Finally he was able to get more of the water down, but he still coughed once or twice while doing it. He tried clearing his throat a few times, but before he took more to drink, he looked at her when she posed her question.
"What... happened?" he repeated, then realized what her broken common was and his eyes widened. "Oh! I.. well, I... embarassingly enough, inhaled some of my food and I-"
And that's when he realized he was speaking too fast and with too many words. Right. She wasn't Serenity. She knew little of common. He paused and tried to say it again, much more simply.
"My food.... I swallowed it bad."
He wasn't sure how else to say it, but he felt somewhat like a child needing to speak to her int his way. Still, he gave her a small smile for it, and a look of relief too to have spotted her own smile from earlier. He supposed the situation was a bit silly.