A/N: This is a fic for Legendwaker from tumblr about her squid boyfriends in exchange for art she did of my poly squids

Lemme just preface this with a couple important things right off the bat. This story follows a few preconceptions/headcanons that dictate the way certain story elements act:

1: That the inklings have blood and tears that, while separate from their ink, is still the same color as it

2: That roller users (especially heavy rollers) are hella freakin strong from luggin those things around

3: (character specific) That Oji's eye injury and weakness/fainting/nausea are related. His whole idea just screamed "head injury symptoms" to me, since getting shot in the eye counts as head trauma in my opinion and all those issues he has ARE commonly occurring symptoms of head injuries. So, this fic follows my idea that he got all those things from that incident, thus they get worse when he overexerts himself.

also I don't think I got comfortably into writing their personalities until halfway through the fic and even then I'm pretty sure they're out of character regardless

That should be all the important things to say before the fic so with that I'll shut up until the end notes.

A blue laser bobbed across the immediate battlefield, scanning for any straggling enemy squids as the Inkling behind the laser shifted his grip on the heavy rifle it was mounted on. He was crouched on one of the walls around the upper mid area of the Saltspray Rig, having just supported his teammates while they reclaimed it.

If that could even be considered support… he thought to himself, bitter at his poor performance. His laser had been useful to distract and flush out the enemies for his teammates to splat, but he had yet to get any kills of his own. Shaking his head, he double checked both ramps leading up to the area he was in to make sure no one was approaching before jumping down from the wall, landing in the blue ink with an audible splash.

Never relaxing his grip on his Custom E-Liter in case someone jumped him, the sniper moved over to the ledge overlooking the lower portion of the map and peered down, careful not to slip off the ledge into the water far below. His teammates were waging battle with the opposing team on the pathways and lower mid area, each fighting for control of that part of the map. To the left, an enemy Inkling with a Splattershot was making her way up the path towards the area the sniper was currently in, causing him to turn and aim for her.

Crouching on the ledge to center his balance and minimize the impact from the kickback when he did let off a shot, he carefully aimed for the enemy Inkling, determined not to miss this shot. A little chime went off when his weapon was fully charged up, and the sniper held his breath as he let it go.

"Damnit!" He hissed a bit louder than necessary as the shot was just slightly too far to the right, missing the enemy entirely. She continued on out of his range and he was about to follow when a curtain of orange ink landed on his head and all around him, rooting him to the ledge. He was already charging up another shot in defense as he turned to meet his attacker head on, ready to take them out with him. "You're going to-"

"Hi Oji." The all too familiar voice came from a certain orange Inkling standing innocently by the wall, the ridiculously large roller held over his shoulder clearly the cause of all the orange ink the sniper was now caught in. "It ain't very nice to splat people when they don't know you're there."

"Lay off, Geo. You just did the same thing." Oji snapped back in response, meeting the other's grin with a flat look. He carefully tightened his grip on the charged rifle in his hand, quickly bringing it up and firing. Unfortunately, the miniscule movement didn't escape Geo's attention, giving him plenty of time to react and dodge the haphazard shot that would have otherwise easily splatted the Dynamo roller user on the spot.

That huge roller came down only a split second after, and Oji suddenly found himself leaning out of the respawn point coughing as his newly reformed lungs remembered how air worked. Once he'd recovered he swam through the ink down the path to the right, heading straight back for his original sniping place on the wall at the center, knowing full well that's where Geo would now be recovering turf.

His assumption was correct; most of the upper mid area was now orange courtesy of the roller. The countdown for the end of the match started as well, telling him there were only ten seconds left and there was no way they could take back enough ground to win in time. Irked with the win suddenly being pulled from under his feet, Oji pulled the rifle up to his face and carefully aimed for that damn Inkling in that damn white jacket and fired.

And missed.

Oji's free hand came up to meet his face, letting out a loud frustrated sigh and willing away the headache he could feel forming. His grip on the rifle tightened again and he grumbled obscenities to himself, his body language downright screaming agitation as he paced back and forth in place. He didn't notice the cyan eyes watching him intently from below, their owner suddenly very concerned over the out of character tantrum as the sniper lost his cool.

The sniper only continued making low, annoyed noises in the back of his throat as the scores were tallied and Judd gave the win to the orange team, of course. He clearly had the lowest turf score on his entire team, along with zero kills and several deaths, which made him want to melt through the floor in embarrassment over the absolutely horrible performance. Losing he could handle, but not remotely helping his team in the least was not something he could as easily brush off, especially now. At this point he'd lost count of the matches they'd played today that he had not been useful in at all.

He was the first to leave the sub-lobby and return to the main lobby of Inkopolis Tower, looking around for the next open lobby awaiting players. Finding one, he was about to immediately join the next match when a hand grabbing his arm stopped him.

"You're actin' kinda weird. You alright?" Geo asked, the concern in his voice clear as day. "We've been at this for awhile, let's take a break."

"No, I'm good for another match." Oji argued back. His boyfriend gave him a look that clearly said he didn't believe a word of it, though the sniper didn't particularly care. "I'm joining another whether you agree with it or not."

Geo sighed. "Okay, let's go." He said, letting go of Oji's arm and following him into the next open lobby.

Oji had to duck the moment he spawned, nearly getting clocked in the head with that stupid Dynamo roller as Geo shook the ink off beside him. He was vaguely aware of their other two teammates behind them, both with guns of some sort though he didn't bother to pay much attention since they weren't the ones he would be shooting at.

On screens mounted outside of the map, they watched as the enemy team spawned. They had an Octobrush, Slosher, and a couple of Aerosprays. He couldn't help but be glad they weren't up against anyone with range that could give him much trouble, though if he couldn't aim then it didn't matter regardless.

The whistle blew for the match to start and Oji immediately set off to the right, heading through the sloped pathway that led to the middle of the map from the side. Instead of going straight to mid on ground level, though, he turned left and went up one side of the slope before pulling himself up onto the platform above.

Moving out from the cover of the wall on that platform, he scanned around the middle of the map while charging up a shot. His teammates had already taken the tower at the center, the enemy team fighting back for it, though he didn't see all four of them there. On guard for the Octobrush user, he looked up at the screens again to see the map and sure enough, there was a distinctive orange streak heading into the blue base.

He turned and jumped down from the platform, leaving the tower to his teammates for now. Inking up the wall and using that to get onto the grate ledge on it, he walked along it back into their base and held his rifle at the ready. The Octobrush was busy leaving a messy scattering of orange all over the slopes right at spawn, and hadn't seemed to notice his laser yet as he stared down the barrel, taking careful aim.

For a moment his target's form blurred into a mess of colors, effectively vanishing into the colors of the equally blurred ground behind them and he blinked, shifting on instinct to rub his eye and accidentally letting go of the trigger. The wildly misfired shot alerted the brush to his presence and by the time Oji had shaken the blurriness out of his vision there was already a Kraken climbing the wall for him.

"… Damn it." He said, a split second before getting splatted.

This time when he popped out of the respawn point, Oji spent several seconds staring at his hand as he held it in front of his face, but the weird blur didn't happen again. Shaking it off, he turned to where the brush user had splatted him, though it seemed one of his teammates must've dealt with it since the Inkling was gone and the orange ink had been covered up.

