10. S1: Pipes and Privacy

I was not dead btw. I worked on 3 Glitch Tech fanfics and 1 She-Ra fanfic. That's 4 documents during my dead period. If you're curious, you can check them out. Now I have 3 active projects from 3 different fandoms :/

Also, enjoy! Hope you like it.

Do you remember the last time you slept like a baby? You know, being all innocent and uncaring about what the world will offer tomorrow?

Of course not. You're not a baby. If you were, you wouldn't be here as you haven't learned how to comprehend the complexities of daily life. Even full-grown adults struggle in handling such hardships. This was also the reason many of them go on vacations, as to wind down and relax. They'd never be able to sleep like a baby again but darn, they'd definitely get close.

Sasha, the blonde middle-schooler human girl from another world, wouldn't call her situation a vacation. Not by any means. But she'd admit, the free time available did have its perks. For example, being able to sleep without caring about homework. That might sound dramatic but this was middle-school; homework was life-or-death.

Tranquil, her eyes fluttered open, peaceful and calm. She could hear the morning chirps and songs of nearby birds, providing a sense of serenity. For some odd reason, her room was cooler than usual. She didn't mind; in fact, she welcomed it. It wasn't too cold and combined with the humidity, the whole place felt comforting.

"Good morning, sunshine." she mumbled half-asleep, her tone quiet but pleased. She just had a pleasant dream; she was at her uncle's ranch and they did all sorts of activities like hiking, fishing and even a bit of horse-riding. All in all, she felt fully refreshed and ready for the day. A rare sentiment in of itself. Lifting her upper body, Sasha stretched her arms up high, relieving her tensed muscles. A small ray of sunlight glimmered into the basement, adding to the morning setting.

"Looks like it's going to be a beautiful day!" chuckled Sasha optimistically.

To her misfortune, she had broken a sacred rule of Amphibia; one must not tempt the frog gods.

Her vision cleared, the teen realized that the ceiling was a lot closer than it was yesterday. That was very odd. Also, she didn't notice it earlier but there was a certain and slightly foul stench too. Looking around, she finally discovered the problem.

The basement was flooded. Her room was flooded.

"… AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

What a wonderful way to start the day.

After her scream that woke up the whole Plantar family and their neighbours, should they have any, Sasha was evacuated to the dry and comfy living room. Only her shoes were wet, having to paddle and walk through the mossy waters to escape. She had also saved her friend Anne's backpack, albeit most of its contents have turned soggy.

Hop Pop walked out of the cellar, his whole body soaking wet. He wasn't bothered by it at all, despite wearing absorbent clothes. Was it because he's a frog?

"Well, I found the problem; one of the water pipes burst open. Darn burrow bugs must've chewed them apart." Hop Pop explained, still dripping wet. "I got an idea where the leak is but it'll take a while to find and fix it. That means you're going to have to find a place to bunk down for a while."

Well, that was too bad. It might not have been the comfiest place but she did like her mattress. "I guess I could just sleep on the couch. It's not that bad."

Suddenly, Sprig jumped in with a proposal. "Wait, wait! I got an idea!" He said, waving his arms up. "Why not have Sasha sleep in my room? We're like, super best friends! BFFs!"

Sasha raised an eyebrow. Sharing a room with Sprig? Well, she wasn't against the idea. She remembered the several times her, Marcy and Anne all had stayed at the latter's house for a night. They'd do all sorts of activities, like gossiping, getting their hair done and of course, watching some late-night television. Though, Anne rarely was able to stay awake.

Hop Pop scratched his chin. "I don't know, Sprig. It's one thing being friends, it's another being roommates. Everything starts off all peachy and the like but then you get into their space and they get into yours, and you can't stand how they keep on whistling all the time and of course, they complain whenever you got to clean your webbed crusties out."

"YES I HAVE TO DO IT IN OUR ROOM! IT HAS THE BEST LIGHTING!" Hop Pop yelled furiously, only to cough. "The point being, roommates are a big deal."

Sasha rolled her eyes at his outburst. "Pfft, you're so dramatic, Hop Pop. I've been to sleepovers before. I know what I'm doing."

