The battle was on. All of us quickly backed away from each other, friendships didn't exist anymore. We were all out for blood, ready to destroy our loved ones for the winning prize.

Cassidy acted first, whipping up her gun and dashing over to Miles, nailing him straight in the face. He shook his head free of the water and then lunged after his sister, catching her in the back when she tried to run away. She yelped in surprise, then spotted Alyssa rushing towards her.

"'Lyssy! I thought we were friends!" She teased, running from my sister backwards, aiming her gun at the darker girl.

Alyssa cackled, "There are no friends in war!" She jumped towards Cassidy and shot her in the face, not before receiving a shot to hers as well. They both paused and wiped their faces off, before quickly backing from each other with distrust.

In the midst of watching them, I felt a squirt on the back of my head, the feeling slightly dulled due to my frizzy hair. I whipped around and spotted Miles with his gun pointed at me, a sly grin present on his face. Smirking, I pointed my gun right back at him, only to lose that smirk when he dived out of the way just in time. It was a one on one battle, I consistently shot at Miles and he consistently dodged my shots. The battle ended when I needed to pump my gun, Miles knowing that he had won. He grinned a wicked smile, and shot me in the face.

I backed away dramatically, arm draped over my head as I fell onto the grass ground, "How could this be?! I thought we were friends, Miles. Pals. Chums. Buddies. And you come and turn against me like this? How dare you, Mi-ACK!"

I was cut short when I was sprayed in the mouth by the little squid asshole. Tenta.

Agitated, I aggressively pumped my gun and held it up to Tenta. I lunged at him, eager to land a hit on the little asshole, but he easily dodged out of the way. I landed and looked around for him, and in the midst of my search I felt water spray into my ear and yelped. Spinning around, I saw Tenta laughing obnoxiously, gun pointed straight at me.

I kept attempting to land hits on the little dude, but time and time again he'd jump out of the way and attack me in return. I knew that this was all just a game, but over time I slowly started growing irritated that I couldn't land a hit on him, and soon I began targeting just him and him alone.

Tenta, however, was having the time of his life. Besides getting on my nerves, he would squirt Alyssa, Cassidy and Miles when they least expected it. The kid was nimble and agile, constantly attacking all of us over and over in quick succession due to his speed. They grew annoyed too, and quickly the battle went from a free for all to a four against one. Try as we might, we couldn't get the inkling. He would easily dodge one shot and the next, clearly we weren't a challenge to him.

I wheezed, my body had used up all the energy it had to attack the inkling, and now I had my hands on my knees and was hunched over. Then I fell to the ground below me. One by one I saw my friends collapse to the grass after me, except for Tenta, who was standing tall and above all of us with little to no fatigue. I don't recall him ever getting hit, actually. Fucker.

"Ladies and gentlemen," I wheezed, "We have a winner….Tenta."

Alyssa and Miles sighed in disappointment, while Cassidy whined and complained, "Okay, that wasn't fair! He's an inkling, he's used to battling when it comes to shooters!"

I put a hand on my face, wiping the sweat from my brow, "We never said that he couldn't play like a pro." Though we should've...

Cassidy sighed, "True…"

I slowly began to stand up, stretching my arms and making my way over to the pool, "I'm gonna cool off in the pool and then head inside," I then looked up at the thunderclouds hanging above, "Plus it's going to rain 'n thunder soon, so I don't think we should stay out here for much longer anyway."

Everyone looked up at the clouds and murmured their agreements, all of them joining me in the pool to cool off after the five minute battle. Except Tenta, who decided to just linger on the edge and dip his feet in.

We eventually cleaned up the pool toys and said our goodbyes to Cassidy and Miles, who left from the backyard gate, and headed inside. Terrell met up with us at the door, handing the three of us towels after he saw us coming inside from the sliding window.

"So, did you have fun?" He asked, ruffling my frizzy hair.

I nodded and looked back at Tenta, who had tightly wrapped the green towel he was given around himself, "Yeah, I had fun. Tenta had a blast and annihilated all of our asses. We had no chance for survival. He was too quick for us, we did our best and we hope you still think of us as your siblings."

Terrell chuckled, "Rest in peace, you two. Congrats on your win, Tenta," He congratulated, fondly patting the inkling on the back. He received a happy gurgling sound in reply, the inkling seeming proud.

Our older brother then looked at Alyssa and I, "You two should shower and wash your hair, both of your heads look like they're growing bushes."

Alyssa crossed her arms, "It's not like you looked any better when you had your hair long, Terrell."

Terrell shrugged his shoulders in amusement, "Heh, you're not wrong. Anyway, go clean up, all of you. I'll cook up some fish or something."

