Somedays the company made the meal worth it.

"Cafeteria food is cafeteria food. No matter how you look at it."

There were steaming bowls of noodles and white sauce on the side, smaller bowls of sliiiiighty over cooked broccoli, breadsticks and cheese.

"I just figured that we pay enough for it... shouldn't there be some meat at least?"

"I think there is meat." The purple haired girl who shot spikes from her fists brought over a bowl of red sauce from the serving window and set the bowl down. The people already at the table leaned in close to inspect the bowl. Yeah... it could be meat... or it could be ground up gym mat.

Everybody was thinking it. Nobody said it.

"Well, whatever doesn't kill us will only make us stronger, right?" Lori started in on the noodles from her usual seat halfway down the table. Once she had enough on her plate she passed the bowl on. This was how family dinners usually went. All the residents of the Sanctuary were encouraged to attend, especially Order members, but schedules didn't always allow for everyone to find a seat around the table at the same time.

Today, Lori was expecting someone new to show up. Jupiter had only told her that Lori would know him when she saw him. Also, he came with a tail.

Aurion's tail throbbed with a dull ache as he made his way along the hallway ceilings towards the cafeteria. He swallowed as his mind imagined all the people that could possibly, would probably, be in the dining area. He couldn't repress the shiver that went down his spine and caused his tail to slap hard against the wall, again. Jupiter had suggested that he join the others for the family dinner. Needless to say, he was nervous.

One nice thing about his mutation, unless he was outside, and it was cold, he didn't need to worry about clothes. That aside, he did try to make himself look better. He spent quite a bit of time, making sure there was nothing sticking to his scales and any that were ready to fall off, he got rid of. He even tried to do something with the 'beard' he had, though it wasn't much considering how scraggly and thin it was to begin with. On top of all that, his tail decided today was a good day to hit everything and get itself caught in his door on the way out.

When he finally saw the cafeteria he shook his head vigorously, cracked his knuckles and forcibly held his tail relatively straight behind him.

His entrance was a bit hard to miss, and he caught more than a few eyes looking his way. Each pair of eyes he saw, he looked at for just a moment and gave a slight movement of his head towards them and a small flick of the tail. Aurion could feel the butterflies in his stomach and really hoped Jupiter would be here. Even if Red wasn't very close by, just knowing he was in the room would make Aurion feel much better.

Spaghetti was, inevitably, messy food. Lori did not like messy food. She passed on all the sauces which left her with a lot of carbohydrates and some broccoli. She was just planning her best route of attack when a slight lull in the conversation about sasquatch caught her attention. It was a pointed lull. As if everyone were looking at...

"Oh. Hey. You hungry?" The moment Lori got back to the Sanctuary she preferred to ditch her high powered business suits in favor of something more comfortable and casual. Today, she was wearing a simple white shirt with a black star on it and jeans. She didn't look like the leader of the Order or the administrator of the Sanctuary. She looked just like anybody else around the table.

Lori tried stabbing her noodles, but they all came in one clump. She had to resort to cutting them. "There's plenty." And she might actually have to poke her nose in the affairs of the kitchen to make sure they didn't have to suffer this again. That was one of the perks of the administration coming to dinner.

"Oh. Hey. You hungry? There's plenty."

The voice cut through what little conversation was going on and caught Aurion's attention. He looked around for the speaker and saw a blond woman looking his way. At least he was sure she was looking at him, but it took a quick glance around to confirm it. How many other people would be 'walking' on the ceiling like he was? Taking the woman's voice as an invitation he moved closer to where she sat. Finding an open spot below him, he gripped the ceiling with one hand and his tail, just below the fin, with his other and swung himself down.

"Little hungry." He said in a somewhat small voice, softer than normal. "I wait, everyone food first." Aurion tried to smile, but his tongue flicked between his teeth without checking in with him. It happened sometimes when he was a bit uneasy. Aurion was okay with waiting, it would let his nervousness calm down, and if he felt up to eating, he could use the bows the food came in since he had issues using utensils.

Still holding his tail, Aurion looked around again before looking at the woman. "Lot people. It different from use to." He spoke slower than he normally would, but he was trying to be clear. "Didn't know so many live here."

She addressed him like she would anybody else on the street. (Well, maybe a little more kindly for the fact that he seemed nervous.) The mutant responded in kind by taking a seat next to Lori. The table talk was a little tense for all the tongue flicking and stunted speech.

