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The captain tapped their fingers restlessly on the wooden box they sat on, watching the other agents chat amongst themselves happily. Once the new additions, Deep Cut, clamor to get Marie’s attention, the fresh ink recruited to the New Squidbeak Splatoon turns their attention towards them. The soft, knowing smile on their face was familiar- they had known it for years after all. Now… Now it was weighed down with a sense of understanding- knowing even just a fraction of the struggle they had experienced for almost seven years now and it was earth-shatteringly cathartic to see plastered on their face.
After a light jog to the captain’s side, the inkling stops. A light silence hovers above them, trapped by the artificial skyline- a relic of an age long lost. Finally, the new recruit breaks the silence, a flash of uncertainty disappearing as quickly as it came.
“Lohi…”
A simple utterance, but that one word was so full of questions unanswered, words unspoken yet so, so loud it threatened to crush the captain to a single puddle of ink on the ground.
“Rune… I…”
And as those gentle, turquoise eyes bore into her once more, the answer caught in her throat. She should know everything, she has to.
Yet all she could see was that carefree, turf war team captain from inkopolis slowly taking on the reflection Lohi came to know in the mirror each morning.
She couldn’t do that to her so soon.
“You… don’t have to say anything.” Is all the cyan inkling uttered, much to the captain’s dismay. She frowned immediately. In Lohi’s eyes, that just wouldn’t do.
“Rune. I know you’re worried and that I haven’t been able to… e-explain myself at all, but…”
They trail off again, letting their nerves get the better of them. A deep sigh tears through their frame as they try to dredge up memories bit by bit, yet not wanting to overwhelm themselves.
“Lohi, it’s okay. I promise, you don’t owe me anything.” Neo 3 reasserts, a bit more stern this time. That desire to protect her teammates hadn’t dwindled one bit even after all these years.
“N-No just-!” She hisses, growing more frustrated by her own hesitance. “Just… let me tell you about the scar at least.”
Rune’s expression remains thoughtful as she takes a seat on the ground in front of Lohi. “Alright, but don’t force yourself to do this all at once. We can… ‘Iunno… get some coffee or something next time.”
Thankfully, that got a smile out of the captain. “Eh, still not a fan of coffee, but I’ll take you up on that. Anyway, you remember when octolings first started joining society at large?”
Rune’s eyes widen instantly. “Don’t tell me… that was you guys!?”
Lohi shakes her head. “Nah, that was captain and someone else really. I was just stuck in the underground trying to find Cuttlefish, and I was able to save him and the agent from being… ch-chopped up but… uh…”
Lohi’s voice drops to just over a whisper after the initial pause. The look in her eyes sent a shiver down Rune’s back.
“The guy that was trapping us there… he shot this… awful ooze at me. I… don’t remember what happened while that stuff was on me… I just remember all the voices in my head. They… they were in so much pain… I-I…”
The captain forces her eyes shut, trying her best not to tremble. Rune rises to her feet, slowly extending her hands to rest on the captain’s cheeks. Brushing her thumb over the faint green splotch on her skin, she sighs. With so little information given away, Rune was able to put the pieces together- to understand the depths of her suffering. She had always been this way- logical, but kind, and very, very perceptive.
“You look… so tired, Lohi.”
She was. She hadn’t slept properly in years.
“I’ll… be alright.”
Rune’s expression drops further, her admittance another weight seemingly dropped onto her shoulders. “You know… it’s okay to not be, right?”
Lohi’s shoulders stiffen at her realization. She had told herself as much whenever she awoke with a start in the middle of the night. It was… sobering to hear it from someone else. “I-I… I know.”
Rune smiles, though it’s enveloped in nothing but sadness towards her former (turned back to current) teammate. She wordlessly approaches the captain, frame fragile by the toil of their battles- mental or otherwise. After they exchange a quick glance, Rune bends down to give the captain a hug. Shocked at first, Lohi holds her arms out to her sides as they were unsure what to do with them. After a moment of contemplation, she allows her arms to rest on the small of Rune’s back, clinging desperately to something she hadn’t felt in years.
Comfort in familiarity.
“R-Rune…” the captain weeps quietly into their shoulder, trembling all the while. “Th-Thank you… I… I missed you.”
Rune embraces the other wordlessly as the captain cries quietly, yet violently into her chest. Who knows how long she had been holding onto all this- how much she kept down because she didn’t want her fellow agents to worry about her?
“I missed you too, Lohi. Glad to see you’re okay.”
The grip on her jacket tightens, and Lohi gasps for air between her sobs. “M…mm-hm!”
Rune simply holds the captain tighter, anguish that had been bottled up inside rushing out all at once. She stands over her captain’s hunched form, covering her act of falling apart from the remaining agents. Little buddy had finally managed to wander back over to Rune’s side, but jumped up onto Lohi’s lap once they recognized their distress. They hop up and down a few times before Lohi finally pulls away from Rune, gazing down at the miniscule salmonid with a misty smile.
“Th… Thank you little guy… I’m… doing better now.”
Rune giggles as she plucks the smallfry off Lohi’s lap with both hands, lifting him up into the air over her head with a brillant grin. “Aw, Hucho. You wanted to make sure Lohi was alright, huh?”
The little salmonid barks out an enthused noise, wriggling in her grip as if to show the extent of how much he agreed. Lohi wipes her cheeks on her sleeve and laughs, a sliver of the inkling Rune had come to know almost 7 years ago shining through. “Hehe, thanks for checking on me buddy.”
The salmonid, content with the response he was getting, leaps from Rune’s palms and dives back into the small pocket attached to her ink tank. Now that her companion was settled, the inkling turns back to her captain, a sense of relief taking shape in her features.
“Listen, after we finish cleaning up around here, you want to grab something for dinner? We can invite the others if you want, or it can just be you and me.”
Lohi gazes back to the other agents, noticing their air of celebration hadn’t died down yet. She sighs and finally concedes to shaking her head. “We can take them some other time. I… I’d like to hear what you’ve been up to since I left.”
Rune’s smile softens, a warmth radiating from her frame that only further calmed the captain’s nerves. “Sounds like a plan.”
They hear a shout from the other group, turning around to find all eyes fixed on the duo. The tingling of anxiety pricked the tips of the captain’s fingers and toes, threatening to turn her to stone. However, the sensations melt away as Rune’s eyes counter the burn of waiting stares, and she extends a hand to the seated inkling. “Shall we?”
Lohi stares at it, as if waiting for an illusion to shatter. Once she confirms her perception is true, she places her fingertips into her companion’s palm as she rises to her feet.
“Yeah, let’s go.”
As the shabby wooden crate lay further and further behind the duo, the fog that threatened to swallow Lohi whole was left behind with it. Met with the smiling faces of everyone they had shared this journey with felt more meaningful somehow, and Lohi allowed herself to return the gesture.
Yes, she wasn’t okay now, but she doesn’t have to be. The prospect of her beginning to feel okay… now it seemed much more within her reach.