Ace obtained quite an impressive tan, feeling confident with his designer Fucci sunglasses, and new clothes. Fenton eyed them suspiciously, knowing where he got them from.
They were at the underwater aquarium, a long tube that went through the ocean floor, showcasing the various and strange wildlife underneath Atlaan, brand-new to both of them, mundane to everyone else.
It was where anyone could get a Wemy the Whale shirt, and the glow of the soft blue glow of the floor lights, the quiet ambiance was relaxing, but Ace was too dressed up for the occasion, clearly too excited to go out, while Fenton wore a loose button-up and chinos.
“You’re looking pretty snazzy today,” Fenton said.
“Thanks, I’ve been trying something new, ” Ace said smugly. “New Year, New Me.”
“Ace, its’ October. ”
“Yes. This is a different year than the last. That’s how it works!”
Fenton let out a soft heh, and they walked through the Oceania aquarium, on their way through the other side of town, wanting to explore the second half of Atlaan, the side where the Kina, the people of the sea resided.
So far, all they had seen at the bottom of the ocean floor was fish people in various suits waving back, walking their four-legged fish, and sometimes the less sentient ones would bump into the glass.
Sometimes an interesting creature would pass by, but it was too smart to come close to the aquarium, and the best they could do was watch from afar, trying to make a clear guess of what it was through the murky ocean waters.
While watching a multi-colored fish try to navigate around the cylindrical death trap people willingly paid money to enter, Fenton didn’t understand how someone was so oblivious to what was happening around them.
He knew if he asked outright about him and Levi, Ace would say nothing, so Fenton did what he always did.
Catch him in a lie.
“How long have you and Levi been together,” Fenton asked.
“Stop doing this.”
“Fine.”
It was silent for some time, and the happy mood was ruined.
“Ace, you know he’s buying you stuff to keep you quiet so you won’t tell his wife, right,” Fenton asked.
“Levi isn’t buying me things to keep me quiet, he bought me this when we went on a trip, ” Ace corrected him. “We went to the coast of-”
Fenton grinned, and Ace flipped his sunglasses down, pretending as if it was some sort of divider, trying to end the conversation on his own terms, but Fenton wouldn’t let him.
“This must be so hard for you,” Fenton said mockingly. “No one understands.”
Ace took his sunglasses off in a grandiose manner, in his fancy new clothes, the world’s worst caricature of a mistress, and nodded enthusiastically.
“I’m sure his family would be against us,” Ace said in a quiet, angry, tone.
“And who are they to be against you,” Fenton asked sarcastically. “They’re only his wife and relatives!”
“You’re a good friend, Fenton. It’s so nice to know that someone understands.”
Fenton squinted his eyes and curled his lips, disgusted, confused, that Ace was not the one who understood.
“Are you serious right now,” Fenton asked.
“You aren’t?”
Fenton’s silence answered the question, and Ace told him that he was never supportive of any of his relationships.
“Because almost all of your relationships are horrible,” Fenton shouted. “They’re all horrible! Why!?! Why!?”
His voice echoed in the aquarium, people turned to look, and Fenton ran his fingers through his hair, telling himself that he was getting worked up, but lately, it was so much harder being Ace’s friend, and now it was near impossible.
“It’s not my fault,” Ace said. “We’re star-crossed lovers.”
“Ace. Do you know what that means?”
“Yes,” he answered, with only the confidence an idiot could have. “It means everyone else is out to destroy true love. ”
Fenton laughed.
“It means you’re doomed from the start! ”
Ace refused to believe this until Fenton brought up the definition online, and at this point, they were at the exit point of the aquarium, at the center of under-town Atlaan.
They continued through the portion of a sidewalk made for land walkers, a vestibule cut through, with filters on the side to convert water into oxygen, and it was somehow so much louder and quieter at the same time in the under-town.
There were fewer land walkers down there, so it wasn’t loud in the pressurized and sealed sidewalks, but when a fish person tapped on the glass, trying to be funny, grinning, exposing their razor-sharp teeth, everyone yelled, pointing at the various signs, Don’t Tap on the Glass, You’ll Scare the Skin-People!
