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Kira had a mini beef with Mary and Riri's kid. Nothing malicious, just a very fun, light-hearted, and extremely entertaining rivalry between an aunt, and her niece. Anyone who saw the way Kira doted on Aly — or Alyona, her full first name — as a baby, wouldn't believe that they would ended up having such a rivalry, and yet somehow they did. In a way it made sense, despite looking very much like Riri, except with caramel skin, Alyona did have Mary's personality.
Kira was the super helpful throughout the pregnancy, partly because it was her sister carrying the child — although , it's pretty fair to assume she'd have done the same for Mary — but also because she was really excited to have a niece. She would go dress shopping for the baby constantly, with or without the parents. She helped prepare the nursery, and actually helped not just supervise, the way she usually does for things that involve manual labor. Her and Yumeko even stayed over at Mary and Riri's house the entire month leading up to the baby's due date, just in case any help was required. She had the car packed and ready to go, getting them to the hospital at record time when Riri went into the labor. Kira doting went up a couple of notches after the baby was born, always willing to hold her, and look after her, something both Mary and Riri were very grateful for. Aly as a baby also loved Kira, giggling and yelling excitedly whenever Kira came over, they were literally inseparable, and in many ways they still are, just with a different relationship dynamic.
The beef itself started a couple of days after Aly's third birthday. She was drawing in her notepad, that Runa had gotten her. Mary, Riri, and Kira were sat in the living room having a discussion, when Aly stood up to show Kira what she had been working on, a portrait of all three of them. They had gone out partying the previous night, and hadn't been awake that long. Dori and Runa had babysat the night before, and the most of the morning while all four of them got some rest, Yumeko was still resting. Safe to say they weren't looking their most glamorous selves, an observation that was evident in Aly's drawing, except that observation only applied to Kira. Aly had drawn both her moms and her aunt, but only Kira was depicted with bed head, and the tell tale signs of an eventful evening. Kira noticed, and when she asked her sweet precious niece why that was so, Aly replied, "Momma n mummy beautiful, you messy hair".
"But momma and mummy also have messy hair, especially mummy." Kira countered.
"Nooooo." Aly replied, drawing out the word.
"Yeeeeeesssss."
"Nooooooo."
This back and forth went on for a bit, while Mary and Riri tried hard to hide their laughter at the situation — well Riri did, Mary was barely trying. Eventually the back and forth ended, Aly went to eat lunch, and Kira stayed slightly peeved at being messy hair, a name that she wouldn't shake for a while. Aly took to calling Kira messy hair after that, cackling and giggling whenever she did because she knew it irked Kira a little.
The next installment in their rivalry, started when Aly started coloring. Aly — who's four now — had been gifted two dozen coloring books by her grandmothers — Lena and Kara — who had decided to encourage the activity that Aly really enjoyed, an activity that Kira enjoyed as well. Whenever Kira was around, and Aly was coloring, Kira would sometimes join her. Aly didn't mind, she never acknowledged Kira, but didn't object to it either. She would however, go over to the side of the page Kira was coloring, and color a few places. Kira wouldn't mind that, if Aly wasn't coloring outside the lines, and with "unrealistic colors for the picture that was on the page". It happened constantly, Kira would join Aly to color, Aly would giggle, take her coloring pen, and color outside the line on Kira's page. It was incredibly funny to watch Kira's reaction every time it happened, the unbelieving look that would plaster itself on her face every single time. On one particular occasion, Kira couldn't take it anymore, so instead of just ignoring it and erasing the coloring Aly had done, Kira spoke up.
"Aly, Malyshka, how about we stay on our own pages" Kira spoke softly.
"But it's my book." Aly replied.
"She's right. It is her book." Mary added from the kitchen, behind where they were seated.
"You're biased, your opinion doesn't count." Kira shot back. Aly took the opportunity of Kira turning to talk to Mary, to color on Kira's page even more. "Hey!" Kira half yelled, drawing a high pitch scream and giggle from Aly.
"Riri, tell your kid to behave." Kira demanded as Riri entered the room.
"Solnyshko, what are you doing to your aunt Kira?" Riri cooed as Aly ran laughing towards her, away from Kira, and wrapping her in a big hug.
