Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A grey sky that never ends…above me, below me, and all around me…that's all I've felt…all I've been…all I…am?...no…that's not true…there was a time where I wasn't here…floating…no…swimming in these grey clouds…but…I can't remember…how long have I been here?...

…

I don't…know…it feels like I've been here…been…this…forever…yet…for no time at all…

…

…

…

(Stabilization complete…Swarm Units Compatibility 100%...)

…What?...

(Beginning phase 1 of the Aquarian Integration Experiment set by Administrator C.)

…Is that a voice?...B-But…from where?...from who?...

(Beginning Orbital Drop.)

…Huh?...

(Best of luck young Evan Rowe, I hope the Administrator was right with this experiment.)

…Who…

…

…I'm so tired…

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“This crap blows…” A teenaged inkling girl groaned out as she and her coworker went about cleaning a large pool and the surrounding area “Of course princess decides to have a pool party for her 7th birthday, and we're the ones having to clean it up…heavy neutral ink is so freaking annoying to clean…”

Her partner, an inkling boy of roughly the same age chuckled at her annoyance while gathering any heavy ink that he could into multiple buckets. “Hehehe, you sound really grumpy Kelly, but I saw the way you were devouring all those treats at the snack bar. You looked as if you were in heaven.” he teased her lightly as he filled up the buckets before dispensing the ink into a large wheeled container.

Kelly blushed green like her tentacles as she glared at him “O-Oh shut it Marl! It's the least Mr. Houzuki can do for us with all the messes that his little brat Pearl leaves for us to clean. Honestly, how come you always seem so happy with cleaning up after her?” She asks in a grumpy voice while following his lead.

“Well…Mr. Houzuki pays us really well, gives us plenty of time off for us to relax, and makes sure that our work schedule isn't too overbearing, so we have plenty of time for Turf wars. He's probably the best boss I've ever had.” Marl calmly replied to his coworker and friend while carefully filling up the buckets once more. He looked up from the pool and towards the colossal mansion that was a couple dozen feet away from the pool area, a wide smile spreading across his face as his dark skinned cheeks turned slightly blue like his own tentacles “And on top of all that…I love spending time with Pearl and looking after her, she reminds me so much of my baby sis back in my hometown. She's practically like a second sister to me…” he looked back at Kelly and grinned “Doesn't she have one of the cutest grins you've ever seen?”

The inkling girl gave him a deadpanned look, a light blush spread across her cheeks “Yeah sure…I guess the brat is okay…” ‘Dammit…why the hell does he have to be so damn cute sometimes?!’

Several minutes passed by as they continued to drain and clean the pool, talking to each other from time to time about how they've been and how excited they were for their turf war matches next week.

Kelly sighed as they were roughly half way done with their task. “Aaah…we'll be done before 10…I hope…” she sighed in a voice that was a mix of annoyance and hope before looking up at the night sky, her hands falling to her sides. Just as she was about to go back to work, she spotted a flaming streak soaring through the night sky “Hey Marl, look, a shooting star.”

The boy looked up from the pool and into the night sky, spotting the orange and red streak in the night sky “Woah…looks like a fireball…” he looked over to Kelly with a smile “Wanna make a wish?”

Kelly smirked at the question as she stood up and placed her hands on her hips. “Well…don't mind if I do.” she closes her eyes before clapping her hands a couple times “Please make our night less boring shooting star…oh, and make Pearl less messy…” she wishes in a soft voice before opening her eyes once more.

The two friends looked on at the shooting star while taking in the beauty of the night sky, content and satisfaction filling their hearts as despite how much they might whine sometimes, they truly enjoyed their time here at the Houzuki mansion.

“Hey Kelly.”

“Yeah Marl?”

“Is the shooting star getting closer?”

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“Come on papa, do I really have to go to sleep this early? It's only 9, can't I sleep a bit later? It's my birthday after all!” A voice whined out within one of the rooms of the Houzuki mansion. This room in particular was the bedroom of a young Pearl Houzuki.

“Hehehe no can do squido, you still have school tomorrow.” An inkling man chuckled softly as he sat next to his young daughter on her grand king sized bed. This was Shogen Houzuki, one of the richest cephalopods in the known world.

He smiled down at her warmly while the young inkling pouted up at him with crossed arms. “Ugh, I hate that place dad, it's full of annoying snobs and jerks, and no one wants to be my friend either!” The girl squeaked up at her father, remembering how utterly annoying the kids were at the private school she went to.

“I feel ya Pearl, when I went to Mantle School at your age, I wanted nothing more than to beat up every one of those whiny little punks, and every time I did, your granny would spank me a new rear. If it was up to me, I'd get ya in a public school instead, those are definitely more fun.” Shogen grimaced at his old memories, recalling his own hardships with the school she was attending currently. “Unfortunately your ma and grandma reaaaally want you to attend that place, and since your old man is outnumbered in that regard, I can't really do anything about that squido…”

When he saw his daughter begin to frown, a thought came to mind, wanting nothing more than to cheer his little princess up “...But hey…” he leaned closer to his daughter and grinned cheekily “Once ya come back from school tomorrow, we can play games together while we make Kelly do your homework~”

“Hahaha, that would be awesome!” Pearl giggled in excitement, with him soon following afterwards. Moments pass as father and daughter laughed and sat next to each other, enjoying each other's company before the little girl hugged her father’s side. “Thanks for cheering me up papa…” she whispered softly as he returned the embrace, his pink tipped white tentacles gently wrapping around her “Any time sweetheart…”

As Shogen hugged his daughter, a small light would catch his attention as he looked out the window near her bed. There, on the night sky, a flaming streak soared through the stars in a bright orange and red streak.

Shogen’s eyes widen slightly before he looks down at Pearl and gently nudged her “Look squido, a shooting star! Go ahead and make a wish!” he encouraged her while she looked out the window with wide eyes full of excitement. She squirmed out of the hug and shuffled on the bed quickly so as to get closer to the window.

When she reached the window, she would kneel on the bed and close her eyes, gently clapping her hands together a few times as she thought of her wish, one born from her deepest desire.

‘I wish I had a friend…'

The young Houzuki stayed in the same pose, wanting to make sure that the shooting star heard her wish, all while the older Houzuki looked at his daughter with a soft and warm smile ‘I’m sorry that only some of the family family members could come for the party…’ he thought to himself, saddened at her lack of connections.

A minute passes by as the large bedroom remained quiet, the two family members soaking in the peace and quiet of the moment, before Pearl finally opened her eyes and looked back into the night sky with shining eyes full of excitement and hope. That was until she noticed something.

“Umm…papa…why is the shooting star getting bigger?...”

Shogen looked at her in confusion, surprised at her sudden question before he decided to look out the window.

“Huh…you're…right…” he said slowly as his eyes widened in shock and fear filled his heart as he saw that the shooting star was seemingly heading for the Houzuki estate.

“Oh squit!!!” He cursed out as he quickly grabbed a fearful and shrieking Pearl before hugging her tightly, shielding her from potential harm.

BOOM!!!

A loud and resounding explosion could be heard as the shooting star landed close by to the mansion, shaking the building to it's foundation.

Pearl shrieked within her fathers grasp while her bedroom shook fiercely, several of the furniture throughout the room falling over as well as many of her toys.

…

Silence rung throughout the mansion as the inkling continued to hug his daughter well after the earthquake ended, not wanting danger to fall upon his princess.

…

Finally, after a minute of pure silence, the duo finally calmed down from the hearts pounding moment that they were in just a moment ago. Shogen slowly let go of his daughter and looked all around the room, and while some things were knocked over, the room was still intact “Thank goodness we're safe…geez, I felt my hearts beating like a couple of drums…”

He sighed softly as Pearl clinged to him tightly, looking around her room and frowning as some of her toys were broken from falling to the ground. “Aww…not Clowney…” she mourned her clownfish plush as he gave her a soft smile and gently patted her head “Don't worry princess, we'll get him fixed…”

Shogen looked back up and looked out the window “Well…from what I can tell, it didn't land on the mansion…so hopefully it didn't damage the structure. From where it was going, it probably landed near…Kelly and Marl!” He suddenly shouted as he stood up abruptly and quickly ran to the door. Pearl’s eyes widened, quickly realizing as well that her caretakers might be in danger as she jumped off the bed and chased after her father, worried for the two teenagers.

_______________________________

As the father and daughter duo arrived at the now dust cloud covered pool area, Shogen would worriedly look around, calling out to them in hopes that they would respond “Kelly! Marl!”

Pearl, to his surprise, would rush forward into the dust cloud and call out to the caretakers “Kelly! Marl! Are you okay?!” “Pearl, come back here, you might get hurt!”

As the young girl rushed into the dust cloud in search of her caretakers, she would hear two people groaning close to each other and proceed to rush to them, with her father following behind her.

Kelly groaned softly and slowly opened her eyes, taking a moment to gather her bearings as she felt something shuffle in her arms. She looked down slowly and realized it was Marl, who was also groaning softly and slowly opening his eyes just like her. She stared at him for a second, her brain not processing what was going on for a second, until… “Marl?...”

A bright blush spreads across her face as the feeling of holding him so close flustered her to no end, but before she could push him, she recalls what happened a few minutes ago.

___

“Is the shooting star getting closer?”

As she heard her friend ask her that, she would notice immediately that he was correct, as the shooting star was getting closer and closer by the second…actually…it was…heading straight for them!

“Oh fuck!” “Squit!!” They both cursed as they turned around and tried to bolt away, but there was no way they could've gone far. At the last moment, out of desperation and instinct to save Marl, Kelly immediately tackled the smaller inkling and hugged him close to her body, doing her best to shield him.

The next thing they knew, they heard a loud explosion nearby and felt the earth shake as they were knocked to the ground from the force.

___

Kelly sighs softly, shocked that she would do that, but also glad that Marl was safe as she slowly let go of him “Hey Marl…you alright?…”

“Never…ugh…better…” The shorter inkling responded as they slowly stood up from the ground, dust all around them as they couldn't really see much.

All of a sudden the two of them would be nearly tackled into the ground as they felt someone small hug them tightly “Marl! Kelly!”

They quickly realized that it was Pearl as she hugged them both as tight as she could, getting a couple groans out of them. They looked at one another before smiling and returning the embrace “H-Hey Pearl…” “Hey Princess…ugh…sorry for worrying you…”

Shogen would reach them the very next moment with a relieved smile as he took a couple breaths from all the running. “Aaah…Aaah…Kelly…Marl…glad to see you two are okay.” He said with a smile on his face as the two slowly stood up after Pearl finally let go of them “We’re fine Mr. Houzuki.” “Yeah, just a little dazed.” The teens replied softly while the older man gently patted them on their shoulders “Good, wouldn't want my chore boy and chore girl to be squashed flat.” the older Houzuki said cheekily.

Pearl pouted up at them both and lightly smacked their legs “Mmmph!!! You two jerks had me worried, I thought you two might've been turned into pancakes!” The Houzuki princess squeaked at them both, her bratty voice filled with genuine concern. Kelly rolled her eyes and smirked while Marl smiled warmly at the child and hugged her close, reassuring her “Sorry about that princess, seems like that shooting star or whatever wanted to give us a fright.”

After a couple moments of reassuring one another and gathering their bearings, Shogen took the lead and went to check to see what just landed on his turf, with the others following closely behind.

As the dust settles and the area becomes clear, something of note becomes immediately clear as in the middle of where the dust cloud was a few moments ago, stood a giant black and red metal cylinder mounted on three spiked legs that digged into the ground. It was big enough that Shogen could probably fit inside it and have more than enough space to fit his mate along with him and still be comfortable. A logo was painted on the middle of the cylinder as well as letters from a language the group had never seen before.

The group had mixed reactions to this foreign object. Shogen glared at it, Kelly had an apprehensive look on her face, Marl raised an eyebrow, curiosity slowly creeping into him, and Pearl stared in awe, a grin spread across her face.

“What…is that?...” Marl asks the group softly “Don't know…never seen anything like this before…” Shogen responded in a quiet voice, cautious of what it could be. Pearl’s grin widened “I bet it's an alien pod!” “Oh come on Pearl, as if…” Kelly rolled her eyes at the little girl's ridiculous statement, although she wasn't completely ruling off the possibility.

A loud hiss could be heard from the cylinder as the grouped flinched and stepped back a bit. The middle section of the cylinder slowly opened, revealing a glass layer beneath the metal plating.

Within the glass they could see some form of fluid…well…more like two fluids. The main fluid was aquamarine in color and appeared to have a viscosity similar to water. In the center of the aquamarine fluid was another fluid, this one instead an orange cream in color with seemingly a much thicker viscosity than the main fluid.

They all stared in confusion, wondering what this fluid could be.

“Woah…it looks like some weird juice…I bet it tastes yummy!” Pearl giggled as she slowly walked closer to the cylinder. Shogen saw this and gripped her shoulder “Pearl wait, we don't know if this is dangerous…” “Aww but papa, it's just some juice!” “We don't know that squido, and why are you so obsessed with it being juice?!”

As the father and daughter bickered with one another, Marl got closer to the glass while they were distracted and gently touched it, all while Kelly panicked “M-Marl wait!”

A mechanical voice would ring out from the cylinder and scare the four of them.

“ESVUAKAH BEEJIA MULAKIA” it spoke in a language they had never heard in their life before parts of the cylinder began to glow a soft red and the Aquamarine and Orange Cream fluids glowed bright.

“Oh Cod it's gonna splat us!” Kelly panicked as she hid behind Shogen, a sentiment the others shared except for Pearl, who looked on in awe and wonder, like a kid on Christmas Eve.

They noticed that the orange cream fluid began to slowly condense and gather together, tightening itself more and more as it slowly began to take shape. After a few seconds of condensing, they would see that the fluid took on an inkling-like shape, although some of the details weren't quite right.

The orange cream fluid suddenly transformed in a matter of seconds, and from where the fluid once was, now floated a small…inkling?...its eyes were closed while it was completely still.

The group all stared in shock as the cylinder slowly dug into the ground until the bottom of the glass was just above the ground. The inkling(?)’s feet would touch the bottom of the inner chamber of the Cylinder as gravity was now seemingly affecting it…no…him, the inkling(?) was completely naked and they could see that he was a boy.

The boy slowly began to fall forward, and when it seemed as if his face would press against the glass, they were shocked to see that he was slowly phasing through it instead.

Pearl gasped as she saw that he was about to fall face first on the ground, so she ran forward quickly and caught the slightly taller boy in her arms and held him. “Mmmph! I got you!” she squeaked softly as she hugged him close, shaking a little as he was a bit heavier than she was expecting for even an inkling(?) of his size.

Shogen, Kelly, and Marl looked on in awe, still too shocked by what they were seeing to really do anything.

Pearl held the boy close, surprised that even though he was submerged in that aquamarine fluid a second ago, he felt dry to the touch…drier than an inkling is meant to be.

She observed the boy closely now that he was in her arms, and even a child like her could tell that he wasn't actually an inkling. Instead of tentacles on top of his head, there was this weird fuzzy stuff instead. She noted it was super soft and felt really nice to touch. His ears were rounded instead of pointy, and smaller too. The area around his eyes also lacked the black lining that Inklings normally had, instead being the same, smooth color of his slightly pale skin.

Her eyes widened as she heard the boy mumble softly and shuffle slightly, before he slowly opened his tired eyes, looking up at her directly.

Amber…a soft, warm, bright amber…those were the colors of his eyes as he opened them and looked up at her with a soft and dazed look…

Pearl stared back at him with a bright pink blush on her cheek, her grip on him tightening as she whispered softly at the same time as he did.

“So pretty…” “Sril proya…”

Chapter Text

“So pretty…” “Sla bwuy…” The boy whispered at the same time as the girl, utterly mesmerized by her eyes, one's he had never seen before…

They were like two glittering stars that shone so brightly…he felt his heart flutter from how deeply she was looking at him with those pretty eyes, as if she was as mesmerized as he was.

Moments pass as the two children stared directly into each other's eyes, until he heard a weird, wet voice ring out from behind the girl “Pearl, swui blau naru ge.”

The boy couldn't understand a word that was spoken, but it did take his attention away from the star eyed girl as he finally looked around. He was near some kind of pool, although it was a bit hard to tell given how it was nighttime, but the moon was bright enough to at least give him some lighting.

He finally observed the girl beyond her eyes and was almost shocked at how strange she looked to him. Why did she have tentacles on her head where her hair should be?! Very pretty tentacles, but still!

The closer he looked, the more his confusion grew as he saw that while many traits about her were human, there were others that he's never seen before on a person, like her aforementioned tentacles for hair, the black lining around her eyes (although he has seen some grown women with eyeliner around their eyes, so maybe he was wrong there…), the way that her teeth were more like one collective big pointy tooth on her top and bottom gums, and her really…really pretty eyes…

He's cut off from falling back into that trance once more as the girl turned around and spoke back in the same language, her voice also sounding wet. “Ni wa wuei ya bara papri!” Wow…she also sounded really pretty, if a little bratty as well…

The boy looked to who she was speaking to and finally realized that they weren't alone. Behind the girl were three other weird people like her, all about a dozen feet away or so.

The second tallest one looked quite a bit like her, having the same eyes, skin color, and tentacle colors (although his lacked the spots that hers had), but his tentacles are trimmed and cut in a way that made it look a bit closer to hair, as instead of two big tentacles like the pretty girl, he has several smaller tentacles that flowed down around his head like pointy and wavy waterfalls that reached down to his stomach.

The man, who the boy guessed was the girl's papa, was wearing what seemed like those fancy suits the big important people that he had seen a few times would wear, although his suit had a color scheme similar to his tentacles, where it was mostly white with the ends of it turning pink. It seemed like the man must've been done for the day as his suit was disheveled and was ready to be taken off as even his tie was lazily dangling around his shoulders. He must've been ready to go to bed soon since it was nighttime after all.

A bit behind the man were two other people, a teenaged boy and girl. These two definitely weren't related to the man and the pretty girl as they shared no similarities to them outside of also having tentacles for hair and the black lining around their eyes.

The teenage girl, who is the tallest of them all, has green tentacles that were tied back behind her into what looked like a pony tail that reached all the way to her butt, light green spots scattered throughout the lower parts of her…hair. She has beige skin with small freckles scattered throughout her cheeks, and light green eyes that looked normal compared to the pretty girl. She was wearing what seemed like a simple butler suit with a little bowtie, although the black coat lacked sleeves as her white under shirt’s sleeves took its place instead.

The teenaged boy is the second smallest of the group, being a bit shorter than the man and significantly shorter than the teenaged girl. He has smooth dark brown skin, dark blue eyes that were similar to the teenage girl. His tentacles were dark blue like his eyes and shorter than the others, only reaching down to his neck, similar to the long hair that big br-

The boy was cut off from his observations as the pretty girl was seemingly arguing with her father, subconsciously hugging the boy even tighter and closer to her, almost protectively.

The boy blushes a bright red as he finally realizes that he was being held in the pretty girl's arms…while being completely naked.

“I-I’m sorry!” He squeaks out a whimper as he uses his hands so as to cover himself, utterly embarrassed by his nudity.

_______________________________

“Pearl, step away from him.” Shogen sternly ordered his daughter as he looked at the weird kid with cautious eyes, weary about his daughter being in potential danger.

Pearl pouted and looked over to her father with a glare while hugging the pretty boy tightly. “No way papa!” she squeaked up at her father as she held the boy closely, not wanting to let go.

Shogen glared slightly at his daughter while getting closer, clearly upset that his daughter was putting herself in potential danger “Pearl, he could be dangerous for all we know, now let go and come over here.” “But he's not dangerous papa!” “Pearl!”

The boy suddenly squeaked in her arms and shouted something in a voice that sounded…way too dry to be normal. “Ilm svota!” he squeaked while now covering himself with his hands, blushing bright red in embarrassment. Odd…he had red ink yet his…hair…fuzz thing was a bright auburn with streaks of black strands intermixed. ‘Pretty…’ was all that coursed through the young Houzuki’s head, finding his eyes and hair fuzz thing to be mesmerizing.

Marl slowly walked closer to three of them as he gave the boy a soft look “I don't think you need to worry about him Mr. Houzuki, he's just a young boy…a slightly tall one at that.” The older man gave him a weary look, unsure of how to feel at the moment.

He slowly reached Pearl and crouched next to her while giving her a soft smile “Hey princess, I know that you are worried for him, but it seems like he's a little stressed out at the moment. Is it okay if I were to tend to him? I won't hurt him.”

Pearl had a conflicted look on her face as she held the pretty boy close to her, unsure of how to feel “Mmm…do you promise MarMar?...”. Her male caretaker gave her a small grin and held out his right pinkie finger and booped her with it, getting a giggle out of her “Pinkie promise~”

She finally relents and hands the boy over to Marl, who gently sets him upright on the ground. The boy looked up at Marl, still embarrassed about his nudity as he whimpered softly. The teenager gave him a soft, reassuring smile as he gently patted his weird fuzz hair. “It's okay little buddy, here.” he assured the boy, although he didn't seem to understand what he said, and took off his butlers coat and wrapped it around the boy's body which thankfully covered him just enough so that his boy parts weren't out for everyone to see.

As the boy looked up at Marl with a cautious but grateful look on his face, Kelly walked over to Pearl and Shogen while blushing a bit at the sight of her friend's caring nature ‘Wow…he'd make a great mate…n-nevermind that!’ “So Pearl, what's up with you being so clingy to the kid? He's just some rando.” The small girl pouted up at the teenage girl while placing her hands on her hips “He's not a rando!”

Pearl grinned ecstatically as she dramatically presented the strange boy to the rest of them “This pretty boy right here is my friend!” she said excitedly before looking back at the boy with an excited grin while hopping in place, all while the boy gave her a confused look.

The others had mixed reactions to her proclamation. Marl simply chuckled softly at how cute she was being, Kelly raised an eyebrow, not really buying what she said, and Shogen gave her a deadpanned look with half lidded eyes, genuinely not believing what he was hearing.

“Sweetie, you just met him a couple minutes ago…” “Yeah Pearl, I'm having a hard time believing that, this kid just dropped down here from out of nowhere.” Shogen and Kelly voiced their doubts, which Pearl responded by pouting at the two of them and crossing her arms “But he is! I wished for a friend, and the shooting star brought him here, that means he has to be the friend I wished for!”

Shogen’s face softened slightly at seeing how she desperately wanted a friend, memories of the birthday party from a couple hours ago flowed through his mind, reminding him about how only a couple family members showed showed up for her big day, and none that was roughly her age. “Pearl…” he whispered, saddened at how much she must've wanted a friend…

“Mr. Houzuki…” Marl softly called to his boss, grabbing his attention. He gently patted the boy, who had been staring at the commotion with nervous eyes, and looked at Shogen with gentle eyes. “I understand that you're worried for Pearl, I would be too, but I don't think this boy means any harm to us…” He looked back at the boy and gave him a small side hug “...and I have a feeling he's just as lost in this situation as the rest of us.”

Shogen looked towards the boy and gave him a proper look for the first time. He could see in the boys eyes and posture that he was nervous…scared even as the boy flinched under his gaze. The mans heart ached at the sight of the child's plight, realizing that the poor kid was just as confused and scared as they were. He had been so focused on keeping Pearl and his employees safe that he had put his empathy in the back pocket. While he was still on edge about the whole cylinder crashing into his estate situation, he couldn't ignore that the poor boy had been thrusted into this like the rest of them, so he wasn't sure if he could put the blame on the poor boy.

Pearl quickly walked over to the boy and stood by his side, looking at her father with pleading eyes “Please papa…let him stay…” she pleaded to him while on the verge of tears.

Whatever resistance Shogen had crumbled instantly at his princesses pleas. He sighed softly and rubbed his face, his shoulders sagging a bit as he felt exhausted. “Aaaah…fine… he can stay for a few days while we find out what to do with him…” he groaned out, feeling that his life was about to change from this point forward…he just hoped that it was for the better…

Pearl celebrated and hugged the confused boy, grinning up at him in ecstatic joy “Yaaay! We're gonna have so much fun, come on!!!” She squeaked joyfully as she grabbed one of the boys hands and quickly dragged him to the mansion, much to the boys shock and surprise as he was completely lost on what was going on, clearly not understanding a single word that was said, but having somewhat of a general idea that he was being allowed to stay given how much she was celebrating.

Shogen groaned once more at Pearls eagerness and impatience as she ran off with the barely clothed boy “Marl, Kelly, please look after the two and make sure they don't do anything reckless…cod I need a drink…”

Marl smiled and nodded while Kelly shrugged and gave a nonchalant thumbs up “Of course Mr. Houzuki” “Got it boss.”

_______________________________

Pearl hummed happily as she and Kelly sat outside of one of the bathrooms as Marl was helping the boy clean up in the shower “Oh Kelly, I'm so excited, I finally have a friend!”

“Don't get too excited now Pearl, you have school tomorrow, remember? Gotta make sure you get plenty of sleep” Kelly smirked down at the little girl who responded with a pout “I-I know, I-I'm just really happy right now okay?!”

The older girl chuckled in response to the little girl's squeaks, causing the small inkling to pout and blush brightly “H-Hey! Quit laughing ya jerk!”
_____

As the two girls squabble to one another, Marl was humming softly while cleaning the weird boy with a warm shower, who was a bit confused and still somewhat nervous, although Marl could tell that he wasn't on edge like he was earlier, mostly just nervous…and embarrassed giving how he was still covering himself “No need to be embarrassed, I've cleaned up my little brother plenty of times so I know what I'm doing, and I promise to be gentle.” “G-Gibu…”

Despite his attempts at trying the soothe the poor boy, his words meant very little as the kiddo understood nothing of what he said, but it seems that his soft voice was able to soothe the child enough that he wasn't putting up a fight.

Marl smiled warmly at the way that the boy relaxed in his grasped as he washed his… hair fuzz…thingy…with gentle shampoo, the same one Pearl would use. The boy even let out small, quiet sighs of relief, almost sounding like he was purring ‘Hehe, almost like Judd.’

Minutes pass by as Marl finishes up the shower, believing that the boy was properly cleaned now. He couldn't help but smile at the way the boy giggled while he dried him up with a towel. Once the boy was dry enough, Marl would put away the towel and hand him a pair of his own pajamas, that while a bit oversized, was all they had available at the moment. He made sure to roll up the sleeves and pants legs so that the kiddos hands and feet weren't caught in the middle and potentially have him trip up.

“There we go, you look as cute as a button!” Marl smiled at the boy while the…whatever he was…looked over himself and smiled as well, seemingly enjoying the comfort of the pajamas, even going as far as to nuzzle the collar of the shirt.
_____

As the door unlocks and opens up for Marl and the boy to leave, they spot Pearl on top of Kelly, seemingly trying to pull her hair while Kelly was pinching and pulling on the girls cheeks, all while they squeaked at each other. It seems like they might've gotten into a small fight…

The girls immediately stop as they saw the two boys stare at them, Marl in amusement and the boy in confusion on why they would be fighting. The inkling ladies blushed deeply in their respective colors as Pearl hopped off of Kelly while Kelly let go of Pearls cheeks, clearly embarrassed at being caught.

There was a moment of silence as the two parties looked at each other with different reactions, until Marl smirked at Kelly. “Dork” He teased his friend, immediately getting a reaction out of her as she blushed even more and squeaked at him, glaring daggers at the teen “S-Shut it!”

While the teens interacted with one another (mostly Kelly pulling on Marl’s cheeks and squeaking at him), Pearl walked over to her new friend and grinned up at him, blushing a little as she looked into his amber eyes once more, mesmerized like before “H-Hey! I-I n-never asked y-your name, s-so what is it?”

Pearl blushed brightly as her eyes widened. W-Why did she stutter like that?! She had never stuttered before, especially not that much!

The boy stared at her blankly, not understanding a word she said. He just simply stared into her star eyes, mesmorized by how pretty they were, his heart fluttering slightly.

Pearl powered through the embarrassment and hummed softly, realizing that the boy doesn't understand a word that she was saying. “This is gonna be tricky…” she whispered to herself before an idea popped in her.

“I'm Pearl Houzuki…Pearl…Houzuki…” she repeated her name a few times while pointing at her self, making sure to say it slowly. The boy stared at her for a moment, unsure of what she was doing, until it finally clicked in his head what she was saying.

The boy pointed at himself and smiled shyly “Ilm…E-Evan…Evan Rowe…”

Pearl's face could probably tear in half with how wide her grin was. Her heart pounded as she finally learned the name of her first friend “E-Evan…I love it!”

She took his hand and held it as she went over to the bickering teens “H-Hey! I just found out his name, it's Evan Rowe!!!”

The caretaker duo looked at her in pleasant surprise, a smile across their faces as Kelly let go of Marl “Evan Rowe huh? That's pretty cute.” “Aww, that's a really nice name~”

“Hmm…what's all the commotion about?” The voice of Shogen spoke softly as he walked towards the group, a glass full of wine in hand. Pearl excitedly jogged to her papa while holding Evans hand. “Papa papa! I finally learned my friend's name!”

Shogen's eyes widened a bit as he looked down at his daughter in surprise, a soft and tired smile spread across his face “Oh? And what would that be squido?” “It's Evan Rowe!”

“Evan Rowe huh?...” The adult inkling looked towards the boy and gave him a stern look for a moment, before his face softened as he gave the boy a genuine smile “...what a wonderful name.”

Evan squeaked slightly as Shogen gently pat him on the head and ruffled his hair a bit, getting a small giggle out of the boy “I wonder how old he is…kinda hard to tell given he's not an inkling…”

The group looked at the boy and thought about how to learn his age, all while Evan looked at all of them, blushing a bit as he wondered why he was the center of attention now.

Pearl grinned as another idea popped in her head. Man she was on a roll today!

The group looked at Pearl in confusion as she ran out of the room before returning a minute later with a sheet of paper and a pink crayon “Here we go!”

She started drawing something on the page while the others looked at her, wondering what she was doing.

“Here!” She said excitedly as she brought up the paper and showed it to them. On it were crude drawings of each one of them all, and next to the drawing of Pearl was the number 7, while Evan had a question mark.

The others quickly realized what she had in mind as Shogen grinned at her “That's my girl, such a smart little cephalopod!”

Evan looked on as the others were huddled up together around the page ‘What are they doing?...’

A moment passed by before they were all done. They turned to the boy and smiled while Pearl showed him the paper.

Pearl pointed to the drawing of her and then at the number, 7. Shogen followed afterwards and pointed at the drawing of him as well as another number, 28. Marl and Kelly pointed at the same time at their respective drawings and the numbers next to them, 17. Pearl finally pointed at the crude drawing of Evan and then at the question mark “Well?”

Evan quickly caught on to what they were showing him as he realized what they were asking of him. He looked down at his hands and counted with his fingers. He looked back up at them shyly and raised 6 fingers. He was six years old.

“What?!” “No way!” “Huh?!” “Woah…” The groups eyes collectively widened as they processed the new information. They had all thought he was older than Pearl because of his height, but the fact he was even younger than her at only six years old was insane to them. He was the biggest six year old any of them had ever seen!

Evan simply giggled at their reactions, finding them funny, while Pearl pouted and crossed her arms, annoyed that a six year old could be taller than her, a boy at that! She thought that boys were supposed to be smaller than girls, so what gives?!

“Whatever…” Pearl groaned with a blush while Evan giggled once more at her reaction.
_______________________________

Marl and Kelly waved at Shogen and the kids as they went off to their respective rooms so as to rest for the night. Shogen gulped and checked the time on his flip phone, frowning as he saw that it was about halfway to 11 “Oh cod, your mom would kill me if she wasn't away visiting her parents…”

Pearl giggled at her father's reaction while holding Evans hand, practically holding him close to her and making the poor boy blush with no end in sight “Hehehehe, Papa might get in trouble~” “Yeah yeah, laugh it up squiddo…”

“Come on you two, we're gonna get you two to bed.” Shogen said in a soft voice as he grabbed Pearls free hand and guides them to Pearl's room.

‘What a day…I really need to lie down after all this…’ the man thought to himself while drinking a bit of wine from the glass in his other hand as they made their way to Pearl's room.

After a bit of time spent traversing the colossal mansion, they finally arrived at the Houzuki princesses room. He lets go of Pearl and opens the door for them to enter, which they did.

Evan looked around the room in awe, shocked at how big it was, as well as the insane variety of toys that were scattered throughout the room. Pearl smirked and puffed her chest out in pride. “Yuuup, I know, my toy collection is the best in the whole wide world~” she bragged to her friend, who only looked at her blankly, tilting his head a bit in confusion at what she said, getting a chuckle out of her father “Hehehe, alright you two, let's get you to bed.”

