Being dragged across the Square was certainly better than walking through it by yourself, that's for sure. But Annie was still intimidated by the clutter of the square, and it showed in the tightness of her grip. Flow was that beacon of salvation she needed earlier to help her make her way through the mess of the Square itself, but she didn't entirely put her trust in her… Well, not yet, at least. But the fact that she trusted her over the majority of those within the Square, soothed her worries to the point where walking with her was enough to pacify most of her anxiety.

Once the two were in a food-court-like area, Flow immediately turned to face the troubled anemone, looking at her with slight concern.

"You okay there, Annie?" She asked, shaking her hand out of Annie's grip. "You seemed a bit scared back in that crowd, y'know."

"N-No no! I-I'm fine!" Annie tucked her hands into her hoodie pockets, letting out a short huff as she shrugged her shoulders. "I-I honestly felt more calm back t-there t-than I did making my w-way through t-that crowd e-earlier."

"Oh, phew!" Flow's gaze of concern was quickly replaced with a small grin. "I just wanted to make sure."

" Annie? "

The anemone gulped at the voice that cut through their small talk, her body instinctively turning to face the truck in which the booming voice came from. Her eyes slightly widened in shock as she almost immediately recognized the man who leaned over the counter inside of his food truck. "... S- Sean ?"

"Oh my god."

The tall man immediately pushed himself off of the counter he leaned on, sprinting his way out of the back of his truck and over to the two girls without hesitation. "Oh my god, it's YOU!"

Annie awkwardly chuckle as the large fried prawn squatted down to give her a quick hug, causing her to blush a bit from the sudden gesture. "H-haha… Yeah… it's me!" She took a step back, gently tucking her hands into her pockets. "I-I didn't know that this was where y-you worked n-now."

"I didn't know that you lived down here!"

"T… That's because I just moved here yesterday…"

"Ah." Sean huffed, placing his two large claws on his hips. "That explains it! So what brings you down to the square today? You're supposed to be settling in, right?"

Annie lightly sighed, hanging her head and biting her lip slightly as she attempted to hold back tears from recalling events that occurred mere hours ago. "U-um-"

"A friend stood her up because he had other plans." Flow cut into the conversation, placing a hand on the slightly trembling anemone's shoulder. "... And it got to her preeeeetty bad."

"Ouch." Sean let out a small sigh as the two girls in front of him nodded. "Anything I can do to help brighten the mood a bit.

"Food would be nice." Flow gave Annie a firm squeeze before removing her hand from her shoulder. "The kid hasn't eaten much since she's moved here from what she's told me."

"Got ya', I'll be back with somethin' shortly!"

Annie sighed, kicking her feet under the metal table she sat at with a hunched over posture. Her small hands gripped the chair's hot, metal arms through her hoodie. Her eyes wandered around the rustic scenery, taking mental note of the grime, dust, and construction equipment around her. Now that she had a chance to look around a bit more, she couldn't help to find that, like the buildings surrounding it, the Square itself was rather grimy compared to the Plaza; which in contrast was extremely polished and clean.

It definitely wasn't something she was accustomed to now that she had a chance to be out there for longer than a few minutes. Her nose getting rather stuffed from all the dust around her made it quite evident. Her eyes trailed over to Flow, who was staring over at the food truck in an almost endearing manner, kicking her foot as she waited for her food. "H-hey Flow?" She sniffled, catching the sea slug's attention.

"Hmm yeah? What's up Ann?"

"A-are there any napkins, or any tissues… or something, nearby?" She awkwardly rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying to suppress a sneeze with her hand.

"I think there's some at the table next to us." Flow turned around and searched the surrounding tables, eventually getting up and walking over to grab a few napkins once she spotted a table with a dispenser. Promptly returning and handing them over to the anemone. "Here y'go!~"

"Th-thanks…" Annie cautiously took the wad from Flow's dainty hand, immediately taking one of the napkins to her nose in order to blow it.

"So uh…" Flow sat back down, leaning back in her chair as she attempted to make herself comfortable once more. "I didn't know you were friends with Sean."

"Y-yeah…" Annie wadded up the dirty napkin and clasped it in her hand. "I didn't know that he worked here."

"Oh! He's had his shop set up here for quite a while now!"

"Ah… I was wondering why he quit his old job, h-honestly."

"He had a job before then? What did he do?"

"He was an employee a-at a shoe store just a few buildings down from my old workplace. I-It's how we met."

"A shoe store vendor? Like Bisk?"

"Like who? "

"Ah!~ Nevermind." Flow chuckled, a small grin forming on her face. "You'll meet him sooner or later anyways. He's a nice guy though, I promise!" Annie couldn't help but to smile back at the slug, letting out a small giggle of her own as well. She sure did make situations that the introverted anemone felt was terrifying seem like a walk in a park, which was honestly a breath of fresh air to her. If it weren't for her, she still would of been crying at the foot of Ammo Knights, waiting the day away for Sheldon to come back from wherever that manhole led: A massive waste of time if that woman didn't notice her.