The sniper jumped into the ink and swam back to his original sniping platform to the side of the center, immediately looking around for enemies. The orange team had taken the tower, an Aerospray and the bucket hiding out on the top and keeping the blue team away. Swinging his E-Liter around to aim up there, neither Inkling seemed to notice the laser fast enough to escape before Oji managed to finally hit the Aerospray, splatting him in one shot.

"Finally." He sighed, the sound of a fully charged charger shot hitting a target never ceased to be extremely satisfying. That one kill was nothing compared to his streak of losses today, however.

The Slosher's teammate getting splatted was enough to distract him long enough for someone out of Oji's line of sight to splat him, and a moment later Geo popped up on the top of the tower. He waved at the sniper with a bright grin, though it only earned him a partially amused look in return.

Turning his attention away from the dork he called a boyfriend, Oji focused instead toward the enemy team's base as the members respawned and headed back to fight for mid. The same two from before went after Geo on the tower, but with another well-aimed shot Oji made quick work of the one with the bucket and one of their other teammates took out the Aerospray from the other side.

Looking back toward the enemy base again, he just barely caught sight of the other Aerospray setting up an inkstrike. With a pretty good guess as to where that was going to end up, Oji turned to look at Geo and tried to get his attention. The roller was continuing to do his own thing and hold the area, though he didn't notice the sniper's waving and pointing the laser at him didn't work either so Oji did the next best thing and fired a shot at the roller in his hand.

Geo paused, looking curiously at the fresh ink dripping from his weapon before turning to the sniper with an expression that said "What was that for?" In response to which, Oji just pointed up. So Geo looked up.

Even though losing the tower to the enemy team was a bad thing, the sniper couldn't help but chuckle when the inkstrike landed right on it, splatting the roller before he had a chance to run away. Hey, I warned him.

Charging up another shot, Oji aimed for an enemy Inkling heading for the tower and tried to hit them, though again he was just a little too far to the side and they ducked behind a wall to escape him. A chiming noise rang in his ears for a moment, and he looked back to see a super jump ring with Geo's name on it appear beside him.

Oji kept an eye out for any nearby enemies for the few seconds it took his boyfriend to land, though their other two teammates seemed to be keeping the other team busy at the moment. Geo landed heavily due to the weight of his weapon, and he glanced around to check how safe they were before speaking.

"Your warnings suck."

The sniper just rolled his visible eye. "You should've been paying attention. Now, go take back that tower." He ordered, shoving the other boy off the platform.

While Geo went to do as suggested, Oji kept watch on the two paths into enemy territory he could see from his spot. The Octobrush user from before was heading his way, moving in a straight line which made them an easy target as they approached. At least, that's what he thought. They dodged to the side right when he set off his shot and continued coming after him, close enough now to fling ink at him.

Thinking quickly, he figured the brush user would expect him to back off to either side or backwards, so instead he jumped over their head to land behind them. Unfortunately he couldn't charge a strong hit while in the air, so he used their confusion to his advantage the moment he landed and pelted them with several low-damage hits, effectively splatting them.

He was vaguely aware that he'd gotten his Special charged up by now, giving him another way out if he was attacked again. Which, lo and behold, happened as soon as he moved to return to his sniping spot. The Inkling with the bucket popped out of the trail left behind by the brush, managing to hit Oji once directly but didn't have time to get another hit in before he set off said Special and turned back to splat them in Kraken form.

Since he could safely climb any wall he wanted in this form, he went ahead and finally joined Geo on the tower, apparently just in time to save said roller from an Aerospray that had the same idea. Geo just sort of blinked at the appearance of both an enemy and his boyfriend at the same time, the latter of which splatting the former before his Kraken form wore off. Finally he just grinned. "My hero." He purred, grin widening when Oji shot him an unamused look.

Hoisting his weapon back up, Oji hopped onto the very edge of the tower and crouched down again, holding a charged shot as he waited for someone to come into range. One of the enemy Inklings popped up on the side, trying to sneak into their base now that Oji had abandoned his original spot, and he turned to aim for them. Peering intently down the barrel, the Inkling he was aiming for started to blur like the brush user had earlier but he set off the shot before it could get worse.

That satisfying charger impact let him know he'd managed to splat them despite his vision blurring further, starting to look like one giant smudge of color. He tried to rub the blurriness out of his eye again, but it didn't help, and blinking wasn't making it go back to normal either. Starting to get worried about what to do, Oji stood from his perch suddenly, and oh no that was a bad idea he thought as the blurry world spun and nausea rose behind it all.

Opening and closing his mouth several times in an attempt to speak, the sniper never managed to come up with actual words with which to ask the squid behind him for help. Before he could try again, the ground seemed to lurch under his feet and he was vaguely aware of the sensation of falling as his vision turned completely dark.

There was one enemy Inkling hiding out just at the edge of Geo's fling range, popping up and trying to storm the tower every time the roller paused to refill his ink or look away. They were honestly getting somewhat annoying, but a little bit of challenge here and there wasn't a bad thing, he knew. A loud boom from behind him made it clear his companion was doing his part as well, guarding Geo's back while he dealt with this really annoying Slosher.

Unluckily for that Inkling, another of the blue team came up behind them while they were focused on the roller on the tower, splatting them easily before waving up at him. He waved back, appreciative of the help.

The countdown for the end of the match started, and since most if not all of the enemy team were currently in the respawn process, there was no way they could take it back before it ended. He turned around, with the intention of congratulating Oji on his first win today, just in time to see the other male sway in place and fall over the edge of the tower toward the ground below.

Geo was faster, dropping his roller on the tower but keeping one hand on the end of the handle as he dove to grab the fainted squid. Just barely managing to grab the collar of Oji's jacket, Geo tensed as they lurched to an immediate stop midair and he stared up at the roller as it laid flat on the top of the tower, expecting it to fall with them. Luckily, it seemed their weight even combined wasn't enough to tip the huge weapon up and drop them.

He let out a sigh of relief. Even if falls weren't that dangerous to them, he didn't want an unconscious Oji falling even from small heights and if the roller had come with them that wouldn't have been pretty either. Now, however, came the issue of how to get down without dropping his boyfriend. Looking around, the roller user didn't immediately see any of the other Inklings, unfortunately. Looks like I gotta do this on my own.

Glancing back down at the distance between them and the ground, and then back up at the handle of his roller, Geo mentally shrugged as a half idea formed in his brain. It was better than just hanging around here until someone found them, he figured, and carefully pulled the lower half of his body up to hook his ankles together over the handle. Once he was relatively sure he could support their weight that way, he let go with the hand gripping the roller and swung down until he was hanging completely upside down, Oji still carefully suspended in his other hand.

Taking a moment to breathe, he checked the distance to the ground again. With the added length of his whole body instead of just his arms, they were now much closer to the ground. Geo stretched down as much as he could and gently set the limp form of the sniper on the concrete below, the ink from the battle having since vanished.

With Oji safely on the ground, Geo easily pulled himself back up onto the tower to retrieve his weapon before dropping down again and retrieving his boyfriend as well.

