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The deer boy looked terrified. It gave Belle a large amount of bittersweet satisfaction to know that she was responsible for the fear and the uncertainty that shone in his giant, round and very brown eyes. It occurred to her that she ought to be in trouble for what she'd done, and glanced behind her for any sign of her mother.

Green, whose ears were still intently trained on the group of children gathered by the pool, pretended to be distracted by a rather attractive young man who'd happened by at that precise time- fortunately, for her. It wouldn't do to have Belle think that her mother was allowing such unforgivably nasty behavior. Yes, Green was certain that it was better for the girl to presume that she hadn't noticed at all. That way, she was still free to hand out punishments later without feeling like a hypocrite. Belle couldn't go around with the notion in her head that she could get away with some things, and not with others.

Still, Green desperately wanted her to learn this particular lesson on her own. She suspected that, no matter how she tried to explain it to her, the toddler would not understand until she experienced it for herself.

She had reached a crossroads and it was time for her to choose a path. Dammit all. With a resigned sigh, Green tore her attention away from the man she'd been ogling and started towards the pool. She could wade around and keep a fairly good eye on her little girl at the same time.

This boy couldn't be serious. Did he honestly think he was the first person who'd ever tried that line on her? Belle wasn't a compassionate youngster. She cared very little for the feelings of others, and her intentions usually were to hurt. That was the point. Simple, sure, but always effective.

"I wouldn't like it," she said obviously, with a roll of her eyes and flicked the cat boy once on the forehead with her index finger, "duh."

"Move in the water like that," he explained, the very picture of patience. "My name? Um," he paused to think about it, as he had to sometimes, "Finnegan." He had used his full name, as his mother had taught. He always introduced himself as that, even though it was only used when he did something wrong.

"Nice to meet you, Reese." Finn tried to smile, but found that he felt too miserable to attempt it. When she asked if he wanted to get out, he was again amazed at her ability to do things he couldn't. Like read minds. "Y-yes, please." He wasn't ashamed that he needed help. No, too wet and cold too care.

Only with his return to firm ground assured did his eyes move back up to the scene above him. The dark girl - she had to be the mean one - and the cat boy were talking. But it didn't sound very nice, which made Finn unhappy. He got it into his head to say something about being nice when the cat boy made some strange noise and pushed the girl.

His eyes widened. Were boys allowed to hit girls? Clinging to the side, he waited for Reese to help him and tried to stay out of sight of the two above.

Belle had been about to deliver some kind of half-assed witty remark, because this boy was obviously incapable of comprehending simple concepts and therefore wasn't worthy of her full intelligence, when he had the nerve to push her. She wasn't prepared for his sudden (or maybe, it wasn't so sudden) attack on her person and struggled to stay on her feet. The floor was slippery from the water beneath her feet and Belle teetered on the edge for a couple of terrifying moments, desperately trying to right herself with frantic and wild arm movements, before she fell. It seemed to happen in slow motion and the toddler watched, as all three other faces passed in front of her eyes, and then- there was nothing but water.

It flew up her nose and, for somebody who'd never experienced the miracles of chlorine before, caused quite a scare. Water had never burned like this before. If it hadn't been for the life jacket her mother had strapped securely around her skinny frame, Belle surely would have spluttered around and nearly drown. As it was, though, she floated back up to the surface with a horrified expression on her face, blond hair now soaking wet and matted to her forehead and the sides of her head like a second layer of skin. She let out an angry cry and clutched, confusedly, at her nose.

Why did it hurt so much?

The little girl's first instinct was to spin around and call for her mother, who surely would have put a stop to this treachery in ways that only she knew how, so that she was exactly what she did.

"MAMA!"

The sound of her baby's voice sliced through the ruckus that surrounded the swimming pool like a razor blade and Green resisted the urge to wince. She felt guilty for having left Belle alone, but she'd known that it was for the best. If the toddler's terrified voice gave away anything, it was that her mother had been right.

It was time, she reckoned, for her to step in and do what she'd been appointed to do.

"Belle," she said softly as she swept the tearful toddler into her arms, "what happened?"

"He pushed me!" Belle cried indignantly, more confident now that she had an adult who was clearly on her side, and pointed at Nahuel.

Green, meanwhile, had moved to be closer to the other children- in case they needed some kind of assistance. The poor deer boy hardly looked like he was suited for the water.

"Did he now?" the blond woman asked casually, and regarded her daughter through a pair of concerned green eyes, eyebrows raised as high as they could possibly go, "Was it anything like what you did to this poor kid?"

She gestured at Finn.

