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bwela07 · 26 days ago

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Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 16

Therapy

Min’s pov

Min sighs as she sees the message from the captain. They will be arriving in about an hour. As much as she had been looking forward to teaching the kids, she has been mentally exhausted lately. Taking care of the kids would require her to be at 100 percent. Especially since Inky has asked if she could talk to each one of them and check on them. Min sighs again. She puts the Octo-tablet down and returns to her papers. She has always preferred the old ways. She grabs a pencil and decides to go out and sketch some sceneries. The fresh air will do her some good. She puts her suplies in her bag. As she puts her Octo-tablet in the bag, it lights up and starts playing a calm song. She smiles as she picks up the call.

“Hi Inky”, she says teasingly.

“Min, darling, how are you doing?”, Inky says suspiciously.

“What’s going on Inky?”, Min asks in a firm manner.

“Alright, alright. You got me. We- uhhh… There has been a change in plans…”, Inky starts.

“Has there been another delay?”, Min exclaims. She tries her best to hide her excitement.

“Luckily, that’s not the case. In fact, we’ll be half an hour earlier”, Inkling declares with pride.

“O-Oh… That’s…wonderful”, Min fails to hide her disappointment.

“Are you alright dear?”, Inky asks.

“Y-Yeah”, Min tries to ignore her hands that started shaking, “Just stressed out.”

“I could try to delay us”, Inky offers.

“There’s no need for that Inky”, Min says quietly.

“Are you sure Min?”, Inky asks just as quietly.

“I… I might need a bit more time… Fine. Please give me a little more time. If that isn’t too much to ask for”, Min unpacks everything from her bag and walks over to her bed.

“I’ll try my best. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that you would like to talk about something”, Inky changes the subject.

“I’m just… Can we talk about this some other time?”, Min repeats the sentence that she has said oh so often.

“You always say that”, Inky quietly says in disappointment.

“I’m sorry Inky…I…I’m sorry”, Min can’t think of what else to say.

“It’s fine. I know how hard it is. I’ll go try to slow us down. Get some rest”, Inky comforts her.

“Thanks Inky”, Min ignores how hot her face suddenly feels. She ends the call and lets herself fall on her bed. Seconds later, she falls asleep.

“Min?”, Inky’s voice wakes her up.

“Inky? What are you…is it time already!?”, Min jumps out of bed.

“Calm down. I decided to come ahead of the others. They won’t be here for about fifteen minutes. I decided to come check on you and make sure that you’re ready”, Inky explains with a smile.

“Thank you”, Min pulls him into a hug.

“Come on darling, we should start getting ready”, Inky gently says.

“You’re right. Thank you once again”, Min replies. The pair work on getting everything ready. They engage in small talk for awhile. Min really enjoys spending time with Inky. He’s the only person that makes her feel comfortable. While in his company, she feels like she can be herself. She relaxes a bit. Her anxiety melts away. She forgets about her worries. She smiles. She looks into Inky’s loving eyes. He smiles back. Ten minutes fly pass in the blink of an eye. Inky lets himself fall down on the bed with a sigh.

“We have about 5 more minutes until the others arrive”, Inky quietly says. With one of his tentacles, he motions for her to join him on the bed. She slowly walks over to him and lies down next to him. She focuses on steadying her breath and calming her heartbeat.

“Tell me what’s on your mind”, he gently holds her paw with on of his tentacles. Min keeps her gaze at the ceiling as she tries to think of what to say. Her head is crowded with all sorts of thoughts. Her heart is racing and her face is turning hot.

“Nothing is on my mind”, Min eventually states.

“We both know that that’s not true dear”, Inky calmly says. Inky has been calling her ‘dear’ and ‘darling’ for several years now. Yet for some reason, every time he recently addresses her by ‘dear’ or ‘darling’, she gets a fluttering feeling.

“I’ve just been exhausted”, Min casually says.

“You seem quite excited right now”, Inky says in a teasing way.

“What makes you say that?”, Min tries her best to make her voice sound neutral.

“Take a wild guess”, Inky slightly tightens his hold on her paw. Min’s whole buddy stiffens as she realizes how he knows. She truns around to face away from Inky. The later sits up and looks at her in concern.

“What’s wrong Min? I’m worried about you”, he gently asks.

“There’s nothing to worry about. Can we-“, Min stops herself as she realize that she’s about to repeat herself again. She glances over to Inky. He looks a little hurt.

“It’s not like I don’t trust you. I just…have trouble expressing myself”, Min sighs.

“I know dear…”, Inky gets up and walks to the desk.

“What do you plan on teaching the kids?”, he asks.

“The basics. There will be a workshop at the end”, Min sits up. As she walks towards Inky, there’s a knock on the door. Min and Inky’s gaze wonder towards the door. Min sighs.

“Ready?”, Inky asks with a small smile.

“No time like the present”, Min mumbles. She gives Inky a reassuring smile. She pushes back all of her concerns and tries to focus on the comfort she gets from Inky’s company.

“Will you stay?”, she hears her voice quietly asking. Her eyes widen. Why did I say that out loud!?, Min tries not to panic. Inky chuckles.

“Of course darling”, Inky makes his way next to her. Min finds herself relaxing now that he’s next to her. She smiles.

Min watches the kids as they start doing the workshop. Min had brought them all outside near a pond. They were given the task to split into teams and sketch a map of the area. Inky sits down next to Min and watches the kids along with her.

“What were you like when you were their age?”, Inky asks. He smiles at her fondly.

“You first”, she smiles back.

“Alright. I was studious-“, Inky starts.

“Still are”, Min interrupts.

“Right. I spent most of my time on my own. I thought that books were the only company I needed”, Inky continues, “Luckily, I met someone who helped me realize how wrong I was.” Min and Inky look each other deep into their eyes. They stay that way for a while. No words need to be said. That’s what Min loves so much about their relationship. She never has to say much, he already knows what she’s thinking. Except for when it comes to her feelings for him. Maybe that’s just because she tries to ignore her feelings for him.

“Your turn now”, Inky breaks their silence.

“Oh, uhh… I spent a lot of time on my own”, Min replies. By the look in Inky’s eyes, she can tell that he wants to ask a lot more questions. Min sighs.

“One question per day”, she shifts her view back to the kids.

“One question per day? Like, every day?”, Inky asks in disbelief.

“Sure. Depends on the question”, Min says without thinking. If she thinks too much, then she won’t say a thing. Communication is an important part of any relationship. As confusing as the status of their relationship may be, Min treasures it.

“What were your parents like?”, Inky quietly asks.

“They…they were always busy working. I was always alone”, Min says. She doesn’t notice the sad tone in her voice until Inky gives her a side hug.

“It doesn’t matter. I didn’t mind. They did what was necessary to send me and my siblings to school”, Min quickly reassures.

“Siblings?”, Inky questions in surprise.

“One question per day”, Min mumbles. Why did I say that!?, Min yells at herself.

“Alright”, Inky tries to hide his disappointment.

“I’ll go check on the kids”, Min desperately tries to change the subject.

“I’ll join you”, Inky gets up and follows her. The pair help the kids with their project.

“You don’t have to do this if you don’t want to”, Inky’s soft voice tries to comfort her. While the kids enjoy their lunch, Inky had asked to speak with Min in private. They’re both sitting next to each other on Min’s bed.

“I do want to do this Inky. I want to help them. Your kids were a mess when you left them to handle things on their own”, Min teases.

“W-Well…they’re adults. I though that they could handle it”, Inky tries to defend himself.

“Proves my point even more”, Min says with a grin.

“Alright. You’re the boss”, Inky chuckles.

“I’ll be fine grandpa”, Min teases.

“You’re only two years younger than me!”, Inky says in exasperation. Min laughs at his reaction.

“Come on, let’s go have lunch”, Min says.

“Alright darling”, Inky gets up.

As the pair enters the room, all eyes turn to them. Min starts getting uncomfortable with their gaze.

“What’s wrong?”, Inky asks. The kids look at each other, almost as if they’re sending each other telepathic messages. Eventually, they come to a mutual agreement.

“Are the two of you a couple?”, Ursa asks. Min shoots a glance at Inky. He seems to be trying as hard as she is to not over react.

“No, Ursa. We are not a couple”, Inky answers dryly. The kids catch on to his tone, some of them grinning in amusement. Min sighs, realizing that she needs to step up and take control of the situation.

“We are not a couple and we have no plans on becoming one”, she says matter-of-fact-ly. Inky winces at her statement, Min herself is hurt by her words too. The kids must have noticed.

“Are you sure?”, Koshi asks cautiously.

“Well…the future is not set in stone. What happens in our personal life is personal”, Min decides to proclaim. Ursa raises an eyebrow, Koshi tries her best to hide her grin. The others try just as hard to keep a neutral expression. The only outsider is a young artic fox, presumably professor Natquik’s niece. Her facial expression is taken over by confusion and curiosity.

“Finish eating kids. We have one more thing planned out for you this afternoon”, Inky states. The kids each say their own form of agreement and continue eating. Inky exhales and continues walking to the kitchen. Min follows him absentmindedly.

Min and Inky agreed to do it alphabetically. In that order, Koshi will be first, followed by Orson, Periwinkle, Pinto, Squirt, Stella and then Ursa. The others will wait in the living room as Min has a one on one conversation with each of the kids in her bedroom.

Min holds the door open as Koshi walks into the room. Min offers Koshi a seat on her bed as she walks to her desk chair. Min had taken out some of her old teddies, as well as some extra pillows, and put them on her bed. She brings the chair closer to her bed as Koshi makes herself comfortable.

“So, how has it been so far?”, Min asks.

“It’s been nice. I’m learning a lot of new things”, as Koshi speaks, her passion flows into her words.

“Do you miss home?”, Min asks gently.

“Yes. Traveling underwater isn’t something that I’m used to. Sleeping in a different bed is also not something that I’m used to. But I have Dashi with me to help me adapt and get used to how things work at the Octopod. I still miss home, but I can call my mom whenever I want, so it’s not that bad”, Koshi says with a smile.

“That’s good to hear. Have you made any new friends?”, Min questions.

“Yeah. Ursa and I became friends pretty quickly. I think that Stella is starting to warm up to us. The boys are nice too. We’re a great crew. I literally cannot imagine being with anyone else”, Koshi hugs a teddy fondly as she talks. Min smiles.

“Sounds like everything is going well”, she says.

“Absolutely”, Koshi replies.

“What is your passion?”, Min wonders after hearing how passionate Koshi seems about all of this.

“To become an Octonauts along with the others. I want us to be a big happy family. I just need to get Peri and Stella to open up more”, Koshi smiles.

“I am positively sure that you will succeed”, Min encourages.

“Thanks”, Koshi puts the teddy down. Something about the spark in her eyes made Min think that the young dog has a burning question.

“Is there anything that you would like to ask?”, Min asks knowingly.

“Well… Be honest, what do you think of professor Inkling?”, Koshi’s eyes sparkle as she asks her question. Min should have seen that coming.

“Sorry, but we’re here to talk about your feelings, not mine”, she states surprisingly calm. The sparkle in Koshi’s eyes vanishes almos immediately.

“Please call in the next person”, Min says.

“Alright”, Koshi tries to hide her disapointment.

Orson clumsily walks into the room. Min gives him a reassuring smile, which seems to calm him down a bit. Orson sits on the bed with his back against the wall.

“How have you been?”, Min asks gently.

“Uhm…could be better, I guess”, Orson nervously plays with one of the teddies.

“Have you managed to get used to the new environment?”, Min asks. Orson avoids eye contact and fiddles with a teddy. He bites his lip as he remains still.

“I-I…haven’t. I, uhh…struggle to sleep on my own. Uncle Barnacles already talked to me about it. I sleep with him now. It’s just…I feel so…weak and usless”, Orson starts. Min tries not to immediately deny Orson’s feeling of being weak and usless. Instead, she continues listening.

“Uncle Barnacles is the strongest and braves creature I know. Mom is kind and loving and she’s always there for us. Ursa is brave and adventurous. I admire all of them. I want to be like all of them. I want to impress them. But I’m not good at anything”, Orson explains. Min looks at the polar bear cub, who has curled so much into himself, to the point where he seemed even smaller than he is.

“Orson”, Min says firmly. For the first time during their conversation, Orson looks her into the eyes. “You are not weak and you are not usless. Admiring others is okay, but there is no need to impress them. You have your own talents, you just don’t know it yet. You might not be good at the things your family is good at, but that just makes the things that you are good at, even more unique”, Min speaks calmly, gently, but also firmly, leaving no room for discussion. Orson becomes less tense. Tears prickle in his eyes. Min sits next to him on the bed and pulls him into a hug. Orson quietly sobs, accepting the embrace. The two of them stay that way for some time.

Orson pulls himself out of the hug and whipes his tears away. He whispers a small “Thank you” as he does so. Min gently rubs his back as he tries to stop more tears from falling. Orson steadies his breath before facing Min again.

“Thank you miss Min. Uncle Barnacles said something similar before. Hearing it from someone outside of my family makes it more believable though”, he gives a small smile.

“Anytime”, Min smiles as well.

“I’ll go get the next creature”, Orson says while standing up. He walks across the room and stops by the door. He puts his paw on the doorknob, but doesn’t turn it. Instead, he turns to face Min one more time.

“Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me”, Orson says quietly, but more firmly. Min could see the appreciation twinkling in his eyes. She gives a warm smile.

“If you ever need to talk again, you can always contact me. Inky knows how to get a hold on me”, she says lightheartedly. Orson smiles fondly.

Periwinkle walks into the room and sits down on the bed.

“How have things been going?”, Min asks.

“Fine. It has been an interesting experience. I have learned so many new things about marine biology from uncle Shellington. When I’m not talking to him, I’m talking to professor Inkling, Squirt, Stella or sometimes Pinto. Pinto is trying really hard to get me to open up. I just prefer keeping to myself. I have spent so much time with just my mom. I recently joined cub scouts about a year ago. Other than that, I don’t interact with kids my age. This has been a learning experience. I’m finding out more about myself as I find out more about others. It has been fun so far”, Periwinkle blantly says.

“What job do you want to have in the future?”, Min asks.

“I want to be a marine biologist and an Octonaut”, Periwinkle says. He puts a paw to his chin as he thinks about something. “Funny, I never would have guessed that some day I would actually enjoy the idea of being an Octonaut”, he smiles, “I really am learning more about my self.” Min smiles with him at his new resolution.

“That sounds great”, she says.

“Yeah”, Periwinkle says with a small smile, “I really like it here. I thought that I wouldn’t fit in, but ever since uncle Shellington convinced me to talk to the others, I realized just how much we all have in common. It feels like we’re getting closer. The relationship we have…I don’t know how to say it. It feels similar to the one the Octonauts have with each other. Which is good, since we have all agreed that we want to be the future Octonauts.”

“The relationship that the Octonauts have with each other is that of a family”, Min says knowingly. Periwinkle lets that information sink in.

“That makes sense”, he says, “I would have never thought it possible. Blood is thicker than water, after all.”

“That is true. Your biological family will always be your real family. But I’m sure that you’ve also heard the saying ‘friends are the family you can choose’”, Min says mater-of-fact-ly.

“Fair point. Well, that’s all that I have to say. Thanks for listening”, Periwinkle gets up.

“Anytime”, Min replies.

“Hi!”, Pinto enthusiastically greets as he enters the room.

“Hello”, Min replies with a smile.

“Koshi already said how things will go. It has been amazing living on the Octopod with the others. Every day brings a new exiting experience! I do miss home, but I have Peso with me. Other than that, I’m meeting new creatures and I’m learning more about them. I’m always open to new experiences. I’d say that I have befriended everyone to a certain extent. I am really passionate about becoming an Octonaut. I want to be a medic like my brother, and I also want to be a pirate like Kwazii. At first, I also wanted to be the captain, but I have decided to let that slide. Two roles is more than enough for me. Besides, Ursa wants to be the captain too, and she is waaay better at being one than I am. I haven’t told the others about that yet. I like the competitive spirit that I have discovered in Ursa ever since we were fighting about who would be a better captain”, Pinto walks around the room as he talks. Min muffles down a laugh. The enthusiasm of the penguin is contagious.

“Sounds like this training has had a positive impact on you”, Min says with a grin.

“Definitely. I have matured a lot in just the first two weeks”, Pinto proudly states.

“That’s amazing!”, Min exclaims.

“Yeah, it is. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store of us”, Pinto stays still and lets his gaze drift out of the window.

“You all have a bright future”, Min firmly says.

“I know. We will be great Octonauts”, Pinto turns around to face Min, determination sparkling in his eyes and a wide smile on his face. Min smiles.

“Anyway, since that’s all I have to say, I’ll be leaving now. Take care of yourself”, Pinto waddles out of the room.

Squirt slowly makes his way to the bed.

“Hello Squirt”, Min greets.

“Hello auntie Min”, Squirt replies. Min is completely caught off guard by that.

“Wh…What did you call me?”, she asks quietly.

“Auntie Min. Since you seem to be so close with my uncle”, Squirt explains.

“O-Oh…okay”, Min stutters.

“Moving on, I enjoy it here. I’m sure that uncle Inkling has already told you that this whole thing is actually my idea”, Squirt says.

“Yeah, he did mention something like that”, Min puts a paw on her chin as she tries to remember what Inky told her.

“It’s amazing to be able to see it all unravel. It’s amazing to be part of the actual process. Everyone seems to be getting along nicely. We’re a great crew. I do miss home, but I have uncle Inkling to keep me company and encourage me. I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for us”, Squirt smiles as he thinks about the future.

“All of you have mentioned having a relative onboard. That certainly makes things a lot more easier for all of you, especially sine you all seem close to the relative you have onboard”, Min points out. Squirt goes silent for a while.

“Stella doesn’t have a relative onboard”, he quietly says, “She has been struggling a lot to open up to us. I think that she has a hard time trusting people.” Squirt hugs eight teddies, each in one tentacle, as he says that.

“I want her to feel comfortable and at home. I want to convince her to join us on our mission to become Octonauts. She had said that the only reason that she’s here, is because her uncle managed to convince her last minute.”

“I’m sure that, over time, she’ll start warming up to all of you. Just give her some time”, Min comforts Squirt.

“Hopefully you’re right”, Squirt looks her in the eyes and smiles.

“Speaking about Stella, she’s next in line. I’ll go get her”, Squirt jumps off the bed and makes his way t the door.

“Take care of yourself”, Min says before he leaves the room. She suddenly had a sinking feeling that Inkly’s role amoung the Octonauts is being passed down to Squirt.

“Hello Stella”, Min greets the young pup as she makes herself comfortable on the bed.

“Hi”, she shyly replies.

“How have you been?”, Min asks. Stella stays silent for some time.

“Well…could be better”, Stella looks down to the teddy she’s holding in her hands.

“You’re the only one that doesn’t have a relative onboard of the Octopod, right?”, Min gently asks. Stella’s grip on the teddy tightens a bit.

“There’s no need to worry about me. Uncle Natquik has asked captain Barnacles to keep a close eye on me. Tweak in taking care of me. I’m fine. Just need more time to adjust to the new environment”, Stella inspects the teddy as she speaks. She seems exhausted.

