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Deep Cut had invited the New Squidbeak Splatoon back to Alterna for yet another rematch against Neo. About three rematches ago, they figured out that the Captain is more likely to accept if they call it training instead of a rematch. Not that they were fooling anyone of their intentions. As the past few “training sessions” have gone, Neo beat Deep Cut once again. After the battles, when everyone was leaving, Marie noticed something. Shiver was lingering behind. Frye and Big Man waved to Shiver, so they must know they’re staying behind. When Marie saw that, she had the urge to go investigate.
“You all can go,” Marie said to the other agents. “I’ll stay behind for a minute.”
“Hm, you sure?” Callie shrugged. “Well, see you later then, Mar!”
“See you. Oh, and Neo, good job, once again.”
“Thanks! Bye!”
Marie waited for the others to leave, but didn’t approach Shiver just yet. She watched them for a minute, just to see what they were up to. Shiver didn’t do anything, they were pretty much just standing around. Marie went to ask what was up.
“Shiver?”
“Wah!” Shiver yelped, turning to Marie. “Boss! What are you doing out here?”
“I came here to ask you, actually. I saw you staying behind.”
“Oh, well… Catching my breath after our latest battle. I’m sure you saw how intense it was!”
“It was pretty good, yeah. You didn’t get injured or anything, I hope. You usually go straight out with the other two, right?”
“No, I’m not hurt.” Shiver cleared their throat. “Actually, I had a second reason for coming here today.”
“Oh? Treasure, I assume?”
“’Treasure…’ You could say that…” They covered the bottom of their face with their fan, and looked Marie straight in the eye. “There is a certain beautiful lady I wanted to see!”
“A beautiful lady? Here?” Marie raised an eyebrow
Ouch. She’s completely unimpressed. Shiver was hoping to get some type of reaction out of her. Swooning, blushing, anything! They would admit, Alterna is far from a romantic destination, especially after they challenged and lost to the least experienced agent. But the delivery on that line was perfect! They called her a beautiful piece of treasure, and didn’t get so much as a smile.
“Y-Yes, here! If you want, we could go to another place instead.”
Marie looked around Alterna, then shrugged. “Here is fine, if that was your plan. There’s nothing important around, I don’t think. I just thought it was strange place to pick.”
“What’s so strange about us meeting here?”
“Uh, what’s not strange about meeting here?”
“Well… the view is nice, don’t you think?” Shiver slowly looked around, then stopped when facing Marie. “I think the view here is my favorite part.”
She turned to face the same direction. “It is pretty nice. The Splatlands don’t get a lot of snow, right? It would be pretty if you don’t see it often.”
Again, a failure. Maybe Shiver’s approach is the problem. So far, they’ve just called Marie pretty twice, and it’s clearly not working. There has to be another way. The two wandered back to the Splatoon’s camp near the entrance of Alterna and sat there.
“So,” Marie asked, “what’s new with Deep Cut lately?”
“Oh, not much. The news gig is pretty great, we get to say pretty much whatever we want, except for the sponsored segments. I can see how you did it for so long.”
“Wow, I didn’t know you knew about that. It was years ago, and in Inkopolis. Were you digging up dirt on us before we gave you that treasure?” Marie teased
“N-No! I just… happened to stumble on an old video of you!”
Shiver regained their composure, then went for another attempt at flirting. They scooted closer to Marie and leaned towards her. They didn’t make contact with Marie just yet, but got noticeably closer. Marie glanced at Shiver, and that was the only reaction she showed. She’s impossible! Shiver couldn’t figure out how to be less subtle about their flirting.
“Well, anyways, I think I should go now,” Marie said. “Enjoy your time with whoever you said was coming down here.”
“… What?” Shiver was dumbfounded
“What? It sounded like a date to me, I don’t want to interrupt.”
“Boss… I was talking about you.”
“You what?” Everything clicked for Marie. “You meant that you came here to see me?”
“I… Yes. I meant you.”
“Oh. Right. Okay.” Marie replayed the past few minutes in her head. “So… that beautiful lady?”
Suddenly, Shiver couldn’t look Marie in the eye without blushing. “Yeah, she’s… She’s you, Marie.”
“And the treasure?”
“Y-Yes, that too.”
There was a second of awkward silence as they both tried to process whatever has been going on the whole time.
“Hold on… Shiver… Have you been flirting with me this whole time?”
“I was trying to, yes,” they admitted
“Right… I wasn’t paying much attention to that, I thought you were about to meet with someone else. Sorry you had to waste those good lines.”
Both of them sat in their embarrassment. Shiver, for continually flirting with someone who gave no reactions, after working up the courage and waiting for a good opportunity. Marie, for accidentally ignoring all of that flirting, which was painfully obvious as she thought back.
“So when you said it sounded like a date…” Shiver tried to tease, but embarrassed themself more than Marie
“Er… Let’s forget I said that. I don’t think dates count unless we both already knew it was a date, right?”
“True… Next time, I’ll make my invitation more clear.”
“’Next time?’ I think I like the sound of that.”