Chapter Text
It began with a scream.
Marie had been trained from a young age to be an agent, and thus when she heard the sound of a scream, she was wide awake and shooting out of her bed in an instant, and making her way out the door and to the source of the scream, her state of undress be damned.
Bursting through the door to Callies room, Marie took in the sight of Callie hyperventilating in her bed, hands scratching at her face, dangerously close to her eyes. Callie looked up at Marie, but her eyes were foggy, barely seeing her, and were instead darting around, locking onto nothing and yet everything.
“P-please!” She pleaded. “S-stop! Make the lights stop!” a whine escaped from Callies throat then, and she began clawing at her face with renewed vigor, attempting to remove an unseen obstruction.
Marie moved forwards quickly, she couldn’t let Callie go on like this for too long or she’d end up hurting herself again! It was far from the first time that Callie had woken up screaming, and it was far from the first time Marie had had to rush in and prevent her from accidentally clawing her own eyes out.
The nightmares had been a common occurrence ever since Callie’s rescue from the Octarians, the hypnoshades had kept her mind weak and suggestable, yes, but in doing so it had left her lasting scars, not even counting the ones around her eyes from when Marie had shattered them with her charger.
“Cal- It's fine, It’s me! Marie, you’re home!” Said Marie as she slowly crawled onto the bed with Callie, not touching her, no, touching her, or trying to restrain her in any way was a horrible idea, one she had learnt through experience.
Callie stopped her clawing and looked in Marie’s directions, her eyes still not quite focusing on her. “M-Mar? No! You can’t be here! The lights-” She began, before her breathing began to quicken.
“Cal, listen to me, there aren’t any lights, you aren’t wearing the glasses. Can you close your eyes for me?”
Callie shakily nodded before closing her eyes tight, but her body was still shaking and breathing was still rapid.
“I- They’re still there Marie! I don’t want- I-” Callie stumbled over her words, tears forcing their way out of her closed eyes.
Marie slowly moved her way behind Callie. “I’m going to cover your eyes Cal, I’m not going to let the lights get you.” She said, before wrapping her arms around Callie in a mixture of a hug, but also moving her hands so they’d cover Callie’s eyes, loose enough to move if Callie began having an adverse reaction to being restricted, but firm enough to assert her presence.
Thankfully, Callie didn’t react negatively to her touch, and allowed herself to be embraced. They stayed that way for a few minutes, Marie whispering assurances in Callies ear.
“You’re home safe, with me.”
“I won’t let you be taken from me again.”
“Octavio is in his globe, he isn’t able to get out.”
Slowly, Callie’s breathing began to calm down, and Marie could feel her shaking slow. Good, that meant she was beginning to calm down, and would become more lucid. Marie hated Octavio for what he did, taking her cousin and “remixing her brain”, on nights like this she had to restrict her desire to go over to the octo canyon and turn that old man into takoyaki.
Marie slowly removed her hands from Callies eyes, causing Callie’s breath to hitch. “Mar-” She began, but Marie hushed her, before shifting back and crossing her legs, and began pulling Callie back into a lying position, her head on Marie’s legs, which were bare considering she hadn’t had time to put on pants.
Upon Callie’s head's weight being put on her legs, Marie grabbed one of her tentacles, which hadn’t been tied up into one of the complex bows she kept them long for, and gently draped it over Callie’s eyes.
Neither said a word for a long time, just enjoying the feeling of each other's presence. In the silence, Marie began playing with her cousins' tentacles, gently working at them and removing any tangles that might’ve occurred in the stress, and just enjoying the feeling of running them through her hands.
They were silky smooth, the same as hers, after all, they both had the same care set up for them. But despite that, Marie had always preferred playing with Callie’s tentacles over her own, even back when they were children.
Eventually, Marie’s eyes drifted down the length of Callies body down to her abdomen, where her shirt had hiked up a bit and revealed a large patch of scar tissue. It was the remains of the octopus tattoo that Callie had been
branded
with back when she was enslaved into the octarian military.
A frown found its way onto her face as she reached over and gently ran her fingers across it, causing Callie to shiver under her touch. It hadn’t been removed instantly, they had had an appointment to have it professionally removed, but unfortunately, they hadn’t made it to that. Callie had had a bad night, similarly to this one, but Marie hadn’t woken up that time, and by the time she had, it was to the sounds of screams of pain instead of screams of terror.