“Some people are so inconsiderate,” Ace said, whenever a fish person would tap the glass. “They do whatever they want without considering how they could hurt someone else.”
Fenton made a shrill noise, Ace asked him are you alright, and he said no, no I am not, I do not think I will ever be.
“There’s a shop over there where they sell like five hundred different kinds of rocks for whatever reason. You wanna check it out,” Ace offered.
He desperately wanted their day not to be ruined.
“ Let’s see why those fish people like rocks so much.”
“Yeah. They do like their rocks. ”
So, they entered one of the few shops that land walkers could enter, called Rocks and Such, and they did not understand why someone would need such a wide variety of rocks, of different shapes and colors, and the half-fish-half-person who manned the front desk explained that they were gifts.
It still did not help them understand anything about fish people and their affinity for multi-colored rocks.
While rubbing a rock the size of his head on a wooden table, Ace was mesmerized.
It cost roughly three grand, was at the center of the store, made to con people into buying more rocks. It changed colors whenever someone rubbed certain parts of it, at different speeds, and he was entranced, trying to justify the exorbitant strain on his wallet.
“You should just ask him to buy it for you,” Fenton said.
“He gave me one of his cards, but I can only use it for emergencies,” Ace replied. “Can I tell him it was a rock emergency? Would he buy that?”
“ How long have you two been together? ”
Ace tried to remember while his singular brain cell ran on a treadmill, puffing, straining. He scratched the surface of the rock and was pleasantly surprised to see that the scratch marks left distinct different colors than the rest of the rock.
“Let’s just leave,” Ace replied. “You’re not into checking out downtown, and it's not like we can really go to a lot of places since we can’t breathe underwater anyway.”
“Are you avoiding the topic again?”
“No,” Ace lied.
The Rock turned red.
“If you’re not, buy that rock.”
“That’s stupid. Why? ”
“Do it. Just do it. If your relationship is as strong as you say it is, you can buy that dumb rock, and he won’t complain. ”
Ace looked at Fenton.
He looked at The Rock.
He sighed.
“This is stupid,” Ace said.
Mary Jane got a notification on her phone, while on her sunreef yacht.
It was small, well, small for a yacht, with wooden panels on the side, and she was leaning over the railing, standing next to her husband and talking about the party they were planning for next month when she received the message.
Unusual spending, $3,180, ROC & SUCH CORP., today at 4:47 PM.
She scrunched her nose up, and her forehead went warm. Someone had stolen one of their cards, or even worse, maybe their bank account!
“Levi, someone has our money,” she shrieked.
“ What!?”
She stuck the phone screen out, showing the transaction, and Levi was furious.
Three thousand dollars.
On rocks.
Who would spend that much on rocks?
“We have to call the bank,” Mary Jane said. “They might have our other information. This could be serious. Do you think it's someone we know?”
Levi took the phone from her hand, checked the past transactions on the account, few and far in between, and realized which account it was, and then laughed uncomfortably, and handed her the phone back.
“That was me. I bought those rocks,” Levi lied.
“This is not the time for jokes,” Mary Jane replied. “I’m calling the bank!”
“Don’t!”
Mary Jane knew from his overreaction that he had done something, and she was thinking it might be illegal, because the closer she was to discover what he had done, the more panicky his reactions would become.
“Is this really about rocks, or did you, you know, get someone to do something, ” Mary Jane asked.
He had technically gotten someone to do something, as evidenced by the irrational purchase on his bank account, and Levi nodded, agreeing with whatever strange idea she birthed in her brain.
“I see,” Mary Jane trawled. “Don’t worry. I understand.”
She walked off into the deeper part of the boat, and Levi was worried that his wife thought he was a mob boss because his lies were becoming more ludicrous and extravagant.
He said he was going on a weekend business trip when he left with Ace, but when he returned a few shades darker and sunburnt, he made up some kind of lie about covert missions that he couldn’t tell her about.
Standing on the deck of his yacht, trying to find a lie to get rid of the other lies, a call came in, the caller ID saying CARROT.
He answered.
Before the caller could say anything, Levi was the first to speak.
“Why did you buy three thousand dollars worth of rocks,” Levi asked quietly.
