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“Dude, I saw something gorgeous on the horizon,” Greg, the yellow fish whispered to his brother. He didn’t think it necessarily needed to be a secret, but the shine of the green made him feel different, like there was a sense of wonder and whimsy outside the digital lake he’d grown up in.
“AAAAAHHHHH,” his brother, Zeb, shouted, before falling quiet, looking over at his brother, “What was it?”
“I don’t knoooow, bro,” Greg groaned, “But I liked the way it looked, maaaaan.”
Up on the beach, Zooble finished drawing the Jax face on the watermelon. It was an easy sketch, Jax wasn’t exactly that complicated of a design to draw, and the giggle that Gangle left out was their indication that they did good. Zooble prepared to set the watermelon down when a gust of strong digital wind started to shake them off their footing. Their grip on the watermelon slipped, their clawed hand cutting a chunk out of it in a lame attempt to save it.
“@^#%,” Zooble muttered as the watermelon splashed into the lake, floating there lamely. Zooble rolled their eyes, looking over at Gangle, “Give me a second, okay?”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about it!” Gangle shook her head, wiping one of her permanent tears. Zooble knew she didn’t care either way, but they did.
Zooble waded into the water, floating past Ragatha, Kinger, and Pomni playing volleyball. Zooble was almost at the watermelon, ready to grab the fruit when a rubber ball smacked them in the back of the head. Their umbrella Zooble piece went flying, puncturing the watermelon, plunging it below the surface of the water as they slowly turned to look at the group.
“OH MY GOSH, ZOOBLE, I’M SO SORRY!!” Ragatha yelped as Zooble glared at her.
The Jax watermelon began to sink. Small air bubbles escaped from the cracks where Zooble’s piece had broken it. As it sank deeper and deeper into the darkness of the digital lake, succumbing to the darkness. It fell so deep, the light was starting to fade. Greg and Zeb were talking only a few doggy paddles away. They were discussing their treasure, how they were going to handle everything if any of the humans tried to take it.
“I’ll be the fish that only tells the truth and you’ll be the one that only tells lies,” Greg stated briefly.
“I’M THE ONE THAT TELLS LIIIIEEESSSS,” Zeb croaked. Greg blinked, confused and a little disappointed in his brother. He was related to that? He didn’t have much time to stew in his thoughts, however, because he saw something come into his limited view. He squinted, looking at the deep green mass, slowly floating down.
While Zeb stared off, beginning to spin in place, Greg swam towards the new object. He looked at it with innate curiosity. The object was spherical, though still had an oval shape to it. It was striped multiple shades of green, looking more like it was painted with water colors than anything else. Every shade looked like it was perfectly placed, gently painted on with such accuracy and care that no one could match it. Greg’s confusion began to be replaced with a feeling of being absolutely enamored.
Greg swam even closer to it, reaching out a fin. The eyes, the taunting grin. Something about this… thing… it must’ve been the thing that Greg had seen on the beach. He gently caressed the hard shell of the foreign object when the eyes blinked, quickly looking up at him.
“HEY!” The scribbled on mouth moved like it was from a stop motion film, “Do you usually touch people without permission?!”
“What?” Greg blinked, “No, dude, I was just–”
“It’s bad enough I got a chunk taken out of me and this thing in my head,” the object hissed, “I don’t need a pervy fish touching me on top of it.”
Greg blinked. The thing had an attitude. Greg liked that.
“Dude, it was a quick touch,” the yellow fish laughed forcefully, “Hey Zeb, the thing talks–”
The red fish was spinning like a football thrown gracefully through the air.
Greg blinked before looking back down at the object, “Like, my name’s Greg by the way, how about you?”
“Jax-Melon,” the thing replied, “You can call me Mel.”
“Cool, cool,” Greg nodded, “You’re from the surface?”
The watermelon’s eyes narrowed at the fish, “Yes. You’re from the digital lake.”
“Two worlds apart,” Greg muttered before he floated back a bit, “It must be so nice being able to interact with the humans, dude. Like, what if we could do that, Zeb?”
His brother was spinning like a ballerina doing a pirouette.
“Oh yeah, soooo much fun,” Mel growled, “The humans that literally snapped a chunk out of me.”
“I could snap a chunk out of you,” Greg whispered, staring at Mel whose pupils shrank.
“Excuse me?” Mel muttered.
The yellow fish blushed, growing embarrassed. The watermelon before him looked so pale, so… offended. Greg hadn’t intended to upset him, he felt bad. He looked away, using a fin to scratch his scales before looking back over at Mel who was blushing too. Mel quickly blinked, the redness dissipating.
“Maybe you could take my place,” Mel offered, “That toybox character wanted to kill me, but you don’t look like the person they hate, so maybe-”
“We have to protect our treasure,” Greg replied quickly, however the offer sounded tempting.
“I’m ThE oNe ThAt TeLLs LiEs,” Zeb yelled.
“I can watch it,” Mel offered, “Come on, a guy as pretty as you should probably show their face to the humans.”
Greg smiled cutely, looking away. Mel thought he was pretty? A Watermelon that looked like a literal piece of art from the renaissance? Thought he was… pretty…?! Greg’s stomach did quick flips as he stole a look at Mel.
“What do you think, Zeb?” Greg called to his brother.
Zeb was doing the macarena.
“That’s a secret yes,” Greg said, “He does the macarena when he’s excited… I think.”
“Cool,” Mel smiled, “Hey, uh, if you see a purple bunny with my face, don’t worry about him, okay? He’s cool, but uhhh, I’m the better version.”
Greg smiled, “Yeah you are, dude.”
Mel blushed, winking at the yellow fish. Greg’s face heated up, grateful for this opportunity to see the surface world. He swam over to his brother, grabbing Zeb’s fin as he started to pull him up to the surface. Never in a million years did Greg think he’d meet a beautiful green sphere with a sarcastic smirk. Especially not on a day like today.
The brothers had never felt the light on their scales and Greg wanted Zeb to be the first to experience it. He pushed his brother up towards the surface and Zeb spun aggressively like a drill head. A large white gloved hand broke the surface tension, grabbing Zeb and squeezing him tightly and Greg watched in horror.
“DUDE NOOOOOO,” Greg yelled.
“I DIDN’T GET TO TELL ANY LIIIEEEESSSSSS,” Zeb gurgled as he was pulled out of the water.
“YOU HAVE TO SWIM AWAY,” Mel yelled from the depths, “YOU HAVE TO SAVE YOURSELF!”
Greg started to swim towards Mel, but it was already too late. Another hand reached in, grabbing him before it pulled him out. Greg cried for help, but to no avail as he was ripped out of the water just like his brother had been.
Down at the bottom of the Digital Lake, Jax-Melon stared up at the surface of the lake. His drawn on face squiggled as the watermelon began to cry. He barely knew the handsome fish before he was ripped away so cruelly. This is why he never let himself love. He cried softly, mourning the loss of his short lived love.