Characters: Laurence, Gehrman, Micolash

Word Count: 5.176

Summary: Laurence and Gehrman sell their relics on the marketplace and meet up with Micolash to gather food for the orphanage.

(Author's note: You know, I wasn't expecting for this to get any attention, because I mainly write it for myself and it is a crossover fusion with Bloodborne, where 90 % of the fandom groan at all the crossover fusions and Made in Abyss, a tiny obscure fandom from an anime that most people leave before they even have finished the first three episodes.

So I was surprised to see that at least five people left a kudo on this! I am glad that you enjoy it and I hope you stay along for the ride.

I headcanon for Orth, the currency of Orth (why do they have the same name?), to be like yen, so ten thousand Orth are something like around 80 Euros, which is a lot for a child.)

"Why are you carrying your fishing rod around?", Gehrman asked, having a tightly filled bag secured in his arms. Laurence carried one as well, but his wasn't as thick as Gehrman's.

"Me and Micolash are on food duty today and I promised to him to go fishing with him after we went to the market. We wanted to meet up at around noon and I didn't want to go back to the orphanage simply to get my equipment.", Laurence answered.

"Hmm... maybe I'll join you as well.", Gehrman said.

"But you haven't got a fishing rod with you.", Laurence objected. "How do you want to catch fish? With your bare hands? I doubt you would even catch a sardine like this and they are known to move in shoals."

"I just bind a string on a stick and have my fishing rod.", Gehrman said, making Laurence scoff.

"Yeah sure, and what exactly do you intend to catch with a tool like that? You don't even have a hook attached and you need some bait. I made sure to collect all these lugworms two days ago and I am so eager to try them out, surely the fish will bite twice as much with such fresh bait and-"

Gehrman only rolled his eyes, being used on Laurence going on one of his fishing tangents. Fishing was the thing that Laurence enjoyed most of all the tasks they got from the orphanage, he loved the peace and quiet while waiting for the bite, he loved the battle with the fish and it was very satisfying getting it out of the water and putting it in the bucket. He also could count on Gehrman to make an awesome dish out of the caught fish, his stomach already started to rumble when he just thought about it.

"Hey, we had breakfast not too long ago.", Gehrman chuckled.

"I am still growing and need the food.", Laurence answered, giving Gehrman a tiny little glare.

"Well, your body didn't get the memo.", Gehrman said and he was lucky that he wasn't able to ruffle Laurence' hair with both of his hands occupied, or Laurence would have kicked him as hard in the shin as he could, and probably would have hurt his foot in the process. Gehrman's legs were rather hard.

"One day I will be bigger than all of you, you'll see.", he hissed. Gehrman knew better than to correct Laurence and so the argument between them died down as they approached the booth that would buy their relics.

Gehrman stopped in front of a sign that was put up next to the booth. Laurence joined him and looked at it, being a bit confused about what the sign depicted.

"What is this sign about?", he asked.

"Ah, it tells you which kind of relics are more valued at the moment.", Gehrman said. "Sometimes they want a certain type of relic and pay more than the market price for it. It doesn't seem like the stuff we have is wanted at the moment however."

"Figures, you told me it is trash.", Laurence said, adjusting the bag in his arms.

"It's still valuable trash. Come on, let's see what we get for it."

The owner of the booth noticed them as soon as they approached the front and greeted them. "Hello, Red Whistles. What do you have for me today?"

"Relics from yesterday's delve.", Gehrman said, putting his bag down. "From me and my friend. We sell our stuff together, we are both from the orphanage." Gehrman nudged Laurence which prompted him to put his bag down too.

"Oh, you are a Red Whistle now?", the booth owner looked at Laurence while he emptied the bags and checked the relics. "I remember your red hair. I always see you talking with the owner of the fishing shop, but you still were wearing a bell back then."

"It's auburn.", Laurence complained, annoyed that his hair colour had once again been mistaken.

"Whatever, Laurence.", Gehrman rolled his eyes, "Why won't you tell this gentleman about your first delve while he appraises our relics?"

