Hello, everyone! Sorry this chapter took so long, but I've been busy with a lot of stuff. However, Octo Expansion has given me motivation to continue writing! It was a great addition to Splatoon 2 and the challenge was needed so much! If you have the game and haven't gotten Octo Expansion, I highly recommend you do so soon, as there will be spoilers for that in later chapters of this story. Sorry if you hate these author notes, so I'll just get right back to the story.

Splatoon 2 belongs to Nintendo. I only own the plot.

Enjoy the story!


Brushing the lone tentacle away from his face, Ricky opened the door of his apartment and made the short trek to Traysi's. He knocked on the door and heard a voice say, "Just a minute!" After that was a rustle and silence that left the young squid alone to his thoughts. He tapped his feet on the ground and heard a familiar clicking sound on the concrete.

It was those shoes that he would never take off his feet. A gift from his teammate. One would think that he would be sweating out of those black snowboots, but they never felt any warmer than he liked. The abilities were great for his play style and he never switched them out for any match his team had. Even when he wasn't out splatting, he always wore those snowboots outside his apartment like he didn't own any other pair of shoes.

A click from the door grabbed Ricky's attention. The door in front of him pulled back to reveal Traysi in a different change of clothes than earlier. Seeing Nala, Ricky realized that Traysi was letting her borrow more of her clothes. And Traysi must have styled Nala's tentacles, as they were now pulled back behind her head in a ponytail, revealing her blushing face. She refused to look at him, for some reason he tried to figure out why.

"Well? What do you think?" Traysi's voice snapped him to attention. He saw her grinning widely, waiting for him to say something. A few seconds of silence followed before her grin turned to a cheeky smirk. "Or have Nala and I finally caught the hillbilly speechless?"

The comment made Ricky show a sneer of annoyance and bite back with his response. "You know I ain't a hillbilly. I was just wondering why you took so long to look like that if it's just gonna be us and the guys."

"What? We gotta make sure that Nala and I look good for you guys, since it's a cause for celebration! We want them to have a good first impression of Nala, too! I want my favorite rednecks to like her!" Traysi threw her arms around a flustered Nala and stuck her tongue at Ricky.

"We're the only rednecks you know!" Ricky answered back.

"Oh, right," Traysi said as the grin returned to her face. "But, you're still my favorites."

Ricky sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, thanks. Yer our favorite yuppies, too." He looked up and laughed when he saw Traysi's pout. Meanwhile, Nala had lost her blushing face and donned a look of confusion as she watched the two squids with her. "Oh, get over it. Are you two ready to go?"

Two nods, one overdone and one subtle in shyness, were his answer. "Then let's agitate the gravel."


Nala looked around in amazement at Inkopolis Square at night. Since coming to Inkopolis, she had never done much sightseeing, instead hiding from the authorities in Traysi's apartment. She had dreamed of the other world while serving in the octarian army, being one of the lucky few octolings, besides a defector named Marina, to see this world as a potential ally instead of an enemy. But now that she didn't have to hide, she could take it all in now, and it took her breath in return.

"Nala," she heard. She gasped and turned towards the two inklings with her and saw that they were in front of a small building. "We're here," Ricky said.

"Oh. Sorry," she answered, clasping her hands together.

"No need to apologize," the male inkling responded. He proceeded to enter the building and let the girls follow him inside. He waved his hand to the two before approaching the front desk. The elder inkling behind the desk looked up at Ricky for a moment before returning his gaze to the magazine in his hands.

"Sorry, we're closing in a few minutes," he said and yawned. "Come back tomorrow."

"Actually, there's an appointment that we have with the owner. Should be under Kevin Ferrus?" The inkling looked back up from the magazine with a furrowed brow at Ricky. A few seconds passed before a look of realization crossed his pink eyes.

"Oh, right. Couple of your friends are already here. Dev already filled me in. Congrats, man," the inkling said. "They're in your usual room."

"Thanks." Ricky looked back at the girls and nodded his head to a long hallway. Before they could get far, the inkling raised his voice again.

"Wait, what are you doing with that octoling?" he asked, a bit of anger now in those eyes. Nala shrunk back toward Traysi in fear. When Ricky saw Nala's reaction, he walked straight up to the desk and the inkling with anger in his eyes and voice.

