Work Text:
There was something kinda neat about walking into a room that was lit differently from where you’d just come from. The hallways of their apartment complex didn’t have any windows and were lit primarily by these plain blue LED bar things that ran along the ceiling, giving everything a sort of ocean-y hue when paired with the color of the paint on the walls. It was like entering a completely different world when Hook opened the door to their apartment, stepping into a much warmer-colored living space that was bathed in the oranges and purples of the sun as it went down. As Maya walked in behind him, closing the door with a soft click, Hook flicked on the light to the ceiling fan before crossing the room to draw the blinds.
“Wait on the couch for me, I’ll go grab something.” the Inkling called over his shoulder, heading towards his room. Hook went straight for the wooden dresser that stood near his bed, pulling open the top drawer and feeling around for his elusive prey. After a moment, he successfully retrieved the ‘Guide to Inkopolis Living’ magazine which he’d bought the other day. Full of hot tips on making the most of your time in the City of Colors!
Brandishing the magazine, he returned to the living room and flopped down on the couch next to Maya. A few moments of perusing the pages while she looked over his shoulder led Hook to the part that he’d been looking for, a highly acclaimed pizza shop called “Berfooda Triangle” located in downtown Inkopolis. A full half-page was dedicated to the menu and the shop’s phone number.
“Alright, Maya,” Hook said while handing the magazine to his friend, “this place has a reputation for some of the best pizza in Inkopolis. Their toppings menu is supposed to be shella long, too.”
Maya furrowed her brow, taking it from him. “What is pizza?” she asked.
Hook stared at the girl in disbelief. What kind of town did she come from, anyway? “Seriously? No Turf War, no movies, no pizza… you haven’t experienced anything!”
Maya wilted. “Not like you have.” she murmured.
“Alright, well… pizza is, like, bread with sauce and cheese on it. And some other stuff if you want. It’s crazy good!”
“I see. So, we are deciding what to eating, and then going to the restaurant?”
“No, dude, we can call them and they’ll bring it here.”
The tall girl’s eyes widened in surprise as she looked at Hook. “We are able to use such a service? It is not being expensive?” she asked, incredulous.
Hook shook his head, suppressing a smile at the shock on her face. It was sad that she’d experienced so little, but introducing her to new things was kinda fun since she always reacted like this. “Not really. Well, the delivery charge can get kinda pricey, but it’s not so expensive that we can’t do it every now and then.” he replied. “Now c’mon, peep that menu!”
Maya looked back down at the magazine, her eyes scanning the page. After a brief few moments where her expression grew tighter and tighter, the girl sighed, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose.
“Too many options?” the Inkling boy asked, glancing down at the page. Now that he was looking at it again, Berfooda Triangle did have a crazy amount of toppings. Most of the space was devoted to a full list in a fairly small font.
“Something like that.” Maya replied, giving the magazine back to Hook. “I am not eating this before. Please, giving me a suggestion?”
“Well, if you want my opinion, then it has to be…”
Moments later, Hook was on the phone with the pizza place while the tall girl sat on the couch, remote in hand, searching through the channels. It was a little interesting to see Maya watch TV; unlike anyone else he had ever met, the girl didn’t just flip from channel to channel. She spent a decent amount of time, like twenty seconds or more, on each channel she passed by, even if something boring like the news was on. It was like she was actually trying to sample the contents of each program before moving on. Maybe she hadn’t had much TV where she came from either? At this point, it wouldn’t surprise Hook if they didn’t have fun in her hometown.
Pizza ordered, the boy rejoined Maya on the couch. She’d seemed to settle on a drama about investigators who were on the trail of a murderer; the three adult squids and their plucky kid sidekick had tracked the trail of a salmonid butcher to an abandoned old processing plant, and had split up to ‘search for evidence,’ flashlights beaming in the dark and illuminating all kinds of weird machinery and metal signage. It seemed like it was meant to be a pretty suspenseful show, but ended up as the kind of thing that stopped having any tension once you thought about it for like, three seconds.
For starters, a salmonid butcher that had been eating Inklings in the middle of town, away from any other salmonids? A little hard to believe already, but then you had to think about how nobody saw the huge squid-eating fish. And then when the detectives find the trail, they split up in the middle of the villain’s lair? It became pretty funny. But then, that was fun in its own way.
