Chapter Text
Gus is convinced the two giants outside of his tank are either idiots, or weirdly fascinated by him. Their faces nearly smudge against the glass with how close the two fight to be front and center. Leaving scuff marks across the invisible barrier that keeps his home from pouring into the other side. He doesn’t really understand how it works, but Gus is grateful either way.
However, he does understand that a dirty home is not a safe home. With every smudge, or accidental vibration from their shuffling, the more Gus feels unsafe. The more he wants to swim and hide away in his clean, stable, home his friend made for him. Or hide amongst the plants and take a nap. Maybe when he wakes up, they’ll be gone? Maybe.
Though, for now, Gus suspects that they won’t be leaving anytime soon. With how the light from the invisible barrier beyond his home is now dark, and both are wearing clothing Gus recognizes as ‘dreaming wear ’…They’ll be here all night.
Gus blinks, and a few bubbles escape his mouth.
‘ Please leave .’
The one that looks like his friend, but also doesn’t, keeps looking back over his shoulder at something. Or someone. Full of pent up anxiety that he recognizes as a part of his friend, but more unsettled and disturbed. He looks like he could use a nap. The bags under his eyes rival the ones his friend has been sporting the last few days but, while his friends are light and soft, his are dark and prominent. Almost scarily so.
Gus does a quick circle. Flicking his tail to expel the pent up anxiety.
The pretty one looks sad. Her big brown eyes scan the tank with concern. Sometimes she rests her head on her arms when the tired one turns to yell, face showing she is deep in thought. Her eyebrows scrunching up before relaxing to her temporary conflicting expression. That makes Gus sad. Gus likes the pretty one. She shouldn’t be sad.
Gus swims closer to the barrier. Hoping to maybe either turn her unpleasant frown into a more bearable smile, or show how ridiculous it is for them to be watching him swim in circles so that they leave.
He lazily turns in a figure-eight, blowing bubbles while he does so.
‘ Is this what you want? Witness me! Are you not entertained? Or at least ready to leave?’
Gus heard that from the small box his friend uses once. He’d left it unattended on the nearby stand. Gus wasn’t able to see it, but the vibrations from its voice shook the tank in such a prominent way that Gus was able to hear all of it clearly.
Word for word.
He doesn’t remember all of it, but those few lines were definitely entertaining. Like the voice had asked.
Gus does another spin.
‘ Witness me! Witness me!’
The tired one’s eyebrows flatten out. His mouth does as well, making him look like that one muppet from the glowing box Gus has seen before.
The giants face slowly moves closer to the tank until his own brown eyes are starring level with Gus.
He blows a few bubbles.
‘ You’ve got an ugly mug.’
The tired ones mouth makes a noise that vibrates Gus’s tank, causing him to swim back a bit out of fear. One of his big fins, with five separate fins attached to it, wipes down his face. Pulling at his eyes to show the pink bit underneath.
It makes Gus feel uncomfortable.
‘ Is it not painful?’
Gus blows a few small bubbles, almost akin to how his friend would do when making that high pitched noise with his pursed lips, and finally turns towards his home.
If the giants won’t leave, then he’ll make them.
What fun is it starring at an empty home? With no one to entertain you?
Fortunately, its not entertaining enough because, as soon as Gus turns his fin, the tired one throws up his arms and stomps off. Out of sight.
Rambling about something that Gus can only decipher a few words.
“ He…Out!”
Gus blows a few bubbles, and then dives into his empty home. Full of only his favorite pebbles and some algae he has saved for later incase his friend leaves him without those tasty flakes for a few days. It doesn’t taste that good, but its better than dying on an empty stomach.
He takes a small nibble of the algae, and then does a full 360 as the atmosphere in his home shifts. A cold blast of water tingles him fin to fin.
Gus swims towards the exit, but turns his back to it last second as some bubbles- that definitely are not his- float up and out the random circle on the side of his house. He thinks of it as a little peep hole that he can use to spy on his friend without him knowing.
‘Hullo? Is that you Gus? My fishy friend.’
Anyway- there’s another fish in his home. In his little place his friend built him inside of his home.
In his home.
Gus refrains from picking at the other fish for only a moment. He quickly looks the intruder over, and takes note of how they look exactly like him. Except their scales are pure white, and the end of their tale is a faded black.
They look pretty…but Gus doesn’t let their beauty distract him.
Ignoring how docile the other fish is, and-frankly- how scared they look, Gus powerfully propels himself forward and nips the top of the other fishes head.
He nearly does it again, but is shocked when the fish cries out.
‘ Gus! Gus! Stop! It’s Steven! Oh dear, can you even understand me? Do fishies even understand each other?’
Gus does a circle so that his fin is now halfway outside the exit. He blows a few bubbles.
‘ Friend?’
The fish tenses up. A strange thing to do as- to Gus- that either means that they are going to die or go to sleep.
But neither of those things are happening.
What’s happening is that he- Gus- is starring fish face to fish face with a fish that is beyond beautiful. And is named Steven.
Steven. His friend.
Gus watches as the fish blows some bubbles.
‘ Gus?’
He blows a few back.
‘ Steven?’
The two swim in silence. Gus trying his best to put together everything that’s going on inside his little fish head, and Steven doing his best not to stare.
When the silence breaks, they both speak up in unison.
‘ What happened? How are you here?’
‘ You can understand me?’
Gus swims forward and blows some small bubbles.
‘ Yes, I can understand you.’
Steven does a nervous wiggle, his pretty white and black tail flowing in the soft current like a fine piece of silk.
‘ Eh…um, ok…What, what are we doing here?’
Its obvious Steven is uncomfortable with himself. He does a shaky circle that nearly twirls him into the wall, and even then he over corrects and does actually propel himself into the opposite wall.
