Chris has a pet and Hibiki is the first one to encounter it.

Chris' apartment
"Chris-chan, I come to play!" Hibiki shouts after opening the door. She was already aware that her senpai had nothing planned this day and, with Miku wanting to learn one of Shirabe's recipes, she was free to spend time and company with the 'loner' of their group.

She was prepared to be welcomed by an annoyed silver-haired girl, annoyance that would ultimately melt away over time as the older girl would resign herself and play along, as usual.

"Great timing, you! Close the door and help me look around the place, she can't be that far."

Contrary to what Hibiki was expecting, it seems that her presence was quite welcomed. Until she realizes that she has been asked something, hence why the welcoming tone.

Proceeding as told and closing the door before taking off her shoes, Hibiki stood at the entrance, watching curiously at the form of her senpai; Yukine Chris, moving around the living room frenetically, looking behind curtains and pillows.

"What are you looking for Chris-chan?" she decides to ask directly.

"The pet I got left her temporary cage as I was setting her tank," she answers while checking around the TV.

Hibiki's face brightens in elation at the news. "You got a pet Chris-chan?" she begins looking around to catch sight of the little creature as she moves forward? "What did you get, a hamster, a rabbit or something else, what does it look like?"

"Nothing like that, it's a snake." Chris answer from her position as she looks under the couch, not for the first time.

Hibiki suddenly froze in place at the response. "A- a snake?" she hesitates, her smile slowly dropping.

Chris stood up from her crouching position before responding. "Yeah, a beautiful and elegant blizzard corn snake, now please help me looking around for her, she must be crawling around somewhere." She adds the last part as she walks in direction of the bathroom and bedroom, enough time has passed for the reptile to decide to explore beyond the living room.

Once she saw her friend leaving her, Hibiki's eyes roams frenetically the room once more, her senses on high alert to locate the reptile before it had a chance to come close to her and, hopefully keeping it that way. She didn't even dare to take a single step, while she was not fond of reptiles and some other creatures, she was aware that her own presence could be detected by the vibration she could create on the floor by moving. That was her reason, not because of some unrelated fear or something.

She was beginning to ease up a bit when she couldn't catch sight of it, 'Maybe it really moved toward the bathroom or Chris' bedroom,' she thought hopefully after another failure at spotting it after sweeping the area with her eyes, not sparing furniture and even the ceiling.

Then, she feels it, something moving on one of her foot causing her whole body to freeze again. Looking doubtfully and fearfully at the floor, she was met with a vision she wishes she could forget. Chris' missing snake had slithered on her foot and like it was not already bad enough, it has begun climbing her sock-covered leg.

"Chriiiiiiiis…" she barely could hold back a scream and instead resort to a drawn-out call for help.

Luckily for her, her senpai didn't make her wait on was with her in seconds, despite feeling like hours actually passed.

"Did you find her?" Chris asks between a hopeful and a relieved expression, noticing where Hibiki's gaze was lingering before looking down herself. "Oh! Great, Come here you," she kneels to the ground to scoop the reptile in her hands, letting it climb her forearms before standing up, scolding it with a smile and nuzzling her nose against her creature. "Seriously, I let you out of my sight for a moment and you are already exploring on your own."

"Thank for the help... Are you okay?" Chris inquires after noticing the mild shaken state of her kouhai.

"Me?! Fine, Great! Just happy to help!" She stammers.

Chris wasn't buying it and she knew that Hibiki knew it as well. The younger girl's gaze was reflexively shifting between her and the pet, clearly not in the most comfortable situation she has ever been and it took little time for Chris to figure out what was happening.

When the silence was beginning to get particularly thick and uncomfortable, Chris decides to acknowledge the elephant in the room. "So, not too keen on snakes, or maybe reptiles in general?"

"What? No! I'm fine with them!" Hibiki begins in an attempt to defend herself but only faltering under Chris' blank stare. "Fine, I'm not really at ease with snakes."

"Interesting… And I thought that you could dive first into danger without second thoughts regardless of the situation. Guess even you, have things you can deal with," she voices while stroking her pet's chin with a finger. "I mean, compared to most, well anything we faced, a snake should be a walk in park."

