Chapter Text
Something is wrong with me.
Gillion's brain racked over and over with the same thought. His eyes faced up along with his body that lay out on the deck, watching the sky with a careless eye. He was soaked, along with the rest of the ship as harsh rain poured down from above. The sky was dark, covered with clouds, and only lit up with the occasional flash of lightning that would strike.
Despite the rain, and the danger lightning poses, Gillion remained outside. He was used to the feeling of electricity in his veins, anyway. At least, to him, it happened all the time.
Which is why there was something wrong with him. And he insisted on lying outside. Was it as punishment? Out of curiosity? Maybe if he got struck by physical lightning it would fix him. The usual Gillion logic.
Whatever he was feeling, it only ever happened when Chip looked his way.
"Gill?"
Lightning strikes.
Gillion sat up swiftly from where he laid. His eyes locked with Chip, who had emerged from the ship's kitchen and was standing in a doorway to keep from getting wet. He was hunched over, eating a cinnamon roll leftover from earlier that day. Gillion's eyes darted around the ship before landing back on his co-captain. "Hello, Chip."
Chip looked at his fish friend curiously, or as curiously as he could with sunken, exhausted eyes. "Gillion, you know we have Alphonze for the nightwatch, right? You know you can sleep?"
Gillion slowly nodded. "Yes, I do. I'm having trouble sleeping, though."
Chip looked at his friend a bit longer in silence. "So you're laying in the rain."
"I like the rain."
"But it's thundering. And lightning."
"And very, very frightening- yes I know, Queen sings so all the time." Gillion nodded as he spoke. "What are you doing awake, Chip?"
Chip looked awkwardly down at what little was left of the cinnamon roll. "I was... hungry."
Silence hung between two of them, and as he looked at his co-captain, he could see clockwork forming behind Chip's head. His head tilted curiously at Gillion a little longer. Meanwhile, with the headspace he was in, it was probably best Gillion kept his distance from Chip.
"Do you... want a cinnamon roll? There's some left."
But a cinnamon roll does sound pretty good right now. Damn. Fuck.
Gillion's lips pursed as he attempted very shittily, to deny one. "Oh, I'm not... you know, I'm not very hungry-"
As Gillion spoke, Chip shoved what was left of his cinnamon roll in his mouth and walked back into the kitchen, not saying a word. Seconds later, he returned holding two more. Without a second for Gillion to protest, Chip stepped out into the rain and sat in front of his friend. He took a bite of one cinnamon roll and held the other out for his fishy friend.
"You're gonna get soaked if you sit out here." Gillion commented.
"Yeah, I know. Take this before it gets soggy." Chip shook his hand, urging Gillion to take it. Gillion does.
Chip was odd sometimes, and a complete dork, but that was something that always made Gillion smile. "Thank you, Chip." He said, finally accepting defeat and taking a bite out of the treat.
And then they were quiet again. Gillion was conscious of where Chip's eyes laid, which stayed mostly on the roll, but sometimes trailed off onto the water, but sometimes onto Gillion. Every time he looked his way, Gillion's eyes shot back down to the food in his hand.
"So," Chip started, taking a knee and propping it up, residing his arm with the roll over it and smiling. Gillion's head whipped up to look at him, like he had just been jolted awake. "You can't sleep."
In this moment, Gillion lost whatever words he could have mustered up to say to Chip. It was an unconscious statement that the back of his mind made, but Chip was a sight to behold, like literal art of a human. His hair was completely soaked, and he had dimples on both sides of his cheeks that only showed when he smiled. Though Gillion had no hair on his arms, his skin rose.
"Hey, pretty boy," Chip suddenly snapped his fingers in Gillion's face and he blinked and shifted back again in response. "Are you getting lost in that cinnamon roll? I asked you a question."
Gillion scrambled for words, but couldn't seem to scrounge up a response. That feeling was here again , it was honestly getting worse. Why did this keep happening? His face crinkled and he shook his head, almost aggressively. He then shoved the rest of the roll into his mouth.
An eyebrow on Chip's face rose before he also finished off the rest of his treat. Crumbs flew off his fingers as he swiped them against each other, and he returned his knee to the ground. "Do you want to talk about it?"
