Chapter 7: Low Key

A/N: So, did you catch why I named Hamil, Hamil? I don't expect you to, but it is a derogative term of a species of squid. Bad puns aside, you're getting a longer chapter today! (Cause panda is a jerk and did like a 700 word one yesterday). I'm also collaborating with another member on something big, I can't really tell you what yet, but expect it to be very interesting. Also, chapter 4 has like 73 visitors, while chapter 5 has like 80. Wazzup with that?

Despite having an actual heated carpet to sleep on, Izzy woke up very early in the morning. Since he still couldn't read the language (the clock appeared garbled) he assumed it was at least 6:00 due to the lazy gray light filtering in through the window. Getting up and stretching, he was at a lost for something to due. He assumed he couldn't cook human food to begin with, he didn't even want to try messing with whatever they ate. The TV or radio would wake up Hamil and the octoling, so Izzy resorted to doing pull ups on a low hanging pipe. Losing count at around 150ish, he resorted to planning what he would do once he had full info and everything that had happened after he got transported here.

He didn't even notice the octoling approach until he heard a timid "Hello." Dropping down from the pipe, he turned around and took a good look at the octoling. Nervous with his lack of a direct response, she started to shuffle away. "Wait" He called out. "Can you answer a few questions for me?"

She nodded, and Izzy took a deep breath before continuing. "First, what's your name? Second, what time is it? And third, what exactly are you in correlation to Hamil?" Absorbing his words, she thought for a bit before responding. "My name is Berenice, but people just call me B. I think it's like 6:30 in the morning, and the last one is a bit complicated." Izzy shrugged casually "I don't have anything better to be doing, fire away." She sat down across from him and was silent for a minute before starting.

"I am an Octarian, and my subspecies is known as an octoling. We have been enemies to the inklings ever since the great turf war, after the inklings stole the great zapfish…"

Izzy caught the hesitance in her voice, and raised his eyebrow. "You don't seem too confident in that statement…"

She sighed, before running a hand through her hair (tentacles?) and sinking farther into the couch. "It's like despite everything I have been told, and everything I was trained to do… I find myself not wanting to do it."

Izzy let out a bittersweet laugh before simply saying "Welcome to Earth."

oo0OO0oo

The rest of the day had gone smoothly. He had mostly exercised for its' entirety, as Hamil had taken B back to Octo Valley. Speaking of which; they should've been back by now. If his life continued following standard tropes he could expect the door opening with Hamil and B still together because - Izzy's train of thought was interrupted as he heard the door lock jingling, and sure enough, Hamil walked in with B in tow.

Izzy sighed inwardly, resigned to the fact the inklings he had first seen that night with Hamil would show up any minute now - "Delta!" Hamil called out. Izzy stood up, stretched, and walked over to the couch. "I have really bad news… first off-" "They blocked Octo Valley and now your friends are coming over for some event you forgot because you had two strangers from different species living in your house?" Izzy questioned, cutting him off.

Hamil blinked before stuttering out a yes. "How did you-" "How did I know that? Don't know, call it future vision." Hamil missed the sarcasm in the comment, and simply nodded. "We need to find a hiding place for both of you." "Assuming the rest of this goes according to how I foresee it, you probably are putting B in the closet. If your window connects to back alley, I can jump out for now." "I don't even think inklings could make that jump without hurting themselves…" Hamil stated, concern in his voice.

"Trust me" Izzy said calmly, standing up. "I won't be actually falling to the ground, I'll just hang off the windowsill and hopefully no one decides to go into the alleyway." "Alright, but be careful." Hamil mumbled, before dragging B along with him the bedroom area. If Izzy wasn't hurrying, he would've found time to make an innuendo joke.

Cracking the window open, Izzy slipped out before grabbing the edge, careful not to go into a freefall. A few minutes later, a soft knocking sound could be heard. Izzy didn't hear much the rest of the time, but the main idea was that they didn't discover B, Hamil was invited to something called a turf war later, and the names of the ones who had come over were as followed: Sepiot, Walvi, and one called Neo. He heard Hamil approach and call out a soft "Delta?". Izzy pulled himself back into view, much to the surprise of Hamil. "Jeez, you held onto that for like half an hour…" Izzy shrugged, before saying "I did like a few hundred pull ups this morning while you were still asleep, I think I can handle this."

oo0OO0oo

The rest of the day had gone by without incident. Hamil at one point had gone off to participate in turf wars, which left Izzy with B. Izzy had mostly chosen to leave her to her own things; he wasn't ignoring her, but not actively seeking interaction either. At one point, Hamil returned with a small bag. "I got us something to eat… I'm not exactly sure what you eat so help yourself to the fridge if you're hungry." Izzy waved him off. "I have something to do first anyway. He took a seat on the couch, pulled out his recorder, and relayed the events of the previous day, taking care to speak in quiet English.

Izzy didn't notice Hamil standing in the doorway of the kitchen until he was finished. "What was that you were speaking?" Hamil asked curiously. Izzy now taking notice of him, simply gave a small shrug, before returning to the inkling language. "English, one of the main languages of my kind." "How do you know inkish then?" Hamil asked. "I don't know" Izzy lied, not wanting to retell his assault on the blue inkling. He did leave him unharmed, but Hamil didn't fully know about his ASL yet. "I just woke up with it I suppose."

Hamil let out a yawn. "I'm heading to bed, you're free to do whatever for now."

"Goodnight." Izzy replied. He waited until Hamil had left before sinking once more into the carpet of the living room. He should've left by now… why didn't he? What was keeping him here?

A/N: Hue hue hue, more squid puns. Also, slight character interaction, yay! Izzy seems to be pretty anti-social right now, shame on him! Did you know I originally had a completely different outline for this chapter? Dunno why it ended up like this, but it did.