Sound filtered back into his reality as Oji started to stir awake, muffled sounds of activity in Inkopolis Tower in the background somewhere nearby. He didn't need to look to know his head was rested in Geo's lap, a gentle hand petting rhythmically over it. The sensation was soothing to the splitting headache he suddenly noticed he had, however not enough to keep him from groaning in pain.

"Hey there, sleepin' beauty." Geo greeted, voice low to keep from making the headache worse.

Oji started to open his eye to look up at the other, but decided against it with a pained hiss when the light felt like it was stabbing right at his head. He heard the roller make a sympathetic noise, and then there was a hat on his face. "Did you just put your hat on me?" Oji asked, voice somewhat muffled.

"Sure did."

Ehh, at least it's dark under this thing. The sniper figured. He wanted to shift into a more comfortable position but he knew the moment he moved was when the nausea would come back, so he stayed still.

"Wanna go home? You ain't doing so hot."

"No." Oji argued, waving him off. "Just… Give me a minute."

"Y'sure?"

Yep, there's the nausea. "Positive." He managed through gritted teeth, trying not to think about the extremely unpleasant sick feeling.

"Want me to get you a drink or something?" Geo offered, clearly wanting to do something to help.

"Don't move. Don't."

"Okay."

It took several minutes for the nausea to fade, several long minutes of trying to think of cute fluffy sea bunnies instead of the feeling. All the while, Geo just patiently sat still and continued petting his head under the hat, eventually starting to hum a random tune in a very low pitch so as to not disturb him. Eventually Oji took a deep breath and sat up, pulling the hat off his face and plopping it back on his partner's head. Sideways, of course, just to be annoying.

"Better now?" Geo asked, adjusting his hat properly without comment.

"Yeah. Thanks." The sniper stood up, offering a hand. "Come on, let's go join another match."

His boyfriend only sighed as he took the offered hand and followed the stubborn sniper into the lobby yet again, not entirely agreeing with the idea but not planning to let him go alone either.

Right from the moment Oji spawned, he could tell this match was going to be absolute hell. His head was pounding and the whistling wind in his ears from the height of Moray Towers wasn't helping, and the fact Geo clearly wasn't on the team with him meant the match would be harder to win regardless.

The whistle blew to start off the match, his teammates surging forward to cover the map while he hesitated a moment, hand on his head. When he did drop down, he landed somewhat heavily and stumbled, starting to wonder if it was such a good idea to keep battling.

He shook his head, which amplified the headache and caused him to cringe. No, he needed to keep battling until this… whatever this was, wore off. Until he could actually properly fight again without missing every damn shot he fired.

His teammates had completely skipped the first sloping path from their base to the right, so he charged a couple shots to cover all of it in his range before following the same direction they had and dropping down to the next platform and then the one after that.

Crouching on the edge of the platform, he swung his laser up to point at the mirrored platform on the other side, shooting when he saw a splash up there. The shot connected and splatted someone trying to hide there, giving him a small sense of satisfaction that his battling was improving somewhat. His vision flickered again, trying to blur as he aimed down toward another Inkling below and splatted them as well.

Splashing sounds to his right made him turn, catching Geo in his sights down the path. The roller was battling with one of Oji's teammates, and the sniper couldn't help but think he didn't look half bad in blue as he aimed and splatted him.

The rescued teammate waved appreciatively, and Oji turned back to the middle of the map, already pulling his gun back up to aim for another target. A surge of dizziness overtook him for a moment, prompting the sniper to lean heavily on the pole beside him but otherwise didn't divert his attention as he focused on another Inkling below and sent them back to spawn as well. The next enemy was out of his range, and his teammate chased after them as he momentarily paused to press a hand against his head, not noticing until too late as he started leaning off the edge.

Next thing Oji knew, he popped out of the respawn pad shaking ink off and coughing. His head was hurting worse as the match continued on, but he picked his E-Liter back up regardless and jumped down, quickly making his way back to his original spot where he'd fallen. The other team was making their way up as he came down, and he shot one as he fell, narrowly avoiding the fire of the other as they tried to splat him in return. Backing further up the path into his own orange ink, Oji charged up another shot and picked off the Inkling trying to follow him.

One of his teammates jumped down and helped cover the blue ink encroaching on their side of the map, and the sniper returned to his spot overlooking mid. Through his pounding headache, Oji managed to realize he hadn't seen Geo in a while, which meant the roller was probably right around the corner somewhere waiting for a chance to take the battle.

He subconsciously rubbed at his face as the wind tickled it, not noticing the bright color left smudged on his hand. Charging up several shots with his rifle, he worked to cover the ground below and see if he could flush Geo or any of the other team out into the open. It seemed to work, since a moment later a sprinkler was thrown onto the metal arch above him, raining blue ink down onto his perch as he backed away and turned to snipe the culprit.

Geo approached with a smirk, clearly intending to fling ink at the enemy sniper when he paused, face shifting to show concern again. Oji just gave him a confused look in return. The roller set his weapon down and carefully approached his boyfriend, ignoring the rest of the battle waging on around them.

"What?" Oji asked, thoroughly confused at this point. The sharp pain in his head wasn't helping, either, and he almost felt like he was about to get dizzy again. In response, Geo just reached out and brushed his hand across Oji's cheek before holding it out for him to see the bright liquid on it. "… Oh."

The sniper reached up to check for himself and sure enough, his eye must've started bleeding at some point during the match. The bright substance, slightly thicker than ink, had soaked through the patch and down his face. Geo sighed.

"Let's go, that needs taken care of."

Outside the lobby, Geo gently pushed his boyfriend to sit on a bench somewhat out of the way of any activity in the plaza. Oji did as prompted without protest, his one good eye slightly glazed over in pain as the other continued to leak blood from under the patch over it. Both squids had changed their ink back to their preferred colors after leaving the lobby, causing the blood on the right side of Oji's face to become a multicolored mess as it dripped onto the concrete under his feet.

Digging around in the inside pockets of his jacket for a pack of sterile wipes, Geo eyed the other with mild concern. Oji had been acting a bit… off, all day. The purple squid was always grumpy and stubborn, sure, but something just seemed wrong today what with his refusal to give up and how many shots he'd missed. "Hey, look at me." The roller urged, looking closely as that one rose colored eye turned up to focus dully on him. He must be in a good bit of pain, that is not a happy look.

Having found the package he was looking for, Geo reached out with one of the cloths in hand and gently took hold of the other squid's face to hold him still as he cleaned away the muddy mix of colored blood. He cleaned Oji's cheek and jaw before going anywhere near the eye, wanting to get the majority of the blood before even trying to take care of the fragile part.

"I'm gonna take your patch off, kay?" Geo warned, earning a faint nod in approval. He carefully pulled the saturated fabric off the other's head and set it on the bench, then took a fresh cloth to dab gently at the remaining blood. "Look up, please."

Oji did as told, looking sharply up at the sky so Geo could more easily wipe away the remaining purple on the sniper's lower eyelid. He flinched despite the soft touch, earning murmured apologies from the yellow squid as he continued working.

"We should probably take off from battling the rest of the day, you need a break." The roller told him, folding the cloth in half and pausing. "Can you close your eye? I'll be done in a second."

