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Ritsu froze as he realized he had been speaking out loud. The tips of his ears turned bright red, and he hunched his shoulders just slightly more, the urge to throw himself at Spiro's feet apologizing rising... but as the other boy spoke, and didn't seem angry, Ritsu relaxed marginally.

"Yuki...?" Ritsu parted his fingers a bit to peek through them at the mouse. He had been right. "I... I thought so... I'm sorry for being so presumptuous. I had no right to ask..."

But he was curious. And a bit nervous at being curious. And the confusion this caused made him stammer and fight down the urge to apologize. At least he'd gotten that far, no longer embarrassing himself and everyone else with his outbursts...


Avery watched the scene intently, but not saying anything. He'd seen Ritsu act like this plenty of times... but not Spiro. He wondered what it was about Ritsu that made Spiro act different. It couldn't just be that he looked a little helpless. Colette looked a little helpless sometimes, too, and Spiro was still distant. He stood, unconsciously mimiking the way Rime stood when she was lost in thought, tapping his finger to his cheek. He wasn't all that great at unraveling things like this.

Ritsu lowered his hands from his face, and watched the mouse carefully. He checked Spiro's face once more, before hesitantly reaching out with a gentle finger towards Alexei and petting him on the top of his head, between the ears, as Spiro had done.

He smiled slightly, and said, "H-hello, Alexei. You... you remind me of someone..." The shy boy seemed to have been taken out of his apologetic mood, at least temporarily, and was in slightly better spirits.

Ritsu's mouth opened slightly in surprise and a little bit of rare delight as the mouse scampered up his arm. He tilted his head away so he could turn and look at the mouse on his shoulder.

"I.. I'm glad. I like him, too. You're lucky, Spiro-san," Ritsu said with a smile in his direction. He put one finger up near his shoulder with the opposite hand to pet Alexei again if the mouse would alllow it.

((you're right. There was that gigantic pause in the middle))

Avery ignored the two kids conversing quietly. He wasn't really interested in the mouse, after it's display of agility was over. Fuzzy creatures weren't his thing, he preferred frogs and such.

Colette dumped out the puzzle, and began to sort the pieces, prompting Avery to rock back and forth on his heels for a second before plopping down uncerimoniously and helping.

"Mr. Sei took off... I think he had somethin' important to do. He said he wanted to live here, so maybe he went up to look at rooms? I wonder if he'll live on the same floor..." Avery wasn't even paying attention as he rambled along, his thoughts coming out verbally.

Ritsu was startled at being invited. Of course, Sei-sama had said he could play... but then he had disappeared. He nodded a little bit, and carefully knelt so as to not dislodge the little mouse, and also because he was still in that fancy kimono... This was going to be difficult...

He bobbled a little bit kneeling down, but managed to recover before faceplanting. He hoped he hadn't upset Alexei.

"Where... where should I start...?" He still wasn't sure he was really welcome.

"Oh... Uhm.. well, we started on the outside the last time. That's a good place, right, Spiro, Colette?" Avery piped up from where he had been looking at the pieces.

Ritsu felt out of place... he didn't really belong with Avery's group of friends... for one thing.. he was so much older... He sighed, feeling bad for getting in the way of their fun.

So... when no one was looking, he quietly slipped away from the puzzle, and sat down on a couch, not noticing the boy nearby, sitting in the shadows. He sighed again, and started pulling on a hank of his hair, running it through his hand in a consoling gesture.

"I need to go make friends, Rime-san says... but... I'm not very good at making friends... I'm not very good at anything at all..." he said in a sad voice, and leaned back against the couch cushions.

See people? See people! The thought made William positively shiver from his head to his toes, but, apparently not his little sister. The angel stood outside his room, large wings loosley lagging down by his sides. Ok, he could do this, seeing people wasn't that bad - meeting people wasn't all that bad. Taking in a deep breath, he whistled. The sound was short, but sharp. Quickly enough a four legged creature dashed to his aid, the dog lolling her tongue happily. Back together with Thistle didn't make it so bad, and he wasn't alone....he had Yume.

"Coming!" Cera called from where she was. Wearing what could be classified as something that looked like it had come out of her brothers drawers, which- may I hasten to add that it had. Dragging her brothers hand along, she tugged him back into the main room. One person seemed to be excited about the whole thing. Her long pony tails dangled dangerously by her shoulders, apparently way too loose, the bobbles on the verge of falling out all together. She, on the other hand, didn't care.

William could have groaned there and then, couldn't he just have another day of staying in all night and sitting around with Yume. Why did he have to meet people?...Was it really all that necessary? Yet, he didn't have much choice in the matter, beind dragged into the kitchen by his little sister. Putting on what little of a smile he could, his palm clung onto the dogs leash beside him. Might as well make a go of this. Long hair dwindleing over his shoulderblades, he grasped onto his little sisters hand rather tightly.

Cera, rather promptly dragged him to the door. Whether he was ready or not was another thing all together. Gripping onto his hand, she knocked the key off the hook into Yume's direction. He didn't even get much time to speak, the black eared neko pulling him right out of the room and towards the elevator. Reaching up on tip toes, she pressed the large green button for the lift. It had only been a short walk, but Cera beamed on up towards her older brother. They were going out!

It was all one big adventure to her. Apparently not one to stay still she rocked too and fro on her heels, one hand stuffed in the duffel coats pocket. If one had seen William as a child, they would have regnoised that coat, and the t-shirt and shorts. Well, if you wanted to class them as shorts, they had reached all the way down to her knees by now. In such a short amount of time the young girl had taught herself how to walk, and, she could talk right now. Limited it might be, but she could talk.

"Sorry Yume," William spoke as he was dashed out of the door. Not seeing a thing hadn't really bothered him when it came down to being dragged around. Ever since the black eared hyper girl called his sister had learnt to walk she demanded on dragging him everywhere. Letting out a long breath, his chin instintively tilted down towards the floor, stuffing one hand into his pocket. His other still tightly incased around his little sister. The dog beside him barked, nuzzleing her cold nose into his palm almost to reassure the young angel. It didn't work though.

Yume giggled as she watched Cera dragger her brother out the door. "About time you got out the door." she said pushing him out into the hall ways and pulling the door shut with her foot. "I'm tired of seeing you both locked up in here all day and night so we are at least moving rooms." She giggled and made sure they had a key and the door was shut.

Making her way over to the elevator, Yume pressed the button and was surprised to find the lift waiting for time. Guess no one else had needed it after she came up last. Shaking it off, she stepped inside and looked back towards Cera and Will as they joined her inside. Leaning down, she stroked Thistles ears and smiled. "Ever watchful aren't you." She nodded and stood up again as the elevator headed down and opened on the ground floor.

One thing was for sure, she was happy the place never put in music for the ride. She would have memorized the tune if it was like every other place and the piano music they play.

As the doors opened, Yume could have sworn she heard other people walking around the hall ways. Not surprising of course but still, it made her happy she had drug the pair down. "Come on now. Someone's here so lets go meet them." She said happily as she stepped off the lift and turned to wait for the other pair to join her.