Falling for Secrets | Goggles x Rider | Splatoon Manga Ship Story

Ch.22 Battling

About a week has passed. Goggles mood did not better itself but he kept saying he was fine. Nobody quite knew what to think so they didn't do anything about it. They might've actually started to believe what he was saying...

Goggles woke up to birds chirping outside his window. He sighed and sat up looking into the darkness of his room as the sun shone through the cracks of the blinds but still couldn't illuminate the room enough to see. He opened them and groaned as light filled the room. The blue boy covered his eyes with his hands until they adjusted to the new brightness.

After a moment Goggles found the strength to get up and take a look at his phone. He actually woke up in time, which surprised and disappointed him. He could've stayed in bed longer... but then the blue boy remembered. Today was the day his and Rider's team would finally battle each other again. Goggles was confused because he wasn't dreading today as much as he would normally, too tired to realize it probably had something to do with seeing Rider again. He slowly stood up and grabbed his goggles from the nightstand. He would never forget them. The blue boy quickly got dressed and walked out his bedroom, spotting Bobble Hat in the kitchen.

„Morning Goggles! You're up early!", his roommate happily exclaimed.

„Haha yeah, morning", he forcefully chuckled and walked towards Bobbles.

She waited until Goggles sat down next to her before she spoke up again.
„You're not doing so well lately, huh?", she said sympathetically.

„N..not really", the blue inkling responded hesitantly while fiddling with his fingers nervously. Not doing so well was an understatement... he felt exhausted, empty and unmotivated for no apparent reason and it drove him insane!

„You can talk to us, you know that!", Bobbles said and smiled encouragingly but Goggles just nodded slowly, avoiding eye contact. He wished he knew what to tell them.

The two continued to get ready mostly in silence and took the train to Inkopolis Square where they would meet the rest of Team Blue and Team Yellowgreen. Goggles spotted Rider and Specs next to the lobby in the distance and got a sudden boost of energy, quickening his pace a bit.

„Hey guys!!", he exclaimed when him and Bobbles were closer, feeling more motivated than normally.

„Huh...you're actually on time...I would say early even!", Specs said mostly directed to Goggles and smiled.

„Y-yup! I didn't wanna miss battling Rider!", Goggles answered with a grin and he could swear his yellowgreen friend was smiling ever so slightly.

„Ha! Eager to be defeated?", the lime boy scoffed in response and crossed his arms.

„We'll see!", the blue inkling answered cheekily.

The four of them waited untill the rest of their teams arrived and entered the lobby. They selected Kelp Domes and got ready, excitement and tension filled the air while the countdown was turning from 1 to GO!

The two teams began to quickly ink the area around their respective spawnpoints and then continued to spread out towards the middle. Goggles stayed behing a bit, he didn't want to be the first one to get splatted. He filled in little inkless spots on the ground that his teammates didn't cover in the rush and eventually made his way up the ramps, walking along the gridded pathway above the ground, towards the middle.

As Goggles walked over the grid platforms, painting the floor underneath it he could spot something in a splotch of yellow-green ink move slightly. But before the blue boy could react he was splatted by Rider who quickly emerged out of the ink, swinging his dynamo up towards his blue enemy. After finding himself at the spawnpoint again, Goggles was weirdly motivated to get revenge, the first time in weeks he was eager to win a turf war match.

He scanned the area and carefully made his way back towards the middle of the map, keeping an eye out for Rider. He saw Stealth and Bobbles going at each other not far from the middle of the map that Goggles quickly swam up to get a better view of everything.

„Ouch...!" The blue boy heard Bobble Hat get splatted by Stealth and could see him swim towards the middle. Right before his enemy climed the platform, Goggles threw a bomb right where he was standing and jumped back down to the floor. The bomb exploded right when Stealth got on top and the blue inkling smiled to himself, he was almost proud...

The blue boy proceeded to look out for a certain lime inkling and made his way closer to the enemy spawn carefully. Right when he stood under team yellow-greens base, he could hear somebody respawn. Goggles hid in his ink and stayed still as who seemed to be Rider junped down and landed right in front of him. That was Goggles chance!

He quickly emerged from his ink and aimed at Rider. The lime inkling reacted immediately, he swam to the side and tried to swing his dynamo in the blue boy's direction. But he reacted equally as fast and dodged Riders attack while also throwing a bomb in the lime boy's direction to hopefully prevent him from swinging again. And Goggles was right! The lime inkling swam to the side and the blue boy aimed at his enemy again.

But Rider kept jumping and running around and aiming was never really Goggles strong suit. So the lime inkling managed to get closer and closer to his blue enemy. The blue boy began to panic and seemingly froze in place. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears, his breath quickened. Rider was about to swing his roller when his expression softened and he stopped getting closer. The lime boy lowered his dynamo and spoke softly:

„Hey... are you okay? You need a break or something?"
Goggles didn't answer at first. He was trying his best to hold back tears, but he couldn't quite grasp on why...

„Goggles...?", Rider asked quietly and stepped closer.

„H-Huh?", the blue boy got back to reality as the match's countdown hit 0.

The two teams left the lobby. Team Blue won and the blue boy's teammates were ecstatic, having finally won a battle again since Goggles' mood change. But he remained quiet.

He heard Rider mumble something to his teammembers and could see him then walking over in the corner of his eyes.

„Um... how're you doing..?", he awkwardly asked while crossing his arms. Goggles shrugged. He didn't know himself. He didn't know what came over him during the battle.

„Ookay.." Rider looked around and stopped his gaze at Crusty Sean's. „Wanna grab a bite?"

„Yeah, sure", Goggles smiled faintly to himself. Something about the idea gave him a warm feeling, a feeling he wanted to last forever.

Specs saw Goggles leave the group with Rider.
„H-hey where are you goin-", but he was interrupted by Headphones:
„Leave it.. let him be happy"

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It's been a while.. im sorry
School is taking my will to live lately but knowing people enjoy reading this gives me motivation to continue writing ❤️

I hope i didn't disappoint anyone with this chapter haha anyways i also hope y'all are doing well in those fucked up times

04.10.2020
1236 words
(New record haha!)