Work Text:
Picnic In The Park
“Agent Four has entered the Moray Representation.”
“All Inactive Units, report to emergency stations.”
“Splatoon 7077, Inkling Containment Specialists, Standing By.”
Mince disentangles her tentacles from her little horselings' tails and stops to press a kiss to her father's forehead. “Dad, I love you, but I'm gonna be late!”
“You're growing up too fast,” he says, holding out his fins; Mince wraps her tentacle around one, and he squeezes it, pressing down hard on her sucker in the way that makes her feel loved. “Feels like just yesterday I picked you off the street. Got everything?”
Mince hoists her bag. “The ice packs'll keep the drinks cool for hours. Lucky's bringing the food for our picnic; I think she wants me to try a new recipe.”
He chuckles. “It's a special occasion, isn't it?”
“First picnic since last year, ugh, the snow lasted for ever,” Mince releases her dad and pulls her bag over her shoulders.
“You come home by ten, got it? You look tired. Have you been sleeping well?”
Mince shrugs, already heading for the door. She doesn't want to talk about this. “Just some bad dreams.”
“Zapfish under threat,
reroute power to the respawn pads.”
“Elites,
reroute your squads' hypnoshade energy
to transport pads! ”
“Send in extra octosnipers,
man every position!”
“Mincey!”
Mince hurries across the grass, still muddy in the early spring, to where Lucky sits on a blanket. It's their spot, on top of the hill of Betafish Park, with a view of the climbing wall and playground. They've taken their squiblings here together before, Mince with Arie and Adell and Adrian, Lucky with Millie and Moe and Benji and Harrison, pushing them on the swings together and sometimes Mince's dad or Lucky's brother and his fiance will come to pick up the kids so they can stay later.
But it's best with just the two of them, a perfect view of the whole area around, lots of space to talk and laugh without anyone overhearing or watching. Just them.
Mince takes a seat on the blanket. “I brought sparkling grape juice, and apple juice, and mango juice,” she says. “I thought we could mix them.”
Lucky grins. “Oh, that'll be great to try!”
“It's just one inklAAA!”
“Splatoon 7075, go.”
“They're not respawning
they're not respawning
WHY ARE THEY NOT RESPAWNING?!
“I think Lexi and I have decided on a new, profreshional name for me,” Lucky says, when they've both finished their sandwiches and have moved on to Lucky's newest experiment, pineapple-apple empanadas with maple glaze. “Lia. It's enough like my old name that my younger squiblings can use it easily, but it gets rid of that awful thing my parents gave me and I like it.”
“I think I like it too,” Mince says. “And Lucky Lia just... what's the expression? Swims from the mouth?”
“Rolls off the tongue, I think,” Lucky says. “I like it too.”
“Splatoon 7076, go!”
“The respawn pads are online
it says the respawn pads are online
but they're not coming back,”
“Splatoon 7077,
prepare for deployment.”
“I need to tell you something,” Mince says, and she can't look at Lucky. “It's... you know those domes people have been talking about, for ages? And the Octoling Refugees, and, and stuff?”
Lucky puts a hand on Mince's knee, and Mince swallows hard and looks at her. “Mincey,” Lucky says, “I already know. And I don't care. You're you.”
She shakes her head. “You know? How?”
“Well...” Lucky picks up another empanada, puts it down, picks at the crust. “I'm agent four.”
“Splatoon 7077, deploy.”
“STOP!
The transporters are down,
I repeat, the transporters are down.”
“The zapfish are lost.
None of them are coming back.”
The crushed empanada leaks jelly all over Mince's fingers as she stares at... at agent four. She's met a member of Splatoon 7076 since coming to Inkopolis. They were being kidnapped, held for questioning, unharmed. But the fear churns in her stomach, and Mince opens her mouth, to find nothing to say.
“I didn't know how to bring it up,” Lucky says. “But it doesn't matter to me. I really like you, Mince. I—”
“We should break up,” Mince says, and before she's finished saying the words she's standing up. “I don't think I can be with someone like you.”
One of her hearts is broken, one is frozen with terror, and the third wants to run, but Mince walks away without looking back.