Nothing to Worry About

A/N: Some gay squids for pride month. The ending was pretty rushed so it's probably not my best work, but comments are appreciated!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thunder rumbled in the distance. The dark clouds, painted a hazy yellow-brown by the city lights below, flashed with lightning as they began to release their contents over Inkopolis.

Inside the apartment owned by Blue Team, Goggles laid wide awake in his bed. He stretched his jaws in a yawn, tossing and turning as sleep continually failed to come to him despite the fatigue weighing down his entire body. He rolled onto his side so that his alarm clock was in view, glaring at the illuminated numbers with increasing annoyance as time ticked on. It was already almost midnight, and he needed to get a decent sleep if he was going to be of any use tomorrow. First thing in the morning, Team Blue-per would be participating in the long-awaited final match of the Square King Ranked Cup. In what would quite possibly be the biggest match in all of their inksports careers, they would be going up against none other than the legendary X-Blood.

He suppressed a shiver. He had a reputation in Inkopolis Square for being the stupid funny squid who never got scared, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. He was scared, terrified even. Contrary to what he would have everyone think, he was smart enough to be fully aware of the fact that they were screwed. Completely screwed. He had only seen the X-Blood in battle once, but the brutal performance they'd put on had been enough to show exactly what kind of beasts they were up against.

Exactly what kind of beasts everyone was expecting him to defeat with his antics like he always did.

They didn't have a chance. Especially not with the amount of disarray the team was currently in. Earlier in the week, Glasses had been injured by a falling beehive, which had left him with no choice but to allow Emperor stand in for him while he was recovering. He had overheard some inconsiderate people in the Square talking about how it was a blessing in disguise; how having someone as smart and powerful as Emperor on the team would pave them a path to victory, but they couldn't be more wrong. It was true that Emperor was very strong, but raw strength had never been the key to Blue Team's success.

No, their close bond was the reason they succeeded.

After being attached at the hip for over a decade, the four of them had become so fine-tuned to each other's behaviors that they were almost telepathic on the battlefield. They almost never had to actually communicate what they were thinking or doing to one another, because chances were that the other three would already know. It didn't matter how strong Emperor was; he, Bobble, and Headphones just didn't have that same chemistry with the yellow Inkling. It didn't matter that Emperor was smart; he simply didn't have the razor-sharp mind that Glasses did.

Pure and simple, they needed Glasses to win.

The telltale buzz of an incoming notification caught Goggles' attention, prompting him to blindly dig his phone out of the sheets. He squinted against the brightness of the screen as typed in his passcode, his chest clenching even tighter as he saw that the notification was for a Squidder post Aloha had made about the match tomorrow.

Or today , he thought bitterly upon seeing that it was 12:15 now.

He was never going to get a wink of sleep with all these worries on his chest, but with how late it was, he couldn't exactly talk to his teammates about it. He was also well aware of his role as the team's morale keeper, and knew that allowing his teammates to know that even he was afraid would cause them to panic, and then they would certainly lose.

That ruled out Headphones and Bobble, and Glasses wasn't here, so... wait a minute, Glasses! Due to his near-nocturnal nature his teammate would surely still be awake, and since he wasn't participating in the match, he wouldn't be infected by his negativity.