A/N: The title of the song might not fight the chapter very well, but I've been wanting to make that the name of the final chapter ever since I started outlining the fic. It's a reference to an amazing song by Hikaru Utada (whose title does translate to two-hour vacation)!

This is the final chapter! More on that on the end notes.

Enjoy the chapter!


The rest of the night after that kiss had been a blast. Fen and Sally talked some more, shared their interests with each other, and stargazed in a comfortable silence. After all of that, the alarm that Sally had set on her phone finally rang. Fen was nice enough to walk her to the bus station, and she waved at him through the bus window as it slowly took off. She let herself slump back on the chair, closing her eyes and enjoying the warm feeling in her chest for a good five minutes before she realized she wasn't really "going back home".

Callie and Marie were initially not so pleased to have to pick up Sal at a creepy abandoned human gas station (what were those for anyways?) in a road in the middle of nowhere, but were very happy to find out the night had been a success. Sal gushed to them about his feelings all through the car trip, and even gave Marie a few more of his thoughts as she was styling his tentacles back to their previous shape in the apartment. The anesthetic probably made him share some way too personal details, but the Squid Sister didn't seem to mind. It was only after he woke up from his peaceful dreaming that he realized why Marie had a frown on her face the night prior.

Despite having a great night, his feelings infatuation and joy didn't last for long. The world still remembered what he had done – or at least Inkopolis did. The tinted windows of the car shielded him from the outside world from Coral Complex to the Inkopolis News Studio parking lot. But once he took a single step out in the open, it was like being hit by a slosh of cold ink.

An angry crowd emerged out of nowhere, and made sure Sal's few meters until the building entrance felt like an eternity spent in hell. Some booed, some tried throwing leftover food at him, and some simply stared in disdain. A plastic cup managed to hit one of his still sensitive tentacles, which made him flinch. Callie and Marie's bodyguards decided that was enough, and forcibly pushed him inside of the building so nothing worse could be thrown at him right before the show.

A show. That's what the whole ordeal was. It seemed like Marie had left out some important details once again. Sal was shoved into a backstage by an impatient jellyfish director and handed a contract and a pen. He didn't have much time to read its contents with said person yelling for him to hurry up every five seconds, but he managed to catch a glimpse of a few passages that made him realize the unfortunate truth about the event he was about to take part in. And he had no choice but to sign it without looking back.

Inklings, as one would expect, were never too fond of bureaucracy. "Basic" crimes like stealing, sexual harassment and even the rare murder and terrorism were punished by imprisonment followed by a rehabilitation period. Most of the people who went through this system turned out pretty well, in fact! The media also made a great deal of speaking well about those people to try and mend their broken reputation so they could fit back into society. It was easy, relatively quick and efficient. Crime rate had always been pretty low in Inkopolis anyways – save for during the euphoric and chaotic shopping frenzies of Sac Friday.

But for more complex crimes? Inklings simply could not dedicate enough brainpower for thinking about the adequate punishment for those. Sal was originally going to go through the regular imprisonment process, but the vagueness of his words and Marie's appeal made them reconsider. If there was truly more to this situation like the Squid Sister argued, then they couldn't just treat Sal like a regular criminal. But then, what to do? The solution the justice officials had found for these sorts of occurrences was rather simple and sounded really stupid in practice.

But what a better way of solving a moral conundrum than with a Splatfest, right?

Sal was given little time to change into the black and white striped uniform that all culprits wore during these ceremonies. A quick Beloogle searched before turning off his phone showed that this was apparently a traditional prison uniform in human culture. Cheesy, but none of the inklings new that. It just looked bad enough so that the culprit was immediately negatively recognized.

After climbing some stairs and walking past numerous offices and control rooms, Sal and the rest of the staff arrived at the studio. It was much like a theater, with a wooden stage behind red silky curtains. A particularly uncomfortable red stool stood right in the middle of the stage, and Sal was told to sit there, change his ink color to gray and try to always look at the camera. Two x's made of tape – one black, one white – were positioned in opposite ends of the stage to symbolize where the "attorneys" should stand. The responsible entity from the Inkopolis Justice Department, Mazu (who was "coincidentally" President Nazu's son) was already sitting by the Judge's Bench with the characteristic stupid grinning lips and dead-looking googly eyes staring forward. Besides the bench were two luxurious looking seats for additional people to sit on – usually the victims or the culprit's family (if any were left, depending of the crime).

