Two Straws

Six|| Agent 3

"Are you a painting?" I looked at the agent with a confused smile. "I can understand Inklish, you don't have to speak Octarian," I giggled. "O-Oh. Well did I say that right?" Agent 3 sat down next to me. "You asked me if I'm a painting." She chuckled. "Good. Are you a painting?" she asked. "What...?" She laughed. "Because I want to pin you against a wall," she winked. I blushed and let out a small laugh. "Holy shit, I got scared for a sec. I thought you were gonna say that you wanted to hang her," Pearl laughed. Agent 3 groaned. "That's one way to ruin the moment, man," she grumbled. "It's okay, it was a cute joke," I said with a smile. "A cute joke for a cute girl," she said with a smug smile. I giggled a little. "I never knew you were such a flirt, Agent 3," Cap'n Cuttlefish said. "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, Cap," she said, staring at the sunset. "It's beautiful," I muttered. 3 nodded. "I almost forgot what it looked like," she admitted.

Hachi wrapped his arm around me and smiled. "Was all that bullshit worth it, sis?" I looked at the NILS statue and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, it was. Traumatizing, scary, terrifying, intimidating, and full of shit. But it was worth it," I said with a small laugh. I turned to him. "How's your back?" I asked. His smile disappeared. "It doesn't hurt anymore," he mumbled. "Your back? What happened to your back?" Agent 3 asked. "That rude ass cucumber had bombs strapped to our backs and whenever we failed these lil' 'tests', he'd detonate 'em," Hachi explained, lifting his skin tight shirt a little from the back to show her just a bit of the horrible scar. "Damn, it's just like my scar on my eye. Guess we're matching," she chuckled to lighten the mood. I looked at her dark red eyes. With her green scar around one of them, she could make a great Squidmas decoration.

Unfortunately, that was the only time I got to really speak with the agent. Or see her, for that matter. Which was unfortunate, she was really alluring. Her charm had me swooned and all that jazz. Once we got to Inkopolis, a sad smile was on her face. "You're going to love Inkopolis," she said. "You say that like we won't see each other again," I said, raising an eyebrow. Her face was grim. "We're landing!" Pearl called.

Right before we landed, I was met with a soft kiss on the cheek. I blushed and looked at Agent 3, "Wh—" She quickly jumped off the plane, landing on a building with ease. The five of us (Pearl, Marina, Hachi, Cap'n Cuttlefish, and I) looked down to see if she was okay. She gave us a debonair smile and a casual, two-finger salute before running off.

Sango had that same charm to her. She had the same smile, same dark red eyes, heck, they coulda been twins. But no. Sango seemed a lot less tough and risk taking. She had many freckles just as 3 did but those bags under her eyes just couldn't belong to the agent. If Sango were truly the agent, she'd have that badass green scar.

I was not obsessed with Agent 3. I really liked her, sure. But I never saw her again. Once I got settled in Inkopolis, I tried to find her. I looked everywhere, but there was absolutely not sign of her. You can imagine how upset I was about that.

I gave up a couple of months later. I accepted the fact that I wasn't going to see her for a long time, maybe never again. It took time to get over it but I realized I only needed Hachi to keep me happy.

But on particular nights where I miss the agent's charming smile, similar to this night, I go up to the roof of my apartment building with my acoustic guitar that I usually stash in my closet and sing that beautiful song Marie had showed me when she was trying to help me find Agent 3.

I sat atop the roof. It was about midnight and the only celestial object visible was the moon. The city lights were much too bright and were overpowering the stars' light. I carefully lied down on the uncomfortable concrete and started strumming.

"Who would have thought
That you and me
That it cannot be true,"

From beside me, I heard Hachi's voice sing the backup,

"But maybe it's true,"

which I wasn't expecting considering I thought I came up here alone. Rather than retorting, I continued to strum and sung,

"Nothing's tough for you and me
(It cannot be, cannot be)
Let me, let me know
Look there, what do you do
Do you feel it?
Do you feel it, feelin' me?
Oh, what can I say?
You're waiting to walk me away.

"When I learn it's true
What did I, did I do?
I mean, I should
What I yearn is you
I really, really do
Really could
Love you too, love you too
Honey, I don't need you lying tonight
Maybe you are not, you are not
You are not my fate."

Hachi gave me a round of applause. "What are you doing up here?" I asked, gently placing my guitar next to me. "Well, my lovely big sis wasn't in her bed and I thought I heard her badass boots stomping out of the apartment," he said, gazing at the city lights. "Okay, I was not stomping," I insisted, looking up at him. My cod, he was beautiful. "You were pretty loud considering it was midnight," Hachi said, a small chuckle following. We were met with silence, a comfortable one. But he just had to open his mouth.

"You were thinking about Agent 3 again, weren't you?" I grimly looked askance. "Yeah," I muttered. "It's okay to think about her, Nana," he said, placing a hand on mine. "It's been almost a year, Hachi." He smiled gently and shook his head as if I were a naive little girl. "You'll see her again. I promise."

Why did he have to promise?