I was holding off on posting this chapter cause it's short and I was gonna combine it with something else…but thanks to your friend AND mine, Kazza has harassed me into posting it. Heheh. So yeah..someone other than Saphrin…I'll be damned…heh enjoy, duckies! XD

Chapter 36

Jake and Sugarbear…were both fans of water. I'll put it that way. They had shouting contests. Sometimes they'd tease each other. Sometimes they got along. They reminded all of us of spouses, how they would have stupid fights but in overall they got along. But one way for sure to make them cooperate was to put them together in the tub.

Of course, this was only in the beginning when they didn't know each other. Over time they learned to live with each other. What I spoke of just now was all in the first few days of their hanging out, while we stayed with Raven and Saph for a little bit.
Claudette had a very interesting fascination with Evan, which was cute, and partially our fault because she was always around adults and…a duck. So she'd never really been around other children. In a way, the two were being raised together as if they were siblings, being around each other all the time.
We joked that one day the two of them would be married.
Claudette loved Sugarbear, and could hold him in her hands and giggled when he would ribbit. She was so cute…just laughing and laughing, her peals so pure and full of heart and loud that it nearly brought tears to my eyes when I'd hear it. And I think Jake may have been jealous. When they would play, Jake would brood a little bit and just stare at them, poised in the middle of the room and just looking over, and then he would run to Saphrin. If she wasn't busy with Evan, she would gladly play with him, but if she was trying to feed him or change him or simply be focusing all her attention and love on him, Jake was again being left out and looking quite melancholy. It might seem hard to imagine a sad duck, or any animal for that matter…but you can definitely tell. He was moping, walking slowly and not being his normal bouncy, playful self.
I don't know if Amber noticed this. Saphrin seemed to be too occupied with Evan and Raven was wary of having Jake in his house, and probably didn't want to be bothered. But I noticed, and I would pay full attention to him but it didn't seem to help. I mean…sure he liked the attention, but Saphrin and Claudette were his playmates. I didn't really play with him because…I don't know. It just wasn't the way he and I connected. I felt genuinely sorry. It was the way parents are afraid that their first born child will be jealous of a new baby…well here was Jake, and a new baby and a bullfrog.
Poor duckie.
And then, on the last night of our stay there, I saw the end of the world. I witnessed something that I never thought I'd see.
We were watching a movie in the living room, Claudette sitting on the floor, quite happily, not paying attention to the movie because for one she was too young to understand, and two because she was busy playing with Sugarbear who was sitting in her lap. Saphrin was holding Evan and Raven was sitting next to her. Amber and I sat on a different couch and held each other. Jake was wandering in and out of the room, looking at al of us and then sulking away. My heart hurt as I watched this. I think Raven noticed. Every time Jake walked in, Raven would tighten and wince. I saw this. And then, after a while, one of the times that Jake was about to leave, as he was turning slowly and waddling away, I saw Raven's eyes soften. He sighed, looking at Jake as if they held a deep connection.
I had a memory. I remembered once when Amber, Saphrin, and I had been down at ringside. When the three of us were nearing the locker room, we heard screaming and shouting. I opened the door to see that Raven was being held down by some other guys and Jake was sitting on his chest. We were all friends and they were doing it as a joke…a cruel joke that I don't think they understood the magnitude of, but a joke, and Raven was completely horrified. He sobbed and cursed at them all, and as soon as they let him go he ran away to the shower. 
I remembered when Saphrin had trained Jake, and Raven had run screaming and cowardly away. I remembered when they were first acquainted, thought of the site of Raven as he'd stood on a chair scowling. I remembered how we'd hang out.
I thought all hope between he and Jake had been lost a long time ago.
But now…he looked sympathetic. With a sigh he finally stood up, and as Jake was moping about and just leaving the room, Raven stepped in front of him.
Jake stopped and looked up at him. Amber, Saphrin and I all stopped and looked at him. Even Claudette noticed and looked, holding the oblivious frog close to her.
"Hey, duck," Raven said softly, and winced a little as he reached down and gently picked him up the way he must've been seeing us do for the past year or so. I thought my heart was going to stop. It was as if the world had stopped spinning.
Raven…holding…Jake…
Amazing.
Raven slowly walked back to the couch and sat down, Jake staring at him. Gingerly he began to pet, as if he didn't know what he was doing, at the same time treating him like he was afraid that he'd break. And then he smiled. And Jake buried his head in Raven's shirt and they actually cuddled together. 
Jake was happy again, which made me happy. And this was all another element to my Perfect Time.