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Ken

Kenneth Bloom had awoken to the sound of his daughter panicking downstairs, and gotten dressed to the ambience of her running from room to room as she gathered everything she needed for her pet mimics’ wedding, before he finally headed into his office to search for his glasses.

A wedding for her pet mimics.

Ah, it made him concerned about the state of her mental health— Even more than he usually was!

She’d never been completely put together; but after her second time being admitted to the mental ward in a year, and the new cocktail of medications and mood stabilisers she had been put onto, Ken was wondering if he shouldn’t have done more to take the stress of this preparation off her shoulders.

He had done whatever he was asked to, of course. And had helped Becky with the budget and bought her anything she needed to get this wedding done. He hadn’t hesitated one moment in making sure she had everything she needed!

Of course, Isa had tried to get him to discourage Becky from this expensive venture— Though he couldn’t bring himself to tell her (or Don, with those adorable little red eyes) no…. Instead, he found himself encouraging them to go with the more frivolous options.

Besides, the wedding only came to, what? Fifteen-thousand dollars? His own wedding cost twice that much!

Sure, fifteen-thousand dollars was a bit of a ridiculous amount to spend on a couple of animals getting married (Ken wasn’t that oblivious!) but Mimi and Don were both extremely important to his daughter and he knew that their happiness was directly linked to her own. They kept each other company, and looked after each other…. And Becky was just always so much happier when she had a mimic on her person!

And they were good mimics, at that.

Don was trying his hardest to look after Becky and learn to be a good assistance animal; he had stopped her from harming herself too many times to count and deserved something nice to reward his hard work.

And Ken certainly hadn’t forgotten about the time that Isa said she’d discovered Becky had been contemplating suicide, only for Mimi to stop her from going through with it! After saving his daughter’s life Ken thought that the little beast deserved literally anything and everything it ever wanted. Even if it still thought tripping him over was funny, he was grateful that Mimi was there for Becky.

So of course he had made sure that they received nothing but the best services for their wedding! Even if he knew Isa was going to give him an absolute earful when she eventually, come tax time, saw the receipts for it all.

But that was alright, he thought as he finally found his glasses. It would be worth it to see their daughter so happy.

He hoped so, anyway….

Ken twitched an ear as he heard Becky start back up the stairs, and quickly poked his head out of his office door. ‘Becky— Becky!’ he called as she reached the top and made for her bedroom. ‘Becky, ma bébé! Come and talk with me!’

‘I can’t! I have to get everything ready for the wedding!’ Becky exclaimed, pausing for a moment to readjust her armfuls of things. Mimi ran ahead of her as she did. ‘If I mess up—‘

‘—Becky, ma bébé, don’t be so worried! It’s okay,’ Ken reassured, hurrying to lighten his daughter’s load. ‘Trust me, my love. I have organised a wedding before; the less you run around, the smoother things will go.’

Becky swallowed and, though her shoulders slacked, Ken saw that she was doubtful.

‘If you are worrying too much you will miss things,’ he said. ‘And then when you notice you have, you will panic and miss more. Trust me; I know this from experience. Deep breaths, now. Relax. One thing at a time.’

Becky took a slow breath; copying her father’s breathing as he began walking by her side to her room.

‘Your father’s right, you know!’ Isabel exclaimed, and both Becky and Ken jumped as she stood and, carefully placing the chirplings at Mimi’s side, stepped out of the mimic pen. ‘I remember when he and Barbra got married, and how that all went!’

Ken frowned, at that; but bit his tongue instead of snapping that she’d been kicked out of the wedding. He wanted to see where she was going….

‘When we were teens, she used to always talk about how she wanted a huge wedding!’ Isabel laughed, motioning widely with her hands. ‘She would always go on about a pure white white dress, and a church, and all the hundreds of guests that would be there! Hah!’

‘Ah, yes,’ Ken felt himself echoing Isabel’s laugh. ‘But then when we got married it was at the lake. Still expensive and fancy, of course— But we had less than a hundred people there. And your mother wore baby blue.’

‘Really?’

‘Mhm!’ Isabel nodded. ‘Mother ruined the dress Barbra bought and apparently all Ken had to fix it was blue silk!’

‘She ended up loving that dress even more than before…’ Ken recalled. ‘After that, she always wore blue.’

Becky nodded, slowly. ‘I… remember. Blue was her favourite colour.’

‘Before she met Ken, it was red!’ Isabel chirped. Then she lowered herself down off her toes, and spoke in a surprisingly soft tone; ‘Listen, honey. Sometimes what you want, and what makes the day actually perfect, are very different things. Surprises don’t have to be unpleasant. Do your best. Let things happen how they want to happen. And remember to forgive yourself.’

‘Ah, now I see! You’ve been spending time with Cheeto again!’ Ken scoffed, scrunching his nose up at the thought of the boisterous tabaxi man that Isabel considered a friend. ‘Why would you subject yourself to that?’

‘Because I think he’s charming!’ Isabel defended, much to Becky’s amusement. ‘And he’s a wealth of knowledge!’

‘He’s a catnip stoner who once described the concept of fate to me as “gods rolling dice”!’ Ken argued, before waving a hand dismissively. ‘Ah. Non. It doesn’t matter. What am I saying? I can’t complain; he’s better company than you used to keep!’

Isabel laughed loudly at that, and pet Ken on the back. ‘At least I had company! Unlike someone!’

Ken gave a mock-offended gasp, placing his hand to his chest and flicking his ears straight up.

Then, he spied Becky giggling as she placed her things at her desk and began to flap her arms in joy— Summoning a flurry of magical pink petals that made Ken beam with pride.

He’d made her feel better.

It had been something he had been trying to learn how to do for years, and finally he was figuring it out!

How to make her smile.

How to make her laugh.

Making her happy was all he had ever wanted— And he was finally doing it!

‘Becky! Ken!’ Isa’s voice called from the direction of the kitchen, cutting through Ken’s thoughts. ‘Breakfast!’

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