-Tiny time jump -
As months flew by, Coral and Kai's friendship grew stronger. Kai began to adjust more to his new life and Coral got a part time job at the coffee shop in Inkopolis Square.
However, as Autumn approached so did the season of Fevers. Cephalopods such as Inklings and Octolings often caught fevers around Fall.
At the moment, that is just what Coral has caught.
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Sunday Morning, 9:10 a.m
Kai watched from above on the little balcony of the apartment as Inklings we're rushing off to work or to drop off their children at school.
The sun was no longer scorching it's summer heat as leaves turned a warm palette and began to fall from their branches.
A couple of coughs could be heard from Coral's bedroom. Kai decided to get up from his spot and go check on her.
He peaked through the doorway and saw that she had just woken up.
" How are you doing today? Any better?" Kai asks with worry.
Coral weakly smiles at him and tiredly says, " A little, Even though I woke up I just feel tired all the time."
Coral became sick a few days ago and was still recovering, it was no good since she had promised to fill in one of her co-worker's spots this week.
" I know, but I promised." Coral says with tired puppy eyes
" I'm sure your co-worker will understand, don't want the customers to get sick now, do you?" Kai says as he picks up Coral's empty bowl of soup that he made last night.
" Yeah, I guess." She pouts and Kai pats her head and leaves her bedroom to place the empty bowl in the sink.
He opens the fridge to see what food he could make for the both of them today..but there was just a half a jug of orange juice and spoiled leftovers.
He sighs as he closes the fridge and decides that he will just have to make a trip to MakoMart today.
Kai picks up his squid phone and spare keys to the apartment and heads to the door.
He stops before heading out the entrance and instead he goes to check on Coral once more before he leaves.
She was asleep-again. It saddened him to see her this way because he was always used to her energetic and cheerful self around him.
He then quietly makes his way back to the front door and leaves to get groceries at MakoMart.
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- At MakoMart-
Kai looked around nervously. MakoMart was huge!
He had been here with Coral before to get groceries and he has had a few Turf War matches held here but he never payed attention to how huge it was for a supermarket.
He grabs a small basket and wanders for a bit while thinking about what he should get.
" I could just get canned soup again, but she might be tired of that..I don't know," He thought.
His eye spots an aisle up ahead with a bunch of different type of noodles.
" That's it, I will make ramen! Coral loves ramen!"
He heads to the aisle and grabs the broth and noodles and wanders off to find more shrimp chips.
As he is walking down aisle by aisle; trying to find shrimp chips, he gets a text from Coral.
He checks his phone as he goes off to the side of the aisle to not be in the way of any other passing customers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kai's Phone 9:45 a.m
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Coral
Coral:
Where did u go???
Kai:
Went to get more groceries at
MakoMart
Coral:
When will u be back?? :(
Kai:
Almost done, should be back within
15 minutes.
Coral:
ok be safe pls, u never rlly been
in public alone.
Kai:
I will, cya in a bit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
He puts his phone back in the pocket of his jacket and sighs.
Coral was right though, he had never really been in public alone except for the first few minutes when he came to Inkopolis.
Most of the Inklings who lived nearer to the apartment started to accept Kai. However, most Inklings still didn't.
When Coral would let Kai drive her car, he would be stopped multiple times by the police. Or there would be times when security had to check his clothes and pockets before entering buildings.
It was tiring but he'd rather be here with Coral than the Deep Sea Metro and the Octarians.
He hoped that one day, maybe Octolings would start coming to Inkopolis.
After a while of strolling down each aisle, Kai finally found shrimp chips. He grabs a few and stuffs it into the basket and makes his way to the check out.
The lines were long and would take a while until it will be Kai's turn to pay. He heard murmurs from different Inklings as he waited. Not too far from Kai was a group of male Inklings, all with matching varsity jackets. They whispered things: it was probably about him.
There was something fishy about them, but Kai continued to move along as he got closer to the check out.
When it was finally his turn, the Inkling girl behind the register greeted him nervously with fear in her eyes.
Everyone had suddenly become quiet in MakoMart as they all watched Kai go up to the counter.
