How Green Becomes Wood

"Good job, Mini," Xander praised, setting the cat down. "Well done."

Kiki sat down and started licking her tail vigerously.

"Kitties don't like people grabbing their tails or legs," Alec explained to Ivy. "It feels bad to them. Okay? They don't understand that you're just playing because you're a big girl, and she's a little kitty. Shall we play with her string toy?"
 
Ivy blinked at Alec and didn't really know what to do. It was very confusing because the cat was using her teeth. Sitting there, trying to make sense of these new weird rules, her chin began to tremble just a bit.
 
Alec hesitated, at a loss. What was wrong? Why was she about to cry?

Xander walked over with Kiki's string toy. It was a long string with just a little fluff at one end attached to a wand. He flicked it near Ivy, not touching her.

Kiki froze. Her eyes went wide. Then she went running, chasing after the string. Prey!! She ran a circle around Ivy, her eyes fixed on the string. Then the string flicked upward a few feet in front of Ivy. Kiki jumped three times in a row, almost flipping completely the third time.
 
Just as Ivy's eyes began to fill with tears, brought on by her deep confusion about why what she did wasn't allowed, Xander began to play with Kiki, and the way the black kitten began to jump and nearly flip was more than enough to distract Ivy and make her start to laugh again.
 
Alec let out a quiet sigh of relief. Crisis averted! He still wasn't sure what had gone wrong or how to address it, but at least she wasn't screaming again. This would do until their parents came home.

Xander had Ivy race around Ivy again and again and then headed into the living room where there was a lot more space. There, he let Kiki catch and "kill" her prey, giving her a chance to catch her breath.
 
Ivy giggled and toddled into the living room after Xander and the kitten, liking how silly and fast Kiki was being. When she stopped playing, Ivy watched for a few moments, then decided she wanted to pick up the stick too.
 
Alec and Xander clapped and cheered for her, encouraging her to keep going. The jerking worked just fine for Kiki, and she chased the toy around with all the glee a kitten could have.
 
Ivy laughed, bouncing on her feet and continuing the wave the stick to the best of her ability.

As she was just starting to grow bored with this game, because her attention span was not too terribly long, the front door opened and (true to their promise to only have a few hours away), Dark and Daizi came back inside, touching the salt and removing their shoes and coats.
 
Kiki caught the toy when Ivy was distracted and sank her teeth into it. Hers!

"Look! Mama and Baba are home!" Alec cheered, quickly and carefully taking the wand toy from Ivy so she wouldn't run with Kiki hanging onto the toy.
 
Ivy turned to the door, her eyes widening in delight as she shrieked and hurried to her parents, forgetting absolutely everything else.

"Ivy-Qadira!" Daizi said, crouching down with her arms wide, hearing familiar jingles and foot steps, "Mama missed you so much!"

"Marhaban, tifla," Dark said, his eyes softening to see how delighted his little girl was to see him. Then he looked to his sons, "Thank you for watching her. It was nice to go out."

"Was she good for you?" Daizi asked, giving Ivy the best hug she could.
 
"She was the best," Alec told them, seeing no reason to tell them how long she'd cried when they'd left. "We did need to learn about teeth and tails. There's still some to learn about that. I don't think she quite understands about tails and not grabbing them yet."

Kiki wandered over and rubbed up against Dark and Daizi's legs in greeting, looking up at them. Hello! Welcome back!
 
"Oh no, Hummingbird," Daizi said, trying not to laugh as she rubbed Ivy's back, "Did you try to bite Kiki's tail? What has Mama told Ivy about biting?"

Dark bent down to pet Kiki and Enkidu, seeing this, chuffed and lay down, wagging his tail slowly. Between this tiny human and this tiny cat, he had to be so patient to get his attention. Thankfully, after Dark pet Kiki, he went straight to his long-suffering (by Enkidu's own estimation) dog.
 
Alec snickered. "I think she's confused because Kiki play bit her. She was really soft! No pain or anything, but it was a bite. I didn't know Ivy was tempted to bite back."

Kiki followed Dark and rubbed up against Enkidu happily.
 
"Oh," Daizi laughed, scooping up Ivy, "She learns by watching, so if someone playfully bites her, she thinks it means it's okay to playfully bite back."

Enkidu glanced down at Kiki, but was too pleased to be pet by one of his favourite humans to think too hard about this newcomer.
 
"I have no idea how to explain that difference to her," Alec chuckled. "Sorry, another thing you'll have to deal with, Mama. And Ba, too."

"You should teach her to only bite people who annoy her," Xander said with a smirk.
 
"I think it's just something that's going to take time," Daizi replied, while Ivy shoved her face into the crook of her neck, "She's doing her best, but we'll make sure she doesn't grab Kiki's tail like that."

"You should be careful saying that," Dark told Xander as he rubbed Enkidu's belly, "She may bite you."
 
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