Chapter Text
Basil hated this feeling.
Thankfully, the two weren’t total strangers. It began when he resolved to rebuild his social circle after the worst had come to pass. All he wanted from the start was a few new friends, and that blue-haired girl who lived a few houses away was a perfect candidate. But shortly after the ice was broken between the two, Basil found himself unable to keep any semblance of calm around her, let alone just talk to her.
It was an unintended side effect.
Before now, it was a feeling he’d only ever read about in books. Try as he might to tell himself it doesn’t exist, it never stopped his world from slowing to a warm, glowing pause every time that flash of blue met his own blue eyes.
He couldn’t have less of a clue where it came from. Was it her flowing hair? Her mermaid-esque voice? She wasn’t someone who cared too much about her looks, but all that opinion did was make him ever more confused. Confused as to why the stomach butterflies would just never go away.
Basil’s walks in the park were, purely by coincidence, right around the time she would have her daily workout. Unfortunately, that tended to be as close as he would let himself get. He stood in the distance, slowly inching himself toward her and churning his brain thinking of something, anything to say.
But right as he got too close, he turned his back and walked away. If he had continued, he surely would have been coming on too strong. He would have just tripped over his words like he always does. She was too busy to talk, anyway. God forbid, she’d think he’s creepy.
He knew himself too well. The risk of heartbreak was not one he could afford to take.
To Basil, it was as if he were a sailor braving the sea while a siren sung to him from a distant shore. The song was sweet and beckoning enough to make any usual man change course and careen directly toward wherever that heavenly sound was coming from. Luckily for Captain Basil, he knew very well that siren’s songs only ever lead sailors to their untimely doom.
The issue is that Basil is not a sailor, nor does he even know the first thing about swimming. Additionally, this girl is not a deadly mythical creature. This ferocious siren he speaks of is just Cris from Faraway Town, born to normal human parents, owner of typical human legs and not a scaly tail, though still incredibly good at swimming. Most importantly, she certainly wasn’t singing any sort of magical song that indicated attraction to the longing blonde.
Since there’s no song, there’s no danger, and Basil is clear to sail on.
As Cris picked up her supplies and headed back home, he sighed in defeat. Great job Captain, another dangerous siren successfully dodged.
The sunrays of the second day of Summer Vacation beat down on him as he hauled a stack of topsoil bags from Fix-It back to his house. He would have mused to himself about how much he had gotten his life back together in just a year after the incident, if his arms weren’t starting to ache. One step at a time, he told himself.
Barely able to see overtop the mountain of soil he was carrying, he turned a corner. Over the peak of the stack he spotted a strange blue thing, which had a few streaks of blonde growing out of the roots. As he tried to adjust his grip, she turned around.
“Hey Basil!”
“Oh uhh... Hi Cris!”
“Need any help with those bags?”
He was lucky she couldn’t see much of his face.
“Oh I... No. Bye!”
By the time he returned home, he thought his lungs were about to collapse from sprinting.
Everyone Basil met always told him he worries too much. But with a life like his, what’s not to worry about? Maybe he was born with it, maybe he unconsciously picked it up from living with his ever-jittery caretaker. But she had plenty of reasons to be worried about him, most of which he would rather not think about.
That in mind, it was a shock when Polly got him his own cell phone for his most recent birthday. Though not sure exactly what she wanted him to get out of it, it was instrumental to his efforts to rebuild his stunted social circle. Though he didn’t use too many of them on a regular basis, he’d lost count of how many different phone numbers he’d gathered since the start.
With a glass of ice water on the side table, he melted into his bed. Of all the numbers he thought he would ever need, it occurred to him that he was still missing one. Given his circumstance, there was no way he’d be able to ask for it. As the crisp air conditioning refilled his lungs, his train of thought slammed its brakes when someone knocked on the front door.
“I’ll get it!” Polly was right on her feet.
“Thanks.” Hopefully it was just mailmen or something, he didn’t have the energy for much else, he thought to himself.
“It’s Kel! He said he wants to ask you something!”
Great.
“Hey Basil! How’ve you been?”
His first response was a yawn. “...Good.”
“Dude, you look like you just got done running a marathon!”
“Well, I kind of did. At least, that’s what it felt like, I think.”
“Eh? What happened?”
“Let’s just say topsoil doesn’t carry itself.”
“Oh, ouch. I getcha. Anyway, I had a question.”
“Ask away.”
“So I just got my driver’s license. Like, the real deal, not that thing where you can only drive around with one parent.”
Basil unconsciously exhaled. It thankfully had nothing to do with Cris, and he hopefully hadn’t seen what just happened between them.
“Who let you have a driver’s license?” He also couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit jealous.
“I ask myself the same thing. Anyway, me and some friends were planning on driving up to the beach and camping out tomorrow and Saturday. So, wanna come?”
“Well...”
It was jarring to say the least, he couldn’t remember the last time he’d been invited to anything. Before he could finish that thought, another voice interjected.
“I mean, you don’t have anything better to do, at least that I know of, so why not?” Polly put words into his mouth, but she was right regardless.
“...Sure. What time will you pick me up?”
“Bright and early tomorrow morning. I’d say like, eight-ish. Hope you’re not used to sleeping in yet! Just bring a bit of money for food along with usual beach stuff.”
“Okay uhh, sounds good.”
“Alright see you tomorrow, bye!” And in the next instant, Kel was gone.
“...Well, that’s a nice change of plans, you sure look like you could use a good vacation. When’s the last time you went to the beach anyway?”
He shrugged, too embarrassed to say he had no idea.
Regardless, outside of just being a nice relaxing getaway, this would be perfect for getting out of his shell and being a bit more social, he thought to himself. Kel always seemed to have a good taste in friends, so maybe he might make a new one. Of course, anything involving Kel is three times more likely to go wrong, but that tends to have the side effect of making things a lot more fun. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?
Basil waited on the couch, a bundle of clothes and cash rolled up in a sleeping bag sat in his lap. As it turned out, “eight-ish” meant a time closer to eight thirty-eight to Kel. He started to fear that he’d decided to pick him up at eight-ish in the evening.
Weighing down the couch next to him was an oversized watermelon, the one thing more necessary for the beach than sunscreen. He was surprised Othermart hadn’t sold out of them yet, it being just the start of summer. Food was one of those things he knew other people would always appreciate, even something as small as this.
Just when he began to worry Kel had forgotten about him, an obnoxious pattern of honks spilled out from the road. He was on his feet in a heartbeat, and was glad to see his old friend beaming through the driver’s side window.
“Ahoy!”
“Your dad’s letting you drive his minivan?”
“I know, right? Welcome aboard!”
“Could you please drop the pirate act? It’s been like five minutes in the car and you’re already annoying the shit out of everyone!” Aubrey complained from the shotgun seat.
“Oh come on Eggplant, could ya live a little?”
“Besides, you were like, half an hour late picking us up!”
“You’ve got like, nine different detentions from being late to school, and you’re trying to get on me for lateness?”
“Ugh.”
Carrying everything in a scrambled stack, Basil managed to maneuver one of his hands just enough to swing open the car door. He dumped his belongings inside, climbed into the back seat, and-
“Hey Basil!”
His heart jumped into his throat.
Across from him sat the ferocious, deadly siren named Cris.