There were a ton of things she could of done otherwise. She still had to settle in after the major move! Taking small breaks just to finish up her novel, work on her online shop, or just eat- and she, by the looks of things, didn't have the time to do all three in one day!

"Hey, Hey, ladies! Your stuff's all fried up!"

Annie looked up, a bit shaken as a plate of food was placed in front of her. Her mind completely coming back to reality as the aromas of the greasy helping settled around her. She lightly blushed out of embarrassment as it gradually became apparent that she spaced out for quite a bit. "Did I… space out?"

"You did." Flow chuckled once more. "I was wonderin' when you were coming back sweetie! Sean had to bring the food over since you couldn't get up!"

Annie nervously laughed. "Aha… S-Sorry…"

"Yo, it's okay!" Sean gave her a reassuring smile as he sat down at the table with the two of them. "I needed to take a break anyways. And since y'two got me here, I might as well hang out for a bit- if it's okay with you."

"O-oh! It's fine!" She sat up, returning his smile with one of her own. "It'd be nice to catch up anyways."

Suddenly, like it was almost out of nowhere, Moe fell out of her hair and onto her plate of food. Nearly splattering it everywhere as he landed on the desert-like meal. "M-MOE!" Her face went completely red as she watched her small friend devour the top pastry on the stack of food. "MOE WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

"I SMELLED FOOD ANNIE." Moe looked up at her, his face covered in whipped cream. "I SMELLED FOOD OKAY!? AND I SWEAR TO GOD IF YOU WEREN'T GONNA SHARE IT I-"

"WHAT MADE YOU THINK I WASN'T GONNA SHARE!?"

Flow and Sean chuckled at the scene, making Annie slightly more embarrassed than she already was. "C-Come on Moe, get off of my food- y-you're embarrassing me!"

" So ?"

"I-I told you not to embarrass me today!" Annie tisked as she flattened out a clean napkin, cautiously dragging the pastry off from the stack without disrupting Moe's eating; trying her best to ignore the stifled laughter coming from the other two. "S-sorry you had to see that. It's just that Moe and I talked this morning and-"

"It's okay sweetie, don't worry!" Flow grinned, reaching over to pat Annie's shoulder. "Yeah, it's fine." Sean quickly chimed in, resting his head on one of his claws. "I was honestly wondering when he'd show up."

Annie slumped back, taking a plastic fork and jabbing it into her meal; the initial embarrassment already passing on, leaving her a bit annoyed with her familiar.

His long fingers gingerly traced the keys on his keyboard, typing along at a rather sluggish rate. Writing up guide for aspiring entrepreneurs who want to 'get rich quick' in a rather short time. The ploy of it all revolving around gambling and how quickly someone can become obsessed with wanting to make their gear perfect. A ploy that was rather dirty, to say the least. But hey, if it worked for Spyke, then it should pretty much work for anyone else willing to make a quick buck… without getting into legal trouble.

Spyke yawned, his shoulders slouching as he reached up and rubbed his eye. In all honesty, he didn't want to write anything today. He'd been working on the same guide for three months straight, and had gotten rather bored on writing it up. In fact, a lot of aspects of his life became rather dull after retiring from his 'street urchin' days. Murch was practically the highlight of his days now, teaching him the ways of his work while Murch taught him how to 'scrub' gear. Spyke never knew why he took the kid under his wing and began to mentor him when both parties knew that Murch already knew way more than Spyke did growing up. It just sort of happened. He just caught sight of the kid struggling with counting up the chunks he gained from practicing his techniques on abandoned gear, and just hit it off from there.

It was rather easy teaching him small aspects of running a stint like his own, given that Murch had looked up to Spyke prior to them meeting. He learned basic arithmetic in almost no time, and would ask Spyke to teach him more mathematics when they both had the time to. And his obedience made it extremely easy to connect with him. And while teaching him, he learned quite a bit about the kid's life.

Spyke smiled, taking a sip of his drink while thinking about the little things he had learned about Murch; wondering if he should ask him more about his home life the next chance he had to talk to him, or save that topic for another day.

"Spyke!"

A muffled scream from outside abruptly brought him back to reality, the all-too familiar voice made his eye dart over to Murch's station, standing up at the sight he saw as he lowered the lid of his laptop.

"Spyke HELP!"

Three inklings surrounded him, two of them attempting to grab hold of him while the third one tried to force something out of him; punching him in the stomach if he didn't comply.

"Damn it! Not again!"

Spyke gritted his teeth as he slammed his hands on to the table, promptly leaving the cafe and his belongings behind as he sprinted out the door.