Work Text:
Eight was laid down on her back on the beat up old couch of the cluttered but tidy apartment living room, she was wearing an xxl yellow crustwear shirt and a pair of baggy shorts she had gotten from Three since they didn’t fit them anymore. The tv was blasting the current battle maps for the next two hours but it was more background sound than anything, alongside the cd player that Four insisted on buying at a second hand sale outside the square but the only cd the two of them owned was a Chirpy Chips one and to be honest it was getting a bit repetitive
“And the current turf war maps?” came Pearl’s voice from the TV, Eight’s eyes drifted away from the black and white panels to take a glance at the tv screen, Arowana Mall and Camp Triggerfish
It was far too hot for any battling today and Eight was perfectly content with the standing fan pointed right at her face as she focused on the second volume of this manga she’d borrowed from Marina, these stupid cheesy romances were somehow right up her alley, she held the book up above her as she read
“Oh my cod, another cliffhanger?!” Eight shouted throwing her arms down and indirectly dropping the manga out of her hands, she kicked her feet up and used the momentum to sit up properly, nearly kicking the fan over in the process. She brushed her two long berry pink tentacles from her face with her hands and looked to the side
Her hand reached for the cup of ink charge melon juice resting on the messy wooden coffee table, next to her drink was a half full cup of main saver lemon, it was Four’s. Eight raised an eyebrow as she took a sip from the plastic straw, the melon drink was room temperature at this point and she could assume Four’s was the same. Where was Four anyway?
She stood up from the couch, picked up Four’s drink and walked to the kitchen which was only a short distance away. She opened the metal door and felt the cool air basically smack her in the face, but she wasn’t complaining, it was amazing. She placed the two drinks in the plastic fridge shelf and closed the door once again.
“Four?” Eight called out, looking down the hallway to the rooms of their apartment, there was no response. Eight rolled her eyes and began to make her way down to Four’s room, she was probably passed out from the heat either slumped on her floor or face down on her bed knowing her
The hall was cleaner than the main living area of the apartment, while in the living room there was stuff nearly everywhere, the only stuff cluttering the hall was photos on the wall and the occasional pair of shoes
Just as she was about to walk into her roommate’s bedroom she heard a sound from the bathroom, muttered complaining “Damn it…” came Four’s voice from behind the closed bathroom door. Eight raised an eyebrow and knocked on the bathroom door
“Four? What are you doing in there?” Eight asked as she stood with her hands on her hips “Nothing…” Four replied.
Eight looked at the door with an expression that just showed that she knew Four was talking bullshit. She sighed and instead of going back to the living room or her room, she decided she wanted to figure out what nonsense her roommate was up to this time. She pushed the door open
“Wait!-” Four shouted as her head quickly flicked to the door but it was too late, the door was fully open and Eight could see exactly what she was doing.
Four had her orange yellow tentacles pulled back into a tied up hairstyle, she was wearing a black Chirpy Chips band shirt with a pair of shorts that she’d definitely taken from Eight’s room. She was stood in front of the bathroom mirror with a small silver needle held in one hand and her bottom lip in the other
Eight’s eyes went from the needle, to Four’s lips to her eyes, she wasn’t that stunned by the sight but this is definitely not what she was expecting to see “...What’re you doing?” Eight asked
Four let go of her lip and reached for the set of wooden drawers by the kitchen sink, she grabbed a magazine that was sitting open on the top of it and held it up so Eight could see. The octoling took the magazine from Four’s hands and looked down at it, the article showed a lot of photos of different inklings and octolings showing off their new piercings, she could see that Four was particularly focused on an octoling on the bottom with a silver lip ring
“You’re trying to give yourself a piercing? I’m pretty sure they do them in the back of Hotlantis for cheap.” Eight spoke, Four rolled her eyes in response
“Would you really trust Harmony to clean that gear properly? She can’t even remember to feed her clownfish!” Four stated, Eight crossed her arms and leaned up against the dark wooden doorframe of the bathroom twirling one of her tentacles with her fingers
“And our bathroom is much cleaner than the place legally allowed to pierce people?” Eight teased with a smirk. She pushed herself off of the doorframe and walked over to her roommate. When she was stood in front of Four she took the needle from her hand
“Hey-“ Four started but Eight cut the inkling off by holding up one finger with her free hand, she turned the bathroom tap and hot water began to pour out.
After waiting for a moment she dipped the needle under the running tap making sure it was well covered by the water, Four tilted her head to the side as she watched Eight
“What are you doing?” She asked as she leaned her elbows onto the edge of the sink and watched her roommate as she worked
“I’m sterilising it. You need boiling water but I don’t want to go to the kitchen and put the kettle on.” Eight spoke as she held the needle steadily under the tap “besides, you always say that this tap felt like it was burning you.”
Eight’s eyes drifted slightly to the side as Four snickered, when she deemed the needle well sterilised she twisted the tap back of, the water going from a steady flow to a slight drip
“Where do you want it?” Eight asked, Four thought for a moment before she pointed towards the left side of her lip.
