5. Why.?

“ I don’t know why you didn’t finish packing last night,” Turney complained behind Octavius. “Or, you know, you could have just asked Henry to do it, like you normally do.”

Neatly placing his socks into his suitcase, he sniffed indignantly. “I’ll have you know, I am perfectly capable of packing my own suitcase! I’m not a child.”

“So, you are choosing to go without underwear then? Unless you put them in your suit trunk…and you sure did pack a lot of suits to wear on vacation.”

Octavius opened his mouth, looked down and winced. “I would have remembered!” he cried.

Turney chuckled as he moved to the dresser, pulled open a drawer, and returned to his side, handing him a stack of his undergarments. He took them with a pout and set them inside the suitcase.

“Are you all packed?” he asked, his pout still out.

“I packed last night, and my suitcase is already in the front hall.”

“Then help me pack my toiletries, pleaseee.” He held up the small, boxy leather bag.

Turney rolled his eyes, leaned down to drop a kiss on his lips, before taking it from him.

Octavius slowly smiled as the zombie disappeared into the bathroom. Quickly, he pulled out the jars of glitter he had hidden under the bed and started packing them away.

“Octavius, what shampoo…” Turney trailed off.

He winced, glancing up at the bathroom door, where he sheepishly met the zombie’s gaze.

“And what do you have there, Octavius?” Turney asked.

The smile on the zombie’s face definitely felt threatening…towards his glitter.

Octavius cleared his throat, and said, with a hopeful smile, “It’s…uh…emergency…glitter?”

“Emergency…glitter…” Turney mouthed slowly.

“Yes…”

The zombie’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t need to bring your glitter with you on vacation!”

“But it’s EMERGENCY glitter! I need it!”

“In what world would you possibly need glitter on vacation at a convention slash water park, or whatever the hell this place is?!”

“It’s a water fun-time slash adventure park, slash hotel, slash convention center.”

Well, he had just made the fun-time part up, as he needed something to distract Turney from his glitter.

“Why won’t you just tell me where we are going?”

“Because it’s a surprise! It’s fine! You’ll drive, I’ll navigate for you, and we will all get there in one piece.”

Would flying be faster? Yes…but there was no way in hell he’d let them put his baby Sprinkle underneath a plane! Besides, car trips were fun! And he had some pixie sticks stashed in their new van, so he wouldn’t even have to nap!

“If you say so,” Turney sighed. The man glanced down at his suitcase, before looking back into the bathroom. “You know what, let me just fetch Henry to help you. It would likely be faster.”

“Likely,” Octavius conceded.

Not that he couldn’t pack his own suitcase! Octavius could, he had done so many times before. He didn’t NEED Henry to do it… It just went faster when he did. It wasn’t Octavius’ fault that he sometimes forgot things and was easily distracted…

Turney set the bag down and headed for the door, stopping before leaving to say, with a pointed look, “No glitter.”

Octavius hmphed, popping his bottom lip out as he glared. The zombie rolled his eyes and repeated himself before finally leaving.

Eyeing the door, he listened and waited. The moment Turney was far enough away, Octavius let out an evil laugh, and hid a bottle—or four—in the lining of his suitcase, wedging his socks around them, to make sure they wouldn’t move.

“What Turney doesn’t know can’t hurt him, hehe.”

Or rather…can’t complain about.

After sending Henry off to help his boyfriend pack, Turney found himself in the remodeled room that was now basically just Bubby’s aquarium. The vampire had really taken over the whole room and beyond. Though, ‘the beyond’ was just him adding small, curved golden ramps to every single staircase, to allow Bubby access to the other floors. Turney wasn’t sure how it worked with the steep angles, but…he was guessing magic.

Eyeing the room, he looked around for Bubby. The walls that had once been a deep navy-blue were now an underwater mural. Gone was the single wall tank, replaced by one that ended a foot from the door on either side. Curving along all four walls and the ceiling, the tank went from the floor upwards, and appeared to be about three feet thick.

The end of the tank, to the right of the door, had a swirling open tube that came down from midway to rest on the floor, opening up to a small, dimpled glass platform. In the tank itself, there was a whole coral reef going on inside, some other aquatic life, and a sunken pirate ship.

Since the parlor room had been large to start with, even with the aquarium, there was still a good-sized space in the center, plenty enough to walk around.

Turney peered curiously at the tube, that was no doubt how Bubby got out in his ‘Bubblemobile’. At a flicker of movement above, he glanced upward to find the porcupine puffer fish right there, staring at him.

Smiling hesitantly at the fish, Turney said, “When we get back…let’s…become friends?”

Bubby blew a few bubbles at the glass, before rapidly swimming to the tank entrance of the swirling tube. Seconds later, the glass hamster ball popped out onto the dipped platform. Turney eyed it with a raised brow, taking a startled step back when, out of nowhere, Bubby rammed into his left foot.

“B-Bubby?!” He stumbled back a few steps more when the fish repeated the action. After the fifth time, Bubby stopped to blow bubbles fiercely in his direction, before rolling away.

Turney watched him go, feeling baffled. “I…was just attacked by a baby fish…” he groaned. “I’m in a feud with a fish… Why…?”