Heirot

"Yep! I'm strong just like my mommy and daddy!" Rai said with a smile. She showed her arm muscles and giggled.

"And what a lucky daddy he must be," Sid joked good-naturedly, smiling at Mizuki in mock disappointment. He stood up then, the dark stain on his leg smeared now further across the fabric.

Mizuki smiled and brushed off Rai's dress for her. "We've figured out the last clue, go find a Blue Jay's feather!" she encouraged the kids and watched them run off excitedly.

"Are you alright?" she asked, not having missed his slight tumble. "Are you injured at all?"

Rai giggled and ran off, running with the other little girls as hey went to find a feather...

"Nothing a little water won't fix, and certainly not the little tumbleweed's fault," he assured with a smile, watching the kids run off. "Is this some kind of treasure hunt?" he asked in amusement.

"A school event. We're treasure hunting as a way for the parents and kids to socialize." she explained yet the whole thing seemed a little odd to her. Normally they'd just hold conferences. Maybe this school was more creative then the ones she had known.

"I'm Mizuki....uh...Nightblade." she introduced. She had no idea if she should even be taking Soran's last name, but everyone had assumed they were married and... probably should keep it up otherwise people might talk and how would that look for Rai?

Sid cocked his head. "An interesting last name," he said with a smile. "Sounds a little dramatic, doesn't it?" he added, getting deja vu. "Well, shall I join your team then?"

Mizuki giggled. "Tell that to my husband, he's the one who had it first." she was so at ease now with this man then she had been with the women that she wasn't being careful with what she said. Saying 'husband' now sounded like it was the right thing to say, where as they women made her nervous to even suggest it. "If you'd like to help, but are you sure you're fine?" she narrowed her eyes at him, now seeing the smear on his clothes. What is it with men and saying they were fine when they clearly weren't?

Rai and the others came running back. "Sally found it... Laura and I jumped on it when it wasn't looking!" Sally, Rai, and Laura were all holding a bird down with there hands. Its eyes were bulging out of it's skull. It was a blue.... "Hehehe... It has lots of feathers!!"

"Well, I have to admit it stings a little," Sid grinned sheepishly, lifting the edge of his pant leg to inspect the huge raw wound on his calf. It didn't look like it wanted to stop bleeding any time soon. "I was thinking I'd dunk it in the water for a bit."

Mizuki gasped and went to inspected but the girls had come running up squeezing a blue Jay in their hands.

"oh! Release it and just grab one feather! We don't need the whole bird!" she panicked a little, hoping the bird wasn't dead but it was alive and a little shocked as the girls let it go easy. Mizuki plucked one feather from it, the bird was none too happy about that, and told the girls to let it go. She handed the feather back to Rai and told her to keep it safe. Shaking her head and smiling at the man, Mizuki remembered his injury then knelt down to look at it.

"You and my husband, you both do this!" she fretted then finally deduced it just needed to be cleaned and bandaged.

"Mm, my cat bit me," Sid joked, chuckling sheepishly.

"Some cat," Mizuki remarked nonpulsed and arching a brow at him.

Soran and his group were walking near the city gate looking for a white stone. One of the children screamed in alarm from the ground nearby, and Soran went and squatted across from him.

"What?"

"A bug..." the boy squirmed, scuttling back as a millipede wove its way out from under the rock he'd been moving.

Soran sighed, scooped up the millipede with the dirt around it in his fist and threw it off out of view. "...Sam," Soran dug the name out of his memory. "Your parents aren't here today?"

"No," Sam whispered sullenly, "They have to work."

"Most people do," Soran replied dully, pulling the starry-eyed kid back to his feet.

He paused as he heard his name, but didn't turn to look at the speakers.

"I heard he keeps them on his wrists."
"Then he doesn't have them?"
"He's probably just hiding them somewhere."
"Come on, What would he use them for today?"
"This is him, though."
"True, you never know. I heard his girl decked one of the boys in her class. Must be an inherited trait." Nervous laughter.

Soran led Sam to another place and coaxed him into looking again, pretending he hadn't heard. But he had, and part of the mood of the activity had quickly changed for him.

* * *

"Well, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were volunteering to wrap me up," Sid smirked, rather transparently pleased by her attention, though he didn't seem to be truly hitting on her. It came across as more of a mannerism, like he was just this way with everyone.

Mizuki laughed good heartedly. "Maybe," she said cheerfully, "I do it a lot in my house. Nothing new but I don't have the supplies."