“You like this kind of stuff?” Hook asked Maya, whose eyes were glued to the screen. She nodded her head slowly.
“That machine, it is a type of electrical generator.” the girl answered. “Meaning for using with zapfish, a newer model that does not use water to create power. And this style of use metal cross-beams on the central portion of the factory is also being new to me. And the pressing device, there… It is being interesting to see things that are considered old in Inkopolis.”
The boy raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Wait, so… do you not care about the premise of the show? The investigation and stuff?”
Maya looked at him, seeming confused. “The investigation?” she repeated, furrowing her brow. “Is it not a little silly, with a salmonid villain and the splitting up? They will be caught.”
Hook started laughing, doubling over on the couch as the tall girl regarded him with even more confusion. When he’d finished, he wiped a tear from his eye and patted her on the shoulder. “You and me are on the same page, Maya.” he chuckled appreciatively. The corners of her mouth twitched, and she returned to watching the show, though the interest with which she watched also seemed to be colored by self-consciousness now.
The show had just finished when the buzzer for their apartment rang. Hook jumped up from his seat, grabbing a bag full of coins from the counter which he’d set aside and opening the door to greet the pizza squid, a boy who looked a bit older than him with his side-swept tentacles peeking out from underneath the bright red cap he wore. A tag on his shirt said ‘You were served by: TASMAN’.
“Berfooda Triangle’s pizza. We never get lost.” Tasman said somewhat sedately, handing a pair of pizza boxes to Hook. “Thirteen hundred G.”
“Long day?” Hook asked, trading the pizza boxes for the money.
“Getting longer. But the pizza must run on time.” the older boy answered. “Might be getting some rain tonight.”
“Oh yikes. Stay dry!”
As Tasman walked off, muted words of appreciation thrown over his shoulder, Hook closed and locked the door again, moving towards the table. He could see Maya looking at him from over the back of the couch, her attention completely diverted from the television to the divine smelling boxes that were wafting their scent through the apartment. She joined him, standing beside the table as he fetched a pair of plates, and when he popped the top box open, he couldn’t help but inhale deeply as the full force of the pizza’s aroma hit him.
“I tell you, Maya, there’s nothing quite like pizza.” he remarked, putting two slices on each plate and handing one to Maya. “You’ve got so many different crusts, cheeses, toppings, sometimes they’ll stuff the crust.”
The tall girl regarded the pizza with some skepticism, glancing up at Hook. “This is look more like a mess than food.” she remarked.
Hook smiled, making his way back towards the couch. “Just you wait, Maya. You’ll know what you’ve been missing from the very first bite.”
“We are not eat at the table?”
“Eating in front of the TV is a privilege of pizza eaters! It’s a party food!”
Still clearly unconvinced, Maya nevertheless followed Hook, sitting beside him on the sofa as the boy grabbed the remote and flipped channels to a cartoon series that he’d loved when he was younger; it wasn’t airing anymore, but the show had been popular enough that the reruns were on almost constantly.
“This is food to be eaten with our hands?” Maya questioned.
“Yup! Okay, so look, the proper pizza technique is…”
Hook displayed how to hold the slice, bringing it to his mouth and taking an enormous bite. As the meats and cheeses mingled together, Maya gave one last doubtful look at her own slice before biting down as Hook had.
Over the next few seconds, Hook watched as her expression went from uncertain, to surprised, to impressed.
“How’s pizza?” he asked, grinning.
“Pizza is good.” Maya replied quickly, taking another bite.
They didn’t talk much as they ate, Hook getting absorbed in the show while Maya was attacking the meal like a ravenous salmonid. Hook didn’t mind, mostly because he could see her tension about the race tomorrow being chipped away with every bite.
After finishing off the first two slices, Maya went back to the boxes and came back with three more on her plate. In the middle of their battle, Hook’s phone buzzed; looked like an invite to a chat group with Slick and Washi. He glanced over at Maya, seeing her still fully engaged in her food, and decided that it wouldn’t hurt to let her eat in peace.
