Quick note: check my last update, I've changed the character's ages, please read it if you haven't to avoid confusion when reading this chapter .
Edit: I've deleted the last update already, Coral is 20 and Kai is 19. Bruno and Alex are both 21. In case you missed it.
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It was late October, the skies began to turn a light grey and would pour droplets of water onto Inkopolis. To Kai, it was relaxing. He listened to the rain as it softly dribbled the roof of the apartment complex. On the other hand, Coral found that the sound of rain was just another excuse to stay inside and sleep all day.
It was very early in the morning still, Kai had already woken up but had no intentions of waking Coral up so soon. The apartment filled with silence, it was very quiet but the rain kept Kai some company.
He huffed, he had just remembered that they had to cancel today's turf war matches with Bruno and Alex. He got up and retrieved his small journal from the pocket of his jacket that was neatly folded on one of the lounge chairs. He had decided that he should write more poems in it to ease his boredom.
His eyelashes flickered as he sat by the kitchen counter, thinking. Wondering.
"What could I write?"
It was difficult to think of a subject, he had already filled the small notebook with poems of all of the mem cakes he collected. He shifted his sitting position, once then twice..until he looked out the window.
" The rain."
He decided that the rain would be a good start to write a poem about and began to move his writing hand.
" The sound of you eases my pain,
Oh, the sound of you eases my pain.
I could watch you all day and my worries drain."
A small smile lifted his mouth. He felt satisfied with the short poem, he usually hated what he wrote and would just move on to write another one without looking at it ever again or simply ripping it out of frustration.
A glass of orange juice would suffice, at the moment his mouth felt too dry. Kai got up from his seat and made a short travel to the fridge.
Tap tap tap tap
Kai stopped in his tracks, he turned and glanced at the window that the tapping came from.
Nothing.
He shrugged it off and opened the fridge, then again.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap
A bit scared but concerned, he made his way to the window. However, he immediately became confused due to the fact that there was nothing at the window.
That is until a creature with a big mouth and hideous gray flabby skin jumped from the side of the window, scaring Kai.
" GAAHHH!" Kai yelped as he staggered away from the window and fell to the floor.
His eyes were wild from fear but immediately morphed into confusion as he watched the creature take off its hideous face. It laughed in jumbles.
" Bahahahah!! Trick or treat!!" Bruno laughed from behind the glass of the apartment's window.
" B-Bruno?! How did you even climb up to the balcony??" Kai asks in confusion.
" Eh.. it was no big deal!" Bruno says as he throws the hideous mask onto the balcony floor.
" W-well where's Alex and what did I do to deserve that !?" Kai asks, still confused and a bit angry.
Bruno shrugged, " He's at home, didn't wanna come along to prank you and Coral," His face suddenly went from a smile to a frown, "You don't know what trick or treat means?"
" No but I-," Kai begins but turns around and sees Coral who is now standing beside him.
She looked more gloomy as ever.
" Bruno what are you doing here and why is there a Splatoween mask on my balcony?!" Coral immediately demanded as she unlocked the balcony's glass door.
Bruno picked up the mask and came inside the apartment, " Sheesh girl, it's almost Splatoween. Don't you ever go trick or treating?"
Coral sighs, " Not anymore but wouldn't it be more appropriate to play such idiotic tricks that you have on the day of Splatoween??"
" What's..trick or treating?" Kai nudges into Coral and Bruno's conversation.
Taken back by Kai's question, Bruno gasps, " Don't tell me you never told Kai about Splatoween, Coral?! It's literally one of the best holidays ever!!"
Kai flailed his arms, frustrated, " N-No!! I know what Splatoween is, but I never heard of trick or treating because I was never given the chance to celebrate it before.."
" Ah, that's too bad..," Bruno says a bit disappointed but then his face lights up," H-hey!! Why don't we all go trick or treating this year? I think Splatoween is something you should never miss in your life!"
Coral insisted that they shouldn't, " No way! You know how cruel people can be to young adults on Splatoween! We're too old for it anyways."