Shogen gently lifted Pearl up and placed her on her bed, smiling warmly at his daughter. “Goodnight sweetie, rest well, and sweet dreams.” he leaned forward to give her a kiss on the forehead while she returned his affection by hugging him closely “You too papa!”

Shogen moved back from the bed and gently grabbed Evans hand “Now then Evan, let's get you to a guest ro-” “No”

Pearl interrupted her father with a pout as she stared at the two. Shogen blinked at her refusal as he stared back “No?” “No” “What do you mean no Pearl?”

“No guest room, I want Evan to cuddle with me!” She crossed her arms and pouted while Shogen stared at her in disbelief “B-But Pearl, h-he’s a boy…” “That's fine, h-he’s my friend, a-and I want to cuddle…” she said with a small blush on her cheek.

As Shogen was about to argue with his daughter, she pulled out the one thing he could never truly beat…that seal eyed look…

“Please don't do this Pearl…” “Please papa…I don't want Evan to be alone…” “S-Sweetie, I-It wouldn't be appropriate…” “Please Papa…” “...” The father and daughter duo went back and forth, trying to make the other give in, all while Evan looked back and forth between the two with sleepy eyes, starting to feel drowsy.

As it seemed like the back and forth would go on for a bit, the two of them paused as the boy let out a cute little yawn, rubbing his eyes with his free hand “Aaah…P-Pearl squee balu…mmm…”

Pearl's eyes widened and her heart jumped a bit at his yawn. She heard some part of her tell her that she had to hold him…now.

Shogen saw the way her eyes dilated and gulped slightly, realizing that her protective instincts were kicking in, and she was gonna have a hard time sleeping unless she acted upon those same instincts. He sighed softly and relented “Okay…he can sleep with you…but don't make this a habit…”

He gently picked up the young boy who squeaked in return (uh oh, Pearl didn't like that as she was now lightly glaring at Shogen), before gently placing him down next to Pearl on the bed.

Pearl gently hugged the tired boy and held him close, nuzzling his hair as he let out another yawn.

The father looked at the two of them as he smiled warmly at the sight, begrudgingly admitting to himself that it was freaking adorable.

“Well…goodnight you two, rest well and sweet dreams…” He gently pets them both on the head while whispering softly. After a moment of gazing at the two children with warm eyes, Shogen would finally leave the room, leaving Pearl and Evan to themselves.

The two of them quietly stared into each other's eyes, taking in the beauty they saw in each other's eyes

“Evan…” “Pearl…” the two whispered once more as Pearl, despite being smaller than Evan, hugged him closely and tightly, wrapping her two tentacles around him as much as she could.

“Warm…” She gently whispers to herself as Evan's body was so warm…she didn't wanna let go…and neither did Evan…

Sleep came at last…ending the first day of their new lives.

They had only known each other for a few hours, but they were already so closely bonded.

Chapter Text

The dawn of a new day fell upon the Houzuki estate as the first inhabitants to awaken were the princesses' caretakers.

Kelly snored in her sleep, her limbs lazily spread on top of her bed while barely half of her body was covered by her blanket. What a messy sleeper…she even had drool leaking out from the corner of her mouth as she slept away the morning…

At least she would've if she hadn't heard someone giggle right next to her while a camera went off.

Kelly's eyes quickly opened in shock of the sudden noises, only to be treated with the sight of Marl standing next to her bed while already dressed in his suit. He covered his mouth with one hand while the other carried a flip phone…that was pointing at her…

The teen squeaked in embarrassment and immediately sat up and tried to grab the phone right out of his hand, but he quickly moved back while smirking slightly “Give it!” “Hmm...nah~”

Kelly grit her teeth as she blushes a bright green “This isn't funny Marl! D-Don’t you dare send that pic to anyone!”. Her friend hummed softly and stared at her teasingly “Oh? And what makes you think I would?” “Quit it! I know you're gonna send it to my family and embarrass me!”

Marl smiled and backed away a bit more as she stood up and tried to reach for it “I wouldn't do something like that.” Kelly gave him an exasperated look “That's just not even true! What about that time you sent pics of me attending the Carribia concert while wearing that tacky get up a couple years back?!” Marl chuckles a bit at the memories of her crazy fan girl phase “Hehehe, your mom asked me to take those in her stead, she really wanted to see her daughters first concert after all.”

Seeing him open, Kelly tackled him into the ground and began trying to wrestle the phone out of his grasp while Marl laughed and tried to push her away, to no avail.

The teens would spend a couple minutes on the ground laughing and squeaking as they each tried to get out of the pile with the phone in hand. Finally, after a hard fought struggle on her end, Kelly managed to pin Marl on the ground, straddling his stomach and pinning his hands above his head.

Kelly glared down at her friend while taking deep breaths, trying to compose herself again. A smile would slowly spread across her face as she felt triumphant “Aaah…aaahhh…I gotcha now Marl, now delete that pic!”

Marl panted as well and smiled up at her, a small blush spread across his cheeks “Yeah…Aaah…you got me good…Aaah…”. He pressed a couple buttons on his phone and she could see that he had kept his word and deleted the embarrassing pic.

The two stayed there for a bit, simply looking and smiling at each other, before Marl lightly smirked up at her “Sooo…feel like getting off of me so that we can help Pearl get ready for school, or do you really enjoy pinning guys down?~”

Kelly blinked at his question, her barely awakened mind taking a bit to process what he was saying. She yelped and blushed brightly as she quickly let go and got off of him, standing back up “Eep! S-Sorry!”
_______________________________

Kelly sighed as she and Marl walked to the princesses room after she did her morning clean up and put on her work clothes “Geez…I wish we could sleep in a bit later man…that school is waaaay too strict about it's timing…kid me would've blown a fuse at having to wake up early and enter school at 7…”

Marl simply smiled while listening to his friends complaining, finding her whining to be pretty enjoyable “You probably wouldn't be as grumpy about it if you didn't stay up late playing video games.” Kelly glared at him and blushed “Oh yeah? That's rich coming from you, you're nearly as bad as me when it comes to games!” Marl smirked back at her “And yet it seems I can manage my time a lot better than you~” “O-Oh shut up…”

The bickering duo finally arrived at the door to the princesses room as Marl gently grasped the door knob. “Alright now, let's not be too loud…” he whispered softly, getting a nod from Kelly.

He slowly opened the door and peeked inside along with her, looking over to Pearl's bed before their eyes widened a bit.

Resting on top of the bed was little Pearl, who was practically sleeping on top of Evan, hugging him and nuzzling his hair fuzz (and drooling on it, her and Kelly slept practically the same way) while Evan just peacefully slept, seemingly not bothered by Pearl literally being right on top of him as he simply hugged her in his sleep. Pearl even had her hair lightly wrapped around the boy.

The two caretakers looked at the scene in shock as two thoughts went through their minds. ‘So last night actually happened’ and ‘Shogen let Evan sleep with Pearl’

After a few moments of composing themselves, the duo smiled at the cute sight and went inside the room.

Marl went to the side of the bed and gently shook Pearl “Come on princess, we need to get you ready for school…” he whispered softly to the little girl.

Pearl grumbled softly in her sleep and weakly hugged Evans head, nuzzling deeper into his fuzz “Mm…no school…mm…”

The two of them could only smile at how surprisingly affectionate she was with the boy, as Inklings aren't usually too affectionate with those that aren't family.

Kelly sighed softly as she began to gently pull on Pearl's right ear, much to Pearl's annoyance “Come on now Pearl, you really do have to wake up, you can't sleep your way out of this one.”

Pearl pouted in her sleep at being bothered like this, but it did its job finally as her eyes began to open up “Mm…stop pulling my ear ya jerk…”

The little girl slowly sat up on the boy's stomach unknowingly, she hummed softly as she felt her hair lightly wrapped around something, as well as how something was shifting beneath her. “Mm…what the?...” She looked down, spotting the mumbling newcomer directly under her as her movements awakened him.

“Oh heya Evan…” she groggily greeted the boy, a small tired smile on her face as she gently patted him on the head. She did this a couple times before her eyes widened in surprise, her mind finally processing what's beneath her.

“W-WAIT YOU'RE ACTUALLY REAL?! MY WISH DID COME TRUE, I WASN'T DREAMING!!!” Pearl celebrated in sheer joy and excitement before hugging him tightly as the others flinched and covered their ears from the volume of her voice.

Evan smiled up at her while gently rubbing his ears, finding her excitement very endearing “Gwid marunu Pearl.” He greeted her in that dry voice of his while patting her on the head.

The two teens also rubbed their ears as they smiled at the scene, still finding the two of them quite cute despite the painful ringing in their ears.

That's one way to start the morning.
_______________________________

Evan stood next to Marl as the teen was preparing breakfast for the inhabitants while Kelly helped Pearl clean up and prepare for school (Evan of course made sure to brush his teeth before handing the bathroom over to the girls). Evan looked at the assortment of food that was being made in awe, as he had never seen any of them before “Ooooh…”

Marl chuckles at Evans' wonder as he looks down at the boy and smiles “Hehehe, given your reaction, I'm guessing you haven't ever seen any of this huh?”

The boy smiled up at him despite the language barrier, excited to try some of these foods out “Squeebu!”

The two of them heard footsteps from behind causing them to turn around, seeing Shogen walking up on them with a smile as he was wearing a simple white bathrobe and some slippers “Morning boys.”

Evan smiled and waved up at him while Marl smiled and nodded a bit “Morning Mr. Houzuki” “Gwid marunu!”

Shogen sighed softly as he went to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water “Aaah…definitely need to find a way to teach Evan how to speak Inklish...” he whispered to himself as he closed the fridge. He looked over to the boys again “So, how are you two doing today?”

Marl goes about finishing breakfast and placing the food in their respective plates “Well, I got to embarrass Kelly a fair bit and see Pearl and Evan be absolutely adorable, so I think I'm doing pretty well for now, and I think Evan is doing pretty alright as well.” He answered while gesturing to the small boy as he tried to sneak an early bite of the food, which Marl helped by giving him a small piece of fruit to eat.

“Hehehe, seems like I missed out.” Shogen chuckled a bit at the sight of Evan happily eating the fruit slice as he opened the water bottle and took a sip

Marl looked over to Shogen before raising an eyebrow as he notices how tired Shogen seemed to be, bags under his eyes “Are you okay Mr. Houzuki? You don't look so good…”

“Hmm? Oh that? Well…” the man sighed once more as he grabbed two plates and took them to the family dinning table near the kitchen so as to help Marl a bit “I've been thinking about what to do last night. It's clear that our little friend here is not from around these parts, nor does he look exactly like any species that I know of. While normally I would've liked to keep this under wraps, that's gonna be a bit hard to do given that there's a whole alien tube pod thing that crash landed near my pool, so I may have to get the authorities involved somehow, whether I like it or not…”

Marl gave him and Evan a worried look as the boy carried a plate over to the table so as to also help out a little “Are you sure that getting them involved with this will be good for Evan? What if they take him and do things to him like in those conspiracy shows that Kelly watches?” He asks Shogen with a worried voice, a bit scared for the newcomers' well-being as he carries the last two plates over to the table.

Shogen looked over to his new guest as the child simply stared at the food, an eager look in his eyes. It was clear that he wasn't paying much attention outside of hearing his name be brought up from time to time, which was fair as he couldn't understand a word they were saying.

“That's why I was up late at night going through all my contacts so as to get the right people involved, the kind that aren't just gonna feed the kid to the wolves.” The current head of the house replied as he gave the boy a worried look, who looked back at him with those amber eyes full of young curiosity, which Shogen couldn't help but smile at and gently pat the boy on the head, getting a small giggle out of him. Heh, he does have some pretty eyes.

Marl’s face hardened a bit, feeling a bit protective of the kid “Well…did you find the right people you were looking for?...”

Shogen looked over to Marl and nodded, a smirk on his face as he crossed his arms. “Yeah…I have a decent bit of friends high up in the chain, those that will keep all this down low while not endangering the poor kid.” He hears footsteps and chatting down the hall, likely Pearl and Kelly on their way now “I want to protect Pearl and the two of you, but I also don't wanna throw Evan under the bus, so just trust me for now and let's keep this between ourselves, okay?”

Marl looked at his boss second before smiling a bit, having faith that his boss, who had always looked out for him and Kelly for these past couple of years, would do his best to keep the boy safe. “I trust you…Shogen.” He replied, getting a small chuckle out of his boss.
_______

“Aww man…school is gonna be such a drag, especially on monday…” “Of course it's gonna suck Pearl, that's why it's called school.” Pearl and Kelly conversed with one another after Kelly helped the girl get cleaned up and dressed for school, wearing her pristine school mandated uniform.

Pearl groaned slightly as she trudged forward down the hall “Uuuugh…but I reaaaally wanna stay at home and play with Evan all day…”. Kelly giggled a bit at Pearl's grumpiness as she gently pushed her onwards “Hehehe, come on now Pearl, you'll be able to play with him once you get back from school okay? For now let's worry about eating our breakfast.”

“Pearl!” The two of them heard the tell tale dry and childish voice of Evan as he called to them while waving, the boy jumping a bit in place. He stood next to the family dining table, with Marl and Shogen sitting down.

“Evan!” Pearl grinned and ran over to the boy excitedly, nearly crashing into him as she just barely stopped in front of her friend. She spread her arms a bit and did a few poses so as to show off her uniform “Do you like the uniform? I look fresh don't I?”

Evan blinked with slightly wide eyes before smiling and giving her a thumbs up “Dwen chau gera!” He said cheerfully to her, seemingly giving her his approval, which she reacted by having that same wide grin from yesterday and hugging the boy tightly, nuzzling his chest “Aww thanks Evan!!!”

The others smiled a bit at the sight of them interacting, happy to finally see Pearl bond with someone her age.

After letting go of Evan, Pearl quickly went to Shogen and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek “Mwah! Morning Papa!!” She greeted with a grin as Kelly sat down on her seat while Marl gently helped Evan onto his seat.

“Mwah, morning squiddo, glad to see you're so full of energy this early in the day.” Shogen greeted back as he returned the hug and kiss before helping her get seated on the chair next to his.

Pearl beamed up at her father as she grabbed her utensils “It's ‘cause of Evan! I had the best sleep ever thanks to him and I can't wait to play with him after school!”

The male Houzuki smiled warmly at seeing his daughter so happy, glad to see that last night's surprise has brought her such great joy “Hey now squiddo, don't forget about doing your homework when you come back from school~”

Pearl pouted up at him in response while crossing her arms “But I thought you said that you were gonna make Kelly do my homework while we get to play games?!”

Kelly's eyes widened at this as she looked at them both in goofy disbelief “Wait what?!”

The rest of them laughed at her reaction (including Evan, who didn't really get what they were talking about) as they finally began to enjoy their breakfast of pancakes, gyoniku sausages, and fruits. The inklings smile as they see the boy enjoy the food and juice that was served with a wide grin, loving the new tastes and flavors he had never experienced before, all while speaking excitedly in his language. They may not understand a word he was saying, but they could tell he was truly happy, with Pearl even noticing him tear up ever so slightly.

All in all, they had a wonderful breakfast together, like a family.
_______________________________

Shogen and Evan stood next to each other in the front of the mansion as they saw Marl and Kelly prepare the car, while Pearl was saying her farewells.

Shogen kneeled down so that Pearl could hug him and he could return the hug “Take care my little princess, stay safe and behave at school okay?” Pearl smiled at him as she lets go “I will Papa, I'll make sure not to beat up any jerks there…not too badly at least~”

Shogen chuckled at this and smirked, gently ruffling her hair, getting a few giggles from her in turn “Atta girl!”

Pearl went over to Evan and smiled up at him, which he returned with a smile of his own “Take care Evan, I'll see you later!”

“Rill brua!” The boy replied joyfully, giving her a thumbs up (he understood that she was going somewhere).

Pearl stared at her friend for a bit, feeling a little sad that she won't see him for nearly half a day, before smiling as she had something in mind. “C-Could you come closer Evan?...” She asks him nervously while gesturing him to lean towards her, which he does with a confused look.

Once his head was close enough, she gently grabbed his cheeks and rested her forehead on his “Thank you…”

The two stared close and deep into each other's eyes, mesmerized like they were yesterday. Her with his soft, warm, and bright amber eyes that shined like the sun, and him with her energetic, strong, determined star-like eyes, like two stars in the night sky that he couldn't look away from. The two could do nothing but blush as they stared into one another's eyes for a bit before Pearl’s smile widened and she begrudgingly pulled away “There we go, I'm ready now!”

All Evan could do was stand there with a flustered and dumbfounded look, feeling his heart skip a couple beats.

Shogen stared at the two of them with a conflicted look as he noticed that Pearl’s eyes and hair glowed, as if she was gonna use a special. ‘Oh cod…’ is all he could think as Pearl went to the car with Marl and Kelly.

“Uh…hey Marl, Kelly!” He called out to them, causing the two to turn to him as they were about to enter the car “Once you get Pearl to school, you two can go and have some fun playing turf wars, I'm gonna need some alone time with Evan for a while. Make sure to pick up Pearl on time as well!”

Kelly and Marl looked at each other in surprise before grinning back at Shogen “Thanks Mr. Houzuki!” “You're the best boss!”

Shogen chuckled a fair bit at their reactions as they got in the car along with Pearl “Hehe, add turf wars into the conversation, and they get as excited as a kid being given a brand new game.”

He gently patted Evan on the head, finally getting the boy out of his daze. The boy saw the teens along with Pearl in the car and waved at them goodbye “Balu arebu!”

The trio waved back at them both as they started the car, Kelly in the driver's seat, Marl in the passenger seat, and Pearl in the back seat. Finally, they drove off to Mantle School.

Shogen smiled as he saw them drive off before sighing softly and looking down at the boy with a smile “Well Evan, let's get started on getting you settled.” “Webu?”

He failed to notice Evan's own eyes and hair glowing ever so slightly.

Chapter Text

Shogen, now dressed in more casual attire instead of a bathrobe, sat next to Evan as they relaxed on the couch, watching some TV together. Shogen knew that the boy couldn't understand Inklish as of yet, so he made sure to put on a more action oriented show rather than narrative driven one so that he wasn't completely lost on what he was watching. The show in question being one of Shogen's childhood favorites, Super Ink Rangers, more specifically, the Ink Knight Rangers seasons. While he did enjoy the original Super Ink Rangers series a lot, he thought that it reached its peak with its third series, the aforementioned Ink Knight Rangers.

Shogen chuckled a bit as he saw the boy being enraptured by the action scenes of the Rangers kicking monster butt “Hehe, ya like that Evan? That's a classic right there, much better than the newer series they're showing nowadays!”

Evan looked over to Shogen with a grin as he pointed to the screen. “Gibu wa marumo! Sui cwoo!” the boy said excitedly, speaking in that weird language that Shogen could barely understand, especially because of the way his voice sounded.

‘I’m definitely gonna have to find a way to teach him how to speak Inklish once we get things settled for today, although with his vocal cords, I'm not sure if it'll be perfect…’ the Houzuki thinks to himself as he chuckles at the boy's excitement over the show. With the way that the boy was watching the TV so intently and enraptured like that, he wonders if either Evan is genuinely in awe of Super Ink Rangers, or if this is the first time he's ever watched a show.

Just as Shogen was about to lose himself in his thoughts once more, his phone shakes in his pocket, signifying that he received a text message. The man took the flip phone out of his pocket and opened it, seeing a message from one of his oldest contacts.

[I'm here.]

Shogen's face became a bit more stern as one of the people he called earlier arrived like he asked them to “Well, hope this goes smoothly…”

Shogen looked over to Evan and gave him a small pat on the head while smiling slightly “Stay here, okay? I'll be back soon.”

The boy looked at him in confusion as the man stood up and walked away from the grand living room.
_______

Shogen arrived at the front door of the mansion after a minute of walking, a slightly annoyed look on his face ‘I shouldn't have let Mom and Tsareena convince me to get this mansion, it's such a hassle to walk through…’

Shogen shook his head a bit so as to clear his mind before finally opening the front door, smirking slightly as he saw who was on the other side “Well well well, it's been a couple years, huh Isullivan?”

In front of him stood a giant black isopod, taller than any inkling that he knows, wearing a grey suit one would see on a government agent (of course made to fit the isopods body type) as well as wearing some sunglasses.

“Does nearly a decade sound like a couple years to you Shogen?” The isopod known as Isullivan asked the Houzuki as he had his upper and middle arms crossed while his lower right arm carried a briefcase and his lower left simply resting in his left pocket.

Shogen's raised his hands in mock surrender as he still smirked. “Hey now, you're the one who said to contact only if necessary~” he teased Isullivan, getting a small chuckle out of the giant isopod.

“Hehehe, I guess I did, but that was mostly for your safety, after all, with all the things you did to help me leave the deep and out of that dark chapter in my life, let's just say there are plenty of people in Dark Carapace that would more than gladly turn you into squid rings if they could get their hands on you.” the isopod responded in that deep but friendly voice of his, getting a smug grin out of the inkling.

“Hah, I'd like to see them try. I might not play turf wars too often nowadays, but I'm still the man who bested the snow peaks Turf Queen of the far north as well as being the former ace of my team back in my competitive years. Besides, I've already experienced live combat before with those Dark Carapace freaks, so I'm not too worried.” Shogen said in a confident tone, truly believing in his capabilities, which would've gotten an eye roll out of Isullivan if his eyes weren't fixed in place.

“Speaking of that Turf Queen mate of yours…how has she been, is she here? And what about that daughter of yours?” The isopod asked the inkling, getting a smile out of his friend. “Oh Tsareena? She's doing great, she's currently away up north for family business, she'll hopefully be back in about a week. As for Pearl, she's currently off at school, probably kicking some random bullies butt by now.” The male Houzuki replied cheerfully, always happy to talk about his family.

“I hope that your mate doesn't keep you and your daughter waiting for too long. Now then…you know I'm not here just for friendly chit chat…despite how much I do enjoy it.” Isullivan replied somewhat sternly, making it clear that now it was business time. Shogen responded with a serious face of his own as he nodded “Right, come on in.”

Shogen stepped back and to the side, letting his old contact through the door before closing the door behind him “Follow me, we can discuss on the way to the living room.”

The inkling would lead the way for the isopod as they walked down the halls of the mansion. “What can you tell me about your ‘guest’?” The denizen of the deep asked his guide, wanting as much information as possible.

Shogen looked back at Isullivan as he thought about how he would go about explaining Evan to his old friend “Well…his name is Evan, and he arrived here on some kind of spacecraft that crashed near my pool last night. He looks incredibly similar to an inkling, although there are multiple notable traits about him that distinguish him from an inkling, which makes me think he's another species altogether. Oh, and he's six years old as well.”

Isullivan hums softly as his lower right hand grips the handle of his suitcase even tighter. “Hmm…are you…sure he's not an octoling?...” the isopod asked, clearly a bit cautious about this whole situation. Shogen looked at him in surprise before frowning and shaking his head “Nah I doubt that. Unless the Octolings changed their appearance after nearly a century, then no way. Based on the description and images of octolings in the books, he still doesn't carry the same traits as them either.”

“Neither an inkling nor an octoling…this is going to be rather interesting…” The government agent whispered softly, gently rubbing his chitinous chin with his upper right hand, pondering over what the newcomer would be.

Shogen looked at his friend with a curious look “Maybe you can tell what he is based on his looks? I know you're far more knowledgeable than I am since you're the head of that secret agency of yours.”

“It's name is…tch…whatever…”
_______________________________

Evan pouted as he watched the cool superheroes hang out after beating up some bad guys, now finally out of their cool suits and just talking in those weird wet voices. “Aww…I wanted to see them beat up more bad guys…” he whined softly, upset as he didn't understand what they were saying.

He lays down on the couch and looks up at the ceiling, thinking about last night and this morning. He tries to remember anything he can prior to last night, but outside of some basic things like his age and name it feels like his mind is going blank in terms of memories “Hmm…anything before last night is like a blur…I can remember some things…but nothing important…” he frowns slightly “...why am I here? Where am I?...I don't know…what do I do?...I feel so lost…”

He sighs softly, a bit saddened about how lost he felt at the moment. Then he remembers Pearl and her pretty eyes, as well as the two teens and Pearl's papa “They're all really nice, especially Pearl…I hope Pearl comes back soon…”

His thoughts were cut off as he heard footsteps coming his way, thinking that Pearl's papa was coming back. He sat up and looked towards the entrance to the living room with a smile “Hey-AAAAH!!!”
____

The two adults flinched a bit as they heard and saw the boy scream in fear as he stared at Isullivan in absolute terror, quickly crawling backwards towards the opposite end of the couch.

Isullivan sighed softly in slight disappointment, not completely surprised but also not happy at receiving this kind of reaction. “Aaaah…off to a great start already…” he groaned out while Shogen flinched slightly, feeling bad for his friend as he knew that he had a hard time fitting in with the surface dwellers already “Sorry about that Sully…”

Shogen went over to the child and gently pats his back in a reassuring manner, gently rubbing circles. “Hey hey, it's okay Evan, he's here to help out, not to hurt you, okay? I promise you'll be fine…” he whispered to the boy in a gentle and fatherly voice, reassuring him the same way he would reassure his little princess.

As he sees the boy still shaking in fear, he gestures for Isullivan to come closer, which the isopod complies to. Evan squeaked and whimpered fearfully as he hugged Shogen tightly, practically clinging to him. Shogen smiled softly and whispers sweet nothings to the boy while hugging him a bit as Isullivan got close to them before sitting down on the couch as well after placing his briefcase on the floor “There there, see? He's not hurting you squiddo, he's a friend, and he's going to help us~...”

Isullivan gently waved at the scared boy, showing that he wasn't here to hurt him. “Hey kid, it's alright, I may look big and scary, but I'm not here to cause trouble.”

After a couple minutes of the boy fearfully clinging to Shogen while the man gently held him close and reassured him sweetly, the boy would slowly calm down as he realized that Pearl's father trusted the isopod and the isopod himself didn't seem to make a move to attack. Eventually, the boy would begin to breathe softly as he stared at Isullivan wearily, still a bit scared of how he looked, but much calmer now that he doesn't feel like his life was in danger.

The two adults sighed in relief at seeing the boy finally relax. Shogen smiled as he made sure to keep hugging the boy close so as to reassure him that he's safe, his hair instinctively wrapping around Evan protectively.

After a bit more time passes as they let the boy relax a bit, Shogen moves his arms so that Isullivan could get a better look. The agent hummed a bit as he observed the boy closely “Hmm…interesting…he definitely does look like an inkling, but not the exact same either…for being six, he already seems to have a humanoid form…plenty of small little differences as well…hmm…wait…” the isopod whispered softly as he observed a bit closer, taking every detail and cross-referencing it to what he remembered on species information before he felt his brain light up as he came to a realization that shocked him.

“Shogen…going off of all that is known…you're holding in your very arms a genuine human.”

Shogen's eyes widened in surprise at what he heard, looking back down at the boy who looked back up at him with a slightly tense look, still a little scared of Isullivan “A human? Isn't that the species that died out about ten thousand years ago? How is that possible?”

Isullivan nodded as he rubbed his chin “Closer to twelve thousand years, but you're correct. As for how that's even remotely possible, your guess is as good as mine. Can you show me the spacecraft that he landed on?”

Shogen stared at the child for a bit longer, his thoughts about the boy changing a fair bit as questions flowed through his mind. He finally looked over to his friend and nodded “Alright, sure, maybe we can get some kind of answers from there…”

The male Houzuki gently picked up the human boy as he and Isullivan stood up from the couch and walked out of the room, heading towards the pool area.
_______________________________

Shogen and Isullivan stood in front of the strange cylinder that Evan had appeared from last night, watching as it had seemingly turned off overnight as the lights were off and the metal layer was once more covering the glass layer that the boy was sealed inside of. The bottom was still drilled to the ground.

“Is this the spacecraft you were talking about?” Isullivan asked Shogen as the inkling looked it over himself while carrying Evan in his arms “Yup, the same one…although it seems to have powered off as the red lights are off and the metal layer is covering the glass layer and the fluid underneath.”

The isopod observed the cylinder thoroughly, trying to find any details, but the only thing worth noting was a logo of sorts and some letters of a language he couldn't read, although he could guess that it was human in origin. Isullivan got closer to the pod and proceeded to cautiously touch it, feeling the smooth surface of the cold black and red metal, trying to see if there was a button, a switch, or just anything to see if something will make it turn on, to no avail.

Isullivan turned to Shogen and Evan, his arms crossed once more “Well, there's not much to gleam from it just based on simple looks alone, and it doesn't seem to have anything to turn it on, so we're out of luck in that regard.”

“What should we do then? I can't just have it by my pool out in the open. My home may be relatively isolated, but it's only a matter of time before people start to notice it, and I'm not really interested in getting a lot of unwanted attention.” Shogen looked to his old friend for guidance, not really interested in having this thing lying around his estate. Evan simply looked on at the Cylinder, his attention completely set on the craft.

Isullivan took out a phone from his pocket with his upper left arm while his other arms began to fiddle with the briefcase, opening it up and taking out a high quality camera. “I'll have to make a call with some of my agents so as to plan things out. It'll only take a couple minutes.” He responded as he called someone on the phone while taking high quality pictures with his camera.

Shogen sighed as he looked over to the boy and gave him a tired smile “Well squiddo, let's hope that things go smoothly.”

The human boy meanwhile wasn't paying any attention to the man as he slowly shuffled in Shogen's arms and gently tried to push him away. The male Houzuki understood what the child wanted as he gently set the boy down “You alright Evan? Need some space?”
____

“Gui sobua Evan? Rees slib sume supace?” Evan heard Pearl's papa ask him something, but he was too distracted by the…what was it called again?…right…the swarm preservation capsule…

The boy looked all over the capsule, seeing the logo that felt familiar, as well as the words that were on the logo and the capsule itself.

‘Baxter Enterprises’

‘Swarm Preservation Capsule C-083’
______

A man with bright blonde hair and deep ocean blue eyes kneeled before Evan, giving him a warm smile “Don't worry Evan, thanks to a close friend of mine, we won't have to worry about the war anymore. This is our home now.” he assured the boy while gently patting him on the shoulder. The man grinned happily with closed eyes “Hehe, that means we won't have to rummage for food anymore!”
______

Evan felt a few of the memories begin to clear up, but still too few to make a difference. He began to get closer to the capsule despite the callings of Pearl's papa and the scary bug monster. He had to get closer…

Once he was within a few feet away from it, the capsule would light up as a mechanical voice rang out from it.

“SWARM ID CONFIRMED: EVAN ROWE”

The protective shell began to part once more, revealing the inner chamber with the aquamarine fluid inside. Evan looked on with wide eyes as more memories began to clear up.
____

A naked Evan laid inside of the empty inner chamber of the capsule as multiple scientists surrounded the capsule, all occupied with different holographic terminals. The blonde man from before was talking with a scientist, this one wearing clothes unique compared to the others but Evan couldn't tell the appearance quite well “And you promise this will work?...”

The scientist scoffed at the question as he typed away at a holographic screen “Are you seriously doubting ME? The great Doctor Baxter? I've accelerated the medical field by centuries, I know what I'm doing! Besides, I've run billions of simulations and millions of test runs on my own and I can assure you that this will go smoothly. Now quit pestering me, you simple minded ignoramus.”

The blonde man glared at the scientist before walking over to the capsule and smiling at Evan while gently placing a hand against the glass, the boy doing the same on his end “Hey Evan, I know it seems scary, but just hang in there okay? Everything will be fine.” "O-Okay..."

“Beginning preservation procedure, please step away from the phase glass sir.” One of the scientist's voices rang out to the blonde man, who responded by stepping back from the capsule.

The man, who Evan felt deeply connected to, gave the boy a reassuring smile, one that made Evan feel pure warmth and comfort inside his heart “I promise that when this is all over, we'll be together again, okay?”

“Releasing diffusion swarm fluid into the inner chamber.” Another scientist's voice rang out as the inside of the chamber began to fill with aquamarine fluid. It was so cold, and it made Evan's body feel numb.

“Activating flood swarm unit.”

Evan felt so tired as his body began to feel so…light…as if it was made of nothing.

The next thing he knew, he was swimming in grey clouds…
____

Evan shook a bit as his eyelids felt so heavy and his body felt so tired…his head hurt as well.

He slowly began to fall backwards as he closed his eyes, hearing two panicked voices call out to him.

