Mother of Pearl: A Floyd Leech x OC Fanfiction

Chapter 59

Floyd was slouched over, with his chin nested in ponytail of cascading braids. I sighed in exasperation as Floyd threatened the poor RSA boy. Florian clutched his tail and stood stiff in front of me.

"I-I-I-," Florian stuttered.

"You have no right. That's why you should go back to your prissy prince school, loser," Floyd hissed at him.

"But... they said it was okay..." Florian tried to protest. Floyd let go of me and cracked his knuckles. Florian flinched and scrambled to pick up his game box and ran away. Over his shoulder he yelled, "S-see you again, Viv!"

I waved goodbye with a sweat drop. I got a feeling this sort of thing is going to be a frequent occurrence...

"Tch, stupid little monkfish has the gall to say he'll see Leafy Sea Dragon again," Floyd grumbled.

I looked up at my scary sea dog. His gold eye seemed to glow more vibrantly with his scowl. It had a dangerous beauty to it as I just stared. Absentmindedly I said, "You have really pretty eyes."

Floyd looked down at me with the same threatening stare. It then changed to a sadistic smirk as he leaned down to my eye level and teased, "Do you really like my eyes, Leafy?"

With the proximity, the weight of what I just said hit me and I felt my neck and ears warm up. I bent down to pick up the gameboard to put it away. I changed the subject with a huff, "What brings you over here, Pool Noodle?"

"We were told to help put things away, so I came to help Leafy!" he chirped. Any trace of anger in him seemed to evaporate. He grabbed the supplies I held and started to walk with me. "You know, Jade has the same eyes. Do you think his eyes are pretty too?"

I felt the heat in the back of my neck and ears flush my cheeks. He's right. They do have the same eye colors, and even the same face. If I find one attractive, theoretically, I should find the other one attractive too. Right? So why does the word 'handsome' not come to mind when I think of Jade?

"W-well then he must have pretty eyes too," I whispered as I rushed ahead to the storage closet. Most of the other team members had left. Only Floyd, Jamil, and Ace were left behind. Ace was pushing a ball cart in, while Jamil had a large mop and pushed it across the court. Trying to distract myself, I goaded Ace, "Ha, you got stuck on cleaning duty Ace?"

"Oh, shut up Viv," Ace shot back at me. I entered the closet after him and sighed at the cramp, disorganized mess.

"Ugh, I need to make a system for this before we get too far into the season," I said mostly to myself.

"I'm sure if you talked to Phoebus, he could set up a day and have the team help," Jamil offered.

I took a moment to think when Ace chimed in, "Isn't it fine how it is? We don't need to, right?"

"I'm the one that has to maneuver through all this schmutz to get things out for practice and games. I don't want to get buried in an avalanche of basketballs," I sassed him.

"And I don't want to have to come dig them out!" a yell came from across the gym. Yuu walked into the gym with Grim in their arms. Coming up behind them was Jade.

"Yuu! You should have seen me, I was amazing," Ace yelled out to them. I could see the eye roll from my dorm leader, along with the smile on their face. Ace grabbed a ball and started to reenact his plays from the game.

"Trappola! We're supposed to be cleaning up! Put that away!" Jamil reprimanded. He dropped the mop top and went to get the ball from the troublemaking first year.

"Yuu, why did you come here?" I asked as they grew closer with the other Leech twin. "And why are you here, Jade?"

"I wanted to walk back to Ramshackle with you, and I ran into Jade at the library," Yuu explained.

"Then he started stalking us," Grim tacked on.

"Say what?" I looked between Yuu and Jade.

"I just wanted to come and see how my lovable little brother did. He was so excited for this game, after all," Jade explained. He stood behind Yuu and reached down to pet Grim on the head. "It was pleasant to talk to Prefect Yuu on the way here too."

"Fgnya! Don't touch me, you creepy eel!" Grim squirmed out of Yuu's arms and ran towards Ace.

"Grim, I swear to- Could you just give me a day and maybe not run like you're hyped up on catnip!" Yuu yelled as they went after him. Jade stood and looked at me and Floyd. He squinted and gave a wiry pointed tooth smile at me. He shot a raised eyebrow and glanced at his brother, before returning his gaze at me. I popped my snaggle tooth out further than it usually went as I pressed my full lips into a thin, awkward line. Without a word he just walked away to join the commotion.

"Floyd, was that a good smile or a bad smile that your brother just gave me?" I asked. I didn't get an immediate response, so I looked up to see Floyd having a moment. There was a dark line of coral pink blush right under his eyes, high on his cheeks and across his nose. The sight caught me off guard as an orange flush grew on me as well. "I'm...happy you won."

"Are we friends now?" Floyd asked with the saddest, yet hopeful gleam in his eyes. His blush had faded as he looked at me.

I looked in his eyes and my own sparkled. I cracked a smile and gleefully decreed, "We did win, and as our pinky promise stated, we are now friends."

"Iehehehaha!" Floyd's dolphin cackle was the only thing I could hear as I was swept into the air. He had me by the backs of my knees, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around his neck to stabilize myself as Floyd spun me in circles. "Leafy Sea Dragon is my friend! Ieheheha!" he cheered.

I looked down at him, which was a new feeling. His childish energy was infectious. With each turn my braids flew around my head and my heart got lighter. I let myself be carefree and laughed out loud, "HaHA! Ieheehee heeheeha!"

"You guys are seeing this, right?" Ace stood on the other side of the court. Jamil now had the ball and Yuu caught Grim. They were unceremoniously holding him in between Jamil and Ace. Jade was on Ace's other side, watching with a content smile while everyone else was slack jawed.

"I...I guess they're friends now?" Jamil tilted his head in confusion.

Yuu kept opening and closing their mouth. Grim spoke in their stead, "Viv has chosen death by eel."

"Fufufu, what did I tell you, Ramshackle Prefect," Jade chuckled and looked down at Yuu. "My brother truly cares for your dorm member. You have no need to worry about him intentionally hurting them."

Yuu scrunched their nose up. They grumbled, "I guess...but it's the unintentional instances that I worry about."