“Have you grown close to anyone? Talked to anyone? Opened up to anyone?”, Min asks. Stella tries her best to hide her annoyance. She takes a deep breath before she answers.

“I have become pretty close friends with Tweak. I have talked to the other kids, but have admittedly not talked to any of the adults other than captain Barnacles and Tweak. Professor Inkling has tried to talk with me”, Stella looks up for the first time as she says the last sentence. She looks back down, “As for your last question…I’ve opened up a little to captain Barnacles and Orson. Ursa and Koshi have convinced me to become an Octonaut.”

“You can always open up to me”, Min softly says. She looks at Stella and tries to read her body language. Stella has become tense. Her grip on the teddy has become tighter. She’s clearly trying to control her breathing. Min lowers herself to Stella’s level. Tears prickle in the pup’s eye. Min gently lifts her paw to put aside the hair covering Stella’s left eye. Stella immediately grabs Min’s paw to stop her. They make eye contact. Something about Min’s eyes must have brought her comfort and showed her that she can trust Min, because after a few seconds, Stella lets go of Min’s paw. The artic fox’s gaze drifts to the side. Min puts her hair side, revealing a scar. Min tries not to react. She controls her features.

“Stella, what happened?”, Min asks gently. She holds one of Stella’s paws and starts gently messaging it.

“It’s in the past”, Stella shuts her eyes close in an attempt to stop the tears. Instead, they start flowing down full force.

“Stella. You don’t have to keep it to yourself. We all care about you. We want to help you”, Min looks into the pup’s eyes, “We’re here for you.” Stella bites her lip as she gently sobs.

“I miss home. Not the home with uncle Natquik, although I do miss him too. I miss the home where my dad would play with me all the time, my mom would bake pies every Saturday, my dad played the guitar while my mom sang, my friends didn’t think I was weird and would hang out with me everyday after school. Why did everything have to change?”, Stella takes her paw away from Min’s and curls into herself.

“How did it change?”, Min softly and cautiously asks. She didn’t know what else to say.

“My dad…he…he…”, Stella visibly gets annoyed at herself, “he- he died.”

Min sits next to her and pulls her into a tight hug.

“Sometimes in life, things don’t go the way we want them to. No matter what happens, you can’t let that hold you back. Speaking about it with someone already makes the load lighter. It’s one step on your journey of recovery. If you’re okay with it, we can make arrangements to talk again when you’re ready”, Min’s voice remains calm and gentle. Stella stays quiet for a while.

“I want to be able to trust them, to open up to them. I…I want to be a part of their family”, Stella silently confesses.

“You’ll get there some day. I’ll make sure of it”, Min loosens the hug a little bit and looks Stella into her eyes.

“Thank you”, she quietly replies, new tears starting to pour down. Min hugs her tightly again. They stay that way until Stella pulls herself out of the hug.

“Thank you for listening. I think that I’ll take you up on that offer”, Stella looks down to the teddy next to her.

“Glad to hear that”, Min softly says. Stella stands up and slowly walks to the door. She turns around, waves goodbye, and then leaves. Min processes everything that she has heard. From what she can tell, things started going downhill after the pup’s dad died. It’s possible that the scar on her left eye was caused by her mom, who was having trouble progressing the dad’s death. One thing lead to another, and Stella ends up living with her uncle. Professor Natquik spends most of his time working. Looking back, Min always saw two cups and two plates in the background during Octo-Alerts. That must mean that Stella spends time with him while he works. Based on how frequently there were two instead of one cups and plates, Stella must not spend that much time with other kids her age. She had also mentioned her friends finding her weird. That explains why Stella is having so much trouble getting along with other kids her age right now. That could also possible be why her uncle wants her to join the training program.

Min sighs. She really wasn’t expecting anything this deep from any of the kids. Hopefully she can talk to Stella more often. She’ll have to make arrangements with Inky.

Ursa walks in calmly and goes straight to the bed.

“That was long”, she remarks, “I guess she really does have a lot on her mind.”

“Hello Ursa, how have you been doing?”, Min asks.

“Great. I have uncle Barnacles and my twin brother with me. I’m one step close to becoming an Octonaut, maybe even the captain. I’m bonding with the others, mainly Koshi. I am literally living my dream. How couldn’t I be great?”, Ursa says cheerfully.

“Are you sure that there is nothing on your mind? Do you miss home?”, Min asks.

“Well, I feel bad for mom. She’s all on her own. Then again, Orson and I cause a lot of trouble”, Ursa grins mischievously, “I’ve got all the company I need onboard of the Octopod. I just struggle a little to befriend the guys. They have different interests. I find it more important to befriend the kids who I share a room with.”

“I see. You seem very confident in yourself”, Min states.

“I am. Gotta have confidence to be an Octonaut. Orson isn’t that confident, he has a lot of self doubt, but I try my best to push him to do his best”, Ursa proudly says.

“Do you ever think that you push him to hard? That maybe he just isn’t good at the things you’re good at, but he’s good at other things?”, Min asks, remembering what Orson had said before.

“Uhm…no, not really… Huh, why didn’t I ever think about that?”, Ursa sinks deep into her thoughts.

“Maybe you should encourage use him to do new things. Your support with the things that he’s good at is always appreciated. You shouldn’t put him down for the things that he’s not so good at”, Min explains.

“Hmm…have I been pressuring him to be someone he’s not?”, Ursa considers.

“You just want what’s best for him”, Min comforts her.

“What is best for him?”, Ursa asks.

“That’s a question that you need to ask him”, Min gently says.

“Yeah…”, Ursa agrees, slipping deep into her thoughts once again, “Thank you.”

“That’s what I’m here for”, Min says with a smile. Ursa slowly gets up and walks to the door. She turns around, gives Min a thankful smile, and then leaves.

Min smiles, happy with everything that she has achieved. She’ll be hearing more from Orson and Stella, that she knows. She’s ready to help them whenever they ask.

Other chapters

#octonauts #fanfic #the octonauts #octonauts above and beyond #ao3 fanfic #octonauts a new generation #therapy #inspired by that one Young Justice episode in season 1 where they all finally got therapy #min x inkling #professor inkling #min #angst #time for me to disappear for months again

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bwela07 · 26 days ago

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Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 15

Talking about him

Stella’s pov

Orson had been acting weird all day. From what she had observed, it’s clear that Orson looks up to his sister and doesn’t want to show any sign of weakness. When Orson fell asleep while standing, Stella’s concern grew even more. She told Squirt that she would go bring Orson back to the Octopod. She brought him to his bed and then told captain Barnacles about it. A few hours has passed by. Stella tried to concentrate on the lessons, but couldn’t stop thinking about Orson.

“Alright, class dismissed. Enjoy your lunch break”, professor Inkling cheerfully says.

Stella slowly puts her books, papers and pens together. She slowly walks out of the classroom.

“Hold on Stella. Can we talk?”, professor Inkling asks. Stella flinches ever so slightly. She turns around to face the professor.

“Yes, sir?”, Stella replies. Her voice shakes a bit, but she chooses to ignore that.

“Are you okay? You seemed a little absent minded during the lesson”, professor Inkling calmly asks.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just worried about Orson”, Stella replies.

“Ah, of course. Have you gotten any news about him?”, professor Inkling continues asking.

“Not yet. I was actually about to go check on him again”, Stella shifts from standing on one foot to the other.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?”, professor Inkling asks with concern.

“I’m fine. Trust me”, Stella forces a smile.

“If you say so. If you ever need to talk to someone, you can always come to me. I’m always there to listen”, professor Inkling calmly explains.

“Thanks. I’m going to go check on Orson now”, Stella awkwardly says.

She speed walks to the girl’s room to put her school stuff away. On her way there, she hears laughter coming from the boy’s room. Curiosity got the best of her and she decides to take a peek. She finds Orson and captain Barnacles laughing together. The two male polar bears are chasing each other. Stella gets hit by a strong burst of nostalgia.

She quietly walks away to the girl’s room. She calmly puts her books and papers in an organized pile, and rearranges her pens. She rearranges her books in alphabetical order, but then decides to organize them based on the colour. She goes over her papers once again, putting them in order from oldest to recently written. She sighs as she sits down on her chair. She takes a deep breath. She gets up, grabs the book that was sitting on its own on a separate part of the desk, and lets herself fall on her bed. Her grip on the sky blue book tightens as she quietly sobs into her pillow.

“What’s wrong, snowflake?”, Mark asks.

“N-Nothing!”, Stella yells.

“Come on snow pup. You know that you can always tell me what’s wrong”, Mark gently says. He sits next to Stella on the floor.

“…The other kids were making fun of me again”, Stella mumbles.

“What for?”, Mark asks.

“For being the youngest. And for being a nerd”, Stella mutters.

Mark starts laughing. Stella is taken aback by this response.

“They’re clearly just jealous of you Stella. They’re embarrassed about the fact that someone younger than them is above their level. Next time they make fun of you for that, thank them. Tell them that they’ll be as smart as you someday”, Mark ruffles the young artic fox’s hair. Stella screams in disbelief.

“Okay, okay! Just stop messing up my hair!”, Stella screams.

“You feel better now?”, Mark asks.

“Kind of”, Stella answers.

“Hmm… We’re gonna need to find a different way to turn your frown upside down then”, Mark says with a grin.

Stella eyes him suspiciously. Before she can figure out what he plans on doing, he leaps towards her and starts tickling her. The two artic foxes end up chasing each other around the room. Their laughter fills the atmosphere.

“Stella?”, a voice pulls the young fox out of her memories. Stella stays silent. She decides that her best option is to pretend to be sleeping. She waits for the sound of footprints leaving the room. But she hears nothing.

“Seriously, why do you all keep on trying to pretend to be sleeping?”, the voice of captain Barnacles asks. He sighs.

Stella continues to test her luck and stays still.

“Stella, it isn’t going to work”, captain Barnacles firmly says.

“You’re still gripping tightly on that book”, Orson quietly says.

Stella turns her head to face away from the male polar bears.

“I’m tired”, she says.

“We heard you crying Stella”, captain Barnacles firmly says. Stella sighs as she sits up. She looks captain Barnacles in the eyes. Uncle Natquik is close friends with captain Barnacles. Her uncle keeps a picture of himself and the polar bear scouts in the living room. He has told Stella many stories of what they did together. Captain Barnacles is the closest thing he has to a son. Stella knows that her uncle trusts the captain, so there’s a high possibility that her uncle told the captain to keep a close eye on her.

“What’s wrong Stella?”, captain Barnacles asks. Stella bites her lip as she thinks about what to say.

“I…might or might not have taken a peek in the boy’s room to see what all of the noise is about”, she hesitantly replies.

“Do you miss your uncle?”, captain Barnacles asks. Stella lets out the breath that she had been holding in. So he wasn’t told about that. Should I answer him honestly? He’ll keep on asking questions if I do. Should I just outright tell him? I don’t really want to talk about it. Stella takes a deep breath and organizes her thoughts. She comes to a conclusion.

“I miss my dad”, she says while standing up. She walks over to her desk and puts her blue book in it’s corner. She sits down and starts playing with a pen. She bits her lip once again as she hears footsteps approaching her.

“You could always ask Tweak to borrow her Octo-tablet to call your father or your uncle”, he gently says.

Stella shuts her eyes and tries to focus on her breathing. She presses her paws against her face as she feel the tears threatening to start pouring down again. Despite her best efforts, her breath starts shaking.

“Stella, what’s wrong?”, Orson asks alarmed.

“He- He’s not…”, Stella’s voice breaks as she tries to decide wether she should just tell them the truth or hope that they’ll leave her alone soon.

“Take your time”, captain Barnacles softly says. He gently rubs her back as Stella silently sobs.

“He’s dead”, she finally says in between sobs. Captain Barnacles’ paw momentarily stops, before continuing to rub her back. Orson gives her a hug.

“Are you okay?”, Koshi asks. The two male polar bears had left 10 minutes ago. Stella’s eye was still kind of puffy from crying so much.

“Yeah”, she answers. She looks back down to her book.

“What are you writing?”, Koshi asks while trying to take a peek.

“This is my journal. If you want to read something, read this”, Stella subconsciously grabs a random book and hands it to Koshi, without ever looking up from her book. Koshi happily takes the book that has been handed to her and walks towards her bed. The two girls sit in silence. Ursa comes into the room. Her gaze goes from Stella to Koshi. She joins Koshi on her bed.

“These drawings are amazing! Did you draw this Koshi?”, Ursa’s eyes widen. Stella jolts up from the chair and bolts towards the two other girls. She yanks the book out of Koshi’s hand and runs back to her desk.

“Rude! You could have given her a paper cut!”, Ursa yells.

“What’s her problem?”, Ursa whispers, but Stella hears her nonetheless.

“Sorry about that. Are you okay Stella?”, Koshi gets up and slowly walks towards Stella.

“I-I’m fine”, Stella plays with her hair for a bit, before putting the book back in the pile. Koshi drags her chair along with her as she makes her way to Stella. Ursa decides to do the same. Koshi sits to the left and Ursa to the right.

“What’s bothering you?”, Koshi asks.

“I didn’t mean to give you that book. I meant to give you a different one”, Stella mumbles while closing the book that she had been writing in.

“Yeah, that was clear”, Ursa says. Stella sighs.

“So what’s wrong? Something is clearly bothering you”, Koshi persists.

“I was just…thinking about… Never mind, it doesn’t matter”, Stella says while finding more creative ways to avoid eye contact.

“You can’t tell us that much and then not tell us the rest”, Ursa says in disbelief.

“I’m sorry. It’s just…it’s hard to talk about”, Stella sighs.

“Take your time. We’ll probably end up growing up together anyway”, Ursa gently says with a smile.

“I sure hope so”, Koshi says. Stella stays silent.

“Just you wait and see, we’ll end up practically being sisters”, Ursa’s smile gets wider.

“The training program is only for two months”, Stella quietly says.

“Yup. We’ll make sure it goes so well, that they’ll open a school. While others get the chance to learn how to be an Octo-agent, we will probably be learning how to be an Octonaut. We just gotta be good enough to convince the adults that we’re up to the task”, Koshi explains.

“You all seem to be keen on becoming an Octonaut. You all already started choosing your roles during our first mission”, Stella remarks.

“You’re not?”, Ursa asks in disbelief.

“Well…I haven’t really thought about it. This training camp in itself was a surprise to me”, Stella answers.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”, Koshi asks.

“I want to work with my uncle”, Stella replies.

“I don’t think that he’ll still be able to work by the time that you’re old enough to work with him”, Ursa quietly says. Stella sighs.

“I know. I haven’t really given it much thought. I just want to be near family”, Stella leans forward and lays her head on her desk.

“We could be your family. The Octonauts are family after all, and our goal is to become the Octonauts in the future”, Koshi gently nudges Stella. Stella lets out a little giggle.

“Alright, I’ll consider it”, Stella says in a teasing manner. The three girls start laughing at the same time.

The Vegimals enter the room and bring desert. Stella had started spending more and more time with Tunip. She was desperate to learn more about the Vegimals and their language. Tunip has been teaching her some basic words. She smiles as he gives her a kelp cake. He knows that it’s her favorite. Tunip is just as passionate to learn more about the kids as Stella is to learn about the Vegimals. The two of them have been helping each other and fighting through the language barrier. Stella helped Tunip get all of the information he needs, now Tunip is helping her get all of the information that she wants. She instantly bonded with Grouber and Cornin. Codish and Tominnow bombarded her with questions. Albachoy refused to talk to her, but Charchard talked to her on his behalf. The only one that she hasn’t talked to yet is Barrot. She plans to talk to him tomorrow. For now, she’s interested in Orson. Unlike in the morning, Ursa is a lot more calm and let Orson be. She stays out of their conversation and is talking to her uncle instead. Orson is a lot more outgoing now. His voice stays calm and soft as he speaks. His view of her has definitely changed now that he knows about her father. She tries to push that thought away and concentrate on their conversation.

“How are ya doing Stella?”, Tweak asks. She had been talking to Kwazii before.

“I’m good”, Stella says with a smile.

“That smile is way to suspicious. What’s wrong?”, Tweak raises an eyebrow.

“Nothing”, Stella says while drumming on the table with her fingers.

“You seem nervous… Fine, we’ll talk about it later”, Tweak says, suspicion still taking over her facial expression.

“Fine”, Stella says with a sigh.

“Does she know?”, Orson whisper.

“Not yet”, Stella murmurs.

“You should tell her”, he whispers. Stella hates it when people tell her to say certain things to people. She has a right to keep her mouth shut. Certain things are kept private for a reason.

“I’m sure that your uncle can do that for me”, she says while trying to stay calm. Judging by Orson’s expression, it’s safe to say that her attempt failed.

“I’m sorry. I just don’t like talking about it”, she quietly says. From the corner of her eye, she notices Tweak still eyeing her. She ignores her and continues eating. For the rest of dinner time, she keeps quiet.

Stella slowly drags herself behind Tweak. Tweak motions her towards the bed. Stella lets herself fall down on the bed. Tweak sits down next to her.

“Alright buddy, open up”, Tweak looks down to her. Stella takes a deep breath.

“Just been thinking about home”, she says with her eyes closed.

“Go on”, Tweak prompts.

“I was thinking about my dad… Do you often think about your parents?”, Stella decides to redirect the question. Tweak rolls her eyes. This has happened before. She knows that Stella will feel more comfortable talking if she talks as well.

“I think about my dad everyday. I have never met my mom”, Tweak lies down next to Stella.

“I miss my dad. I don’t have many good memories about my mom. My dad’s death took a big toll on her”, Stella whispers while staring at the ceiling. Tweak chokes on a carrot that she had pulled out of the nothingness. Stella sighs, “You’re all terrible at hiding how shocked you are at that news.”

“Who else have you told about this?”, Tweak turns to face Stella.

“Captain Barnacles and Orson. They insisted on knowing why I was…”, Stella trails off.

“Why you were…?”, Tweak nudges her gently.

“I was crying”, Stella turns to face the wall.

“What happened to him?”, Tweak quietly asks.

“I don’t like thinking about it”, Stella quietly replies.

“What reminded you of him?”, Tweak turns to face the ceiling.

“I heard the two of them laughing and chasing each other. It just reminded me of they way we used to play”, Stella mumbles.

“I know from cap’ that polar bears play rough. Do arctic foxes do the same?”, Tweak asks.

“I…I don’t really know. I never played with any other kids. They didn’t really like me. The only one that played with me was my dad. My uncle is amazing, but his job takes so much of his time. That’s probably why he tried so hard to get me to come here”, Stella turns to face the ceiling once again, “Did you play with other kids your age when you were young?”

“First of all, I’m still young. Second of all…no. I lived in the Everglades. My dad used to be overprotective. He didn’t let me go into town often. Besides, I didn’t like talking to others”, Tweak summons another carrot.

“How do you do that?”, Stella finally looks at Tweak. Tweak grins at her.

“Magic”, she replies. She takes another carrot and hands it over to Stella.

“No thanks. I don’t trust magical carrots. Other than that, I’m full”, Stella smiles.

“Alright, your loss”, Tweak remarks. Stella chuckles.

“Can I sleep here tonight?”, Stella asks with a yawn.

