The Bird and The Fish

TBTF, Part 16: The Trip Back Home (pt.3)

(Zahra pov. A small time skip. Alouette and her are just outside Capitol and now are waiting for the other three. They're about half an hour behind because they were goofing off.)

"Where in the hell are they?" I mutter to myself, anxiously pacing at the designated meeting spot. It lies just outside the Capitol, as we don't want anyone to find me just yet. "They said they'd be five or ten minutes behind, not half and hour!"

"Maybe you should stop pacing before you make yourself dizzy," Alouette suggests, watching me go back and forth. "They probably didn't expect the prep to take as long as it did, and are running a bit late because of that."

I take a breath and stop pacing, taking a seat on the ground next to her. "You're right," I sigh, my gaze fixed on the grass beneath us. "I'm just anxious that something might happen to him." "To who?" she asks curiously. "Tangaroa."

"I see," she says with an understanding nod, giving me a knowing glance. "What do you mean by that?" I ask, my tone slightly defensive. "You feel something for the merman, don't you?" she questions, raising an eyebrow at me.

"You're hearing things," I retort, a faint pink tinting my cheeks. I can't be more grateful we're sitting in the dark. "I merely said that I'm worried, not that I feel anything for him." She hums in response, clearly not believing my poor excuse.

"Rude," I grumble, looking away from her to hide my embarrassment. "Don't be embarrassed," she laughs, nudging me with her elbow. "I understand why you would. He's a good looking guy, especially after I gave him a human form. Don't think I didn't see you get flustered when he changed."

"I stand by my earlier observation of you being rude," I huff, a new wave of embarrassment crashing over me at the memory. "Speak of the devil," she remarks, pointing up at the sky at the approaching figures.

"Catch him!" Arvid calls as they descend, and I immediately get up to catch the bundle of Tangaroa that's rapidly approaching the ground. I grunt at the impact of him slamming into me, causing me to get knocked onto my back when we make contact.

The other two land, rushing to help Tangaroa and I off of the ground. Casper works on getting everything untied while Arvid pulls me out from under the heavy merman. "You okay?" he asks, panting slightly from the effort of the flight. "I'll be fine," I reply, getting up and brushing myself off.

But I get tackled to the ground once again by Tangaroa rushing to greet me. I yelp in surprise as we hit the ground, Tangaroa holding me tightly in his arms, as if I'll disappear if he lets go. "I missed you too, big guy," I manage to say, my voice strained by his weight.

"Just kiss already, will you?" Arvid comments, rolling his eyes at the affectionate display between us. "You're so fucking lucky I'm stuck, otherwise I'd follow through with my promise from earlier," I snap, giving him a glare as I push Tangaroa off of me.

"Sorry, sorry," he replies with a chuckle, holding up his hands in a gesture of mock surrender.

"Are you alright?" Tangaroa asks, helping me back onto my feet. "I'd be better if you didn't almost crush me twice," I reply with a groan, rubbing my back where I landed. "Sorry," he says sheepishly, slightly embarrassed by his excitement.

I wave off his apology, turning my attention toward the two who took half an hour to get here. "Care to explain why in the hell you're half an hour late?" I inquire, crossing my arms as I look at them expectantly.

"We were just goofing off," Arvid explains, not wanting to make me anymore upset then I already am. "We lost track of time while we were talking, and take off took a bit longer than expected." My eyes narrow at his explanation, but I don't question it. It's late and we're all exhausted.

"Fine," I say finally, though reluctantly. "What do we do from here? We can't just walts into the camp like nothing happened, especially with Tangaroa." "Good point," Casper agrees, his eyebrows furrowing with thought.

"You two could just stay out here for the night," Alouette suggests. "And then we could bring you back in the morning to avoid suspicion." "It's a good idea, but what about Tangaroa?" Casper replies, now working on untying the ropes from around his waist.

"We could just say that we found a lost traveler," Arvid proposes. "And that he helped Zahra while she was missing, so we had to being him with us."

"It sounds believable," I agree, too tired from the events of the day to come up with a better excuse. "How about we talk about this in the morning?" Tangaroa speaks up, clearly tired as well. "We're all tired, and I think we all need sleep."

Everyone murmurs their agreements, and give each other their good nights. The trio leave the two of us on the outskirts of the Capitol, along with the bedrolls and a few other things.

"I need sleep," I mutter, settling down onto one of the bedrolls. "Me too," Tangaroa agrees, settling down on his bedroll beside me.
"Good night, Tangaroa."

"Good night. I love you."