Black Sheep

Filled to the brim with excitement, Cas stepped through the opening train doors, violet eyes alight and the ghost of a smile playing at his lips. It had been a very long, very boring school day, but he hadn't been able to focus much on the work at hand, anyways - even more so than usual. Ever since he'd glimpsed the flier in the plaza advertising an open turf war team position, he couldn't seem to think about anything else. Finally, the opportunity he'd been looking for - he'd been given a chance to prove himself, and he had every intention of seizing it. This was the day!

The crowd, while considerably thinner than it was during the day, was still just that: a crowd. It took a bit of slipping between and bumping into other inklings to finally make his way into the plaza, and once he did, he got right to work with looking for the one who'd posted up the advertisement (a few of which he'd taken down on sight - not that he was at all concerned that there'd be competition, of course). Pulling one of the fliers he'd kept out of his pocket, he unfolded it and checked the location again - upon reaffirming it, Cas lowered the sheet back to his side and lifted his face, making his way through the crowd towards the aforementioned destination. Soon - soon he'd be able to really make an impression on his new teammate!

Tightening his grip around the paper in his hand in anticipation, he emerged from the crowd and gave a quick scan of the plaza. There didn't appear to be anything... too out of the ordinary. Frowning a bit, he turned on his heel and continued to scan his surroundings, briefly skimming over Iggy when, a second later, a bit of recognition took hold of him and he stopped dead, turning his head to glimpse the inkling's face. The smile faded abruptly from his lips, replaced by a surge of bitter realization in the form of some rather unpleasant memories, and for a moment, he merely stared, disgusted.

What was he doing here?

Squinting, he furrowed his brow and frowned, allowing a moment to scrutinize Iggy. He was too caught up in staring at some dumb paper to notice, anyways. Where was his 'undefeated' possy of assholes now? Rolling his eyes, he elected to ignore his unfortunate company and resume searching for his new teammate. Not like that idiot was the one getting a new team. Cas was sure his would be at least a hundred times better. Feeling smug, he walked on by and continued to look around, trying to smother the part of him wondering whether or not this 'new teammate' actually existed.

It hadn't been any more than a couple of minutes since he arrived at the plaza, but as the seconds ticked by, he felt his enthusiasm fading. His searching had yielded no results - the only inkling even at the location mentioned on the flier was Iggy, and Casper knew all too well that he wasn't the one who had posted it. Feeling his confidence wane in spite of himself, his shoulders drooped slightly, uncertainty getting the better of him. What if they'd already found someone who fit the part? He'd torn down as many fliers as he could find, but there was no way he could have gotten them all. Ears wilting slightly, he resumed his earlier frowning, hopes dashed. Guess I'll just have to wait some more.

Jumping slightly at the sound of his name being spoken, he stiffened, whirling to face the one he'd been making faces at just a few second ago; his face was caught somewhere between surprise and alarm, though it quickly altered upon the realization that Iggy had been the one to speak. A look of blatant scorn passed over his features, though Cas managed to smooth it over a second later with some disdain when he tilted his face up, looking the taller inkling up and down in a condescending manner. Eventually his gaze settled upon Iggy's face. He frowned, struggling to maintain a fairly neutral expression.

"Uh, yeah? Do I know you?"

Bleeding suspicion, he narrowed his eyes in spite of himself at the other boy's response. What did he want? Humiliation tugged at the back of his mind when he remembered where they'd last seen each other, but he tried his best to ignore it - even now he felt some vague uncertainty, as if he was being mocked somehow and simply hadn't caught on yet. Pressing his lips to a tight line, his skepticism merely doubled at Iggy's strangely civil behavior. He didn't know much about the boy to begin with, though; whether they shared some classes together or not didn't matter. He wasn't exactly the easiest inkling to notice, what with how he kept to himself all the time. That turf war had been... a glaring exception, however.

Torn from his thoughts at the mention of his old team, Cas blinked, looking taken aback. 'Already had a team'? His suspicion returned with a vengeance at the comment, however innocent it might have been, and rather than make any effort to return Iggy's civility, his posture and expression became guarded. He stared the other boy down as if hoping to uncover some secret there upon his face. Then, after a long, unbroken pause, he replied flatly, "How do you know I don't still have a team?"

