Shellington heard a knock on his laboratory door. There were hushed whispers outside. One sounded a lot like Tweak. The other sounded a lot like one of the cousins. He couldn't identify which one.
"Come in!" he called, pushing aside his notebooks and nearly knocking over a rack of test tubes full of chemicals he had been studying. He grabbed the rack just in time, but one of the tubes—luckily empty--wobbled and fell out, smashing on the floor. He groaned.
"Ah, Shellington." Danielle strode into his laboratory, looking nothing but furious. "Could you help Tweak and I settle a little argument?"
"I'll have a go," Shellington said, quickly brushing the shards of glass under the desk with his foot and leaning on it. "What's happened?"
Tweak came in, looking very nervous and very guilty. Shellington immediately straightened up. He could sense something was wrong. Very wrong indeed.
"So I was exploring the Octopod along with my fellow cousins," Danielle began, hands on hips, "and I decided to visit Tweak in her workshop. And what did I find?"
"I don't know," Shellington said.
"That Tweak, the famous engineer of the Octonauts, had none other than blown up Dashi's camera!" Danielle exclaimed.
Shellington stared at Tweak. "You're joking, right?"
Tweak shook her head. "N-no, I'm not."
From behind her back she revealed the remains of the camera. It was mangled beyond any recognition, the lens shattered, the screen almost completely gone. Its sunny yellow was barely visible under a thick layer of burnt black.
"Tweak," Shellington said slowly, "you know Dashi's going to kill you, right?"
Tweak nodded silently.
Shellington didn't want to imagine Dashi's face. He took a deep breath.
"You need to tell Dashi what you've done," he said. "You can't lie to her. You've got to tell her sooner rather than later."
"I can't!" Tweak burst out, nearly dropping the camera. "She trusted us! And with what she's going through right now, she's going to be twice as upset as she would be if she hadn't been attacked! She's going to be a wreck!"
Something in Danielle's expression softened. She put an arm around Tweak.
"I'm sorry I shouted at you," she apologised. "Here. We'll do it together, yeah?"
"I'm going to break her," Tweak muttered, pupils dilated with fear. Shellington felt a pang of sympathy for her.
"Shel, we'll need you on standby to comfort Dashi," Danielle said. "She's likely to lash out at all of us, but from what I've heard, you're great at knowing what to do with her."
"Got it," Shellington said.
Tweak blinked at him gratefully. "She's my best friend. I don't want to ruin everything."
"You won't," Shellington said. Danielle looked uneasy, but didn't comment.
"Let's go," she announced. "Better to get it over and done with."
They left the lab, Tweak trailing behind. Shellington knelt down to sweep up the broken glass and throw it in the bin, before sinking down into his chair, head in hands.
He hoped Dashi was in a relatively good mood today. He didn't want to see her break down.
*
"You did what?"
Dashi looked at Tweak, trying to work out if she was lying or not. Beside her, Koshi edged closer.
"I-I'm serious," Tweak said. "It was an accident, Dashi, I promise!"
Every bone in Dashi's body was aching. She had woken up this morning, exhaustion from last night crashing over her. She felt drained of all positivity, drained of anything that could cheer her up. All her worries had swallowed her up; she had fallen back onto her pillows and cried for an hour, whilst her cousins and Koshi hugged her and comforted her.
Now, all the emotions from the morning were building up inside her again. Leaning against the wall, she said, "Show me."
Tweak placed the wrecked camera on the bed and backed away quickly. Dashi knelt down by it, picking it up, stroking it, turning it over. She looked up at Tweak.
White-hot fury rose up inside her.
"How could you?" she whispered. "How dare you?"
"It was an accident, I swear on my life!" Tweak pleaded. But Dashi ignored her. She stood up, fists clenched. Danielle went over to Koshi, who was trembling with fear. Both of them watched Dashi, waiting for her next move.
"I trusted you," Dashi said. "I trusted you!"
Tweak tried to hug her, but Dashi pushed her away sharply, fresh tears in her eyes.
