A/N: This chapter was originally going to be REALLY different? I started writing the first topic of my outline and got carried away by different scenarios. 2000 later, this came out. I hope you enjoy it!

"Sorry Sal, I gotta go t–"

"Take Fen to do something. I am aware. That is the same excuse you have used all month."

Kama frowned, looking over at his grumpy boyfriend currently sitting by his computer. He had a notebook on his lap and a pencil on his hand, scribbling down things Kama couldn't make out because of how dark the room was. The computer screen was pretty much the only light source in the room besides Sal's tentacles – which (as usual) glowed in a calming shade of fuchsia. It was his favorite color, after all.

"I was just messing with you before, but now I'm really starting to think you're jealous of me and Fen." Kama walked closer, leaning down a bit so he'd be at eye level with the computer screen. It was currently displaying a multitude of pictures of some hotel he didn't recognize. "What are you doing?"

"They released official footage of the new stage this morning. I'm trying to figure out what formations will work the best on it so we can get a head start on the Acrodolphins next week. I can't figure out what portion of the ground is supposed to be the actual stage, but… I'm making some progress."

"Isn't Tai the one who usually organizes the formations for you guys?"

"It is, but I'm helping her with this one. I've had a lot of free time recently." Sal's voice didn't have any sarcasm in it, but Kama knew just what he was implying. With a huff, he quickly snatched Sal's White Arrowband glasses right out of his face.

"Real mature, Kama." Sal rolled his eyes, squinting to try to recognize his boyfriend's facial expression.

"Can you at least look at me while I talk to you?" Kama took a few steps back so he'd be out of Sal's immediate reach. "What's going on with you? Talk to me about it."

"There is no way I can talk to you about it without sounding like an asshole." Sal extended his hands, gesturing for him to give back his glasses.

"C'mon, I more than anyone else understand what you mean! Just… Say something at least, please."

Sal took a deep breath before speaking up again. "I just… Get bad vibes coming off from that guy."

"…Sal, that's–"

"No, it's not because he's an octoling. It's not even him that gives off the vibes, it's… I just feel bad about the general situation involving him."

Kama raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Sal slowly turned to face Kama, the wheels of his computer chair producing a slow rumble that for some reason made Kama shudder a bit. "For starters, you never invite me to "show him around" with you."

"That's…!" Kama cursed himself mentally. Sal was right about that. "I just assumed you were busy, that's all!"

"Then, you never tell me what you actually do with him. Just some vague short sentences like "oh we got him some documents". Sometimes you don't even tell me anything at all when you arrive. And when I ask you myself, it honestly sounds like you make stuff up on the fly."

"I just… Don't wanna bore you with the details!" He raised his arms up defensively. "What, you think I'm cheating on you? That's ridiculous, I… I love you, dude!"

"And so do I," Sal got up from his chair, taking slow steps towards Kama, "but this is getting ridiculous. Why don't you want me to do things with you two? You should be the one speaking up right now."

Kama let out a small gasp as he felt his back hitting one of the room's walls. The exit to the living room was directly to his left, and Sal's closet was blocking his right. He could probably run away in time, as Sal wouldn't run after him at full speed because of the lack of glasses, but he felt like that would be too much. Sal was already suspicious enough of him.

"Kama. It doesn't have to be this difficult. Just please tell me what's going on."

The shorter inkling gulped, trying to think of an answer quick enough not to seem too suspicious. In truth, it had all just been a bunch of coincidences that led to the rather sketchy-looking scenario. Kama had just been so excited to show this new octoling around that he just completely forgot about his own boyfriend for a little while. It wasn't a pretty answer. It was barely an answer, and he knew Sal wouldn't believe him if he said it. At that moment, Kama had three options: not answering (the worst out of the three in his opinion), being genuine and spending a long time trying to reassure his boyfriend he wasn't cheating on him while also including him in the future plans he had made with Fen, or making up an answer to shift the direction of the conversation altogether.

