Coral Shores (A Splatoon Story)

Epilogue

A few months later...

Another day, another busy shift for Rainey in Coral Shores Pastries. She loved baking as much as Maria and Alex, but due to the rising popularity of the bakery, she did not expect things at work to be so strict and demanding. However, she, as well as her friends, knew what they were getting themselves into. A work life was always like this: demanding and strict. After all, it was one of the only ways they had that could pay for their needs, given that none of them lived with parents, nor guardians. They still had Undine, but after being told Murdoch was murdered during duty at the army, her will seemed to have flickered away, like a blown out candle. She even refused to leave her new home, the home that was supposed to be for both of them, leaving Alex to take care of her. Her clothes shop never opened; the building was never bought in the first place, and all it took was the loss of her recently married husband. Maria also seemed to be distraught by it, as well as Alex, but Rainey could not say the same thing for herself. Of course, she had suffered over his loss, but compared to what she had been through, even before meeting him, she accepted the circumstances of change rather quickly. She was not the happiest, per se, but she managed to focus on more important things instead of staying stuck to her past. It would probably be what Murdoch would have wanted.

Alex and Maria already left the bakery long ago, and Rainey stayed to count the earnings that they made that day, making sure she divided them equally for the three of them, as well as keeping some spare in a safe, should they need it for repairs or restocking. After she was done, she punched out, grabbed her bag and made her way to the exit to close up for today, but was immediately stopped as the silent sound of a sob caught her attention. She looked back at the inside of the bakery and, sitting on one of the small tables, sat an Inkling girl, crying into the table. She wore a pair of shorts, a teal colored T-Shirt and a magenta colored tank top over it. Her lime hair was also weirdly tied up to the back of her head, similar to an X shape. The girl was crying, and Rainey did not know why. However, she did not want to get mixed up with whatever hardship she had to go through, and painfully, she approached her.
"Excuse me, miss. I'm sorry but you need to leave.", Rainey tried to tell the girl as softly as she could, only for the girl to slowly look up to her. Whatever she had to go through must have been really painful.
"P-Please... I've got nowhere else to go...", the girl pleaded, and as much as she hated to disagree, Rainey spoke again.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you stay in here by yourse-".
"My parents kicked me out of the house... My boyfriend attacked me; Please, let me stay the night...!", the girl asked again, clutching to Rainey's shirt as her tears simply continued to stream down her face.

Rainey jumped when the girl begged her to stay, but she could not be too sure if her story was real or not. Even then, there was no telling if her story was fake either, so Rainey had to think this through. Then, she thought of a foolproof idea.
"Give me a moment.", she told her as she went back into the kitchen. After a while, Rainey came back, carrying an unopened bag of flour.
"Wh-What's that..?", the girl asked, but Rainey did not answer right away, merely placing the bag on the table in front of the girl.
"I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, but I locked the door to the kitchen and activated the cameras. You probably wouldn't do anything bad, but I can't be too sure.", Rainey told her, getting a small smile from the girl.
"Th-That's fine.. You don't have to worry about me...", the girl said.
"And... Well, I couldn't find anything close to a blanket, so this was the best I could get for you. I'll talk with some friends tomorrow if they can lend you their spare room, though.", Rainey added as she placed her hand on the bag of flour.
"Thank you so much...!", the girl thanked her as she immediately pulled Rainey into a hug, making Rainey chuckle a bit.
"It's nothing.", Rainey told her as she returned the hug for a while. They parted from the hug, and Rainey began walking towards the exit, leaving the girl to get her sleep for tonight.
"What's your name..?", the girl suddenly asked before Rainey could leave.
"Oh! Rainey.", she answered. "What about yours?", she asked immediately after.
"Moray.", she answered, bringing a smile to Rainey's face.
"It's nice to meet you, Moray.", she told her as she left and closed shop for the night.

Present day...

"And...other than that, I guess that would be just about everything. That's where we came from and...what really happened in Coral Shores. At least, as much as I know. Murdoch knew almost all the details, but...we both know we can't get much info from him anymore.", Rainey explained on one of the tables near The Crust Bucket, forcing herself to retell the story that had haunted her for almost three years. After she was done talking, she looked up at the other side of the table to find Moray, staring at her with a shocked expression. "Oh! I'm sorry if that was too much to handle!", Rainey panicked a bit, making Moray snap from her trance.
"N-No no, it's okay. I-I'm glad you're trusting me with all of this! It's just...w-wow... I can't believe all that happened to you...", Moray told her as Rainey sighed.
"I couldn't believe it myself either until just recently...", Rainey admitted.
"Does anyone else know?", Moray asked.
"Well, apart from you and the others that were in Coral Shores, just Tallulah.", Rainey answered her question, then sighed right after. "I know it's probably about time I said something, but...it's always so hard to tell everything to someone... Things are probably gonna stay that way for a while.", Rainey admitted.
"Th-That's completely fine! You can take as much time as you'd like to tell the rest of us. You probably won't even have to in the long run. And you can also trust us. I promise you that I will not tell anyone about this conversation without your consent.", Moray told Rainey, making her smile.
"Thank you very much.", she replied sweetly.

"Though, I still have to say... There's no way I'm ever going to see Skip the same way again...", Moray commented, making Rainey giggle a bit.
"Tallulah said exactly the same thing!", she pointed out.
"It's just that...I carried him, I took care of him! I did the 'spoon is an airplane' trick on him and everything!", Moray continued.
"Yeah... It might take some getting used to. I know it did for me.", Rainey commented.
"Who else knows about Skip?", Moray asked.
"Just you, me and Tallulah.", Rainey answered.
"What!? Maria and Alex don't know!?", Moray exclaimed.
"They've spent more time with Skip than you or Tallulah, so...I'm afraid of how differently they'll react.", Rainey told her.
"I mean, you don't need to tell them! I'm just surprised they didn't know.", Moray pointed out.

"Hey!", a familiar voice called out, coming from Calder. "We're about to start up a Turf War. Plum wants to try out his Lepido-whatchamacallit!", he called out as he ran straight back to the Deca Tower. Rainey couldn't help but giggle.
"You might not want to keep your team waiting.", Moray told her.
"You better not keep Plum waiting either.", Rainey retorted as Moray laughed and made her way straight to the tower, leaving Rainey behind. She sighed. "See that, Ariel..? I did it..", she muttered to herself as she calmly began to follow Moray, unaware of a figure watching her. The figure had a phone up against their ear, listening to a voice message.
"I really needed to get this off my chest before things went downhill...and things are just getting worse and worse every day here... You don't need to come back... There might not be anyone to come back to if things keep going how they are now...", said the voice message, then stayed silent for a few seconds as the figure continued watching Rainey approach the tower and how Tallulah greeted her with Skip in her arms. "When... When you find your mother in Inkopolis... If you can, please give her this message... I don't even know if she goes by the same name at this point, so...please do that one last thing for me... You can also even say hi to her and your brother for me too, if...you ever get the chance...", the voice was heard trembling as the figure then watched the OctoSquids greet each other, their gaze fixed on them. "I love you, honey, and...I'm sorry...".