I crept down the hallway of the Octopod. There was not a sound to be heard and the only light coming from the lab bathed the whole hallway in a golden, milky glow. Well, there wasn't a sound until "someone" behind me decided to run his big beak off.
"Saumensch," A whine louder than that of the Gup-B with Kwazii at the wheel sounded from behind me, "I'm hungry." I facepalmed. Pinto and I had begged Dashi and Peso for half the day to let us stay in the spare room together with the promise we wouldn't stay up too late. Too bad for them, they forgot to specify what they meant by "too late" it was currently past midnight and Pinto and I had both gotten hungry, obviously.
"Pendejo, why are we going to the kitchen then?" I groaned with my teeth gritted. Pinto paused for a second.
"That's fair; what do you want to get?" I shrugged.
"I dunno; whatever I guess."
"Wow, very specific." Even in the dim light, I could tell Pinto was rolling his eyes.
"OK, I kinda want kelp cakes, what about you?"
"Eh, I'll have what you're having. I'm too lazy to bring out two containers of food from the fridge."
"Fair enough." I smacked him upside the head affectionately as we both stepped into the kitchen, greeted by the slight hiss of the door as it opened. He and I both made a direct beeline to the fridge. I opened the door to find a plate of kelp cakes and right by it, a container of kelp marshmallows, Pinto's favorites. Pinto hadn't seen them yet, so I took the plate of kelp cakes, passed them to him, then took the bag of kelp marshmallows and passed them to him as well. Pinto hadn't been paying full attention to what he was doing, and so he put his flippers out to receive the bag almost mechanically and when he saw what I had given him, he did a slight double take and started jumping into the air, screaming in joy.
I quickly attempted shushing him, but the sound seemed unable to reach him through all his giddiness, so I resorted to the trusty slap across his head.
"Ow." He scowled.
"Saukerl, let me put this in the nicest way I can." I looked at him sternly, "Shut your big fat mouth or you'll wake everyone up."
"Fine, Pendeja." He muttered grumpily as he passed me one of the kelp marshmallows and popped a second into his own mouth.
"So do you want anything else?" He asked casually, his mouth still full of marshmallows.
"No," I answered around the marshmallow in my mouth, "Do you?" We ate in silence for a while until the inner voice in me that sounded a lot like Dashi began to sound and escaped out of my own mouth.
"Should we be eating this?"
"No." Pinto answered simply but proceeded to shovel another 3 marshmallows into his mouth at once.
"Fair enough." I shrugged and followed suit. We must've eaten half of the bag before the hiss of the door startled us both. A tall, thin figure in a nightcap, lab coat, and slippers stood in front of us.
"What on Earth are you two doing up this late?!" Shellington asked in a hushed tone as he ushered both Pinto and me out of the kitchen, "It's half past three in the morning! You two should've been in bed long ago!"
"Then why are you awake?" I asked him as he stiffened.
"I could ask you the same question, lass." He replied in a futile attempt to avoid the line of questions inevitably coming.
"Kwazii let us try coffee. Anyways, does Peso know about this?" Pinto asked impishly.
"Of course he did," Shellington sighed before muttering something that sounded suspiciously like 'idiot' under his breath, "And no, Peso knows nothing of this; and we better keep it this way."
"Agreed." Pinto said solemnly, nodding his head. Before depositing us into our room and likely putting a chair against it to prevent any further escapes, Shellington had one more favor to ask of us
"Please at least get into bed and try to be quiet. Can you two do that?"
"OK." I shrugged and clambered into the bed that Pinto and I were supposed to be sleeping in. Too bad for Shellington, he had only said 'stsy in bed and don't make noise. He said nothing about going to sleep.
"Jane." Pinto finally said after a long argument about whether or not Kwazii was 50% or 80% dumb. and snuggled into me.
"Yeah?" I carefully pried my arm from his grasp and wrapped it around his shoulders.
"I'm scared." He whimpered.
"Of what?" I held him tighter, trying to physically promise him that he was OK.
"What if they take me away?" He whispered, his voice trembling slightly.
"They won't." I nuzzled the soft top of his head.
"What if they think the Captain's too imtinidating and won't let me stay?" His mispronunciation made my heart simultaneously melt and die at the same time.
"Pinto, it takes 3 seconds of talking to the Captain to realize he's a big fluffy teddy bear who wouldn't hurt a soul. Do you really think people will stop realizing that out now?"
"No." His voice was muffled by my shirt, "I nearly lost you and Koshi, Saumensch. I'm just scared I guess."
"And you have good reason to be." I consoled him, "I don't want you to leave either; I love you too much to lose you."
"I love you too." He whispered from his spot in my arms, "But Pendeja?"
"Yeah Saukerl?'
"This never leaves this room."
"Deal"
YOU ARE READING
The Odd Sister Out
Fanfiction"The middle child has it worse" Janine Margot Doxter knows that this is a lie. Being the younger sister of Dashi and Koshi, who were known as inseparable, mystery-loving sisters in their hometown. Therefore, she has always been the third wheel to he...
