I arrived back at the house to find Elanius sitting on the floor, happily rubbing our dog’s belly.  I’d seen the dog as a stray coming home the other night and decided to bring him back so Ezra could have a friend he could hug freely.  I’d made sure to check and see if he was lost and microchipped before officially adopting him, but once I was sure he didn’t have a home, I told Ezra we were keeping him without leaving room for argument.  He now had been washed, vaccinated, and so on and was delighted with the idea of regular food and a warm bed, plus people petting him.  I was pretty sure he was a golden retriever or lab mix, kind of a larger dog but longer hair and he absolutely loved the attention.

So naturally, having Elanius there to play with him and pet him while we were gone just made him the happiest dog ever and he was thumping his tail against the floor, almost groaning with happiness at the belly rubs.

“I see you’ve met Goose,” I told Elanius.  “Goose, this is El.  Lani.  Elanius.  Depends on who you ask.  El, this is Goose, he’s about four years old according to the vet and we’re not sure if he’s ever had a home before, but he’s living here now and fighting with Ezra over whether Ezra is allowed space for his feet on the bed.”

Elanius laughed.  “Oh, you want to steal the feet space on the bed, do you?”  They asked the dog, rubbing his belly even harder.

Goose’s tail thumped happily against the hardwood floor.

“He is awesome,” they announced fervently.  “Aren’t you a good boy?  Yes you are, you definitely are.”

Goose sat up so he could lick their face, and I left them to that to go into the kitchen and prepare our snacks for the movie.

One of the things I really appreciated about Elanius was that they were cool with either of us.  Unlike Leah or the other people I’d tried dating, they never asked us to switch.  Sometimes they did ask us to translate and provide feedback from the one of us they couldn’t hear, but that felt more like they were just trying to include both of us.  Yes, they were closer to Ezra, but they were still okay with spending an evening hanging out with me, too, and I was glad for that.

We settled down on the couch, our food at hand, but we did have to guard it from Goose, who made his funny goose-honk-sounding bark – where he’d gotten his name – when we wouldn’t give it to him.  He was very into food, probably because he’d spent a while not being sure if he would get it regularly, so we had to make sure he didn’t steal all of it while trying to watch our movie.

Ezra seemed to have fun, too.  He wasn’t as much a fan of the scary movies as I was, but he liked them okay when I was in front because he felt safer that way.  He did complain once about not getting to pet and hug Goose during this, but I figured he’d make up for it later.  Meanwhile Elanius might have told me bits and pieces of the history of scary movies throughout the evening.

I looked over at them at one point, curious.  “How come you have so much random knowledge about stuff?  I feel like you’re the walking, talking encyclopedia sometimes.”

“Eh, more of a randompedia.”  They tossed a few pieces of popcorn into their mouth.  “I just like learning stuff and some of it sticks with me because it’s so random.  Like,” they pointed to the barcode on the bag of chips, “did you know barcodes don’t scan the black part, they scan the white part, but then invert the colors to read it?  Weird, right?  I learned that and remembered it because it seems backwards of what I’d expect.  Or did you know strawberries aren’t berries – scientifically, at least?”

I raised an eyebrow.  “Why do they have berry in the name then?”

“Because.”  They shrugged.  “People have all sorts of names for things that don’t fit, or don’t seem to, but they came from common descriptions or older language variations or whatever.  ‘Bear’ came from calling them brown, because we didn’t want to call them by their true name so we didn’t ‘summon’ them, as it were – summoning bears is bad.  So we called them brown, or bear, instead.  Some crabs aren’t crabs and two-toed and three-toed sloths aren’t related.  Then there’s the whole naming of words that has to do with older generation classism which results in variants nowadays like cow versus beef, sheep versus mutton, and so on.”

“Uh-huh.”  My brows were very furrowed now.  “So nothing is related and names mean nothing?”

“Well, no.”  They reached over to give Goose a hug when he climbed up on the couch between us.  “It’s just – names can come from anywhere.  Sometimes it’s really interesting to learn where names came from, whether it’s native languages, an older language variation that turned it into something entirely different, or just common use which changes the meaning, too.  I find that stuff interesting.”

It is interesting, Ezra enthused.  It’s all this information about how things worked together!  I found that cool when I was studying history and realizing where the literature stuff we were reading for English fit in.  Like why some people wrote certain things or made certain people appear kinder than they actually were, because at that time that was the reigning family and they couldn’t speak poorly of the king or queen’s family without risking getting in serious trouble, so instead they made their ancestors appear to deserve the throne.  There’s all sorts of interesting ways things tie together and I enjoy learning about them.

I shook my head a little, amused, as I relayed this to Elanius.  This was why Ezra and Elanius were best friends.  They were nerds who loved random information.  I kept thinking I’d wake up one day to find that Ezra really had created a pinmap with lines connecting all the different historical events to works of literature and specific words/language changes and so on.  I knew he’d love to do something like that, but our townhouse honestly didn’t have the space for it.  Maybe one day.  We were saving up to buy a house eventually, and maybe he could have a room there where he could nerd out to his heart’s content.

