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The kid was just wandering about the street by himself!! What sad excuse for a parent had left him out here like this!?! Sabrina could remember being allowed to go to the store and cross dangerous traffic when she was far too young, but this kid couldn't have been older than.. what, three?

Sabrina rushed into the street and picked up the blue-haired little boy, "What are you doing, baby?"

Lex let out a scream, "Le'me GO!! GO AWAY! No, you bad! GO!!"

"Where's your mommy? Daddy?"

"NO!!"

What Sabrina did find as she held the little boy close was a piece of paper stuck in his pocket: "If Lex runs away again and is found, please return him to this address. Our sincerest apologies and gratitude."

Oh. Ok, so she had a Houdini in her hands. "Lex? Did you run away again?"

"YES! I HATE IT!!"

Sabrina blinked. What could make a baby talk like that? Babies didn't. Never. Not unless they'd been taught. Well, then. She'd... she'd go on over and give this person a piece of her mind. How COULD his mother, knowing that Lex would run away, neglect him long enough to get out again like this?? How could she teach a baby such language?? Once that was done, she'd call up the police on a case of child neglect. Yes, that was the right way about it. But she was far too nosy to take that course of action right away.

Sabrina handed Lex a piece of chocolate to hush him, buckled him into her car, and jumped into the driver's seat. Naturally, Lex had not managed to wander very far. Naturally, with Sabrina's furiously running thoughts and her attention on the child who sometimes was quiet, but mostly was yelling about this or that thing, she managed to drive way past the place, make wrong turns, and generally prove that she was one of those sorts that shouldn't be allowed out of the house without a GPS unit.

Sabrina ended up taking Lex to a restaurant so he could eat and she could regather her mind and hopefully rid herself of the tension that had risen all up on her shoulder and back. She was bewildered to have him announce that he hated all of the possible food offerings, more or less turned his nose up at what she ended up ordering for him, but stuck his hand in his cup and began munching on the ice cubes -- and proceeded to do the same with Sabrina's cup and demand -- FINE, ask politely!! -- for more.

The ice cubes seemed to put the surly child in a far better mood, and even more was the amusement of pressing that button to make ice come out! HAH!! It was the first smile she saw on the toddler. And...awhh...he was adorable when he did that!

The good mood was short-lived as Sabrina had to shortly announce that it was time to go. Lex flailed and kicked and screamed all the way to the car, and being buckled in, and in the car. He only didn't rattle his hands, because they were tightly clutching a cup of ice. He only stopped yelling to suck on his ice. But he did fall asleep mid-tantrum and mid-ice-sucking.

Pshhh... What a handful of naughtiness!

Sabrina couldn't have been more happy to see the manor in view. Lex woke up as she carried him out of the passenger's seat of the vehicle, and he made sure to put on his ugliest of looks for whoever would answer the door. But he wasn't struggling.

"I found baby Houdini Lexie." Sabrina smiled Sasakura, glad to see a smiling face.

"Oh. Good! How are you, Lex?" Sasakura reached out for the toddler.

"I hate Ms. Sabeena!" Lex screeched as Sasakura took him.

Sabrina gave Lex a stern look, "You dislike Ms. Sabrina." It was already an automatic correction. "I can't believe you allow a baby to run off and speak such words! I should call you in, you know. You---"

"I dislike Ms. Sabeena!!" Lex interrupted to correct himself, hands reaching out and pumping for the cup of ice in her hands.

Sabrina smiled, "That's too bad, I like you, Hou--Lex, but there's a good boy." She handed over the ice and turned back in to lecture Sasakura, who's smiling face had dropped into a rather apologetic looking one, "How could you LET this happen?" She demanded.

"My sincerest apologies, Ms. Sabrina. We are in the process of trying to readopt Lex out, as we do not have adequate care here at the manor. It has been difficult to find a match for him," Sasakura's face lightened again as he thought of the right solution, "Perhaps you would be interested? You are the first person Lex has merely disliked and not hated. That has to be something."

