[A/N] Bleh, this took way longer than it should've. I'm a master procrastinator, so I can't guarantee a steady schedule (plus school, you know). I just haven't really been feeling much motivation lately.
This chapter has something that I've been planning for a REALLY long time (yeah, a month is a REALLY long time). Hopefully it turns out OK.
Tori's eyes opened lazily. She glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It read 12:45.
Alright, that seemed as good a time as any. She slowly sat up, stretched her arms out, and yawned.
Getting out of the bed, she opened the door, and walked into the living room, yawning again.
"Good morning," she heard. She looked up and saw Jake, a smirk on his face. He was in the kitchen, flipping something in a pan.
"Morning," she replied. She looked curiously at the pan. "Whatcha cooking?"
"Brunch," he replied. "I don't have the makings of a proper lunch and I figured you might be hungry, so I just decided on brunch. You like pancakes?"
"Pan… cakes?" she asked. "What are those?"
"You've never had pancakes?" he asked incredulously. When she nodded, he said "Boy, are you in for a treat. Not to toot my own horn, but my pancakes are number one in Inkopolis."
She chuckled. "Suuuuuuure they are."
"Hey, they'll be number one for you! You've got nothing to compare them to."
"Yeah, good point. Alright, bring on these number one pancakes of yours."
He flipped the pancakes one more time, then tossed them onto a plate and served them in front of Tori, with a fork and knife. She carefully sliced off a piece and took a bite. A smile instantly spread across her lips. "This is delicious!"
"I figured. But you know what'll make it even better?" He placed a bottle of syrup in front of her. She didn't hesitate; she immediately opened the bottle and started drizzling the pancakes with syrup. She quickly cut off a bigger piece and chomped on it. The smile grew wider. "This is the best food I've ever tasted!"
Jake grinned. "Glad you like it. Take as many as you want."
The pancakes didn't last long. Tori quickly devoured her stack as Jake quietly munched on his. Neither said much. When she was finished, Tori leaned back in her chair and let out a long sigh. "Where did you learn to cook like that?"
"Family recipe," he replied. "If you think those are good, though, you should try my mom's. I don't know how she does it, but they taste like heaven came down from the sky and flew into your mouth."
They sat in silence for a moment before Jake stood up.
"Alright," he said. "I'm gonna go to the plaza, and find a way back to Octo Valley. I won't be long."
She nodded, and he left.
{asterisks}
Jake wasn't lying about it not taking long. He knew of an entrance close to his apartment, and just needed to check up on it. You can never be too careful, he thought.
So of course, something was bound to go wrong. When he made it to the kettle, he was horrified to see that it was blocked off by a policeman. He walked up to him.
"Excuse me, officer," he asked. "What's going on here?"
The officer shook his head. "You kids oughta watch the news more often," he said in that age-old "what's this generation coming to" tone. Jake flinched.
"Last night, someone reported finding something in a back alley, so we checked it out. Turns out it was an Octoshot, and it wasn't a replica. It was the real deal." Jake cursed at himself silently. He should've taken the weapon with him. "Since we know there's an Octoling hiding out here, all routes to the valley have been blocked off. Wherever she is, we'll find her, and she'll be taken care of."
Dammit. That complicated things. "What if it wasn't her fault, though? Maybe she just came here by accident. It hardly seems fair to persecute her for something that she didn't do."
The cop's eyes narrowed. "What do you know, kid?"
"Oh, I don't know anything," Jake replied. "I'm just another of this hopeless generation of kids that needs to take more part in current events than in Turf Wars, sir."
The officer glowered at him. Jake stared back for a while, before saying "Well, this was fun, but I have a friend I need to get back to."
He started to walk back to his apartment.
{asterisks}
Tori was looking for a book to read when she heard Jake's keys in the lock. The door opened, and she heard his voice. "Tori? Where'd you go?"
She walked back to the living room. "I was looking for a book. Got anything interesting?"
"Depends on what you like reading. My books are organized by subject matter, though, so it shouldn't be hard to find one. They're all in my room." She started to walk there, but he interrupted her again. "Tori, can you come out here for a second?"
She walked back out again. "What's up? You found a way back, right?"
"Kind of," he said. "It'll be a few more days before you can go home, though."
"What? Why?" she asked.
"Well, when I went to check on the grate…" He related the encounter with the police officer.
"…and they're blocking off every route to the valley until they find you."
Tori suddenly felt very small. "I… I d-didn't come here to hurt anyone…"
"The cops don't know that. They think it's too much of a risk."
"How am I g-going to get home?"
"…I don't know yet," he replied truthfully. "But I'll find a way to get you back. I promise."
Tori felt a bit lightheaded, and started to sing to herself to calm down.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I'm not doing anything," she said.
"You were singing. Why were you singing?"
"It calms me down whenever I'm scared."
"Can you sing a bit louder for me?"
"Why?"
"You have a nice voice. And I want to hear the song."