As soon as Tenta heard the word 'fish', his ears sprung up and he looked at Terrell straight in the eyes with hunger. His stomach growled shortly after, the three of us knowing now that the inkling was immensely hungry. Thinking about it now, I completely forgot to eat today, since I headed outside before I even thought of food entering my mouth.

Alyssa and I looked at each other and quickly dashed for the bathroom, the both of us competing for who gets to shower first. Tenta paid no mind to us and walked to the living room, picking up a relaxing Salt and holding her in his arms. She grew a tiny bit since he arrived, from being able to fit in his hand to being able to fit in his arms. Tenta didn't care what size she was, happily nuzzling the tiny kitten and stroking her soft, white fur as Alyssa and I shouted at each other while wrestling near the bathroom door.

After a while, the three of us were all freshened up. Tenta and I were in my room and on my bed, the inkling looking out the window as he ate the chocolate chip cookies he won and me on my laptop. He was nice enough to share a couple with me, though he still hogged the rest of them like a pig. I had taught him a couple of new words while we sat around, such as 'thunder' when the thunder rumbled and 'lightning' when Tenta saw the lightning strike something in the distance.

Tenta turned to me, crumbs decorating the border of his mouth. His pink tentacles were out of their usual ponytail, hanging by the sides of his head and swaying. He pointed to the window, which was now covered with little water droplets.

"Rain?"

I nodded, calmly listening to the rain patter against the roof of the house. Tenta looked back outside, watching the sky slowly darken as the clouds got thicker and the rain got harder. A flash of lightning startled him away from the window, and not far after a loud bang of thunder shook the house.

Tenta flinched at the noise and crawled along the bed over to where I was, peeking over my shoulder to spy on what I was doing.

"Mmm…"

I looked up from my laptop, "What? You need something?"

"Food? When food?"

I sighed, looking back at my laptop's screen and sending a meme to a friend of mine online, "Terrell's cooking fish, go down and watch him cook if you want, I don't care."

"Fish. Tenta eat fish," He murmured under his breath, moving his way off the bed and into the hallway. I shrugged before laughing at a picture my friend online sent back. It was goddamn Splat Tim.

Eventually I grew bored of my laptop and shut it, setting it down on the floor of my bed. A boom of thunder made me jump in my seat, but I quickly got over it. Sliding off my bed, I slowly walked in the hallway and went downstairs, before heading towards the kitchen.

"Tenta, I told you enough times already, you're not going to get this fish." I heard my brother say with slight agitation.

"Fish! Give fish. Hungry." No doubt that was Tenta, annoying my brother and demanding food.

"No, Tenta. If you ask me one more time, I'll only give you a single piece of fish instead of the three like I planned. Go play with Salt."

I walked in just in time to see Terrell silently begging for death to take him and Tenta staring up at him with demanding eyes. A cutting board laid on the counter with large pieces of raw fish strewn upon it, each of them were neatly cut up.

"Fish! Tenta hungry. Fish! Fiiiiish!" Tenta insisted, not backing down despite the threat thrown at him. I winced, knowing that when Terrell said a threat, he was serious about it.

I spoke up, "Tenta, leave Terrell alone. He's going to cook the fish and you'll be able to eat soon, so stop bugging him about it."

The inkling looked back at me with a pissed expression, before quickly nabbing three of the pieces of fish on the cutting board and dashing out of the kitchen. We both watched him dart out the kitchen door, the shock holding us still.

"Did he just…?" I heard Terrell whisper under his breath. Then he sighed, "Alright, fine then. If he wants to play that game, then so be it," he turned back to the stove, "William, please go try to talk some sense into him. When you grab your plate of food make sure you don't share any with Tenta. And make sure he sleeps in his room tonight instead of bunking with you, I know how he's been getting attached to you."

I awkwardly rubbed my neck, "Mmmkay. Do you want me to help you with anything?"

Terrell shook his head, "No no, just let me cook dinner. I'll call you when it's done."

"Okay."

Feeling a little guilty, I quietly stepped out of the kitchen and into the living room, where I spotted Tenta staring straight at me. His lime eyes followed my every move as I walked over to him.

"Terrell's pissed at you, I hope you know that."

He didn't say anything. The raw fish in his hands stunk a bit, but he didn't seem to care.

"He said that the fish in your hands is all you're getting tonight. Which means you're not going to get anything, because it's raw. He also said that you're sleeping in your own room tonight, whether you like it or not."

A flash of disappointment appeared in his eyes, going away as fast as it appeared. Grumbling something under his breath, he reached up a hand holding the fish and…

Shoved them all right into his mouth.

