Chapter Text
Saki loved the beach.
Maybe it was because she came here the perfect amount, where its familiar to her, but still a novelty. She’s glad she’s well enough to come back to the beach, now, and breath in the salty air. She loved it.
Saki loved the beach.
Ichika kicks water into her face, disrupting her peaceful moment. Saki screams and cowers away, watching ichika giggle. It was nice being at the beach. It was nicer being there with her friends. Sakis parents have taken the four of them out here. It’s a little far, so it’s a nice treat. Its been a while since she’s been to the ocean. Its been a while since she’s swam at all, so shes glad she gets to be here with her friends.
The four of them wade into the water, flinching and squealing at every wave that passed them, trying to protect themselves against the chill of the water.
They stay about waist deep, where the waves don’t reach over their chests at the highest. It’s a calm day, today, so theyre still very gentle over them. The biggest splash danger seems to be themselves, trying to catch the others off guard to flick water up at them.
They spend an hour in the water, switching between splashing games and floating games, trying to stay above water without touching their feet to the sand, trying to keep their heads up while holding onto one person in a line, screaming the entire time. Saki pretends to be a shark, at one point, swimming around and pouncing on her friends until her and shiho have a shark-off, seeing who plays one better. Shiho wins, of course.
Its nice, being in the water. Even if theyre not playing a game, its nice just to be in it. saki spent so much time in hospital, not allowed to go in a pool, let alone the sea, she forgot how much she liked it. and, she liked it with her friends here.
Then, Honami screeches, almost jumping out of the water, breaking saki’s peaceful moment. The other three scramble over, trying to see whats wrong.
“theres- its an octopus. In the water.” Honami explains, white-faced.
“at the beach?”
“yes. I think so.”
“whats it doing here?”
“I don’t-“
“that’s so cool!!!!” saki pulls herself forward, attempting to run through the waist-high water. She leans over honami, holding onto her shoulders for support. Sure enough, under the water, a medium sized octopus was just… sitting there. Saki wants to reach out and touch it.
“its not trying to run away.” Saki pouts. She doesn’t know why, shes glad its here for her to see it, but she really did want to see it swimming.
“no, it isnt.” Honami agrees.
“did it touch you?” ichika asks, coming up to peek over honamis other shoulder down at the octopus.
Honami nods. She stands pin-straight in her spot, only about a metre away from where the octopus was, as if she was scared that, if she moved, the octopus might try to kill her. it wont.
“that’s cool. Its just sitting there.” Shiho says. Shes close behind saki, almost leaning over her, like saki is doing to honami. The four of them seem to make a triangle in the way theyre standing, where honami is acting as the safety barrier between them and the octopus.
“we should catch it!” saki suggests.
“huh? Catch it?” ichika unlatches herself from honamis shoulder, turning to look at saki.
Saki nods. “mhm! If its just staying still like this, we totally have a chance!”
“and then do what with it?” honami asks, keeping her eyes trained on the octopus.
“I don’t know yet!” but saki’s already pulled away from the three of them, leaving them as she starts towards the beach. “keep an eye on it, ok guys?” she asks, wading through the water back to shore. “im going to go get a bucket!” she doesn’t give them time to complain as she sprints off.
Saki runs as fast as she can back into shore. The octopus hasn’t swum off, but it might still. And, she wants to have a go at catching it before it does. She runs up the beach, stopping abruptly in front of her parents towels.
“hey saki, whats up?” her mother asks.
“cant talk, gotta catch an octopus!” she responds, grabbing the bucket they brought to build sandcastles with from the pile of stuff they brought and running off again. She runs back through the water, slowing down as it got deep. It might be a squeeze, but shes sure the octopus will fit.
Its not hard to find her friends—theyre standing in a triangle, staring down at the water. Saki giggles, coming up to them. The three of them stand in protective guard over the octopus, making sure to not let it out of their sights.
“how are we going to catch it?” shiho sees her approach.
“hmm.. im not sure. its not trying to swim away so… maybe just grab it?”
“grab it?” honami blinks. “what if it gets upset? Or tries to swim away really fast, or starts holding onto one of us and not letting go?”
“that… probably wont happen.” Ichika assures her.
“yeah,” shiho agrees. “it’ll probably try swim away, but that’s not too bad, it is a wild animal, after all.”
Saki pouts. “I don’t want it to swim away, I want to catch it!” she cries. “quick, form a barrier so I can coax it into the bucket.” She pushes ichika aside lightly, moving her closer to shiho and taking her spot. She leans over, dipping the bucket in the water so it fills with water.