She obliged, singing loud enough for him to hear.
"You/With me/The world/Reach out and give it/To me/You need to hear our song/Give in/To me/You need to hallelujah when I rule when I rule/And I fuel the melody you better kid!"
Jake was smiling as she sang. When she finished, he burst out laughing. Tori blushed. "S-stop laughing! I'm not that bad of a singer!"
"That's not what I'm laughing at," he replied. "Where'd you hear that song?"
"…I don't know," she said. "I just kind of… heard it… when I was younger… and I kind of memorized it. I just liked how it sounded."
Jake pulled his phone out of his pocket, tapped on it a couple of times, and plugged it in to a pair of speakers. A song started to play. "Sound familiar?"
Tori couldn't believe her ears. "That's the song! How did you guys get it?"
"That song is really old," he replied. "The version you're hearing right now is a more modern version by the Squid Sisters. Doesn't it make you just get up and dance?"
"Oh, I'm not really the dancing type."
"You're joking, right? Neither am I, but I still can't fight the urge when I hear this song!" To prove his point, he got up and started dancing, if you could call it that. He was just flailing his body around in the most ridiculous ways.
"You're terrible!" Tori laughed.
"What do I care?" Jake replied, still dancing. "No one else is here but you! C'mon, let's be terrible together!" He grabbed her hand and pulled her onto her feet. She couldn't help it; first, she started tapping her foot, then nodding her head, and soon enough, she was jumping around the same way as Jake, laughing the whole time. They held hands and spun in circles as the song hit the crescendo, and when it ended, they flopped on the couch, sweating and panting, with huge grins on their faces.
"That…" said Tori. "was awesome."
Jake's grin grew wider. "The show ain't over yet." He set his phone on shuffle, and the music started up again.
They listened to a few other bands, but kept returning to the Squid Sisters. Every single one of their songs made Tori want to jump around. Eventually, though, they got tired, and Jake tuned his phone into the last song; by the Sisters, of course. It was slower and not as upbeat as the others, but it was still really nice.
Jake pulled her closer to him, and they slow danced to the song. He wasn't any better at slow dancing, but Tori didn't care. They held hands, with her head on his chest and his on top of hers, eyes closed, smiles on their faces.
When the song ended, Jake unplugged his phone and yawned. "Man, I am beat. I gotta turn in."
"Not yet," Tori said. "We're all sweaty from the dancing. We both need a shower."
"Good point," he said. "How long do you take in the shower?"
She blew out a breath. "I dunno. Ten minutes?"
"I can be in and out in five," he said. "Sit tight. I'll probably just go straight to bed after, though."
She nodded, and he went into his room, grabbed some cleaner clothes, and disappeared into the bathroom. A couple of minutes later, he was out, and Tori got up to enter the bathroom.
"Hey, Tori?" he asked.
"What's up?"
"You don't have any other clothes, do you?"
"Nope, just the armour."
"Do you want me to wash it for you while you're in the shower?"
"Sure, just gimme a second." She entered the bathroom and closed the door. A couple of seconds later, the door opened, and she pushed the armour into the hallway with her foot. Jake scooped it up, put it into the washer, added a bit of detergent, and started it up.
The shower was still running when they finished, so he opened the door, wrapped the clothes in a towel, and placed them on the floor. Tori emerged from the bathroom a few moments later.
Jake had waited in the living room for her. When the door opened, he turned around and saw her.
"Okay, now I'm REALLY going to turn in," he said. "Good night."
"Night," she responded. He started to walk to his room.
"Jake?"
He turned around. "Yeah?"
"…Never mind, it's stupid."
"No, you can tell me. What's wrong?"
She looked into his eyes. "…Can I sleep with you tonight?"
He stared at her. "What for?"
"Well, you kinda gave me a scare earlier, when you were telling me about that policeman, and I'd feel safer if I…"
He nodded. "Yeah, of course you can. Whatever you need."
She smiled. "Thanks."
Tori followed him into his room, and climbed into the bed. She yawned, and fell asleep almost instantly.
On the other side of the bed, Jake was wide awake. He looked over at Tori's sleeping form. Seeing that she was calm, he fell asleep soon after.
[A/N] I think I can safely call this a romance now.
Boy, was this fun to write. The whole dance thing was what I had in mind for awhile.
The two songs that I mentioned, of course, were Calamari Inkantation [aka the Chorus of Calamari County], and Maritime Memory, playing during the second half of the final boss fight and the credits, respectively.
As for the lyrics, I'm not crazy enough to transcribe them myself, so I shamelessly stole them from PALogy. You'll be able to find him on YouTube.
Hands down, the hardest part about writing this story is one thing; I'm following another story with the same basic plot, Octo Colors by Bang Rowdyruff (in my favourites list if you want to read it). I've had a couple of ideas for this one that I can't really use because he used them first, and if I did it'd be plagiarism. But I think I'll be OK. I've still got a few more ideas.