Both of those were going to have a negative impact on Sal's mind if they arrived at that moment, so he casually ignored their existence.

Outside of the stage were a multitude of cameras that would capture the "trial" from a multitude of different angles, and a big flat screen showing a live feed of both Inkopolis Square and Plaza. Sal's heart tightened as he saw there were already hundreds, if not thousands of Inklings and Octolings waiting eagerly for the show to begin.

A smaller screen was positioned under it, showing what was currently on air – nothing currently, but he would be able to see himself from it when the show started. There were also two teleprompters on the wall, one for each of the hosts to read from.

He couldn't help but try to look for Kama and Fen in the audience, but he knew it was a fruitless effort. Knowing Fen, he would probably be watching it from the comfort of his… Pearl's home if he has the chance to do so. How amazing that just one night gave Sal more insight into Fen's life and personality than Kama did in a few months.

But this wasn't the time to be salty. Regardless of whether or not the population of Inkopolis pleaded him guilty, he was going to work to become a better person. Filtering his thoughts was a simple (though not easy) enough starting point.

Sal had about ten minutes to do that, before one of the staff members gave the cue that the show was about to start. Sal's eyes shot up from his lap and focused onto a random point in the red curtains where he estimated the camera would be pointing at. The lighting was reorganized, the horrendously unfitting waiting music was turned off and everything stood completely still and quiet for about a second. Two sets of steps could be heard coming from opposite sides of the stage in front of the curtain. These sorts of things were usually presented by the current hosts of Inkopolis News, so Sal had a guess as to who they belonged to.

"Y'all know what time it is!" Pearl's high-pitched voice chimed, making the audience on the other side of the screen cheer.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE – this time, from Studio 5!" More cheers erupted as Marina spoke. Even though she lost most of the Splatfests so far, she was still a fan favorite.

"Yo, Marina? What's with these fancy outfits we got? Something special going on here today?"

"Of course, Pearlie! There is a very special event going to occur today, remember?"

"Oh, I do now! Look's like someone's been naughty again, cause it's Thrilling Trial time!"

The cheers erupted once more as the curtains were raised, and they immediately stopped as Sal's whole body got within the cameras view. This was a normal occurrence – after all, it wasn't a good idea to cheer for someone who might be a criminal – but it still made Sal's anxiety skyrocket. He could now see Pearl and Marina, who were wearing fancily tailored suits – black for Pearl, white for Marina. They each stood over the tape x's that matched their suit's color and did the Off the Hook pose.

"So who's this guy anyways? He looks fairly normal to me." Pearl turned to face Sal. "Did you murder someone? I'm not afraid of you, so we can settle this right now if that's a yes!"

Sal kept his best neutral face on and continued to stare at the camera. The staff were very clear when telling Sal he wasn't supposed to say anything at all, and so he remained quiet. He wasn't sure what Pearl and Marina's actual position on the whole situation was, but onstage they were just acting as they were told to.

"Calm down Pearlie, you're supposed to be on his side!" Marina gasped, then cleared her throat. "I suppose everyone is just as confused as you, as it has been quite some time since the last one of these happened. But before reviewing the rules, why don't we take a look at just what situation this guy got into?"

As Marina finished saying that, a monitor descended from the ceiling and right in front of Sal, covering him entirely. He obviously couldn't see what was being streamed on it, but he was indeed able to hear it. The sound of him throwing his weapon against the wall, his tantrum, his escape, Kama's sobs. Scenes that were starting to feel like vague memories returned to Sal's mind at full force. When the footage ended and the monitor went back up, Sal couldn't look directly at the camera anymore, instead focusing on the ground. He knew their expressions were far from happy.

"Well, what do you think, Pearl?"

"You know… I originally didn't like the guy, but Acrodolphins kinda broke the rules, didn't they? And the ranked committee decided not to punish the guy who replaced Boto in the match, so Sal's reaction is justified."

"But Pearl, don't you think he shouldn't have reacted like that? He could have damaged both his weapon and the wall!"

"Pfft, Sheldon makes weapons sturdier than that. And the place whole place was a mine before being turned into a stage, so the walls are solid rock. If he really did break the wall, then we'd have a much worse issue on our hands. And everyone gets emotional after a game as intense as that!"

"That is right," Marina took a staged pause, "But what about the people he hurt? He even made an inkling cry!"

"I mean… that's his fault for being sensitive. If just a little yelling makes you cry, then you don't deserve to be in X rank!"