Laurence didn't need to be told twice. "Oh, I was so nervous even before we went down, and it felt like I barely could breath, but Gehrman got me out of it and then I could see the Abyss from the inside for the first time and..." Laurence babbled on and on about how he had felt during his first time in the Abyss and was completely distracted from again having been called a redhead. After he had talked so much that his throat felt rather dry, the booth owner was done with appraising their relics and counted some coins in his hands.

"Alright, so the stuff you brought me can only be taken by market price, overall it goes for around ten thousand Orth. Is that fine with you?"

"That much?!", Laurence couldn't help but having his mouth hanging open, Gehrman was right about it being valuable trash.

"Don't get your hopes up, we have to give almost all of it to the guild.", Gehrman said. "They give us a, uh, share of it, I guess that is what you can call it, and that we still have to bring back to Master Willem and he decides our allowance. It's not like we can just keep the money for all our hard work."

"Oh.", Laurence let his head hang and then crossed his arm. "Being a Red Whistle sucks."

"Before you know it you will have grown up and be a Black Whistle and find all kinds of even more valuable relics.", the booth owner said, handing Gehrman the pay which he carefully stored in a pouch. "Until then, you keep selling me valuable trash."

The both of them said their goodbyes to the shopkeeper and stopped a short while to let Laurence drink some water from a bottle he had brought along, Gehrman tapping his foot because he had spoken without point and comma and that was the only reason his throat hurt, even though it was Gehrman who had encouraged Laurence to talk in the first place. Before they continued, Laurence made sure to fill the bottle back up, luckily there was a fountain with drinkable water at the marketplace that was allowed to be used for free.

They left the marketplace in favour of heading to the guild. Gehrman said that they as well could already give them the pay and get their share. Laurence still had to wrap his head around the fact that Gehrman was carrying so much money with him, Laurence never had owned that much money in his life.

The guild was a bit away from the marketplace, in a rather busy place of Orth, which probably could be called the centre of town, if the centre of Orth wouldn't be occupied by the giant chasm they had delved in just yesterday. Laurence only had been at the guild once so far, together with Master Willem, when he took the written test to see if he would qualify for a red whistle. He had qualified right away and got handed his whistle. On the way back, Laurence had spent all the time looking at the shiny new whistle, barely believing that he now was really a delver and mourning that he couldn't show his parents this moment.

Upon entering the guild today, Laurence was faced with a quantity of delvers, each and every one of them wearing their whistle. He saw the teenagers that wore blue whistles, the adults that wore the purplish moon whistles and the Black Whistles, the veterans of the Abyss, some of them in an already advanced age. What was rather sparse were other Red Whistles, but because of them normally being children, they might just be too short to be noticed in the crowd. Laurence himself certainly felt small between all these older delvers. What was also missing was a White Whistle, though that wasn't surprising, these delvers were said to be rare. Laurence had never seen one in his entire life and he had spent a large part of his childhood just looking at the Abyss.

"It's crowded today.", Gehrman said, slipping through the gaps between the other delvers. Laurence felt a slight panic and he quickly grabbed for Gehrman's hand because he didn't want to get lost in the guild. As Gehrman felt Laurence' hand in his own, he slowed down and showed Laurence how to get around as a child in a crowd. Soon they were in front of the counter. While it was low enough for them to see over it, Laurence had to stand on his toes to even reach the counter with his hands. Gehrman, who was older, had it a bit easier, but he also was clearly a tad too small for a counter designed for mostly adults.

"What are you having for me today, Red Whistles?", the guild clerk asked once Gehrman had hit a bell to get her attention.

"We are from the Balchero Orphanage. We sold our relics from yesterday's delve and wanted to report in.", Gehrman said. Laurence observed his friend, making sure to take in every word. He should be able to do this on his own in the future, he couldn't rely on Gehrman forever.

Gehrman dropped the wallet on the counter, well not really, he laid it down, for he was barely big enough to drop the wallet, and the clerk took it, counting the money in it. "Nine thousand nine hundred... Ten thousand Orth. With a rate of ten percent of the pay for Red Whistles, you are allowed to keep a thousand Orth."

She handed the coins to Gehrman while Laurence' face fell. Even with Gehrman telling him that they couldn't keep all the money, there wasn't much left of it, and they had to get it back to Master Willem and he had to decide on their allowance. While he and Gehrman had worked together, Gehrman clearly had unearthed more relics and probably would get the higher allowance... and they probably wouldn't even get the whole thousand Orth, so Laurence probably only would get a small amount of pay for his work...

