Cora's moves in real quick. She just takes her laptop and cables and abandons her "home". She still covers them with plastic garbage bag to "respect the tech that cared for her." She lived in constant fear that a cop will pass by and force her out at best. Worst case scenario, she's sent back to the Octarions. She's so happy that she's moving in with me. She doesn't have to live in fear anymore.
"Wow." she said when she walks in my apartment. "It's so-uuummm- normal."
"Yeah there's nothing special about my apartment. Never decorated it. Always busy with Salmon Running." Cora looks around in curiosity. She sets her kinda dirty laptop on my table. She quickly picks it back up.
"I'm sorry! I forgot how dirty it was!" she says apologetically. I tell her it's fine. She sets it back down. She stands around awkwardly.
"Wanna drink?" I said to her. She nervously nods. I toss her some Tentacola and she catches it. I got some myself. I turn on my T.V and go on Woo-tube to play some Squid Sisters. In the middle of their song, I ask.
"By the way Cora. About those guys you hang out with?"
"What guys?"
"Y'know. That guy and girl you hung out with when we first met."
"Oh, Jimmy and Amy? What about them?"
"Couldn't you have moved in with them or ask for help?"
"I-I can't do that. I'm fortunate enough to be called their friend. I'm not sure how they'll feel about Octarions though, but it's smart enough for me not to talk about it." she drinks her cola. I decided not to push it any further while I think up a conversation starter. Couldn't think of any. Out of nowhere, we started talking about anime. She always watches anime online with the wi-fi signals she hacked into. She watches a lot of anime similar to Nadine's liking, but unlike Nadine, Cora was more into story than action. After a while, I wondered if she showered.
"You need a shower Cora?" Cora hesitates and nods. She does smell a little funny. That's when I notice she doesn't have any spare clothes. I walk to my room to get her my undershirt and shorts. I give it to her and notice they're both too big for her.
"Hold on Cora. I'll be right back." I said.
"Where you going?" she asks.
"Get you some clothes." I tell her.
"Oh! It's alright! You don't have to!" she says all flustered.
"If you're going to live here, you should at least have some clothes to wear." I go out to shop at the Arowana Mall since it's ten minutes away. It's so weird to be here. I haven't shopped here since Nadine and Sarah forced me and Leo to try on clothes. I shake off the feeling of nostalgia and enter in a clothing store. It was weird buying undergarments for a girl. Some ladies find it weird that I'm looking for them. I just ignore them as I just take whatever and buy them. I go home and it's raining hard. Good thing I bought the undergarments wrapped tightly in plastic. I kept my pace. I'll probably need a shower after this. Soaked and drenched in water, I made it home. Only to find my door wide open.
"Aww crud." I said. Did those suits from Grizzco barge in my apartment again!? I begin to fear for Cora. I drop the bag of stuff and run in to grab my bat.
"Get away from her you bastards!" I shout. To my surprise, it wasn't guys in suits. No. It was three girls armed with weird looking Splattershots. They have these dark red, unkempt, and matching hairstyles with metallic masks over their eyes. They wore surprisingly sexy black leather clothes that expose their bellies, leather straps tied onto parts of their legs, and boots to match their style.
"Take him down." said the one with what I think is seaweed sticking out of her hair. Both start shooting at me. I jump out my door and take cover. One swims up to me and I swing my bat the second she pops right out. I smack off her mask and notice her facial markings.
"An Octoling!?" I said. The girl tries to shoot me, but I klonk her in the head and knock her out. I look inside and a hail of ink flings past my face.
"Who are you?!" I yell at them. No response. Shouldn't have expected an answer. I quickly take and equip the unconscious Octoling's weird Splattershot, Splat Bomb, and her ink tank. The tank fills up with my ink as I ink myself a path and toss a bomb. The Octolings take cover as I swim to my kitchen. I flip over the table and use it as cover. One Octoling tries to ambush me from the side, but I splat her. Her (what I just now notice) octopus form plops to the ground dazed. I almost got splatted by the other one, but I sink into my ink and pop right out to splat her. Suddenly, two vault over the table and shoot me. I splat one of them, but their ambush splat me. My squid body plops hard on the ground as I lay in a daze. An Octolings presses her boot on top of me. The one with the seaweeds hops squats in front of me with her weapon pointing at my face.
"Okay punk. Where is she?" she asks. I can assume she's talking about Cora.
"Who the heck are you talking about?" I said playing dumb. The Octoling subordinate steps on me harder.
"Her name's Cora Ebisu. An Octoling like us. Where is she?"
"Don't know who you're talkin' about." seaweed face snaps her fingers and the Octoling stepping on me is now standing on me. I feel like I'm gonna explode. Like a killer whale lying on top of a water bed. As I grunt and groan, seaweed head grabs Cora's laptop on the ground.
"Hmmmm. If you don't know who she is, why's her laptop on YOUR table. Better start talking squid boy. Or else you might go pop." I struggle for air and try to force myself back into my normal form.
"She's not going back with you." I growl.
"Ebisu is an important asset. We're not leaving without her."
"What's she to you?" I grunt out.
"You see, she's our spy boy. Her job is to infiltrate Inkopolis and report to Octarion High Command about the locations of defected Octolings. But she never came back. If we get her, they'll try her for going AWOL at best. Treason at worst." Cora's a spy? Didn't really see that coming. But if Cora never reported to them, that means she's a good person.
