"Gio, it's time to wake up!" Lori said, knocking on his door.
Gio rolled over, "Today's cancelled! I'm going back to bed," he said as he pulled the covers over himself.
"Can he do that?" Tony whispered to Luke.
Luke: "Go easy on him, he was up late last night,"
Lori: "So were you and you're up early,"
Luke: "I'm the leader, I have to be up before everyone else,"
"Self-appointed leader," Tony corrected.
Lori: "Yeah, you're the only one here who thinks you're the leader,"
Luke: "It only makes sense for me to be in charge while mom's out,"
Lori: "Speaking of Mom, I think I hear her coming now,"
A large barn owl flew in through the open window, "I'm back, my kittens. Did you miss me?"
"Mom!" Tony practically leapt onto her as her wings enveloped him.
"I missed you too, my son," she hugged him tightly then looked at her other kittens. "Are you too old to hug your mother now?" She teased.
"I'll never be too old!" Lori sang as she rushed forward almost knocking both of them over.
Luke rolled his eyes, but hugged her as well. It was a sweet moment that was interrupted as Gio exited his room. Everyone looked over and there was a tense silence as he ignored them and walked into the kitchen.
"Oh my, he seems even more surly than usual," Talon released the hug and tilted her head as she watched Gio silently make himself some breakfast.
"Don't worry about him, he's just upset, because Luke grounded him," Lori informed her.
"On what grounds?" Talon asked.
Lori: "These grounds,"
Talon: "No, I mean, why?"
Lori: "Oh, because he was with a human,"
"A human?" Talon's eyes widened.
"Don't worry, she was blind so she couldn't tell he was a mutant," Lori reassured her.
"Oh, well. That's good, then." Talon sighed with relief, although Lori could tell she was still agitated by the thinning of her feathers.
"Yeah, don't worry so much. Come on, I'm sure you're tired from flying all night," Lori began to lead her to her room.
"Oh, but first let me put away the groceries," The cats suddenly noticed that Talon had many bags of food with her. "It still surprises me what people will throw out in this town. Come help me with these,"
The cats all gathered around her and took bags and began putting things away long after Gio had snuck away to go back to his room to be alone.
"What does he do in there all day?" Tony once asked as he watched Gio's door. Behind it, sounds of machinery could often be heard.
"Oh, you know how he is. He's always inventing something new to help us out on our adventures," Lori told him. "Maybe one day, he'll invent something to counteract his bad luck,"
"Bad luck?" Tony turned to look at her, curiously.
"Don't you know that black cats are bad luck?"
"They are?"
"Oh, yeah. That's why bad things always happen whenever Gio is around, but don't worry, whatever the world throws at us, we can handle."
"Hm," Tony turned back to stare at Gio's door, but it never opened during the day, except for the rare instances when Gio remembered to eat real food, besides the sweets and snack foods he kept in his room.
