Chapter Text
Shiver looked out over the city, sighing from emotions not entirely known to her. She began to reminisce upon the past Splatsfest and how they acted during it. She remembered Frye dancing with power, her face contorted into a wide smile. The way she managed both grace and her signature energy was excruciatingly enchanting to be able to witness. Shiver never knew how she managed to ever measure up to Frye’s magnificence. She then rewound the time in her head to a conversation to be had right before the Splatfest began.
“We are going to kill it!” Frye whisper-shouted to her bandmates, smiling with the grin that never failed to make Shiver utterly enthralled. Big Man was straightening his hat, Frye was ensuring that her hairpiece would not fall out, and Shiver was doing their makeup until Frye started talking. They turned to watch her smile and then return to securing the hairpiece, face becoming focused. Her tongue stuck out ever so slightly, Frye stared at the mirror as though she was putting her appearance to memory. Shiver was so mystified that her friend could be so beautiful that the dreaded question popped into their head once more. Do I love Frye? She was unsure, not wanting to discover that, yes, she did, in case Frye did not feel the same way. Shaking her out of her thoughts, Frye looked at Shiver with one eyebrow raised and her head tilted to the right. “Are you ok, Shiver? You’re staring at me,” she whispered, covering her mouth on the side Big Man was on.
Shiver’s face heated up, horrified they were called out on their semi-accidental staring. “Y-yeah, I’m ok, Frye.” To solidify their point, they smiled the best they could. However, this did not thoroughly convince Frye. The Inkling scooted to the Octoling and put the back of her palm upon their forehead, undoubtedly causing Shiver’s face to further have ink channel to their cheeks. Frye, after what felt like a millennium to Shiver, put her hand down and nodded to the other. She gave the Octoling a quick hug and then began working on her hair a bit more. Shiver sat there for a moment, absolutely dumbfounded, but then sprung back into action and put an extra layer of foundation on just in case.
Shiver started laughing at the recent memory on that balcony, then stopped to groan. “I am such an idiot.” They opened their mouth again to say more, but they heard the balcony door slide open. She assumed that it was Frye, considering that Big Man lived in his own place and no one else lived with Shiver and Frye. When Frye entered her peripheral vision, her suspicion was confirmed. Frye yawned, then leaned against the edge right next to Shiver. Shiver turned their head to Frye, noticing that the moonlight reflected off her eyes so beautifully that Shiver thought she could almost survive off of that sight alone. Frye looked back and smiled at Shiver with her fangs showing as much as ever.
“What are you doing out here so late, Shiv? Did something upset you at the Splatfest? It’s really nice that you won, even if I didn’t,” she said drowsily, the last sentence as though it was an afterthought. Frye’s eyes strayed to Shiver’s hands laying across the railing, and Shiver watched in shock as she put her own hand on top of one of them and rubbed it for a second before putting her hand down and drumming it against her own thigh.
“That’s not it, Frye. It’s just- I don’t know… I just have things to think about…” Shiver glanced at Frye, and her face was doing the dreaded thing in this situation. Frye wanted to help Shiver with their issue. Shiver sighed, giving in to Frye’s pleading expression. “So, there’s this girl that I might like-”
“Oh my cod, really?! I can totally help you with that! What do you need? Emotional support, a wingwoman, someone to push you two together?” Frye said in record time, shaking her hands in excitement. Shiver laughed, feeling more relaxed around Frye than she had in a long time.
“I’m not sure if I like her though. I think she’s the most beautiful woman ever and her existence is so amazing to me that I am unsure how I have ever been graced with her friendship. But I’m not sure if that’s just a great amount of admiration.” Shiver looked at Frye, who was practically vibrating from excitement.
“Let’s go inside so I can go through the chart of things in my head so you can figure it out!” Frye then grabbed Shiver’s hand and practically dragged them inside.
Frye did indeed have a chart from which she pulled from under the couch. Shiver could have sworn that she vacuumed there less than a week ago and had seen no chart. The chart was a flow chart, originally written in pen but seemed to have been gone through using a pencil before. It had a title at the top, which read ‘How to Tell If You Like Someone: Revised’ Frye was grinning at Shiver with such intensity that they did not know how they were still living after witnessing the sight. Frye pointed to the second bubble, as the first one was ‘Do you find them pretty?’ and the answer to that was obvious, and read it aloud.
“Would you kiss them if you could?” Shiver thought for a second, then nodded as ink flooded their face. Frye giggled at the sight and Shiver averted their eyes from mortification. “The next thing is, ‘Would you go on a date with them if they asked?’” Her voice sounded slightly less chipper, which Shiver figured was most likely from returning exhaustion. Shiver once again nodded, then Frye continued down. She stood up to grab a pencil, then traced to where they were.
“Ok, Shiv, last question. If they dated someone else, would you be jealous? This is a no-judgment zone, I don’t mind if you say yes.” Shiver thought for a second, then nodded once more, bringing their fan up to cover their blush. Frye smiled with the same appearance, however, it seemed slightly forced, as though her eyes didn’t crinkle quite as much. “This chart says you like ‘em, then! Good for you, Shiv! I bet she likes you back, whoever it is! You should introduce me sometime unless you’re hiding feelings for someone I know!” At that last sentence, Frye mock fainted from the shock of Shiver hiding something from her. Shiver began to laugh at it, then looked at the time.
“Frye, we should sleep. Good cod, it’s late.” Frye’s nose wrinkled, but she did not object. She instead jumped up and then picked Shiver up, much to their surprise. She then walked to their shared room and plopped Shiver on their bed. She mouthed a ‘Goodnight’ and went to her own bed, almost immediately falling asleep.