Three was a lot of things. She was tough. She was fierce. She was a skilled fighter. She was also gentle, kind, and loving. But if there was one thing that Three was absolutely and unequivocally NOT… it was subtle. Three has the hardest time being even slightly subtle in any way shape or form, at least when it comes to showing her affection to Eight. So now, two years after they'd moved in together, Three is faced with the ultimate conundrum… being subtle enough that Eight doesn't catch on to her plans.
Three knew better than to try and sneak away while the two of them were at the mall together, she'd catch on far too easily. No, Three needed HELP getting her plan into action. Three had managed to get a hold of Marina and explained her situation, and plan, to her. Marina was more than happy to help Three with her endeavours, and seemed almost excited about the whole plan as well. Marina agreed that she and Pearl would occupy Eight for the day so Three could do the one thing she can't risk Eight catching her doing under any circumstances… She needs to buy a ring.
The plan is simple. Pearl and Marina are going to take Eight on an outing of some kind, Three told them to stay away from the mall because that's where the jewelry store is and she needs to not get caught inside there. Three has the entire day to get her task done, which is good because she also has a handful of other errands to run as well.
"Are you SURE you're okay with this?" Eight asks Three as she slips her coat on over her shoulders, giving her girlfriend a concerned glance.
"I'm sure! Besides I've got some of my own things to get done, it'll give me a chance to pick up some food without you judging my choice of juice." Three chuckles and smiles, prompting Eight to giggle slightly in response.
"Alright well… Just try not to spend too much time cooped up in here by yourself, alright?" Eight gives Three a quick kiss on the lips and smiles, the buzzer goes off shortly after meaning Marina and Pearl are here. "Ah, I gotta go, I love you!"
"Love you too!" Three calls after Eight as she runs out the door. Once Eight is gone and the door is closed, Three runs back into her bedroom and opens up her bedside table, digging through it to get to the bottom. "Come on I know it's in here… AHA! Gotcha!"
Three pulls out a small pamphlet from the jewelry store in the mall, and a specific ring is circled. It's a three gemstone ring, and Three knows exactly what each gemstone is going to be. The two smaller ones are going to be gemstones that match their eye colours, or at least, the natural eye colours. So orange on one side, and purple on the other, to represent Three and Eight respectively. In the middle, the big gemstone will be diamond, because it's the best gemstone and Eight deserves the best. Three has been labouring over the gemstone choice for months at this point, but she was more than happy with the decision she came to, she just hopes Eight appreciates it.
Three pockets the pamphlet and grabs a leather jacket off the coat rack, slipping her arms into it and grabbing her keys as she heads out the door. She's got a very basic look today but thanks to Eight she's been slowly improving her own fashion sense. Something about looking nice made her feel more confident in herself, which she absolutely needed because she was a nervous wreck about everything else she had to do today. She had a pair of black lace up shoes on her feet with blue jeans around her legs, and a dark red tee shirt that said "Yeah I'm gay, keep walking" in even darker red. Subtle, yet effective. She also now had on the black leather jacket that she'd grabbed moments ago, and a black bandanna that wrapped around the top of her head above her ears.
"Okay, let's get this done." Three says to herself as she pushes open her door, locking it behind her, and making her way up the stairs to the launchpad. She has a mental list of everything she needs to get done today but the only thing that she absolutely cannot fail to get done is getting this ring. She inputs the mall into the control panel for the launchpad, and soon she's flying towards it at top speed.
Eight, Pearl, and Marina were all very excited to be spending time together today. Marina hadn't gotten to spend much time with Eight lately due to, well, Three. Marina wasn't upset about this, she knew Eight had to find her place in inkling society. When Marina thinks about it, she sometimes chuckles to herself at how things played out. Herself and her sister, both wound up falling for inklings, despite everything they were taught growing up.
"So, what's the plan for today? You were both pretty cagey about the details so I assume it's something big." Eight smiles as she walks through Inkopolis park with Pearl and Marina, chuckling lightly to herself as she thinks about what sort of extravagant plans that Pearl and Marina must have made.
"Well, truth be told we really just wanted a chance to hang out. We haven't had much of a chance to catch up recently so we thought we would take it easy. Go to lunch, maybe a movie or something, just hang out." Marina smiles, trying very hard not to let on that Three put them up to this whole thing.
"Ooohhh! Exciting!" Eight giggles as they walk through the park and make their way towards Inkopolis Square where they can stop for some lunch.
Three, on the other hand, was having one hell of a time. She had been at the mall for a grand total of ten minutes and she was already completely lost. The map she had was outdated and it seemed like every single shop decided to change where they were inside of it. She was getting frustrated but she wasn't going to leave without accomplishing her mission. She was Agent Three, she could save the Great Zapfish and be home in time for dinner, there's no way in hell she's failing to get a ring to propose with!
Finally after what felt like an eternity, Three found the jewelry store! Her legs were sore and she swears she's walked more through the mall in this one trip than all of her previous trips to it combined. But she's found the jewelry store at long last. It's now time for her to enter and get her thing done. She walks in reaching into her pocket and pulling out the pamphlet, looking at the name of the store on it and confirming that it does match the name of the store she's entering.
Once she's by the counter, an employee walks up to her and flashes her a smile, spotting the pamphlet in her hands and the very clearly circled ring, making a mental note of where it is in the store but not going out of her way to grab it until asked for it as she doesn't want to come off as prying.
