Chapter Text
The sun over the sky of AtollEthera in the Pacific Ocean had long set, and the heavens were now a collection of various violets, blues, and dark pinks across the civilizations of Oceanites. Cities had descended into sleep and rest, while the nighttime life began to emerge in those areas too. People both closed and opened their eyes, as the cycle of the earths and oceans turned once more, cementing the end of the day.
In a specific beachfront town near the outer edge of AtollEthera, the night had prolonged deep into time from the gigantic celebration that had resounded throughout the small city, and even though the spirits of revelry and joy were still in the air and felt in every inhabitants’ heart, the deep night still made its presence known and now, the crowds and atmosphere were diminishing slowly, heading to bed after a day of vigilantes rescuing the missing residents and mysteries/horrors of the prior months being forgotten.
There were certain civilians who couldn’t forget it, however. Certain civilians who now had knowledge no one else in Bikini Bottom did- of threats to their country and town, the Kraang, and of the Land far away that showed that Oceanites maybe had more people like them out there.
And two of the certain civilians were now on their street, giggling and chatting as they headed to one of their houses- an exotic giant carving resembling a Land fruit, a pineapple.
“Thanks again for carrying me, Patrick.” SpongeBob said, holding onto the latter’s neck as he was held bridal style. “You really didn’t have to do this the whole way to my house.”
“Hey, it’s no problem.” Patrick replied, smiling pleasantly and walking up Sponge’s driveway. “You said your feet hurt anyway and I don’t mind doing this at all.”
They reached the steps and the Sea Star set the Sponge Mutant down on his feet surprisingly graceful for his usual clumsy way. Sponge smiled back but groaned a little, instantly reaching down and taking off his magenta pumps.
“Yeah…wearing 3-inch heels to a nightclub and walking to and back from it wasn’t my best idea.”
Sponge’s feet agreed in unison as they touched the ground without any pain from those crazy shoes. He really should have worn those flats he had, but bright orange sneakers with a puffy light pink jacket and the coral peach lip gloss he put on? A clashing outfit like that would have been horrible.
Pat chuckled and stretched, rolling his arms and popping his shoulders, then ruffled his pink hair, shaking off a plethora of glitter from the party in the streets that now covered most of his body.
“Anything I can do to make up for the long travels with me in your arms?” SpongeBob jokingly asked, grabbing the doorknob before they greeted their surprising new houseguests.
Pat pretended to think hard about that while shaking off more glitter. “Hmmm…” he finally said after a moment. “…How ‘bout if we watch that Mermaid Man episode, you make a bowl of that special popcorn mix?”
Sponge snorted and looked deep into his best friend’s eyes with that look of sweetness they always had between them. “I think I could arrange that, buddy.” The friendly fry cook said, and nuzzled Pat right in the crick of his neck- a show of affection in Sponge Oceanite culture.
Patrick giggled from the tickle of it and with that, SpongeBob opened the door.
“Heeyyyyy, we’re back!” He called out, starting to step into the house.
“-WAIT!”
Patrick’s arm snapped out and caught SpongeBob softly in the stomach. His ears and tail were slicked back and his dark gray eyes were squinted, scanning the room warily.
“What is it?” SpongeBob asked, slightly anxious and peering into it with him.
The living room was dark. That wasn’t how they left it when they went out with Squidward. Had their guests gone to bed already? He could still faintly see the light from the TV going and hear a faint noise from that, along with a few lights from the kitchen. Where were the kids and Gary?
“Something feels…off.” Patrick said in a deep voice, tinged with drama.
An eerie silence descended as the two men slowly walked over the threshold, Patrick going first and still keeping a thick, strong arm protectively in front of his bestie. Sponge’s eyes darted around a bit nervous, his hands clutching his satchel. He had good night vision- way better than a human, as Sandy had said once- but Patrick’s was 5 times better and whatever he could see, Sponge definitely couldn’t. All he could make out was the usual walls and furniture.
“What is it, Pat?” He asked again anxiously.
