He does not intend, perhaps, that she should shrink back and away from him as she does in response to the words shouted at her in a petulant, childlike fashion. He is frustrated, angry, unable to fully comprehend the delicate emotional occurrences within the woman- his mind simply does not understand and cannot be made to. Such conflicting emotions and desires are so far outside of his emotional reach that they simply do not exist for him. He thrives upon repetition and routine, has come to understand how Birdie should act as he has learned to anticipate and yet these past few weeks and months have seen the woman he had come to understand and enjoy....shrink and shrivel before him. He cannot perceive her emotional turmoil, understands only that she is not acting as she once did and he cannot fathom why- each emotion within himself fractured and formulated into frustration and......an utter all-consuming anguish that ravages at his insides. He cannot help her, though he wants too, he cannot understand her, though he desires too- the agitation he feels for himself shifted to fixate upon her for at his core he knows nothing else. He has spent so many years alone, a mere child left to survive in a world he cannot fathom, his mind in possession of a single desire to return himself to Tetradore and yet in this time he had struggled to learn how to live, how to exist and perhaps he had. He had become guided by instinct alone, learned to hunt and kill and feed, allowed himself to be more animal then man because it had become easier. Whatever fraction of emotions he had begun to learn as a child, beneath Tetradore and his family had been eventually cast away, the creature clinging to whatever threads of compassion and understanding he may well have learned and yet without guidance, without any true nourishment they had simply ceased to exist.

He cannot understand her. Not truly, her calming words and explanation failing to pierce though his barricade of agitation, arms folding across his chest in stubborn bullheadedness, the young man more than capable of displaying these....less then desirable personality traits when he should so choose, even despite Nadya's efforts to discipline them from him. Her words fail to sooth him, the boy seeming to grow only more agitated as his mind seizes upon the words she offers and attempts to decipher them hurriedly.

"Birdie.....not weak.....Birdie....fights in ring like Tobi and like....Tetra.....not weak."

The woman's palms turned towards him in a submissive state is ignored, the young man seemingly unwilling to accept her apology in this moment, dark eyes watching her from beneath equally dark locks as his own words snap towards her again in this display- Tobias never truly having turned his often volatile temper upon her, until now. Unwilling to take any more of this behaviour he does nto understand. He does not mean, truly, to be cruel, does not desire his words to cut her so deeply as they do and yet he does not understand the effect of them to their full extent. He aims to upset her, surely, yet not to enrage her as he does, aiming to draw a reaction from her, to rile her, upset her yet not to harm her so deeply. Yet- how can he understand what he says when he can barely perceive the words themselves? He is a boy mimicking, aiming to disrupt her with these learned words as he has seen others become riled by them, though in truth he surely hardly desires to distress her as he does. For all his shouting, however, his gaze remains upon her, watching, judging, assessing each line within her form as the girl suddenly stands, pulling herself to her full height in a manner the Beta perceives as a challenge. He is willing to tolerate her own odd nature of late- yet he remains unwilling to permit another to stand above him- ever. Her single action in this moment seeing that leopard gold flare within his gaze as he pulls himself upward now- his own height far superior to her as he stands above her in a manner deliberately.....assertive.

She continues to speak, her words a hiss, the girl continuing to speak before he truly is permitted any chance to offer a retort, dark eyes narrowed upon her as he struggles to understand what she is saying, attempting to decipher each syllable as it is spat potently towards him. He understands some, perhaps, or more so, understands the tone of her words and the anger directed towards him- her words only seeming to irritate him further however, his agitation feeding off her own as she simply continues to shout until he is very near overwhelmed with the words coming to thick and fast for him to understand.

"Shut up!"

He has never before told her such a thing, the words shouted at her as hands knot within the black of his hair, head shaking in some effort to...remove the vibration of her words from within his skull and yet the woman continues on, naming the colours now, one dark eye turned towards her, seeming to fixate upon this single method of explanation. He understands colours, has come to understand how they might mean other things- if even he does not understand the meanings himself, watching her intently now.

"Naddy....and Birdie......not......two."

That his words perhaps make no sense, has not occurred to them, the boy having ceased to yell for the first time as he holds two hands upwards, repeating himself again, the left hand for Birdie, the right hand for Nadya before proceeding to hold them apart, eyes turned back towards her as if he wills her- suddenly to understand, frustration still marking his features.

"Not.....together."

The words are a struggle, a painful one at that, what remains of his mind beneath that agitation and frustration seeking to explain to the woman what he believes to be the truth, that he had been first with one and then the other, but neither at the same time, dark eyes imploring her to understand else to correct him in this. He understands the rules of dating....to an extent, has had them explained and indeed is assured he did not break them. Her question of the kittens seeming to see his head tilt- some measure of calm seeming to have been exacted from her use of colours- distracting his mind from his own rag, at least for now.

"Did not....mean to get.....kittens....I am..........sorry."

He dislikes that word and intensely so, the single and only time he has ever uttered it previously, to Tetradore, having resulted in little more then the other man sinking his teeth into his neck and indeed even now he flinches from it, the memory twisting within what remains of his mind. He has learned indeed that such a word is....painful in more ways then one, his head turned from her as he does, that single word very near forced from him as agitation still seems to hold every line of his form and his broken mind so desperately attempts to understand that which is occurring here and now- so much of her speech lost upon him and his inability to understand. Fingers knot together, mimicking her own uncertain gesture though he seems irritated all the same- this conflict of emotions upon his features surely indicating his own internal conflict as he continues to look away from her now.

"Do not....care what....others say."

His features frown once more, struggling now with these words, this level of understanding a far higher grade then he is normally capable of- the dark haired young man very near sweating with this effort alone. The words however, are entirely true, he does not care what anyone has to say about him in any regard, a perk perhaps, of insanity if ever there was one to have. His mind does not comprehend, not truly, the hushed whispers. They do not bother him and as such he does not believe that they bother her- why should they? He is silent now, unable to understand her own harsh words and the manner to which they are directed towards him, anticipating her reaction, yet not the extent of it- perhaps as he turns away from her entirely. The change that comes over him is unseen, truly, his head turned from her and yet his form seems to shift ever so slightly as arms fold across his chest and his voice seems to....strength, a smooth, deep baritone so rarely heard from the man.

"So why don't you leave us then? You can do and have better. You know you can- Raven."

Us. More then one, that rarely seen other side to the dark haired meaning seeming to make himself now ever so momentarily now in those few single, precious seconds in which his mind seems to align itself to offer this bare and fleeting insight.

madness, as you know, is like gravity: all it takes is a little push