Tadao exited the master suite, closing the door quietly behind him. The hallway was long, considering how big the house was. He absently noted the fancy abstract art prints on the walls, hallway tables with vases of fragrant flower arrangements, and arbitrarily placed chairs which were more for ambien decor rather than actual seating. The Venomian felt as though he were walking through an art museum of some sorts, deathly afraid to touch anything and leaving his grubby fingerprints upon Alicia's stuff.

His sneakers padded quietly on the wood floors, so neither Kiersey or Max would hear when he stopped outside of Maxwell's bedroom door.

"Um…" Tadao took a moment to remember the young woman's name. Alicia's daughter. "...Kiersey?"

There was a light clinking noise. Almost like little pieces of glass being shuffled around on the carpet.

"Come in!" Kiersey's voice rang.

Tadao pushed the door open, causing the hinges to creek. He tilted his head when he saw the pile of colorful plastic blocks on the floor. He watched as Kiersey and Max shuffled through the pile. They each selected little bricks from the pile, adding the piece to the respective structures they were building. Max had more talent and sleight of hand, as he only took a moment to scan the pile and pick out a particular color, size, and brick shape to add to the scale model of Alicia's house; Tadao was already able to recognize the front porch and the three-door garage. Meanwhile Kiersey aimlessly and purposelessly picked and added pieces to a something-or-other.

Tadao had heard about this toy, and he marveled at how easy they were to snap together. It reminded him of the time he was on Fortuna, where he'd fashion together pieces of wood and stones for recreational purposes. Or when he would build or fix things in his home.

They were playing with Bego Blox.

"Hey, Tadao!" Kiersey's voice rang, breaking him from his trance. "Don't judge me…" She put down the cotton candy-colored chicken drumstick/ice cream cone, or-what-ever-the-hell-t-is she was building and left it in the pile. Max quickly took the abandoned thingamajig and added it to his house.

Tadao smiled and chuckled a little at Kiersey's comment. "Miss Alicia asked me to bring you and your brother down for dinner."

"We'll be there in just a moment." Kiersey said.

"Okay."

Pulling the door closed but leaving it cracked, Tadao walked down the corridor to the auxiliary staircase that leads into the family room. Across the open space, Alicia was disposing of the melted frozen yogurt in the sink. She almost jumped at the sound of the kitchen timer, and quickly dropped (what is the thing?) to get the dinner out of the oven, and place the pan on the counter. She looked up to see him approach from across the room, and she smiled. Upon approach, Tadao saw that Alicia's eyes were still a little red and puffy, but much better than earlier, and took a seat at the island.

While Alicia walked around the cooking space—collecting disposable plates from the pantry, cutlery from the dishwasher, beverages from the refrigerator—and Tadao noticed (though didn't comment as of yet) that Alicia was not wearing a shirt, just an ornate white brassiere and her jeans.

"Tadao, you want to try a piece?" Alicia asked, poking one of the pieces of meat with a fork and sawing at it with a knife.

"Oh, I think I would!" Tadao said gleefully and held out his plate.

Alicia smiled. She continued cutting up one of the chicken breasts before scooping the pieces onto his plate. She also gave him a heaping helping of broiled green beans and then turned around to break the seal on the grocery store brand iced green tea she'd picked up while food shopping a couple days ago. "Tell me what you think."

Tadao reached down to pick up one of the bite-size cubes of chicken with his hand— He stopped himself. Bad habits die hard… He gave a nervous chuckle, which prompted Alicia to turn around as he picked up the fork. Using the utensil, he skewered a piece of chicken, and lifted it to his mouth. Oooh… The explosion of herbs and spices. He could only dream of having something as simple as salt and pepper to work with back when he was in the Fortunan jungle. This was quite exquisite. "I like it," was Tadao's understatement of the century before he lifted another bite into his mouth.

Looking down at the side dish, he stabbed a couple of green beans onto the fork and put them whole into his mouth. He chewed twice and scrunched his face a little. "...Not too fond of the texture. Don't really like the squishy-crunchiness of the green beans."

"Not for everyone, I suppose." Alicia shrugged, and placed everyone's respective portions on their plates at the counter… Just three plates. Was one of them not going to eat?

Just then, Kiersey and Max entered the kitchen from the alcove. Max stopped and made a survey of the space before registering that Tadao was sitting at the counter, getting an early jump on dinner.

"Tadao, if you want, you can just dump the green beans onto my plate? I'll take them off your … well, plate."

Alicia turned to see her son staring at the Venomian as he scooped the veggies onto the plate next to him. "It's rude to stare sweetheart."

"Is he Venomian?" Max signed.

"He is," Alicia said, placing the other two plates at the bar, Tadao electing to scoop the green beans onto his host's plate. The Venomian looked at Alicia and her son curiously.

"Dad says they're bad."

