Memories from long ago

Old love- #3

"-I just can't believe my little man's going to be in highschool!"
Craig felt the stinging sensation of his cheeks being pinched and the kiss on his cheek before getting the sense to bat his mom's arm away.
"I can't believe he got into highschool either! He was just a few points away on that exam from having to work at a ramen shop for the rest of his life!"
"Harold! We talked about this-"
"Hey I don't praise mediocrity. So what if you passed? Your brother is at the most prestigious high school there is in this stinking town-"
"HAROLD!"
"What it's true isn't it?! If he wants me to praise him, he has to work for it like Brett does, and get that damn music idea out of his head!"
"For cod's sake Harold will you just say something nice about your own son for once?!"
"DON'T YOU FOR CODS SAKE ME! I know all about cod! I don't need you to lecture me!"
"IT'S HIS FIRST DAY OF HIGHSCHOOL!"
"AND SO WHAT HE AIN'T SPECIAL, A MILLION OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING THE SAME SHIT AS WE SPEAK!"
Craig, sick of the fighting, up and leaves, and despite what his mother says, she doesn't even notice.

"How's high school?"

The sun hangs low in the sky, the waves shimmer in the distance, the air is warm and inviting, a scene ripped straight from a book.

"Ugh, you're lucky you don't have to go, that's for damn sure."

They sit up in the treehouse they built together when they were 12, well sort of built together, Craig just watched in fascination as Octavio did all the hammering and handed him a screw or two when he needed it.
It's not the prettiest, it being made of scrap metal, but it does work, and that's enough.

"That bad?"
"You don't know the half of it." Craig collapses on the ground, Octavio just rolled his eyes at him.
"Better than being with that stuffy council all day. You don't know how lucky you are."

The council, is a group of 5 stuffy individuals whose job, supposedly, is to get Octavio ready so he can do whatever and blah blah blah and a bag of chips, as far as he's concerned all they've done is get in the way.

"You can say that once you've spent more than an hour around my dad." Craig sits up criss-cross applesauce and reaches for his notebook, when suddenly a thought hits him.
"Oh! By the way! How'd your thing go?"
"What thing?" Octavio lazily plucks a few strings on a... was it a shamisen? Pretty sure it was...
"The thing were you played for some duke duchess of fart ville or something."
Octavio stifles a laugh, "It was the count duke of Kutoka, and they hated it."
"WHAT?! But you've- WE'VE been practicing that-"
"You know how they are, they just don't get it like we do. Swear it, when I get my birthright I'm going to tear this town up, tired of these quiet country town aesthetics, we need to wake this place up!"
Getting excited, eyes shining, hands curled into fists, craig finds himself standing up, "yeah, yeah! WAKE THIS TOWN UP!"
"SUKER PUNCH THEM IN THE FACE!"
"WITH THE POWER OF MUSIIIICCC!!!" craig punches the wall and immediately regrets it, "AW FUCK! OW! SON OF A FISH!"
Octavio nearly busts a gut laughing, "a-are- are- are you o-okay?!"
Cheeks nice and rosy, Craig attempts to shake the whole thing off, "y-yeah I'm fine, let's just get this jam sesh going..."
"G-got the sheet music?" Octavio asks, still laughing.
"Right here!"
Grateful for the change in subject, he hands it over, Octavio immediately frowns and shakes his head.
"Che- Craig- what the fuck is this?"
"...sheet music...?" Craig says, quizzically.
"You put 10 damn notes in a OCTave- for fucks sake, do you not know what a Octagon is?!"
"Yeah... it's a shape!"
"With how many sides?"
"....5....?" craig tilts his head to the side, his head in deep thought.
Octavio slaps himself and sighs a long drawn out one, most likely wondering how he puts up with this idiot.
"I'm going to fix this while you do... whatever."

Craig is 15 and Brett is 16. Brett is just the perfect brother, he always does what he's asked, he's on the way to be a lawyer, he's just so fish-fucking, butter-melting, butt-clenching perfect.
And Craig cannot stand it. He can't have one egg-cracking moment without his PERFECT brother being mentioned.
And for a hormonal teenager who's only comfort is outside the classroom and home, he can't fucking stand it.