"Yeah, Hop Pop! Plus, we're BFFs!"

"You already said that, Sprig—"

"Sprasha against the world! Or maybe Sashrig." He scratched his chin thoughtfully. "It's a work in progress."

Hop Pop sighed, shaking his head. "Mark my words, it will all end in disaster!" he warned, then walked backwards into the cellar, closing the door slowly. "Mark my words..."

Watching the old frog disappear from view, Sasha clicked her tongue and turned to Sprig, the backpack slung behind her shoulder. "So, lead the way."

One thing that Sasha took note of was that the house had a second floor. She knew there were stairs leading up but she never did use them. After all, her room was in the basement; the opposite of that. And while her curiosity did spurn her to check, she never got the time. She was, after all, either helping the Plantars with the farm or entertaining them. Rarely was she ever alone since she got here.

Also because it's just another floor. She didn't expect to find much.

"Welcome to my personal space!" announced Sprig, showing around his room.

It was as she expected a little boy's room to look like; just greener. Instead of a normal bed, there was a patchwork hammock. There was also a shelf that looked like it was carved out from a huge log and several floating ones. The centrepiece, however, has to be the large table at the end, by the window.

"You can put your stuff right over there!" he said, pointing at the spare mattress nearby. "After all, mi casa e su casa."

Sasha smirked. "Woah, Sprig. Where did you learn how to speak Spanish?"

"I was speaking what now?"

Sasha placed her bag and walked around, absorbing the view. She had to admit, the place looked really nice. She especially liked all the foliage, even though she was sure that came with the house. She turned to the window and pushed it open, letting the warm breeze flow in. "Nice digs you got here."

"That's not even the best part! Come on, I wanna show you something!" Sprig said, pulling her to his hammock.

There, Sprig waved his hand in front of a shelf above his sleeping place. On it, three makeshift-looking figures stood straight. Emphasize on the 'makeshift'; it was literally a bunch of twigs and sticks tied up together to make what looked like a person. This world had processed foods and no one decided to invent commercial toys?

"Behold! The crown jewel of the room!" Sprig cheered.

"Oh neat, some dolls."

The boy frog laughed sarcastically. "Ahahaha! ... No. These aren't dolls. They're action figures, based on the battle of— Where'd you go?"

Sprig looked around, realizing that Sasha was no longer nearby. She was at a different part of the room, looking at his houseplant; a giant flytrap the size of his body. Sasha poked the plant on its huge cheeks, giggling. "Hehehe, you're so chubby."

"Oh, I see you met Steve." Sprig exclaimed, walking up next to her. "Yeah, he's a big boy with really big chompers!"

"I noticed. Say, where'd you even get this?" Sasha asked, poking the plant again. It wiggled slightly, amusing her.

"I don't know."

"... What do you mean you don't know?"

Sprig shrugged. "I don't know. Steve just kind of appeared one day so I put a pot of dirt around him. He's usually very quiet."

"So it seems..." Sasha replied with a nod. Unbeknownst to her, the plant growled deeply. "That's neat. Creepy but neat."

"I got other stuff too! There's my chest of treasured junk where I keep all my treasured junk, my miniature catapult and of course, how could I forget, the arrow in the wall!" explained Sprig, showcasing each one of them. "There's a bunch of things here and I'm sure you'll love!"

Sasha was always the snooping type. If there was a mystery, she wanted to be the first to know about it. Or at the very least, beat the other person to it. When she visited her friends' houses, this was the same case as well. She wasn't very sneaky herself but she did know how to disappear when she needed to. There was a time and place to be either the centre of attention or to not be caught.

Still, never did anyone happily show her around. Usually, they just lead her somewhere and that was it. So having a grand tour of his private space was a new feeling.

Sasha smiled. "Yeah, why not? What else you got here?"

"This jar of candied bees." Out of nowhere, Sprig pulled out exactly that; a jar of candied bees. He opened the jar and with his tongue, snatched one into his mouth. "Want one?"

"... No."

There were many reasons why frogs rarely travel when the sun came down, many of which were exactly the same as human beings. However, one key factor was the lower temperature. Being cold-blooded as they were, they have yet to figure out the biological differences between amphibians and mammals. Being able to regulate your internal temperature can do wonders to a person's very survival.

