Marie couldn't believe what she was hearing, primarily how DETAILED Agent 3's description of the events were. Like, she knew her memory was good, that's what lead her to being such a good field agent, but goddamn.

"-yeah so that's what went down." Three awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck, her face practically bright orange from having recalled the events that transpired between her and Callie such a long time ago.

Marie looked at Agent 3 through her blush, and had to pause for a moment to compose herself. She takes in a deep breath and tries to calm herself, though the green tint doesn't completely leave her face, it does fade slightly.

"Alright alright, you've answered pretty much all of my questions… but you still didn't answer the first question, WHY did you two… get it on."

Agent 3's blush deepened "Well… to be honest, after I rescued the Great Zapfish from Octavio, and Cap'n Cuttlefish informed me that the events had to be kept secret, Callie felt bad that I did all that work for effectively nothing… so she made the offer. Me being the young horny dumbass I was, agreed without thinking."

Marie paused, and started stroking her chin as she considered the information that had just been presented to her.

"So she did that as a reward for saving Inkopolis? Interesting."

"What's interesting?"

"Oh nothing, I just… I don't know I guess I didn't expect that to be her take. I'd have expected her to give you VIP tickets to one of our concerts, maybe like, a great big sum of money… or something along those lines." Marie shrugged as she finally was able to get herself composed, no longer blushing as her thoughts had moved past the events that Three had begrudgingly but so accurately described for her.

"She tried after, but I told her she'd done more than enough. Honestly a lot of what I know about myself now came from that… event." Three's blush was mostly under control, however there was still a slight tint of orange on her cheeks.

"So you've said, man I didn't know she was into half of those things." Marie prattled idly.

"... why would that matter to you? Her cousin?" Three's eyebrow raised slightly in suspicion.

"Ah, sorry, that's my secret agent side kicking in, I like to know as much as I can about anyone I'm close to, so should they turn against me, I know their weaknesses, and should they need my help, I know where to support." Marie again shrugged as she gave her explanation, her mind now trying to find the right way to end the conversation.

"Hmm, I guess that sorta makes sense. I'm not gonna ask how sexual support would work though." Three smirks and winks at Marie eliciting an eye roll and a scoff from the pop star secret agent.

"Oh my GOD 3 you are terrible." Marie chuckled slightly as she stood up from the couch, believing the conversation to be winding to a close.

"Says the one who walked into my apartment and immediately assaulted me."

Marie opens her mouth to protest, but finds no words of protest exist for such a comeback.

"Fine, you win, dumbass." Marie smirked and rolled her eyes.

"Be nice Marie, you know I'm only playing cuz you're my friend. If I didn't like you I'd have either splatted you for showing up unannounced or ripped your arms off!" Three chuckles to herself slightly.

"HAH, I'd like to see you try." Marie retorts, gesturing to the charger she had left by the front door of Three's apartment.

"Eh, some other time maybe. I need to get to bed soon." Three idly gestures towards her bedroom, not even glancing at the clock, or the fact that there was still sun bleeding in through her windows.

"Bed? But it's only 5pm!" Marie scoffed, shocked at how early Three said she'd be going to bed.

"Yep, with the way this-" Agent 3 points to the scar across her face "likes to flare up, I'm lucky if I get 3 hours of sleep a night, so I've started going to bed earlier to counteract it."

Marie was now faced with the fact that her friend whom she cares deeply about has a condition that makes it so difficult to sleep that she's going to bed around the time she'd be making dinner. She was also faced with the fact that Three lives with the debilitating pain that makes it so she can't do anything but scream… and she had just waltzed into her apartment and sucker punched her for an event that happened nearly three years ago.

"Oh my gods Three, I am so sorry. I had no idea…" Marie's expression dropped and there was deep remorse in her eyes. She would undo everything that had just happened if she could, but she's dug her own grave now.

"Eh, don't be. It's my life now, I gotta deal with it." Three shrugs, clearly something is still bothering her but she's not saying.

