But I'm a Penguin (By It's_in_the_water)

Amazing Cover Art by KoolShrooms (https://www.reddit.com/user/KoolShrooms)

The Octonauts and the New Medic -- Part One

When Peso's soles hit the dock's wooden boards, the man at the other end turned to watch him approach. Peso shivered and his steps faltered. The man was down right imposing . Obviously a cat shifter, his orange striped tail twitched behind him with poorly subdued energy. One eye, slit-pupilled and sparking green even at that distance, seemed to glare at him. A tooled black leather eye patch hid the other. Orange ears poked out of his streaked hair, and the rest of his common form beneath low-slung, knee length trousers and short vest was either deeply tanned or lightly furred, judging by the colour. His clawed toes flexed into the dock and he folded his arms, knotting his biceps.

A pirate , Peso thought, forcing his feet to keep moving. The captain is a pirate. His steps became tiny, the dock seemed to grow longer, the glare and sun became hotter. Peso had had nightmares like this.

After an eternity, Peso made it to the end. He tried to meet the man's stare, managed to get his gaze to rise to his neck and the scar on his narrow chin, and gave up. With a sweaty, shaking hand, he fumbled a letter out of his jacket pocket--only for a dozen stickers to spill out with them. Oh no… I meant to give those to Pinto. He swallowed several times, trying to moisten his dry mouth, trying to ignore the absurd flurry of stickers fluttering to the dock.

"Uh, uh, I'm Peso?" he squeaked, holding out the letter. "Professor Inkling instructed me to come to this dock? Um. Captain? Sir?"

The man's ear flicked; Peso could see it in his shadow.

"Captain?" he repeated in a jaunty accent. " Captain ? Me ? Naw, mate, I'm Kwazii, the first mate. Welcome aboard, Peso. I've been waiting for you." He ignored the letter and stepped in, extending a broad, clawed hand.

Peso almost melted in relief. He managed to pry his gaze off the dock and finally look Kwazii in the face.

Kwazii offered a wide smile, flashing sharp canines and one gold eye tooth. His fine, catlike features gave him a regal appearance at odds with the many scars, eye patch, and accent. His toned physique, now that it was coupled with a friendly personality, made Peso blush hotly. Leave it to him to develop a crush on his superior on the first day.

Before the pause could get any more awkward, Peso crumpled the letter back into his pocket and gingerly grasped Kwazii's hand. He gasped as Kwazii pumped it vigorously, and then flipped it around, examining it. Kwazii then stepped into his personal space and sniffed.

Blinking rapidly, Peso recoiled from the taller, more muscular male and his well-defined abs. "Uh, e-excuse me?"

"I can't figure it out," Kwazii explained. His head ducked next to Peso's, seemingly without realizing the intimacy of the posture, and he pinched a lock of Peso's feathery black and white hair. "Some kind of bird, but I'm not sure what. Raven? Heron? You don't let any of it show."

Peso went very still. "It's rude to try to guess," he said quietly, trying to free his hand.

"But we all do it." Kwazii released him with a grin and performed a little bow, arms out with a flourish. "You don't have to guess with me; I let it all hang out."

"Yes. I… I can see that."

"Nothing to worry about, mate. I like birds." He blinked his large green eye exaggeratedly, obviously a wink. Then he waved a hand, maybe brushing away his poor joke. "Anyway, you're going to see all of us soon enough, now that you're the Octopod's new doctor."

"Yes. Um. Where is the… the Octopod?" The word felt strange in Peso's mouth. He looked around and saw only deep turquoise water lapping at the end of the dock. "Are we waiting for a boat?" Maybe one of the distant ships was the Octopod, and they needed to be ferried over?

Kwazii laughed. He bent to pick up a rumpled rubber bag, previously unnoticed at his bare feet. "Here. Put everything in it that you don't want to get wet."

"Oh?" Peso accepted the long wet bag and found it quite large enough for his one duffle.

"Clothes, too. The Octopod is right under our feet."

Peso paused. He craned his neck to peer over the edge.

Something positively Lovecraftian peered back at him from the depths.

"Oh."

"You can free dive, yeah? Won't last long if you can't."

Peso smiled quietly. "Yes. I can free dive."