He just…needed a nap…

Chapter Text

““Evan!”” Shogen and Isullivan shouted in unison as the inkling dashed forward as quickly as he could, catching the boy just in time before he could hit the back of his head on the ground “Gotcha!”

As the Houzuki looked down at the boy, beginning to worry that something may have happened to him, he calmed down a bit as he saw the boy breathing softly. It seems that the boy simply fainted and was now unconscious. The man let out a sigh of relief as he stood back up with Evan in his arms.

“Is he alright?” Isullivan asked as he walked over to his friend, who responded by nodding as he cradled the child “Yeah, seems like he just fainted…for…whatever reason.”

The isopod was as confused as the inkling as to why the boy would faint from seeing the craft. “Hmm…perhaps he was overwhelmed by the spacecraft…well, for now I think it's best you take the boy with you and wait inside as I call my agents over to pick this up…as well as call the other departments so as to discuss this…” Isullivan groaned out the last part, clearly dreading having to talk with some of the old hags in the other departments.

“Alright, I'll wait for you in the living room when it's time to talk.” Shogen responded before turning around and walking back to the mansion with Evan in hand, still thinking about why the boy fainted the way that he did.

Isullivan waited for a bit as he saw the inkling get farther and farther away until he entered the mansion once more. He nodded to himself before turning around towards the cylinder, shock flowing through the isopod as he saw that the metal plating was once more back in place, covering the lower layers once more. This machine made surprisingly very little sound “Seems like it only opens in the presence of the boy…that will make things much trickier for us…and for Evan…”

He sighed softly as he took out his phone and began to call his agents, dreading that he'll have to call the ‘hags’ afterwards “Today is going to be a long day…”
_______________________________

Evan looked around the white room, staring in awe at all the advanced equipment scattered throughout as he sat on a chair. He had never been to a hospital before, but he thinks this probably would've put even the best hospitals in the world to shame.

“Evan Rowe I presume?” A voice called out to him.

The boy turned to the new voice that entered the white room. There stood who he guessed was the doctor that he was supposed to meet, a relatively tall man with grey combed hair and a bushy beard. He seemed to be a bit old, likely in his sixties. The boy nodded and looked up at him, “Y-Yeah?”

The man nodded as he gestured to the boy to follow him “Nice to meet you Evan, I am Doctor Thomas, and I'll be the one overlooking your integration procedure.”

Evan followed Thomas closely while looking at all the equipment, all utterly alien to him. “You should feel honored Evan, you'll be amongst a limited selection of people that have been chosen by the head Doctor to continue humanity's future.” The doctor smiled as he looked down at the boy “Isn't that just swell? To be one of the first humans to traverse beyond the boundaries of our Solar System. We’re truly making history my boy.”

All Evan could do was grin in excitement, remembering all that he had been told until now by his [#+#]. He never thought an orphan like himself would ever get to go to space, let alone to other worlds!

[DO NOT BE DECEIVED]

Several minutes flew by as they finally arrived into a weird, black and red room, the only thing within it was a large throne-like mechanical chair built into the ground.

Evan looked at the room wearily until he felt Thomas pat his back gently “Come now my boy, please undress down to your undergarments and then sit down so that we can start the procedure.”

Evan looked up at Thomas nervously, unsure if he wants to go through with this, but he remembers how much [#+#] believed in this, how this could be a new future for them. After a few moments of contemplating, Evan nervously nodded and undressed down to his boxers and walked over to the strange seat.

The boy sat down and gently rested his arms on the arm rests of the chair. He looked to the doctor in confusion “What happens now?...”

The doctor gives him a soft, sad smile “Now, I need you to be strong…it'll hurt even with anesthesia...”

The next thing Evan knew, his entire body was locked against the chair, barely able to move. His eyes widened in fear as he looked around desperately, afraid of what was going to happen before squeaking as he felt something prick his arms, very quickly beginning to feel sluggish and numb. He didn't wanna do this anymore! He wanted ou-

The boy's thoughts and struggles stopped instantly, as all he could feel and think about was pain.

Needles piercing different parts of his body all at once…his arms…his legs…his spine…even the back of his skull, all before he felt something flow into his body, and now his pain turned to agony

It hurts

It hurts!

IT HURTS!

IT HURTS!!!
_______________________________

Shogen relaxed on the couch as he watched the news, sighing as he thought about what his friend had told him a few hours ago “Aaah…I hope the arrangement won't be too bothersome for Evan…and I hope Tsareena will be fine with this once she returns back home…”

The man looked over to a wall mounted clock to check the time “Hmmm…it's 12:07…so Pearl should be at lunch right now. Maybe I'll go make some small snacks for the two of us to eat, and maybe I'll call Kelly and Marl afterwards to check up on them…sounds like a plan!”

The man enthusiastically stands up from the couch, ready to walk to the-

He was cut off from his thoughts as he heard a loud pained scream coming from one of the guest rooms. The man stood still in shock for a bit, stunned by the scream before he quickly realized who that could be…Evan!
_____

“AAAAAAHHH!!!” Evan woke up screaming at the top of his lungs in sheer pain and terror, sitting up straight as he pushed away the blanket that was covering him. After the pain of the memory subsided, he began to take deep breaths, slowly calming down as he saw that he wasn't in that dark room, but rather in what appeared to be a bedroom of sorts “Aaah…Aaah…i-it was…a dream?...b-but it felt…s-so real…t-the pain…”

Evan sobbed softly as he felt the phantom pain course through the area’s that the needles had pierced, feeling as if fire was flowing through his veins.

The boy jumped as he heard the door slam open as Pearl's papa rushed inside with a panicked look on his face. “Weru makiri wa?!” the man asked the boy, worry and panic dripping from his voice.

All Evan could do was sob and whimper as the phantom pain felt so overwhelming for the poor child.
_____

Shogen rushed to the room as quickly as he could after hearing Evan scream so loudly, practically giving the man a heart attack to all three of his hearts. He barged into the room and looked around in panic, worried that something may have happened to his guest “What's going on?!”

Nothing was within the guest room that Evan was resting in at the moment, except for the child in question. As Shogen began to calm down after seeing that the boy wasn't in danger, his relaxation immediately stopped as he saw the sheer pain and fear etched on Evans eyes and face, his small body shaking as if he was in the middle of a snow storm, and the tears in the corners of his eyes…

Shogen felt his fatherly instincts kick into overdrive as he quickly went over to the young boy and held him close to his body “There there…everything is okay…I'm here Evan…I'm here…you're safe…”

Evan clinged to him tightly while whimpering slightly, not wanting to let go of his support. The Houzuki's heart ached at the sight of a child in so much fear and pain, he couldn't bear the thought of letting go either.

The two stayed like this for several minutes, the man hugging the boy close while his tentacles wrapped around the child tightly just like he would when he was comforting Pearl, all while he whispered words of encouragement and comfort to the boy, ensuring him that everything was fine.

Shogen decided that maybe lunch would help the poor boy clear his mind of whatever was possibly troubling him, so he gently picked the boy up and carried him out of the room and towards the kitchen “Hey squiddo, how about we eat some lunch? I think that'll cheer you up~...”

The boy simply sniffled slightly and nuzzled Shogen's neck, getting a small chuckle out of the man as he held Evan even closer.
_____

Twenty minutes later…

Shogen and Evan sat together by the dining table as they ate a couple of small sandwiches that the Houzuki had made for them both.

The man smiled as he finished his second sandwich and looked over to the boy, seeing him nibbling away at his third one. He could see that Evan was feeling much better now, the fear and pain he saw earlier were gone now, instead replaced with a slightly tired look in Evan's eyes “Mmm…I know it ain't nothing crazy, but these mini sandwiches always make me feel a bit better when I'm down~...” “Squeebu…”

The boy simply ate the sandwich and looked over to the man with slightly tired eyes, clearly a bit drained after what happened earlier “Wabu…”

The male Houzuki gave him a sad smile, feeling sorry for the boy as he was clearly in pain over something, but he couldn't tell what it was ‘I wish I could be of more help…’. He inched a bit closer to the boy and patted him on the head “Wanna watch some more Super Ink Rangers after this? Maybe that'll cheer you up a bit more?”

The boy simply looked up at him, once more confused at what he was saying. Evan simply closed his eyes and nuzzled the palm of his hand.

Shogen frowned, getting a little miffed at the current language barrier but also feeling warm inside at the sight of the child's adorableness ‘This is getting annoying…wait…’

The Houzuki's eyes widened a bit, an idea crossing through his mind “You know what Evan…how about we get a head start with our little language problem?”

Shogen smiled while gesturing for the boy to stay here before walking away from the dining table, leaving behind a confused and slightly dazed Evan.
____

Evan blinked as he saw Pearls papa walk away ‘Oh…I wonder where he's going? I wanna follow him, but he wants me to stay here…oh well…’

The boy sighs softly as he sits on the chair and stares up at the ceiling, his head hurting a bit “What happened earlier?...it seems like I was remembering something…but what?...”

Evan closed his eyes as he began to think back to the memories. “Who was that blonde man? I…don't remember, but I feel like I should…my heart felt so happy when I saw him, almost like when I see Pearl…but a different kind of happy…” the boy smiled at the memory of the man's own warm smile “I feel like I've known him my whole life…like I wanna be with him…always…”

He began to think about the second memory with the scientists, his smile now replaced with a frown. “That place was so scary and cold…I…I think that was where I was…pre…served?...I think that's how it's said…” Evan’s eyebrows furrowed a bit as he placed down the sandwich “But…why was I being preserved?...nngh…my brain is hurting again…”

Evan pouted and rubbed his head with both of his hands, gently grasping his bright auburn hair with his fingers “Nngh…this is super duper annoying, I feel so lost…”

Then he thinks about the dream…no…the third memory and all he could do was shiver “N-Nope…d-don't wanna remember that one…s-stupid doctor Thomas…”

He was taken away from his thoughts as he heard someone quickly walking to the room he's in. He looks over and sees Pearl's papa walking towards him with a bright smile, a couple books in hand.
_____

“Hey Squiddo, I wanna show you something!” Shogen called over the child while walking to the table and setting down the books on the tabletop.

Evan looked over to the books with mild curiosity, wondering what they were about.

Shogen smirked as he opened the first book titled ‘Inklish, a beginner's entry into the language of the modern world’ “How about I try to teach you Inklish? At least forming a baseline understanding would be good enough. If you're gonna be living with us and even go out into public, you're gonna want to learn it in some capacity!”

The Houzuki sat down next to the boy while taking out a blank piece of paper and a pencil. “First up, a very basic greeting from me to you.” he said as he wrote down ‘Shogen Houzuki’ “This right here is my name!”

Evan stares at it blankly, the Inklish letters not making much sense to him without some context or knowledge of the language.

Shogen smiled as he pointed at the first word, ‘Shogen’. “My first name is Shogen…I am Shogen…Sho…gen…” he repeated slowly, pointing at himself as he said his name to the boy, who's eyes widened as he realized that the man was doing the same thing that Pearl was doing yesterday.

“Sho…gen…” Evan responded softly while smiling, happy that he finally learned his name. Shogen smiled cheerfully while nodding, happy that the boy was quick to catch on to such things “That's right, I'm Shogen!”

Shogen pointed at the first word once more, repeating the word ‘Shogen’ once more.
_____

Evan stares at the foreign word as Pearl's papa, which he now knew was called Shogen, pointed at it while repeating his name. It took him a few seconds before he realized that the word was Shogen. The boy stared closely at the word, making sure to memorize as best as he could…but he also felt something strange happen in his brain…as if something was helping him memorize the word and try to identify each letter.

Shogen then pointed at the other word next to the one that said ‘Shogen’ “Houzuki…Hou…zuki…”. Pearl's papa pointed at himself once more as Evan quickly caught on, realizing that Houzuki was his and Pearl's last name as he remembered that Pearl called herself ‘Pearl Houzuki’.

Evan stares at the man attentively as he memorizes his name. “Shogen…Houzuki…” the boy replied back while pointing at the man, getting an excited grin and nod in return. The boy looked back at the words and saw that there were two letters that were in both words...and they were both highlighted compared to the other colors...

The boy grinned excitedly as he and Shogen both lost themselves in this lesson, the boy eager to learn, and the man happy to bond with the boy.
_______________________________

Several hours later…

Shogen had a look of sheer shock as he saw that Evan, in just a few hours, had somehow seemingly learned the entire Inklish alphabet and had even written entire sentences.

The boy meanwhile, looked up at him excitedly as he held up a paper that read ‘My name is Evan Rowe, how are you?’, albeit the handwriting wasn't that great. While Evan was always a pretty intuitive kid and a fast learner, even he was a little shocked at how fast he was able to learn to write and read ‘Inklish’. It felt like there was something in his head helping him quickly decipher the language…

Shogen blinked and shook his head, trying to get the shock out of his system before smiling at Evan and patting him on the head “Well Squiddo…you're full of surprises huh? Great job!”. Evan had a focused look, which meant he had something in mind, at least that's what Shogen figured.

Evan’s mind raced as he remembered every time Shogen sounded off the words that he wrote down, trying to piece together a vocal response. After a minute of remembering, especially with whatever was helping him in his head by replaying said words in his mind, he looked up at Shogen with a smile and said in very, veeeery rough Inklish “Tha..nk…you…Thank you!”

The male Houzuki stared at the boy in surprise, genuinely shocked that the boy had somehow thanked him in Inklish. It was far from perfect because of the boy's dry voice, but Evans' progress was still outstanding.

“Great job Evan, you're doing so good! That's my smart little Squiddo!” he cheered for the boy as he patted him on the head while the human giggled and grinned happily.

Shogen smiled warmly at the boy as Evan laughed joyfully, hugging the inkling tightly ‘Damn…seems like I've grown too attached to him already…I really hope Tsareena lets him stay…’. The man smiled a bit more as he hugged the boy tightly, his hair wrapping around Evan.

Just like he would with Pearl when he was proud of her…

Speaking of Pearl…

The duo's eyes widened as they heard a doorbell ring throughout the mansion. Shogen took out his phone and checked the time, his eyes widened as he realized that it was nearly 5:30, meaning that Pearl and her caretakers had returned “Oh snap! We got so invested in the lesson that time just flew by!”

The inkling and the human grinned to one another “Wanna surprise them?” “Ye…Yeah!”

Cod he loves this kid already.
_______________________________

Marl smirked while driving as Kelly squeaked and tried to push Pearl away “Aaaagh! Stop grabbing my face you brat!!!” “Hahahaha, no way stinky!” “I-I'm not stinky! I-I'm just messy from turfing okay?!”

“Now now Princess, you should leave her alone, she's already a bit upset at how much she got her butt kicked earlier~” “Hey!” Marl said to Pearl as the young inkling pouted and pulled on one of Kelly's tentacles with one hand while pulling on the teens cheek with the other “Aww but I gotta teach this oversized sea grape a lesson!” She playfully glared at Kelly, who was pinching her cheek in turn while also glaring back “Never interrupt my singing again!” “Oh whatever ya little pampered brat, your singing sucks!” “ *gasp* It does not!”

Marl chuckled a bit at the girls antics, finding it both funny and cute. “Hehehe, careful princess, I'm driving right now, and we don't know what could happen while I'm on the road. Now please let go of Kelly and apologize.” Pearl groaned and pouted some more “Aww…but she's a loser…” “That may be so, but she's our precious loser, right?” “Hmph…okay…sorry that you're a stinky loser…Smelly~”

Kelly gave them both a deadpanned look with half lidded eyes as Pearl let go of her cheek “I hate you two…” “Love you too~” “The feelings mutual Smelly the sea grape!”

After a few more minutes of driving (and of the two females bickering once more, to Marl's amusement), the three of them would finally arrive at the Houzuki estate.

Marl would drive the car near the pavement path that led to the mansion and parked it there. He looked over to the girls and smiled “Well ladies, we're home at last, you two can get off now and go to the front door, I'll take the car to the garage.”

Pearl nodded and hugged Marl while Kelly gave him a thumbs up, smiling as well. “Okay MarMar!” “Will do Mr. Blue.” the two said, getting a chuckle out of the teen boy as he hugged Pearl back and booped Kelly on the nose, getting a small blush out of his friend.

The two girls got out of the car and waved to Marl as he drove off afterwards.

Kelly smiled and looked down at Pearl. “Let's get inside, I'll make today's dinner.” Pearl grinned and jumped a bit “Aww yeah, if there's something you're decent at, it's definitely cooking ya loser!” “Little brat…”

Kelly playfully scoffed as she began walking to the door, yelping as Pearl jumped onto her back and latched on while laughing gleefully “Hahaha! Sea piggy back ride! Onwards Smelly, I wanna see Papa and Evan now! ”

Kelly groaned and rolled her eyes at the kids' childish antics before walking forward to the front door, a small smile spreading across her face.

Once the two of them arrived at the front door, the teen would ring the doorbell, waiting for Shogen to open the door for them. “We're here Papa!” Pearl shouted with a grin, eager to get inside.

The two waited by the front door for a minute, greeting Marl as he arrived shortly after putting away the car in the garage with all the other cars the Houzuki family owned.

The trio heard the door unlock before opening, Shogen and Evan standing on the other side. The adult had a soft smile while the boy had an eager grin “Welcome back!” “Wabu!”

“Papa, Evan!” Pearl squeaked and grinned cheerfully as she leapt from a yelping Kelly's back and onto Shogen's arms, who laughed at her eagerness “Hahaha, always such an eager inkling!”

Evan and Marl giggled at Pearl's eagerness while Kelly groaned softly, a small smile on her face. They all loved seeing Pearl so happy.

Shogen gently put Pearl down after a minute of hugging, with said girl quickly going over to Evan and hugging him as hard as she could “Mmmmm, I missed you so much Evan!”

The boy smiled and hugged her tightly, nuzzling her cheek with his while the older trio couldn't help but smile at the display of affection.

Pearl pulled away and grinned at Evan, practically hopping in the same spot in excitement “Come on Evan, let's go play!”

Her excited hops were stopped as she heard her papa cough a bit and gently pat her on the head “Hmmhmm…before you go Pearl…Evan wanted to say something first~”

“““Huh?””” Pearl and her caretakers gave Shogen a confused look before looking over to Evan, the boy in question smiled at her shyly.

“Wel…Welcome home Pearl!” he said in rough and dry Inklish, a little nervous about what they thought of it.

…

“KYAAAA PLEASE LIVE WITH US FOREVER!!!” Pearl squeaked in pure joy as she tackle hugged the squeaking boy into the ground, nuzzling his cheek with her own, while Kelly and Marl had a shocked look on their faces, and Shogen laughed at Pearl's reaction.

The teens looked over to the man for an explanation, who simply smirked at them “I'll explain during dinner, and don't worry, I'll make it this time.”. The two teens nodded and smiled, glad that they got to relax a bit today.

“Oh and Kelly…” “Yes boss?” “Pearl wasn't joking this morning when she said I was gonna make you do her homework~”

“...crap…”

Chapter Text

A pitch black night sky that goes on for eternity…it just never ends…I once found hope in this place…back when there were star-like lights…and a moon that shone…because of my precious sun…

…

I miss my sun…the one who's light reflected on my night and made me shine in turn…and helped define me…make me who I am…

…

I miss those old days…drenched in blue like the sky…together with my sun…

…

…But that's not possible anymore…

…Because he's gone…

…For them…

…For those…‘Aquarians’ as he called them…

…And now…I drown in this pitch black night…

…

(Stabilization complete…beginning centennial awakening routine…)

This again…

(Beginning solidification process…)

Just let me drown damn it…

(Welcome back Sub-Administrater.)

…Damn you Mu…
_______________________________

Marl watched over Pearl and Evan as they played together in the living room, making sure that the two of them didn't get themselves hurt, although that was very unlikely as right now Pearl was showing the boy the newest handheld console that she got for her birthday yesterday, the Squidtendo DS.

“Bam, take that ya stupid squiggy, you're in the way!” Pearl squeaked as she was hyper focused on the game she was playing, which Marl assumed was the newest Kelp Kart game that came out for the handheld she got as a gift. She was pressed up against Evan as she showed him her racing skills on the screen which the boy looked on with wide, attentive eyes as he snuggled close to her, seemingly impressed with her performance as far as Marl could tell with all the ooo's and aaa's he was making.

Marl looked over to the living room table and saw that his friend was doing the young Houzuki's homework like she was told to do. Kelly groaned quietly to herself as she looked down at the papers in front of her, clearly a bit annoyed at having to do homework “Grr…stupid homework…”

“Aww come on Kelly, it's just elementary school level homework, there's no way that you're actually having trouble with that.” Marl called to Kelly with a smirk, getting a groan from his friend and a giggle out of Pearl “Hehehe, what's wrong Smelly, having trouble with a seven year olds homework?~”

Kelly rolled her eyes at the bratty girl's comment as she began to write down the answers. “Oh shut it you two, it's not that it's hard…it's just that it's not even my homework!!!” the teen whined loudly, much to the amusement of the other two inklings as they giggled in response. The human boy meanwhile looked over to Kelly and tilted his head, wondering why she was being so fussy.

Evan would suddenly stand up to Pearl's surprise, and go over to Kelly, who looked at him with a mix of curiosity and annoyance. “Y-You…okay?” the boy said in that very dry and broken Inklish, much to the surprise of the three that were present. He was looking between her and the papers on the table.

The green haired inkling looked at him in confusion, not expecting the weird boy to suddenly worry about her “U-Umm…I guess? I'm just a bit upset that I have to do Pearl's homework…but it's honestly not much of a bother to me, thanks for asking.”

The boy looked between her and the pages a few more times before looking at her with those amber eyes of his and giving her a small smile “C-Can…me try?”

The trio once more were surprised at his response, not expecting him to actually want to do Pearl's homework. Marl chuckled a bit at this, finding Evan's broken Inklish to be quite adorable while Kelly smirked, charmed that the kid was interested in doing the homework “Sure thing Evan, less work for me~”

Pearl on the other hand…

“W-What?! But you're the one that's supposed to do the homework Kelly, not him!” Pearl squeaked up at the older girl as she stood up and quickly scampered over to the two of them, who looked at her in surprise “B-Besides, I-I'm showing him my game!”

“Don't look at me, he's the one that wants to do it for me.” Kelly responded with a smug look on her face while pointing at Evan, showing that he was looking at the homework attentively. Pearl pouted and looked between the two of them, a bit upset at her friend wanting to do something else “B-But…”

“Don’t worry princess, you'll have the rest of the evening to spend time with Evan. Besides, this could help him improve his Inklish.” Marl spoke up from his spot on the couch, assuring Pearl with a warm smile.

The girl’s conflicted look slowly eased away as she begrudgingly agreed with Marl, really wanting to be able to talk with her friend eventually “Hmm…okay fine…but I'm gonna help him! H-He might not know the subjects a-and will need my help, and Kelly will be too lazy to help him!”

The girl pouted and crossed her arms, lightly glaring at the teen in question. Kelly and Marl simply smiled at Pearl as they knew that despite saying something reasonable (Kelly disagrees with the last part, she wouldn't leave the boy all to himself!), she just really wanted to spend as much time with Evan as she possibly could.

“Alright alright, no need to be so bratty.” Kelly stood up from the chair and stepped back while raising her hands in mock surrender. Pearl pouted up at her with a childish glare before jumping up and onto the seat. She looked at Evan with a grin while patting the seat “Come on up Evan, Imma show ya everything ya need to know!”

“O-Okay!” Evan smiled up at her excitedly as he climbed up the chair and sat right next to her. The two children were just barely able to fit on the seat as Pearl began to guide Evan through the homework with a grin, the boy in question looking on with attentively eager eyes, showing how much he wanted to learn, especially from his new friend.

Kelly walked over to the couch and sat beside her own friend, the two teens now looking after the kids. “This is a first…Pearl would never seem this eager to do anything homework related.” Kelly spoke to Marl in a low voice, not wanting to distract the young pair.

Marl chuckled at this as he looked over to Kelly. “Hehehe, more than likely it's exclusively because Evan is involved. She could probably find even the most boring activities fun as long as he's involved.” he said in a joking manner, still surprised that in just about a single day she had grown so attached to the boy that she seems to never want to leave his side for too long, and the feeling is mutual going off of how attentive Evan always was with Pearl.

Kelly smirked in response as she relaxed on the couch. “Hmm, I think I have an idea of what their future is gonna be like if they stick together.”

As Kelly was relaxing on the couch, laying back a bit, her eyes would widen a bit as she felt something press against her chest as if it was laying against it. Nearly her entire face turned green from blushing as she looked down and saw that Marl was now laying against her, his head resting on her chest.

“Our future selves can think about that, for now let's just relax while we wait for Mr. Houzuki to finish dinner.” Marl responded to Kelly as he looked up at her with half lidded eyes and a small blush of his own, clearly enjoying seeing the green haired inkling blush even more.

The two teens were a bit too distracted to see Pearl subconsciously wrap one of her tentacles around Evans hip and hugged him close to her.
_______________________________

Roughly an hour later

Shogen smirked and rubbed his hands together as he finished up the last of the dinner, all of it about ready to serve to the inhabitants of the mansion “Hmm, a bit fish centric, but I think they'll like it.”

Shogen turned around and cleared his throat a bit before…

“Hmm…DINNERS READYYYYY!!!!!!” The male Houzuki shouted nearly at the top of his lungs, making sure that the inhabitants could all hear him throughout every part of the mansion, receiving distant yelps and squeaks in response. He flinches as he sees the kitchen shake a bit from his voice “Phew…I gotta be careful not to use my max output unless I wanna absolutely ruin the structural integrity of the place…Tsareena would definitely kill me if I did that…”

After a minute of waiting, Kelly and Marl quickly rushed into the room, gently rubbing their slightly ringing ears “G-Geez boss, do you have to be so loud?...”

Shogen chuckled at her question as he rubbed the back of his head “Hehehe! Sorry guys, just wanted to make sure y'all could hear me.”

The adult smirked and pointed at the dishes laying throughout the countertop “Now then, could you two kindly help me get the plates and cups to the dining table? There's a bit too many for little ol’ me.”

“Sure thing boss…” “Of course Mr. Houzuki…” The two teens agreed to his request, still rubbing their ears for a bit before walking over and grabbing as many plates as they could.
_____

Evan and Pearl sat next to each other by the family dining table, the boy gently rubbing his ears “Shogen…v-very loud…”

“Hehehe yeaaah, us Houzuki's can be pretty loud. Heck, Papa says that my voice might surpass his one day!” Pearl giggled and explained as she helped gently rub Evan's ears.

The boy gave her a slightly shocked look as he gulped a bit, a bit scared at the idea of her somehow being louder than even that one day “W-Wow…”

Pearl blushed a bit and looked away from Evan, her arms crossing a bit “U-Umm…thanks for helping me with my homework earlier…it was actually kinda fun doing it with you…”

Evan blinked a few times as he processed what she said, still a bit new to Inklish. Eventually a smile would grow on his face as he understood what she was saying to him “N-No…problem!”

Pearl blushed even more as she heard her friend giggle a bit before feeling him gently pat her on the head.

The two would be cut off as they heard footsteps coming towards the room. The children looked over and saw Shogen, Kelly, and Marl walking to the table with multiple plates in hand. Evan began to drool a bit as he saw the delicious dishes full of fish of all sorts that Shogen had cooked. The food looked better than anything Evan had ever seen, and he could feel and hear his stomach rumble at the sight of the food. Pearl on the other hand simply grinned, excited to eat one of her papa’s meals.

Shogen and the two teens chuckled as they saw how hungry Evan was, the adult feeling flattered that Evan was so eager to eat the food he had made. “Seems like someone is eager to try out my cooking~” The male Houzuki teased Evan, causing the boy to blush a bit in embarrassment and rub the back of his head while Pearl smirked and poked his side “Hehe…Y-Yeah!”

The adult and the teens went about setting up the table while the children looked on eagerly, the boy practically jumping in his seat eagerly, ready to devour his plate. After a moment of setting up the table, the three of them would finally sit down at their seats and prepare to eat.

Shogen looked at each one of them for a moment before gripping his fork and grinning “Well, let's dig in!”

Everyone would begin to dig into the food eagerly, Kelly, Marl, and Pearl enjoying the delicious food while Evan scarfed it down with tears in his eyes, truly loving the dinner. If he had a tail, it would be wagging at top speed like an overly excited pup.

Shogen couldn't help but smile as he ate, the sight of Evan truly enjoying and scarfing down the food as if it was the greatest meal he ever had made the man feel his pride in his cooking grow even more. He can tell that his attachment to the kid had grown even more as well.

Speaking of the child…
_____

Shogen sighed as he looked at the minute hand of the clock mounted on the living room wall as he waited for Isullivan to finish his calls, the clock saying that it's been about three hours since Pearl left for school. He was feeling a bit nervous, both for what this could mean for him and his family, and for what this could mean for the boy…the human.

“An actual human landed by my pool last night…what a way to end the week…” Shogen mumbled to himself as he thought about the implications this could have. The government would likely want Evan in their possession if at all possible, and who knows what they would do to that boy? Would he ever see the light of day again if he was taken away?...

These thoughts haunted Shogen to his core, feeling his hearts stopping for a split second at the thought of accidentally dooming the poor human child. He wanted to make sure that his family and employees were safe, but he also didn't want to condemn the possibly last human, a poor innocent child at that, to a potentially terrible fate of being experimented on…or even dissected. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if something like that were to happen to Evan.

Shogen breathed heavily as he tried his best to calm himself down. He made sure to call a close friend who owed him and had great empathy for others, so all he could hope for is that Isullivan would do everything he can to ensure that a dark fate doesn't befall upon the boy.

Footsteps came up to Shogen from behind, taking him away from his dark thoughts and worry. Looking behind him he saw Isullivan walking up to him with his arms crossed.

Shogen stood up from the couch and turned towards the isopod, slight worry clear in his face “Hey Sully…finished with the calls?”

The agent nodded as he gestured for the man to follow him “A few minutes ago yes, and I could feel my life drain away from the calls as well, I really hope to never do that again…but that's besides the point, come with me Shogen, I would prefer some fresh air while we discuss what will happen from this point forwards.”

Shogen nodded as he began to walk next to Isullivan, approaching the door leading to the outside. The isopod hummed a bit as he kept walking “Tell me…is Evan alright? That fainting episode of his made me a fair bit worried.”

“Yeah, he's fine for the most part, he's currently asleep in one of my guest rooms. Do you need him?...” Shogen asked Isullivan, worry etched into his voice as he was scared for the boy.

The isopod shook his head as best as he could, which was a little difficult due to his body structure. “No need to worry, he won't be needed for about another week.” Isullivan explained to Shogen, the inkling responding with a confused look “Another week? What do you mean by that?”

As he asks Isullivan the question, they would finally make it outside of the mansion, and much to Shogen's surprise, many government agents and vehicles were scattered throughout the estate. These agents were of many diverse species (jellyfish, sea anemones, sea slugs, and so on), although he could tell a significant number of them were inklings like himself.

Shogen saw that a vast majority of them were gathered around the spacecraft that Evan arrived in, with a group of agents in hazmat suits close to it and inspecting it cautiously. The male Houzuki looked over to his friend and raised an eyebrow “I'm guessing these are your group then?”

Isullivan nodded as they both stood next to each and observed the agents go about their business “Yes, I called them in so as analyze the spacecraft to see if it's safe to transport. Don't worry, we'll make sure to leave the place good as new, as if it hadn't even landed here in the first place. Now then…”

The isopod looked to Shogen and uncrossed his arms, clearly a bit tired “After nearly an hour of arguing with the other department heads and the higher ups, I was finally able to make a compromise that would ensure Evan’s well being as well as yours, your family, and your employees safety.”

Shogen felt slightly relieved at hearing that maybe things won't be too bad for all of them “And that being?”

Isullivan took a glance towards the cylinder “The first part is that we are to confiscate the spacecraft so we can analyze it and see what we can find. The second part depends on you and Tsareena.”

Shogen raised an eyebrow, clearly confused by what Isullivan meant by the second part “The second part?”

“The second part involves Evan himself. He will be allowed to stay here until your mate's arrival. Once Tsareena arrives, you will both have a day to discuss whether to house the child or not. If you two choose to care for Evan and become his guardians, he will be permitted to stay in your estate. Firstly, if you choose this option, I will come by once a month to pick up the boy and bring him to a hidden facility so as to run tests on him and ask him questions before returning him, and before you ask, yes I will be overlooking these tests to ensure that the researchers don't do anything that can endanger the boy or harm him. Secondly, he will not be permitted to leave the Houzuki estate unless given permission by me until he has been cleared for proper citizenship.” The isopod explained to Shogen in a clear and smooth voice

Shogen slowly nodded as he took in the information, finding it to be reasonable “Right…and if we don't choose to keep Evan?...”

