With a last super jump to the copter, the statue fight was officially out of Eight's hands. Through half-lidded eyes she watched Pearl place a giant megaphone down, followed by a beam battle that Eight's mind understood was cool even if she was too sleepy to really be excited by it. Once she had confirmed that Pearl's screaming was more powerful than the blender laser, she laid down next to the inkling agent she beaten earlier and closed her eyes.
Three groaned in pain. What the fuck had she done to herself this time. Her eye and the area around it felt like it was on fire, and wherever she was it had a serious amount of wind. Alright, step one; open your eyes... Fuck alright, step one version 2, open only the eye that is not on fire. 3 was more than a bit surprised to be face to face with a sleeping octoling.
"Shit, where" Three began while awkwardly starting to get to her feet. In her haste her hand smashed into the octoling's knee. Given that a knee offered less resistance than the metal deck Three was expecting, Three immediately crashed back to the floor.
"Oh good, you're awake," Cuttlefish said as he sidled over. "How're you feeling?"
"Uh," Three began, "Confused and my eye hurts like hell, but I guess if you're here that means that I'm probably not currently captured." Three gestured at the octoling while finally taking a good look around. "What happened to me? I don't remember anything and all of this is..." Three's voice grew louder as she recognized more elements she had never seen before; helicopters, giant statues, and more than one octoling. Callie and Marie were nowhere to be found. Fuck, how much had she forgotten? Months, or years. Three's growing panic was cut off when a pair of arms wrapped around her.
Even with her extreme sleep deprivation, Eight couldn't sleep through someone falling down on her knee. Interrupting her first rest in over 2 days was a capital offense, but it was a sentence that she could deliver later. Right now her eyes weren't opening for anything short of the apocalypse.
"What happened to me? I don't remember anything and all of this is..." Eight heard Three say. She heard the rise in pitch and speed over the sentence and recognized what Three was feeling. She had been right there at the start of the tests, and even after all the mem cakes had been located she still barely had pieces. After a few agonizing moments of indecision, she came to a compromise. Without getting up or opening her eyes, she wrapped her arms around the inkling agent.
"Safe. Sleep now. No talk panic." No, that was barely understandable; Eight needed to do better. She rallied her tired mind around the problem, quietly wishing she had spent more time talking with Cuttlefish down in the metro. "I also forgot. We can do it together." There, that made sense right? She mentally patted herself on the back for a job well done, pulled the inkling in tighter, and promptly fell asleep again.
Three blindly accepted the hug. She leaned into the warm body, grateful to have something to cling to. Tears started to sting her eyes, which she held back as strongly as she could. She wasn't sure how much time passed as she fought her emotions back down. Cuttlefish, never one to intervene, didn't say anything for however long it was. "Thank you," Three said eventually, "I needed that."
"You'll have to tell her when she wakes up," Pearl responded. Three looked up at the new voice.
"Uh, hi." Three realized the rather compromising position she was still in with Eight and began to extract herself from Eight's grip.
"No you don't," Pearl scolded, "We've been trying to get her to go to sleep for days, and you're not interrupting it for anything."
"But," Three began. Both she and Pearl stopped dead when Eight made a small noise. She shifted around before falling still again. Three suddenly became very aware of the steady breath against her neck. "That's ridiculous, I can't just stay here." Her point was punctuated by Eight nuzzling deeper into Three's neck. "Th..." Whatever Three was going to say, it abruptly ended when Three felt the octoling's chest press into her back. A blush spread over Three's face with startling speed. "She's too cuddly," Three whispered, attempting to not provoke Eight's sleeping body into making their position even more compromising.
Pearl cackled as silently as she could at the dire expression on Three's face. "You've been up for too long as well. Sleep; we can sort things out from here." There was a long pause, during which Three continued to nonverbally plead with Pearl. "Oh, hold on just a moment," Pearl said. Three perked up. "I need to do something real quick, don't move." Three didn't miss the devious grin on Pearl's face as she rummaged through her pockets. Three didn't have time to debate the merits of saying anything before Pearl had gotten her phone out. "Now, if you could just keep that blush up this'll be perfect."
Three immediately and unwillingly complied with Pearl's wishes. *Snap*
*Snap*
Three resigned herself to her fate and closed her eyes.
*Snap*
*Snap*
Wow, Three was a lot more tired than she realized.
*Snap*
The rest of the world was already starting to fade away. She was only vaguely aware of the excessive number of pictures that Pearl was taking.
*Snap*
"Pearl, leave the agents alone," Marina chided.
A voice Three didn't recognize said something and the pictures stopped, but she was already too far gone to think much about it. Only a few moments later, Three was gone to the world.
Pearl looked over the photos she had and decided that she had sufficiently captured the adorable display. "Fiiiine," Pearl said as she put her phone away.
"How's your voice doing after that scream?"
"It'll be wrecked tomorrow, but right now I'm feelin' fine," Pearl struck a pose for Marina's amusement.
"I hope you're so cavalier tomorrow," Marina teased, "I'm sure there'll be no need to complain all day, right?"
"Hmph," Pearl pouted at Marina. There was a companionable silence between the two.
"Oh yeah," Marina remembered, "There's no energy readings from the statue, we can head back now." "Can…" Pearl began but Marina cut her off, "AND, I already called us in sick from announcements for the day."
"Have I ever said I love you?" Pearl enthused.
Marina hated it when Pearl said things like that. She hated that Pearl wasn't going to mean that the way Marina so badly wanted her to. She hated that it stopped her from telling herself that she just thought of Pearl as a friend. More than anything, the guilt of it tore her up. She felt like she was violating Pearl in some way, by her mind twisting Pearl's innocent joy into Marina's perverse desires.
Marina turned away to hide her expression. "Yep, everyday," Marina tried to force herself to match Pearl's levity. To anyone but Pearl, it would've been a flawless disguise.
"Everything alright Rina?" Pearl asked.
"Oh, yeah, 100%. Just, you know, stressful. Saving the world," Marina responded.
"... Alright," Pearl said. Another awkward pause. "Homeward bound!" Pearl shouted, quickly concluding the topic. Eight mumbled something unintelligible in sleeptalking protest and managed to further entangle her and Three's legs. "Homeward bound," Pearl repeated at a much quieter volume, "I'll go tell them to turn us around." Marina nodded in assent and the two went their separate ways. As the statue sunk back into the waves, the helicopter fleet began to make its way back to civilization.
I haven't written anything in years so please tear it apart in the comments. Hope everyone enjoyed.