Author's Note: Well, this is my first Spongebob Squarepants fanfic, but I watch Spongebob all the time, so this should be pretty accurate. This fic will end with the second chapter.

Disclaimer: "Spongebob Squarepants" and everything related belong to Stephen Hillenburg and Nickelodeon Studios, except for Dr. Cascade, who is mine.

The Brother I Always Had

Chapter 1: My Best Friend

The sea was calm. The moonlight rode the ripples as it drifted down to a single large rock at the bottom of the ocean. Sitting on the boulder, eyes closed and face cast towards the moon, he preformed his favorite practice. Positioned in front of his mouth was his most adored musical instrument-a sleek black clarinet. Alone in an open field on the sea floor, the only sound was the perfected melody hauntingly outpouring from the woodwind instrument. He began to draw the song to a close, and all time stood still and waited as he took one deep, silent breath and played the final note…

The resounding roar of a foghorn came out instead.

Squidward Tentacles shot up in bed. He didn't dare open his eyes, not wanting to see it confirmed that it had all been a dream. This dream, though, had indeed been unusual. His nightly fantasies of the utmost grandeur and stardom normally involved an audience to witness his make-believe musical talent. But it had been just as pleasurable to imagine himself playing the clarinet alone in such a peaceful place.

Another blast from the foghorn sent a sharp pain through his head. Squidward's eyes snapped open and he growled and rubbed his temples. He had long recognized the offending dissonance as his neighbor's annoying alarm clock. The tired octopus slid out of bed and dragged his feet to his bedroom window. He peered out at next door where a giant pineapple dotted with three windows and a door greeted him. Squidward's eyes drifted down to the side of the fruit his neighbor had made into a house, though when it had been destroyed once and grown back on a vine it had made itself into living quarters identical to the previous one. Right next to it was a plain, new-looking boatmobile. A small yellow figure popped up from the opposite side of the vehicle. Upon spotting Squidward, the figure waved energetically and called up to him.

"HI, SQUIDWARD!" the high-pitched voice of Spongebob Squarepants resonated throughout Bikini Bottom. Squidward only grumbled sullenly. Always seeing only the good side of Squidward, Spongebob wasn't discouraged in the slightest, so he continued.

"Guess what, Squid? I GOT MY LICENSE!" he swiftly produced a small laminated card from his pocket and held it proudly above his head, "and Mom and Dad gave me that boat they were saving for me!" he added.

"Spongebob, how much did you have to drug that teacher of yours to get her to pass you?" Squidward retorted with his usual unfriendly tone.

Spongebob responded with a happy-go-lucky giggle and catapulted himself into the driver's seat of the boat. He started the engine and prepared to pull forward.

"I'd offer you a ride to work, Squidward, but I'd like to try her out first," Spongebob ran a hand over the steering wheel to emphasize how highly he thought of his new vehicle.

Work. Squidward would have given half his tentacles if it would have prevented Spongebob from mentioning work. Squidward hated his job as a cashier at the ever-popular Krusty Krab. It was a reminder of what could have been, how things could have turned out for him, but didn't. A reminder of the fact that he could have been truly successful, but wasn't. Sometimes he wondered if it wasn't too late, and sometimes he felt in his entirety that it was. He sighed, picked up his hat and nametag and, after taking one quick look at his reflection above the dresser and feeling as though he were looking into a shattered mirror when he wasn't, he got dressed and left the house.

As he got into his own boatmobile and began to pull out, Squidward noticed that Spongebob had been waiting for him. The short, cheery sponge grinned at him and waved, then pulled onto the road and began to drive off in the wrong direction.

"I'm taking the long way!" he called after him, thrilled with his long-awaited method of transportation. Squidward shook his head, not only because he hated Spongebob's enthusiasm but also because the road his excited neighbor had taken did not lead to the Krusty Krab. Squidward sighed and drove off to his despised workplace thinking nothing else of the matter.