I stood there frozen for a moment, wondering what the absolute fuck this dude was thinking.

He chewed it up slowly and swallowed it, having the nerve to lick his lips. I gaped at the boy, before remembering that he was an inkling, a completely different species than us. Maybe they never lost their ability to eat raw food like we did?

"You...You know that the fish you just ate was raw, like I just said, right?" I uttered quietly.

Tenta nodded knowingly, "Yes."

"Alright, okay. Great, inklings are better than humans because they can eat raw shit. Wow. Great. You know what? I'm gonna ignore everything that has happened in the last five minutes. Follow me upstairs if you want, I couldn't care less."

I turned and made my way to the stairs, knowing that Tenta was following close behind like he usually did. We made it to my room, and a small meow confirmed that Salt had followed us up here.

We both sat and chilled in my room for a little while, the thunder getting louder and the lighting strikes brighter. Tenta was laying by my side with Salt in his arms, stroking the kitten quietly. I was tapping away on my laptop, having a conversation with a friend who had moved away to another state, when I noticed Pepper peeking in through the door. Salt wriggled out of Tenta's arms, made her way over to Pepper and left the room with her while quietly purring.

I heard Tenta shift on the bed, and suddenly I could feel him messing with my hair. He played with the loose strands in my messy bun, curling them around his fingers and watching them in awe.

"This?" He asked me, tangling my hair in his fingers.

"Hair." I replied quietly, before sitting up and spinning around on the bed. I felt my tangled hair tug against my head and winced in pain so I tugged it out of Tenta's hands and fixed it back up. I reached up a finger and poked one of Tenta's tentacles.

"Tentacle."

He looked up at me and cupped his tentacle in his hand, "Ten-tenta...Tentacle." A scowl spread on his face. The jig was up, I was done for.

"Will-ee name me tentacle?"

I put on a fake smile, "Uh, I think I heard Terrell call me so I think I'll be downstairs seeyoulater-"

Dashing out of the room, I sprinted down the hallway and stumbled down the stairs. Darting into the kitchen, I could see Terrell putting the cooked fish onto separate plates that had their own sides of veggies. Noticing my arrival, he turned to greet me.

"William! Nice to be here on time, I was going to call you and Alyssa down to grab your plates, but if you want can you please take Alyssa's plate to her room? Since you're going to head back upstairs, I'm assuming."

"Yeah, sure. Maybe shoving food in Alyssa's mouth will quiet her sarcastic attitude," I snickered, taking the plates in my hands and walking out of the kitchen with my older brother.

He gazed over at the plates in my hands, "Y'know, you could part-time as a waiter someday while you're looking for extra money. You have a great sense of balance."

I rolled my eyes, "As much as I'd like to work a job where the workers get shit from customers in return, I'll pass. I'd rather work as a professional dog walker."

Terrell shrugged, "You have a point, as fun as my old waiter job was, I'd really rather not go back to it. You could work at a place that has a good reputation of treating their waiters well, though."

"Like what?"

My older brother hummed, "You could work at a casual cafe, perhaps? Where the neighborhood people would come in and take one to go and you could have a decent chat as they wait."

I scoffed and stopped by the end of the staircase, "Talking to people is the last thing I want, but thanks for the suggestion."

My brother shrugged again as I made my way up the stairs, "You need to start somewhere, little bro."

I eventually made it to Alyssa's room, knocking on her door and quietly waiting for her to open up.

"Who goes there?" I heard her grumble in a mock guard voice.

"It's the big 'n badass dragon who's here to kill you and the queen," I played along, "Open up and I'll make your death a quick one."

Without hesitation, Alyssa opened the door and looked at the plates of food, "Seems smart of a 'big 'n badass' dragon who's only five feet and something tall to have two plates of food and yet threaten to eat me."

I shrugged, "True, but the more the merrier, am I right?"

Alyssa raised a brow, "You only say that saying when it comes to events regarding people, not food."

I grinned, "In this case, people are food, my food, and the event is a party in my stomach to celebrate getting digested."

"Give me my food and leave."

Snickering, I handed her a plate of food and watched her head to shut the door grumpily. Then she paused, looking directly at me in the eye with a confused expression.

"...Hm."

"What?"

She waved her hand in dismissal, "Thought I saw something, g'night."

I shrugged and walked to my room, shutting the door behind me with my foot once I was inside. Looking at the bed, I could see Tenta messing with my laptop. He was probably curious about it and wondering what was on it, but kept it shut to respect my privacy. He looked up at the sound of the door shutting, and immediately retracted his hands from the laptop. He looked like he was about to say something, but saw the food on my plate and halted.

