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“Hey.”
Headphones jumped. The sudden interruption threw off her aim, and she let go of her Squiffer’s trigger on instinct, her charged-up shot hitting a spot on the wall with a bang rather than the balloon she had been aiming at. She spun around, her royal blue eyes meeting the cyan ones that were staring straight back at her from a shockingly short distance.
“Full Moon Glasses!” She attempted to shake off the leftover shock as she turned her full attention to the inkling girl facing her, lowering her charger. She’d been acquainted with her for a little while now— although they didn’t really speak that often, Moon always seemed to show up wherever Headphones happened to be at the time, no matter if it was the train station, the square, a battle stage she was scoping out, or even the test range, apparently.
“Headphones,” Moon replied in simple acknowledgment. She cocked her head to the side. “Didn’t expect to find you here at this hour.”
“Oh, cod, is it that late already…?” She hadn’t been paying much attention to the clock at all, channeling all of her focus into the practice she’d been doing, and apparently the tunnel vision had made her completely lose track of the time. Moon was right— it was dark out by now, and she’d only intended to stay in the test range until sunset at the very latest. “Ugh, I was gonna go grab dinner from Crusty Sean’s, but there’s no way he’s still open at this hour…”
“I know a place 'round here that’s open twenty-four-seven,” Moon replied, nonchalant as ever. “I was planning on heading there myself in a sec, actually… I just had to drop by to, uh, pick up somethin’ I left behind.”
“Oh?” She was snapped out of her worry, giving Moon an inquisitive glance.
“You wanna come? ‘S on me,” she offered simply, and Headphones blinked. She hadn’t exactly expected this kind of invitation, especially so suddenly, but she couldn't deny that it was quite appealing. Mainly because she had realized that she was starving at the moment and she didn’t really feel like waiting the whole train ride home just to pull something microwaveable out of her fridge.
“Uhm, yeah, sure.” She picked her bag up off the floor next to the door of the test range, stuffing her Squiffer in and zipping it back up before following Moon out the door. She was hit with a wave of cold air when they walked back out into the square— her tank top didn’t help much with the temperature, but she hadn’t thought to bring a jacket, since she already hadn’t planned on staying out so late. She shivered, and Moon glanced at her, as if she wanted to say something, but she didn’t speak up.
“The place is just around the corner,” Moon said, tugging on one of her sleeves. “Follow me.”
Sure enough, the bright, neon, flickering LED lights of the late-night diner’s sign lit up the alley, making it impossible to miss. It was about a block away from the square, and Headphones didn’t think she’d ever been there before, but it looked cozy enough. A few night-owl squid kids were hanging out inside, but it couldn’t have been any more than two or three.
“Nice, huh?” Moon grinned a bit. “I love to head here in the middle of the night with buddies. Usually Jersey or Desi come too, but they’re busy today.”
“That sounds like fun.” Headphones didn’t mention that she typically liked to be in bed by around 9:30 PM.
A jellyfish standing at the counter waved as the two girls walked in, and Moon raised a hand in greeting. She flopped down into the nearest booth, leading Headphones to follow suit, sitting down across from her and setting her bag down beside her on the seat.
The jellyfish that had greeted them dropped two menus on their table, and Moon skimmed hers for a couple of seconds before rattling off her usual order.
“Blueberry pancakes, extra syrup, and a cola.” She handed back the menu as their waiter scribbled on its notepad and looked up at Headphones, who was taking a bit longer to read through it.
“You should try the waffles,” Moon said, sensing her indecisiveness. “They’re Jersey’s favorite. She swears by them.”
“Ah… I’ll just have those, then, and a glass of water.” She smiled, still slightly nervous, but thankful that Moon had saved her from a long awkward pause. The jellyfish walked off to get their orders, leaving them both sitting in a slightly nervous silence.
“How’s it been?” Moon prompted, and Headphones blinked.
“Oh, um…” She hadn’t really expected the question. “Pretty good. My team is alright. Uh, I’ve just been prepping a bit for a tournament. That’s what you caught me doing earlier, at least.”
“Oh, yeah, the tourney… I think Mask said it’d enter our team for it later, but I doubt it’ll remember. I'll prolly have to do it myself. That new game, Tentacle Nights, just came out, and it won’t shut up about it. I had to wrestle it outta its hands to get it to actually join us at practice.”
Headphones laughed. “At least he wakes up in the morning… and can keep all his clothes on.”
“Oh, no, he’s basically nocturnal. He goes to bed at like 4 PM and sleeps til 3 AM and that’s his day.”
“Really?!”
Their waiter returned after a few more moments of chatter, setting the two drinks down on the table before placing the girls’ food in front of them. The waffles did look pretty good, Headphones couldn't deny. As she carefully unrolled her silverware from her napkin, Moon wasted no time drowning her pancakes in syrup.
“So, where is your team? Aren't you usually always with ‘em?”
“Ah, well, sort of, but I was just staying out a bit late. They all went home earlier, but I just wanted to cram in some extra time at the test range because my aim hasn’t really been that great lately… I guess I got carried away with it, though.”
