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Once upon a time, there lived two Memoricornos named Rip Tide and Sawtooth. Rip Tide and Sawtooth were both obsessed with each other, but they didn’t know it until one fateful day. On that day, Rip Tide’s good friend Sunsprite swam up to Nautique and Squishella. Sunsprite, speaking Rainbowish frantically to the two Mermicornos as she spilled a secret, couldn’t slow down as she was genuinely surprised and happy… about something. “Oh my gosh, it’s like she saw the happiest fish in the world or something!” Squishella said as Sunsprite kept blabbing. “Luckily, I finally took that Rainbowish class,” Nautique said confidently. “OK, Sunsprite, slow down. What are you trying to tell us?” Sunsprite scratched her head as she thought of a way to dumb down her language for Nautique. Finally, she knew what to say. “OK, Rip Tide… no think right close to… look often at… red around… who, Sunsprite, who?” “Brrrr,” Sunsprite said finally. “SAWTOOTH?!” Nautique shouted as Sunsprite covered Nautique’s mouth and nodded. “Ugh, if they ever got together, remind me to bop ‘em on the head when they get intimate like the lesbians.” Squishella was right. Two of their friends, Astra and Gwen, had made the rest of their crew, the Mermi-crew, very uncomfortable at times.
Also, Gwen, if you’re reading this (which I know you are), S-T-O-P. You know what that spells? STOP YOUR PDA-FESTS WITH ASTRA! We get it, you’re girlfriends. So STOP! You just got cancelled by me, Val. #getwrecked
Back to the story, Squishella and Nautique were shocked. “Um… we have to go now,” they both said simultaneously as they swam in different directions. Nautique just freaked out in his room whereas Squishella ran to the Mermicorno Archives to talk to her friend Valentina. “OMG, Val! You’ll never believe the gossip I have!” “What is it?” Valentina said to her Mermicorno acquaintance. “Rip Tide is in loooove with Sawtooth!” Valentina spat out her hot chocolate. “What? Oh my gosh, how’d you get that tea?” “Sunsprite,” Squishella said confidently to Valentina. “If I were you I would gatekeep that,” Val said as she turned around to face an absent Squishella, who was there just a mere second ago. “And she’s gone,” Val says. “Classic Squish.” As Squishella swam to the Memicorno Palace to scheme with Astra (or Gwen, whoever was home), Nautique stopped Squishella right in her tracks. “I KNEW it! Bad Squish!” “But, Nautique, I have to spilllllllllll…” she said as Nautique blocked her path. “No, this time, you will gatekeep it, or else.” Squishella gulped. She’d never seen Nautique mad at her before, and she didn’t want to know what he was like in full angry mode, that was for sure. “OK, so, Mr. Smarty Pants, what’s the plan?” “For the first time, I really don’t know,” Nautique said. “Sorry.” “Wow, I can not believe it. You don’t even know how to handle this?” Nautique had no idea. Nautique had recently been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, which meant he was blind to some essential social skills. “Oh, right, autism,” Squishella said. “You know what? I’ll come up with the plan. I’ll secretly set them up on a blind date at the Pearl Palace. Royal Mother Pearl will call them-” “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Gatekeeping, remember?” “But Nautique, I need to get her in on the action if we want the plan to work!” “Ugh, fine,” Nautique said hesitantly. “Anyway, Royal Mother Pearl will call Rip Tide and Sawtooth on her Shell-Phone™, saying that she needs help with baking a cake, which then, RMP will ‘ghost’ which leaves them to do all the work and also, bond. Then, we watch the magic happen right before our eyes in the corner.” “Wow, good plan, Squish! I honestly doubted you for a second there, but that sounds like an A+ plan! Let’s do it.” Squishella called Royal Mother Pearl on her Shell-Phone™. “Hello, Royal Mother Pearl? I need a tiny favor…”
Later, as Rip Tide took a nap, he got woken up out of his sleep by a call from his Shell-Phone™. “Hello?” Rip Tide said as he woke up from his nap, which was going pretty great. He just had a great dream about Sawtooth where he wrote a song about him and performed it in front of him. He got woken up just at the part where Sawtooth was about to ask Rip Tide to go out with him. “Yes, Rip Tide, I need your help at the Pearl Palace ASAP! I need to bake a HUGE cake and I need your help!” “Royal Mother Pearl? But why? Can’t you ask Astra to help?” “I’m afraid not. She’s busy in her palace all day today.” That was true. Squishella had checked that first so Rip Tide wouldn’t get suspicious. “OK, I’ll be there in… an hour.” “Sounds good! See you soon,” Royal Mother Pearl said as she hung up. As Rip Tide got his crown and earrings on, he wondered why Royal Mother Pearl called him at such a random hour. Is this some kind of scheme for something? No, it couldn’t be!