Marie just frowned.

"That's not good Three. You should seriously get help for that if it's causing you so much pain."

Agent 3 let out a defeated sigh. "I tried, no one can help. The doctor's don't know what's going on so they can't prescribe anything. I'm on my own. Just like Kamabo. Just like always. It's me against the universe, and the universe bit back hard with this one."

"Okay well… please remember that if you need anything, Callie and I are here." Marie paused, placing her hand on Three's shoulder then turning to leave.

"Just don't ask for any… rewards." Marie smirked before snagging her charger and finally getting ready to head out, Agent 3 rolled her eyes.

"It was one time Marie, I don't even like Callie that way." In a cruel twist of fate, in that exact moment Agent 3 felt her scar act up again, gods the pain was nearly unbearable. But she vowed not to break down in front of her friends again, so she resisted the urge to clutch her face, but that didn't stop the affected eye from twitching slightly.

Marie was about to leave but she turned to face Three one last time before she did so, and all she could see was the pain in her eyes, the twitching right eye, and the tears welling within both.

"A-are you alright Three? Your eye is twitching like mad right now." Marie set her charger back down and turning to face Three properly.

"Oh, y-yeah, the scar is a-acting up again." Agent 3 could feel the tears starting to form, the pain searing through her face like someone decided to kick her with a boot that had red hot nails on it. "It's f-fine, I j-just n-need to lay d-down."

"Agent 3. Please." Marie wanted to reach out, to comfort her friend, but she could tell that Three didn't want that. Three wanted to be strong. Marie just wanted to help her friend.

"S-seriously, I'm g-good. Just l-leave so I can deal with this, please." The tears are starting to roll down Three's cheeks, she's clenching her teeth together hard trying to bear the pain without screaming out.

Reluctantly, Marie picks up her charger again, and turns to the door. Before she passes through it however, she has one last thing she wants to say to Three. One last thing born out of the desire to help her friend, as well as the frustration of not being able to.

"Shutting us out won't help it go away, it'll just make it worse."

With an audible *click* the door was closed and Marie was on the other side.

Once she can no longer see Marie, Three immediately falls to her knees, grabs the side of her face that was affected, and she screamed. She let everything out, she just wails in agony, wishing her pain would stop. Three hears her door click again but the pain makes the world go black before she can see why.

The next morning, Agent 3 awoke in her bed, feeling slightly more rested than usual, as though she hadn't been woken by agonizing pain every 3 minutes. She also feels some odd pressure on her affected eye, and finds even when opened she can't see anything out of it, just black. Also it's incredibly cold on that half of her face.

So. Agent 3 brings her hand up to check and finds an… ice bag?

Agent 3 didn't know if she even owned one of these, and even if she did, she definitely didn't put it on her face herself. so how did…

"Feeling better?" The familiar voice of her fellow agent as well as pop singer Marie called.

"H-how did you?.." Three calls in confusion, her brain still running at quarter speed due to just having woken up.

"That scream wasn't exactly quiet, and you didn't lock your door after I exited… also you passed out on the floor."

"Fuck my entire life."

Marie rolled her eyes. "Oh relax, you're fine."

Three couldn't bring herself to meet Marie's gaze. She felt embarrassed. Though she was grateful for the fact that her friend had cared enough to take care of her, she wished she hadn't needed it.

Marie sighed and rolled her eyes. "Always the drama queen, you'll be fine honestly. I'm going to get a sample of that… I hesitate to call it ink. The stuff they use in Kamabo. I'm going to run some tests on it, see if I can't find something that'll at least help the pain."

Agent 3's ears perked up at that, her mind flashing images of all of her friend with that disgusting ink on their faces. "Oh my gods."

"What?"

"Do NOT let it touch you. EVER. And ESPECIALLY do not let it touch your face. If it can access your brain, it takes over. It only took a little bit for it to seize control of me." Three's worry is painted so plainly across her face she may as well be wearing a shirt that says "I am worried"

Marie sighed again as she stood up to leave.

