Flying Narrative

by VioletDragonian

In which Lemontea notices she hasn't spent enough time with Bubblegum lately, so she decides to take her on a date to make up for it. What better way to show your girlfriend you appreciate her than by taking her out to do things all over the city? Lemontea's logic is sound, even if her health isn't so much. (For Mixiv-14 on tumblr)

A/N: This is for Mixiv-14 on tumblr about her squid girlfriends as a trade for art of my own squids and I am TERRIBLY TERRIBLY LATE WITH THIS.

Quick note, this follows the logic that the inklings' tears and blood are the same color as their ink. Also it may very probably be terribly out of character.

That's it. Go read the thing

---

Enraged screeches echoed down the hallway after the two retreating Inklings, neither of them daring to look back at the alarmingly high number of Octolings on their tail as wild sparks from split wires hanging from the ceiling threatened to burn as they passed under them. With one hand held tightly onto her weapon and the other holding the hand of her companion, the slightly slower of the two sent a wide grin to the girl beside her.

"We are in SO MUCH TROUBLE!" She called out between breaths, somewhat overexerted from the mad dash for the exit. Despite their current situation, however, she didn't seem at all worried, instead beaming brightly at the pink-haired Inkling. "This is more fun than it should be."

The other girl shot her a partially disbelieving, partially frantic look. "This was a terrible idea. We're gonna die. Why are we doing this, again?"

"I have no idea!"

Clearly, the Octolings behind them were faster than the two girls, if the ink shots getting closer and closer to hitting them were any indication. Glancing back at them out of the corner of her eye, the yellow Inkling abruptly turned down a conveniently placed hallway a second later, dragging her scared girlfriend right along with her.

Some of the floor tiles were missing, opening up gaping holes into pitch black nothingness below. The grin slipped from the yellow Inkling's face as she felt a tug on her hand from her companion hesitating as they approached, afraid to make the treacherous jump. "Shh, it's okay. We got this." She murmured back at the other, tightening her grip and earning a determined nod in response. The two increased their speed together and cleared the gaps in several easy and well-coordinated leaps, earning some ground between themselves and their pursuers.

The girls didn't slow down to catch their breath once they reached the end of the dilapidated hall, continuing to push forward and keep the lead they'd managed to pick back up thanks to the jumps. The yellow squid could hear the blood rushing in her ears, breath coming in short rasps now as her body protested the unfamiliar strain of running for her life. Beside her, the other girl was doing barely any better, face flushed the same color as her tentacles.

Snipers weren't really known for running long distances at top speed, after all.

Darting into another convenient doorway, the two found themselves in some sort of control room that looked like it was ripped straight from a bad science fiction movie. Screens showing security camera footage lined the walls, with desks littered in big shiny buttons sitting below and heavy security doors leading out of the room to either side. Both doors were closed, of course, making it a dead end.

"I'll see if I can get the doors open." The pink Inkling informed her, putting her rifle away on her back as she approached the desks to start fiddling with the controls. The first girl nodded, readying her own rifle and turning to keep her laser on the door they'd arrived from. A few seconds passed as the thundering of footsteps grew closer, until the Octolings finally reached the room and the first one to dash through the door instantly vanished in an explosion of yellow ink.

Hissing at the loss of their teammate and backing away momentarily to get out of said ink, the Octolings tried tossing splat bombs into the room with the girls, prompting the yellow Inkling to knock them away one by one to protect her distracted companion. The bombs uselessly exploded on the other side of the room, doing little more than make a big mess. It was enough for their pursuers to try and use it to sneak into the room, though, little swim trails showing the sniper exactly where her next targets were and she turned, splatting them as well in a couple of well-aimed shots.

The sniper turned back to the door, vaguely worried about the distinct lack of weight in her tank as she charged the last shot she had enough ink for. One shot wasn't enough to take out the last five or more Octolings she could see, and she couldn't drop into a puddle to refill her ink while protecting the other girl. "How close are you to getting us out of here?" She asked, using her laser to scare some of the Octolings into backing off and giving her a few more moments of time. Her girlfriend didn't answer, instead continuing to most likely mash random buttons in the hopes that one would do what she wanted.

One of the Octolings finally scoffed at the laser and lunged for her, giving the yellow Inkling no choice but to swing her rifle up and splat it with that one last shot. The others surged forward while her weapon was pointed upward, intent on using the momentary lapse in her defense to their advantage. She was expecting them, though, and dodged to the side to avoid the sudden barrage of purple ink, dashing right into the closest Octoling's personal space and letting the tank of her rifle meet its face before it could react.

That impact was enough to splat the Octoling, making the others back up slightly to avoid the ink from it. The girl immediately leapt forward after them, swimming through the huge mess of her color to gain momentum and refill some of her tank as she approached. When she did reach the end of the puddle, the nearest Octoling started to question his life choices as she jumped straight for him, the surprisingly sturdy wannabe melee weapon aimed to collide with his face too.

Landing in the new splattered puddle that marked where that last Octoling had just been standing, the sniper took a moment to gather her bearings, giving the remaining enemies a warning stare as she slowly spun her rifle in one hand. There was a wooshing sound from behind her as her girlfriend finally managed to get one door open, and an Octoling immediately charged past to stop the pink Inkling. "Oh, no you don't!" The first girl snapped, sidestepping and raising her weapon again to make this enemy reconsider their line of work as well.

Except the impact never came, both Inkling and Octoling freezing in place as the weapon clattered unceremoniously to the floor, the Inkling joining it a moment later as her legs gave out. The two exchanged an equally confused stare, momentarily forgetting they were supposed to be fighting as the girl looked down at her hands. She hadn't noticed before how badly they were shaking, the sound of blood still rushing in her ears as the air suddenly felt so much harder to get enough of. Her weapon stayed on the ground beside her as the Octoling raised its own toward her, starting to realize she had no strength left to defend herself with.

And then the Octoling was gone, a shower of pink being the only sign of what had happened to it. The yellow Inkling watched the pink laser snap to the other side of the room and promptly give that same fate to the remaining opponents, its owner skillfully picking them off without effort.

"Are you alright?" The pink Inkling asked worriedly, slinging her rifle back over her shoulder again as she approached the downed sniper, who could only wheeze in response. She had barely taken two steps when the last door slid open, revealing several elite Octolings as they marched into the room and started to surround the girls. "Oh, no…"

She was still standing near the door, near enough that the Octolings would be unable to prevent her from leaving, but the yellow Inkling was further into the room, leaving the other with no clear way to get them both out. They both knew neither of them would ever willingly abandon each other, making it clear to the girl on the floor that her girlfriend planned to either surrender or get splatted trying to save them both. With one hand clutching her chest in a vain attempt to stifle the pain she was starting to notice and the other slowly reaching over her shoulder, the yellow Inkling called out to her pink companion.

"Hey, Bubblegum?"

A few of the Octolings glanced at each other, but didn't seem to find a reason to shoot them for talking. Bubblegum looked over at the downed sniper, an edge of anxiety in her voice as her hands shook. "Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

And then she threw the burst bomb in her hand right at the pink girl's feet, startling her enough to make her back away through the door behind her with a yelp. Another bomb aimed carefully at the console a second later made that door slam shut in an instant, sealing Bubblegum safely outside and leaving the other girl locked inside with the Octolings as her vision started to go dark. The pink sniper could only pound uselessly on the door, completely powerless to save her girlfriend as she fell limp before the Octolings inside.

"LEMON!"

Bubblegum screeched as she fought with the sheets tangled around her limbs, jolting upright and accidentally flinging herself right off the bed in her panic. Something caught her before she could hit the floor, though, pulling her back up onto the bed and then there were hands on her face and a soothing voice in her ear and suddenly that same yellow squid came into focus in front of her.

"Shhh, it's okay." Lemontea breathed, letting go of the other's face as she stilled and moving to gently wipe away tears Bubblegum hadn't even noticed were running down her face like a river. The pink Inkling stared up at her for several moments as she pieced together what was going on, bits and pieces of her nightmare flooding back until she finally just clung to her girlfriend, burying her face into Lemontea's shoulder as sobs wracked her shoulders. "It was a dream, it's okay. Everything is fine. I'm here, you're safe."

She nodded into the other girl's shoulder to show she'd heard, but still couldn't help tightening her grip around the other as the images from the dream continued to bounce around her head. Lemontea winced but didn't say anything, letting the distraught Inkling cling to her for dear life as she soothingly stroked her hand over pink tentacles over and over. If the pink tears quickly soaking the yellow squid's cardigan bothered her, she didn't mention it.

By the time Bubblegum finally settled down and loosened her grip on her girlfriend, Lemontea may as well have spent the past ten minutes in a torrential downpour; it would've given the same effect. Tearstained clothing was the last of the sniper's worries though as Bubblegum pulled away and mumbled a string of apologies, eyes downcast as she continued trembling ever so slightly. Reaching out a gentle hand yet again, she coaxed the other girl into meeting her gaze, staring down at puffy cheeks and reddened eyes when she finally complied. Disapproval tugged at Lemontea's comforting expression for a moment at the sight, that look didn't belong on her precious girlfriend.

"Are you okay?"

A vaguely affirming noise came from her, voice probably not strong enough to speak clearly yet. Lemontea didn't believe it for a moment but didn't question further, instead leaning forward to press first one butterfly kiss to the corner of her girlfriend's eye and then several more across her cheeks as her hands smoothed gently over skin to thread dainty fingers between the tentacles at the base of Bubblegum's neck. By the time Lemontea had made it to the other side of her girlfriend's face with those kisses, the pink squid had melted into putty under her touch, the dream all but forgotten in the onslaught of affection.

"Better?" She purred, breathing warm air onto the other's already flushed skin, and Bubblegum hummed contentedly in response despite her slight embarrassment at the unbridled attention. The sound was genuine enough to appease the yellow squid, who sat back with a slightly smug expression at her accomplished goal of erasing the distress from her girlfriend's face. Then she rose from the bed and dragged the flop of putty known as Bubblegum with her, voice returning to a more casual tone as she spoke up again. "Come on, let's go make breakfast."

"Uh…" Bubblegum stopped her, earning a questioning glance as she awkwardly scratched the back of her head. "Maybe you should change, so you don't catch a cold?"

"Oh, right." Lemontea had, in all honestly, forgotten that the pink squid had practiced her raincloud impersonation on her. Shrugging, she headed for the wardrobe to find something with fewer salty pink stains on it, pulling the saturated fabric off as she went. Bubblegum just blinked, face turning bright pink all over again as she promptly turned away. Glancing back over her shoulder, Lemontea smirked at her girlfriend's antics. "What, don't like what you see?"

"I… I… I LEFT THE OVEN ON." The flustered Inkling exclaimed as she absconded from the room, the latter half of her sentence echoing down the hall from where she'd escaped to. The remaining sniper just shook her head and chuckled, deciding maybe she should do that more often.

At the end of the hall, Bubblegum forced herself to a stop and take a deep breath, trying to gather her scrambled thoughts as she stared down at the floor beneath her bare feet. "What was that?" She mumbled to herself faintly, catching sight of her reflection in the bathroom mirror through the door next to her. Even she had to admit that she was flushed almost comically red, skin a darker shade of pink than even the tentacles tucked behind her ears. The pink sniper sighed. It wasn't that her girlfriend looked bad, quite the contrary actually as the yellow squid was decidedly gorgeous. And it wasn't as if she hadn't seen it all before, she realized, slowly lightening face going straight back to dark pink at the thought. Those facts in mind, she really shouldn't be so embarrassed, but…

No, no wait it was definitely because Lemontea was attractive. It was hard to get used to seeing the other girl in a less than modest state without getting flustered when she was just so perfect. How she had managed to get lucky enough to end up in a relationship with Lemontea of all people was beyond her, she knew the yellow Inkling could do so much better. And yet she was still here, after all this time, taking care of her on her bad days and teasing her on good days like this one.

"That dream…" She walked to the kitchen, feet padding silently on the hard floor as thoughts bounced around her head. She wasn't sure what she'd do without the other girl there for her. "I hope that nothing like that ever happens."

The kitchen was dim, morning light just barely starting to filter through the curtains above the sink. It was true that Inklings generally didn't wake up early, and the two girls were no different, but after a dream like that Bubblegum just couldn't justify going back to sleep. Besides, Lemontea had been waking up oddly early lately anyway, so she figured she may as well hang out with the girlfriend before they each went to attend their daily tasks instead of sleeping in again.

This was the point at which Bubblegum would usually get out the ingredients for whatever the other girl planned to make, but seeing as how Lemontea hadn't actually mentioned what she planned to make, the pink Inkling found herself cleaning out the refrigerator instead. She hummed absentmindedly to herself as she sorted through the shelves, reorganizing containers and checking how fresh everything was. Anything that didn't meet her quality demand was tossed with surprisingly good precision into the trashcan on the other side of the room, mostly empty containers sailing past the doorway.

"Hey, I was thinking– eep!" Lemontea cut off her sentence with a squeak, ducking as she narrowly avoided a flying milk carton. "Bubblegum I don't think that's how the butterfly joke goes."

"Hah?" Bubblegum peeked over the top of the fridge door, tilting her head as Lemontea's joke went right over it.

"Ah, nothing. Anyway, I was gonna ask, before you threw a piece of comedic narrative at me, if you wanted to… I don't know, hang out later? Go on a date? I've been so busy lately we haven't had much time together."

"Ohhh." The pink girl blinked, Lemontea's words taking a moment to register. When it did click in her head what her girlfriend had just said, her face split into an excited smile. "Of course!"

A matching smile worked its way onto Lemontea's face at the answer, and she leaned over the fridge door to boop a kiss to her girlfriend's nose. "It's a date then."

Bubblegum squeaked and backed up in surprise, hesitating a moment before leaning forward and getting her revenge with a more proper kiss that caused Lemontea's eyebrows to vanish behind her bangs at the unexpectedly bold move. Although the yellow sniper's sharp green eyes sparkled with a challenge, she still pulled away after another moment, moving across the kitchen to gather her ingredients instead. Her expression made it clear they would return to this later, however.

