darla

At the redhead’s affirmation, the blonde beamed. From an outsiders perspective, this entire conversation about trying to flirt and make random pick-up lines may come off as strange to them, but Webby was appreciating this entire thing. Not only was she learning how to potentially flirt with someone in the future, but this whole thing was helping distract her from her pervious state of mind. Things back at home had been getting better—she’s been going out more and doing her own things instead of wallowing at home all day—but Webby’s still be feeling kind of out of place at home. So this moment she’s having with Darla definitely helped her a lot. 

Darla nodded at the sage granny wisdom Webby shared, her expression saying, See? The ladies who have been around the block before know the way. Making food for someone was like a combination of acts of service and gift giving, if not a love language of its very own. Plus, humans could be very food-motivated creatures in general, so it couldn’t hurt getting on someone’s good side by giving them good eats. Despite their agreement on that piece of advice, however, Webby went on to question her affinity for proper mix-tapes.

As she pointed out how hugging wouldn’t be any better than her biting, for a second he looked at her with confusion until her words finally hit him. Nemo groaned. “You’re right!” Just being within close range to her would be putting himself in the danger zone of some kind. Case and point, he squinted as the redhead lifted her hands at him, this time not stepping any farther away from Darla as he instead waited to see what she was going to do. She didn’t end up touching him, dropping her hands a second later and genuinely surprising him as he now blinked at her. That surprise did not last for long, however, as her following words only caused him to snort at her once again. “Please do.” Nemo remarked, more so half-heartedly challenging her than him actually being serious. If Darla wanted to bite the guy she liked in placement of him, she can go right ahead! Less bite marks for him to deal with! “I bet he’ll love being littered with extra bite marks from you— Maybe he already enjoys it.” Nemo now mused, kind of laughing at the thought. One would need to enjoy her biting them to get with Darla, that’s for sure. “And your new fishy, huh? You’re trying to make me jealous, but hearing that only makes me impressed that you really like someone else enough to consider replacing me. Never thought I’ll hear the day.”

Darla cackled at Nemo’s reaction to realizing that any form of physical affection from her could go too far. She never meant to hurt him: she just had a problem with pressure control, but she was working on it and she knew he knew it too. Nemo seemed only half-serious about actually wanting her to stop; he didn’t flinch away when she moved as if to squish him, but she stopped herself anyway. She would give him a break, even if she wasn’t sure switching all those attentions to Finn was the right move either. For all she knew, biting him was the thing holding him back from wanting to be with her. She snorted at Nemo’s suggestion that the other guy would actually enjoy her love bites. “Sure he will,” she said, shaking her head in disbelief of her own words, but still halfheartedly trying to make Nemo jealous—until he called her out on it. How did he know her too well? Probably the years of friendship, but anyway…“So you want to be replaced?“ Darla cried, doing her best to sound scandalized. “Don’t even want to fight for the title?”

“Huh, well when you say it like that, I guess not.” The blonde admitted after some thought. Then again, it’s not like Webby’s been paying attention to whoever the boys kisses or has been actively around whenever it happens. Sure, they’ve had girlfriends and boyfriends whom she’s met before, but even she knew when to give them privacy for things like kissing. So for all Webby knew, maybe talking about nausea had prompted someone in wanting to kiss Huey! But the more she thought on it, the girl doubted it, which is probably what Darla was trying to tell her. Talking about nausea or puking while trying to flirt with someone was not the way to go. Noted.

“Pretty good,” Darla reaffirmed when Webby sought assurance that she had done well on her second flirting attempt. With practice, she could definitely become a pro. It seemed she wasn’t trying to put the moves on anybody just yet, which was good—it gave her time to develop her flirting skills before it actually mattered and she needed them for a real crush. When she did have her eye on somebody, however, Darla wanted to be the first to hear about it! She bounced a little in excitement at the thought.

Nemo did take a small step back once she bared her teeth, only to then shoot her with a warning ‘don’t you dare’ type of glare as he knew what she was thinking. At this proximity, Darla could try and bite him again if she wanted to, and he couldn’t complain when he deliberately put himself this close to her. But even if the redhead did try to bite him, he wouldn’t be too upset over it, yet that still didn’t stop him from giving her that warning look just in case. What Nemo didn’t expect, however, was for Darla to then pinch him in return as she cheerfully responded back to him consenting in her pinching him. “No— I mean, hug me if you want to show affection.” He clarified, with a half-hearted eye roll. “Or at least asks before you want to bite me or whatever…” He mumbled out the later, that statement showing proof how much he actually didn’t mind Darla’s antics despite this whole thing initially starting from Nemo complaining about it. “But you still bite! And you know what I mean— Squirt’s our friend! Obviously I’ve seen you bite him before. I meant who else? One of the triplets? Their sister? That guy, Finn, you hang around with?”

“Hugging might not be better,” Darla replied, considering his suggestion. “I could hug really hard. Cuteness aggression is inevitable when you’re so…squishy.” She brought up her hands like she wanted to pinch his cheeks but kept herself in check, only pantomiming the action without actually touching Nemo this time. She was going to take his telling her to ask before biting as a sign that she might actually be allowed to smother him with her affections sometimes as long as she played her cards right, so she could hold back when necessary. Instead of pouncing on him like her instincts suggested, she focused on answering his question. Who else did she bite? “All of them.” She shrugged nonchalantly. It took some of her friends more getting used to than others, naturally—Webby was a fun one; she actually bit back. But the long and short of it was that Darla didn’t think she had anyone she considered a friend who hadn’t bit at least one time, just to try it. “Ya know, if you don’t want me to bite you anymore, I might have to bite Finn extra in your place. I really like him. He might even be my new fishy.”