"I'll be careful, trust me." Marie paused, she clenches her fist and chokes back a sob that goes unnoticed by Three. "I just want to be able to help my friend."

With that, Marie left, and 3 again heard the audible *click* of her front door being closed. Marie on the other side of the door takes in a long deep breath. She takes out her phone and navigates to her messages.


Marie: It is so much worse than we thought

Callie: How so?

Marie: She tried to get me to leave when her scar started flaring just so I wouldn't see her in pain. Also she told me it flares up so often that she's lucky if she gets 3 hours of sleep in a night.

Callie: Oh, damn… Wow.

Marie: Yeah, anyways I'm headed home now. As much as I want to, I can't just stay here to take care of Three forever.

Callie: You assaulted her when you first arrived didn't you.

Marie: I may have knocked the wind out of her yes.

Callie: Marie… I tried to tell you to let a nearly 3 year old event lay to rest!

Marie: An event I am now intimately familiar with thanks to Three's insane memory.


Marie pocketed her phone and headed for the launchpad on the roof of Three's apartment building. She'd have to make a mental note to visit her more often.

Agent 3 on the other hand was now, once again, alone with her thoughts. Oh how dangerous this is. She stared up at the ceiling of her bedroom with the one eye that wasn't covered by an ice pack, and honestly she was getting tired of how embarrassed she was about the whole situation with Marie from start to finish. So, rather than lay in bed and feel sorry for herself, she decided to take a shower and feel sorry for herself.

She made her way over to her bathroom, switched on the light, and made her way over to her shower. All while still holding the ice bag to the right side of her face. She was able to glance at her reflection in the mirror without feeling like a failure for the first time in a long time. This combined with the actual ice pack was oddly soothing. But once the shower was up to temperature, she knew she'd have to set it down, it wouldn't survive the searing heat she likes her showers at.

Reluctantly, she sets the bag down in the bathroom sink, then looks up at her reflection in the mirror once again, preparing for the worst. Huh, the greenish colouration had gone down quite a bit, the skin layer was still visibly damaged, even without the green, but it looked more like any of her other scars, rather than someone thought boiling paint was a good idea. There was still a little bit of the tint mind you, it was just dramatically reduced. Like someone had turned the opacity of the colour to 10%.

Stepping into the shower and under the (heavily treated) water, Agent 3 felt something she doesn't think she's felt in years. She felt relaxed. For once, her thoughts were of the good times she'd had with Callie and Marie, Cap'n's stories of the great turf war, and how she had always seemed to make her friends smile. That one time she told a joke that was so bad she made Callie's drink come out of her nose she laughed so hard. She felt peace, and calmness.

Then her thoughts turned to… her. Agent 8. Three hardly knew anything about the girl, hell she didn't even know where she was living! But thinking about what she did know was something that brought a faint blush to Agent 3's face. If there was one good thing to come out of Kamabo, it was her.

Three kept going through ways to say hello in her head. She just wanted to get to know her, it shouldn't be so hard. But Three knew why it was so hard. She would never admit it to anyone, she barely even admitted it to herself, but she has the biggest crush on Agent 8.

She just kept picturing her face, the different eye mask that Octolings had suited Eight's rounded face so nicely, and her rounded ears just added to the beauty in Three's eyes. Eight's smile was the first thing Three saw when she came to after Kamabo, and it's been burned into her mind ever since. That smile makes Three blush and causes her hearts to flutter.

The water started to run cold, telling Agent 3 she'd spent enough time lost in her thoughts. She sighed, shut off the water, then exited the shower, grabbing a towel to dry herself off with.

"I-I should get to know the girl." Agent 3 said to no one in particular. "I mean, she saved the world, so at least we have that in common?"

Three is trying to justify things to herself, but it somehow works and she's almost finally ready to try and say hello to the girl she's been crushing on for so long now. But she doesn't quite have the confidence to do it, she needs moral support.

