Summary: A oneshot about gay squids. Warning for potentially depressed individual, blood, and a really cute kiss.
Maya shook out her tentacles and stretched before hopping off the bench, landing on her feet and grabbing her Splattershot Jr, carrying it under her arm. She tried pointedly to ignore the stares around her, ignored the cheers and the gaping idiots, focused instead on getting to the ranked match entry pad, hoping to get into a game.
The crowd parted for her, as if she were a hero come home from a war - and if she was, she wasn't saying anything about it. She got enough attention without that coming out to the public. Weaving her way through the few who couldn't get their jaws off the floor, she hopped onto a match pad and eased into the pleasant buzz that came with entering the match system.
Warped into a lobby, she sat down once more, cupped her chin in her hand, and waited.
She glanced to the side when she heard the warp activate once more and froze.
There she was. It had been at least six months since she'd seen her last, but she was unmistakeable after many days rereading the article, the days she'd spent with her face in her mind. She felt her heart pick up in excitement and unconsciously patted the seat next to her, carefully schooling her expression into indifference.
"Oh, thanks," she smiled - a sweet, cheeky smile - and sat down, placing her weapon - a slosher - next to her. "What's your name?"
A plebeian name, compared to yours.
"Maya," she breathed. She felt a little dizzy - not too dizzy, but still - she'd finally met her again! It didn't even matter that Taylo didn't remember her. She was here, and that was all that mattered.
"Nice name," she grinned. "Though I guess I should've known. You've been in the news all week."
"Mmm," Maya mused impartially. She didn't really like the news normally, but it was undeniably nice that Taylo had noticed her.
"I'm Taylo," she continued. "Heard of me? Of course not, I'm a newbie compared to you."
No, her mind screamed. You're a million times the person I'll ever be.
"I know you," she said instead. "I read an article once…"
Taylo seemed surprised. Maya wasn't. How could she not? It was as simple as that.
"I didn't think celebrities knew me," Taylo teased. "Am I secretly famous? That would be hilarious."
Maya shrugged. "No," she murmured, "I just remembered you."
"I'm touched," Taylo replied, and though it was somewhat theatrical, Maya could hear it - the tinge of honestly, the sweet softness she remembered.
No, really, I should be touched. That I've had the chance to meet you again is a blessing I never earned.
She heard the warp activate again and closed off her awkward personality. She did not invite over the newcomer, but he arrived anyway, sitting down pompously into the seat on her other side and giving her a casual smile.
"I didn't think I'd get sorted into a match with the Maya Delamar," he announced grandly, and Maya felt her locked up personality struggle against the chains of her poker-face.
Shut up, shut up shut up shut up. I don't want to be famous. Go away, you pompous git. Taylo and I were having a moment.
She struck herself in her own mind, silencing her impulsive side. Shut up. You have no reason to be angry.
"I didn't think I'd be sorted into a match with you," she replied. Whether she was talking to the pompous git on her left or the sweet angel on her right was up to interpretation - but Maya knew exactly who she meant.
He laughed, and he led the conversation, happy to be the center of attention while she nodded along and 'hmm'd' and 'ahh'd' her way through the conversation, her poker face rising into her 'tolerant smile'. She didn't use it often, but it was hard to suppress. She didn't like it; it made people think she wanted them to continue yacking away from Inkopolis to Calamari County.
The lobby finally filled and she felt herself warped away. With a sudden jolt, she realized just where she was, and what she was doing.
I'm in a match! WITH TAYLO!
Her inner personality grappled at the shirt of her poker face and took control of her actions, despite being unable to claim her expression. The bell rang, and she shot off like a rocket, her toned body swiftly inking a course down Moray Towers. She jumped off, still musing over it. You didn't see so many Rollers on these stages, despite their uses, once you hit the ranked matches.
She felt a giant blob of ink hit her over the head and spun from her jump to see Taylo laughing merrily, dropping down with her. She suddenly remembered where she was and spun around, dropping on her feet and throwing out a bomb, grinning as it splattered a pair rising up the wall.