He chirped something in his language, hopping off the bed and running straight to me, eyes never leaving the food on my plate.

I frowned, "You do know that I can't give you anymore food, right? Terrell said so."

Tenta murmured something, but kept his eyes glued to the plate. He then looked at me in the eyes, trying to pull a sad look and make me give him the food. I glared back and quickly walked around the inkling to the bed, not falling for his tricks. I could hear him give a sigh of disappointment, knowing that his plan had failed.

"Play the puppy-dog eye trick on me all you want, it's just gonna fail."

He gave me a look that seemed to ask how do you know?

"I have little baby cousins who use their cuteness to their advantage, I've hardened over the years." I climbed onto my bed and opened up my laptop, taking a bite of my food as I scrolled over messages I received in my short time gone.

"Oh…" He whispered under his breath, following in my footsteps and climbing back onto the bed with me. Tenta gazed at my laptop screen over my shoulder, trying to spy on what I type and look at up there.

"You do know that you can't read, right?" I asked him in amusement.

He hummed in return, eyes not leaving the screen. His ear twitched slightly, which I reluctantly admit that it was cute as hell, though it wouldn't get past me. He suddenly snapped up, pointing to something on the screen and shouting something in his gurgly voice.

"...What?" I asked, looking to where he pointed. I froze, realizing my mistake.

It was a picture of an inkling girl. A drawing, to be precise, of a friend's oc they drew themselves.

"..." I was unsure what to say that could decrease the pissed off level on Tenta's face, "...I'll give you all my food if you let me explain it later when you're more fluent in English."

...

I sighed in relief as Tenta gorged on my food, having dodged a huge bullet right there. The little asshole just discovered that we know of his species, and now he seemed a little wary of me.

Alyssa, Terrell and I all came together and agreed that we wouldn't mention anything about Splatoon to Tenta. We hid everything Splatoon related, the game case, the amiibos, posters and squid hats, everything. We didn't really know what would happen. Would he grow mad at us? Would he explode? Would a black hole appear? Well, seeing as only one of those occurred I can decide that we're not in any danger of something spontaneous happening.

Looking back at him, I could see the squid cleaning the plate with his tongue, pausing in his action when he noticed I was looking at him with amusement. He looked at me, then at the plate, then me again, then at the plate yet again. Then he shrugged, continuing to lick the plate and ignoring me in the process. I took the plate from him once I decided that the poor dish was getting harassed enough, setting it on the dresser where he'd have a slightly difficult time reaching it.

Grumbling softly under his breath, he flopped back on the bed and closed his eyes, content with the extra meal I provided him. I rolled my eyes and shut my laptop, putting it under my bed for it to charge into the morning.

A roll of thunder went through the house, the both of us being reminded of the storm outside the window. The lights flickered and I saw Tenta's eyes snap right up at the overhead light in the room. His gaze was fixed upon it before he looked straight at me, unnaturally silent.

We kept the staring contest up for a while until I eventually grew a little unnerved.

"You okay?"

Tenta jumped upright as if I woke him from a nap with an airhorn. He looked down at his twiddling fingers for a moment, muttering quietly to himself, before looking back up.

"Tenta no like storm."

I raised my brows, "You don't like the thunderstorm?"

He nodded his head in confirmation, "Sleep hard when storm. Storm bad. Scary? Scary."

I hummed, "Well, I'd offer you to sleep with me tonight but Terrell said that you needed to sleep in your own room tonight, and I already messed up one of the things he told me to do."

Tenta shook his head rapidly, "No, no! Please, Will-ee? Tenta sleep in Will-ee room."

Sighing, I reached over and picked up the inkling by the waist with an arm, who instantly began struggling. I quickly placed him outside my bedroom and grasped him by the shoulders.

"I can't be caught breaking Terrell's orders, okay? I fucked up one already and I'd really rather not fuck up another. Terrell seems like a nice guy, and he is, but he can be a very intimidating parent when it comes down to it. You and I would both get in deep, deep shit."

Tenta held his mouth in a straight line, his eyes blank. He gave a curt nod and turned around to head to the guest room, not looking back.

"Goodnight." I called after him, receiving a slammed shut door as a reply. Sighing, I turned around and walked back into my room to head to sleep. I shut the door behind me and locked it, lest Alyssa walk in and try to make me smack whipped cream all over my face yet again.

He'd be fine, probably just pissed that Terrell gave me those instructions in the first place.

