A/N: So, why create a new fanfiction of an old one instead of just redacting the whole original one?
Simply, nostalgia. It's like a reminder from when I was starting up with writing stories, and now that I've improved my English levels a bit then, why not remake everything?
Itoshiku tsuyoku dakishimete some kaete ageru
(I'll hold you tightly, with love, And change your colors -)
Hageshiku tataku moeagaru koi kokoro yo
(My heart, full of love, burns high and furiously...)
I believe in desire
Desire - Do As Infinity
...
Do any of you believe that things happens by complete chance or just by whims of fate? That maybe in some life you met that person and they returned and you never suspected about it? Think about it, perhaps that person knows you better than you know yourself, or something as well... who knows, the world, the entire universe, space itself are wide, infinite and full of surprises or twists that sometimes we have to accept to keep moving as people.
The day was grey as usual under the, curiously enough, grey and dull town of Swallow Falls, with all of its citizens walking around the streets minding their own business all around. Some of them having those gross fish called sardines and they utterly despised with everything nowdays, and once upon a time used to be the echonomical fuel of their home...
Going somewhere else - this big edification that looked like a tower in part located in the backyard full of all kind of junk of a house, as a big metallic dome with blue lines in the outside was upon the base of several meters. Inside it we can see Flint Lockwood, with his sixteen years old and his genius mind in action, making some research about genetics in his computer made of several screens, typing furiously on the keyboard at the speed of light, with his eyes reading information as fast as he could and making his own formulas and stuff...
"Oh meatballs..." He said to himself, "I didn't think that genetics could be that complex..." Then sighed deeply, "It'll be harder than I thought... I may need some help for this..."
He passed a hand through his messy brown hair and sighed again, spinning around to get his view away from the screens and allow his brain to get a momentary and propper break from the large amounts of information it was receiving in such a short amount of time, massaging his eyes with his fingertips so he would be able to focus back again. He was right away to get back to work, but hear the sound of broken glass and someone screaming, "Steve!" in a joyful...? manner made him stop and check. There was a vervet monkey known as Steve having one of these euphorical times again, making a great disaster with various materials like tubes, flasks, etc. all of them were empty at least, but still, those things weren't easy to find neither to make...
"Steve! Drop that now!" He exclaimed, starting to chase his pet/lab partner all over the lab, making a disaster. Steve wasn't even listening to the young inventor at all, jumping and swinging around recklessly for the dismay of his owner. And then after ten minutes that felt more like an eternity, leaving the whole place as if a tornado flew around the inside, he managed to catch the mischievous little animal, huffing and puffing and probably with a few bruises under his lab coat and a bump on his head hidden by his hair. "I... finally... gotcha..." He said breathlessly, "Good lord Steve... how many times do I have to say that my lab instruments aren't toys?" Oh well... "Now I probably have to redo everything... again..."
Raw material to make glass was abundant as he lived in an island, some sand, the remains of glass on the floor around the lab, a few days and a lot of patience was enough to recover everything. The job of a glazier wasn't easy, and it was a real fine job that had to be done with someone's own hands, hard work and a lot of patience. Taking a broom and a paddle he proceeded to clean the mess and put the shattered glass around the laboratory into a trash bin he used to load material ready to be recycled, having given Steve a bucket and a wooden spoon to play with, ending with the job in two or three minutes.
He could've created a cleaning robot or something so he could keep focusing on his previous activities, but the more he thought about it, it was good to do at least a real easy job himself just to give his mind a break, even if it was just for a few minutes. Something was something anyways...
"Flint!" A voice called from outside, he recognized the source as his father, "Is everything okay?"
Placing the broom and the paddle back in their place, he headed to the windows of his laboratory and raised the metallic curtain to look down, seeing his father wearing a fishing hat and vest... someone was ready to go to fish apparently...
"It's alright dad" He said, "Just had some... problems up here with Steve..." He turned around to check on the mischievous monkey, Steve at least was still busy banging the bucket with the wooden spoon. At least he was actually busy...
