Washed Up [Part 2]
Nov. 2nd, 2016 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
esp_dragonFandom: Noblesse
Summary: This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.
He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as fun though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.
Contains: M-21/Tao
Notes: Nano is here! :D
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 2,256
Total word count: 4,872
Status: Work in progress
"We're home!" Tao called out as they entered their house, carrying the icebox securely in his arms.
"Welcome back," Chin-mae said, shaking his head, closing the door behind them.
"First things first," Tao said, placing the icebox on the table, "is getting you some light!" Tao opened it up and peered inside. "Still doing okay?"
[Better,] Takeo said, [now that the rocking's stopped.]
"Heh." Tao lifted the tub up as Chin-mae peeled himself out of his wet clothes. "That shouldn't happen again any time soon."
"You going to transfer him over now?" Chin-mae said, balling his clothes up.
"Sorta." There was a wire holder on the edge of the tank that Chin-mae couldn't figure out what it was for and he watched Tao place the tub in the holder.
It was low enough that most of the tub was inside the water, but still high enough that the lip of it wasn't submerged.
"Stay in there for a while, okay?" Tao said to Takeo, holding a hand up. "We gotta make sure the water acclimatised for you so it's not a shock when you go into it."
[Ah, all right.] Takeo spread his tentacles out, the tips probing the plastic. [Hmm...] He spread out further. [That feels nice.]
Tao grinned. "Told ya I'd made the best tank."
"And you're going to catch a cold if you don't change," Chin-mae said, dropping a towel over Tao's head.
"Hah! My immune system is better than that." Tao still started to dry his hair.
It didn't take them long to change into dry clothes, tidying things away, and Tao leaned over the tank to peer at Takeo once he was done. "All warmed up?"
[I think so, yes.] Takeo had a few tentacles curled around the lip of the tub, some of them edged into the tank's water.
Tao stuck his fingers into the different water and nodded. "Yeah, I'd say you're good to go."
Before Tao had finished speaking, Takeo pulled himself over the lip and dropped into the tank. He seemed to drift there, hovering in the centre, before sinking to the bottom and as soon as his tentacles hit the sand, he was exploring.
"What do you think?" Tao asked, watching Takeo. "Is there enough there, or do you want more?"
[I don't even know what's here yet.] Takeo's voice was wry as he lifted up a small hollow tube Chin-mae didn't think he could fit through and tossed it up.
Chin-mae chuckled. "Stop being a helicopter parent."
Tao's face scrunched up. "But Chin-maaae! What if there's something wrong?"
"Then he'll tell us." Hopefully. Takeo seemed straightforward and honest enough from how he'd talked so far.
Tao grumbled, crossing his arms. "Okay." Then he huffed, shaking his head. "Takeo, are you hungry, or do you want to explore first?"
Takeo had latched some of his tentacles around a large rock and had been in the process of tipping it over. [Mm?]
"Do you want food?" Tao tried again.
The tentacles paused, curling and uncurling again. [Oh, hm. I guess I am a little hungry.]
"Then some food is coming right up!"
"Need help?" Chin-mae asked, but Tao waved him back.
"Nah, it's easy."
As Chin-mae heard Tao move around the kitchen, he watched Takeo flow over each of the objects Tao had put inside the tank like, well, water, going from one side of the tank to the other. Once he'd gone around the edge, Takeo settled down, stretching his tentacles out and dragging whatever they touched closer to him to investigate.
"And I'm back," Tao said, holding a small plate of what looked like a couple of frozen shrimp. "I don't have anything live since heh, I didn't know if you'd be coming back with us, but maybe tomorrow?" Tao blinked, then pulled out his phone. "Today, damn. Didn't realise it was that late. Anyway." He dropped the shrimps in one by one and Takeo moved over, catching some before they hit the sand.
The shrimp were drawn into Takeo's underside and nothing was left when Takeo removed his tentacles again.
"I'm going to have to make a list of things to make sure of, won't I?" Tao mused, taking the plate back to the kitchen.
