Night falls.
They can all go to the Seattle zoo and acquire everything they can get their hands on.
"Or something. I don't allow myself the luxury of hurting any feelings that happen to wander by on the grounds of whim."
"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."
"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."
She indulges in two seconds of what appears to be exhausted despair.
Then she gets up again. "Okay. Fine. I couldn't even stop you if I wanted, could I?"
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.
"Hi," he says.
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."