The day finally came, Agent Three had been discharged from the hospital, and was now on the way home. She sat in the back seat of Callie's truck so Eight could sit next to her and hold her hand, Marie was occupying the front passenger seat at the time as well. Three idly stares out the window into the distance, she can see the tower from Inkopolis Plaza and she has some idle thoughts about the past. Apparently some people still went there for battles, it was less common than the square, but most of the people battling there had modified weapons now. There were less people watching the matches there so they could get away with bending the rules. She'd heard stories about people who managed to somehow have an entire battle with both teams only wielding Inkzookas. She thinks that actually would've been a fun match to watch. But alas, she is on the way back to her apartment now, she wouldn't be able to participate in any battles for some time, aside from as a spectator.

After a few minutes of driving, they pull up at the apartment building. Three sighs as the vehicle comes to a stop and she pulls her seatbelt off, Callie and Marie getting out first and going around to the bed of the truck. After a moment, Three's door opens and the wheelchair she has to use is waiting for her. She insists on trying to get into it herself, Marie holding the door steady so she can use it to help get herself out of the truck without it moving on her. She lands with a bit of a thud, having dropped a little further than anticipated when she'd positioned herself over it. But now she's in it, and Callie pulls the chair back so Eight can climb out the same door.

Three doesn't say much, she just wheels herself towards the apartment building as Eight, Callie, and Marie carry whatever personal belongings were brought to the hospital up to the apartment so Three or Eight don't have to make so a bunch of trips up and down the elevator. She'd been allowed to wear her own clothes after a few days, once she no longer needed the intravenous drip of medications. She was on a handful of meds which were designed to help get the flow of ink heading back to her legs, and to help ease the pain of her wounds.

"Okay, we're heading out, if you need anything don't hesitate to call us okay?" Marie hugs Eight and then goes over and gives Three a hug as well, Three was fighting her tears because she was just so overwhelmed with everything right now, she hoped being home with Eight would help it. Callie then does the same as Marie, giving both of them a hug and smiling before heading back down to Callie's truck and heading out.

Eight turns to Three, who's just staring at her hands at the moment. Naturally Eight's response is to take hold of those hands and rub them softly with her thumbs. Three audibly fights back tears, taking a deep breath and squeezing Eight's hands in return. She tilts her head up and looks into Eight's eyes, she sees that the Octoling is smiling softly, and Eight would see that Three's eyes are welling with tears. Three looks back down at Eight's hand, and then she spots it, the ring, sitting on Eight's finger. She pulls Eight's hand closer and finally a smile creeps across the Inkling's face.

"M-Maybe… things will finally start getting better." Three manages to say, wiping the tears from her eyes and prompting a hug from her fiance. Three lets out a soft sigh and hugs back, finally putting her face into Eight's shoulder and letting herself cry. She needed to do this, she needed to get out all of the raw emotions she had from what had happened, and Eight was the only one she trusted enough to be this vulnerable around.

"They will love, I promise." Eight gently draws circles on Three's back with her fingers, comforting her and just allowing her to have her moment. A lot of Eight's own emotions about the situation had been shed to Pearl and Marina, primarily because Three needed to recover and didn't need Eight adding on to it since she had her own support group available. Any other time she would've come to Three first, but this time, Three needed to heal too.

Three just lets herself break down, she was so afraid she'd never get to see Eight again when she was down there, so afraid her life was over, even more afraid she'd be used to hurt her friends and lover. She was so sure she was going to be sanitized, and she knows that if she was facing down a Sanitized Eight, she wouldn't be able to pull the trigger. Maybe Eight is stronger than her, but in the moment, she just felt so much fear over the pain she could've caused. After a few minutes though, she finally feels herself calming down, and Eight pulls back from the hug a little to wipe Three's tears and to give her another smile.

"We're going to be just fine, okay?" Eight smiles and gently rubs Three's cheek with her thumb. After a moment, Eight leans in for a kiss and Three leans in as well, pressing their lips together. Three finally felt herself relaxing, even purring softly. They remain together like this for a few moments, both of them can feel themselves relaxing as they both come to realize that yes, they're home, and together. After a few moments of this, Eight pulls away from the kiss and Three finally smiles, blushing a little.

"Can uhm… can you help me get onto the couch? I wanna watch TV with you for a while." Three asks softly, it seems like something small, but in reality this was something she'd been wanting to do since shortly after waking up in the hospital. It would allow her to have a moment of pretending everything is fine, a moment where she can remind herself that the bad times are over, she's safe and home now. It would give her the ability to finally convince herself that she wasn't just GOING to be okay, she WAS okay.

"Of course my love, anything for you." Eight kisses Three again quickly and softly, wheeling the chair a little closer to the couch and then helping Three stand from it, supporting her body but doing her best to help Three simply walk to the couch. A few steps, but enough that Three can do it with Eight supporting her. Three smiles again, taking her seat and waiting for Eight to join her.

