Octavia's PoV
"C'mon, Inigo!" Via scolded. "Ya can't just sit around all day!"
Surrounding the indigo-haired boy's bed were Octavia and Bonnie, staring at his curled-up form resting on the bed sheets, his hair down and sitting on his shoulders. The glow of the phone screen shined on his face, his thumb tapping on the screen as he mindlessly scrolled through Squidsagram.
"Hello? Inigo?" Bonnie called. After he didn't answer, she started to wave her hand around in front of his face. In response, the fair-skinned boy turned away from her, a frustrated sigh hissing through his teeth. The blue-haired girl frowned and looked over at her friend. "I don't think he's gonna talk."
She raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"Remember when he broke up with Geneva?" she reminded her. "He was like this right after that happened."
"Except we didn't go visit him when he was sitting at home."
"Yeah. But there was less of a reason to do so at the time."
Via thinned her lips, putting a hand on her chin. "You got me there." She lowered her hand. "But at least he still texted us."
At that comment, Inigo finally sat up in his bed, rubbing his eyes. Dark circles were apparent under them, and the area around his armpits were damp with sweat, much to Octavia's disdain. The white t-shirt he wore was long—if he had been wearing shorts, it would be hard to tell that he was actually wearing them. The pajama pants he wore were marked with a bold red-and-green striped pattern. Now, his indigo eyes were narrow, glaring over at the two girls.
"Can you talk 'bout this somewhere else?" he grumbled.
Frowning, they looked at each other. Via leaned towards Bonnie and started to whisper in her ear, but it was quickly drowned out by the sound of a doorbell. Foregoing her discussion, she stood up straight again and walked towards the door.
"I'll get it," the bronze-skinned girl announced. Bonnie and Inigo nodded, and she exited the fair-skinned inkling's bedroom, proceeding to walk down the stairs and over to the front door. Contrasting his bedroom, the kitchen and living rooms were clean, save for a few empty bowls in the sink. She had the urge to clean them, but now wasn't the time to do so. She had to focus on handling whoever was at the door.
She opened it to find Roy, his arms crossed. A cool breeze brushed her skin, making her shiver a little bit. Nonetheless, she stared at him now, placing her hands on her hips.
"What took you so long?" she demanded. "You said you'd be here right after work!"
"I know, I know," he acknowledged, "but I got dragged into some stuff." He sighed. "I'm sorry. Just..." He met her eyes. "How's Inigo?"
"He's fine," she replied. "But he's just sitting 'round. Not really doing anything."
He smiled. "At least he's OK."
Octavia stepped out of the way, beckoning Roy inside. "Well, come in."
He lowered his arms and stepped inside the house. He took off his shoes and walked up the stairs, going straight to Inigo's room. The wavy-haired girl was quick to follow, wishing to rejoin her friends upstairs. When they entered the room, she noticed that Inigo had curled back up on his bed while Bonnie stood over him, her hands clasped together.
"Inigo!" Roy called. At his voice, the fair-skinned boy lifted his head. "You went silent on us! What happened?"
He lowered his phone, the screen eventually dimming. "Naomi..."
"Huh? Naomi?" Bonnie puzzled. "What about her?"
"She..." He brought his knees up to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. "...She broke up with me."
"Oh..." The blue-haired inkling closed her eyes, dipping her head. "I'm sorry."
"That explains it," Via remarked.
"When?" Roy then inquired.
"The day before Halloween," he answered. "Halloween got my mind off of it, but once that was over..." Inigo closed his eyes. "It crept into my mind again."
"So, in response, you're just gonna sit here?" the wavy-haired inkling challenged. "C'mon! That's not a way to handle things!"
"Well, that's what I did last time," he argued.
"Things are different now, aren't they?" she noted. "We're here."
Inigo didn't respond to that, instead grabbing a pillow and digging his face into it, covering his ears. The three other inklings present exchanged looks, in hopes that one of them would know what to do.
"Let's just leave him be," Bonnie suggested.
"Alright." Roy crossed his arms. "If you squids don't have any other ideas, let's go."