He decided to save it, for it certainly was better to save his money for something big he wanted to buy in the future instead of spending it for sweets or anything... Laurence didn't even like sweets, so everything would work out just fine.

While Laurence was lost in thought, Gehrman talked a bit more with the clerk and then signed a document. "What was that about?", Laurence asked as the clerk took the document back.

"I had to confirm that we got our pay and how much it was.", Gehrman explained.

That made sense, but... Laurence couldn't help but think that they just could have taken the whole pay back to the orphanage. Who was checking if they really sold their relics? This system felt like it had some flaws. As he told Gehrman, his friend just chuckled.

"Oh Laurence, do you see the wall there?" Gehrman pointed at a wall which was currently completely blocked by delvers.

"I would if not a thousand delvers would stand in front of it.", Laurence complained. Gehrman sighed and took Laurence' hand, leading him over, revealing a wall that was covered in posted papers. Upon closer look, it were jobs for the delvers, each of them marked with a danger level, Laurence recognized the star system that was used for Abyss creatures, in which layer the excursion went and which kind of whistles were allowed to attend and wished for.

"Each delve has to be settled with the guild. They have documents about the day of the delve, who went down and what the delver or delving group is doing down there. If we wouldn't come and give them their share, they would stand in front of Balchero soon and have some concerns about illegal earnings... Surely you don't want to put Master Willem through this."

"I... I had no idea there was so much structure behind the delving.", Laurence had to admit.

"There is or it would all be chaos. That is why foreign delvers aren't a welcome sight here. They are nothing but chaos."

"So it isn't Master Willem who is in charge of everything?", Laurence asked, having been convinced that their Moon Whistle in charge was organizing all their delves.

"Well, he's in charge of us, the Red Whistles, of course, but he goes and picks the job from the guild and approves it with them like everyone else. But enough explanation, how about we look at the jobs?", Gehrman suggested.

"You just said that Master Willem picked the jobs for us...", Laurence said, still wrapping his head around that their teacher also only was following rules. Laurence probably wasn't getting as much freedom as he thought when he grew up. If he managed to grow up.

"That is correct, but we can still look at the jobs and suggest them to him.", Gehrman said. "All we can do are the one star jobs anyway, in the first layer. Red Whistles aren't allowed to do much."

"Like I said earlier, being a Red Whistle sucks...", Laurence looked at the ground in defeat, but then got his spirits lifted easily by looking at the jobs. Even though he couldn't do any of the more dangerous jobs, it was a joy looking at what older delvers were allowed to do. There were hunting jobs for Blue Whistles, teaching jobs for Moon Whistles, the recovery of valuable relics for Black Whistles and even a section reserved for White Whistles, which had so many stars that Laurence got dizzy looking at them.

After he shook his head and cleared away the dizziness, Laurence was rather fascinated by the jobs that were way out of his league. He knew that White Whistles were a rarity and that he himself probably never would be one (though almost every delver dreamed of it somewhen in their life), but it was fun to imagine seeing a White Whistle coming back from such a delve having recovered a relic that was so powerful that it could win a war between countries. Laurence was abruptly ripped out of the realm of his daydreams when someone or something pushed him, so that he almost toppled over.

"Hey!", he whirled around, ready to discuss whoever or whatever had pushed him into oblivion, when he saw a group of a few Blue Whistles standing there, seeming to scrutinize him with their glances. With all those much older delvers around, Laurence felt a lot smaller then he actually was.

"Why are you even looking at these jobs, shrimp? It's not like you can do them.", one of them said. Laurence felt a vein on his forehead pulsate at the rather rude mention of his small height... at least he assumed that was what the rather derogatory spoken term directed at him meant, but he decided to handle this like a grown-up.

"Neither can you.", he replied, pretty proud about his quick comeback.

He saw how the face of at least one of the Blue Whistles fell and their hands balled into fists, while they choked out a "Why, you...", but they got calmed down by their friend or companion or however they were acquainted with. Laurence already had taken a step back, because he wasn't keen on being hit by someone a good five years older than him, but if it would have happened he could have started to cry and with ALL these adult delvers around that would have made them look so bad, he almost, only almost, regretted that his face stayed intact.