Agent 3 finished drying herself off, then, snatching her phone off its charger, she opened it up to her messages.


Agent 3: Yo, you free for a sec? I got a question.

Callie: Ye what's up? Did Marie kill you yet?

Agent 3: Yes and no, she stopped by, knocked the wind outta me, then made sure I didn't kill myself when my scar flared up shortly after.

Callie: Yowch, now you see why I told you not to tell her!

Agent 3: It was like what, 3 years ago?! I didn't think she'd react THAT bad!

Callie: Clearly you don't know my cousin. Anyways, what's up? You said you had a question.

Agent 3: Oh yeah fuck. So uh, you know Agent 8 right? Or at least know OF her?

Callie: Ye I do.

Agent 3: Okay so… I'm only telling you this because I trust you…

Agent 3: I kinda maybe have like the worlds biggest crush on her, I think she's cute and I wanna get to know her.

Callie: AHHHHHHHHHH! THAT'S SO ADORABLE!

Agent 3: Starting to regret this

Callie: Sorry sorry. I'm actually just really happy! But uh, why are you telling me this, and not, you know, the girl you have a crush on?

Agent 3: Because I kinda… have a hard time even asking her to go for coffee.

Callie: You WHAT

Agent 3: I just, I need some moral support. I can splat Octarians all day, but talking to someone I low key want to make out with is not something I am use to

Callie: Three. I am going to be very blunt. And only because I love you.

Callie: JUST TALK TO HER. Honestly it's the best course of action, just talk to her and get to know her. You can do it!

Agent 3: Thanks Cal.


Agent 3 should've known Callie would pull that on her. But still, it did give her a little boost in confidence. She takes in a deep breath and backs out of her conversation with Callie, and then flips open Eight's contact on her phone.

Three glanced up at the blank icon for Eight's contact, she'd have to get a photo of her so she could change it from the faceless squid silhouette.

She shook her head and brought her attention back to the task at hand of trying to talk to Eight without backing out like some sort of emotional wreck.


Agent 3: Hey, Agent 8 right? Or do you have another name you'd rather be called by? It's me, Agent 3. Sorry we got off to a poor start, I'd like to get to know you properly, you wanna like, go for coffee sometime? I'm free all day.

TheGr8Agent8: Oh, hey! Yeah my memory's all a bit hazy, so you can just call me Eight, it's actually grown on me. And yeah I could do Coffee.

Three couldn't help but laugh at Eight's chosen screen name, it was amazing and she loved it.

Agent 3: Oh sweet! What time are you free?

TheGr8Agent8: Uh, anytime really.

Agent 3: Meet me at Inkopolis square in say, half an hour?

TheGr8Agent8: Sounds like a plan!


Agent 3 couldn't believe it. It had WORKED! Now, it wasn't a DATE, no, it was just two people with mutual friends trying to bridge the gap. Also Agent 8 was cute as hell. Ah fuck there goes 3's mind again.

Now there was the task at hand of making herself look presentable, and NOT like she had spent the last week in the same clothes. She went over to her dresser, threw open the drawers and tore through her wardrobe.

"Fuck, why do I only own SHIT clothing, basic tees, lame shoes… is that a llama hat? WHY DO I OWN THIS?" Three held the aforementioned llama hat in her hand and tossed it across her room, she didn't want to even look at it.

Finally, after a few minutes, Agent 3 had an outfit she was okay with. A light blue hoodie with an old tank top underneath that would be covered when the hoodie was zipped up, black jeans, black shoes with white laces, and to cap it off, a pair of shades. She looked… presentable.

Before leaving, she grabbed an unopened bottle of fabric odor remover, and quickly sprayed herself with it. Agent 3 let out a small chuckle to herself.

"This is the most care I've had about my appearance since before I became an agent." 3 couldn't help but smile. "Alright, enough reminiscing about the past. Let's go."

With that, Agent 3 pushed through her door, locking it behind her, and made her way up to the roof of her apartment building and set the launchpad to Inkopolis Square.