Eye of the storm

simba-bonfamille-lyons​:

Simba went back to packing, even if there wasn’t much left. He felt jittery. Didn’t want the packing to come to an end, because he knew what would happen when it did. He’d been friends with enough people who moved out of sleepy little Swynlake. It was hard to maintain those friendships even when you could text and call with any frequency. Even Nala and Simba’s messages had drifted. They kept up with each other, of course. Every few days there was a text and they FaceTime and called, but it wasn’t the same.

There were parts of Nala’s life Simba would never know now and…it still hurt, sometimes, if he thought about it for too long. 

Marzel would be in the bloody ocean. Doing amazing things, he was sure. Keeping his family safe, his community safe. He would be busy, and, honestly, so would Simba. 

The squeeze at his shoulder took him by surprise and he looked over at Marzel. The thanks caught him off guard too. As did the hug, but he wasn’t going to say no. He stepped forward and wrapped his good arm around his friend. He wished that he could hug him with both. He supposed that would just have to wait until they saw each other again.

When he pulled back, his eyes were glassy, but he just sniffled and glanced down, blinking once to pull the tears, and his emotions back. He cleared his throat and smiled.

“Thank you, too,” Simba told him affectionately. “And you’re–you’re gonna be brilliant. I know it. Stay safe, alright? I’ll, uh–I’ll miss you. Let me know when you get there, yeah?”

Marzel nodded, he could do that much, really that was barely anything. Letting Simba know that he was safe and as safe could be.

The ocean wasn’t a sure thing, but neither was living on land.

Marzel would continue to make each choice day by day and try not to regret them. He had enough deaths and regrets to last him the rest of his life.

simba-bonfamille-lyons​:

Part of the reason that Simba loved magic so much was just this kind of thing: learning about currents and the sea life and telling time. He could imagine it. Swimming along and suddenly feeling the water around you change, like a fall breeze. Or sea turtles migrating. It seemed beautiful and wonderful. His imagination could run wild with it. When he’d been younger, he’d loved when his fairy friends told him about their hollows. He wasn’t ever…envious. (Okay, maybe when he’d been a kid.) He just thought it was lovely. Just like any other culture. He loved it in the same way he loved going to the Qin’s Chinese New Year’s dinners or Christmas with the Bonfamilles.

Simba smiled softly at Marzel’s mentioning of Marisa. His heart squeezed, thinking of the times he had spent with them. Marisa so eager and bright-eyed, wanting to know everything. Marzel, grumpily following along. 

He fiddled with another shirt before he laid it gently in the box he was packing.

“Yeah, we’re not all bad, eh? And you’ll miss our food, I bet. I got you hooked on chocolate bars, admit it.” He gave Marzel a little smile. “You’ll be alright. You need to be with your pod, your family right now.” Simba reached over and gave Marzel a squeeze on the shoulder. 

“Don’t worry about my birthday.” Don’t worry about me. “I can stay 30 forever to you. I am okay with that.” 

Marzel smiled and nodded, Simba was not a friend that he had thought he wanted at the beginning of this, but he was a friend he didn’t know he needed. “You’ll have to send boxes of snacks to one of our connections. If not I’ll be forced to come back sooner to get my fix.” Marzel teased with a small smile.

Another box taped shut and Marzel knew there were words that needed to be said before he could leave. Before he walked away from any of this. He looked up at Simba at the squeeze on his shoulder.

brucewhite​:

Bruce shook his head. Marzel had already done so much for him. Maybe he didn’t even realize how much. Over the past few months, there had been moments when Bruce felt very alone. When he worried he might never find a community on land. But Marzel had joined that small circle of people Bruce considered his friends, and going out to get drinks with him or just chatting at town events made Bruce feel like maybe he could get the hang of this whole fitting-in thing. 

“You’ve done plenty, Marzel. I think I should be asking what you might need from me,” Bruce replied seriously. Wasn’t that what friendship was all about? The give and the take? And now Marzel was a friend, even if he would be leaving soon. 

“Your friendship was more than enough. It reminded me the strength I have for those that I consider my friends and family.” It was something he lost when his fiance had been poached. There was a darkness that Marzel had seen the world with.

But now as dark as Marisa’s death was. He didn’t blame this land, he didn’t blame the people. He blamed only who was responsible. And that was growth for him.

simba-bonfamille-lyons​:

“Hm? What?” Simba had heard the sorry, but he wanted to pretend he didn’t. There was a lump in his throat that if he tried to acknowledge something like an apology, he would never manage to get through it without breaking down into tears. And he couldn’t do that to Marzel.

Marzel had every right to leave Swynlake. To go back to the ocean. To hate Swynlake. To hate humans. 

Part of Simba hated it too. He didn’t know if it was just grief or anger or all the lies he had been told his entire life. Simba didn’t know what to do with that part of himself either. This part of himself he had built all the other parts around. He felt like he was a house of cards, collapsing. 

And this wasn’t about him. It was about Marzel.

So, Simba smiled and clapped Marzel on the shoulder. “Of course you won’t be. Besides, you gotta come back or else, I dunno, doom or something will fall on the whole town. Hey, how do you keep track of time in the ocean? I guess you wouldn’t have calendars down there.” 

“Currents and the sea life can tell you a lot about what season it is, late season early season from there is easy enough to determine. But days are harder. You’ll have to forgive me if I miss your birthday by a week or so.” Had Marzel ever been this friendly, this willing to tease. While this was Simba and that wasn’t hard to imagine, Marzel could tell he was putting on a face. Trying to make it seem like he was better than he was. But after losing so many people it was difficult to and Marzel wasn’t sure how much more death he could handle.

“I plan to visit land more often, once a season at the least. Marisa loved the culture of humans in general. I’m not going to turn my back on that.” If his time here had taught him anything it was that.