"Well, that might be.", the Blue Whistle who had calmed their friend down said. "But at least we don't have to puke anymore when we ascend from the first layer."

Strangely enough, that was what really hit Laurence' pride. It was his first delve yesterday. There was no way he would have made it up without puking and a part of him knew that they certainly didn't have any reason to know that it had been his first delve, but he already opened his mouth to defend himself and hoped to to sprinkle one or two insults into his rant for good measure when Gehrman appeared and took his arm before he could even utter a single word.

"Oh, there you are, Laurence, come on, let's go, you still have stuff to do today, yeah?", he said and practically dragged Laurence along, leaving all the stuff he had prepared to say vanishing in an instant like the nausea from the curse vanished once they stepped out of the Abyss.

"Gehrman, I was about to put them in their place.", Laurence complained once they were out of the guild.

"That would have done nothing, they just want to rile you up. Blue Whistles can be so insufferable, they aren't allowed to delve as deep as Moon Whistles and most of them are teenagers, so they they take their frustration out on us Red Whistles. If you start to insult them or discuss with them, it only leaves you with a bloody nose or a black eye.", Gehrman said, all while looking Laurence over, as making sure that he really didn't have any injuries.

"If they would have hit me, I just would have cried. With all that adult delvers around that would have made them look so bad.", Laurence said with a smug grin on his face.

"You can be such a brat sometimes, do you know that? Anyway, did they insult you somehow or what?"

"Hmmm...", Laurence crossed his arms. "They called me a shrimp, but that didn't upset me much, just a little. It was them saying that I can't ascend yet without puking that felt so unfair. I am much younger, of course I can't! And yesterday was literally the first delve of my life!"

"See, they just want to rile you up.", Gehrman shook his head. "Anyway, you could be a little more upset about being called shrimp, they use that as kind of insult for us Red Whistles, because we are small and the colour of our whistle is red and we aren't exactly strong and all we do is cleaning up the Abyss, like a shrimp cleans up the algae, you know?"

"Hm, I thought it could be something like an insult, but I thought it was about me being small...", Laurence swayed from the left to the right while he thought, "Thinking about it, that insult is actually pretty clever."

Gehrman just stared at Laurence dumbfounded and opened his mouth to say something when Laurence suddenly started shouting: "Wait, but I have red hair, so it was a double insult on my behalf! Oooh, when I see those assholes again I have so many colourful words ready to say to them...!"

"Language, Laurence.", Gehrman sighed. "Where do you even pick up all these crude words? Besides, you just called yourself a redhead... what happened to denying it, hmmm?"

"Well, auburn is still a shade of red.", Laurence glanced at Gehrman and then looked at the ground, feeling caught. "And, uh, well, my hair is in fact not red, but auburn, that is why I dislike being called a redhead, but that doesn't mean that I don't get upset when people insult my red hair and... fuck!"

"If Master Willem would hear you, he would have to clean out your mouth.", Gehrman scolded Laurence. "And for enough of those curses you could get hanged naked, so watch your tongue."

"Aaah, but Master Willem isn't here now.", the smug grin returned on Laurence' face. "And to answer your earlier question, I learned all these words while listening to people arguing on the market place, so let me tell you just all the words I want to say to them the next time I encounter them..."

The rest of the trip down to the seashore was spent with Laurence listing a whole slew of curse words so that a relieved sigh escaped out of Gehrman once they arrived and Laurence finally shut his mouth again.

"How can one single person talk so much?", he said. "No wonder you drink so much and have to run to the bathroom so much."

"Hey.", Laurence complained. "That isn't something I can help."

"But keeping your tongue in check, that is something you can help.", Gehrman said, chuckling when Laurence gave him the very harmless kick against the shin that he had wanted to give him earlier that day already. Luckily it didn't hurt his foot as much as he thought.

They left their now much lighter bags behind in the small forest near the shore. While Laurence was busy taking his fishing supplies out, Gehrman vanished into the forest, saying that he searched for a sturdy stick.

