A Splash of Color

~Mɪᴢᴜ ᴍᴇᴇᴛs ʟᴏᴛᴜs (ᴘʀᴏᴘᴇʀʟʏ)~

Time: one day before the New Year

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Mizu had a secret. What that secret was? Well, it wasn't confirmed or anything. But she felt that way, and Deluge kept telling her it was okay to feel that way.

The problem was, she didn't know if others would be okay with how she felt.

It didn't matter right then. Mizu had more important things to worry about, like the fact that she was going to Lower JMA.

Or the fact that she wasn't going to be ignored so much anymore.

She craved attention. Loved being in the spotlight. Had that natural charm that made everyone want to be around her. The most amazing siblings she could ask for. The only thing she didn't have? Parental love.

It wasn't as if they ignored her on purpose. Just sometimes forgot her in the chaos that were her siblings.

Mizu supposed it was her fault. She had been too independent, too quiet, and too afraid. She wanted to change that.

Stories that everyone had included the tale of how the five Dragonets of Destiny had ended the SandWing War, the story of how the Jade Winglet had defeated Darkstalker. She related to Prince Turtle of the SeaWing the most. His story reminded her of her own. Ignored by his parents for most of his life, then being recognised again.

Mizu was working towards the latter. She supposed she could figure it out at Lower JMA, which started in two days. A dragon, probably Princess Tsunami, would come and they would follow her to Jade Mountain.

For now, Mizu assumed she could leave the house and go hunting. Her parents didn't really care as long as it wasn't Octo who left without them knowing.

She started swimming.

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Mizu stabbed a fish with her claws and bit into it, relishing the raw fish meat and spitting out the bones.

Swinging her powerful tail, she shot off like a jet towards a school of fish. And bumped into a familiar Sea-Rain hybrid.

Mizu started rapidly firing questions in Aquatic. The poor hybrid looked a little confused and gestured towards the surface, where a sandy beach was visible.

Breaking the calmness of the surface water, Mizu climbed onto the beach and waited for her classmate to follow.

"Mizu, right? I don't think I really caught your name the last time we met," the hybrid said, smiling pleasantly.

"And you must be Lotus. The daughter of the heroes Turtle and Kinkajou," Mizu replied.

Lotus's smile faltered a little before returning in full force. "Yep. That's me."

There was silence for a few seconds before Mizu broke it by asking, "You're going to Lower JMA too if I remember correctly?"

Lotus nodded. "I hope we can be friends?"

"Definitely."

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"Get off this island you two! It's my island!" A NightWing wielding a tree branch shouted, waking them up.

"Sorry! We'll be going now! Take care!" Lotus shouted before Mizu grabbed her talon and dived back into the ocean. They had somehow fallen asleep on the sand after talking for a few hours. The sun was already setting.

They resurfaced a long way from the island and Mizu let go of Lotus's talon. "That was......interesting," she said grinning.

Lotus laughed and they said their goodbyes, each going their own way.

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Maybe Mizu lacked parental love. Perhaps she still needed to worry about her secret. She definitely needed to think about Lower JMA.

But for now, that all didn't matter, because she had made a new friend.

One Mizu intended to keep.

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A/N: so like i just wrote this chapter in 1½ hours and its now really late at night. going to proofread it and do some editing before i go to sleep. and i changed the reading banner since i changed my user.

A/N 2: finished editing and proofreading. hope you enjoyed!