Chapter Text
The sun was harsh as always.
Veronika was sitting down behind a rusted vehicle, recently returned from scrap-hunting. They were masked with a sun visor and a white dust mask, which they found some time ago after another search outside their home turf. They tucked more in the hood of their cloak and looked around for any signs of their sibling, Little Buddy. He usually stayed longer and more far to look for extra scraps, either for himself or to sell.
Veronika began to unmask themselves and Little Buddy had returned back, jumping happily. To others, it may seem he was warbling nonsense, but Veronika understood what he wanted to say. “Vero, come quick now!!! Look what I found!!!” He exclaimed, tugging their cloak to follow him.
“Okay, Okay… I’ll be right there!!”, They shushed him annoyedly. As soon as Little got the message, he began to rush to what he found; leaving Veronika to pick up their makeshift Tri-Stringer and quickly rush to their brother.
They both ran across the So-called “ancient human” structure in the center of a crater. Once they caught up to Little, he called out to them, “Look over here!!”. Veronika carefully jumped down and saw a plastic box in the middle of some construction site. They looked around to find if anyone else was there, but there was no one to be seen or heard.
Veronika carefully opened the box to find a Splattershot Jr. and… a turf license…
This can’t be real… if this was a legit license, then they would never have to sneak in turf wars or be almost banned from them. They didn't need to use a fake license anymore...! Veronika lit up with excitement, thinking about the hours they could spend by turfing and receiving money quicker.
“So… does that mean we can finally go to Splatsville…?”, Little asked quietly. Veronika immediately turned to him, “WHAT?!-.. uhm… are you joking?”, They coughed out.
“Look, probably no one in there would even CARE about who we are or what we do!! Stop being worried about us being ratted out of THE city of CHAOS, Vero…”, Their brother reassured them, “Hell, I think we would fit in very well with their style! I mean you can just say I'm an emotional support… ahem… ‘pet’... ugh…”. Veronika sighed in defeat, they knew he was right.
“Fine. We’ll go there. But-”
“YES!!! YEAHH!!!”, Little exclaimed, jumping around happily and running laps around the site.
“LISTEN!!”, Veronika yelled, “BUT, we will go there tomorrow. We have to pack and find a place there, so its best if we plan what we can do before we arrive. Plus, it's getting late…”, Veronika looked at the horizon.
Veronika started to head back to their base, climbing up where they came from, “For now, we would need rest. Lets go.”, They said.
“Alright… I guess we can plan…”, their brother murmured while following behind.
— く:彡 —
Veronika set up a fire next to their camp, which was mostly made of big metal scraps as support and stitched-together cloths (both Veronika and Little Buddy could find around), all while the camp leaned back off a small rock hill as coverage. Nights in the Splatlands were usually cold, so they always slept around a fire.
“Will we be moving into Splatsville? Since we can probably afford a place there.” Little asked while playing with rocks, but all Veronika did was solemnly nod.
“Are you good? You’ve been acting this way since noon…” Little asked slowly, looking up at them. Veronika soon looked down at him annoyedly. “You seriously aren't a little sad that we are moving away??”
He stopped and thought of what they said. “Well… I never thought of it as a sad thing… I thought of it more as a new chapter, or a change…”, Little admitted.
“Yeah… but… what if it's not a good change? What if it's a bad decision and we would rather stay here forever…?”, Veronika expressed, “I just… I worry about that.”
Their brother thought of the possibilities that could happen, the good and the bad. “You’re right… but… you are also wrong.” , Little remarked, which caught Veronika’s attention.
“How so?”, They questioned.
“You win and you lose in this life, Veronika. But there is always bad in good, and the same vice versa. If anything wrong happens, we will always have each other.”, Little answered. “Well, I hope we stay together through any challenge…”, Little concerned.
“I promise you, we’ll stay together through anything.”, Veronika declared. They held up their pinky towards Little Buddy, and he wrapped his fin around their finger.
“We should sleep, we have a big day tomorrow.”, Veronika murmured., as they wrapped themselves with a blanket
“Good night, Vero…”, Little whispered.