Ava studies him for a moment, trying to figure out if he’s been serious or not. To her surprise, she finds him to not be joking. He actually wants her to meet his kid. Is that a good idea? She looses herself in her thoughts for a few moments. “Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to intrude,” She says hesitantly. Would the kid take kindly to his father living with a woman who he doesn’t know? Probably not. She doesn’t want to make things awkward.
Kreja woofs quietly when he sees Lily, his tail thumping excitedly against the ground. He hops to his feet and trots over to her.
Cameron grinned warmly at her, flinging a lazy arm over the back of the couch. "Of course I'm serious, Ava. By the time his birthday comes around, we'll be close to best friends, so why the hell not? He'd love to meet someone like you, anyway. Overcriticsl and intelligent. He'd like to chat with you, for certain."
Lily paused and barked softly at him, leaning forward to lick his ears. She continued trotting around before settling back down at the fire with her ball between her paws. She leaned down and picked it up, tossing it up into the air and catching it with a small hop.
“Best friends, huh?” Ava raises a brow at him. “Don’t be too proud of yourself, you’re my only friend,” She points out, teasing him a little. “Well, besides Kreja And Lily, of course.” Looking down at the dogs, she can’t help but smile. “Did you just call me overcritical? I’ll have you know that I’m always optimistic and I’m always a delight to be around,” She tells him with a laugh. “Since you also called me intelligent, I’ll forgive you this time”
Kreja’s entire body wiggles as he happily wags his tail. When Lily ditches him for the ball and the fire place, he huffs a little in defeat. He walks over to the chair and studied his owner for a moment before leaping onto her lap.
Cameron chuckled a bit louder than the others as his mood was elated. "Right, I said in a few weeks. Anything can happen." He sat up a little more, swinging his legs over the couch lip. "Would another apology count as bringing you a drink…?" He suggested slowly, a smile working across his face. "I have beer, and I got more wine. That's it, though."
Lily glanced back behind her, stretching out her legs again when the other dog didn't come back over. She yawned, shaking her head out a little and setting her chin down on her paws, thumping her tail a couple more times.
Ava let’s out a strangled noise in surprise when her dog, who is most definitely not a lap dog, suddenly jumps onto her lap. “Kreja, you ham!” She exclaims, wiggling a little under his deadweight. The dog just doesn’t understand that’s he’s too big to be pulling this crap. “Now you’re speaking my language. I will be gracious enough to accept a beer as an apology,” She tells him with a grin. “Just this once though. Next time I expect you to get on your hands and knees to beg for forgiveness,” She jokes with him. Over these past months she’s become a lot more relaxed and open with him.
Cameron snorted and turned to pluck up Kreja mightily in his powerful arms. He was holding the dog like a teddy bear, hugging him close to his chest.
"I'll take this weight off of you, right Kreja? I can handle you as a lapdog. Perfect size!" He chuckled and turned on his heel, carrying the dog into the kitchen to retrieve a couple beers for himself and Ava. He brought them back and stuck out a hand with one beer in it for her, still holding up Kreja with the inner parts of his arms. He was straining just a bit with the weight.
“Do not manhandle my baby!” Ava exclaims, laughing loudly when she sees what Cameron is doing to her poor dog. Accepting the beer, she snorts in amusement, watching as the Akita starts to fully wake up. This should be interesting.
Kreja is half asleep when Cameron decides to pick him up and haul him around like a sack of potatoes. For a while, he accepts this but then he decides that this may as well be an invitation to play. He reaches out and grabs the human’s hair, pulling on it and growling playfully. It’s hard to keep a good grip on hair so he decides to go for the ear next.
Cameron laughed as he settled on the couch, now that the dog was attatched to his ear.
"Your baby seems to be putting up one hell of a fight! I like that in him," He mused to the dog with a wide smile on his face, pulling away from Kreja's grip. "Oi, let me drink my beer, okay?" He booped Kreja's nose gently as he cracked open the beer seamlessly with his powerful hands. He kept the dog on his lap, though, hoping the dog didn't totally spaz out now that he was let go and start running all around, taking a jump start off of his crotch. Maybe Cameron didn't plan this well.