Chin-mae snorted. "I can use the internet." It wasn't hard. "But a list would help." It was better if he didn't have to sift through too much information.
Tao nodded when he emerged again, yawning. "Tomorrow."
...Hm. "Tomorrow," Chin-mae agreed, leading Tao to their bedroom.
* * *
"So we've got a new housemate," Chin-mae said once they were settled in bed. It didn't feel right calling Takeo a pet, not when they could have conversations with him.
Tao pressed his forehead to Chin-mae's shoulder. "Yep."
Chin-mae watched him from the corner of his eyes, before sighing and brushing Tao's hair away from his eyes.
Tao didn't look up at him like he usually did, pressing his head further into his shoulder.
"All right," Chin-mae said, turning towards him, "what is it?"
Tao blinked once and then beamed at him. "Why'd you think there's something wrong?"
Chin-mae gazed at him and Tao's expression didn't change. "Because usually when you got something you wanted, you'd either be up the entire night trying to play with it or just celebrating." The worried hovering didn't count; Tao didn't have the restless energy Chin-mae expected him to have. "I know you."
Tao huffed, turning his head away. "You thought I was going to buy fish."
"That's what most people buy when they're setting up a tank." Chin-mae sent him a dry look, leaning in to press his forehead to Tao's. "What's wrong?" he murmured.
All at once Tao slumped and wrapped an arm around Chin-mae. He didn't say anything straight away but this time Chin-mae kept quiet, letting him gather his thoughts.
"It's just a small thing, you know? But just-" Tao paused and inhaled. "When I first heard him, I thought I'd do some research on how to look after an octopus."
"Obviously," Chin-mae said, one corner of his lips twisting up. Tao knew what he was doing with what he'd put inside it. "And?"
"And..." Tao played with the hem of Chin-mae's top. "A lot of octopus tend to live a year or less when they're in captivity."
...Oh. "Shit," Chin-mae breathed. "That's why it had to be now."
Tao nodded. "He doesn't exactly have a lot of time left. At the size he is, he's probably not that old, but that means only a couple more months, and if his home won't be clean for years..."
"Yeah."
Tao hugged him, Chin-mae returning it. "I just didn't want him to be alone there."
"Then we'd better not be caught because of this or else we're going to be the ones trapped in a small space with no-one else to talk to."
At that, Tao laughed, patting his back. "You doubting my amazing hacking skills?"
"Your job is to stop hackers, not be one."
Tao huffed in Chin-mae's face, making him lean back. "And to know how to stop people, you need to know how to do it, and I'm one of the best!" Tao's smile faded. "And the other thing I was thinking about was, well, he's a telepathic octopus. That's not exactly normal."
Chin-mae shrugged. "As far as we know. It could be we don't know about it because no-one else could hear them."
"But what if it's not?" Tao burst out, whispering. "What if the reason he doesn't remember being in the sea was because he was never in it and he's some government experiment that escaped or something? And that's why he showed up in no place an octopus should be?"
"He was found covered in oil though," Chin-mae said, rubbing slow circles on Tao's back. "That means he's from the sea."
Tao didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Oh. Right." He buried his face in Chin-mae's shoulder with a laugh.
Chin-mae shook his head, smiling. "Go to sleep. You've earned it." And clearly wasn't thinking straight any more after all that worrying.
"'Course I did." Tao grinned at him and then leaned, kissing him. "Thanks for coming tonight."
"Hn. I would be a crap boyfriend if I hadn't." Chin-mae exhaled, turning to lie on his back again. "But tell me the next time you're going to drag me into breaking the law."
Tao chuckled. "I won't need to, because that was the only time it'll happen."
"Unless you lose the internet."
Tao swatted him. "Hey, I need that." He yawned, wriggling a little before stopping again. "Right. Sleep now, then celebrate tomorrow."
"Good plan." Chin-mae wasn't that sleepy, not when his inner body clock was still running on the night shift, but he closed his eyes anyway, hearing Tao drop off beside him.
* * *
Chin-mae woke up and stared at the wall, Tao pressed up against his back, an arm around him.