"Bah!! Non sense!! Your helping Kai get adjusted to Inkopolis and our culture, right?" Bruno says as he throws himself onto the couch," We could totally pass as teenagers!"
Coral sighs and turns to Kai, " Do you want to go trick or treating?"
He responds, a bit hesitant with his decision, " W-well only if you want to—,"
" Oh, fine! We only live once a lifetime anyways."
Coral abruptly says with her head turned away.
" R-really?? You don't mind?" Kai perks up with hope.
" Y-yeah.. I guess it's good to re-live things sometimes..," She says and then glances over to Kai, " I suggest that we should find us both a costume soon then."
" Well ya two better hurry! It's already in a few days and you know how busy the stores are and how empty the shelves get ," Bruno mumbles as he stares down at his phone, texting Alex.
It was settled then, the four of them including Alex would be going trick r treating this year. Shelly had offered that they could trick r treat around her neighborhood and were invited as well to her Splatoween party that would be held at her house . It would be a fun night.
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The next day, Alex and Bruno tagged along with Coral and Kai. The rain still poured down the streets but there were no food left in the fridge for the two agents to eat anymore so Coral reluctantly decided that it would be best to go out and get more groceries and their costumes.
The four of them sat in Alex's car, shifting around to buckle their seat. They had just finished lunch at a local restaurant that served shrimp tacos. Coral, Alex, and Bruno had often stopped by the place when they were still in high school.
She found it surprising that the three of them had kept in touch since high school, it was common to part from your high school friends once you graduated.
It was decided that they would stop by Makomart after they pick up their Splatoween costumes.
Various Splatoween shops opened all across Inkopolis during late September and would vanish as soon as November hit.
Coral had took up work at the coffee shop yesterday and the demand for pumpkin latte was fierce. Within 10 minutes, she fell asleep on Kai's shoulder in which Kai had shyly offered that she could.
He watched as the other vehicles strolled by, he often enjoyed car rides because he was allowed to see new things every minute that he never could underground.
They passed a few neighborhoods where many of the houses were overloaded with Splatoween decorations. Kai couldn't wait, he always wanted to experience one of the holidays that he was always restricted from. The thought of Splatoween being a few days soon made him even more curious to what it would be like to celebrate the holiday.
He then turned to Bruno, who sat in the passenger seat which was by Alex, who was driving.
" Hey, Bruno?" Kai asks, " What are you and Alex going to be for Splatoween?"
Bruno turned away from his phone and to the backseat where Kai and Coral sat. He took notice of Coral, who was clearly passed out on Kai's shoulder and gave off a small snort and then went back to continue with Kai's question.
" Hah!! You're totally gonna love it Kai, unfortunately I can't tell ya right now buddy. I want it to be a surprise," Bruno says as he winks at Alex who just rolls his eyes while giving off a small chuckle.
They eventually arrive at Shellfish Spooks, the Splatoween store. Dealing with traffic was a big difference in Inkopolis Square than Inkopolis Plaza. It was a lot more outrageous in Inkopolis Square, while Inkopolis Plaza's traffic was fairly decent but also frustrating at times ( often when the squid sisters were performing a concert ).
Kai nudged Coral awake in which she yawned and simply thanked him with a beaming tired smile, "Thanks for being my pillow."
" Welcome," he replied as he smiled back.
The four of them then quickly shuffled into the store with the support of umbrellas to shield them from the light drizzles of rain.
" Me and Bruno are gonna hang out in the decoration sections, text us if you two need anything," Alex says as he was quickly dragged away by Bruno.
" Was there anything that you specifically had in mind Kai?" Coral then asks.
Kai shrugs, " No, not really. I'm honestly fine with anything as long as it's not embarrassing."
" Alright," Coral responds as she took his hand and led him to the costumes.
He blushed a little but not as much as before since he knew it was a habit that Coral had.
Bruno was right, the shelves would be empty if they weren't quick. Luckily, it was stocked with enough costumes to still be able to pick out from.
Coral immediately took interest in a deep violet colored devil horns, she unhooked then from the hook that held the pair of horns and placed them on her head.