"I don't want to take a break." His boyfriend protested, though closed his damaged eye as asked. He continued as Geo wiped the last of the blood off, careful not to press too hard. "If I quit now, I'll do even worse later."

Ah, so that's what it's about. "You do realize they won't even let you battle during lunch hour, right? So take a break. You're having a bad day, just sit back for a bit and you'll do better once you've cleared your head."

The purple squid made a noise in disagreement, and Geo sighed. "Alright, now lemme see 'em." He prompted, getting the sniper to open both eyes and look at him. Oji took a breath and went on as Geo held his face and inspected his eye.

"I'm in a rut or something, I don't know. I just need to keep training until it goes away." Oji mumbled, Geo only humming to show he'd heard, still looking closely at the seafoam green eye to make sure there wasn't any new damage. "I feel like if I quit before I start doing better, I'll never get my edge back."

"Or you could be doing badly because you're trying too hard, you know. That's also possible." Geo pointed out, fishing a clean patch out of his jacket and replacing it over his boyfriend's bad eye, hands lingering on his face for a few moments after. Then he added, in a softer voice, "You shouldn't overwork yourself. Everyone has limits, and you don't want to reach yours at a bad time."

Oji just averted his eye, looking at something off to the side and a light dusting of purple starting to spread across his face. "You worry too much. I'm fine." He mumbled, the concerned attention starting to make him self-conscious.

A mischievous smirk split Geo's face. "Clearly, you're not going to worry about yourself, so someone has to." He informed, leaning close and leaving a light peck on his partner's nose. That light dusting of a blush on the sniper's face immediately turned a much darker shade and spread to his ears, embarrassed noises of protest that couldn't quite become words escaping him as Geo backed away with a chuckle.

"You… You… Aaaargh." Oji grumbled, turning away. The roller had to suppress another laugh as he could practically see steam coming off the other's head.

"Anyway, how about we hit up that café we like for lunch? Even if you still want to battle, it'll be awhile before the staff and other competitors head back to Inkopolis Tower."

"Oh…" Pausing and looking around suddenly, Oji turned back to him. "I left my shades in the equipment room."

"Want me to go grab them?" Geo offered. The sniper just shook his head as he stood.

"I'll get them. You go get us a table or something before they get too packed, you know how that place gets packed at lunchtime."

"Hmm, okay." The yellow squid agreed, watching as Oji jogged back toward the tower, slight confusion causing him to tilt his head. Why's he need his shades so bad? We're just going to lunch.

Oji had to block the glare from the sun with his hand as soon as he made it out of the sewer grate, immediately wishing he'd actually grabbed his shades like he'd said he was going to. The only thing he'd gotten out of the equipment room was his Custom E-Liter, which was currently in his hands. He couldn't do what he was planning unarmed, of course.

He looked around. The valley was deserted, not a soul in sight today. Most of the kettles were sitting quietly in their places, looking innocent as could be though he knew there were always Octarians planning one thing or another behind them.

"Now, which one…?" The ones closest would be too easy, he figured, causing the sniper to set his eyes on a random kettle further away on one of the other islands. With a shrug to himself, he squid jumped straight to it, and dove right in without bothering to figure out what may lie inside.

Geo's gonna splat me when he realizes I ditched him. Oji mused as he fell into the Octarian dome, the general vibe of this one seeming to mimic a nice sunny day. The platform he'd be starting on grew closer with each second he fell, and he threw a burst bomb at it to create a slightly softer landing for himself. A red laser locked onto him before he reached it and he swore, twisting midair to avoid being splatted by the quick-witted Octosniper.

Landing with a loud splash in the puddle he'd made with the bomb, Oji held perfectly still under the surface of it, peering around at his surroundings while he waited for the Octosniper to get distracted and stop watching for him. There were four regular Octotroopers around the sniper in a square formation, two of them patrolling in circles not far from where Oji was hiding.

Popping up out of the ink, Oji assaulted the guard to his right with a barrage of burst bombs, splatting the Octarian before it could react. The Octosniper saw him again when he did, but he was already back under the ink by the time its shot went off. Once it looked away again, he readied his own sniper rifle and jumped back into sight, charging a shot when the enemy sniper took sight of him. Oji managed to fire a powerful enough shot first, splatting the Octosniper before escaping into his own ink again.

The other three guards were easy enough to handle with his range, the purple Inkling easily able to splat them all from far enough away that they didn't even notice him. With the first wave cleared away, he continued on to the next area, squid jumping from a higher platform behind where the enemy sniper had been.

On the next area, he couldn't see anything ahead over the slope he had to climb to get there. Deciding to just go ahead and climb up blindly, he shot a line of ink up the sloped wall and climbed to the top, finding himself face to face with a more powerful Octotrooper. His first reaction was to splat it in another barrage of bombs, attracting the attention of another guard behind it and a sniper to the right. Without time to ink a hiding spot for himself, Oji hit the deck and rolled forward to dodge the sniper's shot, bringing himself closer to the second trooper and taking several hits from it before coming back to his feet and retaliating with several uncharged shots of his own.

Covered in enemy ink from that encounter, Oji was very close to being splatted himself and still wasn't out of sight of the sniper. He only just saw the laser and sidestepped in time to dodge a hit that would have been the end of him, charging up a shot of his own as he spun around to face the Octarian. It tried to splat him again, and again he managed to evade it, bringing his rifle up to his face and aiming.

He missed, giving the Octosniper time to shoot at him again. That shot clipped his side as he jumped away, doing very nearly enough damage to finish him off. Not daring to try and snipe back with his health as it was, Oji dropped several burst bombs at his feet and hid in the edge of his ink to recover.

That's why I'm out here anyway, I guess. He thought, more than a little annoyed with missing a stationary target. Every time it seemed like he was doing better, something like that made it clear he was no better than he had been that morning.

All of the enemy ink now having been washed off by his own, Oji jumped back into sight, E-Liter already charging up as he aimed at that pesky Octarian. It saw him again, of course, but he shot faster and splatted it in one very satisfying hit.

With all of the enemies in the immediate area taken care of, the Inkling sniper had a moment to himself to catch his breath. He yawned, stretching as he looked up at the entrance to the dome far over head. "Geo definitely knows I'm gone now. I wonder if he's gonna bust in here to drag my ass home at some point…"

That thought in mind, Oji continued on regardless, walking over to stand on the moving platform right in front of where the Octosniper had been and passing through the net easily as it moved underneath it. Then he jumped to the next area, creating a path ahead with one shot and diving into the ink.

Another Octosniper was situated up onto a higher platform right ahead, two Octotroopers behind it and on the path to the left. The sniper wasn't a problem, Oji just swam right up beside it and gave it the bomb rush treatment that seemed so handy against these guys. With that one out of the way, he climbed the slope onto the path to the left and took out the first trooper with a partially charged hit.

On another moving platform behind the second trooper, however, two more snipers came into view and spotted him. The path under him was net, so the purple Inkling again jumped forward and rolled to dodge the hits, turning to the right and shooting the second Octotrooper once he came to his feet again. Then he turned and shot one of the snipers while it was distracted by the trooper being splatted, and as the platform moved away behind a wall again he leaned a bit farther over the edge than was safe and shot the last one.

