The troubles of knowing yourself

Passage of time

Three had been acting strange for the past week.

Now, to the untrained eye, it was hard to tell that she was acting off. But Eight knew her well, and as such, she figured out pretty quickly that Three was after something.

It was mostly just that she was overly interested in small talk; kept asking questions she already knew the answer to and then laughing it off when Eight pointed this out. Things like 'Your favorite color is light blue, right?' To which Eight would slowly nod and point to her tentacles after a pause. She usually turned her ink that color when she went places.

Favorite flavors, movies, scents, weird stuff that Eight had either told her before or didn't think important enough to mention (or decide) until she was asked. It was baffling.

It was Friday, and they had spent most of the day playing Turf War together. It had taken a few months after coming to the surface, but Eight was finally warming up to ink battling.

Or maybe having Three there just made her more confident. Either way, fun times were had.

It was early in the afternoon and they were sitting at a table in the Square, taking a break before returning to the the fray. Their weapons of choice rested on the table; Undercover Brella for Eight and the new model Heroshot Replica for Three. Her old one still had the old special so it was kinda defunct for matches nowadays.

Three had her nose buried in her phone. She'd been doing that a lot that day, and Eight would be lying if she said she hadn't noticed. She hadn't felt like bringing it up before, but honestly it was starting to confuse her.

"You seem distracted today, Three. Is something wrong?" She inquired innocently.

Three's head shot up. She looked vaguely alarmed, like she'd been caught red-handed. "U-uh. Well."

Eight chuckled at her nervousness. "Aw, did you not think I'd notice? I can be pretty observant when I want to be, you know."

Three scratched her cheek, blushing a bit. "Yeah, I know. I saw you catch that guy sneaking up on you last match, didn't I?"

Eight felt her own face heat up a tad at the light praise. "Yeah, that was cool, wasn't it? I love having Splashdown..." She giggled to herself, laying a hand on her weapon.

You'd think her fight with Three while she was possessed would've made her hate the special, but nope. Still absolutely no trauma from that fight. In fact, seeing Three use it so well might've even contributed to-

She cut off her train of thought when she realized something. "Wait. Are you trying to change the subject?" Eight questioned, brow furrowing.

Three sweat nervously. "What, no, I'm not, I just wanted to compliment my girlfriend a bit because I think you're cool, y-y'know?" She smiled, but Eight could tell she was hiding something.

The Octoling gave her a worried look. "Three, seriously, you've been acting weird. Are you ok?" She reached across the table and rested her hand on the other's.

Three seemed to have some sort of internal crisis at the question. "I..." She looked into Eight's face, into her concerned eyes, and sighed. "I'm terrible at hiding things from you, aren't I?" She laughed lightly.

Eight smiled back at her.

The Inkling took a deep breath. "Nothing's wrong, there's just a surprise waiting for you back at your house and they need me to keep you occupied out here while they get it ready."

Eight's eyes widened. "Oooohhhhhh, that's why you seemed so secretive. What's the surprise?"

Three raised an amused eyebrow. "You dork, if I tell you it won't be a surprise!"