"Indeed, but the inkling didn't play ranked regularly! According to some reports, he was just there to cheer Sal up!"

"Hm… That's kinda jerkish, yeah… But he didn't break any rules!"

"That's where you're wrong, Pearl. As you can see in the video, he actually shouted something quite mean at the octoling that was there with him. Xenophobia is, in fact, against the ranked rules, as well as against the law! And with the surge of new octolings coming to Inkopolis as of late… this is definitely not a good first impression of us!"

"You've got a point… But I do too! How are we gonna decide what to do now, Marina?"

"I guess now is a good time to take a look at our rules!" Marina took a few steps forward so she'd be right beside the monitor that descended again. "Justice is not something we can do alone, and that's why we need help from you guys watching us right now! In the following minutes, the Splatfest tee booths will be activated. You have the option to pick a side – innocent or guilty – and fight for your opinion in the good old-fashioned way! It will only last half a day as opposed to the regular 24-hour Splatfests, since this needs to be sorted out as soon as possible. The Splatfest will last from 10:00 AM until 10:00 PM, and the results will be delivered shortly after."

Once Marina had finished reading her part of the script from the teleprompter, it was Pearl's time to step forward. "Whatever team wins gets to have their wish fulfilled. Do you think Sal was unjustly accused? Or do you want this naughty boy to get the punishment he deserves? Make sure to let us know in five…four… three… two… one… Now!"

The monitor was raised for the last time, and now Sal could see the lines forming in front of the various Splatfest tee booths scattered across Inkopolis. Pearl and Marina kept their pose until the program went off air, then let out sighs – not of relief, it seemed. They turned towards each other and muttered some things, before finally starting to walk towards Sal. Though he would never know what they intended to tell him, as he was quickly escorted by a small group of security guards to somewhere else in the facility.

Sal let his husk of a body trail along with them. He was shocked, horrified. None of the details involving the situation were given out to the public. Heck, the trail announcement lasted less than twenty minutes. Some people wouldn't even know what was going on unless they dug for it on the internet. Some people would probably end up choosing whichever side their favorite idol was supporting. Pearl represent the "Team Innocent", and her side usually did end up winning most Splatfests, but Sal was far from relaxed. Even though the idea of the whole population voting about something together seemed nice on paper, the thought of an under-informed population deciding the next two to five years of his life made it clear that the system was more than flawed.

Sal wanted something else to happen. He was honestly kind of expecting Kama to burst into the studio, fight his way to the stage and explain everything in front of the cameras. He'd grab Sal's hand, and the two of them would escape and live their life somewhere else. Maybe Fen would join in too. The three of them, in a distant land, enjoying each other's company. Sal would be skeptical at first, since the urban lifestyle and turfing was what he was the best at and enjoyed the most, but the other two would convince him with words and kisses.

But that wasn't what happened, was it? Sal revisited the scenario multiple times in his head, and each time he did it sound less and less realistic. He should be "smart one" of the group. His life wasn't a love story. It fit more in the drama genre as it was now. Maybe he could sell books about a fiction-heavy version of what happened ever since Fen arrived. "Octodrama" sounded like a good enough title for him.

Sal was about to start thinking about his future author pseudonym when reality slapped him in the face once again. One of the guards – a muscular sea angel that could probably snap his spine in half with ease if he had one – said a few words that didn't quite register in his head. He was then shoved into a room, and locked in there from the outside.

There were three rooms in total. The room he was currently at had a multitude of plushies, pillows and other soft things he could use to sleep better. The one to the left had a TV and a computer with limited internet access but with a variety of movies, games and songs. The one to the right was almost completely made out of inkable materials, and there was a Splattershot Jr and an ink tank on the ground.

Was that some sort of… therapy room? Either that, or it was some sort of room where parent left their young children while they were working in the building. Sal was a tiny bit offended they were keeping him in a place clearly meant for children, but he could use a good rest. After all, he had only twelve hours until the trial results were released. He didn't know what jail was like, but he definitely knew he wouldn't have access to Inkpath Traveler there.

It started out nice enough. Blasting Off the Hook songs while he grinded in an RPG was something he'd never expect to do while in captivity, but it was fun enough to keep him distracted for a few hours. The guards had also brought food for him as well! Sal didn't enjoy Crust Bucket food as much as Kama did, but he wasn't opposed to it – even after feeling every single artery in his body being clogged after just one bite.