“what do you want us to do if it moves?” honami asks.
“um—catch it!” saki knows that’s an unrealistic ask, theres no way they would be able to catch it if it decides to swim away. It doesn’t take much to guess it’s a lot faster in the water than they are. Honami nods, anyway.
Saki leans further down until she has to tilt her head up to keep her nose out of the water, touching the edge of the bucket to the sand and laying it down horizontally. Shes not really sure where to go from here. She lifts her head up further, freeing her mouth from the water. “shiho! Start pushing it in!” she calls.
“huh? Push it?” despite her protest, shiho still crouches down in the water, pushing her hands out to try and gently move the octopus without scaring it into running away. Surprisingly, the octopus complies, moving towards saki’s bucket almost lazily as ichika and honami stand on either side, very crudely preventing it from leaving. Of course, it still could, if it wanted to.
Saki watches the first tentacle touch the bucket, feeling around the smooth plastic surface, deciding if it was nice enough to go into. Theres a moment where she holds her breath, hoping with all her might that it goes into the bucket. It does, exploring the bucket further. Saki waits until its over halfway in the bucket, before abruptly pulling it up an out of the water, pushing the octopus further in in the process. She adjusts to the weight of carrying it, holding it from the bottom with both hands. The octopus flails around for a moment, bringing a few tentacles out of the bucket to reach around the air, before settling in, not trying to escape. Saki smiles. She actually caught it!
“we caught it!” ichika says, in disbelief.
“I expected it to put up more of a fight, at least.” Honami leans in, admiring the way the octopus twists in the bucket.
“I expected we wouldn’t be able to catch it at all.” shiho stands beside her.
“lets go show mum!” saki yells excitedly, beginning to run back to shore before the others could say anything, distracted by her excitement. Shes careful not to spill the bucket, keeping the octopus safely inside. She’s overcome with pride, impressed by her own ability. and, all at once, she knows what she wants to do with the octopus.
“wow, that’s certainly cool, saki.” Her mother says, peering into the bucket. Its mesmerising, watching the way the octopus shifts inside, trying to get comfortable.
“can I keep it?” she wants to, like shes never wanted something more. She needs to keep the octopus. She’ll be the best octopus mum ever, and treat it as her own little princess.
“keep it?”
“yes, I really really want to. please, mum?”
“oh, I don’t know, honey, that’s a wild animal…” she turns to saki’s father, looking for his input.
“saki, you don’t know the first thing about looking after an octopus.” He points out.
“I could learn! It cant be that hard, surely. And, besides, I can get my friends to help!” she turns to them. “you’ll help out, right?”
The three of them nod, albeit a little hesitantly.
Saki turns back to her parents, putting on her best begging face. they share another look with each other.
“ah, saki…” her mother complains. “youre just so hard to say no to…”
“saki, you know if we keep it, its not going to last more than a few months.” Her father says.
“and, you’ll have to put a lot of time into looking after it, ok?” her mother adds.
Saki smiles. she’s won. She looks down at the octopus in the bucket. Its going to come home with her as a pet. She smiles wider. She’s always wanted a pet, and what cooler pet is there to have than an octopus?
“we have to buy a tank for it! I can put it in my room, so it can sleep next to me! and we’ll buy lots of fish for it—I think that’s what octopus eat.”
“crab, mostly.” Shiho supplied.
Saki nodded along. “so, we’ll buy lots of crab for it to eat! and ill take care of it every day, I promise.”
“well, if you promise…” her father stands. “we should get going, then! ‘don’t want to leave that thing in the bucket for too long, right?”
“right!” saki parrots. She follows her father in beginning to pack up the area they were sitting, placing everything back in the bags they came down with.
“hold on,” her mother interrupts. “are you girls done swimming, first?” she turns to the other three.
“ah—I think so.” Honami replies. “the octopus was kind of the highlight, so its alright now if we leave.”
Saki’s mother nods. “well, then, lets get back on the road, get you three back to your parents.” She stands, brushing sand off of herself and picking up the towel she was sitting on.
Saki begins walking up the beach, following her father. She’s still holding the bucket from underneath. Its not an overly big octopus, but everything becomes strenuous when you carry something for a while, and saki’s never been the strongest.
“here, let me take it.” shiho offers, coming up beside her.
“ah—thank you.” Her pride takes a little hit, having to have her friend carry something for her, but she knows its for the best. It wouldn’t be good for anyone if she dropped the octopus, here. Shiho takes the bucket from her with ease.
“its going to be a little hard to transport it home, you know.”
