About midday, the river was warm and the sun was shining. You sat on the rocks, smashing coconuts open to drink their juices, and scoop out the insides for a snack. A usual day.

Although ever since you'd met L you'd been rather curious on what the human realm was like. He'd told you about the orphanage, but you'd never actually been up to the human realm. Next to you on the shore was the rented boat and the shirt of his he gave you hanging off the side.

As you scooped coconut from its shell with your long nails to eat, you couldn't help but look at that shirt gently blowing in the wind and wonder.

What was L doing now?

Tossing the empty coconut shell over your shoulder into the growing pile on the shore, you dipped your hands in the water to wash them off and looked over at the mushroom forest L always came through as you did.

What was he doing? And what was it like up there.

Eventually, your curiosity got the better of you.

Rolling off the rocks and landing in the water with a splash, you swam up to the shore and dragged your tail behind you onto the sand. No one was around this side of the river, so you could transform and get changed in peace.

You rarely used your legs, so every time you transformed it felt a little weird standing up straight and walking. Pulling on the shirt L gave you for some censorship and due to it being big for you it acted more like a dress, you brushed the sand off.

Squeezing the water from your hair into the sand and shaking the river off you, you began to wander through the mushroom Forrest.

If you were going to take a peak in the human world, you had to stay hidden. Even with your legs you still looked like a fish person. Webbed ears and slit eyed, long nails and scales across your chest made you look very much like a half human fish hybrid. But since the gateway was in a Forrest, you figured you'd just hide behind the trees and watch from a distance.

Making your way to the gateway, and tripling a few times not being used to legs, you used the knowledge you'd gotten from L on how it worked to pass through it and after the moment of blinding light you found yourself in the middle of the woods. Just the colour scheme of the human realm looked different... the air felt thicker, the weather was colder and it was so quiet.

Down in your realm the sounds of dragons in the distance, the twinkling of fairies and slashing of fellow merfolk was common place. But it was so silent here, just the wind and the distant sound of children.

That must be the orphanage...

You followed it, regretting not getting some shoes from the town first as the sticks and stones among the grass jabbed your barely used feet. You'd never really needed shoes before now... the closer you got, the thinner the Forrest became and the more careful you were going through it to not be spotted.

The sound of children playing became more prominent, hearing yelling and laughing as well as a ball being kicked about. Creaky chains from swings and the occasional bell from a bike could be heard as well.

And finally you could see it, a massive fence gothic in style surrounded an old building. This was clearly the back yard area as there was a massive grassy field and playground as well as a flower garden all placed behind the fence before the building.

Keeping hidden behind the closest tree, you examined the area. So this was L's orphanage...

Being midday it was lunch break, some kids sat outside at benches to eat, some played on the playground and some were kicking a ball around the field. There looked to be a shed of sport gear in the corner where an adult, probably a staff member was putting away bikes. Maybe a class had just had phys ed?

You'd never seen so many humans before, all of them looked similar but also strikingly different. Maybe it was just you being used to the very diverse appearances of your realm, creatures having wings and tails and stuff... but humans all looked very similar.

Yet at the same time their heights, style, hair, skin, eyes and build made them each stand out.

"So... this is where you're from L..?" You muttered to yourself.

Speaking of L, you spotted him.

Being chased by two younger kids across the field. A freckles redhead and a long haired blonde. If you remember correctly it was Mello and Matt, who'd seemed to have dragged L into a game of tag. Despite his usual tired and uninterested domineer, he played along and acted just as exited as they were. He didn't want to make the already scary experience of coming to an orphanage worse for them, so even if it was a bit out of character for him to be so energetic, he'd play it up for them.

"Cute..." you muttered to yourself.

Leaning against the fence near the three was one other kid, head to toe in white. You remembered L telling you about him.

Near.

He didn't seem interested in playing tag, instead he watched the others and was alot more interested in making rock towers out of stones he'd found. He was much smaller than the others, and you understand what L meant by quieter and shyer just by watching him.

As L was distracted by getting tagged and having to chase down two meddling kids, Near ran out of rocks to stack and looked rather upset by it. His tower clearly wasn't finished yet, but you had an idea...

There were tons of rocks around you, you'd been stepping on them the whole way here and regretting not having shoes.

You picked some up, and quietly and crawled around the trees up to the fence where he sat. Sticking your arm through the bars and dropping the rocks beside him, he turned to face the sudden movement and jumped when he saw you.

"Shhh... I was never here. The fairies like rock towers though, they'd love yours" you said.

"... really?" He asked.

Holy shit his voice was so soft and tiny.

"Yeah, they like having little houses to live in near the flowers"

"Out of sticks and rocks?"

"Mushrooms too"

Frightening you and Near slightly, a ball violently hit the fence after being kicked and as the kids started chasing after it, you knew you had to leave. When Near turned back around, you were already gone. But he had more rocks, so he did really mind.

Although he wondered if the shell L wore came from the fish person he just saw...