One could spend hours explaining the science behind it but to cut it short; frogs hate the cold.

"So... hot..." Sasha groaned in her pyjamas. Despite being underdressed, it was still too warm for her liking and she was sweating as if it was a sauna.

Lifting herself up with groggy eyes, she dragged her feet towards the windows and pushed it open. The cold breeze, a contrast to the warm and pleasant one in the daytime, washed her face, cooling her down.

"Aah... Much better." said Sasha, walking back to her 'bed'. In a few minutes, the room turned chilly, as if someone turned the thermostat down during a summer's day.

Immediately after, nature took its course. "Brr... So cold..." Sprig muttered, closing the previously-opened window. And so, the room naturally turned warm once more.

But Sasha was no quitter. Far too tired to deal with anything else, she simply stood back up and opened the window again without a word. In another few minutes, Sprig repeated his actions; closing the window for warmth.

There was no way to know how many times this continued. However, a good indicator of whether it's too much or too little were the windows themselves. Or more precisely, its hinges.

Sasha pushed the windows open, a bit too strongly. She was getting annoyed that the window kept closing but was not aware of the cause. She just added more force like some barbarian, intent of keeping it open. This, unfortunately, proved to be the windows' demise.

Snap!

"Huh, wha?" Sasha croaked, opening her eyes slightly wider. Out of nowhere, her arm felt heavy and looking at it closer, she discovered that the windows had literally fallen off its hinges. "Oh... Eh, whatever." she shrugged, going back to sleep.

Reaching out, Sprig attempted to close the window again. Instead, his hands grabbed nothing and found the windows broken and on his table. He turned to the sleeping Sasha, exhausted and freezing.

Frustrated, he grumbled.

The next day, Sasha was nonchalantly eating a bowl of cereal. Thankfully, this was normal cereal and not made from bugs squished into cornflake pieces. The milk, on the other hand, was a completely different story, one she was not willing to think about.

"Woah, dude. You okay?" Sasha asked, grabbing a spoonful into her mouth.

Sprig blinked. Left eyelid, then right. "Yep, totally okay. Just… didn't get much sleep last night."

"Oh, I totally get you! The wind kept closing the windows every time I opened them!" said Sasha, throwing her spoon around. "Do you know how hot it was when they're closed? Like, extremely."

"Which reminds me; you need to get your windows fixed."

Sprig stared at the teenage human, casually eating cereal like it was no one's business. His eyes squinted, albeit with dark bags under his eyes.

Much like every night before bed, Sprig did his nightly rituals as per norm. There were a few minor difference, mostly due to the broken windows he hadn't asked Hop Pop to fix yet. Since the nights were too cold for him, causing him to literally freeze up like a popsicle, Sprig decided to wrap himself up with layers upon layers of blankets, all snug and warm.

He was, in all essence except food, akin to that of a frog burrito. Now all he needed was a good night's rest…

"And then, this girl Maggie comes by and steals Anne's sticky rice wrap! I mean, she could've asked and Anne would definitely give her some; she's nice like that. But still, rude! So, I walked up to them and stopped the fight. You know, like the friend I am." Sasha told, her tale more or less accurate.

Suddenly, Sasha heard a snore. Well, actually a ribbit. Apparently frogs in this universe didn't snore like humans. Then again, she wasn't sure if frogs in her own universe snored at all. They were all so slimy and gross, the Plantars included but she tolerated them.

Nonetheless, her story was not done. "Sprig? Spriiiig? Hellooo?" Sasha called out, snapping her fingers at his direction. Yet with extra blankets, he continued to sleep snugly on his hammock with a snore. Er, ribbit. In the end, she decided to be a bit more provocative.

Poosh! "Huh, what?! Are the mosquitoes back?! We already gave our offering last month!" Sprig yelled, startled and awake. It took him a second to realize he was still in his room, safe and sound from any giant frog-eating insects that wanted to suck out his blood. The only difference being the extra pillow on his tightly-wrapped body. "W-what's going on?"