"She's with me. Ya mess with her, ya got me to answer to. Understand?" The inkling backed up a bit from Ricky. He looked between the blue inkling and the scared octoling for a moment before forming a frightened smile and waving his hands.

"Of course, sir! So sorry, ma'am!" he said. Ricky backed off from the inkling and his anger softened as he walked back to the girls. He completely missed Nala's look of utter confusion and started leading the way again. Nala looked to Traysi for an explanation, but all the poor confused octoling got was a grin and a wink.

When the trio reached the final door in the hall, Ricky stopped as he grabbed the knob. He could hear the faint sound of drums being bashed on the other side. His band mates were probably the ones already here. He looked to the girls and sighed. "Nala, with what just happened, I wanna tell ya right now before we do anything else. If anyone ever does anything or says anything to ya, anything that hurts ya at all, I want ya to come find me and tell me. It don't matter if I'm in the middle of something, tell me. Got it?"

Nala blinked at his request and looked at his sorrowful and serious expression. Genuine concern. Traysi was right again. The octoling nodded.

"Good," he said. "Now I know that none of my band will do anything to ya, but I just wanted ta make sure. Let's have some fun."

The door opened to reveal three inklings in a small conference room. Pizza and drinks were placed on the white table, the boxes and soda containers having yet to be opened. Two of the three inklings looked at Ricky standing at the door and motioned for him to come inside. The third, much older inkling, smiled at Ricky as he and the girls walked into the room.

"Wassup, Ricky? I see you brought some friends with you," the adult squid said.

"Nothin much, Dev. Yeah, this is Traysi," he motioned to the yellow squid and she held up two fingers in a peace sign. "And this is Nala." He motioned to the octoling, who once again flinched when all eyes were on her. "I'm gonna be Nala's homestay family for a while and I thought it would be fine with everyone if she came to celebrate with us."

The adult in the room didn't move a muscle. His green eyes were set on the octoling. The tension kept rising, but eventually disappeared altogether when Dev started chuckling. "It's damn fine with me if she's here. I had the pleasure of working with that Marina girl before she got too big for this dump. Showed me that not all those octo's are piss awful." All the young inhabitants in the room blinked at Dev's words.

"You worked with THE Marina?!" Traysi finally asked. "From OFF THE HOOK?! That Marina!"

"Yeah, toots, and I would take kindly as to not scream in here. Place isn't closed yet so there are people trying to work." Dev rubbed his ears for a minute before grinning again. "But yeah, that Marina. Hell of a good singer, and worked wonders with our turn tables. Not too bad with her morals either, maybe a little naïve."

"Whoa, Dev. How come you never told us this before?" Kevin asked, speaking up for the first time.

"Cuz I didn't want you and everyone who works here to lob a million and one questions at me and drive me crazy. You knuckleheads are finally getting your big break and might never come back here again so's I don't gotta worry about it."

"Might not be too sure about that," Freddie said. "We still gotta work out the contract."

"Eh, fuhgeddaboutit. You kids have fun tonight." Dev said with another chuckle. "When your other friends show up, I'll go ahead and go home. Kev, don't forget that key, got it?"

"I got it, Dev. Yer good to go."

"Alright. I'll go back to my office until closing. No noise until closing time." Dev stood up from his seat and walked to the door. He stopped next to Nala and nodded to her. "If you're half as good as Marina, I hope you choose our studio like she did." With that final sentence, he shut the door behind him.

A few minutes later, Nala looked at Ricky sitting next to her. He and the other inklings in the room were busily munching on the steaming hot pizza taken out of the boxes. Nala had yet to touch hers, so it was simply lain flat on the plate in front of her.

"What's wrong? You not hungry?" she heard Ricky ask her. When she finally noticed, she saw him looking straight at her with a concerned look in his eyes.

"No no! It's just that… well…" Nala looked at Ricky, then at the food in front of her. Ricky tried to piece together what she was trying to say, but with so little knowledge about her he couldn't come up with much. He came up with his best guess based on the meaty pizza topping.

"Are you a vegetarian?"

Nala shook her head and held it down in shame. "No… I've… never had pizza before…"

"Oh! Well, ya don't have to try it if you don't want."

Ricky threw her a smile before going back to his unfinished slice. Nala looked at her own slice and started wondering again. Anything had to be better than those seaweed salads, right? She picked the slice up and hesitantly took a bite and she realized that truly amazing food did exist in the world.