The question calmed Gillion, but talk about what exactly? He doesn't even know what "it" is. His eyes stayed on Chip's hands, which now laid effortlessly above his own thighs. "Hold on."
Gillion reached over to the brunette who sat in front of him, running his hand over his knuckles. Each finger is calloused, but remarkably delicate. Roughened from endless battles, but managing to somehow still be so gentle and soft, still allowing and offering to be touched. He leaned closer, cupping both of Chip's hands between his own; his own breathe wavering at the contact.
Standing in the middle of the ocean, by yourself in the middle of a thunderstorm, is what it felt like to touch him. It was the blackened sky and droplets of water, with no warning but your hair standing on its ends. Then the lightning chooses you, and it spirals through your veins and into your chest and it is sudden and it is hard to breathe.
That is what it was like to brush against him when walking in a tight street in Allport. It is what it was like when he smiled in the triton's direction, or down at the sea, or when he joked with Alphonze or Jay. That is what it was like when he picked Ollie up and placed him on his shoulders. That is what it was like when their eyes met. That is what it was like now, when he took Chip's hands in his own.
As Gillion spoke, lightning struck, a bit away from them. "I fail to understand how you could be so... electrifying."
Though his eyes were at first locked on their hands, his eyebrows suddenly furrowed in confusion. He looked up at the triton. "What do you mean by that?" Chip spoke, his words leaving his mouth delicately.
Gillion met his gaze, his heart paigned right as he did. That same feeling surged through him again before he quickly returned to look at their hands together. "I don't know. I think there's something wrong with me."
Chip raised an eyebrow at the triton. He looked down at their hands, letting them sit for a minute. He chuckled and shifted, moving his hands to hold Gillion's on top of his own. He then took his thumbs and put
them atop Gillion's hands, pressing gently in one hand and rubbing circles in the other. "Buddy, I don't think there's anything wrong with you."
Gillion's face flushed. Its this. This isn't normal. I don't understand. I don't understand!
Gillion shook his head violently before pulling his hands away from Chip. "No- There's something wrong. Something is terribly wrong."
He brought his head to his hands, Chip's eyebrows stitched and gently gazed at his friend. Despite Chip wanting to reach out and ask, he remained silent, waiting for Gillion to speak on his own. He took a few moments before he did.
"Growing up in the Undersea, I was loved by my sister, and she was my best friend. And I came to the Oversea, and I met Jay. And I love spending time with Jay, Jay is my best friend, and Caspian and Ollie- I love being around them, around them I feel like myself. And I used to feel this way around you but-" Gillion pauses, sitting up slightly and looking around as if trying to find the right words.
"I don't... know. My... chest feels tight when I'm with you. And my face-" Gillion then took a hand off his face. "It- it gets all hot feeling- and sometimes it feels like theres electricity in my veins- And it gets worse when you smile or look at me or- do whatever you just did with my hands-" Gillion looked up at Chip, furrowing his eyebrows that faltered as he spoke. "So I don't know. Either you have been secretly learning magic and have been casting magic on me or- I'm terribly sick and need to go to a hospital or something. Maybe a mental one- I've tried casting Cure Wounds, it hasn't worked."
Gillion finished his speech, gazing at Chip in silence. He searched his face for some sort of indication of how he felt. He looked for anger, and then he looked for a smirk, to show that Chip had been pranking him this whole time, but there was neither of those emotions on Chip's face. Chip's eyes were wide, locked on the triton in front of him. A hand was placed over his mouth from an arm that propped his head up from his knee.
From behind his hand, Gillion could see a tinge of red that was growing bigger across his face.
The silence between them grew thicker. The triton's eyes began to drag across the ship, occasionally returning to look at Chip. "Did... Do you know what is wrong with me, Chip? Why are you making that face?"
By now, Chip's face was almost completely red, so much so that it spread to the tips of his ears. His eyes fell to his lap, his voice slightly muffled from his hand. "There's no way."
Gillion's fins bent back to the side of his head as concern took over his expression. "What?"
Chip laughed as he let out a sigh of disbelief. He took his hands and dragged them across his face and through his hair. "That's ridiculous."
"What? What is it?" He looked at his hands, flipping them examining his skin, before returning his eyes to his co-captain.
