Deep End

The Happening

A chilly night was among the inhabitants of San Francisco. The sky was splayed with stars and the city below was still bustling. A certain grizzly bear was walking down the sidewalk, holding two bags of groceries. He continued his stroll, reciting things he still needed to retrieve, but then he saw a crowd of people that from the outside seemed to surround something or someone in the middle. Letting his curiosity the better of him, he picked up the pace a bit to get to the crowd faster. The closer he got to the crowd, the better he could understand the mumble from the people.

"Aw, he's so adorable!"

"Smile for the camera!"

"I can't believe he's here!"

"Why am I here?"

"Take a picture with me!"

From the center of the circle, the grizzly could hear a rather familiar voice trying to tell the crowd of people to leave him alone. Grizz stood on the outer edge of the crowd and stood on the tip of his paws to try and see over the group of people. Alas, it was no use, he still could not tell what was going on. Grizz slowly started squeezing through the crowd to only find something tragic in the middle.

A small, weeping koala with his arms wrapped around his knees.

Grizz's vision suddenly flashed to the koala being replaced with a small grizzly bear while the sound of a lightning strike echoed through his mind. The grizzly bear dropped his bags and dashed towards the koala, now standing over him, he unsheathed his claws, made his fur stand up to make himself look bigger and held his head up towards the sky letting out an earth-shattering roar that echoed throughout the whole city.

Everything was still as if time itself had stopped, eyes were held in the direction of the bear. Everyone on that street started sprinting in different directions away from the bear while screaming their heads off. The koala looked up to see the eyes of the once dangerous looking bear, sniffling. Without any words, Grizz held out his paw, offering to help the small animal to his feet. The koala accepted that offer and as soon as he was to his feet, he almost immediately grasped onto the grizzly's leg, sobbing uncontrollably. The grizzly looked down at the koala and slowly ran his paw through the other's head fur in an attempt to comfort him.

"T-thanks, Grizz." mumbled Nom Nom, under his tears while letting go of the grizzly's leg.

Grizz grabbed his arm with his paw and looked off to the side, "No problem, man."

There was a couple of seconds of silence between them.

"So...what was going on?" asked Grizz, hesitantly.

"T-the fans, they won't leave me alone. I thought the vacation would help but every time I just want to do something c-casually. I get ambushed by fans that won't stop at anything to try and get my attention." The koala said while looking down, stumbling over his words and sniffling.

Yet another couple of seconds of silence go by.

"H-hey, Grizz?" the koala began to ask as he looked up from the ground.

"Yeah?" the grizzly responded a bit surprised.

"C-can I stay at your place for a while? I think I need to lay low for a while." The koala asked in almost a whisper while staring at the bear awaiting his answer.

"I wouldn't mind letting you stay, man. It's just that..my brothers. They don't trust you at all." Grizz said but then took a look at Nom Nom's tear-filled eyes.

"I-It's alright, I und-" said Nom Nom, getting ready to turn around.

"Actually....I'll see what I can do." interrupted Grizz. The koala nodded.
Grizz went over to grab the grocery bags he dropped and started walking once again but this time, towards the cave, with hanging onto his shoulder.

...

Grizz and Nom nom reaches the cave. All the lights inside the cave were turned off.

"Wow, I didn't know I was gone for that long," said Grizz before slowly opening the door to the cave slowly. He tried his best not to make too much noise that would wake his brothers up. He went over to his room and slowly shut the door.

"Okay..you can sleep in here, I'll sleep on the couch," said Grizz. Nom Nom sat on the bed and kind of just stared down at the ground. The bear frowned a bit upon the site "Well, sweet dreams, man." Grizz said before grabbing an extra sheet for himself, shutting off the lights, and closing the door.

Grizz went over to the couch and laid on it. His mind was filled with thoughts about how he was going to deal with Nom Nom staying here and his brothers not knowing a single thing about it. The bear sighed and slowly started to drift off into the realm of sleep.

...

~Nom Nom rose from his slumber. He looked ahead towards the door to see that it was slowly opening and then it suddenly stopped. After a few seconds, the door busted open and hundreds of loud people filled the room. It was his fans and some paparazzi, filling the room and making it crowded, to the point where Nom nom felt as if he could not breathe.~

"AH!" exclaimed Nom Nom, jumping into an upright position. He felt that the sheets underneath him were damp, he had broken into a cold sweat. Nom nom's eyes began to fill with tears before he turned to his side and cried himself to sleep.