It was a crisp, clear day outside, still in the chilly early moths of the year. While the sun could shine down bright and strong, it did little to alleviate the chill that even a slight breeze could cause. Still, it was pretty outside on the occasion that icicles still hung from rooftops and snow fell and sat waiting to melt should an unusually warm day come and go. The early morning birds were starting to sing again, slowly. It was generally lovely weather for a chilly walk to get some fresh air, should one choose to do so.

Aleksandr hated it.

Ever since Fall had dissolved into winter he'd largely been stuck inside, wanting very much to avoid venturing out into the chilly air and, heaven forbid, the snow. There were few feelings worse than snow and ice passing under one's scales and the cold water caused by any meltage slithering its way between those scales and causing a deep chill. It also didn't help that he was largely unable to wear clothing to help protect himself from this weather.

Sometimes it really sucked to be cold-blooded. He hated being cooped up inside, but he really couldn't spend any extended amount of time outdoors for fear of becoming too sluggish to make it back indoors. What if he ended up falling asleep out there and hibernating or something? He didn't really think most of the Mansion residents could haul his heavy body back inside where he could warm up and un-hibernate again. Though he'd never hibernated before, he wasn't in any rush to see if the cold could have that affect on him.

Or what if he took an unintended snooze out there and it ended up snowing? He'd end up as a giant snakecicle. He'd heard horror stories of kids dying in the winter and not being found until the snow melted in the spring. He didn't want to end up the same way. Freezing to death was a very real fear to him.

The thought of it sent a shiver down his exquisitely long spine. No, save for a few very short visits outdoors to keep himself from going crazy, he'd stay inside, but he wouldn't be happy about it. The Mansion seemed to shrink almost every day. He must have visited every room several times already, save for the bedrooms and any other room it would be rude to invade or that he was locked out of.

For the time being he had grudgingly retired to the Living Room and curled up on the floor in a grump, setting himself in front of the fireplace to soak up the heat it had to offer. He had little interest in television or video games at the moment and simply settled for being a big, scaly lump of a grouch, folding his arms over one of his coils and dropping his chin onto them, giving a huff as he settled in. Maybe he'd be lucky enough to fall asleep and take a little fireside nap. If his thoughts would stop bouncing around in his head and his cabin fever would subside long enough to allow it.

The tennis ball bounced. It bounced high. It bounced in wide arcs. It bounced like a sing-along dot keeping track of the words. Up, down, up, down, on the ceiling, on the floor. And as it went, it left little marks that teachers would be grumbling about for weeks. The young mutant didn't care. The young mutant was having fun causing trouble in his own harmless little ball-bouncing way. The young mutant... was going to get detention.

Shin cleared his throat. "Ahem."

The ball dropped and bounced twice, then rolled along the carpet into a nearby room. The young mutant stopped. He turned, shining innocent blue eyes on the Asian standing behind him with arms crossed authoritatively. The kid ran a rogue hand through his flowing blond locks with a dismissive 'hmph', then shrunk to the size of a mouse. Clothes fell down around him, but he didn't care. He had not yet mastered that element of his mutation, clothes shifting, but he had nothing to hide. He rested his hands on his hips haughtily, then ran into the room with a final gesture at the teacher's pet.

The corner of Shin's left cheek twitched. Why that little... he chased after him, into the living room.

Shin looked around. He saw the ball behind the couch, but saw no sign of the boy. His eyes fell on someone else in the room. Maybe this person would know. "Excuse me," Shin addressed the big pile of scales and muscle. "Have you seen a small blond naked boy chasing a tennis ball? I think he ran in here. He might be under the couch."

Aleksandr had grown used to kids running up and down the halls at all hours of the day and sometimes at night, provided the Mansion's caretakers didn't catch them in the middle of their shenanigans and put their foot down. It had bothered him a bit when he'd first settled into the school residence. His exceptionally large body picked up all the vibrations their little bodies caused as they hurled themselves through the various corridors and rooms while they roughhoused or panicked that they were late for class. It had taken a while and a few less restful nights and afternoons to get used to all the commotion, but he'd eventually gotten to the point where he could largely tune it out like background noise.

He tried ignoring such vibrations when they intruded upon him and his grump in the living room. He shifted irritably, coils siding across each other as he moved to warm different patches of scales. He tried to repress a sigh as a young man entered and addressed him, one golden eye opening and gazing across the room at him.

Couldn't set a scale outside and couldn't even enjoy a good sulk or himself. Wonderful. However, the opportunity to tack down an individual appealed to the predatory side of him. Animal shifters tended to be a bit nervous around him, were they of the non-carnivorous variety, so why shouldn't someone he was purposely hunting also feel uneasy? It could prove entertaining.

He flicked his long tongue out, scenting at the air. It was a little confusing trying to sort through the scents of all the numerous people that passed through the Mansion all day, but new ones were always fresher and stronger and he was getting better at picking them out. "I have not seen small naked boy," he replied, slowly untangling himself, "But I can smell him."

He didn't bother with his standard 'standing' height, instead keeping low to the ground. He hadn't registered two sets of feet entering the room, so the boy must have been very small, especially if the comment about him potentially being under the couch was any indication.