“If the two of you choose not to keep Evan, then he will be taken in and housed by government officials and kept within one of our hidden facilities, and you and your family will never have to worry about him again.” Isullivan said in a calm voice, although Shogen could tell that he wasn't too big of a fan of this option, and neither was he…

Shogen had a conflicted look on his face as the second option didn't sound so hopeful for Evan “And…if we can't agree within the given time limit?...”

Isullivan face remained the same, but Shogen could tell that he was practically frowning “If you and your mate are unable to make a decision within the allotted time, then we'll default with the second option and take him in.”

Shogen flinched and frowned, not liking how restricted this all felt “Is a day really all we have? Isn't that too little?...”

Isullivan sighed and rubbed his face “Aaah…you're lucky that it's not just one hour…I had to fight beak and claw just to give you two as much time as possible, and sadly it was only a day…”

Shogen's frown widened a bit more, annoyed at the time constraints. Sadly though, he knew that there wasn't much he could do even with his wealth and power. He sighed softly and looked up at his old friend with a small smile “Alright…guess there's no changing the terms then…thanks Sully, for going this far for me and for Evan.”

The inkling went over and gave the isopod a small hug, who returned the embrace “Don't mention it Shogen, it's the least I can do for you after saving my life and helping me start a new leaf back then.”

After a minute of their friendly embrace, the two men stepped back and sighed in unison, both feeling drained from the whole ordeal. The agent looked over to the spacecraft once more, seeing that it was clear of any harmful elements before slowly being carried into one of their transport, uprooting it from the ground “One last thing before we go Shogen.”

“Yes Sully?”

Isullivan gave him an intense look “You, your family, and your employees must swear to a vow of secrecy. If any of this leaks out and is tracked back to any of you, there will be dire consequences…for all of you.”
_____

Shogen shuddered slightly at what Isullivan told him at the end, a bit afraid of what the government would do to them if they broke that vow.

The male Houzuki looked at the others with a stern look as he coughed a bit “Hmm hmmm…I need everyone's attention.”

Everyone else immediately went quiet and looked at Shogen, a bit shocked at hearing his dead serious voice as he had very rarely ever spoken like that.

“I had my contact come here today to talk about Evan and his arrival. We have things generally sorted and we won't have to worry about anything major until Tsareena returns. I'll explain the situation to you all in time, but if there's one thing I need you all to know right now, it's that nothing involving Evan must reach the public. I need all of you to promise me that you won't speak a word about Evan or the spacecraft when you leave the Houzuki Estate, not even an acknowledgement of their existence.”

Marl and Kelly looked at him in surprise, sweating slightly from the intensity of his demand, before nodding in agreement “Understood Sir.” “Of course Mr. Houzuki.”

Pearl whined and pouted up at her father while hugging a confused and slightly scared Evan. “Awww but papa, I really wanna talk about Evan at school tomorrow, I didn't get to tod-” she immediately stopped her sentence as she saw the intense look Shogen gave her. She shivered a bit at the intensity, knowing well what this look entailed as he had given her this same look only once up until now. This was the look of absolute parental authority, and it promised a fierce spanking if defied…

Pearl gulped and slowly nodded, somewhat understanding that this was a very serious order. “O-Okay Papa, I-I understand…” she muttered softly, looking down at her plate.

Evan gave her a confused look, but seeing how down she was, he chose to hug her closely and pat her on the head “It…o-okay!”

Shogen continued to stare intensely at his daughter before sighing and frowning a bit, his intense look softening a bit “I'm sorry squiddo, I'm just trying to make sure you all stay safe. If we don't stay quiet about this, then there will be dire consequences for all of us.”

Shogen looked around and saw that the mood had dropped significantly after his warning, which he felt a bit bad for, especially for making his daughter sad.

Shogen gently pat Pearl on the head and smiled warmly “Hey now, don't be so down sweetie…I made something for all of us to enjoy.”

Pearl and the others looked at him in surprise, wondering what he had in mind.

Shogen grinned at them as he stood up from his seat “Who's ready for cake?~”

“Yaaay, papa’s cake!!!” Pearl squealed in excitement, her mood instantly improving as she was eager to eat her papa's delicious dessert. Marl and Kelly chuckled at her excitement while also feeling a bit happy to be eating some nice dessert. Evan on the other hand still had that practically iconic look of confusion as he wasn't sure what dessert even was right now, but if Pearl and the teens were eager for it, then he couldn't wait to try it out as well!

Shogen gave Evan a small smile as he saw the boy giggling while Pearl hugged him tightly ‘I really hope Tsareena lets him stay here with us…I don't want to let the poor boy go…'

He really has grown too fond of the boy…

Chapter Text

It was a Saturday morning as the Houzuki estate was live and buzzing, the inhabitants getting ready for something quite big today.

“Aaah…too early…do we have to wake up so early Kelly?... It's Saturday and I really wanted to sleep in for a bit longer…Evan was so comfy to sleep with too…” Pearl yawned softly as she stood next to one of the bathrooms in the mansion, with the older girl in question standing next to her. Pearl has a bit of a derpy smile and a light blush as she reminisces about how much she's loved sleeping with Evan this past week “Super comfy, warm, and fuzzy…aaaah~...”
_____

Pearl drooled a bit while nuzzling Evan's hair and hugging him lazily, the boy in question simply slept on his back and mumbled a couple things in his sleep. He was so warm compared to everyone else she knew…it felt so magical to the young Houzuki, she's not even sure if she'll ever be able to sleep without him again…

Pearl groaned as she heard knocking on the door as well as her caretaker's voices on the other side. She growled softly and hugged Evan even tighter, not wanting to wake up yet.

Alas, their sleep was cut short…much to Pearl's annoyance and Evan's confusion.
_____

Kelly rolled her eyes as she also stood by the bathroom, hearing the two boys talking inside “Because today is the day that your mom returns home ya little dork, so we have to get ready nice and early so as to greet her.”

Pearl blinked a couple times, her barely awoken mind taking a few seconds to process this before gasping and clapping her hands together. “Oh yeah, Mama is coming back, I hope she'll have a present for me when she gets here!” the little girl squeaked in excitement, super happy that her mother is finally gonna be back home.

Kelly scoffed and rolled her eyes at how forgetful Pearl could be, although she had a small smile on her face as she still found the little girl to be quite endearing. “Pfft…you really are a dork.”

The teen squeaked as Pearl jumped up and latched onto Kelly's face, now pulling on her hair and cheeks “Shut it ya overgrown plump Sea grape!” “Aaagh! Get off of me ya freaking brat, and I'm not plump, j-just a little full!”

As the two girls squeaked and fought once more in their own weird way of showing affection to one another, the door to the bathroom would open as Marl and Evan walked out.

The young human boy sighed happily and looked down at himself, really liking the new clothes that Shogen had bought for him when the three males of the estate went out to the store. Of course Shogen made sure to ask Isullivan for permission to do so and to disguise Evan when they went out into the city.
_____

Shogen and Marl sifted through the clothes in the kids section of the clothes store while the boy stared at a nearby jellyfish in awe as it waved at him before walking off. The boy had an inkling wig as well as dark circles painted around his eyes. It wasn't the best disguise, but it's not like they were gonna stay here for too long either.

Shogen grinned as he took off a pair of adorable shorts and showed them to Marl. “Aww, wouldn't this be so adorable on Evan?” the older Houzuki coo'd while the teen grinned and took out a short sleeved shirt “That would go so well with this shirt!”

The two of them looked over to Evan while the boy looked back, a bit weirded out by how they were acting “What?”

Shogen and Marl quickly went over to the boy and presented him with the clothing they had grabbed. “Try these out squiddo, we wanna see if they work well!” “Please Evan, they would look so good on you!”

Evan didn't have time to respond as the older males simply brought him behind some curtains so as to try out the clothes.

Shogen and Marl waited a minute for Evan to change into the shorts and shirt they had grabbed for him, eager to see how they look, all while a few female inklings who were buying clothes looked over to them in curiosity, wondering what they were so excited about.

They all heard a bit of childish groaning as an embarrassed Evan walked out a moment later from behind the curtain, now wearing the shorts and shirt that Marl and Shogen had grabbed “I-I…look stupid…”

The two males and a few females looked at the boy with wide eyes, staying silent for a few seconds before…

““““AAAAAH SO CUUUUUUTEEEE!!!!❤️””””
_____

Evan blushed a bit at the memory, glad that they had gotten clothes that didn't make him feel embarrassed to wear. He still remembered being smothered in hugs by the two men and multiple ladies that were there…

Marl chuckled a bit at Evan’s blush, aware of how embarrassed he was when they went shopping. “Hehehe, sorry about that Evan, we just couldn't help ourselves, you're just too cute.” he tried reasoning with the boy while petting him, getting a childish pout in return.

The two girls stopped their fighting after hearing Marl’s voice. The two of them looked over and saw the boys finally out of the bathroom and standing next to them. Pearl grinned ecstatically as she let go of Kelly's face and jumped down to the ground, landing right in front of Evan. She grinned up at the boy and hugged him tightly, nuzzling his chest “Evan! I like the clothes, you're nearly as fresh as me!”

Kelly smiled nonchalantly as she walked over to Marl and stood beside him, looking all over the human boy. “Not bad Ev’, looks pretty fresh.” The teen complimented him while her friend smirked and crossed his arms “Of course he's looking fresh, I always make sure to grab some nice clothes for my siblings when we go shopping.”

Kelly looked over to Marl with a raised brow and a smug look on her face while Evan giggled and pat Pearl on the head “Oh? Already adopting Evan as one of your siblings?”

Marl blushed a dark blue as his smirk immediately left his face, instead replaced with an embarrassed look as he looked away from her “W-Well I…h-he reminds me of my…s-so I…”

The female caretaker couldn't help herself as a grin slowly spread across her face while blushing a bright green as well. This was one of those rare times that Marl was on the receiving end of being flustered and teased, and she adored these moments the most “What's wrong Mar? Judd caught your tongue?”

While Kelly was busy teasing Marl, Pearl let go of Evan and smiled up at him cheerfully “I can't wait for you to meet Mama! She can be a bit grumpy at times, but she's so cool and very sweet, you're gonna love her!”

Evan giggled a bit at Pearl's enthusiasm, feeling a bit excited and scared at the thought of meeting Pearl's mama “I…hope she likes me!”

Pearl’s smile widened as she felt proud at how much he's improved his Inklish this past week. Not only is his handwriting getting better, but now he's speaking Inklish a bit better as well. It was still a bit rough as well as his voice being too dry sounding to be able to speak Inklish fluently, but now he's able to understand most of the words they said as well as respond somewhat well.

“She will, you can trust me on that!” The young Houzuki grinned and gave him a thumbs up, feeling confident that her mother will welcome Evan with open arms.

The four of them would stop their bickering as they heard some footsteps quickly heading towards them. They all turned to the noise and saw that Shogen, who was wearing his classic white suit with pink ends, was power walking towards them with a nervous look on his face. It seems he was the most nervous of them all for Tsareena’s arrival.

“Come on you four, we have to be ready for Tsareena's arrival, she's gonna be here in about ten minutes.” Shogen spoke urgently, his voice a bit tense. The three other inklings were a bit confused at how he was acting. Yeah it's been over a week since she left and she can be a bit strict…but he's never been like this whenever she came back from one of her solo trips.

“Don't worry boss, Evan is done getting ready, and Pearl has been ready for a while now, she just really wanted to wait for Evan.” Kelly explained to Shogen while Pearl smiled and nodded to her father, walking up to him and hugging his leg “Yeah! We're all ready papa!”

The male Houzuki chuckled a bit and gave his daughter a small smile while patting her on the head. He always found her hugs to be reassuring. “Hehehe, That's good to hear Squiddo, let's go to the front and wait for your mother to arrive, I bet she'll be happy to see you again.” Shogen grinned at Pearl and booped her on the nose, getting a giggle from his daughter.

The other three smiled at the sight of the father and daughter bonding as Shogen looked at them and gave them a small smile as well. They could see that he wasn't on edge like he was a moment ago, but he was still clearly nervous.

Kelly and Marl, who was holding Evan's hand, stepped forward and nodded to their boss “Ready when you are boss.” “We're all set, Mr. Houzuki.”

Shogen felt his nerves ease a bit from how relaxed all of them were. “Alright, let's go outside and wait for her, but Evan, I really want you to stay in one of the guest rooms for a bit. I wanna ease her a bit into this.” The male Houzuki asked the boy, who gave him a thumbs up and a grin “O-Okay!”
_____

The inkling group stood right outside the door as they waited for the return of the matriarch of the mansion who was arriving soon, all of them with different feelings regarding today.

Pearl was excited to see her mother again after a bit over a week of her absence, still a bit sad that she had to go before her 7th birthday. Now though, she was excited not only to see her mother again, but to also have her meet Evan.

Kelly was a little bummed with Tsareena's return. She did look up to the matriarch and she was pretty nice to the teen, but she was stricter than Shogen, so Kelly won't be able to relax as much during work now with her return. And also double the teasing…carp…

Marl was somewhat indifferent to her arrival. Don't get him wrong, he's happy she was coming back after a week as he quite liked her and was happy that she will be able to spend time with her daughter to make up for her absence during Pearl’s birthday, but for him personally, nothing will really change as he still acts and works the same way whether she was here or not. So for him it's not really a big deal

Shogen on the other hand…oh boy.

“Are you okay Mr. Houzuki? You've been seemingly on edge as of recently and I'm starting to worry. You were never like this when Mrs. Houzuki returned from her previous trips.” Marl whispered to his boss in a worried tone, confused as to why he would be so stressed over his mate's return.

Shogen sighed as he stroked his hair, his right hand gently rubbing one of his tentacles “Aaah…it’s mainly Evan that I'm worried about…I just…really hope that she'll be open towards Evan possibly staying here…”

The teen smiled at Shogen's worried comment, finding it a bit heartwarming “I don't think you will have to worry about that Mr. Houzuki, your mate is a reasonable person and I bet she won't be against the boy staying here. Even if that were to happen, we'll probably just put up Evan for foster care and we'll visit him from time to time, right?”

The man gave him a sad glance before sighing and looking on to the road leading to the mansion once more, still rubbing one of his tentacles “We'll have to see…” ‘I’ll tell them one day…’

“Aaaaah mama's here!” Pearl squeaked up excitedly while jumping in place and waving towards the limousine that was riding down the road towards the mansion.

The teens stood up straight and smiled at the limousine as it pulled up to the front of the mansion, ready to greet the lady of the estate. Shogen on the other hand took a big sigh and smiled through his nerves, deciding that it's best to warmly welcome his mate before bringing up the situation at hand.

As the limousine parked in front of the group, a jellyfish butler would come out of the passenger door of the limousine and walk over to the center of the car. When the jellyfish opened the central door, out came the woman of the hour, Tsareena Houzuki.

Tsareena has ice blue hair with ice white spots scattered throughout the ends of her tentacles, tentacles that flowed down her sides and back like flowing frozen waterfalls all the way down to her lower back and her sides. She has ice blue eyes as well, with the eyes having a mesmerizing snowflake like pattern to them, as if she were a living ice spirit. She wore an elegant white dress with ice blue accents throughout, like that of a ice queen.

The woman had a soft smile and looked on at the gathered group as she calmly dismissed the Jellyfish butler, who closed the door and returned back to the passenger seat, closing it as well “Hello everyone, glad to be back home once more.”

“Mama, welcome back!” Pearl dashed forward and jumped towards her mother, laughing and giggling in excitement as her hearts were filled with joy at her mother's return.

The mother chuckled at her daughter's enthusiasm as she caught her and hugged her tightly “Hehe, hello my sweet little Pearl, I've missed you quite a bit, we need to spend some time together so as to make up for my absence. My little girl, now seven years old…oh how time flies.”

“Oh mama I've missed you so much, I was so sad when you had to leave before my birthday!” Pearl hugged her mother tightly and nuzzled her, overjoyed at being able to hug Tsareena again after a whole week.

The teens smiled warmly at the sight while Shogen walked closer to the two of them “Welcome back Reena, it was getting a little lonely without my mate around to bother~”

Tsareena rolled her eyes at Shogen's comment but still smiled at her mate “So childish…that's my precious Shogen alright…come here.”

Shogen grinned and blushed a bit as he went over to his mate and hugged her and Pearl, the family of three now joined together in a heartwarming hug, enjoying each other's presence.

Kelly looked on with a small smile as she found their hugs to always be quite adorable…but they also made her feel a bit…jealous?

It's not as if she's never received hugs from her mother and father, she's received plenty of those throughout her life. So who was she jealous of if not Pearl?

The female caretaker would look over to Marl and saw that he had a longing look in his eyes while looking at the family.

Kelly blushed slightly while her eyes dilated as she inched closer to her friend and gently patted him on the back, feeling a need to make him feel better. She blushed a bit more as he turned to her with wide eyes full of surprise before he gave her a warm smile while he blushed that cute blue that she really liked ‘Gotta make sure that the mate is happy…wait what?’

The teen's thoughts were interrupted as she heard some chuckling nearby. She looked over to the source and saw that the family of three were now looking at the two of them while smiling and giggling.

The two teens blushed brightly as they looked away and stepped away from one another “W-Welcome back ma'am…” “I-I hope you had a good trip Mrs. Houzuki…”

Tsareena smiled at their flustered reactions, still finding the two caretakers to be quite adorable and wonderful to be around “Hmhmhm, I'm glad to see that you two are doing quite well, I've honestly missed your antics during my trip.”

“Hehe, don’t worry mama, they haven't changed a bit since you were gone!” Pearl squeaked up as she was still being carried by Tsareena, who simply chuckled at Pearl's comment “That's a relief, I was worried that Kelly would've matured in my absence and made herself less of a fool than before. That would've made our lives here much more dull~” "H-Hey!"

Shogen looked on with a smirk as Kelly squeaked and pouted at Tsareena, knowing that the teen wouldn't retaliate as she knows from experience that she can't vocally win against the snow peaks Turf Queen.

As he observed the four of them interact with each other, he felt the nerves creep back in as he knew that he had to introduce her to their new guest eventually, so it's best to get it over with.

Shogen discreetly took out his phone and texted Isullivan, not wanting the others to notice.

[Tsareena is here.]

Barely a moment passes by as he receives a text in return.

[Good, I'll stop by tomorrow at 8. Please decide on either option when I get there, don't want to keep these old hags waiting for too long.]

Shogen let out a shaky breath as he put away his phone and looked up towards his mate “Hey babe, I uh…I have something important to show and discuss with you…”

Tsareena gave him a confused look, wondering what it was that had her mate so tense “Oh? And what would that be my sweet Shogen?”

Pearl and her caretakers quickly realized what Shogen was referring to as the little girl grinned and shook her mother gently “Oooh oooh, papa’s talking about Evan!”

“Evan? Is that a new friend you made in school?” The mother asked her daughter curiously while the father smacked his forehead while groaning a bit “Ugh…Pearl…”

The little inkling giggled and grinned at her papa sheepishly, remembering that she wasn't supposed to bring up Evan until after Shogen talked with Tsareena about him.

The male Houzuki sighed as he rubbed his closed eyes, already a little annoyed “Pearl sweetie, can you stay with Kelly and Marl in the living room while Mama and I talk in private? I promise that we won't take too long alright?”

Pearl nodded while grinning as Tsareena, who was still confused, gently handed Pearl over to Marl “Okay Papa! Let's go MarMar, I don't wanna be late for the newest episode of Coral Quest!” “Alright alright, calm down princess~” “Heh…what a dork”

As the little girl and the two teens walked back into the mansion and do what they were told, Tsareena looked back at Shogen with a raised brow as she crossed her arms, looking down at him in suspicion “And what is it that you're trying to to show me that's making you so nervous? It better not be new Ink Ranger cosplay suits, I'm not doing that again after what happened last time…”

Shogen blushed a bright pink as she reminded him about the cosplay incident “W-What?! N-No, it's not new cosplay suits! B-Besides, t-that was an accident last time okay…”

Tsareena giggled a bit and smiled warmly with an ice blue blush of her own “Fufufu, you are just so cute when you're flustered~ Alright then, what is it you want to show me then?”

Shogen sighed a bit while his blush calmed down a bit. “Alright…just follow me, I'll show you what I'm talking about…” he groaned a bit as he walked towards the mansion as well, signaling her to follow him, which she did hesitantly.

“Fine, but it better not be a pet snail, you know I am allergic to those.”
_______________________________

Evan hummed and smiled while playing on the DS that Pearl lent him, waiting in the room that he was told to wait in. He wasn't very good at playing games though, as he doesn't remember ever playing video games before arriving at the mansion “Oh well, maybe Pearl will teach me later.”

As the boy continued to play ‘New Super Humboldt Gals’, he began to reminisce over a few more memories as that fog inside his head cleared up ever so slightly…
_____

Evan and the blonde man sat next to each other on top of a tree in a park. They both laughed and chuckled while a couple dogs were barking up at them from the bottom of the tree.

“Hehehe, seems like we're in a bit of a bind, huh Evan?” The blonde chuckled a bit as he pat Evan on the head, getting a giggle out of the boy.

As they sat there for a bit, simply enjoying each other's company, the blonde man saw a group of children hanging out together by a bench, all surrounding one boy as he was fiddling with something. The man took a closer look and saw that the boy was playing on what appeared to be the latest handheld console as he fiddled with the holographic screen.

The blonde man smiled and sighed, leaning against the tree bark “Aaah…man, it's been years since I've last played some video games…probably about fifteen years give or take…”

Evan hummed and tilted his head, looking up at the man with a raised eyebrow “What's a video game?”

The man chuckled a bit and looked down at Evan, giving him a wide smile “They're a kind of game you play on a device…honestly it's probably better if I showed you. I promise that one day you'll get to play with one, mark my words Ev’!”
_____

Evan blinked a bit at the memory, focusing once more on the DS in hand as the character he was playing as, which he thinks is called Coral, was standing in the middle of screen, not having moved in what seems like about half a minute.

Evan smiled slightly as he paused the game. “Well, I guess I got to finally play a video game…” he sighed softly as he tried to remember more about the blonde man, to no avail.

Evan frowned while putting the console down on the nearby table “I…hope I get to see him one day…”

Before he can get too sad, he heard the door handle begin to twist before the door slowly opened. Evan quickly looked over to the door with wide eyes, realizing that it was time to meet Pearl's mama.

The boy got off the chair he was sitting on and stood up on his feet, ready to greet Tsareena as he remembered Shogen calling her that name ‘I hope she isn't scary like tha-’

The boy's thoughts were cut off as he came face to face with who he thought might've been one of the prettiest people he had ever met.

“P-Pretty…”
_____

“Alright, here we are babe. Promise me that you won't freak out…okay?...” Shogen pleaded to his mate as he stood by the door, knowing that Evan was on the other side.

Tsareena crossed her arms and lightly glared at him, not liking to be strung along like this “Shogen, I don't appreciate being kept in the dark, can you please just tell me what's going on? Who's Evan?”

Shogen let out a shaky sigh as he steps aside for her, gesturing to the door “Alright…you'll get your answer when you open the door, just please try to stay calm.”

His mate gave him a suspicious look as she slowly opened the door “I swear, you better n-”

She was caught off as on the other she saw what appeared to be a young boy who was wearing grey shorts, some cute little sneakers, and an orange shirt that read ‘Super Humboldt Gals'’ on the front of the shirt with an image of the aforementioned protagonist duo doing some cute poses just below the letters along with the lovely prince that they always rescued and spent time with. This boy though was quite odd looking, as Tsareena began to notice all of the differences between him and a normal inkling.

“P-Proya…” the boy whispered in a weird language and a very dry voice, but she was too distracted to notice.

“Oh my cod I love him.” Tsareena exclaimed to her mate as she quickly walked into the room and kneeled in front of the child, who squeaked a bit at how close she got.

Shogen sighed in slight relief at seeing how she was already liking Evan a fair bit “Phew…well…she seems to like him at least…”

The female Houzuki smiled warmly at the shy boy while face to face with him. “Hello little one, are you Evan?~...” she asked him in a gentle and sweet voice as he shyly nodded in return “Y-Yeah…”

She blushed at how utterly adorable Evan was being as she had to hold back her desire to hug him “It's nice to meet you Evan, my name is Tsareena, I'm sorry if I'm scaring you a bit, I just wasn't expecting a guest in our mansion.”

The boy smiled shyly in return and gently patted her on the head “I-It's okay…I-I nervous around n-new people is all…”

It took everything she had not to just faint from the sheer adorableness as she gripped her thighs tightly, almost like a death grip “Such a good boy…”

Shogen grinned at the sight of his mate being overwhelmed by the adorableness, finding her reaction to cute things and people to be quite cute in it's own right. She might've been strict or even a little cold on the outside (at least to strangers), but beneath the surface she was possibly the biggest softie he knew. Heck, it was one of the traits that made him fall for her in the first place.

The man of the estate coughed a bit to catch his mates attention as he walked over to them both and stood close by “Hmmhmm…both of you being cute aside, I'm guessing you have a couple questions right now, right babe? I'll make sure to answer them as best as I can.”

Tsareena snapped out of her cuteness overload as she looked up at her mate with a bright blush, coughing a bit herself as she tried to maintain some semblance of professionalism “Hmhmm…Y-Yes, I would very much appreciate that Hun. It is a bit…worrying that there is a child in our estate…are his parents around?...”

Shogen grimaced a bit as he scratched the back of his head. “Well…you see…about that…ugh…this is gonna take a bit…how about we take a seat?...” he gestured towards two chairs in the corner of the room near a window.
_____

Ten minutes later…

Tsareena stared at Shogen in slight shock, trying to process all that she was told. “Evan…came from space on a spacecraft and landed by our pool…on Pearl's birthday?...” she asked her husband in disbelief, getting a nod in response.

“A-And…Evan here…is a human?...” She looked to the boy who was currently sitting on Shogen's lap.

“Correct” “Y-Yeah!” They both confirmed to her as Shogen gently petted Evan on the head while the boy smiled and nuzzled the palm of his hand.

Tsareena groaned a bit as she rubbed her head, trying to process the information that she had received. Yes it was simple and straightforward, but it was just so…insane to think about!

The matriarch glared at Shogen while still rubbing her head “And you promise me that this isn't some elaborate prank to get back at me for not being there for Pearl's birthday?...”

Shogen chuckled at seeing his darling being so perplexed by what's right in front of her. Her confusion is always so amusing to see “Yes babe, I promise that this isn't some sort of prank or anything like that. Like I've said before the trip, no one blames you for not being here, you had important business to tend to.”

Tsareena smiled slightly and her three hearts fluttered a bit at Shogen's reassurance. Cod she loved him so much “Sorry Hun it's just that…it is a bit hard to believe something so…bizarre and…otherworldly. A human coming down straight from the stars sounds so…fantastical…especially on our daughters birthday no less.”

Shogen paused a bit as he really thought it through ‘That…is a bit weird and coincidental that Evan arrived on Pearl's birthday…'

The male Houzuki shook his head free of such thoughts as he focused on the here and now “I know it's crazy to believe, trust me, I can hardly believe it myself, but I am serious about all of this. So serious in fact, that I called Sully to help us with this mess.”

Tsareena's eyes widened as she hadn't heard that name in nearly ten years “You…you're lying…”

Shogen shook his head no and showed her the texts, confirming that they had been texting recently “I'm dead serious Tsareena.”

She stared at the texts closely, her eyes widening even more at how recent they were “My goodness…you are serious…what did you two talk about? Why did you call him?”

Her mate flinched a bit while he had a conflicted look on his face, as if he was remembering something he didn't really wanna remember “That…is what I want to talk to you about…”

Shogen smiled down at the boy, who was looking at them both in confusion, wondering why they were worried over how he got there, and gently pat him on the head “Hey Squiddo, is it okay if you go with Pearl and the others while me and Tsareena stay here to discuss some things? I promise not to take too long~...”

Evan smiled up at the inkling and nodded excitedly. “O-Okay!” the boy squeaked up at him excitedly before hugging the man tightly, surprising both Shogen and Tsareena. After a few seconds of hugging him, Evan would hop off of Shogen's lap and go over to Tsareena before hugging her legs a bit while smiling up at her “Nice to meet you T-Tsarina!”

“It's nice to meet you too Evan, go on and have fun with Pearl, and make sure to stay safe~” The woman smiled warmly at the boy and gave him a hug of her own, which the boy responded with a small giggle that warmed her heart.

Once the matriarch let go of the boy, Evan would wave at them both while grabbing the DS he brought with him before quickly running out of the room and closing the door behind him.

“Hahaha, I swear that boy is utterly infatuated with Pearl, he'll take any moment he can get with her.” Shogen chuckled a bit, honestly finding the boys affection for his daughter to be sweet.

Tsareena couldn't help but chuckle as well, joyful that her daughter finally had someone her age to actually spend time with wholeheartedly “Hehehe, that's good to hear, our little Pearl needed a friend her age.”

The two sat together for a few moments, simply taking in the peace before the inevitable storm that was coming. A storm that Shogen regrettably had to address first.

“...Me and Isullivan talked on Monday, about what we already discussed, as well as some more…pressing matters…” Shogen grimaced as he crossed his arms, feeling the nerves get to him a bit.

Tsareena gave him a soft look as she saw that her mate was on edge, her instincts flaring up a bit in an attempt to make her calm her mate down “And…what are those matters?…”

“I called Isullivan as I knew that eventually the government would get involved on this, and I thought that for all our sakes, it would be best to get them involved now rather than later while making sure they're on our side, or else things might go downhill later on.” Shogen looked out a window and frowned a bit.

Tsareena’s face hardened a bit as she gave Shogen a concerned look, gripping the arm rests a bit “And you're sure that there wasn't something else that could've been done rather than involve the government in on this?”

Shogen shook his head as he gripped his arms tightly “Maybe...but no matter how hard we tried, the spacecraft would've been spotted eventually, and I'm not about to have the government coming after us for withholding things of this caliber from them, so I made sure to contact the one person I knew would fight their hardest for both our safety and for Evans safety. What I underestimated was how much they would’ve wanted the kid.” he sighed and rubbed his temple a bit, remembering the conversation with his old friend “The government seems to want to get their hands on him no matter what, as even with Isullivan fighting as hard as he can for us, he was barely able to make a compromise that would be suitable for us and the boy.”

Tsareena wasn't too big of a fan of where this was going “What was the compromise?...”

“We have two options…the first option is that if we choose to keep Evan, he'll be allowed to stay with us and we'll be recognized as his guardians. In exchange Isullivan will pick him up once a month to bring him to one of their ‘hidden’ facilities so as to question him as well as run tests, with Sully’s supervision of course. Evan will also be unable to leave our estate without Sully’s permission…at least until Evan is given proper citizenship.” Shogen scoffs a bit as he frowns even more “Of course, while Sully didn't say it directly, it's clear that we'll have eyes on us probably at all times to ensure that we aren't doing anything behind their backs. Hell, we aren't allowed to mention Evan or the general situation outside of the estate…and I have a feeling that they might put our rears on a silver platter if we did speak about all this…”

“Another thing is that by going with this first option might put more eyes on us, and not just simply the government's eyes, but rather more crooked and corrupt eyes…” Tsareena spoke up while grimacing a bit as the option felt very limiting and the thought of losing a lot of their privacy was very unappealing. She didn't really feel like going with this option... “Mm…and the second option?...”

Shogen flinches a bit as he remembers the second option “The second option is pretty straightforward…if we can't unanimously agree with the first option, government officials will take him in and send him to one of their ‘hidden’ facilities, and we'll never have to worry or hear from Evan ever again…”

Tsareena flinches like her mate as the implications of what would happen to Evan in the second option send a chill down her spine “...and if we can't decide?...” “Hmph…they'll just stick with the second option and take him anyways…”

The female Houzuki looked down at her hands, gently grasping them together. She felt so bad for the boy, but she's not sure if she's willing to put her family in such a predicament for him...especially not Pearl... “Does…anyone else know?...”

Shogen shook his head as he gave her a soft smile “No…I thought that the others would've tried to guilt trip you into picking the first option. I respect and love you Reena, and I don't want you to feel forced by others into picking an option you don't truly want to do…you deserve to have a real choice in the matter.” he spoke in a warm voice, clearly showing how much he respected her genuine choices.

Tears would well up in the corners of the northern inklings eyes as she looked at her mate with nothing but pure love and affection. The ability to genuinely choose was something she's rarely experienced in life “Thank you love…that means so much to me…more than you can realize…”

In an instant, she would rush forward and hug the smaller inkling tightly, wrapping her tentacles around him as she held him close before planting a gentle kiss on his lips.

