Royce chuckled, shook his head and grabbed at her toe that was pressed against his chest, giving it a playful squeeze before she pushed him away. "You're the one making funny faces at herself. Maybe you should do stand up comedy." He had never been good with jokes. Not any actual smart jokes. He knew all the corny ones that one would find on a popsicle stick or on a cracker jack box.
Chuckles dying, he turned away from her and went back to what he had been doing. Grabbing his water bottle off the floor near the radio, he took a couple of gulps before starting on the grumpy squirrel's cage. The squirrel kind of reminded him of the old man. He was scraggly looking too, even after being cleaned by Charlie and Charlie was really good at cleaning animals. Royce knew that first-hand, he remembered with a slight blush.
Just as he opened the grouchy rodent's cage, he heard the scrape of Charlie's chair and her quick steps towards him. Instinctively, he tensed, watching her out of the corner of his eye. When she started to clean the cage next to the one he was cleaning, he raised an eyebrow but smiled. "No focus today? What, your reflection steal it or are you too busy thinking about sweets again?" Charlie was always bringing in tasty treats, both for him and Rosemary and the old man. He never ate much, to be polite, but everything he had eaten so far had been delicious. Charlie had a thing for sweet things too. Unfortunately, she was adamant against sharing sweet things with Rosemary since, well, since she wasn't human and Charlie was strict with the diet of the animals here. Sort of.
It was quiet for about ten or fifteen minutes while they cleaned. Weird. It wasn't awkward though. Royce had gotten to a level of comfortability with her that he could go for a long time without saying anything and it would still be pleasant. When Charlie did finally break the silence, however, what she said made Royce choke on his own breath.
"Tomorrow night? Tomorrow night, I'm ... " He licked his lips. Nights were reserved for him and Rosey, time for himself to be himself. Time to be an animal. In the good way. It was almost a full moon and he had promised to take Rosemary out to a nearby field where they could just run and run and do whatever crazy shit that she came up with. "I'm hanging with my sister." Vague enough. He mentioned Rosemary here and there but he had kept mum about their past and actually a lot of things but Charlie had never pressed. Respectfully he had never asked much about her own past. But he did wonder.
"Why?" He asked slowly, turning his head slightly toward her. "Are you doing anything tomorrow night?"