Marie awoke to a pillow in the face. She groaned and squinted her eyes open to see her cousin, Callie, who was standing over her. "Wakey wakey, sleepy-squid!" Callie cheered, seeing that her efforts to awaken Marie were successful.
"What do you want?" Marie groaned. "You really have to wake me up so early?"
Callie cocked her head, and then smirked. "Early? It's, like, past lunchtime!" Callie said it as if her words were intended to shock, but Marie only blinked and frowned.
"So?" She bubbled in a grouchy manner.
"So, you know. I thought you might not want to sleep through our day off!" Callie reminded Marie of the importance of this day. Today was a rare day that they didn't need to go to their job of announcing the news and singing.
With that, Marie was suddenly fully awake, eyes widened in shock. "What?! Why didn't you wake me up sooner?!" She kicked the bed sheets aside and sprang up with her pillow in hand ready to slap Callie in the head with it.
"Eek!" Callie gave a shrill laugh as the pillow bounced off her head, and she ran off out of the room with Marie on her tail, ready for more pillow fighting. Using her own pillow to block, Callie laughed as Marie wailed on her.
"You made me sleep through our day off!" Marie grinned. "You shoulda woke me up!"
"But you looked so comfy! I wasn't gonna wake you unless I had to!" Callie said with a smile, as Marie finally stopped with the pillow fighting.
"Well, it is true I need my beauty sleep." Then Marie gazed around the room and out the window to the midday city beyond. "But I can't have too much beauty sleep, otherwise I might outshine you!"
"Wha?" Callie looked puzzled for a moment, cocking her head again.
"I mean I might end up prettier than you. What, you seriously didn't pick up on what I meant?" Marie's smile faded a little, but only so that she could give Callie a suspicious look.
"Oh! Um… That's mean!" Callie said wide-eyed. "We're the same amount of pretty! Right?"
Marie lowered her head to look at her pajamas in contrast to Callie's casual clothes as she spoke, after a pause, she spun around to return to her room. "Well, something like that, yeah." Marie said. "So what were you planning on doing today? We could do anything."
"Duh… um… I dunno!" Callie sat down in a bean bag chair, and she immediately began to sink into it more and more. She took it as normal, and casually ignored how the chair gradually enveloped her. "I was thinking of doing something we don't usually do."
From within her room, Marie picked out casual clothes not too unlike Callie's before shutting the door to change. "Oh yeah?" She shouted from behind the door.
"Yeah, like, you got any ideas?" Callie had to shout too, as almost her entire body was covered in the bean bag chair, and her voice was muffled.
There was a minute of silence and pondering before Marie returned to the living room, wearing some simple summer clothes, her tentacles tied in a bow the way she liked. "You okay?" Marie asked through half a laugh seeing only Callie's legs sticking out of the chair she sat in.
"Save me! I'm being eaten!" Callie hummed from within the piece of furniture, which was now more bag than it was chair.
"Oh no! Gimme your hand!" Marie exclaimed, feigning worry. A single hand poked out of the bean bag chair, and Marie pulled Callie back to her feet. Once the little adventure was over with, the two snickered, trying to hold in their giggles. "We gotta get rid of that chair."
"Nah, it's great!" Callie hopped around a second. "Oh, uh… ideas?"
"Well, I was just thinking we could go on the ferris wheel downtown. We've never been on it before." Suggested Marie, who turned her gaze out the window, despite their view not being pointed at the ferris wheel.
"I guess so." Callie said after hesitating for a moment.
"What?" Marie asked due to the uncertainty of Callie's response, but she only shrugged in return. "So it's whatever then. C'mon, we'll go on the ferris wheel!"
A few minutes later, the two were out the door.
X
The sky was clear, and the sun was shining hotly in the sky, plus not many Inklings recognized them without their iconic outfits on, which was good. Though they were technically cousins, they were often referred to as sisters, not just because of how close they were, but also because that was the name of their idol group: The Squid Sisters. Being fairly well known celebrities, it would make their day difficult to enjoy if Callie and Marie drew attention to themselves.
During their walk they realized that they had left without getting Marie any breakfast, though it was admittedly too late in the day for that. To cure Marie's hunger, the two bought some ice cream on their way to the ferris wheel.
"There goes that diet!" Callie mused as she devoured her ice cream, not licking, but biting the treat off the cone.
"Yeah, don't worry about it. It's our day off, and we never eat like this anyway." Marie figured. She stared at her ice cream in between licks, and realized that it was also helping them to fight off the intense heat of the sun.