Sal had gone through the whole media library they had to offer, but the Squid Sisters themed analog clock on the main room wall showed that only four hours had passed. Painting the small blank room with the Splattershot Jr was fun at first, but there was no way to clean the ink and start again. And in a closed space like that, the ink-decomposing bacteria would take at least six hours to completely clean that mess.

Finally, he resorted to sleeping. Hugging as many plushies as he could, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. But every time he looked at the clock, only five or ten minutes passed even though it felt like a whole hour had gone by. Sal felt like screaming, but he didn't know if the camera pointed right at him also recorded sounds. He felt like he had gone through the five stages of grief a hundred times and in multiple different orders before the door opened again.

"Sal? Are you asleep?" Kama asked, tiptoeing into the room. The door was the slammed and locked shut behind him, nullifying his efforts.

"Can't do it with the lights on, can't find the switches." Sal sat up, fetching his glasses on top of a big squid-form Marie plushie and putting them on. "How did you get here?"

"Got invited. I was thinking of grabbing my dualies and helping you break out of this place by force, but they actually asked me to come here. Didn't want it to be so late, but I'll take whatever I can get to see my boyfriend."

Maybe "Octodrama" wasn't so far from being a reality after all.

Sal quickly glanced up at the clock. 8:07 PM. Roughly two hours left until the results came. "Come sit here. We need to have the talk."

"I was thinking about that, yeah." Kama smiled and threw himself into the plushie ocean. He was unfortunate enough to hit the bare floor, but he didn't seem to be injured. He grabbed a zapfish plushie and put it on his lap. "So…"

Both of them remained in silence for a while. Sal was the first one to speak up. "…I must admit, I also forgot the specifics of our talk. Things have been going on a lot differently than expected."

"That's fine. That's what chat logs are for! Second best thing ever invented, after Squid Beats 2 of course."

Kama paused, picking up his phone and looking at the conversation they had the day prior. His smile slowly morphed into a frown as he scrolled up and down through the chat. "Well… We agreed to discuss this later yesterday… and today is later, so… do you think I deserve being forgotten?"

"Of course." Sal didn't skip a beat, keeping his neutral and serious expression. Kama had lived with him long enough to know that meant he was thinking carefully about his words as he spoke. "You did a… no, multiple bad things. But I know you didn't mean to. I understand you sometimes have trouble with your words."

"Man, you're too kind." Kama let out a nervous chuckle. "Are you sure you're not like… not even a little angry at me?"

"Of course I am angry. I'm angry my whole career just got possibly ruined just because there was a small misunderstanding that could have been avoided if our communication had been just a little more transparent. You broke my trust – and my glasses." Sal looked up at Kama and gave him a warm smile. "But that's alright. I made mistakes too. We all make mistakes. Even though we probably won't look at each other the same way for a while, I still love you. You're a good person, you just got thrown into a situation you weren't prepared to handle. Neither of us were."

"Yeah… I was a jerk to you. And… you know, thinking is not my strong suit. I thought the idea of having Fen replace Boto was genius at the time. I thought you were gonna be all like, "oh man Fen's so good! I'm gonna start liking him now because he's interested in ranked and so am I!" or something like that. Not even I know what I was planning when I look back at it."

Kama sniffled, a faint red-tinted tear rolling down his cheeks. "After you ran out of the backstage, I just… I felt terrible. I thought you'd never want to even hear my name ever again. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around… well, you. You've been so nice to me even after I did something terrible to you, and… and I don't know if I deserve all of this, man."

"Of course I'm being nice, because I know you can do better than this." Sal paused for a moment. "I don't mean that in a bad way. What I'm saying is… you probably remember how insufferable I was when we first met. Yet stuck with me and… believed in me, and I wouldn't have turned into the person I am today if it wasn't for you. And now it's the time for me to repay the favor. I want to help you improve, so none of this ever happens again. I want to help you improve because you deserve to have a good life. I know just shooting speech after speech won't automatically make your self-consciousness issues go away, but… I will do whatever I can to help you be strong enough to fight them on your own."

"I guess so." Kama finally smiled again, placing his hands on his lap. He was tearing up quicker than before, but his body language told Sal he was feeling much better than before. "I… I also feel I don't listen to you a lot. That's not something I can fix right away, but... if there's something you have to tell me, the time is now. I don't want there to be anything we regret not saying, in case you end up going to jail for a while."

Sal thought for a moment. Was there something he needed to say? It felt like they had traded all the necessary words. Apologies were made, promises were set, and their relationship was going to naturally heal as time went on. After all of this ended, they could finally be together. Him, Kama, and…

Oh right. Fen.