Patrick slowly turned and looked around, limbs poised and tail flicking from side to side.
“I don’t know…” He said in a low, cautious voice, looking at the walls and standing still. “I think we’re not alone.”
Sponge blinked and straightened his back. “What makes you say that?” The corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
“Not sure.” Patrick now fully turned around, facing him.
“I just get the feeling we’re being watched.”
A blur suddenly launched itself out of nowhere- mostly shades of green and orange- and hurtled toward Patrick’s upper body, too fast to see and too quick to catch before it was too late.
“YAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!” A young voice called out in a screech of attack.
Patrick turned and barely was able to put up his hands in front of his face in defense.
“GAAAARRRGGH!!!” He shouted in horror.
The two figures collided and fell back onto the floor, making a loud crash noise and most likely knocking over something that had been on the drawer behind both of them, breaking out in rowdy laughter.
SpongeBob laughed and reached for the light switch, hitting it and plunging the room into brightness.
“Ah-HA!!!” Patrick cried in triumph, wrestling whatever it was and grabbing it by the leg, standing up. “Here’s our problem, Sponge—“ he held the home intruder by their feet like a Landhunter with their latest catch.
“We got a turtle infestation!!!”
The infestation in question kept hurling himself up and trying to squirm out but only succeeded in grabbing Patrick’s shirt and getting more glitter on the floor, the pajamas he had borrowed from Sponge earlier starting to droop off, exposing his golden yellow carapace and his dark olive, hexagon-patterned shell.
“He-EY!” Michelangelo shouted in desperation, still cracking up. “Put me down!!” Giggling more, he reached up and managed to latch onto Patrick’s back, ending up in a funny position like a baby sea monkey would.
“You attacked me first!” Patrick playfully said back, reaching behind him and from the sounds of it, scored a tickle on the young, orange-masked ninja as Mikey squeaked indignantly and threw his arms around the Sea Star’s neck, attempting to choke him. Patrick laughed again at the futile try and scratched the back of Mikey’s head.
“Hey, that’s what you get for getting covered in glitter WITHOUT me!!!” Mikey tried to justify, his smile lighting up his freckled cheeks as brightly as SpongeBob’s did with his face.
Sponge heard the noise of the fridge door closing and turned to see Donatello, Mikey’s older brother, holding a soda in one hand and a bag of very spicy chips in the other, along with a large chocolate chip cookie in his mouth. “Ey, ‘uys.” Donnie grunted and waved with his soda can, the nightshirt (also borrowed from the fry cook.) he had on slipping down his svelte frame.
“Hi!” Sponge replied, smiling warmly. “You four have fun while we were out?”
“Mm-hm.” Donnie nodded and sitting down at the table, carefully setting his food down in specific positions.
“Yea!” Mikey agreed, beaming and still clinging to Patrick piggyback-style.
“Yeah, we’re alright.” A third, smoother voice by the couch answered from the couch.
“Your cat tried to murder me in front of everyone.”
Patrick snorted loudly and started guffawing at the abrupt sentence.
“What??” SpongeBob snickered, looking over at the couch where the other two turtles were.
“Yeah.” Raphael nodded, laying down on the right side of the couch, his legs splayed across the back and seat, his pajamas he got from Pat somehow having WAY more tears in them then when they had left and his head resting halfway off of the armrest, red mask tails dangling off dramatically. “Your cat tried to kill me and nobody cared.” He repeated in his raspy teenage voice.
By sheer contrast, Leonardo, the oldest of the four ninjas, sat obediently opposite on his toes, holding the TV remote and no sign of dirt or scuffle on the cleanly pressed nightwear he was wearing.
At that remark, Leo’s dark blue eyes shifted over and gave Raph a look that was half-disappointed, half-VERY indignant.
“He has a NAME, Raph- his name is Gary. And he did NOT try to kill you.” Leo clarified, rolling his eyes and giving more scritches to said snail-cat on the blue turtle’s lap. Gary purred at that and rubbed his head against Leo’s chest, eyes closed in happiness.