“Sure”, Tweak stands up and looks at her, “C’mon, lets get ready for bed.”

“Alright”, Stella struggles to keep her eyes open.

Stella hugs Tweak subconsciously as she drifts to sleep. She’s used to snuggling with someone when she sleeps. So far, Tweak is the only one that she has had the confidence to sleep with. She’ll work on getting used to sleeping on her own some other night.

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bwela07 · 26 days ago

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Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 14

Tired

Orson’s pov

Orson wakes up to the sound of Squirt’s alarm ringing. He groans as he hears Pinto rushing about.

“How do you have so much energy?”, Orson asks as he sits up.

“I’m just exited. How could I not be exited? We’re training to become future Octo-agents! Hopefully even future Octonauts!”, Pinto quickly slips into his cold suit.

Orson sighs as he drags himself out of bed. He slowly puts on his cold suit, while Squirt tries to wake Periwinkle up. Periwinkle refuses to get out of bed, until Pinto reminds him that their first lesson is marine biology with Shellington. After hearing that, Periwinkle immediately jumps out of bed and starts getting ready. Along with Pinto, the two boys run out of the room. Squirt sighs.

“I envy their energetic nature”, he says. Orson slowly walks towards the door.

“Shall we go join them?”, he asks. Squirt smiles and walks towards him.

“Yes we shall”, he answers. The two of them walk side by side to find the others.

Orson sips on his tea as he eyes the others. Pinto can barely stay seated. He’s talking to both Kwazii and Peso. Periwinkle is talking to Shellington, Squirt is talking to professor Inkling, Koshi is talking to Dashi and Ursa is trying to talk to Stella. Uncle Barnacles is talking to Tweak. Orson pokes his food as he tries to stay awake.

“You good Orson?”, Stella suddenly asks.

“Uhh…yeah. Just tired”, Orson looks up from his plate. His gaze is met with that of Stella. And his sister’s annoyed glare.

“I-I’m fine. Weren’t you talking to Ursa?”, Orson quickly looks back down.

“Right…you seem to be a little absent minded. What are you thinking about?”, Stella continues asking.

Why is she so insistent on making sure that I’m okay?, Orson asks himself. He anxiously continues playing with his food as he feels his sister’s glare piercing through him.

“He seems just fine to me”, Ursa says while trying her best to hide her annoyance.

“He seems lonely though. Would you like to join our conversation?”, Stella continues her attempt to comfort Orson.

“I, uhhh…”, Orson slowly raises his sight to look for any sings of disagreement from his sister. Ursa just rolls her eyes.

“S-Sure”, Orson finally replies. The three of them talk about their icy cold homes and how their handling the new climate. Orson eventually starts enjoying the conversation.

“Orson?”, Stella asks all of a sudden. It was 9 in the morning. They were in the middle of a double lesson of marine biology. Orson got bored and stoped paying attention halfway through the first lesson.

“You haven’t been listening, have you?”, Stella asks.

“Not really…”, Orson admits with embarrassment.

“We’re doing a group assignment. We’ll be going outside and doing research on whatever we find interessting. Squirt is also in our group. He went to go get his notebook. We plan on going out in about 5 minutes”, Stella explains.

“Oh, okay. Thanks for explaining”, Orson says.

“I’m gonna go get a few things in the girl’s room. See you soon. We’ll meet up in the launchbay”, Stella says as she walks away. Orson gets up from his desk, takes his book, and walks to the boy’s room.

“Hey there Orson”, Squirt greets as the young polar bear cub walks into the room.

“Hi”, Orson says with a yawn.

“Still tired? Did you not get enough sleep?”, Squirt asks with concern.

“I guess not”, Orson lazily puts a waterproof notebook, a waterproof pen and a random book in his waterproof bag.

“How come?”, Squirt continues asking.

“I don’t like talking about stuff like that”, Orson rubs his eyes and yawns again.

“Will you be okay?”, Squirt walks over to Orson’s bed.

“I’ll be fine”, Orson swings his bag over his shoulder.

“If you ever feel like you can’t go any further, then let me know”, Squirt firmly states.

“I’ll be fine, trust me”, Orson reassures.

“Alright. Let’s go meet up with Stella”, Squirt says with a smile.

“Yeah, let’s”, Orson returns the smile.

Orson sits on a nearby rock. He sighs. Stella, Squirt and himself have been looking around for anything interesting for the rest of the lesson time. They were not able to find anything that the other groups hadn’t picked yet. Turns out that a five minute delay ment that all of the good options were gone. Other than that, Squirt insisted that they should find something that none of them knew about. Unfortunately for them, despite living in Antarctica, Stella knew a lot about marine biology. Orson has fallen asleep at random times in random places five times now. Stella and Squirt told him to sit down somewhere nearby while they continue looking. Orson lays down on the flat smooth rock and falls asleep. Only to be woken up by the rock moving and speaking!

“Do I look like a bed to you!? Get off me!”, the rock yells.

“Wh- WHAT!?”, Orson swims backwards as he stares at the rock in utter terror.

“What’s wrong? Never seen a stingray before?”, the rock says unamused.

“I-I…you’re a what?”, Orson is taken over by confusion. Just then, Stella and Squirt come swimming back.

“What’s wrong? What happened?”, Stella asks full of concern.

“I-I just…”, Orson stutters.

“This imbecile tried to use me as a bed!”, the stingray yells.

“Alright, everyone calm down. I’m sure that this is just a misunderstanding”, Squirt tries to calm the situation down.

“I-I’m sorry. I was just so tired and I though that you were a rock”, Orson avoids all eye contact.

“I guess that I can’t be mad at you for that. Blending in with my environment is what helps me hide from predators”, the stingray says.

“Interesting. Would you mind if we ask you a few questions?”, Squirt asks.

“Sure. Go ahead”, the stingray says.

Orson zones out once again and doesn’t hear anything that the three others say. He eventually ends up falling asleep.

Orson groans as he wakes up. He notices that he’s no longer in the water. Instead, he’s in his bed. Just as his eyes are about to close again, the door slides open and his uncle walks in the room. Orson tries to pretend that he’s still sleeping.

“Orson, I know that you’re awake”, uncle Barnacles gently says, “And we both know that we need to talk.”

Orson plays pretend a litle longer.

“Come on Orson. We’re worried about you”, uncle Barnacles pleads.

Orson sighs and sits up. He looks at his uncle sitting in front of him on the border of his bed. After seeing his worried expression, Orson looks away.

“Orson, are you okay?”, his uncle asks.

“Yeah”, Orson answers.

“Orson, please be honest with me”, uncle Barnacles pleads. He gently lifts up Orson’s head.

“I’m fine. Just having trouble sleeping”, Orson looks away again. Uncle Barnacles stays silent for awhile.

“You’re not used to sleeping alone, are you?”, he gently asks. Orson lays down on his bed and spreads out his arms.

“Orson, you should have said something”, uncle Barnacles says.

“I’m not sleeping alone though. There are three others in the room”, Orson says, his voice sounding monotone.

“Orson”, uncle Barnacles says firmly.

“I’m sorry, okay? I was just…It’s not as simple as you think”, Orson turns to face away from his uncle.

Uncle Barnacles sits in silence for a while.

“Then explain”, he gently says. Now Orson is the one that doesn’t know what to say.

“It’s hard to explain”, he eventually answers.

“Just try”, his uncle prompts.

“I…I don’t want to talk about it”, Orson tries to push down the voice telling him to just let it all out. Instead, he listens to the voice telling him how pathetic he is.

“Are you…scared of the way others will perceive you?”, his uncle suddenly asks. Orson’s heart stops when hearing that. He closes his eyes and tries to regulate his breathing.

“What was it like for you when you had to sleep on your own for the first time?”, Orson quietly asks.

Uncle Barnacles seems to be thinking of how to best answer his nephew’s question.

“I struggled at first”, he admits, “You get used to it as time goes by. You just need some help easing into it. You can sleep with me tonight if you want. I can ask Ursa to join us as well if that makes you more comfortable.”

Orson fights against his tears. He could have saved himself so much trouble if he had just opened up about this the minute it became a problem. He knows that. But at the same time, he’s still ashamed of needing help. He sobs quietly while he wraps his arms around himself and pulls his legs closer to his upper body. He closes his eyes tightly and clenches his jaw. The voices in his head become louder and louder, even though he knows all to well that the volume of the voices is always the same. You’ll never be good enough! You can’t do anything right! You’re so useless! You’re pathetic! You’ll never amount to anything! You-

All of a sudden Orson feels a paw gently stroking his hair. He momentarily stops sobbing, before continuing where he had left off. His uncle stayed by his side until the polar bear cub had cried all of his tears. Orson sniffs for awhile, still trying to avoid eye contact.

“How are you feeling little buddy?”, his uncle asks. His voice was as gentle as a breeze. It was filled with love. Orson sits up and stares at the floor. His uncle pulls him into a hug.

“Everything will be okay”, his uncle’s calm voice whispers, “I’m here for you. You can always come to me when you need help. I’m always here to listen.”

Orson leans into the hug. He listens to his uncle’s heartbeat for a while, until he finally has the confidence to look him in the eye.

“I’m scared, uncle Barnacles. I’m scared of not being good enough”, he admits. He could barely hear his own voice.

“It’s okay to be scared. No matter what happens, you will always be good enough. If anyone tells you otherwise, then they’re just jealous of how amazing you are. You have potential Orson, you just don’t know it yet”, his uncle speaks softly and gives him a kiss on the forehead after he’s done talking. Orson gives a small smile. He leans on his uncle again and listens to his heartbeat.

The two polar bears stay that way for sometime. The door gently slides open as Dashi walks into the room.

“Ah, there you are captain”, she calmly says, “I have been looking for you.”

“You have?”, uncle Barnacles asks. Orson notices how his heart beats faster. He grins, knowing exactly what the cause is.

“Yes. Octo-agent Tracker just called. He has some free time at the moment and asked if he could tell the kids a bit about what he does”, Dashi explains.

“Thank you for the information Dashi. Unfortunately, that will have to wait for some other time. We have already delayed the kids’ training with Octo-agent Min for quite a while”, uncle Barnacles responds. Orson has never heard him talk so formally before. After sitting up, he notices his uncle’s firm posture. He bites his lip in an attempt to stop himself from giggling. Orson makes himself comfortable on his bed and watches the two adults share a conversation. He soon notices some awkwardness between the two of them. After Dashi leaves, Orson returns to his seat next to his uncle. He leans on his uncle’s shoulder, which slowly sinks down as his uncle loosens up.

“Your heartbeat became faster”, Orson says with a grin. His uncle groans.

“Please do not start teasing me as well. Your mom already does that often enough”, his uncle lays down on the bed. Orson lays down next to him.

“She seems nice”, Orson says. He turns around to face his uncle.

“She is”, uncle Barnacles answers while closing his eyes.

“Are you getting hot?”, Orson asks.

“Yes… Why do you ask?”, his uncle asks back.

“Mom said that getting hot in the face is a sign that you’re in love”, Orson says with a smile. Uncle Barnacles rolls his eyes as Orson laughs. “So…the two of you play ping pong together now?”, Orson continues to tease his uncle.

“It has only happened once before, don’t make such a big deal out of it”, uncle Barnacles turns and starts tickling Orson. Orson tries pushing his uncle away, without any success. Uncle Barnacles‘ booming laughter fills the room. The two polar bears continue enjoying each others company, letting all of their worries slip away.

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#octonauts #fanfic #the octonauts #octonauts above and beyond #siblings #angst followed by comfort #ao3 fanfic #octonauts a new generation #captain barnacles #orson #ursa #original character #original story

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bwela07 · 26 days ago

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Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 13

A day in the life of a Vegimal

Tunip

Tunip hates seeing other’s sad. Over the many years that he has been with the Octonauts, he has figured out ways to turn their frown upside down. The language barrier was a problem at first, but soon enough, all of the Octonauts learned how to understand Vegimalese. With the Junior Octo-agents around for a while, Tunip has to deal with the language barrier once again as he tries to learn more about the kids.

Tunip walks down the hallway with a notebook and a pen. It was easy finding out what makes Pinto happy. Next is Koshi. Koshi and Dashi seem to have a lot alike. Perhaps they also both enjoy eating strawberries. Tunip runs to the kitchen and puts a fresh clean batch of strawberries in a bowl, before rushing to the girl’s room with them. He puts the bowl right in front of her on her desk.

“Strawberries? Are these meant for Dashi?”, Koshi asks.

Tunip shakes his head and points at her.

“For me?”, Koshi asks puzzled.

Does she not like strawberries?, Tunip asks himself.

“Thank you”, Koshi says while smiling.

This does not satisfy Tunip. He takes out his notebook, turns to a blank page and draws a bowl filled with different fruits and a question mark besides it.

“You want to know what my favorite fruit is?”, Koshi asks.

Tunip eagerly nods his head, causing Koshi to chuckle.

“I love mandarins”, Koshi answers with a bright smile.

Tunip gives a short nod before rushing off with the bowl of strawberries. A few minutes later, he returns with a bowl of mandarins.

“You already pealed them?”, Koshi widens her eyes, “Thank you so much!”

She gives Tunip a tight hug to show her gratitude. Tunip chirps excitedly, deciding to settle for this as of now.

Next on the list is Orson. Tunip goes over to the boys room, but Orson isn’t there. He then runs to the game pod, remembering that Kwazii takes care of the polar bear cub. As predicted, Tunip finds the two of them playing ping-pong. Tunip patiently waits for one of them to score a point before interacting with Kwazii.

“Kwazii, may I talk to Orson please?”, he asks.

“Sure thing me hearty”, Kwazii replies as he twirls his racket.

“Would it also be possible for you to help out with the language barrier?”, Tunip asks.

Kwazii laughs: “I’ll try my best.”

Tunip jumps up and down in excitement. Orson peeks over to them in confusion.

“Orson, Tunip would like to talk to you”, Kwazii says as he gestures towards the Vegimal.

“About what?”, Orson wonders, skepticism taking over his voice.

“About you”, Tunip says. He waits patiently as Kwazii repeats what he said.

“Uhhh…”, Orson mumbles, clearly still puzzled.

“What’s your favorite fruit?”, Tunip says. Orson switches his gaze from the Vegimal to the cat as Kwazii translates.

“Blueberries”, Orson answers.

“Okay. What do you like to do in your free time?”, Tunip asks as he takes out his notebook.

After Kwazii translates, Orson takes a while to think about his answer.

“Well…I usually hang out with Ursa”, he shyly says, “What’s with all of these questions?”

“I just want to get to know you more”, Tunip says. He thinks of what to ask next as Kwazii translates.

“What brings you joy?”, Tunip asks, deciding to get straight to the point.

“My family being happy”, Orson replies after Kwazii translates.

This will be harder than I thought, Tunip thinks to himself, I guess that I’ll try again later, after I have had the time to think of what questions I should ask.

“Thank you for your time”, Tunip happily chirps.

He decides to go see if he’ll have any luck with Ursa.

Tunip hops through the Octo-shoot into the HQ and finds Ursa excitedly talking to captain Barnacles.

“So, in order to raise my chances of becoming the captain, I will now be stalking you”, Ursa happily announces as Tunip walks towards them.

“Uhm… As much as I support you and your dream of becoming the captain, I don’t think that stalking me is the best way of achieving that”, captain Barnacles says while trying to hide his nervousness.

“Did I say ‘stalking you’? I mean ‘watching and learning’. It’s the best way to learn anything and everything. Trust me! I have had a lot of experience”, Ursa says.

Captain Barnacles sighs. Tunip wonders how long this conversation has been going on, before captain Barnacles interrupts his thought process.

“Tunip? When did you get in here?”, the captain asks.

“Not too long ago captain”, Tunip answers.

“Alright. So what can I do for you?”, the captain ponders.

“I would like to ask Ursa a few questions”, Tunip replies.

“I see”, the captain says.

“Ursa, what’s your favorite fruit?”, Tunip asks. Without needing to say anything else, captain Barnacles already translates it for Ursa.

“Raspberries”, Ursa says. She keeps a close eye on the Vegimal as he writes it down.

“Orson’s favorite fruit is blueberries? He always said that it’s raspberries”, Ursa mumbles.

“Really?”, Tunip asks. He thinks back to Orson’s behavior that he had been observing, before quickly writing something down.

“What do you like doing in your free time?”, Tunip asks.

“Snowball fight with the other kids and Orson”, Ursa replies without much thought.

“What brings you joy?”, Tunip asks.

Captain Barnacles seemed a little surprised of this question, same goes for Ursa. Is this not an appropriate question?, Tunip wonders.

“Well…teasing my brother, I guess. He’s reaction is just so awesome!”, Ursa explains while laughing.

“Okay”, Tunip says while writing more notes down for Orson, “Thank you for your time.”

Seems like he sees his sister as his role model, Tunip thinks to himself as he makes his way to the lab.

“Hello Shellington, hello Periwinkle”, Tunip greets them upon arriving into the lab.

“Hello Tunip. What brings you here?”, Shellington asks. Both sea otters are at Shellington’s desk, sitting right in front of a microscope.

“I would like to ask Periwinkle a few questions”, Tunip says as he waddles towards them.

“Alright. Peri, Tunip would like to ask you some questions”, Shellington turns back to Periwinkle.

“Okay. Ask away”, Periwinkle gives a shy smile.

“Thank you”, Tunip says, giving himself a little bit more time to prepare his questions for the young sea otter.

Grouber

Grouber enters the kitchen for the sixth time today, with the hope that no one is inside this time. After finally finding the kitchen empty, he quickly scans the surrounding hallway before dashing inside to grab himself a snack or two…or five? With two flippers full of snacks, Grouber runs back into the Vegimals’ bedroom. Codish and Tominnow greet the light purple Vegimal upon his arrival.

“How do you keep getting passed Tunip?”, Codish answers curiously.

“I have my ways”, Grouber answers.

“You sure are determined, I’ll give you that”, Cornin‘s voice suddenly chirps from the other side of the room. Grouber chokes on the kelp cake that he was eating.

“Are you okay big bro?”, Tominnow asks worryingly.

“I’m fine Tom”, Grouber answers before turning his attention back to Cornin. “What will it take for you to not tell Tunip about this?”

“I’m not sure. It will be a hefty price though. Watching Tunip teach you a lesson is quite entertaining. One tends to forget that you’re the oldest with how immature you act”, Cornin states, refusing the take his eyes off of his book as he does so. Grouber growls.

“Please don��t start fighting”, Tominnow pleads. Using his youngest-and-cutest-brother powers, he puts an immediate end to the discussion before it had the chance to get too heated.

“Alright, fine. I won’t tell Tunip. You got lucky this time brother”, Cornin gets up and walks out of the room with his book. Before he gets the chance to walk through the door, Grouber yells: “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you baby brother!”

“Shut up!”, Cornin yells back.

“Was that really necessary?”, Codish asks.

“What? I’m just stating facts”, Grouber tries to act innocent.

“I don’t like it when the two of you fight”, Tominnow says sorrowfully.

Grouber sighs. “I know. One day, when you’re older, you’ll understand why we fight”, Grouber puts his flipper on the shoulder of the young red Vegimal.

