This was his life now. Specifically, sitting in a security office, seventy five percent awake, feeding a young toddler while sipping coffee and staring at monitors was his life now. Honestly, it wasn't the worst, if you ignored the fact that you accidentally dipped the baby spoon in the coffee instead of the little cup again, so there was probably baby food in the coffee, and coffee in the baby food. Saphirus set the coffee to the side and rubbed his eyes, looking to a monitor once more, and then back at Jr.

Jr was covered in food. Had he been that way a second ago? @#$%. After a long sigh, he got to cleaning up... He got so distracted that he didn't notice that someone had been waiting at the door for... a while now. How long? He'd muted the buzzer notification during nap time, and he hadn't checked the front cameras in a bit.

"Aw Crap." Jr. Repeated him, and he looked up to the lord, lamenting his woes for a moment before quickly gathering up the mostly cleaned up baby and heading toward the door. Most of the usual greeters were busy or 12 or something, so he'd taken that up on top of his normal security detail because once you were under water far enough it didn't matter how much more in over your head you ended up.

After another minute, the mansion's front door would open up, and a nearly 40 year old Masochist would peek out, Jr. attached to his chest via papoose. He was sporting a layer of stubble, and his eyes were slightly bloodshot, but there he was. "Eh... Thanks for waitin... Sorry for... How long you been- Hold on." Jr. had grabbed the door handle and was trying to shove it open. The sound of him gently extracting the tiny hands from the handle could be heard, and the door finally opened again.

"Hurry'n get in before he grabs it again." Wait, who was he letting in, anyway?

So this was how it was going to be? She thought silently to herself, arms crossed and foot steadily increasing tempo as irritation trebled over her. Here she was.. waiting to go into a school she didn't want to go to, in a town she didn't want to be in, and a country she could have easily pretended didn't exist. Most of her frustration stemmed from her exile and utter apathy to anything involving structured schooling then any fault Xaviers had with its rather inept greeting party. 

Not for the first time she contemplated just going in through an open window to get the registration portion of their lives over with and she could fall back into her usual habit of sleeping in class or ditching it all together. If it wasn't for being a supportive big sister she could have even skipped the first day. Finally she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly before muttering softly in japanese for her sister perched on her shoulder. "Even for Gaijin this is a bit much isn't it?" Maybe she was just anxious? Stupid schools.

Despite the way she sniffed derisively at schools in general she was perfectly turned out in her old school uniform. She hadn't bothered to read if any uniform was required 'as it was in English' figuring they could provide her one if they didn't like how she dressed.  Her father be damned she was going to look good on her first day. The surprised looks as they made their way to the school was almost worth the aggravation.  

Then FINALLY the door opened and her plastered on super polite smile firmed up just a bit as courtesy demanded and prepared a small bow only to be stopped short by... something. Only to have the mystery solved moments later as the most bedraggled (employed) man she had seen in some time made his appearance. An intense internal sigh let itself out ferociously and stepped quickly inside before the guy suddenly dropped dead and closed the door on them making them wait even longer.


"We here for schoor." She produced in clipped heavily accented English that hinted (wrongly) at a poor grasp of spoken English. Giving a tiny bow in conjunction with her words. With any luck they would give her easier classes if they thought she could barely understand anyone. Plus kid or no kid she felt a small desire to give the guy a hard time for making her wait for something she didn't even want to do.   

In comparison to her sister, Hiyori was buzzing with excitement. SCHOOL! A glimpse of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic situation!

Sure, she had heard rumors that the American school systems were underwhelming at best, but this was a specialized school. She wasn't quite sure if it fits as a private or public school but that didn't hinder her excitement any. She had barely slept the night before, bathing herself a few times just to make sure she was as pristine as possible before meeting any faculty. She even stole a pretty bow from Himari to wear around her neck in place of her usual uniform.

She was perched on her elder sister's shoulder like usual, trying and failing at keeping her claws to herself as she panicked internally and practiced introducing herself for the thousandths time.

"Perhaps I read the time wrong.... I was sure this was the slot we were scheduled for." What if they'd been kicked out already? What if their father had sabotaged their shot at education here? It was hard enough to get her sister to actually for up for classes as it was, without interlopers trying to get in the way!

Hiyori went ridged with nerves as the good started to open. Her ears flipped back and her eyes were felt comically wide. Though she knew it wasn't possible, she would have sworn on her life that there were cartoonishly large drops of sweat oozing out from her body. "Mana, Onēsan!" She scolded, "Ī inshō ni shitai!*

Her sister wasn't entirely wrong in what she felt... The man was very unkempt and as far as first impressions went it reflected poorly on the school in her mind. Was this what she could look forward to in the coming year, or years?

The nervous cat was still ridged and trembling which anxiety; her tails stuck straight up in back as she went to address the man. "Watashi no namae wa Hiyori desu!" She all but shouted. "Hajimemashite!"** And she bowed as much as her feline body allowed.

A beat passed before she realized that in her nervous state she had entirely shifted back to Japanese and their host probably hadn't understood a word of what she had said.

She might as well have been struck dead right there or turned to stone with how she hung her head and moped. She'd ruined her own introduction!


*Manners, Big sister!
**My name is Hiyori! Nice to meet you!

It was a... Japanese schoolgirl? With a... Cat on her shoulder. She strode on in as Saphirus looked back at his coffee accusingly. Had the food in it been spoiled? Were he and Jr. Tripping?

The girl announced she was here for school... Even in his tired state, he picked up on the inclusion of the word 'we'. He looked behind her to see in anyone else was waiting out there. Nope.