Webby wasn’t good at flirting. In all her years, she hasn’t ever had the need to flirt with anyone, nor has she ever had anyone flirt with her in return, meaning that there wasn’t a reason for her to try. She felt like being her usual friendly self was enough, but with all the changes that’s happened back at home, the blonde’s been feeling more lonelier than ever. Even Lena and Violet’s been busy for her, which soon prompted the blonde to try and get herself out there more. But in order to do that, she realized that learning how to flirt may be a skill she needed. “Why not? Lots of times I’ve overheard Huey say how he’s about to puke because of how nervous he was, and even Louie’s gotten a little queasy over romantic situations so I figured puking was very common?” The younger replied, a little confused. But if Darla told her not to bring it up, than Webby would make a note-to-self in not to. Instead, she was given a suggestion to say something more cutest, like talking about someone’s eyes. At that, the blonde perked up. “Oh, so something like —you’re eyes are so dark it’s like a blackhole and I’m going to get sucked right into it?!” 

“Has saying that ever prompted anyone to want to kiss Huey?” Darla retorted, trying to make Webby see that certain topics—like nausea, for example—just because they could be involved in romantic feelings, that didn’t make them good things to talk about in an attempt to flirt. (And as an aside, if one was to mention it, a more romantic turn of phrase for that concept might be considered having butterflies. She might have to make notes for Webby. A glossary of appropriate terms.) After listening to the younger girl’s attempt to craft a pick-up line about eyes, Darla opened her mouth to give feedback but paused, somewhat confused. 

The grin she flashed him did nothing to sooth his doubts, instead, it prompted a response of him rolling his eyes at her. “Because I’m your fishy.” Nemo repeated, now shooting a deadpan look back at her. This wasn’t the first time Darla called him that, it’s been a prominent nickname throughout all the years he’s known her, so he’s learned to take that as a compliment as it’s once again categorized as another way of her showing her affection to him. How being referred to as a fish makes him biteable? That should honestly be a concerning train of thought if he really considered it, especially as she explained that he was so squishy and biteable to her, but Nemo wasn’t worried. Darla was weird, he got that. “No, this is pinching someone.” He leaned over and pinched her against the arm. He didn’t do so harshly, barely actually pinching her bit leaving enough of a sting so she knows where he was getting at. “What you do is the complete opposite of pinching and actual marks are left sometimes!” Nemo pouted, the current expression on his face doing nothing than adding towards the cute aggression she has for him. “Do you?” He raised a brow. “And don’t say Squirt, because that’ll be a total copout.” 

“Yes.” Darla didn’t see why he had any trouble with the concept of being her fishy; it was quite self-explanatory. She adored fish and he reminded her of one because he loved swimming and was squishy and adorable. Like a fishy. Nemo’s mind, however, clearly just didn’t work the way hers did, and that was okay. When he countered her claim of wanting to pinch him by showing her what a pinch was, she bared her teeth in another wide grin. He didn’t realize what he was opening himself up to, did he? “So this is fine?” she asked, returning his pinch with the same small amount of force he’d used. “Good to know!” Actually, when she mentioned wanting to pinch him, she more-so meant targeting his face like an overly friendly auntie or granny might to a chubby-cheeked child, but he didn’t have to know that. “I don’t bite that hard…anymore,” she muttered, arguing against his claim that she left marks. Well, maybe sometimes. “It’s not a cop-out if I say Squirt! You said I don’t bite anyone else—isn’t he someone?”

"I'm sorry for trying to bite you so often." -Darla [ @darlasfish ]

Darla flashed a piranha grin at her best friend as he questioned exactly how personally targeted her biting habit was, and whether she was truly sorry. She had apologized and meant it…or at least half meant it. She was sorry for hurting Nemo, especially when they were kids and she really chomped down, but she found it hard to fully honestly regret expressing herself through love bites. She wasn’t stopping him from biting her back, if he wanted! It wasn’t her fault if he didn’t have the sensory urge to bite and make things even between them. “You’re my fishy,” she said, which was as much explanation as she could ever offer him for why he got special treatment. “You’re just so squishy and biteable! I wanna pinch you.” His cuteness provoked an aggressive response in her—that was a common thing, she had heard about it! “Besides, who says I don’t bite anyone else? Maybe you just haven’t seen it.”

"I thought you'd like this." -Darla [ @darlasfish ]

Darla had a stubborn heart. When she became fixated on a thing she wanted, a goal she dreamed of achieving, or a person she loved, there was almost nothing that could move her from that passion. Especially when she knew that something was right for her. She had moved to Echo Isle a couple years ago to pursue her chosen career path, and despite some natural homesickness and missing old friends and family, she had never regretted it because it was what she was meant to be doing. When she met Finn, not long after coming to the island, she had a feeling deep in her bones that he was a person who she was meant to be loving. Of course, it wasn’t the idealistic concept of love at first sight—if that existed at all, Darla was still a stranger to the experience. But it was an instant affinity, a sense that he was somebody she could easily grow to love, if they only had the chance to get to know each other. And that was exactly what had happened; they became friends and got closer and closer until one day she looked back and realized she had fallen completely for him along the way.

continued from here

     “Next time,” she offered optimistically. She didn’t know how often Cubby came to the beach, let alone whether he’d venture back to the tide pools alone without his trusty tour guide Darla, but it was worth suggesting on the chance that he might. As he returned the nudge that she started and questioned her plans for all the treasures she was collecting, she scrunched her nose. “Arts and crafts, mostly. I could make jewelry or use them to decorate picture frames or something. Have you ever done seashell crafts? Or are you just a wordsy-artsy person.”