“I know.” Saki pouts. “but, im confident I can!”
“yeah, well, theres not really anywhere for it to go, once we get int the car. Even if it escapes the bucket.”
“I still don’t want it to escape the bucket.” Saki could imagine the chaos in the car if the octopus escaped.
“yeah, that would be best. Still, its an hour journey, and I don’t know if octopus can get restless.”
Saki just nods.
They make it to the car packing in their stuff. Shiho and honami sit in the back, with ichika and saki in the middle. Saki sits with the octopus on her lap. They had tipped out a little bit of the excess water before they got in, making sure that it wont spill salt water into the car with the bumps in the road.
Saki wonders what the octopus would do if she stuck her hand into the bucket. She tries, experimentally, touching the tip of her finger to the water. Theres a tentacle that comes to greet her, wrapping around her finger and pulling herself upwards. It’s a weird feeling, the suckers on the underside of the tentacle. It snakes its way upwards, feeling around her hand. Saki wants to let it, but shes worried about what it would do. at the end of the day, it’s a wild animal she just picked up. She shakes her hand a little, trying to get the octopus to let her go. Surprisingly, it takes the hint, dropping its tentacle back into the water before saki tries to pry it off of herself.
Saki had never really been around an octopus, before. She’d seen them in aquariums, of course, but she’d never been close enough to touch. She knew they were smart creatures, it was the first fact anyone ever learns about them. But, something about the octopus in front of her was off, as if it were a little too self-aware, responding to the movements saki made in a way that she didn’t really expect from an animal. Almost as if it could understand her.
Saki’s mother asks them to look up what kind of tank an octopus needs, and ichika beats her too it, pulling out her phone to search it up.
“apparently octopus need a tank that is at least double their size.” She says.
Saki looks down at the octopus in the bucket. It was hard to measure it like that, all curled up inside. She tries to think back to when she saw the octopus in the ocean, but even then it was hard to tell. Did ichika mean double when their tentacles are fully extended? Or, just their body? Saki’s parents were right, she didn’t know the first thing about octopus.
“what was something like this doing at the beach, anyway? I thought they’d live in reefs, or something.” Shiho asks from over saki’s shoulder, staring into the bucket as well. it was quite addicting to watch its movements.
“theres a small seaweed forest nearby, remember?” honami tells them. “it probably lived there, beforehand. Im not sure what it was doing all the way out at the beach, though.”
“hmm….” Saki thinks. She stares out of the window, watching the buildings speed passed. “maybe it wanted to be picked up like this, to go explore the rest of the world!”
Ichika giggles. “im not sure if that’s the case, saki.”
“how big would you say it is, if you had to guess?” her mother asks.
Saki considers it. “I don’t know… medium?”
“that’s not really a measurement, saki.” Shiho points out.
“well, its in a bucket, I cant tell!” she defends herself.
“I’d say ‘medium’ is a pretty good guess, actually.” Honami says. “it didn’t look overly large in the ocean, before.”
“thank you, hona.”
“it’s a little bit of a weird colour, though, isnt it?” honami adds.
“huh? It looks fine to me.” the octopus was a kind of light colour, a dull orange.
“octopus are usually a deep reddish brown, but this one looks more… orange.”
Saki blinks. “is that bad?” she looks down at the octopus again, really studying it. “is it sick? Is that why it wasn’t swimming away?”
“ah—I think its fine, saki.” Honami assures her. “I had thought it was just camouflaging with the sand, at first, but it doesn’t seem that way, now.”
The bucket the octopus was in was a deep blue. Definitely not sand coloured. Saki frowns. She didn’t want a sick octopus, she’ll feel too bad about taking it out of the ocean. The stress was only going to speed up its illness.
“saki, its probably fine. Im sure there are lots of different coloured octopus in the world.” Shiho says. “its not sick.” Honami nods along, but her expression gives away the lie.
“youre right, its probably nothing.” Saki tries to shake the thought of it from her head. Her new octopus was well, and wouldn’t be made ill by her taking it from the ocean, she was (semi) sure of it.
They research more into how to care for a domesticated octopus. unfortunately, theres not much out there that details how to care for a wild one, but beggars cant be choosers, saki supposes.
She sticks her hand into the bucket a few more times, letting the octopus examine her. saki thought it might help the two of them become more acquaintanced. That, and the weird feeling off the little suckers on her skin was a little bit addicting.
Eventually, they arrive back in their own neighbourhood, and begin dropping sakis friends home.
She waves goodbye to each of them, promising the three of them the same thing. ‘ill see you tomorrow, at pxl!’ And ‘ill update you on the octopus, later tonight!’
