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They were way too young to feel this old, that was one thing they were sure of.
Everything else? Not so much. Self doubt ate away at them with every decision they made. The day they were crowned Captain of the New Squidbeak Splatoon was a shocking surprise. With the “retirement” of Cuttlefish, it seems the other’s somehow unanimously thought that Three was the best choice.
Before this, they thought the Splatoon had done wonders for their self confidence. Back when they first moved to Inkopolis, they were just a skinny little inkling trying to figure out what the shell was going on. Looking at themself now, Three couldn’t help but notice how different they looked. For better or for worse, they couldn’t quite tell.
Were they even Three anymore? That’s all they really went by ever since they were recruited, but now that they were the Captain and there was another agent going by Three… They shook themself, quickly stuffing that thought deep into their head, fearing what feelings it would bring on, if any.
Despite their wonders and questions, they were the undisputed leader of the New New Squidbeak Splatoon, and with great responsibility comes great… amounts of paperwork.
Well, most of it was schoolwork, as the Captain was only twenty-one and currently balancing the Splatoon with pursuing a higher education. There was, however, a small amount of Splatoon-related paperwork that Marie had dropped on them recently, and they were still a little confused as to what paperwork a SECRET group of soldiers would need to sign.
Whatever the reason, it was their responsibility now, and they had been dreading it all day.
Popping their headphones into their ears, they sat at their rickety desk in the living room and sharpened their pencil. They were about to begin when four quick knocks on the door broke their stride.
The Captain grumbled as they stood and made their way to the door, peeking through the peephole. They swore to themself, if Marie was back with even more garbage for them to flip through aimlessly—
Marie’s hair isn’t yellow. The last time Captain saw her, she also wasn’t an octoling.
The inkling heaved a heavy sigh and unlocked the door, revealing a small octoling standing before them.
“Three.” Captain’s voice was monotone, just as they had practiced.
“Captain!”
“How do you know where I live?”
“Callie told me!”
The inkling glanced at the clock on the wall and pinched the bridge of their nose. “It’s eight p.m., what are you doing here?”
“Callie said that Marie had you overloaded with work, so she sent me on my second mission as Agent Three: making sure you’ve had something to eat!”
Captain frowned. Had they eaten that day? They looked through their memories for a moment, surprised to find that they hadn’t.
Agent Three presented them with a large bag. Looked to be from Marigold’s place. At least they had taste.
“I got some for myself while I was at it,” they mentioned idly, taking a meal out and handing it to the other cephalopod.
“Okay. Well, thank you,” Captain said. Unsure of what else to do, they began backing into their home, closing the door with them.
“Wait, wait, wait!” At the young agents words, the Captain opened the door again. “I was given specific instructions to make SURE you eat.”
The Captain rolled their eye and opened the door again, making room for the new agent to enter, the octoling’s tentacles curling happily.
The two settled themselves on the couch in the living room. Captain looked around, irritated that they had no warning for this visit. They would’ve cleaned if they knew they would be sharing dinner with somebody.
The young octoling didn’t seem bothered by the mess. They were investigating every nook and cranny of Captain’s apartment, amazed.
“You’ve got EVERYTHING!!” New Three said excitedly. The others have been calling them Neo, maybe Captain should start doing that, too.
While Captain was lost in thought, Neo continued exploring their new surroundings, darting around the living room with awe in every movement. Captain tried to refrain themself from jumping to the defense of their property, cringing at the smallfry that accompanied the young agent, opting to inspect items with its teeth instead of its fins.
Questions poured out of the young octoling’s mouth quicker than Captain could answer. As Neo darted past the couch for what felt to be the millionth time, Captain snatched them mid-step and yanked them onto the couch.
“How about we eat? I’m starving.”
Neo agreed almost immediately.
Captain wasn’t lying. Now that they realized that they hadn’t eaten anything all day, hunger was threatening to consume their own stomach if it wasn’t given something else to devour. They unwrapped the meal Neo had gotten for them, a small, deep-fried delicacy, one of the many on Marigold’s menu. Somehow, Neo had gotten the Captain’s favorite dish.
“Hope you like it. Callie told me what you would most likely eat,” Neo said as they pulled their own sandwich from the bag.
Captain thanked them again and took a bite, relishing the crunch and the flavor on their tongue. They felt their muscles relax and they allowed themself to forget about the work looming in the back of their mind, if only for a moment.
They ate in silence for a while. In between bites of their own, Neo fed small pieces to Little Buddy, who graciously devoured them almost instantly.