"Wha--?" Sabrina's mouth dropped, but she allowed Sasakura to usher her in, watched as he put Lex to bed, and allowed him to make her a nonalcoholic fruit drink and him to convince her into taking the child.

Whoa. Now Sabrina was a mother. She didn't think she was quite ready for that!

Lex was busily scribbling something onto the table. Yes. On the table itself. With a pack of Expo-Board markers that had been recently bought and left there. Where was his unaware guardian? Sitting wa-ay across on the balcony in her rocking chair, grading school papers.

It was a good plan Lex had. You see, the hamster called Rocket lived in that tiny cage. His eyes weren't big enough to see the whoooollle house, and Lex had just had the BEST most terriblest adventure last night. He wanted to tell Rocket all about it, and he wanted Rocket to see it all.

He drew the normal sort of two bedroom apartment with lopsided lines and waaaay disproportionate sizes. His room was first and the most detailed, of course, because that was his new center of the universe. He, of course, hated his room, and showed that with the fact that he spent the most time and care in detailing it than any other place. The cheap, yet nice enough second-hand furniture was as accurately colored as the black, red, orange, green, and blue markers allowed it to be. The black scribbling in the side of it was supposed to be the fluffy stuffed animals left over from Sabrina's child hood, and the carefully drawn dots were the forbidden, and therefore extremely intriguing, figures that were more suited to both his gender and his taste. Those were wa-ay up high on a shelf though, and he couldn't reach them. They were put away for a later day that Sabrina wasn't afraid the scrawny toddler wouldn't try to eat them.

The short hallway was likewise scribbled black. Stupid hallway with stupid sheets of colored paper taped all over it with sayings Sabrina had liked and written down or work of her past students that she cherished. Sabrina's room, across from Lex's, was super small and all black-scribbled. Sabrina's door remained closed all the time and he never could get much of a glimpse in there. He wasn't able to reach up (and wasn't sneaky enough) to open the door and get in.

He paused as he reached the next part: the bathroom that was right by his room. Then he decided to scribble that one green, and put dark, back edges around it---then he put a green streak through the hallway. That was supposed to talk about what happened last night. See, it had started when he'd SCREAMED in the middle of the night...

.... Which wasn't for any reason at all, of course. None. The fact that he was able to jump up and run out of the room to the bathroom when Sabrina came rushing in and turned on the light for him meant nothing. Is that clearly understood? Yes? Good.

He'd simply been unhappy with the fact that he was wide awake and had to go potty and Sabrina was asleep. That hadn't been fair. Right. Yes, that was it. He'd been even more upset for a moment, when she'd just disappeared into the common room without putting more light on for him because...because...that had meant she hadn't been upset. Pffftth! Yes, that was it.

When Sabrina had reappeared and called him to her, it had been a hateful glare on Lex's face, not a toddler's scared look. He came toward her only because she was in his bath back to his room, NOT because he wanted her to pick him up like he hoped knew she would. He was holding on to for dear life (who knew if she'd drop him or not?), NOT clinging for comfort.

"Look. This is a flashlight. Press this button, and it comes on, see? Press it again and it turns off, ok? Look." She turned the big light to his room off to show him what the small light looked like.

Lex looked at her and then at the light, then at her again, and then SNATCHED it out of her hand. He pressed the button off and on and off and on and off and on and off and on. He flashed the light ALL around the room, then struggled out of Sabrina's arms and TOOK OFF.

Shine the light in the hall. Shine the light in the common room. Wander in. Shine the like ALL around, but especially under things and around things and behind things.

What was usually a boring old common room was FUN to look at with the new light, and not scary at all! He was super-powered with the flashlight! Not...not that he had been scared. Nnnooo. He'd have to make sure Rocket understood that. The common room had nothing to be scared of. Just two shelves full of books and assorted figurines. It had a white and blue two seater coach and a beanbag chair. Hah, beanbag chair!! Lex drew that BIG and polka-dotted it green and orange, just like it was. Lex wiggled now like he was on the big squishy. Hah! Other than that, there was just a big desk with a computer and all sorts of pens and papers and -stuff- that was boring. No TV!!

