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“Aaaaaand cut!” The director shouted, clapping his hands. “Excellent job, Marie.”
The idol nodded, setting down the soap bottle. “Simple enough. Easy to recommend a product you already use.”
The director beamed at her words. “I think this is all we need for today. Could we pencil you in for some more shoots tomorrow, perhaps? Need my guys to look over the footage first, of course, and we have a few other varieties we’d like you to…”
Marie held up her hand, shaking her head. “Sorry, but my schedule is booked for tomorrow. Get in contact with my agent, we can schedule something.”
The director nodded, masking his disappointment well (but not well enough for Marie not to notice). “Ah, alright. We’ll get in touch.”
Marie gave a small nod of affirmation, then quickly walked off. The shooting had taken a bit longer than she was expecting, and she needed to be at Callie’s apartment in ten minutes. The trip over was gonna take twenty, maybe more if the streets were congested. She rattled off a text to her cousin about her possibly being late, then slipped into a side room to change into her camouflage streetwear. It still baffled her how a simple hoodie, hat, and face mask could completely change her into a different person for almost everyone in Inkadia.
As she walked, her mind drifted off to how the past week had been. Nothing but shooting for ads, photos for a few magazines, being a surprise guest on a podcast…that last one was fun. She was used to busy schedules, but she usually had the morning or the afternoon off for personal time. This week though? None whatsoever. It was almost like she was back at the beginning of her and Callie’s career. Back then, they’d barely have time to collapse on the nearest couch before needing to run to the next gig.
While she was busy, agent Three–no, she was the captain now–and agent Four were out on some special training mission the captain had planned for them. No phones, no technology besides their gear, and a promise to come back in one piece. It was similar to the training she and Callie had gone through back when they had started being agents. Man, if their parents knew what they were doing while at grandpa’s, their lives would be completely different. They never would’ve approved.
Still, just because she knew why they were out, didn’t mean it wasn’t annoying for the idol. She had gotten used to the constant underlying noise whenever the agent was home. Four was usually always tinkering with something now, taking on full-time work at Sheldon’s weapon shop meant she sometimes had to bring her work home. Machinery whirring, socket wrenches being pulled, usually accompanied by soft music…The apartment she shared with Four was uncomfortably silent now.
About twenty two minutes later, Marie arrived at Callie’s apartment. The building itself was nondescript, nestled neatly in a small corner away from the center of the city. However, if you knew what to look for, you could see the Callie-isms that seemed to spring up wherever she went. Colorful tape in innocuous spots, pink street art in the nearby alleyways, and people in the area having a bit more cheerful disposition than normal. Wherever the bubbly idol went, her presence leached into the world around her. Marie climbed the stairs and stood in front of the door, obvious to tell which one was hers due to the hot pink doormat in front. She went to knock, but the door flew open before she could, Callie grabbing her and dragging her inside. She sat her cousin down at the table, a freshly made sandwich waiting. Callie sat next to her, a sandwich of her own.
“Gotta get our energy up!” Callie said with a smile. “The rest of the day is ours! We got another single to work on, and I know you didn’t eat lunch!”
“You know me well. Thanks.”
They ate in comfortable silence, Marie glancing around the somewhat small space her cousin shared with her friend. It was slightly bigger than her own, with a few extra rooms down the hall and a bit more color to it (again, thanks to Callie’s mere presence). Coming from the room she knew as Callie’s in-home studio, was the unmistakable sound of a guitar being strung. It didn’t sound like the player had any notes in mind, just mindlessly strumming.
“Ded?” Marie asked, gesturing with a nod.
Callie swallowed her bite, and nodded. “Yep! They’ve been trying to learn some new instruments, the place has been really noisy! Hope it's not too distracting for you.”
The green idol shook her head. “Nah, it's fine. I’m used to background noise.”
Dedf1sh. She hadn’t interacted with the sanitized octoling much, only really during the events with the rebellion in the domes. Even then, there had been other, more important matters at hand. Like stopping a complete militarized takeover of Inkopolis, and greater Inkadia as a whole. She wasn’t sure exactly what Callie saw in her, but she always smiled brighter whenever she talked about the octo.
When they were done eating, they got to work workshopping lyrics. This was always the longest part for them, as they both usually wanted to take the song in different directions. Callie, the sucker for love she was, always wanted lovey-dovey romantic lyrics. That was the reason her first solo song, bomb rush blush, was so sappy. Sometimes it seemed like she wasn’t even aware of her own bias towards that. Marie tried to steer them towards a more neutral subject, usually just about life. She would admit, sometimes her lyrics were a bit sad, but nowhere near as teeth-rotting as the fluff Callie wrote.
However, while Callie went on a tangent about how her proposed lyric was not another confession (it literally had the phrase “I confess”), Marie found her mind wandering to the agent of her eye. Her time away was almost up, right? She had forgotten the exact date Four would be back, and her pride wouldn’t let her ask anyone to confirm it for her. How could she admit that she forgot something so important? Did that make her a bad person? She hoped not. Mentally she kicked herself for not investing in a home calendar for things like this. You could only put so much in a business planner, and the one she had was shared with Callie. If there was one thing that made Callie happier than when talking about Ded, it was talking about other people’s love life.
Something poked Marie in the cheek. She blinked, mind catching back up with reality. Calie was leaning closer, a confused look on her face and finger pressing into Marie’s face.
“Heeey, earth to Marie!” Her cousin whined. “What happened?”
Marie brushed her hand away, hoping she wasn’t blushing as brightly as she felt. “N-nothing, Cal, sorry. Just distracted.” She kicked herself for that last bit.