Turning out the lights, I climbed in the bed and nestled myself into the covers. The pouring rain outside was pleasing to my ears, along with the thunder that shook the house occasionally. I let out a pleased sigh, letting my head slowly be swallowed by the pillow that sat under it.

I didn't know when the knocking started, but I was woken up by it and I was a little ticked off. I sat up in bed in exasperation, looking at my bedroom door, which was the source of the noise. I decided to wait a little while to see if the knocking would stop. Y'know, like a smart person.

It didn't. If anything, when the thunder clapped, it went faster and harder along with the occasional rapid fiddling with my doorknob. I groaned, swinging my legs over the edge of my bed and hopping to the cool carpet flooring of my room. Trudging my way over to the door, I fumbled with the door handle and unlocked it, turning the knob with a sleepy hand.

What would you know, it's Tenta.

The inkling walked in without so much as a 'hello', hastily striding into my room and hopping onto my bed. He proceeded to shove the bed's blankets over his head and mutter a quiet phrase.

"Goodnight."

Too tired to go against his shit, I pinched the bridge of my nose and climbed onto my bed as well. I sighed roughly through my nostrils and nestled my way back into the covers, closing my eyes and happily making my way to dreamtown with the thunderstorm to guide me.

...He's fucking crying isn't he.

…

A sniffle.

Of course he is.

I draped an arm over my face and sighed. Looking over at the lump next to me on the bed, I reached an arm over and pulled the blankets off his head. I could instantly see the tear tracks on his cheeks and his little runny nose. He looked up at me with his big and glossy lime eyes, probably scared he was going to be booted out.

My gaze softened at the sight and I sighed again, "Okay, come here," I slowly reached over and took one of his hands and tugged it to motivate him. It took a moment, but he eventually scooted over in the bed. I wrapped a protective arm around his form and pulled him a little closer, rubbing his back reassuringly.

"You're a terrified little shit, aren'tcha?" I murmured softly, moving my hand to stroke one of Tenta's ears softly. He didn't reply, but seemed to relax despite the storm outside the house.

"Makes me wonder why you're so scared in the first place. Are inklings naturally afraid of storms? Is that it?"

I didn't receive an answer. Instead, Tenta nuzzled his face into one of my pillows and yawned, too tired to stay up for much longer.

"Tenta want home."

"...Hm?" I was caught off guard when I heard his voice in the midst of the rain outside.

He slurred his words slightly as he started dozing off, "Tenta want home. F-friend home. Tenta want them. Friend...p-pos…possibly want me. I...I be gone long. Very long."

I sighed, wishing that he could speak to me more fluently, but I knew what he was trying to say.

"You miss them. Miss, not want," I explained to the dozing inkling, "You miss your friends, your home."

He nodded, "Tenta miss me friend, Will-ee. Tenta miss th-them..lots."

I hummed, not sure how to reply.

He took a breath in, "Storm not scare inklings. Storm make me scare. Tenta a-am scare of storm...Very s-sssorry."

I reached over and stroked his ear once more, "It's not your fault you're scared of storms, that's perfectly okay. We all have our phobias."

"Mmm..." He looked so tired. There was a glint in his drooping eyes, though, of happiness and trust. Is it normal for someone to be so trusting? An improvement from the crying mess he was earlier, at least.

That glint quickly went away however, as he was starting to fall under. He yawned and snuggled his face fully into the pillow, already fast asleep.

That left me time to sit and think.

All this time, Tenta probably was missing some important things back home. Does time here pass by differently than in the Splatoon universe? Does he have an apartment? Did he miss out on his rent? Are turf wars his only source of income? If he's the most powerful rank, how tough really is this kid? He may not respond great to storms, but he has resilience.

I looked over at the snoozing inkling. His tentacles were flopped along with his head on the pillow, glistening in the moonlight outside. His breathing had evened out, his mouth wide open with drool leaking out the side onto the pillow below. What a loser.

Huh, must've stopped raining, I eventually came to realize, glancing at the lone window in my room next to my bed. I sighed and closed my eyes, disappointed that the rain was over but glad that Tenta was able to fall asleep. I sat in silence and pondered over Tenta's predicament as the inkling snoozed next to me.

It must suck to be stuck somewhere where nothing is familiar to you. None of your friends or family there to help you out. Then again, couldn't he have tried to contact them on his phone? Wait, no, he'd have no service. His phone is for a service that doesn't even exist yet. I wonder what kind of apps he has on there, then again it's probably dead since he's been here so long. Is there a turf war app similar to our splatnet? Man, I wish I could just ask him without a goddamn language barrier.

My thoughts eventually trailed off as I dozed, and the night was calm.