The two of them would kiss each other for a few minutes, taking in the comfort they gave to one another before finally pulling away, both inklings panting softly and blushing brightly in their respective colors.

Shogen breathed softly as he looked up at Tsareena with lovestruck eyes before smiling and continuing what he was saying earlier “Aaah…Aaah…we have about twenty four hours before we have to make the decision…”

Tsareena would smile as well as her mate leaned in and began to nuzzle her chest, causing the female to let out tiny, barely audible purrs while Shogen continued with a gentle whisper “The only thing I'll ask…is for you to at least wait twenty four hours before making your decision…to spend time with the boy so that you can see how it would be like to have him here…with us…”

Tsareena stayed quiet as she simply hugged her precious mate, silently contemplating on her choices…before finally…

“Okay…I'll wait till tomorrow to make my choice…”

Shogen smiled warmly and nuzzled her chest even more, his arms tightly hugging her.

“Thank you babe…that's all I ask~...”

Chapter Text

“All throughout my life I trudged through the night, never thinking about wrong or right~” Pearl sang as she and Kelly danced along with the music as the opening of Coral Quest played on the big screen TV in the living room. The little girl laughed and giggled in joy as she grabbed Kelly’s hand and immersed herself in the tunes of the theme song while Marl grinned and clapped lightly in the back, his claps in tune with the music.

“But everything changed as the night turned to day, when I took the leap and it brought me your way! (Yeah Yeah!)~” Pearl sang some more while ramping up her dancing as the opening escalated to more upbeat tunes “Cod I love this opening so much!!!”

Marl giggled a bit seeing how much Pearl enjoyed immersing herself in the opening as she looked so adorable doing so. His giggling caused Kelly to blush brightly and groan a little in embarrassment while she simply danced on with the young Houzuki, secretly enjoying the song and dance as well as how happy it made Pearl and Marl.

As the trio continued to immerse themselves in the opening, Evan gleefully walked into the room with the DS in hand “H-Hallo!”

Pearl quickly turned around to the sound of that one of a kind dry voice with a wide grin on her face. “Evan!” she greeted with a squeaky voice as she ran over to her first friend and hugged him tightly, getting a giggle in response from the boy “How did meeting Mama go? She's really cool right?”

The human boy nodded a bit with a big smile on his face while hugging back the small inkling girl. “Yeah, she really nice a-and pretty!” Pearl doesn't know why, but hearing him call her mother pretty made her pout slightly “Y-Yeah, you're right about that!”

Kelly sighed in relief as she took this momentary distraction to finally take a break from the dancing, already exhausted. She walked over to Marl while the kids were distracted and sat down next to him (more like collapsed next to him), causing the couch seat to launch a grinning Marl a few inches in the air before he landed back on the seat safely.

As the male teen was about to look over to her, she would press her side against his and plop her head on top of his, grumbling softly “Mmnngh…you dance with her next time…”. Marl smiled warmly and gently nuzzled the crook of her neck, getting a silent purr from Kelly as they both blushed their respective colors “Oh stop being such a baby, Pearl and I both know you love it~...”

Speaking of Pearl…

The small inkling grinned and grabbed the boy's hand as she dragged him over to one of the recliner chairs in the living room, getting a giggle out of the boy “Come on come on, I don't wanna miss out on today's episode!” “O-Okay!”

Evan was a bit surprised when she gently pushed him towards the seat, practically telling him to sit down first, which he complied. As the human boy sat down and was about to shuffle to the side so as to give her room to sit alongside him, Pearl quickly jumped up and landed on his lap “There we go, the best seat!”

Pearl purred a bit and smiled dopily as she sat on his lap and rested her back against his chest while her head was right under his chin “Aaah…this feels so right…you good Evan?”

Evan blinked at her surprise while blushing a bright red, feeling a bit flustered at how bold she was. “Y-Yeah…” he stuttered back softly as he gently hugged her close to his body, getting a soft murmur from the Houzuki princess as her tentacles gently rested on his arms, her suckers clinging to him a bit “Waaah…so warm…it's like I'm covered in the best blanket~...”

The gushing little inkling blushed a bright pink as she basically melted into his arms while smirking over to the two teens. “Yo, you two love birds better be quiet if you make out, I wanna watch the show in peace!!!” She teased them both, grinning as she saw them blush even more at her comment, yet they made no move to stop cuddling “S-Shut it brat!” “Princess…”

Evan and Pearl simply giggled at their reactions, the boy finding Pearl’s teasing to be really funny. Evan smiles and nuzzles her cool hair, making the small inkling blush even more and grin.

Just as Pearl was about to tease the teens again, she noticed that the opening was about to end and the show was gonna start “Oh oh, the episode is starting!”. She looked up at Evan ecstatically and grinned, barely containing her excitement “Oooh you're gonna love this show Evan, I just know it!”

The boy blushed even more and smiled back at her while the teens chuckled a bit at her excitement as the show proper began to play on the big screen “Cheeky little brat…calling us love birds yet look at her…” “Hehehe, they're adorable~...”
_____

Tsareena walked down the decorated halls of the mansion alongside her mate, her face a bit stern as she was thinking over the situation that they were in.

‘It’s not as if I don't care about the human…no…Evans' own dilemma, but I am not going to potentially endanger our family over a child that arrived here a week ago…despite how utterly adorable he is…’

Shogen saw the conflicted look in her eyes and understood what was going through her mind and knew that it was his job as her mate to calm her down. He smiled softly and gently patted her on the back, grabbing her attention “Hey babe, it's understandable to be worried, but you won't make an honest decision if you keep fretting over the worst all day Hun.”

The northern inkling sighed and looked down at him with a slightly apologetic look and a small smile “Apologies my dear, it just feels so…overwhelming to be put into this rather extreme situation, and only really having a day at most.”

The male Houzuki sighed in return and gave a small nod as he looked on ahead. “Yeaaaah I feel you…a single day is a pretty damn short time to make a decision, but unfortunately that's the hand we've been given, so all we can do is play by their rules…” Shogen grins widely while his hair flails a bit from the sound of a couple of characters that he's familiar with as they got close to the living room “Besides, I don't think it will be hard to see how well Evan fits in when you see him and Pearl together~”

A thought went through the male Inklings mind as he looked at his mate “Let's make a deal…if you get attached to Evan, I win and we get to keep him. If you don't feel any real bond with the boy by the end of the day, we'll give him to Isullivan. Deal?”

Tsareena raised a brow at his confidence before she began to pick up on the sounds and voices of that one that Pearl really liked, as well the excitable voice of said inkling girl, as well as the dry voice that was unique to Evan.

His mate smirked at him slightly as she crossed her arms, seemingly confident in her victory “...Deal.”
_____

“And you're sure that this is the way out of Wretch’s castle?” The Prince of the long lost kingdom of Humantia, Josh, gave Coral a skeptical look as they crawled out of a pipe.

The Octoling defector simply gave him a smirk in return as she helped the prince onto his feet “Dang straight, I promise you handsome, my memory is the sharpest around~”

“P-Please help me out you two, I-I’m stuck over here…” Kelp, the inkling deuteragonist of Coral Quest, whimpered pleadingly to Coral and Prince Josh as it appeared she was stuck in a pipe, much to the amusement of the protagonist and their love interest as well as the viewers.

Pearl giggled and smiled smugly as she laid back against Evan’s chest “Pfft, seems like instead of just getting fat like Kelly, those squid rings might go to Kelp's hips instead~...”

The green teenkling squeaked and glared at the young Houzuki “H-Hey! I ain't fat and you know it! I-I just…eat a-a bit more than I should…”

Marl smirked as he gently pats Kelly’s stomach, getting a squeak out of her as her entire face was almost green from blushing “Come on now princess, she isn't fat…but she certainly loves eating her fair share of snacks~”

As the taller teen squawked and pinned down her fellow teen, they would all hear the two sets of footsteps walk into the room, revealing that Pearl's parents have finally arrived from their talk. “Heya mama, heya papa!” Pearl grinned at them both in excitement while waving, still choosing to remain on Evans lap as she felt too comfy and relaxed to leave it.

Tsareena looked at the children in shock and surprise while Shogen simply chuckled in amusement as he walked over and patted them both on the head, getting a giggle out of the children “Hehehe, seems like you two squiddos are getting nice and cozy on the recliner.” “Hehe, Y-Yeah!” “Hmm…you bet papa…also we're not giving you back the chair, we're too comfy to leave it!”

Tsareena looked on with a conflicted look as Shogen grinned and flicked Pearl’s forehead while calling her a cheeky brat, getting a giggle and a raspberry in return which the teens and the boy laughed at “Dear…don't you think it's a little…inappropriate for Pearl to be sitting on…Evans lap?...”

Shogen, Marl, and Kelly chuckled while her mate walked over to the second couch that was in the room “Hehehe, I thought so too, but let's just say that our little princess here turned into a feisty shark when I tried pulling her away from his lap the first time. They haven't done anything inappropriate while doing so and they seem too happy to disturb. Besides…”

Shogen grinned and gestured to them as Pearl relaxed in Evan's embrace with a dopey little grin while the boy simply smiled and nuzzled the top of her head, hugging her close to him “...don't they look utterly adorable?~”

His mate gave him an unamused look with her arms crossed, but he simply smiled on. After a minute of looking at one another, Tsareena finally sighed and walked over to Shogen “Fine…but they better not push it…”

Shogen's grin softened a bit when she sat next to him as he snuggled up to her side and rested his head on her shoulder, which she responded by wrapping a few of her tentacles over his shoulders “Don't worry babe, we'll make sure to reign them in if either of them get too frisky…which will more than likely be Pearl. Besides, we have two wonderful caretakers to look after them!”

Tsareena looked over to the teens as Marl smiled back at her while Kelly smirked confidently and gave a thumbs up, the both of them still in that little cuddle pile of theirs “Don't worry Mrs. Houzuki, we'll make sure that the princess doesn't get too frisky.” “No worries bossreena, I ain't gonna let Pearl be a little perv.”

The two adults chuckled a bit at their teasing remarks while Pearl pouted and gave them an unamused look, a bright blush spreading across her cheeks from their teasing “Oh whatever…I wasn't planning on doing anything to Evan…can we please continue the show?! I don't wanna miss what happens on today's episode!”

Shogen and the teens laughed at her adorable outburst while Evan giggled and nuzzled the top of her head while hugging her close, which helped Pearl cheer up a bit as she smiled again and sighed peacefully, resting back against his chest while her tentacles wrapped around his arms.

Tsareena looked on at the two of them as her stern look from earlier softened a bit at seeing how close they were, as well as how Evan was able to calm her down and cheer her up ‘She seems so happy with him…’

The female inkling sighed softly and closed her eyes, a small smile spread across her face as everyone else enjoyed themselves while watching the show ‘...fine…I'll try to be open…’
_______________________________

One hour later

Tsareena sat alongside Pearl and Shogen at the family dining table as they basked in each other's presence.

Tsareena smiled as she pat Pearl on the head, the little inkling giggling and hugging her tightly as she sat on her lap “Aww it's been too long since we've had breakfast together my darlings…and my adorable little Pearl’s hugs are still the best in the world.” “Hehehe, thanks mama!” “Hey, what about my hugs?!”

The family of three laughed a bit as they spent time together by themselves, something Tsareena missed quite a bit while she was on her trip.

Tsareena looked over to Shogen, a curious look in her eyes as she had something in mind “Tell me love, where is Evan at currently?”

“Oh he's currently helping Kelly and Marl make breakfast in the kitchen.” Her mate responded as relaxed in his chair with a small smile on his face.

“Evan can cook? That's a surprise…a child that young?...” Tsareena asked in a mix of skepticism and surprise before Shogen shook his head “Oh no, he's not too good at that right now. He helps them by getting ingredients that they ask for as well as gathering plates or any kitchenware. Just doing anything he can to help them out.”

Tsareena gave him a surprised look as she absentmindedly played with Pearl’s hair, getting a giggle out of the girl “Oooh…that's…actually very kind and considerate of the boy…does he help out in any other way?”

Shogen nodded to the question as his smile widened a bit “You bet babe, he helps out Marl and Kelly with all sorts of chores. Seems like he's very insistent on helping out whenever he can.”

“He even helps me with my homework! He's the best mama!” Pearl squeaked up excitedly with her arms spread wide in excitement, always eager to praise her friend.

All Tsareena could do was look at them both in pleasant surprise “Oh…what a helpful young boy…who would've thought…”

“Certainly more helpful than our own spoiled little princess!~” “H-Hey!” Shogen laughed and caught Pearl as she squeaked and jumped at him, pouting at him and playfully bashing her balled up hands against Shogen's chest.

Tsareena looked at the two of them in amusement as they wrestled for a bit, her daughter calling him a jerk, before the three of them heard the door open as Marl, Kelly, and Evan walked into the room. Evan held the door open for the teens as Kelly rolled in a small catering cart towards the table while Marl brought in his own catering cart as well.

Marl walked over to the table and presented the cart as it was topped with plates of food before he began to take the plates and place them on the table “Breakfast is served Mr. and Mrs. Houzuki, I hope you enjoy it.”

Kelly walked over with her own cart topped with glasses full of different kinds of beverages and utensils afterwards and placed it next to the table “And I've got the drinks and utensils right here.”

Evan closes the kitchen door soon after and quickly walks over to the table as well with an excited grin on his face as he holds in his hands several napkins “A-And napkins h-here!”

Shogen and the Teens chuckled at how excited he was to help while Pearl grinned and waved at the boy. Tsareena looked on at the human with wide eyes and a small blush as all that coursed through her mind was…

‘Cod he's so cute…’

She was snapped out of her funk from Evan gently shaking her arm with one hand and holding out a couple napkins for her to take “N-Napkin?”

She blinked a bit at his innocent question as he looked up at her with a wide grin and a gleam in his eyes. She smiled warmly at the boy and gently took the napkins from the boy before gently booping him on the nose, getting a giggle out of the boy “Thank you Evan, that's very sweet of you.”

Shogen looked on with a small smile while helping Marl set the plates on the table, happy to see that she was slowly starting to get closer and closer to the boy and opening up to him.

After several minutes of placing the plates and utensils and serving drinks to each one of them (as well as Evan handing out napkins like an adorable goober), they all finally sat down together. Tsareena at the head of the table, Shogen to her right and Pearl to her left, Evan next to Pearl, Marl next to Shogen, and Kelly next to Marl.

Tsareena smiled warmly at her gathered family (she practically considered Marl and Kelly as family) and guest “Aah…it feels like it's been too long since I could sit down with you all in such a casual manner…my family can be too uptight and restrictive for my liking, so being able to relax with you all is a welcomed change. Now then…how about we…as Shogen would say it, ‘dig in’?”

Everyone gave a small cheer as they grabbed their utensils and began to eat their breakfast, with the older folks conversing with one another.
____

Evan was feeling pretty great at the moment as he chewed on a couple berries on his plate, making a delighted sound at the taste. It might be simple fruit, but it still tasted so sweet to him.

The boy hummed softly from feeling Pearl gently shake his right arm, likely wanting his attention. He looked over to her with a curious look while she gave him in turn a small grin before she whispered softly “Yo Evan, watch this…”

Pearl grabbed one of the grapes on her plate while giving the boy a smug look before flicking it into the air with her thumb, right into her open mouth. She chewed on the grape before swallowing it as she looked at Evan as if she did the coolest thing ever “Pretty cool, I know~”

Evan on the other hand was pleasantly surprised and impressed as he grinned at the small inkling “Ooh, Pearl c-cool! M-Me try!...”

While Pearl flinches a little at his dry voice trying to whisper in Inklish, Evan grabs one of his berries and tries to mimic what she did, only to squeak a bit in surprise as it instead bounced off his forehead and landed on his lap. Pearl giggled silently at his goof up as she grabbed another one of her grapes “Hehehe, you put too much force ya dork, here, this is how you do it~...”

She does the trick once more, the grape landing directly into her mouth like before as she chewed on it, the boy looking at her attentively “Mmm…nom…there, now you try it again, but this time, with a little less oomph…”

Evan nodded as he grabbed the berry from his lap and went to do the same thing, but making sure to follow her instructions. Pearl looked on giddily as Evan followed her example perfectly, the berry now heading straight for his mouth instead of his forehead.

Everything was going well…except, instead of catching it and eating it like she did, he was too focused on having the berry land in his mouth. The berry landed on the back of his throat and rolled down his esophagus.

Evan's eyes widened a bit as he felt it enter his throat before instinctively coughing and choking on the small fruit while grabbing his throat. Pearl's eyes widened in fear as she quickly stood up from her seat and went over to him quickly “Evan!”

The older inklings looked over at the commotion and saw that Evan was seemingly choking on something while Pearl was hugging him from the back and squeezing him periodically, her own amateur attempt at the heimlich maneuver.

““““Evan!”””” The adults and teens shouted in panic as they stood up from their seats to try and help the boy, although thankfully by the time they all took a single step, Pearl successfully helped Evan cough out the berry, which landed on the table.

Evan continued to cough, trying his best to cover his mouth with a napkin while the grown ups went over to his side to check up on him. Shogen was the first to reach his side as he kneeled beside him and gently patted his back along with Pearl who followed his example “Evan, are you okay? Can you breathe?”

The human boy’s coughing finally let up after a small moment of Shogen patting his back, now replaced with soft panting as the boy looked at the others with a grateful look “Aaah…yeah…thank…Aaah…you…”

The inklings began to calm down and let out small sighs of relief knowing that the boy wasn't in any danger now. Kelly frowned at the young boy while gently pulling his ear, getting a grimace out of the human “Ya had us scared like a longfin Ev’, what were you even doing to almost take you off the census?”

Pearl flinched a bit at hearing one of her caretakers ask her friend that question, deciding that she wanted to answer on his behalf. “I..-” “I-I ate t-to quick!” The boy cheerfully cut her off as he lied to them about what actually happen, surprising Pearl a bit.

Kelly, Marl, and Shogen all gave him unamused looks while he simply kept on grinning up at them. After several seconds of them staring at the boy, the three of them chuckled a bit at how the boy can keep on smiling despite what happened to him a minute prior. “Geez ya little dork, don't worry us like that~” Kelly grins as she gently and playfully bonked Evan on the noggin while Shogen smirked and pat him on the back “Hehehe, how about you take your time eating your food instead of trying to scarf it all down like a starving salmonid?”

As Marl gently helped Evan back on his seat and tidy up his spot at the table so that they can resume eating, the boy would look at Pearl with a small smile and give her a sneaky wink, which the girl responded with a wide grin of her own ‘Thanks for covering for me Evan~’

What the two children failed to realize was that Tsareena had seen parts of what happened in the corner of her eye. The mother looked on with a soft look on her face and a small smile as she saw even more how close the two of them were, her heart warming slightly at seeing Evan willing to cover for Pearl even when he shouldn't need to do so (she was still a little upset with her daughter for not trying to stop him, but she can deal with that in private), and she even began to feel a little protective of the boy as well. ‘Oh dear…I'm definitely going to have to teach that boy when to say no to Pearl’s antics…wait…what am I thinking?!’ The snow queen thought to herself as a bright blush spread across her face at how she was already seemingly getting so attached to the boy that she was already planning on teaching him several things. That just won't do at all, she can't get too attached to the boy…C-Can she?
_______________________________

Marl and Kelly stood outside by a tree near the mansion as they looked on and saw Evan and Pearl playing tag in the open field. Marl smiled warmly at the sight of the children laughing and giggling, so carefree with no worry in sight while they played in the mid-day “Cod…they're so adorable playing together…they remind me so much of my little brother and sisters.”

Kelly smiled softly at sight of Evan catching Pearl as she was about to trip before the two of them began to giggle a bit as the young inkling hugged the young human “Yeah they're pretty cute…and I'm honestly glad that Evan’s around, means that the little brat won't be pulling on my hair as often anymore.”

Marl chuckled a bit at his close friends comment as he sees Evan kneeling down a bit as Pearl began to play with the boy's hair “Hehehe, you say that in a way that makes it seem as if you hate it, but I know dang well that you love spending time with Pearl. You two really act like sisters~”

Kelly shrugged in response as she and Marl sat in the shade of the tree, overlooking the playful children “Eeh I guess so, it's the first time I've felt so fond of a little squiddo, outside of your little brother and sisters when I came over to visit back then, but ultimately they're your siblings, not mine. Being a single child meant that I never really grew up knowing what having a sibling was like, so…I guess spending time with Pearl and roughing out with her like two proper females kinda feels…nice ya know? Feels pretty fulfilling…”

Marl’s warm smile became even warmer from Kelly's comment as Evan and Pearl were sitting on the ground and looking at what appeared to be a beetle as the boy picked it up and looked at it in awe. “I get what you mean…despite how much trouble Sal, Maya, and Glin can be…I love them all to death, and those two over there are no different~” the male teen pointed at the kids as Pearl looked closer at the beetle in awe before yelping as the beetle began to flap its wings, making the boy giggle as he let go of the bug which flew off.

Kelly's own smile widened a bit as she felt Marl’s head gently rest on her shoulder once more while he gently pressed his body against hers. The two of them laid there while looking on as the two kids played in the field, laughing and giggling to their heart's content. The teens blushed their respective colors as Kelly slowly rested her head on top of Marls while one of her tentacles gently wrapped around his waist to pull him close to her.

Everything just felt…so right in the world for the two teens. Life was just so perfect right now…by each other's side.

Meanwhile in the mansion, Tsareena looked out the window with a warm look in her eyes as she saw the two caretakers holding each other's hands while cuddling so adorably “Those two are just too cute…”

Shogen looked on at the scene with a soft smile of his own as he hugged his mate from behind while resting his head on her shoulder “I need those two to actually be a couple asap, it's driving me a little crazy seeing them be all romantic and yet act like they're only friends…”

Tsareena chuckles softly at his comment as she lays her head gently on top of his “Now now dear, they'll get there in time…no need to rush such an adorable pair~”

Her mate grinned while blushing a bright pink, tightening the hug even more “Speaking of pairs…aren't those little goobers just the cutest ever?”

She looked over to where he was pointing at, seeing Evan laying down and breathing deeply on the grass while Pearl rested her head on his chest, her eyes seemingly wide as she appeared to be listening to his hearts beating.

Tsareena’s smile widened a bit as she had seen how the two of them had been playing around, happy and carefree. She had never seen Pearl be this…eager to play, not even with Kelly and Marl.

“I…guess she really needed to bond with someone her age…” she whispered softly as she saw Evan giggling and booping Pearl on the nose, who was still listening to his beating chest with a look of awe. Shogen gently nuzzles the crook of her neck, beginning to notice the change in Tsareena's tone “Like a friend?...”

Tsareena’s smile widened a bit as she gently nuzzled the top of his head while giving a small kiss to her mate “Mm…like a friend~...”
_______________________________

The sun began to set on the Houzuki Estate, the inhabitants occupied in their own way.

Tsareena walked down the halls of the mansion towards her daughter's room, looking to inform Pearl and Evan that dinner was going to be ready soon.

The matriarch hummed peacefully as she thought over what the two of them may be doing while she was heading towards the room ‘Hmm…they're probably playing with Pearl's toy collection, she always seems eager to show them off to almost anyone…’

She wouldn't have to think about it for long as she arrived at the closed door of her daughter's room. As she was about to knock on the door, she felt her curiosity get the better of her, wanting to know what the children were doing behind closed doors before knocking on the door.

‘Sorry for the invasion of privacy dear, Mama just wants to make sure you two aren't doing anything inappropriate…’ she thought to herself before slowly opening the door slightly and peaking in. Tsareena looked around the room trying to find the children before spotting them both by Pearl’s bed sitting right next to each other.

Pearl was smiling so cheerfully as she had a picture book opened up while Evan looked over at it with wide eyes full of curiosity. “This is a jellyfish, they’re very squishy and funny looking~” her daughter informed Evan as she was showing him the pictures in the book while the boy looked over her shoulder at said book.

Tsareena smiled warmly at the sight of her daughter seemingly teaching the boy about their world. It warmed her heart to see her daughter wanting to help the boy out in her own ways, while also having fun teaching him ‘Such a sweet girl…if a bit brash and loud~’

The mother closes the door once more while collecting her thoughts on what she saw “Pearl really wants to help him so much…what a sweetheart~...”

Remembering what she was here for, she gently knocks on the door while gently calling for them “Come on out children, dinner is almost done~”

Tsareena heard excited squeaks and quick little footsteps getting closer to the door before it opened up. Evan smiles eagerly as he opens the door for Pearl, who quickly rushes over to her mother with an excited grin before running in circles around her “Food food food!”

Pearl's mother giggled a bit at their adorable excitement as she gently grabbed both of their hands and began guiding them to the dining room “Hehehe, well aren't you two just the most excitable bundles of joy? How about you two tell me how much fun you've had this entire day while we walk to the dining room?”

As the children recounted how great their day had been from spending time together, Tsareena couldn't help but smile warmly at how happy and excited they were, how well their energy bounced off from one another.

She felt so happy being able to spend time with both of them, her heart warming at the sight of Evan’s smile as much as it did seeing Pearl’s own smile.

Tsareena's eyes saddened for a split second as a thought went through her mind that cracked at her doubts.

‘It would be so sad to see these two apart…’
_______________________________

The moon hangs high in the night sky as Tsareena gently held a tired Evan in her arms while Shogen carried a tired Pearl in his own arms. The two of them were walking down one of the halls of the mansion towards Pearl's room.

Tsareena looked on at her mate with a conflicted look in her eyes while blushing that ice blue of hers as Evan nuzzled her neck and murmured tiredly “Are you sure that it's okay to let the two of them sleep in the same bed? Isn't that a bit inappropriate?...”

Shogen chuckled softly at her concerned comment as Pearl yawned softly and nuzzled his neck “Hehe…I thought about that at first as well, but after seeing the two of them cuddling together so adorably and how peacefully Pearl slept with him, I didn't have it in me to separate them. I honestly can't blame Pearl either, I imagine Evan must feel so incredible to cuddle with given his warmth.”

Tsareena couldn't help but agree as she was currently feeling nothing but absolute bliss from carrying such a warm bundle of joy, causing her to blush even more “I…guess I agree to an extent…I’m just worried that either of them might try doing something they shouldn't…”

Her mate nodded in understanding as they arrived at the door to Pearl's room “I agree, that's why as they get older, we'll have them sleep in different rooms, but for now, it shouldn't be problematic to have them both sleep together.”

The snow queen hesitantly nodded to his idea as she opened the door for them and let her mate enter first “I…guess so…also…you're acting as if I agreed to the compromise yet…”

As the two adults entered the room and closed the door behind them, Shogen gave her a smug look as he walked over to the bed and gently laid Pearl on the bed “Hm…we'll see~...”

Their daughter whimpered softly and tiredly reached out to Evan, making adorable grabbing motions with her little hands “Hmm…cold…Evan…”

Tsareena shuddered a bit as she tried her best to contain a silent squeal at seeing how utterly adorable her little Pearl was being ‘Goodness…I still can't believe Shogen and I spawned such an adorable little princess…’

Evan responded to Pearl's whimpers by smiling tiredly and gently reaching out for her in turn “It…o-okay Pearl…me…here…”

Tsareena silently walked over to the bed and gently (and begrudgingly) set Evan down right next to Pearl, her daughter immediately latching on to him while letting out an utterly adorable squeak of joy as she nuzzled Evan, who simply returned the favor by gently hugging her back and cooing softly.

The parents both teared up and bit their fingers in an attempt to stop themselves from letting out a loud coo at the utterly adorable sight before. “Cod…t-they're too cute…” Shogen whimpered out as it took so much strength to hold back from awwing at them.

The adults took a second to compose themselves, sighing softly as they finally gained control of themselves.
_____

Evan mewl'd softly as he felt himself on the border of falling asleep, relaxed as he felt Pearl hug him so tightly while one of her tentacles was lazily draped over his chest “Hmm…Pearlie…”

Said inkling coo'd softly while nuzzling him, her embrace tightening a bit as even one of her legs was draped over him “Mmm…Evan...”

The boy tiredly saw Pearl’s papa walk over to them and begin gently planting kisses on each of their foreheads, getting tired giggles out of the two children “Mwah…goodnight squiddos…mwah…I'll see you both tomorrow morning~...”

As Shogen stepped away from the bed, Evan saw Pearl's mama step close to them and begin to do the same as Shogen. She gently places small kisses onto each one of their foreheads while gently rubbing their cheeks with a soft hand “Mwah…goodnight Pearl…mwah…goodnight Evan…I'll be here to protect you…always…”

As Tsareena said that one phrase, a memory plays out in Evan's tired mind…
_____

A battered and bruised woman with dirty auburn hair and bright amber eyes gently held Evan in her shaking arms, looking down at him with nothing but pure love in her eyes “Oh Evan…I'm so sorry mama isn't able to give you more…but just know that she loves you so very much…”

The woman in dirty clothes laid against one of the walls in the alley way, her side pressed against a dumpster as she cradled Evan, who felt much smaller in the memory. She let out a shaky sigh as she weakly nuzzled Evan and whispered softly “Goodnight baby…mama promises to be there for you…I’ll be here to protect you…always…”
_____

Evan felt a small tear in the corner of his eyes as he tiredly nuzzled the palm of Tsareena’s hand, whispering in a quiet voice as sleep finally took over him “Goodnight…mama…”
_____

Tsareena's eyes widened and dilated in pure shock at hearing Evan call her mama while also seeing tears in the corners of his eyes. She felt her hearts flutter as something in her mind melted away…and she had an idea what it was.

The mother teared up slightly and smiled warmly at the young boy as he continued to nuzzle her hand. She had been trying so hard to be somewhat distant so that she wouldn't feel too attached when she decided to hand him over to Isullivan, but now…

She can't bear the thought of him being taken away…“Not my child…”

Shogen looked on at the interaction between the two with a warm smile across his face, his hearts set ablaze at the loving sight of Tsareena's newfound love for the boy.

After a minute of seeing his mate practically clinging to the boy in a protective manner, he would gently pat her on the back and whisper to her softly “Come on babe…let's let the two sleep in peace~...”

Tsareena begrudgingly stepped away from the two children, standing by her mates side as she looked over them, her hearts fluttering even more as Pearl gently got on top of Evan and began to nuzzle his hair fuzz “They're just…so precious…”

Her mate gently wrapped an arm around her waist and rested his head on her shoulder, his hair gently wrapping around one of her arms “I agree Hun, but it's time that we let them sleep peacefully~...”

As Tsareena was guided out of the room by her mate, all she could do was look back at the children with a loving look in her eyes “Goodnight you two…Mama loves you so much…”

Shogen and Tsareena exited the room and closed the door behind them before walking away, heading towards their own room. As the two simply basked in each other's presence, Shogen smirked slightly and looked up at her “Hmm…well babe…seems like I won~...”

Her eyes widened a bit as she looked down at Shogen in surprise. Slowly, that surprise turned to annoyance, and then finally to acceptance as she smiled back at him “Hmph…jerk~...”

It seems that he did win in the end…

Chapter Text

Isullivan stood in front of the unknown spacecraft that his department had picked up from the Houzuki estate on monday, watching and observing it's sleek black and red metal surface, trying to understand it's inner workings. He let out a quiet groan as the frustrations he had felt this entire week of trying to crack it open began to surge through him once more. After nearly a week of failed attempt after failed attempt…nothing…

“Kiku…has ANY progress been made towards cracking this thing open?...” The isopod asked the inkling wearing a scientist's coat right next to him.

Kiku, a female inkling with dark purple hair with two long tentacles at her side, slightly pale and soft skin, and standard inkling eyes with purple irises, looked up at him somewhat nervously before going through her notes “Unfortunately sir…not really…outside of some basic superficial scans and readings when we first obtained the craft, nothing we do has proven effective…”

The shorter than normal inkling looked towards the machine, analyzing its cold, sleek outer layer that felt like it was mocking their efforts in trying to uncover its inner workings “We've tried many different methods in trying to disassemble it, but none of them have worked even the slightest. From simpler, more delicate methods to brute force ideas, all prove ineffective…we’ve thought about using a top of the line stingray to try and maybe pierce part of it to give us an opening…but after thinking it over and running the math, not only would that be risky and a bit stupid, but going off of the calculations, even the most potent stingrays wouldn't even dent or scratch it. The worst part is that there's something preventing us from doing a deep scan of the craft, so we don't even know what's on the inside of the craft.”