As Bubblegum watched her girlfriend move about the kitchen, she couldn't stop the plea that suddenly ran through her mind, though she was unsure of what it was directed at.

Please, don't ever take her away like that.

---

Lemontea breathed slowly as she aimed, trying not to throw off her shot with the movement as her target was very nearly out of her range. Being just slightly too far off to one side could always be the difference between splatting someone, or leaving herself open for attack from someone else. As soon as she heard the little charger tone jingle in her ears she let go, a half smirk crossing her face a moment later when the tower stopped moving toward her base. Encouraging shouts came from her newly respawned teammates as they surged over the wall to her right, thanking her for the save as one of them moved to take the tower and the other two fanned out to protect him.

Turning her attention away from them, she took a moment to make sure no one was sneaking up on her from the ramp to her left before darting to the end of the grate pathway. As her team slowly moved the tower toward the enemy base, she crouched down and charged a shot, laser searching over the grates above them. One rival squid didn't notice it in time to escape her precise attack, her E-Liter causing a loud echo around the dome as she splatted them.

And then a moment later she found herself stumbling out of the respawn pad. Hissing slightly in the general direction of the Inkling that had snuck up behind her, she jumped down to rejoin the match but was stopped before she could even land by the end whistle going off.

Landing softly in yellow ink with a slight splash, the sniper set her rifle against her shoulder and pulled off the helmet her goggles were mounted on, blinking for a moment to readjust to regular lighting without the night vision. Behind her, one of her teammates respawned from a last second death, while a squid jump had the last two members of the team landing back on spawn beside them.

"Did we win?" Lemontea asked, looking up at them expectantly.

"Took it by knockout." The resident heavy roller of her team informed, walking to the edge of the grate and holding his weapon over the edge toward her. "Come on, I'll pull you up. No use squid jumping when you're right here."

She nodded, shifting her weapon and goggles to one hand and taking hold of the gold Dynamo with the other. Her teammate hoisted her up with ease, her feet touching back onto the grate lightly as she let go, and she spoke up again. "Sorry for getting taken out right at the end there, I didn't hear their roller sneaking up on me."

"Nah, you totally saved us before that." He pointed out, stepping into the spawn pad with her and the rest of their team as they headed back to the lobby through it.

It was only a few minutes later that Lemontea found herself looking around at Walleye Warehouse as they spawned, the team ready for another match right away after that win. They were on a roll today, several wins in a row leaving the whole team in high spirits.

The whistle went off and her team surged into action, heading straight for the tower with her right on their tails, taking advantage of the ink trail they left to swim to a sniping spot on the crate in front of their base. Setting up camp by slamming a burst bomb onto the surface to refill her tank with later, she turned her attention to focus on the center as her team battled for the tower.

An enemy Inkling had already jumped on the tower and was dodging around her team's attacks, too focused on trying to splat the splattershot user below him to see the yellow laser glinting off his jacket until he was forcibly removed from the tower by the attack that followed. Lemontea let a pointy grin cross her face as she checked the surrounding area, her teammate hopping on the newly vacated tower. One enemy Inkling was trying to sneak up on the tower from this side, and dodged away as soon as her laser turned to them but they ran right into the heavy roller from before as they tried to escape.

The tower was coming back again, their teammate that had been on it splatted as someone took it back. Crouching down to charge a shot and prevent them from gaining ground, Lemontea shot the Inkling she could see on the tower but it continued moving toward her, and before she could charge another attack the remaining enemy popped out of the ink and with two direct hits from their slosher, she was done for.

She stumbled out of the respawn point, wheezing slightly as she tried to suppress the spike of adrenaline from the panic of being splatted. One of her teammates respawned next to her and gave her a concerned look, starting to open their mouth and ask if she was okay when she took a deep breath and dove into the ink, heading straight back into the match and not giving them the chance. The enemy team had gotten the tower past the crate she'd been on by now, the other two members of her own team only able to hold them back instead of completely stop them.

Darting around to a ledge the other team wasn't bombarding with ink but still within her throw range, the sniper started pelting bombs at the surface of the tower, doing enough damage to the enemy squids that her teammates managed to splat them while they tried to find and stop her. While they did that, the Dynamo user went around below the tower, splatting the support teammates that weren't actually riding it. Lemontea jumped back to her original sniping spot and then past it to the crates in the very center of the map, despite it being a much less safe point, ready to push the enemy team back before they could overwhelm her team again.

At the top of those crates, she immediately crouched down and readied a shot, listening closely and trying to keep an eye on all paths from the enemy base at once as her team approached with the tower from behind. To the left, she heard the splash of someone swimming out from behind a wall and turned, hoping her sound coordination was correct as she let the shot go. Somehow she did manage to splat the ninja squid and immediately turned to guard another direction as the tower passed over the crates.

An inkbrush was approaching from the other far path to the right, having taken the opposite direction from their base than the previous enemy had. Not wanting to risk missing due to their speed and getting splatted herself, Lemontea boldly jumped down right in front of the other squid and pelted their face with burst bombs before they could figure out what hit them. With them gone, she returned to the top of the crates, refilling her tank as she climbed up.

Her team was still making their way into the enemy base, somehow managing to survive all the concentrated attacks being sent their way, and at this point the sniper wasn't sure which team was in the lead. She jumped back down from the crates and charged a shot as she made her way after the tower on foot, splatting an enemy with it only moments later as they tried to jump from a ledge to the tower. Another enemy Inkling met the same fate a few moments later from her next shot, and only after that did she notice the tower had stopped moving, all of her teammates having been splatted. A jump ring appeared beside her that she was fully prepared to protect, until a barrage of enemy ink hitting her back caused her to be sent back as well.

By the time she respawned, the time had run out, ending the match with that same whistle as always. Lemontea paused, relaxing now that the match was over and only just noticing the uncomfortable and slightly erratic pounding in her chest.

---

An empty bottle of treated water sat innocently on the table as its owner returned her equally empty medication container back in her pocket, leaning back in her chair with a relieved sigh. After a morning of the practice they'd had, breaks like this were definitely nice, and if the three squids around her in various stages of playing on phones or partially falling asleep were any indication, Lemontea's team agreed.

"Are we going to do any more matches today?" The one Inkling not distracted by technology or dozing off and instead casually sipping a drink, piped up as she watched Lemontea toss the empty water bottle over her shoulder and right into a nearby trashcan, seemingly without effort.

"I gotta head home." Came the quiet answer from the squid on their phone, not really looking up from it however.

"There's your answer, then." Lemontea shrugged. "We'll pick up again where we left off tomorrow. Don't mind that last match, we did our best and all the matches before it were great."

Her team nodded, except the one currently passed out in his chair. Lemontea started to debate whether or not to wake him up when one of the others tapped her shoulder and pointed at the entrance nearby. "Isn't that your girlfriend?" Which, of course, made her turn around so fast she almost fell over.

"Ohh, it is." The sniper confirmed, seeing her timid girlfriend looking around the crowd in Inkopolis tower clearly looking for a certain someone. Lemontea definitely had no idea who she could possibly be here for, not at all. With a glance at her teammates, who just nodded for her to go, she dashed away at an almost cartoonish speed and very nearly took the chair with her as it tipped back and forth.

"BUBBLEGUM!" The yellow Inkling exclaimed, quickly making her way across the lobby to where her girlfriend stood. Bubblegum only just had time to realize what was going on and blink once before there was a happy sniper suddenly glued to her.

"Yikes, you came out of nowhere." She pointed out, hugging her girlfriend back with a chuckle. That sound turned into a squeak right afterward, though, as Lemontea unglued herself from Bubblegum and instead peppered the pink squid's face in a barrage of butterfly kisses yet again. Face as bright as her namesake, the attacked Inkling comically attempted to wriggle away from the torrent of affection to no avail. "Lemooonnn, there's people here…"

"Okay, heh." Lemontea backed off, her own face nearly just as pink as the other's. Despite their somewhat obvious interaction, the only Inklings that seemed to have noticed it at all were the yellow sniper's team in the background who were, of course, secretly fawning over how cute that had been. "How was your shopping trip?"

"Pretty usual, I guess. I got attacked by unbalanced pineapples, if that counts."

Lemontea stifled a laugh at the mental image of Bubblegum being buried in a mountain of pineapples. "You alright? Those things are mean."

"Eh, they're not any pointier than Moe."

"True."

"Soo…" Bubblegum gestured to the custom E-Liter strung across her back. "You tired, or do you wanna play a couple rounds?"

"You're on."

---

Stretching as she spawned in on their next match, Lemontea glanced to the side at her randomly chosen team. Bubblegum was nowhere in sight, meaning she was most likely on the enemy team again. With a slight hum to herself, the yellow sniper adjusted her goggles and readied her rifle, already mapping out the route in her head to where she planned to go.

Her team was off as soon as the whistle blew, dashing ahead to immediately aim for the two mid points. Lemontea hung back for a moment, dropping a couple of burst bombs on their base before chasing after her team. She avoided the grate pathway directly ahead and swam down an inked path to the right instead, dropping to the next platform down and then the one after that. Coming to one of the ledges overhanging the right middle point of the map until she finally came to perch on that ledge and charge a shot, ready for the first enemy to pop into sight.

Almost immediately, an Inkling with a slosher made their way into her line of sight and just as quickly were splatted in an explosion of color, sent right back to their base by the sure sniper. She spun to the left and did the same to another enemy trying to climb into her team's side of the map from the other mid, grinning slightly at the impressed noise her teammate made as he passed and dropped onto the turf below.

Taking a moment to glance around at the two mid points and survey where everyone was, Lemontea ended up watching that teammate for a moment and cringed in sympathy as he was brutally splatted by an enemy roller jumping down at him out of nowhere. Shrugging, she splatted the roller in return, earning a shouted thanks from her splatted teammate from the general direction of spawn for avenging him.

Meanwhile, however, her team wasn't having much luck taking or holding the other mid point. The rusted bridge running overhead was blocking her view of the other side, but she had a pretty good idea as to what was causing their trouble over there. "We're never gonna get anywhere like this." She muttered, dropping to the ground and swimming to the opposing team's side of the map.

The roller she splatted earlier jumped off the ledge above and narrowly missed where she was hiding in the ink and started to cover the area. She didn't give him much of a chance to get anywhere, though, lunging out of the ink with a flurry of bombs that would have made even the most seasoned of Ranked players panic.

With that danger out of the way, she recovered her ink for a moment and tossed a couple more bombs onto the wall to climb up. At the top she looked around quickly, making sure she was still safe for the moment as she forged a path ahead and to the left with half charged shots. A cheery chime noise went off as she went, and the sniper immediately set off her special and located every enemy on the map.

Two members were in each mid point, one was in her team's base and the last was just up ahead and around a corner. Lemontea didn't need to see to know who the one nearest her was, continuing to approach them as she held her E-Liter back up to her face and crept around the corner.

She barely had time to focus on the pink sniper ahead and the deadly smirk on her face before the chime of a special being set off rang through the air and a sparkly pink kraken was lunging for her, splatting Lemontea with seemingly zero effort.

Several seconds later, the yellow Inkling finally stumbled out of her spawn point, gasping heavily as she remembered how air worked. She hadn't been expecting Bubblegum to notice her, much less mercilessly wreck her with a kraken. "Someone's on top of their game today… Let's see what I can do to fix that." Lemontea chuckled evilly, a plan starting to form in her head as she dashed down to the first platform below base.

The enemy team had broken past their defenses by now, though, and she quickly turned and sniped an Inkling making their way toward her from the path to the left. Creeping to the edge, she did the same to another as they passed below, alerting their remaining teammate to her presence. A couple of shots from the squid's mini splatling managed to hit the sniper square in the chest with a bit more force than was comfortable due to how close her attacker was, and Lemontea only barely managed to jerk backward and away from the rain of ink without getting splatted. She fell back, momentarily collapsing to the ground as the wind had been knocked out of her and her body panicked.

It was only a split second later when she rolled to her feet, rushing to the edge just as the splatling user turned away to ink more turf. Dropping right onto them with yet another vicious burst bomb attack, Lemontea was left alone in a messy splattering of her team's color right as the end whistle went off, chest heaving with heavy breaths as she continued to recover from the previous attack.

Her weapon clattered to the ground, hands meeting her knees as she tried to catch her breath and not fall over. She was vaguely aware of the sound of quickly approaching footsteps, but was mostly focused on not losing her balance or passing out before the lightheaded feeling that stemmed from struggling for air could fade.

"Lemon! Are you okay?" Damn, why did it have to be her? Lemontea only gave her a weak thumbs up, and then gestured for her to wait a moment. When the yellow sniper had recovered enough to straighten back up and look at her worried girlfriend, Bubblegum was fidgeting from not knowing what to do.

"I'm fine." She informed, making a face at how wheezy her voice sounded. "Apparently splatlings at close range are a little jarring. Remind me to make sure to never meet a heavy one at point blank, I'd probably die."

Bubblegum continued fidgeting, her hands twitching slightly from where they were partially held out to reach for the other girl. She seemed unsure of whether she should actually touch Lemontea or not. "You're sure you're okay? I could go get help if you're having issues, really, don't brush it off if you really don't feel well." Lemontea reached out halfway through the other's sentence and grabbed the pink squid's suspended hands, holding them in a reassuring grip and hoping the trembling in her own wasn't noticeable.

"I really am fine. Anyone would be a little bit disoriented after getting hit like that, it's not that bad." She pointed out, releasing one hand to poke the concerned Inkling's face teasingly. "Get your mind out of Worst-Case-Scenario-Ville, I'm okay."

Her nose scrunched up in slight protest at being poked, but the concern slowly faded from Bubblegum's face regardless, having been successfully reassured by the yellow squid. Lemontea smiled slightly, glad that she had listened instead of continuing to worry. With that resolved and her momentary fit of weakness having passed, the sniper turned back to retrieve her weapon from the ground.

"Come on, I'm up for a couple more matches."