“In a more lighthearted and present event, what do you guys wanna do today?”, Grouber asks in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Character study?”, Codish slowly says.

“As expected”, Grouber says with a grin. Codish chuckles sheepishly as Tominnow sighs.

“Let me guess, you’re too tired to do anything else?”, Tominnow mumbles.

“W-Well, we are naturally curious creatures, so it’s only natural for that to be the only thing that I can put energy into”, Codish stares at the ground while explaining himself.

“That and cooking of course. We’re also naturally helpful”, Grouber says with pride.

“Alright. Who’s character are we studying today?”, Tominnow steps in front of Codish.

“I can’t decide. I’m curious about professor Inkling’s nephew, as well as professor Natquik’s niece”, Codish raises his head.

“Targeting the relatives of the professors now, ay?”, Grouber teases.

“N-No! I-It’s just a crazy coincidence! We barely know them, that’s all. Pinto comes here once every month, Koshi and the twins come here often too. Not to mention Periwinkle. That would only leave the relatives of the professors”, Codish rapidly explains.

“Chill out bro. I was just teasing ya. You should be used to it by now”, Grouber tries his best to stop himself from rolling his eyes at his brother’s nervous rant.

“C’mon, let’s go see which one of the two is available”, Tominnow suggests.

Codish and Tominnow

Something about studying a person’s character has always been intriguing for Codish. He loves the satisfaction he gets from knowing a person well and possibly being able to connect with them. He takes a lot of pride in this hobby, despite it being weird for others. Before heading out to find one of the two kids, Codish quickly runs over to his bed and grabs his notebook from under his pillow. He quickly catches up with his brothers and together, they go searching for the relatives of the professors.

After walking around the Octopod for some time, the trio finally find the young pup in the launchbay. Only to find Tunip interrogating her.

“Tunip, buddy, I know that you just want to be ready to comfort her when needed, but you’re clearly scaring the poor kid”, Grouber says.

“He’s not scaring her, but you make a good point”, Tweak says while bitting into a carrot.

“I don’t mind, I just…wasn’t expecting this. I feel like I’ve been put on the spot”, Stella explains, nervousness taking over her facial features.

“Anyway. Since you’re busy with her, we’ll go get the other one”, Grouber makes a 180 turn and starts waddling away.

“Wait, what? What do you mean?”, Tunip’s voice fills with worry and panic.

“Don’t worry about it, we’re just going through a phase where we like talking to people that are related to professors”, Tominnow says in an attempt to cover up Codish’s intentions.

“So, Codish wants to study their characters?”, Tunip bluntly replies.

“Oh man. Was I that obvious?”, Tominnow frowns.

“Just try not too weird them out”, Tunip says with a sigh.

“You mean like you’re doing?”, Grouber says, now standing right besides the Octo-shoot.

“Whatever Grouber. Take care of the kids and do not be a bad influence on them”, Tunip turns his focus back to the little pup.

“Come on kids”, Grouber says teasingly.

“You’re only 8 years older than me”, Codish exclaims.

“8 years is a lot”, Grouber says, “Now come on, we don’t have all day.”

The three Vegimals head for the library next. Upon their arrival, they’re greeted by professor Inkling. After walking deeper into the library, they finally find the young octopus. Talking to Cornin.

“Hello brothers. What are you doing here?”, Cornin calmly asks, “I thought that you’re allergic to books Grouber.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. We wanted to talk to the octopus”, Grouber rolls his eyes.

“His name is Squirt and he is currently being tutored”, Cornin tries to hide how annoyed he got just because of Grouber rolling his eyes.

“Which subject?”, Tominnow asks with general curiosity.

Cornin immediately calms down and loosens up at the sight of Tominnow’s wholesomeness.

“Vegimalese”, Cornin answers, “Shellington is teaching them, and Squirt is struggling a little bit.”

“It’s so nice of you to help him out”, Tominnow chirps.

“Mhm”, Codish agrees.

“Thanks”, Corning blushes, “I try my best.”

“If only you could do the same for your beloved oldest brother”, Grouber says with a sarcastic disappointed head shake.

“I’m sorry. It’s just so hard to be nice to you. In fact, you clearly make yourself unbearable on purpose”, Cornin answers while trying to remain clam.

“I only understood half of what you said”, Squirt suddenly says, “But it seems like the two of you have beef with each other.”

“Don’t worry about it. We’re handling it”, Cornin says while englishafying his Vegimalese.

“We are?”, Grouber asks sarcastically.

“Grouber, why don’t you take Tom and Codish somewhere else?”, Cornin tries his best to remain clam.

“Why should I?”, Grouber teases.

“Because you’re allergic to books”, Cornin’s patients quickly runs dry.

“Alright. Come on you two. I’m sure that we can find someone else to bother”, Grouber slowly heads towards the library’s exit. Tominnow quickly runs after the older brother. Codish drags himself along, mumbling in disappointment at both failed attempts.

Charchard and Albachoy

Charchard taps the table impatiently with his pen as he tries to think of what theme he should pick to celebrate the kids joining the Junior-Octo-Agents-in-training program. Albachoy hastily whipes his flippers while he glares at Charchard.

“Fine! Spill the beans! What’s bothering you Char?”, he says with annoyance.

Charchard glances in his direction with confusion. “What do you mean? Nothing is bothering me”, he slowly says.

“Then stop trying to poke holes in the table!”, Albachoy yells.

“Sorry”, Charchard mumbles. After a while of twisting the pen with his flipper, he finally says: “Actually, I do need your help with something.”

“If it gets you to leave me alone”, Albachoy grumbles as he takes a seat next to his twin brother.

“Thank you Choy”, Charchard says with a smile.

Albachoy rolls his eyes before taking Charchard’s notebook.

“You’re planning a party for the kids?”, Albachoy raises an eyebrow.

“Yeah!”, Charchard says, “But I can’t decide what theme it should be.”

“Keep it simple. You can make a big party once this thing becomes official”, Albachoy crosses out some of the options Charchard had written down.

“There you go. Let me know once you’ve made up your mind. I need to know what cake I’m making”, Albachoy tries to get up, but is immediately captured in a warm embrace.

“Thank you so much Choy!”, Charchard chirps.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anything to get you to leave me alone”, Albachoy mumbles as he tries to free himself from the embrace.

Barrot

Barrot runs around the whole Octopod looking for someone to play with him. He eventually ends up back in the HQ without finding a single person that’s not occupied with something else. He slumps down in defeat in the middle of the room and lets out a big sigh. Dashi finishes sorting out the recent pictures that she took, before turning around to address Barrot.

“What’s wrong Barrot?”, Dashi asks calmly.

“I’m booored!”, Barrot complains.

He quickly jumps up and stares at Dashi with wide eyes, “Will you play with me?”

“Well, I did just finish my work for the afternoon… Sure, why not?”, Dashi smiles as Barrot jumps up and down with excitement. Barrot drags Dashi with him to the game pod. The two crew mates push the ping pong table aside and set up the volleyball net. Barrot notices a spark in Dashi’s eyes when he first grabed the volleyball net. Is volleyball her favorite sport? She is doing a surprisingly good job at keeping her expression neutral. Barrot excitedly runs around as Dashi finishes setting up the net. The two of them play together for about an hour. A first, Dashi was holding back, by the end of their play session, both of them were going all out. Barrot enjoyed every second of it. Seeing this new side of Dashi has been amazing. Hopefully he’ll be able to play with her again.

Barrot smiles fondly at the recent memory of what happened during the afternoon. His brothers eye him suspiciously every now and then.

“Alright Barrot, spill the tea. You’re never happy while doing the dishes”, Grouber says while crossing his arms.

“Yeah, what are you up to?”, Tunip asks while putting a cup in the cupboard.

“What do you mean? I’m always happy”, Barrot says with a smile.

“Sure. Even when you are happy, you never do the dishes properly”, Grouber mumbles.

“I guess you have a point. I’m just in a good mood I guess”, Barrot starts humming while he cleans a plate.

“You should be in a good mood more often”, Grouber nudges Barrot, “That way I no longer need to do double the work.”

Barrot chuckles, “Thank you for helping me out with my chores bro.”

“Could all of you please shut up?”, Albachoy asks with annoyance.

The brothers continue working in silence.

Barrot jumps on his bed with excitement as he waits for his other brothers to get in bed. Cornin is the last to enter, as always, since he always insists on bringing professor Inkling’s tea to the library.

“Stop jumping!”, Albachoy growls.

“Sorry”, Barrot murmurs.

“Seriously though, what has got you so exited?”, Grouber asks while he tucks Tominnow and Codish in bed.

“Did you find someone fun to play with?”, Tunip asks, remembering how Barrot had asked him to play with him.

“Super fun!”, Barrot answers.

“Please stop screaming”, Charchard sleepily says.

“Sorry”, Barrot lies down as Grouber approaches his bed.

“And who is the lucky person that managed to make you so happy?”, Grouber asks with a smirk.

“Are you jealous?”, Barrot teases.

“Maybe a little”, Grouber gives Barrot a kiss on the forehead.

“I played volleyball with Dashi. It was very fun. She’s incredibly good at it”, Barrot yawns, “Hopefully we can play again soon.”

Barrot’s eyelids start getting heavy.

“I’m sure that you’ll have the chance to play again with her soon. She loves playing volleyball”, Grouber speaks gently while tucking Barrot in bed.

“Really? How come I didn’t know?”, Barrot struggles to stay awake. Noticing this, Grouber gently chuckles.

“We can talk about it more in the morning”, Grouber gives him another kiss, before getting into his bed.

“Good night brothers”, Tunip says with a smile. After they’ve all said their good nights, Tunip switches off the lights.

Other chapters

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bwela07 · 5 months ago

Text

Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 12

Overload of emotions

WARNING: There’s a scene towards the beginning about Pearl’s PTSD (specific to my AU) It’s never explicitly said what past trauma she has, though it is suggested. To be transparent with you guys, her trauma has something to do with S/A. Like I said, it is never explicitly brought up and never will be, but I wanted to warn you anyway.

Shellington’s pov

Shellington paces around the launch bay nervously, waiting for the kids to return. He knew that leaving them alone with Kwazii would be a bad idea, but there was nothing that he could do after the captain approved it. Periwinkle must have been terrified! Well, all of the kids must have been terrified of course. Shellington continues pacing around as the rest of the Octonauts enter the launchbay.

“Shellington, calm down”, Tweak says with annoyance. She bites into a carrot that she summoned out of thin air.

“Easy for you to say”, Shellington snaps. Both his nephew Periwinkle and his older sister Pearl were in direct line of danger. It took a lot of convincing, but eventually Pearl had agreed to join the others on their ride back to the Octopod. It has been a long time since Shellington saw her. It’s awfully sad that they had to reunite under such unfortunate circumstances.

“Believe it or not, I am just as worried as you are”, Tweak replies, shocked by Shellington’s tone. Shellington himself was also shocked by it. It’s not like him to get irritated like that. Well, at least he never really showed it.

“You’re right, I’m sorry”, Shellington sighs.

“Don’t worry Shellington, I’m sure that they will all return safely”, Peso tries cheering the sea otter up.

“Aren’t you worried about Pinto?”, Shellington asks before he can even finish his thought process. It was a stupid question, but he had expected more of a panicked reaction from Peso.

“He always finds a way to get out of any mess he gets himself into”, Peso answers with a sad smile. Pinto is quite similar to Kwazii. Shellington can only imagine how much trouble the young penguin gets into on a regular basis, leaving his older brother exhausted from worrying. Shellington sighs as he finally calms down enough to stop pacing around the launch bay. He leans on the wall, head facing the ceiling, trying to distract himself by thinking about how to summarize everything he wanted to say to Pearl as shortly as possible, knowing that she’ll want to leave once more as soon as possible.

As Kwazii, Paani and Pearl swim inside of the launch bay followed by Dashi and the kids, Shellington quickly rips himself out of his thoughts and goes dashing towards them.

“Pearl!”, he screams as he dives into the water, colliding into his sister. Pearl laughs as she embraces him.

“I missed you too little brother”, she calmly whispers, with a sense of sadness in her voice. Shellington ignores that and hugs her tightly, never wanting to let go. The others swim past them and head to the surface, letting them have their moment, Periwinkle being the only one to stay.

“Peri! You’re okay!”, Shellington lets go of Pearl, despite his heart telling him to do otherwise, and hugs his nephew.

“Hi uncle Shellington”, Peri shyly says.

“How have you been Shelly?”, Pearl asks.

“Pearl!”, Shellington whines, his cheeks burn as they gradually become red, “I told you to stop calling me that!”

Peri and Pearl both start laughing. Shellington looks at both of them in anger, before joining them in laughter. It had been so long since he had heard Pearl’s beautiful laughter.

“Come on, let’s go up”, Pearl suggests, “We can continue talking in your room.”

The three see otters swim up to the surface and let their helmets open up. The other kids are each with their corresponding adult, all chattering excitedly. Shellington smiles at the sight, before his eyes land on Kwazii. He has a thing or two to say to him. His bitter thoughts causes his smile to melt away. He tries to keep his expression neutral. He won’t make anyone’s day worse than it is. He’ll talk to Kwazii later in private.

Shellington excitedly escorts his sister and his nephew to his room. Pearl laughs as he enthusiastically reports his latest discovery while using his hands as he talked, just as he often does when he gets excited. For the first time in a long time, Shellington felt like a little kid. He gets hit by a big wave of nostalgia as he teleports back to the past, at a moment just like this one. They had just returned from school. Shellington was explaining all the new things that he had learned that day. The joy that he had, knowing that Pearl was always there to listen to him. No one else could stand his rambling. He had gotten so used to talking fast, since he always got cut off while he was less than halfway through his explanations. But Pearl wasn’t like the others. She always listens. Just like how she’s listening right now. And now Peri is also there to listen to Shellington’s rambles. It makes Shellington so happy to have them. He finally has a happy family. Shellington fights against the tears threatening to fall as he quickly turns around and walks forwards. He smiles. He can finally be happy now.

“This is a nice lab”, Pearl says, turning around as she lets the scenery sink in.

“You’ve been in here a few times before”, Shellington reminds her.

“Yeah, but every time I come here, it’s different”, she says with a sad smile. Shellington mentally crosses the ‘sad’ out. There’s no time for sorrowful thoughts.

“Mom, you should seriously disinfect those scratches”, Peri’s little voice says. Shellington turns around in a blink of an eye, making himself a little dizzy. He stares at Pearl, only now seeing all of the scratches on her body. Shellington’s eyes widen.

“I’m fine Shellington, it’s nothing bad”, Pearl says, knowing exactly what’s going through her younger brother’s mind. She walks over to where his first aid kit hangs.

“Why didn’t you let Ranger Marsh help you?", Peri asks curiously. Pearl freezes. She shivers a little before turning to face her son.

“I just…”, she starts. “It’s private”, Shellington jumps in. He takes the first aid kit and leads Pearl to a chair. He could tell that she won’t be able to function properly from here on out. At least that gives him an excuse to make her stay longer. Since the damage has already been done, there’s no point of pretending that nothing happened.

“Peri, why don’t you go join your friends?”, Shellington suggests, trying to make his voice sound as calm and kind as possible.

“They’re not my friends”, Peri mumbles under his breath as he drags himself out of the room.

“Peri…”, Pearl weakly says.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to him later”, Shellington says, softly pushing her back into the chair.

“Shellington”, Pearl warns.

“You’re not in the right state of mind to do anything right now”, Shellington notes. Tears prickle in his eyes as he disinfects his sister’s wounds. He takes a shaky breath as he looks her dead in the eyes. Both siblings know what’s coming next.

“Flashback?”, Shellington briefly asks. He didn’t have the strenght to say anything else without breaking.

“Yeah”, Pearl looks away.

“Pearl”, Shellington whispers.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about little brother. So what, I still don’t feel comfortable around men, particularly men that are way older than me, that doesn’t mean that there’s something wrong with me”, Pearl tries to shrug it off.

“Pearl, you are not okay”, Shellington stops what he’s doing to hold her face, forcing her to look him in the eye, “We both know that you’re not okay.” Shellington’s voice breaks as he continues, turning more and more into a whisper. “Please Pearl, please consider finding some help. It’s not going to get any better if you continue ignoring the problem. I’m begging you, please go see a therapist.” Shellington’s starts shaking as his tears flow down like a water fall. Seeing her brother so sad breaks Pearl’s heart. She had been trying to keep it together for her brother’s sake, but she couldn’t keep it in any longer.

“I’m scared Shellington”, she finally confesses between sobs. Shellington hugs her tight.

“I know”, he whispers, “We’ll get through this together, just like how we get through everything together.” Pearls hugs him tighter as they both try their best to cry as quietly as possible, in order to prevent anyone from coming in to investigate what’s going on.

Shellington puts a box of tissues on the desk next to Pearl, then continues treating her wounds as she finishes crying. Shellington hates seeing his sister hurt like this, but at least she’s not bottling up her emotions for his sake anymore. Shellington puts everything back where they belong after he’s finished, before leaning against the desk. He faces the ceiling with his eyes closed as he tries to rack up any ideas on how to help his sister.

“You should go talk to Periwinkle”, Pearl quietly suggests. Shellington looks down to her. The sorrowful look on her beautiful face physically hurt him. He winces before facing the floor and shutting his eyes tight.

“Yeah, you’re right. Take care of yourself”, Shellington hugs her one last time. She laughs weakly.

“Thank you Shellington. Thank you for everything.” “That’s what siblings are there for”, Shellington nuzzles her nose with his own before heading out.

Once out of the room, he leans against the wall. He takes a beep breath, trying to push back all of his thoughts, before he continues on his way to search for Periwinkle.

“Hey there buddy”, Shellington greets, sounding as weak as Pearl must be feeling right now.

“Hi uncle Shellington”, Peri answers. Shellington had found him in the boys’ room, sitting alone on his bed.

“Why aren’t you with the others?”, Shellington calmly asks. Peri sighs as he puts his book down.

“They’re not like me uncle Shellington. They don’t understand the things that make me, me. I don’t fit in with them. I don’t have the same interests as them”, Peri pulls his legs tightly against his chest, keeping his head down.

“I’m sure that’s not true Peri. Surely there’s someone who’s interested in the same things as you. Other than that, I’m sure that they would still love to be your friend”, Shellington tries.

“Yeah right”, Peri sulks. Shellington isn’t used to this kind of behavior coming from the young sea otter.

“Sure, you might struggle at first to have a conversation with them, but you’ll get there eventually”, Shellington tries once again.

“How would you know?”, Peri lifts his head and looks Shellington straight into his eyes.

“Because I’ve been through the same situation myself”, Shellington admits through gritted teeth. He hates thinking about how shy he used to be. He had wasted several months being all on his own, despite it being surprisingly easy to befriend his crew mates. He even managed to befriend Kwazii! The two of them were complete and total opposites! Peri stays silent for a while, thinking about what he just heard.

“Alright. I’ll try to make friends”, he finally says. Shellington smiles and pulls his nephew into a hug.

“Thank you Peri”, Shellington says, “You’ll be doing yourself a favor.”

“But in return”, Periwinkle says with a grin, “Mom and I can call you Shelly.”

Shellington stares at his nephew in shock and disbelief. He quickly weighs his options, giving Peri a side eye every once in awhile.