Isullivan groaned softly as he rubbed his chitinous face, feeling more and more annoyed at the wall him and his department were facing “Uuugh…and you're certain that there is no way to dismantle this thing without damaging it?...”

Kiku frowned a bit as she went over to the craft and gently touched one of the spider-like mechanical legs. “As of this moment? No unfortunately…it's almost as if the craft is all just one solid piece of metal, but we know that's not the case based off of its tripod stand.” the inkling sighed again and lightly smacked the leg she was touching “Damn thing doesn't want us to crack it open…if this is truly of human making, then they are nowhere near as dumb as previous studies were led to believe… there's just no other way.”

Isullivan remained quiet as he simply observed the spacecraft once more, taking in the almost alien like nature of it. It's clear that this thing was decades…no, more like centuries ahead of every country in the known world combined. Hell, if the Octarians are still around, this would probably put their stuff to shame.

The isopod let out a quiet sigh as he simply rubbed the top of his chitinous head while looking at the short inkling “Well…you and your team will just have to continue trying to find a way to disassemble the craft. The old heads are gonna have our asses if we don't get results soon.”

Kiku looked towards him with a wide grimace, afraid of what the old coots in the other departments and above would say or do if they didn't give them the results they wanted “We'll try our best sir…but I don't think we can guarantee much…”

Isullivan nodded and gave her the softest look that he could, which is a bit hard given his locked face “I understand…that's all I can ask of you and your team…I'm afraid our best bet will be Evan’s cooperation…speaking of Evan…”

The tall isopod pulled back the suit sleeve of his upper left arm slightly, revealing a high quality watch on it. The time read as 6:53 AM “It’s best that I get going to the Houzuki estate now if I wish to arrive on time.”

“I'll see you later today.” “Take care boss.”;Isullivan nodded to Kiku, who nodded back at him with a tired smile, before turning around and walking out of the large containment room. While walking down the halls of the hidden facility that the spacecraft was taken to, the agent thought about the upcoming meeting with Shogen and Tsareena, and he hoped that they had unanimously decided on one of the options ‘While my superiors would prefer if they go with option 2, for the kids sake, I really hope they go with option 1 instead.’

While the inkling and the isopod were busy conversing with one another, they had both failed to spot a small miniscule light emanating from above the logo plastered on the craft.
_____

I stood before a holographic display of the room that the craft was in, watching the exchange the entire time

I frowned and scoffed at their disrespect towards their superiors “Mmmph…so these disgusting Aquarians are trying to crack open his capsule…a meaningless endeavor…as well as flagrant blasphemy.”
_______________________________

Shogen had a small smile spread across his face as he was close to finishing helping his beautiful mate put on her clothes this morning “Aaaand…there, all set babe.”

Tsareena let out a small sigh of relief from finally finishing getting ready for the meeting. She walked over to the large standing mirror in their bedroom as she looked all over herself, wanting to make sure that she looked presentable “Hmm…thank you my dear Shogen, it can be a hassle putting on these dresses by myself.”

She looked over to her mate and gave him a warm smile before leaning down slightly and giving him a gentle kiss on the lips, which he eagerly reciprocated.

After nearly a minute of the two of them making out, they would slowly pull away from one another while lovingly staring into each other's eyes and blushing their respective colors, letting out soft, quiet breaths.

Shogen finally cleared his throat quietly as he smirked up at her with half lidded eyes “So my fair, beautiful lady…are you ready to meet up with Sully? He should be here pretty soon.”

“Hehehe, of course my adorable little Shogen…let's not be tardy now~...” Tsareena purred softly as she gently grasped his right hand and began to walk with him out of the room, one of her tentacles gently wrapping around his waist.

The male Houzuki's blush brighten even more as they walked down the elegant halls of the mansion towards the front door so as to wait for Isullivan's arrival.

While on the way towards the door, Tsareena gently fiddled with Shogen's suit with her available hand, making sure to smoothen it out and help him appear presentable as well. Her mate chuckled a bit as he held her hand tightly. “Hehe, geez babe, you love grooming me nearly as much as Judd likes to groom himself.” Tsareena playfully scoffs as she finishes up on his suit “Hmph, I'm just making sure my little mate is as clean as possible. No proper inkling is gonna leave their mate looking like a mess, it wouldn't be ‘Fresh’ as you people of the south say.”

As the two of them laughed and playfully bickered to one another after arriving at the front door, they would hear a car pulling towards the front area of the mansion. Shogen looks up at her with a slightly nervous smile “Well Hun, that's our cue.”

His mate nodded with a soft smile as she opened the door and both walked out so as to greet the isopod. Speaking of the isopod…

Isullivan parked the car by the sidewalk leading up to the house and unbuckled his seatbelt before opening the driver's side door. The agent grunted a bit as he got out of the car, still a bit annoyed that the car wasn’t completely built for his size, making it feel a bit cramped and bothersome for long rides.

Once he closes the door to his sleek black car while bringing with him a briefcase, he notices the cute inkling couple standing in front of the door to the Houzuki mansion, looking over to him with warm smiles and beaming eyes full of warmth.

“Hello Isullivan~” “Heya Sully!” Tsareena and Shogen greeted and waved at Isullivan with their free hands as they were still holding hands. The isopod chuckled a bit as he walks over to them after locking his car, amused at how nonchalant they can be sometimes while still expressing their love “hehe…good morning Shogen and Tsareena, seems like even after all this time, you two are still as lovey dovey as always.”

Tsareena smiled and blushed her icy blue while Shogen grinned and blushed a bit as well. “Yeaaah well, when you end up with that perfect someone, it's kinda hard not to be head over heels for them even after many years~” Shogen responded to his old friend, getting a small coo out of his mate, and a small chuckle out of Isullivan as well “Hehehe, I can definitely see that, especially with that little tentacle wrapped around your waist. You two are making me a little jealous honestly.”

“Aww Isullivan, we didn't mean to upset you…have you really not being able to find a partner after all this time?...” Tsareena asked him in a sad voice with a look that fit her sorrow for her friend while Shogen flinched and looked away a bit “S-Sorry about that Sully…”. The isopod laughed and waved his middle right hand in dismissal “Hahaha, no worries you two, I was just messing around. I'm not too worried about finding a mate at the moment, my job has been keeping me too busy for something like that and I'm not too interested in love right now after that whole debacle with Isandra.”

Tsareena and Shogen’s regretful looks turned to venomous glares and snarls as memories from close to a decade ago rang through their mind. “That wretched whore…you should've let me give her a proper splatting for daring to betray you like that…” the female inkling hissed with pure venom in her voice while mate scoffed at the memory of Isullivan's old love interest “Tch…damn bitch nearly got us all killed after ratting you out to Dark Carapace…”

If isopods could sweat, Isullivan would be doing so right now as he was given a reminder of how aggressive and spiteful inklings can be if their families or friends were threatened “I-It's alright you two…that was nearly ten years ago…I've already moved on from all of that and am living a better life now. Anyways…maybe we should go inside and talk about the deal in private.”

The two mates snapped out of their hateful haze at the mention of the main reason for the visit. “R-Right, how about we talk things out in one of the guest rooms? That way we can have some privacy from the others.” Shogen suggests to his old friend while Tsareena smiles and nods along, agreeing to the plan.

The agent nodded in agreement, thinking that the suggestion was a fine idea “Yes, that would be much appreciated, I would rather not have to involve more people than necessary.”

Tsareena’s smile widened while Shogen grinned cheerfully, glad that they could agree on that “Sweet, guest room it is! Well, come in then Sully, you're our guest.”

If Isullivan could smile, he would be doing so at this moment as the inkling pair stepped aside for him so as to let him in, which he obliged. He really did miss these two.
_______________________________

Evan hummed and grinned happily as he laid in a clear open field that stretched onto the horizon beneath the bright sun. The boy sighed peacefully with closed eyes as he basked in the golden rays of the great star in the sky, warmth and peace flowing through his very being. This was his heaven…

Wait…why was it getting dark?...

The boy quickly opened his eyes to see that there was a giant white blanket with streaks of pink slowly falling down from the sky and down to him. He yelped in surprise as he was suddenly engulfed by the soft, comfy, and ever so slightly wet blanket.

He blinked and stayed still for a bit as he took in the feeling of the blanket. It felt…so nice…and smelled really good too…he really liked it…although now it was making it hard for him to breathe. The boy groaned softly as he felt his lungs begin to hurt.
_____

Evan grumbled softly as he opened his eyes slightly, seeing nothing but darkness while something laid on top of him. The boy was confused as to what could be on top of him until he heard that unique and cute snoring as well as his hair being a bit wet. Seems like Pearl is sleeping on top of him again, her chest right on top of his face.

The human gave a tired smile as he gently pats Pearl's back, getting a small little grumble from the small inkling, before gently trying to move her off of him “Mm…C-Come on…Pearl…”

The sleeping Pearl let out a whimper as she clung to him weakly, desperately trying to keep cuddling him in her sleep, but Evan eventually was able to move his friend off of his face and to his side instead, freeing himself a bit. The boy gave her a groggy smile as she now started to grumble slightly in her sleep while pouting “S-Sowwy Pearl…”

Evan slowly sat up on the bed, lazily looking at one of the walls while his tired brain slowly woke itself up after his abrupt awakening from a faceful of Pearl’s pajama shirt. The boy lazily stretched and yawned while feeling himself beginning to wake up more and more as his brain became more active.

He looked over to Pearl, who was still pouting in her sleep from losing her snuggle buddy, and giggled a bit at how funny she looked while pouting. He smiles a bit and gently caresses one of her tentacles, getting a small purr from the little inkling while her pouting face eases a bit, not as upset as before.

After several minutes of sitting in bed and comforting his friend, Evan quietly jumps down from the bed and adjusts his messy pajamas a bit. “Alright…time to go brush my teeth…” the boy whispered to himself in english as he walked over to the door and opened it slowly, not wanting to wake Pearl up from her slumber. Once the door was opened enough, the boy walked out of the room and quietly closed the door behind him, catching a small glimpse of Pearl's sleeping form before the door fully shut.

Evan smiled and blushed a fair bit as the memory of Pearl's sleeping face flashed through his mind while he walked down the decorated halls towards the bathroom “So pretty…”
_____

Evan hummed a small tune as he stared at the mirror before him while brushing his teeth, making sure to be thorough like Marl insisted.

As the boy brushes his teeth, he reminisces about his time here ‘Hmmm…the people here…inklings from what I read and heard…are all really kind and sweet, if a little weird looking hehe. They aren't people…or at least not people like me and the man in my memories. What was an I again? Oh right, human! I wonder where the other humans are at? Why was I brought here?...’

Evan looked at the mirror for a long moment before shrugging a bit and smiling as he finished brushing his teeth, spitting the paste into the sink bowl before turning on the water “Eh, I'll ask them another time, I'm not too worried about that right now. Besides, my mind keeps drawing blanks”

Once he finished rinsing his mouth as well as cleaning up the sink area and his brush, he walked out of the bathroom and closed the door behind him “Now then…I could really go for a glass of water!”

With his mind set on what he wanted to do, he hummed happily down the hallway once more, wanting to go to the kitchen so as to get that glass he wanted.
_______________________________

The three adults settled down on their seats around the small table within one of the large guest rooms, each of them feeling a little bit nervous about the upcoming discussion over the fate of the human child that had arrived about a week ago.

Isullivan gently set his briefcase down on top of the table while smoothening out his suit, helping him calm down a bit. Shogen and Tsareena on the other hand sat next to one another, holding each other's hands as their hearts fluttered nervously over the upcoming discussions.

Isullivan coughed a bit so as to clear his voice as he sat straight in his seat, looking at his friends with a calm look. “Now then, I think it's fitting that we have a small reminder of the compromise before we move forward. Would that be alright with the both of you?” the isopod asked the couple, who responded with small nods “Good.”

“To recap, as a compromise with the higher ups in the government, there are two options when it comes to Evan's future. Option 1, if both of you accept Evan into your home and become his legal guardians, he will be permitted to stay here. With this option, I will come pick up Evan once a month so as to take him to one of the government facilities so that we may run tests and question him, and of course I will be supervising these tests and questions so as to ensure his safety and well being. On top of all this Evan will not be allowed to leave the Houzuki Estate without my permission until he is given proper citizenship.” Isullivan listed the first option to them as the couple nod, understanding fully what the option entailed before he continued “Option 2, if both of you agree to this option, are split between this option and the first, are indecisive, or are unable to make a decision within the allotted time, me and my department will take him in and send him to one of our facilities, and you two will never have to hear or worry about him again. Of course, this also means that all of you will keep everything that's happened this week to yourselves as well. We can't afford to have this information leaking out.”

Isullivan took a moment so that the two of them could process all of this and properly take in the information once more, even if they both already knew this. After a few seconds of silence, the isopod spoke up once more “Now that we're clear on the options, have the two of you come to a decision of which option you wish to go with?”

Shogen and Tsareena looked into each other's eyes while gripping each other's hands tightly. They both knew the choice they would go through, even if it might come with its downsides.

The couple looked back at Isullivan with determined smiles as Shogen spoke up “We may have only known the boy for a short while, but he's practically one of us now. We would hate to see him go, and we couldn't even begin to imagine how devastated Pearl would be to lose her first and only friend.”

Isullivan calmly stared at Shogen, his antennas moving a bit as he realizes what option they were going with. “So that means…” “Yes, we'll go through with the first option.” he was cut off by Tsareena as the female inkling confirmed his thoughts.

Isullivan gave a small chuckle and nodded as he began to open his briefcase “While my superiors would have preferred you had gone with the second option, I'm actually relieved that the of you are willing to take the boy in. While we wouldn't have tortured and dissected the boy, not on my watch, being stuck in a lab and tested on for likely the rest of his life is not something I would ever want a child to go through. You two are doing the right thing in my eyes.” “W-Well w-we’re just…” “I-It’s just that…”

While the couple blushed and stuttered a bit, Isullivan opened the briefcase and pulled out some legal documents from within and placed them on the small table before moving the papers towards them. The couple snapped out of their flustered state and looked down at the papers he pushed to their side as he began pointing at the part they had to sign “I just need you two to sign your names here and you two will be set. Of course I recommend you two read through it all to ensure you two know what you're getting yourselves into, but rest assured it is ultimately just what I brought up before.”

The couple grimaced and nodded a bit as they begrudgingly began to read through it all. What a bore…
_______________________________

“Stupid confusing hallways…I don't even know where I am now…” Evan grumbled quietly to himself while pouting slightly, annoyed at how large the mansion was and how hard it was to navigate without someone to guide him.

The boy had spent the last several minutes trying to find the way to the kitchen so as to get a glass of water, but instead of doing that, he has now gotten lost in the halls of the Houzuki mansion “Grrr…I should've stayed with Pearl and cuddled with her until she woke up…Huh?...”

The human stopped his groaning as he heard the voices of Pearl's mama and papa coming from a closed door, as well as a third voice. Evan raised an eyebrow at hearing a third voice coming from the same rooms as the adults “Who could that…”

Evan's eyes widened a bit as he realized that the third voice was the big bug man he saw back in the first day. The boy whimpered a bit and stepped back a little, still a bit intimidated by the memory of the bug man.

As he was about to turn around and walk away, he thought back to the day he had met the bug man. While the bug man was very scary looking, he had never done anything to hurt Evan and even tried to help calm him down a bit when he panicked. Then, he remembered one important detail from when they first met…the sad look on the bug man's face when the boy screamed in panic.

Evan frowned a bit to himself while looking down to the ground, realizing that he had treated the bug man as if he was a monster and hurt his feelings, despite the bug man never doing anything to hurt him “I…was a jerk to him…”

The human looked up from the ground with a soft and determined look as he began walking towards the door “I need to apologize to him…it wasn't fair of me to treat him like a monster…”

The boy goofily puffed up his chest and cheeks before moving forward towards the door ready to open it.
_______________________________

“Then as a few of my agents and I went over to his room to check up on him as we hadn't seen him all day and were getting worried, next thing we see when we opened the door was the bastard cosplaying as the villain from that Humboldt Gals' game series in front of his mirror stand hahahaaa!” Isullivan practically shouted and laughed to Shogen and Tsareena as the couple laughed at the conclusion of the story he had been telling them.

“Hahahahaaaa! Brother was actually trying out his splatoween costume during a work day?!” Shogen questioned Isullivan while laughing up a storm, the isopod spreading his arms in turn “That's what I'm saying! Splatoween wasn't coming for several weeks by then, why are you so worried about the costume?!”

The three adults continued to laugh together for a bit, soaking in the joyful environment in the room that they all have been enjoying for several minutes after finishing up business with the agent. Tsareena sighed after a long bout of laughter as she smiled widely at the isopod “Aaah…I've genuinely missed these moments of us spending time together, talking and laughing at the silliness of our lives.”

Shogen began to calm down like his mate as he leaned back against his seat “Aaaah…oooh man, I love spending time with the fam, but spending time with a friend feels just as good sometimes. Reminds me of my teen years.”

Isullivan sighed and nodded in agreement with them as he finally calmed down from telling his story to them “Phew…I can't help but agree with the two of you, I've been spending so much time at work that I haven't had much time to truly relax like I am now…I really appreciate being able to share a laugh with the two of you after nearly a decade.”

As the three of them relaxed by the small table and enjoyed their time together, Isullivan lifted up his upper left arm and pulled the sleeve back a bit to check his watch as it showed that it was nearly 9:00 AM. The isopod sighed and slowly sat up from his seat “Unfortunately my friends, I have to go and get these signed papers into the system by today, so I won't be able to stay here for much longer.”

Shogen and Tsareena frowned sadly as they saw their friend begin to put away the signed papers back into his briefcase and organize the table until it was neat and free of the items he had brought, saddened that their friend had to leave. “Are you sure you have to leave already?” Tsareena asked him softly while Shogen spoke up as well “Yeah Sully, you can stay here for breakfast if you want.”

“I appreciate the hospitality you give me, my friends, and under normal circumstances, I would love to stay here for a bite to eat, but I sadly must get going. The old hags don't like it when I spend work time on anything that isn't strictly work.” The isopod explained to them in a relatively warm voice as he finished organizing and putting away the papers and pens he had brought with him back into the briefcase before closing it and picking it up with his lower left arm.

The couple nodded a bit, understanding how strict his job can be. They both stood up from their chairs and walked alongside Isullivan towards the door while the isopod spoke up “Now then, while I would've been fine with starting the monthly pick ups next month, the hags and the other department heads are looking for results soon so I'll have to do a pick up this month.”

The two inklings listened closely to him as he looked back after grabbing the door handle “Just to get it out of the way, would picking Evan up on Wednesday be fine for the two of you?”

The couple looked to one another with their own unique smiles and nodded before looking back at him. “We don't see any problem with that.” Tsareena spoke up in that soft voice of hers while Shogen gave a thumbs up “Besides, Pearl would probably want to spend as much time as possible with him during the weekends, and Evan probably wouldn't have much to do without Pearl around.”

Isullivan nodded back to the couple, relieved that things had gone smoothly “That's great to hear, I'll make sure to come by and pick Evan early so that he can return before your daughter returns home.”

With that, the Isopod turned the handle and opened the door, only to be caught off guard by the sight of Evan standing on the other side seemingly ready to open the door as well with his chest and cheeks puffed up and a determined look in his eyes, which quickly melted away into a look of surprise as the boy squeaked and jumped back a bit.

The adults jumped a bit as well, startled by the sight of the boy they were just talking about now standing before them. Shogen walked out of the room and towards the boy before gently patting the boy's shoulder “It's okay Evan, me and Mama Reena were talking with my friend Isullivan here about where you'll be staying.”

Tsareena smiled warmly as she walked towards Evan as well and gently hugged him “We have some good news, you'll be staying here with us…as part of our family~”

Evan looked up at them in shock, barely able to process what he was hearing before a happy grin spread across his face. “R-Really?!” the boy spoke up in inklish, much to the surprise of the Isopod ‘Evan can speak and understand inklish now? That's rather impressive…’

The couple smiled down at the boy warmly before embracing him tightly, who embraced them back as well. “Yes really…welcome to the family Evan~” Tsareena cooed softly while Shogen grinned and nuzzled him “We'll be your new guardians from now on squiddo~”

The boy gleefully hugged them both and teared up, overjoyed to know that he was gonna be staying here with all of them, now his new family “T-Thank you!”

Isullivan looked at the adorable scene of the couple hugging the human boy so tightly, happy and relieved to see that the boy was likely going to have a good future with this family. As the isopod exited the guest room and closed the door behind, he saw to his surprise the boy giving him a slightly shy look towards him as the three of them stopped hugging.

Shogen raised an eyebrow at Evan's look as he patted the boy on the shoulder once more. “Hey Evan, what's wrong squiddo?” Shogen softly asked the boy while Tsareena gave him a confused look “Is everything alright dear?”

Evan nervously looked to his new guardians before looking down at the ground “I…wanna…say something to…S-Sully…”

The adults gave him a curious look, wondering what it is that he had to say. Shogen smiled warmly at the boy and gestured him towards Isullivan “Alright then squiddo, go ahead and tell him what you wanna say~...”

Evan slowly shuffled towards the Isopod, looking at the floor the entire time until he was right in front of the agent. Evan gulped slightly before looking up at the tall isopod, his nervous eyes slowly turning into determined ones instead as he finally spoke up in that dry Inklish of his that was a little hard on the ears “I-I…sorry for being scared of S-Sully when first m-meet…f-for making S-Sully sad…that was not good…so…can we friends?...”

All three of the non-humans looked at Evan in pure surprise, not expecting an apology like that to come from the boy. Isullivan gave the boy a soft look before kneeling down to the boys level and gently petting him on the head with his upper right hand “It's alright Evan, I never took it personally back then, but thank you for apologizing either way. As for being your friend…I would more than happily be your friend.”

Seeing the boy smile so purely up at him filled Isullivan's heart with pure warmth as he vowed to himself to ensure that the boy was always safe under his watch.

The two parents looked on with a soft, loving look in their eyes at seeing the boy make up with their old friend.

They were really proud of their little boy.
_______________________________

The couple and their ward stood near Isullivan's car while the isopod in question kneeled in front of the child in an attempt to appear approachable.

“Now that you seem to know inklish quite well, this will make the next part much easier for us.” Isullivan spoke to the boy as he pat him on the head “In exchange for being able to stay here with your new family, I'm gonna have to bring you with me to a super secret facility once a month so as to ask you some questions and do some tests. Don't worry, I'll make sure that my agents don't bother or hurt you. I was hoping the first time would be on wednesday, is that okay with you Evan?”

The young child nervously looked towards his new guardians for reassurance, which they gave by gently patting his back “It'll be fine squiddo, Sully here is a friend of ours, he'll do everything to make sure that you're safe.” “Don't worry Evan, we made sure to talk with Isullivan about what would be going on in that facility, rest assured that they won't do anything genuinely harmful or dangerous to you.”

Hearing their reassuring words helped ease Evan’s worries as he smiled up at them in gratitude. He turned back towards the agent and shyly nodded “O-Okay…”

Isullivan chuckled at the boy's shy demeanor, finding it quite endearing. “Hehehehe, that's great to hear my Evan, thank you for trusting me with your safety my friend!” Evan giggled in return as the isopod ruffled his hair a bit, happy that Isullivan was calling him his friend “Hahahaha, N-No problem!”

As the moment passes and the two of them bond for a bit, in the end Isullivan knew that he couldn't stay for too long as he let go of the boys hair and went over to the driver's side door and waved at the two inklings and the human boy “I’ll see you three on wednesday when I come to pick up Evan, stay safe and make sure not reveal the boy to the public.”

“See ya later Sully!” “Take care Isullivan!” “B-Bye bye!” The three of them joyfully waved back to the agent as they saw him get into the car and start it, the boy smiling widely as he saw his new friend drive away from the estate. Evan looked on towards the road away from the mansion as the car slowly faded from view.

The boy's eyes widened as near a tree close to the road that leads to the Houzuki mansion stood a figure that Evan could barely see for they were too far away to see clearly and also stood in the tree's shade. From what he could see from them though, they stood significantly taller than Kelly and Tsareena, the two tallest people he had seen here besides Isullivan, and they had hair rather than tentacles. They didn't appear to be an inkling, but rather…a human…like him.

Before the boy could try and get closer, the figure vanished from sight before his very eyes like they hadn't even existed there at all, as if his mind were playing tricks on him. Evan blinked once more to try and see the figure once again, but to avail. They were gone.

The boy let out a soft gasp while his heart rate increased from the feeling of someone touching his hair, afraid that it may have been the mysterious stranger before calming as he realized that instead of the figure, it was Shogen smiling down at him with a warm smile “So squiddo, wanna wake up Pearl and the teens so we can chow down on some breakfast?”

Evan looked up at him with wide eyes while Tsareena giggled at Shogen's silly (to her) vocabulary. The boy soon joined the female inkling in a small giggle fit while nodding to the male inkling, the thought of the mysterious figure now in the back of his mind. The three of them turned around and walked back towards the mansion, ready to continue the rest of the day with the rest of the inhabitants.

The boy's eyes widened a bit as he felt his hands being grabbed by his guardians, each of them holding one of his hands with one of their own while looking down at him with warm, loving smiles that warmed his heart and made him feel fuzzy inside. He grinned up at them while blushing brightly, holding onto their hands in return as they continued walking to the mansion.

Two parents and their new child..
_____

All I could do was look on from the tree line as the two Aquarians walked away while holding Evans hand, as if they were his parents…how insolent.

“Hmm…seems like phase 1 of the Aquarian Integration experiment has succeeded…barely. I'll have to keep monitoring them all to ensure that they don't dare step out of line and harm or endanger Evan as we move onto phase 2.”

I frowned a bit while staring at the three of them, watching as they entered the mansion before turning around and turning off the cognitive link, reappearing in my barren dorm once more “No matter what happens, I will ensure Evan's safety during this experiment of yours…I promise…Cyrus…my sun…”

It hurts…so much…

Chapter Text

The adults of the Houzuki estate had gentle smiles spread across their faces from seeing their new ward, their new child, giggling gleefully and grinning brightly as they held each of his hands with one of theirs. They played with him by gently lifting his hands high up and in turn lifting the boy, causing him to float in the midair as they carried him down the halls of the Houzuki mansion.

Shogen looked down at the boy with gentle eyes and a warm smile on his face, finding the boy's cheerful mood infectious and endearing. Well time to do what they promised “So squiddo, ready to wake up Kelly and Marl’s lazy bums?”

His new child and his mate both giggled a bit at his comment while the boy nodded eagerly at the suggestion “Y-Yeah!”

Tsareena chuckled softly at the boy's enthusiasm, finding it quite endearing and lovable. She was already excited at the prospect of raising Evan “Well dear, you heard the boy, let us wake those two up, we've let them sleep in long enough, even if it's the weekend.”

The two caretakers are normally supposed to wake up at 5 in the morning during the week so as to dress up and get ready before waking Pearl and help her get ready for school. Because of how early the two teens got up, the couple decided that during the weekends, when there was no important activity those days, the caretakers and Pearl were allowed to sleep in a bit later than normal, at least up until 9 to 10 in the morning. Since it was a bit past 9 now…it was time to wake the teens and their little princess up~
_____

After a minute or so of walking down the halls, Shogen, Tsareena, and Evan arrived at the door to Marl's room, the three of them ready to wake up the poor teen. “Alright you two, ya ready?~” Shogen looked at the other with a bit of smirk as he gently grasped the door knob and began to twist it, ready to open at a moment's notice.

As the two were about to answer his question with nods of their own, they saw that the man's face suddenly turned from mischievous to confused before pressing an ear against the door. “Is something wrong dear?” Tsareena asked her mate softly, who's brow furrowed a bit “No…it's just that I hear snoring, and Marl doesn't snore…”

The human child and the female inkling looked at each other in confusion as the male Houzuki slowly opened the door into the room. The three of them slowly peaked in and saw a sight that surprised them as well as warm their hearts.

There, sitting on the ground and leaning against the side of the bed, were Marl and Kelly. The teens were lightly wrapped up in a blanket while snuggled up together, Kelly practically big spooning Marl as she hugged him close and nuzzled the top of his head. The green inklings' two large tentacles were loose from their normal position and were instead gently wrapped around the smaller blue inkling, who snuggled up to her and nuzzled the top of her chest.

As they looked away from the two snuggled up teens, they saw that the TV in Marl's was on and currently playing one of those cheesy romance flicks. Seems like the two of them decided to have a little sleepover last night, and a comfortable one at that.

Shogen and Tsareena looked at one another with wide knowing smirks and small giggles while Evan looked up at the two of them in innocent confusion, wondering what was so funny.

The two adults went over and turned off the TV before looking over to the two teens. The matriarch cleared her throat a bit and gently clapped her hands as she called to the two of them “Hm hmmm…wakey wakey you two, you can't keep snuggling together all morning long~”

Kelly and Marl gently groaned and their eyelids slowly fluttered open, revealing two sets of groggy eyes that looked around as if they were lost. The two gently moved their heads off of each other, revealing small little kiss marks where their lips had been, one on top of Marl's head and one on Kelly's chest, as well as several more scattered throughout each other's cheeks. The two of them finally noticed they were being watched.

The two adults looked in shock and surprise while Evan simply looked at the blushing, wide eyed teens in confusion “W-What…are those?”

The two teens' entire faces were blue and green from blushing so much, the blushing getting even more intense as the adults stared at them both with incredibly smug smirks on their faces “Sooo squiddos…friends huh?~...” “Now Shogen dear…don't tease these two too much~...”

Marl whimpered softly and hid his face against Kelly's chest once more while Kelly gave them both a flustered glare while growling softly “O-Oh shut up…”

Evan simply stared at the two groups, still confused at what was going on ‘These inklings are weird…’
_____

Evan giggled and squeaked gleefully from Kelly lifting him up with one arm, which the boy held onto. Marl giggled a bit while looking at the two of them play around together “Hehehe, careful Kelly, don't wanna drop Evan now~”

Kelly rolled her eyes while smiling as the three of them were heading towards Pearl's room “Yeah yeah don't worry, I ain't gonna drop the kid.”

After being awoken and teased by Tsareena and Shogen, the Houzuki couple decided to make it up to the pouting teens by making breakfast for all of them in exchange for the teens going with the boy to wake up Pearl.

As Evan played around with Kelly's arm, he noticed that Kelly and Marl had been looking at each other from time to time and blushing while doing so. He's also noticed them getting a bit more affectionate as of recently, but that's neither here nor there.

The trio arrives at Pearl's door as Kelly sets the boy down, smiling at him and gently ruffling his hair “Alright kid, you do the honors cause if I did, the brat’s just gonna act all bratty and stuff.”

Evan giggled and nodded up at her while nuzzling the palm of her hand before going over to the door and opening it. ‘Geez this kid is too freaking cute’ was all Kelly could think about as she blushed a little from his adorable nuzzling while Marl chuckled a bit at her blushing.

Evan walked into Pearl's room and towards the bed he had been resting on about over an hour ago, noticing that Pearl was now hugging his pillow in her sleep, still a little pouty and not too happy as it lacked his warmth, but it seemed that the subtle scent that the pillow picked up from him was at least helping her sleep. If she can't cuddle with Evan, at least she can cuddle with something that smelled a bit him.

The boy giggled at how silly she looked from cuddling the pillow as he gently hopped up on the bed and gently shook her “W-Wakey wakey Pearlie!”

The little inkling grumbled a bit and slowly opened her eyes at his constant gentle shaking, finally waking up after Evan patted her on the head “Hmmm…whaaa?...”

The groggy little girl slowly looked around and spotted her special cuddle buddy smiling down at her with that pretty smile of his that she really loved seeing, especially when it was towards her. The special cuddle buddy who abandoned her…

Pearl puffed up her cheeks and pouted up at the boy, who looked at her in confusion. “W-What wrong?” he asked her softly while the princess pouted even more “Why did you abandon me!”

The boy stared at her in surprise as he gently scratched his cheek, not knowing what she meant by abandoning her. “A-Abandon you?” Pearl nodded her head as she sat up on the bed and crossed her arms “Y-Yeah! W-Why did my special friend leave me alone in this cold bed?!”

“O-Oh…I was trying to get…w-water, w-was thirsty…” he explained softly to the princess, who's pouting softened slightly “B-But still…Mmm…”

Marl giggled a bit at Pearl's grumpiness as he went over to the children and pat Pearl on the head “Come on princess, he didn't do that to upset you or be mean, he was only trying to get some water~”

The Houzuki princess pouted a bit before sighing and looking down at the bed “Hmm…okay…I forgive you Evan…”

The boy smiled brightly at her and hugged her tightly, nuzzling the top of her head while holding her close, getting a small giggle out of the girl “T-Thank you!”