---

Lemontea immediately looked around as she spawned on the next match, somewhat relieved Bubblegum wasn't on her team again. That meant she'd have less chance to notice if the yellow girl had another fit. Looking away from the match about to start, Lemontea instinctively reached for the container in her pocket, forgetting it was empty.

The whistle went off and her randomized teammates dashed away, not noticing as she sighed at the lack of sound from the empty container and replaced it to her pocket, following them a moment later. She took the already inked path to the left, speeding past the glass barrier and ignoring the forklift on the other side as it worked. At the end of the path she hopped back out of the ink and perched on the ledge, quickly covering the ground below with half charged shots.

That done, she jumped down and shot a fully charged hit back towards base, inking the path she hadn't thought to cover in the first place, then dove back under cover and headed deeper into the map. A quick burst bomb covered the forklift on her side of the map, and she climbed up on top of it, charging a shot as soon as she was on her feet again. An unlucky member of the enemy team happened to pop around a corner into sight the moment her charge jingle sounded, and she removed them from the map as quickly as they'd appeared.

One of her own teammates ran by, forging a path ahead and splatting someone else in the process. With a glance around to make sure no one was sneaking past, she followed after them, using another burst bomb to hop onto the next forklift on the enemy's side of mid. Stepping onto the tarp covered shipping crate in front of it, she used her laser to distract another enemy as her teammate came up behind them.

Not noticing the pink laser pointing right into her side due to her focus being on what was at the end of her scope, Lemontea once again found herself popping out of the respawn pad courtesy of her girlfriend. This time, the respawn didn't affect her like it had previously, leaving the yellow sniper to chalk the last few up as respawn pads on the fritz today.

"I'm fine, she really doesn't need to worry so much." She mumbled to herself, launching across the map to one of her teammates. Landing in the middle of the map between the forklifts, she used a burst bomb again to climb back up on the one on the enemy side and turn her attention immediately to the spot she expected to find Bubblegum. The ledge leading from the pathway at their base seemed empty, and a glance to the mirrored one seemed empty as well. "Hmm…"

She jumped down, landing back on the inked ground again and briefly debating where to head as the map was pretty mostly held under an iron fist by her team. The sound of splashing to her left made her spin around and glare suspiciously through her goggles at where she'd heard it from, but nothing moved. A moment later, though, a carbon roller popped out of the ink from a different direction entirely, trying to slam their weapon down on her.

To them it looked like an easy kill, but she just sidestepped out of the one hit range of the weapon and dropped a bunch of burst bombs on their head yet again. Dusting the enemy color off of herself from their initial attack, Lemontea turned around just in time to catch sight of that pink laser again and narrowly jump away from the shot that followed it.

Sitting on the corner of the ledge next to the pathways leading to the enemy base, Bubblegum was staring down her rifle, sunlight glinting off of her gas mask behind it. Lemontea smirked, casually waving up to the other sniper, which earned a slightly confused head tilt in return. Before Bubblegum could charge her weapon again, Lemontea dove into the ink and sped over to where she was, popping up below the ledge she was perched on.

Neither of them moved for a moment, Bubblegum staring down in confusion at her girlfriend's bright grin. Shaking her head, she lowered her weapon and removed her gas mask, of which Lemontea followed suit. "What are you doing?" Below, Lemontea's grin just grew wider, and she gestured for the pink squid to come closer.

Bubblegum hesitated, internally debating whether or not this was just a really bold sneak attack, until trust for the other finally won and she leaned down toward Lemontea with an expectant stare. The yellow squid's sharp green eyes sparkled when she did, and she spoke slowly to answer the unasked question as the grin vanished and was replaced with a serious expression. "So… Remember last match when you surprised me with a kraken?"

"Yeah…?"

"Revenge." Lemontea practically purred, pulling her confused girlfriend down into another kiss. Bubblegum's face turned bright pink yet again, and Lemontea's lips curled right back into a grin against her own as it did.

The end whistle blew, signaling the match was over and startling the pink squid as she'd forgotten they were in one. Realizing that's exactly what her not-remotely-sorry girlfriend had been trying to accomplish, Bubblegum threw a sharp look down at her. "You did that on purpose."

"Duh."

"You regret nothing."

"Yep."

An amused smile worked its way onto Bubblegum's face as she retrieved her discarded mask and rifle. "Distracting the enemies is cheating."

Lemontea shrugged. "Too bad." Finally, the amused smile gave way to full on chuckles as Bubblegum jumped down, and Lemontea soon joined in.

Today, today's a good day.

---

"What do you wanna do first?" Lemontea asked as soon as they left Inkopolis tower, the afternoon sun momentarily blinding them both. "We can do anything or go anywhere, today's my treat."

"Uuuhh," Bubblebum paused, looking around and fiddling with the sleeves of her jacket, a little unsure about being put on the spot. "Maybe we should get lunch?"

"Okay! The team said there was a new place nearby now, let's try that? I have no idea what they serve though."

"That's alright, let's try it."

Lemontea smiled and took Bubblegum's hand, pulling her gently along down the street. The pink squid went along willingly, finding herself watching Lemon's face more than anything as the other sniper looked around for the place she'd been told about. Her green eyes were reflecting the sunlight, seeming to glow ever so gently as they flitted about, reading signs. Warm yellow bangs framed the top of her face, matching tentacles descending from either side and fading to green where they bounced lightly near her hips as she walked. Her free hand fished her phone out of her pocket, typing something in with one finger and not bothering to let go of Bubblegum's hand to make that job easier, something the pink girl found herself hoping was simply because Lemontea didn't want to let go and not just because she didn't think about it.

While Lemontea read the search results on the small screen, Bubblegum's gaze trailed down to the hand gently holding onto her own. Dainty pale fingers absentmindedly tapped against her skin, nails poorly painted green from the other day when their owner had humored the pink squid when she wanted to try painting them. Smudged and chipped in places, she still wondered why Lemon hadn't just cleaned them off. A quiet sound from the yellow sniper had Bubblegum's stare snapping back up to focus on her face again, just in time to see a sheepish grin cross over it.

"I'm dumb." Lemontea said with a cheerful, somewhat high pitched tone that Bubblegum clearly knew as her 'I made a mistake' voice. Resisting the urge to chuckle, Bubblegum just gave her a soft smile.

"What did you do?" She asked quietly, not bothering to argue with the sniper's previous statement since they both knew it wasn't true. Lemontea glanced at the building in front of them, gesturing at it with the phone still in her hand as she looked back at the patiently waiting pink Inkling.

"I uh, wasn't listening very closely and so… Want some ice cream?"

Looking at the ice cream parlor Lemontea had gestured at, Bubblegum covered her mouth as she fell into a fit of giggles, causing Lemon's ears to turn the same color as her hair but her own grin didn't budge. "Ice cream sounds lovely." She agreed once she'd found the words for it, pulling her embarrassed girlfriend inside.

Stepping through the doorway, both girls shuddered at the clear change in temperature, the air inside being much colder than outside though it wasn't unpleasantly so. As they walked further in, Lemontea spoke up again, her ears still trying to shake off that blush. "I know you asked for lunch, sorry. We can always go somewhere else or get some afterward, you haven't eaten since breakfast, right? It's not good to go too long without."

The yellow Inkling's chatter was interrupted by her pink girlfriend's finger pressing against her lips, effectively making her shut up for the moment. "Shush. I'm fine, and it really does sound nice."

"Okay." Lemontea breathed, and Bubblegum retreated back into her own personal space again. They glanced over the menus for a moment to see what was available, but otherwise didn't dwell on it since they both already knew what they wanted. Ten minutes and a bored part time clerk later, the girls were back on the street, Lemontea again dragging her pink girlfriend to some destination and claiming the parlor was too noisy to stay in. Bubblegum just followed along as usual without argument, not particularly concerned with where they were heading as she kept one eye on her new cone to make sure it didn't melt on her hand.

Soon they rounded a corner and the tall buildings around them opened up into a large playground, the area currently deserted as it was still too early for any Squidlings to be out of school. Finally, a bench on the edge of the area seemed to be the yellow sniper's destination as she pulled Bubblegum over to it, sitting them both down and turning to her girlfriend proudly.

"See? Nice and quiet and without the stares of judgmental part time workers."

Bubblegum grinned at the other, turning momentarily to her pale green ice cream. "Yes, much better." She agreed, licking away the drips as it just started trying to melt.

"What did you get?" Lemontea asked as she mirrored the action on her own cone, though not being quite as diligent about it as Bubblegum and managing to get pink drips on her fingers, which the aforementioned squid decidedly looked away as Lemontea cleaned the melted liquid off.

"I got mint." She murmured, tasting it again as she looked back over. Lemontea made a sound as if she had seen that answer coming, then gestured with her own cone with a smirk.

"Mine's girlfriend flavor." Lemon informed, bringing the cone back to her face and licking over it again. "Still not as sweet as the real one."

The pink squid's face flushed slightly as she gave the other, and her wiggling eyebrows, a flat stare. "You make that joke every time we get ice cream." She pointed out, covering her slight fluster by going back to her own ice cream.

Lemontea made a mock offended noise, dramatically planting her free hand flat on her own chest. "You think I jest! You wound me, really. I would not joke about such serious matters."

"Ice cream is a serious matter now, eh?" Bubblegum shot right back, a smirk of her own making its way onto her face.

"Exactly." The yellow sniper continued in a stuck up voice, gesturing wildly with the hand luckily not holding a possible partially frozen projectile. "It is a matter of national importance and the first order of business is to let me try yours."

Chuckling, Bubblegum heeded the request, holding her green cone out to her silly sniper girlfriend. Leaning over to taste it, Lemontea somehow managed to move a different way than Bubblegum expected, causing a smudge of ice cream to find its way onto Lemontea's nose. Squeaking slightly in surprise, the victim of the ice creamy wrath crossed her green eyes, staring down at the duller green of the ice cream on her nose and made an insulted expression at it.

"Excuse me, how dare you." She said, eyes darting back up to the girl who was barely holding in her laughter at the scene. "Attacking me with ice cream is playing dirty, you know."

Bubblegum's smirk widened. "Just like distracting the enemy is cheating?"

"You started it."

"You came after me."

"Of course."

The pink Inkling didn't reply, instead giving Lemontea a soft look that made her skin flush beneath the smudge. As much as she'd like to continue staring at that adorable mockingly offended expression under melted cream, Bubblegum chose to lean forward, pulling Lemontea close with her empty hand and licking the smudge off with a gentleness that would have put dust bunnies to shame.

She went to lean away again, but found herself held in place by Lemontea's own hand as it grasped gently onto her shoulder, not enough to force her to stay there but enough to tell her Lemontea didn't want her to move away. Willingly frozen in place, she stared up at the yellow Inkling's surprisingly intense expression, her eyes sparkling with affection as she closed the space between them again. Her breath ghosted over Bubblegum's face, making the more timid sniper's eyes start to slide closed of their own accord, her own breath coming out in short puffs against Lemontea's face as well.

Simultaneously feeling like it took both a thousand years and a split second, Lemontea's lips met her own in such a way that it could have rivaled the gentle action Bubblegum had made herself only a few moments ago. As cheesy as the thought sounded in her head, she couldn't help but think they fit together as perfectly as if they'd been made to go together this way. Lemontea's hand moved from her shoulder to trace up her neck, leaving goosebumps in its wake as it ever so softly brushed over her ear and down the tentacle tucked behind it.

Any other rational though not relating to the girl currently touching her like she was the most precious thing in existence vacated her mind as Lemontea licked her lips and pulled back ever so slightly, heavy breaths matching the pink squid's own. Cracking her eyes open somewhat, Bubblegum was almost floored by the overwhelmingly loving stare focused on her, surprised by how much feeling could be put into one look, how much could be said without saying anything at all. The other girl put it into words anyway, though, more out of want than need since her half lidded green eyes staring down like there was nothing more important to her said it all on their own.

"I love you."

Still feeling as if her brain was short circuiting from the affection, Bubblegum fumbled for the same words in reply, only managing to loop together a long string of gibberish as Lemontea smiled at her for it. Eventually she did put together something that sounded like a proper language, though not completely related to the matter at hand. "I, uhh you, uh… what were we doing again?" Which earned a chuckle from the yellow squid still holding onto her with one hand.

"Well, you had just attacked me with your ice cream… Speaking of which," Lemontea turned to the melting pink cone in her hand, taking a moment to lick the drips off of it and her fingers while not entirely looking away from Bubblegum. Well so much for not looking earlier when she did that. The pink sniper thought, a light dusting of an equally as pink blush making its way onto her face at the… somewhat suggestive act. "Oh, would you like some help?"

Before Bubblegum could realize, and therefore protest, exactly what Lemontea meant, the yellow Inkling was already taking the also slightly melted green cone from Bubblegum's hand. She hadn't even noticed hers had melted down her fingers too, drips that Lemontea shamelessly gave the same treatment as the ones on her own hand. Green eyes never leaving her face as her girlfriend licked the melted ice cream off of her hand, Bubblegum's entire face turned a shade of red one wouldn't even think could possibly come from pink. If she hadn't been flustered before, she definitely was now.

"Now, aren't you glad we didn't stay in the ice cream parlor?"

Bubblegum was internally screaming, Lemontea was absolutely impossible, she decided. You still love her, something in the back of her mind pointed out, and she not so begrudgingly had to agree with it even as said impossible squid gave her the green cone back and smudged her nose with the pink one.

Reacting similarly to how Lemontea had earlier, Bubblegum jumped slightly and gave the smudge an offended stare, crossing her eyes to see it. "Is that how I looked?" Her girlfriend asked, giggling slightly at the sight of the pink squid with ice cream smudged on her nose and eyes crossed to see it. Bubblegum just snorted in reply, not remotely sorry as she deliberately put another green smudge on Lemontea's face.

Lemontea squawked in an offended way, freezing for a moment before giving Bubblegum an impish look and lunging for her. Bubblegum was a step ahead, though, flipping over the back of the bench and dashing further into the playground, somehow managing to not drop her ice cream in the process. "You'll never take me alive!" She called, glancing back for a moment to see Lemontea hot on her heels, a look promising to make Bubblegum regret the ice cream attack clear on her face.