"I… actually do have something to tell you. Regarding Fen." Sal cleared his throat. He was pretty embarrassed to say that, but he had to. He was going to improve as well, and the first step for that was not holding back important information that might hurt the other. That's what started the whole incident, after all.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot! Fen is doing some turfing on your team. I wanted to be there as well, but… I didn't know if we'd have another opportunity to talk so soon, so I came here." Kama explained. "But yeah, what do you wanna tell me?"

"Well, you see… during the past week, I have… I haven't been my usual self. And I met Fen when I went out of the apartment, and one thing led to another, and… I'm s–"

"Oh, you mean the kiss thing? Fen told me about that"

Sal froze in place. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, he told me he found you in disguise and wanted to take the opportunity to know you better." Kama shrugged. "In fact, I was actually the one who suggested him to kiss you! Y'know, so we'd be even."

"He knew that was me?"

"Yup. He said something about you smelling the same or something like that. Guess that's the kind of thing you learn in advanced reconnaissance class, I'm guessing."

Sal didn't speak for a long, long while. Kama was starting to get worried that he had made yet another relationship-ruining mistake, but then suddenly Sal burst into laughter. Kama did the same, although more awkwardly.

"You… you're the stinky one, you dumbass…" Sal managed to say, wiping the tears off his own face. "Well, congratulations. One of your questionable ideas actually worked. Though, does that mean we…?"

"I dunno. That was actually something I wanted to discuss with you, but I didn't know how chill you were with Fen until last night. I'd be up to it, the three of us." Kama reached for Sal's hands, intertwining their fingers together. "But that's your choice, dude. I don't want to make you even more uncomfortable than you already are."

"I… actually think this is a nice idea. You, me and Fen… and maybe even Sally, she was a good coping mechanism throughout all of this. I guess we could give it a try."

"It's set then! Oh man, you're going to have to buy a bigger bed for your apartment." Kama chuckled, releasing Sal's hands and looking around the room. "But I was being serious about the uncomfortable thing. Something about this room is giving me the creeps…"

"Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't have the amount of stuff necessary to keep me distracted for twelve hours." Sal rubbed his eyelids. "I'm tired. Not just physically, but… I just want all of this to be over already."

"That's fine. How about we take a nap together?" Kama smiled, laying down and using one of the plushies as a pillow. "Our last nap as Sal and Kama. Regardless of the Trial results, when we wake up, we'll be… well, still Sal and Kama, but we're going to try harder."

"Right. We're going to try harder." Sal put his glasses far away from him and laid down as well. He laid on his back, then turned around so he was facing Kama. He then leaned forward and pressed his lips against his boyfriend's, staying in that position for as long as their lungs allowed. "Sleep well, hero."

The two then proceeded to drift off into a peaceful sleep. Fen, who had been overhearing the conversation for about five minutes, finally entered the room. His mind was filled with ease as he saw his two new boyfriends sleeping peacefully together. He watched them quietly for a few more minutes, and then decided to join. He laid down and slowly crawled in between them. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but after a feel minutes he felt himself being embraced by two pairs of arms. It didn't take long until he drifted into the quaint world of his dreams as well. The three of them could finally rest – although not for long. But none of them were concerned about the briefness of the moment. They just wanted to enjoy their little two-hour vacation together.

They were already awake when the guards entered the room to announce Sal had been pleaded innocent (by only 0.01%), but they preferred to stay still until they left. After that, the three of them went back to Sal's apartment. Sal still got a few dirty stares as they walked, but he knew the television program meant to clean his image was going to come eventually.

There was no need to hurry anymore. They all knew things would get better eventually, one way or another.


A/N: There it is, the final chapter of Octodrama!

I have to say, writing this was a really good experience. I was originally skeptical about writing yet another OC fic, as those haven't gotten a lot of attention in other fandoms. But all the love and support you guys gave me was enough to motivate me through the entire thing! I sincerely thank all of you that decided to stick with me until the very end. I hope this was as good of an experience for you as it was for me.

Don't think this is the last you'll see of these boys, though! I have a prequel AND a sequel planned for the future! Though I'd like to take a bit of a break from these characters for now. I've got a few projects I have to finish, some one-shots to write and last year of high school to survive. The prequel will focus more on Kama, while the sequel will give the spotlight to Fen as well as a brand new agent!

I have no more to say. I hope you all have a good day, and see you in the next fic!