The two teens simply smiled at the sight of the children hugging one another as Kelly couldn't help but slightly wrap one of her tentacles around Marl's waist, getting a small squeak and blush from him “If it helps ya feel even better Pearl, your mom and dad supposedly have something important to tell us, something that they said you would be really happy about.”

Pearl gave the teen a confused look as she raised a brow, curious about what her mama and papa had to say that would make her really happy. The other three saw the girl grin enthusiastically while clinging onto Evan “Well then, let's not keep Mama and Papa waiting, I really wanna know what they have to say! And if the overgrown sea grape is lying, I'll make sure to tie her hair into a knot!”

Kelly rolled her eyes and scoffed slightly while Evan and Marl giggled at how adorable Pearl could be.

“Little brat…”
_______________________________

After the teens and Pearl had brushed their teeth (I call it teeth but obviously they're squid beaks), the four of them went to the family dining room together, the children playfully giggling and holding each other's hands while Marl was blushing from how Kelly was now just constantly having a tentacle wrap around her “friends” waist “C-Could you stop that Kelly?...” “...No…”

The four of them sat down in their respective seats at the table, awaiting for the adults of the mansion to arrive with the food. Pearl and Evan giggled together as Evan gently played with one of her tentacles, the two of them blushing and grinning before Evan squeaked as the tentacle suddenly went up to his face and planted its suction cup on his cheek.

The teens chuckled a bit as they saw Evan fiddle with the tentacle so as to get it off while Pearl laughed and blushed a bit, loving to mess with her friend like this. The boy finally managed to pull the tentacle away from his face, the sucker letting out a small popping sound as it left behind a mark on his cheek.

The princess and the teens snickered a bit while the boy blinked and touched his cheek, feeling the mark that her sucker left behind on his cheek. The boy looked at the three of them as they continued to snicker before he began to joyously laugh out loud, the other three joining the boy's infectious laughter.

As the four began to settle down from their combined laughter, the door to the kitchen opened up, revealing a smiling Tsareena and Shogen walking towards the table with the small catering carts that Marl and Kelly would use to bring in the food. “Who's ready for some breakfast?” Shogen asked them all cheerfully while pulling a cart full of plates alongside Tsareena, who pulled a cart full of glass cups and some juice “We made shwaffles~”

“Yaaay shwaffles, thanks mama, thanks papa!!” Pearl squeaked cheerfully and bounced in her seat while Shogen gently laid the plate in front of her while giving her a pat on the head. Evan looked on at the shwaffles with wide eyes while drooling a bit as they looked so appetizing to him.

The parents went about setting the plates, cups, and cutlery in front of each of the occupied seats, getting thank you’s from the teens and the children. After a moment of getting everything ready, the adults finally sat down at their respective seats and looked on at the others with eager smiles.

“Sooo…before we begin eating, me and Tsareena have something to tell the three of you.” The patriarch of the mansion pointed to his daughter and the two caretakers, who nodded in return as they were all eager to know what it was that he had to say.

“As of now, Evan had been living with us as a…unique guest of sorts, and while he had been allowed to temporarily stay here, we hadn't been sure about where he would actually stay here for good.” Tsareena continued in that soft melodic voice of hers, a small smile spread across her face. Her daughter looked at Evan with a worried look in her eyes, gently wrapping one of her tentacles around one of his arms ‘Please don't take him away…n-not my friend…’

“But after talking with my contact and making a deal with him, we finally have the answer…” The teens and Pearl looked at Shogen with suspenseful looks, wondering what would be Evan's fate. Even the teens were a little worried at the prospect of the boy having to go away ‘I hope the squirt doesn't have to go…’ ‘Please Shogen…’. Meanwhile the boy simply smiled and giggled to himself while gently rubbing Pearl's tentacle, already knowing the answer.

The mates looked to one another with wide, warm smiles, eager to see their reactions before looking back at the others. ““Evan is gonna be living with us for good!!!”” they both exclaimed cheerfully, holding each other's hands.

A few moments pass by as the three that weren't aware of the arrangement simply looked on at the adults with wide eyes, trying to process what they had just heard.

It took only a moment for Kelly and Marl to smile excitedly while looking at one another, so glad that the boy was gonna be staying with them “What a relief~...” “Sweet!”

But their reactions pales in comparison to the Houzuki Princess reaction.

The child looked at her parents with wide eyes full of disbelief, unable to even process what she just heard. There’s just…no way…

“R-R-Really?...” She stuttered softly to her parents, asking if what they were saying was true, who simply responded with wide grins while nodding their heads.

Finally a moment passes as it all comes crashing down on the princess.

“EVAN GETS TO STAY, YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!” Pearl shouted at the top of her voice, shaking the room from the sheer force while shocking the others. Before any of them could process their ringing ears, the girl stood up on her seat, stared at her shocked human friend, and tackle hugged him into the ground, laughing and giggling in pure rapturous joy and excitement, nuzzling him gleefully while her two large tentacles went up to his face and began to plant several sucker kisses throughout it. The boy laughed and giggled in return, hugging her tightly and nuzzling her back as both of them had tears in the corners of their eyes.

The parents looked on in slight surprise at her reaction before looking at one another and grinning happily while holding each other's hands tightly.

They knew without a shadow of a doubt that they made the right choice.

Chapter Text

Wednesday

“Come on Evan, please do that scratching thing that feels so good!” Pearl eagerly squeaked to Evan from atop the family living room couch, dressed in her school uniform while Kelly and Marl stood nearby. The boy giggled at how excited she was, already having an idea of what she wanted before she went off to school.

A couple days have passed since the decision was made by the heads of the Houzuki estate, and the human guest of theirs that fell down to their land like a shooting star was made into a permanent resident of the estate as well as the ward of Shogen and Tsareena Houzuki. These past few days have been rather hectic for the young boy as the parental heads of the estate went about integrating him into his new home.

The first of these changes was converting one of the guest rooms near Pearl’s room into Evan's new room. At first the boy thought that the room wouldn't really be changed at all due to not having anything to his name besides the clothes that Shogen had bought him, but the boy would be proven wrong as in one afternoon Kelly and Marl had gone on to redecorate the room to the child's liking (Evan made sure not to be too demanding as he didn't want to burden the caretakers). A queen sized bed stood in the corner of his new room, the pillowcases, bedsheets, blanket, and even comforter were all Super Ink Rangers brand items, the boy liking the franchise a lot after being exposed to it by Shogen. The rest of the room looked a little bit barren at the moment, having two simple drawer cabinets near the bed, some simple furniture, and a walk-in closet, but the boy didn't mind all that much as he was just really happy to have his own room. Oh, and a cute Super Humboldt Gals' poster of the three main characters running and jumping together. They seemed really happy and cute together hehe.

Someone who wasn't quite as happy was the Houzuki princess herself, Pearl. She had thought that the boy would simply share her room with her and be her roommate, but the parents objected to this idea, saying that it wouldn't really be appropriate for them to be sharing the same room and bed as time passes on and Pearl shouldn't depend on Evan in order to sleep.

The little girl was quite upset at the changes that were being made, but with her parents, caretakers, and her friends reassurance, she eventually calmed down. Of course, the girl wasn't going to be happy about this change overall, but her parents had some ideas.

The first of these ideas is that in exchange for sleeping by herself during the weekdays, Pearl and Evan can sleep together during the weekends or on days where Pearl doesn't have school, that way she can at least get to snuggle with him from time to time. Another idea was changing her bed time from 9 PM to 9:30 PM so that the little inkling could spend a little bit more time with the boy during the weekdays.

These all helped cheer Pearl up a fair bit, but Evan went a step further and asked Marl and Kelly to wake him up roughly around the same time as Pearl so that the two of them could at least spend a little bit of time together in the morning before they took Pearl to school.

Which leads us into Evan's current early morning ‘obligation’ as Pearl would call it.

The human boy walked across the carpeted floor towards the comfy couch that his friend was practically bouncing on in pure excitement and eagerness.

“I still don't get why you and Marl get so excited about this dumb scratching nonsense…” Kelly groaned softly while rolling her eyes at the sight of Pearl's excitement while the little girl blew a raspberry at her “Ppbbt, shut up ya stupid sea grape!”

Marl chuckled softly at the two girls bickering a bit while Evan finally got to the couch while wearing his cute little pajamas. “Don't worry princess, Kelly is just jealous that Evan has found our spots but still hasn't found hers.” The teen assured the little girl while blushing slightly, still remembering what happened on Monday.

Marl's friend(?) rolled her eyes at his comment as Evan got on top of the couch and next to Pearl, who eagerly sat on his lap and rested her head on the boy's chest, clearly excited from how much she was grinning “Whatever, I still find this scratching nonsense to be weird…”

“S-Scritching!” The boy squeaked up in his dry inklish while bringing up his hands onto Pearl's cheeks and beginning to gently scratch them with his nails, immediately getting an adorable response with the Houzuki princess beginning to let out gurgling purrs and content sighs.

Evan had discovered on monday that inklings lacked nails, so they didn't have effective means of scratching themselves whenever a part of their body was itching, which he got a first glimpse of when he and Pearl had been watching TV after she had come home from school on monday.
_____

Pearl groaned softly while gently scratching her right cheek with the tips of her fingers, annoyed at the itchy feeling distracting her from her time with Evan.

The boy looked away from the large TV screen that was currently playing some newer series of Ink Rangers and saw that his friend was currently distracted with scratching her right cheek, clearly annoyed by it. When he looked closer to her fingers, he saw her lack of nails, something he never noticed until now.

The boy gently patted her on the shoulder in order to grab her attention, thankfully succeeding as the inkling girl looked over to him with a disgruntled look while trying to scratch that itch “Hmm…yeah Evan?”

Evan smiled at her warmly while raising his left hand, showing off his nails to her “W-Want me to…s-scratch itch?”

His friend had a strange look in her eyes while observing his nails, as if she were cautious about them, before looking up at him with skepticism “Are…you sure those…claws of yours are safe? That seems like it could hurt…”

The boy simply giggled in response to her worries while scooting over to her side of the couch. “Hehehe, n-no worry! These n-nails…not claws, they won't…hurt!” He squeaked dryly to her while the girl simply gave him a conflicted look, but ultimately she stayed still and let him do what he wanted to do “If you say so…”

Once the boy was close enough, he began to gently scratch away where he saw her scratching before, making sure to be gentle and thorough. The inkling at first was a bit fearful, afraid she was gonna get cut, but once the feeling of his gentle scratches reached her brain, her body immediately reacted to the stimulation.
_____

Evan chuckled joyfully at the memory of the girl practically purring and mewling as she melted into the scritches, seemingly falling in love with the feeling altogether.

After a minute of continuous scratching, the girl looked up at him excitedly and eagerly, clearly wanting what's next “Ears! Ears! Please scratch me in that spot, I love it!”

The human boy giggled a bit at her excited reaction while Kelly rolled her eyes at the young Houzuki's reaction. Evan nodded as he brought his hands over to each of her ears, one hand for each ear, smiling as he felt the girl begin to shake excitedly, humming at what's to come.

Evan began to gently scratch around her ears, getting sighs and slight gurgles from the girl as he went about slowly reaching her specific spot. As he scratched closer and closer to that spot, the girl let out excited squeaks as she practically shook on his lap.

Then it happened, just as it did on Monday and on Tuesday. He scratched the spot where her ears connected to her head.

Immediately Pearl let out jumbled gurgles and a deep sigh of relief, her body going practically limp while her eyes dilated and unfocused. The girl was limp in his arms as he scratched that one spot in both of her ears, getting this adorable reaction as she was in pure bliss.

Evan had discovered that inklings were not only susceptible to scritches, somewhat similar to cats and dogs, but they had two specific areas that were highly sensitive. One on their ears, although which part of the ear varied from inkling to inkling as Pearl and Marl don't share the exact same spot, and one in the area where their tentacles connect to their head.

He had found the ear spot on Monday when he was scritching Pearl, both the children having been surprised by how she reacted to the spot being scratched, but Pearl quickly fell in love with the feeling and begged him not to stop. The other spot though…he had discovered on Tuesday and it…was weird.
_____

The Houzuki family sat together in the living room as they all were watching TV together after eating dinner that day. Tsareena and Shogen sat together on the main couch while Evan and Pearl sat together on the side couch. The adults were watching their own shows on the TV while Evan was giving Pearl some scritches that she adored.

“Aaaabbbghhh…waaaaah…so…good~” Pearl slurred softly as she laid against Evan's chest, blinking lazily at the feeling of Evan's nails scratching her ears. The boy giggled at her reactions as he nuzzled her hair “Hehehe, Pearl silly.”

The adults gave glimpses to the children, amused at seeing Pearl enjoying the scratches that Evan was giving her. “Hmmm…might have to try it out one day…” Shogen whispered to Tsareena, who simply giggled at his comment and playfully slapped his arm.

After a few minutes of scratching that spot, Evan decided to experiment with the scritches once more as he began to gently scratch different parts of her head. The girl pouted slightly when he stopped scritching her ears but didn't complain much as the scritches still felt really nice. Evan tried every part of her head, her forehead, nose, cheeks, jaws, chin, the back of her neck and head, even her tentacles, but for Pearl, none of them were still as good as the ear scratches. “Hmm…they feel nice…just still not as good…” the little Houzuki whispered to Evan as he finished scritching her tentacles.

Just when the boy was about to give up, he decided to scratch an area that just came to mind at the last minute. He moved his hands over to the underside of one of her tentacles until he reached the area that connected into her scalp and began to scritch that part gently. The reaction was immediate.

“WAAAAAAH!” Pearl screamed out in surprise while her body jolted up and straightened. Evan, Shogen, and Tsareena quickly looked at her in shock and surprise as they hadn't expected her to react so loudly. The girl quickly stood and stepped away from the couch and Evan, grasping her tentacles tightly while her entire face was pink from blushing.

“Pearl, are you alright?!” “Pearl!” Her parents called to her before quickly rushing over to her side. As the parents fretted over their child reacting so extremely, they sternly looked over to the boy who flinched under their gaze. Evan looked down at the ground and whimpered slightly, thinking that he had hurt Pearl “I-I'm sorry…I didn't mean to…”

Their gazes soften as they see the boy begin to cry, realizing that it was an accident rather than on purpose. As they both go to console the boy, Pearl was shaking a bit by herself as she simply looked at Evan with wide eyes. That…had felt so alien to her…she had never experienced that feeling before…it was very different from the ear spot…but…not bad, some area in her guts felt weird though…
_____

Since that day, Evan promised to never touch that spot again as he thought that might've hurt Pearl. The little girl hugged him and reassured him that it was fine, but he still couldn't forgive himself for doing that…

Kelly looked on with an unamused look, wondering how that could even feel remotely as good as how Pearl made it out to be “Seriously…no way it's cross-eyed, drooling and brainless mumbling levels of good…”. On the other hand, Marl looked at the children with an amused smile, understanding how Pearl was feeling at the moment, having experienced it as well.

Several minutes pass by as the human boy pampers the Houzuki princess with ear scritches, getting many happy gurgles and squeaks from the princess as she lays against him, her tentacles wriggling a bit in a failed attempt at trying to latch on to him. Alas, Evan's scritches must come to an end as Marl took out his phone and saw the time “Ooh…come now princess, we have to get going soon or you'll be late for school.”

The princess whimpered a bit as Evan gently let go of her ears, abruptly ending the scritches that she was enjoying greatly “Awww…do I have to go to school? I wanna stay here and receive ear scritches all day long!”

“Sorry dear, but school is important and no daughter of mine is going to be playing hooky.” A soft, mature feminine voice rang out from the illustrious doorway leading into the family living room, lightly scolding Pearl while the little girl squeaked and sat up straight on Evans lap. The children and teens looked over to the doorway and saw that it was the Matriarch of the estate, Tsareena, who was standing by it with a stern look on her face…which was betrayed by the small, amused smirk she was giving the two children.

“Sorry squiddo, but I'd listen to your ma if I were you. I've tried playing hooky when I was your age and let me tell ya, my ma had none of that hehe.” A relaxed, masculine voice rang out from the same doorway that Tsareena came from as the patriarch of the estate, Shogen, walked out from behind his mate and stood beside her, leaning against the doorway with a grin on his face.

Pearl looked towards her parents with a weak pout on her face while clinging to Evan with her tentacles, who giggled at this and nuzzled her hair “Aww…but I wanna stay here, not go to that place full of losers and jerks…see? Evan wants me here too!”

Tsareena and Kelly rolled their eyes at this while Shogen and Marl simply chuckled at the grouchy girl. “Hehehe, sorry Pearl, but Evan is gonna have to leave a little bit after you leave as well, so staying here won't be as fun as you think it will be.” Shogen told his daughter with a small grin, getting a disappointed look from the child as she looked up at the boy “Is that true Evan?”

The boy smiled down at Pearl while nodding to her question, a gentle look on his face “Y-Yeah! I have to go soon!”. Pearl sighed in defeat at his response, understanding that there was no getting out of this “Awww…okay…”

The parents and the teens gave her an amused look as she jumped down from Evan's lap and onto the floor before turning to the boy and reaching a hand out to him, a wide grin across her face “If I can't stay here, I want that special goodbye from you before I go!”

Evan blushed brightly as he knew what she meant by this. “O-Okay! L-Lead the way!” The boy replied back to the girl while gently grasping the outstretched hand, yelping a bit when Pearl tightly gripped his hand and practically dragged him with her to the front door, the two of them giggling along the way.

Kelly sighed and rolled her eyes at the two children's eagerness, a small smile across her face as she went over to Marl and patted him on the back while wrapping one of her tentacles around his waist. “Come on Mar’, we gotta make sure those two dolts don't get ahead of themselves and that Pearl doesn't just flat out take Evan with her into the car.” She dragged the squeaking teen along with her as Marl blushed brightly and stumbled a bit “H-Hey c-careful!”

The couple stood aside so as to let the others pass by, an amused look across both of their faces as they saw how lively the four of them were. Shogen smirked as he looked up at his mate and laid his head on her shoulder “We should probably go and make sure everything goes smoothly.”

Tsareena giggled a bit and smiled down at him, knowing that he just wanted to see the children be absolutely adorable “Hehehehe, sure thing dear~”
_____

Pearl and Evan stood next to one another in the front yard of the mansion, watching as Marl and Kelly got the car ready. The princess crossed her arms and pouted at the two teens “Come on you two, I wanna do the special goodbye!”

“Shut it ya brat, we're nearly done!” Kelly shouted from the car as she went about setting it up while Marl giggled and waved at Pearl “Patience princess, it won't take long.”

The two adults stood near the children as they looked on as well, finding the interactions between the children and the teenagers entertaining. Shogen grinned and ruffled Pearl's hair, getting squeaks and giggles out of the little girl “Hey ya cheeky squiddo, no need to rush your caretakers so much, you'll get your special goodbye soon!”

Evan smiled at the sight of father and daughter bonding together, the sight warming his heart. The boy closed his eyes a bit and just…took it all in. The wind blew freely through his hair, cooling him while he stood beneath the golden, warm rays of the sun. He opened his eyes once more, taking in the open field that surrounded the estate, the forest past the estate that helped make the estate feel a bit hidden from prying eyes. It felt new…over the top…but it also felt like home thanks to the kind people here…

The boy would be cut from his inner thoughts as a hand gently patted him on the head and gently began to caress his hair. The boy looked up and saw Tsareena standing next to him, looking down at him with a warm smile on her face as she continued to caress his hair. “Admiring the scenery?” She asked the boy in a soft tone while Evan smiled up at her and nodded “Y-Yeah…n-new home is…pretty!”

Tsareena's smile widened at the child's words, overjoyed that he truly thought of this place as his new home “I'm glad you like it Evan, we hope that you'll have a wonderful time here~”

“Alright you two, the car is ready so do that weird little goodbye of yours.” Kelly's voice rang out across the front yard, catching the attention of everyone that was there. Pearl and Evan had bright blushes on both of their faces. The two children went over to one another, nervous looks on each other's faces for they still are not quite used to what comes next. “Y-You know the drill Evan.” Pearl stuttered to Evan in a soft voice, something that's a bit unusual for her. The boy gave her a small, nervous smile and an excited nod “Y-Yeah!”

Evan slowly leaned his head down towards Pearl while the others watched with varying levels of anticipation. Once his head was close enough, Pearl gently grabbed his cheeks and brought his face close to hers, practically inches apart, and rested her forehead against his. The girl and boy looked into one another's eyes like they have done a few times before this point, everything else began to fade from their vision as the only thing they can focus on is each other's eyes, and they were fully mesmerized and overwhelmed.

The adult couple saw how both of the children's faces lit up from how much they were blushing, seemingly focused only on each other. They could tell that Evan was incredibly flustered and a bit overwhelmed while Pearl seemed to be emboldened by the affection, her hair and eyes beginning to glow, indicating the heightened state that inklings go into when their emotions are at an all time high. The male Houzuki, who smiled at the adorable sight, looked up at his mate and saw that she was blushing quite a bit as well “The squiddos got ya blushing, huh babe?”

The northern inkling looked away and coughed a bit from the amused look her mate was giving her “Hm hm…I'm just not used to seeing them being so…affectionate…it is…quite adorable and endearing…”

While Shogen giggled at his mates' adorable reaction as well as the small smile she had, Marl looked on at the children with a warm smile across his face, gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter. “They’re so adorable…” he quietly whispered to himself before he felt a weird feeling go through his heart…a feeling of…yearning for them…but not them specifically. The male inkling looked towards the adults standing further back and seeing how they looked at the children with such loving eyes, so happy for the children…their children. A growing jealousy began to fester in his heart as the male teen looked over to his friend(?) and saw her looking over at the children, a soft smile across her delicate face.

Kelly had always found the interactions between Pearl and Evan to be pretty cute and while she never outright shows it, she was fond of the two of them as well as their bonding. Seeing how the kids interacted together had helped embolden the female inkling to be more outgoing with her feelings. She looked back towards the car and saw Marl sitting in the driver's seat, ready to drive Pearl to school. As she gazed upon her close friend since youth, her eyes widened at the look that was spread across his face, a look that screamed that he was yearning for something…and her heart screamed at her that she wanted to give him what he wanted.

“Hmm hmm! Come on squirt, despite how much you wanna make out with a human, you've still got school to attend!” The female caretaker coughed loudly so as to attract the attention of the children as well as to distract herself a bit before her instincts got the better of her.

Pearl squeaked up in surprise as her face turned pink from blushing brightly at Kelly's comment while her parents laughed in the background. The princess looked over to the female teen and glared at her with gritted teeth (I know it's technically a beak that has taken the shape of teeth, but I'll stick with calling them teeth so as to not think about birds) “O-Oh shut it ya oversized puke stain! I'm on my way!!!”

The girl turned back to her human friend, who was currently blushing lightly and staring at her with a dazed look, still flustered from staring into her eyes so closely. The little inkling gave him a soft smile while gently moving her tentacles towards each of his cheeks, the suction cups latching onto the boy's cheeks before letting go with a soft pop, leaving behind two big marks on his cheeks. Evan giggled softly with closed eyes at her sucker kisses, always finding them to be rather enjoyable and fun, before jolting a bit at the feeling of something pressing against his nose, his eyes opening to the sight of Pearl looking up at him with a gleeful look on her face and a wide grin. It took him a bit to realize what she did, but when he did, his blush brightened even more as his hair and eyes began to glow slightly.

The little girl giggles at her friends flustered face, finding it super funny and cute, as she stared up at his glowing his eyes “Hehehe, alright Ev’, I'm on way to school, I'll see you when I get back okay?~” “O-O-Okay…”

Shogen and Tsareena stared at the children with wide eyes (and a grin in Shogen's case) as Pearl hugged the boy tightly before turning around and heading straight for the car, her hair and eyes still glowing brightly from the emotional high. “Oh man, my little girl definitely inherited my straightforwardness!” Shogen cheered to his mate while Tsareena slowly nodded with a flustered look of her own “I-Indeed…M-Maybe a bit too straightforward…”

Kelly and Marl on the other hand stared at the girl with wide eyes full of shock at how straightforward she could be as she skipped over to them with a wide grin. The teens looked at one another incredulously as the little girl entered the back seat “...You really are too bold, ya know that Pearl?” “Oh shut it puke for hair, as if you're any better with how ya marked up Marl on Sunday!”

Evan looked on with a flustered look as the squeaking teens and the laughing girl slowly drove off down the road. The boy squeaked as he felt someone ruffle his hair a bit before looking up, seeing Shogen grinning down at him while Tsareena smiled warmly “Well squiddo, Isullivan shouldn't take too long to get here, wanna go inside and get ready?”

After taking a small breath to compose himself, the boy grinned up at the two adults and nodded “Y-Yeah!”
_______________________________

Evan smiled gleefully as the big beetle he was holding flared its wings and flapped them at high speeds, ready to fly off. The boy giggled at the noise the wings made while the beetle flew off and landed atop of his head “Hehe, hey, stop that Mr. Beetle, you're gonna mess up my hair.”

About ten minutes have passed since the teens and Pearl had left the estate, leaving behind The Houzuki Matriarch and Patriarch as well as their human ward. The three of them had spent the last ten minutes getting Evan ready (which didn't take long as Evan simply only needed to swap his pajamas for some proper clothes), with the trio now simply waiting outside by the front yard once more.

The adults looked on as they watched Evan play around by himself and with some bugs as well as basking in the sun, they couldn't help but smile warmly at the sight. “What a sweet kid…” Shogen whispered to his mate as he snuggled close to her, said mate gently wrapping a tentacle around him as she whispered back “Hmm…our little Evan…I hope he will be accepted by the world one day…”

The male Houzuki gently rubbed Tsareena's back while resting his head on her shoulder “He will babe…I know he will~...”

The sound of a car driving towards the mansion caught the attention of the three of them as they looked towards the road, seeing the unique car that they knew belonged to one Isopod.

As the car parked by the front of the mansion, Evan ran over to it with a wide grin while the beetle still laid on his head when he saw Isullivan get out of the car “Sully!!!”

The agent looked over to the little boy and chuckled at his enthusiasm before catching the child and picking him up in his arms “Hahaha, there you are my friend, I'm glad to see that you're doing well Evan!”

The boy laughed and hugged Isullivan tightly, overjoyed at seeing his new friend once more as if it were a long time (despite seeing him only a few days ago) “Hahaha, I-I missed you a l-lot Sully!” “Hehehe, I missed you too kid.”

Hearing the sound of crumpling grass, the isopod looked up and saw Shogen and Tsareena walking over to him with wide smiles across their faces. “Yooo, Sully, how's it been?” The patriarch called to his old friend as he patted him on the back while Tsareena smiled warmly at Isullivan “It's nice to see you again Isullivan, I hope the ride here wasn't troublesome.”

“I'm doing quite well you two, and don't fret, the ride here honestly helps ease my mind from the stress.” The agent responded softly as he patted them both on the shoulder with his available hands. He gently let the giggling boy down after a minute of hugging him tightly before stepping back from the three of them “How have the three of you been? Has Evan settled into the place nicely?”

“You bet, Evan now has his own room for himself and he's practically family at this point!” Shogen gave a thumbs up to Isullivan while Tsareena nodded and Evan waved his hands excitedly “We've been doing quite well, our little Evan livens up our home quite nicely.” “Y-Yeah, I love it here!”

Isullivan couldn't help but feel his heart warm up at hearing them all be so happy to have Evan live with them like family. He was glad that things were now looking better for the boy than it did for him when he was Evan's age…

The isopod shook his head a bit from the old memories before coughing lightly “Hmm hmm…now then, while chit chat would be nice, it's probably for the best that Evan and I left early so that we can get the tests and interrogation done somewhat quick and the both of us don't return late into the night.”

The mates nodded in agreement, understanding that he was speaking the truth while the boy gently grabbed the beetle from the top of his head. “Bye Bye Mr. Beetle, I'll see you later!” Evan said his farewells to the large beetle as it finally flew his hand and towards the forested area further away from the mansion, much to the amusement of the three adults.

The boy walked over to Isullivan's side and smiled at the inklings while the Isopod clapped his hands together “Now then, are there any questions or concerns before I take Evan with me?”

Tsareena cleared her throat a bit as she had a slightly curious and concerned look on her face “I do…you're certain that he'll be fed properly while at your…facility? He's a growing boy and he needs many nutrients.”

The isopod would've smiled if he could at her question, so he decided to nod instead of “Yes, I can confirm that we will feed him custom made meals throughout the day, we would rather not starve the poor child.”

Tsareena's concerned look turned to comfort at hearing that they'll be feeding the boy well while he's over there. “Good, that was the only thing I was worried about.” Tsareena sighed in relief while Shogen grinned at his mate and kissed her cheek “Mwah, that was also my only real worry. Just make sure that y'all don't actually hurt the squiddo, okay Sully?”

“The kid will be safe and sound, you have my word old friend.” Isullivan assured the inkling as he grasped Evan's hand and looked down at the boy. “Now then friend, are you ready to go to the cool top secret government base?” The agent asked the young boy, who smiled up at him in nervous excitement “Y-Yeah!”

The two went over to the sleek black car the agent arrived in and entered it, the isopod helping the boy get in the back seat before entering the driver's seat afterwards, groaning softly as he had to hunch over a little bit. The two of them looked out the car windows towards the inkling couple and waved at them “Take care you two, I'll make sure to bring Evan back before dinner!” “Bye bye Mama Tsari, bye bye Papa Sho!”

The two adult inklings squeaked and blushed brightly at the adorable nicknames the boy had given them as their hearts fluttered with pure love for the boy. The parents coo’d as they waved at them both “Take care you two, safe driving!” “I'll make sure to make a delicious dinner my little paralarvae, mama loves you!”

After a moment of waving at one another and saying their goodbyes, Isullivan finally started the car and began to drive down the road with Evan in the backseat.

Tsareena and Shogen sighed softly as they saw the car get further and further away from the mansion. They looked to one another when the car was too far to see anymore. “So…since we have the mansion all to ourselves…wanna have some fun babe?~” Shogen purred softly to his mate, looking up at her with half lidded eyes. Tasreena looked back at him with sultry eyes of her own as she leaned down closer to her mate “Ooooh…you don't even have to ask my dear little Shogen…I can't wait to make you sing those little songs of yours~...”

Shogen blushed brightly and opened his mouth in an attempt to respond, but was cut off as she slammed her lips against his in a deep kiss before picking him up in a princess carry. The male Houzuki squeaked into the kiss while his face was almost completely pink from how flustered he was, but Tsareena simply purred into the kiss and turned around before walking back into their mansion for some…alone time.
_______________________________

I see the giant isopod Aquarian drive down the road with Evan in the back seat, a small frown spread across my face as I wasn't too sure if these…cretins could be trusted with the boy's safety.

“I’ll have to keep an eye on them, they say that he'll be safe, but I'm not going to trust the words of Aquarian trash…” I scoffed softly as I made sure to keep the car in my sight at all times.

“Mu, record and document everything that transpires, I want to make sure that if they try something on Evan, we'll be able to respond quickly.”

“Understood Sub-Administrater.”

“One more thing, have my capsule ready at all times…in case I have to make landfall…”

Chapter Text

The bright morning sun beamed incandescently above open plains that spread for miles, grassy fields, forests full of flourishing wildlife, and an ocean that seemed to go on forever. All of this could be seen from the side windows of a car driving by a mountain side road, carrying within two occupant's.

The view of the land mesmerized the human boy, who gazed out the backseat side windows towards the vast lands that stretched into the horizon.

“Woah…so…far…” a whisper left the boy's grinning mouth, his eyes wide and bright at the breathtaking sight before him, the urge of wanting to get out of the car so as to run off and explore the forests on the mountain side growing inside of him the more he stared out the window.

“Hehehe, I know just how you feel friend, the day I left the Deep and finally saw the open vastness of the surface was the day my world view expanded and the possibilities of what I thought I could achieve grew. ” came the chuckling voice of the second occupant of the vehicle, one Isopod who sat on the driver's and drove the car down the mountainside road “One of the best days of my life if I had to be honest…although I wish Shogen wasn't as loud as he was at that moment, made it hard to really soak in the new sensations.”

Evan giggled at the isopods comment, already imagining his male guardian's unnaturally loud voice after having experienced it a few times as of now. After calming down from his giggling fit, he looked over to the isopod with curiosity etched into his heart “Oooh…did you c-come…from underground?...”