"Sweet, I guess you're right." While Marie did glance down at her food often, Callie was so fixated on her ice cream that she wasn't looking where she was going at all, causing her to bump head first into a street lamp, and drop her whole cone. "Ow!"
Looking over, Marie got her first look at what happened. Her immediate reaction was to laugh, and when Callie turned to pout at her, Marie laughed even more, seeing the mess of ice cream on her face.
"My ice cream!" Callie whined like a toddler. Marie's laugh was lowered to a chuckle.
"You really ought to look where you're going!" Marie giggled. "And now a walking mess has made a mess!"
Callie whined again. "What do you mean?"
"Your face, it's covered in ice cream!" Marie pointed as she laughed again. Callie's face went red, and she immediately began to wipe her face with her hands, frantically trying to clean herself.
"Missed a spot!" Marie tapped her own forehead to indicate where Callie should clean next. "How'd you even get it up there?"
Saying nothing in response, Callie simply tried to brush away what remained on her face. She glanced around at a few other people nearby to see if anybody was looking.
"Oh well. Guess that's a game over, huh?" Marie then made her way over to Callie, and gestured they continue walking. "Come on, you little klutz!" She teased.
Callie remained silent, but agreed, leaving behind a rapidly melting puddle of sugar on the ground. Marie continued carefully licking her ice cream, in fact it took her so long to finish it was starting to melt. Some of it dripped down the side of the cone and between her fingers. Callie could only stare longingly and wish she hadn't been so clumsy.
By the time they reached the base of the ferris wheel, Marie had finished eating, and Callie had still yet to say anything since she had dropped her ice cream. Noticing this, Marie was not too concerned with Callie's silence. She knew once Callie was over the fact that she had lost her food, her usual cheery demeanor would return. Besides, it was cute to see her a little bit upset.
"You ready?" Marie asked, referring to the ferris wheel.
"I, uh… sure." Callie mumbled a bit with a sheepish expression.
"Okay, well, let's go!" Marie said, and approached to pay the toll for the ride. Callie quickly caught up to her, but was frozen stiff when she glanced up at the size of the structure. It towered over nearby buildings, and made her legs weak to see it.
"Hey um… Marie?" Callie said in a hesitant tone.
"Mmm?" Still focused on getting tickets for the ride, Marie paid her little attention. "What's it?"
"Yo, um… I kinda don't really feel like this today. And like, um… Maybe we can ride the ferris wheel some other time!" Callie's voice trembled slightly, but Marie did not pick up on it.
"Ehh? Whaddya mean? Where here now! Why leave at this point?" Marie glanced over her shoulder, just so she could raise an eyebrow at her.
"Y'know. I uh… I just don't want to ride it now is all. We can do something else, right?" Callie
tried to persuade her cousin to leave the ride, but Marie finally came to a realization.
"Oh! You're scared of heights! Aren't you?" Marie practically shouted, her face beaming. A few passersby Inklings glanced over at the two in response to the loud noise.
"No, I… I don't-" Callie stuttered, feeling the eyes hitting her from all around.
"I get it now! That's why you've been so quiet this whole time. You were scared!" Marie teased, trying to coax a flustered sort of reaction from Callie.
"Marie, just…!" Callie grabbed at Marie's shoulder and began to tug her away from the ridel. This sudden shoving took Marie by surprise, but she did not push back.
"Whoa whoa whoa! I know you're scared but slow down there!" Marie complained. The two of them found their way into the nearby park, and finally Callie stopped fleeing the scene and sat herself down on a bench. Still standing, Marie spoke up. "Hey. If you were scared of heights, you should have told me sooner, we could have gone somewhere else."
There was a brief silence, Callie simply sat facing the ground in front of where Marie stood.
"Hey? C'mon. We're perfectly safe on the ground! It can't be that scary can it?" Somewhat concerned for Callie, Marie tried to give a little bit of comforting words.
"Why do you do that?" Callie locked her eyes with Marie's. There was a tone in her voice that was devoid of joy, shaky and melancholic. It was so uncharacteristic of her that it was unsettling.
Hesitantly, Marie responded. "D-do what?"
"What you just did. You made fun of me." Callie accused, frowning.
"W-what are you talking about? I didn't make fun of you." Marie stuttered, genuinely surprised that Callie felt that such a thing was being done to her.
Callie sighed and hung her head before turning away, quietly. Marie waited for her cousin to say something, but it was clear that she wouldn't. In the silence, Marie thought over what she might have done.
She sat down next to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder to try and turn Callie to face her. "Hey, Callie? I didn't mean anything by it, okay? I was just teasing you."
"It didn't feel like that… It felt like you wanted me to look bad, and… everyone there was looking at me…" Callie frowned towards the ground in front of them.