SpongeBob beamed at his Gare-Bear being a good host as he walked into the kitchen to find the popcorn bowl.
“He literally sat on my face and tried to suffocate me!” Raph argued.
“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have sat in Gary’s spot, then. Right, Gary?” Leo retorted. Gary meowed in agreement.
As Sponge reached for the nacho spice and seaweed seeds, he heard a thwack from the living room- Raph had probably just kicked Leo. He could practically see the teen boy’s bright green eyes glaring at his older sibling’s and him sticking his three toes in the latter’s face. Leo probably would get annoyed at that and— yep, another soft whack came from the sofa area. Sponge sighed through his nose and looked through the cabinets for the popcorn bags.
Once he got that set up, he walked back out and took off his jacket, setting his bag down near the door.
“You put on Space Heroes for the whole night! I had to be comfortable somehow!” Raph scoffed.
“Hey, you were the one who didn’t grab the remote fast enough and didn’t get up to go somewhere else.” Leo said cooly. Before Raph could snap anything back, Leo turned his head away and changed the subject. “Thanks again for letting us sleep over tonight, Mr. SquarePants.” He said politely.
“Oh, it’s no problem, Leo! It’s honestly the least I could do for you four since you’ve never had a sleepover before!” Sponge said happily as he sat next to Donnie, but then made a funny face. “Pfft-‘Mr. SquarePants’?? Just call me SpongeBob or’Sponge’, bud.” He waved his hand dismissively.
“Oh, uh- alright, Mr.- I mean, SpongeBob.” Leo said, flushing a little. “Sorry, sir.”
Donnie ate his bag of chips next to Sponge in a very intent and focused manner and then proceeded to take a huge gulp of soda before pulling out his T-Phone and texting something to someone.
“What I still can’t believe is the Land-Core Pad turned out to be so close to the Lair.” Donnie thought out loud before gingerly lifting his cookie with two hands like it was a wounded scallop. “You’d think that after millennia the construction of the sewer company would have built over it or something…” he muttered as the purple turtle began taking small bites of the baked treat.
“…Yeah, well, you’d be surprised at how often the government and corporations try to cover stuff up instead of tackling it head-on.” Patrick murmured darkly as he swung Mikey by his wrists and ankles, launching the 14-year old turtle onto the couch in-between his brothers.
“AAAAHHhhh!!!” Mikey squealed in excitement, landing with a big WHUMP, and his butt near Leo’s face.
The other Turtles looked over with confusion at Patrick, and SpongeBob looked at him with slight shock, eyebrows raised. They locked eyes and Sponge shook his head, motioning that he shouldn’t say anything else about that subject. At least not around the Turtles, or April and Casey-
These 6 kids were up against enough, and if they knew about what the Mayor did, they’d want to get involved; and that would open up a whole new chapter of problems.
“Umm, y’know, from what I’ve heard in the news.” Patrick added stiffly and adding a nervous laugh.
Leo gave the Sea Star a skeptical look and Raph frowned, suspecting something before Mikey squirmed around and accidentally head-butted his older brother in the chin. “OW!?” “Sorry.”
Donnie took a bigger bite out of his cookie and Sponge cleared his throat. “Uh, so, Donnie, did you find anything else about the Land-Core and Ocean-Core while you were back at the Lair?”
The Land-Core and Ocean-Core were the two relics the Kraang had used to power their base and the experiments they were trying to resume. Hidden in the very center of the underwater building, the two gems turned out to be the very thing that ended up turning the tables on the brainy aliens when it seemed they might win.
No one knew much about them- even with all the books Sponge had in his library and the millions of scans Sandy and Donnie did together, they didn’t uncover anything. All they knew was that the two were connected and they could teleport anything holding them- but the Land-Core would only work if who was holding it was from the Land, and the same thing with the Ocean-Core. They were also tied to something unusual- stone “pads” adorned with ancient carvings and holes in the middle perfectly shaped for the Cores. One for the Ocean-Core hidden behind an old, abandoned house found in the outskirts of Jellyfish Fields, and upon the group placing the Core in the corresponding hole, the Land-Core Pad turned out to be in the sewers of New York City— coincidentally, the Turtles’ Home!