Alicia clapped her hands together, resting them under her chin as she formulated a response. "Well…" Another moment, then she signed back to him. "Sweetheart, not all of them are bad. Many are no different than yourself and I, and want to live a simple, peaceful life like everyone else. That's why I invited Tadao to live with us for a while, so he can have an opportunity to do just that."

Maxwell stared at his mother as he took this all in. He then nodded and sat down at the island.

While all of this was going on, Kiersey had placed a plate of bite-size pizza pockets in the microwave oven for Max. And when the timer went off, Alicia turned around to retrieve Max's dinner. She placed it on the counter in front of him.

Max's leering wasn't subtle. As well, Tadao was used to the constant stares, since being a foreigner, scales weren't a common sight compared to fur, after all. He tried not to stare back, so as not to make the child uneasy. However, when he noticed Alicia signing to the boy instead of speaking normally, that piqued Tadao's interest. He wondered what they were talking about, and figured it was about himself since this was the first time Max got a good look at the new house guest.

Tadao was also a little curious about Max's dinner… What strange foods they had here. With that meat and cheese wrapped in a carbohydrate-laden casing. It looked incredibly unhealthy. The lizard almost gagged as he looked at it, thinking he would not be able to take more than a bite or two of something like that.

"...So, he's deaf?" Tadao looked at Alicia, who took her seat to the left of him. Leaning a bit closer, he asked, "If you don't mind my asking, what were you talking about?"

Alicia was already chewing on a forkful of green beans when Tadao began talking to her. She chewed just enough to swallow to answer him. "Yeah, he is. He got sick with meningitis, and the fever caused hearing damage. And then, he kept getting ear infections which made things progressively worse. By the time he was ten, he'd become completely deaf." She was momentarily distracted by movement on the far end of the counter: Kiersey getting up to prepare herself a glass of iced green tea. "...And we were actually chatting about you!"

Tadao looked at Maxwell, a sad sigh escaping him. How unfortunate to be stripped of that at such a young age. Then Alicia mentioned that they were talking about him. Not that it was surprising or that he particularly minded. He was used to the susserations about him as he wandered about Corneria City when he was free to move as he pleased.

"That's unfortunate…" He turned back to look at Alicia. I think there are hearing implants out there that could… Restore his hearing ability to almost just as good as it was. You ever considered that?"

"I considered booking an appointment for a consultation, but I'm a little trepid about it for a couple of reasons. For one, he's autistic and one of his… Uh…" Alicia paused for a moment. "...One of his 'symptoms?' "

"One of his parallel conditions?" Kiersey offered as she poured a glass of tea.

"Yeah, what she said."

"Any time, Mom!"

"Yeah, thanks." Turning back to Tadao, she continued. "One of Max's parallel conditions is hypersensitivity. Too many bright lights, loud noises, sensitivity to sunlight… And did you notice him curling into a fetal position when Derek and I were going at each other's throats? So I'm a little scared of getting the implants for him. The new medium of stimuli might be too much for him. Him hearing all of these new strange noises might be a sensory overload for him."

Tadao looked at the boy again, saddened that he may not be able to hear ever again, possibly being unable to deal with the new sensory input. "Too many noises, huh?" That reminded him of the first night he'd made it to Fortuna, and they'd been intercepted by Cornerian patrol before they could safely merge into the jungle. All of that gunfire, the explosions… Would that be what Max would experience were he gifted the ability to hear again? "Have you asked Max what he thought of getting the cochlear implants?"

Alicia's head shot up, turning to Tadao with a dazed, blinking expression. She'd been so concerned with what she thought was her son's safety that Tadao's question made her realize she'd been thinking of herself the whole time. It was Max who was deaf, not her. "...No, I haven't actually."

"Hey, Mom?" Kiersey stood on the opposite side of the kitchen island, sipping on her beverage. "I have a question."

"Talk to me."

"You're not wearing a shirt."

Alicia looked down at her chest, tugging on the straps of her bra, and playing with the little satin bow in the plunge between the cups, and then looked back up at her daughter. "Yeah. What's your question?"

"Why?"

"Because I pay the three-and-a-half grand mortgage?"

Kiersey scoffed and rolled her eyes, taking a sip from her juice glass. As much as that was a valid point, she hated the whole parent-to-child 'I pay the bills here' talking point.

Tadao stifled the urge to laugh. In all this excitement over her injured nose, he'd not addressed her lack of upper-body clothing, being stripped down to her lingerie. Why worry about that when her health was a concern after all? He'd administered first aid to plenty of patients out in the field who did not have a shirt, often having to rip the garment off himself in case of emergency, which occurred quite often. Alicia walking around her house covered above the belt in only her bra was not a shock to him.

"You do know you live under her roof, right?" he said to Kiersey, who playfully glared daggers at him. Then to Alicia: "Do you think you may want to get a shirt on at some point?"

With a smile, Alicia leaned back and put her hands behind her head. "Yeah, eventually. But right now, I'm feeling good about myself!"