"What's your earliest memory?"
There is black, there is only hungerthirstneed and a deep sense of satisfaction and something is wrong. Ummum is bleeding and there is blood, so much blood and she's crying and won't stop trying to yell, "Anzillu!", what abomination, where? and then the hungerthristneed is back and-
Lucy Ann blinked and turned sharply towards Mindy, puzzled. Mindy was about 15 now and hadn't asked this particular brand of awkward question since she was nearly half her current age. It was difficult to read the expression of a sentient blue flame at the best of times but made particularly difficult now due to the growth spurt. Instead of normal human growth, slow and over time, Mindy's shape flickered up and down, vaguely-teen to maybe-adult and it'd been hard on everyone, especially Mindy. Far too big for the pixie band, she'd moved into Lucy Ann's dingy apartment and was now flickering away, hovering over the off-green couch as the owner microwaved her bloodbags.
"What do you mean by that question?" Lucy Ann probed. It was an interesting query but probably not one that anyone actually wanted answered. She then repeated her question in English for the benefit of her friend who didn't speak Ancient Sumerian.
"Like, how far back can you remember?"
"Millennia, perk of the species."
"No but, like, what's the very first thing you remember?"
Lucy Ann paused before asking tentatively, "Human first or vamp first?"
"Are they different?"
"Hell yeah they're different. I wasn't born an immortal bloodsucker."
"Sorry, Lu… Human first, then."
The sky is going to be very very sky today (later you will learn this is colour is blue). Ummum is singing something without words and holding your hands. The eldest of your four brothers is nearby shaping clay with Abum who's singing too but you can only see the very very sky sky as the rising sun warms your skin...
"I remember thinking the sky was really blue one day…"
"Is that it?"
"Human memories are fuzzy, ok? Geez."
"Was it, like, as blue as me? Or different?"
"Nothing is as blue as you, Mindy. You're the friggin definition of blue."
"Shut up, Lu," Mindy eloquently replied, managing to, despite a sudden size flicker, clearly manifest a tongue purely to express her distaste in the most childish manner possible. "What about your vamp first?"
They're all dead-
"That's not something you need to know, Mindy."
"Is that 'dangerous Hank stuff' not-need-to-know, 'personal M-Y-O-B' not-need-to-know, or 'traumatising' not-need-to-know?"
Anzillu!-
"Let's go with the one in the middle. Why do you even care?" Who knew magical flame could look so nervous so quickly?
"It's just.. I mean…"
"Out with it, Mindy." And out it flooded.
"I can't remember anything before I was like this. I used to be human right? Like, that's not just something the fairies said to be mean to the mutant pixie? 'Cause this is all I can remember, there was Hank and Alcor and I was on fire and it didn't hurt and Teena told me that I used to be a human girl, but she doesn't know anything else and how did a human kid end up being me!? I don't even remember my mom or my dad or if I had siblings..."
Six bodies and blood dripping from her teeth…
"Mindy, our pasts don't define us. The past is the past and I'm sorry you don't remember yours but you are here now and that's what really matters."
Lucy Ann removed the warmed blood from the microwave then sat down on the couch next to the elemental, telegraphing her movements as she came in for a hug so Mindy could make herself at least partially solid to receive it. "I can't imagine what not knowing feels like. But I'll guess that it's fairly shit. So I just want you to know that I'm here to help."
"...What are moms like?" Mindy whispered eventually.
"You already know that one," the vampire replied assuredly, "They're like Teena is to you. They look after you and they care about you and they raise you into an amazing person. Dads are like that too, but with more testosterone."
"What about siblings?"
She considered her words very carefully. "They care about you too, but they're more annoying because they think they can tell you what to do but you don't have to do what they say. And they can be a bit dim sometimes but you know they still love you because they do have their moments and-" She broke herself off because she was almost definitely about to cry and liquids could hurt Mindy.
Fuck, she hadn't been this upset since the museum with Ummum's vase shards.
"Lu?" Mindy's form stabilised long enough to show her clear concern.
"Sorry, I just…"
"It's fine, Lu."
A few days later, Mindy asked if Lucy Ann was kinda like her big sister. It was a ridiculous notion that had them both in stitches because even Unstable Magical Flame Girl was taller than the baby-faced immortal.
Around the giggles, crying from laughing too hard Lucy Ann murmured, "Nah, I'm your best friend. Much cooler," and Mindy's smile was so very very blue, warm like the rising sun.
Do you ever get a mountain of feels because the word for abomination in an ancient dead language sounds like the name you've chosen for your precious OC who would have spoken that language. Anzillu - lluziAn-Lucy Ann this was not intentional I'm cry
Ummum is Sumerian for Mother, Abum is Father