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“I dare you to sneak up on Thace,” Regris whispered. The older cub was leaning heavily against Keith’s back, resting his arms and chin on top of Keith’s head. They both watched Thace from across the room, hidden in the shadow of one of the large storage crates.
Keith was hesitant to try sneaking up on his dad, especially given what had happened the last time he and Regris had practiced their sneaking. Regris’s tail had given them away when he accidently knocked over a beaker in one of the examination rooms. Chief Medical Officer Kellun hadn’t been too pleased, and Thace had given them both a stern talking to about being more careful.
“Why don’t you?” Keith challenged quietly, lightly shoving his friend away. Regris stumbled with a yelp, before catching himself using his tail. After righting himself, he frowned back at Keith.
“Boys, are you two behaving over there?” Thace called from the other side of the room. He turned his head to look over his shoulder, ears standing at attention. “Not doing anything mischievous, I hope.”
“Nothing!” Regris and Keith chimed innocently.
Thace gave a noncommittal hum, looking unconvinced as his ears pinned back against the sides of his head. However, while he seemed skeptical, he turned his attention back to his datapad and continued going through ‘Blade Stuff’—that was what he had called it when Keith asked earlier.
Keith gave a slight start when he felt Regris’s tail against his back, but ignored Regris’s soft snickering.
“We just have to be quiet,” Regris insisted. “Like Ani showed us.”
“Be as silent as possible,” Keith repeated, trying to mimic Antok’s deep, gruff tone to the best of his ability. As he spoke, a bright grin broke out on his features—and Regris was quick to mimic it.
Sneaking around was something Keith had been doing since he could barely walk. In the beginning, most of his practice had been on Antok’s tail—and later, on Antok himself whenever he cubsat. After becoming friends with Regris, Keith had used him as a target more than once, leading to an impromptu playfight. But Keith had never practiced sneaking up on one of his dads before.
Now, he tried to focus on making sure his feet didn’t hit the floor too hard. He didn’t have to worry about toe-claws clicking against the floor like Regris did. Sneaking up on Thace was surprisingly easy. Every time one of Thace’s ears twitched or turned, Keith was stop creeping forward, giving Regris the clue that they should stop. As they grew closer, and ducked into the shadow of one of the storage units, Regris seemed to be unusually hesitant to move.
“Scared?” Keith teased.
“Scared?” Regris repeated, speaking a little louder than Keith thought was necessary. “Of Tha—?”
One of Thace’s ears swiveled backwards in their direction, and Keith immediately slapped one of his hands over Regris’s mouth, drowning out the rest of what he was going to say. Regris stiffened, ears going alert as his tail tip twitched back and forth against the floor, brushing softly against the surface. However, after a tick, Thace continued going about his work, lightly shifting one storage crate to the side with his boot, before crouching down in front of another crate.
Keith and Regris remained still for another half-dobosh or so until Keith was reasonably sure that Thace wasn’t aware they were there.
“C’mon,” Keith whispered. “He’s a sitting kara bird right now.”
“You think he heard us?” Regris asked, and Keith noticed how he was nervously flexing the fangs that were tucked against the roof of his mouth.
“Only one way to find out,” Keith said, carefully crawling out of their hiding place.
Thace appeared to be too focused on his work to notice the cubs that were sneaking up on him, gaze trained on the datapad he held in hand. His claws lightly tapped against the surface, and he was frowning at the words on the screen, but Keith couldn’t make out any of them. Keith stopped crawling when he was within striking distance. Settling back on his toes, he readied himself to pounce—
“Don’t even think about it, kitling,” Thace deadpanned, not looking up from his work.
Keith groaned, pouting irritably as leaned heavily against Thace’s side. “How’d you know?”
Thace snorted. “I’m your father, I know everything.”
“Nuh uh,” Regris said, leaning against Thace back as he tried to peer over his shoulder to see the datapad. “My papa knows everything.”
“Thay knows more!” Keith argued.
“All fathers know everything,” Thace cut in, ears twitching in amusement. “Now, how about you two go over there and try sneaking up on me again, okay? I’m almost done, and then we can go and get a snack.”
At the mention of food, both cubs immediately ran off to find a new hiding place in order to try sneaking again.