"Get back here!" The yellow sniper commanded, prompting the pink girl to turn and stick her tongue out at her pursuer.

"Nope!"

She ran over the top of a seesaw, wobbling over it slightly as it shifted from her weight but managing to run to the end without falling. As soon as she was back on the ground she turned around to tease Lemontea again, nearly jumping out of her skin when she came face to face with her, the ice cream smudged victim already standing on the end of the seesaw Bubblegum had just stepped off of. "Surprise!" Lemontea exclaimed, putting another smudge of pink on the startled squid's cheek.

Squealing slightly, Bubblegum ran away again. She looked for where she could gain an advantage, and chose to run behind a tree and pretend to hide behind it. As Lemontea started to come around the side after her, she jumped back out again quickly and caused the other sniper to bump right into her and tense for a minute to regain her balance and avoid making them both fall. During the moment Lemontea was trying not to fall on Bubblegum, she took the opportunity to put another green smudge on her face and run away again.

"Now that's just unfair." Bubblegum could practically hear the pout in her girlfriend's voice at the cheap tactics.

"We've long since established fairness is not a requirement, you know." She pointed out, running away to some sort of dome made of metal bars that she honestly couldn't figure out what it was supposed to be, but climbed onto it nonetheless. She had no trouble hopping up it from bar to bar to the top, and proudly sat down atop her new perch. "Can't reach me now!"

"Oh no, whatever shall I do?" Lemontea smirked. She didn't dare try to climb up it like Bubblegum had, instead stepping through the bars to the inside and sticking her cone in her mouth before using both hands to pull herself up through the top to sit beside her pink girlfriend. She pulled the cone back out of her mouth again, somehow having managed to not crush it on the way up, and looked at the other girl. "Hi."

Bubblegum honestly laughed, the sound breathy and airless but still easily portraying her cheer and it only took one look at her elated expression to get that loving stare to cross Lemontea's face again, which earned a shy but comfortable chuckle from the pink squid when she saw it. "I love that look." She admitted, unknowingly mimicking it.

Lemontea blinked. "What look?" Confusion creased the expression as she asked.

Inching closer to her and slinging an arm around her girlfriend's shoulders, which said girlfriend returned by putting a hand on the pink Inkling's lower back, Bubblegum resisted the urge to bury her face in the shoulder of Lemontea's cardigan due to the ice cream still smudged on her face and instead pressed her nose to the yellow squid's cheek. Breathing a comfortable puff of air over pale skin, she finally answered.

"The look that makes me know you mean it." She murmured, lips grazing softly against the other's skin as she spoke. "The one where I feel wanted. You know, the one that feels like home more than anything."

Her girlfriend turned, her eyes again managing to say everything for her, saying she understood without words. Bubblegum didn't protest as the yellow Inkling returned the borderline nuzzling, lips finding their way to Bubblegum's jaw to leave openmouthed kisses along its edge. Subconsciously, she tilted her head upward to give the other sniper better access, eyes slipping shut as Lemontea moved down to her throat and purring slightly against the touch.

"I love you too."

Lemontea just hummed. No more words were needed from either of them.

---

"Did I get it all?" Bubblegum asked, hand smoothing over her face a few times again for good measure.

"I think you did." Lemontea informed, already knowing her own face was free from the sweet aftermath of their desert war. "What do you wanna do next?"

"Hmmm…" Standing, the pink squid looked around, the wind making her blue tipped tentacles sway somewhat as she looked around. "Well, it looks like the Squidlings just got out of school."

Lemontea glanced over at where her girlfriend's pink gaze was focused. School did indeed seem to have let out by now, some small children starting to wander into the playground near them, and a few adults stood around the edge of the area conversing and giving the two girls sidelong looks. "We should go." She decided, standing up beside Bubblegum with somewhat of a nervous wobble over standing on the precarious bars.

Hopping down a few steps, Bubblegum turned back to her, arms outstretched. "Let me help you down."

"Oh, thanks." The yellow sniper took the offered hands and allowed her pink girlfriend to guide her down the side of the weirdly shaped playground thing they were standing on. Bubblegum was careful in making sure neither of them slipped, her hands held tightly onto Lemontea's own as she gently pulled her one way or another.

Once on the ground she let go, backing away into her own space and very nearly running into a small child as he ran by, who didn't even notice he nearly became the cause of a Bubblegum train wreck as he continued on through the playground. Lemontea caught an exasperated glance sent her way by the other girl, and answered it with a chuckle as she took her hand again and pulled Bubblegum away.

"Where should we go? We've got plenty of time left. Though it's getting a little chilly…" Lemontea muttered the last bit, silently grumbling at the weather trying to turn less pleasant after such a warm morning. Before Bubblegum could answer, though, now it was Lemontea's turn to nearly fall as a small brown animal dashed right under her. "Aagh, what was that?"

An Inkling running past them calling the pet's name and holding a leash was enough to answer that question. The animal in question completely ignored its owner as it ran right under the weird metal bar dome thing the two snipers had just left, though the owner didn't seem to notice and both girls winced in sympathy as he collided with it, slipping into one of the open sections and flipping over to land inside with one foot caught on a bar above him.

Lemontea walked over and crouched down outside of the dome. "Do you need some help?"

The Inkling looked up just as Bubblegum approached as well. "Uh, yes. Thank you." He said, prompting Lemontea to stand and free his foot from where it was caught in the bars and allowing him to awkwardly escape the dome.

"What was that about?" The yellow sniper continued once he was free.

"My pet got loose."

"You mean that pet?" They both looked at Bubblegum when she spoke, then to the direction she was pointing just in time to see the small animal from before running around the larger part of the park it had initially come from. Of course, that wasn't the interesting part, and Lemontea wasn't sure whether to start laughing or be very, very confused as she watched a herd of children chase after it. Some of the children even had parents chasing after them in turn.

Both of the owner's hands met his face as he covered it in exasperation. "Why me."

Just as Lemontea was opening her mouth to offer helping catch the unruly pet, Bubblegum beat her to it. "We could help you if you can't catch it." She said, voice low but the offer still clear even through her unsure tone.

"I'd appreciate the help, honestly. Only other alternative is to wait until he gets tired…"

She turned to Lemontea, and the yellow sniper could nearly see a plan forming in her head. "How about… Actually, there's a tennis court over there. We could probably use the fence around it to box him in." The pink Inkling still seemed a bit unsure about taking charge but her want to help was winning out over it, a realization that caused a soft smile to cross Lemontea's face.

"Good plan." She agreed, then added onto Bubblegum's idea. "Two of us should stay on either end of one side, while the third one herds that army of chaos over to it. Whoever ends up closest catches the pet."

"The hardest job will be getting him over here or running fast enough to actually change the direction he's going." The pet's owner added as well.

"I'll do it." The pink sniper decided immediately, turning away. "Let's hope it works."

With that she left, walking briskly toward the other end of the park where the chaotic scene was still happening as children continued to chase the pet. The pet that, Lemontea realized, she still had no idea what it was exactly. As they made their way toward the tennis court Bubblegum had pointed out, which wasn't far, both Inklings kept looking back over to see how the other girl was doing. They were long since standing in place by the fence by the time she reached the group of children and out of control pet, and Lemontea leaned against it as she focused sharply on the pink Inkling in the distance.

Somehow the other sniper managed to get the attention of most of the little Squidlings, motioning somewhat extravagantly with her hands as she presumably explained something to them. Whatever it was she was saying, she had their rapt attention for it, which was impressive considering how short their attention spans tended to be.

Of course, she also had Lemontea's attention as well, it was clear she was doing something right if the goal was to be the most fascinating point of interest in the park. Something about the way the usually shy and reserved girl was interacting so confidently with the children left Lemontea unable to look away, vaguely aware that she was witnessing a rare scene of the other being completely unafraid of what others would think.

She blinked, realizing just where Bubblegum's worriless demeanor was coming from. Children don't judge like adults do.

A calm, comfortable smile had made its home on the pink sniper's face, her eyes sparkling with a friendly sureness that wasn't shown very often. Still gesturing with one hand, she was leaning slightly off balance, tilting her head questioningly as she finished speaking. Whatever she had said earned her a chorus of nodding heads, and when she walked on to track down the pet, the herd of children followed along behind her this time like baby ducklings.

Covering her mouth to at least partially hide the reaction the scene ahead was giving her, Lemontea almost wanted to squeal at how impossibly cute it was. Bubblegum continued leading her newfound tiny army, the whole group following in turn as she sped up slightly to catch up with the escaped animal. With one eye directed back towards them at all times, which Lemontea guessed was to make sure no one tripped and got hurt, Bubblegum still managed to find the pet and send it running away from her again as she approached. She took off after it, tentacles streaming along in the air behind her as she ran, expertly darting back and forth to counter every time the animal tried to change direction to somewhere she didn't want it going. The Squidling army she was now in charge of weren't able to keep up with her well enough to be much help, but Lemontea figured it was better they felt included and Bubblegum didn't have to try to work around them like opposing forces.

As they approached, the yellow Inkling found herself watching her girlfriend's face more closely as the details became more clear. She had that focused, determined look she got when in a battle, though it was rarely ever seen through her mask except in cases like this. Rose colored eyes alternated between snapping back and forth to check for possible places their target could try to escape to, glancing behind to check on the Squidlings following, and just staying focused on the task at hand, sharply glinting against the light every time they moved. Just below them, pale skin flushed just barely against the growing chill in the air, though even through the exertion Bubblegum's breathing was still calm and even, something that came from plenty of time spent evading attacks in turf wars. As she grew even closer, Lemontea could see the barely noticeable subconscious smile hiding in plain sight on the other sniper's face; Bubblegum was having fun.

Wait, what were they supposed to be doing again?

"Catch him, catch him LEMON CATCH HIM!"

Snapping out of her slight daze, Lemontea lunged to the side just in time to cut off the pet's escape, simultaneously managing to make him collide with her and catch him at the same time. Of course, her instinctive reaction caused her to move with more effort than was necessary, causing both sniper and animal to crash in a dip in the ground a little ways away. When she shook the stars and comedic little birds out of her vision, Lemontea's first thought was to be excited they'd succeeded in catching the animal, the second was a slightly more disconcerted one as said animal decided to reward her win with a face full of slobber.

"Eeeeeep!" She squealed, leaning her face away from the friendly pet and removing it from her chest by lifting it up above her where she laid in the grass, effectively preventing it from slobbering all over her face as it couldn't reach her. Now that she was seeing it up close for the first time without it running around a thousand miles a second, it was clear from the dopily happy face and mess of whiskers that it was a sea lion. "Oh, well aren't you an adorable little troublemaker."

"Lemon! Are you okay?"

Looking up, Lemontea caught Bubblegum's concerned stare gazing down at her, the sea lion's owner standing behind her looking equally as concerned and that same army of children only just managing to catch up to the scene. Lemontea smiled brightly up at her girlfriend. "I'm holding an adorable puppy, what do you think?"

The concern melted away from the other sniper's face, making way for a warm smile instead, which only grew as the happy sea lion wriggled free of Lemontea's hands and went right back to slobbering on her face. Taking pity on the flailing and squealing girl, Bubblegum stepped over, picking up the pet and freeing her girlfriend from its adorable wrath.

Now freed, Lemontea sat up, watching Bubblegum look down at the wriggling slobber machine in her hands and make quiet kissy noises at it. She didn't even realize she was making that same loving expression again until Bubblegum looked back at her and immediately flushed slight pink.

Looking away, the pink squid handed the sea lion off to his owner, who immediately replaced the pet's collar back onto it to prevent it running off again while also thanking Bubblegum repeatedly for the help catching it. She just turned even darker pink, mumbling reassurances that it was no trouble, and Lemontea sat up a bit more to watch the exchange silently. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the Squidlings approaching now, and clearly the owner did as well as he set the sea lion down and turned to them.

"Now that he's actually sitting still, you can pet him, you know."

They didn't need to be told twice, and the unruly animal seemed to be completely proud of its escapade through the park as it was rewarded with being petted. Lemontea just chuckled quietly at the pet's overjoyed expression at the affection it was getting from the army of children, then stood and moved over to join Bubblegum as she lingered just at the edge of the interaction.

"Hey." The yellow squid said, catching her girlfriend's sleeve in her hand and leaning close to her to speak. "That was great. You handled this whole thing perfectly."

She looked away. "I, I just, uh… Thanks?" Came the awkward mumble, Bubblegum unsure of how to handle all the attention. Lemontea just smiled.

"Come on, we've done what we can here, let's go before he feels like he owes us something for helping."

Bubblegum nodded, agreeing silently and the two girls crept away from the scene together. Lemontea caught her girlfriend glancing back a couple of times, a warm expression on her face that was probably caused by a feeling of gratification for having helped. It was cute, she thought. Catching her stare, the other girl coughed to cover her blush and spoke up quietly. "So… It's not like you to get distracted. What had you thinking so hard you forgot the sea lion was there?"

A smirk crossed Lemontea's face. "Take a wild guess."

Blinking, Bubblegum narrowed her eyes and looked as if she had an answer on the tip of her tongue but refused to give it form. Lemontea watched with extreme amusement as the other sniper's blush turned darker but she continued to stubbornly refuse to voice the conclusion she'd come to, cheeks puffing out in response to Lemontea's entertained smirk. Casually stretching her arms up and then crossing them behind her head with a content yawn, the yellow Inkling focused one open eye on her girlfriend as she saved her from the task of admitting her thought out loud.

"Well let's see here, I was standing there minding my own business… And there's this really pretty girl in front of me, and I'm seeing she's good with children and pets, and she looks so happy and sweet and I'm thinking 'My my, she's lovely, I wish she was mine.'" Dropping her arms and resting one on Bubblegum's shoulder, Lemontea leaned closer as she continued. "And then I remembered, oh yeah, she is."

The pink squid made a string of noises that sounded like she was trying to create the vocal equivalent of someone smashing on a keyboard, and Lemontea's grin threatened to split her face as she dashed ahead, leaving the flustered squid with no choice but to follow while attempting to remember how to words.