As Rip Tide got on the SS Cool Boat and set sail for the Pearl Kingdom, someone snuck up on him from the back. “Boo!” “Aah! You better walk the plank right-” Rip Tide blushed in embarrassment when he saw who it was. It was Sawtooth, who just got back from a long workout. “Sorry, Sawtooth. Instinct,” Rip Tide said meekly. “Hey Rippy, where ya headed?” Wait, what? A cute nickname, just for him! Rip Tide was on bubble 9. Rip Tide had to respond to his question fast, and not get lost… in his beautiful eyes… Rip Tide sighed as Sawtooth cocked his head, a little confused. “Oh, uh, the Pearl Palace. You?” “Same,” Sawtooth says. “Can I, perhaps, hitch a ride?” Rip Tide thought in his head Oh my gosh, it’s finally happening. Sawtooth is noticing me! Act cool, Rip Tide, act cool. “If you want to get to the Pearl Palace on this boat, we’ll each take 10 minute shifts driving.” “OK, cool, I’ll go first. I’m pretty sure you want me to.” “And don’t call me Rippy.” He actually wanted Sawtooth to call him that. When he did, it made him feel warm and fuzzy inside. His fins felt weak. He could barely think straight. He had heard about a concept called love before, but ever since the Starfall, he never bothered to ask what it was. He just went questing with Sunsprite and never asked any questions other than about the treasure hunt.
As Sawtooth now set sail for the Pearl Kingdom, Rip Tide made one of his ocean-famous sea grape smoothies for Sawtooth, because a beautiful face like that deserved a treat as sweet as him. He swam up to Sawtooth with the sea grape smoothie. “Hey big guy, you thirsty?” “I’ll take it, thanks.” Sawtooth smiled at Rip Tide as he took a sip. “Well, thanks, I bet you’ll want to get back to doing nothing for… 8 minutes and 37 seconds.” “Wow, you have a good sense of time,” Rip Tide said, surprised with his accuracy. “Well, when you work for a squid who doesn’t like creativity, you get a good handle on time.” “Cool! So, have any stories from that time frame?” “Do I? DO I? Oh man, I’ve got a lot to tell you about Ika before he was implemented in goodness school!”
5 consecutive shifts and a bunch of stories later, they finally arrived at the Pearl Palace. “Hey Sawtooth, look! We’re here!” Rip Tide parked the SS Cool Boat right outside of the Pearl Palace as they walked in the Pearl Palace. Sawtooth knocked on the door, as the door swung open. “No one home. Huh.” “That’s odd, and a little scary since the lights are turned off. Can I hold your hand?” “You’re a grown Mermicorno, you can handle it,” “Please?” Rip Tide said in a puppy-like voice. It was only half because he was scared, though. The other part of him just wanted to feel the magic of holding his crush’s hand. He didn’t know why he had this urge. He didn’t know it was what couples do. He just wanted to hold hands with Sawtooth. As they started to hold hands while entering the Pearl Palace, Sawtooth felt his heart pumping faster than before. He couldn’t stop looking at Rip Tide’s beautiful face. Oh no. Was he catching feelings for him? Akin to Rip Tide, after Ika took him in after the Starfall, he did hear about a concept called love, because Ika was in love with Popstar Princess (or at least an illusion of Popstar Princess, he was friends with the real deal). Still, he had little to no idea what love was. It was probably staring, that was what he was doing right now. And, apparently, it was puckering your lips on the person, because that’s what Ika did. He could just imagine him writing a song just for Rip Tide, going to one of Sawtooth’s favorite restaurants with him, doing that puckering thing, but on each other’s lips… “Uh, hello? Ocean to Sawtooth?” Shoot! Sawtooth just had been out of it. He never had done that before. “...What?” “Just checking if you were OK. You zoned out for a very long time,” “Yeah, I’m good, thanks for asking.” But he wasn’t OK. Ika liked the opposite gender. What if liking the same gender wasn’t as accepted as liking the opposite one? Nah, he was being irrational, right? Just as Sawtooth was trying to process his gay awakening, Rip Tide found the kitchen. “Hey, Sawtooth, look! The kitchen,” Rip Tide said with glee. “Let’s hope that Royal Mother Pearl is still… here.” The kitchen was empty. Rip Tide knew something suspicious was going on, he just didn’t have all the pieces yet. Sawtooth then found a letter on the countertop. “Hey, a letter!” “Well, read it,” Rip Tide said, a little impatient. “OK, OK, geez! ‘Hello, Rip Tide and Sawtooth, I regret to inform you that important things have come up and I am unable to help you with the cake. But I have included instructions for the cake on the next sheet of paper. You’ll find all of the supplies in the kitchen. Have fun, Royal Mother Pearl.’ Crossed off, crossed off, crossed off.” Rip Tide took a look at the paper. Something really suspicious was going on.
