Pigeons can't carry notebooks, but Bella took a slip of paper with a list. "My priorities are - owl, ideally something unremarkable and common like a barn owl; some kind of big cat but I'd prefer a jaguar because those actually live in the Americas and I don't want it overwhelmingly obvious that we're hitting up zoos; bird of prey, maybe a peregrine; something like a coyote if they have it - ah, good, they have those - and the snake if you can manage it. I'll take anything beyond that I can get hold of without doing extra transit morphs, though."

"I want a snow leopard instead of a jaguar if that's okay. And a wolf. And otherwise what Bella's getting except I don't care about the coyote."

<I know very little about Earth fauna,> says Ax, looking around via stalk eyes, once he's demorphed. <I will accept advice on the subject. I may also fit in somewhat fewer of these enclosures than you would.>

"Think I'd like a bigger owl than a barn... I'd like a wolf too, better than a cat, I think."

"Ooh, they have mountain goats," says Robin. "I want one. And they have lions, tigers, jaguars, and leopards - I want all four. I'm going to see if that morph mixing thing works between species that can interbreed."

<There are species here that can interbreed?>

"Yeah, some. Specifically the four living Panthera cats, that I just listed - almost all of them have been interbred with almost all the rest, and between lions and tigers I think they've gotten down to crosses of crosses. So I want to see if I can get a mix of all four with morphing."

<That would be a fascinating discovery if it worked.>

"Ooh, and a serval. Those are fascinating. They can jump with incredible precision."

"I'll have what she's having," says Ethan.

"These are mostly not particularly friendly critters - the goats might be safe, but I'd just as soon not risk it. So I guess we're moving as a group. Some of the enclosures it might be more efficient for me or Andi to hang back as elephants and put people in and take them out, if we're not getting those animals ourselves. Let's go see the cats first, everybody but Dad wants cats - and Dad, you should take a cat anyway, if there's one where it's easy to get in and out."

"Yep," says Charlie.

"And I want an otter," says Trouble, "if we can get those. Otters are cute." He checks the map. "Looks like they're on the way to the kitties. Otters first if they're convenient, then big cats, then we figure out where to go next?"

"Ooh, otters, I want an otter!" agrees Andi.

"Sounds like a plan."

Since they're so easily got, everybody else gets otters, too. Otters all round.

—but not for long.

"Oh, nicely done, I'm not even going to make snide remarks," murmurs Bella.

Ethan smirks triumphantly.

"Ooooh," breathes Andi when she follows suit, "she iiiiis."

Napping snow leopard softness for everybody!

Next up: jaguar.

Ethan gets them into that one, too.

Ethan acquires him second, then Robin.

And twins, and Charlie, and Ax.

The building that contains the back doors to the lion, tiger, leopard, and serval enclosures has a lock that is beyond Ethan's power to defeat.

Robin accompanies him to every single one.

Ethan declines to pick up a lion, tiger, or leopard, but does go for the serval.

In spite of the fact that the trenches around the cat habitats are too long for elephant-putting to be any help, Ax likes the look of the tiger and joins in for that acquisition.

Trouble checks the map when kitty time has concluded. "Wolves, coyotes, and mountain goats are all over thataway," he says, indicating a direction. "And after that it's not far to get to the birds."

"Lead on."

On he leads! The wolves prove easy to get to; coyotes not so much. Trouble, Ethan, and Robin all pick up both.

Bella takes the trouble to collect an inconvenient coyote by way of flying morph. Her sister, father, and alien subordinate do not.

Getting into the goat enclosure proves to be quite simple.

The others pass.

Charlie, having beetled his way into the great horned's cage, also acquires her.

And of course, just because Ethan can't open the door doesn't mean all hope is lost. Anyone who wants a peregrine falcon just has to morph a bug to get in. Trouble and Ethan both do.

Robin, lacking any bug morphs, perforce does not acquire the peregrine.

The twins collect the peregrine.

Charlie settles for the kestrel, and Ax doesn't have a bug morph either.