Sasha glared with a frown. "Dude, you fell asleep during my story!"

"Sorry, Sasha. I just—" He yawned. "I didn't get enough sleep..."

"Well, try to stay awake!" she argued, rolling her eyes as if it was obvious. "I still have tons of stuff to tell. Plus, it'd be weird to say them out loud when no one is listening."

"Y-yeah, yeah, sure. I'll— Haah! … I'll try my best…"

Satisfied with the response, she huffed. "So anyway, I invited Maggie to my party but really it was just a formality. And uh," Suspicious, she turned to Sprig. "Wait, how much did you actually hear?"

Sprig blinked with tired eyes. "I, uh… I-I don't know. I didn't keep track."

Sasha threw her hands in frustration. "Ugh, Sprig! You didn't listen to any of it!" With crossed arms, she pouted. "Fine, I'll just retell everything."

Alert! Alert! Crisis detected! Little frog boy brain too worn out to comprehend! Initiating crisis aversion response!

"Y-you don't have to! You can just tell it to me tomorrow. You know, when the sun is up and life is full of activity!" Sprig implored, extremely desperate.

Crisis aversion response was successfully launched.

"No, we're doing this tonight while the mind is fresh. If I tell it to you tomorrow, it wouldn't be the same! Heck, I might actually forget to tell you at all!" She then pointed at Sprig, scowling. "So you better be listening or we'll be doing this a third time."

Crisis aversion response failed.

Sprig grabbed the thrown pillow and snuffed it into his face.

The past few nights, Sprig sensed a pattern. A pattern that went under the name 'Sasha'. To be fair, it wasn't as if he hated his currently-only-best friend. Despite the difficulties, he wasn't that peeved by her behaviour and of course, cared about her. It just took some time to get used to sleeping in the same room with her.

He just didn't expect it to take this long.

"So…" Hop Pop began, pouring himself a cup of Joe. Sasha wasn't sure if the black liquid was even coffee to begin with but it's best to not ask. She already knew where the milk in Wartwood came from, she didn't need to know what counted as 'coffee' here. "How are you two kids holding up? Feeling a bit murder-y? Not to worry, I won't judge."

Sasha took a gulp of her tea. At least she knew these came from leaves. "Actually, we've been having a blast! Me and Sprig? We just work, even at the toughest of times. Isn't that right, Sprig?"

Sprig, whose head was currently planted onto the table, weakly lifted his hand for a thumbs-up.

Hop Pop sipped a bit of his coffee. "Really? Well, I'll be darned; I thought you two would break in a couple of days. I'm genuinely surprised."

"Yeah, you should because we're Sprasha, or Sashrig! Whichever works best!"

"Well, it's good to see you two doing well with one another." Hop Pop commended with a smile. "Oh, which reminds me! Sasha, I haven't found that leak of yours yet so you might have to stay with Sprig for a bit longer. At least, until I find the darn leak and patch it up."

Sasha waved her hand nonchalantly. "Oh, it's cool! Take your time, we can handle it."

Sprig grumbled, contesting, though no one heard him.

Quickly finishing her tea, Sasha stretched her arms and stood up. "Aaa, that feels so much better. I'm heading out for some Vitamin D. Come on, Sprig."

Sasha grabbed the young frog boy and slung him underneath her arms like a handbag and ran off, leaving Hopadiah Plantar and Polly Plantar alone in the kitchen. The two stared at the door as they left, more so on their male family member.

Polly sipped some tea, smugly. "Mmm, they didn't kill each other like you guessed."

"Well, I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong." Hop Pop replied with a deadpan snark. "But I wasn't completely wrong. Sasha might be able to handle it but Sprig..."

"He's gonna kill her."

"Nonsense!" He scolded. "Sprig's too nice! Probably jump into the waters to find the leak himself. Either that or sleep in the couch."

Once more, Polly sipped some tea. "Yep."

...

...

...

"You're getting old, Hop Pop."

"That's not why I haven't found the leak!"

Remember when Sprig sensed a pattern during his sleeping hours? Back then it was just a guess; an assumption or hypothesis without further proof. It had been only two nights after all, so who couldn't say it was just an outlier?

