“I know,” Noah chimed vainly.

Guess was a game that could be played for hours, until a certain number of points, or until the deck was done. It was often that Noah and his siblings would play until the deck was done then start over, just because it passed the most time when there was a large chunk of it to kill. It was one of Noah’s favorites because of the random factors, a well shuffled deck yielded enough volatility that nothing could be cheated and gloating could be punished by a suddenly bad stream of luck. Elann was his bondmate so he wasn’t attempting to be provocative in his gloating, simply teasing and aiming to draw reactions from Elann based in the playful nature.

The game wound down still, each hand offering a point to either of them, keeping Noah ahead by the few he was by. It seemed he was just lucky this night and he was enjoying it. He was sharing something meagerly personal about himself with Elann, his love for simple card games and games in general. It was small but it meant a great deal to him because they reminded him of Zeltiva and his younger years as a juvenile. 

In the end it was him who won as they tallied up their suits. He showed her a tooth bearing grin once their totals had been announced, showing he took pleasure in the win and in teasing her because of it. If Elann remembered Aimee speaking about Noah’s mischievous behavior before she’d know this was but a small display of how devious he could be. She would perhaps recount the tale about Noah stealing Aimee’s cherished toy and putting it on the roof because she couldn’t get up there. Even if the wolf did, he would fly off to the next one, revelling in the teasing of his older sister.

He collected the suits and brought them back into a deck, shuffling through them per habit, going through the motions before reaching for the band which bound the cards together and rewrapping it around the deck to set aside once more. The game was done and he had won, now he was waiting for the next phase of their late night stint.

Noah looked around the pallet they were on in search of the journal. Once found, he reached for it and brought it out in front of the both of them, favoring it closer to Elann. “Did you start another one?” he asked. “You gave the others to Aimee.”

Like before, he hadn’t cracked it open though his curiosity begged to invade whatever was inside. The staunch want to remain in Elann’s good graces prevented it though, forcing him to show some self-control over the situation whereas he would usually, and easily, give into the wants of his inquisition.