He scrambled to collect and pocket all of Pinto’s stickers--maybe he would be able to mail them with a letter. He shrugged out of his blazer, folded it into the bag, moved on to his crisp white shirt. The warm air and sun kissed his skin; it truly was a beautiful day in southern Australia.

Once he'd removed his shoes and socks, he gave a mental shrug and stripped out of his pants. They were his good, first-day-on-the-job pants; he wasn't going to ruin them for the sake of modesty.

Finished, he crouched to roll and fasten the bag, and then stood with it slung over his shoulder. When he turned to address Kwazii, he was startled by the intent one-eyed stare crawling over his own lean, pale figure.

"Tern?" Kwazii asked. "Loon?"

Peso rolled his eyes. "Where is the hatch, Kwazii? How do I board?"

"Ah, just follow me."

"Maybe you should tell me, " Peso countered, "so you can follow me." Swimming, at least, he was good at. He felt the need to show the other man that he wasn't just a nervous newcomer.

Kwazii laughed again. "A challenge. I like you, mate. All right. The launch bay will be at the bottom of the main bulb, facing the open ocean. You can't miss it. Because I'll already be there--hey!"

Peso didn't wait to hear the taunting. He dove into the water, only minimally impaired by his bag, and streaked down toward the hulk crouched on the bottom of the ocean.

He passed four strange, luminescent bulbs, and undulated down past a giant globe, all orange metal panels, glowing glass, and lines of lights. As Kwazii had said, he found the outline of a door near its bottom. He came to rest beside it, anchored to a handle, and waited.

A few moments later, Kwazii thrashed his way over the swell of the main globe. His movements were erratic, as though he'd pushed himself too hard. A little concerned, Peso swam up to meet him and helped him close the rest of the distance. Kwazii accepted the help and knocked weakly on the door when he arrived. His green eye was already starting to bug out and bubbles streamed from his nose in a helpless rush.

Peso moved in; he didn't strictly need all the air he'd sucked into his lungs. A waterlogged cat might, though.

As his first act as the Octopod's medic, Peso gripped Kwazii behind the head, and blew his own air into Kwazii's mouth.

Kwazii held on, claws digging painfully into Peso's bare shoulders, and breathed in everything Peso offered.

Then the door spun open and a rush of water dragged them inside.

Peso pulled them both to the surface of what seemed to be a pool. Kwazii broke through first, sputtering and coughing, and clung to a sleek orange submersible as he caught his breath.

Peso checked to make sure Kwazii was able to breathe properly, with no ill effects from his near miss, and then smoothly glided to where the pool floor rose and he could walk out. He found himself in a large, well-lit and utilitarian room. A cement walkway surrounded the pool. Three curious vehicles bobbed in the water and another sat on a lift. Various nooks and crannies around the room held mechanical equipment and, in one bizarre case, a bedroom.

A huge computer and monitor took up an entire wall of the room. A tall woman--her elongated ears and pronounced heels just screamed rabbit shifter--stood in front of the computer, gnawing on a carrot. She'd been speaking with someone on the monitor: a man, square-jawed, pleasantly weathered, his thick white hair at odds with an otherwise young face and dark skin. He wore a snug blue and green uniform and blinked rapidly as he looked out at Peso.

"Um, hi.” Peso wilted under the attention, burningly self-conscious in his state of almost-nudity, unable to do more than mumble a greeting.

Kwazii splashed up behind him. "Captain Barnacles," he declared loudly, throwing a slippery arm around Peso's stinging shoulders. "Tweak. I figured it out! May I introduce Peso. Our new medic and a pe--" he paused at Peso's sharp glare and amended, "Perfect kisser."

Peso wished the floor would open under his feet and just devour him whole. Captain Barnacles-- the Captain --stared down at him, obviously taken aback. Then his icy blue eyes crinkled with a warm smile.

"Welcome aboard, Peso. I see you've already made quite an impression on my second in command."

Even across the electronic interface, Captain Barnacles' voice was like wrapping up in a warm blanket and a hug. Peso's knees weakened and his blush returned. That voice had faith in him. It had high expectations for him. It knew he could accomplish great things and it would help him without fail. It cared about him .

Peso offered a weak smile. "Thank you, Captain. I'm happy to be here."

"Kwazii, how about you help Peso settle in his room, and then I'll meet you in the infirmary?"