"I never knew... I never thought you could be so careless!" she shouted.
"For God's sake!" Tweak shouted back, now angry as well as upset. "Why won't you believe me? It. Was. An. Accident! I've been working so hard for you over the weeks, Dashi, looking after you, making sure you're OK..."
Dashi laughed coldly, humourlessly. "I'm OK? You really think that? My whole life has been crushed, Tweak! And what do you do? You..."
"Your whole life?" Tweak echoed in disbelief. "Here we go again, Little Miss Drama Queen!"
"I'm not a drama queen!"
"God, Dashi, have you seen yourself recently? Breaking down all the time, pretending that you're so weak and tired, pretending that you actually give a damn about how hard Shellington and I have been working for you!"
"How dare you?!" Dashi screamed. "I can never be thankful enough for what you and Shel have done for me, and you know that!"
"I don't think I do," Tweak said icily.
Then she walked up to Dashi and slapped her round the face.
They stared at each other. Dashi took a step back, clutching her cheek. Tweak's eyes flashed with something for a moment, before her hard expression returned.
"Y-you deserved that," she said shakily.
"I didn't do anything," Dashi said, tears rolling down her face. "I can't believe you, Tweak. I actually thought you cared. That you gave a damn about me. That you were actually bothered about me."
"Maybe I wasn't," Tweak said, though she was almost crying now. "Maybe I was doing it to look good."
"Then you don't deserve to be my friend," Dashi said. "We're through, Tweak. I thought we were best friends, soul sisters, but obviously... obviously not."
"Fine." Tweak turned away briefly. Then she threw out her arm, sending Dashi's camera flying into Dashi. The photographer cried out as it smashed into her arm, the broken glass drawing blood.
She turned away to face the window, pressing her face against it and sobbing. She heard Tweak walking towards the door; the engineer was crying now, and the sound made Dashi's heart break.
Tweak never cried.
Dashi had made her cry.
What sort of a person was she?
Looking over her shoulder, she saw Tweak watching her. She wanted to say something that would change everything, that would wipe away the past events, that would return everything to normal. But all she could feel was fury, betrayal, sadness, fear.
"I trusted you," she repeated, her voice cracking.
Then Tweak was gone, Danielle and Koshi were rushing over to her, and she was sinking to the ground and crying into her knees like her world was shattered and it could never be built again.
*
Shellington was exiting his lab when he saw Tweak thundering past. Five of six of the cousins stopped by the lab door, evidently having been trying to catch up with Tweak. Shellington noted Danielle was missing, along with Koshi. And Dashi. Dashi was missing.
"What's happened?" Daphne asked. "Tweak seems distressed... did something happen between her and Dashi?"
"Yeah," Shellington said, and explained what happened in a low voice. Delilah gaped.
"S-so they argued? Just over the camera?" she said.
"I have a feeling it escalated into something more," Shellington said worriedly.
Just then, Danielle and Koshi came speeding down the corridor.
"Dashi's inconsolable," Koshi panted, bending over to catch her breath. "She won't talk to us, she's really distraught..."
"She and Tweak were screaming at each other loud enough to wake the whole Octopod," Danielle said, looking shaken. "I don't want to be biased or anything, but Tweak was really laying it on Dashi. Actually, Dashi was pretty angry too."
Koshi was white. A fat tear slid down her cheek.
"It was scary," she mumbled, and DeLana put an arm around her.
"You seven go and make yourselves some hot chocolate," Shellington said. "I'll go and comfort Dashi."
"If you manage to calm her down..." Danielle shook her head. "It'll be a miracle."
"I'll have a go," Shellington said, turning and heading towards the OctoChute. At the hatch, he looked back and said, "I hope it works."
"Me too," Dottie said. "Me too."
*
Dashi could barely sense what was going on around her. She felt the hard glass of the window against her face, the cuts from the camera stinging on her arm, the aching break in her heart. Her head was swirling with a thousand different thoughts. Her eyes were blurred with tears. Another panic attack had her by the throat, and was thoroughly enjoying torturing her.