He was speaking quietly, and Ace knew he was angry because when he was very angry he would become quiet, the words carefully chosen and cultivated.
“It was a rock. Singular,” Ace replied.
“Why did you buy one rock for three thousand dollars,” Levi asked.
“Because our relationship is rock solid,” Ace whispered.
Levi did not say anything, and Ace kept asking if he was there, but the call did not end, so he kept talking.
“I- I’ll bring it tomorrow,” Ace said.
He ended the call, and Levi looked out at the ocean.
His wife thought she was complicit in several crimes, his mistress, or, mister, was an idiot, and he had lost three thousand dollars in a weird display of affection. Levi was not numb, but felt a feeling close to it that he could not explain a very stupid yet similar feeling, and sighed, leaning over the railing, his mind a buzz.
He would ask for a refund.
He did not get one.
Mary Jane was not home the next day, therefore Ace was at Levi’s apartment, and so was The Rock.
Levi did not want to touch it, he was sure it was radioactive, or it would make him infertile, as it pulsed on his bed, glowing, and the longer he stared at it, he started to believe it was staring back, angry at him, knowing all his secrets and lies.
“Are you afraid of that rock,” Ace asked.
“No.”
He was.
The Rock turned red.
“Do you like it,” Ace asked.
“I don’t know,” Levi replied, which was the truth.
The Rock changed to bright green, and Ace grinned. Levi was now more disgusted by it, he knew it was alive, no one could tell him otherwise.
“Ace, I can’t keep this, MJ will complain,” Levi said.
“No, she won’t, this thing is cool,” Ace replied.
He sat on their bed, too accustomed to their home, and he picked The Rock up by the sides, and it turned several different shades.
“Where should I put it,” Ace asked.
“Just put it in the place where we keep the prisoner,” Levi replied.
In the last guest room, at the back of the apartment, which was always locked, only two people had the key to it. Ace and Levi. Mary Jane was rarely home, she traveled often due to work, and had no reason to enter the guest room anyway, and no idea that they kept someone captive inside her home.
Inside the guest room was their captive prisoner, Lush, the God of Beauty and Choice, forever stuck inside a mirror.
His image appeared, inside the ornate and brass-rimmed stand-up mirror near the side of the bed, and he was excited because no one had come to visit him in a very long time.
“You’ve returned for me,” Lush exclaimed.
“Nah. We just need to hide this creepy rock,” Levi replied.
The Rock turned green.
“Can I keep it,” Ace asked. “I bought it.”
“No. I bought it. This thing is clearly dangerous! Can’t you tell?”
“I don’t sense anything wrong with it. It’s just a rock,” Ace grumbled.
He set it down on the side table, between Lush’s mirror and the bed. Lush noticed Levi’s hatred of the rock, and he tried to piece together why.
“Have you two returned to try and make better choices,” Lush asked.
“We’re not staying around you,” Levi replied. “ You’re dangerous.”
The Rock turned red.
“I am not! You’re angry because you thought with your lower heads and embarrassed yourselves!”
“He’s kind of right,” Ace admitted.
The Rock turned green.
Lush noticed and tried to test his theory.
“What day is it,” Lush asked.
“Wednesday, why,” Levi replied. “You can’t leave, you don’t need to know.”
It was a rude reply, but The Rock did not change color.
“Ace, do you regret buying that rock,” Lush asked.
“Yes,” Ace lied. “I shouldn’t have done that.”
The Rock turned red.
Lush grinned, and Levi turned red, and Levi knew that Lush knew, but Ace was too thick to notice that he had procured something much more valuable than it seemed. Levi took Ace’s hand, told him that they were wasting their time, and tried to get him to leave.
“You can’t be around them for too long, they’re all dangerous,” Levi said.
“Invictus isn’t dangerous,” Ace replied.
The talking bracelet, Invictus, wrapped around Ace’s wrist tried to defend his honor, claiming that he was always good and Levi cut him off before the conversation became even more inane.
“ We’re going,” Levi hissed.
He dragged Ace out of the bedroom, and The Rock was left on the side table, right next to Lush, pulsating softly, now emanating a friendly yellow hue.
“Oh it’s nice to meet you too,” Lush said.
The Rock was indeed alive.
