If I had a nickel for every splatoon fanfic I wrote where the characters play mario kart together, I would have 2, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice...

Yesterday evening, Goggles invited Rider and Gloves over for a sleepover tomorrow night, which is now…now. Rider was running a bit late, and walked in on Goggles and Gloves playing Mario Kart, they looked like they were having tons of fun. The yellow-green inkling was obviously very jealous. "I'm here." he grumbled. "Hi Rider! Come play with us!" Goggles happily waved. He sat down and grabbed the third pro controller. Goggles exited out of the race and back to the title screen, then went into 3 player mode.

Random headcanon time! Goggles mains Daisy, Gloves mains Waluigi and Rider 100% mains Bowser.

"WE ARE NOT PLAYING ELECTRODROME!" shouted Rider. "Why not?" smirked Gloves. "Cause I always win on it?" Rider hated the green inkling's condescending smirk. "We should play on-" Goggles was cut off by the two storming into the kitchen, to talk privately. "Whoever wins gets to sleep with Goggles!" said Gloves, smiling confidently. "Okay, sounds easy enough." replied Rider, who didn't seem intimidated by his friend's challenge. They then ran back to their controllers.

"What was that all about?" asked Goggles. "We had to get the wifi password, it's written on your fridge right?" answered Gloves, covering up what actually happened. "It's there?" asked Goggles. "I-is it not?" asked Gloves nervously. "I don't even know my wifi password!" grinned the blue inkling, as if it's something to be proud of. Thinking Goggles isn't suspicious of anything, Rider and Gloves sighed in relief. Then the green inkling grabbed Goggles' controller and slammed the A button on electrodrome. "GLOVES YOU DUMBASS!" yelled Rider. "May the coolest squid win!" laughed the green squid.

"So, what did ya think of Headphones' big confession?" asked Goggles. "I helped!" he added as he hit Peach with a red shell. "Pretty cool, now I want to confess that I-" Rider slapped Gloves before he could finish confessing his love, mouthing a "Remember the challenge you idiot!" Goggles didn't notice anything, he was too focused on the race. As predicted, Gloves won. He was so far in 1st that he almost fell asleep waiting for the others to finish. "Cool! Now let's play-" Rider grabbed his hand to stop him from grabbing Goggles' controller. The two inklings of different shades of green looked at each other, and didn't realize that it turned into them staring at each other. "You guys are staring at each other!" laughed Goggles, who was picking snes rainbow road.

The two quickly looked away and pulled their hands back. Gloves was blushing, similar to the incident from yesterday. Rider didn't notice it, but he was blushing too. The second race began, and "the score" between them was 1 Gloves and 0 Rider. The two began the race with the biggest rocket starts possible. "Wow, we're getting competitive!" remarked Goggles, who didn't know about the challenge but enjoyed feeling the passion of the competition. On the third lap, the two green squids were neck and neck, but Rider knocked Gloves off of the track with a well-aimed green shell, giving him the victory. "We're even now." smirked Rider. "Not cool dude!" scoffed Gloves. "It's all about fun in the end though, right?" Goggles smiled. "Yeah." said the other two in unison, awkwardly. They knew Goggles was right, but both wanted to win a night in the blue squid's bed.

Rider's mind wandered to the controller incident from a few minutes ago. "I felt…like how I feel when I'm around Goggles…But why? Gloves is my biggest rival, I'd rather die than fall for him!...But…Saying that sounds harsh for some reason."

Gloves was thinking about the same thing. "COD DAMN IT, I BLUSHED OVER THAT JERK AGAIN! …Keep your cool Gloves, it's probably just…Just…Just what? What the heck WAS I feeling back there?"

"I win!" cheered Goggles. The two quickly realized they were spaced out, and rushed for 2nd and 3rd place. Gloves was better at Hyrule circuit than Rider, allowing him to get 2nd, which is a win as far as the challenge is concerned. It's now 2 Gloves and 1 Rider! The two glanced at each other, and quickly looked away when their eyes met. "I'll let you pick this one." said Gloves. "Wait! I WASN'T PAYING ATTENTION WHY DID I SAY THAT?!" Rider picked Bowser's Castle, of course he did. "You really want me to win." remarked the yellow-green inkling, which caused the flustered green squid to involuntarily blush.