“Alright, fine. You can call me Shelly”, Shellington crosses his arms as he looks away with embarrassment. Peri jumps up with excitement, doing a little victory dance on his bed. Shellington watches him in amusement. He knew it would be worth it.

Shellington’s fist shake with anger. Kwazii has spent the past hour going around apologizing to everyone for his failure during the expedition. Now he’s apologizing to Shellington. How could Shellington possibly forgive him so easily? Kwazii put his nephew in danger by not being careful and got his sister hurt! Hearing what happened just made Shellington more angry. Kwazii should know better than to go anywhere near an anaconda’s nest! His recklessness could have killed the kids, his nephew! Shellington has been working hard to keep his family together for as long as he can remember. The hope of finally having a happy family had kept him going for years! The thought that all of his work could be ripped away from him within seconds has always kept him awake at night. To think that his own crew mate could be the cause of his family’s demise…

Shellington knows that Kwazii’s reckless. He also knows that Kwazii is aware of his recklessness. Shellington was there when the Octo-alert went off. He saw that the kids got somewhere safe and were able to call for help, under Kwazii’s orders. He also saw how Kwazii’s signal from his Octo-watch headed in the opposite direction of the kids. Kwazii had tried his best to make sure that the kids stayed safe. And he had succeeded. Kwazii is the master of getting into dangerous situations, but he is also the master at saving anyone he can and being ready to risk his life for others. Shellington can’t possibly stay mad at him. He could tell that Kwazii’s apology is sincere. Shellington takes a few shaky breaths before finally speaking.

“Listen Kwazii. I understand that you tried your best, and I am grateful for that. Nevertheless, it will take me some time to calm down enough to forgive you”, he calmly says.

“I understand matey. I appreciate your effort”, Kwazii gives a small smile. The lieutenant leaves the room, leaving the marine biologist alone once more. Shellington sighs as he lets himself sink into his chair. Once again, he finds himself facing the ceiling, deep in thought. After a while, Pearl enters the room.

“Hi Shelly, how are you doing?”, she asks, her familiar Scottish accent bringing comfort to the sea otter.

“I’m fine”, he says while sighing, “Just…a little frustrated.”

“I know that you’re worried Shelly, but I’ll be fine”, Pearl says as she places her paw on his own.

“Come on, let’s go ask Peso if he knows any good therapist”, Shellington firmly declares as he stands up. He grabs her paw and drags her out of the room.

“Shellington, please!”, Pearl pleads.

“We have already talked about this a million times Pearl!”, Shellington yells in distress and desperation.

“Shellington…”, Pearl says, knowing full well that she can’t change her brother’s mind.

“Pearl”, Shellington warns. The two sea otters stare each other into the eyes for a few more seconds, before Pearl finally submits to her brother.

“Alright, fine”, she says while pouting.

“Thank you”, Shellington replies. He relaxes himself a bit. He drags her out of his room, all the way up to Peso’s. He finally lets go of Pearl’s paw and looks her into her eyes.

“Ready?”, he asks.

“Of course not! But I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”, Pearl answers annoyed.

“It’ll be fine. After this, everything will start being fine”, Shellington tries to encourage his sister. He takes a deep breath before knocking on Peso’s door.

“Hello Shellington, hello Pearl, what can I do for you?”, the penguin asks after opening the door.

“Hi Peso”, Shellington starts, “Could we…talk to you in private?”

“Uh…sure?”, Peso answers, confusion and concern taking over his facial expression.

“Thanks”, Shellington nervously says.

The two sea otters follow Peso into his room. Peso gestures them towards his bed as he grabs a seat on his desk chair.

“So, what do you want to talk about?”, Peso asks, clearly trying his best to keep a neutral tone and facial expression.

“Well…”, Shellington looks over to Pearl for some help.

“What are you looking at me for? You are the one who wanted us to do this!”, Pearl hisses while whispering.

“Calm down. This is for your own good”, Shellington tries to defend himself.

“And what about you!?”, Pearl bites back, getting more and more angry by the second.

“Did you really think that I wouldn’t have been able to tell? I’m your older twin sister for crying out loud! It’s as clear as day that this whole situation has had a huge effect on you as well!”, Pearl snaps.

“I…”, Shellington becomes speechless. He thought that he had done a great job hidding just how much it had effected him. He himself had been in denial for so long! How is it possible that she figured it out, even though he himself hadn’t figured it out until the first few months of being an Octonaut?

“So…do the two of you need more time?”, Peso asks, now finding it even more hard to keep up the neutral act.

Pearl sighs and apologizes for her sudden change in mood, while Shellington remains speechless.

“Shellington”, Pearl grabs both his paws and gives him a stern look, “I’ll do it if you do it too.”

Shellington slowly shifts his gaze to look his sister into her eyes.

“Alright”, he quietly says, voice cracking as he does so.

“Good”, Pearl puts down his paws and faces Peso.

“Peso…”, Pearl takes a few deep breaths, “Shellington and I…well, we were wondering if…”

“Ifyouknowanygoodtherapist!”, Shellington sputters out quickly.

“What?”, Peso asks in confusion, “Could you say that again?”

“Do…you…knowanygoodtherapist”, Pearl tries to stay calm, but starts panicking. At this rate, they’ll be here all afternoon.

“Uhm… Why don’t we find a way to calm the both of you down first?”, Peso suggests.

“Alright”, Pearl says while nodding.

“Well, that could have gone a lot worse”, Pearl says as the two siblings leave Peso’s room.

“Uh-huh”, Shellington replies energy drained.

“At least we got what we came for”, Pearl jumps down the Octo-shoot.

“Right”, Shellington continues following her.

“I’m gonna go check on Periwinkle. Will you be joining us?”, Pearl asks as they enter the hallway.

“Not right now. I need a minute to myself”, Shellington stops at the Octo-shoot leading to his room.

“Alright. Call me if you need anything baby brother”, Pearl says while giving him a smile.

“You’re only three minutes older than me!”, Shellington states.

“Whatever you say baby brother”, Pearl teases.

Shellington chuckles as he makes his way to his room.

Upon arrival, he lets himself fall onto his bed. He sighs as he stares at the ceiling. He turns to the side and closes his eyes. He tries his best to calm his thoughts. After a minute of trial and error, Shellington gives up. Frustrated, he gets out of bed and decides to go to the lab. As the door to the lab slides open, his eyes meet with those of Dashi. Shellington stumbles backwards in shock.

“Hi Shellington, sorry if I startled you”, Dashi calmly greets.

“D-Dashi! What are you doing here?”, Shellington nervously asks.

“I have been waiting for you”, Dashy calmly replies.

“Wh-What!?”, Shellington takes a few steps back in shock, “Why?”

“Because there seems to be something bothering you. I know how you like to bury yourself in your work whenever you are trying to get something off of your mind, so I decided to come wait for you here. It’s not healthy to push whatever is bothering you aside like that, so I figured that maybe we could talk it out”, Dashi explains.

Shellington stays speechless for a while.

“Shellington, it’s not healthy to keep it all to yourself, so please let me help you. Aren’t we friends?”, Dashi tries to get Shellington to say something.

Shellington shifts his gaze to his shoes as Dashi says the word ‘friends’. The two of them have become pretty close over the many years that they have spent on the Octopod. In Shellington’s view, the two of them were best friends. He already knows that no matter how much he wants to be more than just friends, Dashi won’t allow it. She’s too oblivious to notice his feelings for her to begin with, despite how obvious it it. Other than that, she’ll make excuses like ‘it’s not professional’ or ‘dating in a team never ends well’.

“Shellington”, Dashi warns.

“Nothing’s wrong Dashi. I’m fine”, Shellington goes around Dashi and makes his way to his desk. “Just go back to organizing photos”, he says in a bitter tone.

A deadly silence fills the room. Shellington puts his fists on his lap and lowers his head. Why did I say that!? I know exactly how much that would hurt her! Why do I keep on pushing anyone away that tries to help me?, Shellington thinks to himself, Why am I so stupid sometimes!? Why can’t I do anything right!?

“Shellington?”, Dashi asks. Shellington almost jumps out of his chair. When had she come join him at his desk? After noticing the hint of hurt in her eyes, Shellington quickly looks back down.

“What’s wrong?”, Dashi asks.

“I just…”, Shellington starts. Dashi takes a seat on the desk.

“I know you didn’t mean what you said, so just forget about it, okay?”, Dashi softly says.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry”, Shellington presses his paws to his face.

“It’s fine Shellington, just please tell me what’s bothering you”, Dashi gently takes one of his paws and looks him in his eyes.

“Alright”, Shellington removes his other paw. He clears his throat as he feels his cheeks fluster.

“Erm, well…I’m just worried about Pearl”, Shellington decides to start small.

“Something tells me that it’s not really just because of what happened today”, Dashi continues pushing.

Shellington sighs, “Something bad had happened to us in the past. A particular thing happened while she saved Paani and Kwazzi that triggered that memory. I just…well…I finally got her to go ask Peso for a therapist, but…”, Shellington’s paws form fists once more.

“She exposed you. She knew, even though it took you yourself ages to figure it out”, Dashi finishes. Dashi had been there when the realization hit Shellington. His world had started warping itself into an unknown shape. Dashi had helped him out of it. She’s the one that suggested that Shellington should write down his thoughts and feelings in a journal. It had helped Shellington a lot, especially during the harder times.

“Yeah”, Shellington nods his head. Dashi gives his paw a little squeeze.

“I’ll start taking online therapy sessions next week”, Shellington says while playing around with the strap of his waterproof satchel.

“That’s good. I’m glad that you’re finally getting the help you need”, Dashi says. The two of them share a momen of silence. After a while, Dashi knocks on one of the locked drawers attached to the desk. Shellington sighs as he takes out the key from his satchel and opens the drawer. Dashi takes out the journal and a pen and puts it on the desk.

“Call me when you’re done. I’m going to go help Tweak make a new Octo-camera”, Dashi says while gliding of the desk. Shellington smiles. He loves how she’s always there to listen to him, but also knows his boundaries and respects them.

“See you soon”, he says while he picks up the pen. Both the pen and the journal were gifts from Dashi, making them all the more special for Shellington.

“You seem a lot happier”, Pearl says with a suspicious yet joyous tone.

“I could say the same thing about you”, Shellington replies with a smile.

“I saw Dashi coming out of the lab. Did the two of you have fun together?”, Pearl teases.

“Pearl! I can’t believe what you are suggesting!”, Shellington yells flustered.

Pearl laughs as Shellington continues his rant.

“I’m glad that she makes you happy”, Pearl says once she finally stops laughing.

“Well…you make me happy as well”, Shellington says.

“Not in the way she does”, Pearl says teasingly. Shellington groans and rolls his eyes. Pearl ruffles Shellington’s hair. Shellington shoots her an angry glance as he tries to put his hair back in place. Pearl’s laughter fills the air, warming up Shellington’s heart as it does so. Shellington musters a sad smile. When he had run into Pearl, there was that familiar look in her eyes. It’s the longing to get back out there. Shellington pushes back the tears, deciding to simply focus on the present, instead of thinking about how long Pearl will be gone for.

other chapters

#the octonauts #octonauts #octonauts a new generation #octonauts above and beyond #fanfic #ao3 fanfic #Shellington #Pearl #siblings #sibling bonding #angst followed by comfort #shellington x dashi #not really though because i ship barnacles x dashi even more #so don’t get her hopes up #i love Shellington therefore i must give him trauma

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bwela07 · 5 months ago

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Yall ever think like, considering above and beyond, like its been years for them and they're so experienced.

the octo agents met them with all this cool tech and experience and protocol and ability

but like none of them know that barnacles kwazii and peso once wore a fake walrus costume in order to pretend to be a walrus

none of them know that dashi barnacles and kwazii tried to escape THE INSIDE OF A WHALES MOUTH by just :') RUNNING FULL SPEED AT THE BALEEN PLATES (weird whale teeth)

none of them know about the time professor inkling tentacle wrestled a giant squid TRYING TO FIGHT/EAT THE ENTIRE OCTOPOD?

none of them know about THE CONE SNAIL INCIDENT

LIKE??? couldu imagine being like an agent of what's essentially water based rescue NASA and then u find out the guy in charge absolutely tried to rescue his coworker by "waving through kwaziis spaghetti distraction" or whatever the fck (kawaii was going to "distract the whale by weaving around like a piece of spaghetti or something similar LMSO)

like I just haven't seen anyone talking to how they must look to outsiders

like. They eat kelp in EVERYTHING. and its not like they're just like all in a vegan world, paani canonically enjoys dried bugs. I'm sure there's some animals that are like, more irl animal behaviours or whatever lol

butseriously, kelp cakes, kelp biscuits, kelp marshmallows, kelp kebabs, kelp stew- Yeah these btches autistic-

but seriously imagine going to your friends house and their ENTIRE FAMILY just offers you "lentil cake!" or "lentil Mac and cheese!" or "lentil chicken nuggets!" wouldnt they look fcking crazy?

i just think its funny cuz like "oh yeah shout-out to the one time a bunch of sea creatures literally stole the octopod hahaha or lol, the time we flooded the ship so slippy the sea cucumber would be able to breathe under water haha, man we must have purposefully flooded the octopod what? three times at least? "

LIKE WHAT ARE THE UNDER SEA SHENANIGANS-

like I just want ONE octo-agent (and it cant be paani this guy would just be like "oh yeah makes sense :)" to look at them and go??? yo what the FCK? oh God... maybe the ocean pressure effected their brains?!"

LIKE-

like yeah they're all SO FCKING serious about ping pong too, and they all absolutely have the weirdest behaviours because these guys have spent literal years in the middle of the ocean with eachother 😭

i just love them so much-

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bwela07 · 5 months ago

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Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 11

Rainforest of emotions

Squirt’s pov

During dinner, Squirt mostly just spoke to his uncle Inkling. Every now and then, Shellington and Periwinkle would join in on their conversation, but otherwise they kept to themselves.

After dinner, the junior Octo-agents join the Octonauts with their nightly-before-bed-hangout. Squirt enjoys listening to the adults’ stories. Soon enough, it’s the kids’ turn. Ursa and Orson take turns telling the crew about the first time they had swam in the open waters and how everything went terribly wrong. Koshi reads out the mystery book she recently wrote about the previous adventure she and her sister were on. Pinto excitedly tells the crew about how Peso saved the chin strapped penguins during the ring of fire incident. After some motivation from his uncle, Periwinkle shows everyone what he learned at cub scouts. Tweak and the captain try to get Stella to say something, but she insists on Squirt going first. Squirt hesitates. Noticing this, Inkling walks over to Squirt using his tentacles and whispers something into the young octopus’ ear.

“Tell them about that school project that you usually always bring up”, Inkling suggests.

“Good idea”, Squirt answers.

Inkling goes to find a seat while Squirt clears his throat.

“Everyone knows about school projects. Sometimes you do them alone and sometimes you do them as a group. This particular school project was a group project”, Squirt starts his story with a brief introduction.

“Well in that case, we all have a slight idea of how this story can end”, Koshi informs. Giggles fill the room.

“Indeed. For the sake of their privacy, I won’t mention their real names. Instead, I will call them Sodium and Zinc. Sodium was that one kid who always acts salty towards everyone for no reason whatsoever. Zinc on the other hand…well…he had quite the interesting…personalities. One day he was the class clown, the next he was the school bully, and then out of nowhere he was the teachers pet or the quiet kid”, the excitement slowly started to rise inside of Squirt as he continues on with his story, “From the second the teacher put the three of us in a group, I knew that it would be a long couple of weeks. The first week goes by, I had already done my research and even did the research for the others. During the second week I start preparing the presentation. The third week comes, I had already printed out the script and was handing it out to Sodium and Zinc, when Sodium decides to start a roasting battle. With Sodium as our classmate, a roasting battle being announced out of nowhere was uncommon. In fact, for those who watch, it’s the highlight of the day. Sodium goes on and on about how I think that I’m so much more smarter than him and how I think that he is incapable of doing anything! I try to explain to him that I just want us to get a good grade, but then Zinc goes from being the quiet kid to playing the victim, further encouraging Sodium. This goes on for a good ten minutes before a teacher finally steps in.”

“Oof, that must have been an awful experience”, Ursa says.

“Oh, I’m not done yet”, Squirt replies, “Somehow, Sodium manages to convince the teacher that I’m not letting him or Zinc do any work, so I was left with no other choice but to basically throw away all of my hard work and start again with these two…interesting boys with only one and a half weeks left until it’s due. That half week sure was fun. Whenever I tried to set up a meeting with the others, Sodium would come up with an excuse. Zinc would always say that the two of us can meet up without Sodium, but then never showed up. The weekend comes and the work still hasn’t been done yet. We had two tests that fourth week, and I for one was determined to pass them. Instead, Sodium and Zinc look at our week with the two important tests and decide that that would be a great time to somehow start and finish the whole project! I almost fainted when I heard them say that. I told them to do their part and that I would just take whatever part is left and use what I had made at first, you know, before they complained about my hard work and efforts. The school week ends and I enjoy my much needed break during the weekend. Sunday comes, it’s the day before the project is due. Sodium sends me a message asking me what he has to do.”

“Yow! These teammates of yours sure don’t know how to be a team player”, Kwazii remarks.

“Indeed they don’t. I almost had a heart attack when I read that message. I asked Zinc what topic he chose, picked the easiest of the two that were left over and then send the script about that topic to Sodium. Monday comes and it’s our team’s turn to present. Zinc presents first, but… I don’t know where he got his information from, but it was the most random words thrown together that I had ever heard. I was absolutely petrified. After two minutes, he stops and looks at me, signaling that it’s my turn. I pull myself together and try to add more detailed explanations to my topic, to make up for the missing time for Zinc. After all, there was a certain length that the presentation had to be. Next came Sodium. As I had thought, he forgot his, or should I say my, notes at home. He immediately put the blame on me, but fortunately for me, I had brough a spare. The original notes that I had sent to him were written in full sentences, so that he would know exactly what to say and could go over it properly, so that he doesn’t read off of the paper the whole time. It turns out, unsurprisingly, that he hadn’t read them at all! He stumbled over every term and couldn’t explain them any further. Our project was a mess, a disaster.”

“Did you get a bad grade because of them?”, Stella asks.

“Yeah”, Squirt says in defeat.

“WHAT!?”, Ursa yells.

“You’re joking, right?”, Orson asks, refusing to believe what he just heard.

A smirk creeps onto Squirts face.

“The principal knew better. He came and saved the day. I showed him the project that I had originally made on my own, and I got an A+”, Squirt announces.

The room fills up with applause and cheers.

“You kept us all on the edge with that story of yours matey!”, Kwazii says flabbergasted.

“Well, that was the intention”, Squirt admits.

“Alright, your turn Stella”, Tweak says.

“What? But it’s getting really late! Other than that, how could I possibly top Squirt’s amazing story telling?”, Stella tries to find any and every excuse that she can.

“Don’t get your ears in a twist. I’m sure that you’ll do great!”, Tweak continues motivating Stella.

“I don’t have any cool or exciting stories to tell”, Stella continues her attempt to avoid her fate.

“I’m sure that you do”, Tweak answers.

