Splatoon oneshots collection

Weird Autumn

(Marie and Four enjoying the autumn weather on Marie's first day off. Wrote as a thing to celebrate my birthday tomorrow! Wanted to make something self indulgent for it)

The first sign of it all was when the tree's leaves were starting to change color in mid August.

Marie fondly remembers walking with Four home from getting groceries and watching her daughter stomp on any leaves laying on the ground, all while still holding her hand and giggling. They'd make guesses on which ones would crunch under her sneakers and which ones wouldn't, and a few times Marie would step on a few herself and her face would light up with Four's when there was the satisfying crunch they both hoped for.

By September the air was getting colder and she started insisting Four wore gloves when going out, since her hands always felt so cold when she got back from turfing or hanging out with Eight and Three. After a lot of debating they settled for fingerless ones, because she knew the squid hated the way the regular ones felt on her fingers. Callie was already shopping early for Halloween decorations (even though they already had way too many) and when out and about the cuttlefish was already starting to see pumpkin stands popping up. She made a mental note to get the biggest ones she could find for Callie and Four sooner than later.

When the first day of autumn hit in September, and not long after, October had started, you could already see the difference. The night sky was creeping up sooner and sooner during the day, the air was growing colder and there was no hesitation for the family to start wearing jackets a lot more. Marie was already stocking up on hot chocolate packets. It was no secret everyone was very happy and excited for the fall season. Four was already saying it's Halloween when they weren't even through the first 10 days of October yet, and one late morning she'd woken up to Callie already hanging fake cobwebs and rubber spiders and bats everywhere in the living room, the kitchen filled with plastic pumpkins and small thin plastic skeletons hanging over the windows. The two of them had put "The Nightmare before Squidmas" on the TV more times than she could count already, and sometimes at 2 in the morning she'd find her cousin and daughter both asleep on the couch with the movie still on.

The best part of it though, was probably when Marie was walking home from work late in the evening and received a call from her manager informing her that starting tomorrow she had the whole week off.

It was a lot to take in that all of the sudden she had that much free time, and no ideas yet on what to do with it. It would be really nice though, getting to stay home with both Four and Callie on the days her cousin didn't have to work. Maybe they could go to the park and walk around, or head into inkopolis's shopping district and she could buy the others some gifts. Callie might want to watch more movies, and maybe she could take Four by snapper canal to look at the ducks again.

It didn't take her too long to reach the apartment building. Heading up the set of the stairs and down the halls she'd been through dozens and dozens of times by now, Marie unlocked the door and slowly opened it. If it was Callie, or even Four on an extra good day, it would have been slammed open instead, something she used to find annoying when it was just Callie doing it all the time, but she'd gotten used to it, especially when Four picked up the habit. Hard to be mad when the smaller squid only did it when she was racing inside to start rambling about something amazing that happened, or deliver news she insisted was incredible.

Right away she saw Four in the living room, blanket wrapped around her with headphones on her ears connected to the phone in her hands, the inkling looking like she was nearly asleep and it looked absolutely adorable.

Usually upon coming home if Callie was here, you could instantly hear it. So the fact that she didn't hear any singing or dancing in the kitchen, or music that could still be heard from her cousin's room even if the door was closed, or footsteps or a tv on in another room, meant that either Callie was asleep, or at work still, and the latter seemed more likely since it wasn't that late in the afternoon yet and she was lucky to even get off work this early in the first place.