A/N: There will be themes of suicide and death in this chapter, so thread with caution if you're not comfortable with that kind of stuff. Bumping the rating up because of that as well.
"It was bound to happen: first case of octoling discrimination on live TV"
"Team that hosted racist player loses sponsorships"
"Infamous discriminatory inkling loses battling privileges for life"
The headlines just kept getting worse and worse. Kama couldn't bear to look at them any longer, but he felt like he had to. Every time his finger grazed against the lock button on his phone, he faltered and continued browsing the news. Fen's soft hand touching his shoulder was what broke him out of the self-induced mental torture, but it did little to soothe his current mood. Wherever Sal was, he was probably feeling the same. But Kama's heart tightened, as he knew the boy didn't have anyone to lift up his spirits. Mainly because all of his friends and acquaintances were there with him at Pearl's mansion.
Off the Hook, the Squid Sisters, Captain Cuttlefish, the remaining members of Tailslap and an indefinitely large number of servants were gathered in the enormous living room. They were scattered across the mostly empty space, with Kama and Fen sitting down by a corner with their phones on their hands. Even though there were at least ten people in the room, they couldn't help but feel… Distant from each other. Isolated. Empty. He was missing.
Besides some shaky and cryptid sighting-like footage that a spectator of the event had taken, nobody knew where Sal had gone after that match. Even with the idols' extensive influence, they still couldn't find the inkling. His phone had been left at the Piranha Pit backstage along with his casual clothes and his agent communicator was on Tentakeel Outpost, so there was no way of tracking him. Even Marina's apparent knowledge of how to hack public security cameras was useless in this situation, since he was probably somewhere indoors or at least in private property. They had to rely on the police force, which was probably going to be at least a little hostile to Sal since he pretty much committed a discrimination crime.
And the press. There were at least two dozens, if not more reporters and journalists in front of Pearl's mansion. It seemed like not even heavy rain could deter those people from getting the latest news on the current trending topic of Inkopolis. They wanted to get an interview with Fen – the "victim" – to ask him questions they didn't really want answers for, shower him with fake sympathy, and further Nazu's shallow octoling integration project. Fen didn't hate the mainstream media as much as Sal and the idols did. Rather, he was avoiding it simply because he felt like he wasn't ready to answer those questions. He saw how quickly Sal's career went down by making one mistake on live TV, and he didn't want to destroy the boy's life even further by accidentally stumbling with his words or being manipulated into specific answers by hungry show hosts.
"Kama. You don't need to do this to yourself." Fen's voice was calming, but had a careful tone to it. He was as uncertain about the situation as Kama was. He was only sure that whatever thoughts were going on in the inkling's mind weren't so uplifting, and he wanted to cheer him up somehow.
"I just… Want to be able to do something." Kama sighed and locked his phone, putting it face down on the ground. "But I've probably done too much already. Telling Lin about the plan to put you in the other team was… The worst choice I've ever made. Actually, the plan was the worst choice I've ever made. I should have just… Talked to him after the tournament. Peacefully, like he said."
Fen looked away for a moment. He had something he wanted to say, but he didn't want to put even more strain on Kama's consciousness. However, after a painfully long minute, he couldn't contain himself anymore.
"Do you… Don't you think this is all my fault? I was the one who kissed you, after all."
Kama turned to face him. "What? No no, it's… I would have pushed you away if I didn't like it. I just…"
Kama let out another sigh, redirecting his gaze towards the ground. Damn it, now he was the one getting filled with questions. This couldn't get any more awkward… But he was going to make it so.
"…Did you mean it?" Kama stared at Fen's surprised expression with the best neutral expression he could muster, blue inky blood spreading across his cheeks. "The kiss. Did you mean it?"
"Um… Yes? I don't know…" Fen shrugged slightly. "I just… Felt like it was the right thing to do. I do… Like you a lot, but I'm not… Not sure if…"
Oh hell. He did mean it. As if this tangled polygon of misunderstandings and misfortunes needed another side to it.
