Octo-Oneshots

Austen With An 'E'

Jay stopped in her, no, their tracks about 3 steps away from the kitchen's door. Muffled voices came from within. They reached up their paw to knock, but stopped themself.

"Don't worry about it." Koshi had soothed them early that morning after their individual writing/animating sprints, "Tell her when you feel like telling her. No pressure, it's your life and your decision. I'm just gonna tell you, Jay, there is little to no chance she's not gonna take it well."

They winced slightly at their new name. It just didn't sound right, not yet at least. Even though they came up with it on the spot, it was definitely a step up from the four letter J word they'd been called for so long, but the name still left a weird feeling lingering in their mouth. Luckily, they were spared the dilemma of a life-changing decision to conceal or not to conceal, when Tweak opened the door.

"Fancy seein' you here?" She raised an eyebrow then looked behind her at her companion, "Dash, you've got a, uh, visitor." Dashi appeared right behind her, and immediately flinched at the sight of her sibling.

"Jane, what did you do this time?" She sighed affectionately and cupped their face in their paws.

"Um, actually." Jay sheepishly rubbed the back of their neck. Here goes nothing, "DashiI'mqueer." Their tongue felt tied and all their limbs turned to jelly.

"What?"

They swallowed the golf ball of a lump in their throat and spoke again, slower, but still with a tremble in their voice, "Dashi, I'm queer. I'm not a woman, and I'm not a man." For a few seconds, the entire world screeched to a halt and the only thing that cold be heard in the kitchen of the Octopod in that moment, was the beating of three hearts.

"Well, what a surprise." Tweak finally chuckled before clapping Jay on the shoulder, "Congrats, lil hellhound, Kwazii officially owes me 50 bucks."

"Do you have any plans?" Dashi had sat them down after she got over her shock, "Name changes? Surgeries?"

"So, you support?" They looked up as relief burst in their chest.

"Of course." Dashi put a paw on their shoulder and looked them in the eyes, "Why would I stop loving you for something you've been all along?"

Happiness swelled up in their heart, "You mean it?"

"Of course." Dashi beamed, "Hey, this is a safe space for you. You can tell me anything."

"Thanks, sis." They stopped for a minute. Dashi had always loved their name, "and I kinda want to change my name."

"Really?" Dashi inquired mildly, "What do you want to change it to?" They opened their mouth, but closed it again and bit their bottom lip. None of the names they'd looked up on Google so far felt right, except... but that one was a truly horrendous joke Koshi told them.

"You know that old Inkling-speak book that Koshi likes?" 

"Pride and Prejudice?" Dashi facepalmed, "Oh gosh do I even wanna know?"

"Koshi said I should take the author's last name."

"Jane Austen's?" It immediately dawned on her, "Ohhhh, that's funny."

"Really? You too?" Austen sighed, "I swear, I'll never understand you."

"Oh, you'll learn soon enough, Ja- Austen." Dashi perked up with pride at getting her sibling's name right first time.

Austen smiled, "Thanks, Dashi."

A/N- This is (another) request from DolphinGirl123456 . Thank you so much! I need to stop being lazy and come up with ideas of my own, but you know what? If you guys have any more requests, keep them coming!

A/N 2.0- I got halfway through writing this before I realized I both deadnamed and misgendered my OC 3 times, lol.