Work Text:
“Hey.”
Forge turned upon her heels to face two long blue tentacles she soon grew familiar with.
“Phones.”
Headphones smiled at the nickname, albeit a bit snarky, different from the ones she wore around her teammates or anyone else.
Both inklings found themselves exchanging a few words, standing next to a vending machine early in the morning.
“What brings you here all alone, princess?” Headphones giggled at Forge’s glare from the nickname.
“Don’t fucking call me that–” the orange inkling averted her eyes a bit, a tiny speck of orange visible.
“Whaaat? You used to call me Phoney for Cod’s sake,” the blue sniper said with a laugh. She raised her arms in defeat with another one when the co-captain of Orange’s glare hardened. “Okay, okay. If you say so.”
“I don’t get why you still act like this only with me,” Forge said with an eyeroll. “I never see you like this when you’re with your own team, let alone everyone else.”
“First off, I goof off with Goggles and Bobble from time to time. I just don’t do it to the point Specs has a blood vessel popping off from his neck,” Headphones leaned off from the vending machine she had her back on. “Second, like I said, I like goofing off from time to time. It’s freeing. And– well you were one of the people who I felt the most comfortable with next to Blue.”
“Huh?..”
“You still are, by the way.” Forge almost choked on her water because of the words coming out of Headphones’ mouth.
“Okay shut up now,” Headphones giggled at the orange inkling’s flustered face and her ability to still get Forge like this.
“Awww I got my princess all blushy?-”
Forge tightened her fists, glaring at the sniper again while the plastic water bottle in her hand let out a sound. “Phones I swear to fucking Cod–”
“Okay, okay I’ll stop!” Headphones laughed and raised her arms in mock defeat again, a few inklings passing by side eyed them.
“You’re insufferable.”
“I know…I'm still sorry about that.”
“Whatever–”
CLANK!
Both inklings perked up at the sound. Looking around the empty plaza, both second in commands searched for a possible source.
“Weird. No one’s around,” Forge muttered, her lime eyes squinting in suspicion.
“Maybe it’s just a can or something,” Headphones whispered back, “knocked on the ground from the wind?”
“There’s not even a breeze though…”
CLANK!
Forge whipped around to see the slight movement from a manhole on the ground.
“What the…”
“You saw that too, right?” Headphones said in a hushed tone, red eyes not leaving the manhole.
Forge hummed in agreement as both inklings got closer to the source, stepping cautiously.
Suddenly, the manhole opened again, and an old (ancient, even) inkling popped out.
Forge and Headphones screamed in unison, the old inkling letting out a screech after and losing his grip on the manhole. He fell immediately while his screech echoed through the pipes.
“O-Oh my Cod what was that–”
“Holy fuck–” Headphones crouched on the ground and laid her namesake around her neck, listening to the sounds from the pipes. Several other clanks could be heard as the two inklings looked at each other with widened eyes.
Then silence.
Headphones broke it with a quiet tone, her eyes fixated on Forge’s.
“We gotta help him out.”
The orange inkling blinked in shock before shaking her head.
“No. Hell no. Headphones.”
“You heard me!” The blue inkling stood up, dusting her jersey. “He was an old man, and those clanks sounded very worrying!”
“Yeah but– what if he’s a serial killer or something?! I do NOT want to end up on a fucking Squidflix documentary!”
“I mean…he seemed old as hell. I doubt he can even do anything.”
“Weren’t you literally obsessed with true crime last year? There are cases like this!”
“We can just silently slip in the grate with our squid forms, trust!” Headphones stepped towards the manhole. “I can’t help it Forge, what if he’s hurt? He looked genuinely fragile…”
The orange inkling rolled her eyes in exasperation with her head in her hands.
“Cod, you’ve genuinely lost it…” Forge sighed as she stepped on the manhole’s grate. “Fine, but if we get dice chopped down there I’m genuinely haunting you.”
“Yes ma’am.” Headphones said with a salute as she stepped on the manhole too.
Both inklings turned into squids as they went down the manhole.
The yellow-green inkling slowly walked, heading towards the plaza, still empty somehow. He unlocked his phone to check the time, and saw it was still early. Guess he was on his own.
It was peaceful. He liked it–
“Hey Rider!"
…and there goes the peace, Rider thought as he let out a sigh and turned towards the cheery voice.
“Goggles.”
“You’re heading to the plaza too?”
“Yeah. I got practice.”
“Cool!” Goggles said happily, hands in his coat jackets. “I actually have some battles with Blue Team today, but I guess I got here a bit early.”
The duo walked a bit more, but before they could turn the corner, they heard a clank sound.
“What was that?” Rider said, his ear twitched.
“What was…what?”
“I think there are someone at that street.” Rider said as he got closer, ready to catch whoever was doing this. Goggles followed him in pursuit.
The duo peeked over the corner, and saw nothing but a soda can rolling on the ground.
“Ah. It was just a can.”
“Yeah…” Rider felt a breeze on his tentacles. “Probably the wind.”
“Let’s head out to the lobby!”
“Okay.” The yellow-green inkling shrugged as he turned on his heels and followed the blue inkling, both walking away from the manhole.