Swimming In A Mirror (Spongebob x Squidward)

Vision

     Spongebob was working behind the grill, cooking up Krabby Patties, trying his best to forget about the dream. He knew he'd never really be able to forget about it, but, he just hoped he could take his mind off of it for now so that he could do his job.

Unfortunately, that was rather difficult for him since Squidward was right there, working with and next to him.

Sometimes, Spongebob would catch himself staring at the back of the gorgeous octopus's head, losing himself to the wild fantasies that would enter his mind. Other times, it would be Squidward who caught him staring.

"Spongebob."

Spongebob quivered as he was dragged back into the real world by the unexpected sound of Squidward's voice.

"Yes, Squidward?" Spongebob beamed awkwardly.

"The patties are burning." Squidward sighed heavily, gesturing down to the patties on the grill which, clearly, were burning.

"OH MY GOSH!" Spongebob hollered, panic overtaking his entire body as the patties suddenly burst into flames right before his very eyes.

The fires then somehow spread to the wooden floor. Spongebob jerked back, terrified, his brain suddenly melting into useless mush.

Spongebob ran around the room in circles, screaming like a maniac, his brain not working the way it should've been — pure fear and chaos, no sense at all.

Squidward let out a heavy sigh and saltily muttered underneath his breath, "must I do everything myself today?"

Squidward grabbed a fire extinguisher, swung the large metal door open, and walked into the kitchen (he was in no hurry, by the way — he took his time with all of this... he honestly didn't care if the place burned down or not).

Spongebob, on the other hand, was still running around in circles, screaming like an idiot maniac in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

"Spongebob." Squidward groaned.

Spongebob could not hear Squidward's voice, for the sound of his own stupid screams was drowning it out.

"SPONGEBOB!" Squidward snapped.

Spongebob stopped dead in his tracks and instantly shut up. He looked at Squidward, suddenly feeling an overwhelming amount of embarrassment towards his behavior.

Squidward sighed and gestured for Spongebob to get out of the way. With his brain now back online, Spongebob was quick to step to the side. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, allowing himself to calm down.

When he opened his eyes the fire was gone, but Squidward was still standing there, and oddly enough was smiling.

Bam. Just like that, last night's dream came back to him.

Spongebob felt his face flush.

That smile was exactly like the one from the dream.

Equally tender, equally caring, equally loving...

"Squidward..." Spongebob instinctively whispered, not realizing that he had said that out loud until it was too late.

The smile on Squidward's face faded away and was immediately replaced with Squidward's regular frown.

"What?" Squidward grumbled.

Spongebob felt panic surge through his body, and he struggled to come up with words to excuse his random action. Fortunately for him, Mr. Krabs broke the awkward, tense silence between the two of them by calling out, "Mr. Squidward! Mr. Spongebob! In me office, now. I need to talk to you two."