“Riiight.” Moon swirled her straw around in her drink, the ice clinking together. “You work pretty hard.”
“Well, I try my best,” she replied sheepishly, eyes flicking down. She never did know how to properly respond to compliments. “I have to in order to support them the best I can, so…”
“I get it. I’m co-captain of Team Cyan, and Mask is pretty damn forgetful sometimes, so… it can get pretty tiring keepin’ up with everything. Makin' sure tournaments are planned, keeping training on track, makin' sure you’re on top of your game all the time. Especially when your captain’s an S4, y’know? Lotta pressure.”
“That must be stressful. I mean— my teammates are…”
“Not the brightest?” Moon giggled. “Fufufu. Yeah, well, you did beat us, didn’t you? And we’re still due for a rematch.”
Headphones chuckled softly. “After the tourney, maybe? I'm sure Goggles would be up for it.”
“Yeah, sure. Lemme know.” There was a dip in conversation as they both dug into their food.
“Wow, these are good,” Headphones muttered between bites. “Jersey has good taste.”
“Only sometimes. Did you know she eats her peanut butter jelly sandwiches dipped in ranch?”
“She what?”
Without either of them realizing, they’d talked late into the night— when Headphones glanced out the window after they’d both finished eating, the moon was shining bright in the middle of the sky. Admittedly, she didn’t want to leave at all, but she knew there was no way she’d get a good enough night’s rest if she didn’t head back home as soon as possible. The effortless chatter had done wonders to ease her stress, and she had to admit… she really liked Moon’s company.
“I should probably get home,” Headphones said, scooting out of the booth and grabbing her bag. “But this was a lot of fun.” She smiled at the cyan inkling girl, and Moon tugged at her sleeves again nervously, seeming slightly distant all of a sudden.
“Yeah, it was…”
The pair strolled casually to the nearest train station Headphones was heading to— both the girls were stalling a bit, but neither wanted to admit it. They came to a stop right outside, and Headphones glanced over at Moon, her glasses shining with reflected moonlight. How fitting.
“Hey, Moon?”
“Yeah?” The air had… shifted. Both of them seemed hesitant— Headphones found herself almost shocked by how different the other girl seemed in comparison to how she’d been when her and her teammates had fought their turf war against Moon’s, the almost nervous look in her eyes completely disconnected from the cackling, sly, snarky girl she’d battled against back then.
“Did you really leave something behind at the test range…? I didn’t see you grab anything.”
There was a short pause. Moon didn’t react for a few seconds, staring at the ground before cracking a smile.
“Fufu. Squid’s outta the bag, huh?” she remarked, kicking up a bit of dirt. “Nah, I… just wanted to talk with you, that’s all.”
“Oh.” Headphones didn’t quite know what to say, but she was faintly aware of the blue blush that was blooming on her cheeks. When she thought about it, Moon had been different tonight— she didn't usually talk so openly, much less about her life, and especially without a healthy dose of sarcasm. Her demeanor hadn’t seemed the same at all.
“Uhm, I just wanted to say, like…” Her eyes were trained on her boots, and she inhaled. “I liked doing this, it was fun, and it’d be cool to hang out again sometime if you want.” Her sentence tumbled out in one long breath, and she reached up to adjust her glasses, pushing them up again, if not just to be able to do something with her hands.
“Yeah,” Headphones replied, very simply, but Moon could still sense her happiness with the proposal. “I’d love to.”
“Cool.” There was a pause— neither of them moved to leave, but they both stayed silent. “Uh, I wanted to tell you something, too, if y’ dont mind.”
“Mm-hm?”
“Uhh…” She took a deep breath. “I kinda like you. Like-like, I mean. If that makes stuff weird— I get it, I just, like, I just felt like I should, um, say somethin’ about it. And if you don’t wanna—” Headphones cut her off in the middle of her sentence before she could keep rambling.
“No, of course not, I… I’d really like to get to know you better.” Headphones smiled softly, and Moon felt her whole body warm up.
“Cool.” She paused. “Uh, sorry for holding you up. You said you have to get home, so…”
“Oh, don’t worry about it!” She rocked back and forth on her heels. “The train’s not coming around for another couple minutes anyway. Better to talk to someone than wait alone in the cold…”
“Oh, yeah, you must be freezing…” Moon shifted her balance. “Do you wanna borrow my sweater?”
“Really? But— wouldn't you get cold then? I wouldn’t wanna—”
“I’m wearing, like, triple layers, it’s no big deal… here.” She pulled the yellow, fuzzy sweatshirt off of herself, dropping it into Headphones’ arms. She set her bag down to pull it over her head, sighing over the relief from the late-night chill.
“You can take it home. But give it back the next time I see you, m’kay?”
“Thank you,” she said, and she reached out to brush Moon’s right tentacle to the side, pressing a brief kiss to her cheek, before rushing off to the train station, leaving Moon standing alone under a streetlight with a deep, cyan blush on her face.