The Island and the Ocean
First of all: OH MY GOD OMG OH WOW OH MYY-! FINDING DORY TRAILER IS OUT AND THE FILM COMES OUT NEXT SUMMER! I'M SO EXCITED I'VE BEEN WAITING SINCE I WAS FOUR YEARS OLD THE NOSTAGIA IS JUST-GAAAAAAAAAHHHH!
Okay I'm done! ^^ I just- it's actually real! I'm so excited! :D
So to honour the release of the trailer and the return of our old friends I decided to write a couple of short chapters about our favourite clownfish and blue tang! I have probably been a Dorlin shipper since the film came out and that was twelve years ago! Hard to believe really isn't it? These are just a series of little cute one shots about Marlin and Dory and their time on the reef together after the first film. The new trailer doesn't really show that much about where they stand relationship wise, it's more...platonic, but I'll try and work with it.
The sweeping rouge of the anemone swayed gently in the pacific current, silently protecting those who lay asleep within it's hold. The two shapes shifted in the dark, a father and his child, their orange hue tinted black by the night. Marlin the clownfish slowly opened his eyes, awakened by a harsh dream that he had sure had been a reality.
How horrific it had been. A flurry of bubbles, sharp teeth and his own blood. A monstrous creature and its lust for a kill. Then he had seen a beautiful creature, hiding in a warm cavern, shielding her children, attempting fruitfully to scoop them in her fins. He watched the beast tear after her as he fell, drifting into what should have been a comforting home. His vision blurred and the last thing he saw was the swishing tail wriggling through the cavern.
Half lethargic half frantic he shifted his gaze to his son laying by his side, chest heaving in and out in tiny, tired breaths, his limp fin making it difficult but not impossible to do so. His own eyes were closed, absorbed in what Marlin assumed to be a much nicer dream. He smiled to himself as he gently ran his fin over Nemo's lucky one, the scar that had once seemed like such a curse, now seemed like nothing after what the little one had been through. Taken. Kidnapped. Snatched away by strange large creatures and held captive in a place that wasn't home. It made Marlin shiver to think how frightened he must have been, how alone he must have felt. It was a good thing that there had been other fish there to look after him then-he shuddered. He didn't want to think about what would have happened. The only thing he couldn't brush off so easily-that time between rescue and reunion. The time when had world had shattered. As though the whole ocean had been drained of all it's life, every piece of seaweed torn, every shell broken. That was the time when all he wanted was to be alone-but now he had his beautiful boy back, the ocean was calm again. All was well.
Yet...
He was thinking about someone. Someone he hadn't turned his thoughts upon for a very long time. Someone with scales of a siren and a face of a polished stone.
Her. He was thinking about her.
Marlin sighed, rolling over. Why him? Why her? Why hadn't it been him? Why couldn't the barracuda have chosen him as its meal? The last time he had seen Coral she had died protecting what she had loved. It was because of her that Nemo was still alive. Marlin couldn't believe he had discouraged her from defending the eggs. Their children. If she hadn't swam towards the cavern, if she hadn't taken that risk...none of their children would have survived. Nemo would never have been sleeping beside him this night, and for that Marlin thanked her every day, even if she wasn't around to hear it.
"No No Mister Turtle, I wasn't jumping on your shell..."
Marlin stirred as the sound of Dory snoozing next door awoke his thoughts. Her snores could be heard all over the reef but Marlin had learned to ignore them.
"I ate the last one sorry."
Marlin listened to her mumble nonsensical things for a few minutes or so. Then with one final concerned glance for Nemo he swam opposite his home and over to Dory's coral cave. The regal blue tang was lying with her head against one of its walls, muttering something about a grumpy hermit crab. Her eyes were shut tight and her mouth moved only slightly but she was still audible. Marlin rolled his eyes as he drew nearer. He knew it wasn't fair to wake her, especially not at this hour, but he needed to share this with someone. Even though he knew she would never be able to remember half of the story afterwards.
"Dory?" he nudged her lightly.
There came no response.
"Dory?"
A snore, but no sign of a connection to the land of the living. Marlin sighed, de iding this could wait until morning. He turned to go back to the anemone...
"Marlin..."
He had never turned around so fast in his life. He paused for a minute to process what he had just heard. She remembered. Dory had remembered his name. That almost never happened. When it did, he probably wasn't around to hear it.
"...marlin..." she whispered again.
This time it sounded more desperate, and came out as no more than a whimper.
Marlin swam to her side and tried to sooth her back to sleep while still hoping she would at least open those pretty magenta eyes of hers. "I'm here Dory."
As he spoke, he felt her pectoral fin close around his own in a tight squeeze, the sudden contact making his scales prickle in a fish version of a blush.
"Don't go..."
Marlin didn't know what to do, but he suddenly felt that maybe coming over had been a mistake. Dory's hugs or finshakes always lasted so long, at this rate he would never get back to sleep, not to mention Nemo was still on his own. "I'm not going anywhere Dory," he reassured gently. He waited a while before speaking to her again. "Are you alright?"
Dory murmured something else, something about a sea monkey and a naughty shrimp, but amongst her usual chatter, Marlin was sure he had heard the word "jellyfish."
"What jellyfish?" he pressed, "Dory?" and then suddenly she made a large whimper that sounded like she was screaming even though her mouth was closed. "N-No!"
"Ssh! Dory you'll wake up the whole reef!"
Then it hit him. She was dreaming about the jellyfish forest.
That dense, nightmarish realm of poison and tentacles that threatened to sting at every turn. Those large looming creatures which could kill at one touch of their hypnotic tendrils. The ones she had warned him about. She had warned him about them. Her of all the fish in the sea who could let words slip from her tongue as if they were fresh popped bubbles, had tried to convince him that going through that trench was a bad idea, and yet he didn't listen. All the times he had cursed her stupidity he had often failed to see his own-and he had almost put her life at risk because of it. He didn't know why he went back for her, any other incident he'd have been terrified to venture back into such a place, but something about this fish drew him so close-as though he couldn't be away from her for even a second. It wasn't because he needed her to repeat the address of where they were going (he had memorized it himself from the amount of times she had chanted it) but there was something there that made him go back for her. He had saved her, not for his benefit but for hers-and now he understood.
He held her fin tighter, for she still hadn't stopped holding his through all his pondering.
"I won't go Dory. I promise." He whispered to her, and to his surprise, she smiled in her sleep and whispered back "I know Why would ya?"
Marlin gave a smile of his own, a rarity since he usually found her Short Term Memory infuriating. He glanced at the scars on her side, still leftover from her traumatic encounter with the jellyfish. Without thinking he leaned in and kissed them, and repositioned Dory so she was more comfortable. It took him a while to leave her but he finally sighed and whispered "Goodnight Dory."
Marlin returned to his anemone and pulled his sleeping boy close to his side and although the bad dreams never went away, they didn't leave him feeling as empty anymore.
