Walden walked into his friend’s home, bouncing Estrella in his arms as he entered. Though she had yet to make a sound, the bouncing was a preemptive strategy to keep her calm. It was going to be Zahi’s first time meeting her, and although if she did cry it wouldn’t phase Walden, he wanted Zahi to be fond of her too. Walden wanted, and thought everyone ought to be, fond of his daughter, because already in his eyes, she could do no wrong.
They were meeting today at Zahi’s residence to look at aesthetic options for gardens of the new property, as well as a few carnivorous and aesthetic options for indoors. While Walden didn’t intend to work much at the Hogsmeade property since that was largely where Daisy would be, he wanted to be prepared in case he needed a simple, low effort clean up option.
Zahi knew of the intent of the meeting prior - he had to in order to properly curate a selection of plants for Walden to look at - but Walden hadn’t notified him that he’d be bringing Estrella along. In all honesty, Walden hadn’t planned on it, but as he prepared to leave, he’d caught a glimpse of Estrella’s big brown eyes and he couldn’t bring himself to leave without her.
“Zahi, good to see you again.” Walden held out his free hand to shake Zahi’s. “I don’t believe you’ve had the honour of meeting my daughter yet,” Walden beamed as he looked down at his pride and joy. “This is Estrella.”
Zahi didn’t have many friends who were willing to enter his apartment unbidden, so he would have suspected Walden even if he hadn’t known he was coming. With a stretch, Zahi stood from where he’d been meditating on the balcony and headed back inside. They could look at the variety he had here, then if Walden needed more visuals, they could always stop by Shafiq Manor to see what he’d done around his sister’s home.
He’d been expecting Walden to come alone, so he stopped and blinked a few times at the baby in his friend’s arms. Zahi was not exactly great with kids. He didn’t understand the overall desire some poeple seemed to have for them, and even as a teaching assistant at Koldovstoretz, he’d been somewhat distant in his affirmations.
“I can see that,” he replied. In the time he’d known Walden, kidnapping of children had never been on his agenda. Plus, as small as she was, Zahi assumed she had to be somewhat fresh. He hadn’t realized babies came that small. Still, he took a few steps forward to look at her properly, not wanting to offend his friend. “She’s cute,” he said, not lying but still not understanding the appeal of that cuteness to so many people.