Belle's mouth dropped open in shock. She couldn't quite wrap her mind around what this meant, but she could sense that it wasn't good for her. There was something in Green's tone that gave it away. In that moment, the dark skinned girl felt terribly alone and wanted nothing better than to swim away from all four of them. She was silent.

"Well?" Green prodded loudly, voice full of expectancy.

Dumbly, Belle shook her head.

"Are you lying to me?

A nod.

"I think you owe everybody here an apology."

Oh. How embarrassing. Belle shook her head, clamped her lips shut and did her best to look anywhere but at them.


((wooo. long post. XD))

"Caprice is a pretty name," he smiled slightly, despite the cold. "An' so is Reese. I guess because they kinda sound the same." He had a habit of thinking aloud, in case no one had noticed yet. Auska had never really taught him otherwise.

"Y'can call me Finn. That's what my momma calls me," his voice was sweet and innocent, much like those big brown eyes of his. He watched her move over to the spot between him and the ladder. It was still amazing how she could move in the water like that. He squeezed his eyes shut as Caprice held out her hand. To let go might end in an early, watery death. But she could swim, so maybe it would be alright to trust that she would save him.

He was startled into action when the mean girl fell into the water. Finn nearly jumped in his effort to grab for Reese. Both his hands came flying off the edge to latch onto the dolphin-girl's offered hand. "R-reece!"

Auska heard the cry and carefully lifted her eyes from the book page. Oh. So something was going on. Big surprise. Children always caused trouble in public places. The thing that concerned her was that her precious Finny was in the middle of it. A frown curved her lips as she closed the book and set it aside. Right now it looked like everything would be fine, but just in case something went wrong, she was ready.

Their lack of concern for her after she'd been pushed into the pool wasn't surprising, but that didn't mean it hurt any less. Belle hadn't expected any of them to come rushing to her aid, but a part of her concluded that it would have been really nice if one of them had showed at least a little bit of concern. Anger at the three other toddlers surged up in her once more and threatened to spill out of her mouth in the form of angry words that would have had her mother spluttering and threatening to wash her mouth out with soap. Instead, the dark skinned little girl hid her face in the damp hair that lay like wet straw against Green's shoulder and refused to look at any of them.

She was so tired of silly children who tried to eat her toys and stupid cat boys with strange things on their arms. Despite the way she'd acted before, Belle was determined to be the victim. She was immensely glad to be safe in her mother's arms, even if the older woman was trying to get her to apologize.

Which she wouldn't. Not ever.

Green listened to Nahuel's recount of the incident patiently, with a respectful expression on her mostly young face. It wasn't necessary, because she had been listening and watching closely for the majority of the event, but she didn't want to offend the little boy and seriously felt that hearing the story out of somebody else's mouth might have had more of an impact on Belle. The blonde woman wanted her daughter to recognize the mistake she'd made and that the fault was nobody's but hers.

Judging by the way the kiddo was clinging to her shoulders- there was no conceivable way she'd realize that what she'd done was wrong. An exhausted sigh whispered passed her lips. Being a mother really was one of, if not the, hardest job(s) in the world.

"You're right," she nodded at the cat boy's words and moved again when he jumped in the water, all the while keeping a concerned eye on the other children, "it wasn't very nice."

Where were their parents?

Auska could only watch as the pair of children - one of them her own - were lost under the water's surface. She panicked, freezing up and staring in horror until the two heads popped back up. Okay, so she hadn't been as ready as she wanted to be. Why was it that she always lost the will to move when bad things happened? Oh well, best be getting up to retrieve her tyke now...

Finn gased at the air, tiny hands curling around the ladder like his life depended on it. And in a way, it did. Shivering unhappily, he refused to move, just clinging to the cold, wet metal until his mother arrived. He turned those doe-eyes onto her and stared miserably. It didn't take long for Auska to scoop him out of the water and set him on (mostly) dry ground. A pout blossomed over his lip as he transferred his clinging to her leg. She sighed and plucked at her shirt. It was wet. Great.

Finnegan peeked around her leg to stare at the catboy, who had jumped into the pool and was now floating around. How did he do that? He tugged on Auska's shirt and then pointed at him questioningly. "Those are water fins, they help you not to sink," was his answer. Ooh. So that was how the catboy did that. Finn wanted some, but wasn't about to volunteer to get into the water again.

Auska sighed, striking the pool off the list of places to take her deer-child. Apparently deers didn't like big bodies of water. Why hadn't she thought about that. She ran a hand through her hair and then smiled at the other adult. Nevermind the flowerchild clinging to her back, she must know what was going on.

"Who should apologize?" Auska wasn't the most observant person in the world, nope.