Chapter Text
Shopping at MakoMart was apparently the easiest thing to do that day, as even trying to find a shop selling party decorations in the big mall had taken a long, long while. Three knew that she didn't have the greatest sense of direction, but it was almost comical at this point. The two agents got lost one or two or ten times, discovered they both couldn't read simple maps, walked all across the entire mall only to learn that the shop they had been looking for was super close to the mart. Three wasn't even surprised at that point, she simply wondered if their whole afternoon was going to feel just like utter disappointment.
As expected, Eight chose most of what they bought, because, again, trying to stop Eight from doing anything she set her mind to was impossible. Yeah, they probably had a bit too much party hats for what was going to be a party of three people. Yeah, the amount of rainbow-themed items they had bought (Eight insisted ) was concerning. Yeah, they didn't need that much balloons. But you know what? It was fine.
Everything was fine .
At least, the two agents had finished their shopping now — well, they hoped anyway, because Three sincerely didn't want to run back to the mall because they forgot to buy something. Not that the mall was far from Four's apartment, she was just too lazy to go search for it.
(That was a lie, if they missed something important she'd be the first one to run to go get it and she knew it, but she would never admit that. Curse Four and her ability to make her care about her birthday.)
She was glad that Four lived near the mall, holding heavy bags wasn't that hard to her thanks to physical training, but it sure was annoying. They now were in front of Four's apartment, and Three grumbled as she searched her pockets for the key, only to realize she had forgotten it at home. Great, the one time she washed her hoodie in who-knows-how-long, she forgot to take what was in its pockets with her. Curse everything.
"Wait, I've got spare keys!" Eight called next to her. She was relieved but she had a puzzled look when she saw the octoling holding fifteen differents keys in her hand. '...Wait, why does she have so many keys?'
The other agent seemingly read her silent question since she continued : "I always sleep somewhere different every night, so I need the keys! Look, here's yours." She tapped with one of her finger a tiny one with a green plastic tag on it. (Three didn't even remember giving her a key.) "I even have the keys to Marie and Callie's studio!" The octoling gushed.
As Eight told her about every single key she owned, Three was simply staring. '...How many fans would kill to get one key from this?' That… was a concerning question to have. The octoling had an unknown power and threat in her hands, right now.
They entered Four's apartment when Eight finally opened the door. Three wasn't surprised to see it as clean as ever. Not a trace of dust, or anything on the ground… How much time did she spend cleaning, anyway? 'Well, apparently enough to keep her up late at night.' ...Now wasn't the time to think about that. She'd have to talk to Eight about it.
Three put the bags to the floor as she looked at her phone. 2pm already?! Did they really spend 3 hours at the mall? Cod. They still had 6 hours left… it should be enough, hopefully.
"What should we start with?" Eight asked, quickly looking at everything that was in the bags.
Three crossed her arms in thoughts. "...The cake, probably." She had no idea how much time it was going to take. While baking a cake was usually not hard, she preferred to have extra time. Just in case they, you know, burnt the first one or something. The decorations could wait for a bit.
"Cake!" Eight cheered with enthusiasm. "It's my first time making one!" The octoling started humming happily before taking the bag with the cooking ingredients to the kitchen.
Three was not sure how it was going to go, but at least Eight looked excited.
'Let's pray we don't burn down the house. That'd be nice.'
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Turns out, Eight was indeed very enthusiast about the whole cake baking thing. Actually, maybe a little too much.
She was looking at Three with a sheepish stare, holding the mixing bowl and the whisk in her arms. "I'm really sorry," she apologized again. "I didn't know you shouldn't stir too hard…"
Three was holding a broom, trying to swipe an exploded bag of flour and a broken bowl on the ground. She wasn't even sure it was working that well. Heck, the broom was quickly becoming whiter than the kitchen floor itself. "It's okay," Three repeated again. "I should have warned you."
She wasn't even annoyed, just tired. She had expected them to mess up at some point. She simply was surprised it was because Eight went absolutely wild on the stirring process. So hard she had knocked most of what was on the counter on the ground, somehow…
Cooking with Eight was nice, when they weren't messing up. She learned quickly (well, more like she was great at mimicking. Octoling thing, she supposed), even if she had to stop her from eating everything she was seeing. Maybe they wouldn't mess up the cake in the end.
'Don't be hopeful. Dread everything, so you won't be disappointed.'
The ground was still very much white, but Three was getting tired of swiping that flour around. She threw the broom in a side of the kitchen. She'd finish it later.
She heard a snicker, and found Eight looking at her with amused eyes. "You have flour on your mantle," she told her. Three looked at it, only to find it entirely covered in white. 'That's going to be a pain to clean… Awesome.' "Between that and the pink, you're not even green anymore!"
Three frowned. "Pink?" she repeated, looking at her mantle again. She was concerned when she saw that, indeed, most of it had turned pink. 'Wait, where does it come from?'
Eight looked at her with surprise. "Wait, you didn't know?" She pointed, while still holding the whisk, at her own tentacles. "I thought you were just mimicking my color."
It… was indeed the exact same color as Eight's hue. 'What. I... never meant that?' Since when was she doing that?! She looked dumbfounded at her mantle. She thought she was green the whole time! She never changed her colors.
Three's confused look was Eight's answer. "You really don't know then?" The octoling looked as surprised as her. "You do it all the time when we hang out, you wear everyone's ink colors. You have a lot of differents colors on, it's really fun! You even turned pink and teal when we ate with Pearl and Marina once!" She scratched her cheek, pensive. "I thought it was just something you liked doing."
'What the hell.' Why had no one told her that? For some reason, it was making her more flustered than what she expected. She quickly turned back to a full green, but saw some hints of pink still littering her mantle. 'Great. Didn't know I turned into a abstract painting when I'm with other people.' Once this day was over, she was not leaving her apartment ever again.
