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"It's just gonna take me a little bit." The older man grunted as he set down the green boy that was currently under the care of his younger brother. He'd gotten stuck with babysitting again. Nero's uncle straightened, his eyes narrowing, his (barely) good one straining to get a good look around the shop. The other eye was a nasty sight- glazed and the actual eyeball covered in heavy scarring, color leaking from where it should have been to flood his entire eye. Blind. His other one was just slightly fogged over, but was just about as good as the other. They gave him a scary look- but then again, so did the rest of him. Everything about him seemed intimidating. "You go look at the kids section for a bit, kid. I'm gonna go have a look at something." And then the colossus man (he was giant, height-wise) lumbered off.

Nero nodded and waved a claw before walking into the kids' section, all four eyes peering around curiously. This wasn't the sort of place one would usually find the scorpion boy. Although he might be a 'four eyes', he was in no way literate.. Or even all that 'nerdish.' It was hard for him to train all of his eyes on the words and put them together, so he was kind of a... Slow reader. But he still liked reading.

He edged through the aisles uncertainly, beginning to feel slightly nervous simply because he was on his own. He shuffled along quietly, head lowered, claws clacking together.

All four eyes turned towards the hawk, surprise filling his face for a moment as she spoke to him. A lot of the time kids kept away from him or left him alone when he came to places like these. He offered a lop-sided smile, "I-I'm sorry." He quickly snatched up a book before dropping into a seat, keeping far enough away so as not to bother the girl. He set the book on the table and opened it cautiously- claws were difficult tools for this kind of thing. It was hard for him to hold the book, as well as turn pages. He had to be sure he didn't rip the book, after all!

His eyes strained at the pages, teeth setting into his lower lip, his tail-tip tapping at the table uncertainly. The boy... Dog... Ran... House... He shook his head and tried to get all of his eyes to focus on one place at one time... He gave up after awhile, instead timidly looking up to Harper. "U-umn... Yo-you come h-here a lot, r-right?" He came here often as well, but usually stuck to his caretaker or uncle's side like glue. He saw her frequently, but this was the first time he ever ventured over to the children's side.

The child smiled after the other agreed with him- he'd been right. That was always a nice thing.. "Oh.. Y-yeah.." He looked back down to his book until the girl spoke again, his top eyes looking up while his other two kept down on the book. "U-um..."

He shifted a bit, "Th-there was a s-scary guy h-here on-once... H-he was m-mean..." And scary. Eeesh. And those kinds of confrontations scarred the nervous child rather easily. He was such a timid boy, after all, and any sign of something even remotely scary could send him running.. But then again his stutter made him always seem nervous, even when he wasn't, so he was used to getting questions about his scaredy cat behavior very often.

"Sc-scorpions don't ha-have b-backbones." The boy quipped in idly, luckily completely unoffended by her pointing out his lack of the hypothetic backbone. He knew he was a scaredy cat, his father was constantly trying to toughen him up so he wouldn't be spooked when he got his dragon. He peeped down at his book, "Sc-scary peo-people A-ARE ev-everywhere." His tone was grim.

Stupid scary people, always following him.

He tilted his head at the mention of his eyes, "R-really?" That same tilted head lowered modestly, two of his many arms tapping shyly on the table top. "Th-thank you... I l-like your w-wings... I-I haven't s-seen any-anything like th-them before... Th-they're n-neat."

The child drooped a bit at the fact as it was pointed out, "Y-yeah..." He knew some people were afraid of him. He'd seen many cases of just that, after all. Many of the 'normal' human children didn't take too well to his odd, monster-like appearance. They couldn't seem to understand that beneath the bizarre features was a timid and jumpy boy who was actually relatively social. Nero wouldn't hurt a fly.

Well, on purpose, anyways.

"S-some good pe-people." He echoed in an agreeing tone- his uncle and Axel were good... His friends were good. Bree was even good! He shifted slightly, "Lotsa p-people say I-I look k-kinda sc-scary. L-like a mo-monster."

Two eyes stared towards the girl as she spoke, the other pair lowered sheepishly to the book located in the scorpion's lap. He allowed a smile to pass over his face after her words, "Thank y-you." And then he went quiet once again, just happy to hear someone reassure him that he was no monster. Even though Keanu called him so affectionately, he could only think of Axel's reaction to someone calling his uncle a monster... It had been a bad reaction... So it made monster an even worse name than it had been before.

He didn't seem phased by the fact words of such wisdom came from one even younger than himself, he simply kept smiling. He was happy now, that was for sure.

He wasn't a monster.

The child started at the sound of the girl's voice as it broke the silence, the green one's head lifting, all eyes blinking. "M-me? Uh-umn... N-no, not a t-teacher. M-my da-daddy isn-isn't a teacher. H-he's a b-business g-guy, th-though. H-his n-name is Axel!" He nodded sagely.

"S-sometimes my un-uncle t-takes care of m-me too!" He added in, glancing about as if expecting the man to magically appear as he mentioned him. Nope, no such luck. "Th-they're n-nice..." He turned his attention back to the girl, "Wh-who's t-taking care of y-you...?"

"Oh..." The boy muttered softly, watching as the girl suddenly moved to leave his presence, and he lifted a claw to wave awkwardly. "U-um... By-bye!" He watched the girl disapear, and then looked in dismay towards the book before him. "Unh..." He still couldn't read very well..

He was there for awhile longer, until his uncle came and retrieved him. The odd pair then began their long walk home, playing sidewalk games all the way.

Nero did so love his uncle.