Luca But Make It Gay(er)

Part 7

(fanart by Nikytale on DeviantArt)

Luca suddenly narrowed his eyes and grasped wildly somewhere near his rear, where his tail would be if he still had it.

"Wait... It... Feels like it's still there," he commented, giving his rear end a little shake.

"Yeah, that's called phantom tail," the other land monster responded, looking through a long cylindrical object. "You'll get used to it."

Luca stood up and tried to swim like he always had, but fell flat on the ground and flopped around like a fish.

"Right. Walking." The second male nodded, before looking at him with a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, I basically invented it."

He tossed his pipe-thing into the helmet of other things, then walked forward.

"To start, stack everything one on top of the other," he instructed, demonstrating with his hand. "Like a pile of rocks."

Luca grunted and stood, climbing his legs and torso until he stood up straight, digging his feet into the small pebbles to keep himself upright.

"Great! I mean, fine, whatever." The other sea monster scratched at his chin with a newly-found bored expression. "Now, walking is just like swimming. But without fins. Or, a tail. And also, there's no water. Otherwise, it's like the exact same thing. Give it a try."

Luca, again, tried to swim like he always had in the water, but the tanner creature must've been a bad teacher, because he flopped back on the ground.

"That's not it, try again." The brown-haired male seemed confident in Luca.

The shorter sea monster stood, but then the taller one made a new comment.

"Oh, try to lead with your head."

When Luca tried to lead with his head, the other human said, "No, more belly."

As Luca pushed his belly forward, he fell back on the ground.

"That's... That's lying on the ground," the formerly lavender sea monster muttered, sitting on a nearby rock to watch Luca. "How about this? Just take a step without even thinking about it."

Luca had stood up by then, and obviously pondered about it, until the tutoring sea monster scolded him, "No, no, no, don't think about it."

"I don't know how to... Not think about something!" Luca whimpered.

The tanner of the two groaned, hands stretching down his cheeks, then he stood up.

"Okay, okay. Watch."

He walked over to Luca and stood right by him, signaling to watch his feet.

"Point your feet to where you wanna go. Okay?" He raised one of his legs. "And then you just..." He put his leg back down, moving across the rocks smoothly. "Catch yourself before you fall."

Luca stared at his feet and pointed them in the same direction; forward.

"Yeah, that's right."

Suddenly, the second person pushed him forward.

Luca whined, but caught himself before he thought he was inevitably going to fall.

"Heh."

He kept walking around, now more confident in his new ability.

"Good. Good," the other kept musing. "Yes. Yes!"

"I'm... I'm getting it!" Luca gasped, stopping.

"Not bad, kid," the other chuckled, holding out his hand. "Alberto Scorfano."

Luca put his hand over Alberto's thumb, replying with his name, "Luca Paguro."

Alberto quickly swooshed his hand into the cup of his own.

"Piacere, girolamo trombetta!"

As he was saying this, he rapidly shook Luca by wrenching his arm forward, then back, then forward then back again.

He let go, opening one of his eyes to stare at Luca with a beaming expression.

"It's a human thing. Kind of an expert," he said, putting one of his hands in a bent crook on his hip and exhaling as he looked back at Luca.

"What does it mean?" the former cyan sea monster asked, gripping his hand that Alberto had shook.

Alberto looked at him with his mouth unhinged for a moment, then bit down on his bottom lip.

"The... The thing you just said?" Luca persisted in asking, despite the fact that Alberto wouldn't answer.

Instead, he completely dodged the question and hooked his arm around Luca's shoulders, walking forward with him.

"C'mon, I'll show you some more stuff!"