" I've always wanted to be a devil for Splatoween, my mother is extremely religious so she always forced me to be more girly things when I was little,"
Coral says as she adjusted the horns while looking at the mirror.
Kai appeared from behind her, his eyes give off a soft glance, " Maybe she never allowed you to be a devil because you're more pretty than a devil."
" What did he just say?!"
Coral nervously chuckled and blushed, " O-oh stop that, I'm merely as pretty as you think." She had muttered the last part.
" N-no..that's ...," Kai says but stops. He was suddenly afraid to speak again. Did he just upset her? Truly, he never would thought of the fact of upsetting her in any way.
He stayed silent as Coral fumbled around with the devil horns, he felt too awkward. He hated it. He silently decided to look at the masks that he eyed upon arriving at the store.
After a few minutes he came back to Coral with a mask in his hands. It was a hockey mask, apparently it glowed a icky bright-almost lime green in the dark. The thought of glow in the dark objects reminded him of some of the other passengers that boarded the Deep sea metro.
Coral looked up at Kai, clearly not bothered by the awkward little moment that they had anymore, " You found something?" she asks.
He nodded, " It glows in the dark."
Coral looked at the mask that he had chosen and carefully took it from him.
" I figured you would like something scary, what are you planning to wear with it?" she asked out of curiosity.
Kai scratches his head, " ehmm.. probably just a varsity jacket and regular jeans."
Coral nodded and headed off in the direction of the decorations. She had said something about telling Alex and Bruno that they would be leaving soon.
Normally, Kai would have followed her but he stayed behind and wandered the costume aisles.
For some reason, he was still bothered by the fact that he maybe had made Coral feel bad. Was she insecure? Ashamed of how she looked? Whatever it was, Kai wanted to make sure that he would prove her wrong but maybe not now..he wasn't ready.
They soon payed for their costumes, headed to Makomart to pick up a few groceries for the following week and were dropped off at the apartment complex after.
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Splatoween then emerged as soon as Wednesday and Thursday flew by. The Squid Sisters and Off The Hook were supposedly performing a Splatoween concert in town today so beating traffic was priority.
Coral sat in her bedroom, applying glitter and makeup to her face. She was often told by family or friends that her natural face was already beautiful and that she didn't need make-up. She didn't believe them.
You would think that a inkling girl like Coral would admire her beauty, but that simply wasn't the case.
When she was growing up, a malice stalked her.
Bullying. Little Coral was often bullied, they called her such cruel words; Frog face, little cunt, squid bitch and even Octoling. Those names that she were called embedded inside her, that she eventually hated Octolings at some point. She was a fool to think that, it wasn't her fault though. She was raised to think that Octolings were evil. Her parents despised Octolings, they made sure to teach her that the Octolings were terrible and that she should never even speak to one if she would ever encounter one.
When graduation came, she felt free but not of the words that implanted through her head.
She didn't realize now but she was very glad that Kai eventually appeared into her life , he had entirely changed her perception on Octolings. He made her feel appreciated or perhaps even pretty.
" No, he's just your friend. Loosen up Coral, it's Splatoween," she thought. She finished applying her make-up and hurried over to the small desk that sat by her bed. She checked her squid phone for the time, it read 6:58.
She gasps and quickly snatches her purse that hung off the side of the bed's headrest and bursted out into the living room where Kai sat, patiently waiting while on his phone, his mask sat on the armrest of the chair.
He looked up at Coral and froze,
Beautiful, was all he could see.
Coral's dress flowed like the flames of fire, sparking a deep hue of red and purple color that matches with her horns.
Coral mustered, " I know, I know. I lost track of time..damn it..,"
He still looked shocked, his eyes brows furrowed and he stammered a response, " N-no it's fine..,"
he stood up, grabbed his mask and walked towards the door and unlocked it, holding it open for her.
Just as she exited out of the apartment front door, he followed after her down the steps of the stairway and spoke again but lost his nerves once more, " W-what I'm trying to say is that y-you......n-never mind,"
he quickly threw in a lie to make it seem like he was talking about something else, " I was going to say that you forgot your purse, but I only realize now that you have it right over your shoulder,"
" Stupid, stupid, stupid ," Kai hammered his thoughts. He cringed at what he had just pulled.