When he arrived, Squidward trudged through the glass doors and took his place behind the cash register in the enclosure built to look like a boat. After a half-hour of no business at the restaurant, the octopus took out his latest issue of Fancy Living Digest and began reading. Another half-hour passed, still without a single customer, and Squidward wasn't so surprised to see that Spongebob still hadn't shown up. But just as he had shifted his attention back to his magazine, a siren sounded from outside. Squidward looked up to see an ambulance speeding by the restaurant with its sirens sounding and lights flashing rapidly. Out of curiosity, Squidward walked to the doors, opened them, and peered outside toward the direction the ambulance headed off to. The emergency vehicle was driving past both his house and Spongebob's, and his coworker had just gotten his license and hadn't arrived at work yet…

"No, no," Squidward said aloud to himself, "the ambulance is for someone else." He started back to the register, but, not fully convinced that the person in need of the ambulance absolutely must be someone he didn't know, rushed back through the doors. Without alerting his employer, Mr. Krabs, that he was leaving, he ran out to his boat, started it up, and took off after the ambulance.

The emergency vehicle had stopped about a mile past Spongebob's house. Squidward was not permitted by the hospital workers to come any closer than five feet after he parked his boatmobile alongside the road. Preparing to drive away if the sight was what he feared, he stayed in his vehicle. Peering cautiously over the steering wheel, Squidward could see the paramedics lifting a stretcher into the back of the ambulance. Whoever it was had been taken from a badly wrecked boat which had skidded off the road and straight into a telephone pole. It was hard to see the unfortunate patient through the gathered ambulance workers, but Squidward glimpsed for a moment a short yellow figure…

Squidward slammed into the back of the seat, shaking uncontrollably all over. He threw away his to leave immediately at the first sign that the victim was…and stepped out of his boatmobile for a better look. He wasn't able to get one, however, since the paramedics closed the door of the emergency boat, got in the front, and drove hurriedly away to the hospital. Rather than follow them, though, Squidward merely stood there, staring after them in disbelief. His eyes slowly traveled down to his feet as he contemplated the situation, and he saw a shadow being cast over them. He looked up to see Mr. Krabs standing nearby, and he opened his mouth to tell him about the tragedy that had just taken place when the crab held up a claw.

"I saw who was being taken away, Mister Squidward," Mr. Krabs told him, and it was a relief to Squidward that his employer already knew, since he would not have been able to find his own voice to tell him. Squidward only nodded and looked back in the direction the ambulance had driven, even though the vehicle was long gone. Mr. Krabs sighed. He'd spent years in the navy as a high-ranking officer; he'd even fought bravely in a war. Earlier that day he'd held the belief that there was nothing that could happen that he wouldn't be able to take fairly easily, but now…

Mr. Krabs looked at his young employee and, noticing the torment in his eyes, he put a claw around Squidward's shoulder, and said something that he himself normally would have been infuriated at the very idea of:

"Take the day off, Mister Squidward. I'll go close up shop."

The building felt empty. The leftmost side of the hospital labeled "Accident Ward" was where Squidward had been directed to when he asked. He reached the door bearing the number he had been given, and he walked over to a bench opposite the room. The octopus sank into the seat and rested his head against the seashell wallpaper. His gaze drifted down the lonely stretch of hallway to his right, hoping to see someone else walk down it. A doctor on lunch break, a nurse walking while jotting something down on a clipboard, any sign to remind him that he wasn't the only person in the universe at that moment. Squidward kept on staring down the fluorescent-lit hall, each second feeling like a hundred years, until finally the door across the hall opened to reveal an experience-looking doctor with a clipboard under her arm. She gave Squidward a gentle smile, but the look in her eyes told something completely different.

"Good day, Mister…" she checked her clipboard, "Squidward Tentacles, isn't it?"

Squidward nodded slowly.

"And you're here to know the condition of Mister Robert Squarepants?"

"Uh-huh…" Squidward answered, but had he not felt himself speaking, he would not have recognized the voice that came out as his own.

"Well, I'm Dr. Cascade," she extended a fin, but when Squidward only stared at it distantly, she withdrew it and gave an understanding nod. Dr. Cascade looked into Squidward's eyes and seemed a little hesitant of what she had to say next.

She took a deep breath. "Mister Tentacles, I…know this is going to be hard for you to take, but…"

Squidward's heart froze.

