? - people's private moments to strangers.

He was able to come and remove the one in my room. But I confess I made... something of an exhibition of myself, first, not knowing it was there.