There's giggling from the other side of the house. In the dark corners, far away from the mother and the good food she cooks, the children are laughing. A guest has entered the home, having grown bored of waiting at an appointed spot. Instead, he stumbles into precisely the right place.[break]
It's foolish to underestimate a dog's nose. It leads him wherever he needs to go. If asked to apply human concepts of language to his navigation, he would appear an utter fool. He simply acts. Meaning and intelligent design are beyond him.[break]
The children were scared at first. Why wouldn't they be? He's a stranger in their home. It's only thanks to the strange creature he keeps with him, a Kartana named Kusanagi, that a bridge was formed between them. Well, maybe his ronin getup at something to do with it.[break]
The children have dubbed Hitoshi and his Kartana 'samufriends'. Hitoshi and Kusanagi stand up, pose with their hands on their hips, look forward. With a grin out of a movie, they speak in unison.[break]
"Once again, I have cut a worthless object."[break]
"Tcejbo sselhtrow a tuc evah I ,niaga ecno."[break]
The children love their Samufren. Kusanagi allows Huxley to wield him like a knife. Hitoshi shakes his head, having to be a little stern.[break]
"Careful now, don't hurt yourself!" He laughs. The children join him in laughing. Even Kusanagi laughs. That's how they're found, two children sitting on the floor by a ronin who leans against a wall, laughing so hard he has tears rolling down his cheeks.

He looks up at her and he smiles.[break]
This is not the smile of a murderer or killer, although he is those things. Per the contract they have formed, they are bound by blood. Sitting on her floor, smiling with two children and laughing like an idiot, he looks like just another kid. Amber eyes raise to regard her. Their shade and hue are remarkably similar to the woman's own.[break]
If her presence bothers him, he doesn't let it show. As he sees it, he's just here as part of fulfilling the contract. Letting her know the job's done is important.[break]
"Yo! Heya. Job's done. Got bored of sitting around waitin', so I thought I'd come tell ya myself. These two are awesome." A hand goes to each of their heads, ruffling their hair. "Say, I'm hungry. Can I join ya for dinner? Call it a bonus."[break]
Hopefully the kids help his case. It's hard for someone to say no to their kids if the kids join in and say that's a good idea.

"I got bored waitin' on ya. What else is there to say?" In a dog's world, things aren't complicated. Instincts keep him out of trouble. Yumi trained him well in where to go and where not to go in relation to her own businesses. This, freelancing under independent contacts formed within Team Rocket, is new to him. Everything is for Yumi's glory. That is what led him here, to this place, looking into eyes that make him think he's looking into a mirror.[break]
"Wasn't followed." He adds, as if that solved anything. "Your security guards suck. Most of 'em are on their phones. Dudes weren't even payin attention to the monitors. Everybody capable of holdin' a gun or a pokeball in the building you sent me to clear out is dead. What's the problem?"[break]
The first real sign of concern crosses his face. A dog puts his proverbial tail between his legs. Apprehension takes him. How could it not, with the thought that just crossed his mind.[break]
"I didn't...upset 'em, did I? They're really cute. I like 'em. They've got your eyes." Whatever else comprises this creature, for these children, who he only just met, he feels nothing but unconditional love. It's in the unsteady cadence of his voice, the way he looks away. Not much causes him shame, but that thought does.

"Well, if someone like that broke in, I'd kill them, obviously." He says as if that settles the matter. So long as he has his blade, nothing can harm those he has decided he cares for.[break]
...or so he would like to believe.[break]
That creature is out there, the snow-draped sword. It is not something he can simply slay. Not as he is now. Were that cat to intrude upon this woman's home, he could do little save cover their escape and say his sorrowful prayer to Yumi that he couldn't keep his promise. Perhaps those words he says are more for himself than her, a reassurance that his strength is enough.[break]
"...look." There's a sigh, he tries to build his part of the bridge that is understanding. He wants to meet this woman in the middle, truly, he does.[break]
"I didn't know you had kids. Dunno anything about you." He was, in fact, an exceptional specimen in regards to how few personal questions he asked during that initial meet and greet.[break]
"All I knew is I got done early. Killing 'em wasn't hard. So I got bored waiting, figured out how to get here, and just thought I'd come and let you know. I was gonna leave."[break]
He looks away from her, out the window into the darkness beyond the light cast by electric civilization.[break]
"...guess it's just a weakness of mine, I love kids. They're not old enough to hate yet." He envies them for that. He has seldom felt hatred in his own heart, but when he has, it's scared him.[break]
"I won't come here again if it makes you mad."

All he can do is shrug when she observes he's good with kids. It's not a shrug born of apathy, his face is too expressive and warm for that. He shrugs because quantifying such things into words is impossible, like asking a frog to explain how it ribbits. Still, he tries, drawing from a well twenty years deep. People asked him to teach them swordplay in a dream once, and he picked up on how to explain things.[break]
"Eh, just don't treat 'em like yer better than them and play games with 'em." Standing up reveals he's shorter than her by a few inches. Much like certain dogs, he barks like a creature far larger than he is.[break]
"Plus, this guy helps." Hitoshi points to the ultra beast floating in the room like it's no big deal. The shiny Kartana twirls and gives his employer a salute.[break][break]
"So, what's for dinner?