"Good afternoon! Welcome to Inkopolis Jewelers, what can I do for you today?" She asks as she stands across from Three, whom is now slightly struggling to form words. Fortunately, Three's nervousness is quickly pushed down as she remembers why she's here in the first place.
"Ah, y-yes hi… I would like to purchase a ring if I could? I-I know what gemstones I want and I have the ring size as well." Three pulls out another sheet of paper, she'd had to somehow take Eight's ring size without her noticing which was a lot more difficult than Three had originally expected. Eight wakes up EARLY. Three eventually resorted to just not going to sleep one night because there was no other option.
"Wonderful! Is it for yourself or is it for someone else?" The employee asks, trying to be polite but knowing full well that no one comes into a jewelry store this nervous unless they're buying something for someone else, and if it's a ring, it's often an engagement ring.
"It's for s-someone else… I'm gonna propose to my girlfriend, we've been together for like, three and a half years, and the time just kinda felt right ya know?" Three rubs her neck awkwardly, she's hoping to just get the ring and be done with this part. She's nervous enough about the entire thing to the point that she has an entire plan for how to propose written in a notebook that's hidden in her bedside table.
"Aww that's so sweet! I'd be happy to help! Okay so you said you knew what ring and what size right?" The employee asks as she waits for Three to either hand the papers over or read off their contents to her.
"Ah yes, um, okay so the circled one is the ring I want…" Three hands the pamphlet over to the employee, blushing lightly as she thinks about presenting it to Eight. "And um, here, this has the size and the gemstones I want…"
Three hands the other sheet of paper over as well and the employee graciously accepts them. She nods and goes into the back to grab the correct size ring and see if they have the gemstones that she wants. After what feels to Three like three halves of an eternity, the employee returns with another sheet of paper.
"Okay so we need to set the gems into the ring which will take a little bit of time, fortunately we don't actually have any other ring orders so it will only take about two hours. Would you like to put a deposit down or just pay it all now?" The employee hands the sheet of paper over to Three with the total price of her order on it. Three had mentally prepared herself for how high it was going to be so she's not shocked, but it still stings a little bit. But she tells herself that Eight is worth it.
"I may as well pay it all now, just rip the bandaid off all at once right?" Three laughs awkwardly and pulls out her money, paying for her order in full. She then realizes that she has to kill a couple of hours before she can actually snag the ring and go home. Fortunately she does have a handful of other things she needs to get done so hopefully by the time she's done those things the ring will be ready.
Three walked through the mall and found herself at another store she never thought she'd have set foot in before she started dating Eight. A store that sells natural soaps. Now Three wasn't some nut about having all natural products in her home and neither was Eight, however these places often were the only place that Eight could go to get a soap for her tentacles that didn't irritate them. As a result of this, Three found something else out. The all natural soaps tended to not irritate the scars and scrapes that her agent work left on her body, which was actually a big reason she rarely used soap in the past.
Three didn't like smelling like body odor, but it was preferable to the stinging all over her body that resulted from the abrasive commercial soaps that you buy at the grocery store. Fortunately once she and Eight went shopping together, Eight recommended Three at least try some of the natural soaps, and to her surprise she found that she didn't react at all to the natural soaps. She thinks she likely just has sensitive skin in general as well, so the natural soap is better for her anyways.
She doesn't spend much time in the store however, she quickly snags the products she needs and takes them to the counter, paying for her order again and heading to the next store on her list. The next store is going to eat up more of her time which is good, she needs to eat up a handful of hours after all. She's not actually going to buy anything here today, but she does need to narrow down some options. She walks into the furniture store and makes her way over to where the couches are. The couch in her living room was fine sure, but it was nearly six years old and was due for a replacement. She'd narrow it down to a few options and then come back with Eight to make the final decision.
She seemed to like the fabric couches over the leather ones. The leather ones were far more expensive and she found that she couldn't sit on them for nearly as long because she'd just get too hot since the leather doesn't breathe like the fabric ones do. But she did find a couple of both that she wouldn't mind sitting in her living room for the foreseeable future. Sometimes Three would think about maybe getting a house instead of an apartment, still a small house but it would allow Eight to have a more dedicated spot for her music equipment. Hell she'd be able to get more than the limited stuff she has now. Maybe once she presented the ring to her they could start thinking about things like that. Three never thought she'd move out of her apartment before she met Eight, and now here she is fantasizing about them sharing a house.
Three's phone goes off and she answers, it's just the jewelry store telling her that the ring is ready to be picked up. She jots down the couches she liked into the notes on her phone and then made her way back over to the jewelry store, her mind still stuck on thoughts of how she and Eight are going to spend the rest of their lives together and what adventures they might get up to. She smiles to herself as she picks up the ring, putting it in her pocket. She can feel it in her ink, something big is coming, and she's excited to start the next chapter of her life.
Three heads home with her purchases, she walks rather than super jumping as she needs all the time she can get to think of the perfect way to present the ring to Eight. She walks by Inkopolis park and spots a clearing by the lake where she pictures what it would look like closer to sunset. She blushes and smiles, it's perfect. Now she just has to figure out how to get Eight to take a walk with her to the park without making her plans too obvious. Excitedly she runs the rest of the way home, she's got to make sure she has proper date clothes cleaned and ready to go for their next date night.