"You're blushing." commented Goggles. "It's from the heat of the competition!" retorted Gloves. "I gotta win this! Forget about Rider, just keep cool!" he said to himself. Gloves, in fact, did not keep his cool. Rider smirked as he crossed the finish line in 1st place, and their "score" was now tied. "It's the deciding round!" exclaimed the two. "SHUT UP!" they shouted to each other, mad that "their line was copied." Goggles was confused. "Deciding round?" he asked. "What are we deciding?"

The two weren't sure how to answer, and they looked at each other expecting one of them to come up with something. "Are we deciding what movie to watch?" asked the blue inkling innocently. "Exactly." lied Rider. "It's either the Squid Sisters movie or the Pearlina one!" added Gloves. "Pearlina? Since when were you into sappy love st-" Gloves quickly covered Rider's mouth, and gave Goggles a reassuring smile. "Okay, let's decide the movie on rainbow road! The Nintendo 64 one!" announced the blue inkling, with a determined smile.

The two were being extra sweaty for the final round, sometimes they'd cover the other's eyes or poke them in the back to distract them. "Hey Rider!" Gloves exclaimed before he tackled him onto the floor. "Woah." Goggles commented in his head. In reality, this wasn't too out of the ordinary, they fought all the time, but the incident from yesterday changed the way a lot of people thought about it. "IDIOT!" shouted Rider. "That was my ultimate distraction technique!" winked the green inkling. "I'LL CRUSH YOU!" Rider yelled. "I'll dodge it!" shot back Gloves.

They were lost in a petty back and forth argument, and forgot about the race entirely. They didn't even hear the "I won!" from Goggles. The blue inkling turned off the game. "It's getting too toxic in here, so I'm turning it off!" he said. Gloves and Rider's eyes widened. "Carp! The race!" they both thought. "Which means I automatically win!" cheered Goggles. "Let's watch the Pearlina movie!" He began to look for the movie on the TV. "We'll…Get the popcorn." sighed Rider.

The two went back into the kitchen. "The hell do we do now?" asked the yellow-green squid angrily. "We let Goggles decide. We'll ask him after the movie" answered Gloves with confidence. "You're on." smirked Rider. They came back into the living room with popcorn. All three sat on the couch together, and the movie began. It's basically a dramatized version of how Off the Hook began dating, based on the story they told to journalists. Rider wrapped his arm around Goggles' shoulder. "Rider, what are you-" The blue inkling felt an arm pull him toward Gloves. "Yeah Rider, what are you doing?" he smirked. Rider shot back by pulling Goggles toward him, and then Gloves pulled him right back. It kept going back and forth, until Goggles went into squid form to slip off of the couch, causing the two to accidentally pull each other in.

"Sorry, I like my personal space!" laughed the blue inkling. "Guys?" he saw the two, both were blushing like mad, but neither were getting out of the position. "Hellooooo?" asked Goggles. "Are you sleeping?" he asked again. Both then realized Goggles was talking to them. "He's been acting REAL weird today!" laughed Gloves, pointing at Rider. "ME? LOOK AT YOU! You're blushing all over!" he shouted. "You are too, dummy!" shot back the green inkling. "Shut up!" scoffed Rider, blushing even more. Gloves took a picture of him and showed it to him. "You totally are!" he laughed. Rider did the exact same thing back. "You are too." he said. "Why are we even blushing anyway?" he asked. Both realized that they couldn't answer the question. The two sat next to each other in awkward silence for the next hour.

"Woah! They're kissing!" Goggles exclaimed, pointing at the TV, and breaking the tension. "It was so beautiful!" The blue inkling cried exaggerated tears. "Say Goggles," smirked Gloves. "Do you want someone who loves you that much?" asked the green inkling. "Of course!" smiled Goggles. "Shut up Gloves." groaned Rider. "Goggles, we were wondering if you wanted to sleep with one of us tonight." said Rider. "Uh, sure! Why not?" replied Goggles. "Well, who are you choosing?" Rider and Gloves were anxious to hear his answer. "Both of you!" Goggles answered. "You should all fit, so why should I choose?"

Goggles managed to outsmart them, not even knowing that he outsmarted anyone! The blue inkling seemed to have no suspicions about anything either, he seems oblivious! After getting ready for bed, Goggles jumped onto the huge bed he had. "Are you sure you want the both of us to sleep here?" asked Rider. "I'm not choosing and that's final!" answered Goggles, who seemed mildly annoyed by something. "Why are they so insistent on me choosing one over the other? I don't wanna exclude anyone!" he thought.