They were at the central area of the park now, a large circular fountain making a nice ambient noise and Lemontea hopped up onto the edge of it and sat down, giving Bubblegum an innocent look as she caught up. Patting the spot beside her as an invitation to join her on the fountain, Lemontea was about to make another teasing remark when another yawn interrupted her instead.

"Are you tired?" Bubblegum asked as she sat down beside her. "We can go home, I know you haven't slept well lately."

The yellow sniper shook her head. "Nah, I'm fine." That was a lie, Lemontea was starting to feel the effects of a week of weird sleeping patterns and waking up early, but there was no way she was going to tell Bubblegum that. I said I'd take her on a date today and that's what I'm doing, there's no time to be sleepy.

"Really, we can do this another day. Don't push yourself for me."

Lemontea looked over at her girlfriend, studying her face and seeing nothing but sincerity and care for her wellbeing there. It hit her again how sweet the other girl was, how often she spent more time worrying about Lemontea than herself, and reminded her exactly why she wanted to give her a day all to themselves in the first place.

She really, really didn't want to end it early just because she was a little tired. The sniper was sure she could handle being a little bit drowsy and still treat Bubblegum to the proper date she was deserving of. "I'm okay, really!" She insisted, smiling brightly at the other and carefully erasing all signs of weariness from her expression and posture. Bubblegum still didn't look entirely convinced, but dropped the subject anyway, much to Lemontea's appreciation.

"Okay, but we can go home anytime if you get too tired. There's always another day." The pink Inkling pointed out, leaning back slightly and causing her phone to slide out of her pocket, which Lemontea immediately grabbed. Bubblegum didn't protest, but gave her a questioning glance. "What are you planning to do with that?"

"Probably change your autocorrect or something again." Lemontea decided, unlocking the screen and turning toward the other girl so she couldn't see what she was doing. Though she ended up opening the search instead of the settings, suddenly deciding to do something entirely different as she typed in what she wanted and downloaded the first image that popped up.

"Just don't reverse the N and M again please."

She chuckled, tapping a few more times on the touchscreen. "That was funny and you know it."

"That's besides the point."

Finished with her task, Lemontea stuck the phone back in Bubblegum's jacket pocket, then grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet before she could try to see what she'd done to it. "Come on, how about we go get a drink while we decide where to go next?"

"That sounds nice actually." Bubblegum agreed immediately, allowing herself to be pulled along. "What exactly did you do to my phone?"

"You'll figure it out later." The yellow Inkling smirked, leading her girlfriend out of the park and back onto a commercial street again. "Hey, actually, isn't there an amusement park of some sort on the other side of Inkopolis tower from here? We could go there."

The other girl hummed, sounding interested but also reserved. She was probably still worried, Lemontea figured, knowing her. It gave her a warm feeling to know how much she cared, though she also felt a little guilty for being a cause of worry for her sometimes even if her concerns were usually baseless. Turning a corner, Lemontea spotted an establishment that would have what she wanted, and approached it. Bubblegum's going to be very, very worried when she finds out I've been out of medication all day… If she finds out, anyway. Lemontea fought the urge to physically shake the thoughts out of her head to prevent the other asking what for. As long as she didn't have any little fits like earlier during that match, everything would be fine.

She knew her limits, going a little while without it wouldn't cause too much issue as long as nothing caused more of those fits. Bubblegum had worried about her enough this week as it was, she deserved a day to just enjoy their time together and Lemontea had no intention of ruining her peace of mind with the knowledge of the empty bottle in her pocket.

Stepping through the door of the building with Bubblegum in tow, Lemontea was nearly knocked over with the intense though not entirely unpleasant smell of coffee. The pink squid beside her gave a sidelong glance, silently questioning her choice of place to get drinks. She just gave an innocent shrug in response as she approached the counter, eyes scanning the menus on the wall.

"What do you want?" The bored looking worker behind the counter looked up from her magazine at the two girls. Lemontea turned to her girlfriend first, silently repeating the question.

"Uhhh…" Bubblegum looked down, turning pink. "I want… lemon tea?"

Lemontea blinked. Huh. Cheeky. Turning back to the employee, she spoke up for them both in a friendly tone. "One lemon tea and one… decaffeinated iced latte?" She chose her drink mostly at random, rather than her usual choice of green tea, and didn't miss the narrowed eyed stare Bubblegum snapped onto her as the words came out of her mouth.

As soon as the girl turned away to make their drinks, Bubblegum leaned into her space and spoke quietly. "No green tea?" Her words almost had an edge to them, as if she were very strongly questioning Lemontea's life choices right now. Lemontea just shrugged, giving her a casual smile.

"I felt like something different. Besides, the decaf version of most coffees don't have too much more caffeine than green tea, anyway, so don't worry about it." The sniper brushed off, hoping her unconcerned demeanor would rub off on the other squid. Truth be told, she had no idea if that was a fact but she figured it would help her stay awake a bit better than tea even if it was decaffeinated, if only from a placebo effect.

"Okay…" She again let the topic go, though if her expression were any indication she was still unconvinced. Lemontea's gaze softened slightly as Bubblegum looked back to the floor. I'm sorry you have to worry about me so much, I should be the one worrying about you and yet you're always the one taking care of me. Continuing to watch the sweet girl in front of her, the yellow squid found herself wondering if Bubblegum knew how much she appreciated her. She hoped today was showing that.

The shop employee from before came back to the counter, snapping Lemontea out of her thoughts as she handed the two cups off to Bubblegum, who glanced at the more opaque of the two with a doubtful look. While Lemontea paid the other squid for their drinks, Bubblegum's timid voice cut the near silence.

"So this is decaf?"

"Yeah yeah." Came the noncommittal reply, the worker looking like she'd rather be anywhere else right now than here. "Have a nice day."

"It's fine, don't worry." Lemontea reassured, taking the cup and turning for the door. "Come on, let's go head for that theme park and see if they've got anything fun to do."

---

Lemontea bounced along a few steps ahead of Bubblegum, already starting to feel re-energized. The theme park she'd mentioned loomed ahead, its attractions casting long shadows across the asphalt toward them as the sun slowly made its way across the sky. As she paused to look up at them, the straw of her cup still in her mouth, her pink girlfriend nearly bumped into her.

"Some of those look kinda scary." The more timid of the two commented, eying some of the taller rides with a sideways glance.

Spitting out the straw, Lemontea turned to her. "We should ride everything."

"No way."

Her argument falling on deaf ears, the yellow squid took her hand and gently tugged her along to the gated entrance to the park. "It'll be fun, I promise. But we can skip any you're really scared of, just let me know." Punctuating her sentence with a backward glance and a sweet smile, Bubblegum followed along a little more willingly, again being reminded of how careful Lemontea was to make sure she always felt okay.

Luckily, they seemed to be ahead of the evening rush, meaning there was a surprisingly short line at the entrance and they made it to the ticket booth in record time. Lemontea offhandedly tossed her empty cup in a nearby trashcan as they approached, Bubblegum mimicking her motion right after. The booth employee greeted them in a cheery manner, making friendly small talk as he fastened paper wristbands onto each girl, and Lemontea easily talking right back to him as she paid. As soon as that exchange was finished and they continued into the park, Bubblegum let out a breath.

"He was energetic." She puffed. "I think I'd die if I had his job."

"Well, I'm glad you don't have his job in that case." The yellow Inkling commented. "I like having my cute girlfriend as not-dead."

Bubblegum snorted. "At least you didn't say undead or I'd have to make zombie noises."

Not expecting the deadpan joke of a reply, Lemontea nearly choked as she started laughing. A few other squids walking by gave her funny looks, but she didn't particularly care, especially after Bubblegum joined in with a few giggles. As their laughter subsided a moment later, Lemontea was hit again with a strong feeling of just how much she cared for this pink squid and their moments like these together.

Despite how much she wanted to vocalize her mushy thoughts, the yellow sniper chose to save it for another time rather than make Bubblegum a flustered mess in public yet again. Shaking it off instead and focusing back on the moment at hand, Lemontea found herself blinking at her suddenly determined looking companion.

A deep breath, then; "I want to try one of the scary rides!"

For half a second, Lemontea questioned how much Bubblegum was really up for that. Then her face split in a grin and she slowly pointed to the ride in the background behind the pink squid, prompting her to turn around and see what it was. She could practically hear Bubblegum blanch at the sight of the squids in the caged attraction being spun upside down far, far from the ground.

"... Nevermind."

The yellow squid chuckled. "I know, those are a bit extreme. How about a roller coaster instead?"

"That sounds a lot better."

Choosing to make their way through the slowly growing crowd in the direction of the nearest coaster, Lemontea was sure to take hold of the pink Inkling's hand as they went. Not wanting to lose her among the chaos was her excuse, though she really just wanted to be in contact with her girlfriend, something the blushing pink girl didn't quite pick up on.

As they reached the destination ride and made their way up into it to board, Bubblegum started to second guess this choice as well. "This one seems kinda extreme too, I dunno." But she didn't make any move to back out, hopping into their cart without complaint.

The yellow Inkling pressed a half second kiss to her forehead. "It'll be fine, don't worry. I think only like ten squids have died on this one."

The comfort her kiss and first words brought to the other were immediately canceled out by the latter half of her sentence, and Bubblegum made an offended noise and hit Lemontea's shoulder without any force. Throwing her hands up in surrender, Lemontea gave her a sheepish grin before shifting back into a serious and honest expression.

"No, it's actually perfectly safe. No one's died. Besides," She paused, grinning again. "You know we don't take fall damage."

Distracted by trying to figure out Lemontea's joke in breaking narration, Bubblegum nearly jumped out of her skin when the ride started moving forward, immediately clinging to her chuckling girlfriend. "I regret everything." She mumbled through a face full of cardigan.

Preparing her best pouty puppy face, the yellow sniper put on a sad voice. "Aww, does that include me?" Just as she'd predicted, Bubblegum pulled away to give her a look, squinting as she opened her mouth to tell Lemontea what's what. Before she could utter a word, though, Lemontea gestured toward the front of the coaster that the other girl had already conveniently forgotten they were in. Right as the pink squid turned to investigate what she was gesturing to, they reached the top of the track and sped down along the rest of it.

Bubblegum, of course, went right back to clinging to her girlfriend and trying not to scream.

---

As the roller coaster pulled back into the station it had started at for its occupants to exit, Bubblegum quickly hopped out and momentarily fought with her balance at the unexpectedly unmoving ground. Lemontea almost chuckled at her antics, especially when she glanced back with a sheepish look, but all she could manage was an amused smile as she slowly followed along. The pink squid took her hand and helped her, of which the yellow sniper was appreciative but hoped she couldn't feel or hear the pounding in her chest that sounded so loud within her own ears. It was just the adrenaline of that ride, that's all. Nothing to worry about. They left the ride hand in hand, and Lemontea forced her breathing to be somewhat normal and readied an excuse just in case Bubblegum asked about what she couldn't normalize. Other than a slightly worried look that she just waved off, however, Lemontea was thankful her girlfriend didn't make any other comments.

"Hey, you wanna go try the food? Caramel apples sound amazing right now." She suggested, trying to distract herself from the uncomfortable tense feeling in her muscles.

"Sure, let's see if they have any." Bubblegum agreed quietly, giving a suspicious glance at their hands as they walked, and it was only after a moment Lemontea realized she was shaking slightly. "Hey, are you
okay?"

"Hmm." Feigning innocent curiosity, the yellow squid took her hand back and wiggled her fingers as she examined her hand. She gave a noncommittal shrug and relaxed smile, her usual cheery demeanor slipping back. "I guess that ride was a little more exciting than I'd expected. Oh hey, that stand has the apples I want, come on."

Quickly dragging her pink girlfriend over to the aforementioned food stand before she could worry about it any further, Lemontea pushed the uncomfortable feeling to the back of her mind and leaned casually up to the window. Bubblegum only squinted at her harder, and she started to feel as if she was catching on.

"You want anything? We didn't get lunch earlier, so we should eat now." She tried, turning to order one of those apples in the meantime.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

Lemontea paused, thinking carefully about her answer. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, we've been all over the place today, so of course it's a lot of excitement and kinda tiring, but I'm okay."

With baited breath, the yellow sniper waited for her girlfriend's response, though not quite realizing that feeling was more from the trouble she was having getting air than it was from anxiously awaiting Bubblegum's answer. She could practically see the wheels turning in the other girl's head as she mulled over the explanation, before finally she spoke. "Okay. If you say you're okay, then I trust you."

She felt a pang of something in her chest, which she chalked up to a sudden feeling of stabbing guilt at that sentence. It was true she wasn't telling her everything, but she still stubbornly clung to the idea that she wanted Bubblegum to have a nice worry free date. Lemontea at least owed her that much. Still, it felt wrong keeping things from her, but she didn't want to ruin her day with panic and guilt. Mentally shaking the thought and feeling off, Lemontea forced her cheery air to return, though the pang in her chest didn't go away.

Putting on her most charming smile, she pointed back at the menu. "So how about that carnival food, eh?"

Bubblegum relaxed again, seeming to believe that the yellow sniper was indeed fine. Smiling back slightly, she looked up at the options. "I really want... funnel cake?"

"Add that to my order, please." Lemontea mentioned to the employee listening to them, who nodded and went to work on the snack. While they did that, the yellow Inkling fished in her pocket for her wallet, retrieving it without issue but pausing as the pocket felt otherwise empty. Wait a second... Checking back in that pocket, and then the other one, Lemontea felt a moment of slight panic. Saying her blood ran cold would be an overly dramatic statement, but she could argue that's how it felt anyway.

"What's wrong?" Bubblegum asked, seeing the look on her face.

"I... may or may not... seem to have lost my keys."

"Flew off on the coaster?"

"... Probably..."

"Let's look for them after we eat. If we can't find them, no worry, I've got mine and we can have you another copy made." The pink squid calmly decided, handling the issue with no trouble. Lemontea found herself blinking in surprise at how easily Bubblegum chose how to go about it and find a solution without worrying at all, and as if to add emphasis to it, she took the wallet out of the yellow squid's hands and paid the waiting employee that Lemontea hadn't even realized had returned with their food.

