Chapter Text
Captain unlocked the door to her apartment, then spun around to stare Neo down.
“You’re not getting in until you tell me your name.”
“And you’re not getting my name until you tell me what you think of me. You chased me all around for no reason. I can handle myself, clearly, yet you’re dragging me into your life like this. Why?” Neo smirked, clearly more amused than actually confused by this situation.
Captain, meanwhile, was taken aback. She had taken Neo’s…comments at the café to be stupid jokes to get under her skin. What sort of response was Neo looking for?
“You’re not as capable of looking after yourself as you think. I thought the same thing when I was your age, you know. And it didn’t really turn out the best for me. You’re someone I want to help not fall down certain paths, because you’re my colleague, and I care for you.”
Silence, as Neo’s smirk faded away.
“Do you see me as a charity case, Cap’?”
Shit. Her chest clenched as she realized this might be the first time she actually hurt the girl’s feelings. “N-no! I just…I see a lot of myself in you, I can’t lie about that.”
“So you want to heal your “inner child” by fixing me? I’m not sure whether to call that selfish or pathetic.” Neo had a scowl on her face, matching her increasingly rising voice.
Captain grabbed the doorknob tightly to ground herself. Verbal communication has never been a comfortable thing for her, and arguments even less so. She glanced up at some motion she saw on the balconies at the apartments across from her. Two Inklings appeared to be watching their conversation in curiosity. Neo had followed her line of sight to notice the same thing.
“They probably think we’re having a lovers’ quarrel. Gotta keep an eye on it to see if it turns juicy or violent,” Neo said, smirk slowly returning to her face. “We should take this inside. Privacy is a good thing, y’know.”
As the older woman stood there, practically frozen, Neo smacked her hand off the doorknob and pushed her aside to enter the apartment. There was no resistance. And for that, as Neo grabbed her things and passed by Captain, she rewarded her with some information.
“The name’s Qiaoxi.”
Captain nodded slowly, and followed the other girl inside slowly, still processing the entire conversation.
The name rolled around inside Captain’s mind as she tried to get over the embarrassment of what just happened. Qiaoxi. It felt oddly fitting. She wondered what it meant, or if it was even her real name at all. It didn’t matter though, just knowing something personal about such a closed-off girl felt strangely intimate to her. She didn’t push away such feelings as fast as she usually does.
Locking the door behind her, still in a bit of a daze, she watched as Neo…walked into her bedroom. “What are you doing in there?”
“Huh?" She peaked back out, "Putting my stuff away. You said I could stay.”
“Not in my room.”
“I’m just putting my stuff there. What? Do you think I want to sleep with you or something? Your mind’s in the gutter.”
“No! I-” Captain could feel her face turn red again. How did this girl manage to keep tripping her up like this? She kept digging up the worst interpretations of what she’s saying.
Qiaoxi remained unbothered. Rather, she smiled mischievously, folding her arms and tilting her head. “Well, you still haven’t told me your name. I’m feeling like our relationship is getting one-sided. You’ll fix that, won’t you?”
Captain looked straight into her eyes. This is getting out of hand. Such behavior cannot be allowed to continue, lest she continue down a dangerous path. She had to put a hard-stop to this now. Or, else-...
Qiaoxi leaned in, with a small pout on her face. She was clearly expecting an answer without a fuss. “C’mon, Cap’, I thought you trusted me?”
“...It’s Saimo.”
Saimo watched as the younger girl put her hands on damn near everything in her apartment. She was insistent on picking up and looking over every removable object. Whether it was boredom or claiming her territory, she wasn’t sure. Somehow, her resistance to putting up with the latter behavior was fading.
It's fine to put up with, as it's nice to just see Qiaoxi act differently than she did in the crater, is what she told herself. Thinking back to it, as Neo, she was always severely cold and resistant to any prodding from anyone else. Saimo, back in the days of her first mission, was also coldly shy, but she always got a different vibe from this girl compared to herself. Rather than coolly averting her eyes when being spoken to like that of an uncomfortable young girl, Neo would stare straight at those giving her commands, and seemingly immediately disregard them, as if enjoying being outwardly defiant. Saimo honestly had no idea what Cuttlefish saw in this authority-hating girl. Likely, she was the only living being who had wandered into his desert camp at all, and that was the only reason for her recruitment.
“Hey, what’s this? I thought only grandmas kept these things.”
Being pulled out of her thoughts, Saimo glanced over at what Qiaoxi was looking at. A photo album.
“Oh, that. Agent 4 gifted it to me. She got into a photography kick while prepping for college. She gave all of us in the platoon a book for memories and all that soft stuff.”
Qiaoxi flipped through the pages, looking at the polaroids and printed photographs. She recognized Agents 1 and 2, and a younger Saimo. “Cute cloak,” she commented, resulting in a raised eyebrow.
She looked closer at the girl she didn’t recognize. Dark skin, school uniform, and some very expensive looking accessories. “What’s a richie doing working for your group?”
“Ah… I was busy when an incident happened in Inkopolis Square. Agent 2 picked her out, actually. I have no idea what she saw in her, but it worked out in the end.”
“Is she Agent 2’s type?”
Saimo scowled, clearly a bit uncomfortable with the question. “I don’t know. Why do you ask these things?”
Qiaoxi looked back down at a picture of Agents 2 and 4 posing together at sunset, leaning just a bit too close, smiles just a bit too knowing. Maybe this group was more interesting than she initially thought. She’d have to look more into these two and see what she could find out about them. This scandal could be fun to watch. But flipping the page, her excitement quickly left her.
“Who’s that guy?” she asked, with noticeable disdain in her voice.
“Oh?” Saimo leaned back over to shoulder to see what she was looking at. “That’s Agent 8. He’s pretty camera shy, so he doesn’t show up much.”
She stared long and hard at this abnormality. He was the only Octoling, but that wasn’t the problem. He was also the only male - at least the only one with an age under triple digits. He had unusually light skin and eyes, and even his ink color seemed washed out. All this was contrasted against the dark clothing he wore. An ugly stain on the page. She quickly flipped through the remaining pages, and Saimo was right, he only appeared in a handful of pictures. What she had failed to mention, was that every picture he was in, he was paired up with her.
The very last picture in the book showed the three young agents together, posing by the ledge of Hammerhead Bridge. On the left, 4 flashed a bright grin and peace signs for the camera. But beside her were 8 and Saimo, with Saimo leaning into the boy and resting her hand on his shoulder, a confident smile on her face and a shy one on his.
Qiaoxi loudly closed the book, and put it back in its place. She wasn't aware she had competition.
From now on, she was going to have to up her game.