The Witch and The Sponge

Squidward was an introvert; there was no denying it. He found social events exhausting and preferred to be by himself. He would spend time at home, painting self-portraits or practicing his clarinet. Secretly, he always wanted to be in the spotlight. He was the tiniest bit jealous of how much attention SpongeBob was getting. In the past, he didn't hesitate to betray his friendship with SpongeBob for just a little recognition. But it was a hollow victory; in his haste to gain popularity, the poor sponge became a shell of himself.

As he painted, Squidward had this on his mind; he deeply regretted the deal. In his mind, it was too late; the damage was done. SpongeBob's good name had been tainted. Squidward looked at his painting, and he was painting something more abstract than he ever had painted. It was a loud, unorganized splatter of colored lines on a blue background. It looked like Squidward's face but contorted into unnatural shapes. He put his signature on it in a pile with other abstract art.

Natalie grimaced as she watched him.

She hissed, "That flipping traitor will pay for his betrayal of me!"

She rubbed on the crystal, and the scene changed to SpongeBob playing with Patrick. She used her power to take a bit of SpongeBob's raw love. It was just a tiny droplet, but the sheer power was enough to weaken her. She gripped the podium in agony, trying to get the droplet into a container as quickly as possible. When it finally got into a bottle, the darkness damped its potent pull, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then she rubbed the crystal to observe Squidward again. He was starting a new painting. She took a small dropper and an even smaller bit of SpongeBob's love to drip onto Squidward.

Then she rubbed the crystal to view SpongeBob's house and quickly hid the bottle in one of his cabinets. She used her dark magic mirror to heal herself of his kindness. She rubbed on the crystal to view Squidward and waited.

Squidward went to work the next day, and Spongebob cheerfully greeted him. His smile was more noticeable than usual, and the over-enthusiasm put off Squidward. But that was just the start. Throughout the day, Spongebob's happy attitude was too much for Squidward. The sponge's laugh continued for too long, or his jokes didn't land how they used to. This was the wrong way to see Spongebob. Regardless, Squidward was annoyed. It escalated to Spongebob actively bugging Squidward with nonsense questions.

SpongeBob would ask, "How many people do you suppose eat tomatoes? What do you suppose Bill is up to now that he's good? Who do you think took the buns?"

Squidward wouldn't answer because he honestly didn't know. Was this Spongebob's weird way of revenge? Squidward would sit and take it. His guilt was keeping him from saying or doing anything to SpongeBob.

Spongebob was very worried about Squidward. The octopus had been quiet all day, but the sponge could tell Squidward was drowning in sorrow. Spongebob tried and failed multiple times to try to snap him out of it, but it was like there was a barrier between Spongebob and Squidward.

Spongebob waved his hands over Squidward. He found a tiny part of his love had attached itself to Squidward. Squidward probably didn't even notice his mind being subtly messed with. Spongebob was going to remove it, but then he began to think about it. Why was Squidward so down by a tiny part of Spongebob attaching itself to him?

Spongebob would have to watch it, but it was also bizarre. He didn't know how a piece of his love ended up in Squidward's essence, but he did know, somehow, that it was terrible news unless he could put it all back where it needed to be.

When he went home, he stumbled across a bottle almost full of his love. There was a drop missing, and Spongebob couldn't. He opened the bottle, and the moment it touched his lips, he was suddenly smacked in the face with how sweet it was. It was like he was trying to drink pure sugar. He stopped trying to drink it to think it over.

There were two things Spongebob understood about Squidward: he was introverted, and he had a rather sour attitude. SpongeBob noticed how his pure, unfiltered love was so sweet that he could only handle it in a little dose.

"Oh," SpongeBob said in realization, "I think I know what to do."

He then went to Squidward's house. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

Squidward answered and sighed, "What do you want?"

"I want to apologize," Spongebob said, "for everything I put you through. You deserve a better friend than me."

Squidward was surprised and said rather bluntly, "I forgive you, but you were under Natalie's curse just as we were. I could tell, even in your darkest days, that deep down, it was still you under there."

"It doesn't excuse what I did," Spongebob said, "You became the punching bag of the universe in the past. I want to put a stop to it now."

Squidward gave a weak smile and said, "Thanks, SpongeBob. That means a lot."

Spongebob's love then came back to SpongeBob. It seemed to understand that Squidward's love didn't need any extra sweetener, which made very little sense to anyone but Spongebob.

Natalie screeched in frustration, seeing this unfold.