"So how does it feel being fifteen and with someone?" Edric asks, sounding a lot better than the week before.
"Well, I get a morning kiss, which I already had, and have more access to things. So I say it's going great," Caveira says happily. That tone of his feeling more like concern than letting her do her own thing.
"Thanks for smacking some sense into me a few days ago as well," Edric says.
"Well…you were horrible," Caveira chuckles. She can tell he is trying to hold his laughter back as well. "Every week at least, you come in or we do a game. Got it?"
"Don't worry. After nearly losing to that newbie and you smacking me I am awake now," Edric says, his eyes seeming sharper as well.
"Good," Caveira says giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Also, get to know Off the Hook better. I know you have listened to them before, but you should get to know them as they are currently the announcers for the turf wars," Caveira informs.
"It just isn't the same…but okay," he sighs and gives a kiss back in return. "Thanks for your help."
"A good kickstart was all you needed. Now go enjoy your time with Callie. I know you haven't gotten to see her for nearly four months. She must be dying to see you again," Caveira says smirking.
"Maybe she's begging her managers that having a boyfriend can help her image and press," Edric jokes while he gets up. "See ya, sweetie," he says giving another kiss to her cheek.
Caveira smiles as he starts to leave. "Good luck. And yes, you can kiss her like with me," she says and he leaves laughing after that. A smile graces her lips when she hears it all and sighs the biggest breath she has been holding in such a long time. Finally, she was getting her Edric back and soon will Callie.
"Hello?" Edric calls, entering the mountainside building. His skin feeling the hot calming air of the hot springs throughout the building. "Callie?" he calls again.
"Edric," Callie says happily, walking out of the hall in only a wrapped towel around her and some fancy glasses on her face. "Thought you wouldn't show."
Edric smiles at the sight of her and gives a chuckle. "It was a bit tough to find this place. Should tell them to trim the trees or something. By the way, going for my look?" he asks, pointing at the glasses.
"Well, you know how fresh your glasses are," Callie says walking over to him before hugging him. "I really missed you."
"I missed you as well," Edric says putting his inkling head in the crook of her neck.
"And grown. I see he's been doing updates," Callie notices, running a hand over his back.
"Wasn't hard. So…" Edric starts and pulls his head back to take a closer look at her, "You got us a private room?"
Callie smirks and leans over to his ear. "For the full week if we want. Being a star has its perks," she says taking a hold of his hands and leads him into the hall and down into the building. "If you want, we can rest in a bed they have. And I would take up that offer," she says, pulling him closer and even wrapping one of her tentacles around him.
Edric smiles and leans against her, wrapping an arm around her and pulls her as close as possible. Just the mere thought of how warm she is sending enough of a smoothing trance to him. He didn't even notice them enter a room and smiles as he looks over the natural hot springs pool and a nearby shower and bed. "Feels like a hot springs hotel, with each room having their own. Where is everyone anyway? Usually, there should be someone at the front desk in a place like this," Edric asks, looking behind to see if anyone passes by the open doorway.
"I may have rented out the entire place for us," Callie says smiling, pulling down his shades. "Come on now. No more questions. We have been apart far too long. It is time we make up for all our lost time," Callie says smiling before starting to lead him inside.
Edric sighs happily and takes off his glasses. "Okay. Only because it's you…and I have a feeling you can even rent out an entire hotel if you wanted," he quips and gets a giggle from her.
"It's true. I could have," Callie laughs while he goes and gets his own towel and gets ready behind a curtain wall. Though her eyes kept watching his shadow before he came out having just the towel around him. "But I wanted both of us to have the best time ever and not worry about just sleeping," she says, slowly leading to the water and steps inside. "Come on," she pulled him into it.
"Did you get any of my calls or texts?" Edric asks leaning onto her, letting her pull him along.
Callie smiles as she hugs him tightly, leaning against a rock wall. "Yes. But I was always so busy, I only ever had time for the work I did. I tried, I really did," she apologizes, giving a soft kiss to his cheek.
"I understand. Though I am not much better. I am just coming out of a rut. It had me not even leave the facility for months," Edric says.
Callie starts to look worried at him. "Edric…did you get lonely again? I can do something. Maybe even we spend more time and even sleep together again. Did Caveira even do anything? She must have forgotten about you."
"I think one time I saw her literally buried in paperwork," Edric comments and Callie gave a horrified look.
"Edric…that isn't good. I can do better than that. I promise," Callie says, hugging him tightly as possible.
"You're doing enough right now," Edric says rubbing her tentacle hair as she removed his glasses and set them on the side so they don't fall into the water.
Callie leans her head towards him. "But I can do more. More than Caveira or Lucky," she says giving a quick kiss to his lips.