That was, of course, the first place the serpentine man checked, lowering his face to the floor to have a look and flicking his tongue again, cringing a bit at all the dust gathered under there. "Dusty rabbits, but no small child."

He continued to glide across the room, following his tongue and any possible vibrations he might catch off the rodent boy. He paused no far from the couch, inspecting the array of game systems and the small bookcase full of the DVD-like cases for the game disks. A small smile slid across his features as he grabbed at one of the game cases on the bottom-most shelf that had been leaning against another case somewhat like a lean-to.

"Your mouse boy is here," he declared, pressing a clawed hand across the gap in the cases to prevent the young man from scurrying away again. "He is avoiding detention maybe?"

>>"I have not seen small naked boy."

His voice was booming to the small naked boy hiding in the shadows.

>>"But I can smell him."

The small naked boy gulped.

Shin nodded. He watched as the snake-man moved to help find the student.

Never was Shin to judge a man by his mutation. To most, a large muscular snake man might have been threatening, scary... even awe-inspiring. He was impressed. He couldn't not say that. But it was more out of respect and understanding than nervous awe. This man knew what he was doing and how to use his power. He looked different than others, and had to live with that, yet to Shin it seemed as if the man was comfortable in his own (sometimes shedded?) skin. The way he glided around showed control and self-knowledge.

The snake-man easily found the naked boy. Somehow, it had been expected.

Shin smiled conspiratorially. "He hasn't been assigned detention... yet. Maybe he will if he continues to be a pain?"

Another gulp. The young mutant looked at the clawed hand nervously. He had the sudden urge to bite it, despite his lack of sharp teeth. He wasn't a mouse. He was a boy. Not even a man. Still, he wasn't one to avoid going with gut instincts when they presented themselves. No. He embraced them.

The small naked boy scurried forward and clamped down with tiny teeth on the massive snake man's clawed hand.

Aleksandr gave a small grin at the young man's answer. It could be a bit of a difficulty having to behave under threat of potential detentions for some of the kids tying to have fun, particularly the younger ones. Though they were living in a school, so that changed some of the rules. Still, there was always bound to be a troublemaker in the bunch. "Boys will be boys," he offered, giving a slightly lopsided shrug.

He could feel the small body of the young man shifting around uncomfortably in the confined space. He hardly gave it a thought. People got nervous when they were trapped, especially mouse-sized mutants cornered by a giant snake man.

The young man of a proper size for a person was slightly more interesting. He looked a bit young to be a teacher, which the reptilian mutant assumed he was considering the threat of a detention. Then again, in a home for mutants, appearance wasn't the best thing to base opinions on. For all he knew the kid could have been a hundred years old or something.

His train of thought was interrupted by a sudden sharp pain in his hand. His grin faded rapidly as his expression contorted into something more pained and irritated, a low hiss issuing from his throat. His height easily doubled as he straightened up to his usual height, pulling his hand away from the shelves and toward his chest.

The little brat had clamped down between his thumb and forefinger and at least one row of teeth had managed to fit between his scales and pinch painfully at the sensitive skin there.

With an angry flick of his tongue and another irritated hiss slowly dragging out, he grabbed for the young man, aiming the trap him between his two hands. It had taken a good deal of will power not to fling the mouse boy away from him, and even more self restraint not to eat him.

His gaze flickered back to the other young man in the room. "The biting one will get detention now?" he asked, trying to keep the hiss out of his voice when he spoke, having no ill will toward the bystander. "Or maybe I can eat him? Is rodent size and maybe delicious."

Snake-man was actually scary when he was mad. At the hiss, Shin's heart skipped a beat. He didn't usually skip beats like that, but hey... snakes were scary.

In the dark of the bookcase, the tiny naked mutant boy showed no such reactions. He only grinned as light cut in around the sides of the bookcase as the hand moved away. Then it came back, and the grin vanished.

Detention? Forget that! Across the room, the Asian was nodding. Naked boy, on the other hand, was most certainly not. And he sure as heck wasn't getting eaten.

He started growing, still naked, in the snake-man's grasp.

A slight grin crossed Aleksandr's features when silence met his question of making the boy into an edible. That was almost as good as a 'go right ahead' wasn't it? Well, maybe not. But he was in a sour mood and mini mammals always looked to appetizing. Even the bipedal ones. He'd never eaten a person before. The thought of it seemed wrong. But mini people rubbed his predatory instinct just the right way.

Except when they didn't stay so mini.

It took a moment for his mind to register how heavy the kid in his hands was gradually getting. When it finally did, though, his attention quickly turned away from the young man that had asked for his assistance and back down at his hands, which he quickly separated in surprise, dropping the nekked young man on his backside.

The snake man just kind of blinked a moment and slid back away from the bare body as the kid flailed around before getting his footing and rocketing through the nearest doorway and down the hall.

It didn't take very long before the serpentine individual was hurtling after him, his bulky tail slamming into the walls on either side of him as he went. Rodent boy wanted to run? The predator would give chase.

Mini-mouse got naked.

"So dead."