"Well," the doctor went on, "are you aware that Mister Squarepants was injured in a wreck on his way to work earlier this morning?"

"Y-yes…"

"Well, he suffered severe head trauma and was in critical condition on his way to the hospital," Dr. Cascade bit her lip and swallowed.

"Only minutes later, Mister Squarepants passed away…"

The world fell silent for Squidward as he stared into the doctor's eyes in a futile attempt to uncover some sort of evidence that she was wrong. He saw her lips moving; she was still speaking to him, but he had blocked out all sound.

"What did you say just now?" Squidward asked, his hearing returning

"I said trust me, this is the hardest part of the job for me," Dr. Cascade told him, "I am so sorry, Mister Tentacles."

"Thank you…" he looked at the ground, "and thanks for the news. I'll be…going now." He turned and began to shuffle away.

"Will you be alright, Mister Tentacles?" the doctor called after him.

"I'll be fine," Squidward nodded, and leaving his heart and feelings with her, he left for his boatmobile.

He didn't do much of anything but sit around that afternoon. The time droned on, the clock seemed to mock his anxiety for the day to end. Trying desperately to relax in his favorite recliner, every time he closed his eyes he hoped that he'd fall into a deep sleep, dream it all away, maybe even stay in a peaceful and vivid fantasy forever. Counseling and every most obscure way to help him over the daily struggle of faceless days underlying bleak mornings…well, all of those assistances had brought him a long way, out of depression in any clinical sense, but it wasn't all Squidward needed. He kept dragging through everyday life because…he was lonely. He kept refusing to admit that he needed friends those paired with him choice; the counselor made a great friend, but Squidward couldn't do with just one.

And Spongebob…oh, if Squidward had ever had a best friend, someone always there for him, it was Spongebob. Spongebob had always seen success in him. Spongebob had always seen-the good friend in him. Spongebob had once told Squidward that the two of them were "like brothers-only closer". Ever since they had met, Spongebob had regarded him like an older sibling. And in scarce times Squidward had treated Spongebob like a little brother…but he had always thought of Spongebob that way. Something hot-feeling started behind Squidward's eyes and traveled forward. He blinked and something wet fell down his cheek. But it didn't seem at all surprising to Squidward that he was crying for Spongebob, and it wouldn't be if he hadn't done so before. Spongebob had shown him so much.

One particular concept came to mind. Spongebob had always tried to show him the beauty of imagination. Imagination. Spongebob always drew an arch in the water with his hands when he said that word. That rainbow that would form between his hands when he did that-it had always annoyed Squidward before, but now…

Squidward had always insisted that he had plenty of imagination, but maybe…he hadn't known the true meaning of it before. And he had always wondered why he had been considered a bad clarinet player and artist…

"Imagination," Squidward said quietly, and spread his hands in the form of an arch like Spongebob did with his. And for an instant, Squidward could swear he saw the same rainbow form between his tentacles.

That night was far too silent. Squidward got into bed without bothering to set his beloved clarinet next to him with its mouthpiece on its own tiny pillow like he usually did. The clarinet didn't seem to matter to him now. Just as closed his eyes, though, the phone rang. He reached over to his nightstand to answer it.

"Hello?" he asked in a melancholy voice.

"Hi, Squiddy, dear," an elderly lady's voice answered.

"Mother?"

"Yes, how are you, honey?"

"Not so good…" Squidward said quietly.

"Oh? Tell me."

"Um, well, my neighbor, uh, died in a car wreck today."

"Oh, was your neighbor that sponge boy who hit that telephone pole on the outskirts of town today?"

"Uh-huh," the tears were coming back to Squidward.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, baby," Squidward's mother said with a tone of utmost compassion, "was he a friend of yours?"

"Yes, Mother," Squidward told her, "but it took me until now to fully realize that."

Author's Note: Well, that's where I'm ending Chapter 1. Hope you liked it so far. Reviews and constructive criticism are appreciated. And yes, Squidward is an octopus. I read on one Spongebob website that there is a kind of octopus that's bluish green and has six tentacles (but if it has six tentacles, wouldn't it technically be called a sextapus?). Anyway, I guess they're enough alike to be called the same species.