Casually sticking the wallet back in Lemontea's pocket and taking the plate of funnel cake and then putting the caramel apple on top of it, Bubblegum gently booped her girlfriend's nose and then took her hand, dragging the half shocked squid out of the way of other people. "Wow. You work well under pressure."

"There's no pressure, you lost your keys but I have mine. It's not a big deal unless someone finds them and happens to know exactly where our apartment is, which I can just about guarantee they will not." She paused, contemplating something. "And if they do happen to find them, and know where we live, and break in, then we can just shoot them. Right?"

Lemontea snorted. "Yes. Yes we can shoot them."

"The best solution, really."

Having wandered over to an empty bench during their sarcastic joking, Bubblegum handed over the apple as they both sat down. Lemontea felt a little better to notice the discomfort in her chest seemed to have faded again, and carefully bit into her snack while trying to avoid getting any on her nose. She failed.

Looking over, Bubblegum had failed too. Lemontea couldn't hold back an amused giggle as she took in the sight of her pink girlfriend's cheeks dusted in powdered sugar. The other sniper merely stuck out her tongue mockingly and spoke up, commenting on Lemontea's own state. "You have no room to talk when you have caramel on your nose."

"Do we want a repeat of earlier with the ice cream?" The yellow squid teased right back, smirking.

"Save it for the bedroom."

Lemontea almost choked.

Bubblegum smirked.

Turning back to her apple and trying to ignore the growing yellow blush on her cheeks, Lemontea gave it a flustered stare for a few seconds until a napkin was shoved in front of her face. Turning back to Bubblegum, she saw just as much of a blush on the other girl's cheeks along with a kind smile that had replaced the shameless smirk from a few seconds ago. Lemontea's own expression melted into a smile at the sweet look, and she gently took the napkin, their fingers brushing as she did.

It's funny how, even after all this time, even such simple interactions can feel like there's electricity between us. Just like the first time we did them.

"What's on your mind, Lemon?" The very source of her thoughts spoke up, watching her with a gentle gaze and speaking quietly as she nibbled thoughtfully on her own food.

"... You." Came the cliché and simple answer, though Bubblegum just raised an eyebrow and waited for her to explain. "Just thinking about how... Okay, you know how they say those fluttery, lovey feelings fade after you've been together for so long? You just get so used to each other you don't really feel it anymore?"

Slight worry creased the pink squid's brow, her mind immediately going to the worst possible thing. "Yeah?"

"I was just thinking about how I haven't noticed that at all. I still feel just as much like a lovestruck teenager as I did in the beginning."

Bubblegum's blush, which had started to fade, returned tenfold, and the worry fell from her face as she hid it behind one hand. Trying to cover up just how flustered she was getting, she made a deadpan comment in a quiet tone. "... Lemon, you are a lovestruck teenager, remember?"

"Lovestruck for you."

Yet again, Bubblegum made the vocal equivalent of smashing a keyboard. Her face as bright as her tentacles, she stared intently down at her food, mumbling something.

"What was that?" Lemontea asked, leaning closer, prompting the flustered pink squid to turn and mumble into her ear this time.

"I'm lovestruck for you too."

The yellow sniper smiled slightly as a blush took over her own face, but it quickly evolved into a smirk and Bubblegum squinted suspiciously at what comment she could be thinking of making. Dramatically taking a breath and giving the pink squid a sidelong glance as she spoke, Lemontea adopted a deadpan tone and dropped her gem of a joke.

"Gaaaayyyy."

Bubblegum rolled her eyes. "Oh no, I'm so offended, whatever shall I do?"

"I could think of a few things."

"Could you now?" The pink squid leaned close, looking up at Lemontea through her eyelashes and blinking slowly. Stammering over her words, Lemontea found herself answering in pure gibberish as Bubblegum leaned ever closer, only to steal a bite of her apple and back away again with a self satisfied smirk as she chewed it.

Now it was Lemontea's turn to make the vocal equivalent of smashing a keyboard.

---

"We're not gonna find them."

"Nope. Someone might've picked them up already."

Lemontea sighed. So much for finding her keys. At least Bubblegum had hers, though for some reason Lemontea had a strange feeling she wouldn't need them. Shaking that thought away with a foreboding shiver, the yellow Inkling turned her attention back to her girlfriend. "Well, it's getting late. You wanna go up on the Ferris wheel before we leave?"

The pink squid's face lit up with excitement. "Yes! If you want to."

She held out her hand, and Bubblegum took it right away, allowing Lemontea to lead their way through the crowd again toward their final stop of the night. As the sun was starting to set, many of the squids at the park had already gone home, making the crowds less dense again like when they'd arrived. The line at the Ferris wheel was still decently long, but it didn't take as long as they thought it would to reach the front of it. Before they knew it, Lemontea was stepping up and aside to offer a polite hand to Bubblegum and help her up.

The pink squid smiled at her, taking the offered hand and stepping into one of the attraction's many baskets. Lemontea followed along right behind, sitting down on the little bench opposite of her girlfriend, despite how much she wanted to be beside her. It was getting ever darker, the light fading from the sky though the light from the city grew brighter in accordance. As the wheel turned and their basket was slowly lifted higher and higher, Lemontea started to notice her breath ghosting in the air in front of her.

"It's gotten cold out."

"It'll be nice to get home and be warm together once we leave here." Bubblegum mused.

Lemontea hummed quietly to show she'd heard and approved, looking out over the scenery around them. "Look, you can see Hammerhead Bridge from here."

"Was that in rotation this morning? It's fun as a charger."

"No, it was on the map lineup before we joined. I hope we can play on it next time though, it's nice out there."

There was a pause as they reached the top.

"Hey, Lemon?"

"Yeah?"

"Today was really nice." Lemontea looked back over, catching sight of Bubblegum gazing off into the distance with unfocused eyes, her mind clearly focused on her thoughts rather than the view. "Thank you for asking me out."

"It's been too long since we had a day to ourselves." Lemontea agreed. She kept watching Bubblegum when she didn't reply, however, the pink squid's unfocused stare turning to the hands clasped together
nervously in her lap. "You okay?"

"I liked spending time with you. Especially after, you know, this morning."

"This morning?" Thinking back, the yellow squid tried to remember what had happened that morning. It seemed like so long ago by now. "Wait, you mean that nightmare you had?"

Bubblegum nodded.

"That bad, huh?" Her voice fell to a much lower volume, betraying her empathy for her girlfriend's rude awakening this morning.

"It was about you."

She wanted to talk about it now, it seemed. "What did I do?"

The other sniper seemed to freeze up, hiding her face in her hands as she remembered and most likely partially relived it.

"You don't have to think about it or tell me if it's too much."

A few seconds of silence passed before Bubblegum looked up, wiping her sleeves on her face over and over as she tried hard not to let tears fall from the thought, whatever it was. Her leather jacket wasn't so great for that, however, prompting Lemontea to carefully move forward and do it for her. Bubblegum didn't even realize she'd moved until the yellow squid was kneeling in front of her, drying her face with the cuffs of her cardigan and wiping away new tears with her thumbs. The pink squid smiled through her emotion and leaned into the touch appreciatively. "You sure end up doing this for me a lot."

"I don't mind. You can't help it and sometimes you just need someone, you know?"

"I'm glad you're here." Bubblegum reached forward and wrapped her arms around Lemontea's torso, hugging close against her. "And I'm glad you were there this morning."

Lemontea didn't say anything, not wanting to try and push her at all. Instead she just pressed her face onto the top of the other girl's head, breathing out gently. Bubblegum sighed happily as she did.

"This is nice. Knowing it wasn't true." Lemontea could feel her look away into the horizon, then bury her face back into her neck again. "Knowing you're here."

Choosing to gently prod for an answer, the yellow Inkling spoke up.

"Did I leave you?"

"... Yeah." Her grip tightened. "You died."

Lemontea could nearly feel her heart stop, ironically enough. She hugged Bubblegum back even tighter for a long moment, then pulled away and held the pink squid's face in her hands to look at her. "I won't leave you, especially not like that. I promise."

"You can never predict that though, no one can be sure."

"I'll battle death itself, then. I'll beat it up and teach it a lesson for trying to take me away from you." She decided stubbornly, sharp green eyes glinting in the half light. "I don't want to imagine what it would be like to leave you all alone."

"I don't either. That thought scares me. I never want it to happen, ever."

"So let's not. I won't die on you. You won't be rid of me that easily, you know."

As ridiculous as it was to say one could defeat death, it still seemed to make the pink squid feel better. Just as they started to pull away from each other, though, a loud boom sounded from above and spooked Bubblegum right back into her girlfriend's arms. Lemontea startled as well, but peered out into the sky to investigate the source of the noise and found herself staring at the spectacular sight of colors
lighting up the night sky.

"If you stop hiding against me, you'll be able to see the fireworks." She purred, chuckling as Bubblegum peeked away from Lemontea's shoulder and then slowly pulled away more to look above.

"They're really pretty." The pink sniper murmured. "Especially the yellow ones."

That comment didn't slip past Lemontea's attention, but she didn't draw attention directly to it. "Yeah. I like the pink ones." Bubblegum just gave her a sideways glance and a half smile.

Already their basket was descending again, heading back toward the ground to let them off. They both half wished they could have watched the fireworks from the top longer, but not getting to was good incentive to finally head toward home.

Bubblegum was the first to hop off when they reached the ground, turning back to take Lemontea's hands and guide her out of the basket as well. The yellow sniper hummed at her in appreciation, following along otherwise silently as they made their way back out of the theme park in companionable quiet.

The night air was chill on their skin, giving them a perfect excuse to cling closer to each other as they walked. The booth employee that had initially let them in was still there, and waved at them as they left, still as cheerful as he had been earlier that day. Bubblegum shivered as they walked, and Lemontea pulled her closer, earning a contented sigh from the pink squid.

"We should do this again sometime."

"Hopefully not prompted by you having nightmares next time, yeah?" Lemontea asked, to which Bubblegum nodded.

They could still hear some fireworks setting off in the distance, getting quieter the further they walked though they could still imagine the sparkling colors as they exploded. The streets they walked on were otherwise mostly silent, not many squids around by this time of night in this area. What they did encounter was a dull thudding interspersed with the occasional unmistakable cheering of a group of jellies some streets over. Sharing a curious look, the two turned to follow the noise, ducking through an alley to find a tiny basketball court tucked between a set of buildings.

The little court was fenced off in chain link, with one section left open as an entrance, which the girls stepped just inside of to watch the game going on inside. Two boy Inklings darted back and forth on the mat floor, one of them holding the ball while the other tried to block him, and the jellies they'd heard before were in various places all around the court seemingly involved in the game as well.

Watching the boy with the ball, Lemontea noticed him glance slightly down to somewhere behind the other squid, a split second later he slammed the object to the ground in just a way it bounced past his opponent toward one of the jellies. Both girls tensed, ready to jump in if someone got hurt, but the jelly easily hit the ball and deflected it right into the hoop, earning another round of that cute bubbly cheering. The Inkling who had failed to block it just chuckled and scratched his head in embarrassment, mumbling something about falling for that trick before, while the other Inkling gave his tiny partner a high five for scoring the point.

Finally they seemed to notice the two snipers loitering by the entrance, both waving in a friendly greeting. "Hey, you two wanna join? We could use more players." One of them called out, the one that had been blocking earlier. Turning to her girlfriend questioningly, Lemontea was half tempted to join. It looked like fun and she was still feeling a bit hyper from their drinks earlier.

Bubblegum looked unsure, and shook her head after a moment. Lemontea didn't realize her face had fallen slightly until the pink squid tentatively put a reassuring hand on her arm. "If you're up to it, you should play. I'd just rather watch, okay?"

"Are you sure?" She questioned.

"Yes." With that decided statement, the pink sniper physically took hold of Lemontea's shoulders and turned her around, gently pushing her toward the other squids. "Go have fun."

The yellow Inkling didn't argue any further, letting Bubblegum literally push her to join in. As she wandered over to greet the boys, Bubblegum leaned back against the fence and settled in to watch. She didn't know anything about basketball and she wasn't sure if Lemontea did either, though the other girl seemed confident as she fell right into place opposite the boy and his jelly friend, on the same team as the squid that had invited her over.

Her attention was drawn down to the ground beside her as one of the jellies that had been playing when the girls showed up wandered over to sit down with her, making a friendly bloop noise and waving a tentacle. She waved back gently, slowly sliding down the fence to sit on the ground as well. Looking back up, she focused back on the game in front of them just in time to see Lemontea throw the ball and manage to get it through the hoop, earning a high five from her teammate. On the ground beside Bubblegum, the jelly clapped for the sniper's successful shot.

The game continued on as such, each team scoring points left and right and trying their hardest to stop the others from doing so. Bubblegum mostly just paid attention to Lemontea, whether she had the ball or not, so she ended up losing track of the score nearly immediately. Not that she'd actually known it in the first place but that was besides the point. After a few more points she noticed Lemontea get caught blocking her Inkling opponent, who had the ball again. He kept trying to feint around her and she dodged around to corner and effectively stop him each time, though whether she noticed the boy's jelly companion sneaking up behind her or not Bubblegum wasn't sure.

Lemontea did notice, it seemed. Bubblegum was close enough to watch her green eyes snap to the side as she followed where her opponent was looking, lunging that direction by instinct the moment the other squid moved. Unfortunately, she ended up pausing in confusion when the ball was not actually there, as the boy had actually faked her out and thrown it to the opposite side of her. The jelly again bounced it up into the hoop, scoring them a point, while Lemontea shook off her surprise.

And again the game went on. The pink squid was enjoying watching her girlfriend have fun, even if she didn't have much idea at all of what was going on. After another few points, the jelly that was sitting beside Bubblegum tapped her leg and she turned toward it, blinking as a piece of chalk was held up to her face along with the sound of a questioning bloop.