He continued on immediately to the next area, squid jumping to a large circular area with an Octosniper in the center and two stronger troopers on the edge. The sniper saw him the moment he landed and he sidestepped to avoid its shot, ignoring it and aiming down below to shoot one of the troopers. Jumping down after splatting it, he hid in his ink for a moment before sending a Seeker after the other trooper, then finally turning to the sniper and shooting it while its back was turned.

With the area again cleared out, he tossed a bomb onto the center area where the sniper had been and squid jumped to the next area.

This isn't so bad. Geo's worried over nothing, I swear.

The busy café around him wasn't enough to drown out Geo's thoughts as he waited, disinterestedly watching people walk by the establishment outside. He wasn't sure how long it had been, but he was pretty sure he'd been through six cups of whatever drink this was and had long since lost count of the cigarettes.

Snubbing out the end of the one in his hand, he pulled the cardboard pack out of his jacket for the umpteenth time, only to set the container on the table a second later when he remembered it was empty. The waitress came by again right then, refilling his cup and eying the empty pack.

"Ain't you a bit young to be a chain smoker?" She asked, sounding concerned.

He shrugged after a moment. "… It's been a long day."

"You look worried. I'd do something to settle those worries, if I were you." The waitress walked off then, continuing on with her job. Geo sighed. She was right, but…

The roller looked down at the phone on his lap, picking it up and typing in the same number again. Same as the past three times he'd tried, it didn't even ring. Either he forgot to turn it on again after battling, or he's somewhere without signal. He honestly wasn't sure where his boyfriend could've wandered off to, he wasn't one to just up and leave Geo hanging like this. Picking up the phone again, he typed in a different number, and waited.

The call connected this time, proving it wasn't just the yellow squid's phone acting up. "Hello?" Came the somewhat higher pitched female voice from the other end, sounding confused.

"Hey kiddo, sorry to bother you during lunch, but… Your brother wouldn't happen to have wandered home, would he?"

"No, I don't think I've heard him come in. Did you lose him?"

"… Yes."

"You need to put him on a leash, man. Literally."

Geo blinked. "I don't think he'd be very happy if he heard you say that."

"I'm not saying it to him; I'm saying it to you." She pointed out, then added more seriously, "He probably got himself into trouble somewhere, you know how he is. Or maybe he fell in a hole. You might look in any holes in the ground if you see them, cause he probably didn't."

Wait a second. No, no there's no way. He's not that stupid. "Alright Chae, thanks for the help. I'll go see if I can find him." He wouldn't be that reckless… right?

"Anytime. I'll help you yell at him if he did somethin' dumb." Then there was a click, and Geo found himself alone with his thoughts again. Waving the waitress over again, he paid for the drinks and walked out of the shop, heading back for Inkopolis Tower.

He only went into the tower long enough to grab his Dynamo roller, though it was long enough to see Oji's E-Liter wasn't there, before coming back out again and getting more than a few confused looks from passerby as he stalked toward a certain sewer grate and jumped in.

The trek out of the city took several minutes even without traffic at the pace he set, giving the yellow squid plenty of time to think about the situation. Oji was stubborn as could be, it made sense for him to find someone else to beat up on if he couldn't fight other Inklings, and no one was better for beating up on than the Octarians. Of course, they also weren't the type of people you wanted to underestimate, and the lack of respawn points in their domes made dealing with them pretty dangerous.

And Oji is just the type of idiot to think that risk isn't enough to back off. Geo growled at the thought, less than amused by the other squid at the moment. If I find him out here after I warned him he needed a break, the Octarians are going to be the last of his worries.

"If I find him and he's safe, I'm gonna throw him off the top of Moray Towers. If I find him and he's not safe, I'm gonna take care of him and THEN throw him off Moray Towers." He hissed to the empty tunnels around him, thinking about the ways he could splat Oji himself made him focus a bit less on the nagging worry at the back of his mind. "And then… after he respawns, I'll throw him off the towers again."

Finally he reached the sewer grate he was looking for, jumping up through it and finding himself in Octo Valley. There wasn't any ink on the ground anywhere, but that didn't really mean much if the sniper had no need to swim around quickly.

However, with no way of knowing exactly which kettle Oji had gone into, Geo took a moment to stretch before picking up his roller again and diving into the first kettle he saw. If I have to clear out every single one of these to find this moron, I will. And then for every kettle I didn't find him in, I'll throw him off Moray Towers an extra time.

Standing on the edge of a grate above the next platform, Oji eyed the area below. As if this place wasn't eerie enough as is, with its endlessly floating coaster tracks in the sky and rundown amusement park theme, the deserted look of the platform below didn't look particularly inviting. Octarians liked to throw tricks around every corner and this looked like one of them.

He hissed slightly in pain, setting his E-Liter down to put both hands on his head. After all the spreaders he's had to stand on as they spun around, albeit slowly, and all of the Octarians trying to shoot his head off, he was starting to wish they'd managed to with how he was now feeling. His weapon felt far too heavy and every time he moved his head, the world spun, lights blurring into colors and colors blurring into a mess. At least he wasn't feeling nauseas. Yet.

Sighing, he picked his rifle back up. On top of it all, he was still doing badly, missing his shots left and right and resorting to bombs to take out half the enemies he'd encountered. He didn't even have bombs in normal battles.

"This isn't doing me any good. This whole thing has been a waste of time. Maybe Geo is right…"

The sniper jumped off the edge, bracing himself for the landing below. It wasn't too bad of a drop, but in his current condition he still almost ended up meeting the floor with his face, only just barely catching himself before that could happen. Still, once he'd caught his balance, the area only looked even more suspicious as there continued to be no one around.

Weapon held at the ready, the Inkling crept forward, glancing around and waiting for someone to jump him as he explored. For a few minutes there was nothing, and he was starting to think they had just forgotten he was even here. Of course, the moment he started to relax from his readied stance, there was a thud behind him as something landed.

Oji spun around, nearly swearing when he saw it was an Octoling. He threw a bomb on instinct, not realizing it was a splat bomb instead of a burst bomb until she just pranced out of its range effortlessly before it could explode. He backed away the opposite direction, charging a shot and aiming for her as she tossed bombs of her own all over the platform.

Taking into account which direction she was moving and how fast, he anticipated where she would be and fired his weapon. And yet again he missed, the Octoling feinting back the other direction at the last second. He tried again while she was still at a distance, trying as hard as he could to hit her with this one, but she just barely leaned to the side as the shot sailed past her. Realizing she was just playing with him, Oji growled.

"Stop playing around and get back here so I can kick your ass!" He snapped, moving to jump after her and see how she liked a barrage of Seekers. He was stopped, however, by something grabbing the back of his jacket.

"As you wish."

A mockingly sweet voice purred in the ear on his blind side, the unexpected presence so close on the side he couldn't see nearly made the Inkling jump out of his skin. Then his already aching head met the concrete as she knocked his legs from under him, kicking his weapon away before he could recover and planting her boot flat on his back. Damn it, I didn't realize there were two.

If his head had hurt before, it was nothing compared to now. The splitting headache made him want nothing more than for the Octoling to just splat him then, but she'd probably just torture him if he asked. Instead he turned his head to the side, as much as it hurt to do so, and looked at her.