Eight takes a moment to move Three's chair to the side, so that when Three needs to use it it's accessible, but when she doesn't it's not in her line of sight so she doesn't have to think about it. Then she takes her seat, and Three leans into her, resting her head on the Octoling's right shoulder. Eight grabs the remote and the TV comes to life, filling the room with light as she shuffles through channels to find something to watch. Eventually it just ends up on the news because they can't be bothered to find a show worth watching, plus, it's good to keep up on the happenings around Inkopolis. The news story today seems… quite interesting.

"Terrifying reports came in today about a malfunctioning spawn point, witnesses testified they spotted it sparking and even looking like it might catastrophically fail if someone attempted to respawn with it. Thankfully this was reported before any matches took place on the map, and technicians were quick to shut down all battles until they can check over every spawn point to ensure they're all safe to use, and plan to increase the frequency of checks to ensure no incidents occur as a result of these spawn points." The Inkling news anchor reports, it was clear she was reading off a prompter but all the same, you could hear her emotional reaction to it, she was surprised, as were Three and Eight.

"Gods could you imagine what would've happened had that not been caught?" Three comments, kinda just trying to make small talk, she's got a thought on her mind but she doesn't wanna jump right to it. She wants to just kinda, exist for a bit, so she makes small talk with Eight. She also is genuinely shook by the news that a spawn point could've KILLED someone, she couldn't help but imagine Jay going off to battle, so excited, and then just not coming back, it chilled her to the core. But they said they're going to be doubling down to ensure this won't happen, so she's confident that battles are still safe.

"Yeah, that could've been bad." Eight agrees, idly rubbing the top of Three's head without really paying attention to what her hand was doing. Three seemed to be enjoying it though so she kept doing it even when she did notice that she was doing so. If it helped Three relax, she would do it as long as she possibly could. After a moment, Three shuffles a little bit, turning her head to look up at Eight. Eight turns down the volume of the TV since it looks like Three wants to talk about something.

"Hey uh, Eight… Can I ask you something?" Three has a curious look on her face, like she's unsure what to expect when she asks her question, which to be fair she was. Three had been spending a lot of time thinking since Captain Cuttlefish had come to visit her, something he said had been stuck in her mind and she couldn't help but feel like he was right.

"Of course love, anything, I'm all ears." Eight smiles and shifts their positions so they can face each other a little better, stealing the chance to give Three a quick peck on the lips. Three blushes a little, but the kiss does seem to have calmed her nerves a little, which Eight takes as a win, Three's been so stressed lately.

"Okay. This uh, this might sound weird but, when Cap'n came to visit me in the hospital… he kinda insisted on using my real name rather than my agent number… and I think… I think I liked it…" Three pauses for a moment, gauging Eight's reactions to her words, and also to make sure she was still on board with her own idea. After affirming to herself that this is indeed what she wants, she finishes her thought. "So I thought… maybe we could do that. Use our actual names instead of our numbers… you can still call me 'Three' as like, a nickname, and also on duty it will be easier but… I would prefer it if you'd… start calling me Alex more often…"

Eight pauses for a moment, contemplating in her mind the things which her partner has said to her. She ponders a lot of things for how short of a time she's actually thinking for. She thinks back to when they'd started dating, they were going by their numbers because that's all Eight knew of herself, and Three preferred it. Slowly over time, both of them had begun hearing their real names more and more, and perhaps this was a natural progression. Eight hadn't fully recovered from her memories coming back, there were still some things she'd seen that she truly wishes she hadn't. But those were things she could leave in the past, her identity was tied to Three's… or rather… Alex's.

"Okay, let's do it. It'll probably take a little time for me to adjust so… correct me if I mess up… and I think… I think I want the same as you… "Eight" is a good nickname and will be good for agent things but, at home, when I'm with you, let's leave the agent stuff at the door. We'll just be Kiaria and Alex, two dorks in love with each other" She smiles as she rubs her lover's cheek. Both of them are smiling at each other, and then they lean in and give each other a soft tender kiss.

"Thank you love… I give it a month before we're using pet names based on our real names" Alex giggles and pecks Kiaria on the lips again quickly, both purring softly and sharing the closeness. They finally had a moment where they were truly their own. No more agent numbers tied to them, no, they were their own cephalopods now. They would not be defined by their past but rather by the lives they forge together.

"I give it a week" Kiaria giggles in response and leans in for another kiss, one which lasts much longer than before. They remain close together, their lips inseparable as the TV just continues playing the news channel with no one paying any attention to it. Alex and Kiaria were going to be just fine, nothing could possibly get between them and their love, they'd faced so many challenges as it is, surely nothing that could happen to them would be worse than what they've already faced.