Author's Note: Some of you might remember it, but once upon a time, I wrote an OC x Law story titled 'The Death' - this is this OC's backstory. One day maybe I'll get to the point, when she meets Heart Pirates and write their story anew, but that would be in a distant future, if ever.
Have fun.
Lizard
A five year tightened her grip on an older boy's hand. Her bright, almost golden eyes found his dark blue ones and a wide smile bloomed on her face, exposing a set of teeth: pink from blood and with a gap in the middle of the lower line.
The boy mirrored the grin – his teeth in a similar state, but his gap was in the upper row.
"We are almost there." The fishgirl pulled him off the main road and pointed her webbed finger at a two-storey house at the end of this wide alley. "That's my house!" She pressed her palm back to the swollen cheek – it hurt when she talked so loud. "Dinner should be ready soon."
The boy nodded and readjusted a dirty, orange hat on this brown mess he called hair. "Do your parents have fins too?" His curious eyes ran everywhere around, taking in every detain around and they never stayed in one place for longer than few seconds. Though, time after time, his sight was drawn back to those two pairs of black lines on the base of this girl's neck – her gills.
The fishgirl turned, so she was walking sideways, never letting go of her new friend's hand, and nodded. "Yeah. Mom has one on the back of her head, but it's so small no one can see it under her hair." Her smile grew wider if it's still was possible. "But dad has fins on his arms and face, and back!" She chuckled and turned the other way to show her own back – a black, white and yellow colored fin stuck out from under her light shirt. "Mom said she has so little fins, because her dad was human."
"Is your grandpa here too?" Wiping his shoes on the doormat, the boy looked into an open doorway. His wide open eyes jumped from a normal table, to a casual wardrobe and to a row of an ordinary shoes in three different sizes – all of that seemed amazing and mysterious to him.
The girl shook her head and her black, short hair swirled around. "Dad said they all died before I was born. This way." She wrapped her webbed, as always cold fingers on his warm hand and pulled to a doorway on the right. "I'm back, mom!" With this announcement, the fishgirl walked into a bright, spacious and clean kitchen.
"Welcome back, Emy." A blonde woman in a white, chef's outfit stood in the other side of this room, doing dishes. "Dinner will be ready in few minutes." She spoke in a calm, silky voice, never looking away from the sink. "I've made cookies, you can have one now." The blonde lifted her foam covered hand and pointed at a counter on the left.
In the meantime, the girl leaded her amazed guest to the middle of kitchen and sat him on one of four chairs around a table with white cloth and a vase of white and yellow lilies in it. "Thanks mom!" Holding her swollen cheek, she trotted to the counter, grabbed a still warm cookie and broke it in half.
"Thank you," the boy whispered, taking the other half and – just like the girl had done – stuffed the treat into his mouth. Munching and swinging his feet, he fixed his curious gaze on his younger host.
She pushed her black locks off the dirty forehead and grabbed another chair. A soft huff later, the furniture hovered over the polished floor and was carried toward the counted on the left. The girl drummed the chair in its new place with a loud thud, which drowned the clicks and splashes created by the woman.
A soft sigh left the blonde's lips, while her daughter climbed on the chair and the counter with an agility of a circus monkey. "Did you get hurt again, Emy?"
"Yes," was the blunt answer. Standing on her tiptoes, the five year tried to take a first aid kid of the highest shelf of this cabinet she had opened, but the stubborn box stayed beyond her reach and she didn't want to jump. "Mom, dad left aid on the top shelf again."
Wiping a colorful mug, the woman finally turned away from the sink. "Just sit down, Emy - I'll get it. Emil!" The mug slid out her hands, but before it broke in pieces which scattered all over the floor, she was already beside the daughter.
The blonde had expected a cut on a finger, or a bloody knee, but not a mess like this! "Emy. Emil. What have you been doing this time?" The mother wailed, touching daughter's cheek – swollen so much the eye turned into a line. A trail of an almost dry blood originate in her nostril, smeared on the chin and ended on the shirt in multiple stains. Bruised knuckles burned compared to her cold fingers. Another trail of blood started under the left knee and went down the whole shin to soak in the sock. She was dirty and her whole arms and legs were in scratches.
"Fighting." The black haired girl grinned as much as the swollen cheek allowed, showing the incomplete set of teeth, not only pink from blood, but also brown from the cookie. "I'm fine mom." Emil sat on the counter and wiggled her legs a little. "Knee stings a bit, but that's all. Will you take care of my friend too?"
Her mother froze in the middle of taking the first aid kit off the shelf – brown eyes fixed on the child. "Friend?" This quiet, surprised word was traced with worry and hope. "Your friend, Emy?"
Humming in the agreement, Emil nodded and leaned to the side to look at the boy from behind the mother. "He's there, mom."
With her mouth open, the blonde turned around to look in the same direction. Upon noticing that this 'friend' was made of flesh and apparently a hungry human, her lips closed and curled up into a smile of an overjoyed, proud parent. "Hello." She walked up to the boy, who froze in the middle of eating one cookie and reaching for another one. "Don't worry, you can take them." The woman scooped him up and seated on the counter beside her child. "You look just as bad as Emy." Stepping back, she scanned the little brunet.
Instead of a swollen cheek, he had a black eye, but a bloody nose just like the girl. While she had blood on her left knee, his right one was bloody. He had dirt and scratches in different places, but just as many.