In spite of being the rather aggressive one out of the two of them, Cas couldn't help but feel as if he was under attack somehow. Just the way Iggy was looking at him, for one - he felt like an insect, though by all rights the other boy should have been the one feeling that way, given how Cas had been treating him since they started speaking. Maybe he did feel like an insect. Maybe he was just really good at hiding it.

Maybe he was just imagining the fact that Iggy was looking at him like he was an insufferable moron.

The feeling only worsened when the boy replied, pointing out the fact that he had the flier in his hand. Realization crossed his features and, embarrassment flooding through him, he tucked the sheet behind his back, ears and face suddenly burning. Cas tossed his gaze off to the side, fiddling with the flier in his hands, and sputtered, his confidence visibly waning, "Uh, actually -- I -- no, see, this is just, um... Uh..." Humiliation worsening, he bit his tongue and, in a desperate effort at recovering, returned his attention to Iggy again with an aggressive retort, his tone accusing, "It's not any of your business why I'm here in the first place! Why are you here, huh?"

While he'd hoped that, in forcing the focus off of himself and onto Iggy, his embarrassment would fade, his actions appeared to have had no impact on his state of mind; humiliation was still eating away at him, and the longer the other boy stared at him with that same, infuriatingly aloof attitude, the worse it became. His expression contorted further, posture lined with aggression, and as the seconds ticked by with little more than exasperated staring from his company, he could feel his confidence caving in on itself. 

Then, without offering even the slightest shift of attitude, Iggy pulled a sheet out from behind his back and extended it indicatively. The words spoken with the action were enough to catch him completely off guard. Like clockwork, the aggression drained from his face, replaced by a look of blatant bewilderment. Posture relaxing slightly, his expression became suspicious again a moment or so after he'd been given time to process the inkling's words. Looking slowly between the sheet and Iggy's face, he stared through squinted eyes at his company for a good few seconds before finally he spoke, the words slow and dripping distrust, "What are you playing at?"

Cas wasn't entirely sure what he expected, but that response hadn't been at all what he was hoping for. Regardless of Iggy's guarded behavior, however, he was coming to a few conclusions on his own, and he certainly didn't need the other boy's help for that. Certainly it was already rather obvious what the situation meant - either he'd been kicked from his team or chosen to leave in search of new teammates. Curiosity piqued, he disregarded Iggy's closed response, fully intent on prying for answers.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa - you're not getting outta this that easy," he retorted, voice still thick with suspicion when he continued, eyeing the other heavily, "You have a team. I've met them. What're you doing out looking for new teammates?"

When he'd pictured getting answers, it certainly hadn't looked like this. Here he'd been expecting some amount of resistance, or at least annoyance - but this guy was a rock. Sure, it was good to know why he was looking for a team in the first place, but something about that stare of his was... unnerving, to say the least. He fought the urge to shrink back upon being exposed to the other's gaze for such a long amount of time. In a way, he kind of had it coming, what with the aggressive questioning and all that. Probably not the wisest move in the book.

Still, 'embarrassments' wouldn't be the word Cas would have used to describe them. Letting a shred of uncertainty show, he eventually cracked under Iggy's stare and looked off to the side, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. An uncomfortable smile played at his lips. "No -- yeah, totally. Totally embarrassing," he agreed, daring to look back at the taller inkling who was, unsurprisingly, still staring. His smile faltered, try as he might to maintain it, at the mention of them being 'pathetic sadists', but he managed to recover rather quickly, brushing off his discomfort with a scoff and nonchalant wave. "They're a bunch of over-confident assholes, if you ask me. I could take 'em with both hands tied behind my back, no problem!"

Feeling satisfied, if not a little smug, thanks to his own personal pep talk (however short-lived), he smirked confidently to himself. This whole situation was a lot less awkward now! If Iggy felt the same way about them as he did, maybe they had more in common than he'd previously thought. His earlier bitterness gone, he continued, "Well, if you're lookin' for someone who's actually good at what they do, I'd be happy to help! My other team couldn't handle it, y'know - they didn't like me stealing the spotlight all the time, but it's all good. I toootally understand them getting jealous of me. Not all of us can be stars, right?" Grinning, he stepped over to the other's side and nudged his arm with an elbow pointedly, his ego having been successfully inflated with little more than his own words. Whether not they were actually true, well... that was irrelevant, as far as he was convinced.