I Promise You'll Get Better

One

The water felt warm as Dashi swum out of the OctoHatch, her beloved camera around her neck. She blinked and gasped when she saw the coral reef in front of her. It was huge—it seemed to go on forever, as far as the eye could see and beyond. All of the colours of the rainbow shimmered before her; ranging from a vibrant red to a rose pink to a dark indigo to a neon turquoise to sunshine yellow. Hundreds of species of fish swam about in shoals, the sunlight bouncing off their scales.

"It's amazing," Dashi whispered as her crewmate Shellington joined her.

"It is," he agreed enthusiastically, flipping open his notebook. How the book didn't get wet underwater, Dashi didn't know, but it had been made by the crew's engineer Tweak. Everyone marvelled at how brilliant Tweak's inventions were, but when asked how she made such amazing things she simply shrugged and said, "Practice makes perfect."

"There are hundreds of species here," the Scottish sea otter continued, scanning the pages. "Some of these I've never seen in real life before!"

"I could spend days here," Dashi said, raising her camera and snapping a shot. "Who chose this location?"

"I did," Shellington said. He looked a little shy. "Because there are so many species here, but also... I knew you would like it."

Dashi took a moment to process what he said. Shellington watched her carefully, suddenly wondering if she was only faking her awe. It wasn't like Dashi to fake it, and she hadn't known Shellington had chosen it. But still...

"I love it," Dashi said softly, a smile breaking out on her face. "Thanks, Shel."

She could feel her heart thumping twice as fast. Before she could say anything else, they both heard the captain's voice calling the crew over.

"We better go." Shellington nudged Dashi, who had turned to look out over the coral reef in a half-daydream. She jumped slightly at his touch, but then nodded.

"Let's go."

*

"Octonauts," Captain Barnacles said when all the crew had gathered. "As you have noticed, this reef is massive. It will take us a few days to explore entirely."

"Told you I could spend days in here," Dashi said in an undertone to Shellington, who laughed quietly.

"There are so many sea creatures here." Captain Barnacles gestured around. "But, as we have discovered the hard way, not all sea creatures are nice. Please watch for danger and if you're unsure about anything, contact Shellington to check it with him or Professor Inkling back at the Octopod. I recommend we split into pairs to explore as much of the reef as we can today. So... Tweak and Kwazii, Dashi and Shellington, and Peso and I. Octonauts, let's do this!"

"It's the dream team," Tweak laughed, swimming over to Dashi and Shellington. "I bet the captain deliberately paired you two because you work so well together."

"The same could be said for you and Kwazii," Dashi smirked.

"Per-lease," Kwazii said, joining them. "I can never work with Tweak without her taking over entirely."

"I don't take over!" Tweak retorted. "I just like everything done in an organised manner and without chaos. Though that's a big ask for you, Kwazii Cat."

"It is not!"

"It so is."

Shellington slowly swam backwards. Dashi followed him, and they both turned and left the other pair bickering as fast as possible.

"They get along quite well when Kwazii isn't annoying the heck out of Tweak," Dashi said to Shellington, who was obviously trying not to laugh. "Or when he hasn't crashed the Gup B."