Octonauts Oneshots

Before they were Octonauts... Part 2

Dashi: Dashi laughed, and took the last biscuit of the pack, and Tweak playfully slapped her paw. Suddenly, Dashi felt a pang of loss. That was the exact action Dashi herself had done countless times, when Koshi had taken the last chocolate chip cookie, or donut, or whatever they were sharing. Everything felt numb, the video game console in her paws, her beanbag, the TV blared unintelligible noise and colour. As the world began spinning, Tweak put a steadying paw on Dashi.

"You alright?"

"Yeah I just..." Dashi bit her lip. She didn't want to ruin this perfect moment with her best friend, but she really needed a break. "Could I just have a few minutes alone?"

Tweak nodded, concerned, and Dashi disappeared up the Octochute and into her room, collapsing on her bed before the attack began. It wasn't uncommon for this to happen, Dashi had waves of nausea and dizziness all the time. It was the following dreams that were the bad part.

***

Dashi and Koshi were playing games at the kitchen bench over breakfast. Uno was their favourite. 

"Uno!" laughed Dashi. Koshi pouted.

"How come you always win? I have..." Here she paused to count her cards, she was still only learning to count. "I have twelve cards, and you have one!" She put a card down. "Now I have eleven."

"And I have none," Dashi teased, laying down her final card. "I win!"

"Awww, no fair! How do you ALWAYS win?"

"Big sister secrets."

"How about I come and help you against your big sister, eh Koshi?" Dashi and Koshi's father David came into the living room. Dashi looked exasperated. It was a known fact that no single player could ever hope to face David alone.

"How about Koshi and I join forces and face YOU Dad?"

"Deal," he agreed, as Koshi shuffled over to join Dashi. "But prepare to get destroyed!"

And that was how the sisters ended up being late to school and university respectively. They had only played uno for an hour...

***

Dashi sat down at the table, wondering why her parents wanted to talk after Koshi was asleep, and why they were so serious looking.

"Dad? Mum?"

"Yes dear. We wanted to talk about work."

"But... I have a job already!"

David sighed.

"When... when you move out, you need a job you can rely on. Freelance photography is... a little risky?"

Dashi's first thought was shock, but a little part of her knew this was coming from the start. She had been putting off the idea of moving out for years, and now that she was nineteen going on twenty, they topic had to be addressed.

"So... Did you have any ideas?" Dashi's mum, Adelaide, was looking at her daughter, concerned that she had zoned out. "We'll support you in whatever life throws at you, but we do want you to be prepared for... when we're not there."

David pulled out last week's newspaper.

"Don't think we're going to force you into something boring, like medicine," he grinned. Adelaide, a doctor, feigned offense. "We'll be rooting for you in any little passion you have. And we know you like cameras, and fiddling around with computers and the like. So we found this."