Callie had seen the tattoo and in her panic, decided that she had to remove it
now
. She had gone to the kitchen and mixed up a cup of brine water, before using it to melt the tattoo, and the flesh it was on, right off of her. Marie had woken up at this point and freaked out, bringing Callie to the bathroom and using the first aid kit they kept to tend to the wound, but the damage had been done.
She continued running her finger in circles on the scar absentmindedly, until a hand reached over and grabbed hers, preventing her from continuing. Marie smiled sadly and shifted her hand so she was holding Callie’s and gave it a comforting squeeze, continuing running her fingers through Callie’s tentacles with the other.
And they sat there, holding hands and with Marie petting Callie for cod knows how long, all the lights were off and Marie had left her phone in her own room. But with her thumb rubbing slow circles on the back of Cal’s hand and her other hand comfortably entangled in her cousin's tentacles, she feels like she could sit here for hours and not realize the time that had passed.
Eventually however, things had to change, and that change was Callie reaching up with her free hand to remove the tentacle from her eye’s. Marie looked down at Callie’s face, which was now gazing up at her in turn. Callie’s eyes were focused now, from what she could see in the low light of the room, and looking right into hers.
“Marie… I-” Callie began, her voice croaky and hoarse, she did her best to clear her throat. Marie sat there patiently, giving the hand in her own a quick squeeze of reassurance.
“I’m sorry I keep waking you up like this… And keep making you have to calm me down, I’m sure it must be getting a bit annoying by now…”
Marie raised an unimpressed eyebrow and gave Callie one of her crooked grins. “If I could’ve been driven away by you being annoying, I would’ve been long gone by now Cal.” She joked, using the hand that had been in Callie’s tentacles to give her a light flick to the forehead, before it went back to its previous task.
Callie attempted a glare, but quickly broke into a smile and a few chuckles, causing Marie’s grin to turn into something more genuine, the sight of Callie smiling warming her hearts and making them flutter, just a tiny bit.
“Well I’m glad you can put up with me, it… it really means a lot to me, that you’ve been here for me, that you
saved
me, and…” Callie began to blush, and Marie wondered what that meant, but in her wondering she almost didn’t notice Callie slowly bring her tentacle, that Callie was still holding, to her face and press a gentle kiss upon the sucker, causing Marie to freeze in shock. What-
Callie looked directly into her eyes, blush still warm on her face. “Thank you so much, for being here, for helping me, for saving me and- and everything you do for me every day. It means so much to me that you’re here for me and I l-” Callies blush deepens as she cuts herself off, bringing Marie’s tentacle back up to her face to hide behind. “Just… Thank you.” She finishes.
Marie is blushing herself, what had Callie been saying there before she cut herself off? Why did she kiss her sucker like that? Why were her hearts beating so quickly? She had many questions and very few answers, but for now, she knew what she wanted to do.
Marie gently eased her tentacle away from in front of Callie’s face and leant down, pressing her forehead against Callies, ignoring the cute squeak that came from Callie as she did so.
“Callie.” She began, her voice warm and full of care. “You don’t have to thank me for doing stuff I’ve been doing my entire life and will continue doing for the rest of it. You are my dork of a cousin and there is literally nowhere else I’d rather be than by your side, helping and supporting you with whatever you need, whenever you need it.”
After saying that, Marie couldn’t contain the emotions in her chest anymore and began to purr, a strong and audible thing that was able to cause both her and Callie to feel the vibrations going through them, and hear the room fill with the sound of it.
Callie giggled at the sound of her cousin purring, which only caused Marie to purr louder, the sound of Callie’s laughter filling her with joy. From up close Marie could see the scar’s around Callie’s eyes, very faint, but Marie knew them well, she had caused them after all.
But they didn’t matter, since Callie’s eyes were pulled tight from joy. “Thank you Mar…” She said, before her own purrs joined Marie’s, and they remained like that for a while, purring and enjoying each other's warmth and presence.
