*Hatchue*

“Gesundheit,” Samurai Arc Flash says.

“I am Dutch, not German,” Samurai Maniac points out.

“So what is it in Dutch then?”

“Oh, it's godverdomme” Samurai Maniac says

“Right, so godverdomme then,” Samurai Arc Flash confirms

--The reason why Samurai Arc Flash suddenly cursed out Samurai Dancing Queen.

(Cierra)

Some loud noise pushes me awake, followed up by a pair of rapid footsteps running down the hall, followed by the slamming of a door. My mind still feels groggy, but I slowly get myself out of bed. My tired mind, therefore, is a bit slow in figuring out what the hell has happened to the kitchen.

There is a broken bowl on the counter that seemed to have shattered, its remains scattered over the counter as well as the floor. Some white substance that looks like some kind of yogurt is smeared all around. Lastly, there is Daisy staring at the hallway behind me intently.

“Girl, do you have any clue as to what happened here?” I ask the hyena.

The hyena nods then looks back at the hallway.

“Right, you can’t talk; that one is on me. Lyssa, what happened?” I ask, looking up at the ceiling.

Calliope liked Lyssa’s food so much she decided to eat the bowl with it as well. Lyssa will reflect on this failure in future culinary ventures.

“I see. So where is she now?” I ask, looking around.

Evelin is taking her to the med bay; Shinon has run back into her room however.

I nod slowly. "That is not a good start to the day, but it could be worse.”

I slowly walk back into the hall and knock on Shinon’s door. Then, I slowly open the door to check up on the girl. From the corner of the dark room, two blue eyes reflect the light from the halfway back at me. She has taken her blanket off the bed and used it as a makeshift cocoon as she hides in the corner. I take a small step inside, her eyes following my every movement like a scared animal.

“Hey there,” I say, kneeling down slightly. “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

The little girl slowly shakes her head, leaving me with not that much to work with. That is, until Daisy slowly crawls past carrying Snowball by the scruff of her neck. She moves to about halfway into the room, gently lowers the fox to the floor, and lets her go. Snowball shakes herself and slowly moves forward, crawling into Shinon’s blanket fort.

Shinon releases a little giggle as her eyes flick down to look at the fox. My heart melts at the little spectacle. I guess animals are a little less scary for her than humans, so leaving this to them should be fine.

“I’ll be in the living room if you need me.” I say with a smile as I leave the room.

I make it back to the kitchen and slowly get to work cleaning up all the shards of pottery that now cover it. After that is done, I find the plate of food Evelin has left for me and dig in. Fuck, it’s so unfair how good Samurai AI food is.

When I get up again to put away the dish, there is a knock on the door. Not really expecting anyone, I slowly walk over, opening the door to find a purple superstar twitching nervously in my foyer. Her rainbow eyes snap up at me; she lets out a sigh of relief.

“Uhm, hello.” I say, not feeling that comfortable with Magenta yet. Sure, I have seen a lot more of her than most people, but at the same time we have rarely spoken to each other.

“Is Maniac home?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No, there was a little incident and now she is at the med bay. According to her latest text, everything is fine, and she is just running some extra tests to make sure there is not another hidden frog, at least that is what I think she meant? Though I am not sure what that means either.” I say, looking over the text message again.

“That is… not great?” she hedges.

“Yeah, it really isn’t, but not much we can do about it at this point. Want to come in?” I say as I gesture for her to come inside. “I am just worried that we are only making their trauma worse at this point."

Magenta nods. "That makes sense. Maybe this can help,” she says, handing me a book.

A quick glance reveals that it is a parenting book of some kind. “Thank you.” I say with a small smile. “I am sure it will come in handy.”

“And of course, if you need help with the children, I am more than happy to help out in any way I can. You are not alone in this; everyone wants to see those kids be happy.” Magenta says, giving me a soft smile.

“Thank you, I will. That is, if you and Evelin are not fighting about something stupid again.” I say, giving her an appraising look.

“We are not fighting. At least as far as I know, we are not fighting, that is.” Magenta quickly defends herself.

Before I have any chance to push the topic further and ask why she is so nervous, I receive a call. A quick glance reveals that it is from Claire, someone I really did not feel like ignoring.

I walk away a bit and pick up the phone. “Hey, how is it going? How is school?”

“It’s alright, though I slept through most of it so far. How about you? How are the kids?” Claire asks in a nervous tone.

I pause for a second, trying to figure out the best response to that question. “Well, Evelin took Cali to the med bay, and now Shinon is too scared to leave her room, so it’s not going great, but nobody has lost any limbs yet, so it could be worse.”

“That is… do you need help? Should I come?” Comes the quick response.