Octavia shrugged and followed the red-haired inkling out of the bedroom, with the blue-haired girl not too far behind her. They walked down the stairs, and Roy proceeded to walk over to the living room, plopping down on the couch. Via and Bon-Bon joined him on the couch, now staring at a dark TV screen. It quickly illuminated, however, as Roy grabbed the remote, turning it on. She didn't catch what channel it was on previously, as Roy was quick to change the channel, the screen now displaying live turf war footage. A match in New Albacore Hotel had just started, and Via leaned back into the cushions, ready to watch it. She didn't recognize anyone in the match, but nonetheless, she still observed it intently, absorbed in the battle. Green and pink ink flung between the two teams as each side reached the middle of the stage, the winning team currently unclear.
The first inkling to use their special was an almond-skinned girl holding a Splat Roller. She super-jumped to her teammate, a green circle lighting up around the two battling inklings. Their opponent, a tan-skinned boy with hair tied up in a ponytail, began to scramble away, nearly losing his grip on his N-ZAP '89 as he realized what was about to happen. However, he reacted a few moments too late, as he proceeded to splat as soon as the girl with the Splat Roller made the landing. Unfortunately for her and her teammate, a charger pierced through the two of them, the screen then panning to a dark-skinned girl holding a Custom E-liter 4K, perching from the top of a narrow wall. She smiled as she began to charge up the charger once more. She didn't seem to be very perceptive, however, as a Booyah Bomb hurled towards her moments later, only realizing it when it landed and began to expand, catching her up in its vortex and splatting her.
"This is intense!" Bonnie gasped.
"Just how I like it," Roy remarked, punching his fist into his other hand.
"I wish there were more weapons with Booyah Bomb," Via commented. "It's so fun!"
"Using our booyahs to power it... It's a brilliant concept!" the red-haired boy agreed.
"You think Inigo has popcorn?" the blue-haired girl then asked them.
"Probably," the orange-haired girl replied. "Maybe Inigo watches a bunch of movies when no one's home."
"Yeah, probably," Roy agreed.
"I'll go look," Bonnie announced, standing up. She walked over to the kitchen, and while she looked, Via returned her attention to the match broadcasting on the TV.
The camera currently focused on two inklings from the pink team not shown earlier, who were currently arguing with each other as they stood on the bridge leading to the central area. The music blasting over the footage made it hard to make out what they were saying, but she could probably assume what they were arguing about. An inkling girl with the Aerospray MG continued to point towards the enemy base, eyebrows furrowed as she insisted going over there. The second inkling, a girl holding the Gold Dynamo Roller, was clenching the handle of her weapon so tightly that her knuckles began to whiten. After the first girl finished speaking, she barked out a response. The boy with the N-ZAP '89 stopped behind them, watching them as they argued. After about ten seconds, the girl with the roller had enough of her arguing, proceeding to lift her roller, threatening to slam it down on her teammate. In a panic, the girl with the Aerospray MG turned into a squid, causing her to fall through the bridge, into the water. Via snickered at the sight, amused by the outcome.
She heard the microwave start to run, and she looked over at the kitchen, where Bonnie stood in front of it. A giant bowl lied on the counter, big enough to fit an entire bag of popcorn inside. She glanced over at the match, where the camera had panned over to a boy holding a Kensa Splattershot—the same person the girl with the Splat Roller had super-jumped too earlier. As soon as his spiky hair began to glow, he activated his special weapon, green Tenta Missile launches appearing at his sides. He locked onto a target and fired, green missiles soaring out of the launchers, into the sky. He discarded the launchers and resumed inking, covering up pink turf with green. The sounds of popping distracted her from the match, and she looked over to see her beige-skinned friend watching the microwave with wide eyes, fingers hovering over the control panel. Dipping her head, she began watching the TV again, the match starting to ramp up in intensity. The boy with the Kensa Splattershot and the boy with the N-ZAP '89 were battling once more. It seemed to be close, but a wave of pink ink rained down on the boy on the green team, splatting him. The camera panned over to the girl with the Gold Dynamo Roller, who proceeded to activate Ink Armor, hardened ink soon covering her entire body. Using the Ink Armor to their advantage, the pink team pushed further into the green team's base, putting the green team in danger.