Well, after several additional nights, he was definitely sure.

On day four of being roomies, Sasha had gone through his box of treasured junk without his permission. He spent hours organising its contents due to it being too perfectly full. He should've gotten a bigger box but where else was he supposed to get one as stylish as this?

On day six, he learned that Sasha is a light sleeper and unfortunately for her, Sprig was prone to ribbitting. Any ordinary frog would've just tried their best to sleep but Sasha was a human, not a frog. So, of course, she did the non-amphibian thing and threw a pillow to the sleeping Sprig, causing him to fall out of his hammock while she continued to sleep soundly.

His eye still hurts when he opened them.

Speaking of pillows...

"Yo, dude! Catch!"

"Wha?"

Sprig, who was minding his one business and neatly folding his clothes, got a debatably fluffy pillow hit him in the face. One would have thought that a pillow wouldn't do much but Sprig was literally roughly the size of one at less than half his weight. Also, the fact that pillows were not soft at all in this household.

Knocked on the head, Sprig was left disoriented and lost his balance. He backpedalled out of control and with a yelp, crashed into his potted plant.

"Ugh..." Sprig groaned, rubbing his head.

From the other side of the room, Sasha gasped. "Oops, sorry dude! You okay?"

"Uh... No problem. Just..." Sprig continued rubbing his head, blinking slowly. "Headache..." Suddenly, he felt a sticky fluid drizzle on top of him and he realized, this was not his usual mucus either.

The plant, whom Sprig adopted and named Steve only to crash into just before, did not appreciate being touched and shoving was a form of physical contact. Thus, it did the one thing its instincts told; consume the life out of the young frog.

CHOMP

"... Holy guacamole."

Sasha watched as the dormant flora took a big bite and grabbed the entire top half of her roommate, leaving her shocked. The carnivorous plant gurgled and pulsated, struggling to swallow its prey like a python, possibly from the fact it didn't have a throat to begin with.

"MMMMMMGGGHHHH!" Sprig screamed as he was being digested, muffled only by Steve's cheeks.

Sasha, broken out of her shock, immediately ran towards him. She grabbed his exposed legs and began pulling. "Ah! Don't worry, Sprig! I got'chu, fam!"

Easier said than done really. Steve has a surprisingly tight grip, er, jaw, despite not having any bones. It was unrelenting and even with her average teenager girl strength, the plant still held its ground.

"Khh, come on! Let go, you— Gah, stupid plant!"

After what seemed to be an intense tug-of-war between girl and toothy flower, Sasha finally got the upper hand as the plant gradually lost its bite. Sprig's upper half was getting freed bit by bit and with a final tug, he was released from his would-be demise.

However, the pull was too strong and Sasha, surprised by the sudden tension loss, threw the boy over her shoulder while she herself fell onto her back. Sprig, who was covered head to lower torso with plant saliva, flew across the room, screaming for dear life.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH— OOF!" He shrieked, followed by the sudden stop of the bedroom wall. He landed on the vertical surface with a splat and slowly slid down, leaving a green trail behind. Losing stickiness, the goo snapped him off and into a sudden drop, crashing into his shelf of figurines.

"Sprig!" Sasha called out with worry, running after him. From behind the hammock, Sprig groaned in pain and yet, felt grateful for it. It was proof he wasn't plant-food. Yet.

Standing upright, he heard a crunch and felt something break underneath him. His heart stopped, realising his worst fears had come to fruition.

"Sprig?" Sasha asked, confused by his sudden quietness. In the boy's hands were his treasured and most valuable possessions; his action figures, now in twenty different pieces. Sprig was a big frog and he promised he wouldn't cry.

"Uh—"

"WilL yOu ExCuSe mE fOr a SeCoNd?!" Sprig bawled, running out of the room, leaving Sasha alone in the wake of night.

After an hour, Sasha was starting to get worried. She lived with the Plantars for almost two months and she had never seen Sprig that way before. He looked devastated and in a way she didn't think was possible, at least not until just then.

Sasha turned to the broken pieces lying around the hammock. Those figurines honestly looked pretty trashy to her but they meant a lot to him. She didn't understand the history behind them but they must've been special if he kept them on display.