Ichika is the last to be dropped home, saki and her wave enthusiastically at each other as saki drives away. Now its just her and her parents, and the octopus. its getting a little late in the afternoon, now, golden light spilling onto the houses.
“shall we try buy a tank, now? We really should, before it closes.” her mother turns to her.
“yep!” saki sticks her hand in the bucket again, giggling at the feeling of the octopuses tentacles wrapping around her fingers, playing with her.
“what are you going to name it?” her father asks.
Oh, right. saki hadn’t thought of a name yet. “im not sure…”
“well, is it a boy or a girl?” he prompts.
“how do I tell?”
“I don’t know, its an octopus.”
“does it matter? What about choosing a gender neutral name?” her mother suggests.
“what kind of names do octopus’s have?” her father asks.
“I don’t know. I don’t think it’s a very common pet.”
“well, give it a dog name, or something.” Her parents converse while saki thinks.
“what about ‘tsukasa?’” she suggests.
“’tsukasa?’ isnt that a person name?”
Saki nods. “it might be, but I like it!” theres nothing wrong with giving animals names typically reserved for people, saki thinks. She’s sure people name dogs things like that all the time.
“’tsukasa’ is nice.” Her father agrees. “’bit weird for an octopus, but it’s a bit weird to have a pet octopus at all, so…”
“hey, don’t insult Tsukasa!” saki yells at him. he laughs.
Theres a pet store not too far away that they go to. saki’s never been to a pet shop before, since she’s never had a pet. She instructs her father to stay in the car with the octopus, since they probably couldn’t take it inside. Saki lets her mother do all the talking while she explores the fish aisle, peering into the tanks of goldfish and beta’s. her mother asks about tank size and estimates the size of Tsukasa, just like saki had. She asks about food, and filtering, and what kind of decorations she should put in the tank. Saki really should be listening to the answers, but she was a little preoccupied trying to count the fish in the large tank in front of her without looking at the number on the side.
Soon enough, she was walking out of the store with her mother, with the employee there helping them carry a large tank towards the boot of their car. The tank is filled with various items; food and decorations and salt. They’ve also been given specific instructions on how to set up the tank, once they get home. Sakis father gives her back the bucket to put on her lap while she drives.
The octopus is looking at her, now. She can see one of its little eyes, peering up at her from the bucket. Saki giggles, giving it a little wave. It doesn’t wave back, but that’s probably because it doesn’t have any hands.
They get home, and set Tsukasa down on the kitchen bench as they bring the tank up to saki’s room, discussing how to fill it up. Her father works on fitting the hose in the house and up the stairs while saki and her mother bring over a coffee table from the unused room with only three walls. It wasn’t being used much, there. They set the tank on top of it. saki arranges the decorations while her mother fiddles with the filters.
An hour later and saki sits on her parents bed while the two of them get ready to go out. getting a new octopus as a pet was apparently not cause enough to cancel date night dinner plans. That’s fine, at least toya gets to come over so saki can show him her cool new pet. The tank is all set up now, the hose is still running the last of the water into it so Tsukasa can be put into it. the octopus is still in the bucket, its beside her mothers bed on the floor. its dangling a few of its tentacles over the side. It getting a little bit weird how it hasn’t tried to escape yet, despite how easy it would be for Tsukasa to do so. Saki is glad, of course. But, its still weird.
“the tank is probably full now, if you want to go shut it off before it spills.” Her father comments. He probably should have said that will a little more stress, if hes talking about her nice carpet being covered in salt water that he’ll be in charge of getting cleaned.
“right! keep an eye on Tsukasa for me!” she tells them as she runs off. Sure enough, the tank is reaching its full mark. Saki runs downstairs to shut off the hose, and then back upstairs to pull it out of the tank. Everything was set to put Tsukasa into his new home. Saki felt a little bit giddy.
She runs back downstairs and into her parents room. “its full!” she announces. “so im going to put Tsukasa in, now!”
“ah—let me come help you.” Her mother offers, picking up the bucket. The two of them leave the room, journeying back upstairs. Theres been a lot of walking up these stairs recently, saki was beginning to get tired of it.
“its been in this bucket for a long while, I feel a little bad.” Her mother says.
“yeah. Well, you cant rush filling a tank with water when you only have one hose, right?”
“I suppose.”
They make it to saki’s room. Saki watches as her mother lifts the bucket over the tank, tipping the contents in slowly. Tsukasa falls out of it in one big heap, splashing a little bit of water on saki. She squeaks.
