"So Lucky, what are you up to right now?" Edric asks working on something in the facility as Lucky seems to be reading a magazine.
"Nothing much," Lucky says, flipping a page.
"Got any plans?" Edric asks.
"Nope," Lucky says.
"Heard you are very into me. Is that true?" Edric asks.
"Maybe. You are cute," Lucky half confirms.
Edric smirks and waits till she realizes what she said as he knew she was half paying attention.
Lucky stops halfway through flipping pages and looks at him with a slight blush on her face. "Quiet."
"I think you are very cute as well," Edric comments as he tried activating the device.
"Something wrong?" Lucky asks, putting her magazine down.
"Marie made Callie and Caveira sit down and explain some things to me. Like how inkling guys are almost expected to sleep with more than one girl," Edric informs embarrassed.
"You never knew this at all?" Lucky asks, raising an eyebrow.
"No…also they let it slip that you were basically number one in my fan club," Edric informs.
Lucky now smiles. "Thought you were playing hard to get."
"I am a bit thick," Edric informs as the machine whirled to life, projecting holographic stars and constellations.
"Oh wow. That's amazing," Lucky says, watching it move.
"This is what we observed out there in space. Humanity always wanted to travel the stars. I guess it's a dream we pass onto your kind," Edric says.
Lucky smiles. "Maybe one day we will."
"Our tech will help it along," Edric says smirking.
Lucky grins and walks up to the projections. "Now that's just cheating."
"Think of it as inheritance," Edric says pulling her into his lap as they watch the show.
Lucky giggles. "Then you would have to make it where we can…dig it up maybe? An intact ship?" she suggests, turning her head to look at him.
"We have all the plans for everything humans ever made recorded in Hai's database," Edric informs.
Lucky hums playfully, leaning back into him. "Then it would be funny seeing their faces once they find out what it is."
"Though some things should stay buried and forgotten," Edric says rubbing her tentacle hair in a friendly way.
Lucky hums happily, leaning her head around to let him at it more. "Space travel? You want to keep us grounded?"
"Not that. The weapons," Edric clarifies.
Lucky turns herself around and wraps her arms around his neck and gives a soft smile. "Protector of the inklings, are you?"
"More like trying to keep the sins of humanity away from you guys," Edric says hugging her closely now before accidentally activating his device, causing him to tumble backward in surprise with Lucky on top of him.
Edric groans. "Okay. Next step. Figure out how to control with mental commands," he says to himself before seeing the girl looking down at him. "And…maybe…some…" he stutters before clearing his throat. "Have you always worn a drysuit?" he comes up with, seeing it past her shirt collar and peeking inside before tearing his gaze back to her face.
"Only on certain occasions. Now here is your answer to a previous question," Lucky says leaning down and kisses him.
Edric smiles into the kiss and hugs her back. But then Lucky slowly pulls her head back and smirks down at him. "Wow…okay…can I take a number on this? Think it over?" he asks, sitting up as best he can.
"Sure, you know protocol now," Lucky teases.
Edric nods. "And I intend to take full advantage of this."
"I think it is time we got back out to the turf wars," Lucky says smirking.
Edric hums to himself. "I don't know. Starting to like the peace and quiet. Though you could help me with the fact you leave me with messy bed hair."
"Come on. You're already an inkling and I really want to stick it to Black tar after what they said about us recently," Lucky says.
"Oh. That? That's just being whiny losers," Edric says cheekily.
"Yeah. I want them to eat their words so much that they choke on them," Lucky says smirking.
"Where did you learn such a human line?" Edric asks, booping her nose.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Lucky says.
"You know what. I liked that enough to do it. Let's go feed them some humble pie," Edric says smirking.
Lucky becomes confused now. "Huh?"
Edric cheers. "Yes. I one-upped you. Best get back to studying."
"So how does it taste?" Lucky asks smirking.
"How what tastes?" a black tar member asks, disgruntled they lost.
"That piece of humble pie we just forced you to eat," Lucky says smirking.
"Good hustle out there you two," Edric says to the two inkling players of team frontier that played with them.
"Thanks, boss," one of them salutes.
"I'm not the boss and Lucky, I think that is enough rubbing it in for one day. I am sure they will be hearing about this more from the news and their own team soon enough," Edric says.
Lucky grins. "Yeah. That means it would be rubbed in by everyone. But let me have my fun."
"We have to get back. Come on. I will buy you lunch," Edric offers.
"Only if you have chocolate," Lucky adds on, following him while their other two teammates shrug to each other smiling.
"I will get you the hot chocolate at the cafe," Edric relents.
Lucky gives a small hug to him and a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."
"Ok, you two. Let's head back to the car," Edric says.
The two start to follow them as the small rankings changed slightly for the teams.
"So I just checked and our win-loss record against black tar has increased. Would you know anything about an unscheduled game?" Caveira asks the four as they ate at the cafe which was now was selling cakes modeled after team frontier's emblem.
Both Lucky and Edric look to each other with full mouths and frosting on their faces. "No," they both say muffled.
"And you two?" Caveira asks looking at the two members they had recently signed.
"We may have humbled them a bit," one admits to the boss.
Caveira shakes her head and sighs deeply. "You two…" she starts.
"What is the problem?" Lucky asks.
"If you had given us some heads up, a lot of your fans could have come and watch. Also, we could have possibly sold some of the clothes we have in stock," Caveira says.
