Do You Blame Yourself?

[Chapter 32] - Third Time's The Charm

Well then.

Was today the day?

We were only a few hours into the day, and Kwazii was a wreck. A total wreck.

'Wreck' isn't the best word to use here.

Maybe, 'A massive hysterical, sobbing mess' is better. And it wasn't even 5 AM.

"Captain? Please tell me you're awake..." he muttered into his radio.
"I'm awake now, what's wrong?"
"I think you better stop me from planning these things or it won't end well."
"Planning what?" Barnacles questioned, dragging his hands down his face.
"Things..."
"Are you all right, Kwazii?"
"You should probably come over here."
"All right."

"What are you planning?" Barnacles asked the very second he made it through the door.
"I'm planning things I'm going to regret."
"Hey, it's all right, calm down," he assured Kwazii. "Is this plan you're coming up with, is it going to hurt you or someone else?" he asked.
"No, but if this doesn't go the way I'm hoping it does, then it might hurt me mentally," Kwazii muttered.
"Is this about what I think it is?" Barnacles placed a hand on his shoulder.
"If you think it's about some kind of confession, yes," Kwazii mumbled, wiping his eyes.
"Maybe you should think that through a bit more. I bet this is really important to you."
"It is."

"But I don't think he even likes me back!" Kwazii exclaimed, holding his hands up in the air. "And after what happened last night, I don't think he even wants to look me in the eyes." He buried his face in his hands.
"Kwazii."
"What?"
"What happened last night?"

"I told him I loved him."
It took a minute for those words to register in the captain's head, but once they did, he froze.
"You said what?!"

"Don't get mad at me!" Kwazii shouted, holding his hands up in defense.
"I'm not mad at you, I'm just... confused. How did that even happen?"
"I don't really... know," he answered, shrugging his shoulders.
"Was it out of nowhere or-"
"I don't know," Kwazii snapped, shooting a glance up at Barnacles.

"Well, if you plan on doing anything with this, you shouldn't go diving head first into it."
"Why not?"
"That's not how it works, you should-"
"But," Kwazii cut in, "if I just do it all now, then the feeling will go away! Right back down where it came from," he explained.

...

"That has got to be the stupidest thing I've heard you say, and you say things a lot," Barnacles said after a long pause.
"Damn bro."
"If you really want to do this right now, maybe you should talk to someone else about this, get things mapped out. We did that long ago," he suggested. Kwazii let go of his knees, letting them rest on his bed instead of him holding them against his chest.
"Are you sure those will still work?"
"If you execute them in a good way, they will." Barnacles was right, or he was pretty close to being right.

"I don't know if this'll work, but I don't know if it won't, so it's better to try than to give up just because things seem like they won't end up going the way you want," Kwazii said, sinking back down into the mattress.
"I couldn't have said that better myself."

~

"You aren't going to believe what I heard a few hours ago," Barnacles mumbled, dragging his hands down his face for, probably the 40th time that day.
"I'm assuming what you heard was from Kwazii's mouth, am I wrong?" Dashi questioned, turning around in her chair.
"You aren't wrong, but right now, he really needs to keep his mouth shut."
"What did he do this time?"
"Nothing, he just can't keep a secret, even if it's his own," he replied.

"If this is about what I think it is, then we don't have much time to solve this problem." Dashi and Barnacles both turned around, only to see Professor Inkling staring right back at them.
"You know about this too?!"
"Peso told me!"
"Am I not being let in on something?"