Galeophobia {crankiplier}

Meeting

TW // none

{ Ethan's POV }

Ethan blinked open his eyes grumpily, realizing something might have happened to wake him up. A few seconds pass as he wakes up more, and he starts to hear two people arguing outside of the room he was in. Ethan looked around and he remembered what had happened the day before, a sudden pang of fear coursing through him. He quickly sat up and tried to listen to what those two people are arguing about- and who they are.

{ Mark's POV }

"Please Tyler I can explain-" Mark said worriedly. "EXPLAIN?? EXPLAIN WHAT?? THE FACT THAT YOU'VE BEEN HARBORING A SEAL IN THE KINGDOM THIS WHOLE TIME??" Tyler yelled angrily, waving his hands around. "Tyler you need to be quiet or else we'll both get in trouble!" Mark raised his voice a little, starting to get mad aswell. His words made Tyler stop yelling and take a deep breath, bringing up his fingers to rub his temple. "Ok... Ok. I'm sorry. Just. How long has it been here." Tyler asked, now looking back up at Mark.
"He only got here yesterday. He asked me to take him here." Mark explained.
Tyler seemed to look confused at the last part. "Wait wait wait- It asked you to bring it here?? Why would it do that?" Tyler asked, seeming less mad now and more concerned.
"I have no idea, it was just a spur of the moment type situation" Mark said.
"A spur of the moment that could get us both killed." Tyler sighed.
"Why are you protecting it anyway? I mean I always thought you've been a little weird about seals but this is a lot" Tyler continued.
"Wh- What is that supposed to- Okay whatever. Um. I don't know." Mark stammered, only half-lying. "You don't know." Tyler raised his eyebrow.
"Are you going to tell anyone?" Mark asked anxiously. Tyler paused for a second to think about it, looking at the ground, then to Mark, then to the room. "Well... If I do that, you'll probably get in trouble and I don't want you to get in trouble so... I guess not." Tyler rolled his eyes in defeat. Mark smiled and suddenly brought Tyler in for a hug, Tyler not hugging back at first in surprise, but soon holding onto Mark aswell. "Thank you Tyler." Mark said in a very soft, grateful voice. "A-Anyway!" Tyler started, the both of them letting go of the embrace. "Am I allowed to meet this special seal?" Tyler asked in a half-joking manner.
"Oh uh, yeah I guess! Just don't scare him please." Mark replied. "Well he must have a lot of balls to agree to sleep in the shark's kingdom" Tyler shrugged and slowly swam closer to the door. "Wait Tyler- Let me go first so he knows what's going on" Mark said, and entered the room leaving Tyler outside.

{ Ethan's POV }

Ethan jumped back farther onto his bed as he saw someone come in, as he was just sitting towards the very edge of the bed to try and hear what they were saying.
"Oh- Mark it's just you" Ethan sighed with relief. "Sorry if I scared you-" Mark chuckled. "Anyways, did you sleep alright?" He asked.
"Yeah, but I woke up you and someone else arguing. What was that about?" Ethan asked with concern. "Oh uh don't worry about the arguing- But uh.. I have someone I want you to meet!" Mark said and gestured to someone out of Ethan's view to come inside. The person who entered the room was taller than both Ethan and Mark, and he was definitely a shark based on his build and the way his tail looked. His tail looked pretty similar to Mark's except there was faint darker stripes along it.
"This is Tylerrr!..." Mark announced, doing jazz hands in Tyler's general direction. Ethan looked up at Tyler's face, he seemed very serious and the knowledge that he was a bigger shark than Mark made Ethan very intimidated by him. "I thought you said I wouldn't get to meet him..?" Ethan asked in a more timid voice than when he was speaking with Mark one-on-one. "Oh! Well, I managed to get him on our side now so he's ✨good shark!✨" Mark said, once again doing jazz hands in Tyler's general direction, Tyler not moving an inch.
"Uh yeah i'm Tyler I guess." Tyler awkwardly said, obviously having no idea how to talk to seals. Suddenly a female voice rang out from outside, but Ethan couldn't figure out what she said. "Oh shit- Okay I gotta go- uh- Tyler." Mark pointed and stared at Tyler seriously, almost telling him something telepathically, and Mark quickly swam out of the entrance, leaving Tyler in the room with Ethan.
Tyler looked back at Ethan again with an expression that Ethan couldn't understand coming from a shark. It was almost fear, but not quite. More like guilt.
"So uh... Hi. Is it alright if I sit closer?" Tyler asked cautiously. "Oh um. I guess I don't mind?" Ethan answered with slight confusion.
"Ok cool. I know Mark seems to really care about you so I don't wanna make you nervous or anything" Tyler said and swam over to an empty spot on the floor closer to the bed and 'sat down'.
"So... I have a lot of questions. Is it alright if I ask you questions?" Tyler asked.
It became more and more apparent to Ethan that Tyler's demeanor started to change ever since Mark left, or maybe it was just Ethan becoming less scared of him the more he talked. "Oh uh. Yeah, ask away!" Ethan said happily. "What is the seal kingdom like? What do you do all day?" Tyler asked, seemingly genuinely curious. Ethan laughed a little, being surprised by these questions that came from a shark. "Ok well... About what it's like, um... To me, it's very suffocating honestly. There's so much pressure to stay inside our walls all the time because... you know." Ethan said, his words starting to get quieter as he thought about what most sharks are actually like.
"And for what I do, uh... not much really. I just explore, or try to explore as much as I can without getting caught" Ethan explained.
"Why did you want to come here? It seems like you don't have to do much back at your kingdom" Tyler asked, with the same tone as the last question.
"Exploration, I guess! Ever since I was small i've always thought about what it would be like to be a shark, so when I met a friendly shark, why wouldn't I take the opportunity?"
Ethan explained. He felt confident with his words as he knew that's what the reason is, but for some reason he felt a weird feeling in his chest as if he was lying about something.