When Pearl had arrived home with Marina, Eight was already there making dinner, a bright smile on her face and practically dancing every step. Pearl swore she hadn't seen the girl's feet touch the ground once the whole time.
All three of them sat at the kitchen island eating Eight's very delicious pasta dish. She and Marina stared at Eight, stupefied as the young octoling energetically told them of the day she had. She talked so fast that Pearl only understood half of what she was saying. It didn't help that she occasionally reverted to Octese in her excitement.
"And then the gold car went around on the inside and got ahead of it! It was so exciting and there was so much more! There was another class of car after them that had all four wheels spinning so-."
Pearl couldn't recall Eight being like this, even during her first few days on the surface, not even when they were flying directly over Inkopolis itself. She was so excited and chatty that she hadn't touched her dinner at all.
"And then, after those two heats were over, we went for food and-."
"Eight!" Pearl's loud voice cut her off and the octoling fell suddenly silent. "I get that you had a super exciting day but we don't need a total play-by-play. Just give us the highlights and slow down so we can actually understand you, huh?"
Eight's face flushed sapphire and her tentacles curled inward. "M-my apologies."
"It's fine, just calm down a little." Pearl smiled and then glanced at Marina who was giggling at Eight's expense. Despite how big Marina was and how serious she could be, her giggles were rather cute and girly.
"Well," Eight resumed, "the racing was very exciting, and while there was a break, we went to get food. While we were in line I..." Her face flushed darker and she fidgeted. Despite her embarrassment her smile looked like the sort one couldn't wipe off their face no matter how hard they tried. "I… held her hand."
A pause and then Marina clapped once. "That's wonderful. You're making progress in your relationship?"
Pearl gave Marina a dubious look. Hand holding was no big deal; girls who barely knew each other could hold hands. Really, they should have been able to do that before Eight confessed. She was about to say as much when Marina looked in her direction. She was smiling and she had her eyes shut, but Pearl knew a glare when she saw one.
Fine. "That's good, Eight." She managed to say. "Is that why you've been walking on air? You finally got to hold Three's hand?"
"No, but I am glad I did it or the really good thing might never have happened!"
Pearl perked up and then grinned in Marina's direction. Something better than hand holding, eh? See Marina? She won't get anything out of us being condescending to her. Marina ignored her.
"So what happened?"
Eight shook her little fists excitedly and then shouted, "Three asked me to go with her to Wahoo World! We're going on a date!"
Pearl and Marina both leaned away. It wasn't like Eight to shout like that. Her amber eyes were wide and sparkling; her face flushed. She was high as a kite with joy. Marina, however, brought her down to Earth by placing her finger over her lips and quietly saying, "inside voice, Hachiko."
Eight blushed and shrank in her seat, embarrassed but still fidgeting with unspent energy. It was enough to make Pearl chuckle. Saying her real name was pretty much the equivalent of a parent using their child's first, middle, and last name, but less effort. Her excitement was understandable though; after over a month of getting basically nowhere, she was finally going on her first date.
"When are you going?" Pearl asked, calmly resuming her meal.
"Day after tomorrow; during the day." Eight's voice was still reverberating with excitement, even with an inside voice. Then she let out an excited squeal. "I cannot believe she asked me."
"I can't believe it either," Pearl said. "So, are you feeling prepared for it?"
Eight bit her lip, her excitement falling. "Well, not exactly. At least with her asking me, I do not have to take the lead. But even if I understand the theory of how to prepare for a date, I am unsure about actually going about it."
"You need an outfit," Marina agreed. "Probably nothing too flashy since I can't imagine Three would dress up much."
"Not in the way most people would expect, at least." Pearl grinned. "The day after tomorrow will probably be the last warm day before fall comes in hard, so you should wear something lighter than you normally would this time of year. An outfit that says, 'I wore this for you,' and that should get through even her thick head."
"She is not thick," Eight huffed, puffing her cheeks. "She is merely distracted and inexperienced in dating, as am I."
Pearl rolled her eyes and recalled some of The Wisdoms. Love is blind alright. "Whatever you say, Eight. Why don't you let us help you coordinate an outfit, make sure you go in all teeth bared. You want to make an impression on Three with this, really set yourself up to keep this relationship chugging along, and I think I have some hints as to Three's tastes."
Eight frowned. "You do? Just from ordering the outfit for that practical joke?"
Pearl grinned unashamedly at the memory. "Yeah, something like that. You just gotta' dress with a little attitude."
Eight's frown deepened and her tentacles twisted. "I do not understand."
Pearl waved her hand. "Don't worry about it. We'll help you."
Eight smiled and bowed her head. "Thank you."
