This is stupid // OxO // Closed

"Take as much time as you need, Cas. Remember how I taught you how each letter could be sounded out."

Cas nodded again, tracing the letters with his finger. "S… O… is this one your name?"

A small smile tugged at his lips as he watched him. "Yes, yes it is…"

Cas grinned and moved on to the next word. He was silent for a few seconds to decipher it. "And… this one's my name?"

The feeling of excitement filled him. "Yes! Yes, Cas."

Cas picked up the letter 'C' and tentatively stuck the corner of it into his mouth as he turned to the next word.

Sorin tilted his head and gave him a questioning look, but didn't say anything. He only watched him.

"T… R…" Cas ran his fingers over the letters, still nibbling on the card. "E… E…" He was quiet for a moment. "Tr… tree…?"

"Yes. Keep going," His voice trembled slightly with elation.

Cas struggled with the next word, which was 'porch'. "…Pork?" He guessed quietly.

Sorin shook his head and pointed to the last two letters. "These are pronounced the other way."

Cas traced the 'C' and 'H' again. "Ch… Pork ch… um…" He kept the card in his mouth, tapping his hand on the ground. "…porch?"

"Correct," He smiled broadly and shifted a bit closer to him.

Cas kept going, occasionally struggling, but seeming to learn. He was getting particularly frustrated with the word 'giraffe'.

"Okay, try breaking down the words, alright? I'm going to give you a small hint by saying that this,– he pointed to the word–"is an animal."

Cas whined, trying to push the cards closer together to hopefully make them make more sense to him. "I… I-I don't know…"

"It's okay, it's okay," his hand hovered over the word. "Remember that there are certain letters that stay silent."

Cas whimpered again, his eyes fixed on the word. He just couldn't make sense of it. He glanced over at Sorin, trembling slightly.

Sorin gave him a sympathetic look and went over to him. He wrapped his arms around Cas and kissed his temple lightly. "Hey, it's okay." He pointed to the words again. "That word, is giraffe."

Cas nodded weakly, leaning into Sorin's arms. "It's hard…"

"Yeah, I know," He stroked his cheek gently. "But try. Answer the ones that you can and leave the hard ones to go over later."

He nodded again and hesitantly continued, leaving a couple of the words he didn't understand.

Sorin set the cards Cas already read aside and pulled the difficult ones toward him. "Alright, let's start with this one," he pointed to the word 'elephant' .

Cas whined, staying right up against Sorin with the card still in his mouth. "I dunno…"

He split the word into three parts: 'ele', 'ph' and 'ant'. He straightened up and pointed to the first set. "Can you pronounce these for me?"

"Eel?" Cas placed his hand on the letters, turning his ears back.

He shook his head. "No, not exactly. But close…"

"Elly?" Cas picked the card up. "Ele?"

Sorin nodded and pointed to the second set. "Now, this one?"

"P…. ph…?" Cas slowly lay down the card he was holding.