"Did you mean it?"
"Yes." Kama answered almost immediately. "I mean… It was kinda sudden and all, but… I meant it. I've been… Kinda excited about this whole "enemies to friends" thing we had going on and… I don't know, I guess it turned romantic all of a sudden? I don't know when I started to see you like that, but… Sal has been kind of busy lately, and I guess I just needed a way to keep the loneliness away while he did his own stuff, and… I ended up kissing back."
Fen slowly nodded, cracking a small smile. "It's fine. Down there in Octopolis we… Rarely had time for friendships. Other people were either always teammates or competitors, so we couldn't really form any meaningful relationships. Spending so much time with you has been… Refreshing. It's making me feel things they made us think we'd never feel. I guess I just… Took into the first opportunity I had to get really close to someone."
Kama couldn't put himself in Fen's place, but he could at least sympathize with the octoling. "I get where you're coming from. After moving from Calamari County to Inkopolis I kinda just… Lost all the connections I had. So when I met Sal I kinda just super jumped into things. Luckily he didn't mind, and we've been dating for almost two years now. I wonder if we still are…"
Kama paused, looking down at his phone. He pressed the button, sighing at his lock screen. It was a picture of the two of them watching the new years' fireworks show, taken secretly by Kama's mother. The two of them were wearing traditional festival kimonos, which Kama thought were boring but Sal seemed to enjoy quite a lot – probably something he'd borrowed from Marie. He could swear he saw Sal smiling that night, even if his memory of that day was a bit hazy from all the eating he had done. Sal never smiled, so why would he do so at that moment? But… He just felt like it was something that happened. He might not remember the sight, but he definitely remembered the warmth of the moment.
"Do you… Think I'm a bad boyfriend? For letting all of this happen?" Kama asked after a while, looking back up at Fen's face. "I've made a lot of mistakes and… Well, developed a crush on you that quickly. I don't… Think that's how a good boyfriend is supposed to act… Or to feel."
"I… Think you did made some mistakes along the way." Fen tried to be careful with his words. "But we all do, right? And Sal… Well, didn't really speak with him a lot… But I can tell he still likes you. He said… Well, shouted a lot of things when he was angry, but I felt like he wasn't ready to let go of you just yet. I think he still has hope that you like him back."
"Huh? Really?" Kama blinked. "How do you know? Did you learn to interpret this kind of stuff in your advanced reconnaissance class?"
"No, I've just always been very observant with this kind of stuff." Fen chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Octolings can't usually directly say what they want to when in public, so you have to learn to write and read between the lines."
"Ah, I see." Kama chuckled back, glad the tension was slowly starting to get lifted. "Do you think we can manage to get this… Thing to work when Sal comes back? The three of us?"
Fen pondered, raising a hand to his chin. "I… think it's a little too soon to tell. And I don't know how he feels about me, and the whole polygamy thing in general since I don't know how common it is with inklings. But… I'm willing to give it a try. It's fine if it doesn't work out, I… Just want us to continue being friends."
Kama simply grinned, not really sure how to respond but at the same time feeling like he didn't need to. On the distance, a certain idol rolled her eyes and got up from her chair, waltzing towards the door.
"Ugh, I can't watch this anymore. I'm going to get lactose intolerance if I stay here any longer, you guys are so cheesy."
All the conversations suddenly stopped. Everyone turned to look at Marie making her way out, but Callie acted fast enough and grabbed a handful of her traditional kimono to make her stop even if just for a moment.
"Hey, where do you think you're going? It's like, almost midnight at this point!"
"I need a walk to clear my mind." Marie replied nonchalantly.
"Well, it's raining cats and dogs outside, you can't just walk out like that!" Callie found it funny how that idiom had persisted even with the extinction of dogs. Nobody really knew where it came from, but it was rumored to be of human origin.
"Oh, I can." Marie reached out for the umbrella rack next to the door, taking out hers. It had similar a similar pattern to her traditional parasol, but it obviously wasn't made of oil-paper. "Technology sure is amazing, isn't it?"