"I've never seen you here before." The woman walked to the sink to fill a bowl with warm water. "Are you son of this family, who moved this noon?"
The boy had to swallow a mouthful of chocolate threat, before he nodded. "Yes, Mrs. Mom."
A vibrant chuckle resounded in the room and the woman placed the bowl on the other side of her child. "Mrs. Mom? Emy, maybe you should introduce us correctly." With a damp cloth, she started cleaning the girl's face.
Nodding, Emil swallowed mouthful of a cookie, the boy had given her. "Yes! This is my mom." She pointed at the parent. "You can call her 'Mom'. And mom, this is…" Pointing at her guest, the girl froze. "Ehm…" A frown pulled her black eyebrows together and it was obvious the gears in her head were turning rapidly, as she tried to remember something. Finally, she smiled and looked at her new friend. "What's your name?"
Both the boy and the woman chuckled, but while the first did it openly, the second tried to at least hide her amusement, failing at that miserably. "My name is Zack." With a wide smile, the brunet reached out his hand. " And you're Emil, right?"
"It's Emilia." She grabbed his covered with dirt and blood, and crumbles hand with no hesitation and shook it firmly. "But no one calls me that. Mom calls me Emy and my dad calls me Em."
"Did someone call me?" An one armed fishman walked into the kitchen and dropped a leather backpack beside the table.
Emil threw her hands over the head, letting go of a joyful call. She would jump off the counter to hug the man if not for her mother, who held her down, while cleaning the knee. "Dad! Dad! This is Zack. He's my friend. Zack, this is my dad. You can call him 'Dad' too." Bouncing on her seat, Emil didn't even try to hide her joy.
With a curious hum, the fishman walked closer and leaned down to kiss his wife's cheek. Then he turned to the boy and scanned him head to toes. "It's nice to meet you, Zack." He reached out his only, right hand and shook the boy's. "What you two had been doing? Fighting each other?"
Emil shook her head, once again causing her short hair to swirl around the head. "No. We fighted with Oris and the rest. Zack helped me in the middle." The girl grinned and the boy nodded, his wide open eyes fixed on the fishman. "And look dad! My tooth finally fell out!" With that announced, Emil opened her mouth and stuck the tip of the tongue into the gap.
The man leaned closer. "It's fought, not fighted, Em." His grey face lighted up with curiosity and amusement. "I hope Oris and the rest look even worse. How was it?"
He barely finished the last word, his wife punched him in the side with a hiss 'Ruben', only to return to the previous actions - patching up Zack's knee.
"Oh. Yes, Lina. Sorry." He coughed into the completely yellow fist and pulled on a serious expression before looking at children. Zack seemed to be in shock - with wide open mouth and even wider open eyes stared at the fishman, who wasn't sure if this boy still breathed. Emil, on the other hand, was frowning and moving her lips in a soundless 'fought' over and over again. She at least focused on her parent in a heathy way, when he spoke again. "Em, you shouldn't fight with other children."
Emil sat up, completely straightening her back - a sign the fishgirl was going to announce her objections. "But they laughed at dad!" Frowning, she held her swollen cheek. "They laughed dad has only one arm!"
The woman finished treating Zack's knee and looked up at her child. "Emy…"
"And?" Ruben scratched the back of his head, making his black hair even messier. He smirked in amusement and moved his only hand on Emil's head, making the same with her hair. "Really Em." Playing with her short strands, the fishman watched as his daughter's expression softened, her eyes closed and a smile bloomed on her lips. "Don't ever care what people say about you, or us. Unless it's someone, who actually cares for you and wants your best. Now…" He leaned forward, so his serious and Emil's content eyes were on the same level. "How did the fight go?"
"Ruben!" The blonde called at her husband from over her daughter's knee.
"Rozalin!" The fishman grinned at her.
"It was amazing!" Zack's call echoed in the room. "Em fought with six of them, when I joined! He ran into an alley and knocked down one after another! But they caught him! Three of them had to hold Em when I joined! We beat up every of them, but one who ran away. They were still laying on the ground when we left! Em's amazing! And so are you!" Pointing at the surprised man, Zack took few deep breaths, before he realized what he had just done. Reaching to his hat, the boy pulled it lower to hide his cheeks, but the blush colored even his ears. "I'm sorry…"
A second, or two passed in silence and three different snorts resounded, only to fill the kitchen with three different laughs – Ruben's was the deepest and the loudest. "Really kid… Zack was it, yes? Well…" The man straightened his old tank-top and smiled from webbed ear to webbed ear. "This old fishman is honored his daughter's friend thinks he's amazing."
Zack lowered his hat so much, his eyes shoved over the rim. Blinking rapidly, he watched Ruben. "Daughter?" Confused, he faced Emil and moved hat even lower. "You are a girl? Not a boy?"
The whole amusement of this fish family deflated like a pricked balloon. In silence, parents watched their daughter, who fidgeted on her seat. Shaking her head, Emil answered in a quiet tone. "No, I'm a girl." She looked into Zack's eyes, her own filled with pleading. "Will you stop being my friend?"
Surprised by this question, the boy was quiet for a second, which was painful to the others and seemed like ages. He shook his head. "No, I won't." With a smile, Zack put his hat on Emil's head. "And you look better with a smile on, Em."