‘ oh, bugger, can we…May we step- swim- out of here please? Its a bit, uh, a bit small.’
Gus blows some neutral bubbles, and looks around at his little home. Calling it small is not insulting, because it is small, but Gus does not appreciate the critique either way.
He flips his tail in slight irritation.
‘ Yes, it is small…Lets go.’
Steven shrinks a bit into himself, his tail anxiously twitching as he tries his best to maneuver himself out of the fish’s home.
‘ Oh, uh, ok…I’m sorry.’
Once the two are out of Gus’s home. They, again, both stare at each other.
Gus, in amazement at how shiny and pure white Stevens scales are. And Steven, in realization that quickly turns into shock.
‘ I’m…I’m a fish…’
Gus blows some bubbles.
‘ You’re a fish.’
Steven wiggles again. Shaking his tail more quickly now, and does two quick circles.
‘ I’m a fish! A fish! How am I a fish? Khonsu made me a bloody fish!’
Gus watches Steven panic himself into a twirling mess. He can’t do much comforting- not like he’s seen the two giants do when they seem upset- but he can blow a few soothing bubbles that caress the underside of Steven’s face and belly. They settle there for a second before popping out from underneath him and making their way towards the surface.
Gus likes to think of it as a bubble massage. He does it himself whenever he feels upset. Except he does it over at the strange bubble maker at the corner of his home. Its much more convenient, and provides more bubbles in a minute then Gus can do in an hour.
It works- simply enough- that Steven nearly sinks himself to the bottom. Still mumbling to himself while Gus swims up beside him.
‘ You’re a fish.’ Gus repeats. ‘ I don’t know how, but its ok. You’re ok.’
Steven side-eyes Gus. Probably thinking of all the things that make it not ok. He takes a deep gulp of water, expels it, and watches in a weird childish amusement as his bubbles float to the surface.
Gus rolls his eyes, but doesn’t mention the awe struck look on his friends face.
‘ Are you ok?’
Steven does a little head bob. Eyes still attached to the surface where his bubbles slowly pip, pop away.
‘ No…not at all…’m a fishy…’
Gus refrains from giving Steven a friendly head bump. Uncertain to whether Steven is even calm enough to not freak out again at the realization that his body is covered in scales.
‘ Yeah…You are.’
Steven sighs.
‘ Why do you keep saying that? You are!’ Steven mocks a bit hysterically.’ Its not helping.’
Gus sinks down a bit.
‘ Sorry…If you haven’t noticed, I don’t really have anyone to practice my social skills on…So, pardon me if im a bit rusty.’
Steven flinches a bit. His demeanor drops.
‘ Its ok…Sorry, I…I just don’t know what’s going-…Marc?’
Gus follows Stevens gaze.
The tired one is back. Marc. With his nose firmly pressed up against the barrier. Smudging Gus’s home again. It makes his tail shake anxiously for the first time in the past fifteen minutes.
Gus looks over at Steven- who is now cautiously swimming towards the barrier.
He stops himself from telling Steven to stop, and instead slowly swims forwards. Watching Marc’s constantly changing facial expressions with his little thumping heart.‘ You know that guy?’
Steven’s tail wiggles.‘ He’s my friend! We share a body, well, not right now, of course, but he’s in my body!’ Steven exclaims excitedly, ignoring Gus’s strange look. ‘ Marc! Marc its lovely to see you, I wish I-…oh! Layla!”
Gus chuckles at Steven’s giddy nature. Blowing some bubbles in amusement as his tank vibrates.
The pretty one finds her place next to Marc. Layla. She looks a bit less sad, but once her gaze locks onto Steven, her lips sink a bit. She rests her head back on her arms.
That can’t be good.
Gus finds his place back at Steven’s side.
‘ Who’s Layla?’
Steven falters a bit. His body doing another nervous shimmy while he tries his best not to spin out of control.
‘ Blast this current…oh, um, well, I think she’s Marc’s wife…’
Gus blows some bubbles.’ Think?’
‘ Well, they are still currently married but…Its complicated.’
Steven doesn’t explain why, and Gus doesn’t pry.
‘ Well… Since they’re your friends, do you think you could tell them to stop mucking up my home?’ Gus bobs his heads towards the smudges from earlier.
‘ Its not…safe.’
Steven eyes the smudges. His face lacks understanding, as Gus knew it probably would, but he gives a head bob back.
‘ I’ll try my best.’
Gus stays behind to watch Steven fully press himself up against the barrier. He swims up and down the side of it, giggling to himself as Layla traces his movements with her finger.
Marc watches the two with a small smile, but there is still a hint of pain behind his brown eyes.
Marc rests a hand on Layla’s shoulder and speaks something to her that neither Gus nor Steven can understand.
Much to the laters displeasure.
Steven stops his swimming.
‘ What?’ He looks back at Gus. Tail now sadly drooping. ‘ I can’t…I can’t understand them…’
Gus winces. ‘ The…The barrier muffles the sound quite a lot…To properly hear them, they’d have to be almost shouting.’
Steven flaps one of his fins sadly.
‘ But that’s not…How am I…’ He gives up talking to blow a few sad bubbles. Sinking lower to the rock covered bottom. His fish eyes twitching a bit as his tail only droops lower.
Its an upsetting sight.
Gus goes to give Steven a comfort tap with his fin when- unexpectedly, another person plops down on Marc’s other side. Emitting an aura that clashes with every single being in the room.
He looks mean. A bandaid has been placed on his nose, and…he’s wearing a weird looking hat.
Gus curiously looks to Steven for an explication…All he gets is a fearful wiggle.
‘ Oh my Go-‘