Hi!

There's the start of Ant and Maddie bonding in this chapter which I am more than perfectly happy about.

I hope you enjoy!

"Ant, come in," Kaiko sounded worried, which seemed to spark worry for the two within the clam.

Ant seemed genuinely worried for the first time since they had entered the clam: up until this point, he had just been frustrated and a mix of intimidated and amused by Madeline, until she started acting weirdly quiet.

Madeline, however, seemed really and truly terrified. When they had first been trapped in the clam, she hadn't really panicked too much: it was funny scaring Ant, almost like they were in a perfectly normal situation.

But since then, it had seemed like every bad thing that could possibly happen had happened and she was certain she was going to die in this clam with only this annoying Nekton and a now useless pearl for company.

The pearl.

That was what had caused all of this. It was so big and smooth and perfectly round and seemed to sparkle when any angle of light hit it, it was like no pearl she had ever seen before and she'd seen a lot of pearls - her father had once gone through a phase of having Danny Boy or that annoying Dolos guy find the biggest possible beds of clams and then opening every single one and retrieving every last pearl. She knew her dad would want this pearl desperately to add to his collection, maybe that was part of the reason she was so desperate to get it for him.

But now she was almost (dare she say it) regretting ignoring her brother and agreeing with her dad to come here, if she'd agreed with her brother, they might have resumed their course to the sunken ship they had been searching for and gone away with some nice chests of treasure, now however, she was stuck in this Poseidon forsaken place with one of the most irritating people she had ever met.

It was dark inside the clam.

And small.

Madeline could have sworn that the walls seemed to be moving inwards, constricting with each breath. It was getting tighter and tighter, making it more and more difficult to breathe with each passing second.

"Yeah, mum?" Ant's voice cracked through Madeline's concentration.

"We've had a bit of a setback, you guys just sit tight, we have a solution but it's going to take a while," Kaiko's voice came from Ant's communicator.

It was relatively quiet but it echoed around Madeline's mind.

The was a setback.

The Nektons never had setbacks, if it was a setback to the Nektons then it must be bad - not that she would ever admit that out loud.

Kaiko sounded worried.

The Nektons never got worried, if the Nektons were worried then it must be bad - not that she would ever admit that out loud either.

She slumped back against the wall of the clam, breathing heavily: the already confined space was shrinking again.

"Are you sure you're alright?" Ant asked for the millionth time since they had entered the clam.

She didn't know why he cared and honestly his constant asking was getting slightly more irritating.

It was like he was closing in and, like the narrowing walls, suffocating her.

Ant was worried about her.

After he had finished talking to his mother through the comms, he turned around to see the pirate slouched against the walls of the clam.

She looked pale and clammy but she was shivering, her breathing had quickened and she almost looked like she was trembling.

"I'm fine, Ant, will you stop asking?" She told him, though it seemed like half the life had been drained out of her.

"You're shivering," Ant stated.

"Yeah, so?"

"We're about to be boiled by an underwater volcano, you shouldn't be cold," Ant said.

Her trembling seemed to worsen at this.

"You're really not helping, you know," She complained, almost shaking.

Ant sat in front of her.

"What's wrong?" He asked again.

She let out a loud groan at yet another question and leaned her head back to rest against the wall, "Nothing, I'm fine," She mumbled.

"Yeah, okay, I believe that," Ant rolled his eyes, his voice intoxicated with sarcasm.

"I'm fine," She insisted, although she wasn't meeting his gaze, her eyes were darting around anxiously at something behind Ant.

He picked up on this and turned his head to follow her gaze.

She was staring at the walls, eyes skimming over them rapidly.

He was confused, there was nothing over there, just plain, curved walls, layered with mother-of-pearl: the nacre had a pinkish tint but was mostly bluish purple.

Then suddenly he was reminded of something, several years ago, the Aronnax had received an urgent distress signal from a vessel and when they had arrived, one of the crew members had been trapped. He had been freed easily and was perfectly unharmed, though when he had been found, he was hunched in a corner, eyes flicking nervously from wall to wall, much similar Madeline's eyes right now. When Ant had asked his Mum later, Kaiko had said the man didn't like small spaces so he had panicked.

Ant turned his head back to Madeline in confusion. He didn't understand. She'd been in tight, enclosed spaces many times before, she practically lived in the ducts and they weren't exactly large spaces.

"Madeline," He began, waiting until she eventually turned her gaze to Ant before continuing, "Are you claustrophobic?"

The pirate in question had to drag in a few breaths before replying with:
"No, I'm fine,"

Ant didn't believe her in the slightest, but he resisted the urge to roll his eyes, "Right, okay, well, just breathe and we'll be fine,"

"You mean that?" She asked him, her breathing starting to slow a little.

"Sure, my parents would never let us die in here, we'll be fine," Ant assured her.

"Your parents would help me too? Really? They hate me,"

"They don't hate you," Ant said, though he sounded unsure.

"Really?" Madeline was sceptical and there was a hint of her usual self in her tone.

"I guess you aren't too bad, you mainly just delay us,"

Madeline almost burst out laughing at this, she was still pale and looked tired but her breathing seemed easier and she seemed more like herself, "Do you know how many times I've sabotaged your sub? Half the time you guys don't notice until a week later, by that time we're far away and everyone blames it on you," she laughed.

"What? When?" Ant asked alarmed suddenly.

"You know last month, when Dad -" Madeline was cut off by Ant abruptly exclaiming:

"Aha! I knew I didn't break the fridge, I would never be so reckless,"

The pirate nodded, "I didn't actually mean to break the fridge, I meant to take out sonar but on the control panel, the wires are a similar colour, I guess I got confused,"

"That's what I don't understand," Ant said suddenly, "I swear you spend half your life in the ducts, if you don't like enclosed spaces, why would you put yourself through that?"

She paused for a moment before saying quietly, "My mum,"

Ant had heard practically nothing about Hammerhead's wife, he just knew she wasn't there.

"What?" He asked.

"Nothing," She said quickly, "I just mean that I'm safe at home, it might not be quite as fancy as the Aronnax but we haven't had a proper sinking for years, and it is home, I'm safe there,"

Ant could tell this was the whole truth but he didn't want to push: he could ask her about it later when they weren't about to die.

I hope you liked this chapter!

If you were wondering, the mystery of Maddie and Finn's mum most likely won't be 'solved' in this story or maybe only hinted at because I plan to explain it in detail in a future chapter of my other story 'Captive' and it's not too important for this story anyway, I wanted to keep this story's focus on Ant and Maddie.

My search history is looking so weird right now. I started out researching claustrophobia and and now I'm pretty sure I know every phobia that I have (even if I can't pronounce them) and I'm considering adding a list of my phobias to my profile XD.

Also, I read an A-Z of phobias. Did you know, Zemmiphobia is the fear of the Great Mole Rat? Me either but I do now. I don't know what I'm going to do with this information but I know it now. XD

Thank you so much for reading,

Please review, I'd love to know what you think,

Thanks,

Kiwi :)