Chapter 15: A Midnight Stroll
Luke had came out of the tower with the rest of his team. While Deborah, as per usual, kept her nose up and walked by him, Brodie and Cass were kind enough to inform him how turfing went.
"-if I'm honest with you. The session was decent." He leaned in close to him so Cass didn't hear. "Though Deborah was an absolute tyrant to me and Tytus."
Luke, cocked a brow before whispering back. "Ok? Why are you whispering this to me?"
"Dude," he gave surprised look, as if he probably should have known this. "Think she's got a crush on Cass. She was giving him the gaga eyes practically all our matches and she was totally less barky towards him."
Luke thought about it, closing his eyes in a bit of contemplation. "Are you sure?"
"Dude!" Brodie barely kept his voice to a whisper as he held an incredulous look on his face. "I know what I was seeing…"
"I-I'm not doubting you, per saaaay-"
This only deepened Brodie's glare, and he crossed his arms as he waited for teammate's full response.
His eyes rolled eyes over to Nova's location, "-but I think we should focus on reaching level 10 ASAP!" He picked up his pace, only quickening it further with Brodie's "Hey!"
He rushed to Nova's side, who was staring off toward the alleyway gates. He took a look at where her eyes were trained but saw nothing of particular interest. "What're you starting at?"
"Oh, uh-nothing. I guess everything went well with everyone's matches?"
"Yeah," he turned to see the rest of the team behind him. "Everyone seemed to be doing well. I think we'll be ready in no time for the big day."
"Ok…say Luke?"
"Hm?"
Nova turned to look him in the eyes, he nearly jolted in surprise as her sienna gaze held something that he couldn't discern.
"Mind if I walk you up to your apartment this evening?"
He looked a bit confused but answered, "I guess you can if you want?"
"Cool…" She told him somewhat absentmindedly.
He squinted in suspicion. It wasn't really easy to make out with his lack of knowledge of her mannerisms. He said nothing, but he could make out something different in her demeanor for sure.
As Tytus and Deborah made their separate ways from the rest of them, the rest of the four took the route back to their own complexes. The entire way, even as both Brodie and Cass left to branch off into their own respective roads, Nova was fairly silent. Luke had to admit, it was getting to him with how unsettling it felt; whether it was because he was used to her bombastic nature or because he felt like something had occurred for her to want to this, he had no idea.
Luke was unable to come up with anything to say in this particular moment.
"Thanks for hanging out with me." He looked over to see Nova's blushing face. "It was pretty fresh hangin' out with you."
"O-oh, you're welcome." Her face caused him to start to feel a rush of blood to his cheeks.
"No seriously, I mean it. I don't-I didn't know how things would pan out coming here at first."
"Oh?" What did she mean by that?
As if reading his thoughts she continued, "It made a bit nervous knowing I was coming here alone and away from friends. Then I saw you-"
He pointed at himself, "Me?"
"Yeah. It kinda reminded me I wasn't the only one who was nervous about going somewhere new."
As she chuckled, he held back the urge to groan. Was he really that bad?
"But," she continued, "that was all I needed."
Luke noticed they had passed Nova's building. Looks like their time today was coming to an end.
Luke decided to ask, "Hey uh-"
Nova looked to him, the sudden response making him jolt a bit. He certainly had to get used to her being like this. Or being next to people in the first place…
"T-thanks for today. I know I've said this a lot, but I t-think." A deep breath. "I think this means I should at least… get to hang out with you more. Maybe not just you either. Brodie, o-or maybe even Cass!" He fidgeted with his hands, looking for something else to say, "They both seem nice enough."
"Yeah…yeah, That's actually a great idea!" Luke didn't realized how tense he was with her less in character behavior until his shoulders rather noticeably slackened and his breathing felt a lot less forced. Whatever the cause of her shift in personality, it didn't look like he had to be concerned.
That being said, there was something nagging at him that he should probably prod or do some investigating.
Was this concern he was feeling?
"Oh! Here's my room." They nearly passed by it while he was stuck in his on head. He looked to Nova to gauge her emotions but couldn't find much to go on other then the smile on her face being a little less the genuine by how it didn't quite crest as much as it usually did. "Thanks for making sure I got in."
"No problem. See you in the morning," she turned to walk off.
Luke felt a gnawing unease just to leave her just like that. As he open the door and began to step in, he wound his upper torso over the doorway molding and cupped his mouth with a hand. "G-get some good rest, ok?" He thought about what he could add to that so it didn't look too weird. "Um, we gotta practice first thing in the morning to make up for the others turfing without us!"
