Rex Spencer is doing an informal photo shoot with his latest and greatest subject, his little sister. They're also having a short hike and a picnic because he promised to spend the whole day with her. They've got all sorts of things in their backpacks. She's used to hiking. He takes her on photo shoots all over the world when he can get away with it.

Two weeks ago he got her her very first camera. She's turning into quite the little shutter bug, though her penchant seems to be fore macrophotagraphy, and centipedes, spiders, and even hornets. Nothing ever bites her at least.

They're looking for a good spot to stop and eat now. It's good the weather is being kind today and not snowing, slushing, or anything strange.

Cobalt is only very slightly lost. Intentionally very slightly lost as it happened, because therapeutic nature walks just aren't his thing. Seriously, he loves Diane, loves her to pieces, but she has really fucking stupid ideas sometimes. He plays college for putting them in her head. He knows she damn well wouldn't like it if anyone made her deal with her issues by communing with nature, why the fuck he have to?

So yes he's in a slightly sulky mood. He hates nature. The only nature he feels okay about is Dr M, who is domesticated anyway because hey, he lives in a tank and gets fed regularly. Doesn't get more domestic than that. Real nature sucks. There are twigs, they get in your hair, dirt gets on your clothes, it's not any fun at all really. But at least he manages to skip out on his psychologist. He'll be hearing about that later no doubt.

So he's just tramping through the wood. He's dressed semi practically, which here means bright turquoise jeans, red Chucks, a tie-dye tee-shirt and two armfuls of sparkly purple jelly bracelets. The good news is there's no way in hell anyone will mistake him for a deer. Not that they're meant to be hunting in here anyway but you know how people are.

He's wandering when he runs into a small blonde child echolocating her way around a tree. Impressive.

Rex is watching from not too far away taking pictures. It's hard not to notice Cobalt.

"Hey Rex," Cobalt says, he knows perfectly well who Rex is. "Hey small blonde child that..." he manages to shut his mouth before he puts his foot in it. "Sorry, I don't know your friend here," he tells Rex.

"My sister. She's a baby Jedi Ninja." Rex says. "We're going to picnic. Hungry?" Cobalt usually is it's probably a silly question.

"Hi baby Jedi Ninja," Cobalt wouldn't entirely be surprised if that was actually her name. He did know a kid named Anakin once. And his name's Cobalt and his sister's Sory so really, would anyone be surprised? And what about that silliness Diane is intent upon sticking her kid with? Nope, he can totally imagine Rex's little sister being called Jedi Ninja. "Yes, duh."

"Well then guess you'll be picnicing too." Rex introduces the kids by name even.

Clairie could be more normal but it's really not so bad as Jedi Ninja, though that's forever going to be what Cobalt calls her. He's trying to work out where the hell Alec got a kid from and why it's Rex's sister. Because uh that's weird.

"I'm having a non-euphemistic nature walk," he explains to Rex. "What are you taking pictures of?"

"Whatever Clairie wants, I'm teaching her about cameras."

"Artistic like your brother huh?" Cobalt smiles nicely. He likes little kids. They usually like him too, he's very bright colours.

Rex smiles. There's a clearing up ahead that looks promising.

The kid is echolocating again and Cobalt's trying to work out how the fuck she does it.

"I haven't figured it out either." Rex tells him.

Cobalt thinks she must not be human. She doesn't seem to be doing it by magic at all.

"Pretty neat. Does she go to school?" She's either got a ton of friends or none.

"No. Mom does that at home. She's too besotted with her late life baby." Even if it's not her biological child.

"That's pretty sweet," Cobalt does not for one minute believe that kid is really Rex's sister, no way in hell. "School's lame, I know, I used to go there, it sucked. Nature walk therapy is also lame. But Vienne teaches me at home now too," he smiles conspiratorially at the little girl. She's arrived in the clearing and plopped herself down on the grass. She smiles back. It's eerie. She's so not related to Rex.

"Nature is fine, therapy is iffy." Rex says. He's thinking of Rehab.

Cobalt's not into nature either but he infinitely prefers it to therapy. "How do these trees make you feel, Rex? Can you identify with these trees? It's such complete bull... crap," small children Coco, mind your mouth.

"These trees make me feel like a picnic." Rex says with a laugh.

"Everything makes me feel like a picnic," Cobalt says cheerfully, he's always hungry, literally always hungry. Boys are meant to think about sex every six seconds, Coco thinks about food.

"I want biscuits," Clairie's not yet gotten over the novelty of sugar.

"Yes, we're getting to that. And there's tea in the thermos Mum sent along." Rex says.

Clairie likes sugar a lot but she needs a lot of meat in her diet too, though it's not per se her favourite thing in the world. Cobalt sits down on the ground next to her and helps Rex unpack the food.

"What did you take pictures of?" he asks Clairie.

Rex lets her have a cookie to start but then makes her have her roast beef sandwich too.

Cobalt supposes it could be weirder, really, Diane and Vivienne have a kid that's almost as old as them and a totally different colour after all and you don't see Cobalt complaining about that one. He cheerfully consumes some of the food Rex brought, while Clairie tells him all about bugs.

Which is good. She balks less about meat and non sugary foods when she's talking about her beloved bugs.

Cobalt fortunately isn't weirded out about bugs, or even the fact that by the time she's halfway done with her sandwich Clairie's got a small party of centipedes at her feet, crawling over her hiking boots.

"I've got a mouse," he offers.

"A mouse eh?" Rex remarks, just to be conversational. He's looking for mustard in his backpack.

"His name's Dr M," Cobalt says brightly. "I caught him in your brother's sleeve."

"that must have been amusing." Rex looks up from rummaging for mustard.

"Yeah, but he was going to take the poor thing and leave it in the woods. In the snow and everything. So I took it home instead." With a little bit of trauma, medication, murder and kidnap mixed in but Coco doesn't mention those minor details.

"Most mice live outdoors, you are aware?"

"But not museum mice," Cobalt says.

"The museum doesn't normally have mice. it probably came in an artifact shipment or something." Rex offers.

Cobalt nods. "It's a museum mouse from the Royal museum, they have mice..."

"Can you talk to mice?"

Cobalt shakes his head. "Not really. I wish I could talk to mice, mice are cool."

"I can talk to spiders," Clairie interjects, blithely. There's a large one on her nose.

"What do they say?" Rex asks her. Then to Cobalt, "Well how do you know where the mouse is from?"

"Magic," Cobalt explains, perfectly rationally.

"They say it's going to be winter soon," Clairie informs them, "proper winter, with ten feet of snow. But first a hurricane. Then an ice storm."

"This sounds like the crazy Fae people I know. Some of them say the same things." Rex says. No Clairie he isn't talking about you. Rex knows this crazy pregnant drug dealer, who smells mostly Fae at any rate, still you never really know.

Clairie's perfectly sane and only half fae as far as anyone knows, anyone here being her estranged father who's never met the child.

Cobalt nods. "Lots of people are saying that."