Carolina's light, femanine laugh filled that space with ease, ringing down the hall as she almost struggled for breath in delight at her own prank and the no doubt shocked expression upon Sly's own face. It was rare, in every sense, that anyone managed to prank him quite so well as this. Carolina, after all, had been willing to engage in that prank entirely. Forcing herself to carry that box up several levels of stairs if only to add authenticity to her game. It was...admirable. Even if Sly was unwilling to give her the satisfaction of knowing how impressive her joke truly had been. The warlock, however, was unable to prevent the simper that found his lips all the same. Sly, as always, in possession of a distinctly agreeable nature. Even if it was often hidden behind that viel of sarcasm with which he almost enjoyed viewing the world. Sly's insistence that most boats did not have elevators was only met with more laughter before Carolina so finally managed to query whether or not Sly really thought a man willing to pay for this level of luxury was ever going to condemn himself to walking that amount of stairs every day. Alright. Maybe she had a point. He supposed. Sly's features frowned ever so slightly, his arms folding across his chest in a distinctly childish huff as he regarded his companion- that amusement clear within his gaze all the same.

"Well....maybe you have a point."

That assertion of her victory was nothing short of begrudgingly offered as she further assured him she had surely all but made his day. Sly's own gaze rolled good-naturedly once more, the warlock, instead, quick to insist that, at best, she had evened out his day to a pleasant plateau of interaction. Carolina, for her part, seemed equally willing to accept that apparent award- and make good on her own offer of a drink. After all, it couldn't hurt, could it? Once he'd finished his work. Once that desk was built Carolina wasn't a client after all. He wouldn't be breaking any rules by fraternizing with the customers. She wouldn't technically be a customer by then. Besides, was there anything wrong with having a drink with a woman who appeared to be good company- and just happened to be attractive? Sly's lip quirked upward at the consideration as the pair loaded those boxes into the elevator to be carried back up to the office. Christ but that lift made things easier! What would have taken upwards of ten trips was reduced to one. The unlikely duo effortlessly carried the boxes down the hall and into Tetradore's office until the room was all but filled with that flat pack furniture. Sly, fortunately, having built so many of those desks by now that their construction was all but second nature.

Sly knelt easily down on the office floor then to begin unpacking the first of those boxes, a singular part handed to Carolina to hold as he began to connect the first bracket to the desk base with a practiced, simple ease. If he was lucky that desk would be finished within the hour. It was, however, that present company that seemed to draw the warlock's thoughts then. After all, it was rare that a client stayed to talk to him, much less help him. The Romanian seeing little need to pass up that opportunity to ask further about those Were packs. He had met few Were's in his life, his intrigue in their way of living surely clear. After all, how many people ever got the chance to see inside the Ark? Sly nothing if not curious. Carolina, for her part, seemed wholly willing to indulge him, the woman insisting he 'fire away' as Sly asked after joining Tetradore's pack. Was it like a Frat House? Did she have to complete some kind of hazing? Did she just join? Sly's gaze shifted briefly away from the desk in front of him and toward the slender blonde woman as she twirled a lock hair smoothly about her finger- only to insist she wasn't actually a part of the nightshade pack. Sly's eyes rose in clear surprise, the warlock eyeing his companion curiously as she insisted the offer to join the pack was there and yet- she hadn't taken Tetradore up on it. Hmm. Maybe that need to join a pack wasn't some instinctive....want in a Were. Maybe it was far more a choice then Sly had ever considered. Carolina's soft assurance that, sometimes, you were better off alone, prompted a small, soft sigh from the Romanian.

"Yeah, I do know actually."

He knew perhaps far more than he was willing to admit just how true that sentiment was. Sly, for now, shaking his head softly as if to dismiss those thoughts before reaching to take that piece Carolina still diligently held and add it to the rapidly forming desk in front of him. A soft and yet companionable silence fell over the pair then, Sly wholly content to work, his gaze fixed in concentration upon the last leg of the desk before the scent of something burning seemed to reach his nose.

"Do you smell smoke?"

His features frowned ever so slightly, his gaze shifting to glance over his shoulder and towards Carolina once more- only for his eyes to widen suddenly. Sly abruptly rose to his feet.

"MIHAI!"

That singular word was shouted towards the other side of that office and toward a small and yet distinctly flammable fox that stood on the far side of the room. The entire creature consisted of fire. Its flaming jaws clamped around a piece of cardboard fallen loose from one of those boxes. The cardboard rapidly began to turn to ash beneath the flames that engulfed it. That fox, however, so hardly looked perturbed with its own actions as its ears flattened, eyeing Sly with a look of deviousness.

"Put. It. Down."

The warlock's words were nothing short of clear. The fox, in that moment, was content to continue to eye its master before purposefully dropping what remained of that flaming cardboard- only another empty box. That cardboard, in turn, was equally quick to ignite. The entire box rapidly engulfed in flame and yet- fortunately- that fire seemed wholly content to remain on that box alone as the trio was simply left staring at it. Sly, for his part, hardly seemed perturbed so much as he did annoyed at the fox. The flaming creature easily shook before prancing forward and across that room, its tiny paws bringing no harm to that ship, the floor, or anything else it touched as it trotted almost obediently forward to sit at Sly's feet- its golden eyes turned imploring upward.

"Why are you like this?"

The fox's ears fell backward once more, its head lowering in some false contrition as it turned to eye Carolina then, its lips tugging upward into what almost appeared to be a foxish laugh, its tongue poking between its lips as if Carolina might share in its amusement at having irritated Sly so entirely. That look of bafflement upon the young woman's features however was met with a heavy sigh from the warlock himself.

"That's Mihai. My familiar."

And a stranger familiar there never was.

sly.