"I'm not giving her up, you b#$ch." for a minute, seaweed face said nothing. She waves her hand and the Octoling standing on me lets me go. I gasp for air until seaweed face grabs me and slams me on my kitchen counter.
"Find me a knife." she said. The Octolings raided my stuff and threw everything out until one finds a knife with a cutting board. Seaweed head slams me on the board. Then she takes the knife and lightly presses it against my head.
"We know she has nowhere to hide Inkling. We've been tracking her down for months. We only recently found out about that stupid little box of hers. Last known location is your home. You get one more chance squid. Or else, we're having calamari tonight." I glare at her. I lift up my mouth and squirt ink onto her face.
"Have it your way." she says. She begins slicing into my forehead. Lighting flashes as I see Nadine on seaweed head's face. Grinning psychotically. I panicked a little and scream on top of my lungs. Suddenly, two Inkbomb were thrown into the room. All the Octolings except their leader were splated. Seaweed head stops cutting into me and readies her weapon. I crawl all the way into the sink. I stretch my tentacles to hoist myself up. I see seaweed head get herself into a firefight. Right until the two suits come in and splat her. Never thought I'd be happy to see the suits here.
"Quite the mess you have here Cayden." one of them said. I crawled off my counter. The other guy takes out his phone and makes a call. The suit comes up next to me and squats down.
"Now Cayden. Can you tell me why are there Octarion agents in your home?" I look at him ticked off. They may have saved my life, but I still don't trust them or like them.
"Don't know. They got the wrong guy and tried to get answers out of me."
"What did they want Cayden?" the suit said with a more serious tone.
"They're looking for someone." I said. I start thinking up names.
"They're looking for someone named Leo." I lied. I couldn't think of any other name.
"You mean your friend Leo?" said the suit. I finally turned back into my normal form. I grab a paper towel and cover my wound.
"No. Not that Leo. Leo's a common name."
"Not that common Cayden. And it's too much of a coincidence that they'll come to you for someone named Leo."
"Look, that's what they asked. I tried fighting them off and they got me. Tried to get answers about Leo and I told them to get bent." The suit stares at me for a moment through his shades. One Octoling was able to go back to normal, until the suit shoots her and splats her again without even looking.
"Alright then Cayden. Step outside, I'll get you medical treatment." I do as he says. Five minutes later, a bunch of guys in military uniforms come in with cylinder shaped containers run into my apartment. A minute later, they all came out with the Octolings, in their octopus forms, inside the containers full of weird colored water. I didn't question it. I waited until the suits let me back in my own home. Five minutes later, the suits came out.
"Everything's back to normal now Cayden. Have a nice day." the suit said as he hurries out.
"Wait." I said. He stops for a moment.
"Yes Cayden?"
"Why did you come here?" I ask.
"We were here to check up on you." he said. I don't buy it.
"With weapons at the ready?" I said.
"We saw your door open and lights off and ink all over. We expected a break in and we were correct." I stare back at him, hiding my disbelief.
"Whatever. Leave me alone." I said. The suit walks back downstairs. I listened for him to get in his car and drive off. I run back inside to see what they touched. It seems like nothing was touched. Cora's laptop is still on the floor. I hold onto it in fear. Where did Cora go? I look in every possible hiding place. Nothing.
"Cora?" I call out. I look around more frantically.
"Cora!?" I begin shouting. A thoughts crossed my mind. What if the military guys found Cora? What if the suits found Cora? What if she's one of the Octolings in those jars!?
"CORA!?" I begin shouting in panic. I hug her laptop.
"Not again." I begin crying. I lost someone close to me. Again. I begin damning myself. I shouldn't have let her get close to me. I shouldn't have let her live with me. If she hadn't met me, she wouldn't have been taken away. I slump onto the ground on my knees.
"Cora." I cry. I hug her laptop even harder.
"Cayden?" I hear behind me. Cora walks out of my bedroom. Her laptop slips out my hand. I get up and run towards her. I hug her tightly.
"Cora!" I cry as she hugs me back. We hold onto each other for a good while. I can feel her shaking in fear, but that eventually subsides.
"I thought they got you." I said to her.
"I climbed out your window and hid behind a trash container when I heard the door break open."
"Cora. I was so scared of them finding you and taking you away."
"You mean the Octolings?"
"No. I mean-nevermind. You're alright."
I let her go and take a good look at her. She looks at me back. I love her. I love her so much. I then kiss her passionately and she kisses me back. We both plop onto my bed. We stop kissing for a moment and look at eachothers' eyes. We both smile and kiss some more.
"Cayden." she whispers affectionately.
"Cora." I said back the same way. We kiss as we both take off our shirts, then our pants, then everything else. Haven't done this in a long time, but we made love to each other. I hold her hands as she holds mine. Calling out each other's names and telling each other how much we love each other.
(Next Morning)
I wake up with the sun shining into the room. I stretch my legs and my arms. I look down to see Cora sleeping close to me. Her face on my side and drooling. And snoring. Her hand on my chest. My stirring causes her to wake up. Her eyes all droopy as she blinks. It takes her a few seconds to figure out what's going on and her face becomes redder than a red inked squiddymelon. She rolls over and covers her head with a pillow.
"Hey." I said.
"H-hey." she muffled through the pillow. I smile a little bit.
"C'mon. You don't gotta be embarrassed." I said as a snuggled up to her. Wrapping my arm around her. She takes the pillow off and rolls over to face me. Even sleepy, she's pretty. We smile, then we kiss. We hold onto each other. I got a lotta things wrong with me, but with Cora by my side, I think everything's going to be fine.