After Laurence had prepared his supplies, he also snatched two wrapped sandwiches and a bottle of water out of his bag, struggling a bit carrying it all. He considered if he should maybe wait for Gehrman to help him, but Gehrman was nowhere to be seen, so Laurence staggered down to the shore, where he found Micolash, who sat there with his own fishing rod in the water, a bucket next to him, apparently deep in thought.

"Hey Micolash.", Laurence said, making the boy jump and look around frantically before he noticed that the threat was just Laurence and he relaxed.

"Don't startle me like this, Laurence.", he said, sitting back down and casting out his fishing rod anew.

"Well, you were the one sleeping while fishing.", Laurence said, sitting next to Micolash and dropping everything he had carried on the floor. He picked up one of the wrapped sandwiches and handed it to Micolash, taking and unwrapping another one for himself. His fishing rod was ignored for now, he wanted to eat before he even thought about casting it out.

"I wasn't sleeping, I was thinking.", Micolash said, accepting the sandwich. "Did you bring some water as well?"

"Yes, I have.", Laurence handed Micolash the bottle. "But leave enough for me, you should have brought your own water.", he scolded Micolash while he bit into his sandwich, it was a fish sandwich, of course. They ate a lot of fish in Orth. "Also what were you thinking about?"

Micolash took a bite of his own sandwich and replied after quickly chewing and swallowing: "The Abyss of course. We have just been in there yesterday and it was already the third time for me, but it never ceases to amaze me so far. I just want to know so much more about it, and go deeper and deeper. Can't you wait to grow up so that you can see the lower layers, Laurence?"

"I have seen the first layer yesterday from the inside for the first time of my life, I think I am fine with exploring that one at my own pace.", Laurence said neutrally, looking behind him when he heard a noise. Gehrman arrived with a fitting stick, nice and sturdy, little chance that it would break.

"Hey Laurence, do you have a sandwich for me too?", he asked, sitting next to the two boys. Micolash simply acknowledged him with a nod, almost having finished his sandwich and putting his attention back to his fishing rod.

"I didn't think you would come, so I only packed two.", Laurence said, already working on tearing a part away from his own sandwich. "I share with you, but then you have to give me seconds for dinner."

"Deal.", Gehrman said, accepting the sandwich. Laurence finished his sandwich and prepared his fishing rod, handing Gehrman a fishing line and a hook. Micolash glanced at them, deciding to comment.

"Gehrman, you will hardly catch anything with such a hastily made rod as well as no bait."

"I also told him that.", Laurence grumbled, picking a lugworm out of his bait box and preparing it on the hook. "How do they bite by the way? I have the feeling we have eaten nothing but sardines lately."

"Hmmm, it would be nice to have a mackerel for once.", Gehrman joined in while Laurence peaked into Micolash's bucket and saw mostly sardines, of course. He sighed and cast out his own rod.

"Mackerel would be nice... or bream...", Laurence said. "I hope we can fish one day in the Abyss too, I heard about the salmon down there, they shall be so much more tasty than any seawater fish we can catch."

"All the food of the Abyss is so tasty.", Micolash agreed. "The meat we sometimes get in the orphanage is so good. I wish I could eat it everyday."

"Instead we have to eat sardines almost every day.", Gehrman chimed in.

"Shut up, if I would be able to catch something else I would gladly do it.", Micolash scowled at Gehrman and Laurence had to chuckle about their exchange.

"Hey, at least they are edible.", he said. "Let's just hope that we manage to catch something more exciting today."

"Did you plan to fish for the whole afternoon?", Gehrman asked after around ten minutes had passed, apparently a bit bored because he didn't get a bite.

"Yes, there isn't anything else to do anyway.", Laurence said. "We didn't get fresh post balloons, so no mail to deliver. And there were no tourist ships lately, so no guided tours as well."

"I am rather glad when we don't have tourists.", Micolash said. "They never seem to be satisfied with me. I don't know how you do it, Laurence. You guide them as if it is the most natural thing in the world."

"It's because he likes to talk so much, he's in his natural habitat when he does that.", Gehrman had his chin in his hands, staring at the water rather absentmindedly.