Her Octoshot was aimed right for his face, ready to end him on a moment's notice should he make one wrong move, and the wicked grin on her face only grew wider as he looked further up and saw the seaweed and black tentacles on her head. Realizing exactly how bad the situation he was in really was, Oji of course reacted in the only acceptable manner when one found themselves under a higher rank Octoling's foot.

"… Well, fuck."

"Good, sounds like you're aware of how doomed you are." The Octoling said, putting more weight into the foot on Oji's back and making him hiss. "You shouldn't have come down here, little squid."

I'm starting to agree… I should have listened to Geo. It was clear at this point that this was most definitely a mistake. He was up against two Octolings, couldn't reach his weapon and no one knew exactly where he was. I have to come up with something quick if I wanna get out of here.

"What's your business down here? Who sent you?" She continued, leaning over and poking his face with her gun when he didn't say anything. "Hey, answer me. You're not deaf too, are you?"

"… No." Damn it damn it damn it I can't think of anything. "I can hear you fine."

"Then spill it. Why are you here?"

At this point, he didn't even know anymore. Of course he wasn't going to say he'd come here for target practice, that would just make her mad, but he couldn't think of one good reason why he'd thought this was a good idea. What had been his logic again? Something about not needing a break…

I was just trying to prove something, wasn't I?

That boot was jabbed into his back again, drawing him out of his thoughts. "If you don't answer me, I'm just going to kill you for wasting my time." She threatened, sounding more annoyed with each passing minute that he didn't say anything. Footsteps approached from where he'd last seen the other Octoling, her voice piping up as she spoke to the one standing on him.

"Clearly, he's not going to answer us. This one has no sense of fun."

They fell into silence for several minutes, which was somehow more worrying to the trapped Inkling than their threats. He could practically feel them staring at him, most likely waiting for him to make a move. Or deciding what to do with him.

Apparently they came to some sort of silent agreement as the weight vanished from his back, only to be replaced by further pain in his head as one of them pulled him up by the tentacles. He grabbed at the hand on instinct to try and loosen her grip, but apparently elite Octolings were even stronger than people gave them credit for. Oji couldn't make her budge at all, and the increased pain in his head made him want to splat himself and take both Octolings with him.

"But why would they send this one?" The regular Octoling appeared in his line of vision, tugging at his patch to look underneath it. "He's kinda… What's the word, defective?"

Remembering his hands were free, the sniper tried to lunge for her as best he could. "I'll show you defective when I break your face!" He snarled, though she caught his hands before he could do anything.

"Oooh, feisty. I'm so scared."

"How long are you gonna make me hold him up so you can pick on him?" The Octoling behind him grumbled, sounding partially bored. Neither Octoling nor the enraged Inkling noticed the Echolocator ring that appeared and started spinning around him as she spoke. "We've got better things to do."

"Come on, how often do we get to play with squids that can't fight back?"

Oji could barely think through the throbbing pain in his head, trying to keep his vision from blurring as he glared at the Octoling. It was starting to feel like someone had dunked him underwater with how foggy his perception was, the edges starting to turn dark.

Straining to stay awake at least for a little longer, the sniper pushed away the feeling and focused on the enemies holding him captive. The Octoling behind him was in the middle of saying something he hadn't managed to catch in his struggle, but she was interrupted by a loud crash to the side that made both girls jump. The three of them all turned to look, relief almost making him pass out all over again when Oji spotted his very, very unhappy boyfriend crouched on the ground several feet away.

Geo stood up, wrenching his huge roller out of the small crater the weapon had made in the floor when he landed, and stalked toward the Octolings. Any air of friendliness or good humor he would normally have in battles was missing without a trace, making it seem almost scary as he wordlessly approached.

The Octoling that wasn't holding Oji moved to stand between them and the yellow squid, raising her weapon to point at him. "Listen here buddy, you'd best back off or we'll have to-"

She was cut off when Geo moved faster than she could have predicted, that heavy roller suddenly moving from his shoulder to connect with her side and sent her flying off the platform in one seemingly effortless swing. Oji and the elite Octoling both felt their jaws drop as they watched the red Octoling collide with one of the sky panels in the distance, turning it to static as it cracked on impact.

"Let him go." The roller demanded of the remaining Octoling, averting her attention away from the Octoling he'd just taught to fly.

"'Kay." Oji's face met the ground again as she did as told, promptly letting go of his tentacles. He groaned, turning to watch the rest of the exchange as the Octoling continued to stand her ground otherwise. Geo twitched at the Octoling's blatant display of arrogance.

"You wanna go join your friend?" He started to say, and the Octoling tossed a splat bomb at him before he could finish what he was saying. Catching the bomb out of the air like a ball, the roller looked at it thoughtfully for a moment, then tossed it away to explode uselessly beside him before finishing his sentence. "Cause you're gonna join your friend."

The Octoling suddenly darted forward, moving quickly to get into Geo's personal space where he couldn't effectively use the roller against her and pointing her Octoshot in his face at point blank range. He just gave her an unimpressed look, casually reaching out to plant a hand on her weapon. When she turned to look at his hand, most likely thinking "Did he really just do that?" Geo took the chance to sweep his leg under her and knock her off her feet.

Setting his roller down on the ground beside him, the yellow squid gave the Octoshot in his hand a bored look, its owner scrambling to get back to her feet. "Hmm, your bombs didn't work and now I have your gun. What are you going to do?" He asked, piercing blue eyes trailing down to look at the Octoling.

With an annoyed sound, the Octoling went after him again, swinging her leg high through the air to direct a kick to his head. Much like her other attacks, however, Geo just grabbed her foot and easily tossed her in the air, watching out of the corner of his eye as she arced overhead and landed on the ground behind him in an undignified tangle of limbs.

Picking up his roller again, Geo started to approach his dumbstruck boyfriend, carelessly tossing the Octoshot over his shoulder, the discarded weapon coming down to land on the defeated Octoling's head a moment later.

Oji looked at the passed out Octoling, and then up at the yellow squid that just mopped the floor with her, unsure of just how to react. "… Whoa."

"You alright?" The roller asked, crouching down in front of the purple squid and checking him over for injuries. Oji nodded.

"I'm fine."

"S'that the truth this time?"

"Um." The sniper hesitated. "I'll live?"

Geo snorted, narrowing his eyes. "Not after I'm done with you."

Oh. Yep, he's pissed. "… Oops. I'm in trouble, aren't I?"

"You have no idea. No. Idea." Geo growled, standing up to pace back and forth. "First you keep battling and won't tell me you're not okay. Then you do tell me, and blatantly refuse to listen to me. Then you come here, and put yourself in real danger, without telling anyone where you were going. You knew you were doing badly in battle and you decided, for some reason, that it was a brilliant idea to come here and get into fights against people who have nothing against actually killing you."

The sniper watched his boyfriend stalk back and forth in front of him, anger coming off of him in waves as he very clearly struggled with keeping his voice at an acceptable level.