"Okay," says Trouble. "Everybody's got everything that was on their specific lists, right? Except the unspecified venomous snake?"

Bella checks her list. "Yes."

"Yeah," says Robin. "Snake time?"

"Snake time. Rattlesnakes are the only venomous species I recognize here," he says, checking the map again.

"Try not to let it bite you. Time for that during downtime after Ethan has it," Bella mutters.

And then everyone has the snake.

"Of course, darling," he says, and kisses Trouble on the cheek, and picks the lock for him.

"It's a pretty snake," agrees Andi. She squints in the dark to read the placard on its tank. "I can't tell if, like, two-thirds of the animals we're getting are boys or girls."

"Does it matter?" wonders Trouble.

"A little. I guess not that much."

He shrugs. "Doesn't matter at all to me."

"Yes," says Ethan, "I wonder why that is? Can't imagine. Go and get your pretty snake now."

Trouble goes and gets his pretty snake.

Everyone else may as well get the pretty snake, too. "Wait, there's a specific reason that it doesn't bother you?"

"What is it?"

"Mmm..." says Trouble, not like he's evading, more like he's trying to figure out how to put it.

"Well, yeah. It's just morphs, we're still us," says Andi. "It's just weirder for me to be boy animals."

"Right," says Trouble. "But it's not weird for me to be girl animals, because... I'm not not a girl."

"You aren't not a - what?"

"Girl," he repeats. "It's not a one-or-the-other thing for me; morphing Robin or a female bear or whatever doesn't make me feel like I'm doing something against the nature of who I am; I don't correct people when they say 'he' or whatever, because I'm also not not a guy, but if you all suddenly decided that you were going to treat me like a girl from now on it wouldn't be weird or upsetting or hard to handle. It would be just as okay as treating me like a guy is."

Andi scratches her head. "That's a thing?"

"It's at least sort of like a thing," says Bella.

"It is observably a thing," says Ethan. "Observe its thingness. Are we going to stand around chatting, or are we planning to get home before the clock strikes midnight and we all turn into pumpkins?"

"Let's get out of here and try out our new owls."

"Grand," says Ethan. He morphs the great horned owl.

Robin does the same.

Tempted as he is to go for the pigeon again, Trouble tries that owl too.

Owls fly back to Forks.

Trouble even deigns to sleep indoors tonight!

"How soundly do you sleep?"

"Depends."

"On?"

He considers this question for a few seconds, and then says, "Stress level. If you're asking if I'm gonna wake up if somebody breaks in while I'm napping on the couch, the answer's 'probably'."

"Okay. The alternative involves moderately uncomfortable bed-shuffling shenanigans to put Andi who wakes up when people breathe on the couch."

"I manage to sleep through you listing random words all night long," says Andi. "But yeah."

"I'm not gonna sleep in the same room as your dad, either," he adds. "Nothing against your dad, I'm just - not. But I'll take the couch if that's fine with everybody."

Andi wanders upstairs while Bella's doing that.

"Yeah. Is now a good time?"

"Sure, if we're quiet."

"Sure," she murmurs.

"Okay. ...I don't really know where to start," he admits.

"Well - what's your take on what happened?"

"Ax asked me to do something I wasn't gonna do, and I didn't feel like sticking around to explain why, so I bailed," he says quietly. "Being able to just leave a conversation I don't wanna be in anymore is kind of a big thing for me."

"Meanwhile," says Bella, "today while Ax was hanging around in the garage being bored, I talked to him about it, and - well, it took a while to get his entire perspective because he kept framing it in terms of what kind of organizational structure are we working with here, do humans have a concept of 'pride', etcetera, but as far as he can tell you insulted him for no reason, and for the sake of inter-Animorph unity he refrained from challenging you to a duel and just asked you not to do that, instead, and then you said you could do whatever you wanted and flew away and for some reason the resident princess didn't reprimand you or him so he was wondering if humans just prefer to exist in environments of social hostility or something. I guess the difference might just boil down to that if I tell Ax he needs to fix this interpersonal conflict on his end, he might do something other than metaphorically flipping me off. I told him you were an unusual human, but - well, I understand you well enough to do some things, but 'explain you to an alien' isn't one of them."

