Welcome to Gaia! ::

Axel chuckled softly, glancing back at the scorpion boy, "You sure you don't wanna come in? I'll be there with you." Nero shook his head furiously and tucked his knees to his chest, claws clacking idly. "Alright..."

The young man shook his head and continued into the depth of the pool, shivering a bit unconsciously. It was kinda cold in here... He would only stay in for a little bit, trying to convince the little one to give swimming a shot. He continued swimming laps in the pool for a few more minutes before hoisting himself out of that cold, clorine-saturated water. Now he felt even colder. He tugged at the waistline of his swimtrunks as they dipped down a bit from the gravity before retreating to the jacuzzi.

Nero watched the older male as he went from the pool to the jacuzzi, sighing a bit. He looked nervously at the water before scooting away a bit, tail curled up around him to keep from dropping into the pool. It seemed kinda scary to him.

Axel was making small talk with that very same fat hairy man when a much more interesting subject popped into the jacuzzi and leaned in towards him. He chuckled a bit and leaned back, brows arching, "Why, hello gorgeous... Sexy, huh?" He wriggled his eyebrows in a mock-cocky manner, a hand going up to run through his hair. His eyes darted between Nero and her for a moment- he had to do his duty and watch his boy, after all. The scorpion always came first. "How've you and the little guy been?"

Nero blinked as another child was added into the already fairly high quota in the pool... And then his eyes lit up as he realized who it was. He smiled brightly, "J-Jekew!" He blinked as the other boy asked what he was doing out of the water... A frown was back. "U-umn... Umn... I d-dunno, I j-jus'... I ne-never been inna w-water be-before..."

Nero bit into his lower lip, watching the other boy uncertainly. "Umn... Okay..." He pushed himself to a stand, plodding slowly over to the stairs that went down into the pool.. "U-umn... Umn.. O-okay." He hesitantly placed a foot onto the top step.. And then he kept moving, going until he was waist-high in the water. He shivered slightly, "W-what do I d-do now?" He looked nervously out at the water, stinger held high as if to keep from getting wet. His extra legs had even raised slightly, as if his insect-instinct was telling him this was a bad idea.

Axel smiled slightly and let an arm slip around her, "Yeah... I can see. Doesn't it seem like it was just yesterday some creepy guys came up to us and gave us some animal-like child?" He sighed contentedly, the warm water more than a little soothing. "Nero's getting a lot bigger, too. He's a kinda nervous kid, though. I worry about him." He stretch out his legs.

Axel chuckled and nodded, "Yeah, guess so..." He sighed softly, "I hope so. He's such a timid little guy, and its getting harder for me to take him places... One time I took him to a pet store-" He stopped as he heard the child yelling, turning his gaze towards them. His eyebrows arched. "Jekel got him in the pool." He grinned a bit to himself and shook his head. Maybe Bree was right. Maybe they would cancel eachother out. He forgot all about his story, simply watching the scorpion boy.

Nero shifted in the water uncertainly, watching as the other boy went off to get some 'floaty thing'. "F-fwoaty th-thing?" He called after him, his second pair of eyes blinking. He took hold of it after the shark returned, looking it over. "S-so... I j-just howd on?" He put his arms over it, slumping onto it slightly. A few kids looked their way.

Nero's face brightened, "I-I am!" He shifted a bit and then did as he was told. It was harder to keep his grasp on the floaty because of his claws, but two of his extra legs hooked over it just incase. As he kicked along, his other legs moved along in the water, although it looked more like they were grasping for land rather than propelling him through water. Now they had more kids' attention. He glanced towards them with two of his eyes and almost grimaced, but instead chose to ignore them.

Axel's eyes softened a bit as he watched them, a hand lifting just to rest in his hair. "Yeah... That's good." He was happy to see Nero playing with another kid. It was nice.

Nero beamed back at his friend, continuing to swim along clumsily before an older boy approached them. He shrunk back immediately, all four eyes nervously fixed on the ominous figure of a scary boy. He drew in a deep breath, and although he looked somewhat uncertain he wasn't all-in-all nervous. He actually was pretty fine with things unless it got physical- then he'd probably flee a pounding.

The stranger glowered back down towards the shark child with his own 'mind your own business' look. He was hear to bug the scorpion, not him. "Back off, twerp." He shot in his direction before turning his attention back towards Nero. "Hey kid." He didn't even have to say anything mean, his voice already had the tone down. It was as if he were insulting him before he even got down to business. "What's with you, huh? Can't swim for crap, huh? What're you, like two, clinging onto your little floaty? Huh? You should get the heck out of the water, little baby. Back on land where you belong." He'd picked an age that looked much younger than what the kid actually was, and he struck home. It had been awhile since Nero was two.

The scorpion looked down, "I-I'm n-n-not a-a ba-bab-baby." His two top eyes remained focused on the boy that was towering over him. "G-go a-a-away." His stutter had noticably worsened, even though he tried not to show he was upset. Axel said not to let bullies see they were bothering you and they'd leave.

"Why'd I do that, freak?" This regular human boy often took the liberty of insulting the odd children living in Gaia. His words made Nero flinch. "Why the heck'd you wanna come into the pool in the first place? You look so stupid. We only let big kids who can swim in this pool, so ditch the floaty or get out."

The bully was in midst of turning, "What- OOF." He was sent back a bit, gritting his teeth. "Ow!" His hand clasped over the raw skin on his stomach, grimacing. Out from his mouth spilled a whole dictionary of words that kids his age probably shouldn't even know. "Why you little-!"

Nero watched curiously, flinching a bit from the violence- but he didn't mind so much to his surprise. He actually felt a good deal relieved. A good deal of the kids went silent, staring over in awe as the shark boy knocked down the biggest of them all. The scorpion's tail swayed behind him uncertainly, "Sh-should I get o-out, J-Jekel?" The idea seemed to depress him a bit; they were having fun, after all... But if he was causing trouble..

"You better get out." The wounded boy spat before grabbing the green boy's arm. Now that was a terrible idea. Nero jolted in shock, the claw belonging to the opposite arm immediately going out to take a firm grip on the arm of the older boy. This was the same claw that had unconsciously broken a plastic marker into two. He tightened his grip and the older boy flinched. "DOn't touch me." The scorpion demanded. As soon as the bully released him he let go, a red mark left where the claw had been. It was a good thing the bully did let go, as behind Nero his tail had instinctively started curling.

Nero put a little bit of distance between him and the human.

The bully glowered down at the smaller boy, one hand going defensively over his aching stomach. "You got no right to tell me what to do." Now, had he been any normal kid he would have back off after a little pain. But of course, he had an ego larger than his brain. Fight or flight instincts had triggered into fight.

Nero watched the two warily, frowning a bit to himself, tail swishing through the water behind him. He didn't like where this was going so much, but he would let Jekel take care of things for now. He almost felt as if he should... He also felt the urge to go crawl under something and hide in a nice, dark place, but that instinctive urge was easier to battle. Much easier than it had been when he was little.

Axel turned his gaze back to the kids, "Huh?..." He searched out Nero in the water, eyes narrowing in thought... And then he frowned. "Somethings wrong." And with that he was moving to a stand. He and Nero had a very strong bond- he could tell if there was something wrong with the boy with surprising ease.