"... You want me to draw with you?" She asked, looking at the little chalk doodles on the concrete in front of the jelly that it had already drawn. An excitable nod was her only answer. Not wanting to reject her cute little companion, she accepted the offered chalk and shifted to sit on her knees instead so she could draw. It meant she couldn't watch Lemontea play any longer, though she kept finding herself sneaking glances up at the game still going on.

At one point she glanced up just in time to see the one boy's jelly friend try to grab the ball, not realizing how much force it had. As a result, the little blue player ended up just continuing with the ball on its path as he held on. Needless to say, Bubblegum became completely enthralled in the game as it quickly descended into chaos, tapping her little companion to get their attention and watch with her. The other jellies on the court scattered out of the way for fear of being the site of a wreck, while the three Inklings scrambled to stop the improvised joyride before said wreck could happen.

Lemontea was closest and dashed in front of the ball first, catching it as gently as she could to keep the jelly on it from having too much of a jarring stop. Once it was safely in her hands and no longer moving, she held the ball up above her head to be eye level with its passenger, who was still hanging on for dear life. "You okay, little guy?" She asked, earning a cute little affirmative dance as he wiggled his dangling limbs. Reassured that he was okay even after a ride that could rival what they had experienced earlier at the theme park, the yellow squid gave him one of those distinctive toothy grins the Inklings were known for, then proceeded to lower him back to the ground so he could stand back on his own tentacles with the inanimate object at fault for the mess now held safely in his grip.

The Inkling boy that was friends with the jelly thanked her for catching him as they all returned to their previous places to resume their game, though it didn't escape Bubblegum's attention that Lemontea was breathing somewhat heavily from all the exertion. She gave her girlfriend a narrow eyed stare as she agreed to one more game, seeming to completely ignore the far too obvious rise and fall
of her shoulders.

It seemed staring hard at her wouldn't magically remind her she should rest, so the pink squid gave up and turned back to her doodles with the jelly. She wanted to go tell Lemontea to take a break, but she wasn't sure if she'd be too pushy or demanding to do so, and she didn't want to interrupt and be rude, and...

Her anxious thoughts were interrupted by her small companion waving a tentacle in her face, and her eyes focused back on their big round face. One of their other tentacles was pointing at a little chalk drawing they'd just done, seeming excited for her to look at it. Leaning over to peer down at it, Bubblegum found herself breaking out in a charmed smile, looking at the little doodle with fondness as she took in all of the squiggly lines and odd proportions that somehow made it even cuter. In pink and yellow chalk, the jelly had drawn two girl Inklings holding hands.

"It's adorable, I like it." She told them, giving a warm smile. If she thought the jelly had been excited before, they were ten times so now, happily bouncing around in circles and blooping. While her tiny new friend hopped around celebrating their praise, she looked back to the ongoing activity in front of them, watching again as they played to rules she didn't know. She watched the ball pass back and forth between players, sometimes getting in the hoop and sometimes missing it, courtesy of Lemontea she mentally added, cringing as one of Lemontea's throws hit the board instead and bounced off to fall back
and bounce off her head.

It continued on, arcing overhead above them all. Bubblegum watched it come down toward where she and her companion were sitting, casually hooking an arm around the jelly and moving two feet to the left she plopped back down on the concrete and watched the ball land next to them. The jelly in her arms blinked once, twice, then cheered.

She looked back to the other three Inklings and nearly jumped out of her skin when she found them watching her. Well, at least that's how it appeared at first, with all of them turned her direction. After a moment she noticed one of the boys actually giving the ball an offended stare, the other had an impressed look and Lemontea looked slightly distracted but also apologetic since she had been the one to throw the ball that time. The first boy came over to pick up the ball, continuing to give it a look.

"I've decided this thing is bloodthirsty, it keeps trying to hit people." He informed them, tossing it over his shoulder with a shrug. Then, when it collided with the other boy behind him, who protested with a faint ow, he put his hands on his hips and turned his head up confidently. "Case in point."

"Maybe we should pack up for the night." The other boy, who had been so ruthlessly attacked by the ball a moment earlier, picked up the offending object and side eyed it. "I don't think any of us particularly want to keep getting pummeled in the head by this ball."

Gently patting her little jelly companion and waving to him, Bubblegum awkwardly sidestepped around the two boys as they went on to debate whether or not they needed to buy a new, non-evil basketball. She stopped next to Lemontea, who was looking slightly ragged as she yawned.

"Come on, it's been a long day, we should go home so you can sleep." The pink squid suggested, taking her tired girlfriend's hand, who only nodded in her half responsive state.

The boys took notice of them leaving, and waved in a friendly manner. Lemontea perked up enough to send them a confident smile and thank them for letting her join in as Bubblegum slowly coaxed her out of the court. As the yellow Inkling turned back and focused on the road ahead of them, she breathed out heavily, breath ghosting in the cold dark air, since the sun had long since set and plunged the city into darkness and artificial lights.

"Today really was nice, you know. I liked spending time with you." Bubblegum mentioned, snuggling close into Lemontea's side, who tightened her grip on their hands and purred.

"I enjoyed spending time with you too."

Street lamps and apartment windows lit the ground in front of them as they walked, shoes scuffing with light noises on the rough concrete. Most of the usual ruckus of a large city had quieted down to a distant murmur from where they were on this silent residential street, louder noises cutting through were few and far between. The silence wasn't stifling however, Bubblegum soon found herself listening appreciatively to the gentle sound of the wind rustling through the purposefully evenly placed trees, only occasionally interrupted by the slightly louder yet still pleasantly consistent sound of small
vehicles driving home.

"Hey, look up." Lemontea mumbled, her voice sounding breathless. Her pink girlfriend did as told, looking upwards past the tall trees and apartments that closed in on them on either side. Above, the sky had a gentle purple glow to it and not a star in sight, one of the downsides to living in the ever luminescent city, and tiny white flakes starting to drift down toward them.

"Is that... snow?"

"Sure is. It's been a long time since it snowed here, hasn't it?" Lemontea sounded distant, as if far off in her own memories. Bubblegum didn't look back at her, instead watching the little flecks drift to the ground. One of them landed delicately on the pink sniper's nose, prompting her to cross her vibrant rose eyes to stare down at it melting quickly on her warm skin, leaving a noticeable but not too unpleasant burning sensation as it turned to water. Lemontea chuckled quietly at her girlfriend's antics, her chuckle turning to a light cough after a moment.

Bubblegum did turn to look at her then, noticing a dull look in Lemontea's own eyes. She was looking flatly ahead, seeming tired in a sickly way. "Lemon, are you okay?" Came the concerned prompt almost immediately, thoughts of the peaceful city atmosphere and light snowfall vanishing from her mind.

"Just tired, I think. Can we hurry home?" The yellow squid asked, her voice edging on a pleading tone. Bubblegum never, ever heard her whine for anything, which caused the current worry fraying at her nerves to spike. She didn't panic at least, staying clearheaded enough to notice Lemontea grasp at her pocket and then let her hand fall away in an almost dejected manner, looking oddly like she was giving up on something.

"... Yeah. Let's go." Turning away toward the direction of their home, which was unfortunately still very, very far from here, Bubblegum tried to focus on the quickest way back. It was hard to keep her attention on that task, however, when Lemontea's skin started feeling increasingly cold where their hands met, the yellow sniper's previously strong grip loosening with each step they took.

The snowfall got heavier as they walked, and though Bubblegum wanted to rush home, Lemontea's pace grew slower and slower, leaving the pink squid with no choice but to match her stride. The temperature dropped several more degrees, and she started to worry if her ailing girlfriend would be warm enough in that cardigan of hers.

A sudden pull on her hand made Bubblegum screech to a halt, if fast-ish walking could be described as stopping in such a way. As she turned to investigate why Lemontea had paused, the yellow squid came into vision just in time to see her with a hand to her mouth, coughing roughly as she used the fence beside them for support. Her coughing sounded painful as it wracked her whole body and shook her chest with visible force, the sound of it soon changing slightly as it picked up a sort of watery tone.

Bubblegum felt a rush of cold under her skin when Lemontea's coughed ceased and she pulled her hand away, examining it cautiously in the patchy light of the lamp above them. A splatter of color marked her skin, glinting under the artificial light as both girls knew it was too thick to be ink or saliva.

Their eyes met.

"I'm... I'm not okay."

"Lemon..." Bubblegum reached out for her helplessly, their hands having disconnected during Lemontea's fit. The yellow squid reached back, her pale hands trembling heavily as she held them in the air and a look of regret and fear crossed her face, wide eyes turning unfocused as she collapsed to the ground. "LEMON!"

She reacted quickly, catching her girlfriend before she could hit the ground, but the force did drag them both down even if Bubblegum made it slightly less rough. The yellow Inkling was limp as she flopped unceremoniously onto the concrete, Bubblegum's arms around her from trying to stop the fall. Panic did flood the pink girl's mind this time, repeated thoughts of asking herself what to do flew around over and over while she stared at her unmoving girlfriend blankly.

One of Lemontea's hands, the one with blood on it, waved weakly in front of Bubblegum's face, catching her attention away from the whirlwind of inaction in her head. Freeing her arms from under the collapsed girl as gently as she could, she moved up to peer down at Lemontea's face questioningly, and the words that had been swirling around her head now came out of her mouth.

"What do I do? No no no this can't be happening, Lemon please don't let this be real." The face under her, usually so serene and full of life, was drained of color and twisted in pain, dull eyes blinking slowly as their owner struggled to stay awake. "What do I do what do I do what do I do?!"

"Your... phone." The yellow squid managed, her voice rough and quiet as she could barely get enough air to stay conscious, much less to speak.

Not even wasting any time to curse herself for forgetting the first thing one should do in this situation, Bubblegum fumbled for her phone right away, trying to unlock the screen. In her less than calm state, fingers trembling and common sense lost to her emotions, she input the password incorrectly the first two times, wanting to scream every time her phone buzzed angrily at her. On the third try she took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down enough to properly unlock it, not even noticing the background Lemontea had put on it as she swiped for the call page.

Faster than she could ever remember having typed in a number correctly before, she had the phone pressed to her ear in an instant, waiting for the ringing to be picked up by someone that could help her. Almost immediately, the sound stopped, and she almost felt relieved until she felt the prerecorded message her service played when she had no signal. The call didn't go through.

She tried again, futilely pressing the call button over and over even though it did nothing. Even going so far as to take Lemontea's phone out of the pocket of said girl, who was fading more and more with each passing second, and call with that one using her other hand at the same time, Bubblegum only succeeded in giving herself the same error message in both ears at once.

She couldn't do anything. She didn't know how to save Lemontea on her own. She couldn't call for help. The street was now deserted, and many apartment windows now had shades drawn or were closed entirely, blocking out her crisis as many occupants chose to ignore the commotion entirely. Lemontea was going to die and she couldn't do anything to stop it.

Bubblegum screamed. Bubblegum screamed for help, she screamed for someone to hear her, she screamed things that didn't even sound like words anymore and she screamed until her voice hurt and she kept screaming even then. And even then, still, no one came to her aid.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'm sorry Lemontea I'm so sorry." Panic had officially taken over all rational thought, she had no ideas left. The thought of running down the street to hopefully find someone crossed her mind, but they were surrounded by more residential streets for several blocks in every direction, and on top of fearing to leave Lemontea alone for possibly not even finding anyone, her legs were frozen in fear and she found herself unable to stand.

She collapsed as well, hiding her face in her unresponsive girlfriend's chest as her apologies and screaming descended into completely incoherent noises, her stress going ever higher as she felt the lack of movement under her. Almost taken over by an entirely new wave of distress, Bubblegum went completely silent when she felt Lemontea's hand, weak and trembling as it was, come to rest on her
head.

"Lemon...?"

Sitting up slowly so as to not dislodge the hand, though it did slide down to the back of her neck, Bubblegum looked down at Lemontea's face again. The other girl's weak, pained gaze met her own, and Bubblegum's eyes widened as it sunk in that she was still hanging onto consciousness with an iron fist. Though she was considerably less lively, her body not moving at all and her glassy eyes continually trying to drift shut, it seemed the yellow sniper was doing all she could to hold out as long as possible.

A whole new string of apologies flew into her head at making Lemontea sit in pain through her panicking fit, but she stamped those thoughts away and went for their phones again. Unfortunately, both still showed no service, and her attention snapped up to look for a still awake-looking apartment, ready to go so far as to drag a random person out of their home to help her.

While she was looking, she failed to notice the previously cheery blue acquaintance of theirs wander up from the direction they'd come from, concerned bloops accompanying it. The sound reached Bubblegum's ears and she turned with a start, relief flooding her when she spotted her little jelly friend from earlier.

Just as they reached Lemontea's side, the pink squid leaned forward anxiously. "Can you get help? She needs to go to the hospital." She informed in a rush, hoping her little friend managed to catch her point with the speed of her words. With a military-esque salute, the little jelly dug in a pocket on their shirt, pulling an old looking phone from it. The phone made a little click as they flipped it open and dialed a few keys, ones that were different from the ones she'd been taught to call, and started blooping hysterically and waving half of their tentacles in an emphasis the operator couldn't see. Another wave of relief hit Bubblegum as she realized they had service and had managed to get a call through, knowing help would now come for them soon.

Turning her attention back to Lemontea, all of her relief flooded away just as quickly as it had come as she saw the yellow squid was barely struggling anymore, her eyes half lidded and breaths only moving her chest occasionally. As if to prove how badly she was doing, a line of blood dripped down her cheek from the corner of her mouth. "Lemon? Lemontea! Please, you can do this. Help is coming, just hold out a little longer." But her words prompted little response, Lemontea's eyes only drifting shut more, her lips moving slightly as words Bubblegum didn't catch were whispered out. She leaned closer, making a noise for the yellow squid to repeat herself.

"... so.. rry.."

Lemontea's head fell to the side, the muscles in her face relaxing as she drifted off seemingly into sleep.

"... Lemon? Lemon please, please no. Please." Please, don't leave me like this. No response came from the unmoving squid. The jelly by her side could only look on as Bubblegum screamed again, her tears that had been present all this time starting to create a puddle on the sidewalk under her. "LEMONTEA!"