"I'm not confident, but I have the impression that the general Andalite dueling setup ends with somebody dead or permanently maimed," says Bella.

Trouble shrugs. "Okay, no, then."

Bella drops her forehead into her hand. "So, I go tell him that you're going to be insulting him whenever you like and he is to ignore it and see if I can still get a 'yes Princess' to that, is that where we are, here?"

Trouble sighs. "I'll talk to him if you want. I just don't promise he's gonna come out of it any happier than he would if you did that."

"What would you say?"

"I have no idea."

Bella is silent, staring into space, for a long moment of thought.

Trouble waits with infinite patience.

"Do you think you'd make anything worse?"

"Again, no idea. I wouldn't try to. Pissing him off is not a fun hobby."

Bella opens her mouth, then closes it.

"Something to say?"

"I do not think that saying what I was about to say would get me anything I want to have."

"Well, I'm curious."

"I don't know how to fix this, but that doesn't mean I can't make it worse by saying everything that pops into my head."

"And you're worried you'll, what... piss me off?"

"Or something. I don't allow myself the luxury of hurting any feelings that happen to wander by on the grounds of whim."

"Uh-huh. So what were you gonna say?"

"You met a friendly, helpful, stranded, frightened alien who had just discovered that his brother was dead and placed himself under the protection of someone who's supposedly your friend, and then you upset him, and he politely told you that the thing you said upset him, and I have seen no indication that you give a fraction of a shit. You aren't curious what constitutes an insult to an Andalite so you can avoid any portion of the possible ways to ruin his day, you haven't apologized or given any noticeable thought to what apologizing would look like, I don't think you're even acting like this on the grounds that it offends you that Ax is racist against Yeerks. I don't think there is a way to be in the wrong in this situation that you haven't at least flirted with except that I believe that you didn't intentionally set out to hurt his feelings, which means precious little when you demonstrate no interest in the fact that they exist. And I'm still probably going to have to tell Ax to suck it up even though his worst crime here is not liking a species that has been fighting his people since before he was born, since he has done me the great courtesy of presenting leverage for me to apply and you haven't. And that's how I get to reward him, I guess, I get to tell him that on this particular team of humans sometimes people are going to trespass on his sacred values and that's his problem."

"So I guess I'll go do that, then, shall I." Bella gets up.

"...Can I talk to him first? I mean - instead, hopefully?"

"And say what?"

"I'm really not sure. But I don't want him to have to suck it up."

"Are you going to apologize to him or something, then?"

"Or something. I don't know."

"Is there some other form of him not sucking it up of which I am unaware?"

"I really don't know what I'm doing," he says. "I don't have plans, I'm not even sure I have goals, I have... vague hopes. But me and my vague hopes can get a pretty long way together sometimes."

"You probably could. But I'm glad you're not going to try it," he says. "G'night."

"Mmhm." She heads for the stairs.

Trouble wraps his blanket around himself and brings it with him into the garage after she goes.

Ax is in the garage. The lights are off. There are plastic glow in the dark stars on the ceiling which weren't there before.

<Hello.>

"I wanna talk to you. Do you wanna talk?"

<What do you want to talk about?>

"That thing where we set each other off the other day."

Hooves scrape softly on concrete. <Ah. Princess Bella said I was not required to apologize; do you disagree?>

"Nah," says Trouble. "I don't know what you'd be apologizing for if you did. And I don't think you know, either."

<I do not,> Ax agrees.

"Yeah, I figured," says Trouble. "So there wouldn't be much point."

<Do humans believe the point of apologies has to do with demonstrating knowledge?> wonders Ax.

"If somebody's sorry for setting me off, but they don't know what they did or why it mattered or what setting me off even means, that doesn't do me much good, does it?"

