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“So there you are!” Fish Eye cried as he and Hawk’s Eye approached the bar, where Tiger’s Eye was already slumped over a drink. “We waited and waited for you on the beach, and you never came back!” They sat down beside him in their usual spots, Fish Eye to his left and Hawk’s Eye to his right.
Tiger’s Eye took a long swallow of his drink and muttered, “I didn’t ask you to wait.”
“Hmph, well, next time I won’t,” Fish Eye sniffed.
“I guess you didn’t find the Pegasus then?” prompted Hawk’s Eye. When Tiger’s Eye shook his head, he asked, “What about that nerdy girl? You were soooo sure you’d make her fall for you, but I bet you didn’t!”
Fish Eye turned his little nose up in the air and informed them, “I’m not surprised. You’re way too dumb for a smart girl like that. All you know how to do is toss your hair and show off your muscles, and that’s not going to impress a woman who knows how to use her brain.”
“I didn’t ask for your opinion, Fish Eye,” Tiger’s Eye grumbled.
“You should! I know what women want, and good looks aren’t enough,” declared Fish Eye.
Ordinarily, Tiger’s Eye might have fought back—saying something like, “So you think I look good, then?” would be a great way to rile Fish Eye up (and probably make him blush)—but he wasn’t in the mood. He couldn’t quit dwelling on the “nerdy girl,” but not because she’d rejected him or because he’d failed to find the Pegasus in her Dream Mirror.
Instead, he kept remembering what she’d said: You must have friends too.
She dove right in to rescue that annoying kid, and then she put her mouth all over his! Tiger’s Eye remembered. And it wasn’t because she was in love with him, but just because he was her friend. Her dear friend, even though he was just a kid.
Tiger’s Eye had declared he didn’t need friends, but now that all the excitement was over and he had nothing to do but sit and think, he couldn’t help but ask himself again, She said I must have friends—but do I?
If he did have friends, they would be the two guys sitting to either side of him. Tiger’s Eye never spent time with anyone outside the tent except for his targets, and he never saw anyone inside the tent besides the rest of the Trio, Lemures, and occasionally Zirconia. Maybe the Amazoness Quartet from time to time, but they certainly didn’t count as friends.
Tiger’s Eye glanced from side to side at each of his compatriots and wondered, Would either of them do something like that for me, if I was in danger? Would they go to so much trouble to save my life? He decided he had to find out because otherwise, the question would weigh on him for the rest of the night.
“Are we friends?” Tiger’s Eye asked, breaking the silence that had grown among them. Hawk’s Eye had his head tilted back to drain his glass, but he lowered it suddenly and coughed.
“What?”
At the same time, Fish Eye glanced at him and hummed, “Hmm?” in a disinterested way.
Tiger’s Eye looked at each of them again and asked a second time, “Are you guys my friends?”
Both of them stared at him, then looked past him to meet each other’s eyes. To his acute embarrassment, they snickered before turning back to him.
“What kind of a question is that?” Hawk’s Eye scoffed as Fish Eye dissolved into giggles.
Tiger’s Eye felt his face burn in humiliation all the way to the tips of his pointed ears. He slammed his glass down on the bar and jumped to his feet to glower down at them.
“W-well, I’m not your friend either! I don’t need friends, especially not friends like you!” Tiger’s Eye yelled at them. He turned on his booted heel and stalked away as quickly as he could without breaking into a run.
From behind him, he heard Hawk’s Eye exclaim, “What the hell?!”
“Tiger’s Eye! Wait!” Fish Eye called after him.
Of course, he wasn’t going to wait so they could laugh at him some more or tell him what a dumbass he was for ever thinking he mattered to them.
That’s just fine, because they don’t matter to me either! he reassured himself on his way to his small room, where he slammed the door closed behind him. The only reason I have anything to do with them is because Zirconia’s making us look for the Pegasus together—and as soon as I find him, I’m through with them! Once Zirconia has what she wants, I’ll be free to leave the circus, and I’ll never have to see them again.
He pulled his boots off them threw himself on his unmade bed and stared up at the ceiling. It was a dismal grey like practically everything else in the tent. In fact, the only colorful thing in the room was the set of tiger-print sheets rumpled on the bed. Hawk’s Eye had spotted them at the mall and joked about them being perfect for Tiger’s Eye, then had been horrified when Tiger’s Eye actually bought them. Fish Eye had giggled about all of that, too.
Tiger’s Eye thought about never hearing Fish Eye’s giggle again, or Hawk’s Eye’s complaints about how gaudy and tacky Tiger’s Eye’s tastes were. Never again seeing Fish Eye’s wide blue eyes, or Hawk’s Eye’s intent brown ones. . . how Fish Eye looked when Tiger’s Eye teased him and made him blush, or how Hawk’s Eye would smile at him sometimes with what had seemed to be fondness.