"Aye, aye, Captain." Kwazii hugged Peso around his shoulders and his wet tail splatted against Peso's bare calves. "We, uh, might stop by my quarters as well."

"Kwazii," Tweak said in a twangy drawl, "you have a water repellent uniform."

"It's not quite my style, though, init?"

"You're not even wearing your collar!"

"I'm off duty, mate."

Tweak shook her head, casting a Someone get this guy out of here glare at the ceiling. Then she took a bite of her carrot and offered a grin to Peso. "Welcome, Peso. I'm Tweak, the Octopod's mechanic. Good to meet'cha." She approached with a long legged stride, a confident hand extended.

Peso took it nervously. Tweak wore low cut off jeans and a crop top, exposing a toned figure that wouldn't have looked out of place in a calendar. Her turquoise hair fell to chin length, clumped with oil here and there and held in a pink headband, and tools hung from her belt. Her rabbit ears swiveled independently, like radar dishes, and her little nose almost twitched. Her strong grip told him that, despite appearances, she didn't mess around; he completely believed that she could have put the immense Octopod together herself.

She wore a thick blue collar, the same colour as the Captain's jacket, making him wonder if it was an extremely minimal Octonauts uniform.

"Thank you, Tweak. It's good to meet you as well."

"I'll get your uniform and diving suits ready in a few days." Tweak clamped her carrot between her teeth and used her free hand to dig a tiny item from her belt. Before Peso knew what was going on, Tweak was tugging him this way and that, measuring his arms, shoulders, chest, waist, spine, feet, and, embarrassingly, his inseam. Wet and almost naked, Peso backpedaled away from Tweak’s hand on his inner thigh, only to back himself into Kwazii's firm, damp chest. "Your common form is so ambiguous," Tweak commented, straightening and snapping her measuring tape away. "It'll be strange not to design a tail hole or reinforce the fingertips." She briefly examined his nails, and let his hand drop. " Some folks like to challenge me." She raised an eyebrow at Kwazii.

"Don't pretend, Tweak. You like a challenge."

Tweak ignored Kwazii's tease, barely wrinkling her snub nose. "Any environmental requirements I should keep in mind for your equipment, Peso? Temperature, oxygen, humidity, metal allergy? You obviously don't have a problem with the cold."

"No requirements. Thank you."

"Great. I'll have you ready for your first mission faster than you can say buncha munchy crunchy carrots." She took a bite to illustrate and added as she chewed, "Faster if you can get Kwazii outta here."

"Come on, mate, I know when I'm not wanted." Kwazii squeezed him again. "Let's go see your new quarters. The last medic didn't leave much behind. I checked."

**

Kwazii leaned in Peso's doorway, shamelessly watching the new doctor dress. The little guy was so cute, Kwazii was having trouble keeping his paws to himself. His round face smiled so sweetly, his complexion flushed so easily under the black and white hairs drying around his face. His common form was delicate, fine boned, revealing his true nature as a bird shifter despite his ambiguous features. The eight shallow cuts on his shoulders from Kwazii's desperate clutch just topped it off--Kwazii loved making his mark.

And Peso had swum so quickly, effortlessly, gracefully, that Kwazii couldn't help but admire him. And his gift of life when Kwazii just about drowned himself… the memory made Kwazii shiver. The crushing force of his need for oxygen, his aching chest, his panic in the murky depths, his embarrassment and helplessness… and then air pushing into his mouth and lungs, strong hands anchoring him, holding his head steady as he gasped and clung on.

The new medic had already proven himself and Kwazii was smitten.

Peso tucked his crisp white shirt into his black pants and sat to tie his black dress shoes. Kwazii smiled to himself. For someone who cultivated a common form that gave nothing away, his clothing just screamed "penguin." Kwazii had wondered if he was an accountant who'd missed his yacht when he tapped his way up the Octopod's dock.

"Do you like your room?" Kwazii asked when Peso stood and shrugged into his short black jacket.

"Oh yes." Peso's light voice made Kwazii's ears twitch with pleasure. "Thank you." His shy little smile warmed Kwazii through. "I think I could look out at the sea for hours. The Octopod is beautiful." He moved to the glass wall of his dome and flattened his palm against it, looking out at the murk and the bottom of the dock floating nearby.