" H-h-how is your day, s-sir?" She stutters
"It's okay I guess.." He replies as he awkwardly stands there waiting for her to finish scanning the items.
He bit the bottom of his lips as many eyes stared straight at him.
When he was out with Coral, her presence always made him felt comfortable in public.
"Hurry up, pleaaase hurry and scan all of the items already." Kai whimpers in his mind as he watches the Inkling girl scan items.
He notices that her hands are trembling of fear which is making her scan even slower and clumsier.
With everyone's eyes staring at him, it felt like an eternity. At this point, he would actually be returning to the apartment in about 30 minutes instead of 15.
Finally, he pays and leaves. He doesn't even turn back to look and starts to walk quicker as he gets further from MakoMart.
He looks both ways before crossing the street and then cuts through a long alley that him and Coral usually take as a short cut, but only as emergency.
He just wanted to get back to the apartment and avoid everybody right now.
That is, until in the corner of his eye he spotted about four figures standing at the end of the alley.
It was those guys back at MakoMart with matching varsity jackets.
" That's just great." Kai mutters
"Hey kid, what do you think your doing in Inkopolis, huh?" The one with a golden tooth says as he gets closer to Kai.
" Especially for your kind, Octoling." Another one spat as he circles Kai with a toothy grin and stops behind him so that he blocks the other end of the alley.
Kai backs away and steadily looks at each of them.
" Shit t-theres no way out! If only I could just super jump to that rusty looking balcony."
Kai was taller than most of them, except for the big brawny one with a stubble on his chin.
" I don't get how you dumbass Octolings don't understand us, Inkopolis will NEVER be home to Octolings!!" The Big one says as he tugs onto Kai's shirt.
Kai struggles, his feet began to lift from the ground as the big guy tugged on his shirt.
Kai kicks him in the crotch and tumbled to the ground as the big guy falls to his knees.
" K-KILL THE BASTARD!!" The big guy snarls as he grips a small pocket knife from the back pocket of his jeans.
Kai pushed a guy with a King face mask out of his way but tripped as the big guy grabbed his leg.
" Oh, your not going anywhere you little shit." The big guy says as the three other dudes pinned Kai to the ground.
"L-let me go!!" Kai yelped as the big guy flicked the switch of his pocket knife.
Help me
Kai squeezes his eyes closed and waited for a sharp pain to begin..
But that didn't happen.
He heard a loud scream as he opened his eyes.
" W-what do you think your doing?!" The big guy asks with confusion.
Coral stood there before Kai's eyes with her Dualies. This wasn't the Coral he knew, this Coral steamed with anger and hurt.
" Let him go or you'll end up like your friends over there." Coral growled.
" What? Your really on this guy's side? He's an Octoling, you blind or somethin'?" The big dude says with his arm still pinning down Kai.
" I SAID LET HIM GO YOU, ARE YOU FUCKING DEAF?" Coral roared as she pointed her Dualies at him.
" HEY, watch it kid. If you even think about shooting that damn thing at me, eight limbs over here will-" The big guy says as Kai head butts him.
The big guy falls to the floor, he was most likely unconscious now.
Coral's face softens as she sees that Kai is okay and her eyes wander, checking for injuries.
" W-why are you here?! You should be in bed!!" Kai says as he gets up.
Coral was pissed, she suddenly raised her voice, " WHY AM I HERE?! I WAS WORRIED AS HELL, FOR FUCKS SAKE, YOU ALMOST DIED."
" I- I know, but your sick. I don't know.. I just want to be the one who saves you.. I'm always being rescued by you all the time." Kai nervously says.
" It doesn't matter!! I don't care, I just can't loose you. I-I care about you Kai." Coral says weakly with watery eyes.
" And so do I..maybe I'm just not ready to go out alone.." Kai says with defeat.
" We can go places again when I recover but in the mean time, just please stay at the apartment , promise?" Coral says grabbing Kai's hands.
" Promise." Kai says with a little smile.
They held hands as they walked to the apartment.
Still Friends.
Authors Note: this chapter was meh to me but whatever, I tried I guess. Anyways I have some good ideas for the next few chapters so stay tuned :/