After the two Mermicornos put the cake in the oven, there was dead silence for a minute, until Sawtooth broke the silence. “So, uh, about us holding hands earlier… that was nice. I’ve never had anyone hold my hand like that before,” “Heh, you said ‘hold my hand’,” “And that’s funny because?” “Nothing beats a Jet2 holiday, and right now, you can save £50 per person!” Rip Tide said in a near perfect British accent. “Kameko showed you that ‘trending’ above-sea meme ad too?” “She did,” Rip Tide said, breaking down laughing. “I don’t get why an ad got that popular on… what was it called again, TikTok?” “Me neither,” Sawtooth responded, also beginning to laugh. “Anyway, back to the subject,” Sawtooth said, “after the Starfall, I heard about this thing called love. I didn’t know what it really meant until I met you, and then you held my hand.” Rip Tide let out a little snort. “OK, OK, yes, nothing beats a Jet2 holiday. But seriously, I need you to focus here!” “You have all my attention,” Rip Tide said. “That made me feel… very good inside, and I got butterflies in my stomach, but I was happy at the same time. I thought you could only get butterflies when you’re nervous, but I guess I was wrong. And can we talk about you for a second? I have never seen a sea-tizen with eyes so good looking, such a great demeanor, and great smile. I mean that.” Sawtooth smiled, and gestured to Rip Tide. Rip Tide shrugged. “It’s your turn now, genius!” “Oh,” Rip Tide said. “When you joined our team when we took down Dark Pearl, I started to ‘get the hots’ for you,” “Huh?” “It’s… a term I’ve heard around. I’m pretty sure it means to fall in love with someone. Anyway, I always tried to get your attention in the Mermicorno Kingdom. And even though the Mermicorno Kingdom is soooooo dang small, you never even noticed me, not even a smidge! But I’m glad you’re acknowledging me now, better late than never,” “Well, to be fair, I just fell for you right now when you held my hand,” “Oh, that makes so much sense,” Rip Tide said, finally putting two and two together. “One more thing, I… kinda liked it when you called me Rippy. It made me feel this indescribable feeling, it… oh! I know how to describe it. It figuratively made me melt inside.” Sawtooth’s face turned red at the comment. “You really like me, like Astra likes Gwen?” “Well, Astra and Gwen are a little… disturbing when they pucker lips. We would pucker our lips in more private places, if you would want to be my… what did those pirates call it? Oh, right, boyfriend. If you would want to be my boyfriend.” “I would love to!” Sawtooth looks around the kitchen. “So, hey, since no one’s around… you wanna pucker lips?” “Do I? I’ve been waiting for you to say that for months now. YES!” In that moment, Rip Tide made one of the boldest moves that he ever made in his life. He kissed Sawtooth. For a second, Sawtooth was shocked, but as he eased into the kiss, he felt… warm, safe, an indescribable third thing. As they both took their lips off of each other to breathe fresh water, the cake timer dinged.
After they prepped the cake, they brought it to the dining hall, and the lights were off for some reason. Just then, Rip Tide figured it out. This was all some elaborate scheme to get him and Sawtooth together! That did explain why the cake topper was of him and Sawtooth. “I know what’s going on guys, you can come out now,” he said. “Aw, man!” Squishella said, disappointed. “My plan worked, but he figured out the surprise party,” “Yeah, Squish, I’m really smart and observant. You thought you could sneak this past ‘ol Rip Tide? You’ll have to try again some other time! And how did you know that I liked him anyway?” Rip Tide focuses on a guilty-looking Sunsprite, who was smiling at him nervously. “You just couldn’t help yourself, Sunsprite, could you?” “No,” Sunsprite said, one of her rare sentences in Fish. “It’s OK, Sunsprite, it’s already done. But we will have a talk about what and what not to tell people later.” “So, with all that done, I think it’s time to… celebrate!” Sawtooth said, excitedly.