"Nothing mama." Aly replied from where she was hiding behind Riri.
"She said she did nothing Kira."
"And you're just gonna believe her?"
"Yes." Riri smirked.
"Whole house full of betrayers." Kira scoffed, as she flopped down on the couch.
The coloring situation was solved by buying Kira her own coloring books, which Lena and Kara were more than happy to do. It didn't do anything to stop the beef between aunt and niece though.
Aly — five years old now — was about to head out for a play date, she strode out with Riri to the living room, where Kira was sat chatting about something with Mary and Runa.
"Y'all ready to go?" Mary asked Riri, drawing Kira and Runa's attention to the mother daughter duo standing in front of them.
"Yeah. Someone's very excited." Riri smiled, looking down at Aly who was practically vibrating with excitement. "Say hi to your aunt's before we go."
"Hi auntie Runa" Aly waved.
"Hi baby." Runa waved back.
"Hi auntie messy head." Aly snickered and then laughed as she waved at Kira.
"I'm begging you, don't bring this back." Kira replied, exhausted. "I'm telling, I'm going through something right now, so please don't call me that, and don't bring it back."
At that, Riri picked Aly up and they exited the room, but not before Aly said "ba-bye mummy, auntie Runa, auntie messy head."
"Mary." Kira glared at Mary, as Aly and Riri giggled and left the house.
"Don't look at me, I'm not part of your beef with a five year old."
"Auntie Kira, what are you doing here?" Aly — six years old — asked exasperatedly, as she saw Kira standing in the kitchen talking to her moms.
"Aly, do you have my money?" Kira asked her niece. Aly didn't reply, instead rolling her eyes and sighing. "Then we have nothing to talk about."
"Since when does my daughter owe you money?" Mary asked very surprised.
"Don't worry about that, it's between me and her."
Their next battle was over goldfish crackers, a snack that both Kira and Aly were obsessed with. They kept enough stacked in the house, but not ready available because Aly would simply eat them all, there needed to be some regulation. It worked, Aly was moderate in how much she ate because she had to savour them, unfortunately though, that also meant whenever Kira came over — which was quite a bit — Kira would finish or considerably reduce the goldfish crackers that were in the kitchen. Usually, they swapped in a new box before Aly would ask for them, but sometimes they wouldn't do it in time. Aly knew who the culprit was. Aly would beg her moms to hide the goldfish crackers, so auntie Kira wouldn't eat them. She would also groan and complain whenever she returned from School and saw Kira in the house. The seven year old, knew Kira being in the house meant that her goldfish crackers were being eaten.
One day, both Riri and Mary were going to pick up Aly from school. Kira decided to tag along, because why not, so they got into the car and headed to school. Aly rushed out, huge smile on her face, excited to see her moms. "Hey sweetheart" Mary and Riri cooed as Aly ran and gave both of them a big hug at the same time, which they reciprocated. Once the hug was done, she stepped back and her smile immediately fell when she saw Kira standing behind her moms.
"Auntie Kira" Aly groaned.
"That's fair." Kira shrugged, knowing why Aly groaned, and knowing that Aly was hundred percent justified.
The rivalry would eventually come to an end, a couple of weeks before Aly's ninth birthday. A truce called on the day that Yumeko gave birth to her and Kira's second child, Nadia. It was a little surprising, the beef had survived Mary's pregnancy with and the birth of Aly's baby brother, Archie — he was Mary's twin, but with Riri's personality. The beef also survived, Kira's pregnancy, and the birth of Ao — Yumeko and Kira's son and first child. It survived Yumeko's pregnancy with Nadia, but on the day she was born, a truce was called.
As soon as Aly saw baby Nadia in Yumeko's arms, she cooed and said, "She has beautiful eyes, like auntie Kira's". The entire room burst out in awwwns. With grandma Lena and Kara immediately agreeing, as they had made the point earlier before Mary, the kids, and her parents had arrived at the hospital.
A little while after making that comment, Aly walked over to Kira who has just finished speaking with a nurse, and stretched out her hand, "Truce?" She offered.
Kira smiled, chuckled, shook her head, and accepted the handshake. "Truce."
Just like that, the rivalry ended, after over six years, it was done.