Chapter Text
The weird boy with the strange feather-soft aura and the frog's head had visited almost every afternoon now. His questions started fairly simply - "Where are you from? How do you breathe? What's the square root of x times 3, please I need it for the math test tomorrow? What do you mean strange fish lying in ponds aren't godsends at math?" Eventually they evolved past small talk and cut right to the heart.
Kermitnaka leaned closer into the water's edge where Mob was, as close to the other side as he'd ever been before. Mob found it strangely difficult to read the expression on Kermitnaka's face, but eventually placed it somewhere between "contempt" and "comfort."
"I still don't believe it," Kermitnaka said, trailing a webbed finger through the water, sending ripples around Mob, "There's no way you've always been a fish." He pulled his hand out to lean in even further. "Were you cursed?"
I don't think so. I remember waking up and being this way, and that's about it.
Kermitnaka leaned away from the water with his hand to his chin, lost in a thought with many strings. "And for a fish to have an aura that powerful is simply astounding; moreover, I don't think I've met anyone with anything close to it. Except...well, no."
Mob shrunk beneath the water, averting his eyes anywhere but here. Kermitnaka noticed with a start, and hastily tried to restart his words.
"I-I mean, it's fascinating! It's not weird or uninteresting at all! I-" He checked the time on a small red watch and swore. "It's been nice talking to you, Mob. I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" He bent over the water to Mob, extending a hand out. Mob did his best to touch his flipper to it, watching as Kermitnaka took off through the woods, sneakers slapping on the day-after wet pavement. At that moment, watching him from above the water, a curious idea crept into Mob's head - one he hadn't previously considered.
What if I just...climbed out?
-
"Please tell me you'll go, at least this once," Kermitnaka pleaded to his dog-headed friend, encircling him as they exited class the next day, "Just go, and meet him, and I swear I'll never make you do anything like this ever again. And I'll do all of your Algebra 2 homework."
Inukawa stopped in his tracks, ears perked. He slowly turned to Kermitnaka, eyes laser-focused on the ground, cutting a line up the wall to meet Kermitnaka's. "...All of it?"
Kermitnaka lead Inukawa to the pond behind the school, talking the entire way. "You'll love him," he said enthusiastically, tighening the holds on his backpack, "Once you get past the fact that he's a fish, he's actually really kind and funny. He asks how I'm doing a lot, too."
Inukawa noted the dazed expression that had spread on Kermitnaka's face as they kept walking. A sly smile crept up his own, but he kept his thoughts a secret, and nodded enough to convince him he was still listening.
"Here it is." Kermitnaka dropped his bag on the bench and ran to the water's edge. "Hi Mob, it's me. I brought my friend if that's alright."
"Oh-hoh my god." Inukawa said with a chuckle, setting his bag beside Kermitnaka's. "You're looney, dude. Takenaka the fish-whisperer."
"I would have thought you'd believed me by now," Kermitnaka shot back.
I don't think he likes me, thought Mob.
"It's alright, he's just an idiot. Please come up, I wanna talk to you."
We can talk just fine like this can't we?
"Well, I mean, yeah," Kermitnaka ran a hand up the base of his neck, "but I want to see you."
Inukawa sat down next to Kermitnaka, his tail beginning to wag. Whatever was going on was going to be entertaining no matter what. He leaned towards the water and shouted, "I'd really like to meet you!"
"You don't have to shout," Kermitnaka said, shushing him halfway through.
"I just--"
"He's a fish, he can hear you just fine."
Inukawa blinked in confusion but dropped it there. There was no use trying to get through to Takenaka when he got wrapped up in a thought.
The water slowly began to part, and Mob's head made its way to the cool air.
Hi, Mob thought.
"He says hi," Kermitnaka said.
Inukawa's jaw hung open. "He...he's real. Your crazy fish friend is real." He rubbed tired fingers through tired eyes and tried to make sense of what he was seeing. Inukawa pointed a finger from Mob to Kermitnaka. "So, does he talk to you, like, through your mind?"
Does your friend have a name?
"Yea! Mob's got the craziest aura I've ever seen." Kermitnaka stood up a few paces away from the edge. He gestured from his dog friend to his fish friend. "Mob, Inukawa. Inukawa, Mob."
"Hi...again." Inukawa sneezed.
Hi.
Kermitnaka stood in place for a minute, realizing that the conversation had pewtered out, and ran with the first idea he had. "Mob, could you show him your powers?"
"He's not gonna kill me, is he?"
Kermitnaka shook his head and smiled. He leant an ear to the water, listening patiently to Mob, before nodding and turning back to Inukawa. "You have to promise not to tell ANYONE, okay?"
Inukawa nodded, and then nodded again. "Absolutely. Lips are sealed. Speak no evil."
The water lifted from the pond again, slower, goopier. It balled up like melting wax, dripping onto the pavement. Bubbles shot from the goop hanging in the air, slow and tar-like. The water looked heavy, almost like Mob was...embarrassed.
"Holy shit!" Inukawa said, as Mob bent further into the water once again, resetting the pond. "Holy shit!!" He shouted again, unable to remain sitting. There's no way I can keep this a secret! At least Tome needs to know. Ah wow!!
Kermitnaka put his hand into the water again, reaching for Mob's. The two connected hand to flipper, and Kermitnaka gave it a gentle squeeze. Thank you, he thought. I'm sorry you had to do it in that way though.
I don't understand why he needed to know. Kermitnaka's hand on his was making the water warm.
Kermitnaka replied, He's been my best friend since elementary school. Either I tell him or he finds out on his own.
"Say, Mob," Inukawa asked, slipping on his backpack. "Have you ever thought about, y'know, just...stepping out of the water?" He held one of his books out of his open pack, mulling a thought over. "Do you even have gills?"
I...
"You don't have to answer that," Kermitnaka pulled his hand from the water and turned to Inukawa. "There's no way of knowing how much fish he actually is, unless he comes out or we go in."
"I'm not goin' in. I never learned how to swim. No way."
I've thought about it. But, I get scared. I don't know how long I'd survive on the surface.
Kermitnaka's mind hit the lightbulb of an idea so hard it burst.
"Inukawa shut up for a second."
"Yeah, but I mean, like, what if he's got legs? Like human legs? How weird would that be? A-and, but, like, more than two. Like six legs. Like a weird six-legged fish."
"Dude, shut up." He went to his backpack and pulled out his phone. "I know how we could show Mob around town AND simultaneously get him out of the water." The picture he had pulled up was from an animated film - a boy and a fish in a bucket.
"We've got to Ponyo this shit." Inukawa said, his open-mouthed expression snapping into an excited grin. "Oh HELL YEAH."