From that, a connection between Bikini Bottom and New York was forged with the Pads, and now the Turtles and their allies could visit anytime they wanted- something that both parties thought would be useful in the coming days.
However, there were still a lot of questions and mysteries surrounding these relics, and until Sandy and Donnie knew enough about it, the Fighters agreed on one thing:
Don’t tell the Mayor or anyone else. They knew enough about that from telling her about the Kraang.
“Not a lot.” Donnie said dejectedly, slumping and finishing his cookie. “There’s some kind of language hidden in the carvings, but it’s not any that I’ve seen anywhere.” He shrugged and got up to wipe his hands. “And believe me, I know a lot of different languages.” The teenage scientist stated, finger in the air.
SpongeBob nodded along, in awe of the 15-year-olds’ studious nature. “I have a couple books on languages here in AtollEthera in my library if you wanna check those out!” He suggested happily.
Ding. Oh, the microwave was ready.
“Yeah I read all of those too, but I didn’t see any of those that fit the carvings either.” Donnie said from the sink.
Sponge looked over at him in surprise. “ALL of them??” He thought back and mentally counted how many of those old volumes he had. “All 10??” “Yeh.” Donnie replied, nodding casually.
“He spent the whole night in your library doing nothing but reading and drooling over your books, the minute you guys left.” Raph called out. “He ended up having to drag ‘im out since he didn’t eat lunch earlier. You could’ve heard him screaming in agony from that old house with the teleport-thing!” He added with a snort.
“Hey, I didn’t scream!” Donnie snapped, his face flushed a startling shade of pinkish-red. “I was right in the middle of reading about the different sea animals here when you maniacs came and kidnapped me. I was learning SO much about the biodiversity too!” He noticed Sponge looking at him and blushed deeper, not meeting his eyes. “For the record, I wasn’t ‘drooling’ over the books, meat-head. There’s a whole unknown group of biomes with ecosystems and species uniquely attuned to an isolated environment that WE’RE one of the first ones to see from the outside world! Not to mention the effects of evolution on mutated organisms-“
“Ok, nerd.” Raph said loudly, likely rolling his eyes. Donnie’s burning brown eyes suddenly flashed red and his eyes scrunched into an annoyed/embarrassed glare that matched a certain squirrel scientist SpongeBob knew, down to even how his lip curled up at the ends like Sandy’s did. He almost laughed out loud and could barely even hold in his giggles as Donnie angrily walked out of the kitchen to bicker with his brother.
2 minutes and 30 seconds should be good for the popcorn…
“What? You would’ve been in that library for the whole night if we hadn’t reminded you to freaking breathe!” Raph argued as Sponge walked out, nearly stepping on Gary before he saw his beloved snail-cat.
“Ooh, sorry, Gary-Bary!” “Mrrow” Gary murmured as a show of forgiveness and reached up with his paws. Sponge obliged and picked him up, scratching him on that one spot behind his right eyestalk. “You watch over these guys well?”
“Mrrow~”
“Good boy, Gary!” SpongeBob cooed and kissed his pet’s forehead. Upon looking up, the Sponge Mutant glanced upwards and saw the clock on the wall. Reading the time, he winced through his teeth. He knew it was late but he didn’t think it was that late.
“Hey, speaking of the whole night, what time are you four supposed to go to bed?” SpongeBob asked, looking out at the teens.
Instantly the mood in the living room shifted and all four of the Turtles’ eyes widened, their expressions now taut and hesitant on how to answer. Mikey even froze at that and stopped mid-playful dangle off of Patrick’s tail, leading Patrick to share the same questioning look SpongeBob was now giving him.
What had they just triggered?
“Uhhhmmm…” Leo and Raph glanced at each other, sharing a tense moment of eye contact, then Leo slowly looked back at the two men, tripping a little over the sentence he said next.
