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Seemed like the man was going to back off for the time being. Neko was fine with that, he could store away his questions until a time came that he could use them.

Curious, Neko stepped back over to the table with his coffee in hand and just managed to glance at the pictures before the vocalist had to snatch them up to prevent Riyo from taking them. Chuckling a bit, Neko sipped at his coffee after adding some cream and a little sugar. "It's good to know you're eating habits have improved." He was referring to the picture with the little girl with ice cream all over her face. Though the smile she had in both pictures was nothing like how she was now. If her father would have ended up with her instead of her mother how different would she have been? It really didn't do any good to guess about the out comes that were no longer possible, but it was still something to think about.

"So are you going to be sticking around? Riyo says you're in a band," Neko asked casually, still sipping at his coffee.

Neko couldn't help but smirk at the glare Riyo gave him but he didn't bother to say anything else about it or the pictures Jess had. He had some embarrassing pictures of his own buried somewhere in the house that his own mother had taken before she died. It was enough to make him shutter but he couldn't bring himself to throw them out. He was only thankful she hadn't taken a lot of them.

"Pick up....where you left off?" Neko quirked a brow. Even he could sense the meaning was a little more than figurative. Hopefully he was wrong and reading into the tone a little to much but that would explain Riyo's exasperation. Disregarding the last part Neko took another sip of coffee. "You don't plan on taking her to carnivals and pony rides do you?" If he did this man needed to serious reevaluate himself.

So....this man was daft. It was plan as day to see now. No wonder Riyo seemed so frazzled. Rubbing at the bridge of his nose shortly Neko focused back on his coffee.

"I think you may need to re-think that option if you seriously plan on taking her to....something like that or similar." He looked to Riyo shortly wondering if anything he was going to say would upset her. Not that he watched what came out of his mouth all that much anyway. But it didn't take an acute sense of observation to know this man was stuck in the past.

"I think you've been staring at those pictures too long. While your brain is stuck on the fact that she's four years old, Riyo....isn't four years old. Sucks but that childhood your obviously dreaming of continuing has passed you by. Might do you better to get to know the person she is now instead of treating her like the person she was." He could have easily brought her mother into the equation too because obviously....who wouldn't change with a mother like that? Neko was surprised Riyo wasn't a blood thirsty lunatic.

Neko was about to call bullshit on what Jess was saying since this man obviously didn't know what it was like to have kids either. Sure he was Riyo's father but four years of experience thirteen years ago hardly qualified a man to know what the hell he was talking about. Besides....Neko kind of felt like he had a kid. Not that Riyo couldn't take care of herself but she seemed to rely on him from time to time and in all honestly, though he would never admit it outside of pain of death, he cared about what happened to her.

But instead of saying mostly what was on his mind Neko focused in on something else. While the little slip up had seemingly gone unnoticed by Riyo, Neko was certain a man couldn't confused the fact if he had one or more daughters. Watching Riyo leave the room and disappear into the bathroom Neko looked back to Jess.

"Okay, I can tell you obviously don't get it. You've been out of the parenting game for a while. It sounds like you've had it rough and true I don't have kids but I can understand enough to know that she doesn't want to be treated like she's four." Maybe it was because he wasn't that different in age and knew he wouldn't want to be treated that way. Especially not when he had grown up without much of a choice long long ago. He knew the situation for Riyo probably wasn't much different. "But more importantly.....daughters?" He asked his question softly not really wanting Riyo to over hear. Either it was a mistake....or there was a great deal of missing information.

Neko's eyes narrowed in an unimpressed fashion as the vocalist obviously thought him stupid to believe the words coming out of his mouth. He wasn't going to press the matter though, since the man obviously didn't want to talk about it but he couldn't help but have a feeling about something. An idea tickling the back of his brain that just wouldn't let up. His mind seemed to trace back to the day when he had been shot by Riyo's mother. The woman had a rather strange reaction to Nami in the hallway, as if elated to see her. Not to mention she did kind of resemble..."Oh god...it's Nami..." Sometimes being observant worked out and sometimes it solved puzzles that were better left unsolved.

He knew that Riyo and Nami weren't exactly pals. In fact, he was pretty sure they were the furthest from being friends that two people could be. It was a wonder though that no one had brought up their possible relation before. Perhaps it was because they were very different personality-wise and if a family had enough money to send them to this school they certainly had enough money to keep both children.

Seemed like his deductive reasoning had been right on the mark. It was a gift and a curse all the same. "Power of deduction, she goes to this school." Neko said softly glancing toward the bathroom door. Setting his coffee aside he stepped a bit closer to Jess. "And let me just start of by saying you've got one hell of a mess on your hands if that is, in fact, true."

Neko judged Jess' words for a moment before he had a seat at the table. "Fine, I'll keep it quiet. But if Riyo finds out on her own I never knew to begin with." He wasn't about to get caught up in the middle of that but...he was curious. "So why did you keep it secret?"

The photo album that Riyo had found happened to be the one Neko never wanted anyone else to ever see. The very first page was full of classic embarrassing baby photos. It seemed Neko had a fascination with having something in his mouth as a baby since in almost all of the photos he had his hand, a toy, or something in it. As the photos went on he got older, he seemed to be a rather cute kid if not a little awkward. He was thin with messy short cut hair, eerie smoky gray eyes, and in some of the photos it seemed he had...a tail? or did it look like there was more than one? It was hard to say but it seemed like he was happy. Either he was outside playing, covered in dirt (or food) or he was asleep sprawled across the floor like he had crashed half way through playing a game.

When it looked as though he had hit the age of five another person began to show up in the photos. A pretty blonde woman with long wavy hair, bright blue eyes, like the eyes Neko had now, and a bright smile. The photos had obviously been taken by Neko as a child since they were crooked and all angled up, but it didn't seem to take away from the pictures at all.

A few times they had taken photos together and Neko seemed full of smiles without a care in the world, but as the pages turned and Neko got older, the woman began to look frailer. Her complexion became pale and she looked worn and tired, but the smile she held didn't look to be forced or fake in the slightest. When it looked as though Neko had turned around eight the pictures suddenly stopped and nestled in the back on a blank photo page was a folded up newspaper article. An obituary, from long ago in the beginning of January, the same photo of the woman in the pictures on the paper.

((I'll let you decide how far Riyo gets through the album.))