Once I’m gone, I’ll never have to hear them laugh at me and make fun of me again, Tiger’s Eye told himself. It’ll be great—no more jokes about how I can’t get girls, or my pants, or how dumb I am.
The three of them had been together for a long time, and Tiger’s Eye had difficulty imagining life without the others. It made him feel bad in a way he couldn’t define. So he reminded himself that no matter how many years had passed and how many things they’d been through together, Hawk’s Eye and Fish Eye didn’t care anything about him and he’d be better off alone.
Hmph, of course they’re not my friends, he asserted silently. They wouldn’t do what that girl did for the kid—they wouldn’t put themselves in danger to save me. Hawk’s Eye would probably just let me die before he’d lock lips with another man. . . and Fish Eye would let me die before he’d lock lips with me, specifically. He hates me.
I won’t miss them. I won’t miss them at all.
Tiger’s Eye stayed in his room and tried to occupy himself by flipping through a couple of the magazines he had lying around, but they only kept him busy for about ten minutes. He didn’t have his own television, and he hated reading actual books, so he ended up staring at the ceiling again until he heard a rap on his door. Startled, he jumped and nearly fell off the bed in his rush to sit up.
“Tiger’s Eye? Are you in there?” Fish Eye called through the door. Tiger’s Eye stared at it, not sure if he wanted to answer or not. He couldn’t imagine what Fish Eye wanted—certainly not to apologize. He didn’t think Fish Eye had ever apologized for anything in his life.
Finally, Tiger’s Eye yelled back, “What do you want?”
“Just open the door! It’s important!” That was Hawk’s Eye. The fact that they were both there for something “important” was ominous, and Tiger’s Eye wondered if Zirconia had summoned the Trio. He couldn’t take the chance of pissing her off any more than they already had that day, so he got up from the bed and went to open the door. The two of them stood there, Hawk’s Eye looking up slightly to meet his eyes, and Fish Eye looking way up.
“What’s wrong?” Tiger’s Eye demanded when they didn’t say anything. “Does Zirconia want to see us?”
“Oh—no!” said Fish Eye. “It’s not that.”
Tiger’s Eye growled, “Then what is it? I’m busy!” Hawk’s Eye peered over his shoulder at the magazines scattered on the messy bed, then looked at him flatly.
“We want to know what’s going on,” he said.
“Yeah, what’s the matter with you?” added Fish Eye. “Why are you so mad at us?”
“I’m not mad!” retorted Tiger’s Eye.
“You are so!” Fish Eye snapped right back, then his face and voice softened slightly. “Is it my fault, for calling you dumb? I’m. . . I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
Well, maybe Fish Eye did know how to apologize. Tiger’s Eye didn’t believe it was sincere, though.
He rolled his eyes and said, “Of course you meant it! You always mean it, so don’t bother trying to lie. That’s not what I’m mad about, anyway, so just go away!” He started to close the door on them, but Hawk’s Eye blocked it with his foot, then shoved it back open.
“So you are mad!” he accused. He pushed past Tiger’s Eye into the room and stood glaring at him with his arms folded.
“I didn’t say you could come in, birdbrain!” Tiger’s Eye cried. While he was distracted, Fish Eye slipped in too and closed the door, and Tiger’s Eye rounded on him as well. “Or you, fishface!”
“Well, we’re not leaving until you tell us why you’re so pissed off!” Fish Eye insisted. “Why’d you yell all that mean stuff at us?”
Tiger’s Eye gawked at him a second then spluttered, “I was mean? You laughed at me—you’re always laughing at me, both of you. I get it, we’re not friends and it was a stupid question, but you could’ve just said so. You didn’t have to laugh!”
Now they both gawked at him.
“What’re you talking about?” Hawk’s Eye asked after a second.
Then Fish Eye murmured, “Oh. . . .” When Tiger’s Eye looked down at him in spite of himself, Fish Eye said, “When you asked if we were friends, and we laughed. . . yeah, we were laughing because it was a stupid question, but not like you think. It was stupid because of course we’re friends.”
Tiger’s Eye’s mouth fell open before he managed to croak, “Wh-what?”
“Geez, you dumbass!” sighed Hawk’s Eye. “You really thought we’d say no? Why’d you even have to ask?”
“But. . . you. . . I didn’t think. . . .” Tiger’s Eye trailed off, blushing for the second time that evening.
“Look, I know we pick on you, but you do the same thing to us,” Hawk’s Eye pointed out. “Each of us thinks the others have bad taste in dates and clothes and everything else—and that’s fine. We can still be friends even though we’re different.”
Tiger’s Eye sat on the edge of the bed and looked down at his bare feet; it was easier than looking at either of the others. He muttered, “It’s not so much that as. . . well, even though we hang out together, you don’t actually care about me, do you?”