Pearl shrugged. "Hey, we're family. That's what families do."
Eight nodded, her smile broadening. "Yes… family."
"Speaking of family," Marina began with a suggestive tone, causing Pearl's stomach to drop, "they texted me today, saying they would like us to visit and want to meet Hachiko."
Pearl groaned audibly, her mantle displaying blue with splotches of brown. "I'm busy. We've got the final splatfest coming up and-."
"We'll be busier after the splatfest starts," Marina interrupted. "And I already said we'd go."
Pearl gawked at her. "Why would you do that? What did I do? Whatever it is, I'm sorry, okay?"
Marina waved an admonishing finger at her. "You don't appreciate your family enough, Pearl. Besides, now that Hachiko has gotten used to the surface and since you are her legal guardian, it's about time she met your family. It would be very beneficial for her to learn first-hand about family dynamics, especially now that she's dating."
Pearl huffed. "It's not like she's getting bonded or married anytime soon."
"That's not the point." Marina's voice hardened and her gaze grew more intense. Pearl could see that Marina was not going to be swayed at this point.
"Fine," Pearl sighed and looked at Eight. "Sorry about this."
Eight frowned. "I do not understand. I am honored to have a chance to meet your family, that they want to meet me."
"Pearl's just being overdramatic," Marina said, and Pearl huffed. "They're actually very nice people and Jewel is one of the sweetest, most wonderful people I know."
Eight frowned. "Jewel?"
Pearl pulsed blue and leaned her head on her fist. "My mother."
Eight's eyes went wide, her tentacles flaring outwards in surprise. "Your mother? I'm going to meet your mother?"
"Well duh. She's probably the most eager to meet you and you can't really meet the family without meeting Mom. Anyway, that doesn't matter now, you need to focus on your date. Worry about anything else after. Right, Marina?"
Marina gave a nonchalant shrug that Pearl knew she did on purpose to annoy her.
One of these days, Pearl vowed.
"Is there something else I need besides my outfit?" Eight asked.
"A few things. What you need most is confidence. With that and the outfit we're gonna' pick for you, Three will be putty in your hands."
I'm so stupid. Why did I ask her out?
For the umpteenth time, Three groaned into her pillow. She lay on her stomach, face engulfed in what little fluff remained within the nearly threadbare pillowcase. It was practically flat now from years of use but at least she didn't have to worry about suffocating herself.
Perhaps it had been an act of desperation. Her uncertainty and guilt continued to plague her and was holding her back, not just in any kind of relationship with Eight, but in making any decision regarding her life's direction.
Three turned her head and looked at the flowchart she had made still sitting on her desk. There were more scribbles on it now, mostly highlighting progress or hindrances. She hadn't yet added today's results of actually asking Eight out. She wasn't sure if she could rightly call it a date. If things went badly, she might prefer not to.
Three faced back into her pillow and uttered a muffled cry. How disappointed would Eight be if she knew that she was so insecure? Her insecurity was something she was only now starting to identify and come to terms with, thanks to Callie's talk. But knowing she was going through something she thought she had gotten over years ago only added to the insecurities.
I'm such a hopeless mess.
She felt more like the person she had been before she had become Agent 3. A lonely, timid girl who lacked any life experiences, purpose, or self-worth.
Three clutched her head painfully. But I've changed since then. I've gotten stronger, I'm not afraid to talk to anyone anymore. That's a good thing, right?
She growled, her mantle turning burgundy with frustration. She felt like she was overthinking this.
She heard a knock and she flipped onto her back. Her iya stood in the doorway of her bedroom, a small bundle of clothes tucked under her arm.
"Everything alright, precious?"
Three pulsed blue. "Just an ordinary teenage crisis."
"Ah." Her iya nodded with understanding and stepped into the room, placing the clothes atop Three's dresser before sitting at the edge of the bed. "Identity crisis or love crisis?"
Three jerked, her mantle flashing to bright orange and then to a shocked yellow. How?
Her iya laughed. "You take a great deal after your mother, Cortina Dacia Scarletteri. With her, it was always one, the other, sometimes both at once."
Three shifted uncomfortably and then raised a cautious eyebrow as her mantle turned a deep earthy red. "So Mama went through this too?"
Her iya flashed green. "Most girls your age do. It's inevitable with the way life changes so quickly around that time. You're changing physically, your view of the world is changing, and your very way of life is changing, all at the same time. You can't grow up without changing, but changing so much in such a short amount of time can leave you a little lost."
Three pulsed green. "I don't really know who I really am anymore."
"I know." Her iya reached over and began gently rubbing Three's mantle. "Your mother said the same thing to me. It was around when we started dating.