Taylo fell on her back and rolled off, still laughing.
"Ow," Maya had the gall to say, getting to her feet. Now she was dizzy - but that didn't matter. She'd been dizzy before, fighting Octarians. She reached out and felt Taylo grasp her hand and pulled her up, carefully not staring at her eyes.
She felt that instinctual leadership take hold. Her bold, thoughtless mind, said, "we should pair up."
Fuck. Fuckety fuckety fuck.
"Good idea," Taylo replied. "Oi, you there, with the goggles! Grab the newbie up the tower and head around for a backstab!"
The boy, a somewhat small, freckled boy with a Splatling, adjusted his goggles in acceptance and swam off.
"Come on," Maya said, swimming stealthily towards the Rainmaker. She still felt dizzy. She probably landed harder than she thought, either that or she'd said something stupid and Taylo had hit her so hard she forgot it before she could embarrass herself more. Or something. "I'll start shooting. Keep an eye out for the opponents."
Opponents, she reminded herself. Not enemies. It was so frequently hard to separate the two.
She began shooting, focused on the bubble in the center as Taylo swam a ring around the Rainmaker. With an audible pop, the bubble burst, and she felt her instincts go on high alert.
The inner warrior, the survivor, turned to Taylo, who was fending off a Blaster. Maya's one-track mind led her actions, and she burst forward, gun blaring. The Blaster didn't stand a chance. Spinning on her heel, she tossed a bomb and pulled Taylo forward, pushing her gently to one side and snatching up the Rainmaker.
"Thanks," Taylo sighed, beginning to throw ink at a second opponent.
No, Maya thought subconsciously, Thank you. For everything.
She began charging it immediately, and with a hop she set it off, blasting a path up the side of the wall. She waved Taylo over and began the slow rise, climbing up the wall.
Everything happened very quickly. A red bomb fell over the side, toppling over towards them. Maya immediately clung closer to the wall, but Taylo, startled, fell out of her squid form. As she struggled to return to the wall, the bomb fell in her slosher and weighed her down.
Maya did the only thing her stupid, righteous mind would let her do; She pulled on her war experience and left her squid form, clinging to the wall and slinging an arm around Taylo's waist.
Her feet skid against the blue ink, one arm taken up by holding up Taylo, the other occupied by trying to grip the wall and the Rainmaker at the same time. Taylo let out a strangled gasp and poured the ink and bomb out of her bucket, dropping them into the sea below.
"Maya?" She murmured, her ribcage pushing against her arm. "You can let me go, you know. I'll just respawn. The Rainmaker will explode if you hold it for too long."
Maya felt her protective streak take control and dropped the Rainmaker.
"Maya!" Taylo hissed, and she immediately felt bad. How could she explain? Explain that she couldn't bear the idea of Taylo falling? She scrabbled at the wall and managed to push the pair of them up a few inches. She was here now. She was going through with it.
The loud plop of the Rainmaker hitting the water sounded below them.
Taylo was suspiciously silent. "What's wrong?" Maya asked quietly, laxing her hold a bit.
"Don't let go," Taylo hissed. Maya instantly complied, though why Taylo wanted that she wasn't sure. She felt her stomach twisting her tightly, and her hysterical personality was locked up again, giving way to pure reasoning.
"What's wrong?" Maya demanded, her hand wandering to grip Taylo's back properly. "I can't see."
"The Rainmaker didn't respawn," Taylo murmured.
Maya felt her stomach drop, and Poker-face Maya stepped away politely, letting Survivor-Maya take the helm of her internal warship.
There was a blare of warning bells, rare after so many matches and so many years of the game. There were only one or two accidents a year, especially considering how dangerous it could be if they let the safety-locks fall - which was probably exactly what had happened.
Maya recited her motto in her head. You survived a war, you can do it. She pulled them up again, her hand just centimeters from gripping the edge of the wall.
"Send out a call," Maya requested. "You've still got your splatpad, right?"