---

Bubblegum stared.

Tears continued rolling unhindered down her cheeks, but she made no noise. Her hiccups and whimpers and sobs had long since ceased, leaving her in silence with a continually wet face. The lady at the emergency room desk kept giving her sympathetic glances, growing more and more concerned since with every look she gave the pink squid, Bubblegum continued to not move. The secretary had not seen her blink even once.

The waiting room had even emptied by this point. No one new had come in, and the last person was admitted awhile ago, leaving the secretary plenty of time to eye the statue-like girl in her state of frozen distress. After yet another half hour or more, the lady sighed and turned to her.

"Hun, are you okay?"

A few moments went by. Then a minute. Then, "Only if she is." and the pink squid went right back to complete silence without another word. The lady sighed again.

"Look, it's gonna be awhile yet, and you've been here for hours. Why don't you go outside and get some fresh air? I'll call you right away if anything changes."

Slowly, Bubblegum stood, though her dull stare stayed unfocused straight ahead even as she wandered through the doors to the cold night air outside. The secretary gave her a sad look as she went. Truth be told, she had absolutely no hope for that girl's partner to make it, and she didn't want to imagine what that would do to the remaining of the two.

Outside, Bubblegum took a deep breath, some of the fog clearing from her head but still everything felt like a bad dream she couldn't wake up from. Even the fresh air couldn't turn back what had happened, couldn't pull Lemontea back from the brink.

Eyes downcast to watch her feet and make sure she didn't trip, Bubblegum paced slowly across the small courtyard out front and into the parking lot. Her shoes scuffed on the dark surface, scattering tiny flutters of snow that had stuck earlier with each step. On the other side of the parking lot, she stepped up onto the sidewalk, and continued on still, out of the property of the hospital.

Nearby there was an area where the road dipped down, creating an area where she could look out over the city as somewhat busy cars drove by below. Sitting on the ledge, Bubblegum sighed as wind buffeted up from below, blowing her bangs back and making her tentacles sway where they hung over the rail.

The sky was still that flat purple shade, not a star in the sky and the snow had long since moved away. All that was left in the sky was a sad, not yet completely round moon, its light heavily drowned out by the light pollution of the huge city. Most businesses and homes had turned out their lights by this point as well, leaving Bubblegum mostly in shadow with nothing but street lights nearby. The wind on her wet face made her shiver, prompting her to try and wipe her tears with the slick sleeve of her jacket, only to fail and just manage to push them across her face a bit. It reminded her of earlier when Lemontea had noticed that same problem and wiped her tears for her with that damn orange cardigan that so often ended up with muted stains of her pink tears. And it always helped, being close to Lemontea and smelling the crisp clean scent that always clung to her and her clothes, that scent that was so completely her and simultaneously smelled like her namesake and also not. Even if she always felt guilty later for so often drenching her poor girlfriend in waterworks, it always did make her feel better to have her close.

Something about smelling that sweet, lemony scent that seemed to follow her around, the scent that was so tied to the yellow squid in Bubblegum's memory that she didn't have to see the other girl to know it was her if that lemon scent reached her.

Something about having the other girl's arms around her, patting her head or rubbing her back gently while she cried, the grip both soft and strong at once.

Something about the words of reassurance murmured in her ear, voice low and loving and practically dripping with an air of protection, radiating a feeling that everything would be okay.

Something about Lemontea just seemed to make everything okay, something about how strong she could be when it mattered and how gentle she could be when that mattered instead. How she seemed to know what Bubblegum needed at any given time, whether it was to reassure her that Lemontea did indeed love her or if it was to tell her she did just fine after a particularly stressful event of some sort, she always knew what to do.

Sometimes it felt like she had all the answers, even if she was just winging it and, in actuality, had absolutely no idea what she was doing. Lemontea just had that air of someone to rely on, someone to ask for help. Someone that would not judge for whatever mistakes had been made and instead just look for a way to fix it from the start.

Bubblegum turned, nearly forgetting what had happened and wanting to reach for her girlfriend. She was halfway through the motion of looking for Lemontea in order to go and cling to her and cry on her again when she remembered, and it hit her all over again.

She took a deep breath, trying not to descend back into tears again. Pulling her phone from her pocket, she unlocked it in the hopes of finding an app to distract herself until there was news, but all she managed to do was notice the background and feel the urge to cry at the sight of it. It was a simple text background, reading "I love you" with a little heart under it, set by Lemontea so many hours ago.

Leaning back onto the ground, she rolled over and hid her face in her arms as the tears, which had started to dry up in the thoughts of how sweet Lemontea is, returned full force at the thought of losing the one squid she'd ever gotten completely comfortable with, the squid who had been so cheesy as to take her phone just to put that image on it.

Lemontea was in limbo right now, teetering on the edge between reality and the end. Try as they might, if she fell from that edge, there'd be no bringing her back. The one person Bubblegum could love and trust completely would be gone forever, and there'd be nothing anyone could do about it. She'd never be able to cry on her again, never be able to hear her sweet voice whisper reassurances, never be able to feel her gentle touch, never be able to chase her around with ice cream, never be able to play turf with her, never be able to lounge at home with her, never be able to help her cook, never be able to wake up next to her again.

She'd never get to see the girl she was in love with again.

...

Her phone rang.

---

The end

---

(just kidding, there's an epilogue right there)

---

Epilogue

---

First came sound, a steady beeping she couldn't identify, the distant murmur of someone's voice, the slight rustle of wind. Then came some feeling, the texture of soft sheets under her, the slight discomfort of something pricking her arm, the cool breeze as it flowed over her skin. Her mouth felt dry.

Slowly, she cracked open an eye, then the other right after. The room was bright and white, sunlight shining in through an open window and glinting off of every surface with golden morning rays. The white curtains swayed gently under an invisible touch, that same touch gently brushing through her bangs as it flowed around the room.

The voice she'd heard wasn't actually someone talking, instead it was the gentle echoing tone of someone singing. If a harp or violin could have a voice like a person, she felt like this voice is what it would sound like. Soft and gentle, while still getting across all of the emotion the owner was feeling, it filled the room with more warmth than the sunlight ever could. Soon another sound joined the voice, the steady but pleasant and distinct whine that she immediately recognized as that of an actual violin. It wasn't perfect, she noticed several missed notes and a couple squeaks when the violinist's inexperience caught up to them, but it sounded lovely all the same.

She tried to look at the source of all the sound, tried to focus on the girl responsible for the charming song filling the room, but all she could see was a figure between her and the bright window, her eyes not yet adjusted enough to see more than their silhouette as they swayed to the soft tune. As the violin background continued, the girl's voice picked back up again to join it, emotion coloring her tone as she sang what seemed to be something sad. The tone, the words, the emotion behind it all just made the newly awoken girl think it was about losing someone, but the words wouldn't actually stick in her mind long enough to examine it for sure.

Her mind still felt foggy and fuzzy, most of her memories just out of reach. Her thoughts were jumbled and she was having trouble stringing together a coherent sentence in her head other than just wondering who her visitor was and why they were playing such a sad song. Trying to remember how she got here only made a spike of pain go through her chest, or maybe she only just noticed it was there, and she winced but made no sound. The pain brought some answers with it, she remembered seeing blood and collapsing. She remembered a burning pressure as she fought for air, cold concrete on her back, the feeling of a nagging determination to not drift into the dark.

She remembered hearing screaming. Panicked screaming, screaming for help, loud sobbing and mumbled apologies. The sound of someone well and truly afraid.

And then it was gone. Her memories ended. The screaming faded into the distance as she was pulled further and further away from it into nothing.

She started to wonder if she was dead.

Looking up, the girl with the violin was still playing, but the light was a little easier on the eyes now, allowing her to come into focus slightly. Her pink tentacles swayed with each pull of her bow, flowing through the air with an unknowing elegance. The cyan tips were a noticeable contrast to the rest of the pink and black in her outfit and hair, adding a spark of extra color that seemed to fit so well. Pale skin actually glowed in the morning sun, giving her a nearly ethereal look, and her eyes were closed as she listened closely to her own song, violin tucked under her chin against the bright pink shirt
that clung to her form.

Whoever she was, she was... very, very pretty...

Her song ended, her beautiful voice fading out slowly as she took the volume out of it and slowly drawing out the last note on her shining instrument. Even as it was over and echoed gently around the large and mostly empty room, she stayed still for several seconds still, seeming as if she almost didn't want to come back to reality. When she did, her eyes slowly slid open to stare sadly straight ahead, not really seeing anything. Despite the vibrant color that matched her shirt, they had a dull look to them, missing that lively glint people usually had.

With a heavy sigh, she turned around and put the instrument away, setting it on the window seat next to a black jacket. Her hands now freed, she rested them on the sill and leaned forward, closing her eyes again as the breeze touched her face and made her tentacles sway again. The light was still shining off her skin, giving an angelic look to her.

Yes, that was it. She had died and this girl was an angel. That had to be the answer.

The girl turned back and finally looked up at the occupant in the bed, freezing like a deer in headlights as those bright eyes widened. There were several seconds of silence before she approached slowly, as if in
shock.

"... Lemon?"

Lemontea blinked, finally starting to snap out of her haze and come back to reality. She focused on the pink squid properly for the first time, everything flooding back while pink tinged tears flooded down the other girl's face.

… Oh. Not an angel. Just my girlfriend. Eh, same thing. She smiled weakly. Bubblegum was on her in an instant, clinging to her as gently as she could while sobbing loudly, Lemontea's arms coming up to wrap around her while her own green eyes started to turn blurry from moisture.

And just like that morning that felt so long ago, Lemontea pulled her crying girlfriend away from her chest just enough to wipe her pink tears with her sleeves, staining the material and only making the pink squid cry more as she realized it wasn't over just yet. Lemontea was alive.

Everything was okay.

Just as it should be.

---

Bonus scene

---

The comfortable air of the cafe around them soothed her nerves as Bubblegum listened to everyone else going about their daily routine, the drink in her hands and the lemon scent wafting up from it also providing an extra comfort. Across from her, her companion mostly ignored his own drink in favor of the lit cigarette in his hand.

"So they're saying she's gonna get to go home today?" He was asking, leaning away from her to breathe out a cloud of smoke.

"Today or tomorrow. They can't seem to decide what they want to do."

A questioning bloop came from the seat between them, and Bubblegum turned to look at her jelly friend. The top of their head just barely cleared the table even when they were standing, so the little blue sea creature was hanging onto the edge to see her and participate in the conversation. A few more bloops, to which she carefully listened, asked another question of their own. The boy across from her just raised an eyebrow, which vanished into his hat, at her understanding of the jelly's garbled speech as she replied to it.

"Yeah, she's doing okay. She's still not a hundred percent, but she's doing much better than she was. She's not very happy they've banned her from turf or ranked, though, but I think that one was obvious."

Reaching the end of his cigarette, the yellow Inkling pressed it down into the provided tray and pulled another from his jacket pocket. "I hate to be tactless, but she was pretty bad off at first, wasn't she?" He asked, mumbling the last few words around the white stick as he lit it.

"... She was." Bubblegum admitted, refusing to meet his eyes as she stared down into her cup. "It wasn't any one thing that caused it, it was a big combination of the things that happened that day and they think she just had one sneaking up anyway, but all of that definitely didn't help. Then we were all alone, and I had no service, and it felt like it lasted so long and everyone who saw her thought she wouldn't
make it and..."

The pink squid didn't even realize she was rambling until her friend interrupted her, waving his hand in front of her face to catch her attention without touching her. "Whoa hey hey, it's okay. Don't think about it, okay? I can see it's still pretty fresh. And I don't blame you, you went through a lot. But she's alive and that's all that matters, just focus on that."

She nodded, turning away slightly and making her raging emotions settle down before she could break down in the shop. The jelly patted her leg gently, trying to comfort her and being less reserved than the
other Inkling.

"For now, worry less about what happened and more about getting her settled in at home." He continued, relaxing back in his chair. "Get her to feeling better and talk it over when it's not such an open wound for either of you, it'll be good for you both."

Bubblegum was about to reply again when her phone rang, and she looked up at the hat clad boy as she reached for it, unsure if it was rude to answer while talking to him. He nodded simply, dismissing her to her call and she answered immediately. "Hello?"

"They're releasing me today after all, they want you here in like an hour to pick me up." Lemontea's voice, which was stronger than it had been in days, sounded from the other end.

"Okay. I'm on the other side of town so I'll get going now, I should be there by then." Both of Bubblegum's companions looked up at her curiously, watching as she exchanged goodbyes with her recovering girlfriend and hit the end button. When the call screen minimized and showed her the home screen and her wallpaper, Bubblegum subconsciously smiled at the picture Lemontea had set that she still didn't have the heart to change back.

"Gotta head out, huh?"

"Yeah, sorry. I don't want to make her wait." The pink squid apologized, earning a noncommittal wave from the boy.

"Nah, it's cool. Go take care of your girlfriend. If you need any help just call me, okay?" She nodded, mumbling a thanks and patting her jelly friend's head before turning for the door. The yellow Inkling waved a goodbye as she went, then decided to finish his cigarette before doing the same. As he settled comfortably back into his seat, the jelly tapped his arm with a crayon and pointed at a piece of paper. "... You want me to draw with you?"

---

A/N: And there you have it. Around 24,000 words of nothing but Lemontea and Bubblegum. This thing took me way too long to finish, it's been in the works for months now and I apologize if there's a break somewhere in it that has a slight change in writing style because of it. The ending also feels too fast but it wouldn't come out as anything else.

Obviously, with such a long fic, there's parts I'm not happy with or feel are awkward, but there's not much I can do with them. Similarly I know a lot of the scenes are unneeded filler probably and a few of the plot lines are odd, but overall I hope it's decent.

As a whole, I had fun writing it, though I fear the girls are hellaciously out of character at times. I also don't know if there's any mistakes in editing/formatting because it's waaaaay too long to give it another round of proofreading after moving it online if I want it up in a decent amount of time.

And oh my god I hope it isn't boring