The microwave stopped as soon as there was only one minute left in the match, prompting Now or Never to begin playing. She looked over at Bonnie once more, who took out the bag of popcorn and opened it, steam puffing out of the bag. She poured it into the bowl, filling it to the top. She tossed the empty bag into the trash and returned to the living room, placing the bowl of popcorn on Octavia's lap. Roy immediately reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn, stuffing it into his mouth. Some of it fell to the floor, promptly smashed as Roy moved his feet, leaving crumbs everywhere. Popping a few pieces of popcorn into her mouth herself, she continued watching the match. Now, the camera focused on an inkling she had not seen before in the match—a green-haired girl with the Kensa Splattershot Pro. She was charging up another Booyah Bomb, launching it towards the invading pink team. They scattered, but no one had splatted from the attack. As soon as she landed, the girl thinned her lips, tapping her foot on the ground. The girl with the Aerospray MG appeared around the bend, activating her own special weapon. As curling bombs neared her, the green-haired girl tried to super-jump back to the spawn point, but the bombs exploded before she could, splatting her.
When the clock reached twenty seconds left in the match, Via heard some footsteps coming from the stairs. She turned around to see Inigo walking down them, his hair now tied up like he usually had it.
"What's...?" He trailed off as his indigo eyes drifted over to the TV screen, causing Via to return her attention to it. The match proceeded to end with the almond-skinned girl performing Splashdown, green ink spreading around her before settling. The screen then changed to an overhead view of New Albacore Hotel as graphics of Judd and Li'l Judd appeared on the screen. They danced, and a few seconds later, Judd fell over, with Li'l Judd holding out a pink flag, marking the pink team as the winner. The screen then panned over to some inklings resembling those on the green team, down to their gear. Nametags hovered over them, but she didn't recognize any of the names. Statistics showed up a few seconds later. The girl with the Custom E-liter 4K had the most splats, while the girl with the Aerospray MG had used her special the most times.
Inigo walked in front of them and grabbed some popcorn from the bowl, stuffing it into his mouth. At his arrival, Roy looked up at him, smirking.
"So you finally got off your butt," he teased.
"No, I was wondering what was going on down here," he shot down his remark. "It was pretty noisy."
"Is the volume that high...?" Bonnie pondered, grabbing the remote out of Roy's hand to check it. "Geez, it is!"
"Why not sit down with us?" Via suggested. "We can watch more matches together!"
Inigo didn't respond, falling silent as he rubbed his shoulder, his expression unreadable. While she waited for someone to speak up, she began to wonder—was she too harsh on him? Ever since she got here, she had been badgering him to get out of his bed, even when he didn't want to. It wasn't until they started watching TV that he finally got out of his room, and now he had come down here to see what was happening.
But at the same time, she didn't want her friend to look like a shell of his former self, lying around all day, not accomplishing anything. That wasn't a way to live. Every day had something new to explore, something new to experience. Even if his behavior would eventually come to pass, days of inactivity still bothered her.
"...Alright," Inigo said at last, letting a sigh escape his lips. He sat down on the floor, just in front of Octavia. She lowered the big bowl, offering him popcorn, and he took a handful of it, beginning to eat it. The next match began, this one another turf war, though it was located in Humpback Pump Track. When kids began to emerge from the spawn point, she quickly recognized one of the people present—Peyton. Donning a poker face, she stared straight ahead, rather apathetic towards her teammates. The inklings on the other team then emerged from their spawn points, none of which Octavia recognized.
"Hey, Peyton's here," Bonnie commented as the match started. "I hope she wins."
"Yeah," Via agreed. "Go Peyton!"
"Y'know she can't hear you," Inigo pointed out, looking up at the wavy-haired girl.
"I know," she acknowledged, "but it's still fun."
The fair-skinned boy sighed, leaning up to grab another handful of popcorn. The battle continued to rage on, the four of them watching it from the comfort of home. Even Inigo had crawled out of his hiding space to join them, and with that, Octavia felt accomplished. Though it wasn't much, it was still a start. That was what mattered most.
A/N: This chapter is pretty short, isn't it? Either way, it is a rather heartwarming chapter, in my opinion. Maybe I should take Via's advice... But, each to their own. Fun fact: my original idea for this chapter was Octavia trying to look for love following the remarks in the Trick vs. Treat Splatfest. In the end, though, I went with this idea. I thought it was more fitting for the current circumstances. Anyways, if you have Animal Crossing New Horizons, I hope you're enjoying the new update! It's nice to see all the new things this update, and I'm thinking about buying the DLC, too. Home designing is not something I would normally play a game for, but it looks pretty calming! And Animal Crossing is a relaxing game in general. Well, that's all. Branchwing, out!