Isullivan nodded to the boys question while looking forward at the road, making sure to pay attention while driving “In a way, yes I did. I came from a place with several names, one of them being The Deep, a common name for it. It's a vast underworld located deep beneath the surface that stretches for countless miles, from beneath the ocean to even beneath the land itself. It's practically its own world with how different the atmosphere of the place is compared to Inkadia or here in Calamari County.”

The agent chuckled to himself as he gave a quick glance up at the rear view mirror and saw the boy's eyes gleam in awe and excitement, amused at the clear childlike curiosity and awe that Evan was exuding from hearing about his original home.

“Woaaaah…what was it l-like when you…lived there?” The human child asked in dry, imperfect Inklish, his little stutters over the fast pace language being quite cute to the isopod. Isullivan remained quiet for a moment, reminiscing about his early life, up until he left close to a decade ago

“It was…interesting to say the least. It varied from denizen to denizen, some being quite fortunate and being able to experience good lives with little to no problems…others…not so much. From the outside it looks like your typical society, denizens going about their lives, whether it be school, work, to the store, meeting with a friend, and so on. It can be rather nice honestly, although a bit…cramped as it's ultimately an enclosed space, so even the ‘sky’ was simply the ceiling of The Deep that stretched on endlessly, where more buildings and living habitats were built on it.” a short chuckle rang out from the Isopod “Hehe, the denizens are quite a bit more…exotic looking compared to surface dwellers. From sea angels, ping-pong tree sponges, deep-sea jellyfishes, to isopods like myself, us Denizens of the Deep can be quite the crazy looking group. But…it's not all rainbows and sunshine either. It can be very dangerous to those that are not knowledgeable…and you don't ever want to end up in the underbelly of The Deep, cause if you do…you're unlikely to get out with your life.”

Evan gulped quietly while glancing up at the rear view, seeing that despite Isullivan's facial features being…a bit non-existent, the boy could tell that the crustacean man was reminiscing about something. If he were to make a guess…it likely wasn't a very fond memory.

Just as the mood was about to dampen, the car began to drive into a forested area of the mountain side road. Evan looked all over in awe, a wide grin across his face at the sight of the beautiful and bright wilderness around them, some of the plants being ones he had never seen before and the colors they had were one's he had rarely ever seen plants or trees have.

Seeing the boy's grin from the rearview mirror would've brought a smile to the isopods face if he had the face structure to do such a thing “Amazing right? This road is one of my favorites to take and makes the journey to and from the facility all the more worthwhile. Always makes me quite eager whenever I get to go out and do something beyond just paperwork in my office…it's honestly quite sad that driving through a mountain side forest is one of the most exciting things I get to do…”

The both of them would chuckle and giggle at the last comment, simply enjoying the ride and having a good time together.

Just as it seemed that Isullivan was going to drive on down the road and leave the forested area of the mountain side, the car began to slow down as if it was reaching a stop sign, before turning left…straight into what appeared to be extremely dense and heavy foliage that blocked whatever was beyond from sight.

“S-Sully…W-Why are you driving into the forest? S-Shouldn’t we continue driving down the road?...” The boy asked in a nervous tone as he saw that they were still heading straight towards the foliage, getting a playful scoff from Isullivan “Hah, if we did that then we'd miss the main entrance.”

As it seemed like they were about to ram directly into the heavy foliage, parts of it began to quickly move out of the way in a mechanical manner while others simply…disappeared as if they were never there in the first place. The boy looked on in awe as they drove into the newly formed entrance and down a brand new road Evan hadn't seen before.

“A mix of mechanical and holographic foliage haha, I love it. This entire part of the forest is artificial in nature and under constant surveillance. We don't want any unwanted guests wandering into secret government property after all.” The deep, wet, chittering voice of the isopod rang out throughout the car, informing the child while said child looked outside each window in pure awe. The car began to drive into a forested road, the vegetation drastically different to what he had been seeing for the past several minutes. It practically felt like a separate biome altogether, the ambiance feeling quite a bit different, secretive one could say.

The car drove down the large hidden road within the mountain, the sides of said road having swaths of forest that lead straight into the large walls of the mountain, large trees blocking the sky above and hiding the road Isullivan was taking.

After half a minute of driving down the road, Evan, who had been looking around in sheer excitement the entire time, began to notice that the car was slowing down a fair bit until stopping altogether. The boy looked on ahead in confusion before his eyes widened as the car was facing what appeared to be a massive and wide closed bunker door, big enough for even large vehicles to fit through comfortably.

“Woah…is…that t-the…d-door?” The stuttering voice of the child rang out from within the sleek black car, getting only a small chuckle and a thumbs up out of the other passenger.

The boy flinched as a blue light flashed out from right above the bunker door, covering the entire car and staying there for several seconds while the isopod sat as straight as he could. Once about ten seconds had passed, the light turned off and the door began to open up so as to let them in, revealing a massive room that the car could easily fit in.

Evan looked all over the massive room on the other side of the bunker door after Isullivan had driven inside, seeing the sleek metal walls, floor, and ceiling with bits of piping here and there as well as ceiling lights that lit up the room. The boy raised an eyebrow while looking around, seeing that there were no other doors to go through, only smooth walls all throughout the colossal room. “Umm…Sully…where do we go now?...” The boy's questionioning voice rang out softly, hoping to get an answer from his big friend before letting out a squeak of panic as the bunker door closed behind them, sealing them inside.

If the Isopod was capable of smirking, he would be doing so at the moment “Simple my friend, we go down.”

The humans eyes widened even more as large guardrails slowly rose up from the floor on each edge of the room, slowly enclosing the floor they were on. When the boy opened his mouth to speak, a yelp of surprise was all that came out as the floor shook violently for a moment before beginning to vibrate slightly while Evan felt as if his guts were being slightly lifted, quickly realizing what was going on.

They were on a massive elevator that was heading straight down.
_____

Step…step…step…

Footsteps rang out from the empty grey and white hallways of the hidden facility, the sounds coming from a lone inkling walking by himself.

The short inkling sighed softly, gently brushing his white tentacles with black stripes on it that draped over his shoulders and down to his upper chest.

Minutes passed while the inkling walked down the hallway, slowly getting closer to his objective while his hands were in his pockets and his eyes were closed, showing that he was quite familiar with his surroundings, not needing to see to know where he was going.

Voices began to ring out from a specific room, the very room he was looking for. “Bingo…” he whispered to himself as he went up to the door and showed his ID to the scanner, the red light on it now glowing green to signify permission for entry.

“All I'm saying is that this ‘ere game is a load of squit!” “And I'm saying that maybe you're just complete guppysquit at it you twink!” Two voices immediately rang out once the door opened, coming from two individuals that were sitting by a table within the relatively tight room.

A male sea urchin rose up from his seat and pressed his head against the head of the crab he was sitting across from. “The fuck ya said ya cunt?!” the light, slightly effeminate voice of the sea urchin rang out in an accented outrage towards his competitor as he slammed a pair of cards he was holding down on the table between them, all while the crab chuckled a bit and glared back “Hehehe, just saying how it is.”

“Lilam, Craton, can you both quiet down for Cod’s sake?! I'm trying to keep an eye out for the boss on the cams and you two are making it damn near impossible to concentrate!” A harsh female voice rang out from the other side of the room, a female inkling with short red hair looking back at the two loudmouths at the table. The ruby eyes of the inkling glared daggers at the aforementioned Lilam and Craton, who both flinched a bit at her loud and harsh voice.

“Tch…whatever…twat…” The sea urchin, Lilam, scoffed quietly to himself, upset to have been scolded like that while the crab, Craton, raised his claws in mock surrender and frowned a bit “Not my fault that Lilam sucks ass at card games and bitches about it endlessly.” “Oh that's it, come here ya bastard!”

As the two were going at it once more, a sea anemone with blue frizzy hair, who was leaning against the wall on the opposite end of the room from the door, groaned softly while gently cradling a twin pair of clownfish. “Uuugh…all of you don't have to be so loud you know? All your yelling is making Joe and Schmo nervous…there there you two…sorry we have to stay with these loudmouths…” she complained to the others before reassuring her little clownfishes and nuzzling them afterwards, smiling warmly as she felt them gently nuzzling her back.

A grunt rang out from the red haired inkling as she side eyed the sea anemone a bit, seemingly a bit annoyed at the soft spoken woman “Oh quit your whining Rallia, you should've known what you were getting yourself into when you agreed to be apart of the escort yesterday despite these two loud mouths being a part of it.”

The sea anemone, Rallia, lightly glared at the red haired inkling while holding her shivering clownfish closer “I just…really wanted to see the human boy for the first time…you don't have to be a jerk about it Nori…”

A laugh rang out from Craton as he easily held the squeaking and angry sea urchin at bay “Hahaha, don't take her too seriously Rallia, Nori is just simply upset that she has to be here instead of being with her mate.”

Nori blushed a bright red while glaring daggers at the laughing crab. “I-I am not!!!” She squeaked out in embarrassment while Craton and Rallia laughed and giggled respectively at her reaction, the sea anemone playfully pointing her fingers at Nori “Hehe, you really can't go an hour without Kiku~”

While two of the four occupants of the room laughed at the female inklings expense, Lilam finally calmed down from his second outburst and noticed that the door was open, as well as the short male inkling that stood right by the door, a clearly unamused look spread across his face. The sea urchin's eyes widened a bit at this and waved over at the inkling with a small smile “Oi Sepio, what took ya so long?”

The other three occupants quickly stopped their noise after hearing Sepio’s name and looked over to the male inkling with wide eyes of their own. “Yoo Sep’, what was the hold up?” “O-Oh Sepio, I didn't see you there…” “Took you long enough Sepio, I was thinking that you were actually going to skip out on all of this.” Craton, Rallia, and Nori greeted the inkling respectively, their earlier dispute and clashing seemingly replaced by a friendly look on their faces at the sight of Sepio.

“Haha, I was just off in the…bathroom doing my business. Sheesh, you four act as if I was gone for hours.” Came the chuckling response of the striped haired inkling, a bit amused and annoyed at their reactions to his absence. The inkling walked over next to Rallia and began checking through the monitors that Nori was checking earlier “So, anything happened while I kept y'all waiting?”

“Pfft, we wish, we've been here for an hour and we've picked up nothing on the security cams, so these two ass hats started playing some card games to pass the time, and knowing them, they can't help but be loud and annoying at everything they do.” Came Nori’s response while pointing back at the two that were sitting by the table, with Lilam flipping the bird at her while rolling his pink sclera eyes, while Craton simply smirked at Nori and flipped her the bird as well (or at least the crab equivalent of flipping the bird) “Fuck off ya cunt…” “Oooh quit your hating bitch, at least we know how to have fun.”

Rallia giggled and Sepio smirked at their responses while Nori rolled her eyes at their response and flipped them back, clearly not amused at their vulgar responses. “Hahaha, you need to loosen up Nori, you've been dealing with these two for years now, you should already know what to expect from them~...” Rallia laughed in that soft and cute voice of hers while her little clown fishes swam happily around her, much to the chagrin of said inkling who simply scoffed at the sea anemone’s comment “Tch…these two need to learn to quiet down sometimes, they are in a top secret government facility, they should show at least some modicum of professionalism.”

“Pfft, that's rich coming from the one who's constantly smooching her mate during work hours…” Craton whispered to Lilam, who snickered and nodded in agreement, while the red inkling blushed once more and squeaked at them in response “I heard that!”

As the three of them were about to clash heads once more, Sepio let out a loud cough to catch the attention of those that were present. Once the inkling, sea anemone, sea urchin, and Crab looked over towards him, the male inkling pointed at the monitors and showed that the elevator had lowered and Isullivan's car began to drive towards its designated parking space “The boss is here.”
_____

Evan enthusiastically looked around, eagerly watching as the guard rails lowered down into the ground, allowing for Isullivan's car to drive out of the grand elevator.

The isopod drove forward from the elevator and into the colossal room filled to the brim with many vehicles of all shapes and sizes. The boy stared in wonder as the car he was in drove down the ‘parking lot’ of the facility, passing by many exotic looking cars along the way, even a couple of heavy duty vehicles as well.

After half a minute of driving, Isullivan finally parked the car in his designated parking spot and turned off the vehicle, snapping the boy out of his daze. “Well my friend, time for us to continue on foot.” The isopod spoke to the young boy while looking back at him, chuckling as the boy celebrated “Yaaay, super secret base!”

Isullivan got out of the car and closed the door behind him before opening one of the backseat doors, stepping aside as Evan quickly and eagerly hopped out of the car soon afterwards. The agent gently grasped the boy's right hand with one of his own after closing the car door behind Evan “Alright Evan, come with me, and make sure to stay by my side at all times, understood?” “Y-Yes Sully!”

After pressing a button on his car key to lock his car, Isullivan gently guided the boy towards the proper entrance at the opposite end of the room from the grand elevator. The boy's eyes shone in wonder as he looked all over, seeing the smooth metallic walls and the lights that popped all throughout it, to the large metallic door that they were both heading towards, vastly different looking from the massive bunker door they drove into to get onto the elevator.

“Welcome to the Bathyal Point Facility my friend, one of the main bases of operation within my department.” The isopod spoke to the excited boy while leading him to the entrance proper “Some of my agents should be here quite soon to greet us and then we can begin.”

“Already…Aah…ahead of you…aaah…boss.” A voice rang out from the intercoms near the door before the door split in half and slid apart, opening up to reveal a group of five standing on the other side. Three of them seemed to be inklings, one of them seemed to be a crab, while the last one was a species that Evan had never seen before. The group proceeded to step past the door and into the ‘parking lot’ that Isullivan and Evan were in, lining up side by side.

On the far right was this bipedal creature with what seemed to be almost like black spikes for hair, although the spikes slowly turned from black to a dark pink the further up the spikes went until the tip was a slightly brighter pink. Their skin color was a bit of a vibrant orange, but the tips of their fingers seemed to be pink like the tips of their spiky hair. Their eyes were very unique to the boy, the sclera that would normally be white was instead a darker pink while their irises were a soft blue color. They wore what seemed to be a soft form fitting agent suit that seemed to highlight their curves as it hugged their body tightly, which made Evan think that they may have been a woman. She stood in a sassy manner and had a slightly judgmental look on her face.

To the left of the spiky woman was what appeared to be a bipedal crab-like creature. Their body structure seemed to be human-ish, although there were distinct differences to it, as they were closer in appearance to Isullivan than they were to the others and himself. They stood on two somewhat thin legs and had four pairs of arms in a similar fashion to the isopod, although their limbs were much longer. He couldn't see much of their body as they were wearing what seemed to be a security uniform, the skin…no…the carapace he could see was a mix of blue, orange, and red all over, making them quite colorful. Their head seemed to actually be its own part rather than just being on their torso like Evan has seen with other crabs, although it doesn't seem like their neck can turn much anyways. They seemed to be wearing sunglasses similar to Isullivan as well, so the boy couldn't see their eyes. They seemed to be pretty laid back and chill, clearly not bothered by anything, and even Evan couldn't help but feel chill as well.

In the middle of the group stood a female inkling, who seemed to carry herself like a leader. She was wearing what seemed to be a security uniform similar to the crab, but it also seemed a bit different from the crab outside of course being made to fit her body structure instead…rather, it seemed more venerated, likely meaning she was a higher status than the crab, and she clearly put a lot of effort into making sure that her uniform was clean and presentable, showing that she clearly cared about how she looked and carried herself. She has short red hair that reminded the boy of Marl, although maybe a bit longer, likely reaching her shoulders, and having circles and dots on the tips like Kelly rather than rings like with Marl. She has a warm ivory skin tone and ruby red eyes, eyes that looked normal like Kelly and Marl rather than Pearl and her parents.

To the left of the female inkling from Evans perspective stood what was clearly a woman of sorts, and although at first the boy had confused her for an inkling, the closer he looked the sooner he realized that she was in fact something else entirely. She has ocean blue skin along with frizzy cyan tentacles that reached all the way down to her waist and seemed to be glowing ever so slightly. Her eyes were rather unique as similar to the spiky woman, the sclera wasn’t white, but a greenish blue instead, and instead of a single iris around each of her pupils, she seemed to have two irises instead, the outer one a bright amber-ish yellow while the inner iris was cyan like her hair. She was wearing an agent suit similar to that of Isullivan and seemed to have two little clownfish just…flying around her head…as if they were swimming in air. She seemed to be rather shy as she was a little hunched over, as if trying to hide.

To the far left of the group stood what appeared to be a short male inkling, the shortest one he's seen besides Pearl. He is wearing an agent suit like the woman next to him and Isullivan, although the similarities ended there. He has pale white skin and somewhat long white hair with black stripes that draped over parts of his face and shoulders, as if hiding it. Evan would've liked to see the man's eyes, but he had them closed at the moment, hiding them from the boy, and in turn had an air of mystery that the boy couldn't get over.

Evan's eye's widened a bit at the sight of these people he had never seen before, instinctively scooting closer to Isullivan.

“I’m glad to see that you five actually got ready on time compared to previous assignments…why are you out of breath?...” Isullivan asks the group of five as a few of them were breathing deeply, as if they just finished running.

The one red haired inkling in the front took a deep breath as she slowly regained her composure “Aaaah…sorry boss, we were just doing…a quick jog around the facility before you arrived so as to…get the ink pumping, y-yeah!”

The isopod simply gave her and the team an unamused look while Evan giggled and relaxed a little bit, finding her and their team quite funny “...I very much doubt that…” “Hehehehe~”

“Anyways…now then everyone, I would like to introduce our human guest, Evan.” Isullivan spoke up before gently patting the boy on the back, the boy slowly moving closer towards the group. “H-Hello, m-my name is…Evan Rowe, n-nice to meet you all.” The boy softly spoke up at the five, a shy and nervous smile across his childish face.

A squeak shot out from the blue frizzy haired short lady as she shot forward and practically almost tackled the poor boy, scaring him a fair bit “Eeeeee oh my cod oh my cod oh my cod, you're just the cutest little thing!”

“Rallia, can you please not give our little guest a heart attack?” Came the groaning voice of Isullivan, slightly worried that she was scaring the boy. The sea anemone blushed brightly and squeaked before stepping back in line, letting out small little apologies along the way.

Evan smiled up at the blue haired sea anemone as she blushed brightly and covered her face, still letting out small little apologies to the amusement of the others present. The isopod coughed slightly so as to get their attention before standing up straight patting the boys back “Now then, let me introduce you to some of my team.”

“This is Nori, one of the leading Security Guards of the facility as one of our Security Managers. She takes the job quite seriously and admittedly can be a bit rough and grumpy, but she does care at the end of the day, and you can always count on her to keep this place safe.” Isullivan introduced the red haired inkling that stood at the front and center of the group, her stern ruby red eyes staring at the boy. The boy looked up at her and saw how she had a scar on her left cheek of what seemed to be claw marks. Her short red tentacles wiggled a bit as she saw him looking at her scar “Nice to meet you Evan, I'm here to make sure that everyone in the facility is safe and no one gets hurt, I hope you'll find your time here to be pleasant.”

The boy nervously smiled up at her and nodded, clearly a bit on edge by her serious personality and demeanor. “T-Thank you M-Miss Nori…I…hope nothing bad happens.” he stuttered softly in response, getting a curt nod from the red inkling.

“Now then, the next one up would be Craton, he's one of the security guards working under Nori. He’s quite laid back a lot of the time, but he's always ready to do his job whenever he's needed. A good man to talk to and it's never a boring time with him around.” Isullivan introduced the bipedal crab that stood to Nori's left along with the spiky woman. Craton walked forward a bit and kneeled slightly, smiling at the human boy “Heya squirt, as you heard from the boss my name is Craton, if you ever need someone to hang out with in your free time, I'm your guy. Just don't go looking for that annoying twink over there.”

“Listen ya inky ba-” the Spiky woman…twink? stopped mid sentence just as she was about to call Craton a bastard, feeling a chill go down her back. She slowly looked over to her right and saw Rallia giving her an absolutely lethal death glare, wordlessly telling her to shut her mouth and not say what she was gonna say “N-Nevermind…”

Evan tilted his head in confusion at how they all behaved while Craton laughed at the Spiky woman's expense and even Nori had a small smirk across her face. Despite his confusion, the boy also found this all to be quite funny as he smiled slightly and giggled at the spiky woman's expense, causing her to blush in embarrassment “Oh whatever…”

After a minute of the group having their small little fun, Isullivan let out a small cough to gather their attention once more. “Hmm…hmm…continuing on…the one who spoke up after Craton is our vulgar Sea Urchin, Lilam. He is a Surveillance Specialist, which means he goes out and gathers any information for my department. Despite this he likes to hang out in the facility a bit more than he should, likely due to a specific someone…” Isullivan informed the boy while Lilam squeaked and blushed in embarrassment, Craton smugly smirked and gave the sea urchin a side glance.

Evan tilted his head, confused as to why Lilam was blushing over this and why Craton gave him seemingly a smug look. ‘These two are very weird…but funny!...wait he?’ the human thought to himself while Lilam shook his head and glared at the isopod “No need ta reveal that ya big backed oaf…”

The Sea Urchin stepped forward ahead of the rest of the group and looked down at the boy with a soft look in his eyes “Nice ta meet ya Evan, names Lilam, if ya ever have any questions, don't be afraid ta ask me. Also, despite what ya may have thought…I’m a man, not a woman”. The boy looked all over the sea urchin, noticing that Lilam indeed didn't have lady bits, which made Evan feel embarrassed to assume that the Sea Urchin was a woman at first. Evan smiled up at the Sea Urchin and gave him a thumbs up “O-Okay! I-I have a lot to learn about where I am, s-so…I hope you can help m-me!”

Most of the group chuckled and coo’d at the boy's cute mannerisms, finding him to be quite adorable and endearing. Isullivan gently ruffled the boys hair, getting a giggle out of him. “Don't worry my friend, we'll answer any questions that you may have whenever you're here at Bathyal Point Facility…as long as they aren't confidential of course. Can't go revealing government secrets willy nilly just like that, I'd have the other department heads and higher ups on my rear for years to come…huh…doesn't sound much different to what my job entails already!” The isopod openly jokes, getting small laughs from most of the people gathered and even a small chuckle out of the two inklings present

The blue frizzy haired lady, Rallia, smiled excitedly as Isullivan gestures towards her “Up next is Rallia, one of our Communication officers. She's one of the people responsible for communicating with the other facilities of this department and other departments as well as informing the personnel in the facility of any major updates. She's rather soft spoken and can be a bit shy, but she's all around a sweet lady, although maybe not the best when it comes to conversations. She once couldn't stop stuttering for three minutes straight in one of our meetings, was quite funny and adorable.”

Rallia squeaked and blushed brightly at her boss's comment, her entire face practically turning a deeper shade of blue as she rushed forward and started lightly bashing Isullivan's carapace with her small fists in an adorable manner “B-Boss! D-Don't embarrass me in front of the adorable little human!!!”

Several of the gathered people laughed and chuckled a bit at Rallia’s embarrassment, finding it to be quite adorable and hilarious. “Hahahaha, now now Rallia, I'm only teasing.” Isullivan laughed softly while gently petting the short sea anemone, who pouted up at him while crossing her arms “Y-You joke around too much boss…N-Now Evan won't take me seriously…”

While Rallia was distracted by Isullivan's teasing remark, Evan smiled as he walked over to the short sea anemone and lightly pat her arm, trying to grab her attention. Once his target squeaked and looked down at him with wide eyes, the boy smiled up at her reassuringly and gently patted her side “I-It's okay…R-Rallia…I’m not good with conversations e-either! Maybe we…can help each o-other!”

Seconds pass by in silence, the sea anemone simply staring at the boy with wide eyes, unable to respond. What felt like an awkward eternity to those watching finally came to an end as Rallia let out a loud squeal of excitement while leaning down and quickly hugging the yelping boy close and tightly “Eeeeee you are just the cutest and sweetest little thing Evan! I love you so much!!!”

As the boy was hugged by the taller woman, the others looked on with different reactions. Isullivan, Craton, and Lilam looked in amusement, finding the sight to be quite adorable, while Nori looked on with an exasperated and unamused look…although her small little smile betrayed her true feelings of the cute display. All of them found the two of them interacting to be quite cute and endearing…but for the white haired inkling on the other hand…he was clearly unamused, and even had a…strange look up on his face, almost like a small grimace.

Evan stayed still for a bit, finding the surprise hug to be…well, surprising. He didn't know how to react to the hug at first, not used to strangers showing this kind of affection after only just meeting them (despite how affectionate he was with Pearl when he just met her…that doesn't count!). After a moment of contemplating what to do, the boy decided to simply roll with it and give the lady the hug that she wanted.

Rallia squeaked and blushed in delight as she felt the young boy return her embrace, wrapping his small arms as best as he could around her torso. She let out a happy whimper in response to the warmth that emitted from the small boy and slowly leaked into her body to warm her up as well, not used to the feeling of a person actually being warm to touch “Waaaaaah, Evan you're so warm! I wanna hug you forever!~❤️”

The two continued to embrace one another for a small while, the lady wanting nothing more than to embrace the young human boy for hours upon hours, but knew she had to eventually let go. When the sea anemone went to let go of the boy, one of her hairs gently brushed against the boy's right forearm.

Evan squeaked in pain while jolting back in shock, whimpering softly as his right forearm now stung and hurt a bit. Rallia gasped and held her hands to her mouth as she saw that she had accidentally hurt the poor boy, enough so that there were small tears in the corners of his eyes. “I-I'm so sorry Evan, I-I didn't know that m-my hair c-could actually sting you! I-I'm just…so used to inklings being unaffected that I just…assumed…” Rallia let out a panicked apology, unused to her hairs stinging properties to actually come into effect at all.

The others have worried looks while Isullivan walked over and thoroughly inspecting the boys forearm, gently sighing in relief as he sees that the stung part wasn't actually injured or anything of the sorts, the boy having only experienced a momentary stinging pain “Aaah…it seems that Evan will be fine. The stings seemed to only induce mild pain, and Evan here doesn't seem to be having any reaction to said sting either, so we won't have to worry about needing to treat him for anything like an allergic reaction.”

Some of those that were gathered let out small sighs of relief at this, glad that the boy was going to be fine, while Rallia still whimpered and looked at the boy with tiny tears in her eyes “I'm really sorry Evan…I really didn't mean to hurt you…”

Evan looked up at her with a slightly pained look while gently rubbing his forearm, but his eyes slowly softened as he saw that she genuinely didn't mean to hurt him. The boy wiped his tears away with his other forearm before walking over to her again and gently patting one of her arms, giving her a small smile “You…didn't mean to hurt me R-Rallia, s-so…I forgive you!”

The woman teared up and sobbed dramatically at the boy's forgiving nature, barely able to hold herself back. “O-Oh cod Evan…y-you’re just…sniffle…t-too kind! I-I love you so much already!!!” She whines out loud while spreading her arms wide and dashing over to Evan in an attempt to hug him again, causing the boy to squeak in panic. Two hands firmly grasp each of her shoulders and prevents her from reaching the boy, causing the sea anemone to yelp and look at who was holding her back, realizing that it Nori grabbing her left shoulder, and her boss grabbing her right shoulder…who was currently looking at her sternly “Rallia, I think it is best that you hold back from hugging the poor boy for now, you might accidentally sting him again with your hair if you're not careful.”

Rallia blinked a few times before gasping a bit and stepping back a little from Evan, gulping a bit at the realization that her recklessness could hurt the poor boy, especially with all the hair that she has. She looked at the boy with a small, apologetic smile as she kneels down a bit to his eye level “S-Sorry about that Evan, I…have a hard time resisting the need to hug things that I find really cute or adorable, I-I just can't help it! I'll do my best t-to be wary of having my hair near you…I-I really don't want to hurt a cutie like you…”

The boy blushed slightly at being called a cutie by the pretty sea anemone, still flustered at receiving compliments from others “T-Thank you R-Rallia…y-you're r-really sweet and pretty!”

Lilam rolled his eyes as he sees that Rallia was about to go into another cuteness frenzy, the sea anemone already squealing in delight while blushing bright at being called pretty “Uuugh, before ya go into another frenzy, can ye please properly introduce yourself like the others? We don't have all morning ya overdramatic blueberry!”

The sea urchin smirked in amusement as Rallia turned towards him and glared at him while Craton laughed and Nori chuckled a bit “O-Oh s-shut up Lilam, I-I was getting to that j-jerk!”

When the communications officer turned back to the boy, she sighed slightly and smiled at the boys little giggles and wide smiles, happy that at least Evan was feeling better after being stung “Sorry about that…as Isullivan said, my name is Rallia, and I'm more than happy to help if you ever need anything, although you can call me big sis Ralli, I would love that!...oh, and these are my precious little friends!”

At her call, two small clownfish swam out of her hair and towards the boy, who looked on in awe as the two clownfish somehow swam through the air towards him. Rallia smiled warmly as she saw that her little clownfish friends seemed to like the boy as they swam around him excitedly and even playfully nipped at cheeks in a gentle manner, causing the boy to let out childish laughs and giggles as he gently tries to push the clownfishes away from his cheeks “These are my two friends, Joe and Schmo, they've been with me since I was little and I don't where I would be without them.”

The sea anemone gently recalls her two little clownfish back to her, who gently floated onto the palms of each of her hands and laid on them. “This one right here is Joe, he's a bit smaller than your average male, but he's very energetic and sweet, always doing nice things for me and Schmo. He's such a sweetheart and very playful too, he always loves to meet new people and play with them~” Rallia coos softly as she presents the smaller clownfish of the two, who smiled widely up at Evan and swam around the grinning boy excitedly before gently and playfully nipping the boy on the nose, getting another childish laugh from the boy. “This one right here is Schmo. She can be rather shy and nervous around others, but she's always so sweet when you get to know her. She’s very protective of Joe, so be careful not to hurt him, or else she might get a little upset.” The sea anemone gently raised her other hand and showed the larger clownfish, who had a more timid look on her face as she slowly floated from Rallia's hand and towards Evan. “H-Hello!” The boy greeted and smiled brightly at the female clownfish, who shyly smiled back at him and gently nuzzled his cheek, getting a giggle out of the boy. Rallia smiled warmly as she saw that her clownfish friends were very close to the boy already, being so cuddly and nippy with him “They’re both normally very reserved and quiet clownfish, preferring not to talk a lot, but they already like you so much Evan, it's only a matter of time before they're comfortable enough to talk with you~”

A minute flew by as the boy played with the little clownfishes for a bit, laughing and giggling as they nuzzled and nipped at his cheeks and nose in a playful manner, getting closer to him through this cute bonding. They didn't have all day though as Isullivan gently laughed and stepped closer to the quartet “Come now Rallia, we can't afford to waste too much time on introductions, I promised to return the boy by evening before the Houzuki's princess returned, and the faster we get this all done today, the better.”

Rallia frowned a bit as she wanted to spend more time with the boy, but understood that the clock was ticking, and they all had work to do. “Come here Joe and Schmo, we can spend time with Evan later~...” She calls to the clownfish who gently float to her hair while whispering softly “Okay~...” “A-Alright…”

Once the Sea Anemone stood up and stepped back next to Nori and the other inkling, Isullivan nodded once more and gestured to the white haired inkling on the far left from Evan's perspective “This right here is Sepio, one of our top operatives and lead field agents. He helps keep tabs of foreign activity, including any possible Octarian activity, as unlikely as it may be. He's not one to talk much in general, but he seems to be able to get along with basically everyone, and is an all around dependable man, and one of my best agents.”

Evan stared up at the male inkling in slight awe as despite not understanding a lot of what Isullivan was saying to him, he understood that Sepio was someone that the people here look up to, so he couldn't help but be in slight awe as well. The humans eyes widened a bit as Sepio stepped towards the boy until they were close to one another. The boy tilted his head in confusion as the inkling still had his eyes closed even after all this time, as if he doesn't need to rely on his eyes as much to traverse around, making the boy wonder if maybe he was blind. The boy wouldn't have to wonder for long as Sepio finally decided to open his eyes and…

Evan stayed completely still as he gazed for the first time into the white haired inklings eyes.

Two pitch black stars shone in the middle of the inkling's eyes, floating in the white void seas that were his irises, surrounded by a yellow sclera that faintly glowed like a dim light. The boy felt as if he was loosing himself in the man's eyes, as if all else around him was slowly fading away…but…not in the same way Pearl's eyes did. He felt safe and warm with the Houzuki princess’s yellow star eyes, but with Sepio's pure black star eyes…they felt cold…scornful…

The boy gulped slightly and timidly smiled up at the inkling, hoping to get a positive reaction from the man.

All he got in return was a grimace and a cold stare.