Fish Eye’s own high-heeled feet entered his field of vision; then Tiger’s Eye jumped when the smaller man sat down on the bed beside him. When Fish Eye laid a scaly hand on his arm and murmured his name, Tiger’s Eye swallowed hard and made himself look at him.
“Tiger’s Eye? Of course we care about you,” Fish Eye told him. “This afternoon, we overheard someone say the current had changed, and when you never came back, we thought maybe you’d been washed out to sea or something. We were worried about you.”
Hawk’s Eye came closer too, nodding, and said, “Yeah! When it was getting dark, we even talked about going out and trying to find you, but we had no idea where to look, so we came back here hoping you’d turn up. If you hadn’t, I. . . I don’t know what we would have done.”
“Oh. . . uh, thanks,” Tiger’s Eye said weakly.
“And you care about us too, don’t you?” Fish Eye prompted. “I mean, if one of us disappeared, you’d worry. . . ?”
“Sure I would,” Tiger’s Eye mumbled. “I guess I just didn’t understand, and I thought I didn’t matter to you guys. I thought you hated me,” he added to Fish Eye, whose eyes widened. Tiger’s Eye wondered why he’d ever told himself that he was better off never seeing those pretty blue eyes again.
“Me. . . ?” Fish Eye breathed. “Tiger’s Eye, of course I don’t hate you! I. . . .” That delicate blush bloomed on his face as he murmured, “I know I don’t always act like it, but I—I care about you, a lot.” He dropped his eyes, then suddenly leaned closer and slid his arms around Tiger’s Eye’s waist, hugging him tightly. That made for Tiger’s Eye’s third blush of the night.
“The three of us will always be friends,” Fish Eye said. “Right, Hawk’s Eye?”
“Right,” Hawk’s Eye replied. He didn’t hug Tiger’s Eye, but he dropped his hand on his shoulder and squeezed it. That meant a lot coming from him, since he wasn’t too fond of close contact.
“. . . Yeah,” Tiger’s Eye murmured. He risked reaching up to squeeze Hawk’s Eye’s hand in return, then put his arms around Fish Eye and hugged him back—a little cautiously at first. When Fish Eye didn’t pull away, Tiger’s Eye held him close against his chest and rested his cheek against his soft, fragrant hair. It all felt really nice.
When Fish Eye made a happy little “mmm” noise and sort of snuggled against Tiger’s Eye, Hawk’s Eye let go of his shoulder and asked pointedly, “Should I give you two some time alone?” Fish Eye stiffened, then scrambled to pull back out of Tiger’s Eye’s embrace.
“Sh-shut up!” he snapped at Hawk’s Eye, blushing from ear to ear.
“Okay, whatever,” Hawk’s Eye sighed. “Anyway, I’m going to bed. Being on the beach all day wore me out.”
Still miffed at him, Fish Eye retorted, “‘Wore you out’? You didn’t do anything but lie in the sun and drink!”
“Did so. I checked out some women too,” Hawk’s Eye chuckled. “And listened to you go on and on about all the guys you checked out.”
“Hey, I’m the one who has the right to be tired!” Tiger’s Eye interrupted. “I did all the work on a target you guys dumped on me!”
Fish Eye said, “It isn’t a contest! . . . But I’m going to bed too. I need my beauty sleep.”
“You certainly do,” Hawk’s Eye muttered under his breath. Thankfully, Fish Eye didn’t hear him. He added in a louder voice, “G’night,” and headed out the door. Fish Eye stood up but stopped and looked down at Tiger’s Eye instead of following Hawk’s Eye out.
“Are you okay now?” he asked with surprising gentleness, for him.
Tiger’s Eye nodded and replied, “Yeah, I’m good. Um. . . thanks.”
“Sure.” Fish Eye smiled, then looked him over. “Hey, you got some sun today. You’re kind of tan, and your hair’s a different color. You’ve got some lighter highlights.” He reached out a scaly hand and ran his webbed fingers through Tiger’s Eye’s curls as he murmured, “It looks nice.”
“Thanks,” Tiger’s Eye repeated, gazing up at him. “At least I got something for all the trouble I went through today.”
“Yeah. . . .” Fish Eye hesitated a few seconds, then pulled his fingers free and turned away. Over his shoulder, he said in his usual lofty tone, “You’re going to get fat, is what you’re gonna get, the way you were eating today. Good night!”
When he was gone, Tiger’s Eye got up and shut the door, then got undressed for bed. He paused to look at himself in the mirror and admire his hair. Fish Eye was right: the new, blonder highlights looked nice.
He never tells me I look good, Tiger’s Eye mused, and he certainly never hugs me. He was trying to be nice and make me feel better. So was Hawk’s Eye. He remembered how his target had glanced up at him impatiently and said, “You must have friends too!”
I guess she was right, thought Tiger’s Eye.
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The End