"Ah, it is a pleasure to meet you, M'lady" Beast offered her his hand in greeting but paused halfway through the motion. Did people really want to shake his hand... paw? At least these girls didn't run screaming like most, that was an improvement.

Victoria saw his hesitation and took his hand in both of hers, "A pleasure, sir. And such nice matters too." She said looking toward June who hadn't introduced herself yet.

June crossed her arms at the comment before coming over, "Name's June, Second oldest sister, adopted." She said before blurting out, "So why blue?"

"JUNE!" Victoria shot back.
"What?! Jeeze, I mean, it's not a natural hair colour, I'm just curious."
"You have green hair."
"Well...fine." June said not being able to come up with a comeback for that one.

The girls didn't seem scared by his appearance as Celeste had been. More curious than anything.

"Well... to be honest I'm not certain either" Beast admitted, "The entire concept of the mutant x-gene is still a very new phenomenon, at least as far as any records I can locate go. We do know that buried within everyone's genetic make-up are bits and pieces of every evolutionary step human beings have taken throughout the millenniums of our development which causes me to theorize that at some point blue fur may have been a potentially prominent gene that we subdued in favour of others. Yet in my case, the x-gene has targeted that specific area and brought it forth. I still find it incredibly odd that not everyone is born as such however. This has been a relatively new development and it is rather uncommon for such drastic genetic alterations to occur during a later point in one's life, the only potentially comparable example would be cancer and yet that in itself is so drastically different that I do not believe it applies."
Pausing again, Beast realized he had barely taken a breath in that entire mouthful of information, "Ah... but alas, Beast is technically a code name of sorts, my true name is Hank, Dr. Hank McCoy. Yet somehow I think Beast is currently more suitable"

"Woah, That's intense." June said, blinking a couple of times.

"Nonsense, Dr. McCoy." Victoria patted his hand. "Just because you look different doesn't make you a beast. Why, you seem like a dashing gentleman for one with such colour fur."

"Blue is a pretty rad colour." June pointed out.

"Yes...rad indeed." Victoria said, her eye twitching. Oh she would have to force matters on this one.

Ciara had been staying back from the group, arms crossed. Celeste went inside,"Ciara-chan?"

That was it. She'd had enough. She marched right up to Celeste and pushed her hard. Celeste stumbled back and tripped over an end table. "NO! HOw dare you! Big Blue is not a Lion-dog! He's a person! He's my daddy! " She yelled, picking up a nearby book and throwing at her before running off.

Celeste lay on the floor, having cut her knee on sliding impact against grout in between the tiles. She looked up at horror at Ciara before bursting into tears. What had she done to make Ciara so mad?

Beast looked over at Ciara in shock, "Ciara!" he exclaimed, watching her run off as he went over to check on Celeste, "Are you alright my dear?" he looked her over quickly, "Just a scrape now, it will be okay"

"Why mad? Why mad?" She mumbled shaking a bit, staring at the blood on her knee. "I sorry... I sorry..." She started to shake a bit. "Mommy... Mommy..."

"Shhhhhh..." Victoria rushed over and wrapped her arms around her realizing what was running through her mind. "It's ok... Shhh... Be calm"

"Red! Red! Mommy! Mommy!" She started calling out.
"Celeste, it's ok." June said starting to panic as vines began to cover the nearby windows.

Beast covered Celeste's knee with his hands, "Hush little one, everything is alright. It was just a misunderstanding"

Charles had been on the far side of the yard and now was hurrying over.

The images of what had happened were flooding her head. So much red. The girls had tried to shield her eyes when it happened but the image had already been imprinted in her mind.

"I want Mommy! I want Daddy! Victoria-san, why? Why?"
It broke her heart to see her little sister like this. It's my fault. Is what Victoria wanted to say but she couldn't bring herself to say it. What if Celeste hated her?

"Mommy and Daddy are in a better place... Shhhh." She continued to say, trying to calm her.

Charles knelt next to her, she was practically blasting the images at him. The professor looked to Victoria for permission, "Would you mind if I tried something?"

Victoria looked up at him, close to tears herself, "Please."

Charles gently placed his hands on either side of Celeste's head and closed his eyes as he started to sift through the images. "Shh... try to relax dear" he whispered as he attempted to sort the images and then tuck them away.

She sniffled and whined as she started to calm down, the horrifying images slowly leaving her mind one by one. "Ch..Charlie-sama... Mommy and Daddy..."

June looked down at the vine that had grown over the door and inside the house seemed to stop growing.

Finally Xavier tucked the last of the horrifying memory away and he opened his eyes to look at Celeste with a kind smile, "Hey" he greeted, "looks like you had a tumble, let's get you cleaned up, shall we?"

Celeste looked at him and then held her hands up for him to pick her up. "Yes please."

June sighed as the vines blooms small orange flowers and then returned back from once they came. "See? Look how brave you are?"

Celeste smiled lightly.

Charles picked her up in his arms, "Off we go!" he replied cheerily.

Beast sighed, "And I will go speak with Ciara."

Celeste wrapped her arms around Charles and smiled bravely, "Weeeee."

"Don't be too hard on her. To Japanese people Lion-dogs or Komainu are very special and honored creatures. I think perhaps Ciara may have misunderstood that Celeste was complimenting you, not insulting you." Victoria said, fully understanding this seemed to be an culture thing westerns didn't know of. She wasn't condoning Ciara's actions but she knew where she was coming from.

"She threw a book at our sister." June pointed out.
"June. Please."
"....Sorry." June rubbed the back of her head.

"She still shouldn't have done that" Beast frowned as he headed off to locate Ciara.

Victoria waited for Beast to leave the room before slapping June in the shoulder.

"OW! What was that for?"
"You know why..."
June stuck her tongue out and after a moment Victoria did the same.

"Come on, the vines brought a trail of dirt with them." Victoria said going to go find the broom and dust pan.

*

Ciara had run off to their special place where they'd go camping on the estate. She sat under the large oak tree and cried. How could they say such things? He wasn't a monster. He... He was....

"Ciara" Hank called, he had a feeling she was somewhere in the area, he could smell her. "Come on out little droplet"

She gasped lightly at her name being called and a large pit began to found in her stomach. She'd done something terrible but she'd also called him...Dad without realizing it. She sniffed, trying to calm her breathing.

She got up and looked around the tree shyly, scared of what might happen. "Here." She said softly, looking down shamefully.

Beast's ears twitched at the sound of her voice before he turned his head to find her. Giving her a gentle smile he came over and sat in the grass next to her, hold out his arms for her to come into his lap, "Are you alright droplet?" he asked.

Ciara blinked, not expecting this response but then again she hadn't gotten angry like that before. She paused for a moment before crawling into his lap. She shook her head, "...Is Celeste ok?" She asked, not being able to look Hank in the face.

"She'll be okay" Hank replied, "It was just a scrap but she was pretty upset. She didn't think she had said anything wrong"

Ciara got defensive, "They were calling you an animal! You're not. You're awesome and fuzzy and not a monster." She hugged him protectively.

He smiled a bit at that, "I appreciate what you were trying to do" he replied, giving her a hug back, "Yes, Celeste was afraid at first. It's only natural. But she wasn't calling me a monster once she saw me. She called me a Komainu-yes that is a form of creature but where Celeste is from there are tales of a being that protects people and keeps evil away. A creature that they respect, I reminded her of those stories. She wasn't calling me a monster, she was basically calling me a knight. Like King Arthur and his knights of the round table"