“But… Well, maybe you’re right. Perhaps I’m just to tired to think of a good story right now”, Stella slowly adds.

“Alright. Why don’t you kids head off to bed? Stella can tell us her story tomorrow evening. You have a long day ahead of you tomorrow, so go get some rest”, the captain announces.

“Aye, aye captain”, Pinto salutes before walking out of the room, followed by all of the other kids.

[Squirt’s school story is heavily inspired by JaidenAnimations’ video about her school project.]

“It’s such a shame that we didn’t get to hear Stella’s story”, Squirt whispers. The kids had gotten themselves ready for bed and then separated to go into their rooms.

“Yeah. I bet she has some amazing stories!”, Pinto starts with a whisper, but gets louder the more excited he gets.

“We’ll have the chance to hear her story tomorrow, so please shut up and let me sleep”, Orson hisses.

“Alright, calm down, jeez”, Pinto whispers annoyed.

Silence fills the room as the boys slowly drift off to sleep.

“Today’s lesson is going to be awsome!”, Pinto yells while running around the room.

“Keep it down. It’s too early to be yelling loudly”, Squirt says.

“What’s so exciting about today’s lesson?”, Orson asks as he sits up in his bed.

“Kwazii will be our teacher today!” Pinto yells as he jumps on his bed.

“I though that Peso would be your favorite teacher”, Periwinkle states.

“Well… I don’t pick favorites. Peso and Kwazii are equally awsome!”, Pinto answers.

“If Kwazzi is our teacher today, does that mean that we’ll be going outside of the Octopod?”, Squirt asks curiously.

“Most definitely!”, Pinto seems to be getting more and more excited.

Exciting chatter fills the room. Captain Barnacles enters to tell the boys to get ready. Squirt puts on his bandanna and his glasses, Periwinkle quickly gets dressed, and Pinto and Orson put on their cold suits. The boys run together to the dining room for breakfast, where they find the girls waiting for them.

“Good morning girls”, Pinto greets the others as he walks in.

“Good morning”, the girls answer in unison.

“Hey Stella, have you thought about what you’ll be talking about tonight?”, Pinto excitedly asks.

“Uhm…not yet”, Stella tries to avoid eye contact.

“Alright. You still have plenty of time to think about a good story”, Pinto says.

“If you can’t think of an exciting moment to tell us about, then maybe…you could read one of your stories to us?”, Koshi suggests.

“Uhh… I’ll think about it”, Stella nervously answers.

“Great!”, Pinto shouts.

The Octonauts enter the room.

“Good morning junior Octo-agents. Did you sleep well?”, the captain asks.

“Good morning captain!”, Pinto replies.

“We slept well”, Koshi says on behalf of the girls.

“So did we”, Orson says on behalf of the boys.

“Are ya ready for a day filled with adventure!?”, Kwazii yells.

“Aye, aye, Kwazzi!”, Pinto yells back.

“But first, you need to have some breakfast”, Tunip chirps as he enters the room, followed by some other Vegimals, whose names Squirt can’t remember.

The Octonauts and junior Octo-agents exchange some small talk while enjoying the breakfast that the Vegimals have made. After they’re done, the junior Octo-agents go freshen up and get ready for the day.

“Behold the wonder that is the amazon rainforest!”, Kwazii announces. The junior Octo-agents look out the windows of the Octo-ray and watch the rainforest beneath them.

“There is no better place to go than here for your first mission”, Kwazii says while turning to face the kids, “Well, at least there is no better place that the captain will allow me to take you.”

Dashi laughs. “Both Ranger Marsh and Pearl are in the area, so they’ll be able to lend you a paw if anything gets out of hand”, Dashi explains.

“I don’t know what you lot are so worried about. I’ve totally got this under control”, Kwazii says, offended by the lack of trust that his teammates have in him.

“And if we were to let you do this mission in the open waters, you will most likely start acting like a pirate and treating the junior Octo-agents like your crew”, Dashi adds.

“That’s not true!”, Kwazii yells in offense.

“Isn’t that what you and your Granddad did with the Vegimals?”, Dashi questions.

“W-Well… That was different!”, Kwazii tries to defend himself, despite now realizing his teammates’ point.

“If you say so”, Dashi says sarcastically, “There’s no place for the Octo-ray to land, so I’ll drop you guys off by Ranger Marsh’s station. Sounds good?”

“Aye, aye, matey!”, Kwazii yells with a new rush of energy.

“This is going to be amazing!”, Pinto yells with the same level of enthusiasm.

“We’re going to jump out of this aircraft?”, Stella asks with a flat tone.

“Not exactly. If we do have to jump while being higher up in the sky, we’ll use parachutes of course”, Periwinkle explains.

“I see”, Stella answers.

“I can hover above the river in front of Ranger Marsh’s station to drop you off, so prepare yourself to take a dive”, Dashi announces.

“Icantwait, Icantwait, Icantwait,Icantwait!”, Pinto runs around the cockpit more hyperactive than ever.

“Calm down little fella. Save all of that energy for later”, Kwazii calmly remarks with a laugh.

“Aye, aye, Kwazii”, Pinto responds with a salute.

“This is your first time being part of one of these missions, right? Must be exciting”, Squirt says in an attempt to make some small talk with Stella.

“This is indeed my first time. All I’ve ever known were those icy glaciers and the cold snow”, Stella answers while looking out of the window.

“Then this must be a completely new scenery for you”, Squirt carries on.

“Indeed it is. It’s the complete opposite of what I am used to seeing”, Stella continues to stare out of the window, facinated by the view.

“The captain already gave you your cold suit, right?”, Pinto asks.

“Yeah, I’m wearing it right now”, Stella replies.

“What’s a cold suit?”, Squirt asks, “I’ve never heard of that before.”

“It’s a suit that we wear to keep us from having a heatstroke”, Stella explains.

“You can wear it like normal clothes- ”, Ursa elaborates.

“Like uncle Barnacles and Stella!”, Orson quickly interrupts.

“Or you can get one that looks like your fur or- “, Ursa continues, before getting interrupted once again.

“Like the two of us, Pinto and Peso!”, Orson says.

“Correct, although I would appreciate it if you could stop interrupting me”, Ursa calmly says while staring her brother down.

“Right, sorry sis”, Orson quickly apologizes.

“I always wondered how you and the others survive going to warm places”, Koshi says, “Although I really wanted to solve that mystery on my own without any help.”

“My bad”, Ursa says without a hint of actually meaning the words she’s saying.

“We have arrived at our destination. I hope that you weren’t too busy chatting and grabbed an oxygen tank”, Dashi announces, with a slight hint of annoyance.

“Sorry sis”, Koshi apologizes before quickly grabbing an oxygen tank before racing towards where her and her crew will be jumping out from. The others hastily join her, arriving by her side moments before the giant door opens.

“Ready to jump?”, Kwazii asks, wagging his tail with excitement.

“Aye, aye, Kwazii!”, the crew answers in sinc.

“Are you sure that this is safe?”, Stella asks while keeping a strong grip on a rope that’s keeping some crates nearby in place.

“Of course, little matey”, Kwazii calmly says in a comforting tone, “Ya just gotta make sure that you land properly, otherwise ya might hurt ya self.”

“Shouldn’t we have had a lesson on how to do that? There isn’t much water where I come from, you know? I can swim, but I can’t dive”, Stella tries to remain calm, but is clearly starting to panic.

“Sure you can. You dived into the water before entering the Octopod, remember?”, Pinto softly adds.

“That was different. ...My uncle was there to help me”, Stella’s voice breaks as she becomes distressed.

“Your uncle might not be here right now, but you’ve got us”, Periwinkle shyly says.

“Don’t worry matey, we’ll be here for you every step of the way”, Kwazii says as he walks towards the scared fox.

“You can hold me paw if that makes ya feel better”, Kwazii adds as he offers her his paw.

After some hesitation, Stella reaches her shaking paw towards his, steadily approaching the open door as she does so. Everyone puts on their air tank and waits for the next orders from Kwazii.

“Alright, on the count of three”, Kwazii announces, “One…two…THREE! YOWWW!!!”

The crew all scream in either utter terror or pure excitement as they all fall down, bracing themselves for the dive. All of the birds in the area fly away in horror as the crew inches closer and closer to the watery surface of the river.

“Enter plunging positions!”, Kwazii yells over the loud roar of the wind, “Just copy us Stella!”

Seconds later, a loud splash fills the air as the crew dives into the water. Squirt, who is the only one without an air tank, is the first to resurface, followed by everyone else.

"How are ya feeling matey?", Kwazii asks.

"Slightly terrified…", Stella slowly answers.

"That was amazing! I've always wanted to jump off of a high place!", Pinto yells while waving his flippers wildly.

"What? Why would you want to do that?", Orson asks.

"What else is on your bucketlist?", Ursa wonders.

"What's a bucketlist?", Periwinkle asks.

"Argh, we don't have time for this! Let's just swim to the river bank and meet up with Ranger Marsh", Kwazii quickly loses his patience. The junior Octo-agents respect Kwazii's wish and make their way to the riverbank.

"Come on lil’ maties, let's go check if he's home", Kwazii marches over to a cabin lying right in front of the river, not to far away from where they had dived. The crew follow the lieutenant in a straight line to the cabin. Just as they arrive on the front port and Kwazii gets ready to knock, Ranger Marsh swings by on a vine and lands on the rail of the front port.

"Good morning everyone", Ranger Marsh says. He laughs to himself as he says: "I knew that I heard some foren sounds."

"Sorry if our screaming alarmed anyone", Kwazii apologizes.

"Nah, don't worry 'bout it. The critters 'round here have gotten used to it”, Ranger Marsh reassures.

The junior Octo-agents share their confusion about this statement. Kwazii chuckles nervously before quickly changing the topic.

“Why don’t we go inside first?”, Ranger Marsh suggests, giving Kwazii a reassuring look. Kwazii dramatically exhales and nods. The crew follow Ranger Marsh into his cabin.

The inside of the cabin is bigger than it looks from the outside. The whole place is neat, even though the open windows should have allowed leaves from the nearby trees to glide inside. They enter into a small room with some sketches of animals and to-do lists hanging on the wall, before entering the hall way. On the wall to their left hang many pictures. They’re in order from presumably Tweak as a baby, to Tweak as an adult in the gup-K. Ranger Marsh leads the crew to the second door to the right. As they enter the kitchen, Ranger Marsh offers them some hot cocoa while he talks to Kwazii.

Filled with excitement, Pinto finds it awfully hard to stay still, let alone drink his hot cocoa. Squirt smiles at his level of excitement and enthusiasm. After taking another sip of his drink, Squirt takes a moment to take in his surroundings. The kitchen is quite small, as expected since Ranger Marsh lives on his own. Judging by the amount of doors, and therefore rooms, that Squirt saw before, it’s safe to say that it used to be just Tweak and Ranger Marsh, and perhaps Tweak’s mother. The amount of cups with the octopus symbol on them, show that the Octonauts have been visiting the lime green rabbit from time to time. Other than that, everything in the room looks kind of old fashioned, other than a few gadgets, such as an Octo-tablet, the hot cocoa machine presumably made by Tweak and an Octo-mobile camera. This shows that Ranger Marsh is kind of stuck in the old days and has only recently been introduced to technology through Tweak. If that were the case, then how long has Tweak been away from home for Ranger Marsh to only presumably recently have been introduced to technology?

Squirt quickly and briefly shakes his head in order to stop himself from overthinking and over analyzing.

“Are you okay?”, Periwinkle asks.

“Ah, uhm, yeah”, Squirt stumbles over his words, “I was just overthinking something.”

“Oh, okay”, Periwinkle answers.

The kids start exchanging small talk once more. Squirt tries to join in, but can’t help himself from getting distracted by his thoughts that seemed to be getting louder and louder. Where is her mother? Why has she been away from home for so long? Why are they lime green?

Before Squirt could sink any further into the flood of questions that he had come up with himself, someone calls his name. Squirt looks up, only now realizing that he had been staring into his cup during that whole time. He casually takes a sip of his hot cocoa in an effort to make the whole him-staring-into-his-cup thing seem somewhat more normal.

“Are you sure that you’re okay?”, this time Koshi’s the one asking. The kids, now joined by Kwazii and Ranger Marsh, give him a concerned look. All of them, except for Stella. Her facial expression remains neutral, but in her eye shines a bright and deep understanding.

“Lost in your thoughts again?”, she says after realizing that he had been staring at her. She gives a small smile.

“Yeah, a little”, Squirt replies, to which Stella chocks on her drink from laughter. All eyes now turn to Stella.

“S-Sorry about th-that”, Stella stutters. She takes a few breaths before continuing: “Why don’t you just share your thoughts with us to calm them down. It usually always works for me.” She shrugs.

“Oh, uhhh…”, Squirt can feel his cheeks heat up with embarrassment.

“Alright, then we’ll think of something else. One thing's for sure, you can’t go on a mission with loud thoughts”, Stella covers her mouth as she starts giggling. The others, who had all been trying to hold it in, burst into laughter. Squirt’s cheeks start burning more as he gets overwhelmed with embarrassment, but eventually, he joins the group in laughter. Squirt finds himself breathing easily again, the realization that he had struggled to breath because of his thoughts slowly sinking in.

“Thank you”, Squirt quietly says, understanding what she’s planning.

“Anytime. We’re a crew, aren’t we?”, Stella answers while a sly smile.

Squirt returns a smile of his own.

“Ready to get going maties?”, Kwazii asks.

“Aye, aye, Kwazii”, the kids reply.

The crew had been going around the tropical rainforest for about an hour and a half now. Each of the kids were trying to find their roles as they explored the forest, rescuing and protecting any creature in need. Koshi had already claimed the role of the detective on day one. Her sharp eyes spotted most of the creatures in need of help. After realizing Stella’s sharp ears and incredible knowledge that the pup had tried to hide, Koshi claimed her as her assistant. Periwinkle naturally took the role of the marine biologist, trying his best to do as he thinks his uncle and mother would do. Pinto had already made up his mind about being the teams pirate and medic, as well as their captain. Ursa strongly disagreed with him, saying that she would be a way better captain. After some arguing, Squirt suggested that the team should decide together who the captain should be after watching everyone in action. The penguin and polar bear thankfully agreed to his idea, both now determined to convince the team that they’re the better captain. Neither Orson nor Squirt knew what roles they should have. Stella reminded them they they’ll be in need of pilots and mechanics when they get older. Orson’s face lit up at this reminder. He is now determined to learn as much as he can from Tweak. As Ursa supported her brother, Squirt noticed Stella’s sight shift to the side as she bit her lip. He grinned, knowing full well what she was thinking.

Now the crew are taking a break somewhere in an opening of the forest. They all drink some of their water as they start chatting about how exciting it is to finally be on their first mission. Well, at least it’s some of their first mission. Pinto excitingly tells the group about the other missions that he’s been on. Koshi chooses to wait until the evening to tell the others about her other missions, grinning as she watched the groups faces contort with suspense and slight frustration. Squirt smiles as he listens to the small talk, before noticing Stella silently gazing at her shoes. Pinto had tried talking to her, he always tries talking to her. Unfortunately, more often than not, she doesn’t want to have a conversation. Squirt takes a deep breath as he makes his way towards her. At this point, the only way to get her to talk may be to confront her about whatever’s on her mind head on. Squirt can only hope that his assumption is correct.

“Not ready to share Tweak, are you?”, Squirt tries to play it off cool. Stella's head shoots up as she stares him straight into his eyes. Her one eye scans the octopus, perhaps for a sign of whether she can trust him or not.

“It’s okay, I understand. I don’t like sharing the people I love the most either”, Squirt tries to push further.

“I don’t think you understand”, Stella finally answers, still eyeing the octopus.

“Then explain”, Squirt prompts. Stella falls silent once again, trying to think of how to answer while returning her gaze to her shoes.

“I just…”, she tries. She plays with the laces of her shoes, before taking a deep breath and continuing, “I’m not used to any of this. You all have a relative to make you feel more at home. I don’t have anyone. I don’t… I’m not the master of communication. I’m only now starting to warm up to Tweak. She’s the only one that I can talk to. Dividing her time would mean that I can’t always talk to her when…well, when I need to.” Stella had pulled her legs close to her chest, resting her head on her knees as she spoke. Squirt listens attentively to what she has to say, nodding every now and then, even though she’s not looking at him.

“I might not quite understand what you’re going through, but maybe you should try to warm up to others. If not us, then maybe another one of the adults”, Squirt tries to comfort her. He puts a tentacle around her shoulder. Stella slowly lifts her head from her knees and looks at Squirt. Her sorrowful expression physically hurt him.

“I try my best, but I just can’t. It’s hard to talk to people”, she quickly places her head on her knees once again as tears start to form in her eye.

“You’re talking to me right now, aren’t you?”, Squirt asks.

“Well, yeah, but that’s because…”, Stella pauses for a moment, not willing to say the next part.

“Because what?”, Squirt tries to push her to finish her sentence.

She sighs, “Because I’m desperate.”

“If that’s so, then why did you push Pinto away?”, Squirt asks, slightly confused but also honored.

“That’s just what I’m good at doing. All I ever do is push people away”, Stella raises her voice a bit, but not enough to draw attention to herself from the others.

“You didn’t push me away”, Squirt hesitates to answer, sensing the anger radiating from the pup.

“…He tries too hard. His…his positivity and enthusiasm…”, Stella lifts her head and stares at the ground in front of her. She shakes her head violently before finally making eye contact with Squirt.

“Forget I ever said anything. I’ll try my best to take your advice and talk to others”, Stella smiles. Her smile looks forced. There’s something she isn’t telling him, that much is obvious. But Squirt has already pushed his luck a lot of times today. He’s happy with the result he got. He smiles back at Stella.

All of the kids fall to the floor with exhaustion. The crew had been attacked by a green anaconda. Kwazii ordered the kids to run away and find shelter while he distracts the anaconda. He ordered Pinto to call for help as soon as they were far enough from danger.

Remembering the order given to him, Pinto sounds the Octo-alert on his Octo-watch, while still being out of breath.

“Junior Octo-agent Pinto, report please”, the captain’s voice hums from the watch.

“Captain”, Pinto starts while trying to steady his breath, “We were attacked by…a green anaconda…Kwazii distracted it…in the middle of nowhere…”

Gasps are heard from the watch.

“Dashi”, captain Barnacle’s voice boomed.

“Already on it captain. Tracking down all Octo-watch signals near their area”, Dashi’s voice replies.

After a while: “Pearl is near the kids location and Paani is near Kwazii’s. Contacting them now.”

The screen split into four.

“Hello captain”, Pearl and Paani answer in unison.

“What’s wrong?”, Pearl asks, worry taking over her voice as she notices the captain’s serious expression.

Captain Barnacles briefly gives the two Octo-agents an explanation about the current situation. Both quickly give a nod after receiving their orders, before springing into action.

The kids wait were they are. Not having anything better to do, Pinto starts getting impatient.

“When will she be here?”, he whines.

“Be patient”, Periwinkle replies, a bit of venom in his voice. Pinto shoots him an annoyed glance. Stella takes off her shoes and stands up with a sigh.