Nova, at first a bit surprised to hear the quiet inkling shouting in the hallway for her, smiled gently. This one a lot more relaxed and, most importantly, a lot more fitting for her personality made its way on her face.
Luke made his way to his bedroom. Today was a pretty tiring day; Nova definitely got him past a threshold of comfort when leaping those buildings. He gingerly stretched his torso muscles until the sore stiffness that was beginning to roll in was replaced by the satisfying feeling of laxed tendons.
"So, you were talking with your girlfriend?"
Luke tossed his head towards the living space to see his sister munching on chips lazily on the couch, watching some show. He grimaced at how she lazily draped over the couch. He swore he could make out a shower of crumbs that coated her lap and chest.
"No," he said slowly getting a good look at her. "Are you ok? You look like a whirlpool dragged out through half of Inkopolis and settled on tossing you back here."
"Its fine. Just chilln'."
Luke gave a her a half-concerned, half-unamused shake of the head before going to bed. His body hurt too much to care right now.
He dragged himself to his bedroom. His body felt like it had gotten even heavier then when he stepped foot into the apartment and he wagered it was likely from the exhaustion kicking in along with the fact he knew the bed was in reach.
Luke didn't feel whenever his body hit his bed. Instead, it almost felt like he was pulled from his body into his dreams this time as his eyes registered his surroundings not as a darkened hallway of a mid-sized apartment but in a tank full of water. He immediately felt his breathing quicken as he started to spasm and flail in a panic. To any Inkling, dipping a toe in water stung. To be completely submersed would, as one would expect of a creature whose major components consisted of ink, cause a gruesome reaction that would cause his body to tear itself apart and dissociate into aquatic oblivion.
When his skin did not begin the process of ebbing into the water, he let out a drawn out and almost humored sigh.
Wait. He was breathing in water? Squid gills had adapted to ink, and by filtering out the ink they could capture remnant air pockets trapped within. This was so strange. He shouldn't be able to breathe in something that basically acted as a caustic agent to his body.
Looking around, he realized where exactly he was: A tank, almost like one used in keeping non-sapient sea creatures when they were to be taken out of their natural habitat with a strong backlight keeping the perimeter lit. He was by his lonesome but saw something shrouded in the cold darkness that was peering back at him.
Suddenly he heard voices. Indecipherable ones from the shadows of his surroundings.
The loudest being in front of him, he focused his attention there. He could almost make out the silhouette of…someone…then they retreated back into the darkness.
Unlike the previous dreams, he could actually move. Despite the dread gnawing at his belly, he swam upwards while in squid form. It actually felt natural to do this, like he'd been swimming in water since he was hatched. Reaching for the tank's edge, he peered over only to have his sight obscured as he felt hands on him. He struggled for only a bit as he realized the hands that kept him now suspended in their grasp were unyielding and his struggling ceased for the time being as he was carried into blurry obscurity.
"H…hhhhh…"
Then he woke up.
The sweat-laden inkling jolted from the bed, clutching his blanket with what felt like the millionth time by now. That wasn't a dream like the rest of them; it had a different feel compared to the rest of them. The others flowed together like a movie only to be stopped when he had been torn from the dream quite violently. He had control this time but it certainly felt the most surreal of them so far. Was that even his dream? He wasn't so sure as it felt out of place. So much so that he wasn't sure it was his to begin with.
The poor thing held his dripping head trying to re-orient himself. He flopped back into the bed, exhausted and unsure whether he wanted to even sit up or stay down. After a while of a spinning room and confusion, he slowly sat up. Luke, in response was met with even worse disorientation now that he had more enter his field of view. He stumbled out of bed and tried to reach for the door. When he finally gripped the knob with clammy hands, his vision has begun to correct itself. With shaky breaths, he managed to drag himself past the door into the hallway and out and upwards towards the roof. The fresh air seemed to be clearing his head a lot faster than laying down did. He let out a sigh of relief before looking at the nearby rooftops.
No Aeolia.
With a somewhat less than satisfied grunt and a creeping anxiety roiling his gut he went back down through to the apartment to grab his gear.
He didn't really know where he was going as he clicked the elevator button. Nor did he particularly know why he was going during what most Inklings would consider the dead of night.
He had strolled down the cool and quiet city streets as he walked towards the plaza. Although the walk was fairly uneventful, he felt a need to keep awareness when so exposed to the world like this.