"I am starting to get worried though. We haven't heard from her or your grandfather in months. We may need to go and find them soon," Edric says pulling her along to float with him now.
Callie gives another kiss to him. "They will be fine. Grandpa is tough and so is Lucky. Agents are always like that."
"You would know number one," Edric teases.
"And I can show it. If you want it. I can show you a lot more," Callie offers, giving another kiss to his cheek and stops them from floating.
"Oh?" Edric asks turning into a squid to snuggle.
Callie giggles and snuggles him tight. "You're always so cute and handsome."
"Speaking of cute, do you remember what you asked Hai to look into?" Edric asks.
"What was it again? I am sorry. It's been very crazy," Callie inquires.
"If we are compatible for reproduction," Edric says.
Callie licks her lips and snuggles him against her chest. "I haven't heard back. But that doesn't mean we can't have fun with it."
"Results are in and yes, we are compatible, but he says we might have low rates," Edric informs.
Callie pokes his side and makes him chuckle. "Change back and I promise I will kiss you a lot," she says, lightly tapping his head.
"Aw, and here I wanted to try and being wrapped up in your hair," Edric teases.
"Change and I will treat you instead. After all this time, I want you to enjoy yourself. Especially with being stuck in your place and hidden way," Callie says, nuzzling her head against him. "It's been too long."
"Alright, but with no staff here, are we going to cook for ourselves?" Edric asks turning back.
Callie nods before kissing him, trying to stay on for as long as she can. Edric then following suit and wrapping his arms around her. But when Callie lets go, she smirks and lifts him up in her arms. "I can make something up. Maybe better than yours."
"Now let's not turn it into a competition, shall we. After all, this is us being together for the first time in a while," Edric says feeling her tentacles wrap around his neck.
"And I intend to make it enjoyable as if it's the last time together," Callie says giving another kiss to him.
"…you're not saying you want to see other inklings…right?" Edric asks a bit afraid of the answer.
Callie smiles sweetly and gives a deeper kiss to him while carrying him to the bed. "With you, never. I want you and you alone."
"Oh good…also, you aren't mad about the rumors, right?" Edric questions.
"It can't be, can it? She went away," Callie says putting him down on the bed.
"Completely false…I haven't slept with any of you like that so far," Edric informs.
Callie smiles and gives him another kiss. "Want this to be the first time?"
"Not yet ready. Besides, you said all week in your message. Why rush it when I can just hold you," Edric says before pulling her down beside him. "Now which do you prefer? Snuggle as inklings or squids?"
"I want to enjoy this," Callie says hugging him tightly. Then using her tentacles to wrap around him and keep him close. "I do love you."
Edric nods, trying to get the covers for their barely clad bodies.
"One day, we can live like this. And then a squishie of our own," Callie whispers into his ear.
"Just one or we aiming for as many siblings as you have?" Edric asks.
Callie kisses his cheek at that. "As many as we need."
"We will continue this in the morning?" Edric asks closing his eyes.
Callie nods against him, putting her head on his chest. "Yeah. And I will make sure you enjoy every bit of it."
After a few hours, Callie starts moving again, making sure Edric was now asleep. Edric groans to her satisfaction, turning his head away to find another comfortable position when he loses the warmth of her body against him. "Don't worry, love," Callie whispers softly, getting a cloth and bottle from a nightstand's drawer. "I will make sure you are well-rested," Callie says coating the liquid in the bottle onto the cloth and gently places it onto his face.
The breaths coming from him gently fading away into a slow rhythm as he became slack before her. Callie smiles and kisses his cheek before picking up the phone nearby and presses a button, leaving it off the hook. "And now for the second prize," Callie says and soon there were footsteps coming towards her as she got fully dressed. "Get him out of here. The rest of you, come with me," she says turning to octolings as they file in while she zips up her small jacket. "And remember, don't hurt him. If you do, I will take great pleasure in removing all of your limbs," she warns, pointing threateningly at them while two work on picking Edric up and dragging him out.
As Edric was taken out, Callie smirks towards the window and the sight of the forested area of the old unfinished development.
"This should still work," Callie says walking up to the doors and it opens for her. While she grins, the octolings follow behind her, taking in the sight awe of such a doorway. But what lay beyond it all made them more ecstatic. The second doorway opens up and leaves them all salivating at the sight of such technology before them. Their minds racing to figure out what they are. But Callie, seemingly picking up what's happening, turns and glares at them. "Get to work stripping the place. Hai! Turn off the defenses for a bit. I have to check on something with my crew," she calls.
Some loud screeching occurs from the computer for a second. "Of course Ms. Callie," Hai says appearing before her. "Should I include the area where projects are being worked on?" Hai inquires.
"What projects?" Callie asks intrigued and looks toward his image.