"Just wait til we go somewhere interesting. Like me room." Kwazii grinned widely when Peso turned to stare. "I need fresh clothes." His trousers and vest had dried easily while he waited on the sunny dock, but in the Octopod's cool corridors, he was freezing. "Then I'll show you around and take you to the infirmary."

"Great."

Kwazii demonstrated sliding down the chute from Peso's globe, laughing when he had to catch Peso at the bottom. "You'll get the hang of it," he assured him, enjoying the feeling of the slender body in his arms.

In his room, he immediately shucked off everything but his briefs and sighed in relief to be rid of the cold damp fabric. He may have spent more time than was strictly necessary striding around his room in his small clothes, looking for something to wear, flexing every muscle he could think of. When he glanced at Peso, though, it was to see him examining Kwazii's shelves of maps. He swallowed his disappointment--maybe Peso's blushing had been strictly "First Day Nerves" and not "Wow, the Cat Pirate is Hot Nerves" after all.

"Nothing better than finding an old map and following it to the end," Kwazii said, buckling his belt and coming up behind Peso. "These are the monsters, these are treasure, these are places, these are the ones me grandpa drew, and these are combinations of the above." Kwazii gestured to illustrate his filing system.

"Wow, " Peso breathed, gratifyingly. "Have you found all of these?"

"Not yet, but I do my best whenever the Octopod is in the right area."

"Have you made any yourself?"

Surprised, Kwazii looked askance at Peso. "Well, no. I haven't found any treasure of me own yet."

"Oh, I'm sure you will."

Strangely touched, Kwazii mulled that over as they continued the tour.

He highlighted the most important rooms--the recreation globe and the kitchen.

"The vegimals are whizzes in the galley," Kwazii explained, nodding to where Tunip and two others were pulverizing kelp into a paste, the base of most Octonauts meals. "I can cook, too, but they don't believe me."

"Vegimals…?" Peso repeated, wide eyed.

Kwazii only belatedly realized how strange the plant-animal hybrids could look at first. "Shellington found them last year. Since then, they've been our best mates. I'm sure they're the reason we won the last Octonauts challenge."

Tunip paused briefly to say something in Vegimalese to Peso.

"Um, hello," Peso said. "It's nice to meet you."

"They cook, they clean, they garden, they do repairs." Kwazii stretched out an arm and snagged two cookies while the vegimals weren't looking. "They make vegetarian food taste good." He offered one to Peso and led him out.

"Yes, very good," Peso agreed, taking a nibble as Kwazii devoured his own. "I'll save it for later." He tucked it into a jacket pocket.

"Shellington's lab is there," Kwazii continued. "He's the science guy. He's on a survey with Dashi right now. Dashi is communications, navigation, documentation, reporting, computers--pretty much everything that I don't do. Here's the library. Professor Inkling spends most of his time in here."

"Oh, Professor Inkling!" Peso exclaimed, stopping at the library door. "Is he in? I'd like to thank him for accepting my application."

"Let's find out." Kwazii entered first and nodded to a large table and humming aquarium in the centre of the two storey room. Spotting Professor Inkling's pink figure coiled in the bottom, Kwazii sauntered over. "Hey, Professor, this is Peso, the new doctor."

"Oh, wow," Peso murmured, gazing at the hundreds of books. His attention fell to Professor Inkling and he stopped, blinking. "Uh, hello," he managed despite his surprise. "Professor Inkling, thank you very much for offering this position to me."

"Hello, Peso. Welcome." Inkling's voice, with only mild electronic tones, emanated from a speaker in front of his tank. He unfurled, bulbous head and large eyes rising, his horizontal pupils unblinking. His eight long arms reached out of the tank, pulling him up and out. With a strangely graceful ease, he traveled down onto his motorized chair, curled onto it, and hove over to Peso. A single pink arm extended.

Without hesitating, Peso accepted it. "Professor, what an honor to meet you. Your work on the interactions between zonal communities and health considerations was truly inspiring. Thank you very, very much for accepting me to the Octonauts."

"Oh, not at all, dear boy." His voice emanated from a speaker in his chair. "It's a pleasure to have you. I know you'll be a great asset to the team."

"This is a huge library. And to think that this is all under water."

"Remarkable, isn't it?"

Kwazii wandered away as the two talked, fingers laced behind his head, looking out through the tall, narrow windows. The view was familiar now, and he wondered when the Octopod would go somewhere new. After two days in one place, he was already itching to move on.

