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Europa tilted her head at the boy. Uh-oh. He seemed...nervous? Scared? She knew for a fact that it wasn't her mad air hockey skills. Did it have something to do with the new kid? She tossed some hair over her shoulder as she turned her head to look at the boy. He didn't seem particularly scary!

"You okay?" she asked, turning back to Espen.

"Um. Okay."

Europa knocked the puck with her slider hard, but it only bounced off the corner and ricoched back toward her own goal.

"HENK!" She blocked it that once, but whacked it just a bit too hard to it went bouncing around. This game was intense!

"Oh, yeah, sure," Rhys replied, grinning at Vali the Robot. Was his hair metal, and if so, could he see past it at all? "I'll come too." He glanced at Espen and Europa, quickly waving at the pair before handing his backpack over to the metal boy. His fingers brushed at Vali's skin during the tradeoff and suddenly everything came together. "You're like me! Like... Libb'rality," he said excitedly. Not a robot at all! It was disappointing and reassuring all at once. "I'm Rhys."

Moira had gone out to get the afternoon mail; Bleez had followed. "Mummy, what you doing?"

"I'm getting the mail, sweetie," Moira replied kindly, sifting through the mail. She paused and held a letter away from the others. "That's odd, there's a letter for you in here, Bleez."

"A letter? Which letter is it? Is it an 'A?' Oh! What about a 'B!' Or... a... um, 'C,' that's the next one, right?" Bleez ran around Moira excitedly.

Moira chuckled, "No hun, that's not the same thing. 'C' is the next letter, though." She handed Bleez the letter, and the little one snatched it up quickly. Moira began to walk back to the house, but Bleez was already there by time she had turned back to face the house. She was such a quick little thing.

Once Moira had gotten back inside, Bleez was scurrying around her, letter open, “Mum, what’s it say?” Moira had noticed more and more that her tiny bit of an Irish accent was being carried over into Bleez’s speech.

“Could you let me get to the kitchen and set these down first, please,” Moira kindly told Bleez.

She managed to make it to the counter before Bleez huffed, “You’re in the kit’hen! Please?”

“Alright, alright, give it here, lets have a look.” Moira took the paper from Bleez, who’d been waving it around a bit. She read over it, a concerned look crossing her face. “Who was this from?” she thought to herself. She reread it and noticed something about the facility. “Must be a spawn party…”

“Wha?” Bleez stopped moving to look at her mom, “What is it, mummy?”

“It’s an invitation to a slumber party,” Moira stooped down to Bleez’s level.

“Slummer? Wha’s that?”

Moira chuckled, “A slumber party is when you go over to a someone else’s house and you spend the whole night over there. You play games and watch movies and just have fun.” She smiled. “Would you like to go?”

Bleez was obviously thinking it over very hard, you could practically hear the wheels turning.

“You don’t have to if’n ya don’ want to.”

“Will there be a lot of others there? Like me?”

Moira nodded.

“Okay. I woul’ like to go den, mum.” Bleez rocked on the balls of her feet.

Moira stood, “Then you’ll have to get ready. You’ll need a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, some PJs, and your toothbrush.”

“Can I take something from the garden?” Bleez smiled, “Ya know, for the person who, um, invited me?”

“Sure, hun, you can do that. Just don’ take anything that hasn’t bloomed yet, okay?”

“Okay!” Bleez ran out of the kitchen and into the garden like lightning.

“Maybe I should pack her bag,” Moira mused. Looking out a window, she could see Bleez moving from flower to flower like a humming bird trying to find the perfect one,

~*~

It was the night of the big event, Moira had explained that Bleez was to not, under any circumstances give her clothes to someone there. If someone needed clothes, she needed to tell the adult in charge. She also explained that she would not be sleeping over with Bleez and the others.

“And one more thing,” Moira stooped down to look Bleez in the eyes, “If you need me for any reason, you call me, okay? You remember the number?”

Bleez nodded silently, she tried to smooth out her green plaid dress, but was just carrying too much. She was clutching a small bundle of random flowers in one hand, her sleeping bag in the other, and her backpack on her back. She wasn’t so much nervous as she wanted to make sure her mommy would be okay without her there.

“Okay then, gimme a hug and I’ll see you in the morning.” Moira hugged Bleez tightly and sent her on her way.

