Future

You're way too serious, little Pearlie.
Live in the moment!
Have fun, and don't worry.
What happens, happens.
You're a Houzuki.
Nothing
really bad will ever happen to you.

Pearl's throat hurts, her lungs hurt, shell, her entire mouth hurts but she did it. Pearl just screamed a murder statue with a freaking laser beam out of existence. Pearl spreads her arms wide and she'd laugh if it didn't hurt, because if anything deserves a cocky victory pose that sure does.

Marina jumps down, and Pearl half turns to grin, but then Marina's grabbing Pearl in a hug so hard and sudden and she never stopped running that they both fall over. It knocks the wind out of Pearl, great, another pain, but she doesn't really mind. Sure, she wiggles her arms and legs for appearances sake, but if Marina wants to lie on top of her hugging her, haloed in the pre-dawn light, Pearl isn't really gonna complain.

Still, she has a reputation. "You're crushing me."

Marina's tentacles press together, hiding their faces from the world, and the light, as Marina presses a fast kiss to Pearl's cheek and cod Pearl didn't think her grin could get any wider. "It's over," Marina says.

"And it was awesome," Pearl agrees. They just freaking saved the world, things don't get much more awesome than that.

"You're safe."

Aww, was Marina worried? Pearl stops flailing to hug her back. "You think a measly statue and gooball could hurt me?" Pearl tugs one of Marina's long tentacles.

The end of Marina's tentacle twists, wraps around Pearl's wrist, like she has to keep touching Pearl however she can and if tentacles can hug then wow Pearl never really thought of how much more Marina uses her tentacles in kid form than Pearl does. Maybe that's an Octoling thing?

But then Marina presses her face to Pearl's shoulder and whispers, "It's real."

Of course it's real, the words stop on the tip of Pearl's tongue, because Marina told her about hypnogoggles and fuck DJ Octavio and Octarian society. Has Marina ever—ever said those words to her before? She knows Marina said 'this can't be real' and 'it isn't real' when they were performing, but Pearl thought those were just nerves. She clears her throat. Let's keep it light-hearted. "Man, if I knew destroying stuff on purpose could convince you of that, I would've done it ages ago."

Marina pulls away and looks down at Pearl, her eyebrows knitted. "How are we going to cover this up from the media?"

Pearl laughs, the force of her laughter tearing her throat and making her wince but fuck it, she needs this and Marina's laughing, too, at the sheer absurdity of saving the world and needing to keep it a secret. Okay, Pearl's covered up enough screw-ups to think of something, let's see. That was, technically, their first performance of Fly, Octo, Fly. "We'll tell them we were shooting a music video for our latest song and it went wrong," Pearl says, and shoves at Marina until Marina lets her up. "I'll bring out the Princess Cannon every concert we do Fly Octo Fly. It'll be the thing . You can do it, go you, come up and join us, we want Octarians in our society, and oh yeah, booya."

Marina giggles. "How long until people stop bringing breakables to our shows?"

"Three experiences," Pearl says at once. It's never the first or second time, people don't expect it the first time and think it's a one-off the second time. Over Marina's shoulder, the sky starts to turn the faintest pink; Eight stares at the sky, jaw slack. "Come on, I wanna watch the sunrise. It's gonna be gorgeous. And I bet Eight's never seen one, since you didn't, before you left."

Pearl glances at Marina in time to see her blush teal and look away.

That won't do. Pearl stands up and stretches, then bends to brush Marina's tentacle out of her face. "Hey. Knowing this just means I can almost understand how much it means to you. And that just makes it even more beautiful."

Marina's blush gets deeper, but she smiles. Pearl grabs Eight and tugs Eight to the end of the platform to watch. Cuttlefish and the unconscious other inkling that was down there, now awake and being introduced as Agent 3, join them; Marina's shoulders tense and she puts herself on the other side of Pearl, as far from 3 as she can get.

Probably for some understandable reason. Maybe Cuttlefish'll share more of those dossiers. Or maybe Marina will tell her later. But it's not as important as sitting between Marina and Eight and watching their faces, turning back and forth to see Eight's dropped jaw and hear Eight's little gasping noises while Marina's eyes fill with tears and they slip down her face, silent, while she has the most nostalgic and joyful smile Pearl's ever seen.

Beyond Eight, Captain Cuttlefish is waking on about what makes sunsets work, and how they looked different back in his day, but Pearl tunes him out. Agent 3 doesn't say a word, though 3 rubs their head regularly. Fine by Pearl.

They're almost back at Inkopolis by the time the light show ends and Pearl stretches. Time to do stuff again. "Captain, uh, Three, do you two have places to stay?"

"Of course we do! Why, we've lived in Inkopolis-"

"Fine," Pearl interrupts. "Marina, Eight can stay in your spare room, right?" The one set up with a bed for Pearl.

"Of course," Marina says. "It'll be wonderful to have you, Eight."

Eight smiles and ducks their head. That's fine. Marina should know everything a new Octarian would want to know. Maybe be able to introduce Eight to other Octarians on the surface, too.

"We need to debrief-"

Pearl interrupts Captain. "You all need to rest. And I need to deal with the media. You can go in the chat room, set something up for tomorrow or the next day, we'll be there." Pearl bends to touch her toes. "Right now, though, I've got some fucking paparazzi to deal with."