“Oh, uh…well, since we go out and uhhh… do stuff every night…we, ummmm…” Leo shrugged, replacing his slightly strained face with a more cooler, relaxed one. However, the blue turtle was quick to not make any eye contact with the two Oceanites and opted to looking at the nearest ceiling corner with an exaggerated half-lidded stare.
“We don’t really go to bed much. We kinda just stay up as long as we want.”
That was definitely something SpongeBob and Patrick recognized. Heck, they especially remembered a certain pair of other teenagers from both of their pasts that had said something similar to that. Immediately the two shared another look between them- one of skepticism.
“So…you four just stay up all night?” SpongeBob repeated, raising an eyebrow. “You never go to bed until you wanna?”
“Yep.” Leo nodded, a little more vigorously than usual.
“Oh, yeah, totally.” Raph chimed in.
“Yep- all night!” Donnie added.
“Yeah, it’s like a night party all the time!” Mikey informed, hopping off of Pat’s tail.
“We literally go out every night and don’t really get back till 2 AM, mostly.” Leo said, seeing the duo weren’t buying it entirely. “When you fight crime in NYC and stuff like that, you don’t really NEED a bedtime, y’know?”
“…Uh-huh.” Sponge said slowly, squinting at the teenage Turtle hard. “…But you guys aren’t doing that tonight, sooooo…” he thought hard. These kids needed to sleep- it was almost midnight, after all. From what he could tell, they didn’t get enough sleep already. Then suddenly he got a VERY sneaky idea and snuck Pat a wink while the quartet was distracted by muttering amongst themselves.
“…how about I call your guys’ Sensei and ask him what he thinks?”
All four of them quailed instantly and their expressions shifted to show quite a bit of fear. That seemed to work.
“Oh, that won’t be necessary!” Leo half-stammered. “He-He’s probably asleep right now, anyway.”
“Hmmm…” SpongeBob put on a considerate look. “That’s true…”
The Turtles started to relax.
“But maybe I should go ahead and call him just in case. If he’ll say you guys can stay up this late, then there won’t be a problem, right?” Sponge smiled his most innocent smile he could muster and headed for the conch phone on his coffee table.
Leo sat up straighter and stammered more, trying to form a coherent sentence to protest, but as he stumbled over his own mouth, the anxiety in the quartet’s faces began to increase, until eventually Leo quailed and gave Donnie a desperate look. ‘Do something!’’ His dark sapphire eyes yelled. ‘What do you want ME to do??’ Donnie’s said back.
“Yeah, hello? Mr. Hamato?” SpongeBob said causally, holding the phone to his ear, listening hard. “Oh, hello, sir! It’s me- SpongeBob SquarePants. Part of the Bikini Bottom Resistance Fighters? Yeah, the yellow one-“ he twirled the phone cord with his fingers and Patrick stifled a laugh in his elbow, playing it off as a cough while Mikey hung onto the bigger man’s shirt like a younger sibling, blue eyes wide at Sponge.
“He wouldn’t be awake right now, you’re just faking!” Mikey accused, pointing.
“We’re all doing fine, sir! Uh-huh, uh-huh, they all ate, I just wanted to ask…what time are your students usually supposed to go to sleep? You know, when they’re not fighting crime and things like that?”
“Oh come on- Splinter would not say that.” Donnie said, hands on his hips and going up to SpongeBob. Looked like Leo and Raph had convinced him to try and smooth-talk them out of this…it was cute, but the optimistic Oceanite knew what he was doing. “We can tell you’re pretending, SpongeBob.” The Turtle repeated from Mikey and stared up at him. SpongeBob struggled to hold back a giggle and stroked Gary’s tail with his other hand.
“…Oh.” SpongeBob said, forcing his face into a more stoic one. “Well, that’s certainly not what they told me and Patrick.”