Captain swallowed before speaking, “So, how did you two meet?”
Neo looked up, sipping from their drink before setting it down. “Little Buddy?”
Captain nodded.
Neo looked hesitant. “It was probably, what, three years ago? It was whenever I, uh, first left home, so I would’ve been like, eleven or so.”
Captain took a sip of their own drink as they listened.
“I was stopping in this one city for a bit, planned on getting a job and saving up some money for a while so I could keep moving. I eventually did land a job at this fast food place and managed to afford a place to stay.”
They picked at the wrapping around their sandwich.
“I struggle to sleep in new places, so the first night I was lying awake in bed, unable to drift off. After forever, I was ALMOST asleep, then a bunch of noise outside woke me up again.” Neo was very expressive when telling the story, using their hands for emphasis to enhance their tale. “I was so mad, so I looked out the window to see what was up.
“I saw a bunch of kids, probably a little older than I was, if I had to guess, and they were chasing something, what looked like a little animal. I knew it would take me forever to get anywhere close to falling asleep again, so I decided to go see what was going on.
“I have no idea how, but a salmonid, specifically a smallfry had made its way into the city, and these kids were chasing it. Normally, I wouldn’t have done anything about it; it was none of my business. There was something about the noises the salmonid made, though. I couldn’t just leave it. So, I managed to cut them off and snatch the salmonid up and run.”
Neo picked up the pace, seemingly worried about talking too much, Captain assumed.
“I tried releasing him back in a stream I found outside the city, but he just followed me back to the apartment. It’s been like this ever since,” they finished, giving another scrap to the smallfry.
“Huh. That’s a cool story.”
Neo looked up, their eyes widened. “You think so?”
“Yeah, I do. It was brave of you to step in and save Little Buddy.”
If Neo beamed any brighter at the Captain, they would’ve gone blind. The inkling returned to their meal.
“You have any cool stories?” Neo asked.
Captain looked up mid-bite with their one good eye. “I don’t know if I’d call them cool.”
Neo went quiet, obviously thinking very hard about something. They were peering at Captain oddly, who grimaced at the scrutinizing look.
“What? Spill it.”
“Can I ask what happened to your eye?”
Ah, Captain thought, there it is.
The inkling sighed. Neo’s reaction was immediate.
“I’m sorry! You don’t have to say anything, I was just curious. We can just forget it if you’d like,” Neo spoke quickly, waving their hands.
“No, it’s alright,” Captain said, setting their sandwich down, wiping the grease from their hands. Neo didn’t insist. Instead, they sat attentive. Even Little Buddy seemed intrigued.
“It was a regular day up until I got a distress signal from a place I didn’t even recognize. I was close, though, so I decided to check it out. There, I saw a huge machine with two people trapped inside. One of them was the former Captain Cuttlefish, and next to him was this cephalopod I had never seen before. An octoling.
“I wondered what was going on for someone like Cuttlefish to be around an Octarian,” Captain paused and wondered if they should apologize on the elder’s behalf. They didn’t bother. “But getting them out of the strange machine was more important, so I did. I leapt forward, crashed into the machine, and knocked myself out from the impact.”
“And that’s how you got it?”
“No.”
“Oh.”
Captain held their own hand for comfort as they spoke. “I was still knocked out when it happened. The thing responsible for my friends being trapped in the machine, some evil robot guy, he, uh… mind-controlled me using this weird, foreign ink. It left this scar.” The inkling still cringed at the idea, deciding to leave out the other details of what happened while they weren’t themself.
“Woah,” Three said, their eyes somehow wider than before. Their mouth hung open, but they hesitated.
“What?”
“This is gonna sound weird, but can I look at it?”
“Are you not already looking at it?”
“I meant like a closer look.”
It was Captain’s turn to hesitate now. They gripped their own arm, tense at the idea of someone examining their main insecurity. Their eye met the octoling’s, incapable of ignoring the pure curiosity held in their yellow eyes. Skin indented as they tightened their grip.
“…Sure,” the captain said finally, “but no touching.”
“Got it!” Neo saluted before scooting a little closer to look at the scar.
The Captain averted their gaze as Neo scrutinized the teal markings. The affected area of the skin was lower than the rest of Captain’s face, indented slightly. So slightly that Neo hadn’t noticed prior. There were patterns in the mark, not dissimilar to veins. If Neo stared at one, it almost looked to be moving, though they couldn’t fully tell whether it was or not.