Callie squinted, studying her cousin’s features. Marie maintained eye contact, praying she didn’t put the pieces together. However, her pleas fell on deaf ears, as slowly a bright smile spread across Callie’s face.
“Oh. My. Cod. You’re thinking about Four , right!?” She squealed, leaning even further across the table. “She’s coming back soon, right?! Do you two have something planned? You don’t talk a lot about you two together, how is she?”
Marie was definitely blushing now. She turned away, but that didn’t stop the feeling of Callie’s intense gaze. Could she steer the conversation away from this? No. Callie had her “I need to know more” expression, and there was no steering her away from that. With a sigh, she turned back.
“Well, if you must know, we haven’t done much. Four is still trying to figure out what exactly they want to do, and I’ve been there to support her.”
Callie frowned. “I already know that! Come on, there’s gotta be something you got planned for her! She’s coming home tonight after all!”
Marie tried not to let her eyes bug out of her skull. Tonight !? Planning something for the agent’s return had been on her checklist of things to do, of course, but…tonight. Not a lot to work with there.
Callie’s frown deepened. “…girl, please tell me you didn’t know that.”
Marie gave an apologetic look. “…I’ve been really busy, and...it kinda snuck up on me…”
The pink idol let out a pained sigh. “Alright, not great…but you still have time! Is the apartment clean? Maybe you could make her favorite meal! A massage maybe? She has been training with the Captain…”
“Apartment’s clean, so no dice there…it’d probably be too late to make anything…I like the massage idea, though.”
“Well, yeah! Who wouldn’t like something like that from the one you love?”
Marie nodded. She could probably do that. Giving a massage was easy, right? Even if not, she could do some more research after this brainstorming session. Said session continued for the next few hours, only stopping once the duo realized the sun had set outside. The idols hugged farewell, and Marie began the trek back to her and Four’s apartment. As she walked, her mind wandered back to when they had first moved in. Four hadn’t even realized Marie had asked her to room together, which in hindsight was kinda funny. Now, though, she couldn’t really imagine living with anyone else.
The lock clicked, and Marie stepped into her still-silent home. No signs of Four returning. That was fine, it was late but not too late. As long as nothing had gotten in their way, they would be fine. A small, annoying voice tried to voice some rather dark reasons Four might not make it home, but she squashed it before it could get louder. She didn’t need to start worrying. She made herself dinner, eating again in silence. As she looked around the room, she suddenly realized how dark it was. Four always kept the lights dim, and Marie had just naturally adjusted to it. Even with her gone, Marie kept it to similar light levels. Now, though, she wondered just as to why the agent would do something like that.
As she set her dishes in the sink, she caught sight of herself in the water. Specifically, the glowing of her tentacles glinting like moonlight off a pond. She blinked at herself in the slowly steadying reflection. The tips of her tentacles flickered green, and even the freckles on her face were shining. She’d been glowing, without even realizing. Glowing, a thing she did only when in private, in good company, or…whenever Four was around. Slowly she brought her hands up and covered her face, suppressing a squeal. Now she knew why it was always so dark in here.
Marie moved to the couch, sitting down with a groan. It was much later now, and Four still wasn’t home. She had to resist the urge to grab her phone, text the group chat if anyone had heard from them. They’d be fine. She and Callie never had any issues when training with grandpa, so…surely…well, there was that one time when it suddenly started raining and they had to shelter in a cave for a bit…but the chances of that happening again were small…
Her phone buzzed. She practically ripped her pants off trying to get it out, briefly blinding herself with how bright her screen was. When the spots stopped dancing in front of her eyes, she could read it.
[Agent420]: Hey, Marie! Hope I don’t wake you up : (
[Agent420]: Just getting back into signal range, Three says we only have a few hours left and then we’re home!
[Agent420]: I really missed you ;_;
[Agent420]: But I’ll be home soon! So…I’ll see ya in the morning if you’re not already up!
[Agent420]: But you probably should go to bed if you haven’t already, staying up late is bad
Marie smiled, letting the phone fall from her hand and bounce against the sofa. She laid back, letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Four was fine. Good. She closed her eyes, seeing the faint glow on the other side of her eyelids slowly fade. A part of her told her she should really go to bed if she was tired, but the couch was surprisingly comfortable. Before she knew it, she had drifted off to sleep.
When she awoke, her mind immediately tried to send her back to sleep. There was a comfortable weight on top of her, and something warm was wrapped around her. She didn’t need to get up, she was fine. However, as her mind slowly played back the last few things she did before sleeping, she realized she hadn’t put a blanket over herself. Slowly, she sat up, running a hand over whatever was on top of her. Whatever it was shifted slightly as the idol moved, letting out a quiet hum of disapproval. She blinked into the darkness, eventually realizing what was happening.
Four was home. Her bags were set on the other end of the couch, looking like she had simply thrown them on the ground upon returning. The agent in question had crawled onto the couch, snuggling up close and resting her head against the idol’s chest. Marie couldn’t help but smile, giving the agent a small pat on the head. The agent seemed to almost purr , nuzzling Marie’s hand in her sleep. Marie chuckled softly, then with the precision of a surgeon, she gently adjusted the agent’s position. Four mumbled unhappily, almost waking. Marie waited, then continued moving the smaller inkling. She slid the agent off of and next to her, slinging an arm around Four’s waist. Four returned the hug, letting out another purr.
“Hm…welcome home, Four…” Marie whispered, closing her eyes again.
Four only hummed in response, her hug becoming slightly tighter. Marie’s smile grew a little wider as she drifted off to sleep again.