Mixed reactions??

I am not sure what to make of Ares's reaction to our new kitten, Hypnos. They have met a few times (VERY short sessions). They have eaten with each other and Ares licks Hypnos , but when Hypnos tries to run around and play, Ares starts wrestling and biting (a few times it was rather rough). Because of this, I am keeping the sessions short and giving positive reenforcement when Ares is gentle. But now, when we leave Hypnos, Ares refuses to play with any of his toys and has taken to sitting outside of the closed door meowing/crying. Should I take this behavior as a positive sign? When should I think about letting Hypnos into the rest of the house for short sessions?
I also wanted an opinion on what Keith and I have been doing since Hypnos came home. We have taken turns staying overnight in the closed bedroom, while the other person plays and sleeps with Ares. Keith worries that this might anger Ares, but we spend so little time with Hypnos that I feel its really important to form a bond with him, and Ares always has one person playing and paying attention to him. (Ares appears anytime I head towards the guest bedroom and freaks out if I go in there to play with Hypnos and shut him out.) Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!

If they're licking and eating together, they're already "buddies." Generally a cat will be upset if it sees another cat due to the idea of limited resources, namely food.

Remember, too, that what you see as playing rough is likely just regular roughhousing. For instance, I will play with Juniper and sometimes get my face close to his body, where he *could* strike out and claw my face. Yet even though he may have his claws out a tiny bit on my hand, if he paws at my face his claws are fully retracted. And when he is being rough with me, he'll "bite" me but it's more like he's just putting his teeth on me -- he never actually bites down, or tries to hurt me, even if he does get a little rough sometimes.

If they were actually fighting, you would know! I've got a buddy who introduced a 3mo female kitten to a 3yr male cat, and he did a bad job of introducing them (waited 4 hours, then brought the older cat in to say "hi!" Freakouts ensued). After 2 days, they were playing together and while the older cat was skeptical, there was no fighting. More importantly, the behavior was the same as what you're saying -- they played, but the older cat would eventually pin the kitten and put his mouth on her neck. She would squeak and stop moving, as if saying "you win!" And then they'd get up and be fine around each other.

So they may just be playing rough because they're excited to be around another cat. Make sure the claws are trimmed but otherwise they should be fine.

It sounds as if good progress is being made, I just would not rush things, I think you have a gut feeling when the time is right, two of my cats often playfight and pin each other down and bite at each others neck, but there is never any noise and it does not last for long, when it first happned I found it really hard to tell what was happening. Good luck, hope all goes well.

Thanks! I feel much better about the playfighting thing