The main attraction of the injury, though, was Captain’s right eye, half shut due to the scar. The pupil inside was lazy, not following the orders of any brain. It stayed near the upper eyelid and was a sickly teal color, unlike the other eye, which was a deep shade of orange-ish red. Even the sclera was discolored. It was still white compared to the pupil, but it had darker spots mixed in it. Odd, they were about the same shade as the pupil.
It wasn’t long before Neo found the reason for such a similarity.
“Oh my Cod, what happened to your pupil?” Neo asked with no ill intent. When Captain’s brows pinched together, they immediately went to apologize.
“It’s fine. The goop from the robot guy damaged the pupil, causing a bunch of mixes of colors. I remember Pearl wondering if my pupil shattered. I had to remind her that that’s not how pupils work. At least I don’t think that’s how they work.”
“That’s wild. It looks so cool!”
“Cool?”
“Yeah, look at it!” Neo said, now back to their original place on the couch. “It’s such a gnarly battle scar. I think it’s awesome. Does it ever hurt?”
Captain blinked. “Thanks. And very rarely.”
The two eventually returned to their meal, sharing other stories of their past experiences in the process. Afterwards, Captain checked the time, sighing to themself. They should probably get some of that paperwork done. They set the last of the sandwich in their mouth and chewed quickly, sipping the last of their drink.
“I appreciate the food,” they said, standing to throw the trash away, “but I have some schoolwork I need to do.”
“Ooh, ooh! Can I help?” the younger agent asked, leaping out of their sitting position and launching Little Buddy into the air momentarily before the octoling caught him.
“That’s a sweet offer of you, but I don’t know if you’d understand it. It’s college level.”
“Can I try? I’m smart!” they asked, bouncing.
Captain was about to decline, but they caught a glance at their window, at the night sky outside. It would probably be safer for them to stay, wouldn’t it? They closed their eye and mentally prepared themself for more social interactions.
“Alright. It’d be better for you to stay the night anyway. Don’t want you walking around at night alone.”
“Did you not hear the story I just told you? I can handle myself, Captain!”
“I know you can, but it’d make me feel better. Now, if you still insist on helping, let’s get started.”
— — —
As predicted, Neo didn’t know much about college-level math. They still tried though, Captain gave them that. By the end, Captain had begun teaching Neo how to do it. They began to pity teachers as they explained a problem for the umpteenth time. Captain couldn’t get mad, though. Neo was only just about high-school age, after all.
As the study session dragged on into the later hours of the night, the pitter-patter of raindrops on the window became louder and louder. Captain looked up to see droplets of rain sliding down the glass, making little shapes and pathways. They leaned back, imagining a map with trails that matched the lines on the window. They envisioned a river here, a pathway leading to a kingdom further down right. It was surprisingly entertaining.
There was another sound mixed in with the brewing storm outside. Soft, barely-audible breathing. Captain turned to the side and saw Neo, sitting backwards in the chair with their arms and head on the backrest, asleep. The inkling watched as the octoling’s ear twitched, remembering how they mentioned they didn’t like falling asleep in new places. What made their place so different? Whatever the reason, they for sure weren’t going home now.
Slowly and carefully, so as to not wake up the octoling, Captain stood. They planned in their head, wondering if they should leave the octoling here to rest or move them to the couch. Or should they take the couch and the young agent take the bed? Yeah, they’d take the couch. It was only the polite thing to do.
However, it raised a problem. While the couch was only across the room, the bed was across the entire house. How were they going to pull this off without waking them?
Movement caught their eye, and they turned, spotting Little Buddy sitting at the foot of the chair, staring at them. The Captain’s brow furrowed.
“What’re you looking at?”
The salmonid gurgled… protectively? Captain didn’t know, they didn’t speak salmonid.
Eventually, they decided that if they woke them up, they could always just apologize and lead them to the bedroom so they could properly fall asleep. Being in the Splatoon had its perks, and one of them was exercise. All of the work they had done over the years had left Captain with a good deal of strength, so gently lifting the little agent off of the chair wasn’t very difficult. The hardest part was convincing Little Buddy that they weren’t going to hurt them; the previous five minutes had been spent trying to get past the smallfry without causing it to growl and warble in defensive anger. Captain was eventually successful, but not without a few new bite marks on their ankles and a now irritated small fry in their home.