“Yeah, he gets that from me,” Ava laughs, delighted when she sees that her little angel is piercing Cameron’s ear. Opening up the beer, she takes a few sips. She glances over to her supposed best friend and her dog, eyes going wide when she realizes what’s about to happen. She turns in her seat to face them, now fully invested. “Cameron…..” She starts warning him but it’s too late.
Kreja tugs at the human’s ear, wiggling around like crazy as he demands to be put down. The very second that he’s released, he launches himself off of Cameron’s lap and starts to race around the room. He’s completely wound up. The dog leaps from furniture to furniture, barking excitedly.
Cameron had luckily already taken a few gulps of his beer, or it would have been more of a pain in the ass than what Kreja launching off of him was. He let out a small noise of pain, wincing behind his hand before inhaling sharply to watch Kreja wreak havoc in his living room. As along as the dog didn't fall into the fireplace, there wasn't much Cameron was worrying about.
Lily yelped softly when she was scrambled over, and she hared into the kitchen for refuge from the crazy Kreja ruining her comfy time. She had her ball in her mouth and her tail was swaying slowly back and forth as she settled near the stove for some type of warmth.
“Ne! Sjedni!” Ava exclaims, hopping up to her feet. Kreja slides to a stop when he hears the command. Flashing his owner puppy dog eyes, he slinks over. “Kreja, you need to be more careful,” She sighs and shakes his head. She knows that he’s still a pup but he needs to learn how to play nicely. The dog hangs his head and sits down by the chair, looking ashamed of himself. “You okay?” She asks Cameron, wincing a little. That looked like it hurt like hell so she definitely doesn’t envy him.
Cameron watched the dog carefully, sipping at the drink and crossing his legs neatly. "I've had worse, it's okay." He grinned up at her once, setting the empty bottle of beer down on his knee.
"So, what now? I think that would count as a game. And we had a nice chat."
Lily, about a minute after the ruckus died down, came slinking back into the room to settle back down on her warm spot, barking softly in happiness as as she stretched and rubbed herself against the warm carpet.
Ava just shakes her head a little before returning her seat. “That was interesting,” She comments, picking up her beer and taking a sip. “Your idea of a game is really screw up,” She snorts in amusement. “I dunno. What else is there to do besides talk and let the dog run wild?” It’s cold and miserable outside so that means that their options are probably limited to inside. She pulls out her phone and scrolls through it for a moment. She downloaded a few illegal copies of some musicals that she enjoys, her guilty pleasure, but she just doesn’t feel like watching those right now. She turns off the phone and tucks it away.
Cameron shrugged and leaned back against the couch once her phone appeared, yawning widely. "I'm not sure. I might go take a nap with Lily. Right Lily?" Lily perked up at nap and her name, but didn't stand yet. She knew that Cameron could take forever to go upstairs if something held him up.
"But yea, there's not much we can do. It's just a nice, peaceful evening."
Ava thinks for a few more minutes before she comes up with something. It’s a little random but it could prove to be entertaining. Anything is better than trying to go back to reading that book or taking another nap. The sooner the warm weather is back, the better. Well, she might as well see what Cameron thinks of her idea. “Do you want to build a fort with me?”
Cameron's eyebrows raised at her suggestion, and he sat up a bit straighter. "A fort? Hell yeah! I love building forts." He swung his legs off the couch but didn't stand yet. "Where do you want to build it?" He obviously was very avid about building forts. He loved doing it as a kid, and it hadn't gone away since then.
Ava brightens when he agrees to the fort. This is either going to be amazing or a big disaster. Either way, it’ll cure her boredom for a while. “I don’t know,” She shrugs a little. “I’ve never actually built a fort before, it just always looked like fun,” She admits with a sheepish expression. Leave it to her to suggest something this random without having any expirance with it.