Luckily they had beat the traffic and shortly arrived in the neighborhood in which Shelly lived in. Upon arriving in her neighborhood, you could already tell that it was a great place for trick r treating. There was not one house that wasn't decorated and many trick r treaters of all ages ranging from a child to a young adult zipped by each house, dragging a butt-load of candy in their bucket or bag.
They parked off to the side of another home since Shelly's driveway and the curbs of the sidewalk that sat beside her home were already filled by other cars.
As they got out of Coral's car, loud music boomed h Shelly's house.
" Oh boy..," Coral muttered as she and Kai headed to the front door.
Kai ringed the doorbell, and a few seconds later a drunk male Inkling with an accent answered the door.
"Whooo de hell are yuh? W-wait aren't yuh guys too old tuh be trick r treatin'?"
" Umm..," Kai began but someone shoved the drunk inkling away from the door, it was Shelly. She had a white blanket over her entire body with two eye holes cut into the white sheet, she was apparently a ghost.
" Hey guys!! Glad you could make it! Sorry, that was my cousin from upstate of Inkopolis, pay him no attention," Shelly greeted as she cleared the doorway, inviting the two in.
" Wow, you guys look great. I love that both of your costumes glow, I wish I had more time to think of my costume but I was too busy with party plans ya know?" Shelly says while trying to speak through the loud music and the chatter of the other Inklings.
" Oh no, It's totally fine. I think that your ghost costume is rather..a classic?" Coral says as she unhooks her purse from her shoulder, " Is there anywhere I could put this?"
" Oh yeah! Follow me please," Shelly says as she leads them to one of the rooms upstairs.
Shelly opens the door to and points at the small dresser that was beside one of the bedroom's window, " This is my room, you can hide your belongings in my dresser. My friends can be a ruckus at parties so I don't want your stuff getting stolen."
she says and heads back towards the door to exit but gasps, " Oh! I just remembered, your two friends, Alex and Brutus..or Bruno was it? They are here, I saw them recently by the bar. Help yourself to the drinks by the way but I won't be responsible if you get drunk!"
Coral laughs as she hides her purse under what seems to be Shelly's sweaters in the dresser, " Thanks for the offer Shelly, but we're not 21 yet,"
"Oh, o-oops. Well I'll be downstairs if you need me," Shelly says and heads back downstairs.
" Alright Shelly, thanks," Coral says and then turns to Kai, " Let's join Alex and Bruno downstairs then, I almost forgot that we were going trick r treating."
They eventually were able to slide through the crowd of the other party attendees, sure enough the couple were found by the bar like Shelly said.
" Heeeyyy!! It's Cory, or should I say..Cory the devil ay?? Bruno shouted once he spotted Kai and Coral approaching them.
" Bruno, you dog. Are you drunk already?? Haven't you forgotten we're still trick r treating?" Coral smiled,.
Bruno and Alex got up from their seat by the bar, " No, he's just sober," Alex says as he greets Coral and Kai with a hug.
" So are you guys supposed to be from a fairytale or something like that?" Kai pointed out Alex and Bruno's costumes.
" What you can't tell? I'm a beast and Alex is a prince!" Bruno says.
Neither Coral or Kai could figure out what they were and just stood there confused.
Alex sighed, " We're handsome and the beast! Get it? Beauty and the beast?"
"Ohhh," Kai and Coral both said with realization.
" Shall we go beg for the sweet and savoring treats now?" Bruno says in his best 'royalty' voice as he hooks his arm with Alex.
And so; the night lingered as the four went trick r treating until their legs gave into tiredness, and the bowls of the houses began to empty of candy supply to give out.
There would be a few glances from the homeowners giving out the candy, mostly likely judging by the fact that one would expect children to show up at their door, not adults or the mere fact that there was an Octoling at their doorstep.
But in the end, all was good and their bags filled with many sweets of all kind.
They walked back to Shelly's home, you didn't even need directions to her house because you could just follow where the loud music in the distance was coming from.