The cat started talking in Japanese. He blinked a few times. The cat was a person, wasn't she? Wow. Wait a second, wasn't there something about a couple of new students... "Wait... you aren't supposed to be here until tomorrow at noon... it's..." He pulled out his communicator and stared at it for a moment. "Huh... It's tomorrow at noon..." Jesus. His life was a mess. He'd just fed Jr. Dinner. Its was noon.

"Well... Damn. Let me- eh, hold on. Follow me to the security office. Just gotta... Get your files..." Jr. reached up and poked at his nose and he gently redirected as he turned and headed toward the office. "Uh, sorry for leavin you waitin; little guy's a hand full, and everyone else is, eh... busy. I'm Saphirus. Most call me Saph. I work security, and, I guess, sometimes greet newcomers."

The pleasant side effect to lunch time was that the little tyke would start to get tired soon. Maybe getting these kids settled would be a little more hastle free if he took a nap. "You guys just land?"

Of course Hiyori would schedule their registration in the middle of the day. It made it almost impossible to find some excuse to wriggle free of their current responsibilities. Sometimes being a big sister was rough. Mainly the responsibility  part. Or the nervous clamor of claws in her shoulders. Or the 4am (no doubt frantic anxiety driven) zoomies her cat sister made her endure. Or having your cat sister blast away full volume inches away from your ear in the completely wrong language for the purpose.

Still having super dad in all his super bum glory put her already shaky enthusiasm for school into the negative range, but she knew this moment was supposed to be Hiyori's and not hers. To that effect her clearly fake polite smile softened as she turned to regard the cat perched on her shoulder and pressed her cheek to hers nuzzling into it gently as a hand reached up to gently pet her head. _{"Don't worry you messed up, but in front of a man that doesn't even know what day it is so now when you introduce yourself to someone that matters your going to nail it. I believe in you."} Quietly of course just on the off chance daddy day care understood Japanese. If that didn't work she would have to slip into major damage control mode!

Well if her sister was going to fall apart it was time for big sis to take up the slack! As they turned to walk she followed along chin held high and walking with the elegance of a predatory animal. "Sank you Senpai." Then like any foreigner that had rehearsed lines from a english action movie added. "No problemo." Well that was as far as she was going to let the man get away with and only cause he apologized. The fact he had a fleshy limpet attached to him gave him the tiniest bit of leeway. Sure her speech was purposefully awful, but it gave her sister a chance to recover and take charge. "Himari Ishida." There manners. The man introduced himself and she introduced herself. All that was left to do was ride the rails on this train till she could jump off somewhere leaving her sister in the throes of learning bliss. Cooped up.. inside. How awful a way that was to live.

 

Her sister's antics aside, she gave her just the pep talk she needed at the moment. Hiyori straightened, holding her furry head as high as she could get it. Yes, she would have plenty of time to recover.

"Hiyori Ishida, a pleasure to meet you S...saph." She stumbled over his name a little and instantly became a furry ball of nerves again, claws and all. To spare her sister any more torture, she hopped down from her shoulder so she could slink along beside the ground from the ground.

"I apologize if we came at an inopportune time." It clearly wasn't her fault, but It was hard to get over all of the overwhelming politeness that had been nagged into her over the years. Leave it to their mother to insist that even with being physically a cat she still needed to know all of her manners.

She piped up a little louder to be heard from the floor. "We arrived a few days ago, actually." It was hard to crane her neck up to look at him while walking, so she just focused on following.

"We needed some time to get our living arrangement... situated." Or rather, cleaned.

She was curious. He claimed to be security but had a baby strapped to his chest. How relaxed was this place?

The truth of the matter was this: The Mansion had certainly been better staffed in the past, but right this second, a mentionable number of the people that would normally be greeting people right now were suddenly 12.

So. Saphirus was presently watching a toddler and doing at least two people's jobs. He looked back with tired eyes at the young woman as she spoke to the cat in her native language. He gave a short nod when she introduced herself, pausing to turn and offer a hand. "Himari, great to meet you. Careful, the little one goes for hair." He paused for a second, observing her a little more closely.

She was built. Weight lifting, perhaps? Sports? Something. Even tired, he was always looking for potential team members. He made a mental note to see what she was all about after they were settled in.

He looked to the cat as she spoke up again, nodding as well... With a moment of hesitation, he held up a hand to the cat as well to... shake its paw? "Watch your tails, too." She spoke more... quite fluently, as well.

"Eh, nah, nah, yer good. No times a good time right now, with all the mutants turning into kids and all." He walked, and looked back to make sure they were keeping up, while catching a thrown binky and handing it back without looking.

"Oh, right, you're living off campus, huh? Well, that will speed up the paperwork. Did your parents pre register you for classes?"

Himari absolutely refrained from sighing in relief as her anxious sister was no longer digging into her shoulder. It would never cause lasting damage, but it was making an already unpleasant trip to a school far more so. Her ability to act like she hardly knew English also let her sister be the conversationalist and distract her from whatever new school jitters she was feeling. That and it meant less attention on her, winning all around!

As apart of the club of 'better things to do then go to school' she really didn't have any opinions or impression on the school she would end up skipping more often then not if she had her way. If movies and tv were anything to go by they should have been shot at on the way in. The fact that nothing of the sort happened was about all she needed for approval of the place.

She caught Saph appraising look as they shook, minding her hair with a little head toss, and grinned like the cheshire cat. Maybe he wanted to spar or better yet fight?! Nothing was better suited to escape reality then a good surge of adrenaline to feel alive! Filing the info away she took the rear of their little formation as she wasn't all that interested about school stuff. Even if the cool factor had gone up a bit with the fit and able security person.

She hoped she wouldn't get younger. Her life was complicated enough as it was. "Yes." Himari replied firmly with disdain clear in her voice, even her usually bright smile dimming considerably for a moment. Then after a blink it was like nothing was wrong.