"I would pick fighting anytime over this," Hibiki reply with unwavering conviction as she eyed the reptile in her senpai's hands, a mixture of awe and bewilderment as to how the girl could be comfortable holding one. Miku wouldn't even approach an insect with a 10ft pole.

"Quite rude. Anyway, give me your hand."

"What for?" Hibiki asks, getting suspicious.

The older girl rolls her eyes at the girl's defiance before insisting. "Come on, it's not poisonous or anything, just give me your hand."

Hibiki reluctantly does as asked, stretching her arm toward her senpai, palm facing up. Then Chris brings her own closer and let the white snake slithers from one hand to the other. Hibiki expectantly froze at the moment when she saw the white snake climb her upper arm, a strangled scream threatening to leave her lips.

"Spread your hand, give more area for its body." She does as asked, spreading her hands and instinctively bring the other to let the snake transfer from her forearm to her other hand, repeating the same motion with her fingers until the reptile was entangled around both hands and between her fingers.

"Good, how it feels?"

Hibiki's eyes lit up. "The skin is smooth and nice, the movement making it kind of soothing. I would have never thought that I would hold a snake in my hands one day. It's even kind of cool." Hibiki announces with a beaming smile.

"Thought so!" The senpai grins back.

Hibiki has never seen Chris smiling like that, she had seen her being happy but not to this degree and it was making her smile even wider. She then shifts back her attention to the creature in her hands, the current source of Chris' happiness before asking the question she was now curious about. "Why a snake though? When talking about a pet, people would usually think of a dog or a cat, even a hamster."

"Well I did think about those at first," she begins, joining Hibiki in caressing the little animal. "But considering my situation; with school, club, random assignment from HQ… I would not be home as much as I would like or need. Based on that, if I wanted to take in a pet, it would be something that doesn't require much of my time or attention."

Chris begins to move deeper in the living room, Hibiki following her as she keeps listening to her senpai's explanation. "The answer was her; need feeding once to twice a week, change its water weekly and other depending on conditions. And while she doesn't mind being hold and handled, she will not actively seek for my attention, so leaving her alone sometimes would be fine."

This was truly an amazing sight to Hibiki, Chris was basically glowing as she was going through her explanation while attending to the tank on the table that Hibiki supposes would be the new home of the little being. That something could hog so much of her senpai's attention was kind of making her jealous of it.

"What's her name?" she finally asks after remaining clueless about this important piece of information.

Chris turns toward her before answering with the same smile Hibiki had seen on her for a while now. "Silvya. I originally thought about 'Sonya', but… Well, I think you can guess why."

Hibiki nods in understanding, giving your pet the name of someone you know can be troublesome, and sometimes weird. Her attention shifts back once more from Chris attending to the tank to the new member of the Yukine household before muttering. "Guess I will be counting on you to take care of Chris-chan in your own way, Silvya-chan."

Chris' attention was torn away by giggling behind her, then seeing her kouhai nuzzling her nose with her pet. "For someone who was petrified at first, you quickly got all chummy with her, and even making secrets? What was it about?"

"It's a secret between Silvya-chan and me!" Hibiki grins.

"This girl, I swear," Chris shakes her head in exasperation, a smile still spreading on her lips before holding her hand toward Hibiki, the latter understanding the intention and brought Silvya back to its owner, watching as the reptile transfer itself from one hand to another.

The two then observe her taking in her new habitat, flicking her tongue and smelling the air.

"Would it be okay if I come more to visit Silvya-chan after a while?" Hibiki breaks the silence with a sudden request.

Chris was more than fine with that, even giving more information about the creature, which Hibiki listens carefully, watching Chris in another element than fighting and enjoying herself. This Chris was even more fun to hang around, to the point she was wondering if the one she knew until now was just a persona.

Hearing Chris laugh was enough to silence the thought. Chris was happy and she was happy to see her like that.

Though she wonders why her heart seems to skip a beat each time her senpai was smiling like that.