She felt a sting in her chest. "... I should go apologize."

Walking down the stairs, she flipped the lights on. The mushrooms on the walls glowed a warm yellow hue, illuminating the living room.

"Sprig, are you here? Hello?" she called out, yet received no reply. The front door was closed so he definitely didn't leave the house. However, the cellar door was suspiciously wide open.

Being the only lead, Sasha walked into the dark and creepy cellar. She never noticed how unnerving the place was at night, especially with the splashing noise she was hearing.

Splash splash splash

Wait, splashing noise?

"Sprig, is that you?" she asked into the darkness, turning the cellar lights on. Once bright, she saw her roommate splashing around the surface of the deep water in frantic.

"Come on, where is it...?" he muttered to himself. Hearing Sasha's voice and the room instantaneously turning brighter, Sprig swam around, startled. "Ah, Sasha! What are you doing here?!"

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?" she asked back.

Sprig, floating in the water, blinked. "Nothing."

The teen pinched her bridge and groaned. "Look, it doesn't matter. I just wanted to say I'm sorry for breaking your toys. I didn't mean it, alright?"

Sprig waved his hand nonchalantly. "Pfft, it's fine. I mean, I did spend weeks trying to make them as accurate as possible and I cried for like, an hour at most, but they're just irreplaceable action figures. Hahaha..."

Sasha though didn't buy it. She wasn't sure what it was but she could tell it wasn't everything. "Sprig, are you hiding something?"

"Me? Hiding something?" he fake gasped. "No way! I'm not hiding anything!"

"Sprig..."

"If anything, you're the one hiding something! You know, after all the snooping you did!"

"Sprig..."

"Mi casa e su casa, whatever that means. But you're definitely hiding what it means!"

"SPRIG!" she yelled, causing him to clamp his mouth shut. "Just tell me what the problem is. I can deal with it."

His face scrunched up and his body twisted and turned. Whatever it was he wanted to say, it was making him uncomfortable. But he knew he couldn't hold it in for much longer. "Mmm...!" he whimpered.

While he struggled to give Sasha an answer, an ominous shadow loomed below him, large enough that both of them noticed.

"What the—" Before he could finish his sentence, a long and slimy tail slithered around and latched onto him. Suddenly, he was forcefully pulled underwater. "AH!"

"OH GOD, SPRIG!" Sasha shouted, immediately followed by jumping into the murky waters. "I'm coming, buddy!" She exclaimed, taking a deep breath and diving right in, all to save a friend.

It was so dark. Even with the basement lights above, the water was so cloudy and dark that Sasha could barely see. Off to the distance in front of her, she saw Sprig and a weird eel-like creature strangling his entire body. Sasha swam forward but before she could catch up, another of the eel creature appeared and wrapped onto her leg, pulling her away.

Seeing his BFF, Sprig internally screamed and wiggled even harder to break free of his captor. The creature reared its eyes to him and in a moment of reflex, shot his tongue out and boxed the animal into releasing him and swam upwards.

Meanwhile, Sasha, alarmed by the animal pulling her away, attempted to grab anything she could get her hands on. Pots, lanterns, anything really but ended up with a nearby submerged ladder. Not feeling picky, she hugged the ladder's legs tightly, refusing to let go. The creature detected her defiance and with its mouth open wide, screeched and rushed at her.

Sasha was not an experienced fighter but she wasn't a quitter either. Grabbing the tail with one hand, she pulled the unsuspecting creature to her and swung around the ladder, kicking it in its face. Stunned, the creature let go of her leg, allowing the teen to climb up for air.

Simultaneously, Sprig and Sasha appeared above the water's surface, gasping for oxygen. Despite his amphibious nature, Sprig was caught off guard and was unable to breathe properly while Sasha simply did not have the lungs of an Olympic swimmer.

"Huah! What in the world was that?!" Sasha frantically asked, her heartbeat racing to new heights.

"River lampreys!" Sprig answered with a shout. "They must've swum through the pipes!"

