Yippeeee i get to speaketh!!!!!! Hold onto your but this will be a bit long!!!!
OK SO back when they meet like first first met pre rank king. Vintage got his teammates by beating the ink out of them at rank mode! Double didnt think a shrimp and his sister could beat him and honestly had a sort of rider mindset that he could be the only good at rank guy on the team to make things work and like. Bet his whole position as leader of his own team for the fight against vintage. We can even go yugioh villain mode and say he used to like to be an edgelord and break people's main weapons if he won bets against them
Of course double gets his shit absolutely wrecked in a 1v1 and got absorbed into the xblood team. At the point vintage is a power hungry and scorned by skull sort of jerkass so it's not the most comfortable settling. Despite this, he felt because he was so awesome he should get to have times where he could fight alongside his old teammates for non-serious matters
But BECAUSE he sort of surrounded himself with other rude fucks they only humored him so they could mock how hard he fell from grace and be told how little respect they had for him in the first place. Vintage had stopped by to remind double about practice in person while this went on (he forgot to trade numbers) annnd he overheard the bullying and saw double get smacked and grabbed and stuff.
Because he's still very fresh in his own pain at this point he decides to jump these fucks and fistfight them for fucking with his teammate. He's big mad and the old team stands no chance against the both of them so they dip. He helps Double up who is a little shocked Vintage had a caring (???) Side to him and ofc edgelord king just says fuck you i just wanted to beat those hoes not help you now buy me ramen. And i mean - vin did save him so he does
They go through this stage of like half bitching at each other and half respecting one another for a while, especially before blue team but post blue team they start definitely settling into a sort of friendship which is nice! In my mind goggles grew out of pantsing after the first incident with rider (and even then it was a tripping accident but this aint abt him) so while vintage and double were having that heart to heart on stage it was more embarassing clownery than embarassing pantsy
Annnd the more they spend leisure time together the more they start. To notice. Things about one another.
Double jokes to himself about vintage being so warm because he always eats spicy food. He's nice to be close to and he gets shivers easily despite his warmth and oh the little tipped up ends of his bowlcut. Are those trying to be horns? Its cute! They're almost more cat ears than horns!
Vintage will find himself staring for longer and longer at double,slowly getting comfortable and normal brained about it and then- oh my god. Just under his jacket - is that… a tail??? A little puffy sea bunny tail?
He tries to not be weird about it but also as double paces and rants about some jerk shoving him its like. How did he not notice it? Is it soft??? Are the bigger spikes on his spikey hair nudibranch feelers shaped into horns for the team aesthetic? He also definitely notices double talking in less tense tones with him compared to others now and its. Soothing almost.
He almost touches the tail before like smacks himself and catches double's attention doing that.
“You good?”
“No. But you can keep talking”
and just eventually does he ask after figuring out how to and yeah double is half nudibranch because inkfish dna due to liquid crystal bullshit from 2000 years ago is adaptive shit
They develop in this space of good friends and though they mutually like each other SO SO FUCKING BAD vintage is surpressing it because hes afraid of fucking up and Double is like visibly attempting to be romantic and vintage is unfortunately dense because he is trying so hard to give friendefit of the doubt
Things with vintage in agent business heat up in years after the grand festival. They get a lot of reports of illegal modified weapons being used by distinct people, some of them even using them to cause harm outside of turf war. Shit like 30 round in one shot stringers, snipers that have shots that can round bends to hit their targets. It's dangerous stuff being used in both inkfish territories and Vintage is in the market of protecting his city and friends.
Essentially? He does get in an altercation with a modder. He took down a guy with a roller that is not only heavy but burn damaging, and it bashed him hard in the lower back while he was chasing him down as the other agents dealt with putting out the arson.
He did NOT learn from his younger days of seeing rider over exert himself and almost die when he was still a purple teamer and he let the injury fester. The incident and his putting off of getting checked out left him with lifelong damages and the need for limits on everything he does, and it sort of collapsed both his careers for a long while due to how limited he was now. It was either do the fucking PT or lose full use of legs and more and vin didn't want that. Whatever counts as a spine for inkfish in his body is shot! Bad as fuck!
As it turns out though, Double and his other teammates supported vin well through this low. Even when vintage sort of berated himself about how dumb he was for not getting help and that double should probably take over and get a replacement so they didn't stagnate like him, double refused because Vin is his leader, always, and he's done on serious battles because of that he doesn't care. He. He really means it.
It doesn't make everything magically better when they do finally kiss and get together, but it helps! And vin gets two surprises with years between them
1. Double blindfolds and drives him somewhere and when he does get to open his eyes BOOM ITS THE FUCKING TACTICAL WHEEELCHAIR WITH A SPLATTLING EXTENSION AND ALL THE WORKS ITS FIRE AND VINTAGE FUCKING CRIES (HAPPILY) (EVERY ONE OF HIS FRIENDS AND AGENT COWORKERS SAVED UP FOR THIS FOR HIM)
2. this little 14 y/o octoling covered in burn scars on one side of their approaches him and asked to be trained in combat. Eventually vintage learns this is one of the people he helped to save in the incident that crippled him and this little mimic admires him like crazy and struggles in ways he does and. Oh why tears again???
anyways as life settles down between his husband who still loves carrying him despite tactical wheelchair freedom and his ability to walk a liiitttle bit and this youngin that kinda is like adopted by him a bit begrudgingly. And like. Hes feeling purpose and feeling loved and also he and double absolutely do a shop that's piercings and tattoos. People get scared when he comes at them to do their hoops and stuff but they're paying him to injure them and its great 👍 he's good at it
And for sure because he and double are gay like that they have a tattoo that goes together. Something something metaphorical attached at the hip with a sewn looking x design and he and his teammates collectively have matching xblood team tattoos
Anyways thank you for allowing my ranting!!!! These gay fucks lift each other up!!!!! He's never fucking being an agent again and he fucking loves it. Many nights of warm embraces and disabled gay loverness. Double loves his boyfriend so fucking much and he cuddles vin and you can see his stupid little tail wag its great
EDIT: forgot to specify that vintage worked his way up to being a part-time wheelchair user so he can walk around his house and short distances but the pain ebbs and flows so somedays he will need chair and other days its a preventative measure for his wahoo world trips with double :3