"You should've listened to me from the beginning and just given yourself some time. Sometimes people just have bad days, sometimes they just can't do well no matter how hard they try and you're having one of those days. What are you so worried about? People thinking you suck at battling? Anyone who knows you knows you're good at what you do. It's not your fault if you just have an off day, and your worth isn't directly influenced by how well you do in matches. I know it sucks to do badly but sometimes you just can't help it."

Geo continued still, and Oji was starting to wonder when he was going to breathe again.

"If you're so afraid of your skill slipping, then say something and I'll help you. What kind of boyfriend would I be if I didn't help you when you need it? When you don't tell people what's going on, that's when things like this happen. That's when problems get worse and you find yourself dealing with them alone. In this case, that's when you find yourself surrounded by Octolings with no one around to help. Have you stopped to think about how badly this could have turned out?"

He stopped pacing, standing still with his face turned away from the purple squid.

"Did you stop to think about how I would have felt if you never came home?" Geo asked, nearly too quiet to hear. Something about the way his voice shook just felt so wrong to Oji, and he didn't realize why until he saw translucent, yellowish tears falling to the ground by Geo's feet. "Do you know how worried I was? I see you pass out in battles all day, and then I realize you came here, to the place where you die if you get splatted."

Oji sat in place, not quite believing what he was seeing. Geo? Crying? No way. Of course, then the yellow squid spun around, Oji simultaneously feeling his blood run cold and his heart shatter into tiny pieces at his boyfriend's expression as the tinted droplets ran down either side of his face.

"I didn't know if I realized in time, I didn't know if I got here fast enough. I didn't know what condition you'd be in when I found you, if I did at all. For all I knew, you could have been dead and nothing I did would change it!"

Finally, his outburst came to an end; the upset Inkling finally breathing again as he stubbornly wiped his face off. Oji just stared for a few more moments in shocked silence as his partner recomposed himself. I really fucked up, didn't I? He thought, knowing he'd never get that image out of his head for as long as he lived.

"Geo, I'm… I'm sorry…" The sniper tried, standing and wanting nothing more than to hug the other Inkling. The effort made the world spin again, however, and suddenly it went dark all over again.

Oji slowly drifted back and forth into consciousness, slowly becoming vaguely aware of the world around him. The sounds of crashing waves could be heard somewhere far below, birds chirping and squawking overhead and cars rushing past on the side every now and again. More than anything, he was aware of the sensation of warm arms held securely around his body, head rested against soft leather and feeling more comfortable than he could remember having felt in hours. Even the slight motion of swaying as Geo walked at a casual pace wasn't enough to disturb the dozing squid, his bouts of nausea earlier all but forgotten.

Eventually, a bright orange light shining harshly against his eyelid was what finally fully caused Oji to wake up, the purple squid blinking open his one good eye to find the source of the light. It took his vision a moment to adjust but when it did, he found himself staring at the sun as it dipped behind the ocean, bathing everything in a lovely golden light.

The sniper glanced up, watching his boyfriend's face. The light caught his features in just a way that made him look, in Oji's personal opinion, absolutely amazing. As well, the roller looked relaxed and peaceful, the expression fitting much better on him than the hurt look he'd had earlier.

I never, ever want to see that look on him again… Oji thought, watching the shadows cast by Geo's hat as he walked. Geo was always so cool and collected, it just seemed wrong to see him so openly upset as he had been. Damn. If I had listened, I could've avoided putting us both through hell all day.

"You know it's faster to travel back using the sewers, right?" He pointed out, voice much rougher than he'd expected, and Geo looked down at him with a mixture of surprise and slight concern still.

"Oh, you're awake. I didn't feel like trying to climb back up through the sewer grate carrying you and our weapons." The yellow squid explained. Only then did Oji notice both Inklings' weapons were tied and hanging from Geo's back, the added weight not seeming to bother him at all. "How do you feel?"

"… Better, I guess." The sniper admitted, shifting slightly in the other's grip. "Geo, I'm sorry about today. I should've listened to you."

"Oji, you look like a kicked puppy. It's okay."

"But I feel bad! I was kind of being a dumbass."

"That may be true, but it's over now and we're both fine." Geo reassured, his voice kind. "And I'm sure you've learned your lesson about battling after you've reached your limit. So it's okay. As long as you don't decide to go beat up Octolings on your own again…"

Oji looked away, face starting to turn the color of his ink. "Yeah. Thanks." He mumbled, officially embarrassed at this point. Geo watched him for a moment, deciding to change the topic before Oji could melt into a puddle of shame. The purple squid had swallowed his pride enough for one day, he figured.

"So, I should probably mention…" The roller started, his tone making it clear Oji wouldn't like whatever it was and causing the sniper to snap a suspicious rose colored stare on him. "You have a doctor's appointment in the morning. Also you're banned from battling for at least a week."

"… What. You're kidding."

"Nope."

"What am I supposed to do for a week?" Oji groaned, already knowing how damn bored he was gonna get. "This is my punishment for pissing you off, isn't it?"

"Maybe." Geo chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll keep you entertained. How about a marathon of all those movies you always cry over, eh?"

"Don't you dare. Do not."

His boyfriend smirked, somehow both innocently and evilly at the same time. "Chae already went and rented them all. You're doomed."

"… I hate you both."

"Liar."

"I know."

Epilogue

Oji barely noticed his team was short one member as he spawned, far too excited to be at all worried. It felt good to have his trusty E-Liter in his hands again, the weapon previously collecting dust for the past week as it sat in a corner. He was partially worried about being out of practice at this point, but he was so glad to just be back on the battlefield that he didn't really mind. Win or lose, this match was going to be great, he knew.

They were on Arowana Mall, it looked like, and Geo had clearly been spawned in on the opposing team. That was fine; it just meant the sniper could shamelessly shoot his boyfriend several times in revenge for the week long marathon of sad movies.

His teammates jumped forward to start inking their base right away, and Oji helped a little with a couple of shots straight ahead before moving for the path to the left. He climbed up to the top paths in front of their base and covered both sides with one shot, then jumped down to the side path with the grates in the next section.

At the end of the path, he sat still and charged a shot, carefully watching over mid for movement. Almost right away, a member of the enemy team tried to make their way up to the center platform from the main ramp, but Oji sent them back to spawn with one easy shot. At the same time, his teammates arrived to ink said platform.

Another enemy popped up from the back pathway to his left, and the sniper spun to take them out in another clear shot. With them gone, he carefully jumped over to the main platform and climbed the wall to where they'd been before making his way down the path.

Having respawned, the same squid he'd just splatted tried to get the jump on him at the end of the path, but he was faster, dodging their attacks and backing away while raining down uncharged shots on them. Once he was safe again he continued, jumping down to the small side area below and doing his best to cover it in his color.

Standing on the ramp at the bottom of those two walls in front of the enemy's base, Geo was flinging ink at the sniper's teammates, splatting them both. Oji charged a shot and spun to aim for him, easily sending the roller back to spawn before he could see the laser. With him gone, the sniper spent a moment covering the turf below while the squid jump rings for his teammates appeared beside him.

They landed, shouting words of encouragement as they jumped down to the area Oji had just taken. Back at the center behind them, it seemed that squid he'd already splatted twice had yet again gone through the back pathway and made their way to mid. Running to the end of the grate pathway he was on, Oji made quick work of the squid before they could make their way into his territory. Praising the range of his weapon, the sniper turned back to focus on the enemy base again.