“No, that’s fine, love,” I try to reassure her, giving Magenta a look. “Magenta is here now, and I don’t want to stress the kids even more.”

“Right, I will stay here then.” It might just be me, but does she sound slightly disappointed at that?

I try my best to stifle a giggle at the thought. “Good, now, did you just want to know how it was going, or did you need something?”

“Yeah, I was wondering what kind of animals they would like since I want to buy them some plushies,” she Answers

“Ah, that is so sweet of you, but I honestly don’t know what they like, so I can’t help you. Just don’t get a hyena; don’t want Daisy getting jealous now.” Daisy mauling a plushie out of jealousy would not look good, that was for sure.

“Yeah, the big oaf might also find it strange having so many new people around. But I’ll be off then, need to go back to class.”

“Okay, love you, bye, bye.” With that, I disconnect the call.

“Is she still worried?” Magenta asks.

I give a small nod. “I think so. She said she slept through her lessons mostly. I hope she was not awake all night worrying.”

Magenta’s face turns a deep shade of red as she lets out a small cough. “I am pretty sure that you don’t have to worry about that.”

I try my best to repress my smile. “Ooh really? Are you, like, an eyewitness?”

“Of sorts,” she says, looking away from me.

“Magenta,” I slowly enunciate. “It’s fine to have some fun with her. I do too, after all, but please make sure she gets enough sleep so that she can pay attention in class.”

Magenta turns even redder at that. “I, ugh, you are so…” Magenta pauses looking at the hallway in surprise.

I follow her gaze, out of one of the door glances a little girl with bright red hair and slitted blue eyes. She is clutching Snowball to herself as some kind of shield as she looks at us with big unsure eyes.

Okay, she got out. What to do now? “Hey sweaty, are you feeling better?” I ask in what I hope is a soft voice. “Do you want some ice cream?” I add when I get no reaction.

She turns her head slightly in confusion. “What is ice cream?”

I smile. Good, she is talking. That was progress. “Its like a frozen desert. It's very sweet and cold.”

I walk over to the freezer and open it. “Evelin said you liked mango, so how about some mango with vanilla and maybe pineapple?”

I look up to see that she has moved herself closer, now standing at the entrance of the hallway instead of at her door. I smile, getting out a big bowl and the electronic ice cream scoop. I quickly turn the scoop on, heating up the element, and get 3 big scoops of each of the flavours. Then I put a small spoon in the bowl.

I slowly take some steps forward and hand her the bowl. She slowly lets go of Snowball who, for her part with the lack of support, jumps up and climbs on her shoulder, draping herself across Shinon’s neck. She holds on to the bowl for a while and gives me a deer in the headlights look.

“How about you eat that in front of the TV? I am sure we have some shows about animals you can watch while you eat.” I suggest.

At Shinon’s hesitant nod, I make it over to the TV and select one of the nature documentaries we have available, though I am unsure how we have so many different shows downloaded. I am too lazy to ask. Shinon slowly follows behind me.

“You can sit wherever you like.” I say, gesturing at the couch and chairs.

She slowly sits down in one of the chairs. Snowball dropping off her shoulder onto the cushion next to her and cuddling into her side. Once she is settled and some part of the Serengeti is shown on the TV, she finally takes a bite of the ice cream.

Her entire body goes still for a second, making me wonder if she is okay. “Is it too cold?”

The words have not even fully left my mouth as the first teardrop forms in her eyes.

“Oh no, honey, don’t worry. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it.” I try to coax her.

Shinon raptly shakes her head. “We, we never… got good food, it’s good,” she sniffles.

My heart breaks for the second time today as I throw my arms around her and hold her close. “Don’t worry baby, from now on, you can have all the good food that you want to eat.” I say as I start stroking her head.

Shinon nods, leaning in closer as more tears spill out. I keep petting her head until she fully calms down again.

“Feeling better now?” I ask in a soft voice as I wipe her tears away.

Shinon mutely nods.

“Good, since ice cream is supposed to be eaten cold. You might want to hurry before it all melts.”

Shinon eyes immediately go wide as she throws a panicked look at the bowl.

“Ooh, don’t worry honey if it does actually melt, you can just ask me for more, okay?”

Shinon smiles a little at that as she gives me another nod. I smile, giving her one last kiss on the top of her head before I let go of her.

“I’ll be over there talking, to uuhm Aunty Magenta,” I say, pointing at the kitchen where Magenta is still standing. “Shout if you need anything.”

“Yeah you have nothing to worry about. You won’t traumatise them anymore” Magenta says with a smile as I walk up to her.

“That is good” I say as I wipe my own tears away. Better not let Shinon see me cry.