"Well, I have made many in my lifetime. The best room to do it is in the bedroom," He said wisely. "With tape, light sheets, and a thick comforter as a carpet. It's wonderful, let's go now." He stood up excitedly, smiling brightly as many memories of making soacious forts came up.
She can't help but laugh when she sees just how excited he is for this. Who would've guessed that he's the master at building forts? Getting up off of the chair, she stretches out for a moment. "I guess I'll follow your lead for this," She tells him with a grin.
"Just go upstairs and grab sheets from the sheet-closet-thing I showed you near the bathroom. Grab two bedsheets, like the thin ones that aren't wrinkled on the edges, and a comforter. Or maybe two, since it's winter. I'm gonna grab some tape. I'll be up in a sec."
Ava nods her head before heading up the stairs. She heads right over to the linen closet and starts to search through it. Pulling out two bedsheets and two comforters, she balances them in her arms before using her foot to close the door back. “Who’s room are we doing this in?” She calls out to Cameron, needing to know where to go.
"Mine!" Cameron called up as he collected the tape and clips he needed, taking two steps to reach his room. As he did that, poor Lily hastily follwed the best she could. She seemed to enjoy the excitement of her master as he pushed into his room, leading in to the rather clean space.
Ava awkwardly shuffles into the bedroom and dumps the blankets on the bed. “Okay, give me some instructions,” She tells him before glancing around the room. It’s pretty damn clean. Her own room is fairly messy but it’s organized enough so she knows where to find stuff.
Cameron threw the stuff on the bed, where he straightened up his sheets before tugging over a comfy-looking armchair over to the middle empty area of the room.
"Just take one of the sheets and put them over there, on the wall…" And slowly, with Cameron's careful instruction, they had a comfy fort that accompanied the TV, the door, and a large space for them to relax in underneath it. Cameron finished spreading the comforters, brought down his pillows, and plopped them all around.
Ava listens to his instructions carefully and does everything instructed of her. When they’re done, the entire space is filled up. It’s amazing. She steps back and takes everything in. “Damn,” She comments, nodding her head in approval. This is exactly how she imagined it would be and yet somehow better still. “Let’s go inside!” She exclaims excitedly.
"Alright, you first! I'm gonna check if everything's sturdy first. It should be…" He carefully walked the perimeter of the tent, ducking awkward places and clipping places that seem to be a little weak.
Lily proceeded Ava into the tent, where the big girl immediately settled herself in a comfy corner where every pillow seemed to have been thrown in by Cameron in his haste to set the comforter out evenly.
Ava crawls into the fort and looks around. It’s perfect. She steals a pillow from Lily and sets herself up in the second most plush part of the space. Kreja invites himself inside a second later and flops down near Lily with a huff. “You two take up so much room,” She laughs lightly, shaking her head in amusement. She really does love both of those dogs. They bring her so much happiness.
Lily leaned closer to give a kiss to Kreja, thumping her tail lightly on the thick comfy carpet of blankets. She seemed to want her doggy friend to be happy rather than huffy and upset.
Cameron ducked into the tent, glancing around and stealing a pillow from Lily without her noticing and settling down near the armchair he had set up.
"This is great, huh?" He asked, with a wide grin on his face.
Kreja looks over to Lily and barks quietly, his tail starting to wag. He takes the kiss as an invitation to move closer to her so that’s just what he does. Settling down right next to her, he woofs quietly, his tail thumping against the comforter on the floor.
“This really is great,” Ava agrees with a relaxed smile. “You used to make these all of the time, huh? You must’ve been a pretty creative kid.” She comments, looking over to him.
(These dogs are so cuteeee)
Lily barked back softly, leaning forward to kiss him again with more happy thumps of her tail when he scooted closer. She shifted happily and leaned her chin down on him, her eyes flicking up to his face cutely as she relaxed, her tail still thumping heavily against the carpet.
"Yeah, literally all the time. My sisters really liked forts. And being a typical small boy with nothing better to do, I made them forts. I guess creative is a way to describe it?" He asked carefully, shrugging.