At the top of the wall around the enemy base, another sniper tried to aim for him. Unluckily for them, they had a Splat charger, not seeming to realize he had more range than them until he sent them back to spawn.

He moved back into the small side area, ducking into the ink for a moment to refill his tank. Then he crept back to the edge, splatting someone else as they jumped off that wall and tried to head for mid.

Unfortunately, he didn't notice the shadow looming over him until Geo knocked him down into the ink, the roller planting a foot on his back and leaning over to talk to him. "You look like you're having way too much fun." He said, and Oji couldn't help but think it seemed awfully similar to when the Octoling had had him in this same exact position, the only difference being that he still had his rifle in hand this time.

Pulling the trigger of his weapon to start charging a shot, Oji kept his boyfriend's attention away from it by replying. "Oh yes, probably. Kicking the asses of your team is definitely the most fun I've had all week." He agreed smugly, then flung the end of his rifle backwards over his shoulder and let the charged shot go blindly. It worked, apparently, splatting Geo before he could really see it coming.

The sniper rolled off the platform to land on his feet below, shooting another enemy teammate as they appeared in his sight from behind the steep ramp guarding their base. After they splatted he swam over to the ramp and climbed up it, checking around quickly for more enemies before inking this little area below their spawn.

Geo appeared again at the top of the wall to his right, flinging ink down at the sniper. Oji just grinned, setting off his Special and swimming up the final ramp and right into the enemy base in Kraken form. He went straight after Geo, climbing up to the top of the wall as the roller jumped down to the area below to escape him. Of course, as soon as Geo landed, Oji's Special wore off and he splatted his boyfriend yet again with another well aimed shot.

The whistle signaling the end of the match went off, surprising Oji. He hadn't realized how long had passed already, the match only felt like a minute long with how much fun he was having. Shrugging, he squid jumped back to spawn, meeting his teammates there and travelling back to the lobby with them to see the final score.

When they did make it back to the starting lobby, the enemy team was already there waiting for them. The map on the wall behind Judd didn't make it hard to tell which team had won, though the cat still tallied the same way he always did. No one was surprised when he pointed at the three member team as they held seventy two percent of the map. Oji even had the second highest score despite being a charger user, and he had the most kills and zero deaths.

"See? I told you all you needed was a break." Geo reminded him, walking over and slinging an arm around the sniper's shoulder. "Sometimes you just gotta step back for awhile."

"Come onnnn, let's go join another match so I can keep kicking your ass." Oji said, completely ignoring what his boyfriend had just said and literally dragging him to the next lobby. Geo just chuckled, more than a little amused by the sniper dragging both him and his roller away.

Bonus scene 1

Geo shook off the ink as he spawned, looking around. He was on Moray Towers, and Oji was beside him along with two random teammates they didn't know. Without his team noticing, the yellow squid put his roller down, an evil grin working its way onto his face.

The whistle went off to start the match, their two teammates surging forward and Oji trying to go with them. Of course, the sniper didn't make it far, suddenly finding himself yanked backward by the collar of his jacket.

"Uh, Geo?" He squeaked in surprise, looking to the other squid. Geo just picked him up and turned around. "What are you doing?!"

"Remember last week when you went off and faced a whole bunch of Octarians on your own and almost got squished by Octolings?" The roller reminded him, stepping to the very edge of the platform.

"… Yes?"

"Yeeeaaah, so… you didn't tell me which kettle you went into. So I had to clear out all of them until I found you. Did you know the kettle you were in was the eighteenth one, plus three bosses?"

"I don't like where this is going."

"Too bad."

And with that, Geo flung him off the edge. And then when Oji respawned and tried to escape, he flung him off again. And then again. And again. Eventually Oji gave up on trying to escape and just sat still with a flat expression through the cycle of respawning and being flung off the edge twenty one times.

Bonus scene 2

also known as: what this fic would've looked like as a crackfic

(courtesy of my mom who knows nothing about the game. this is what she suggested I write when I told her the prompts I had to base a plotline off of and it was too ridiculous not to write as a bonus)

(I didn't bother trying to explain they don't actually use paint in the game. yes mom, I know it's a paint roller, they still don't use paint)

Oji followed Geo through the hardware store, looking around at the several different options in the paint aisle. After a moment Geo picked out his favorite somewhat expensive yellow paint, lifting up the two large paint cans with ease and turning to his boyfriend.

"What?" He asked, seeing the purple squid looking at a different shelf than usual.

"This one's cheaper…" The sniper pointed out, gesturing toward the purple paint in a different brand than he normally bought.

"Yeah no that's probably bad quality; you should stick to what you know."

"… I'm gonna get it."

Geo shook his head. "Don't say I didn't warn you."

With their cans of paint in hand, the two ventured off to the cashier and bought them, then left the store and went home. Of course, when they returned home and opened the cans, Geo was proven right.

"Noooo!" Oji cried, dramatically falling to his knees by the can of separated paint.

"Told you so."

A/N: And that's all she wrote. she being me. I wrote it

Let's see, what are the things I screwed up on that I need to hopelessly justify this time around, hmm...

I made the boys orange/blue in all the turf wars because purple/yellow isn't in that mode and I like being accurate to the game

If Oji is out of character, I'm blaming that on the fact he's got head issues going on since that's how this was written. If Geo is out of character, then I'm just bad at writing him woops

This was honestly a really interesting adventure for me because of the fact I wrote it on the basis that Oji is suffering because of his eye injury, the reason being that I've actually suffered head injuries before. So all of his little fits where he suddenly went really downhill or couldn't see were based off my personal experience with the issue.

Also writing this taught me that people who can only see with one eye CANNOT experience double vision. It makes sense but I just never thought about it before. Basically, you experience double vision because the images you see through both eyes can't register together in your brain. Neat little fact.

I know Geo is supposed to be the doesn't get obviously upset type, but I couldn't help but write him as the type that doesn't show it when they're upset until it becomes too much and they just break down completely. Also because I hadn't seen any art of Geo crying and one of my prompts was about crying and MAKING OJI THE ONE THAT CRIED WAS TOO EASY also writing that scene almost made me and my proofreader cry it hurt our feels so bad

Also the scene where Geo had sterile wipes and spare eyepatches in his jacket had me laughing so hard cause I essentially made him a walking pharmacy. He's just the type of character I could see carrying anything he or Oji could possibly need cause Oji probably is the type to never carry anything. Geo's jacket is the male equivalent of a purse omfg I'm laughing again help

I feel like Oji would be the type to cry over movies where heroes/villains/animals die tragically, so... Also I made Chae the sassiest thing ever cause I needed a third character there and know nothing about her and sass is just too fun to write

I probably didn't do my prompts justice. rip. it should've been so much angstier. I just really hope this doesn't jump around too much or isn't too slow when it doesnt THEY'RE PROBABLY HORRIBLY OUT OF CHARACTER THOUGH I'VE ACCEPTED THAT FACT

I wrote twelve thousand words in like a week. huh.

I'ma shut up now this thing is way too long as is and it's eight am and I haven't slept. I'm going to bed. bye