One of the river lampreys leapt at Sprig, ready to bite his head off. In response, he ducked into the water, dodging by a hair's breadth. Literally at that; Sprig distressingly discovered that his hat was off. "Wah! I'm naked!"

"They're too fast!" Sasha yelled, shifting to the left as a set of sharp teeth flew at her general direction. "We can't catch up while they're underwater! We need to even out the playing field!"

As if on cue, her old basement mattress appeared, floating by along with a pair of her pillows. Sasha nodded. "Huh, that can work."

Grabbing a pillow, Sasha climbed up onto the mattress. Her muscles tensed and finger clenched, the pillow being her only weapon. Sprig, seeing this, took a pillow as well though stayed in the pool. "Uh, now what?"

"We hit them." She replied, glaring at the lampreys circling them. "Hard."

A switch flipped in the lampreys' heads and suddenly, the two began their assault. Sasha might not have been that active in sports but she did play tennis with Anne. This was just that, except bigger.

With a swing of her pillow, she hit a lamprey in the face, sending it reeling back into the water. Sprig kept an eye out for the second one, only for it to jump out from below him. Taken by surprised, Sasha fell on her back, narrowly avoiding the hit.

"Sasha!" the young boy yelled. Turning around, he swatted an incoming lamprey away, skipping it across the room. Behind him, the other fish leapt at him but Sasha miraculously appeared and slammed her pillow down on it, pushing it deep into the waters.

The lampreys, however, were not very patient and continued to circle the duo, taking swipes and rushes whenever an opportunity arose.

"Argh!" Sasha yelled in pain, her hand having been gashed by their teeth. It just recently healed from her previous injury and now, the arm bled once more. "Son of a—!"

Noticing the blood, Sprig's eyes widened. "Ah, this wasn't what I wanted!"

Despite the tension, Sasha, all while heavily breathing, raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"I'm sorry, Sasha! I lied about why I came down here! I just wanted to fix the leak so you could go back to the cellar!" he admitted, crying his eyes out and fluttering his pillow. "I wasn't comfortable when you were in my room! You broke the windows, touched my stuff and threw pillows at me!"

"I just couldn't handle it anymore and wanted you out!"

Sasha felt her heart pierced as if it was shot by an arrow and not the romantic kind at that; it was painful, quick and direct. "W-why didn't you tell me?" she whispered a question.

"B-because..." he turned around and faced her, his eyes red in tears. "I didn't want to sound mean and hurt you! We're supposed to be BFFs!"

Best friends forever. Sasha often used that term without care but she never realised how much that meant for Sprig. The young boy with zero friends finally founded someone outside of his family circle and while he had some acquaintanceship with the townsfolk, they were just that: Acquaintances. Not friends.

She had always prided herself in her ability to read people and yet, she completely missed all the signs. Was she always this oblivious to her friends' feelings?

His words hurt deeply but she needed to hear it. If Sprig wasn't going to tell her, then who would? Who else would she trust to be honest enough and understanding of her issues? Who else but Sprig?

"Sprig, I'm—" Before she could finish, she was rudely interrupted by a lamprey jumping at her hungrily. Sasha swung her pillow reflexively but missed. "Hey! We're having a moment here!"

A moment that the two slimy fish did not care. In fact, this whole ordeal was taking too long for their liking. Intent on ending it quickly, the two lampreys swirled around each other like a coiled-up spring and blitzed straight at the girl. Sasha's eyes widened in shock but were quickly replaced by determination.

"Sprig!" she barked.

Without any further words, Sprig dove into the water and swam up at high speeds, rocketing himself out of the pool. From underneath, he batted the swirling lampreys' underbellies, breaking their formation. Sasha, on the other hand, jumped off the mattress like a trampoline, eying the two aquatic creatures.

"Say goodnight, you swamp slugs." And with that, she swung as hard as she could and sent the two splat painfully on the wall. The lampreys screeched, plopping into the murky pool before immediately surfacing.

Sasha lifted her pillow defensively. "There's more where that came from, ugly!"

"Yeah!" added Sprig.

Recognizing their loss, the two retreated it the bottom and with the same swirling technique, drilled a hole through the floor, draining the water with them. Immediately, the pool receded until all that was left was a shallow pond and a large hole in need of patching.