I could kind of tell Elanius wanted to talk more language stuff with Ezra, but they were nice enough to change the subject to something I could enjoy, too, so instead we discussed dogs – well, one in particular – and if we planned to take Goose to training classes and so on.  I hadn’t thought about training classes for the dog, but Ezra already had searched online for local places, though he hadn’t signed up for one yet because he wanted to talk to me about it.

“You need to go to this one place.”  Elanius looked up something on their phone, then sent Ezra and me a group text.  “My parents got a dog from the shelter that was supposedly no good at training and had been in the shelter forever because of its behavioral issues, but they took it to that lady and she was able to ‘work wonders’ with it, as my dad says.  I’m not sure if she’s a supernatural, maybe a fairy?  I got the impression it might be more than simple training, but I never really asked because I was too busy petting the dog.”  They got a kind of guilty expression.  “But, uh, yeah, she’s supposed to be really good.  Probably more expensive, but worth it.”

I eyed Goose.  “That might be good, then.  We’ve seen some hints of food aggression and I don’t want him to get too snappy with us if we happen to try to reach for something near his food.  I get why, given his background, but I’d like to work with him to make sure he understands that he doesn’t get to bite us if we happen to be near him during food time.”

Elanius nodded.  “Yeah, stuff like that.  And even just being good while walking – have you taken him out yet and seen how he responds to being on leash or when he encounters other people or dogs?”  When I shook my head, feeling suddenly like maybe I was already being a bad pet parent, they just shrugged a bit.  “It’s probably not a priority when you’re trying to get him to get to a healthy weight and get rid of any parasites and stuff, and you do have that backyard for him to go in, but you’ll probably want to take him on regular walks and keep a schedule for him as much as possible.  The trainer can talk you through that, but dogs usually thrive on a schedule.”

I proceeded to try to get as much information from them about keeping a dog as possible.  I’d been thinking about it for a while now for Ezra’s sake, but to be honest, I hadn’t done the research I probably should have because I assumed it was pretty straightforward – feed them, give them water, and give them a place to go to the bathroom.  Apparently there was more involved than just that.  Ezra, being the responsible being that he was, had been the one to go get toys – something I’d completely forgotten about – and a dog crate, explaining that the dog actually would like someplace that was “den-like” and theirs, although I wasn’t so convinced about that since Goose kept trying to steal the bed.  Still, I had decided we were taking this dog in, so I wanted to make sure I was doing everything to take good care of him, too, and not just leaving it all up to Ezra.  The plan was to help Ezra not feel so lonely, not add to his responsibilities.  Well, not without sharing them, at least.

Eventually we talked dogs enough and Elanius was starting to yawn, so I saw them off – they were at least catching a bus and not driving – then checked my phone to see a message from the club owner thanking me for letting him know what happened with Brandon.

I flopped down on the couch and gladly started giving Goose ear rubs when he moved closer.

Sorry about not discussing the whole getting-a-dog thing with you before I just went and found one, I remarked, feeling a little guilty now that I’d thought about it.  Or doing the research first.  I, uh, didn’t realize there would be as much involved.  I knew they have to visit a vet and get shots and stuff but I didn’t think about grooming or taking them on walks or any of that.

It’s okay.  Ezra’s tone was warm.  Happy, but touched.  Thanks for apologizing, but I already knew you were thinking about it, so it wasn’t a huge surprise.  We can figure it out together and even if we’re not perfect pet parents, I don’t think Goose will mind.  He seems pretty forgiving.

I couldn’t help the smirk that flitted onto my face.  Yeah, he was cool with you kicking him all night last night.

I’ll have you know I do not kick in my sleep, he responded frostily, before breaking down and laughing.  Okay, maybe.  I find the blankets kicked off the bed often enough.  I’m surprised he wants to bother sleeping with me when he knows I’ll kick him.

I petted Goose’s head.  “You just want to be near your new people, don’t you,” I murmured.  I appreciated that.  He was willing to accept us being different and while he seemed a bit confused when we switched, he was happy to accept attention from either of us and was pretty chill about it overall.

I decided to take a relaxing soak in the tub before bed, talking over stuff with Ezra as I did.  Obviously nothing deep – it was supposed to be relaxing – more like recent songs that came out or whether we should take a vacation sometime soon.  I suppose to some people, it might be weird that we never had privacy, even with stuff like this, but I was adamant that I just didn’t care.  Ezra wasn’t my brother, he was my alter-ego who just so happened to be male and have his own body.  He was as much me as I was, so why should I care?  I knew he felt the same way, because that was one thing we were pretty much on the same page about.

We were, in a way, someone with split personalities.  The same person, just two personalities within them.  And you didn’t shut out one of your personalities, you embraced them both, because you were stronger with them together.

And we would always be stronger together.