Ch.1 Part 3: Phasing Out

(Continued from part 2.)

At some point, either before or shortly after we got married, Shark took me to his aunt and uncle's house, where he used to live.

I'm not entirely sure why he wanted to go there. He wanted to take a trip down memory lane, or he left something there that was important, or something.

I dunno, I basically got dragged along for the ride. 

Anyway, while Shark was rooting around in one of the other rooms, I figured I'd busy myself while he looked through stuff, talked with Dudley and Scout, that stuff.

I found one of those fancy, old photo albums, which I'm guessing they got from Racket Mansion. It had the usual, wedding photos, baby pictures, all the generic crap.

Then I got to near the end and I started to see pictures of a guy I didn't recognize.

I was literally drawing a blank when I saw these pictures. I didn't know if it were some long-lost cousin, or if Shark's dad had an illegitimate kid or something.

I showed the photos to Shark, and he got all embarrassed and awkward. He explained that the kid in the pictures wasn't a previously missing relative or a family friend or anything.

It was him.

When he said that, I looked at the pictures, then at him, then the pictures again, then him again, pictures, him, pictures, him, you get the idea.

It was almost impossible to connect for me. Shark, as in, athletic, future Sports Legend Shark, who could spend hours doing squats and weight-lifting without stopping?

At some point, he was a nerd?

There's nothing bad about nerds, it's just a bit of a shock to me that he once looked completely different than to what I was used to.

The fact that the weird kid wearing glasses, and the muscular guy I was in love with was the exact same guy...well, the thought was just so crazy I had to laugh.

Shark got all flustered, and tried to explain that it was just a temporary thing, that he just wanted to know what it like.

Apparently, I couldn't stop laughing, so he grabbed me by the nose, and held it shut until I calmed down.

 But yeah, he went through that phase.

I then noticed that bird on his shoulder. I asked him, what's with the feather-brain perching on him like it owned the place?

He smiled, and told me, "oh, that's Hayate."

Then Shark explained to me that Hayate was his pet bird he got from Dudley and Scout. It was something along the lines of, they wanted him to take care of another living thing.

You know, the whole "preparing for if he had his own kids" or something. I'm not entirely sure why it had to be a bird.

What, did they think future generations were going to grow beaks and peck his eyes out? Eh, probably better than nothing.

But, well, apparently, Shark took care of Hayate, and he loved the little bird-brain. He taught it to talk, and everything.

While he was yammering on, I had to ask him:

Well, if you loved him so much, what happened to him? How come you never really talked about him?'

Shark just kind of shrugged, and said, "I let him go." He went on to say that Hayate had gotten old and big enough to live on his own.

Keep in mind, Hayate was a falcon, so he was pretty valuable. Why didn't he just give him to someone else, or sell him, or whatever?

Shark then told me, "if you love something, sometimes you gotta let them go."

Given a few years later, when our kids were growing up and leaving to live their own lives, I figured he had a point.

So...he set that bird free. He didn't know what happened to Hayate after that, but he said that whenever he saw a falcon outside, he kept wondering if it was him, or one of his bird children.

The last picture of him in that album was on his birthday. He was just blowing out the candles, like he was a little kid again.

But of course, he must've realized that it was his last birthday in that house. After that, Dudley and Scout were on their own.

Shark made sure to stay in contact with them, though, he said. He made sure to check up on them, seeing if they were okay and all that junk.

He still worried about them until the day they died. But according to him and them, he was ready to live on his own.

But, as you may know, he wasn't on his own for long~!

Heh heh heh...

(A/N: Chapter 1, completed.)