Valdemar was quite pleased with himself, once he had gotten Aya to hold him properly. She might not have known how to do it initially, but she was a quick learner and wasn't afraid to ask if she had gotten the steps right. "Ja, exactly so," he'd said each time until she had him gently but firmly, petting him around the neck. So nice! Now the situation only needed to be explained and they could all move on.
...or not.
Human social conventions were still a bit difficult to grasp for the faerie creature (considering they tended to change too damn much), which, coupled with his naturally snarky personality, meant that he often got into trouble with people. Still, he was quite taken aback when Tsuneo paled visibly, looking more hurt and confused than anything else. Whoops. It looked like this man didn't have the right mentality for handling sarcasm; Valdemar had expected a reaction more akin to Takumi's than... whatever this was. He hadn't intended the threat to be taken so seriously; only seriously enough so that the men would take him seriously and follow him back to the bookstore.
That intention had clearly blown up in his face, however. He knew very well that his words could be biting to the point of being hurtful sometimes, but usually that only happened with Julian and then only very rarely. ...Come to think of it, usually he only spoke with that man in the first place. And he had a high tolerance for Valdemar's sass, built up from years of communication.
Ugh. Maybe he'd been cooped up inside too long.
Valdemar gave a raised eyebrow (as much as a cat could manage, anyway) as Takumi finally called him out, but before he could say anything, Tsuneo had somewhat diverted his attention by telling him not to use strong language in front of the child. He had to give the man credit; despite being as upset as he was right now, he was still thinking about the girl.
"I am not his enemy," he began to say, but suddenly his audience was no longer the two men. He was looking into the green eyes of the girl. Aw, no, he'd upset her, too? And as a younger child, she was even more prone to misunderstanding sarcasm.
"I was going to give it back," he replied, an injured sort of tone in his voice. "Just, I did not think he was taking me so seriously. That man was not." He turned his head in Takumi's direction and stuck out his tongue before turning back to Aya. "But now he is taking me the most seriously! He is thinking I have threatened him, ja?" His ears lowered a little. "Well. Maybe that is so, but not truthfully! Only if he did not follow me, that would happen. But if he will follow me, then I will take him to the shop and he will get his book and everything will be good, ja? Okay? Understanding now?"
While Valdemar explained himself to the child, the thief nodded vaguely at Tsuneo's affirmation that the cat was talking. "Oh, so it's not a hallucination... Ha ha, that's good..." Despite his words and his smile, he didn't look relieved. In fact, he seemed a bit edgy. "I think I'll just, u-um, take a nap or something while you all sort this out, a-and maybe the cat will have gone away by then... ha ha.."