"You see, your mother put on this tough exterior and liked projecting an image that she was supremely confident and not someone to be messed with. People like her don't like to appear vulnerable and when they feel vulnerable emotionally on a level stronger than they've ever felt before, that scares them."
"Like when Mama was eggnant with me?"
Her iya smiled. "Yes, something like that. It makes you question things about yourself. Makes you wonder who you really are, if you like the person you are. It was tough for Fulvia because she thought she had already gone through that when she left home. She thought she already knew who she was and what she wanted out of life. That was her teenage crisis; one of many, but certainly her biggest one."
"But you and Mama met years after that. What was Mama dealing with when you started dating?"
Her iya chuckled softly, her eyes growing soft and distant with nostalgia. "Well, I didn't exactly fit her image. She was a rebel, a tough, nail chewing road warrior. I was stocking shelves and working tills at a grocery store and I liked to read romance novels. She was worried about what people might say or think of her if she started dating someone like me, especially her rivals."
"Like Auntie Silvia?"
Her iya's mantle rippled with bright yellow and waves of blue. "Yes, like Silvia. The mountain queens were all about image and ego, your mother included. Somehow, and I'm still not sure why, she didn't refuse me, she just kept putting off giving me a real answer when I told her I really liked her."
Well at least I didn't make that mistake. Three thought, and silently thanked her father for whichever of his genes was responsible for that.
"So how did she end up figuring out she loved you back?"
Her iya grinned nefariously, an expression Three had seen on her only very rarely. She shifted into a sitting-up position, her mantle light orange with anticipation.
"I used a little reverse psychology on her. I saw that she was trying to turn me down gently, which hurt, until I realized that she couldn't bring herself to actually do it. Basically, I figured out that she actually liked me back, just that she was more worried about her image. So, I dumped her instead."
Three's eyes went wide and her mantle flared bright-orange in shock. "You what?"
"I stopped her mid sentence and told her to never mind. I said I was disappointed that she turned out not to actually be the person I thought I liked. I told her I liked her because I thought she was someone who followed her own road in life, blazing her own trail, a strong and capable leader. But, it turned out she was just a follower after all, too afraid of what others thought of her to risk hurting her delicate little image, a fraud."
Three grimaced. "I bet that made her mad."
Her iya laughed. "Furious. She grabbed me and yelled in my face that she wasn't worried about her image, that she really was as tough as I had thought, and that just to prove it, she would date me."
Three arched an eyebrow. "She fell for it that easily?"
"Ego tends to have an adverse effect on one's intellect and self-awareness."
"And what about Mama? Did she change after that? Did she really become that person?"
Her iya nodded. "And more. She had her flaws, especially as a girlfriend, but she worked hard to improve herself, which was pretty handy once we started looking for a mate." She chuckled. "Well I started looking. She was too nervous, but at least she admitted it that time."
She looked Three in the eye and lifted a finger. "'If you want to improve, you must be content to be thought foolish and stupid.' That's what The Wisdoms tell us and I know from experience that it's absolutely true. The Precursors left them for us for a reason."
Three flashed green. "So… you're saying that I'm having a crisis because what I really want is clashing with my ego?"
"Maybe. There's certainly a battle for dominance going on." She smiled. "Or, knowing you and your mother, you might just be shy."
Three's mantle flared again before cooling to a darker shade of orange. "Shy?" She couldn't hide the disbelief in her voice.
"Oh yes." Her iya rubbed her head. "You've always been shy and introverted, even as a little girl.
"You would do all kinds of dangerous things like climbing tall trees, doing stunts on the play structures, or riding your bike recklessly." She pulsed a darker blue. "Honestly, you took a few years off our lives with all those antics." Three grimaced and pulsed white with apology. "But, the moment some other kids came around, obviously attracted by your daring deeds, you'd hide behind one of us and look anywhere but at them."
Three pouted, her mantle rippling dark violet as she crossed her arms. Her iya pulsed grey unapologetically.
"That's why we were all so proud of you when you were finally able to sing on stage. Your mother was in tears."
Three let out a long breath, trying to let out the embarrassment she felt and then turned her mantle yellow with purple spots. So? What does that have to do with what we're talking about?
Her iya's smile turned into a mischievous grin. "Well, who is she?"
Three's mantle flashed neon orange and yellow spots appeared. Her iya giggled.
"Didn't I just tell you what I went through with your mother? What else could it be? Besides, girls that grow up in epeso families like ours tend to look for a bondmate before a mate."
