HEX-JHS

[eight]

"Come on, Quinn. It's time for your bath."

Kiyomi drags the aluminum tub out into the yard. She starts filling it water as she looks up at the sky.

This will more than likely be the last outside bath that she gives Quinn. It's starting to get chillier out every week.

For the winter and chilly autumn days, Kiyomi bathes Quinn inside. There's a large room with tiled flooring and two drains for the water that accumulates during bath time. It's heated in there as well so that the animals (and staff) can be comfortable while they're in there.

Quinn runs out of the building and toward the aluminum tub. Kiyomi backs up, putting herself out of the radius of the splash of water as the dog jumps in.

"Sheesh, Quinn." Edith says as she follows her outside with Toby. "What are you tryna do? Soak poor Kiyomi?"

Quinn barks as she shakes the excess water from her.

"I'll take that as a yes."

"Of course, you will." Kiyomi says as she grabs bottle of dog shampoo from the caddy. She opens the brush up and pours the shampoo inside before closing it again.

"Ready, sweet girl?"

Kiyomi brushes the shampoo into Quinn's fur, going over the thicker areas with a little more precision. She rubs her ears gently, as not to hurt her.

"I'm so happy that you came in when you did." Edith expresses.

"Why? Did something happen?"

"No, but I felt like it would. Devin was stuck in traffic for like 15 minutes, so he called to let me know he'd be late. But then Seraphine texted me and said that she'd be two hours late. And I wasn't exactly sure when you'd be coming in because I thought that meeting was going to take way longer. So I was gonna wildly out of ratio for until you got home."

"Honestly, we were both surprised that the meeting went by as quickly as it did. The guy seems pretty cool."

"He's younger?"

"Mm." Kiyomi shrugs. "He looks about our age."

"Yeah, that's what I meant. Younger than the majority of the people in his profession. Well, for this city. I can't speak for others."

"The P.O.s are usually mid 30s and up. I've never come across one that wasn't at least in their 30s."

"A rare find, I guess." Edith agrees. "How'd it go, though?"

"It went fine. As well as it could have, I guess." Kiyomi says with a head tilt. "He's got five years probation, which given the circumstances, isn't all that bad."

"Five years? What'd he even do?" Edith wonders.

"Things they could have locked him up for, honestly. Fleeing from federal agents,falsifying registration documents and attacking federal officials while he was shifted."

Edith raises her eyebrows. "Locked him up for? Kiyomi, they could have put him down. Attacking a federal agent in itself is enough ground for that. Who was his judge? They really took it easy on him."

"I don't know. He was born unregistered, obviously. And, as you know, most hybrids that go unregistered from birth were abandoned. That already puts them at high risk for lives of crime. They end up with other unregistered hybrids or alone and it's just instilled in them to never take the risk of registering, you know?"

"It was probably Judge Fellows." Edith nods. "He's got a soft spot for hybrids. A part of his campaign when he and Mayor Krue got elected was for hybrid system reform."