Hm... Had he dreamed or had he really broken into an aquarium the previous night and helped Tao steal an octopus?
He looked at the clock and grimaced. It had only been a couple of hours since he'd gone to bed, the sun starting to peek into their window; he'd just fucked up his body clock for the night and he was working.
Sleeping more wasn't going to help, so Chin-mae disentangled himself from Tao and headed out their room.
He paused at the tank in their living room, the toys not in the places he remembered them being, a lone tentacle poking out of a castle in the corner.
So he hadn't been dreaming. Chin-mae rubbed his face. Huh.
[Morning!] Takeo slid out of his castle, wandering over to him and holding a tentacle up.
"Morning," Chin-mae said, waving back to him. "Did you sleep well?"
[Mm. It was nice having different scenery to look at after those walls.]
"Yeah, must be nice," Chin-mae said, a little faintly. How long did Takeo really have? If he'd been bored after a week, wouldn't he just be bored again after a week of staring at the same walls here too? But if he'd been alone with no-one else to talk to... "Are you hungry?" It was best if he didn't work himself up too much about it.
"A little, yes." Takeo even bobbed his head, and huh, octopus really did have human reactions. But was that because it was Takeo?
"Give me a minute," Chin-mae said as he went to the kitchen. He made himself toast as he dug out more shrimp from the freezer. "Was the number Tao gave you last night fine?" There hadn't been any left when they'd gone to bed but for all he knew that had been too much or too little.
[It was,] Takeo said, and huh, that was an advantage to someone being telepathic: no need for raised voices to be heard clearly. [And ah, is that his name?]
Chin-mae paused, staring at the plate in his hand. "Oh, huh." They'd been too distracted to actually introduce themselves, and he didn't think he or Tao had called each other by each others' names while they'd been talking in front of Takeo. "Yeah, sorry. He's Tao — I'm Chin-mae."
He heard a soft murmer of Takeo repeating their names, probably to try and remember them.
Chin-mae chewed on his toast as he brought the shrimp over and dropped them into Takeo's tank.
[Thank you.] Takeo zipped up, grabbing two at once and stuffing them in his mouth before chasing the other shrimp around his tank. Chin-mae watched up, just trying to figure out how the hell Takeo moved when all he could see was flashes of tentacles.
Chin-mae looked over at the squeak of a door and Tao was standing in the doorway, yawning. "I'm surprised you're up." Tao tended to sleep whenever he wanted, or more crash after a long session in front of the computer and then sleep like the dead where nothing could wake up until he decided to.
Tao waved at him before shaking his head and grinning at him. "And miss all the excitement?"
"The excitement of eating food," Chin-mae said, finishing his breakfast.
"And you clearly don't know how exciting food can be," Tao declared, meandering in.
Chin-mae snorted. "It's food. I need it because I'm hungry."
Tao waved a finger at Takeo, who followed the movement and then replicated the gesture. "Hm, I wonder if-" He stopped, dropping his head towards the sound of a ringtone.
Chin-mae frowned, doing the same. "Who the hell would be calling you this early?"
"Someone in a different time zone?" Tao said with a shrug. "Wrong number? Hold on." He pulled his phone out his pocket. "What the hell?"
"Who is it?"Chin-mae said, frowning.
"It's the aquarium?"
...Shit. They'd been found that quickly? But if they'd been caught, then why would the aquarium call Tao? Wouldn't they just call the police to bring them in?
"Aaah, shit shit shit," Tao muttered to himself, hopping from foot to foot. He took a few quick breaths in and out and then held the phone to his ear. "Hell-" He winced.
Chin-mae could hear the shouting from where he was standing.
"A break-in?" Though, it shouldn't be that surprising the aquarium wanted to talk to Tao if his security seemed faulty. "Look, my system - what?" Tao's eyes widened, his gaze flicking to Chin-mae. What was it? "Someone destroyed one of your rooms?"
Wait. They hadn't done that.
______________________________________________________________
Perfect ending point, heh.