Lex paused, then got a really concentrated look. He had to make Rocket's home look nice. He didn't want Rocket to be offended. He drew the hamster's cage -- much bigger than the desk. He made sure to include Rocket, his beady eyes, and the wheel. He ran in it - whiiir, whiiir, whiiir! ALL night long!

Then there was the balcony. Lex had had difficulty opening that last night. He'd needed to squish his whole body against it to open it. He'd done it ALL by himself, too! It had been fun to flash the light around there...but the balcony was even MORE super boring. During the day, it was ok to look out, because he could see the playground in the middle of apartments (not that he liked that, nnooooo...He hated the idea of going out there or meeting any of those kids!!), but there was nothing exciting about it at night! Even the rocking chair (that had been HARD to climb in, but easy to ROCK-ROCK!) was uninteresting with the new power-light.

The balcony was also drawn super-small, with just a dot to show the chair.

Lex stood to the other end of the table, on the opposite side was the last three rooms -- he'd save the BEST for last -- the dining room was just a little blue and green dash. It was a dining room, with a small (now colorful) table and for chairs and a fake plant and some pictures of some dead famous painter. He ate there, THAT was important, but otherwise it could be done away with like the balcony or Sabrina's room. Not important stuff at all.

The kitchen last night and with the power-light had been SSSOOOOO COOOLLL absolutely despicable. There had been so many cabinets to open and shine the light in and poke around in. Lots of weird things to stare at. This would be worth exploring more. Yes.

But he'd been distracted last night by the last room. Now. This he did NOT hate. It had a funny type of door more than the rest of the house, and he'd needed to PPPUUUULLLLL... But then he hadn't needed his power light at all. There was already a light there, and it was ---

"COLD!!" That had been his gleeful proclamation last night, and he'd promptly proceeded to try and crawl into it.

That had also been the point when he could no longer ignore Sabrina's presence. She'd only been following and giggling and making comments meant to be ignored the whole time he'd been exploring. She no firmly told him no, tugged him out of the refrigerator, and closed the door.

Lex had protested fervently, "No! I like cold! Let me in!!" He'd tugged at the door, but to no avail.

He probably COULD have spent a long time arguing there, but Sabrina was bigger. The next thing he knew, e was being carried -- oooohhhhh!!! -- No, no... Grrr!! -- upside down and away. A chair wa placd in front of the fridge and he was being placed firmly back in be.

He was told if he wanted to get stuck in a fridge and die, that was his decision, but it wouldn't happen on Sabrina's watch. Lex didn't know what that had meant, and he couldn't tell Rocket that part. He just knew now there was a big X in front of the cold-room because Sabrina had made the chair a permanent fixture there. She'd needed to, Lex wouldn't stay OUT of it otherwise.

Lex looked at his drawing. He frowned at it. Something was...ah... He picked up the red marker and put a BIG, DARK circle around the green streaks meant to indicate his power-light, the squishy-chair, and the forbidden cold room. He scribbled something under each of those that looked like letters, sort of, and sort of looked like mountains. He also scribbed the same thing in the room that was his, though he didn't circle that with the marker.

Finished? Yes, finished! He ra-aan to the squishy-beanbag chair, where his power-light was kept. He flopped down on top of it and looked at Rocket. Then he looked at where Sabrina was grading papers. He settled in his squishy instead of calling to her to get Rocket out. He picked up the flashlight to get her attention with IT instead...

But.. It wouldn't go ON!! The power was gone!

"NNOooooooo!!!" Lex screeched.

Next time Sabrina went to the store, she would have to invest in batteries and a tablecloth.

~~Reserved: Assuming I ever backtrack to a summarization of their first month /// I ever finish the joint RP so they can reflect on it. ~~