Bruno mentioned something about needing to take a huge dump once they got back to Shelly's house, much to Coral's dismay.
They arrived once again at Shelly's house and Bruno quickly wandered off into the crowd to apparently find the bathroom.
Alex sighs, " I'm going to go follow after him, I doubt that if I leave him alone for even one minute , he would still cause a wreck within seconds," He then turns towards the direction Bruno went, " Call me as always if you guys need anything."
The two watch as Alex vanishes into the crowd. Coral then turns to Kai, " Woo, what a night Kai. Enjoying Splatoween so far?"
Kai nods gleefully," Yep, I'm very glad that I was able to experience Splatoween. Pretty sure my teeth might shatter from all the candy we got."
Coral chuckles and suggests that they should probably grab dinner where the various food sat on the table near the kitchen where Shelly had said it would be.
Kai grabbed what he could finish; rice topped with crab paste and deep fried fish peppered with spices.
He headed to Coral, " I'm going to grab a seat out in the back, join when you've got your food," he says and Coral nods.
She grabbed a simple meal that wasn't too heavy, she knew that she would probably snack on candy later in the night at the apartment so she wanted to leave room for the sweets.
She spotted Kai through the crowd. He was outside, eating his dinner at the table he saved for the two of them. She decided to grab a drink from the fridge first but she ended up colliding hard into someone and she dropped her plate of food. A sound of a phone cracked as it touched the kitchen tiles.
" Oh my god, I'm so sorry!! I can pay for whatever was damaged," Coral frantically said as she bent down to her knees to pick up the little glass fragments of the shattered squid phone's screen.
" You better!! Are you blind or something, do you realize how much that diamond crested phone case costed me!!" The inkling girl, clearly enraged snarled.
"That voice..it's so familiar......n-no it can't be..how? What is she doing here?"
Coral slowly looked up at the furious inkling, her eyes now shriveled in fear. Those fearful eyes met with ones that could almost graze through her soul.
" Hmm, I'm not surprised. You were always a little clumsy shit head in school," the inkling girl snorts
" W-what are you doing here!?" Coral stammered out.
Alice sneered down at her," I could say the same about you too. So, did you get into that fancy college that you applied to?"
Coral stayed silent, she didn't want to deal with this shit right now.
" I thought so. You were either too dumb to get in or they just didn't want your fucking ugly ass face im that school," Alice said as she stared into Coral's pained eyes.
" No, not again......n-no,"
" F-fuck you Alice..," Coral muttered.
" What was that? Finally using big words now, huh?" Alice says. She leaned down, eye level to Coral, " Listen here, you may have grown up and all but that doesn't mean you got pretty. If anything, you just became uglier."
Coral felt as if her throat was being strangled, she couldn't speak, breath nor lift her hand to flip off Alice. The air became tight and her whole body felt hot, the world twirled.
Alice sputtered something, knowing her it was probably another obnoxious comment. Coral didn't hear it though, she wanted to hide somewhere, anywhere. She slipped away from the kitchen and roughly pushed herself through the crowd without a care of what others would say.
She hid herself in Shelly's bedroom, locked the door behind her, and toppled face-flat onto Shelly's bed. She cried, she didn't want to remember the past but here she was, thinking back.
Alice was a classmate that harassed her throughout middle school and high school, she had absolutely no reason to since Coral always kept to herself and never bullied anyone.
They had supposedly once been 'friends' the first few months of 6th grade upon meeting each other but that took a turn when the two began to share homework answers.
The few months into 6th grade, Coral began to refuse to work with Alice because the teacher warned of copying each other's homework. Alice didn't like that one bit and eventually left Coral, vanishing with a new set of friends.
Later, she came back but only for homework and harassed Coral into giving her the answers. If Coral refused, she would threaten to tell the whole school of rumors that were untrue of Coral.
Once, Coral had refused and soon enough those rumors spread like venom. More kids believed those lies so easily that it spawned others to bully her. It was a whole mess, really. At the end of the day, she never told her parents and the words that she heard everyday got to her, making her believe that she wasn't pretty.