“The double one that the Octoling with the red tentacles had. Humans called them spider bites.” Four spoke, she cut herself off before she went into a ramble about different human culture she’d learned, she was always a big history nerd
Eight opened the top wooden drawer and pulled out a black marker from under some hand creams and some left over finger stainer from their last drunk night a few months ago
“Dot where you want them, I’m not gonna put some needles in your face just for you to not like it.” Eight joked as she half tossed the marker to Four.
Four caught it and stood on her tiptoes to get the most perfect view in the bathroom mirror. One hand was pressed against the sink for support as she shakily moved the marker up to her lip.
It took a minute of dotting and rubbing it off with the back of her hand before Four finally settled on where she wanted them to sit, at the very edge of her bottom lip on the left. Four turned to look at Eight, the inkling was trying to hold back a grin but you could clearly tell how excited she was
Eight half jokingly rolled her eyes at her roommate’s enthusiasm before she moved the needle in her hand up to the first dot. One hand held out Four’s lip as the other slowly and menacingly moved the needle closer. Four’s hand was shaking slightly as she clutched onto the edge of the sink, her fingers curling around the porcelain
Before she knew it, metal broke inky skin and the first one was done!
“Where’s the piercing?” Eight asked as she kept the needle in Four’s lip, the latter pointed next to the cold tap of the sink where two silver piercing rings were sat, shining in the dim light of the bathroom.
Eight’s fingers pinched one as she quickly but still carefully moved the needle from Four’s lip, quickly replacing it with the ring as she spun it into place
The other one went quicker than the first and then the piercings were done. Eight carefully dabbed Four’s lip with a cold facecloth
“How does it look?” Four asked, she was practically vibrating from excitement from the spot she was stood in.
The second that the cloth left her face her head snapped right to the mirror, a grin broke her face as her fingers just about hovered above the rings
“Oh my cod… oh my cod!” Four shouted as she stared at them in complete awe
Eight crossed her arms as she looked at Four’s cheerfulness, it was hard not to smile herself.
“We gotta do something for you too, Eight.” Four spoke, the smile left Eight’s face just as quickly as it appeared
“…do we really?” Eight asked nervously as she looked from Four to the mirror.
Eight wasn’t a very big fan of needles, she hadn’t had any bad experiences with one it was more of a general dislike towards being stabbed
“Come on, Eight.” Four whined as she reached for the magazine to hold up to her octoling friend’s face. “They’re the freshest thing right now!”
Eight snatched the magazine away from her face but she did take another look back down at the photographs on the pages… they did look cool, she was particularly drawing to the picture of the inkling with the long green tentacles, they had a golden eyebrow ring
“Do we have any more of those rings left over?” Eight spoke as she looked up from the pages.
Four dug through the drawer once again and pulled out a little plastic baggie. Silver, gold and even rose gold rings clinked around inside as Four picked it up and handed it to Eight.
Eight carefully reached into the bag to pull out a rose gold ring with a half smile as she pinched the ring between two fingers she held her free hand out towards Four, silently asking her for the marker.
When it reached her grasp she looked in the bathroom mirror, she was taller than Four so she had no need to go on her toes to get the best look in the mirror and her former history in the Octarian Army blessed her with hands that didn’t shake at the slightest movement.
She drew two dots around her right eyebrow in record time and to be honest, Four was kind of jealous at the sight as she looked down at her marker ink stained hand from all the failed attempts
“You better not poke my eye out, Four.” Eight joked as she leaned against the sink to make herself the right level for her roommate to reach
“Haha, very funny.” She said with a mockingly sarcastic tone as she grabbed the needle from the sink. So with shaky hands and the now new fear of accidentally blinding her best friend with a sewing needle in their apartment bathroom, Four moved the needle up to Eight’s round pink eyebrow
It was the most tense moment of Four’s life, she hadn’t been this shaky since she was about to slam a Rainmaker into DJ Octavio’s face to save the Great Zapfish… and Eight looked bored
Once again the needle slipped right through skin as Four scrambled to grab the ring from Eight’s hand with her free hand. The second her hand clasped around it she practically shoved it into Eight’s eyebrow. Four then quickly glanced between the magazine and her roommate to make sure she got it a hundred percent accurate
When the thirty seconds of panicking was over, Four breathed a sigh of relief as her whole body began to calm down.
Eight turned around to look at herself in the mirror, she gave a satisfied nod to herself and a grin with a thumbs up to Four.
Four’s hand reached into the pocket of her stolen shorts, she pulled out her yellowish orange squid phone
“You wanna show off to Three that we’re having so much more fun than they are training to be Captain?” Four asked
“Do you even have to ask?” Eight responded
Eight stood shoulder to shoulder with Four as she inkling held her phone up to get some selfies of the two of them and their most recent bad decision.
When they deemed that they’d taken enough photos to royally piss Three off and probably make Callie and Marie burst out laughing the second they saw them. The two went off to go play Octo Kong Country in the living room until both of their eyes were hanging out of their heads