Ocean Feelings

Chapter 14

Coco blinked her eyes as she felt the pain radiate over her body. An alarm continuously blared through the gup. The gup shook as it fell lower into whatever ditch they were stuck in. She laid her head back down on the gup floor, and Barnacles groaned. "Coco?"

"Here... What happened?" Coco asked as she rubbed her head.

"A crash," Barnacles replied, and the memory came flooding back. They had set out on a mission in the Gup A. The mission in itself was not difficult, just dealing with an old ship giving a distress signal. It had turned out the thing was recently sunken and had alerted due to a wave. Everyone was already long gone, so they disconnected the signal and started back toward the Octopod. However, as they were driving, a stray current had taken ahold of the gup, and they had slammed into the rocks. Coco had tried her best to use a forcefield to protect the glass and themselves, but it didn't work all the way. The gup had flipped, leading to Coco losing concentration and the field faltering. As the Gup A had finally stopped, she and Barnacles lay strewn out on the floor in pain. She heard Barnacels groan again as he stood up, "You okay?"

"Could be better," She admitted leaning up into a sitting position. Her head spun, and she clenched her eyes until she could open them without the entire world spinning. She let out a slow breath as Barnacles leaned against the wall rubbing at his head. "How are you, honey?"

"Head hurts, but nothing I can't handle... you put up a forcefield?" He questioned as he looked out the window and saw rocks towering on either side.

"I did. Did not work as well as I hoped as we are still in pain," She huffed, "Sorry bout that."

"You did the absolute best you could. And at least we still have the glass. And no broken bones." Barnacles said, leaning down on his knees to be level with her.

Coco reached out and gently wiped his lip where it had turned red, "Does it hurt?"

"No. To be honest, I think I bit it while we were tumbling," He laughed, "Embarrassing, right?"

"Better than me. I bit my tongue," Coco laughed weakly, and Barnacles laughed, letting his head fall.

"How do we always crash?" He asked with a twinkle in his eye that made Coco shake her head fondly.

"I blame you. I never crashed before I joined the Octonauts." Barnacles laughed as Coco herself giggled despite how difficult she found it to stay upright.

"Think you can stand?" He asked as he stood up and held out a hand.

"Cityboy, I doubt it." She said but grabbed his hand anyways. "This took a lot."

Coco faltered slightly as Barnacles helped her up. She grabbed his arm quickly, and his breath hitched as he felt the jolt of energy leave him. He vaguely remembered the conversations late at night when Inkling had left for bed, conversations about how energy worked. He recalled Dashi and Shellington shared energy in emergencies, and Kwazii and Tweak shared energy constantly. He kept his hands on her to steady her as she collapsed against him, "You used most of your energy..."

"Well, I couldn't let that pretty face get hurt, could I?" She whispered teasingly as she reached up to his cheek, and his breath hitched again.

"I didn't know you were that low..." He murmured as he could her hand and brought it to his chest. The conversations about what happened when they got low on energy were always very vague. Barnacles knew that it could be extremely dangerous to their health, and it was extremely uncomfortable for them.

"Hey, I'm fine," She whispered, and he saw how close to collapsing she truly was, "I can survive until we get to the Octopod. Honest."

"But you are uncomfortable, aren't you?" He asked as he rubbed his hands up and down her arms, and she shuddered at the small amounts of energy flickering towards her.