Frogs Make Threats With Mustard Knives

How did I… get here?

The sound of water running was the first sound that registered. There was a sink somewhere in the room, which he couldn't see with his eyes closed. The second thought that registered was the realization that his eyes were closed. The logical thing to do was open them.

Bad choice.

As soon as he opened his eyes, pain erupted in his head and he felt like he was going to be sick. His hands went to his head, or at least one did. The other was bound in a cast and secured at his chest.

"Nngh…"

His throat hurt from thirst and his vision was spinning as he tried to sit up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," said a soft female voice. It was high pitched, but pleasant in its own way. He squinted to focus on her. She wasn't what he imagined.

Her hair was long and silver, though she couldn't be older than twenty-five. Two dots on the sides of her mouth were odd, but nothing out-weirded the orange hat on her head. It looked like a frog, but the eyes had a dead stare to them that gave him chills.

She sat down next to him and lightly pushed him back down. He didn't resist, not that he really could. She placed a cool cloth on his head, which softened the pain for a moment. He breathed out, his muscles relaxing.

"Who are you?" he croaked (no pun intended).

"Eruka. Who are you?" She had a clear note of caution and suspicion under her kind tone, and seemed to have no desire to give her last name.

He had to think for a moment. What was his name again? His memory was more than a little fuzzy. "I'm… I'm not sure. It started with a C…"

Eruka patted his cast gently.

"I wouldn't worry about it," she said. "You were pretty beat up. I have a good sense for people; I don't think it was your fault." She picked up a glass of water from the table and handed it to him. "You should drink before you go back to sleep."

He studied her face for a moment, focusing in and out. There were questions that were just about to form in his mind, but vanished before he could fully think them. Instead, he used his good arm to take the cup and sip the water. It stung at first, but felt better than he could have imagined.

"Thank you," he whispered, his vision starting to fade out. The weight of the cup was removed from his hand and he was back out, fading into sleep.

His dreams had been odd. They were erratic and made no sense. Scenes that felt familiar, but he couldn't place; faces that he felt he knew, but couldn't put a name to them. There was only one person who stood out: a woman with short auburn hair and kind blue eyes. She had a cream-colored dress and wore a smile that made his heart melt. He didn't know her name either, but she made him feel safe. When he woke up, hers was the only face he could remember.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around the room for Eruka. He realized how small the room was. He was on a couch propped in the side of the room, which also held a kitchen, a four-person dining table, and a very cluttered bookshelf. The kitchen looked clean, but worn out. The linoleum on the floor was scuffed and peeling in places and the walls were faded from their original color. The bookshelf had books of all different sizes, but also bottles of liquid that shouldn't have been the color they were. Papers were strewn across the top along with several pens and more books. A dusty mirror hung from the wall near the table.

"Eruka?" he called, straining his voice slightly. She seemed to have heard him all the same, as she appeared in the doorway that lacked a door.

"You remembered my name at least," she said, smiling. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, I think… Where am I?" He asked as she pulled a worn-out dining chair over to his bed, sitting on it backwards.

"Death City. I'm surprised that you survived being unconscious. The alleys of this city aren't always safe, especially for someone like you. You're what, seventy pounds?"

He frowned. He couldn't be that light, right? Then again, he didn't feel all that strong at the moment. "Do you know a woman with short reddish-brown hair and blue eyes?"

Eruka raised an eyebrow and perched her chin on her arms, which laid over the back of the chair.

"You're going to have to be more specific. There could be thousands of people with that description," she said. He couldn't think of anything else. He couldn't place her name, or anything but her face and the feeling she gave him. There was something else…

"Corin," he murmured, staring at his hand.

"Sorry, what?" Eruka shifted in her chair.

"Corin. My name is Corin. I remember now." He had no idea why thinking of the woman reminded him of his name, but it sounded right. He could almost hear her voice saying it.

"Corin, huh? Well, I can't think of anyone who I should hate with that name. I don't suppose you're a Meister?"

"A what?" He squinted at her. What the hell was a Meister?

"Never mind. Anyway, I don't suppose you remember anything else?" She tilted her head slightly as Corin tried to remember. The fog was starting to lift and the alley came into memory.

"I was fighting someone. A guy with glasses and dark hair. He hit me pretty hard. I guess I crashed through a wall or something…" He couldn't remember why they were fighting, but he knew he needed to win. Eruka frowned, thinking something over.

