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Yuki reached out to shake his hand, offering a smile. "I'm Yuki, even though my sister has already mentioned that..." He chuckled, leaning in closer as though not wanting the females to hear. "I feel sorry for you, if you've been alone with them for long. Hitsu will talk your arm off if you let her, and Gertrude's prone to cruel and unusual punishment." He drew back again, stepping away from Neko and over toward the old woman. "No trouble today, I assume?"

Meanwhile, the older feline had stepped up to Neko and offered his free hand in greeting as well. "Deacon. Nice to meet you, Neko."

"She wandered off again, he found her and brought her home." Gertrude replied shortly, gesturing toward Neko. If he pried, she'd have to resort to sugar coating the truth. Of course, she knew well enough that since his sister was fine, he'd probably not say a word to her on it further. Hitsu, however, might be a different story.

Yuki had frowned, looking to Hitsu. "What have I told you about staying close to home? I don't want you getting lost." He scolded. Though, his tone wasn't nearly as stern as it should have been.

It happened to be this scolding that reminded Hitsu just why she had been out. "I was getting flowers for momma." She replied. She gave him an apologetic look, "I didn't mean to go far away."

His expression softened even more, and he stared for a moment at the basket on the table. "We'll take them to her in a little while, then. Go and put them next to the door for right now."

When Hitsu had moved the basket out of the way, Deacon immediately took up the free space of most of the table by plopping the meat he'd been carrying onto the table. His share of what they had caught, as usual.

Yuki grimaced, "I'm sorry to hear that." Mentally, he made note to look out for Gertrude. He didn't want to end up getting an unwanted haircut next.

Apparently, Gertrude had at least heard mention about 'hair' in Neko's statement. "He looks presentable now, don't he? He was a mess when he came in here. I made him clean up."

"I see." Yuki chuckled, looking him over a moment. That would also explain why Neko had a set of his old clothes.

"You're next. Go get cleaned up, dinner should be close to ready by the time you're through." Gertrude insisted.

Clearly, Yuki knew better than to protest. He offered a quick thanks to Deacon, before vanishing toward his room.

"You staying for dinner, Deacon?" Gertrude asked, as she cut away the amount of meat she planned to prepare with the vegetables.

"Nah. I was just dropping this off for him." Hitsu had returned, and he looked down to her with a smile. "Your brother is learning quickly. I don't think he'll need my help for much longer." He was being a little generous with his statement, but not by an exaggerated amount. A wave and goodbye to them all, and Deacon took his leave.

Hitsu nodded, "He's been helping Yuki learn to hunt big animals, and use magic."

It wasn't long before Yuki returned freshly groomed and brushed (which Gertrude found proper to point out to Neko like rubbing salt into an open wound), and he sat himself at the table in wait for their meal to be finished. He'd hypothesized without question that Neko would be sticking around at least to eat with them. He had no complaints, after all he had retrieved his little sister from her wanderings. Had he known just how much help he really had been, he probably would have been thanking him vigorously.

The time to eat shortly arrived, and Gertrude served each of them a generous portion before dipping some out for herself in a container to take home with her. "I suspect you'll be home tomorrow, Yuki? You've got enough meat here for at least another couple of days."

He had nodded in response and offered a muffled thanks before she had also left for home, leaving only the three of them remaining. The sun was quickly setting, it would be dark shortly.

"Don't mention it, thanks for bringing my sister back home." Yuki replied, "I don't know what I'd have done if she would have gone missing." He reached alongside him and ruffled her hair teasingly. "She might have mentioned it already, but all we've got left is each other." He wasn't asking for pity, simply stating fact.

Hitsu got up from her chair and approached Neko, hugging him as well as she could manage. She was a lot shorter than he was. "Thank you, Neko."

Yuki had risen as well, "Don't worry about it, I'm not heartbroken." He stepped toward the door, and picked up Hitsu's flower basket and held it out toward her as she caught his gesture and hurried toward him. "Can we walk you home? We're going out anyway..."

Yuki's smile faded a bit. He adverted his gaze from Neko, trying to keep it from being noticed. A pang of guilt hit him, as he began to piece the bits of information together. Not from around here, clothes that had been in disrepair, not to mention that Gertrude had insisted he bathe in their home instead of wherever he was staying. She knew without being told, and Yuki had probably just hit a very soft spot.

Neko was trying to cover for it, though. So, how was Yuki supposed to offer help to him if he didn't want to outright admit he had nowhere to go? "Well, we'll walk together for a little while, at least. If you have to pass the church on your way home, we'll go with you that far... Is that alright?"

He smiled, "Don't be ridiculous, you're not interfering if we've invited you." Good, hopefully he could think of something before they got that far.

"Come on, it's almost dark!" Hitsu had whined, before growing impatient two seconds later and walking on ahead.

Yuki sighed softly, though his smile did not fade the emotion in his eyes didn't seem to reflect the facade of happiness. Instead he simply started after her at his own slow pace. "Can you believe she does this every Thursday?" He said, "There's no flowers in the winter, of course, but that doesn't stop her..."

"Yeah, she was the only one we had for a long time..." He replied, "Hitsu never knew our father." For an instant, it looked like he had sneered at the mention of 'father'.

"Almost three years now. I was fourteen, and she was six..." He seemed to struggle to keep his neutral expression, if for just a moment. "I got back from a hunting trip, and they had both fallen asleep in her bed... Hitsu woke up when I came home, but..." He trailed off, heaving a sigh. "When she died, I don't think a minute passed for at least a month when someone wasn't there to help us. Even now, we're well taken care of." That much, Neko had witnessed in his short time in the village. "The people here really look out for one another, you know?"

Yuki cast him a sideways glance, and lucky for Neko he didn't ask. Though, it did further suggest to him that Neko was completely alone and perhaps not as welcome elsewhere. Why that would be, however, Yuki couldn't know. Neko's last statement, however, got a response. "Well, what's stopping you?"