"Speaking of that, you best hop onto making a share that says 'How do you like that humble pie?' before black tar does," Lucky informs.
Caveira gives a slight glare at her and she shrinks back down. "…I'll…see what we can do."
"Will you be getting home late tonight?" Edric asks.
"Paperwork. Can't be avoided," Caveira sighs.
"I will leave dinner in the fridge," Edric says giving her a smile.
Caveira nods. "Don't do this again without alerting us."
"Alright," Edric says.
Caveira sighs as she works. Everyone else had already gone home for the night or out on the town. Even the office was cold and quiet with only her own personal office staying slightly warm due to the light. But the stacks of papers in front of her isn't helping matters with each dent she made. It almost seemed like they were multiplying with every paper she finished. When she reached for the next one, it wasn't paperwork but a paper with the message. 'Feeling down? If so, check your secret fridge in the back.' Caveira raises an eyebrow and gets up. The message taking her to said fridge, which she opens up before she smiles and takes out some kelp tea.
"Edric…you deserve something for that," she says to herself before going back to her desk and drinks away happily before seeing something taped to the bottom. 'Press call on your phone. From E.'
Caveira stares at the note before doing as instructed and hears a ringing coming from her bag.
Caveira slowly looks to the bag and places it onto the desk to slowly open it. Then suddenly being knocked back and onto the ground with a grunt. "Wha…?" she groans before seeing the blue squid around her neck. "How did you get in there without me knowing?"
"I gotz the skillz," Edric says smirking.
Caveira pokes his head now. "Why? I'm stuck here till late at night and I won't be back till almost three in the morning."
"So?" Edric asks.
Caveira sighs. "How long are you going to stay here?"
"I am going to get comfortable," Edric says climbing up to lay on her head.
'This feels like such a reversal,' Caveira thinks to herself before getting back into her seat and returns to work.
Edric hums happily as Caveira works, making comments every so often.
"Is Lucky alone?" Caveira finally asks, looking up to him on her head.
"She said going to hang out with X. Something about scouting out the competition," Edric informs.
"And will this be a regular thing?" she asks, feeling him crawl down into her lap.
"Marie told me something if you asked that…what was it again? Something about preparing for a squishie?" Edric says trying to remember.
Caveira stops and frowns. "I meant you coming to the office like this. I will talk to her about it later."
"Oh. I convinced her not to come. She wanted to use some bombs to surprise you," Edric informs.
Caveira huffs. "Good."
"Feel better?" Edric asks.
"Yes…thank you," Caveira sighs in relief, feeling a hug around her chest. "But I will ask, will you be doing this a lot?"
"Maybe," Edric informs smirking.
Caveira takes a short pause and looks down at him. "You don't have to. Besides, you need your sleep."
"I know. I am comfortable enough here," Edric says.
Caveira shakes her head going back to work and feels him crawl over her body. "It's too late for this…and you need sleep," she says, giving a small hug to him. Edric doesn't respond and Caveira noticed his breathing had slowed. Caveira looks down and sees his eyes closed while he slept away against her. She sighs and sets him down back into the bag and slowly puts a small towel over him. Afterwhich, she went back to work, but the thought of a squishie came back to her mind.
"How is work?" Edric asks Marie while sitting in a pool chair as Callie floats around in the pool.
Marie hums. "Slow. Everything is slow now."
"It's hard to believe it has nearly been a year since we met, huh?" Edric asks.
Marie smirks as she leans on her arm. "And you have been poked, prodded, and kissed by the whole team and us," she counts off.
"Not X," Edric remarks.
Marie shakes her head amused. "Every inkling but her," she corrects.
"Of the original team. So slowing down a good thing?" Edric asks as Callie swam by before smirking and splashes Marie.
Marie sputters and gives a sharp glare to Callie who swims out of sight. "Only if you have things planned ahead. We have one more splatfest coming up too."
"Only one more? When are they going to come up with more?" Edric asks looking at her now.
"They never did. It was all from that machine. It hasn't spit out a new splatfest idea since like a month or so ago. And really, they only have one idea left to try. Me and Callie," Marie sighs, trying to get some relaxation in.
"Oh…well, I am not going to compete then," Edric says.
"Why not?" Callie asks swimming up to the side.
"That's just not cool. I don't want to choose between you two. I am too close to both of you," Edric informs.
Callie jumps out and lands on his lap in her squid form. "Aw. That's sweet," she coos, hugging him tightly.
"You have fun?" Edric asks changing to squid form.
Callie squeals and hugs him tighter now, keeping her tentacles wrapped around him so he doesn't escape. "I love this cutie."
"So when are you going to announce it?" Edric asks.
"Soon," Marie says getting her drink.
Edric shrugs and lays back down onto his seat, just thinking away. "What are you thinking about?" Callie asks.
Edric slowly smiles. "Oh, things. So many things."
"Come on…" Callie says teasingly, poking his side with her tentacles.
Edric chuckles and slaps them away smiling. "Okay. But it's mainly what the heck am I going to do now. So quiet now that I am wondering what I can do to keep myself occupied."
Marie smiles at him. "You're a smart human. I'm sure there is something you can do."
"We could snuggle," Callie offers.
"Cannonball!" Lucky calls.
A sudden wave washed over them and leaves them soaking wet. "Can I have that snuggling and a hot towel now?" Edric asks after a while.
"Yes. Yes, you can," Callie says as Marie tosses a towel onto them.