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“That is one hell of a mess,” Mitchell said, staring at the huge sodden spot on the floor.
“Hail, prince of the obvious,” muttered Anders as he carried the bowl into the kitchen.
“Good thing we’re on the ground floor here or the neighbors would be screaming. As it is, we’re probably going to have to replace the carpet.”
Anders wasn’t listening; he was too busy cooing over his fish, swimming dazedly in the big bowl. They’d been rescued at the last minute after a leak had sprung in the aquarium. It had seeped out all day long while both Anders and Mitchell were at work, and there was barely enough water to cover them as they cowered at the bottom. The laughter that had been ringing as the men opened the door was silenced in shock as they both squished into the room. Anders’ gaze had gone immediately to the tank, and he had gone white as a sheet and screamed, “BOWL! WATER! NOW!!!” The blond hovered by the tank while he waited for the bowl to fill, looking like he wanted to start CPR on his pets. He scooped them out carefully, talking to them the entire time, telling them to hold on. It would have been funny in anyone else, but Mitchell knew how much the fish meant to Anders—they were the only living beings besides himself (and he was only technically living) that Anders had allowed into his life and his heart.
Once he was assured that all his babies would survive, Anders sprinkled in a bit of food and turned back to the mess. “As much as I hate to do this,“ he murmured, fishing out his phone, “the time has come to call in reinforcements.” He waited as the call connected. “Hi, Mike, you still have that shopvac? We need to borrow it…yeah, very funny. The fish tank broke.” He listened for a minute, rolling his eyes and making a ‘hurry up’ motion with his free hand. “Okay, yeah, whatever…thanks, Mike, we’ll be over in a bit.”
He ended the call. “He asked if we overflowed the bathtub again while we were ‘busy’.”
Mitchell shook his head in disbelief. “Oh, for feckin’…it happens once, they never let you forget it!”