"Well, I'm going fishing to the docks right now. And you're coming with me." Oh God no... "I need some help this time, and don't you dare to bring that monkey with you! I don't want him to rip anyone's moustache again!" The young inventor flinched pretty much a lot when he reminded that time where his dad got his moustache ripped off that day when he was presenting and recording the invention of the Monkey Thought Translator at his father's tackle shop, making him shiver, "And I'm being serious!"
He groaned, "Do I really got to go? I have some things to be done over here and-"
"Flint..." His dad said in a slightly annoyed way interrupting him, which was the sign that he was being completely serious about his decision.
"God give me patience please..." He thought, "Alright dad..." Said then slightly resigned.
"We're leaving in ten minutes, skipper."
In the right moment he turned around, Flint closed the window frowning and sighing heavily almost in despair for what came out of sudden... the last thing he wanted to do in that right moment was to help his father with his fishing activities as it was a bit of too boring for him. For one hand it was his own activities in that moment: he still had to get some other stuff done and start to rebuild his detroyed laboratory materials - which already takes a good while to get done. Then there was the other hand: get an actual break and some fresh salty air to clear up his mind in a better way, maybe he would be able to think about something else before beginning with the bigger leagues of genetics...
Well he didn't have another option anyways...
Even if the relation with his father was... real, real but incredibly awkward at the point it felt slightly cringeworthy. Althought, it wasn't their fault that they were completely out of tune, right?
They were like two different sides of the same coin: In one side we have Flint Lockwood. Creative, a smart-arse, real hyperactive, full of ideas and dreaming always to change the world somehow, following what his late mother thought about him and how he would be able to do great things for the world. And there on the other side was his father, Tim Lockwood was pretty much the opposite of his son: just a humble and simple man who loved to fish, and was always in his shop eating sardines, someone who never actually understood him at all... not like his mom...
Not that damn pain in his chest again...
Shaking his head he quickly got some of his things ready, and also left some food to Steve, he was ready to leave the laboratory, to then give a glance to a photograph of his mother next to his bed upon the nightstand. Getting close to it he took it and sat down for a little bit, staring at it with a sad gaze, almost feeling his eyes filling up with tears, being able to see his reflex with the translucent glass of the framework, reflecting certain grief in his eyes... "Oh mom... you don't know how much I miss you..." He said tearing up a bit, "Perhaps you could've made dad an I closer..." he sniffed there biting his lower lip a bit "How cool would it be if you were here... I wish there was someone like you out there... I mean... no one will ever replace you... just someone like..." He sighed "Nevermind..." He shook his head again and tried to calm down enough before going down, it wouldn't work, but it was worth to try, "Take care of the laboratory, Steve!" he exclaimed, with his voice sounding slightly cracked.
"Steve!"
And there he got downstairs, cleaning up his face as much as he could to pretend he wasn't crying, really preferring to look strong for his dad than just a crybaby. When Tim looked at him, he was almost sure he realized his tears, but didn't say anything at all... most part of time he'd be able to know what his father was thinking about, and sometimes it was just cryptic... as if he was thinking just for himself or something. This time was one of the few times he couldn't tell anything...
They didn't exchange words when they got the stuff ready in the back side of the car, just placing everything together with actions, with an awkward ambient among the two of them; from there they went to the docks. Reaching the place he realized that his father just maybe fooled him as he parked in front of his fishing boat, which, of course meant they'd be at high seas (or probably just a few miles away from the island to come back early, he wasn't entirely sure though). In any way, he didn't like that, just wanting to get back to his lab and do his stuff, besides, those glasses wouldn't fix themselves alone, right?
"Dad, I really got some things to get done at the lab." He said, "Are we gonna take that long at sea? I can't leave Steve alone for a long time either and you know that..."
"I'll just take out some things I got on the boat, son." His dad said, "You can already find a place to sit down, I'll be right back." Getting down the car he just took some things out the trunk, including the fishing rods and a box full of fishing stuff. He still wasn't a real fan of fishing, at least not since she passed...
He groaned... trying to not think about it anymore... even if sometimes that was an impossible challenge... he shook his head again trying to drive those thoughts away and focus in present time. And at least his father was coming back...