Donnie raised an eyebrow skeptically and shared a look with Raph. “We’ve literally been trained by Splinter for 15 years- you’re not gonna—“
“What was that? Punish them?? And we get to decide?? Are you sure, sir? They didn’t do anything THAT bad…” Sponge faked surprise and hesitance, glancing up to see if he was on the right track.
Looked like he got Master Splinter’s personality right, after all. All four Turtles were now frozen, eyes wide, and definitely convinced. Patrick cracked his knuckles playfully, and looked over smiling, playing along and looking forward to what Sponge would say next. Mikey let go of his shirt and backed up, smiling a little but mostly his face was still full of dread, like a child caught looting the cookie jar by a pair of older siblings.
“Yes, well, you do make a good point, Mr. Hamato.” Sponge sighed. He looked over at Patrick, heaving a deep sigh and mustering his most solemn expression. “Patrick?” “Yes?” Pat asked, grinning in that mischievous way like when he and SpongeBob had snuck into Squidward’s house to celebrate his birthday.
“Pillow fight them to death and tickle Mikey especially.” Sponge declared, waving his hand like a disappointed princess dismissing her ladies-in-waiting.
“As you command, your majesty!”
“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!”
The minute Patrick turned, eyes gleaming and hands ready, chaos erupted in the den. All four turtles broke out into loud, terrified but also laughing screams (mainly from Mikey) in the blink of an eye, and dashed madly for the stairs, turning into colored blurs of speed and movement fueled by panic. Numerous crashes and impact noises from turtle feet and flailing limbs reaching for the handrails and walls, followed by the stomping sounds of Patrick running after them, cackling evilly. Amid the cacophony a few shatters and crashes from furniture could also be heard from the teenage reptiles and klutzy Sea Star jumping over everything, and SpongeBob winced internally, still faking listening to Master Splinter. Hopefully that was that ugly vase his aunt had sent him and not that jar of flowers he had gotten from his grandma…
The shrieks, laughs, and bangs continued upstairs as Patrick ran up the staircase on the teenager’s heels, nearly grabbing Donnie’s and the young turtle yelping in horror, albeit with a smile on his face and trying not to laugh like Mikey was.
Pat grinned at how these kids were having as much fun as he was, reminded of how he chased his younger cousins around playfully at the last family gathering. They were pretty fast compared to those little guys, though- Patrick could easily catch up with his cousins, and if he wasn’t just trying to play-chase these kids, he was fairly sure he could’ve gotten them easily enough. But it was pretty clear these quartet members were ninjas and from the way they scrambled and leaped three stairs at a time, Pat would probably have a bit more of a workout if they were in an open space. Ugh, running. That was the last thing he wanted to think about- he wanted to think more about that popcorn mix Sponge was probably working on and the nice, cold soda waiting in the fridge for him.
Leo and Raph ran at the front and reached the door to the guest room they had set up in earlier or more rather, Leo reached it and flung it open while Raph ran right past it and clambered in behind him, shrieking like a baby leaf-sheep. Then before Pat could reach out at the top and grab at the heels again, the other two dashed in— but all four of them let the door open, making Pat grin with a tone of ‘oh you mortal fools..’
“CLOSE TH’ DOOR!!! CLOSE THE DOOR-!!!” Donnie shouted, flapping his arms and adding an extra screech with his brothers upon seeing Patrick appear in the hallway. “clOSE THE DO-OOR!!!” The purple turtle yelled, jumping on the air mattress as Leo lunged and at the last second, the door slammed shut before Patrick could get there.
Pat smiled as he caught himself from banging his head on the guest door and heard the four boys pause for a second before bursting out in muffled laughter as Pat walked back down the stairs, taking off his jacket and shaking off a few more ounces of glitter. They sounded almost amazed and pleasantly surprised, like they weren’t expecting anything like this but they were happy it happened nonetheless. They sounded…happy and relaxed. That was something both Oceanites hadn’t seen before from all of them. Even Mikey, who had so much in common with them and lit up the room like a sweet little sun.
Patrick didn’t think much about that, but it made him happy by second-hand exposure.