Three buried her face in her hands. She couldn't believe it. How had she been so easy to read that her iya could have so easily gleaned so much information? Was she really that much of an open book? What else did she know that Three thought was still a secret? Did she know how many times she had lied? The thought made Three's stomach knot.
Her iya chuckled and gave her a gentle squeeze. "Honey, it was going to happen sooner or later. I'm just happy you found someone to be interested in."
"She confessed to me," Three argued. "I didn't ask for it."
"But you like her too, don't you?"
"I… don't know. I do like her but not really like that. At least not yet."
"Not yet?" Her iya laughed. "What does that mean?"
"It means that I think I want to like her but something gets in the way." Three couldn't stop the anger and irritation creeping into her voice and her mantle darkened to burgundy.
"What might that be?"
Three sighed audibly. She couldn't exactly tell her iya that she felt guilty for slaughtering hundreds of Eight's people and even trying to kill her at one point. Maybe there was another way she could spin it.
"I… never got along with her old shoal. She doesn't hang out with them anymore. She's good now, but… I cost her a lot of old friends."
"Ah, I see. Yes, that does happen sometimes. She must really like you then."
Three's cheeks darkened slightly. "Maybe, but I think she was trying to get out of that crowd before she met me. Even so, they're not bad people, per say, just… misguided."
Her iya pulsed blue, her smile turning bittersweet. "It doesn't matter, sweetheart. She obviously made a choice to leave, you didn't force her. I don't blame you for feeling bad, but you really shouldn't; you can't be held responsible for other people's choices. Maybe those friends weren't as close as you think they were. Maybe you actually gave her the way out she was looking for."
Three's mantle turned a deep blue as she contemplated. True, Three, Callie, and Marie had given a great many octolings the opportunity to get out of the Octarian army and try to leave the domes. Eight herself had also later helped in blazing that trail through the metro. Still, there was no way Eight could be happy about the fact that Three was still going about killing octolings. She wasn't sure how to communicate that to her iya in a way that didn't reveal her secret though.
Her iya shuffled closer and pulled Three into a sideways hug, nuzzling her affectionately. "If you really feel so bad about it, I think you should talk with her about it. Holding in things like that doesn't help a relationship, honey, it only makes things worse. If you want to form a relationship, you have to be able to trust each other, and you can't trust each other if you feel you can't talk to each other about things like this."
Trust, everything seemed to be coming down to trust, and bitingly, Three realized that the issue was on her end, not Eight's. The ball was in her court. Well, maybe by asking Eight on a date, she had knocked it back into play.
"We're going on our first date the day after tomorrow."
Three barely finished her sentence before her iya squealed like a teenager and gave her a tight squeeze. "Oh, baby girl, I'm so happy for you!"
Three wriggled and her gill slits flapped as she struggled to breathe. "Iya, the eggs, the eggs!"
"Oh, they're fine," she said, relaxing her grip and bringing one hand down to gently pat her abdomen. "They're happy too."
Three pouted, her mantle turning violet-red with indignation. "Is it that big a deal?"
"It is for you, my little wallflower. Oh, you've grown so much."
She gave Three another squeeze and then finally let her go.
"Do you have an outfit picked out? Where are you going?"
"Wahoo World, and yeah, I know what I'll be wearing. No, it won't be anything sloppy."
Her iya laughed. "Alright, alright, I won't pry further, but will I at least get to meet her?"
Three felt that twisting in her gut again. She was always worried about her family mixing with those from the other half of her double life - or even triple life, depending on how one looked at it. Still, if Eight did end up as her girlfriend then she would have to introduce her to her parents sooner or later.
"Maybe soon," Three replied. "I don't know. She's kinda' busy. It probably won't be before Splatfest ends."
"Ah," her iya flashed green. "I think I can understand that. I've seen the ads for that all over TV. So, what's her name?"
Three's mantle turned blue with brown splotches. "Hachiko."
"Hachiko? That's an unusual name. Pretty though."
Three found herself smiling. "I think she said the same about my name."
Her iya grinned. "Oho, did she now? And what's that smile for?"
Three flared orange and turned away, forcing a frown. "I'm not smiling."
"Oh yes you are." Her iya shifted and started tickling her face. "Yes you are, yes you are."
"Iya, stop."
"Not until you smile."
"N-no, stop!" But Three couldn't help herself as her iya started tickling her mercilessly. Within seconds, her giggles filled the upstairs.
Author's Notes:
The Wisdom that Purdie quotes is from Epictetus, a Greek philosopher. I thought it quite apt.
Chapter 10 is coming next and it's a doozy because it's going to be Eight and Three's first date. It's a long chapter and the one I've had to rewrite the most. I hope you all look forward to it.