A knock disrupted Coral's thoughts. She didn't answer, she didn't want to talk to anyone right now.
Again, there was a knock but more louder than before. It was followed by the voice of Kai, " C-Coral are you in there? I-I have been looking for you for the past hour."
" Not now..please..,"
" Coral, I..please let me in," Kai begged, a heavy sigh could be heard through the door," Look, remember what you said? You said you would always be there for me, and whatever it is..I would like to be there for you right now as well."
She didn't want to or she didn't have to but she got up anyways and unlocked the door.
As soon as she opened the door, she couldn't take it. She hugged Kai like there was no tomorrow.
Surprised by the sudden hug, he was frozen for a bt but eventually hugged her back, " H-hey .. did something happen.?" Kai said as he smoothed her hair.
Coral leaned away from Kai, and took his hand. Leading him away from the door and to the mirror.
She softly touches the mirror and speaks up, her voice coming out very croaky from sobbing, " An old classmate of mine, she harassed me for a very long time. Calling me names, threatening me for the stupidest reasons...I bumped into her here and.. well I guess I never moved on from the past," she turns to Kai, " Who am I kidding.. this is ridiculous Kai, I should be enjoying Splatoween right now, not grieving something that happened a few years ago."
Kai bit his lips, " Is she kidding me right now?"
He speaks , a bit nervous but confident that he should be there for her right now, " No," this time his tone very serious.
" What?" Coral asks, her eyes still watered with tears.
" I said no. Coral, you're not pretty. You're far from pretty," he pauses and begins again, " You're..y-you're beautiful," Kai stammered out.
Coral sniffled, " Please, this is not the time to joke around Kai!"
He quickly took her hand out of nervousness, " W-what I meant was.. I like you Coral.. I think your beautiful..," pausing again, he spoke but it came out as if he was choking on the words he wanted to say," I-I think that.. t-that I like you more t-than a friend,"
his cheeks and ears burned of red as his eyes stared into hers, intense but somewhat gentle, " T-there I said it.. I just c-cant keep this bottled up anymore, I can't let you go on thinking that you're not beautiful. And you're beauty is not the only thing I am in love with, I-I admire your personality, e-everything."
Coral stood there, baffled. She didn't know what to do, the guy that she considered a friend since the destruction caused by tar-tar about two years ago stood there, admitting what he truly felt. The same one that she had feelings for the last five months.
Was she dreaming or what?
" C-Coral?" Kai questions.
Within a blink of an eye, the Octoling and Inkling's lips met. It was as if their problems had melted away until Coral pulled herself from him.
" I...I can't believe we just did that," Coral stuttered.
" M-me too..," Kai says, still in a haze from the moment.
Coral clears her throat," Thank you Kai..and..I like you too..," she says quietly.
With a chuckle, Kai asks, " D-does that mean we be more than friends?"
" Hmm..yes," she replies, her cheeks bloomed of pink. This was a new feeling to her, was it love? Or the feeling of suddenly that she was no longer ashamed of how she looked?
They leaned in for another kiss, the door suddenly slammed open. " Shelly said you guys would probably in he—OH MY GOD, WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING?!" Bruno shouted.
The two jumped away as if they were burnt by touching a hot surface.
" N-nothing!!" Coral flustered, " It was nothing!!"
Kai stood there mortified.
" W-what happened?! Are you alright Bruno?" Alex appears in the doorway, clearly he had not seen anything.
Bruno smiled the biggest grin Coral had ever seen,
" Oh it's nothing...ya know.. two love birds just minding their own business."
" I hate you Bruno," was all Coral said.
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Authors note : Holy shit guys, this chapter is so fucking long. I have never written a chapter this long before like wtf lmfao. Anyways I hope u enjoyed it and no, the story is not really over. We can enjoy more fluffy moments between Coral and Kai now and stuff so ya. Also there is a smash direct on Thursday so fuck yeah! Also pls don't ask for smut, just becus I changed their age to 19-20 doesn't mean I will write it. I myself am not even allowed to write that shit. So ya