Her legs gave way beneath her. Dashi collapsed onto her bed, shuddering, hugging her knees. She couldn't calm down. She was losing control.
Then suddenly, her headphones were on her head. Someone was cradling her whilst the music played, drying her face, stroking her hair. She blinked. It was Shellington.
"Shel?" she whispered.
"Hey there," Shellington replied, his answer barely audible above the music. Dashi slid her headphones off, flushing with shame.
"I'm such a bad friend," she said sadly. "I completely lost control, I screamed at her like I'd never done before, I said awful stuff... Shel, I've been so stupid! I hate what's happening to me right now, I'm not me anymore! I get worked up too easily, get scared or upset or angry too easily..."
She broke off for a moment. Shellington squeezed her gently.
"And now I've ruined everything between Tweak and I," Dashi said, a heavy sense of defeat filling her up. "Not that she gave a damn about me anyway. Not that she ever cared."
Her heart was still thumping swiftly. "I trusted her!" she cried, voice rising. "She destroyed my camera, she yelled at me, she slapped me... and I told her we could never be friends again. I made her cry, Shel. I'm the worst person in the world."
"You're not," Shellington whispered. "You're not. You were angry, you were upset, so you lashed out at Tweak. Tweak lashed back because she was angry and upset as well. Yes, she broke your trust, and that's going to take a while to build back up again. But deep down, you still love each other. I know that for a fact.
"And the cone snail attack shocked all of us, Dashi. You may have panic attacks from time to time, you may be in a bad mood, but you're still Dashi. Smart, confident, skilled, lively. And beautiful. Very, very beautiful."
"You think I'm beautiful?" Dashi said quietly.
"Yes," Shellington said, before he could stop himself. "I do. You're an amazing girl, Dashi. Tweak knows that. Your cousins know that. Koshi knows that. I know that, and I love it."
"You're not so bad yourself, y'know," Dashi said, and they laughed together.
Dashi snuggled up to Shellington. Shellington wondered if this was the right moment, the moment he had been waiting for, the moment to admit everything...
Dashi's lips touched his before he could speak.
It was only briefly. She jumped back, eyes wide. "Sh-Shel, I didn't mean to do that..."
Shellington pulled her towards him and kissed her lips. They were soft and tasted of bubblegum lip gloss, the lip gloss Shellington knew was her favourite. He put one arm around her waist, ran his hand through her hair, held her like he would never let go again.
Dashi wrapped her arms around his neck, her eyes shut. In this moment, she forgot everything—all the pain, the fear, the loss, the sadness that had crushed her heart. All she knew was that she was in the arms of someone who loved her, someone who knew what to do, someone who could make her see the light in the darkest situation.
Someone she knew she could trust forever.
They broke apart, but Shellington kept his arms around Dashi.
"So... are we together?" he asked eventually. Dashi tilted her head in a cute fashion.
"Only if you want us to be," she smiled.
"Then that's a yes." Shellington kissed her forehead. "Let's not tell the crew immediately, though. We don't want to shock them."
"Can I tell Koshi?" Dashi said. "And my cousins?"
"They'll work it out," Shellington chuckled. "They're the sort of people who never miss a thing, I reckon."
"Got it in one."
They shared another kiss. This one was cut off pretty quickly by the wailing of the OctoAlert. Dashi jumped slightly as the captain's voice said, "Octonauts... and, I guess, Koshi and Cousins Various... to the HQ!"
"An OctoAlert." Dashi breathed out. "Not sure if I'm going to be able to handle this. Plus Tweak's going to be death-staring me, so..."
Shellington hugged her. "It'll be OK. I promise. Everything's going to work out."
"Thanks, Shel."
With Shellington's arm around her shoulder, Dashi got off her bed and headed for the door. She didn't know if everything was going to be OK, but she did know one thing:
That Shellington would be there for her, no matter what.