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The battle raged on as the sound of Candy-Coated Rocks by Damp Socks feat. Off The Hook blasted over the speakers of the Inkblot Art Academy, Alba narrowly sidestepping a curling bomb headed their way as they continued to push the charge forward with their carbon roller. They’d lost sight of Ana when the game started, but they could hear the sound of her E-liter dispatching Inkfish left and right so they were sure she must be near.
He reached the far side of the map, inking over the trails their opponents had left near their spawn and tossing an autobomb up into their spawn area to try and pick off any potential pursuers, leaving trails of orange everywhere before taking a left and beginning to make his way back to their own spawn. Noting that her special was almost ready, she began to think of potential strategies and moves she could try with it. She and Ana had been practicing in recon lately to see what they could both accomplish together in different maps, so she felt confident that she could do some solid damage to their opponents’ ink coverage.
Hearing the telltale sound of a charging E-liter, Alba turned to look to his left, and… wow, she could no longer look away.
Ana was standing on the tall structure in the middle of the stage, clearly having fought tooth and nail to be the only one in that vantage spot, a few ink splatters of the opposing team’s color dripping from her chin and forehead. There was this focused, determined look on their face that made Alba’s hearts become completely unsynchronized as they began to beat wildly in their chest. He watched them snipe a rapid blaster straight out of the sky as they attempted to jump over to the platform she was standing on, and then quickly turn to fire off a shot at a clueless heavy splatling about to put down a Wavebreaker, not even stopping to aim before pulling the trigger.
Alba was swooning. Positively enamored. They couldn’t tear their eyes off the force of nature that Ana became in the middle of battle. So much so, they didn’t notice the ledge they were about to walk off of.
Suddenly, their foot hit nothing instead of the ground they had previously been walking on, making them take a rough tumble off the edge of the ledge. Then, as if that wasn’t humiliating enough, the weight of her carbon roller dragged her forward, making her trip a second time and sending her careening over the edge of the stage and straight into the water. Her body popped with an unpleasant sensation at the water surrounding her, her little ghost heading over to the respawner as her death cam showed her gear floating up to the surface sadly.
Cod, she hoped Ana hadn’t seen that.
His cheeks felt a little warm from embarrassment, however, they tried not to let it get to them as they superjumped to Ana’s position, knowing it was well-defended. The moment they landed next to Ana, a shot of ink hit their eye, and they turned on reflex to flick back with their roller, quickly splatting the already weakened opponent.
“Good job securing this spot!” they yelled over the sounds of fighting. “Make sure to keep it defended! I’ll-” as they attempted to try and finish their sentence, they heard… giggling?
Quickly turning to face Ana, she found that, yes, the octoling was, indeed, giggling. She opened her mouth to ask what was up, but was interrupted by the amused glint in Ana’s eye and their quick flick of their E-liter to dispatch yet another opponent.
“Trying to play it cool, Alba?” she questioned, a slightly smug smirk on her lips. Alba tilted his head in confusion, about to ask what she meant, when she remembered the very embarrassing incident that had just happened.
Oh. She’d seen it.
Turning bright orange and sheepishly laughing, Alba then jumped off of the raised platform down onto the ground, exclaiming something along the lines of “I’mgonnapushforwardokaybye-” before setting down their carbon roller and painting away. Before Ana was completely out of eyeshot, though, they turned around for just one moment, going against their better judgement.
Ana was still looking at them, amused grin still on their lips. She shot Alba a wink before promptly turning around and splatting the same newbie for the eleventh time, yelling out something like “You gotta watch out for charger lasers, kid!” before moving on to the next opponent.
Alba was frozen in place. It was only when she got a nasty direct hit from the enemy rapid blaster that she broke out of her stupor, quickly dodging on reflex and bringing her carbon roller down several times on the opponent until they were on their way back to their respawner.
That was the last splat Alba got that match. For the life of him, he just could not focus on anything except that wink. His face felt perpetually warm, and anyone that looked at him was probably wondering why he looked so orange.
Ana could definitely tell.
And Alba almost dreaded the end of the match. Oh, the teasing would be endless.
…But maybe they wouldn’t really mind it that much.