The inkling brain, much like the brain of the ancient humans, had one specific fault. It always chose the worst option when it was under too much pressure and on a strict time limit.

"Why… Why do you even care! You've got your face in that computer of yours all day!"

Sal stepped back at the words, looking visibly surprised as he tried to make out Kama's facial expression from the distance. Was he mad at him now?

"Kama, what's gotten in–"

"You're either doing that or you're training! You're just always training!" Kama stomped his feet on the ground, starting to get a little too deep into his act. "You never take me on dates and stuff anymore! You didn't even act excited when I returned after being away from three days!"

"Kama, that's not t–"

"All you care about is your rank, Sal! What do you even get from it, huh? Just some stupid money? Is there nothing else you're good at?!"

The room suddenly fell into deep silence. The mechanical whirr of the computer and the noises coming from the closed bedroom window were muffled by a tension that was so thick it was almost possible to be swam on in squid form. Kama had an even stronger expression of shock in his face than Sal did. No, not shock – pure panic. He knew he had said something wrong. The almost exact set of words Sal had asked him not to use a long time ago for reasons he could not remember at the moment.

He messed up.

"Sorry I… Ihavetogonowbye."

Kama carelessly put the glasses back on Sal's face and ran out of the room with all the speed he could muster, slamming the apartment door as he rushed past the hallway and through the stairs that would take him to the exit on the first floor.

Sal remained in that position for a good five minutes, not fully able to comprehend just what had gone down between the two. Then slowly, his vision started to get blurrier. Small teardrops fell onto the floor in quick succession before he could even process the intense emotional pain he was in. He clutched his stomach, limbs. He managed to make it halfway through the way to his bed before his legs gave way and he dropped onto the floor and curled into a ball. His glasses slipped out of his face during the sudden motion, crashing onto the ground and sending shards of the lenses flying everywhere – though fortunately neither of them actually hit him.

"Is there nothing else you're good at besides being a disappointment to your parents, brat?"

Sometimes, Sal wish his parents would hit him like the other kids' parents did to them. It would hurt, sure, but the pain was temporary. Cuts could be mended, burns healed when submerged in ink, and blunt impact wasn't much of a threat for the inklings, whose body could stretch and squash almost at will due to their lack of bones or any other truly rigid structures.

But was no way to fully heal one's mind. Especially not one from an eight years old boy who has already lived through so much.

"Answer me." His father's voice was stern and hard, almost able to break solid rock on its own. He slammed down a piece of paper onto the table – Sal's report card – staring at his son with the same deep crimson eyes that the boy possessed. "Just what do you plan on growing up into with grades like these?"

"I… I don't know… I'm… I don't know what I am…" Sal fidgeted with his fingers, forcing himself to look at his father's rage-filled face. He knew there would be shouting if he looked away, and that was the last thing he wanted.

"You're an ungrateful little brat, that's what you are." It was his mother's turn to scold him. Her tentacles squirmed and slithered above her head, the color of her ink rapidly flashing between red and white to show just how angry she was at the situation. "We've spent a fortune on you. Basketball, martial arts, skating and even novel writing. And yet you still don't seem to be putting effort into anything you do at all!"

"I… I'm trying my best, mom!" Sobs got mixed into Sal's voice as he talked. "I'm just… I just can't be like the other kids! I'm… I-I don't know what's wrong with me!"

"I'll tell what's wrong with you: you're only acting like this because you think your actions won't have any consequences. But you're wrong."

His father started walking towards Sal's bedroom, his boots making a loud and metallic noise. Sal already knew where this was going, and he wasn't ready for it. He tried running away from the living room, but his mother caught him dead in his tracks. His father came back with a large notebook. The cover was originally white, although it had been doodled on multiples times and using multiple colors of crayons. There was a word written in the middle with plain black pencil, reading "events". It didn't look like it was done by Sal, since the handwriting was different from the rest of the scribbles. In fact, it looked like it had been forcefully placed there at a recent time, as white-out had been used to make way for the term.