Summary: This'll be fun, Tao said. It'll be something you've never done before, Tao said. Chin-mae agrees that breaking into an aquarium on a night out is something he's never done before.
He wouldn't consider stealing an octopus as fun though. Or what happens afterwards because of it.
Contains: M-21/Tao
Notes: Nano is here! :D
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Word count: 2,256
Total word count: 4,872
Status: Work in progress
"We're home!" Tao called out as they entered their house, carrying the icebox securely in his arms.
"Welcome back," Chin-mae said, shaking his head, closing the door behind them.
"First things first," Tao said, placing the icebox on the table, "is getting you some light!" Tao opened it up and peered inside. "Still doing okay?"
[Better,] Takeo said, [now that the rocking's stopped.]
"Heh." Tao lifted the tub up as Chin-mae peeled himself out of his wet clothes. "That shouldn't happen again any time soon."
"You going to transfer him over now?" Chin-mae said, balling his clothes up.
"Sorta." There was a wire holder on the edge of the tank that Chin-mae couldn't figure out what it was for and he watched Tao place the tub in the holder.
It was low enough that most of the tub was inside the water, but still high enough that the lip of it wasn't submerged.
"Stay in there for a while, okay?" Tao said to Takeo, holding a hand up. "We gotta make sure the water acclimatised for you so it's not a shock when you go into it."
[Ah, all right.] Takeo spread his tentacles out, the tips probing the plastic. [Hmm...] He spread out further. [That feels nice.]
Tao grinned. "Told ya I'd made the best tank."
"And you're going to catch a cold if you don't change," Chin-mae said, dropping a towel over Tao's head.
"Hah! My immune system is better than that." Tao still started to dry his hair.
It didn't take them long to change into dry clothes, tidying things away, and Tao leaned over the tank to peer at Takeo once he was done. "All warmed up?"
[I think so, yes.] Takeo had a few tentacles curled around the lip of the tub, some of them edged into the tank's water.
Tao stuck his fingers into the different water and nodded. "Yeah, I'd say you're good to go."
Before Tao had finished speaking, Takeo pulled himself over the lip and dropped into the tank. He seemed to drift there, hovering in the centre, before sinking to the bottom and as soon as his tentacles hit the sand, he was exploring.
"What do you think?" Tao asked, watching Takeo. "Is there enough there, or do you want more?"
[I don't even know what's here yet.] Takeo's voice was wry as he lifted up a small hollow tube Chin-mae didn't think he could fit through and tossed it up.
Chin-mae chuckled. "Stop being a helicopter parent."
Tao's face scrunched up. "But Chin-maaae! What if there's something wrong?"
"Then he'll tell us." Hopefully. Takeo seemed straightforward and honest enough from how he'd talked so far.
Tao grumbled, crossing his arms. "Okay." Then he huffed, shaking his head. "Takeo, are you hungry, or do you want to explore first?"
Takeo had latched some of his tentacles around a large rock and had been in the process of tipping it over. [Mm?]
"Do you want food?" Tao tried again.
The tentacles paused, curling and uncurling again. [Oh, hm. I guess I am a little hungry.]
"Then some food is coming right up!"
"Need help?" Chin-mae asked, but Tao waved him back.
"Nah, it's easy."
As Chin-mae heard Tao move around the kitchen, he watched Takeo flow over each of the objects Tao had put inside the tank like, well, water, going from one side of the tank to the other. Once he'd gone around the edge, Takeo settled down, stretching his tentacles out and dragging whatever they touched closer to him to investigate.
"And I'm back," Tao said, holding a small plate of what looked like a couple of frozen shrimp. "I don't have anything live since heh, I didn't know if you'd be coming back with us, but maybe tomorrow?" Tao blinked, then pulled out his phone. "Today, damn. Didn't realise it was that late. Anyway." He dropped the shrimps in one by one and Takeo moved over, catching some before they hit the sand.
The shrimp were drawn into Takeo's underside and nothing was left when Takeo removed his tentacles again.
"I'm going to have to make a list of things to make sure of, won't I?" Tao mused, taking the plate back to the kitchen.
