Inkblot [A Splatoon2 Fanfic]

Chapter Twenty-Six

Tres was quiet when he got back to the house. Hachi didn't have to ask to know something didn't go well.

When Tres came in he took off his jacket and boots, then fell against the bed face down to scream into the pillows. Hachi sat beside him and rubbed his back, waiting until Tres was ready to talk. It took a while but the older boy finally rolled onto his back and put his hands over his face.

"I couldn't get those fucking weapons..." He said. "I was so close but I just couldn't fucking get them...!"

"What happened, Traci...?" Hachi asked quietly.

As much as Tres felt like ranting he didn't want to tell Hachi about the terror that was waiting for him in the basement. Hachi might be flat out afraid of going to that school ever again.

"It's not important, sweetheart..." He held Hachi's hand and kissed it. "How was your day? I'm sorry I had to leave so early, I would've made you breakfast,"

   "It's ok, Traci. It was nice to have some alone time. But I really really missed you"

   "Oh yeah, cutie?"

   "Mhmm. It's weird not hearing you yelling at stuff and breakin' things all day,"

   "Oh, hush!"

   Tres pulled Hachi into his arms and down on the bed with him, the younger boy broke out in giggles as his lover attacked him with kisses. Tres smiled at the sound of Hachi's laughter. He didn't want to think about Zero, the Ceph, or any of the Inkblot mess right now. All he wanted to focus on was his beautiful boy...

Of course that was cut short when they heard the front door open and close, loudly.

"Spyke's home~!" Hachi beamed.

The urchin came in and leaned in the doorway, with a bit of a grin.

"I interrupted something?"

"No. Not yet at least," Tres planted a quick kiss on Hachi's neck and made him giggle.

"So how'd it go at the school?"

And now the shitty part of the evening.

"Hachi, sweetie, why don't you go play outside for a while? We gotta talk about something,"

"Ok!" Without argument, Hachi got up and hurried out the room to go outside. Spyke took that as a sign and sat beside Tres.

"Not well I'm guessing?"

"Not well at all..." Tres dragged a hand down his face. "There was something down there... it stopped me from getting the weapons and I had to fall back..."

"What was it? That lab should've been cleaned out after the disease was gone."

"It was this... huge thing, it called it's Zero, and it was controlling the Ceph—"

"Zero's still alive?!"

Spyke's sudden cry startled Tres. The urchin was back on his feet and pacing around.

"Fuck! He should've been taken care of...!"

"You know him...?" Tres asked.

"Not personally. All I know is he was one of the test subjects that caused Inkblot disease to start! And he's alive and in the basement of the school?!"

   "Yeah, but I think he's trapped... he was controlling the Ceph and using it to attack me..." Tres said.

   "That's not good... Zero is the head of a hivemind, if more patients reach terminal stage he can take control of them and make them do lord knows what," 

   Tres didn't like the sound of that. All he could imagine was chaos as Inkblot spread rapidly throughout the city to the point it was impossible to contain. The stress of knowing he couldn't get the weapons that could prevent this made Tres start hyperventilating.

   "Fuck... I-I just... fuck!" He was getting ready to cry. "If I wasn't so damn weak I could've gotten those damn weapons and maybe stopped him! I could—I could've—!"

Tres couldn't hold back, tears were falling down his face in an ugly mess. He tried rubbing his wet face with his sleeves but more tears just kept falling.

"Damn it, I'm sorry... I'm just... so fucking done with this shit... things keep getting fucking worse and I can't keep up with it...!" Tres pulled his hair. "I... I just want things to go back to normal...! I don't wanna deal with this anymore...!"

    As Tres completely lost himself Spyke stared wide eyed; never did he imagine to see 'ruthless-intimidating-strong-and-silent Agent 3 crying the way he was now. The poor kid's seen way too much...

   "Geez, Tres... you've been holding all of this in a long time..." Spyke rubbed the back of his neck, unsure of how to respond.

Tres sniffled, embarrassed by the fact it was Spyke of all people he cried like that in front of. He hugged his legs to his chest and hid his face to prevent further embarrassment.

"I keep telling myself to stay strong... with Neli and Átta gone I have to keep peace in Inkopolis... it's my job to protect everyone..."

"Oh god, no, don't put all of that pressure on yourself. Callie and Marie can easily recruit others to take over the jobs as Agents, they can't expect you to do all of this forever," Spyke argued.

   "No kidding, I'm shit at this...!" Tres melted into his squid form and fell on the floor with a light splat.

   "I... I need a minute... I'm sorry... w-we can talk more later..."

   Spyke watched as Tres slowly made himself a red puddle of ink as he sobbed. The urchin honestly found the way Tres was acting, completely pathetic. But he couldn't blame him, they were dealing with a lot. Spyke decided it was better to just leave Tres to his breakdown until he was ok to talk again.

   Who knew the fearsome Agent 3 was such a crybaby?

————

   Something I drew for the occasion:

  Spykie's gettin' tired of babysitting these crybaby boyfriends.