Loving and Learning

Blooming Buds

Dante, Dylan, and Deepak were still at the park with Elvira and her adopted cat sister Deidra. Deidra was laying down curled up against Elvira while the pups continued to talk.

"So Dylan can I ask why you have a space helmet on your head?" Elvira asked.

Dylan felt a little unsure on whether or not he should answer with Deidra there but a look from Dante told he should be honest.

"Well you see the truth is.....I'm allergic to cats, I couldn't come without it." Dylan explained.

He looked down and noticed Deidra looking away with her ears lowered, looking ashamed.

"Hey hey it's ok, it's not your fault or anything, nothing that can be helped." Dylan tried to reassure.

Deidra looked up at him, looking unsure but trying to take his word for it.

"Besides I love wearing this. It's my dream to go to space. I got tons of space collections like documentaries, books, and rocks." Dylan started listing.

Deidra perked her ears up at the mentioned of rocks. Dylan noticed she was looking at him intently with sudden great interest and he just stared back, confused.

"You..."

Everyone perked their ears as Deidra attempted to speak. Deepak was staring with anticipation.

"Y-You collect....rocks?" Deidra asked shyly and softly.

Dylan was pretty surprised that she was taking an interest, much less talking. Usually most would be bored to listen about anything he had to say, but he had this cat's full attention. He looked over and saw Deepak practically grinning and acting like an excited fanboy.

He looked back at Deidra.

"Y-Yeah I collect moon rocks, gotta lot of them back at home. You like rocks?" Dylan asked.

Deidra nodded with Elvira smiling as she watched.

"She's got a lot at home. She's always collecting them and placing them in the yard to make it look pretty. She really loves rocks." Elvira said.

Dylan smiled a bit.

"That's pretty cool Deidra." He said.

From the side, Dante was looking on and felt relief that things were going smooth so far. Elvira walked up and laid next to him.

"Thanks for doing this Dante, your brothers are so nice. I'll admit I was worried." Elvira said.

"Yeah no big deal." Dante said.

To him as long as Deidra was occupied with Deepak and Dylan then things were fine, his concern for right now was ensuring he kept himself calm and not focus on making predictions. Although he had been doing better as of late, this meeting with Deidra felt stressful to him with knowing how skittish she was and he didn't want to mess it up.

But with usually how he was with little kids even his own little siblings, it felt like a lot of pressure, and for whatever reason it felt more so with Elvira watching as well.

Regardless the temptation to survey the park for any possible disasters was upon him. He could hear Dantastico's laughter in his head.

" Hahaha, it may be peaceful now but don't get comfortable, disaster loves to show up when you least expect it."

Dante turned his head, feeling a strong urge to look around. He looked over on the side and saw in the distance a family doing a barbecue. He noticed a man by the grill and saw him using a lighter to fire up the grill.