He laughed and smiled gently at the triton before returning his gaze. "Gillion, that's attraction."
Attraction? The word burned into Gillion's brain.
"Well- in your case, I guess its romantic attraction."
Wait.
A hand flew up to Gillion's mouth and he sat straight up now. Oh my god. "Wait-"
Watching the flood of emotions on Gillion's face, Chip began to laugh, mirroring Gill and covering his mouth.
"That's what it feels like? That's what it is?!" Gillion threw his hands out, exasperated, and Chip's laughter grew. "I didn't know I could feel that way!"
Despite his laughter, Chip looked at Gillion and managed to speak. "That's what happens when you choose your own destiny."
Gillion remained in shock for a moment, before sitting back and letting process what just happened. As he did, the rain above them turned to a drizzle. Chip's laughter started to die down as Gillion sat in silence. "What do I do about this?"
"What do you mean?" Chip raised an eyebrow at him.
"How do I get it to stop?"
Chip's smile finally faltered at that sentence. He shifted in his spot. "Do you want it to stop?"
"Well, I mean, no but you don't feel the same way, and you have a wife-" he stopped himself. Gillion had been looking everywhere, anywhere but at Chip at the moment he realized his confession to him. He finally looked back at his co-captain, who's eyes looked that of a wounded dog. And... his face, which was red before, was still red now.
Just to ensure his theory was correct, Gillion reached his hand over to Chip's face, gently holding it. It was warm, and at the contact was only getting warmer.
"...Oh." Gillion's cheeks glowed a dark blue as he spoke. They sat in silence for a moment before Gill used his other hand to feel his own face. "Is that what I look like when I do that?"
Chip cracked a smile and looked down. "Yeah, except you get more blue, not red."
Now with Chip's head in his hand, Gillion remained looking at him, who was refusing to look up at him. Chip's head had begun to lean into Gill's hand, and Gill allowed it, using his thumb to rub his cheek.
"You're electrifying, too," Chip whispered after a while of them sitting there, and Gillion's heart couldn't help but flutter at the words. He smiled, and the hand that cradled Chip's face slid down to his chin, to which he then picked it up, bringing Chip's gaze to his own. His face instantly grew more red.
Gillion wasn't too familiar with the idea of attraction; it was to his understanding that when people... "like" eachother, they're meant to hold hands, kiss, and hold each other in some particular way that somehow conveyed their affection for each other. It wasn't something his parents did, but it was something that he'd witnessed from afar. Even so, he wasn't aware of what else they were meant to do. People date? What would a date look like for them? Wait. Are they even going on a date? Wait.
"Bwait-" he blinked, realizing he'd been staring at Chip for way too long. Chip also blinked- his eyes were resting on Gill's lips and he was practically ripped out of whatever trance was laid on him in that moment. Gillion continued, not having taken notice. "So what do people do about this? Are we doing something about this? What is the um... protocol??"
Chip's eyes locked on Gillion, frozen for a minute, like he wanted to say something. With his cheeks still red, he shut his eyes and removed himself from Gillion's embrace, bringing his palms up into the air. "How about we go somewhere? I can take you to The Tank and we can just hang out and play some pool and just... have a date. With me. And you. By ourselves. Me. With you. Yeah."
Gillion smiled at that. "That sounds great, Chip." Chip's lips curled up at his response. and they stayed quiet for a moment, lingering on their conversation. Gillion was relieved to have finally have an answer to his trouble, but even now one thought still sat in his brain. "So, Chip, not to sound like I'm completely new to this whole thing but I think that people in this situation normally do this."
"Wh-" With that, Gillion leaned forward, taking his hands behind Chip's head and pulling it gently towards him, his lips pressing into Chip's. Gillion's breath caught and a laugh attempted to escape his mouth. Chip, although completely and utterly still, was heating up by the second. As he went in to return the kiss, Gillion released him, leaving Chip leaning forward into air.
"Okay, I can see why people like to do that. You turn into a mini heater," he chuckled, looking up to find Chip with his mouth agape, which earned another laugh from Gillion. He set a hand to his side, using it to hoist himself off the ground, then offering his hand to Chip. "I think I'll be able to sleep, now."