Pearlina Oneshots

Someday

"Marina! You here?" Pearls voice illuminating the silence as she came looking for Marina in the barren land. They would agree to meet up on Mount Nantai almost every day, so that Pearl can help her speak Inkling; it was almost a time-off for the both of them, although Marina would have to sleep from street to street in Inkopolis so nobody would see her tentacles, so it was more of a time-on for her.

"Pearl!" The heavy accent of Pearl's name whipped her head back to see Marina, in the clothes Pearl gave to fit in the crowd more. A soft smile was on Marina's lips, as she rushed forward to hug the smaller girl. Pearl, unused to hugging by anyone, much less a real life Octoling, awkwardly returned the hug as the both of them quickly got seated on the rocky floor.

"So, I...read the books that you give but I do not know some word. Can you tell...me the words?" Marina struggled to say, as she embarrassingly looked up to the girl opposite. Internally, she was screaming out, worried if she would see a face of annoyance or anger on Pearl's face.

But no! A face of pure happiness, a smile which made her heartbeat rapid, was on her face. She looked, almost proud of the younger girl as her smile only grew brighter. "Yo Marina!" She was beaming, "That was two sentences, and I did not even teach you some of those words!". Marina was blushing now, a hand was covering her face and she hoped so badly that Pearl would not notice. Fortunately, she was looking down to the books that she was holding on her lap.

"You said there were two words?" Pearl keeping her Inkling as slow and understandable as possible so that Marina could understand; Marina nodded sharply, as she started to flurry through the book in search of the word. Looking at the younger girl, Pearl slowly started to relax. Her half-kaleidoscopic eyes widening and squinting through the words made Pearl fluff up inside, content with herself with how much she had taught her. When Marina finally found the word, she started to squeal, which brought Pearl's attention back immediately as she was brought back into this world.

"Okay..." Marina pointed to the word on the book; it showed the drawing of a heart crudely covered in red, with the word "like" on the right of it. Pearl took a second to think of a way to explain what it meant, which would be a struggle since Marina would've been void of the feeling. "So...you think of something and it makes you smile," she slowly told the Octoling; she also mimed the actions as she said the words, hoping that she would get it.

Marina understood immediately, clapping her hands together like she always does when she understands something, which made Pearl smile yet again. She looked at Marina expectantly, to see if she would be able to say sentences with the word.

"I l-lick myself". It was silent for a few seconds, Pearl was trying to stifle her giggles, but Marina looked so lost that the smaller girl couldn't hold it any more and started howling in laughter, "Oh my cod Marina, it's LIKE, not LICK" she pronounced, "You wanna know what LICK is?". And as soon as Pearl started miming it, both of them were rolling on the floor, their laughing cleared the silence from hundreds of meters away; they were laughing so much that their insides were aching, and they did not stop laughing for a good 4 minutes; they would just look at each other and fall back into heaps of giggling. Just the thought of it...

As soon as the giggling subsided (which took at least 10 minutes minimum), Marina started to try the word out. It definitely sounded good coming from her, an unconscious smile coming upon her face as she heard Marina's eager babbling of the 4 letters. "Pearl?" Marinas voice suddenly chirped, "What about this word?", and she pointed to the word right underneath "like".

Love

Pearl knew that it would come to this, how can she even explain the word when she's gone through so much as a combat engineer? She was silent for about 10 seconds before she opened her mouth, "Well..something that makes you REALLY happy!" She explained rather quickly, and it was evident that Marina was absolutely confused, "like it makes you smile SO much!".

Marina collected herself for a second before she spoke, "It make your heart happy?".

Pearl nodded greatly; she felt so happy that she got the word and understood it so quickly. "I love the sea," She faltered, but to Pearl it was the greatest thing she'd heard Marina say all week. The grin on her face made Marina's heart burst with adoreness.

"I'm so proud of you!" Pearl exclaimed; it was something she was meant to say every day but she had finally said it now, and she really meant it. Marina's blush was so heavy, and this time she couldn't hide it from her. However, Pearl just did another one of those soft smiles, before opening her book to find a new word for her to learn.

It got quite quiet afterwards, consisting of Pearl concentrating on her book, while Marina was muttering sentences under her breath; they both appreciated the soft silence, and Pearl could feel Marina's slow ease to the word as she spoke; the small noises coming from Marina making Pearl heart so...complete. She was about to show the new page until Marina looked right into her eyes, and whispered.

"I love you,"

Cod. Pearl turned beetroot right in front of her, and she could feel her heart rattling inside again. She tried averting her eyes, but she was flushed so much that her body wouldn't obey.Marina, on the other hand, was so oblivious to the statement that she had already looked down back into her notepad and started whispering more sentences and writing them down.

"Yo M-Marina," Marina's head snapped so quickly to her that she turned red once again, "You only say t-that word to someone who means the w-world to you". Pearl finally let out the breath she had been holding. Marina was silenced for a few seconds, taking it in before her eyes. Pearl was still crimson with the statement and showed no sign of coming back to her usual colour.

" I. Love. You."

She emphasized every word, and cod Pearl wished the entire world could engulf her with the fluff she was feeling; her entire body felt like burning, the blush on her cheeks could have been easily mistaken it for a rash. She was unable to speak for the longest time, and the fact that Marina was staring at her for the entire time wasn't helping. Finally, she tried to say, "You'll get it someday".

It came out as "Aouneneihnsijsnojm".

Marina just let out a small giggle as she went back to her book. Pearls body forced her to stay still in her flushed moment. Cod, did she just say that in front of her? Her mind was so full that she aired out for at least 10 minutes.After a while, she got back to her senses; back to her own book, succeeding in hiding her blush for the rest of the day.

However, of Pearl were to look at Marina at least once afterwards, she would've seen the small teal blush on her face, or the day-dreaming stares at her, or the quiet muttering of those three words.