Livelihood - Kiwi

Everyday, when Tala’s alarm clock was set off, Desejo woke up to go about their day. Tala would rise early, to be able to do everything she wanted and needed to. A big house needed a lot of things to be prepared. Dese would wake up early as well to help her, as best as he could.

As per usual, Kiwi groaned, and tried to convince Dese to not leave their shared bed.

“Stay a bit more...” Kiwi complained, pulling them close again.

“I have a lot of things to do, dear,” Kiwi said and, per usual, gave a kiss on Kiwi’s forehead.

“Take a day off,” Kiwi groaned, but letting Dese go. “I miss you.”

“Just wake up and come work with me,” Dese offered.

“Nooooo...” Kiwi complained, turning his back to Dese. Argument lost, as it was every day.

Dese left the room, allowing Kiwi to sleep for a couple more hours. Kiwi slept until the house was too loud to allow him to sleep more. He sighed, he never would wake up in a good mood. Or at least, it was so rare that only Dese was allowed to see those extremely rare days.

Still morning, he went to the greenhouse. There he would ignore each plant except his little beloved: Kiwi Junior. A small kiwi tree, meager and with the smallest undeveloped kiwi. It was a sad little plant, but that Kiwi would tell anyone that it was the strongest and prettiest kiwi tree around. It was true, in fact. But only because there was no other kiwi tree around. Kiwi Junior was the only one.

Kiwi Junior was his pride and joy. Every day, without fail, Kiwi would spend hours taking care of Kiwi Junior, using all his available magic to make it a little more healthy. Most of all, he would take a lot of time to just talk with Kiwi Junior. They - or more like just Kiwi, as Kiwi Junior was a silent listener - would talk about anything. Kiwi liked to tell his son, as he liked to refer to Kiwi Junior, from time to time, about Dese most of all.

Kiwi could talk about Dese for decades to come and he still would have more things to tell. About how amazing, and great and perfect Dese was. And about each little quirky they had. And, of course, about how much Kiwi loved them.

He would stay with Kiwi Junior until past lunch time. He wasn’t a big fan of food, not at all. Food was gross and he didn’t want to partake in anything relating to it. Dese enjoyed food, and Kiwi loved them enough to accept that. But Kiwi still would stay far away from the kitchen and Dese until food was gone.

Once everyone was fed and there would be no more food around, Dese would come after Kiwi.

“How’s Junior?” Dese would usually ask, looking fondly to Kiwi.

“He is doing great. He is so strong!” Kiwi would say, or something of that matter. One time he found a caterpillar on one of Kiwi Junior’s leaves. Kiwi would deny it for the rest of his life and then some more, but he cried a bit at it, feeling so useless and wrong. Just imagine, a paralogos that couldn’t keep their focus word safe!

Of course, when bad things happened to Kiwi Junior, Dese would stay a bit longer with Kiwi, making sure he was alright, and making sure he knew it wasn’t his own fault.

On good days, Kiwi would tell something nice he talked about with Kiwi Junior, as they walked away from the greenhouse. They would go to the library. Dese would pick a book for Kiwi and Kiwi would pick a book for Dese. They would then sit down in some pillows, and cuddle as they read.

From time to time, when they found something worthwhile, they would share snippets of their books. Both good and bad snippets, especially anything that sounded absurd. And the two then would try to stiff their laughter to not disturb the other readers. Whoever laughed loudly first would lose their little game.

Once they were finished with their book, Dese’s always bigger than Kiwi’s book, as they were a faster reader than Kiwi, the two would go to another room and talk about their books. They would tell about the plot, the characters, the things they liked, the things they hated. Anyone listening would know everything that mattered about their books and even a bit more.

They would talk until they were tired. Dese would kiis Kiwi’s forehead and take him back to their room, lay him down in their bed and let him sleep. Dese would cuddle him for a bit, just enough for Kiwi to sleep soundly, and then Dese would leave, to keep going at their day.