Chin-mae snorted. "I can use the internet." It wasn't hard. "But a list would help." It was better if he didn't have to sift through too much information.
Tao nodded when he emerged again, yawning. "Tomorrow."
...Hm. "Tomorrow," Chin-mae agreed, leading Tao to their bedroom.
"So we've got a new housemate," Chin-mae said once they were settled in bed. It didn't feel right calling Takeo a pet, not when they could have conversations with him.
Tao pressed his forehead to Chin-mae's shoulder. "Yep."
Chin-mae watched him from the corner of his eyes, before sighing and brushing Tao's hair away from his eyes.
Tao didn't look up at him like he usually did, pressing his head further into his shoulder.
"All right," Chin-mae said, turning towards him, "what is it?"
Tao blinked once and then beamed at him. "Why'd you think there's something wrong?"
Chin-mae gazed at him and Tao's expression didn't change. "Because usually when you got something you wanted, you'd either be up the entire night trying to play with it or just celebrating." The worried hovering didn't count; Tao didn't have the restless energy Chin-mae expected him to have. "I know you."
Tao huffed, turning his head away. "You thought I was going to buy fish."
"That's what most people buy when they're setting up a tank." Chin-mae sent him a dry look, leaning in to press his forehead to Tao's. "What's wrong?" he murmured.
All at once Tao slumped and wrapped an arm around Chin-mae. He didn't say anything straight away but this time Chin-mae kept quiet, letting him gather his thoughts.
"It's just a small thing, you know? But just-" Tao paused and inhaled. "When I first heard him, I thought I'd do some research on how to look after an octopus."
"Obviously," Chin-mae said, one corner of his lips twisting up. Tao knew what he was doing with what he'd put inside it. "And?"
"And..." Tao played with the hem of Chin-mae's top. "A lot of octopus tend to live a year or less when they're in captivity."
...Oh. "Shit," Chin-mae breathed. "That's why it had to be now."
Tao nodded. "He doesn't exactly have a lot of time left. At the size he is, he's probably not that old, but that means only a couple more months, and if his home won't be clean for years..."
"Yeah."
Tao hugged him, Chin-mae returning it. "I just didn't want him to be alone there."
"Then we'd better not be caught because of this or else we're going to be the ones trapped in a small space with no-one else to talk to."
At that, Tao laughed, patting his back. "You doubting my amazing hacking skills?"
"Your job is to stop hackers, not be one."
Tao huffed in Chin-mae's face, making him lean back. "And to know how to stop people, you need to know how to do it, and I'm one of the best!" Tao's smile faded. "And the other thing I was thinking about was, well, he's a telepathic octopus. That's not exactly normal."
Chin-mae shrugged. "As far as we know. It could be we don't know about it because no-one else could hear them."
"But what if it's not?" Tao burst out, whispering. "What if the reason he doesn't remember being in the sea was because he was never in it and he's some government experiment that escaped or something? And that's why he showed up in no place an octopus should be?"
"He was found covered in oil though," Chin-mae said, rubbing slow circles on Tao's back. "That means he's from the sea."
Tao didn't say anything for a few seconds. "Oh. Right." He buried his face in Chin-mae's shoulder with a laugh.
Chin-mae shook his head, smiling. "Go to sleep. You've earned it." And clearly wasn't thinking straight any more after all that worrying.
"'Course I did." Tao grinned at him and then leaned, kissing him. "Thanks for coming tonight."
"Hn. I would be a crap boyfriend if I hadn't." Chin-mae exhaled, turning to lie on his back again. "But tell me the next time you're going to drag me into breaking the law."
Tao chuckled. "I won't need to, because that was the only time it'll happen."
"Unless you lose the internet."
Tao swatted him. "Hey, I need that." He yawned, wriggling a little before stopping again. "Right. Sleep now, then celebrate tomorrow."
"Good plan." Chin-mae wasn't that sleepy, not when his inner body clock was still running on the night shift, but he closed his eyes anyway, hearing Tao drop off beside him.
