[FIN]One Fish, Two Fish (Earako and Damaris)

[lithle]

The day was sunny and bright, too bright for the pale skinned little girl with dark wings. It made her uncomfortable, and dizzy. Still, it wasn't a long walk, her Da' had promised, and soon they'd be inside, and there'd be lots too see! Earako clung to her Da's hand, a lacy black parasol held in the other, shading her from the sun's unfriendly rays. "It'll be dark inside, won't it?"

"Darker, mostly." Michael promised, for what felt like the twentieth time. "You wouldn't be so hot if you weren't wearing black." He added, a bit sulkily. He loved the albino bat child. He would give her the stars without hesitation. But he could for the life of him understand where she'd developed her dark and frilly sense of style. He blamed Kyle for the dark, but as for the ruffles, it was anyone's guess.

"Da'..." It wasn't quite an accusation, but there was definate hurt in the young girls voice. She looked up at him, red eyes peering over the top of her glasses. "You don't think I look pretty?"

Michael winced. She did it on purpose, he just knew it. It seemed like any conversation that Earako didn't want to have ended in his feeling guilty. "Of course you do, Kid. You look beautiful. I'm sorry." He glanced up, glad to see the large building that housed the aquarium ahead. "Look, we're here."  

[Syrcaid]

Damaris was already inside whilst S-D was left yards behind to chase after her, swearing profusely as he entered the large aquarium. Mercifully, it was pretty much bare today since it was a weekday. He apologised to a nearby attendant in advance for his daughter and to please watch out for her tail.

Damaris wore only her skirt and a pair of sandals that constantly threatened to fly off her feet. S-D couldn't get her to wear anything else, she loved the feel of warm sun on her bare skin. And yet, she also loved going into tunnel like places like the aquarium.

Lately she'd been pretending she was a scuba diver and exploring the vast depths of the unknown ever since S-D let her watch Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.  

[lithle]

Finally, they were inside. Michael didn't much like fish or anything, but it was a relief to have Earako perk up and put away the parasol. Having a wilting daughter at his side wasn't exactly his idea of comfrotable. It made him feel guilty, the he couldn't protect her from the day. Quickly buying two tickets, and trying not to think about the expense of raising a little one, he led the girl into the dark aquarium.

They made quite a pair, when he thought about it. Earako, pale, with her wings, her huge ears, her frilly black dress and ever present sun glasses. And him, tall, rough looking (he hated it, but it was true), with this mornings stubble still on his chin, and the hint of tattoos peaking out from his white t-shirt. He wasn't the sort of guy who was supposed to have a daughter, was he? But here they were.

"What kinda fish do they have, Da'?" Earako asked, overwhelmed by the decisions presented to her. They could go anywhere, and think of all the stuff they could see! She bounced in place, anxious to get started, but not sure which direction to pull her father in.

"I don't know, Kid. Guess we'll find out." He scanned the area, noting the lack of many patrons... and someone running after a rather lizard like girl. Well, they loked more interesting than the tanks.  

[Syrcaid]

"Damaris...?" S-D's eyes adjusted to the dim lighting within the aquarium. "Baby, where did you go this time...?" He groaned, rubbing at his eyes. The points of his temples were already beginning to throb.

Two bright green eyes grew brighter in the dim light as S-D realised Damaris had her face planted against the pane against the salt water display of seahorses.

"Damaris, you're going to leave little snotty nose prints all over the- Oh, for god's sake! Don't LICK the glass!"

Damaris burst out laughing.  

[lithle]

Amused, or at least curious, Michael led Earako closer to the man and the lizard child. They certainly seemed to be having fun, at least! He remembered Earako at that age. She'd been freer, then. These days, she seemed to be developing a certain caution, a less playful approach to the world. Growing up, he guessed, though she was still young enough to enjoy herself.

"Troubles?" He asked sympathetically, as he came within a comfortable chatting distance of the man. He could be sympathetic, Earako might be something of a little princess, but she could cause problems when she wanted to. Especially if she was allowed near markers.

She did so love to add a bit of colour to her pale skin.

"Are you trying to eat them?" Earako asked the other girl, her tone curious. Were sea horses even good to eat? She'd never had one, and her Da' made fish all the time. Maybe the girl knew something she didn't, and she'd need to have him make her some soon.  

[Syrcaid]

Damaris looked up at Earako with a curious expression, in the middle of licking the pane a second time. She shook her head, the slobbery pane still touching her long tongue. She gave an open mouthed laugh and shook her head.

"She likes to lick slick panes of glass..." S-D said, his eyes growing overcast and weary looking. "They're going to kick us out at any moment, to be sure."

He fished in his the pockets of his black canvas jeans and pulled out a little bottle of medication. He tipped out two tabs and popped them in his mouth with resignation.

Then the realisation hit him, though his expression didn't change. He looked to Michael and blinked slowly, putting the bottle back into his pocket before holding out his hand to shake.

"I'm Silvain, this is Damaris," S-D explained. "She's a D-Corp child assigned to me via an overbearing mother."  

[lithle]

A d-corp kid, huh? Well, her somewhat unusual appearance made sense then. Earako had some strange playmates, and this little one didn't even near the top of the list. That shell kid... now he'd been weird. The little lizard was rather cute, really.

"I'm Michael. And my daughter is Earako, an albino bat, also from D-corp." He smiled affectionately as he introduced the girl, who turned and managed a slightly clumsy curtsy toward the man. Ruffling her hair affectionately, and getting a near glare for his efforts, Michael laughed. "You'll find children steal your heart whether you want them too or not."

A bit of an arrogant thing to say, but certainly when Earako had first come into his care, he hadn't been happy about the idea. It was time that had changed things.