"Edric has been working on making new generators using both human and inkling technologies. He hopes that it would take over in case the disappearance of project 228 happens again," Hai informs getting all their attention.
Callie slowly smirks at him. "Do it. Unlock and give these guys full access to the areas."
"Security disabled, but I insist on proper protection and adherence to regulations," Hai informs after another loud screeching noise.
Callie giggles. "Don't worry. We would be fine," she says walking away and stops for a second. The sight of the furniture making her sense of direction off for a few seconds, but it doesn't matter as the octolings were grabbing what they could. Anything that wasn't nailed down was placed in the living room to collect later while the stuff that was nailed down is unbolted and taken away. All the furniture being unclear to Callie as she looks around and notices that it wasn't anything like she last remembers. The layout is different and everything on top of it.
"Please step away from the door to one of my hard drive sections," Hai says to an octoling trying to pry the door open.
Callie rolls her eyes and sighs. "Open all doors and disable safeties," she spoke up, a very loud screeching occurs that made all of them cover their ears.
"I am sorry Ms. Callie. You have inadequate authorization to perform such an order. Mr. Edric has full access over my central systems. Now please, step away," Hai explains as slots started to open and guns and the spider bots started to emerge, all pointed at the octoling who had stopped.
Callie clicks her teeth and huff. "Ignore that room. Move on."
The octoling slowly inched away and all the guns and robots started to retreat back into the walls.
Callie hums as she looks at the defenses before sighing. The sight of all the technology and furniture the octolings are collecting making her a bit curious. "Where's the original setup for this place? Why all this?" she asks, pointing to the obviously bigger furniture.
"Mr. Edric has requested old archived data to build such items. He has requested so far over two hundred of the archived data to build for himself. However, he has recently requested that I warn him should he need access to old archived data again as of last week," Hai explains.
Callie frowns. "What happened last week?"
Hai was silent for a bit. "Ms. Caveira has decided to visit Edric in that time frame. With only occasional visits to collect an item from then on."
Callie growls, her teeth clicking. "Those idiots left him alone this much?!" she growls. Already her sense of protecting Edric coming to her mind.
"Someone mistreating your mate?" one of the octoling girls asks.
Callie kept growling before huffing. "If you see any of those girls, I want you to splat them. And do it where there is no respawn generator," she orders, her eyes glowing under her glasses.
"Spoken like a true octoling," the girl says as one of the groups who went in further in the facility came back crying. "What is it?" the girl asks.
"I saw one of the most beautiful pieces of tech ever," the boy says, his eyes watering.
The girl sighs. "Alright. Show us."
Callie was slightly interested and follows the still happily crying octoling with the others and they enter the garage. Callie immediately catching onto what he meant as the others all start to cry and stare in awe at such a creation of a vehicle. "Use it. Get the important things out of here with it…also, you scratch his car, I still remove your limbs," she orders, turning away for a moment to look at something then back to see them half polishing it. "Good enough," she sighs.
Callie's mind than going to a random memory before she slowly walks over and steps into a room that was already trashed and looks to the messy bed that she knew the octoling currently in there didn't do. All the lumps and indentations making her more fired up before turning on her heel and walking towards the side door to get some air. All of it going wrong for her. They were only supposed to collect whatever he had. Not her reliving memories. But she stops as she looks around. Her eyes crossing over the sight of many plants waving in the wind and then to an outcropping on the wall.
"How long has he been at this one?" Callie asks, knowing the answer but just wanted to be sure.
A loud screech occurred. "Two months, three weeks, four days, and two hours ago did he start the garden project," Hai answered.
Callie growls to herself. This was worse than she thought. They can't take care of him and he would break if he was left alone. "If you want something done, you have to do it yourself," she says, heading back inside to see that the octolings are now moving onto the technology and machines to add to the pile.
Finally seeing actual progress, she explores a bit more before coming to a small side table and looks at the pictures on it. First the sight of an old photo with a line of humans on it which she picks up. Guessing it was whoever was here before they died, it doesn't matter anymore so she tosses it behind her. But then sees the photos on the table and frowns. Reaching over, she tosses the one of Edric and his team behind her before grabbing the one of him, her, and Marie together. She then takes out the photo before carefully ripping off Marie and tosses that piece away. "You can't even do a simple thing as calling someone I bet," she clicks her teeth and then stuffing the photo into under her jacket when she hears a whistle. The other octolings rushing off towards out and soon something clanged and loud groaning and straining while a machine that she saw as the printer was being carried on their backs somehow. The rest of this cleanout will take a while to deal with and she would need another crew.
"Farwell Ms. Callie. I will reactivate all security once you leave," Hai informs.
Callie smirks. "Call me Lady Callie. Also, shut down for now and don't reactivate until Edric says so."