Callie rolled her eyes and let out a loud huff. "Ugh, I guess there's just no stopping you when you have your mind set onto something. Just be careful. And…"
She paused, walking towards her cousin and whispering in her ear. Her previously sassy tone of voice had been replaced by a concerned one. "Look, I've known you for my entire life and I'm sure you're just using this as an excuse to go look for agent 4. Just… Don't push yourself too much, alright? We all appreciate your help, but you have to understand that it's kinda unlikely that you'll find him since there's already professionals working on it. I don't want to discourage you, I… Just want you to know that it's alright if you're not able to find him."
Marie pursed her lips and nodded. She looked at the other people in the room – who were currently starring at the two cousins – and decided to say something to try and lower suspicion. "Gross, Callie. I don't want to hear about what you pretend to do with Pearl and Marina now that I won't be here to hold you back."
"T-that was supposed to be kept private, that's why I whispered!" Callie's stomping on the ground was an exaggeration to make the whole thing seem more believable, but the purple blush quickly consuming her face was pretty genuine. "Go away already, geez! And keep your mouth shut when you return!"
Marie waved and headed out of the door, opening her umbrella shortly after. The rain had been ever so slowly weakening, but it was still possible to feel the large raindrops hitting against her umbrella, trying to find a way to reach Marie but with no success. The folds of her kimono were starting to get soaked, and she flinched every time they lightly smacked her legs as she walked. Fortunately, she was wearing proper boots instead of the traditional sandals that usually completed the outfit, or else her feet would have been dissolved at the first puddle.
Because of the rain, the streets of Inkopolis were almost completely empty. The sight greatly resembled one of the abandoned human city ruins scattered across the globe, except with less skeletons and odd metal apparatuses. It made Marie's personal investigation a lot easier, since she didn't have to worry about fans recognizing her and tackling her in search of autographs. Although the umbrella limited her vertical field of view, she didn't have to look to know exactly what her next destination was.
Deca Tower wasn't open to the public on rainy days. After all, at least half of the stages had nothing to protect the players from the rain, so the administration decided to suspend the games all together when the weather wasn't favorable. There were a few exceptions, though, and luckily Marie was one of them.
"Access granted. Welcome inside, MARIE CUTTLEFISH." A robotic voice said before the doors to the building where opened. Marie put her turf war card back into her pocket and walked inside, the doors closing after she did.
She stared at the panel with all the floor options. Squinting, she closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the buttons before randomly pushing one of them. "WARNING: we have detected that your chosen destination, ROOF, is unprotected against the elements. Press the button again if you wish to proceed anyways, but be warned that the resulting events are not covered by Deca Corporation's insurance policy."
"Here goes nothing." She pressed the button again, and a set of doors opened at the end of the main lobby. Unlike the modern matchmaking rooms, this one was a simple elevator. Marie stepped inside and pressed the button to make the doors close before the elevator started to slowly ascend. It made a bit of noise, since the tech was older compared to the rest of the tower, but the whole building was kept under strict safety regulations so nothing bad happened to Marie in there.
After a minute or two, the elevator doors opened again, leading to an empty room with a reinforced steel door at the opposite side. Even though the rain was only moderately strong now, the sound of it hitting the ceiling was almost loud enough to drown out her steps. She made her way to the door and opened her umbrella before stepping out.
Marie didn't have a fear of heights, but her legs still wobbled as she noticed just how distant she currently was from the ground. Shaking her head to snap out of her trance, she looked around. Fortunately (or not), she didn't take long to find what they were all looking for.
Like most inklings, she had been taught of the three-minute rule as a kid. Water reacted in interesting ways with Inklings and Octolings. Total submersion was instantly fatal, and they had to mix all sorts of chemicals into the water to even make baths a thing. Ingesting water, on the other hand, was totally safe. Pretty much all animals on Earth still needed water to survive – and all that ink fluid had to come from somewhere anyways.