Earako, meanwhile, was focusing her attention on Damaris and the sea horses. "I'm a vampire bat, what are you?" She asked, tilting her head to one side as she examined the girl. "You look like a lizard. I don't think I've met any lizards."  

[Syrcaid]

Damaris let her tail crack like a tiny whip and she cried, "Skink! Skink! Stinky skinky!"

S-D cleared his throat behind a clenched fist. "Stinky skinky" had been her current pet name for her since lately she'd been having to be chased around the room before she agreed to taking a bath.

"She's a skink, yes," S-D clarfied. "He likes lying on warm garden stones and it's all I can do to keep her from wanting to lick anything with a slick surface. She does not eat insects (if I can stop her in time)," he muttered.

Damaris started pressing her forehead on the pane and watching the fish again, tunneling her interest on the sea horses. "Horsey, horsey, run like the wind..." she sing-songed.

"She likes horses because her niece is one," he explained. "I told her the other day that there was such a thing as sea horses and before I knew it she's pretending she's a scuba diver with the fishbowl on her head and the goldfish has mysteriously disappeared."  

[lithle]

Earako jumped a bit at the lashing tail, surprised at the fast movement. Nothing on her moved nearly so fast! But that was ok. She had her wings, which meant she could fly (somewhat) and that made up for the lack of a tail, or horns, or lots of arms. Though it didn't quite make up for being so boring and pale. "A skink?"

She'd never heard of one of those before. Though looking at Damaris made her pretty sure that it was some kind of lizard. The girls attention to the aquarium transfered her attention as well, and she looked about, anxious to explore. "Wanna see what's in the next tank?" She asked, gesturing toward a display of eels.

"Don't wander too far, Earako." Michael said automatically, when he saw his daughters eyes begin to wander. She was a good kid, but that didn't mean he wanted her out of his sight. "You got a big family, then?"  

[Syrcaid]

"Fairly enormous," S-D nodded in agreement, shoving his hands into his pockets as he watched Damaris follow Earako. "My mother builds worlds from fragments of reality and essentially reassembles souls..." S-D's eyes went dark and began to glaze over at the sheer thought of it. "Hundreds of the little sons of-"

He snapped out of it and looked back to Michael. "Excuse me, yes. Anyway, D-Corp felt by some strange path of logic since I'm composed of for the most part reptilian components that I was fit enough to care for Damaris and my other thought it'd be a bloody -lark- if I was made to patron a child."

The more he spoke, the more he began to slouch with the weight of the realisation hitting him. He hadn't realised that he was most likely not only talking Michael's ear off, but telling him more than he needed or perhaps wanted to know. S-D stared with dull eyes at Micheal.

Damaris was more than happy to follow Earako as she led on, stomping her feet in a run all the way. She always felt more comfortable around those who looked less human like she did and willingly followed the other older girl without hesitation, laughing all the way.  

[lithle]

"I see." Replied Michael, who, of course, didn't. Oh well, he was used to stuff going over his head. At least what he understood, he understood well. And if there were some things he didn't get, that was life. "I suppose I can see how they might think you would relate to such a child."

As to why they'd picked him for Earako, he hadn't the slightest clue. But it was hard to argue with a bit of blackmail and the promise of a family. It'd been a good turn, really. Maybe it made things complicated, but life usually was.

"You see, these are eels." Earako explained, pointing toward the long slippery looking forms behind the glass. "Like in The Little Mermaid." She didn't much like Disney, but she'd seen all the movies anyway. Her Da' had been convinced that they were the right thing for a kid her age to watch. It hadn't taken long to change his mind. She was clearly falling into a 'teacher' mode, treating the younger girl the same way she did Isabel.  

[Syrcaid]

"Ooooh, hi Flotsam! Hi, Jetsam!" Damaris waved at the eels who slithered into their hollows.

S-D watched the two and Damaris waving frantically to a harassed looking fish in the tank a few yards away. He looked to Michael,"She acts mature for her age. Want to trade?"  

[lithle]

Earako laughed, liking the younger girl's enthusiasm. She had never been quite so hyper, always more shy and quiet, but she liked seeing energy in others. She spent a moment just watching the eels, facinated by the elegance of their movements, and making a note to ask her Da' for fish, later. She wanted some to play with. An eel would make a good pet.

"They've got octopuses too, I think." She added, remembering the evil witches eight wiggling tenticles. "There's a D-corp kid that has a shell, and a bunch of wiggly tenticles. I don't remember his name though."

Thoughtful, the pale bat scanned the area, looking for another interesting tank. There, down the way, clown fish. "Look, Nemo fish!"

"She went through her trouble stages, trust me." Michael responded, following the two girls at a slow pace, giving them room but not letting them out of his sight. "There was a time when she wouldn't stop colouring on herself. Skin that pale is hard as hell to wash clean."  

[Syrcaid]

Damaris hopped up and down with her hands plastered to the pane of the tank and starting singing tunes from every Disney cartoon she knew of. Only bits and pieces, she could never sit and learn the entire song in one go so she'd eventually just end up singing a medley.

S-D sighed and watched her energy, almost envious but for the most part annoyed. As was his nature, nothing would satisfy.

"I wonder what stages Damaris will go through, with any luck she'll at least settle down to her studies some when she's older," S-D sighed. "I suppose there's always time for that yet, she's so small."  

[lithle]

"Kids settle, I think. No one can be a toddler forever." Earako and Damaris were nearing a corner, and Michael increased his pace a bit. He wouldn't have her wandering out of his line of vision. "Mostly, I worry about the dragon. I mean, how do you dragon proof a home?"

Earako watched the clown fish, and watched Damaris as well, it was hard to tell which she was more amused by. She read the plaque by the fish with a slight frown, her mouth moving silently as she sounded out the harder words. When she got home, she'd colour the whole house blue, and cover it with fish. "Do you think we can find a Dori fish too?"