“Ah. I was trying to figure out what you might could be biting your tongue on.”

Dan doesn’t sound upset or defensive. He pulls Bunny into his arms for a nice cuddle, working his fingers into and out of the longest parts of Bunny’s luxurious fur, looking for cinders and burrs from the mission, because touch is one of the many ways he loves to reaffirm his and Bunny’s bond.

He gets the comb out and starts on Bunny’s ruff. He has different ways he grooms Bunny, depending on the context, but it’s never workmanlike. There’s always an artfulness, a tenderness, to the way he expresses his love for Bunny this way, whether he’s trying to use the grooming as foreplay or as the equivalent of a massage or as a distraction from something bothering Bunny. Tonight, it’s intimate, sweet, like each gentle tug is a kiss.