But rain was different. Unlike ink storms, they didn't prove to be immediately deadly. The maximum amount of time someone could stand under the water was three minutes, hence the name of the rule. At one minute, it stung. At two, the pain became numbness and the skin started to swell. At three, the ink from one's body would start leaking out of the skin. After three minutes had passed, the exposed body parts would start to rapidly liquefy and fall off in a gruesome way.
If she had to make a guess, Marie would say that Sal was two and a half minutes in.
"Funny seeing you here. You're not supposed to have administrator privileges. Did you super jump all the way over here without being detected? That's honestly impressive." Marie walked towards Sal, covering him with the umbrella as well.
Sal didn't speak or move. He was sitting next to the corner of the roof, hands gripping the guard rails – which were more like guard walls, since they were completely solid as to prevent anyone from accidentally falling off the building if they got too close to them in squid form. His gaze was fixed in an unknown point on the wall, but Marie could feel that he wasn't really looking at anything. He wasn't wearing the Tailslap uniform anymore, but instead a tank top and boxer shorts that he always wore underneath it.
"You're lucky I hit the right button on the first try, otherwise your boyfriend would be pretty mad at me."
"I don't have a boyfriend anymore." Sal spoke after a while, his voice as empty as his current state of mind. "I don't have anything."
"You have me." Marie twirled the umbrella around while she carefully thought about her words. "It's not much, but it's something you can hold onto while we get the rest of your stuff back."
Sal remained quiet.
"I never thought I'd have to see you like this again." Marie finally let out, sitting besides the other. The soaked floor made her backside ache a bit, but she knew she wouldn't be seriously injured from that. "It's been… What, four years? Since you promised me I wouldn't have to worry about you anymore."
"…"
"But that's fine. I've also broken my fair share of promises during these four years. Nobody's perfect, and that's okay. We just have to try a little harder every day so we grow into better people."
Sal turned to face Marie, raising an eyebrow.
"Gramps told me that one, yeah. Not something I'd usually say to one of my fans, but I feel like you're gonna take more out of this than the usual idol fantasy speech they make us say." Marie shrugged. She didn't know whether Sal was starting to cry or if the extra moisture was just being pushed out of his body, but she guessed it was a mixture of both.
"I'm… Sorry for making you come all the way here." Sal coughed, mostly as an excuse for his shaky voice. "I'm not even good at choosing a place to die by myself, am I? That's depressing."
"You picked up somewhere with a pretty good view of Inkopolis, though. But you're not going to be able to see anything if you stay down like that. Literally."
Marie slowly got up and offered her hand to Sal. He stared at it, looked away, but after what felt like an eternity he finally took it and got up as well. Marie was right, it was an absolutely gorgeous view now that Sal was actually focused on looking at it. The sea of concrete would be a bland view by itself, but all the stylized colorful buildings and the excessive illumination combined with the dimming sky made the city glow. Marie could see Pearl's absolutely massive mansion in the horizon, but she avoided looking directly at it. Maybe Callie and the others could see them up there now, but she trusted her cousin enough to know that she wouldn't disclose their location unless asked to.
"I can't do this alone." Marie was surprised to see Sal speaking up like that, but she was glad he was slowly recovering from the events on the day prior. "I… I did a lot of things wrong. Reacted in a way I shouldn't have just because I was jealous. And Instead of trying to immediately redeem myself, I tried the cheapest and most horrible path to escape my fate. I know you're a busy person, and that I can't be babysat by you forever. But… I really need help with this. I want to become a better person. For Kama… And even Fen, eventually. I want to change."
He paused. "Though it's not something I can do alone, not right now at least. I need someone to guide me, Marie. I need help fixing my life, finding something that's worth living for now that all my past options have been erased. Can you help me, Marie?"
Marie didn't answer vocally. She simply cracked a small smile and closed her eyes. The sound of the rain stopping answered him better than she ever could.
A/N: I probably won't be able to explore the beginning of Kama and Sal's relationship in this fic, but I'm starting to get ideas for a prequel fic! Would you guys be interested in that?