Marie briefly raised an eyebrow. "But, lot's of people look at you when we are performing, you know."
"That's different, and you know it!" Callie snapped, shocking Marie. "And even then you make fun of me in front of our fans too."
"I just…" Marie paused and sighed. "Look, I'm just being playful, okay?"
There was another pause, but eventually Callie stood, and Marie quickly followed. "I'm going to go home." Callie said.
"What? Really? But I already paid for the ferris wheel, see? I got the tickets." Marie waved two thin pieces of paper between them, but Callie didn't look to see them. Instead she left as swiftly as she could without breaking into a run. "Callie!? Wh-..."
Marie suddenly felt her chest grow cold, and found herself unable to follow her cousin. She hadn't quite picked up on how upset Callie was until she had so suddenly left her. Now she was unable to think of what to do.
She glanced around in a slight panic, as if there was something around that might help, but of course there wasn't. The three hearts in her chest quickened with fear, and Marie began to try and calm herself. "Okay, okay. This is fine. Callie just needs some space right now is all… y-yeah. This is will be okay."
Despite her reasoning, Marie failed to relax, and her eyes followed her fleeing cousin until she had disappeared into the city around them. Callie had left her, and didn't even look back. The more Marie thought of what Callie might be thinking of her, the more anxious she became.
Marie got to her feet and chased after Callie at a brisk pace, but unable to find her, she decided to return home as soon as possible.
X
"Callie? Callie are you home?" Marie had expected to find her cousin upon arriving back at their apartment, but Callie was not there. This coupled with her nervousness about the situation was too much for her to handle. Was Callie out enjoying her day without her? Or was she just lost? Maybe she was purposefully avoiding her, or Marie had simply arrived home before Callie did.
She figured she probably shouldn't worry about this so much, but Marie could not help it. Her thoughts kept turning back to that look on Callie's face and the tone of her voice. Marie had hurt her with her words and not even known it, and Callie had been hiding this pain for who knew how long.
It was not until after three agonizing hours of worrying that Callie finally returned home to the apartment. "Callie! It's you!" Marie rushed to embrace Callie, on the verge of tears.
"Hey, chill out." Callie's tone was not as blue as before, which was good, but she still had a hint of indignation about her. When she realized how distraught Marie was, though, was she quickly softened. "Hey, what is it?"
"I'm sorry!" Marie cried, and she leaned back from the hug. "I got worried when you weren't here… I thought maybe didn't want to see me."
"No! No, nothing like that!" Callie's eyebrows went up with surprise. "I was just out doing stuff I wanted to do."
"Thank goodness!" Marie then took a step back, clutching her chest as she calmed her frantic breath, her hearts feeling like they would jump out of her.
At last Callie fully grasped Marie's despair. "Have… Have you been here… waiting for me?"
"Yeah." Marie half-chuckled.
"Since when? Like, for how long have you, like… been here?"
"Since you left. I really wanted to apologise right away, so I thought you'd be here." Marie explained as she gazed downward shamefully.
Callie placed her hands on Marie's shoulders and gently shook some life into her until she made eye contact. "I'm sorry I made you worry like that…"
"No, Callie! I'm sorry! I didn't know that I was hurting you like that, I just thought I was being funny." Looking away again, Marie continued. "You could'a told me sooner, I would'a stopped."
"It's okay now, 'cause I forgive you." This made Marie give a light smile. "Just promise me you'll be more careful about it okay? Careful not to make fun of me, 'kay?"
Marie nodded, smile widening. "Okay, I won't then." She agreed. "Out of curiosity… What were you doing out there this whole time?"
"Ehh, what? Oh well… See, I went shopping!"
There was a quiet moment as Marie looked around for bags filled with hearty purchases, but saw none. "Did you? I don't see any stuff."
"Yeah, about that… You were carrying both our money, so I was broke and I just sorta looked around."
X
The two cousins spent the rest of their evening in their home studio. Their appartment was specially fitted with a small recording booth for them to rehearse and record their singing.
Callie and Marie had decided to resume writing and practicing a song they had been working on. Though it was technically work, music was such a passion for both of them that they didn't mind it, even on their day off. Besides, a Splatfest could happen at any time, and they both wanted to be prepared to present something special for the occasion.
No title for the song had yet been agreed upon, but they were dedicated to present a more laid back and nostalgic feel compared to their other works.
They sung it as a duet, but it was soon found that Callie consistently forgot certain parts of the song. Rather than give up, they decided that Marie would sing those lyrics instead of them both singing the whole song together.
They stayed up late into the night, perfecting their art, and at last came to title the song 'Maritime Memory.'