A Nice Little Dinner [Abalia, Minerva]

It was a short break, Minerva had got to work immediately and conscripted the help of Yuri to assist her in cooking. The children flocked around her looking for bits of food to have and snack on which she was a big softie and did hand out the occasional snack here and there, fairly of course.

"I think I heard a knock, I'll go check. Are you okay, Yuri?"

Minerva asked quickly to make sure the teen was okay by herself while she went to check. When food was being prepared very few of the little ones were actually outside of the kitchen and the alarm wasn't ringing in the sound of their squeals or getting excited. It did surprise her a little bit to see that Rena had got there first and had opened it to peek out at Abalia silently.

"Oh, Abalia. Welcome back. Come in, come in."

She brushed Rena to the side who silently grabbed at her waist before letting go to take her hand and follow Minerva.

It had not taken terribly long for Abalia to fetch Nastya from the Kyoraku estate, and it had certainly been simple enough to to return. Few would argue with the family heir taking her daughter for a visit to a friend's, after all. She had honestly been a touch surprised that Rena had opened the door, but she nevertheless greeted the girl with a small smile before Minerva came.

"Thank you. I do apologize if I have taken a touch too long."

She entered confidently, showing Nastya the place simply so she could take it all in and keep her from being too overwhelmed. Besides, she was certain that the children would like to see her, and that was to say nothing of Minerva.

"I am glad to finally bring her for a visit. She really could use a bit of company."

"Not at all. I wouldn't want to rush you at all."

Minerva reassurred her friend while peeking down at the little Nastya in her arms with a grin. Ah, she was so adorable. Babies were an even bigger weakness than children for her, such was just her nature though. She gave a lot of focus to Nastya out of excitement for her new face and a couple of children that were willing to abandon the futile attempts to get food from Yuri also joined in to all stare at the baby in Abalia's arms.

"I understand. Socialising for her would do much good, feel free to bring her over anytime. I'm just going to go check on Yuri, have you met her?"

She gave a quick question on her way in, going to assist the teenager with her task. She was fairly on top of the job but still hadn't worked out the finer details like organisation and cleaning up.

It was rather calming to see Minerva and the children all so fascinated by Nastya. Of course, Abalia did need to remind some of the younger ones to give the child a little bit of space, as she was quite unused to being around others, but even that reminder was spoken gently, with the softest of smiles on her face.

"No, I don't believe she and I have met, though you do speak of her often."

Following Minerva into the kitchen, Abalia only felt as though her stance on this place had become all the more affirmed. It was so peaceful, so earnest, genuinely beautiful. This was everything that she had always sought to protect, everything that she lived for the sake of.

Assisted where she could to try and keep them from smothering Nastya. It'd be incredibly awful if the baby girl got hurt because of a bit of excitement, Minerva would feel especially bad about it.

There was a small pause from Yuri when she saw Abalia enter, incredibly small before she just waved and turned back around to what she was doing, she didn't even act like she was in the presence of the captain commander. This was just Minerva's friend after all as far as she thought on it.

"It's almost ready. You're Abalia, huh? I thought you'd be taller. I'm Yuri. Cute kid by the way."

It was actually Sayuri but she didn't like the flower it was named after but that was just trivia. Minerva went to go check, just to make sure it was going alright. Not that she didn't trust the teen, she just liked to keep herself apprised of things.

She didn't scold the girl for her comment about Abalia's height for a couple of reasons, it was a Yuri joke and it being a Yuri joke was already her own little joke about the teenager. More importantly though, she thought it'd be nice for Abalia to get to let her hair down and not be Captain Commander Kyoraku-Hayden, she was just Abalia in this house.

"Oh, thank you, Yuri. It is a pleasure to meet you. Minerva speaks well of you quite often."

Abalia took the comment on her height in stride, in no small part because she was already thoroughly aware she was not especially tall. But, then again, she was hardly the shortest Captain Commander in recent memory, either. Regardless, she was not here to discuss the Gotei, and she took a seat at the table to simply watch Minerva and Yuri as they moved about the kitchen.

"Most would not be so willing to remind the Captain Commander of her height, you know. Your candid demeanor is rather refreshing."

Yuri just shrugged when Abalia brought up the comment about her height and how candid she was. After all, this was a Rukongai girl who didn't have any love for the Seireitei lost by talking lots of shit about those stupid shinigami before the sweeping reforms came in. Abalia being Captain Commander meant very little to her, actually nothing. Maybe she would've been a little bothered if Abalia defined herself as being the Captain Commander and hollowing herself out into that. Yuri was pretty simple though, if you were decent. She liked you.

Given Yuri's own height being only an inch smaller than Minerva who was shorter than Abalia. It really wasn't much coming from her tiny self.

"I don't see a Captain Commander 'round these parts. You're just Minerva's friend to me."

Yuri left Minerva to do the rest, instead reaching down to grab one of the children that was yanking at the woman of the house's legs to lift him up and stare him down.

"Hey. Don't do that."

She did great, the way her authority just fell completely flat and he continued to wriggle and fight being held up by her. Man, kids were so annoying. Cute, but annoying.

"That is true, yes. I do not particularly wish to be the Captain Commander at the moment, so to simply be Minerva's friend is rather refreshing."

Of course, she knew that simply taking a night off was not something she could do with any regularity. In fact, she was not particularly certain this was something she might ever have the time for again, given the work she would need to undertake soon. Still, she would not think about that at the moment.

"You seem rather patient with the children."

"Sounds like an awful job to have, if it makes you happy then all the more to you. I just stack shelves.. in the store down the street."

She took a moment before clarifying. Yuri didn't have any real amazing job or career, she had some special talents since she had attracted the attention of Minerva that much was simple. Though Yuri very much was just another person living in the Rukongai.

"I guess I am, hitting them's not fair when I'm bigger and they probably wouldn't listen to me anyway. I'm pretty patient but I run my mouth a bit to much. At least so I'm told..."

Yuri took a peek back at Minerva. It wasn't even Minerva who said it to her, despite what the look implied. It was one of her friends, the really depressed looking guy with white hair and sick looking pale skin. He had the same name as her too, except he was more like Minerva. Some foreigner that had ended up here.