It's been like an hour already, pretty much with silence between father and son. Flint's been, incredibly for Tim, quiet and not complaining about when they were going back home, as if he was needing a distraction from whatever project he had in mind. The calm of the sea indeed made its job as his mind was fully driven away, probably somewhere under the iron sea right now... it was slightly uncomfortable for his father to have him so quiet because of his normal and usual wacky almost happy-go-luck and somewhat awkward behavior, "Son?" He asked, but he was too drifted away apparently. "Flint" He said again moving his arm a bit, as there was still no answer he did it again, "Flint, are you okay?"
In a first moment he looked so confused, as if he didn't know where he was, to then sigh and cover his face for a moment, "Yes, sorry just... I'm okay..." He took a deep breath after that, as if he was trying to put his head together or something. "I just... got repair broken glass again... Steve broke my stuff again and it takes its while to make new instruments..."
"Can't you just buy new ones?"
"I don't think Cannery High (1) would like to give me their science stuff..." There was a silence again for a brief moment, mostly because his son was right about it, "Besides, I can create them myself anyways..." Only to keep himself a bit more busy and away from his computer maybe.
"I see..." He said. Sometimes he felt amazed for the great abilities of his son, so much at the point he felt overwhelmed for his talent. "Uh... Flint..."
"Hmm...?" He lazily asked
"I've been thinking a lot lately about this and... I want you to work at the bait shop with me" Curiously enough, the young inventor was taking a sip of water from a bottle, when he heard that he choked with the liquid and wheezed, coughing as well and looking at him with disbelief, "Flint, I also need a hand at the shop, and you have to find an actual job as well."
"How many times did we even talk about this, dad?" He asked annoyed, "I don't want to work at the tackle shop, inventing is my thing, it's my life and you know that...! And mom always believed in me..." Mention her made their chest ache. It didn't matter if it's been already almost eight years since she passed, their love for her was such that when she died, nothing ever was the same again "Please..."
There wasn't an answer coming from his father, who wasn't really expecting this time for his son to mention his deceased wife. None of them had really overcome the pain of the departure, and Flint even less, because he was right there when he heard the beeps of the electrocardiograph machine becoming a long and irritating beep... he was right there when she passed, holding her hand with his... remember that was still an open wound for him, and now it was starting to bleed again. He looked away trying to hide his face of pain, trying to pretend he didn't say a thing even if it was aching hard, taking again the bottle he started to drink a few hard gulps of water in order to calm down... he felt like a complete idiot for the mention...
Then he swore he caught something falling in the distance...
Splash!
That indeed brought the attention of the two, the young inventor swore he saw something that suddenly fell on the water while his father turned around when he heard the sound of the water being splashed by a solid object, both of then stood up and looked to each other. It wasn't a sardine, and it wasn't a whale either as there weren't any in their zone, then what was it? Not dolphins either, they were used to tropical, subtropical and warm waters which normally were located near the mainland and not in the middle of the ocean like their island... he was real curious now. He needed to know what it was.
For anyone's surprise, he took out diving goggles from his lab coat, fully ready to go and check around, when he was going to jump, his father stopped him by taking his arm, "Where are you going? It can be dangerous!" He said, he raised an eyebrow when he saw his son staring at him.
"That looks like a sea bass over there" Wait, what? Tim turned around to look, when he didn't see anything he saw his son was already on the water swimming towards the place of the splash. "Sorry dad!" He exclaimed already in the distance, making his father rush into his boat and follow him.
Once Flint reached the exact place where whatever made the splash passed, he took a very deep breath and dived in, taking out a water lantern from under his lab coat as well. What a nice thing to be always prepared just in case, such a shame he didn't bring the frog paws to swim faster... he swam more around looking for whatever it was, the bottom was becoming darker and he was running out of air quick, only twenty seconds since he got in, he still had forty seconds to one and a half minutes of air before losing his conscience, maybe less because of the pressure of the ocean... then he saw something – no... someone...? He swam closer, it was a she...