Bleez carried her things downstairs, marveling at all the stuff everywhere, and all the kids who were already here. She wished she’d brought more things to give to all of them. She noticed two older kids were playing some game on a table, passing a disc around. She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on there, but it looked interesting. Then she saw the two kids talking in the corner, where all the stuff was. And one of those kids, a silvery one, was holding a gift.

Bleez very calmly walked over to the two in the corner, “This where our stuff goes?” She then remember Moira had told her something about manners, that is was nice to give people your name, and she did like giving, “I’m Bleez.” She dropped her things on the floor. “T'ese are for…. Espen? The person’s who’s house this is.” She held up the flowers for the two boys to see.

Espen's eyes darted back and forth along the puck, waiting for it to get close enough to his clawed arm to...BAM! Send it back accidentally into his own net. Drat. Why did that always have to happen at least once per game?

"Okay, that's your point." Espen resigned. He wasn't even distracted this time by the metalic boy, though was interested in the newest arrival. They felt different than all the other spawn he'd met. Fresh, which was weird word to describe it, but that's what it was.

"Hang on, we'll finish later" he told Europa as he began to walk over to the others. Hearing his name mentioned over and over again made Espen curious as to what sort've conversation they were having over there. He figured it was only fair to greet the two newcomers and at least get the name of the giant walking safety pin, so that Espen could stop thinking of the boy as such.

As he got closer, he noticed that the metallic boy had a wrapped box in his hand. Great, a present! Espen loved presents! But...how was he going to be able to get it without accidentally possibly touching...

"Erm..." he started, a little more composed now "Thanks for coming, it's nice to meet you two...and see you again Rhys." Espen laughed a little less nervously than he would've a few minutes ago. He got as far as five feet in front of the metallic boy before he found that his feet just wouldn't move any further and that was fine with him.

"I'm Espen and this is my house!" he started to loosen up now that he was talking about his favorite topic, himself.

"Umm, what's your names? There's food and drinks over dere an lotsa movies and games and stuffs. Alsooo...that stuff can go on the couch so nobodystepsonit." Espen peered at the pile on the floor nervously trying to find some way to apologize and explain his unfriendly behavior. A small thought was beginning to form in his mind about how he would go about explaining it, but didn't want to say it out loud to everyone present. He'd wait until they were all relaxed and then explain himself to the metal boy...then maybe they could actually be friends.

Marii really didn't know what to think about being invited to a sleepover. His mother did explane on what a sleepover was and what could possable be done at one. But it was more that he didn't know the person that had invited him and it was also unknown place as to were the best places were to pounce people. His mother thought it would be good for him to meet other kids realitively the same age as him were he didn't meet them as he pounced them and would be a good change in pace for him. Tho Marii did deside on going as he did want to meet new people and he thought that maybe he would be able to pounce someone.

Walking on all fours just before they got to Espen's house. "Now you be good Marii and try not to pounce anyone as you will most likely be bigger than anyother you meet, play nice and be good," Val said as she gave him a kiss on the forhead. Val walked him to the door and handed him his stuff. "Don't worry, I will be good," he fianly said to her as he turned and headed in.

Marii did feel a little nervous as he did look around and saw that he was bigger than all the other spawns here. Flicking his head lure around as he got down to the bottem of the stairs. "Hi, I'm Marii," he said nervously as he would so be much confortable on all fours. "So were do I put my things?" he asked still totally not really knowing what to do.

Rhys narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly at Bleez's flowers and Vali's tidily wrapped gift, feeling a twinge of unhappiness over the fact that he had failed to bring anything for the host. Luckily he didn't remain mired in his own thoughts for long. Espen was here! And Vali and Bleez were still cool to look at even if they had proven to be more thoughtful than he had.

"Rhys," he said, more for Bleez than Espen, with whom he was already acquainted. And, Rhys supposed, that GIANT LIZARD BOY she was addressing could know his name as well. Rhys was small for his age, which made the new arrival's largeness all the more interesting. "On the couch, I guess," he added, picking up his own bag from where Vali had left it. He grinned and pat at the metal boy's tail absently. Did the thing have a mind of its own?

Once Espen had taken the flowers, Bleez was hugging on Marii. "Ma'ii! I didn' know you were going to be here!" She beamed up at him.

Grabbing his hand, she tried to pull him away from the stairs. "Espen says its not safe to be on the stars.." She thought about the word, "..stairs.... ya."