"Is it bothering you?" Eight almost looked disappointed when she saw Three turn green again. "Wait, I'll do it too if you want!" With a happy hum, she lightly touched her tentacles, and the tips and small circles covering them took her green shade with ease. "We can match now!"
Three felt her face growing hotter by the second now. "Let's… let's go back to the cake," she decided, mumbling under her breath. She heard Eight laugh, and she cursed this day again.
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"Eight. Stop that. I can see you."
Eight stuck her finger out of the bowl, bringing some melted chocolate to her mouth as quickly as she could. "I don't see what you mean," she answered innocently, her voice coming out slightly muffled as she ate whatever chocolate that was left on her hand.
They were almost finished now, except that the baking was becoming more like 'preventing Eight from eating absolutely everything on the counter'. Apparently, the batter was good enough for her to try and eat small pieces of it every 10 seconds, and if it wasn't for Three stopping her she probably would have drunk the whole melted chocolate herself. Seeing how she had once seen her finish an entire cup of noodles in less than thirty seconds, she knew Eight could (and would) do it. Three just wanted to finish the cake as quickly as they could.
"Alright," Three said as she took the bowl of chocolate in her hands. Eight frowned, putting her concentration back to the baking instantly. She was still very serious about the whole process, when she wasn't eating from it. "Keep stirring while I put it in."
Thankfully this time, Eight didn't cause a stirring disaster, and Three was more than relieved to see the finally finished batter, even if she almost spilled the chocolate bowl. Done. Finished. They only needed to put it in the oven now. Thank whatever gods existed for not messing up the entire batter.
"Wait!" suddenly said Eight. When she turned her head towards her, the shine in her eyes somehow made her afraid. "Can I put in the glitter now?"
Three would be lying if she said she hadn't hoped that Eight would forget about it. "...You can."
"Great!" she answered excitedly, and smashed full cans of edible glitter on the counter within the second. Three could only dreadfully watch Eight as, with a focused expression, she poured all of them into the batter, which quickly turned shinier than the sun itself. ' Maybe I should have looked up if you can get food poisoning from this.' The batter probably had more glitter in it that actual food now, but Three just gave it up.
Eight only stopped when she judged that it was shiny enough, which probably meant 'way too much' by everyone's else standard. She hummed happily as she put down in the bag whatever small glitter remained. "What do we do now?"
"Well….We need to put it in a, uh… baking pan. Then we put it in the oven, and we're done."
Eight nodded, but quickly turned around towards the door. "I'm just going to the bathroom really quick. I have chocolate all over my face!"
As she left the kitchen, Three started mindlessly opening the drawers and cupboards. 'Might as well look for the baking pan…' While Four's kitchen was probably the cleanest she knew (when they weren't baking in it, that is), she had no idea how the hell it was organized. It probably made sense to the other agent but Three had no idea where to look for a baking pan, no matter how many times she stayed in her apartment. She opened other cupboards, getting more and more lost. Why wasn't she putting her silverware in a drawer? That made no sen—
'IS THAT A FUCKING BLENDER.'
It was sitting alone in a pile of dust in a corner, looking like it hadn't been used in months.The hell machine almost looked smug, as if it knew exactly what its sight meant to the staring Inkling.
Of course, Three absolutely hated it the instant she saw it.
'Eight CANNOT see it,' she thought quickly. 'I need to hide it NOW.'
' Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you fuck you fuck you —'
In a swift, calculated motion of the arm, Three caught the devilish object with her hands and gracefully threw it out of the open window.
"I'm back!" She heard the door open, and Eight appeared at the same time as the loud crashing sound of the blender echoed outside.
The two stared at each other. The octoling narrowed her eyes, suspicious. "What—"
"You heard nothing." Three quickly whispered. Eight could only watch with confusion as Three flipped off something on the ground before slowly closing the window.
Eight did try to look at what made the sound outside but Three protectively guarding the window prevented her from it. They managed to find the baking pan in a drawer in the end, and finally put the batter in the oven. Finished. It could burn down for all she cared. Well, it'd be better if it didn't— but she had something else on her mind right now.
Three let her body drop on the couch, before pulling up her phone.
[2:47] Three : FOUR
[2:47] Four : oh shit caps im dead
[2:48] Three : WHY DO YOU HAVE A BLENDER IN YOUR KITCHEN
[2:48] Four : a blender??
[2:48] Four : OH YEAH I HAVE ONE
[2:48] Three : why.
[2:49] Four : i didn't even remember i had it
[2:49] Four : it was the one from my old house, my mom gave it to me when i came here
[2:50] Four : wait what are you doing in my house
[2:51] Three : ok bye
[2:51] Four : THREE
Three almost wanted to throw her phone out of the window too, but opted for throwing it on the couch instead. She let out a low sigh as she buried her face into a pillow. She'd give anything for a nap right now. Actually, maybe she could—
She felt sharp fingers tug gently at her mantle. "No napping!" Eight scowled her. "We still have everything else to do!"
Three let out an even deeper sigh as she reluctantly sat up. 'Way to ruin a squid's dreams of tranquility…' She took a glance on the cushion, only to find that she had left some more leftover flour on it. That was one more thing to clean again.
"Come on, the quicker we do it, the sooner you can nap!" Eight was already going through the two other bags they had brought. She started to take out various items, all getting more and more colorful by the second. She looked at Three and gave her a motivated smile. "We're going to make this really awesome, you'll see!"
Deep down, she didn't really know if it was going to be this awesome, but seeing Eight so motivated did grow a bit on her. Four may keep secret blenders in her kitchen, but at least she did deserve that they try to make her birthday really great.
She got up and walked closer to Eight, still talking about where they could hang all of the decorations they bought, and set aside the napping for a while.