"How long will you keep it?" they ask, almost in a slow manner.

"You will?" Kiaane says, the question almost as if a statement, but there was enough distinction to tell that it likely wasn't intended to be one.
The cricket Is Not Leaving (TM).

They turn away. Again, it's not really the kind of turning away Martin might be more used to, probably when older mages look away from him to ignore him. Kiaane's turn is more of a distracted sort, yet somehow also more vivid and mysterious at the same time.
"I see."
Why would they ask? Is it because it was their stick? Perhaps, perhaps not.

The "cricked" is nonexistent. The cricket though? It chillin'.

The cricket thinks it will, but it's not sure.
"Crickets consume apples," Kiaane states, also probably not sure whether the cricket will like apples or not.

"Then you consume apples as well," Kiaane says, really not with any other suitable response they could give.

"You intend to eat your apple first before feeding the cricket?" they ask slowly.

He said "later", which is confusing, but sure. Kiaane's not visible at the moment to Martin for giving a visible response.

If Kiaane could see Martin in his current happy state, they would've been happy as well. But they can't and there's no way to say how they feel at the moment. Anyways, they just filled in a gap between books and are pushing a row of books into more vertical positions.

Kiaane actually wouldn't mind much if he were more talkative or noisy, though they would somewhat mind if he caused trouble. In any case, the mage is going for perfectly vertical positions for every book, it seems.

The spines of the books from the outside also all need to be in the same depth of the bookcase in comparison to each other. But, from Martin's view from the other side, he can't really see that.

Well then, now he can see Kiaane, who's knelt down on the carpet working on the next row, their wavy hair partly falling over their face.

It's not comparable. Kiaane's hair is...well, it's a specimen by its own right. It's naturally shiny. Blue hair of any shade isn't supposed to be so shiny.

Mage hair? Kiaane has never done anything to their hair that would change it. Anyways, a book just fell off of the shelf. They don't react all that much visibly, just stooping slightly to pick it up.

Kiaane doesn't know. Do they need it? Probably not. But even they wouldn't say no. That's offensive.
"It would be more time-efficient," they finally say after consideration.