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Fia doesn't dislike Feradi, exactly, although maybe if he were in the habit of disliking people he would. Feradi is rude on purpose, mean on purpose, just to prove he can be. It's unpleasant to be around.
But Fia can't really fault him on the philosophy, given the givens. And anyway, he's probably nicer when he's at home, when he's not flaunting his contrast with Cretari citizens.
"Uh-huh. You're entitled to three bowls a day. Kitchens keep track. Vallvé'll talk patrol schedules with you when you're ready."
"It's still nice to have sometimes, but we can probably get it ourselves in those cases."
"How will we contact Vallvé when we're ready for patrols? Is it known how long it might take to get us equipped for them?"
"He's one of the desks in the office end of the hall. I'll be quicker about the boots and coats if you run out of questions soon."
In their usual language: "Well. Shall we see if the cards survived the snow?" He takes them out, inspects them for damage, and starts shuffling.
"Sure." Insofar as Fia likes games as bonding, well, it's more useful to do that with Feradi now than it was before. And it's not going unappreciated that he's not quite mean-on-purpose enough to hold them to the dessert agreement under the circumstances.
This game is asymmetrical, with Feradi playing three cards to Fiaten's one. Sometimes all four get put in a pile over by Feradi; sometimes the card they play seems to be invalid and gets returned to them; sometimes they get to pick one of the three Feradi played.
Over time, it becomes less of Aten nudging Fia into the moves he likes best, and more of just Aten playing directly, until -
........Aten looks between the card he played and the ones Feradi did and tries to puzzle out whether how this could be about that.
"No, you, Champion. Don't play coy; you insult me if you think there's any chance I didn't notice two decades ago you didn't die to turn yourself into that Cretari dandelion puff."
"You insult me if you think I built a second personality I wouldn't be dear friends with. Be nicer to him."
"Fine, sure. It's great that he got us in here, to whatever extent his boundless friendliness is responsible for that. But listen - did you take a look at the dispositions here? I can tell he doesn't like me. I don't mind; I don't shape myself for Cretari regard. But he's not going to find success cozying up to these people; they're worse than I am. Stick around, why don't you. Bet it's safer for both - 'all' - of us."
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