Taylo, her head shuffled up against Maya's chest in an uncomfortably romantic way, nodded minutely and began to send out regular signals. Beep. Beep. Beep…
"Grab on," a voice called, and Maya smiled. Okay, so the pompous git - and she noticed his tentacles were red - was not quite so much a pompous git when it counted. Good to know.
She snatched up his wrist and said, "Lay flat on the ground - It'll help you keep your balance. You got someone holding your ankles, redhead?"
"I'll do that," she heard another voice call, and the pompous boy lay on his stomach, pulling them up. Maya pushed Taylo up over the edge first, smiling when she was finally out of danger, and managed to get a good grip on the redhead's hand.
She felt a strange sense of calm as she began to tug herself up his arm, her feet now dangling in the air. She could feel the wind, the air, the sunshine above. By all accounts, it was a perfect day. A perfect day, much like one where she saved a life, the love of her short, seventeen-year-old life.
Then he let go.
It had been said that when you were about to die your life flashed before you. As Maya fell, her body falling back, she fully expected everything she'd ever seen to flash before her. But no - the first thing she saw was an everblue sky, then black, then nothing - nothing at all.
A young squid sat on a fence just outside Inkopolis Tower, her feet swinging back and forth, her eyes glowing. In the small, chocolate-coloured hands was a paper from a minor newsline she kept an eye on. They had a knack for honest reporting, but not so often sensationalism.
Her hand traced the picture of the latest featured battler. Taylo Rendala. She'd held a junior training camp for squids like her, or squids who were worried it would happen - squids who were injured in their first battle or two, but never gave up - so that they could learn without the dangers the first time around, without getting beaten down by the higher-level squids for not winning the game.
Maya wished she was young enough to attend, but alas, she was sixteen.
She hopped off the fence and nearly tripped over her own feet, cursing her short stature. Stumbling forward, she reached out for support...
Maya wondered if heaven was anything like described. Her head was still pounding, her heart still heavy, weighed down by successes and failures. Couldn't she just forget? Forget the way she'd been?
"Hey, steady there," an angel's bells were ringing in her ears, surely. Looking up, Maya met the eyes of one Taylo Rendala.
"Oh, um, thanks," she stuttered, brushing off her dusty clothes. She eyed her Splattershot Jr unhappily. She looked back. "Sorry for running into you."
"Taylo, and it's fine," she replied, patting Maya's shoulder amicably. Maya flinched, instinctively backing away from the touch, even as she wondered what it would be like to accept it for once, to be able to say Taylo patted her shoulder.
Taylo raised an eyebrow, but backed away. "Sorry," she muttered. "I'm a… bit of a tactile person. Just how I am."
She could feel herself moving. But how? Could spirits feel? There was a soft, soothing ring in her ears, like the gentle voice of a fond memory, floating around her. She felt herself relax, her hands reaching helplessly for something that wasn't there.
"So you see," Maya admitted, "I was thinking of giving up - but then… I read your article, and…"
Taylo looked like she'd just been offered a hulking bag of candy. "It's great to know that people appreciate me," she commented happily. "Thanks, May. Mind if I call you that?"
"Go ahead," Maya mumbled. A nickname. An indication of fondness, familiarity. Did she deserve it?
"Hey, is that a Splattershot Junior?" Taylo inquired, reaching out. Maya nodded sheepishly and handed it to her.
"I'm not very good yet," Maya admitted freely. "I'm too lightweight to work with the rollers."
"Hey, not everybody can wield those things," Taylo shrugged. "Personally, I'm terrible with N-Zaps. Bloody things are too accurate," she proclaimed, laughing. "I'm looking forward to trying out a slosher, though. They look good."
"Yeah," Maya agreed quietly, smiling up at her - dare she hope? - friend. Her inner bravery, the idiot she rarely let take control, suddenly surged forth. "Um - could I get your autograph?"
Maya felt her hand grip her Splattershot Jr., the familiar curves giving in easily to the callouses on her hands, like it were welcoming an old friend home. Her Splattershot. The one Taylo had signed once. Her friend.
