Another Old Friend (Eros/Michael)

[Eros d'Avonderre]

"Only germ-riddled, and with no sense of personal space," Eros commented. He had visited homes with dogs, but those that weren't confined were mild-tempered creatures who rested at their masters' feet. Having never owned one himself, he had no concept of the training such behavior required, nor of the time it took. "Elouai, you say. Interesting name." And was Dare in charge of everything?

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Dare named her," Michael commented, then guided her to sit with her tail wagging beneath his chair. "She's just a few months old, she'll calm down in a year or two." She wouldn't calm down as much as most other dogs probably would, but Michael barely noticed how hyper she was. Right now, she seemed content to sit there and let him rub her. He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a brush and switched to brushing.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

"A year or two? And you're training her yourself? Or is Dare, since she belongs to him?" Eros knew little about dogs, or animals in general since he had little interest in them. He supposed he might as well converse about them, or this one in specific, until he was presented with another opportunity.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"She's already trained," Michael said, glancing up at Eros. "And actually, since Dare works late, I've done most of it, though he's done a lot, too." They both had worked hard on her to keep her behaved, though she couldn't contain herself when she met someone new. That was just the puppy in her, though. He glanced up and greeted the witch that came in and then refocused his attention on Elouai. "She's house-trained, and we've taught her tricks." Mostly during the few weeks before the big fight at the beginning of the year.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

"Tricks? Like dancing and jumping through hoops and whatnot?" Eros asked. That was diverting. He glanced up at the woman who had entered the shop, then back to Michael. She wasn't nearly interesting enough to hold his attention, especially if she was one of the middle and lower class, which he could tell just by her clothing that she was.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael shook his head, "No, like sitting and shaking hands and rolling over." She would also fetch, but he had found one day that it wasn't good to try that in the store itself. "She's not a circus dog," he pointed out, glancing up at Eros and smiling softly. Elouai abruptly stood and gave herself a thorough shake before trotting to the door to visit the great outdoors for a minute. Michael turned his attention to the woman, to make sure she didn't need anything.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

Eros watched the beast, only the mildest trace of a sneer on his face. "Clearly. If she were, she would be far less tastefully dressed." Not that a metal-studded collar was at all impressive, but it was better than a ruffled collar with bells. Besides, it wouldn't do to insult Michael's pet's dog. Eros consistently referred to Dare as Michael's pet in his mind, as inappropriate as that may be. Michael seemed nearly to worship his little Mudblood, who was obviously in control. More likely it was Michael who was the pet, but Eros refused to think of it that way. Michael was a Pureblood.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael rolled his eyes and then stood to ring up the woman's purchases, then answered a few questions about the half-breed kneazles before thanking the woman. As she left, Elouai ran back in. "At least we're not like some of the people that put their animals in little robes and hats," he said as he sat back down and tried to coax Elouai to sit down again so he could finish brushing her. But she seemed much too excited to sit down again. She had been behaving herself rather well since Eros had arrived, after all.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

Eros eyed the dog warily, and crossed one ankle over the opposite knee. Both hands settled against his calf as a precaution. He'd had more than enough canine molestation to last him a lifetime. "I must agree," he said somewhat absently. "It's terribly kitschy and not at all as charming as those people think. Not to mention the unpleasantness of a dog attempting to remove said robes and hats."

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

Michael smiled and told Elouai to sit, raising an eyebrow when she tilted her head at him. They had a silent staring contest and then she finally sat. He rubbed her ears. "I can only imagine trying to get her into clothes, I think she'd stare us to death or something." He thought of the look she gave Dare whenever he tried to trick her into going after an imaginary ball.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

Eros gave a noncommittal, but politely attentive sound, but was quickly losing interest in the dog. "Is staring a common habit in your home?" he asked mildly. It was rude in most societies, but he supposed that since Michael was so happy living amongst the unwashed masses, it made a sad sort of sense that he might assimilate after so many years. A pity, to be sure.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Staring?" Michael asked, looking up at Eros. Elouai sneaked around and took one of the borrowed toys from a low shelf behind the counter and hunkered down beside Michael's chair to entertain herself. "What do you mean?" Sure, he and Dare looked at each other a lot, but he didn't consider it staring. It was more of...watching, or studying.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

"I mean, not thirty seconds after you and that dog stare one another down, you say she'd stare you to death. Why? Is there something I'm missing?" He didn't for a moment associate staring with any of the pictures he'd seen. Aside from the fact that he'd only really looked at the more interesting ones, he wouldn't call what he'd seen staring at all. Gazing, yes. Silently begging to be shagged up one wall and down the other, oh yes, but not staring.

[Michael Blackwood-Hardt]

"Oh," Michael said, "That. She wasn't doing as she was told, so I kept the eye contact. Kind of like daring her to keep going. And when we do stupid stuff, or try to get her to do something stupid, she stares at us. Like, Dare will pretend to throw a ball but she just stares at him and waits for him to actually throw something." He reached down to ruffle Elouai's ears, which went unnoticed in the face of the sister to the thoroughly chewed rope-toy she had upstairs that she had in her mouth.

[Eros d'Avonderre]

"Hm," Eros hummed. "It makes one wonder where the true intelligence rests." He knew little enough about Michael's pet that with that one comment, the dog sounded smarter. But then, from the pictures, Eros would never guess that the boy's best attributes would belong to the mind. Eros gave no sign as to those thoughts, but kept his habitual bored expression in place. It served him quite well.