After the feat was accomplished, Captain held the octoling in their arms and picked their way across the living room, careful to avoid any squeaky spots in the wooden flooring. As quiet as possible, they pushed the door to the bedroom open, cringing at the whine it made as it moved. They paused after the sound stopped, waiting to hear a bewildered “what the shell are you doing?” from the octoling. No words came, so they continued.
Captain didn’t turn the light on, opting instead to rely on their own muscle memory, built from countless walks inside their room to their bed. It came in handy, as they only nearly tripped once, but managed to recover quickly and smoothly enough, as the octoling only shifted slightly in their sleep.
The inkling used their foot, the one not bleeding slightly from the bites, to drag the covers down before softly setting Neo down atop the bed. They then pulled the covers back up halfway, leaving the rest of the distance for Neo to decide, then left the room with the same amount of care as they entered it, leaving the door cracked, hopefully wide enough, to allow Little Buddy to go in whenever they wanted.
Once they were sure they were far enough to not wake their unexpected guest, they walked normally back to their desk and continued their work. Around an hour later, sleep began to tug at their own eye, and they yawned, stretching their tired body high.
When they came back down, it was with a jump as they noticed the smallfry sitting in the chair Neo had been in before, watching them curiously.
Unsure of what else to do, they waved.
Little Buddy stared.
It was silent for a moment before Captain spoke.
“What? What do you want?”
Little Buddy sniffed.
“Food? Water?”
Little Buddy yawned. Captain sighed.
“Can you even understand me? Or Neo?”
Little Buddy stared again, this time blinking slowly every so often, reminding Captain of a sea toad. They turned away and began putting the papers in neat little stacks. As they went through their nightly routine, Little Buddy trailed behind them curiously, sniffing at some things and biting at others (and sometimes Captain, who cursed and shooed the salmonid away multiple times, only for him to come back a second later).
On the couch now, tucked in to sleep, Captain rolled over, only to be met with Little Buddy’s snout inches from their own nose, making them jump in surprise. They hissed.
“How the hell does Neo deal with you?”
No response. Unsurprising.
Captain’s gaze softened for a moment, remembering the story from earlier. All of the stories of the things Neo had gone through, with the agent reciting them as if they were simple things any fourteen-year-old kid did on a weekend.
“I wonder how Neo deals with a lot of things. They always seem so cheery. It’s honestly impressive.”
Little Buddy continued to watch them.
They rolled onto their back, “They kind of remind me of myself when I was their age. Just a lot more confident than I was.” Captain huffed. “Eugh, that made me sound old.”
It was true, though. They were both brave and adventurous back when they were fourteen, but not so much so around other people. Neo, on the other hand, was easy to talk to and very talkative themself. They even managed to keep a conversation with Marie running for more than six sentences at a time without Callie’s help, which was a very impressive achievement.
“They’re a good kid,” Captain commented absently, unsure if Little Buddy was even still at their side, “An asset to the team. Hell, they saved the world. Not sure where we’d be without them.”
Captain’s eyes were shut now, and they were halfway asleep as a half-coherent thought crossed their mind.
“I should really tell them that.”
The last thing they heard before they were out was quick scampering across the wooden floors and the quiet creak of their bedroom door.
— — —
The next morning, Neo woke to the smell of bacon, luring them out of the unfamiliar yet comfortable bed they had been in.
Outside of the also unfamiliar room, was the living room from last night. Now that they fully remembered where they were, they made their way to where the sound of cooking was coming from, finding Captain setting the last few pieces of bacon on an otherwise finished plate of breakfast. It held waffles and a small portion of scrambled eggs next to it.
Captain’s ears perked and they looked up, giving the octoling a small smile as a greeting. Neo smiled back, offering help.
“No need, everything’s done now. You could pour us something to drink, though, if you’d like.”
Neo opened the cluttered fridge and poured the two of them half a glass of orange juice each, following Captain to the tiny table to eat. They spoke in between bites, Neo mainly asking random questions of college life and Captain answering in the simplest ways possible. Both of them wore smiles.
After they finished the meal, Captain waved Neo goodbye, telling them to be careful and to call for help if anything went awry.
Neo waved back. When the door shut all the way, they began the walk back to their own apartment, only to be stopped by Little Buddy jumping into their peripheral vision.
“What?” The octoling asked, crouching down and angling their head to hear him.
As the salmonid warbled, Neo couldn’t help the giddy feeling rising in their stomach, a smile creeping onto their face and warm pride filling their chest. When the salmonid finished, the agent turned to look at him for confirmation.
“They really said all that?”