It looked like a little girl, only ten years old as much as he could see, pale skin, long and kinda curly brown hair, with part of her clothes tattered, mostly the lower part of her dark-blue t-shirt exposing open wounds. The thing that called his attention the most was the fact that she was carrying a sword on her back, but how did she end up there out of sudden? Oh well that was a question for later, the priority was take her to the surface as fast as he could before she ended up drowning.
Making fast calculations with the factors he was having: an unconscious girl he needed to carry up to surface, using just his foot without the frog paws to give himself more impulse and only an arm as he would carry her under the other one, the remaining time he had of oxigen before passing out and how long would it take him to get back up. Oh God it was harder than it seemed to be... Okay, okay, at least he spotted his father's boat upon them, and also how he just tossed the lifesaver to the ocean expecting for him to get it again. Quickly he tried to swim up with her under his arm as the planned, moving his limbs as fast as he could do, but he was running out of air at the same time... darn it... 'What do I do...' He thought desperately rushed. He looked down to her, then to the surface, he had this option but...
It was time to take a major risk...
Feeling bad for what he was going to do, he released the girl and quickly swam to the surface, taking a real deep gasp of air, just when his father heard him he went to the side where he was, and before he could say a thing, "Dad I need ropes now!" He shouted, "NOW!" He exclaimed again, his orders were followed as his father tossed him a long bunch of ropes, quickly getting ready he dived in again towards her, wrapping the rope under her arms and swim back to the surface, then passed the rope in the inside of the lifesaver and stared to pull up as fast and hard as he could.
The despair he was feeling was such he didn't know what he would do next, and once he saw her body approaching he took her from under her arms and pulled her up, placing her around the lifeguard attached to another rope aboard. Pulling the rope twice his father understood he could pull up, taking out the girl out the water first, becoming highly surprised to see her, then quickly proceeded to take his son out of the water, right when he was going to ask what was happening, he proceeded to check on her.
Darn it, of course she wasn't breathing! Okay, okay, he had to push her chest hard to make her spit the water out of her lungs with a CPR technique... so placing his hands together, one upon the other he started to push, over and over again nonstopping, it couldn't be late, right? It just couldn't be late... two, four, six, ten minutes without taking a pause, so that meant his whole effort was completely useless in the end? Come on, she was so young to end her life at a tender age of ten! It just couldn't be... right? It couldn't be... "No... no, no no no!" He repeated over and over again as despair took over, Tim tried to make him calm down but it was futile, from pushing he started to smash, and incredibly she suddenly jumped and coughed all the water, just to fall down again unconscious, breathing propperly this time...
Indeed that was a real stressing moment... the fact of seeing her breathing again made him let adrenaline rush all over his trembling body, indeed a real, real close one... it was an actual miracle... he checked her pulse again, it felt low, it could be because of the time she got exposed to the cold water of the salty ocean, but hey! At least, at very least he managed to save her life... "Flint, what is...?" His father wanted to ask as he covered him with a towel, he just shaked his head without knowing the actual answer.
"I just... found her floating deep in the ocean..." He said panting, still trembling and shaking a bit. Now there was actual light he could see her better, and he was surprised by how beaten she looked like. "I almost couldn't save her..." His levels of confusion were high, too high, but there was another priority than that, and then took a real deep breath, then just noticed this crimsom liquid mixed with the water on the floor... his eyes got wide open when he saw that, and quickly moved her to a side noticing an wide open wound on her left side, he didn't notice it with all the rush! "We gotta take her to the island as fast as we can!" No... it wouldn't give them enough time... the hospital was on the other side, in front of the coast as well but on the other side of the island. "Dad I need whatever you have right now! I have to secure this wound or this time she may not survive!"
Holy Christ... this became more stressful than it was already... on a bright side, at least he already treated that kind of wounds himself as a way to avoid a hospital again in his life, it was his least favorite place though, with enough justifications if we look back. He turned her body around and saw the wound better, even if it wasn't a real deep one, it was bleeding a lot, and it was in a sensible zone of the body as well, again, he thought was a real miracle she was still alive to that moment and how she was being real strong to survive even if she was that young.