Both were thinking about how the night was going to go, feeling excited at first. But a scenario flew into Gloves' head. "What if I wake up in Rider's arms? Like one of those rivals to lovers stories?" he asked himself. The green inkling blushed a bit. "What a dumb thought, Goggles is gonna be in the middle anyway!" He then looked over at Rider, somewhat sad. "Cod, am I really starting to LIKE him? THIS ISN'T COOL! I'M GOGGLES' MAN!" Shortly after, the three went to bed.

Goggles, however, snuck into his kitchen to think. The past few days have made him think about a lot of things. He recalled things like Gloves and Rider's fight during the movie, and how if one asked him to do anything, the other would get mad. "Holy carp, they must be fighting over me!" he concluded. The blue inkling sighed, and called someone special to him on the phone. "Hey Hachi, sorry for calling you so late." he said. "It's fine, really! My team is having an all-nighter party. How are things?" answered the octoling.

"Um, I think both Rider and Gloves are in love with me." said Goggles. "I think that's why they've been so competitive lately."

"Well, who do you like?" replied Hachi.

"That's the thing! I don't like either of them, I like…" Goggles quickly stopped himself from revealing the person's name.

"You don't have to tell me." said Hachi. "I'm not an expert on this sort of thing, but I think you should tell them that you aren't interested."

"But I don't want to hurt their feelings!"

"It's difficult Goggles, but you have to tell them sooner or later. Besides, they'll find someone else. There's plenty of cephalopods in Inkopolis, right?"

"Right! I'll tell them tomorrow! See ya!"

"Wait! Goggles!" shouted Hachi.

"Yeah?" asked the inkling.

"I…was wondering if you wanted to get ice cream together. Maybe tomorrow after your friends leave?"

Goggles blushed. "I'd love to!"

The two hung up, and Goggles ran back to his room, and saw his friends…sleeping together. He didn't want to disturb the two, so he decided to sleep on the couch downstairs. Not too long after, Gloves began to toss and turn in his sleep. He wasn't having a nightmare, but his dream definitely wasn't an ideal one.

In the dream…

Gloves was standing in front of an ocean, the only thing in the water was a blue boat in the distance that was floating further away. Other than that, there was nothing there, except the ocean, the beach, and Gloves himself. "Hey." said a new voice, who put his hand on the green inkling's shoulder. "Rider?" asked Gloves. The other inkling, who was indeed Rider, nodded. Gloves blushed, and hastily kissed him on the lips. The two kissed each other passionately, as the wind picked up and carried a slew of rose petals in the air.

Gloves quickly woke up, his face completely burning. "I hate myself." he sighed. "Why him of all people? Even if I really am in love with Rider, he'd see me as weak if I told him! He's also in love with Goggles anyways, I thought I was too. I hope I still am, Goggles is a very cute squid who's always so nice to everyone…Rider's just a jerk…Right?" The green inkling was growing very frustrated with himself. Rider then woke up, planning to ask Gloves to stop breathing so loudly. The yellow-green inkling noticed that he seemed distressed. "Hey, what's wrong?" he asked sleepily. "R-rider…" mumbled Gloves. "What?" asked Rider in his usual grumpy tone.

"It's nothing." answered Gloves, obviously lying. "I've never seen you so anxious before." Rider commented. "I'm not anxious." replied Gloves. "But you are." said Rider. "I shouldn't care, but I do. What's bothering you?" he asked again. "Fine." sighed Gloves. "Rider, I had a dream where neither of us were dating Goggles, but we were instead dating…I can't say it, I t-think we should just go back to sleep!" Gloves didn't even notice that he had gotten up from sleeping in the other's arms, nor did he notice Goggles' absence.

"We were dating who?" asked Rider. "Rider, I don't want you to tell anyone about this." whispered Gloves. The green inkling then hugged him and fell asleep in his embrace. Usually something like this would piss Rider off, nor would Gloves do anything like this in the first place. But the yellow-green inkling was too tired to even move. "He's sort of cute…Kind of." thought Rider as he drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, the two woke up, and didn't say anything about last night. "WHERE'S GOGGLES?!" panicked the two. "I'M DOWN HERE!" answered the blue inkling, who sounded very happy. Goggles is definitely a morning person, after all. The two went downstairs, and there was no breakfast on the table. "I can't cook!" laughed Goggles. "I can." smiled Rider, who took some ingredients out of the fridge. A little while later, the table had the most delicious breakfast the other two inklings had ever seen. "I had a lotta fun last night!" smiled the blue inkling. "But don't get so angry over Mario Kart next time!" he added. Gloves and Rider just looked at each other awkwardly. They both wondered what last night meant.

To be continued!