After a significant amount of time, Marie let out a yawn, her beak on full display to the work for the few seconds it took for the yawn to take its toll, once finished, she looked down to see Callie smirking at her.
“What are you smirking for Cal? You’re the one who woke me up at an uncodly hour in the morning” She teased, sending a smirk at the smug looking squid.
Callie simply stuck her tongue out at her, causing Marie to roll her eyes and begin shifting, causing Callie to sit up and turn to look at her. Standing up from the bed and stretching, Marie stifled another yawn.
“I think I’m going to head to bed now Cal, make sure to wake me up if you need anything, yeah?” She told her cousin, before turning around and making to leave. But before she could, she felt something wrap around her wrist, and turned around to see Callie grabbing her wrist and staring at her with wide eyes.
“Cal, what-”
“P-please, don’t go.”
Marie’s eyes widened, surprise running through her. But to hide this shock she grinned again and decided to make light of it. “What? You gonna keep me up all night? I’m afraid that even as great as I am Cal, I
do
need sleep.”
Callie just shook her head, a shy look appearing on her face. “N-no, I mean…” she gulped, before looking down at the bed, hiding her face behind her tentacles. “Do you… Do you think you could sleep with me tonight..?”
Marie stood there, staring at Callie as she processed the request that was just given to her. It had been years since the two had last slept together, they had done it often enough as children, but once they moved to Inkopolis and got an apartment with separate rooms, there had never once been a reason for the two to share a bed.
Callie took Marie’s silence as a rejection, and pulled her hand away from Marie’s wrist, her face blank. “I- Sorry for asking Mar.. That was pretty weird of me eh? I should’ve known better…” She tried injecting false pep into her words, but Marie wasn’t fooled for a second.
Making her decision, she turned around and crawled back into the bed with Callie, causing her to widen her eyes in surprise. Marie just made her way under the covers before patting the spot next to her, pulling the covers back a bit as an open invitation.
“What, you’re going to invite me for a sleepover and you’re just going to sit there all night and leave me hanging?” Teased Marie, humor used to cover her own nervousness over the situation. Callie quickly shook her head and made her way over to the spot Marie had patted, slipping under the covers and allowing Marie to cover her the rest of the way.
“Goodnight Mar, Thank you again…”
“Pft, No problem Cal, Goodnight.”
Marie lied there, listening to Callie’s breathing slow down until it evened out in a way that told Marie she was asleep. But for some reason, Marie couldn’t manage to sleep, no matter how long she held her eyes shut and kept her mind blank, sleep would not come to her, and her mind kept drifting back to the presence beside her.
When Callie had disappeared, Marie had been distraught, calling in favour upon favour to try and track her down, she could remember the feeling of overwhelming anxiety at not knowing what had happened to her, it felt like her hearts were all being ripped apart.
She remembered the fury she felt when she learnt that Callie had been taken by Octavio, the overwhelming relief she felt when she had gotten her back from them, and the constant worry she felt for Callie during her recovery.
And she remembered another feeling, one she hardly ever let herself feel, it happened most often during the tender moments between the two, such as earlier when she had Callie’s head on her lap and got to see her giggle at one of Marie’s smart comments, or during the times when Callie show’s her physical affection, through hugs… Cuddles… Kisses…
Marie knew deep in her hearts, that the love she felt for Callie was more than she was supposed to, it wasn’t one meant to be shared between cousins, she knew that, and knew she had to keep it hidden.
For both her and Callie’s sake.
Marie was brought out of her thoughts by Callie letting out a whine, looking over she saw her begin to thrash slightly, her face pulled into a distressed expression. Marie didn’t let herself hesitate for a moment before rolling over and throwing an arm around Callie.
Callie continued her struggle, and Marie began to purr, pulling Callie closer to herself. It didn’t do anything for a bit, but after a few moments Callie struggle began to lessen, and eventually cease as her face relaxed and her breathing balanced out.
Holding Callie close, feeling her warmth against her and being able to smell the shampoo she had used the previous night, Marie decided that despite the nature of her own feelings, and the fact that she could never, ever let them be known. Marie loved her cousin, and she would never, ever allow anyone to hurt her again.
And with her arm wrapped around Callie and their body’s pressed close, Marie fell asleep, and neither of them woke up again that night.