Shin blinked. He hadn't even realized the poor choice in the words that had left his lips.

Out the door, the boy went. Fleeing for his Life. Snake-man rushed after him, like predator after prey. No doubt what would shortly follow would be nothing short of snake and mongoose battle. Shin hurried to catch up to the duo, to prevent just that.

Hallways did not make for easy navigation when one was Aleksandr's size. He was flexible enough to take tight corners and maneuver around the odd shapes of furniture, but being in the rush that he was such movements were leading to more uncomfortable scrapes and strains against his scales than he'd have normally endured. And more than a few overturned chairs, tables, and whatever decorative odds and ends they might have been holding up.

Oops. They could be swept up later, right?

Not that the snake man particularly cared. He was much too focused on the bare back of the delinquent he was pursuing to care about any potential damage he was doing. His predatory instincts had been stroked just the right way and he wasn't going to be slowing down until his target had been caught.

Unfortunately for the nekked young man, Aleksandr was much faster than any normal biped, the bulk of his body being nearly pure muscle to use in propelling himself.

The snake man manages to snag the mouse boy by the ankle as he went to turn a corner, dragging him back into the hallway kicking and screaming all kinds of indecent things. The scaly young man simply grinned and trapped the size shifter among his coils.

His hand clamped firmly around the streaker's upper arm while the rest of his body was cocooned by his scaled tail. He only squeezed a little. Just to make sure the kid knew he meant business. There was no way he'd eat him at the size he was now.

His bulk filled the width of the hallway from one wall to the other as he curled up and debated what to do with his catch. How much trouble could he get it for damaging the kid? A bite for a bite sounded fair enough to him. Hmm.

What a mess. What a mess. What a mess. Toppled furniture, toppled flower vases, shattered flower vases, shattered flowers. Snake man might actually be joining naked boy in detention, Shin realized, as he followed the trail of wreckage to its source.

"OooOoooh, stop breaking things! You menace!" He called after the snake man. Shin shook his fist like an elderly man dealing with a boy named Dennis who'd ruined his lawn.

Shin nearly tripped over himself as the chase suddenly ended. Snake-man had caught the boy. And... he was HUGE.

Several jobs rushed into the Asian triangle manipulator's mind at that moment. The need to punish the kid for all the things he'd one wrong. The need to punish the snake man. The need to stop him from eating a student. That one stood out. "Hey!" His voice boomed in the hallway. "Snake-man! I can take it from here." He pointed pointily and hoped not to need to back it with pointed remarks.

Aleksandr didn't mean to break anything. Once he'd realized the level of damage he'd done, he'd likely feel pretty bad about it and offer to clean it all up. He couldn't help the fact that he took up so much room and that his bulk could be problematic moving around furnished interiors at such speeds. If the kid hadn't run, maybe he'd have been able to avoid causing so much damage. But things had gone in another direction.

And then he was being yelled at. And pointed at. He hadn't done anything to the kid. Not yet, anyhow. Rather sheepishly the snake man looked away from the wriggling youth in his grasp and over to the other young man. He didn't let go of the nekked boy just yet in case the kid tried to bolt again, but he wasn't eying him rather hungrily anymore, either.

"Oops."

"Okay." Shin caught up to them. He glared at the boy, then the snake man, then the boy again. "Neither of you better run. You need clothing and detention, and you." Shin eyeballed the snake man. "Need to let him go, and eventually, help clean up this mess."

It really was a big mess behind them, wasn't it? Very messy. Someone needed to handle it. Who? Snake man! That was who!

Shin's focus returned to naked shrinky-growy boy. "Your detention," He announced. "Will be more than one session. So you'd better be on your best behavior from now. And no more tennis ball mayhem!" Shin snapped, finishing by resting his hands haughtily on his hips.

There! Now he felt better. All shouted out. Everyone, everywhere, was getting in trouble!

Aleksandr did as he was told and released the squirming youth, leaving him to the punishment of the other young man in charge. The snake man didn't need to be causing any more problems at the moment, so he'd do as he was instructed. He would be in trouble if he got kicked out of the Mansion for something like this, and left out in the cold. He tried not to shudder at the thought.

"Eezveeneete. My apology," the serpentine individual offered, still looking a bit sheepish and curling in on himself a bit after the other young man had finished scolding the troublemaker. "Mouse boy ran." he tried, not entirely sure if the man in charge would understand the implications. Sometimes his predatory side was just to much to keep in check. "I will be helping to clean. I did not mean to be trouble."

"Thank you," Shin said appreciatively. "That will help a lot."

These days, mutant teens weren't very apt at offering to help clean or reverse the messes they'd brought about. Mutant adults, even less so. It was breath of fresh air to see someone who was willing to actually do something for another.

"I guess now is as good a time as any to clean up. You too," He turned to Mr. Mouse boy. "You'll be helping. We could use it, getting the hard to reach tiny places."

Mouse boy nodded sadly.

Shin's attention shifted between them. He smiled. This would be easy. "Let's get to work."

(( OOC: I leave the handwaving of a job well done and the completion of the thread to you, Issiebow. Good work in the thread. It was fun. ))