<Well,> says Ax, <not if the apology is given under duress. I asked Princess Bella not to order you to do so, but she said that it wouldn't matter if she did.>

<Because that would render it meaningless in any event.>

Ax waits.

"I don't think I know what I'd be apologizing for, either," he says. "But I want to."

<For comparing me to a Yeerk. I am not sure how this failed to be clear.>

"No, that part I get," he says. "I guess what I mean is - I don't understand it. I could guess, but that's not the same thing."

<What else is there to explain?>

"I don't know, maybe nothing," says Trouble. "Maybe the answer really is that you just hate Yeerks so much that you can't stand hearing that one time one of them noticed the same obvious fact that you noticed. In which case I'm gonna have a hard time being sorry about it. But I still want to try."

Ax's feet shuffle. <When Andi was in here adding the glowing shapes to the ceiling, she mentioned that one of Princess Bella's talents is picking apart her feelings in arbitrary detail. That is not a talent I have.>

"Sure, me neither," says Trouble. "The stars are a cute idea."

<It was very kind of her. It helps a little.>

"Yeah," says Trouble. He tips his head back to look at them.

<So, I don't know if I can satisfy your curiosity.>

"Mm, 'curiosity' might not be the word," he says. "But okay."

<Where does that leave us?>

"Dunno," he says. "Are you gonna try eating breakfast with us again tomorrow?"

More hoof-shuffly sounds. <I do not know.>

"I could bring you some out here if you'd rather," he offers.

<That would probably lead to more... dignified results, although I do not know how much more.>

"Probably," Trouble agrees. "Up to you."

<Will it be the French toast again?>

"Probably not," he says. "There's not much more bread. I might do pancakes. Or something with bacon."

<I do not know what those things are, but suspect it will be pleasant to find out.>

"I bet you're right!"

<We are no longer talking about what you originally wished to talk about,> Ax observes.

"Yeah. But I'm still doing what I came here for."

<I don't understand.>

"Well... back to the other day," he says. "When you said you didn't want to be compared to Yeerks. I wasn't really hearing that the way you meant it. I mean, I did, I understood the words and what you were talking about, but I had a whole different reaction to it that wasn't about you or what you were saying so much as it was about... other stuff that's happened in my life. And what I'm trying to do is change that reaction, so if you tell me you don't want me to do something I can listen instead of getting scared and running away. Finding other ways to be nice to you helps with that. I don't know why, but it does."

<...Ah.>

Trouble shrugs.

<Do I need to be cautious about how I phrase things? With you, with humans generally?>

"Couldn't tell you about other humans. With me... I don't think how you phrase things is so much the problem. It's just how you came off when you said that one thing, and how everybody else seemed to take it, and how I was feeling right then. I ended up feeling like somebody was going to try to make me act a certain way, and - I have problems with that."

<Princess Bella does not seem to think that she can make you do things,> offers Ax.

"Yeah. She knows."

<I do not really understand the structure of this group. Princess Bella clarified a few things, but was then distracted and then Andi came in with the glowing shapes.>

"We don't have much of a structure," says Trouble. "Which parts did Bella clarify? I could tell you some of the rest."

<She said that she is not really the leader even though no one else more exactly meets the description. She is willing to lead me, and can typically convince her sister to do things, and is still unsure of how things will work out in the long run with Charlie, and can often convince Robin that good ideas are good ideas, and is generally "crossing her fingers and hoping" about you and Ethan.>

"Ethan and Robin are best friends," says Trouble. "Ethan pretty much doesn't care about anybody but her. He'll do whatever he thinks is good for Robin. Which right now means saving the world from the Yeerks."

<Ah.>

"And me, well, I have problems with people telling me what to do, but I wanna save the world too." He snorts softly. "Or die trying."

<I don't know how you expect to be part of an effective unit without a command structure. Did you want to be the leader instead of Princess Bella?>

"I could," he says. "Might solve a few things. But nah, I don't really want to."

<I don't understand how this is supposed to work,> says Ax.

"Nobody does."