On one hand it was an experience though he wasn't sure whether or not it was quite a "fun" one considering everything that's happened, but at least he had seemed a couple of friends; it was a new experience for him- as was the experience of less-than-friendly faces and uncertainties of a Turf War Splatoon team aside- and he cherished the process of learning things despite the reluctance of actually participating in them.
But then there was the feeling of missing his mother's attention and spending lazy afternoons in the house garden. There were so many new things that he wasn't quite sure he liked feeling so overwhelmed.
He later realized he was close to the plaza so he superjumped to the center it's pallid silence. He looked around as his landing reverberated throughout the plaza.
Not one person in sight.
Quietly he walked up to Spyke's alley and leaned against the pillars supporting the walkway above.
Deep breaths…deep breaths…
Thunk!
A sound in the alleyway made him flip towards it to find a rather motivated Judd shuffling onto a nearby trash can. The boy let out a sleep-deprived and jittered sigh as the cat's yellow eyes eyed him from the dark. He closed his eyes, both to rest them a bit and to concentrate on quieting his breathing. For a moment he thought he was being tailed.
He took another look back only to see a different set of yellow eyes was peering back at him. The sudden appearance of an inkling with such a trait made him fall over, scrambling for purchase to lift himself back up.
"What are you doing here so late?" Aeolia inquired.
"I-I could ask you the same thing!" he sputtered, finally grabbing onto a mailbox. "It's 5 in the morning!"
"You can go ahead." Aeolia quite strongly insisted. The way she said it was rather forceful, and to Luke it definitely sounded like she wasn't taking deference as an answer. "I'd like to hear about the seldom seen morning Inkling's reason for existing before daybreak."
"You're, uh, kind of being a bit of a hypocrite a-aren't you?" Aeolia gave him a stern glare, which clammed him up immediately, though at second glance, she was less upset and more cuing him to answer her query as she simply leaned back and patiently waited for him to answer her.
"Uh, well… I guess I just needed fresh air is all." He took a seat next to her and looked into the empty plaza. "I hadn't been sleeping too good, and it feels like they're getting worse."
"What, exactly," she asked, emphasizing her words and drawing nearer. "Is 'getting worse'?"
Luke couldn't tell if his confession upset her or not, but her imposing figure was about to draw the words from him as she hunted for the meaning in his phrasing.
He immediately broke eye-contact and shrunk, "Well…I…i-it's complicated…"
She backed off a bit, almost taking all of her intimidating air with her. Luke felt himself untense as she back away, just barely holding a sigh of relief.
"I apologize, I got carried away."
A longer awkward silence fell between the two before Luke decided that he'd had enough of this quiet. He got up and turned to leave.
"You're not the only one who has trouble sleeping," She added. He paused to look at her, she was glowering though it didn't seem to be directed at him or anything around in particular. "If you want someone to talk to…" she hauled out a weapon case. "Or you want to practice some more, you know where to find me."
He played with the idea in his mind: He couldn't just walk all the way back to the apartment now that he was here, now could he? It was still dark out and, despite wondering down here in the first place, he wasn't sure if he wanted to make that trek back while it was still dark.
"You know, I think I'll take you up on that offer."
Aeolia gestured for him to follow her, to which he complied. They walked up to the glass doors to Ammo Knights, after which Aeolia started to knock on it in a intricate pattern before finishing the sequence. A few minutes later, Sheldon came out, yawning as one normally would at five in the morning.
"Good morning Sheldon," Aeolia greeted. "We want to use the firing range."
Surprisingly without a word, the horseshoe crab gestured towards the back, waddling besides the two with a ring of keys being sifted through to find the correct key.
Luke leaned in to whisper not-so-quietly to the sharp-eyed girl, "So, does he just live here or…?"
"Yes. He has a bed for staying over and working on late night projects and maintenence."
Luke couldn't help but let out a baffled, "Wow." Talk about dedication.
Once the little Limulus had placed the key into the lock the two focused back on their morning activity.
"Have fun you two! Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to working on this new weapon it's quite the wonder really you see-"
"You can explain it to us after our practice session." Thank the cods above for Aeolia's direct nature. Luke let out a small sigh as the rambling crab made a small frown at the interruption. "Time is money as they say."
"Right, yes well, I'll hold you to that…so as I said, have fun."
As the door was shut, Aeolia turned to her now pupil. Class was in session.
"Alright, now that he's gone pick a weapon you would like to learn, and we shall go through some drills."
