Uniquely The Same - Luca (Pixar) Fanfic

Not the Same But Identical

"So you guys started the date without me?"

Me and Giulia were both frozen in our positions and Alberto stood before us, smirking.

"Ah, si..." I said back nervously and finished off my ice cream cone. I stood up slowly and gave Giulia a hand up too, adding as I gazed back at my friend, "Where were you?"

Alberto suddenly became quiet and looked sadly to the ground.

"Alberto?"

"I was with my father... he's talking to Mr. Marcovaldo."

"My dad...?" Giulia asked, puzzled and sore about for some reason, "Why..?" She asked, one of her eyebrows cocking up.

"He wants me... to leave..." Alberto continued, almost silent in his words as if they hurt him to speak, "...with him."

I thought I felt my whole world crash like a meteor in the sea. Alberto was going to leave? No! There was no reason for it! He had everything he could ever desire here!

"Alberto..." I spoke back in pain at this realization and possible future for my friend, "Are you really going to leave Portorosso?"

"Well..." He muttered, his voice sore and a bit angry, "You left. Giulia left. Why can't I? Hmm? Why can't I..." His voice again dipped to nearly a whisper as he thought this over.

Giulia and I glanced between one another before back at him and she nodded her head briskly striding past the two of us and heading to her father's house. I quickly realized what she was going to do and hurried after her, Alberto quickly following behind.

"Please, Giulia," I peeped as she reached her father's door and slammed her clenched fists on it in a bang. She stood there, knocking harshly and the door was opened just the slightest, her burly tall father looking through the crack and seeing her mad face.

"Giulia, sweety... I'm busy at the moment."

"Si." She said back coldly and tried to peer past him over to Alberto's dad, "Arranging for Alberto to leave and never come back."

I smiled awkwardly as Mr. Marcovaldo looked past his daughter and saw me and Alberto behind her and standing there tensely.

"Let them in."

The three of us all froze when we heard Marco's voice call from behind the huge burly fisherman and Mr. Marcovaldo closed his eyes tightly, taking a deep breath out and opening up the door completely.

I saw him there, standing just at the table in the kitchen, a coffee cup having been poured out for him and there was a cup of water in a glass next to where Mr. Marcovaldo often sat.

"Dad..." Alberto uttered hurt, and came over to him, asking in sad pained words, "Are we really going to leave...? Are you... again?"

"I was talking to your guardian about it." Marco replied and stood up, nodding to Mr. Marcovaldo and he returned the nod, "I just want you to have the best future possible."

"But-"

"I agree with your father."

We all turned our shocked eyes over to the burly fisherman, "Only you can decide for yourself what you want."

"I-I-"

"Yes?" Marco asked, and smiled gently on his lips, Alberto looking between the two and only closing his eyes suddenly tightly, swishing around and running out of the house.

"ALBERTO!" Marco cried, and began to run after his son. Giulia looked at me, and I nodded quickly, sensing what she wanted me to do. I sprinted after the two male sea monsters and watched as Alberto jumped off the pier, diving into the deep waters, and his father about to jump in after him. By the time I arrived at the docks the two had already disappeared under the waves. It shouldn't have been my place, but I had a feeling, an instinct you might call it, that Alberto needed me more than his dad at that second.

I leapt off the dock and catapulted myself deep into the sea. I could see small bubbles and frothing water had been left behind as a trail from my friend and I tightened my lips, nodding to myself and thrusting forward at high speed, my tail whipping side to side propelling me forward.

I knew where Alberto was going to go. The only home he knew.

I arrived back at the island after a ten minute speed dash through the deep sea and when I climbed ashore I called out for him and his old man.

I couldn't believe it... I had been wrong in my assessment. Alberto was nowhere to be found here. But someone of his blood was.

I saw him there, standing just at the shoreline and I grew so very mad at his appearance and presence.

"Marco."

He quickly turned his head to look at me, and he had upset pained eyes on him as he looked at me in sadness.

"Luca! Where is he?"

"I don't know."

"But you're his best friend."

"Yeah? And you're his Dad."

Marco sighed heavily and nodded his head at certain defeat at my argument against him.

"Why did he run off...? Why?"

"Just like you did...?"

Marco seemed to go stiff at my comeback and he looked over at me angrily.

"I knew he was ready."

I stared at him mystified by his words.

"I had thought... he was ready..."

"He was just a kid..." I spoke back coldly, and nearly felt my own heart twist in pain, "But you should've never come back."
Marco glared at me in shock at my reply. He finally said to me, in almost a cruel angered tone.

"Blood is thicker than water. Family will always be there... but friends...? You are not of his kin. You barely even know him these days."

"Why would you say that?"

"I never did." He replied and shook his head barely in a cold smirk, "He told me himself."

I could feel my world breaking apart at that answer. Alberto wouldn't say that about me... we were like brothers. Blood brothers nearly!

But I soon began to realize something. Marco was right. Alberto was right.

I had moved on from Portorosso. I had set my nets in Genova. I had for now abandoned the life of a sea monster.

And I had left him...

Almost in the same way Marco his father had. But I was sure to come back. Whereas Marco had been a mystery to us all.

"If you want to help." His father said to me, walking up to me and peering down, his expression that of a broken man, "Find my son."

I stood before him, my whole posture in stiff defiance and suddenly it dawned on me where he could be.

"I will." I said back to him and pushed him aside, heading back to the waves, "Without you."

Blood may be thicker than water... but the blood between these two had surely been diluted.

Alberto needed someone, and that someone would be me.

But I almost felt like a hypocrite as I dived back into the ocean. Me and Marco were the same in a way.

We both had freedom... we both had lives that were away from here. We had a plan.

The main difference was that Marco's plan had space for his son. Whereas mine?

"I'm coming, Alberto..." I whispered to myself under the water and swam like a bullet in speed as I headed to where he could be, "I'm coming."