<That seems even less likely to be effective.>

"Aw, we'll figure something out. We already managed to rescue Charlie and collect you."

<All without Yeerk suspicion. When the realize that the Dome fell intact - that there could be Andalites on earth, let alone human morphers - they will be on their guard.>

"Yep," says Trouble. "Or the first time we do something really blatant."

<Yes.>

He shrugs. "And then I guess it'll get harder."

<Wouldn't it be easier if everyone followed Princess Bella?>

"Could be. That doesn't mean it's gonna happen, though."

<Why not?>

"Well, what do you mean by 'following Princess Bella'?"

<Doing as she says. Operating under her command the way I have begun to do.>

"I can't do that," says Trouble.

<Why not?>

"I just don't have it in me. I'd quit first. I'll do some stuff she wants me to, if she asks. I'll help. But I can't be under orders like that."

<She seems very intelligent and committed,> volunteers Ax.

"Sure she is. It's not her that's the problem."

<I don't think I understand the problem.>

"Yeah, I know. Do you want to?"

<Ideally.>

"If I try to put myself in a position where somebody can just tell me to do something and expect I'm gonna do it 'cause they said so, I'll end up running away instead. And not coming back this time. It's just not something I can do. Because of... personal stuff."

<Is this a common human affliction?>

"Nope. Well - having stuff you can't do or have a hard time with because somebody hurt you, that happens plenty. The exact nature of the stuff varies more."

<You have this problem because you were previously under incompetent command...? I thought you were all considered too young to fight by the standards of your culture.>

"Yeah, well, it wasn't a military commander. It was my stepfather."

<...Oh,> says Ax, in tones of someone who doesn't really understand but doesn't know if they want to continue the conversation either.

"There's details, but they aren't very nice, and they don't really explain why I came out of it exactly how I did. That part's just me, I guess."

<Princess Bella did say you are an unusual human.>

"She got that right."

There are footsteps, down the stairs and past the garage door into the kitchen.

"Huh, I wonder who's up," says Trouble.

<I don't know. Does it matter?>

He shrugs. "I guess not."

<Are any of the others likely to be alarmed by your absence from the couch?>

Andi is dimly visible in the moonlight filtered through the curtains; she hasn't bothered to turn on a light. She is standing by the sink with a glass of water. "Making friends with Ax?" she asks Trouble.

"Trying to."

"Are you having trouble with it? I pried the plastic stars off our ceiling for him and showed him where to get a casserole dish he could stand in to drink water out of and bam, friendship."

"How come?"

"'Cause the other day I accidentally insulted him and he accidentally scared me, and now I'm trying to work through that."

"Oh. You were scared?"

"Yeah. Scared doesn't usually look like scared, on me."

"That and you were a pigeon."

"You can't see scared on pigeons?"

"Nnnnot really."

"I can. I mean, now that I've been one. I wasn't born with a mystical connection to pigeons or anything."

"The Amazing Pigeon-Boy!" suggests Andi.

Trouble cracks up.

"It was super-dark too, anyway."

"True."

"I thought he was really polite, what scared you?"

"It's not about how polite he was. It's just - the whole thing set me off."

"Yeah, obviously, what about it?"

"If I knew, I might tell you."

"Huh."

He shrugs.

"So you're trying to avoid getting set off again without knowing how the heck the setting-off works?"

"Not... exactly. I know some stuff, and I'm working on what I know. It's just not all stuff that's easy to explain. And it's mostly not about what he does so much as it's about how I feel about him."

"Why, how do you feel about him?"

"So you don't wanna tell me?" says Andi.

"I don't wanna get into it right now. If you're still curious tomorrow morning you can ask me again."

"I'll probably forget. Whatever." Andi finishes her water and puts her glass in the sink.

"G'night."

"Night." Andi heads back upstairs.

Trouble also finishes his water, and he and his blanket head back into the garage.

Ax, predictably, is still there.

<Sleep well,> says Ax, after a silence that might be surprised.

Ax remains in the garage under glow-in-the-dark stars.