Tsukasa begins to explore its new tank, fitting his tentacles into the little crevice’s as it swam around. Saki smiles.
“I think it likes it.” her mother comments.
“looks like it.” sakis happy. She leans in close to the glass, watching Tsukasa move around.
“should we go?” her father asks from the door. saki jumps a little, not having noticed him come in.
“yes, we should.” Her mother agrees, following her father out of the room.
Saki pulls back from the tank. Tsukasa is still looking around it. sakis glad, because it’s the most she’s seen it move since she first saw it. shes glad its not sick and dying, like honami scared her into believing. “stay there.” She tells it, as if it had made any attempt to leave, before. Saki follows her parents out of the room, meeting her mother at the door, her father already at the car.
“toya will be here in about fifteen minutes, ok? So you wont be home alone for long.” Her mother assures her, wrapping her in a hug.
“yes mum, I know. Im older than him, remember? Its not like hes babysitting me, or anything.”
Her mother smiles, letting saki go. “I know. Its still nicer to know youre with someone, rather than home alone.”
“im 15, I can be home alone just fine!”
“I know.” Her mother repeats. “well, we’ll be off, now. ‘Be back in a few hours.”
“bye-bye!” saki waves as her mother joins her father at the car. Saki heads back inside, listening to her parents driving off. She’s home alone for the night. Toya will be here, but he didn’t really count. Hes not an adult.
Saki puts on the tv, waiting for toya to arrive. She cant wait to show him her new octopus.
Toya arrives perfectly on time, fifteen minutes after her parents left. Saki lets him in, even though the door was unlocked. She doesn’t give him time to settle down, ushering him upstairs and towards her room.
“toya, you’ll never believe what I got!” she says in lieu of a greeting.
“hm? What did you get?”
Saki pushes open the door of her room, leading him inside until her new tank is visible. Tsukasa is inside it, spread out over the other side of the tank.
“an octopus?”
“I got a pet octopus!!!!” saki announces.
Toya approaches the large tank, peering in through the glass. The octopus peers back. “from where?” he asks.
“I caught it in a bucket at the beach.” She says proudly. Toya straightens.
“you caught it? it’s a wild octopus?”
“yep! Isnt that cool!”
Toya’s quiet for a moment. Saki worries he might tell her off. “yeah, I guess it is pretty cool.” He says eventually, going back to staring at the octopus. it unlatches from the wall, crawling along the floor towards toya, trying to reach out to him through the glass. “it is pretty cool.” Toya repeats.
They admire Tsukasa for another twenty minutes while saki explains to toya in great detail how she caught the octopus and brought it home, getting the tank on her way here. Toya nods along to everything.
They head back downstairs eventually, and saki heats up the food her parents had left for the two of them while toya chooses something to watch on tv. Its peaceful with him, since they know each other so well.
They eat dinner, and saki curls up on the couch. Its been a long day. She expected to crash as soon as she got home, just from the excitement and effort of swimming, but setting the octopus had interrupted that plan. Suffice to say, she felt super, super tired. she leans her head against the armrest of the couch, closing her eyes. it wouldn’t be so bad to fall asleep here, shes sure toya would wake her up when he went to bed, dragging her into her own room. Shes not sure of the time, but she knows its really not that late at all.
Theres a loud crash from upstairs. Saki jolts awake. Did something fall? Did something hit the roof? Was it her new tank?
“Tsukasa!” she yells as she stands up. Toya follows her. had her new pet managed to tip the tank over, already? saki doesn’t know how long octopus can live outside of water, but shes sure its long enough for it to run away. Run? Slither? Saki doesn’t dwell on it, taking the steps two at a time to run to her room. She pushes the door open, toya hanging close behind her.
Surprisingly, the tank was still in its place on the new stand. Most of its water, however, had been tipped out onto the floor, and in the centre of it was someone. A person. There was a person in her room, and no octopus.
The person rubbed at his head, seemingly in pain.
“who are you?” saki takes a step back. Shes not sure who this is, or how he got in, or where her octopus went, but, she’d like to know. Toya reaches for sakis hand to hold in a protective gesture. Saki keeps her eyes trained on the person on her floor.
He looks up at her, a little shocked. Saki watches in disbelief as his hair, long and a sort of dusty blond, shifts, growing shorter and more vibrant before her eyes, until it lands on a colour similar to hers, and a length similar to toya’s. saki blinks.
The person pushes himself up from the floor until he’s almost sitting, looking back up at saki. “hi.” He says. Saki doesn’t dare move. “um—its Tsukasa.”