Slav was seriously considering that Nik had suddenly decided to develop laryngitis or something. Squeaking like a mouse and all. The two Olders had the deepest voices of the brothers, and so it was very unusual for them to break the 'squeak barrier' between man and mouse. Although, it was a new category of difficult to predict the Oldest's behavior lately. Yesterday and the present day seemed mirror opposites, shades of the Oldest and Older, actually.
The day before Slav had been moving to set off his brother unconsciously, seeing if he could push him here and there. Today Nik was smiling at him and made them all food.
Well, it looked to be a step in an improved direction.
Ios's muttered word caught even the Middlest's attention, and he angled his head in his brother's direction, after catching the name of a mythical bird. Wasn't there a girl named Phoenix on board that he had heard of? ... Oh. Okay.
Knowing how little the Littlest enjoyed the limelight, Slav pointedly kept most of his visual attention on his own food. While he was still listening with rapt attention, he was not a fourth pair of staring eyes on the smallest and youngest of the brothers.