“I can climb up that tree and see if I can find her nearby if that helps cool you down”, she offers.

“You can climb?”, Koshi asks curiously.

“If you have claws, you can climb”, Stella answers matter-of-factly while flexing her claws, “Besides, climbing up a tree can’t be any harder then climbing up an icy mountain.” And with that, Stella leaps into the tree, quickly making her way up.

“See anything?”, Ursa yells.

“You probably shouldn’t be yelling”, Orson whispers while nervously looking around them. With a thud, Stella lands on all fours right next to the polar bear cub, causing him to scream.

“Sorry for startling you”, Stella says while quickly putting her hair into place, covering her left eye once again. “She’s close”, she lets go of the breath that she had been holding while she was fidgeting around with her hair.

“Aproximentaly how much longer will it take her to arrive?”, Periwinkle asks.

Stella thinks for a while. “Judging by the speed at which she’s heading here on one of the Terra gups…aproximentaly 48 more seconds.”

Pinto’s eyes widen as he looks around him in every direction.

“From that direction”, Stella points somewhere in the forest before going back to putting on her shoes.

Squirt keeps his gaze in that direction as he counts down the seconds in his head, remembering to add the seconds that went by ever since Stella told them her prediction. Pearl arrives 35 seconds later, making Stella’s approximation wrong by only 4 seconds. Squirt shivers at how accurate her prediction is.

“MOM!”, Periwinkle runs towards the older sea otter as she takes her helmet off.

“Periwinkle!”, the two of them fall into a warm embrace. Squirt smiles at the sight.

“Are you all alright?”, Pearl asks, the concern of a worried mother filling her voice.

“We’re fine”, Ursa replies.

“Just a little shocked”, Orson adds.

“Will Kwazii be okay?”, Pinto asks.

“I’m sure Paani will find him soon”, Pearl answers. “Come on, let’s get you back to Ranger Marsh’s cabin. We can wait for Kwazii there.”

It took an hour after their arrival for Kwazii and Paani to show up. The kids excitedly greet the ginger cat as he limps into the cabin. Ranger Marsh quickly takes out his first aid kit after seeing the state of the cat. The macaque is also in a bad state, but not nearly as bad as Kwazii.

“What happened out there?”, Pearl asks from behind them. After the first twentie minutes had gone by, she went back out to help the two men. She herself had a few scratches, but otherwise she was fine.

“You know me, always running into trouble”, Kwazii limps over to a chair.

“You know me, always going with the flow”, Paani chooses to follow Kwazii’s way of going around the question.

Pearl shoots them both an angry glare.

“You had us all worried sick!”, she proclaimed.

“Sorry”, Kwazii whispers, ears flopping down.

“Why don’t we save the yell’ng for later?”, Ranger Marsh suggests with a hint of sarcasm, while he takes out the disinfectant.

Pearl joins them in the kitchen, letting herself sink into a chair. She lifts her head, facing the ceiling with her eyes closed. Periwinkle hesitantly makes his way over to her, giving her a hug once in front of her. The rest of the kids silently remain seated in the open area of the kitchen, all watching how Ranger Marsh bandages both Kwazii and Paani’s wounds. After finishing up with them, he turns his attention to Pearl.

“Don’t worry about me, I’m fine”, Pearl quickly says after noticing Ranger March approaching her.

“Are ya sure? Not even some disinfectant?”, Ranger Marsh asks cautiously.

“Yeah”, Pearl answers, a drop of nervousness in her voice.

“Alright”, Ranger Marsh says with his thick accent. He eyes Pearl a little longer before packing everything back inside of the first aid kit.

“Care to explain what happened out there?”, Ranger Marsh asks with the stern voice filled with the worry of a father. The three adults almost look like kids getting told off by their father as they all deflate into their chairs. Squirt puts a tentacle to his mouth in an effort to not start laughing. Pearl shots the men an accusing look, silently demanding to hear what they had been up to until she showed up. Kwazii stands up, wincing in pain as he remembers the state of his right leg. He quickly forgets about the pain, getting ready to tell his side of the story. His eye sparkles with a sense of adventure and his tail excitedly whips the moist air in the cabin.

“There I was, distracting the green anaconda as the kids ran to safety. While we were exploring the thick and moist rainforest, we had accidentally gotten too close to her nest. I ordered the kids to run to safety and call for help as I lead the snake in the other direction. It was a brave and honorable sacrifice if I do say so myself. But…I might or might not have gotten myself in a bigger mess”, Kwazii’s excitement slowly fades away. He drops his gaze to the ground.

“I found him getting chased by a group of howler monkeys. They were not too happy about us being in their territory”, Paani jumps in to finish the story.

“I found the boys up in the trees trying to get the howler monkeys off of their tails. I followed them from the ground and we eventually figured out a way to get them down safely”, Pearl finishes the story.

“Safely?”, Ranger Marsh asks sarcastically, the harsh fatherly love deep in his voice.

“As safely as possible”, Pearl seems to be resisting the urge to roll her eyes.

She seems to be in a bad mood. I wonder why. Could it be because she got in trouble for Kwazii’s mistake?, Squirt’s thoughts start spiraling back into his head.

“Well, at least ya made it back in one piece”, Ranger Marsh sighs.

“Sit down Kwazii. Let me get you all something to eat”, the lime green rabbit offers. Kwazii immediately obeys and waits with the others for Ranger Marsh to return with some food.

Kwazii had called Dashi to let her know that they’re ready to be picked up. Paani had insisted on joining them in order to help Kwazii. The ginger cat had protested against it, but Paani stayed as stubborn as a mule.

Now they’re in the Octo-ray on their way back to the Octopod.

[I wrote this right after an English lesson. Can you tell? Funnily enough, this suits Squirt’s character.]

Other chapters

#octonauts #original story #original character #young writer #found family #comfort #kwazii #Squirt is asking all of the important questions #the octonauts #octonauts above and beyond #ranger marsh #periwinkle #pearl #paani #best boy paani :D #kwazii paani and pearl sibling relationship #siblings

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bwela07 · 5 months ago

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Octonauts - A New Generation

Chapter 10

Ping Pong

Dashi’s pov

Dashi has always loved competitions, being particularly competitive herself. She remembers how she had tried to hide that from her teammates when they had first started working together. After all, one needs to be professional in a work environment. But as the team started growing closer together and started getting more open with each other, Dashi’s competitiveness started to rise to the surface. Especially during their beach day trips, where they would always play beach volleyball together. Beach volleyball is one of Dashi’s favorite sports, along with surfing and cricket. Dashi has always wanted to have a chance to play against the captain, just to see if her clever strategies could outmatch his incredible strength. Unfortunately, they have never had the chance to do so. Not that Dashi has ever asked. That would be too unprofessional, no matter how close they might be. She has already softened quite a bit, she can’t slip up even more. Dashi knows her job and she knows her place, so rather than challenging captain Barnacles or even Kwazii to a match, she decides to record the two of them playing against each other.

“You can do this Kwazii!”, Pinto shouts.

“Show him how it’s done uncle Barnacles!”, Ursa yells.

The room is filled with the competitive spirit of everyone invested into the game. Another one of the many things Dashi loves about sports.

The ball continues bouncing back and forth. If Kwazii does one wrong move, the captain wins. His cat-like quickness should be at his favor for this, but he’s starting to get slower out of exhaustion. The captain on the other hand has been saving all of his strength for this final round. One would think that the odds are in the captains favor, but Dashi knows better than to underestimate Kwazii and his will power. There is no way that he’ll let himself be beaten, especially not in front of a large crowd. Sure enough, Kwazii keeps on pushing past his limits in an effort to keep the ball in the game. With Kwazii’s quick and slick passes always rolling over the net, and captain Barnacles powerful passes always landing on the corner of the ping pong table, the next moves are starting to get predictable. Dashi waits in anticipation for one of the guys to make the first unexpected move, and at last, captain Barnacles smashes the ball in the middle of Kwazii’s side of the table, making it bounce sky high unlike all of the previous low passes. To everyone’s surprise, Kwazii manages to jump just in time to throw the ball back, catching captain Barnacles off guard and scoring a point.

“YOW!”, Kwazii yells with renewed energy, “That was amazing captain!”

“Thanks Kwazii. I was not expecting you to get that”, captain Barnacles answers, still in shook.

“Neither was I”, Kwazii says while his tail starts wagging.

“Shall we finally end this?”, the captain asks, seemingly catching Kwazii’s contagious burst of energy.

“Aye aye captain!”, the lieutenant yells back.

And so, the final round continues. As always, Kwazii ends up winning, although the captain has improved a lot.

Kwazii leaps into the air with excitement, joined by Pinto and Koshi. Captain Barnacles receives motivation from his niece and nephew, taking the opportunity to whisper something into their ears. As the applause and the excitement dies down, the room slowly starts emptying.

“That was an intense match”, Dashi calmly states while approaching the captain.

“Indeed it was”, Shellington agrees.

“Don’t the kids have a marine biology lesson coming up soon?”, Dashi reminds the sea otter.

“Oh, right! I better get going then. Thanks for reminding me Dashi!”, Shellington exclaims before rushing off.

“Your welcome!”, Dashi calls after him.

Barnacles gently chuckles. “Come on you three, you should go get ready for your lesson”, he says.

“Alright. See you later uncle!”, Orson calls out as he drags his sister out of the room.

“Hey Peso, can you show me the medic bay again before class starts?”, Pinto asks.

“Hmmm…I suppose that there’s still a little bit of time left. Alright then, follow me”, Peso replies. And with that, the two brothers leave the room, leaving only Kwazii, Barnacles and Dashi.

“Perhaps you could practice your ping pong skills while playing with Dashi”, Tweak suddenly suggests.

“Tweak!? How long have you been here?”, Dashi exclaims flabbergasted.

“Not too long”, Tweak answers, before taking a bite out of a carrot that she had pulled out of nowhere.

“Maybe you’re right Tweak”, Barnacles answers, “I could certainly use some more practice.”

“We best be leaving you to it then”, Kwazii says while trying to walk out as casually as he can.

“See ya later bestie”, Tweak teasingly says, knowing full well what she has done.

With the cat and the rabbit gone, only the polar bear and the dog remain.

“Shall we get started?”, Barnacles asks.

“Uh, s-sure”, Dashi replies, knowing full well that it has been years since she last played ping pong.

Barnacles starts with a gentle serve and continues to make gentle passes. At first Dashi was relieved. It gave her the perfect opportunity to remember the basics and come up with some tricks of her own, but after a while, Dashi started getting annoyed.

“Captain, I’m supposed to be helping you get better, so don’t hold back”, she calmly says.

“I suppose that you’re right”, he answers.

Now the real challenge starts. Dashi’s strategies against Barnacles’ strength. It will only take a matter of time until Dashi finds a counterattack good enough to give the captain a real challenge.

Sure enough, after a few minutes of holding back and losing to the captain, Dashi finds the perfect counterattack, catching Barnacles by surprise. In only three minutes, Dashi decimates the captain and wins.

“Wow… That was, uhh…”, Barnacles stutters.

“Incredible? Unexpected? Both at the same time?”, Dashi teases.

“Yeah”, Barnacles calmly replies, “Did you really have to go that hard on me though?”

“Of course, how else will you improve? Besides, I wanted to teach you a lesson for thinking that you had to hold back on me”, Dashi proudly declares.

“Alright, lesson learned”, Barnacles laughs.

“Good. Shall we play again?”, Dashi asks, her competitive spirit rising once again.

“Sure, I guess that I still have some time”, Barnacles teases, his competitive spirit rising as well.

They play another round and Dashi barely manages to win this time. Despite this, Barnacles leans on the wall in defeat, deep in thought.

“What am I doing wrong?”, he asks.

“You rely on your strength and your one sly move. It gets easier to predict what you’ll do next after observing you play for a while. Here, let me show you”, Dashi pulls out her camera and walks over to Barnacles. She lets the recording play as the two of them carefully watch Barnacles’ moves. After the video ends, Dashi looks into Barnacles’ eyes to try and figure out if he understands what he did wrong.

“You’re right”, he says, “You, for example, have an incredible amount of different moves. It’s impossible to know which one you’ll use next.”

“Exactly. On top of that, you need to have a good strategy and good counterattacks. You need to analyze your opponent’s moves and change your strategies and counterattacks to turn the situation in your favor. Take your strong attacks as an example. Once you get used to the strong force you have to face when hitting the ball back, you can easily find an effective and efficient way to hit back in a way that uses your own force against you”, Dashi tries to explain.

“I think I understand. Can I watch the video again?”, Barnacles asks.

“Sure”, Dashi answers, giving him her camera.

As Barnacles watches the video again, Dashi practices a new way of playing ping pong.

“Uh, Dashi…”, Barnacles nervously says.

“Yes captain?”, she answers.

“Would it be okay if you could…”, he trails off.

“Play the way Kwazzi would play?”, she asks with a knowing smile.

Barnacles eyes grow wide: “H-How did you know?”

“I don’t just observe how people play sports. I observe their behavior as well”, Dashi says while making a ‘swoosh’ sound with the racket as she quickly moves it about, the way Kwazzi does.

“Interesting”, Barnacles says while slowly approaching the table.

“You can learn a lot about a person by simply observing their behavior and body language”, Dashi explains, not noticing the look of admiration that Barnacles is giving her.

“Interesting. Where did you learn that skill?”, he asks curiously.

“Well, Koshi and I have always been a fan of mystery books, to the point where we would often play detective. Eventually, those skills pour into your everyday life”, Dashi explains.

“Interesting, do you think that you could train me to acquire those skills?”, Barnacles ponders.

“I could try. For now, we should get back to training you to defeat Kwazzi”, Dashi says determined.

The two of them continue training until they get interrupted by Koshi.

“Ahem”, Koshi calmly walks towards the middle of the room and looks at both of the grownups, “Dinner is ready.”

“Thank you for letting us know Koshi”, Barnacles responds, “Let’s get going.”

“You go ahead, I’d like to speak with my sister first”, Koshi insists.

Dashi already knows what’s coming next and sends a pleading look towards the captain. The latter raises his shoulders, not knowing what he can do to help his teammate. Dashi groans as Barnacles leaves the room.

“Alright, hurry up and make your point”, Dashi says in utter defeat, not having the energy to put up with this any longer than she has to.

“It doesn’t take a detective to notice how happy he makes you”, Koshi teases.

“Yeah, it takes a sister to notice that”, Dashi rolls her eyes.

“Perhaps you’re right. As much as I’d love to tease you, now is not the time. I just want to warn you. We both know what happened last time”, Koshi looks her sister deep into her eyes.

“Yes, yes, I know, however, we both know how nice the captain is. He’s so kind and caring and would never wish harm upon anyone”, Dashi begins to trail off, before pulling herself together again, “Besides, dating within a team, a work team nonetheless, is unprofessional and could possibly lead to some…uncomfortable situations. So you have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

Dashi tries her best to be convincing, but Koshi has learned how to read her like a book.

“I’m being serious! I don’t plan on dating anyone in this team!”, Dashi tries to defend herself.

“Sure. If you say so sis. Let’s just get going”, Koshi replies, unconvinced, already coming up with a plan of how to keep all of the guys far away from her sister.

Other chapters

#original story #octonauts #young writer #found family #captain barnacles #peso #kwazii #dash I #tweak #shellington #pinto #ursa #orson #dashi x barnacles #barnacles x dashi #tweak knows what’s up #kwazii does too #ping pong #table tennis

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bwela07 · 5 months ago

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Octonauts - A new Generation

Chapter 9

Kwaziiness

Kwazii’s pov

Missing humuhumunukunukuapua'a part 4, the conclusion

The trio get up early in the morning once again to go continue looking for the missing fish. As the days go on, Kwazii starts taking this mission more and more seriously. Not that he wasn’t serious before, he was just…looking for adventure as always. But after hearing why Peso’s so worried, there is no way that Kwazii won’t take this seriously. He absolutely has to find this fish, so that his friend can finally be at peace again.

The trio have looked everywhere for the missing fish, yet there is still no sign of it. Kwazii was already starting to consider that the worse has happened, after all, he’s seen it happen many times during his pirate days. But he refuses to give up and tries to think the way an Octonaut would.

The gup-A approaches a cave.

“Maybe it’s in there!”, Peso exclaims full of newfound hope.

“Let’s go investigate!”, Kwazii yells, trying his best to hide his doubts.

“Alright. Remember to proceed with precaution. Especially you Kwazii”, the captain turns away from the steering wheel to face the lieutenant.

“Kwazii?”, captain Barnacles asks after realizing that the cat has gone missing. He turns around to find Kwazii already swimming towards the cave. With a sigh, Peso and Barnacles follow him outside.

“Everybody stick together”, the captain orders.

“We’re never going to find a missing fish in this huge cave if we don’t split up!”, Kwazii whines.

“Kwazii-“, Barnacles tries to knock some sense into the cat, but gets interrupted by Peso.

“Maybe he’s right this time. It would be best if we split up”, Peso shyly admits.

Kwazii watches the captain as the polar bear ponders over this suggestion.

“Alright then. Let’s meet up here again in an hour and a half”, Barnacles finally agrees.

With a cheer, Kwazii swims away to the left side without another thought.

An hour has already passed. Kwazii only has half an hour left to continue looking for the fish, half of which he’ll need to swim back to the entrance of the cave. Kwazii looks around the section of the cave that he is in one more time, making sure to flip every single loose stone while he does so. By the time he’s done, 27 minutes have already passed. Using all of the energy he has left, Kwazii swims as quickly as possible to the entrance of the cave. If only I had the gup-B, Kwazii thinks to himself, I’d be out of here faster then Tweak can say ‘bunch of crunchy munchy carrots!’ Kwazii tries his best to pick up the speed, without any success. I wonder how Barnacles is holding up on his own, Kwazii ponders. Over the many years that the two have known each other, they have become quite close. Kwazii was the first to find out about the captain’s claustrophobia back in the early days when Tweak was still building the Octopod. Now that Kwazii had the chance to examine the cave, he noticed the thin lair of ice on the stone walls. He figured that it might trigger the captains fear and remind him of the time he was stuck in a narrow hole inside of an icy cave. Kwazii showing up late to the agreed meeting point certainly won’t help calm his nerves. As Kwazii zooms through the cave deep in thought, he suddenly bumps into Peso.

“Sorry ‘bout that me hearty. Are you alright?”, Kwazii asks.

“Humpert!”, Peso yells.

“What?”, Kwazii looks around him in confusion, trying to find the fish.

“Over there!”, Peso yells while swimming above Kwazii‘s head.

Kwazii follows him immediately without a second thought. They swim through a giant hole in the ceiling, which Kwazii somehow didn’t see before, and end up in an entirely different section in the cave.

“Humpert! Where are you!?”, Peso yells, now sounding distressed.

“Over here. Ow! I-I hurt my fin”, a shy voice replies.

Peso goes zooming passed Kwazii and finds Humpert stuck between two rocks.

“Kwazii, help me!”, Peso calls out after struggling to move the rock.

“Right behind ya matey!”, Kwazii enthusiastically replies.

The two of the Octonauts try pulling the two rocks apart, but no matter how hard they try, they do not succeed.

“Perhaps we should go ask the captain to help us”, Peso suggests.