"I'm going to tear this place up, spread my blood all upon you, rub my victory in your face, when they scream and shout my name, yours will be in a grave...? Craig, no joke, whats wrong with you?"
"Whats wrong... with the world...?" Craig retorts back, eyes narrowed and hand placed on chin.
"Don't give me that Craig. not only do these suck, they scream "I have issues I need to talk out."
"Well, I don't. Do you have issued you need to talk about?"
""It is your brother again?"
"...Yeah..."
"I keep telling you, you've just got to ignore them."
"Ugh, that's easy for you to say you're an emperor? Prince? King? What are you again?"
"You know that being a noble isn't as cracked up as it is. I can't do anything I want to do unless i go behind their back
"I can't do anything I want to do either! That asshole keeps yelling at me all the damn time! "Why don't you get that stupid musician idea out of your head?! Meh, meh meh meh," craig says in a mocking tone, his hand opening and closing like a puppet.
"You really don't know how luck-"
"You don't know how lucky you are! You live in a palace and all you do is complain, complain, complain-"
"You do the exact same thing, don't give me that shit Craig!"
"...Say you're right we both do the same shit! We're the same! I just have more limbs!"
...How did the rest of that conversation go...?
Didn't we go out to eat...?
I can't remember anymore...
I think I still have a picture from that day somewhere...

...

Cap'n snaps out of his thoughts and is suddenly thrust into reality, he's 3 years shy of being 100, he isn't 15, and he's sitting on the bench in the remains of what Octo valley used to be, watching DJ Octavio sleep in his snowglobe while still having his tentacles curled around his wasa- Wait, it's night?! When did that happen?!
"It's alright gramps, I'll take the night shift." Marie seemingly appears out of nowhere, wearing her kimono and holding a umbrella.
"O-oh Marie- I was just-"
Marie squints, giving him a suspicious look, "What's wrong?"
"Just thinking about... how fast time goes by."
"Eh... What are you talking about?"
He quickly trie to change the subject, " You don't need to worry about me squiddo! I can handle watching him for a night!"
Out of the corner of his eyes he sees him movement in the snowglobe. Guess he really isn't sleeping.
"Last time you said that you fell asleep and he nearly escaped. I can handle it, go sleep inside the cabin gramps."
"But-"
"You've been watching him all day, take a rest."
"...Well... If you insist."
Cap'n thrusts open the small door and Marie takes a seat on the bench, he stares at her for a moment before piping up a final time,
"Good night, squiddo."
"Good night Gramps."

Before he can go to sleep, he visits the beast that sleeps underneath the cabin, he digs around in photo album after photo album and-
Hold on. A love poem...?
The paper had been wrinkled and stuffed behind a photo of Octavio frowning, how old was he then?
In deep thought, Cap'n carefully unfolds the crumpled piece of paper and reads:

"Oh what a creature you are!
Such elegance, such grace!
When I hear you call my name on your sweet lips-
My whole world is forever changed!"

Cap'n stares at in silence for a long moment and heads to bed.

But not even sleep can chace what happened all that time ago.

Craig was 16 when he first realized he was in love with his best friend. No matter how hard he tried to forget, but he always remembered, how it felt when he first realized, how fast his heart beat, how dreamlike it was, before the sick feeling came upon him and he crashed down harder than a airplane.

Like with everything else in his life, he vented this out through writing lyrics, but he quickly realized that was terrible idea after Octavio read one out loud.

"Your tentacles haunt me at night.
Your skin so smooth I'll-"
"Youweren'tsupposedtoreadthat!" Craig yanks it out of his hand, cheeks red and loose papers flying.
"So you have a crush?"
"W-w-what?! No?!"
"You're awful at lying Craig, I almost read an entire... thing about how pretty some girl is. You don't need to lie to me, so what you have a crush on some octoling girl in town you share classes with?"
"I-I don't have a crush, and that's that!"
"Sure you don't."

After that he wrote them late at night and hid them in his futon. Once it started getting crinkly when he rolled it up to put it back into the closet, he started hiding them in a drawer with a fake bottom. Now he was just left with his thoughts. How handsome he was, what it must feel to kiss him, what does it feel like to kiss? Would he be awful at it the first time? How could he ever tell him without ruining their friendship? Was it worth saying anything at all?
Eventually the answer to that last one was no. It wasn't.

Although he doesn't want to admit it... sometimes...
Shut up."
Sometimes...
"I mean it, shut up stupid thoughts."
He still gets that same feeling in the very pit of his stomach.
"That's not true, now go to sleep stupid head of mine."