If anyone asked...it was the tape's fault that eh was struggling so much with application at the moment even if his grunts of frustration were telling an entirely different story. Though he did eventually get his left hand wrapped properly and was about to move on to the right when he heard the all-too familiar voice of one Alexa Cambridge. Merlin if he had a galleon for every time he had THAT thought process...he would have a better paycheck than he presently did as a Sentinel.

"Aw, don't be like that," he smirked at his colleague while immediately taking a knee so his pseudo niece could hop on for a quick bounce or two. "You're her mum. Being clingy comes with the territory."

Chocolate eyes shifting to the little girl and offering her a bit of a mischevious grin, his arms peppered in goosebumps despite not being cold. Not even a chill.

"Oh get off it, you're the one I'll have them restraining." Lex said, already making her way to the weights. She didn't need to be facing the pair to know that the moment Ryu's knee hit the floor, Emm would be scurrying over to make herself comfortable on the one now propped up. The high pitched squeal of "Uncle Ryu!" was all the confirmation she needed. "Doubt a restraining order would work on her. She'd just shoot me those stupid, green eyes I can't stand and climb her way back into my lap." There wasn't an ounce of discontent in her voice even as she said it. Truth was, while she really DID hate the way Emmerson so stubbornly insisted on keeping her father's eyes, they were hard to resist.

"What's got you here so late anyway? No enough action in your day or were you too busy to get anything in?" Both equally possible when it came to the members of Magical Law Enforcement.

Lex laid against the bench, accioing the tape he'd been using just moments earlier. Technically, he now had his hands full in a whole other way. He wouldn't be needing this. "If I'd known you'd be here, I'd have given you a heads up." It didn't take a scientist to see how much he liked spoiling the kid--and could she blame him? There was just something infinitely satisfying about getting a wide, pleased grin out of that kid.

Emmerson wiggled a few times, getting perfectly comfortable on Ryu's lap. While she did, green eyes searched the room in all directions, expectantly. "Where's the presents?" The bemusement in her voice was plain as day. If Uncle Ryu was here then SURELY he had something for her like he always did. That was how it worked. DUH.

But at nearly four, her attention span was only so good. In the next minute she was taking hold of his tapped hand, giving it a strange look. "What's this?"

Snorting, Ryu used helped Emmerson settle on his knee and immediately took to bouncing it lightly. It was a good thing he was well practiced with this, soon to be even more so considering his sister had just had triplets on top of the two she already had. Though James was well grown out of this bouncing on the knee phase by now and had moved on to other endeavours - though the boy was complete rubbish when it came to kendo. "On what grounds?" he chuckled, grinning at the little girl and gives a few unscheduled rapid bounces. "I'm a glorified security guard, Cambridge," he said a bit too bitterly to be legal as he looked over the top of her head. "Always something to do and it could be worse, I could be a menial wand weigher."

But in essence, no. Not enough action during the day. Closet thing to action on this particular day had been a few muggles happening upon some falty charms, but that had been easily remedied and then it was patrols as usual.

He was grateful for that short attention span of hers in this moment, gave him a bit of a buffer to try and figure out what he COULD possibly offer her as a little something. Though good Merlin his skin felt itchy. "Athletic tape," he explained. "Uncle Ryu does this to his hands to protect them so he doesn't get any owies while punching that over there," he explained while nodding his head towards the punching bag.

And those goosebumps on his skin were even more prominent now.

Carefully she wrapped the tape around and around. Ryu was here, in case anything went wrong but increasing the friction in her palms to avoid unnecessary slips was still the safer route to take--even an adrenaline junkie knew that. "You keep showing up places I happen to be and I'll have plenty of grounds." Her tone was light, her gaze travelling briefly over to the pair when Emm began a series of delighted screams.

Of course, with the way things had just gone, it didn't at all constitute stalking but those were small details.

"Oh Merlin, you're right." Lex conceded, levitating the tape over and into his pocket before fully laying and taking hold of the bar. "I remember we had to do something like that one year for the orientation. Got stuck on Welcome duty basically. Weighing all the wands, handing out gift bags. Got into a bar fight later that night." As he could well imagine. There was only so much monotony a girl could stand.

"Could let you throw a few punches my way after I get in a few sets." She offered before taking a deep breath then lifting.

Instinctively the little girl turned to face the punching bag, still trying to catch her breath after the unexpected rapid bouncing that just brought out a wild fit of giggles. He was gonna punch it? Well in that case. "I WANT SOME!!" Emmerson stuck her little hands out, practically shoving them into his own. "I want tape! Gimme." She wiggled her fingers excitedly, looking back to the bag for a brief moment. She'd already seen her mother wrapping tape on too, which meant she was the ONLY ONE without any. "Me next!"

Sometimes he had to wonder whether or not she actually heard herself when she spoke. Though he also figured even if she did she would find nothing incorrect or odd about her words. "You do realize I was here first," he pointed out regardless. "And you are also implying that you do not enjoy my company which I think our little princess here will argue against." And really, who could say no to an adorable face like this? Certainly not him - within limits that is.

Though he left his teasing there for now. There would be plenty of time for more friendly banter where that came from. And since he had very little much else to say on the subject, he let that sentiment hang in the air while he turned his attention back to the little girl bouncing on his knee. "May take you up on that offer," he nodded, the need to pause to scratch his arm rather aggressively, his nails leaving light scratch marks up and down it.

"All right all right, give me just a moment," he chuckled as he summoned his own tape back to his person. Though the need to resume itching for a bit was too persistent to ignore and thus he was back at it for a little while he instructed her. "Alright, now spread your fingers out wide for me."

Matt was in the mood to get FIT. Do some heavy LIFTING. Get some MUSCLES going. YEP. He was IN IT to WIN IT.

Arriving at the Exercise Room looking like the regular visitor of the place that he was, he took a look around to decide what he wanted to do first that day. WEEIGHTS. Definitely weights. Truth be told, he was highly amused at himself because that all sounded like he was a gym rat and he was most definitely not one of THOSE people. He also wasn't exactly looking to get into body building or anything he was far too lazy for that, but muscles could be useful and general fitness was always going to come in handy for his job.

The trainee Auror made his way towards the dumbbells and barbells and started to get READY for his workout. Boom.