Chin-mae woke up and stared at the wall, Tao pressed up against his back, an arm around him.
Hm... Had he dreamed or had he really broken into an aquarium the previous night and helped Tao steal an octopus?
He looked at the clock and grimaced. It had only been a couple of hours since he'd gone to bed, the sun starting to peek into their window; he'd just fucked up his body clock for the night and he was working.
Sleeping more wasn't going to help, so Chin-mae disentangled himself from Tao and headed out their room.
He paused at the tank in their living room, the toys not in the places he remembered them being, a lone tentacle poking out of a castle in the corner.
So he hadn't been dreaming. Chin-mae rubbed his face. Huh.
[Morning!] Takeo slid out of his castle, wandering over to him and holding a tentacle up.
"Morning," Chin-mae said, waving back to him. "Did you sleep well?"
[Mm. It was nice having different scenery to look at after those walls.]
"Yeah, must be nice," Chin-mae said, a little faintly. How long did Takeo really have? If he'd been bored after a week, wouldn't he just be bored again after a week of staring at the same walls here too? But if he'd been alone with no-one else to talk to... "Are you hungry?" It was best if he didn't work himself up too much about it.
"A little, yes." Takeo even bobbed his head, and huh, octopus really did have human reactions. But was that because it was Takeo?
"Give me a minute," Chin-mae said as he went to the kitchen. He made himself toast as he dug out more shrimp from the freezer. "Was the number Tao gave you last night fine?" There hadn't been any left when they'd gone to bed but for all he knew that had been too much or too little.
[It was,] Takeo said, and huh, that was an advantage to someone being telepathic: no need for raised voices to be heard clearly. [And ah, is that his name?]
Chin-mae paused, staring at the plate in his hand. "Oh, huh." They'd been too distracted to actually introduce themselves, and he didn't think he or Tao had called each other by each others' names while they'd been talking in front of Takeo. "Yeah, sorry. He's Tao — I'm Chin-mae."
He heard a soft murmer of Takeo repeating their names, probably to try and remember them.
Chin-mae chewed on his toast as he brought the shrimp over and dropped them into Takeo's tank.
[Thank you.] Takeo zipped up, grabbing two at once and stuffing them in his mouth before chasing the other shrimp around his tank. Chin-mae watched up, just trying to figure out how the hell Takeo moved when all he could see was flashes of tentacles.
Chin-mae looked over at the squeak of a door and Tao was standing in the doorway, yawning. "I'm surprised you're up." Tao tended to sleep whenever he wanted, or more crash after a long session in front of the computer and then sleep like the dead where nothing could wake up until he decided to.
Tao waved at him before shaking his head and grinning at him. "And miss all the excitement?"
"The excitement of eating food," Chin-mae said, finishing his breakfast.
"And you clearly don't know how exciting food can be," Tao declared, meandering in.
Chin-mae snorted. "It's food. I need it because I'm hungry."
Tao waved a finger at Takeo, who followed the movement and then replicated the gesture. "Hm, I wonder if-" He stopped, dropping his head towards the sound of a ringtone.
Chin-mae frowned, doing the same. "Who the hell would be calling you this early?"
"Someone in a different time zone?" Tao said with a shrug. "Wrong number? Hold on." He pulled his phone out his pocket. "What the hell?"
"Who is it?"Chin-mae said, frowning.
"It's the aquarium?"
...Shit. They'd been found that quickly? But if they'd been caught, then why would the aquarium call Tao? Wouldn't they just call the police to bring them in?
"Aaah, shit shit shit," Tao muttered to himself, hopping from foot to foot. He took a few quick breaths in and out and then held the phone to his ear. "Hell-" He winced.
Chin-mae could hear the shouting from where he was standing.
"A break-in?" Though, it shouldn't be that surprising the aquarium wanted to talk to Tao if his security seemed faulty. "Look, my system - what?" Tao's eyes widened, his gaze flicking to Chin-mae. What was it? "Someone destroyed one of your rooms?"
Wait. They hadn't done that.
Perfect ending point, heh.