Maya stared at the loopy signature on her Splattershot Jr. It was emblazoned on her Splattershot Jr, even if the squid herself was a memory, probably in the next state by now, having boarded the train a while ago. A statement, a bit of proof - 'yes, I met Taylo Rendala. She's an angel, and one day, I want to be worth the nickname she gave me. Someday, I want to meet her again.' It was a mark, a badge, something to be proud of.
She turned around to go home, jogging down the abandoned streets. Ink, bioluminescent and glowing true in the moonlight, marked her path. Her eyes darted around, glancing in open curiosity at the world around her.
Then, tripping, she felt herself fly forward once more - and into the arms of a stranger. She jolted back and stared up at the taller man which stood before her.
Then, horrified, she watched as he slumped over and fell to his knees, various wounds scattered across his skin.
She groaned in pain, but felt a smile playing on her lips. She'd done it. She'd finally done something worthwhile - saving Taylo. She looked at the bleary image of the words scrawled over her Splattershot - You can do it! - Taylo Rendala - and smiled. In her hardest times, it was those six words that kept her going. That reminded her what - who - she was fighting for. She heard a gentle gasp above her as someone spotted the writing, a hand moving forward to touch the words. Maya pushed them away and hugged the weapon to her chest, protecting it.
"They're coming," he hissed, gripping her shoulder tightly as blood flowed from his wounds. Maya was frantically trying to bandage them up, stop the bleeding, but it was hopeless. "The Octarians - kid, you gotta get out of here."
"I can't just leave you behind," Maya insisted. "I must be able to do something, anything…"
"Then listen up," he snapped. "Go down the grate in the plaza. Ol' Cuttlefish there'll tell you what to do. Don't worry about me. Listen - this's war," he slurred, clearing his throat. "Octarians - fighting. No going back. Do it or don't. You wanna protect, yo-" he hacked up blood and a sudden calm flew over his features.
Maya knew. She sat there late into the night, feeling the heartbeat that wasn't there, the heavy, unrelenting weight of the truth.
She'd let him die. She hadn't fought hard enough. If she'd only been there a few minutes earlier, then there might have been something she could have done - but no. She wasn't even a trained medic.
Protect. She turned around and walked towards the plaza, her Splattershot Jr. in hand.
Maya sighed softly. Who would tell ol' man Cuttlefish she was dead? She'd been there to tell him about Antonio, but she had no successor. There wasn't any need - the Octarians had been defeated, had agreed to live with the lands they made for themselves, the barren wasteland they'd created. She went there once a week to check up on them, help fix the damage she'd done - for even with war, people still felt guilt.
Some way, she had to continue her work. "Hello?" She called out, her voice hoarse from lack of use. She didn't talk much any more. It usually led to problems, or slowed her reactions during battle.
"Maya?" Taylo said, her voice dripping with worry.
Maya's eyes flew open, and she was met with a pair of hazelnut orbs and a soft hand that caressed her face, cupping her cheek gently.
"Are you okay? You hit your head on the support beams and got knocked out. I'm glad those beams caught you, but still - are you okay?" Taylo inquired softly.
Maya blinked at her, her numb body finally waking up, making her fingers tingle. She was in shock, still getting over the fact that holy fuck I'm alive and Taylo is touching my face.
"That guy from the game who dropped you - he was the one who deactivated the safety features," she continued, massaging a soothing pattern into Maya's neck. "Apparently he something against you, he was really pissed when you survived. He intended to knock you off the side and claim it was an accident, but he didn't count on you being able to cling to the wall or on me being there. He had a huge fit over it when they pulled you out and arrested him immediately." She took a shuddering breath. "Maya, please talk to me. Tell me you're okay."
Maya felt her body go numb. If she hadn't been there, Taylo wouldn't have been in danger. She would have been safe, enjoying life, instead of sitting her at her bedside stroking her neck. She wouldn't be here comforting the cause of her endangerment. She'd be off elsewhere, with a boyfriend or something, instead of some pining, hopeless seventeen-year-old misfit.