SpongeBob stood near the base of the stairs, popcorn bowl and sodas in arms and tail pouring a dustpan of broken porcelain into the trash.
“You, my friend-“ Pat said, pointing at said bestie. “-You are a genius.”
Sponge giggled and covered his cheek. “Oh, shucks, Pat. All I did was just use my imagination.” He chuckled as they both flopped on the couch, Gary following them. “In order to beat a teenager, you gotta think like a teenager.” Sponge boasted, passing the popcorn bowl, kicking off his shoes, and undoing his tie with that.
Pat nodded and grabbed the remote, flipping the channel and drinking his cherry soda, also shedding his footwear. “We’re both pretty good at that, huh?” He locked eyes with Sponge and smiled warmly.
Sponge returned the affectionate gaze, although for a reason he couldn’t place, his cheeks were suddenly a bit more heated as well. He settled on leaning his head on Pat’s shoulder, scooting closer and closer. Not snuggling him of course, haha- that would be weird, why would he snuggle his best friend? It’s not like they hadn’t sat like this as kids and stuff, but now it was different since they were older. Just…close, like how best friends sat together. Yeah, best friends. Best friends definitely sat together with one’s upper body leaning into the other’s warm, cozier chest, shoulders, and neck.
Pat ate a handful of popcorn, unconsciously shifted so his and Sponge’s legs were almost interlocked, and finally found the right channel, Mermaid Man’s theme song finishing.
SpongeBob almost froze and didn’t move, his face caught right in the middle of Pat’s chest and his face now partly burning. What in the world was this feeling? This…heat? He had never felt it before and it felt…completely alien. Like something that he never thought he’d feel but for an unexplained reason, he was. Was this…normal to feel with your best friend? He and Patrick had been friends for more than 15 years…why hadn’t he felt this before when they sat like this? It sure seemed like Pat wasn’t feeling it too, whatever this was.
Before this dizzying train of emotions and thought continued, the show suddenly started, and Sponge jolted back to reality, shaking his head slightly and feeling silly for overthinking something like that again. Now wasn’t the time for that- it was Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy time! Even if his eyelids were starting to get a tiny bit heavy…
Click.
Sponge’s ears flapped and he perked up, instantly snapping up and glaring at the staircase.
“10!…9!…8!…” he yelled warningly.
“I’m just getting my BACKPACK!!” Mikey yelled down and his feet hit the ground running back.
“Why didn’t you just put it in where you were sleeping, silly?” Sponge yelled back. “7!…6!…5!…”
“I didn’t KNOW you would tickle meeeeee!!!” Mikey shouted, running back into the right room. Sponge heard a muffled thump as the orange turtle probably launched himself onto one of the air mattresses, and then partial silence followed, only broken by hushed conversations and movement.
Sponge rolled his eyes but smirked and laid his head back down, finally focusing on his show.
Patrick shoved another hand of popcorn in his mouth and took a minute to look down at his best friend, beaming sweetly. “You know…you’d be a pretty good parent.” He observed.
Sponge looked up, surprised. “Really?” The Sponge Mutant had never thought about that.
“Yah. You’ve got good stuff for a kid. You’d make a good Dad.” Pat stated, his attention now more partly on the TV.
“Oh…” SpongeBob trailed off, thinking about that. That was really sweet to say, but a parent? He never pictured himself- a bubble-blowing, jelly-fishing fry cook/vigilante goofball- raising a child. Would he even be able to actually look after a baby?…
Sponge snapped his vision to the screen, clearing his mind of the anxiety and letting the pleasure of his favorite show wash over instead, cleaning out the conflicting emotions and replacing it with what was happening now, tonight. The Kraang, the Mutagen, that Foot Clan guys the Turtles mentioned, the vigilante-business, the Mayor, the burning in his body partly-laying on Patrick…
That all could wait for another night.
For now, as his consciousness began to wane, SpongeBob SquarePants was just happy to be home, his town safe and knowing everything for now was alright.