"Hey!", Laurence shouted, but his annoyance was short-lived. "I rather like doing it. It's not hard. You just have to make sure that everything you show these tourists sounds like the most exciting thing in the world. In the shopping district make sure to recommend some restaurants tohem, when they actually go there, the owners will give you some treats and end the tour with the Abyss and make it sound extra mysterious. They love that. So many people ask if they can visit it too, but I always have to tell them that only the delvers with the whistles are allowed in there, and from that, you have your next conversation point, because they will ask about it and-"

"See, he loves to hear himself talk.", Gehrman commented, interrupting Laurence' stream of words.

"To be fair.", Laurence said, giving Gehrman just a tiny little glance. "I didn't have much opportunity to talk when I was younger. I often was left alone when my parents were delving, with the neighbours watching over me. It could get pretty lonely in that house... I often would talk to myself just to fill the silence and so it turned into a habit for me to just never stop talking."

Micolash reeled in a sardine and dropped it into the bucket before he joined the conversation: "It feels strange for me. That you knew your parents, I mean, Laurence. I barely remember mine. It weren't even good memories. I have been in the orphanage for almost all my life..."

"I have been in there pretty long too.", Gehrman said, "My mother died when I was six and then my father went into the Abyss and... never returned. I think he never intended to return, because he left me with the Orphanage before he delved..."

"It's true that I knew my parents rather long...", Laurence said, feeling himself trembling just a tiny little bit, trying to steady his hands, he would not get a single bite if he scared the fish away, "But that also means that it hurt a lot when I learned of their passing..."

The three of them simply looked at the ground after their exchange, all having to deal with their own pain that was familiar and foreign at the same time to each and everyone of them.

"Maybe... maybe we should talk about something else?", Gehrman suggested, right when Laurence got a tug on his fishing line and from the looks of it, it was a lot larger than a sardine.

"Help me, guys, I think I've got something big!", he shouted, half in excitement, half out of fear of losing the bite. Both Micolash and Gehrman came over to steady him while he fought with the fish and he managed to reel it in... and it was a squid, a rather large one. The moment it hit the ground, it already used its tentacles to scurry back into the water.

"Oh no, you won't!", Laurence pretty much took chase and threw his whole body over the mollusk, doing his damn best to to not let it escape while Micolash and Gehrman came to drag the squid away from the water. Gehrman managed to hit it hard enough with the impromptu fishing rod (which broke after so much force), so that they could take the squid with them without having to fear that it escaped.

"Finally something else to eat.", Laurence grinned.

"We just have to discuss who gets which part.", Micolash said.

"It's a squid, Micolash, each part tastes the same.", Laurence chuckled.

"Not true, the back tentacles have a slightly more salty tendency and...", Micolash started to ramble, giving Laurence a taste of his own medicine.

"Guys, we can discuss this later.", Gehrman said. "While we get back to the orphanage, let's search for some nuts in the forest. There should have been some fallen down by now."

"Alright.", Laurence said, Micolash didn't interrupt his rambling, but nodded at Gehrman and then the three of them were on their way back, being content that they managed to gather enough food to last for a few days.

"With this much food Master Willem surely will raise our allowance.", Laurence said.

"I rather want for him to raise his permission for us to delve deeper.", Micolash remarked.

"Guys, please, you will be delving deeper before you know it.", Gehrman said, walking between them both. "Rather tell me how you want your rice prepared on the next day of delving."

(Author's note: Well, it wasn't apparent in the first chapter, because he was nervous and scared, but Laurence is a little shit, a real brat, as well as a potty mouth. Please get used to him using a lot of stuff to his advantage and cursing a lot. It will only get worse when he gets older, so beware.

When I sometimes write Red Whistle and stuff in capitalized and sometimes not capitalized, it means that I make a distinction between the item and the delvers. When it is not capitalized, they talk about the whistle as an item. If it is capitalized, they talk about a delver. Everything clear?

Hm, more world building for this one, but I think we get a bit more excitement in the next chapter. I know the pace is slow, but I want to put time in all the world building I thought up, all the stuff that Tsukushi couldn't give us because the Abyss kids are doing an Abyss speedrun. This chapter was entirely in Orth, but we will have plenty of chapters in the Abyss in the future.)