A banging sound. Reporters. "Fuck off," Taylo muttered. "Can't they see this is a hospital?" Maya let out a weak chuckle and smiled at her defender. Taylo was such a sweet person, someone she didn't deserve the attention of. She always had been that way.
Her head was pounding - no, wait, she knew that noise. She felt her heart clench in a whirlwind of emotions. The familiar clink, clink of armor, of Octoling armor, arrived.
She heard shouting, heard a high alto voice proclaiming that 'she'd shoot down any who dared to follow', then the door opening and closing behind her mystery visitor. She felt Taylo's hand clench and reached up to touch Taylo's palm.
"S'okay," she slurred weakly. "Let… let'r through. Whosit?"
"Private Delkar, here to check on your wounds, miss," the high alto announced once more. "Step aside, miss, I need to get to work here. Damn reporters…"
"Let her stay," Maya demanded. "She's a friend." Taylo stuttered disbelievingly.
Yeah, as if I have a right to call her that.
"Well she's got to step aside if I'm to patch up your head," Private Delkar announced. "Your doctors gave up, idiots. Can't even part the crowd. HA! Your folk really are weak-willed sometimes, Captain." She heard a gloved hand dig into a medical kit and relaxed.
"Not all of them are like that, miss Delkar." Maya replied. "Heck, I was like that once. Taylo got here fine, didn't she?"
Delkar began the delicate process of cleaning up the head wound. "Hmph. See if I care. I'm just here because the Octs would protest otherwise. Funny, that. Don't them reporters know about-"
"No, they don't," Maya interjected. "Didn't want the attention."
Delkar let out a laugh. "That's rich! You - not wanting attention! Why'd you get involved with the Valley in the first place if you didn't want my kids staring at you in blatant adoration?"
"Wanted to help," Maya choked out, tilting her head to give Delkar better access to the wound. "Wouldn't have been right not to fix my own mess."
She lowered her voice, her alto turning solemn. "Things have been better since you came around, Maya. I know it's dumb, but we aren't used to the whole 'kindness of your heart' thing. Let's face it - Octavio was a dictator. He was ruining us. You fixed that. You've done more than enough. You fought our war for us - now what? Want to dig a tunnel to the ocean and get us water for the plantations?" She pulled out a roll of gauze and began to wrap up Maya's head expertly. "You've done plenty, Captain. Now rest, or you'll end up worse than Octavibutt."
Maya chuckled and eased back into her bed. "Thanks, Delkar. I'll visit when I'm better. You handle things while I'm MIA, yeah?"
"Sure," Delkar grinned. "See you, Captain." She rose to leave, then paused.
Turning around, she added, "Oh - and for the love of Zapfish kiss her already. You nearly died. That has to be worth a smooch or two." With that, she turned on her heel and strode away, slamming the door behind her.
"What? But... huh?" Taylo murmured, clearly confused.
Maya found herself suddenly infused with liquid courage. Or at least, one interpretation or the other, because she announced, "I fell in love with you. Back when I was a wimpy sixteen-year old. You saw my Splattershot, right? It has your signature." She took a deep breath. "You inspired me to keep going."
"Me?" Taylo said incredulously. "But - but I didn't do anything! I've... all I've been is a burden."
Words like those don't belong on your mouth, Taylo. They belong on mine.
"On the contrary," Maya smiled. "You did everything." You drove me forward. Your name gave me strength. "It was all for you, Taylo. It was all you."
Bold statements said, brave faces worn, and Poker-Maya and Survivor-Maya clapping in the background, Maya leaned forward for a chaste kiss that didn't end up being chaste at all.
A/N: Hi. I'm not currently working on anything on this account, but I decided that I was going to do something on here other than say 'oops, nah, too busy'. I'm currently in the process of moving some writing to a new platform and will soon be starting up work on a few of my projects again if I find the time. In the meantime, enjoy a pair of gay squids being cute.