Ricky looked back to Nala again and smirked as she was scarfing down her slice. "I take it you're a fan of pizza now?" Without any embarrassment, she looked to him and rapidly nodded her head before asking for another slice. Before she could take another bite, the door opened again and two more inklings walked in the room. They both looked a bit tired and one of them was carrying a dualies type weapon in hip pouches.

"Yo! Is this where the party's at?! Who's ready to get…" The weapon toting inkling stopped mid-sentence when he caught sight of Nala starting to cower close to Ricky. His hands hovered close to the large blue dualies at his hips, ready to splat the octoling, until Ricky stood in front of her with his arms outstretched.

"Don't even think about it, Jackson," Ricky growled defensively. The inkling, now named Jackson, stared at Ricky's angry brown eyes with his own blue. They darted across to every single pair, all of them showing the same determined stare that Ricky's held only with less intensity. The other male inkling standing next to Jackson only held his blank look and his arms stayed across his chest.

"I'd listen to him if I were you, Jack," he said. "You know how Ricky gets when he's like this." Jackson heeded the unnamed inkling's advice and let his hands fall to his sides, allowing Ricky to sit back down next to Nala, who had calmed down once again.

"Thanks, Frankie," Ricky said to the solemn inkling, who simply nodded in return. "I guess I owe you an explanation, huh?"


"And so I'm going to be her homestay host now." Jackson and Frankie nodded as they grabbed another pizza slice for their plates. "Sorry for not telling you sooner."

"Don't be," Jackson said with a wave of his hand. "We wouldn't have known anyway. We just got out of a match of turf and we didn't have enough time to check our phones before bolting down here."

"That explains you carrying your glooga's in here." Traysi pointed to the dualies at Jackson's hips, who rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he apologized. "My hands were probably thinking on their own."

"They probably do that all the time in our matches, since your head doesn't seem to follow most of our plays." Everybody laughed at Frankie's joke except for Jackson and Nala, though she didn't know much of what they were talking about so she couldn't find any humor in the joke.

"Hey! I still get the job done!" Jackson fired back.

"Only because I can plan around your rogue plays and keep up."

Before the two got into a full blown argument, Ricky smacked his hands together and acquired everyone's attention instantly. "Sorry about that, but since everyone is here, I wanted to remind and thank you all for why we are here."

When everyone remained silent, Ricky continued with his speech. "I want to thank all of you for helping Boys Back Home get to where we are. Without your help, I probably wouldn't be able to stand on my own two feet in Inkopolis. We wouldn't be able to bring music and the joy that comes with it to our folks back home." He paused and lifted his drink into the air. When the others lifted their drinks as well, he continued again. "So please, let's make this party worth remembering for the rest of our lives! Cheers!"

"Cheers!" the others joined in and chugged their drinks. Nala drank her own soda with a smile on her face as she watched the party officially start. When she saw the Ricky didn't sit back down, instead going to the large sound system in the room and pulling out a CD from the cabinet. He popped the disc out of its case and placed it into the slot in the speakers.

"Let's start off the night with some of our own songs, eh?" he pressed a button and the playing of a stringed guitar and rhythmic clapping flowed out of the speakers. A few of the inklings stood up from their seats and started swaying to the music. Ricky went back up to Nala and offered her a hand. She didn't recognize the offer until he asked, "Would you like to dance with me?"

Reluctantly, she nodded and took his hand so that she stood up from her seat as well. They weren't exactly close, but the size of the room didn't allow for much distance between the two. All Nala could do was follow Ricky's movements and sway along to the song.

"Girl, I've never seen you in this town. If you need somebody to show you around, well I know somebody…"


With two hours gone by, the pizza was devoured, leftovers were cleaned up and everybody had gone home. As Ricky, Traysi and Nala neared their rooms, they parted ways. Ricky said that he would be over again the next day to help move Nala's stuff to his apartment. Both girls gave their thanks and Nala added that she had fun that night.

Ricky knew that though he had a new addition in his life, this addition would only be for the better. If only he knew that Nala thought the same.


I hope you liked the new chapter! There should be more coming soon. If you like Ricky and Nala and want to know about them more and their friends as well, I highly suggest you keep reading.

Also, another disclaimer. The song "I Know Somebody" is owned by LoCash.

Leave a review if you like the story so far!