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“I thought you said that he wasn’t your dog, Cadence?” Morrigan scratched behind the puppy’s ear, making him snuffle in his sleep.
“He wasn’t,” she said. “I did borrow him, but when I went to give him back, the people didn’t want him back at all. Turns out one of them have a really bad dog allergy? Like for dog hair or whatever, and…” she made an uncharacteristically cutesy face at the dog. “Mum said she always wanted a dog when she was younger, and Gran said I had to replace any furniture he peed on or chewed up out of my own pocket, so, yeah.” She shrugged. “My dog now.”
“Does he have a name yet?” Francis asked, looking away from his knives - he was holding enough now that Morrigan was more than a little afraid, if she was being honest, to stand too close to him - and making his own cutesy face at the dog, “Hello! Aren’t you a good dog? Yes, you are, yes, you are.”
“Not yet,” said Cadence, cutting through his babbling babytalk. “I can’t find one which fits.”
“What’s your dog called, Francis?” Mahir asked. “Lettuce?”
“Asparagus,” he said absentmindedly. “He dunked his beard into some green dye two days after we got him, and I was going through a phase.”
“You’ve got a dog?” Morrigan cocked her head to the side. “You never mentioned it before.”
“Him,” he said. “Yeah, well, my aunt-“ he grimaced and didn’t need to say anymore. Morrigan knew fine well that Hester Fitzwilliam would never tolerate a wundersmith in her house, she only tolerated her in the society because she literally had no other option.
“What if you came out with him?” she asked. “And Cadence with,” she couldn’t help softening her expression, looking at the puppy. “This one.”
“Has he had all his vaccines yet?” Francis asked Cadence.
“Yes,” she said. “Two weeks ago. He threw such a bloody fit about it, you would have thought the vet was going to murder everyone in the room.”
“Asparagus is allergic to the vet’s,” Francis said. “One Christmas, he managed to get into the chocolate mousse, and we had to get him there quickly, and he was so ill, and still whining as soon as he realised where he was going.”
“Brie died from eating chocolate,” Morrigan said. “Camembert died from eating soap suds though.”
“I assume you’re not talking about cheese,” Mahir said.
“My father’s hunting dogs,” she said. “They weren’t very friendly though.” It had been nice that they disliked everyone though, and not just her because she had been a Cursed Child.
“Maybe you should name him after a cheese,” Anah said. She was sitting a little apart from them, studying a chart of something to do with the human body, so zoomed in that Morrigan had no idea what organ it could possibly be.
“Maybe…” she said thoughtfully. “I’ll think about it. Might just call him Dog though, he already answers to it.”
“No!” Francis said as the others all protested beside them. “A real name.”
“Fine,” she rolled her eyes, collecting her dog, and leashing him again. “A real name. Alright. On it. I have to go home anyway, it’s my turn to make dinner.”
“You be a good boy, Asparagus,” he said as they walked up to the group. “Cadence’s puppy is just a baby, you can’t just bound up to it, and expect it to be as strong as you are.”
Asparagus whined a little, turning his head up to him, making his eyes as big as possible.
Francis turned off his heart and just patted him on the head, “Come on, he’ll be big soon. But for today, can we play nice? Yeah? I’ll make those treats tonight if you’re extra good for me and the others today, alright?”
Asparagus, upon hearing the word treat, turned his head towards the group, his nose sniffing. Francis nodded at Cadence, who lowered her puppy to the ground, and took a hold of his leash, either to hide her slightly shaking hands or to just make sure he wasn’t going to do a runner immediately, being slightly pulled forward to Asparagus.
They sniffed around each other in the manner that dogs always did, far too interested in each other’s backsides for any level of sensibility to be involved, and then the puppy did a jump, both feet landing forwards, yipping at Asparagus.
Cadence looked at Francis. Francis looked at Cadence. They nodded, and unclipped the dogs from their leashes, and then they were off, bounding around one another, barking lightly, jumping here and there, and making half leaps towards each other.
“It’s a little like a dance,” Mahir said.
“You think so?” he asked, still staring after Asparagus, whom he was incredibly proud of for behaving so gently towards the puppy. The puppy just then tried to do another jump, but mistimed the landing, its front leg not quite making it, and he rolled to the side.
Cadence made a very high pitched squeak, and Morrigan covered her mouth with her hands, but the little round, brown dog just rolled, getting back up again, still barking happily.
“I think he’s okay,” Francis said to her.
She nodded slightly, “Of course he is.”
“I think I have a name idea for you,” he said, thinking again about the way the puppy had rolled, and its light brown fur, dotted with darker brown patches.
“Oh?” she turned to him. “Alright. Tell me.”
Cadence noticed her dog slowing down, and walked towards him, her leash in hand, though she was a little suspicious that she was going to end up carrying him home again. At least he was still small enough now that she could actually do that. The only person she thought could actually carry a full size dog three and a half miles to her house was probably Thaddea, and she was somewhere up a tree just to prove a point to Hawthorne at the minute.
“Come here,” she said, trying out the name to see if it fit right. “Come on, Potato, there’s a good boy.”