Sasha turned to her left and pointed. "Oh hey, there's the busted pipe." The said pipe still leaked out water, albeit slower than before.

Turning around, Sasha saw Sprig on the stairs, sitting dejectedly with the pillow off to the side. Her expression softened and she walked to right beside him, sitting down as well. Her bleeding arm tingled in pain but this was far more important.

"So... That was quite a night, huh?" She asked, breaking the cold silence. "Kinda funny with how many near-death experiences we keep getting ourselves into. Haha..."

Sprig did not laugh. An expected response but it was still awkward for her.

Sasha sighed. "Look Sprig, I'm sorry, okay?" she exclaimed, no jokes or sarcasm in her voice. "I should've been aware of your feelings these past few days. I thought that since you were okay with it early on, you wouldn't mind."

She scratched her head. "But I overstepped my boundaries. I didn't respect your personal space and made a mess of things. You didn't tell me because you were afraid but honestly, you were right about that. It's my fault that you had to deal with all of this."

Sasha placed her hand on his shoulder, prompting him to look up at her. "Next time, I want you to be completely honest with me and in turn, I'll make sure to listen. Okay, BFF?"

"... You promise?"

To answer, she made a crisscrossing motion on her chest. "Cross my heart and hope to fly."

Smiling, Sprig giggled. "Hehe, what does that mean?"

"Dunno." Sasha answered with a shrug, a smile on her face too. "Learned it from someone."

The duo let out a sigh of relief. This whole ordeal had been stressful and high tension, even though the monsters were a lot smaller. But emotions flared during these past few minutes and that tended to have an effect on people. For now, they were given a moment's respite. Just a period of silence to get their hearts and minds in the right place. They deserved it.

It didn't last.

"What in frog gods' names is going on here?!" Hop Pop yelled from the cellar door, holding a candlelight lamp.

Polly, who was on his head, took off her sleeping mask, revealing the horrible disgruntled face underneath. "Some of us are trying to sleep!"

Sasha and Sprig screamed.

Pouring a cup, Hop Pop handed the warm tea to Sasha who accepted it with a small thanks. Sprig sat beside her on the couch with the entire Plantar family in the living room. Her injured arm was bandaged up once more, much to the old frog's chagrin. Medicine wasn't exactly cheap in these neck of the woods.

"So I'm guessing the whole roommate thing didn't work out, huh?" He asked, earning a pair of nods from both of them. "Well, can't say I didn't warn ya. Everyone needs their personal space after all."

"Yeah, we learned that we were a lot more different than we thought which led to a whole bunch of problems." Sasha admitted. "But hey, we solved the cellar problem and found the leak! So that's a win."

"U-huh..." the old frog nodded. "I'm just glad you two didn't try to kill each other. It'd take weeks to get ourselves a proper hole for a funeral. Why, you'd be rotten by then."

Sprig swirled the tea in his hands and took a sip. He still felt at unease but at least the drink was decent. "Hey, Hop Pop? Do you think me and Sasha are friends?"

"Of course you are." Replied Hop Pop without hesitation. "Just because you can't be roommates, doesn't mean you're not friends. There's more to it than just being able to share a place to sleep. I'd even say you're both better friends than ever!"

Sprig's eyes sparkled. "Really?!"

With a smile, he nodded. "Without question. Ain't that right, Sasha?"

"Oh wow, this tea is really good." Sasha muttered, taking more sips. "Oh and yeah, friendship and stuff."

Her indifferent response had Hop Pop frown but to Sprig, he didn't mind. Sasha said yes and that was all the confirmation he needed. She wasn't a liar, as much as she acted like one. One can easily tell when she's being truthful. Taking another sip, his chest felt a pleasant warmth.

"Now, the couch is still vacant. Is that okay with you, Sasha?" Hop Pop asked, placing the teapot down. Sasha shrugged; her way to show affirmation.

After another cup or so, Sasha and Sprig moved her stuff down to the living room where she'd be staying for the next few days. The couch wasn't bad and at least she can leave the windows open. Sprig, on the other hand, finally got a good night's sleep.