"Well, you obviously didn't die from it," she said, standing up. "Now come on. I need to check your arm and you need to eat."

Corin finally stood up with a lot of help from Eruka, shuffling over to the dining table where he propped his cast on the table. The cast was less of a cast and more of several layers of bandaging, which Eruka unraveled. His arm was bruised, but he was able to move his wrist.

"Alright, it isn't broken." She sounded relieved, brushing a hair from her face. "It should be fully healed in a few days. You've been sleeping for around three already. Whoever you fought, he kicked you around pretty hard."

Eruka hummed something as she got up and started pulling bread, ham, and other food items from the refrigerator.

Corin turned as much as he could to watch her, but when she got out of his view, he turned his attention to the mirror next to him. He looked terrible. There were dark circles under his grey-green eyes and his shoulder-length blonde hair desperately needed washing. His skin had a bit of a sickly paleness to it and he did look like he weighed seventy pounds. When was the last time he ate? He was wearing what was probably a nice shirt once, a silver button-down with a collar, but now it was torn and dirty, likely from the same reason that he got his arm in bandages. He sighed under his breath, and took his gaze to the window on the opposite wall, which was covered in opaque black curtains.

"Are you afraid of sunlight or something?" he asked, a note of sarcasm in his voice that he didn't mean to put there.

"What?" Eruka looked up from the bread and over to the window. "Oh, that. It's not the sunlight as much as what lives in the sunlight. Not everyone around here is friendly. I'm a bit of a shut-in, you could say."

Corin forced himself to turn in the chair and ask, "Why? Who's after you?"

She shrugged and went back to putting mustard on bread. "No one in particular, just those here and there. It's better if I don't stay in one place too long, you know? This is a place I like to go to when I get into trouble. That being said, if you ever tell anyone about it, I will personally destroy you."

It was hard to take her seriously while she was holding a butter knife covered in yellow mustard and that insane hat, but Corin held up his good hand all the same.

"I wouldn't do that. I mean, you were the one who made sure I didn't die out there. No reason to bit the hand that feeds you. Literally, I guess," he said, grinning as she put down a sandwich in front of him.

"That was terrible," she muttered, shaking her head as she sat across from him.

"So is this," he said, gagging at a bit of the sandwich. "How old is this ham?"

She waved her hand dismissively and ate her own sandwich. "If you want better food, the kitchen is right behind you. I do math, not cooking."

"Fair enough, but at least try to forgo the food poisoning." He took the ham off and ate the rest of the sandwich, which consisted of mustard, lettuce, and some kind of odd turnip.

He managed to get up and bring his napkin to the trash, his body getting used to moving again. Apparently, his injuries weren't all that bad.

"Hey, Eruka, what do you do?" he asked as he washed his hand. "Like, do you have a job? Or do you just sit around making toxic sandwiches all day?"

He was hit in the head with a towel in response.

"I don't have a job, per say, but I do things around the city," she replied, putting the mustard away.

"The kind of things that make you invest in safehouses and opaque curtains?"

"Yeah, those kinds of things. I'm not a criminal. Well, not really. I'm just… different." She frowned, tugging at her sleeves.

"Different how?" Corin asked, draping the towel next to the sink.

"It's compli-"

Eruka was cut short by a sharp rap at the door. Her head swiveled towards it, panic coming into her eyes for a moment.

"Great," she whispered.

"Who is it?" Corin asked, looking around the doorway to the other room, which seemed to be even more of a mess.

"The closest thing to a demon this side of Hell," she said, gritting her teeth. She grabbed his good wrist and tugged him to the other room, opening a door that led to a very small closet. "Stay here and don't make a sound."

She shut the door on him, cutting off any questions he had. He heard footsteps recede and another sharp knock. The front door clicked open and Eruka's muffled voice came through:

"Hello, Medusa. Sorry to keep you waiting."

Hello and thank you for reading! This is my first fanfiction on my new account and the first fanfiction I've written in over a year. I wasn't sure as I started this, but the ideas are developing as I go along. Just as a note: I realize Eruka is a bit OOC. She does have a compassionate side in canon, so I was playing off of that. She will act more like we see her in the show as time goes on. Please let me know (politely!) of any problems, inconsistencies, or just general thoughts of the story so far. I will more than likely continue unless everyone absolutely hates it ^^' I hope you enjoyed my chapter!