The conversation was short, and Hook set his phone down only a minute later to resume his meal. To be honest, the whole ‘challenging Sharpie’ thing still didn’t sit right with him. After all, he was the one that the girl had a problem with. In an ideal world, he would’ve stood up for himself and Maya wouldn’t have felt the need to get involved. Unfortunately, that hadn’t happened, and now his friend was determined to get him out of his own mess.
Well, no matter the outcome, he’d resolved to stop taking crap from that foul-mouthed Inkling. Washi was right, there was no sense in worrying too much about it. Following Maya’s single-minded lead, he decided to focus on nothing but chowing down.
Whatever happens, happens.
Their war against the pizza lasted for about an hour, and when they finally laid down their arms, a box and a half had vanished. Most of that had been Maya packing away slices like she was afraid they’d disappear; she’d eaten almost double what Hook had. The boy took Maya’s plate and stood to put the remaining pizza in the fridge, dropping off the dishes in the sink while he was at it. When he returned, he found Maya laying down across the sofa, eyes closed, hands on her stomach. The look on her face was pretty much a textbook example of someone who was both satisfied and regretful at the amount of food they’d just eaten.
“Yeah, that’s about what I expected.” the boy grinned, taking a seat on the chair next to the couch instead. “So, what’d you think?”
“I was careless.” she replied, not opening her eyes. “It is a lot of food. But very good.”
“Yeah, you really gulped it down. Think it’s a new favorite?”
“Hmm…”
After a brief pause, Maya slowly eased herself into a sitting position. “I thinking I am liking the hot dogs more.” she answered. “Less fatty. But I do not thinking I could eat so many hot dogs as this. It seems harder to overeat them.”
“Pizza’s like that.” Hook told her, shrugging. “Like I said, it’s a party food. Big portions, big eats. Shella tasty.”
“What other party foods are there?” Maya asked, casting a glance in his direction.
Hook took a moment to think, rubbing his chin. “Aside from pizza, I think the big ones are cake and ice cream.” he answered. “I mean, it sorta depends on what kind of party it is, but those are the main foods I’ve eaten. You’re not about to tell me that you haven’t had cake and ice cream, are you?”
The tall girl shook her head. “I do not know ice cream.” she said. “But I have eating cake before. It is a special treat for ceremonies and birth anniversaries.”
“Oh, thank cod,” Hook said with a laugh, “at least there’s one tasty food that you’ve eaten properly. What kind of cakes did you guys have?”
“I am not sure.” the girl answered quietly. “It is being some time since I have eaten one. The flavors are unclear. And besides, I am not usually liking sweet foods, so I would not be eating much or it would upset my stomach.”
Maya looked out the window, towards the city streets which were now lit by lamps of many colors in the deepening dusk. “But I always thinking they were beautiful. It was making a normal day into something special when our meals had cake, even if I did not eat it. Everyone would smile.”
Hook found himself grinning at the expression on Maya’s face, memories dancing in her eyes. Even though the girl didn’t smile, he’d discovered that her eyes could be really expressive, and right now she reminded him of nothing more than himself when he was younger. The first time he remembered seeing a birthday cake had been amazing, frosted in tons of colors and with his name written on it in huge loopy letters.
He’d been a little worried about Maya’s hometown, since it didn’t seem to have anything fun, but if she could look like that while thinking about it then it couldn’t have been all bad. It lifted a weight off of his heart.
Another episode of the cartoon came and went before Hook glanced up at the clock. It wasn’t too late, but he wanted to wake up early with Maya.
“Alright, think I’m gonna get some sleep.” the boy remarked, standing up and stretching. He always felt so heavy after eating pizza.
Maya nodded, standing as well. “Sleep well, Hook.”
“You too! Hey, let’s grab something to eat when we wake up so you don’t race on an empty stomach.”
The girl grimaced, putting a hand to her stomach again. “It is a good idea, but let us talk no more of food.”
She moved off in the direction of her room, giving a light wave before shutting the door behind her. As Hook returned to his own room and changed into his pajamas, a last flicker of worry about Sharpie crossed his mind before he shoved it away.
He trusted in Maya. When tomorrow came, he had a good feeling that they’d be having some more party food after the race.