If things stayed quiet, maybe he would offer to take Peso for a ride in one of the gups.

He glanced back at Peso, remembering his blush and his life-saving kiss. Could there be something…?

But Peso was completely involved in his conversation with Inkling, unaware of Kwazii's unabashed ogling.

Kwazii had probably lost any chance he might've had when he almost drowned. Damn. Maybe he could say it had been a test? Yeah. That's what he'd say.

After a few more minutes, Kwazii sidled over to where Peso and Inkling were examining a shelf of anatomy books and bumped Peso's hip with his own, earning himself a startled look and splash of colour. "The Captain'll be wondering what I did with you. We should get you to the infirmary."

"You're welcome to come back any time, Peso," Inkling offered. "And if you want to borrow any books, just sign them out."

"Thank you!"

"And here we are," Kwazii said, bowing with a flourish as he opened the door to the infirmary. To his surprise, the room was empty, no mountain of a man standing in the middle with arms folded and white brow lifted at Kwazii's tardiness.

"Wow," Peso breathed as though looking upon a chest of gold, head turning to take in the windows, desk and computer, cabinets, drawers, empty tanks, and waiting bed.

Kwazii shrugged. "It's all yours, such as it is."

"Thank you." Peso wandered around, slim fingers hovering but never touching. Kwazii couldn't stop remembering their surprising strength. "How do I order supplies?"

Kwazii had no idea. "Dashi?" he guessed.

"And getting set up on the computer?"

"Definitely Dashi," Kwazii said more firmly.

A small smile quirked Peso's lips. He brushed back a lock of white hair. "So, um, what does a first mate do, Kwazii?"

"Crew management. Eh... Y'know. Greet the new medic, test his mettle, get him settled, punish him when he makes insulting insinuations." Kwazii winked.

"Yes, test his mettle," Peso murmured.

"I'm the Captain's right hand cat," Kwazii explained loftily, examining his claws. "I'm wherever he needs me to be."

A loud “Bwoop, bwoop” blared urgently from the communication panel by the door, making them both jump.

"The Octo-alert!" Kwazii exclaimed, leaping to the panel and hitting the response button.

Barnacle's face appeared on screen, lines of tension around his mouth, his jaw clenched and tendons standing out from his neck. He wore his helmet, submerged in well-lit blue waters.

"Kwazii," he said, his warm tone at odds with his obvious straining. "There you are. I'm in need of some assistance."

Yow! A mission was just what he needed.

"Just say the word, Captain. What's going on?"

The video shook and Barnacles grunted. "Dashi and Shellington encountered a situation in the reef and I hoped I could resolve it without interrupting your tour. There's a shark here killing reef citizens indiscriminately. We're not sure why--all we can get out of him is that he's mad with hunger. But he's not eating any of his prey."

Another shake and darkness suddenly engulfed the video--darkness and teeth and the ridges of a shark’s palate.

There was a growl and sound of struggle, and then Barnacles returned.

"Sorry about that," he apologized.

"Is he chewing on your arm?" Kwazii asked, disbelieving.

"I'm wearing a suit. I want to get him away from the reef so we can find a solution. Bring the Gup C to my location, please, and we'll tow him out."

"Aye, Captain."

The video cut out as teeth reappeared on screen and Kwazii shook his head.

"Sorry, looks like I have to go--" He turned and stopped short to see Peso digging through his cabinets and collecting items in a medic's bag. "Naw, mate, it's barely your first day, and the Captain didn't say we needed a medic."

"There was something in that shark's throat," Peso said. He closed his bag and hooked it over his shoulder. "And it doesn't matter what day it is--I am an Octonaut now. I'm coming with you."

Kwazii almost refused, but the look on Peso’s face told him that if he did, Peso would find a way. Besides, Peso was the doctor now--he had an authority of his own.

“Right, but you need to listen to orders and stay safe. Missions can be very dangerous.”

“That’s why I’m here, Kwazii.” Peso moved to the door. “I’m ready.”

“Go to the Launch Bay and ask Tweak for a communicator and a collar--that’s what generates our helmets. I’ll grab mine and meet you there.”

“Understood.” With a firm nod, Peso hurried out, Kwazii following close behind.