"I-I dunno, I… m-my dad works all day, and mama doesn't live with us… she's a dragon, so she left me with dad when I was a baby." Cerulean rubbed at his eyes again and got forced underwater by a large wave, coughing a bit when he popped back up.
"I see," Tori muttered. As the boy went underwater, the woman instinctively reached for him, and when he surfaced, she grabbed his arm. "Let's go back to shore now. You can come home with me, then we can find your dad." Tori pulled the boy closer to her as she started swimming back to shore, trying her best to keep the boy's head above the waves.
Cerulean just allowed the woman to drag him along, shaking violently in her arms. When they reached the shore, they were still far away from anywhere he'd ever seen before. "Mmmm… w-where are we…?" He asked weakly. "I don't think I really live around here, ma'am…"
"Near my home," the woman replied. "I'll take you there, and you can rest." Tori picked the boy up, and started walking down the rocky beach. Soon, they came to a hill, and the woman started climbing. At the top of the hill was a sort of plateau, with a small cottage overlooking the sea. "Here we are," Tori explained. She pulled open the door with her free hand, and the two went inside.
Inside the cottage was a small kitchen and living area, with a bookshelf and fishtank. There was a small sofa facing a window that took up most of the wall, and a small table in the kitchen. The kitchen had a door on one wall, and a second door was in the living room.
Tori set the boy down on the couch, and walked over to the kitchen. "Is there anything you'd like to eat?"
Cerulean curled in on himself when he was set down on the couch, clearly still scared. "I-I… uhm… I dunno…" He mumbled in reply. "I've never really eaten anything other than fish, so…" He wrapped his tail around himself and buried his face in his arms with a soft sigh. He was shaking from the cold, and he seemed to be pretty disoriented at the moment.
(stalking)
"Didn't your dad feed you anything else?" Tori raised her eyebrows as she grabbed a blanket she'd draped over a chair. She walked over to the couch, and wrapped the boy in the blanket, sitting down next to him. Although she was hungry and wet herself, she didn't really mind, and to her, taking care of this kid was a priority.
"Uhm… no? I feed myself, so…" Cerulean shrugged a bit as he huddled up in the blanket. "Dad is very busy with his work in the town, so I catch all my own food. So it's mostly just fish for me since that's what I catch. Sometimes I can get a crab, though!"
Tori's eyes widened, but soon went back to their normal size. "Really?" The woman pulled her legs up, resting her chin on her knees as she faced the small boy. "How much does he work?" This kid is tiny, and his father doesn't even feed him?
"Uhm…" Cerulean considered for a few seconds. "Most of the time? He really is only home before work and after work, which is… right after the sun rises to some time after it sets, I think? Sometimes he doesn't come back, though, but that's okay."
(Bump)
(Bump again?)
(hhh I'm alive I swear)
(I'm sorryyy)
"He works a lot, then. Do you ever see him?" Tori looked into the boy's eyes, before realizing that her clothes were still dripping with water. "I'm going to go change, I'll be right back, okay?" The woman headed through the door in the living room, and a few minutes later, she returned, wearing a light green sweater and jeans.
(Oof)
"I see him sometimes! Like… if I stay up late to see him after work, or wake up early!" Cerulean smiled brightly, completely oblivious to the fact that it wasn't… good. He was wandering around aimlessly by the time Tori returned, touching random things as he walked around so he could become more well acquainted with the place.
"That's…" Tori hummed softly, trying to figure out how to word her thoughts. "Not good. Parents are s'possed to be around for their kids. That's… that's the point of parenting, I suppose." The woman sighed, visibly unsatisfied with the way she had explained it. "Just- what your father's doing? I'm pretty sure that's called neglect, and it's not right."
"Oh… what's so bad about it?" Cerulean asked, obviously still confused. He picked up a book from the shelf and examined it curiously. "Dragons don't usually stay around their babies very much when they're old enough to hunt for themselves." He explained, not understanding that his father wasn't a dragon and therefore shouldn't follow the same principles. "I'm lucky he's around at all."
"Your father's a human, right?" The boy had mentioned that his mother was a dragon, but Tori quickly deduced that his father must be a human, or at least a humanoid creature. "Dragons might do that, but humans don't. Well, they shouldn't, at least."
"Yeah, he's a human… why don't humans do that?" Cerulean asked. "It works well enough for dragons. And I can hunt for myself and stuff, so he doesn't really need to be around, especially since he's always so busy with his people things, like work."
"Humans shouldn't do that because most human kids can't fend for themselves." Tori's voice was gentle as she watched the boy look around the room. "Adults shouldn't work that much, either. That can be bad for your health."
"Oh… I'm part dragon though, so it's okay for him to let me do things, right?" Cerulean asked as he pulled a small figurine off of a shelf. "I can take care of myself, so he lets me. That's how I'm gonna grow big and strong!"
(Beep)
(Bop)
"It's okay for parents to let their kids do some things. But never being there for them, or- or even seeing them? That's bad." Tori looked down at her webbed fingers before back up at the boy. "Kids shouldn't have to take care of themselves all the time. That's what parents are for, I suppose."
"Oh… dragon babies take care of themselves, though." Cerulean hummed softly and put the trinket back on its shelf. "And since I'm part dragon, I can too! Dad works all day, and sometimes through the night too. He doesn't always come back home for a few days." He shrugged. "That's okay, though. He says he's very busy and that he doesn't have time to take care of a mutt all day." Cerulean's innocent smile lingered on his face as he wandered around. He clearly didn't know what exactly the words meant.
(wishes to strangle the human who identifies himself as this innocent bb's sire.)