It didn't take any longer for Tim to come back with some stuff they could use to apply a tight tourniquet upon the wound as there wasn't another way now, and once he secured the knot, he took another deep breath trying to relax his body and everything that was going on. He raised up his hands a bit, feeling them trembling terribly... it's been a lot of stress for the day...
"What are we going to do with her, skipper?"
"I'll take care of her myself..." He said, indeed taking his father with low guard again. "It'll be alright, I can handle this myself. It's like taking care of myself after some accident with my inventions anyways."
"Are you sure you want to do it?"
"I don't want to go to the hospital either, why should I lie to you about that?" That was now an expected thing for his father now. "Besides, I found her, it's my responsibility take care of her." Sometimes it was real surprising when he actually took a mature decision in his life, and this probably was one of those times. "I won't stop you from calling a doctor if you want, but I can do it myself as well..." And it was true.
He got a glance from his father, a deep stare hidden under his big unibrown as if he was trying to decide if it was a good idea or not... "Alright..." Without saying anything else he went to the captain's cabin as his son got a towel for the girl, wrapping it around her to try to make her recover some corporal warmth. Her skin was too pale, she would probably get sick after all of it, probably with a cold. Just think about it made him groan slightly, the job ahead wasn't going to be easy.
After a few minutes they were back to the docks, Tim carried her up on his arms to then put her on the back seats of the car with some help of his son. There maybe were some curious people looking at whatever they were doing, raising an eyebrown to see them carrying what looked like a body...? It was better leave before the police arrived, right? Oh well, Earl would go to their house later when he finds out... he lived next door anyways.
Once they arrived, the young inventor personally took her to his lab to take care of her wounds, first of all by getting her dry... oh wait... that meant he had to get her... well he blushed hard when he got into realizations about it. Okay, okay, there was no reason to panic, it was just human anatomy anyways, wasn't it? He was just going to help her out with her wounds and stuff so that didn't make him a complete creep, right? He shook his head trying to keep it together and focus in what was real important.
A while later, like an hour or something he got her wounds treated, her body cleaned and the salt in her hair washed away; he made her use one of his shirts as an oversized dress, a black one that said I got the brains he didn't use that often as her clothes were tattered. The wound that was heavily bleeding early, thank goodness got closed, but still he covered it just in case; now just took her to his old bedroom downstairs that now worked as a guest room and gently left her on the bed, covering her with the bed sheets... he looked her closely now, carefully without rush... her face... it felt familiar, as if he already saw her somewhere else, why? Or maybe she looked like someone he met in the past? Someone familiar he forgot? He couldn't tell, he didn't really care as much as he should in that moment... or maybe it was just his head.
The thing he wondered the most is how did she fall out of sudden into the ocean, and why she was carrying a freaking sword – that now was in his lab for reasons. Why'd someone beat a girl like that as well? Probably he'd get his answers after she wakes up again. And at least she haven't shown any sights of getting sick like– "Achoo!" He sneezed, "Oh no..." With everything that's been happening he completely forgot about checking himself... hopefully it wouldn't be too late to get an anti-flu and get a hot-water bath for a good while to prevent himself getting more sick than just the sneezes.
And slowly he left, had his bath, an anti-flu, having dealt with a curious Earl who already got the news about the little girl he found floating in the ocean and left without taking an eye out of him as usual, and a snack, it was already night. Still some things were wandering throughout his entire head and probably some details could be flying straight up from it, he still was curious enough to find out more... With so many things going on in his head, he slowly fell asleep on his rooking chair as he started to snore softly, the day's been long and stressful, and he deserved a proper break.
Life still could be too iffy and unfair most part of the time, also whimsical, and pretty much always: wrongful, but this time, maybe it could just bring up a new surprise...
Just maybe...
No one knows what lurks for tomorrow anyways...
(1): Cannery High is the name of the local high school according to the CWACOM series in case you're wondering. As a side note for this, I'm not exactly taking it as cannon, just probably taking up some concepts and names from there.