The adult opened it on a page in the middle of the book, scanning the contents on the paper before placing the book on the table in front of Sal. "We have one rule. You do well, and we'll do whatever your stupid little brain could ever want as long as it is within the law. And somehow, it's the third time this month you have failed us. Here is what happens when you don't keep your part of the promise."

His father took a red pen from his suit's chest pocket and took the cap off, making Sal gasp and quickly cover his mouth. "Wahoo World? Come on, you're not even smart enough to remember to put your seatbelt on. You'd get yourself killed at the first rollercoaster ride."

He made a red X over the name of the park with his pen. Sal clenched his fist, knowing the worst had yet to come.

"You really think you're going to all these birthday parties? You know your friends don't really like you, they'd just feel guilty if they left you by yourself because of how pathetic you are."

"A new pencil sharpener? Did you swallow the last one's blade or anything? Guess you're not even competent enough to accidentally of yourself."

"Soursop juice? Is that even a real drink, or did you manage to write the name wrong? Is water not enough for you now, brat?"

One by one, his father crossed off everything Sal had wanted – no, dreamed of getting – that semester. And then finally, without skipping a beat, he flipped over to the last page. It contained just once sentence, but it was the one that had the deepest meaning to Sal out of all of the rest.

"Move to Inkopolis? How… Dare you!"

In a single motion, the man tore the page off the notebook, shredding it to pieces with his hands. Sal screamed and kicked the whole time as he watched, but he was unable to get out of his mother's grasp. He was forced to stare at his dreams literally being torn away by his father. With every piece of the paper that was shred, he felt a piece of his soul also got tore out to match. And in the end, there was nothing left but a handful of incoherent fragments of what once was a beautiful future.

"Shut up, Sal!"

"You've brought this onto yourself, don't cry!"

"You deserve this!"

"Sal!"

"Sal!"

"Sal? Sal? Are you alright?"

Sal didn't know how long it had been since he had succumbed to the unpleasant memories, but the tears that stained his clothes had already dried off. The computer screen had gone dark due to lack of activity, but there was a new light source in the room. A faint glow coming from above – a gentle blue tone, hovering over his emotionally tired body.

"I'm so sorry about that, Sal. I really… I really didn't mean any of that, I just… Oh no, were these your glasses?"

Sal watched motionlessly as a hand entered his field of view, grabbing the now empty glass frame and pulling it upwards. "Oh no, I'm… These were your favorites, weren't they? I'm… Come here, let's get you up."

The sound of soft steps echoed through the room, and the soft lighting moved along with them. After a while, he felt a pair of arms grabbing him by the sides and pulling him up. He made an effort to stand again, but he still felt weak. He used the nearby bed as a support, finally looking up and looking at his boyfriend's face.

"Sal?" Kama frowned. His boyfriend's face was a mess. It was possible to see he was trying to keep himself together, but the sobs just kept coming out of his mouth. "I know what I said was wrong. I… I have no excuse for how I acted. I don't… Know if you can forgive me, but…"

Sal didn't answer. Kama waited for a while longer, then went ahead and wrapped his arms around him. Finally, after about a minute, Sal returned the hug. He was crying heavily onto Kama's back, staining his clothes with his slightly fuchsia-tinted tears.

"It's alright, buddy, it's alright. I'm here now." Kama had a sad smiled on his face, starting to shed blue tears of his own. "How about we spend the weekend by ourselves? I've already talked with Fen about it, and… It'll be just us, alright? I promise. I'm gonna go open the window."

Kama tried to get up, but soon felt a hang weakly tugging at his sleeve. His voice was equally as vulnerable sounding, almost as if he was using all of his available energy to speak. "No. Stay with me… Please."

"Ah, I'm sorry." Kama gave him a warm smile, sitting back down and gently dragging Sal's tentacles aside so he could kiss his forehead. "I love you, Sal. I won't do that again."

"I'll always be here for you."