Chapter Fifty-Three
Well.
They had taken it well.
His family had taken it well.
This part of his family had taken it well.
They had taken it well that he was... He was going back.
He had first talked to his parents, and done his best to explain. Then the three of them had gathered the adult frogs of the family- his brothers and sisters, and the aunts, uncles, and cousins who still lived in this swamp, which thankfully wasn't all of them, and the three of them had explained. Then the parents had each gathered their respective children, and explained it to them, and afterwards, a few of the kids- a few meaning roughly a hundred- had come to Kermit with questions.
And everyone had taken it well.
Everyone except for one, of course.
Kermit climbed on his favorite log and walked towards the far end.
He wasn't particularly surprised to feel a shove from behind.
SPLASH!
He smiled to himself as he slipped through the water, staying just below the surface, and reluctantly circled back to his log before pushing his way back into the air. He slid his spindly little arm over the log. "Hey Mags," he sighed as he pulled himself up.
"Hey yourself," she said grouchily as she plopped down on the log. She waited until he was almost seated next to her, and then pushed him back into the water.
He pulled himself up to the surface quicker this time. He set his hands on the log and looked up at his grumpy little sister. "Such an intelligent conversation we're having," he said wryly. "Will you push me in again, or should I just stay here?"
"You can stay here," Maggie snapped. "Where you belong." She wasn't looking at him; she was turned away from him, and her arms were crossed.
He sighed and pulled himself onto the log. He turned his body towards her, hugged his knees, and looked at his flippers. "I wish I could feel as confident about it as you do," he said quietly.
"Well why don’t you?" she demanded, but her voice cracked and betrayed her.
He tilted his head to the side and looked at her. "I think you know why," he said quietly.
"I know, I know," she grumbled, wiping at tears that probably- hopefully- weren't really there. He couldn't tell in the dark. "Saving the world and standing up for what's right and blah-blah-blah but - Holy mosquitoes, Mit, do you have to go charging into every battle?"
He frowned at his flippers and hugged his knees tight. "I'm all ready fighting it," he whispered.
She winced and pulled her knees up to her chest. "But you shouldn't be," she whispered.
He looked up at her, initially reacting more to the emotions in her voice than to the words she said.
"You shouldn't be fighting," she weakly squeaked. "You're home, and you're safe, and…"
He quickly folded his arm around her-
"And everything's okay now, and…"
-And hugged her tight against his chest.
"You're safe here, Mit," she whimpered.
His entire body winced... and then he remembered something Miss Piggy had told him. "I'm safe here, Mags," he whispered. He took her hand- which had been clenched around his arm- and touched it to his heart. "But I'm not safe here."
She nodded, pulled her hand out of his, and gripped his shoulder so fiercely that he almost lost his balance. "Dang it, Mit, why can't you be rotten for once?" she demanded.
He smiled a little. "I tried," he sighed.
She was quiet. She kept her face shoved into his collar. "Does Piggy know?" she whispered.
Kermit sighed and hugged her tighter. It was his turn to be quiet for a moment. "...She probably figured out what I would decide," he whispered. "But I haven't actually told her yet..."
"It's not fair," she whispered.
He squeezed her even tighter. "No," he whispered thickly. "It isn't fair."
She gave him a significant nudge in his stomach, saying with her elbow what she didn't trust her voice to say.
He gulped. "Mags... I want- I need you to know that... I don't... want to leave..."
Her chest heaved in the careful wrapping of his arms.
He winced and took a deep breath. "But I... I have to go..."
He felt something wet against his chest, and he knew. He quite simply knew. It was time to be quiet. It was time to support her while she slowly digested this newest, awful pill she had to swallow. He would have to swallow it, too, but right now it was her turn.
He felt the salty water trickle down his chest and stomach for a long time- perhaps the longest she had ever allowed it to. But it eventually stopped, just like it always did, and she kept her face to his chest for a long while after, just like always.
Time to lighten the mood.
"You want me to be rotten, Maggie?" Kermit said with a mischievous smile. "How about I take my sweet little sister here-"
"Don't you dare call me sweet," she growled into his chest.
He grinned. "My sweet little sister here," he said, "Who's been crying on my chest-"
"You tell anyone and you're dead," she growled.
"And how 'bout I just-" He gave her a good hard shove, straight into the water.
Her head shot up close to the log, spitting water into the air just because she could.
"How's that for rotten?" he asked, grinning.
"Good," she said, with a familiar devious twinkle in her eye. "But there's one little flaw."
"And what's that?" he said, guessing what it was.
"I fight back." She yanked him into the water.
He shot his head out of the water. "Oh yeah, well-" He looked around. "Where'd you go?"
He got his answer when the lily pad next to him began to move.
He yanked at the lily pad, revealing his sister's head. "Got ya!"
Wrong.
She spat water into his eye and darted off.
"Hey!" He wiped at his eye and shot after her. She had gone under the log, the little sneak, and was now probably waiting on the other side.
He got there in time to see her flippers kicking back around to the side he had just come from.
He scrunched his face and followed.
She swam out into the middle of the pond and back and up to the surface and down deep and left and right and around the rock and through the weeds and under the log and around and around and… Wait, where did he go?
Maggie looked around. Running was only fun if you were being chased! Now where had her brother gotten off to? He could usually follow... She retraced her strokes.
She really should have seen the white half-circles watching as she approached the weeds.
When she got close, he darted out and snatched her. She wrestled free and they both shot to the surface, spitting out water when they reached it- just because they could.
"I win!" he grinned.
"You wish," she grinned, splashing water at his face.
And they both laughed.
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