Chapter Text
"Hey, bucko! Time to rise and shine! Assuming, uh, this message was sent to you around when you woke up like I told this darned thing to do. But enough of that! INTRODUCTIONS! Let's start with you -- your name is Agent Four...you're 18 years old...and you just splatted the heck out of DJ Octavio and rescued my granddaughter! Yes? Sounds right to you? And now about me..."
"How can you stand listening to Gramps on loop like that?" Marie murmured, watching the trembling Inkling with a chuckle. "Nim I can understand, sure, but I can barely handle Gramps talking to me for half an hour. You've been playing that message non-stop for two days now. You know you can just fast forward or, I don't know, trim it or something, right?"
"That's too much work. His voice isn't that bad..." Ryle mumbled, intense golden eyes never once leaving the screen clutched three inches from his face. Anyone watching him would've thought he was either insane or ridiculously cold -- it wasn't as if he was trying to rock back and forth curled up into a nervous ball of tremors and quick, light breaths. It just...happened. "Now shh! I'm...I'm trying to listen..." The kimono-clad woman just rolled her eyes and stared into the empty space between the opposing platforms. The empty space where her grandfather, good friend, and new recruit would find themselves in just a few minutes more.
"But long story short, you can just call me Cap'n Cuttlefish. At least, that's what I would say...if THIS squid weren't taking the reins real soon! Take it away, Three!" Even though this was about the seven thousandth time he had heard it, he couldn't help but hold his breath in anticipation.
"What? I...well, okay." There it was. That rush of pure euphoria, of nostalgia, of understanding that came from his boyfriend's voice, his boyfriend's hoarse yet ever enchanting and impossibly familiar voice hitting him for the first time in two years... Never had he grown tired of listening to his voice in the thirteen years he had known him, and, he promised to himself, never would he in the precious time fate allotted them to be together.
"Um...hi. Agent Four. As...Craig just explained, I'm going to be the captain for the New Squidbeak Splatoon effective...soon. Once I get my bearings and everything. I'm sorry Craig and I weren't able to guide you and support you when you were inducted into the group -- we'll explain everything once we get back to Inkopolis. For now, all you need to know is that we were caught in a...mishap of sorts. And that we're okay now." There was so much the Inkling wanted to say, so coddamn much. I know who you are. I joined the Squidbeak Splatoon to look for you. Please don't apologize. That you're alive and well is enough.
"I heard from Marie that you beat back DJ Octavio and rescued the Great Zapfish and Callie in my absence -- I can't thank you enough. It couldn't have been easy -- I should know better than anyone. Cap- I mean, Craig- and I will arrive in Inkopolis in about two days. Please don't be alarmed by the way I look when we do. I'll...explain that, too. Again -- thank you for everything you've done for Inkopolis and for my friends. We may not have met yet, but, already, I owe you a lot. Eight, do you want to add anything?" He stopped the message there.
He happily sighed, clutching his phone to his chest as if his world would come apart at the seams if anyone dared to even try to steal away his little glimpse of his boyfriend, his tiny slice of a world unknown to him but fast approaching to converge with his own. It might've been a fleeting, garbled glimpse, a completely impersonal glimpse meant for the code name and not the Inkling beneath, but it was his glimpse, his precious glimpse, nonetheless.
"Has he really not sent you any messages at all besides that one? I would've thought the first person in the world he'd try to contact after he came back is his boyfriend."
"No, he hasn't! And I don't know why!" Ryle cried, his huge, trembling pools of bright dandelion swirling with emotion as they reared up to meet those of his friend. "I've replayed our last day together in my head over and over, and I still can't figure out what I did! Still can't figure out what...what went wrong..." His hand drifted to his tentacles, sliding along the rubbery surface until it ran over the tiny metallic ornament pierced there. With a deft, practiced movement, his fingers slipped it out, his heart sinking when his eyes fell upon the crumpled plastic golden toothpick, a massive dent in the hollow sphere near the toothpick's tip. Its once gleaming luster was barely noticeable at this point -- would the boy's own shine look the same way to Nim when he arrived?
"The day before he vanished...minutes before...I tripped and fell, and this toothpick he gave me for my birthday fell out of my tentacles and got crushed underneath someone's foot... I just can't stop thinking about it -- was that the universe giving me a sign to tell him to stay home? Some, I dunno, some divine omen that things were about to go wrong that I should've acted on? I was never a religious person, but..." He sighed, leaning back and letting his head rest atop the back of his seat. "Cods, if only I'd done something to stop him..."
"Ryle. You couldn't have known. This isn't your fault." Marie assured him, her fierce eyes suddenly clouding with sorrow. "I definitely couldn't have known that when Callie left the apartment that day, she would... I understand better than most that it's easy to blame yourself when there's no one else you can blame. But Cal wouldn't have wanted me to beat myself up over what happened, and I'm sure Nim wouldn't want you to, either."
"Really? How...How do you know?"
"Well..." She turned to the empty subway tracks, a small smile playing on her cheeks as a distinctive horn began to resonate throughout the platform. She could see a tiny light slowly engulfing the end of the long pitch-black tunnel. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"
"Hnk." Was all the boy could manage in response.