“I dunno me hearty, you know how…this small icy cave might…”, Kwazii makes an attempt to explain how this may effect the captain, without outright exposing him.

“Kwazii, we need the captains help!”, Peso exclaims, now frustrated and annoyed.

“Okay, okay! Calm down matey! I’ll go get him”, Kwazii says while trying to calm Peso down.

Barnacles was able to separate the rocks and free the fish. Peso bandaged up his sore fin and then the trio brought him with them to the Octopod. Peso had given Kwazii a lecture about being more careful and watching where he was going. He seemed unnaturally angry for someone who is usually calm and shy. Humpert is now resting in the medical bay and the trio was able to get some shut eye. Kwazii was hoping to go for a ride in the gup-B, but Tweak told him that he needs to get some more rest. Not having anything better to do, Kwazii decides to go bother Barnacles.

Kwazii knocks on the captains door and waits for a reply. A few seconds later, the door slides open.

“Hello Kwazii. Is there anything that I can do for you?”, Barnacles asks confused.

“Why do you look so confused me hearty? Can’t your favorite lieutenant hangout with you outside of missions?”, Kwazii teasingly asks.

Barnacles sighs: “I guess you kind of have a point. What do you want to do Kwazii?”

“Three rounds of ping pong, winner gets bragging rights for two whole weeks!”, Kwazii leaps into the air with excitement. Barnacles laughs at the sight of his enthusiastic and energetic teammate.

“Alright, you’re on.”

“Last one to the game pod is a rotten pirate pie!”, Kwazii yells while dashing out of the door.

“Not fair! You had a head start!”, Barnacles complains while trying to catch up to Kwazii.

Kwazii has always loved Barnacles’ more relaxed side. This Barnacles isn’t just the captain, he’s Kwazii’s best friend. What Kwazii loves even more is Barnacles’ competitiveness. It matches well with his own. The ping pong ball continues to bounce from one end of the table to another as the two go back and forth in an effort to win the match. As they continue on with their match, a crowd starts to form around them. At first it was just Pinto. His loud cheers caught the twins’ and Koshi’s attention. The louder cheers brought Tweak, Dashi, Shellington and Barrot. The other kids joined shortly afterwards, followed by the rest of the Octonauts.

“Go uncle Barnacles!!”, the twins yell.

“Go Kwazii!”, Pinto yells.

The others are neutral and cheer both players on.

With one final and fierce hit, Barnacles manages to score the winning point.

“Two rounds down, one left to go! Kwazii won the first round and captain Barnacles won the second, meaning this last round will be the tie breaker!”, Dashi announces with her camera in her paws, “Will Kwazii’s quick reflexes get him the win, or will captain Barnacles’ strenght steal the victory!”

A round of applause and cheers fill the room as the duo get ready for the final match.

Other chapters

#octonauts #angst #comfort #found family #captain barnacles #peso #kwazii #the octonauts #octonauts above and beyond #fanfic #ao3 fanfic

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bwela07 · 8 months ago

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The Virus

<- Precious chapter

Chapter 2

Max swiftly sprints out of the door, May following close behind. They meet the rest of the group near the entrance. Emily stands by the window, her face distorted by anxiety. Max instinctively pulls out his Beretta M9 and prepares himself for a fight.

“We go out the back. Quietly”, Emily commands. Max puts his M9 back in his attached pocket and leads the way to the back entrance. Everyone quietly sneaks behind him, Emily being at the very back. They make it to the back and stealthily make their way around the herd of the infected. Once far enough, Emily and Max switch places, Emily picking up her role as the leader and Max picking up his role as the protector. The team makes their way through a big open field while the sun sets.

They’ve been walking for three hours now.

“Are we lost?”, asks Keith.

“Of course not”, answers Emily.

“Are we almost there?”, asks Keith.

“Keith, please”, Emily loses her patience fast.

Keith buckles down instantly, subconsciously keeping distance between him and Emily. May walks beside him and places a hand on his shoulder. She gives him a comforting smile and he smiles back in appreciation. Victor casts a nervous glance at Emily. After assessing the situation and further analyzing Emily’s body language, Max finally decides to step it. He walks up to Emily and peaks over her shoulder onto the map for a while.

“What is it, Max?” Emily says, annoyance clear in her voice.

“We passed that forest about half an hour ago. We could go to the bigger hut in the next forest, but considering how tired everyone is, it would be best to rest at the lodge. You and I can deal with all of the other necessities later”, Max suggests nonchalantly. Emily silently stares at the map while deep in thought, until she finally comes to a stop.

“You make a fair point”, she mumbles underneath her breath. Max tries his best to prevent his prideful smirk from making itself known. Emily sighs with exhaustion.

“We better get going then.”

Emily turns around and starts walking towards the lodge in the nearby forest. The rest of the group drag along while Max assumes his position at the back.

Just as Max predicted, it took about 30 minutes to arrive at the pathway into the forest and another 17 minutes to arrive at the lodge. Keith runs in immediately, launches himself on the couch and sighs in relief. Victor starts complaining about Keith hogging the couch while May and Shawn just sit down on the wooden floor. Emily makes her way to the smallest room which. Max ignores the kids and goes to check on Emily. She has been acting more anxious than usual, which is really saying something. She’s also usually a lot better at masking her anxiety. The way she lashed out at Keith is concerning.

It doesn’t take long before Max finds himself standing by the doorframe of the walk in closet.

“Hey Em. How are you holding up?”

Emily drops whatever she was holding in shock at hearing Max’s voice.

“Didn’t hear me come in? You usually know exactly who’s approaching just by hearing their footsteps.”

“Max, I am not in the mood.”

“Is it…that time of the month?”

“What? No!” Emily exclaims in bewilderment.

“You can’t blame me for thinking that with your heightened emotions.”

“Max. Just leave me be.”

“You almost snapped at Keith.”

“Max, leave!” Emily picks up a piece of paper from the floor.

“You’re keeping something to yourself again, aren’t you? Emily, we’ve talked about this before. I’m not a kid. I’m 21 for crying out loud! You made me second in command for a reason, didn’t you? You can trust me. Whatever you’re going through, you don’t have to go through it alone. I’m here for you.”

“Max, I am a little over two times your age. Besides, you wouldn’t understand.”

Max scoffs. “Try me.”

Emily doesn’t answer. She looks down on the paper she picked up. Max shifts slowly to get a better angle. The paper appears to be a photo. The only person Max can see is Victor. The rest of the photo is covered by Emily.

“We all have family members and friends that we miss and/or worry about Emily.”

“I know Max.”

“If that’s not what’s bothering you, then what is?” Max is starting to sound desperate.

“I really don’t want to talk about it right now Max.”

Emily turns towards Max ever so slightly. She looks exhausted and her voice breaks a bit as she speaks. Max is taken aback by how broken Emily looks. He opens his mouth to say something, but his throat has suddenly run dry. He nods in response instead. He makes his way out of the room, but then decides to stop at the door.

“Is there anything I can do? We could just sit in silence if you need company,” Max offers quietly. Emily stays eerily still for a few seconds. She eventually nods. It’s a very small and barely noticeable nod. Max lets go of the door handle and leans against the nearby wall.

The two adults stand in silence for a while. Emily sighs and turns towards Max.

“Thank you Max.”

“I meant it when I said that I’m here for you.”

There’s a knock on the door. Emily puts the picture down on the windowsill before giving permission for whoever is behind the door to enter. Victor peaks in, his eyes wide with childish wonder.

“Hey mom, hey Max. How are you doing?”

“We’re fine. Is there anything that you need?” Emily replies before Max.

“I just miss your company,” Victor says with a shoulder shrug.

Emily smiles her iconic warm smile that she reserves for Victor and only Victor. The two of them meet in the middle of the room and hug each other. Max awkwardly watches them while debating whether he should leave or not. That’s when he remembers: May is alone with Shawn.

Max bolts out of the room and enters the living room at the entrance within seconds. May and Shawn are still sitting on the couch. May is on the far left side while Shawn is on the far right side. Both of their attention has been averted to Max.

“Hey Max! How is Emily doing?” May cheerfully greets her brother.

“Probably a lot better now that Victor is with her,” Shawn responds even though no one asked him.

“What are the two of you up to?” Max asks May.

“Can’t we ever hang out without you being suspicious about what we’re doing?” Shawn quickly gets annoyed and defensive.

“Hey, why don’t we play a game? This house has a monopoly board, right? Or maybe snakes and ladders?” May quickly tries to calm both boys down. To defuse the boom before it has even started ticking, if you will. Normally, Max would never fall for such an obvious diversion, but May knows him too well. She mentioned his favorite game, the only one that he can play with others without starting a fight. She also mentioned her own favorite game, the one that brings back so many happy memories from when it was just the two of them and their-

“Sounds good to me,” Max says firmly. He will not think about that. Not right now. Not while there are others around. Maybe later, when he goes on a solo mission, he can allow himself to finish that thought and the string of thoughts that will follow. Judging from the odd look that May gives him, she must have noticed the forceful undertone in his voice. Damn it! Why can she see right through him so well!?

“I guess we have some time for a quick round of Monopoly,” Shawn says nonchalantly.

“No you do not,” Emily suddenly enters the hallway.

You’d think that at least one of the three people in the living room would have heard her, considering how her treading is the only one that they can always correctly identify. Emily stands proud and tall. She’s definitely back to being her usual self. Good. They need her leadership.

“Max, Shawn, you’re with me. We’re going to go get more supplies. May, you stay here and take care of Victor and Keith,” Emily commands.

The group all salute and chant an affirmation. Max and Shawn empty their bags of their clothes and bring nothing but two weapons each. They meet up with Emily just outside the door.

“You remember the rules. If you even think about starting a petty argument while we’re scavenging, there will be more consequences than potentially getting caught by the infected.”

Shawn and Max both nod in unison. Emily gives them both a warning glance.

“We won’t start fighting this time,” Max confirms out loud.

“You said the same thing last time,” Emily mutters underneath her breath. She swings her bag over her shoulders and gestures for the boys to follow her.

#writers on tumblr #female writers #original story #original character #young writer #Emily Beseign #Shawn Henhasser #May Neils #Victor Beseign #Keith Unami #Max Niels #Max is protective #Max and Emily have a sweet moment #comfort #found family

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bwela07 · 8 months ago

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The Virus

The Virus masterpost

The Virus LOREEE:

The year is 2150. An unknown virus spreads across the population, leaving many in a zombie-like state. They show many signs of being affected by a deadly sickness, such as pale skin, thin hair strands and sunken eyes. The virus controls its host’s mind, making their own body a prison. The virus’ only goal is to continue spreading. The survivors that were left lives in underground bunkers. Using the minds of their hosts, the virus finds the information needed to find the location of the bunkers. The only survivors left now are those who could not afford the price and luxury of the bunkers. They became nomads, going from town to town. They can’t afford to stay in one location for too long. It has been five years since the virus first appeared out of nowhere. In that time, six remaining survives have formed a team. They’re a group of a strange mix of people that found each other during one of the hardest times in their life. Now they try to stick together despite their differences and search for a cure or a way for them to become immune to the virus.

[but that’s just a theory- A BOOK THEORY. Thanks for reading.]

The Virus Chapters:

Chapter 0

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

#masterpost #The Virus #original story #original characters #original #zombie apocalypse #found family #angst #fluff #drama #horror? I haven’t decided yet #writers on tumblr #female writers #young writer #writer #writing #all chapters #summary

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bwela07 · 8 months ago

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The Virus

<- Previous chapter

Chapter 1

Emily strides across the hallway the same way she had seen her own father do so many times. The familiar sound of her brown leather boots hitting the wooden floor in a consistent rhythm almost calms her down. Almost. She pushes down her building fear and replaces it with determination.

The first thing Emily notices when she walks into the living room is Max. The second is Shawn. That is, the absence of Shawn.

“Shawn left a while ago. I’ll go get him for you mom”, Victor says sweetly.

He must have noticed me looking around, Emily thinks to herself.

“Thank you sweetie”, she says fondly. She feels the weight of her anxiety lighten a bit at the soft smile of her son. She watches him as he runs out to get Shawn. She is instantly pulled back to reality when Max speaks up.

“What did we do this time”, he practically hisses. His pale blond hair is pulled back into a low ponytail. His army green eyes coldly glare at her partial heterochromia brown and blue eyes. His sickly pale skin makes him blend perfectly into the white couch.

“No one has done anything. That’s the problem”, Emily explains vaguely.

Keith looks up at her with his blue and green puppy eyes.

“I’m sorry miss Emily”, he says quietly. Emily’s heart melts at Keith’s dejection. She makes her way to the khaki brown couch and sits next to Keith. She gently strokes a strand of his light brown hair out of his face.

“I’m not mad at you Keith. I’m not mad at anyone”, Emily expounds.

“Hard to believe”, Max notes.

“Max, please”, May says in exasperation.

“We’re here! Sorry for keeping you waiting for so long”, Victor cheerfully announces.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault”, Emily says softly.

“So, what do you need us for?”, Shawn questions.

“We need to get moving. We’ve been here for too long. The infected will be patrolling this area soon. If not, other survivors might try to rob us”, Emily explains

“I really like this house”, Keith mutters with a pout.

“I’m sure that we can find one that is just as good, if not better”, Emily reassures softly.

“Will it also have two couches?”, Keith asks.

“We’ll see what we can do”, Emily responds.

Keith seems satisfied by that answer.

“Alright. Pack your bags. We’re leaving in ten minutes.”

“Ten minutes!”, exclaims May.

“Better start packing”, Max says with a smirk.

May sticks her tongue out at him before running off.

May huffs upon arriving at the door of her room. Well, her previous room. As the only teenage girl, she got a room to herself. Keith, Shawn and Max share a room together while Victor shares a room with his mom. When they stay at a house with only two bedrooms, May shares a room with Emily while the boys share the other room. If the house they call home for that week has a couch or a sofa, Shawn will claim that as his bed. Sometimes he’ll even sleep on the floor, all just to avoid Max.

None of that matters right now. Their fights don’t bother her unless it starts getting excessive. She needs to focus on packing her things. If she ends up accidentally leaving her jacket behind again, Emily isn’t going to take it well. Not that she took it well the first time it happened. Or the second. That doesn’t matter right now! Snap out of it! May slaps her cheeks with both hands at once in frustration.

“Need help?”, a medium range voice offers from behind her.

May flinches ever so slightly.

“Sh-Shawn! You scared me.”

Shawn grins at her. There’s a mischievous glint in his eyes. It’s weird to think about how Shawn never smiles around anyone else. He keeps his face neutral unless he's around the Niels siblings. One brings out his good side, the other brings out his bad side.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help but overhear you hissing at yourself. Thought you might need a hand”, Shawn says nonchalantly.

May’s eyes widen and her cheeks become flushed. Shawn’s grin widens.

“I said that out loud!?”

“Yup.”

“Damn it!”

Shawn chuckles in delight.

“How have you finished packing already?” May desperately tries to change the subject.

“I don’t have much to pack”, Shawn answers with a shrug.

“Right. Well, if you really have nothing to do, then you’re welcome to help me”, May says.

Shawn kneels next to her and starts folding the few clothing items that were spread across the floor.

“You have no need to have this many clothes.”

“It’s better than only owning two T-Shirts, one jumper and one pair of jeans.”

“How is that better?”

“We have other more important priorities.”

“Like your favorite black blade, your favorite pocket knife, your favorite butterfly knife and your favorite katana? Which each get their own case?”

“Yes. They’ll save us from the infected. Clothes won’t.”

“The infected are just that; People who have been infected by a virus. They’re just like us, Shawn. They don’t willingly attack us. We can’t kill them.”

“It’s self defense, May. Besides, have you ever seen me actually kill anyone? I just injure them enough to be able to escape. You do the same thing with your peashooter.”

“Fair point.”

“As always.”

May scoffs, but can’t hide her smile. Shawn smirks back at her. Their argument shifts into casual conversation as the two of them continue packing May’s clothes and her two guns.

“Isn’t this gonna be a little too heavy?”

“Aww. Are you worried about me?” May teases.

“Of course I am. You can barely take care of yourself”, Shawn responds without a second thought. He stands up and dusts off his pants. He then reaches out his hand to May. May accepts it and is pulled up by Shawn. The two of them stand in front of each other for a while, not letting go of the other’s hand.

“You done May?” Max’s voice suddenly enters the room. He freezes at the door frame, blankly staring at Shawn and May holding hands. Max glares at Shawn as May quickly pulls her hand away.

“Hey there Max! I’m just about done. I-I’ll be at the entrance in a minute!” May’s usual naturally cheerful tone now sounds forced.

Max doesn’t say anything. He just continues glaring at Shawn. The latter calmly walks out the room, going past Max at the door, with an annoyed facial expression. Shawn follows him with his eyes until he’s out of sight. He snaps his head back at May.

“Why was he here? What did he do?”

“Come on Max! I can take care of myself! I don’t need you constantly babysitting me!”

“Clearly I do.”

“He was just helping me pack my stuff!”

“That’s not what it looked like.”

“You just came in at a bad time.”

“A bad time? If I had come in any later, it would have been a horrible time!”

“Why on earth do you keep on suggesting that there is something going on between Shawn and I?”

“May, anyone with even one working eye can see that there is clearly something going on between you and Shawn.”

“Are you sure? Your eyesight is pretty bad after all.”

“May, can you please just listen to me?!”

“What else is there for you to say? We’ve had this discussion so many times, I’m losing track!”

“I am just trying to keep you safe! You’re all I have left in this maddening life of never ending struggle! You’re the only one left that I care about! And you’re the only one left that cares about me. I can’t lose you.”

The atmosphere shifts as the debate comes crashing down to a sudden halt. May stares at her brother in shock.

“Max…that isn’t true. The others care about you too.”

“No. Not in the way you do.”

“That’s because I’m your sister. Our relationship with each other is going to be different from your relationship with the others. But there’s still a connection there. We wouldn’t be in this group if that wasn’t the case.”

“Emily never wanted us to be part of this group. Shawn and Keith are the ones that convinced her to let us join. And that was just because they liked you and your never ending enthusiasm. You are the one they care about. Unfortunately for them, we come as a package.”

“Sure, you didn’t give a good first impression, but you grew on them. Emily loves you now! You’re second in demand for a reason. Not to mention, you’re our best shooter. You taught me everything I know! Keith looks up to you the same way I look up to you. Victor respects you and takes your advice. The two of you literally spend hours together. No one else is that close to Victor, not even Emily herself. And sure, you and Shawn tend to bicker a lot, but you bicker like siblings. Your competitiveness clashes with each other most of the time, but when it really counts, you’ve got each other's backs. At the end of the day, in this life we live now, isn’t that all that really matters? That you can rely on those who are around you?”

Max looks down at his hands. He’s wearing his tea green fingerless gloves. He grabs one of his hands tightly, thinking over what May just said. He seems to relax a bit, until Emily’s voice suddenly rings through the hallway.

“Kids! We’re leaving right now!”

Max’s grip tightens even more around his wrist.

“She sounds distressed.”

“Really?”

“The infected must be approaching us.”

Max grabs May’s backpack and swings it on his back.

“We need to go. Now!”

Next chapter ->

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