Two Straws

Nine|| As If They Were Dancing

this chapter will be in agent 3/sango's pov. enjoy <3 (i'm also rly sry it's so short and it took so long)

The room was tense. Quiet. Awkward. Everything I didn't want it to be.

Shi sat on the coffee table in front of the couch in which the twins were sitting on.

"Both of you are gonna talk to each other via me. Do you understand what that means?" Shi asked.

I had taught her this method. Mainly because this whole situation was about Hachi, Nana, and also me. That's why we were all in this position in the first place.

"How do you know so much about family therapy, San?" Shi asked after I had explained the strategy.

"Eh. Family stuff," was all I wanted to really say to that question.

I guess she could tell by the not-so-subtle look I was giving her that I didn't want her to press on that subject.

"Nana. What are your thoughts on the situation?" Shi asked.

"I don't know. But just a few weeks ago, I was sitting on the roof of my apartment building, singing and thinking about where dear Agent 3 was and she was right under my nose the whole time. The whole time. And Hachi came up to the roof to check on me while I was singing that song and he played dumb, as if he didn't know anything.

"Perhaps it's my fault. For not realizing sooner. For not taking a closer look, maybe," she continued.

Hachi turned to Nana and said, "It wasn't your fault at all—" but Shi interrupted him. "Hachi, you have to talk to me. Not Nana," she reminded.

He rolled his eyes but turned to Shi anyway, "It wasn't Nana's fault. This was on me and Sango," he said.

"What do you think of the situation, Hachi?" the yellow inkling asked.

"I think what we are doing now is bullshit. We don't need family therapy, we've never needed family therapy before and we sure as hell don't need it now."

"I want him to confess all of his other secrets to me," Nana said bluntly. There was no readable expression on her face. Or rather, there was no expression on her face at all.

"What else could I be hiding?" Hachi asked Nana (via Shi, of course).

"How come I didn't know about his other self. She's really pretty but I've never met her. Only seen her in pictures," Nana said.

"Oh, you mean my whole drag career. That's not a secret," he said.

"Then why did he feel the need to keep it from me?" Nana asked. Her expression grew more intense as the conversation deepened.

"I didn't hide them from y— her," Hachi corrected himself as soon as he saw Shi's "subtle" hinting face.

"Shi, I appreciate you doing this but this is unnecessary. He's right, we don't need family therapy. We've never gotten into a fight before but we'll figure something out," Nana assured.

Then, a sudden idea appeared in my head.

"Maybe they should fight it out," I said to Shi.

"I thought you specifically told me not to bring out my boxing gloves," Shi said.

"Not with the boxing gloves. I mean in a turf war. Nana versus Hachi," I suggested.

"Hey, that ain't a bad idea. They're always fighting alongside each other, but never against each other," Shi agreed.

"I'm assuming it's gonna be a private battle with you two spectating," Nana said.

"Sí, señora," Shi said with a quirky smile on her face. "Let's go, let's go," the yellow inkling said all sing-songy.

•

"I'll host, you three get ready to join," I said. They nodded in agreement.

I did Splatfest mode, just to make the occasion a little fancier. Unicorn vs Narwhal had nice colors, so I went with that theme. Moray Towers was the map.

As soon as I got everything set up, the other three joined.

Shi and I were on spectate. Nana was on Unicorn and Hachi was on Narwhal. Nana was real pretty in that light blue.

"My money's on Hachi," Shi said. "Don't bet on this, idiot. This is a big deal," I retorted but I ended up saying, "20 bucks on Nana." Shi chuckled.

The music started up and they started coming right down the middle. Hachi seemed reluctant but it was plain to see that Nana wanted this.

Once she got to him, she immediately started shooting at her twin brother.

Almost perfectly, though, as if he knew she was going to attack the way she did, he dodged. Not even a drop of ink landed on him.

"That was fuckin' slick, ya gotta admit. That was so satisfying to watch," Shi commented.

It was beautiful. They were shooting but not quite hitting each other, dodging in all the right places at the right time. Watching it all go down was a blessing.

"They know each other like the back of their hands. They know each other's moves n' shit. How the hell is this gonna play out?"

They're both so graceful as they moved around circles, constantly trying to dodge and shoot at the same time.

"It's as if they're dancing," I muttered.

Shi squinted when she heard me say that, she watched so carefully that I thought her head would burst from too much concentration.

"Watch where they're placing their feet," she pointed.

I looked and was in astonishment. They definitely weren't doing it on purpose but...

They were stepping in each other's footprints. The footprints in the ink just kept getting deeper and deeper.

"They're in sync," I said.

I felt like I was watching Dancing with the Stars or something, it was so entertaining.

Finally, one of them got hit.

Both of them got hit.

"You saw that, right!? They both stepped out of their little footprint circle thing and then they got hit! That's so freaky," she shrieked.

Nana's pain tolerance kicked in quickly and she went for her brother. Finally, a splat was made.

"Their minds are wired the same way, but Nana's pain tolerance is better than Hachi's. As long as they keep knocking each other off their feet, Nana's gonna win," I speculated.

"That's a good theory. Nana's a good strategist, but Hachi is just as good. After all, their minds are wired the same way," Shi assured.

She made a solid point, but there was definitely a flaw in her argument.

They did the same strategy. Both lurked around the sides of the map to try and do a sneak attack. They were both surprised when they ran into each other trying to do the same plan.

"Their minds are wired the same way, Shi. Of course they'd think of the same strat," I smirked.

"I guess Nana's definitely winning this one then," Shi admitted.

Sure enough, Nana was found victorious. Boy, was she merciless. It was... sorta hot.

I held my hand out and Shi groaned before placing a 20 in my hand. "Pleasure doing business with you," I smiled.

"I'm over it. Let's go out to eat. Dinner's on Hachi and his drag money," Nana said and with that she walked off, leading us towards an all too fancy restaurant that only she was prepared for.

Cod, she knew how to make a woman go mad.