How Green Becomes Wood

"She is sweet. We once had a little, tiny black cat," Dark explained, "I am not sure I will ever have a cat I care quite as much for as I cared for her, but Kiki does fit in surprisingly well."

"Ivy is fixated on her, and sometimes we need to pick up one of the two to give Kiki a break," Daizi added.
 
"Oh dear. And you are not worried about the cat hurting Ivy?" Ciara asked, only slightly concerned.

Alec smirked. "Kiki is in more danger from Ivy. She bit her the other day."

"Kiki bit Ivy?" Ciara asked, worried now.

"No. Ivy bit Kiki."

Ciara stared, truly confused now.
 
"Ivy can be a bit of a biter," Daizi admitted, remembering less sweet moments with her daughter.

"From what I understand, Kiki had lightly put her mouth against Ivy, and Ivy learns social cues by imitation," Dark explained, looking down at his toddler, "So, after she had lightly had Kiki's mouth on her, she responded by grabbing Kiki's tail and attempting to bite it back."
 
"She is often confusing." Dark said, lovingly smoothing Ivy's hair with one hand. "And often confused."

"Thankfully, Kiki won't bite unless Ivy is too big of a nuisance, so we just try not to let them around each other unsupervised, so we can distract her if she gets too excited. She also loves Enkidu, but he's bigger than her, and smart enough to be patient." Daizi added.
 
"Enkidu is a brilliant dog," Alec grinned. "He's the best dog I've ever met! I only really knew untrained, untamed dogs before him."

Xander nodded in agreement. "He is a very good dog."

"Have you ever thought of getting a dog? Or any pets?" Alec asked Ciara.

"Oh, no," Ciara said without hesitation. Her first thought was the hair and the mess a pet would bring with it, but she chose to say, "My work life is such that it would not be a good environment for most animals. I believe a fish tank would be acceptable, but I am not particularly fond of fish."
 
"I don't like fish very much either," Daizi admitted, "I'm sure they're lovely if you can see them, but for me they're just a glass box that smells when you open it. I like having pets though, and Enkidu really special to me because I wasn't allowed dogs growing up."

"I never had pets at all until we adopted our first cat, I did not think I would enjoy them," Dark mused.
 
"I cannot remember having a dog, although I believe we did when I was very young. We had a couple of cats, but they tended to come to unfortunate ends or never come home," Ciara said, thinking back.

"Wow. Dark," Alec winced.

"It is life," she said pragmatically.
 
"Yes, it is," Dark agreed, mildly amused by his name being unintentionally used in such a way.

"I'm very glad our cat lived a long time," Daizi sighed, "She lived to nineteen, so she was still alive when I moved back to Egypt for those years, which I really needed."
 
"It's on the longer end, but not old enough to be shocking," Daizi said, "We adopted him when I was four, his name was Mishmish. Honestly, I should've known my fiancé was no good when Mishmish died and we didn't mourn with me. He wasn't mean about it, but he didn't get it, and didn't try particularly hard to do so."
 
"That is too bad," Ciara said, trying not to feel guilty. She had never really mourned a pet. She remembered missing the cats when she was young, but not really mourning them. She had no idea how to respond to someone who was actually mourning a pet, nor did she know how to go about learning how to do something about it.

"Kiki is still basically a baby, though, so I don't have to worry about that for a long time," Alec said firmly. He chose not to think about all the natural things that could befall a pet other than old age. What happened would happen. He would do what he reasonably could to prevent it, and he would face whatever problem came about when it came to that.
 
Hearing the tone in her voice, Dark looked at her with a different sort of expression on his face, but determining what it meant wasn't simple, "He does, at least within his specific areas of expertise."
 
"Indeed. He is very good at what he does," she agreed solemnly. "Alec, how is your work going? I do not remember asking. Have you been doing well under Mr. Walsh's tutelage?"

Alec nodded. "Uncle Tristan is very good at teaching me different techniques and things, and he is always looking for ways to make his shop more eco-friendly without being... What was the word he used... 'gimmicky and trend chasing.' He actually got in a shipment of sheep milk soap, and it's selling like hotcakes!"
 
"It's a pretty new addiction. He's trialing it to see if he can get more people to buy those instead of teddy bears and things like that. I didn't even know sheep milk soaps were a thing," Alec said happily. "I'll see if I can bring one home."
 
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