Well that was classically tragic. Did he speak that way because people expected him to? Or did he speak that way as a result of his appearance resulting in a stunted development? These were not the questions one asked upon a first meeting. Especially if she was to set a good example for the equal treatment of Sanctuary residents. For the most part, everyone was very good about that kind of thing, but it wasn't every day when someone sat at the dinner table who looked so wholly inhuman.

"Yeah. It takes a little getting used to all the people around here." Jack, the pumpkin headed man took his seat at the table with casual air and Lori was grateful for another less human looking mutant to show up and remind everyone that - yeah, they were used to this kind of thing. What was one more?

"So what has everyone been up to lately?" The noodles continued to make their rounds followed by the sauce.

"I think," A boy with very yellow hair began almost timidly, "I want to be an astronaut."

"Are they still doing that?"

"I bet Abyss could throw you to the moon."

And just like that, the conversation around the table found its swing again. Lori offered a small smile to the mutant next to her and his tail. No prob.

Aurion was a bit surprised to see a walking, talking pumpkin sit at the table. He nodded and smiled a bit to the guy. It was reassuring that he wasn't the only inhuman one around. Not wanting to be rude, he didn't say anything, but he really wanted to know what it was like having a pumpkin for a head. For instance, would it grow back if some of it broke off? Was it edible? Could he take it off his head and be a headless horseman if he wanted to? The questions were silly, so he stayed silent, but his head tilted to the side while looking at the guy, obvious he was curious.

He listened to the conversations that sprang up around the table until the pasta came back around. It seemed like everyone's plates were full, but before taking any for himself, he held it up. "More anyone?" Everyone seemed good, so Aurion tried to be polite as he held the bowl to himself and used his claws to take somewhat small hand fulls and dropped them into his mouth. Chewing was an issue for him, so he generally swallowed food whole. He didn't bother with sauce because it would just get messy, and he was trying not to put anyone off.

Aurion wasn't really able to answer the woman, he didn't know if what he and Jupiter did was public knowledge in the Sanctuary, or if that sort of thing was suppose to stay hush-hush. And besides that, he really hadn't been doing much of anything. "Watching. Learning. Helping." He said a bit timidly. "Use think I only one. Now want try learn bout us."

"If we need more we can always send back for it from the kitchen." Lori pointed to a line of window where, had this been lunch or any other time of day residents would go up and grab individual portions. It was only at dinner when they tried to get everyone together all at once in order to share.

Besides. Seeing him eat out of the bowl like that... it was kind of endearing in a "Can I scratch you behind the ears?" kind of way? Focus, Lori. She went back to eating her own noodles.

> "Watching. Learning. Helping."

Lori nodded and a girl helpfully added "That sounds like a good start."

> "Use think I only one. Now want try learn bout us."

That... took a little more decoding. Hmm. "You had a good time working in conjunction with Jupiter?" She tried to lead him with her questions so that he would only really have to nod if he wanted. "And now you're looking into the kind of life where you're part of a family?"

Ears perked up around the table. Family was a buzz word to the few Order members that were there. Those that were just Sanctuary residents munched on none-the-wiser.

Aurion followed the woman's finger and looked to the windows. It wasn't the first time he had seen them, but since this was the first family dinner he had attended, he didn't know how things were set up. He could feel his mouth water a bit at his thoughts, "Think have plain meatballs? Big meatballs?" He looked up at Lori hopefully. Noodles and other foods were okay. They did the job, but they just weren't as satisfying as meat.

He looked at the girl who had spoken up and smiled as pleasantly as he could, but kept it short. "Thank you." He knew his smile could be a bit creepy due to his numerous long sharp teeth.

"Jup! Red! Yes, he fun. Big tail." He popped a small handful of noodles into his mouth and swallowed. Speaking softly. "Family." He leaned closer to Lori, tilting his head to touch her shoulder lightly. Aurion may not have had a great family when he was younger, especially when his mutation started to emerge, but he knew what they should be. Jupiter had asked if Aurion wanted to follow and help him, how he had trusted in Aurion, came to him when he needed and then made sure he was okay after it was over. He had seen siblings do similar things. If Jup, and probably the other Reds, was like a big brother, than Aurion could definitely believe he was part of a Family in the Sanctuary.

"Home, family. Not had long time, don't want loose." Aurion looked at Lori and smiled wide and genuinely, not caring how he looked, even his eyes smiled a bit.