Rei had planned to go out just for a little while. Enough to get Airi some exercise, apology to the little creature after his unexpected time away. But there was a complication...

"Airi!" Rei called up the tree. A quiet hiss came back down. Defiant? It sounded so, a bit. "Airi come down!" This time, there was no response.

Frustrated, Rei glanced around. His handsome features were just a little tense. Why oh why had he thought it was a good idea to get a flying pet? Actually, it was mostly Yuria's idea... Rei sighed.

Hinata had gone for a walk in a frilled blue and white mini dress with the usual accompanying blue beret and thigh highs . . . and he found a man talking to a tree. As this was Hinata he didn't find this strange nor unusual. He also recognised the man and waved enthusiastically at him.

"Usagi-samaaaa!! Helloes!!!!"

Rei frowned in surprise to be greeted, but then chuckled as he recognized the voice. Turning, he smiled at the Asahina.

"Good morning, Asahina-san. You seem cheerful this morning." Rei said. Faint exasperation still tinged his tones. "I'm afraid I'm having a slightly difficult time myself." He gestured up the tree, where Airi, his spine drake, could be seen on one of the branches. She hissed down at the pair.

Hinata had a considerably lower point of view than Rei and was famed for his inability to see the obvious, so continued to think the tree was the issue.

"Oh . . . but it looks perfectly fine where it is. I'm sure it's not going to come down by itself."

Rei frowned up the tree. "Yeah... but I don't want to have to climb up. Oh, and she's a her, by the way. Airi."

Rei nodded at Hinata as he introduced his drake. Not the tree.

Hinata blinked.

"Her? How can you tell?"

The fact the tree was called Airi did not phase Hinata a bit. After all he'd just spent a few hours referring to a tailoring machine and it's instruction book by name.

Rei blinked. "Uh... I mean, I know? I've had her since she was a baby." He grinned. "When we... when I got her, she was just this big." He said, spreading his hands just a few inches apart."

He gestured up at spine drake, his arm waving upward. "And now she goes and does this..." Rei sighed.

Hinata looked at the tree and then at Rei. Didn't trees grow slowly and live for a long time? Oh, maybe the Scorpion had some tech that made them grow faster! He knew some Asahina gardeners and Academy artisans could do such things.

"Oh they do that, don't they? I didn't know the Scorpion let you own one here though? I thought they all belonged to the Scorpion families here."

Rei smiled. "Not all. Most, but if you live on-planet, and you have a local connection, well, you can get one." He took a deep breath. "And... I had some help." No, he would NOT confess his marriage woes to Hinata.

He looked back up the tree. "Of course, none of this helps me to get her down." He sighed.

"Oh."

He looked up at the tree and puzzled on it a moment.

"Maybe one of those Scorpion robot gardeners has a chainsaw that could help you bring her down?"

Rei looked at Hinata, alarm rising on his face. After all, who knew what the enthusiastic Crane might do?

"No, there's no need for that." Rei waved his hands. "I don't want to hurt the tree. She'll come down on her own soon enough. She's just being stubborn."

Hinata was beginning to look confused . . . so normality was returning.

"But I thought you said you wanted her down? It's going to need a chainsaw or an axe or something for that. Or a beaver! I've heard they're pretty good at chopping down trees! Oh I wonder if they have any at the Sanctuary????"

"What's a beaver?" Rei frowned. Maybe it was some sort of special tree chopping device? He really didn't know much about trees.

He shook his head. "No, it's okay. She'll fly down when she gets bored or hungry." He nudged the carrier down at his side with his foot. "And then I can take her home."

"Fly?"

Now he looked super confused.

"The Scorpion have flying trees they let other clanners own if they live here?"

Rei blinked. Then he blinked again.

"What?" He finally said. He stared at Hinata, mouth agape.

Rei confusion only confused Hinata more. It was easily done.

"Airi, the tree . . . . the tree we've been talking about, Usagi-samaaa!"

Rei stared at Hinata for rather a long time. Normally he was quick on the update, but Hinata seemed to have a field of... derp, was the only thing Rei could think to call it.

"No! Airi's not a tree. She's a spine drake! She..." Rei sighed. He would never be able to explain. Reaching out, he gently took Hinata by the shoulder, shifting a little, guiding the shorter man into the space Rei just vacated. Then he pointed up, gesturing with open palm.

"See. There! Airi!" From this angle, the little creature was more visible. She stuck her head over the edge of the branch, hissing at them again.

The wide eyed Asahina stared up and finally noticed the hissing spine drake.

"Oh!"

Mouth forming a perfect 'O' he continued to look at Airi while the confusion receded in his mind. Well most of it.

"So what's the tree called then, if Airi-sannnnn is the adorable lil drake?"

Rei chuckled as Hinata finally seemed to realize what Rei was talking about. And Rei finally understood what Hinata had been confused about. In this instance.

"The tree?" Rei frowned, then shrugged. "I don't know. It's just a tree. People don't name trees..." The frown deepened. "Do they? I haven't spent a lot of time around trees, actually." He looked up at the tree again.

Airi continued to cheerfully hiss, clearly having a good time.

"Back home on Harusame, important trees get names! Is this an important tree?"

He waved up at Airi.

"Oh, hi Airi-sannnn. Sorry for thinking you were a tree!"