Beginning

Characters: Bepo, Penguin, Law, Shachi. Rating: K. Warnings: None

Bepo wasn't sure what to think of the humans. Law, the one that helped him but didn't say he was his friend, was strong and made him feel safe, but didn't seem like he wanted to stay with him, even though he'd stopped telling Bepo to leave him alone.

The other two were worse. Bepo just could not decipher what they were thinking or what they wanted – did they even know themselves what they wanted? Yesterday they'd been violent and cruel to him, until Law had stepped in. Now they were back, but something seemed different.

They didn't have the club they'd been beating him with yesterday. Their hands were stuffed in their pockets, making it impossible to tell through the thick coats whether or not they were in fists again, and their backs were rigid. Bepo would even dare to say they looked less like hunters and more like the hunted now. The bruises and bandages that wrapped the wounds Law had inflicted yesterday stripped them of all the intimidation they'd had. De-clawed. That was how they looked, although they still had their fangs.

"What's your name?" the older one said, with far less of a demanding tone than Bepo had expected from the violent human.

"I don't see why it concerns you," Law replied steadily, and something that wasn't his electro tingled inside Bepo. Law had told him his name.

"The name's Penguin," the boy continued, as if he hadn't just been rejected. Bepo noticed the tenseness in his jaw that betrayed otherwise. "This is Shachi." The ginger nodded his head jerkily.

"I don't care," Law dismissed, and turned away, striding towards the docks. Bepo watched him forlornly, and heard the grinding of teeth. The ginger – Shachi – was quickly highlighted as the cause. "Aren't you coming?" Law added, and Bepo looked around, wondering who he was talking to. Whoever it was, they didn't appear, and Law continued his trek.

"Why didn't you go?" Penguin asked, and Bepo jumped, finding two pairs of eyes focusing on him (or so he thought; it was difficult to tell with the hats and shades in the way). "He was talking to you."

"Me?" Bepo asked, pointing at himself. He tensed as the pair approached him, and reflexively channelled his electro as they made contact, working together to shove him forwards mercilessly, along the same path Law had taken.

"Get going, you crazy animal," Shachi grumbled, hopping around on one foot and clutching at his other. Besides him, Penguin had sat down heavily in the snow and was tentatively rubbing at his own foot.

They looked dejected. They were trying to hide it behind harsh words and actions, but Bepo knew the feeling too well not to recognise it when he saw it. They'd wanted something, and it had been snatched away from them. To Bepo's mind, there was only one explanation, no matter that he didn't understand it at all.

Then again, maybe he did, because he was about to do the same thing.

"You could come too," he offered, shrinking back as they leapt back to their feet.

"Why would we want to do that?" they yelled in chorus, and Bepo cowered further.

"I'm sorry," he mumbled. He'd thought that, like him, they'd been drawn to Law, despite their first encounter. Had he been wrong?

"Sure," Penguin said, and Bepo blinked, certain he was hearing things. It made no sense that they'd complain but say yes. They didn't seem to be lying, though, so Bepo started down the path. Sure enough, the boys followed him, an uncomfortable silence descending over them as they caught up with Law, who was walking too slowly.

Was he going to collapse again?

He might have done, except when he stumbled Penguin and Shachi were there, catching him by the arms and hauling him upright.

"What are you doing?" Law yelped, forcing his way out of their grip and ending up leaning on Bepo instead. Law didn't seem bothered by it – at least, not as much as he had been by the two boys.

"You'll need a boat," Penguin said, crossing his arms. Beside him, Shachi mirrored the action, and Bepo wondered why he was so quiet when yesterday he'd been the loudest. "You're not planning on staying here."

"Not that that concerns you," Law said coldly. "Besides, I have a boat."

"If you mean that lump of firewood, it got broken up for scraps yesterday," Penguin informed him. "That thing lost its seaworthiness long ago." Law made a noise Bepo could only describe as an offended hiss. "We can get you a new one."

"Why?" Law asked, and it was hardly difficult to pick up on the heavy suspicion in the word.

"Because we're coming with you."

"No you're not," Law retorted.

When he thought back to that moment later on, Bepo was always glad that was one debate his captain lost.

It took almost an hour of first bickering, then horror stories meant to dissuade them, for a conclusion to be reached. It was only reached because Law had another of those spells where he got dizzy, and Penguin and Shachi took the opportunity to pick him up and drag him over to a fishing boat that, in Bepo's humble opinion, didn't look like it could possibly be theirs.

As they sailed away, Law flipped them both out of the boat, only for the pair to both be far stronger swimmers than he'd obviously expected and easily catch up with the slow pace of their boat.

"Why?" Law demanded of the two sopping wet forms as they hauled themselves back on board, bandages slipping.

"You're interesting to be around," Penguin grinned. "So, what's your name?"

Law seemed too stunned to have an answer.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari