Beau had a lot to get used to. This was nothing like being back in Louisiana, and before now he'd never remotely been away. It'd only really been a week since he arrived at the Mansion, and was still somewhat settling in, but the idea of class made him feel better. He really missed going to school, if he had to be honest. But...he didn't know anyone, and that made him afraid, timid even.

He was currently sitting in the corner in a bean bag chair, reading. The blue-skinned teen was wearing a pair of blue jeans, and a black shirt that was covered by a way too big hoodie that came down to his mid thigh, and as it stood, his legs were curled up in it as well. But then a noise startled the poor kid, and he looked up to see....people! Oh no...people...

With it being the middle of the day, other kids were starting to congregate in the area he was in, and he'd just now noticed, and to be honest it made him quite uneasy. He put his book in the hoodie pocket before pulling the hood up and drawing the string tight, attempting to shrink back into the corner. Anyone looking his way would see a black lump of hoodie with a pair of yellow eyes peeking out, trying to melt into the corner and disappear. 

It was times like this he really missed Renee and Gilbert...normally he could have just hidden behind them. 

She saw the kid in the corner. Mostly because sometimes she was the kid in the corner, but today she'd been hoping to snag that bean bag and the bean bag had been in use.

Kalos slipped her gameboy into the starfish shaped front pocket of her dress which made the whole thing hang funny, but she couldn't care less. It was winter out, but by looking at Kalos, no one would have guessed it. Her white dress with golden starfish detail was short enough to accommodate the coral growths on her knees, the lack of sleeves were perfect for her shoulder spines. She'd added a headband, gold glittered, to keep her growing cotton candy pink floof of kinky coiled hair back and away from her real crown: the coral growing around the crown of her head.

The other kids just arriving? They didn't see the beanbag boy. They were too busy debating something hotly between them. But to see him shrink away from them like a polyp shying from the touch of a nearby fish made her mad. But he hid too well. He was too still. Someone was going to sit right on him.

He had every right to be blue and in her bean bag chair. (He had gotten there first and Kalos subscribed to the rule of first come, first serve.)

"You will not sit upon my royal subject." Kalos dramatically levelled her hand at the child who had turned his back, still chatting away with his friend, and had started to bend his knees. "For I am Kalos, Queen of Atlanteans, and he is mine."

Oh no. Some of them were approaching, and they were being loud. And not paying attention to him, which was good, at least. Wait no it wasn't good. Someone was about to sit on him. "T-t-this s-s-seat's t-t-taken..." Beau's timid voice was almost a whisper, so of course they didn't hear.

"You will not sit upon my royal subject. For I am Kalos, Queen of Atlanteans, and he is mine." Subject? Queen? Hers?

Beau wasn't sure how he felt about any of that, but there was no time to process as one of them continued his process of sitting. Beau curled up tighter, his blue hands emerging from the sleeves in an instinctive defensive maneuver as he felt a slight tingling in his arms and time seemed to almost slow down as the older kid's rear end closed in on him and sat down--which was interrupted by a small flash of light and a loud POP! Sort of like a static shock on steroids.

"Ow! What the--that little bug zapped me!"
"I..I didn't mean to..." he said as he scrambled to his feet and sort of hid behind the pink girl. "Sometimes...weird things happen when I get scared..." he murmured. If he could, he'd sink even farther into the hoodie.

Hm. Bossing people usually made them stop and at LEAST consider that she'd said words. This bag of buttocks just kept going. And he got exactly what he deserved.

"That- that's right. AND He's not the only one who can sting." He could sting people!? AND HE WAS BLUE!? Kalos bounced on her toes, ready for a fight. Maybe he was a kindred Atlantean child! "We the people of the ocean will rise up and conquer." She waggled her fingers and could tell that she was not intimidating enough based on the way they rolled their eyes. But they did choose to walk away and that also known by another term.

"I accept your surrender and retreat. I'll be kind today. No casualties."

That that she only got a whatever, Kalos. She took a gigantic breath, puffed with pride.

"We won!" His hands? Sh wasn't afraid of those. In fact, she embraced them, grabbing onto the little bit of blue she could see and jumping up and down to celebrate their military might.

This girl, Kalos, seemed very....energetic. Though if she had any actual authority it seemed to go unnoticed by the buffoon and his probably-still-tingly buttocks. It was over pretty quickly, actually, and before Beau could process everything the offending pair of buttcheeks had walked away, and--

Ohdear she was touching him... He recoiled at first, but this only pulled the sleeves of his overly-large hoodie back to reveal more of his blue webbed hands. He stood to his feet as she jumped up and down, the hood falling off of his head to reveal his blue face and piercing though timid yellow eyes.

But the contact wasn't....bad. It was happy. Somehow celebratory. He gave a nervous smile. "I...we did? I mean...yeah, we won," he said, blushing a light shade of purple. "But I ain't from no ocean...I jus' look like it. I'm really from Louisiana," he continued, his voice quiet and timid still, especially since he was technically holding hands with a girl. Yeah, that happened.

"I'm-I-I....B-Beauregard Thibeau. But you can call me Beau. A-a-and t-thanks for the h-h-h-help," he stammered, never once making eye contact with the pink girl.

He wasn't from the ocean? Kalos gave him a skeptical crunch of coral encrusted eyebrow. "Of course you're from the ocean. You're blue, you sting, you look swimmy." She ticked off her reasons on her corally fingers. They were good ones that he probably hadn't considered before. And now that he was out of his hiding hood, she could see they had other things in common as well. Inhuman eyes, his yellow and hers a solid expanse of blue. He even blushed purple, too.

"Just because you come from Louie Anna doesn't mean the ocean wasn't there." She gave his heart-region a poke, right through his hoodie. "The ocean is here." She put her hand over her heart as well. "And the ocean is here. C'mon Beau the Beau. You're my friend now."

She took his hand again and tugged Beau the Beau toward the kitchen pantry.

"Is your blood red? Or yellow? Or blue?" He had blushed purple, but his eyes were yellow. "Doc prof says my eyes are blue from my blue blood. I'm ocean royalty, you know." So matter of fact that it just might be true.

"Uhm...actually up until about two years ago I looked like a regular kid," he explained. "Then I changed colors and grew my gills and stuff. Though I don't remember what it was like before then," he added.

"Ohhhhh," he mused when she'd explained that the ocean was in his heart. And hers. She touched him again. Yep. Touching was definitely a thing and he wasn't sure how he felt about that, but he didn't completely recoil this time. "That makes a lot more sense," he said with a nod.

"You're my friend now." Friend. He actually had one of those now. Neat. "Uh....it's Thibeau. Like 'tee-bow,'' he explained timidly.

"B-blood? I uh...it's red," he said, blushing again. "Most people think mine are scary because they're y-yellow..." He looked around; they were heading for the kitchen for some reason, though he didn't really argue or fight it. He was just going to go right along with her.

Two years ago he was normal. Kalos felt like she'd been kicked in the heart, but she did her best to recover. The ocean had him now, for better or for worse. "I have always been this beautiful, and I can remember even when I was a baby... kind of." At least, she remembered some of the time before what was terrible and the time before what was now.

And the kitchen was always Kalos' aim.

"Thank you, Teebow. And, I think your eyes is exactly how they supposed to be." She took her correction in stride and was magnanimous and kind, as all rulers should be. Fortunately for her, grammar was not a royal requirement. English was a tricky, tricky language. Some days she thought she had it and then other days were just hard, especially when it came to reading.

"I... kinda saw you reading. I have a plan about a sneak, but I need a reader. Are you any good at sneaking?"

"Y-you are quite p-pretty," he agreed, blushing a dark purple. "And thanks. I l-like my eyes, and I think I look c-cool, even if I am d-d-different." He gave a small smile at the pink girl as he followed.

"I really like to r-read," he said with a smile, before the smile faded. "Not reading anymore books about dogs though, nope..." he said sadly. "Sneaking, though, that I can do. Unless it's too dark." He made a face, scrunching his nose a bit; he'd just made it sound like he was a baby who was afraid of the dark!

"When it's dark, I have this thing that happens sometimes. Bioliquivescence....er...biolinoleum...biolemonlimeaide....I glow," he finally said with a nod, his blush darkening as his eyes looked down at his feet.

He knew she was pretty. Kalos smiled at him, but not with too much teeth. Sometimes she accidentally had too much teeth.

"Yes. The eyes are cool." It was easy to affirm Beau's coolness. He was blue.

"Why no dogs? Were dogs mean to you?" She rounded on his with sudden intensity. Another link? Dogs had done Kalos dirty. She still wasn't totally used to Mirror's dog. It was big and... she just didn't feel comfortable around her. Kalos knew exactly what dog teeth could do.

"Glowing is cool also, but not good for a night time sneak. We'll have to make this happen before then." Kalos peeked around the corner of wall and into the kitchen. There were always people in the kitchen. Technically, she was allowed. She still never felt allowed.

"There exists a secret box of adult candy. Expensive chocolate. You know. Good stuff." Kalos watched the pantry door open and shut, pointing in that moment to the top shelf where boxes were neatly labeled, but uniform. Not being a strong reader meant it was suspicious when she stopped to discern between containers. She could climb up and just dig around in them, but she would much rather grab the right one and open it in privacy where no one would dare snatch it from her.

"Do you like chocolate?" She realized that by involving someone, she would have to share as it was only the right thing to do and Kalos was magnanimous and correct in all things.

He smiled back, the blush still hot on his cheeks, and he could feel himself blushing even more when she said his eyes were cool. "Thanks," he said brightly, his smile growing even bigger--literally. He couldn't control it, his mouth and jaw widened, and his teeth shifted from normal human teeth, to numerous razor-sharp sharklike teeth.

But once she mentioned his reasoning for no more dog books, his smile faded and his mouth shifted back as he shook his head. "No, nothing like that. I love dogs. The problem is, every book I find that has dogs, they always die...I mean, why can't the dogs get a happily after, too, ya know?" he said, going off on a little mini-rant.

He nodded as she mentioned glowing being cool, but not for sneaking. "What exactly are we doing?"

His face brightened a little at the mention of chocolate. That sounded....like they would get in trouble. But at the same time, he was drawn to the idea of chocolate. It sort of reminded him of when he and his older siblings would sneak snacks at midnight even though they were supposed to be in bed. Besides, he really wanted to impress his new friend.

"I do like chocolate," he said with a nod, his nervous stutter a thing of the past for now. "I'll help you, mos' definitely," he added, a small grin crossing his face again.

Were dogs mean to him? No. He actually empathized with dogs. "Best argument for reading I've heard yet. She grumbled, mostly to herself. He could not be blamed for being kind to unlovely things. In fact, he was to be praised. Beau was so good, he even loved dogs. What a heartsweet.

Kalos pointed out their mission as soon as she was able and was thrilled with Beau's response. He was in.

"We are allowed in, but they put the good stuff up high so we can't get it. I am thinking that climbing is needed. But the other might have to look out." Like she said, they were allowed, but it was all just a technicality since the adults were clearly trying to keep them out of it.

"I don't want the adults to know. I am not even sure it would be trouble. But I can't tell the boxes apart. So... can you climb?" She was volunteering to cover for him, if he would.

He didn't hear her comment, nor was he aware of her disdain towards dogs. Beau loved all animals, and he didn't understand why so many authors seemed to take a sick joy in killing the main character's dog. Or dogs.

Snapping himself out of this thought, he practically clung to Kalos's words. "Okay, so we're allowed, but they have the good stuff where we're not supposed to be able to get to it," he mused. "But we're allowed in, and unless there's something saying that we can't have it, then we're not really doing anything wrong. So....It's perfectly fine," he said with a small smile, a slight gleam in his eyes.

"Yeah, I can climb good, but I'm gonna need you to uh...hold this," he said, taking off his hoodie to reveal a black and green tee shirt with his Louisiana hometown's high school football team logo on it and a picture of a snapping turtle, and a basic pair of blue jeans. He blushed lightly, being out of his 'security blanket,' but it would only get in the way.

"Okay, let me know if anyone's coming, and I'll be right back," he took a breath before going into the pantry, looking around at all the boxes. He had to crane his neck, but he finally found one waaaaay up top that was exactly what they were looking for. Okay, so maybe it wasn't *that* high, but it was when you were only four foot eleven. Taking a breath, he started climbing up the shelves. He'd lost his footing once or twice, but it wasn't hard to get back on track. Now if only he could stop his heart from pounding.

He had to do this, but he wasn't sure if he was in it totally for the chocolate, or if he was trying to impress his new friend. Eh, maybe both.

He had the right idea so Kalos just kept nodding. Yes. He was going to do all the hard work, but... he had said it was okay.

"I will watch." She took up a position between the island and the pantry door. Beau popped inside and she tapped her toes on the tile in a way that made a lovely little pattern.

Tick, tick. Tick, tick, tack.

Tick, tick. Tick, tick, tack.

"What's that you got there, Kalos?"

She had forgotten that Beau had handed her the large overcoat he wore. "I- I-" Panic. She had not been watching as well as she should have and she got snuck up on. "I found it. I- It is still warm so, the someone is nearby?"

The language teacher took a quick look around and not seeing anyone offered a hand toward her.

"I could take it to lost and found for you."

On one hand, he could. And he would be gone while he was away taking the sweater. Beau could just pick it back up.

On the other hand, she had seen him hiding in it. If someone took her hiding place away, she would not be happy about it.

"They have to be close."

"True. But I didn't see anyone."

Kalos began to sweat. What if they got caught?

There were species of fish in the world that had evolved and adapted to be able to walk on land, and even climb rocks and trees. At this moment, Beau adapted the abilities of exactly none of those. Instead, he was stuck climbing shelves the old fashioned way, and it was...honestly it was rather slow going. But he was going to do it; he was going to earn Kalos's trust, and they were gonna split the good candy amongst themselves. No question about that.

After what seemed like ages, he finally reached his prize and--what was that outside? Talking?

Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no... He took a breath as he grabbed the chocolate, and eased his way down the shelves again. His prize slipped out of his grasp as he eased his way down, hitting the floor with a slight plop, and he froze. There were still voices outside talking with Kalos, and he found himself wanting to scream at her just to forget the jacket. He had another one and he could easily get it later. Then there was silence. Not the good kind; the tense pausing kind. Taking another breath, he picked up the box and stuffed it halfway into the back of his pants, and let the tee shirt cover the rest of it. Then, he grabbed a random box--wheat crackers. Perfect...

He took a few of those out of the box, and was munching on them as he walked out of the pantry.

"O-oh. H-hey...you found my jacket," he said, scared to death of getting caught, but he had to play this off. "Thanks, Kalos~" he said, awkwardly giving her a hug while keeping the view of his back obscured from the adult who could totally get onto them. His face was flushed more purple than it had been since he got here, and that was really saying something.