Chapter 1
Tony will adamantly claim he wasn’t drunk when this happened. He was tipsy.
“I beg to differ,” Rhodey groans, dragging a hand over his face.
“Then beg,” Tony replies simply, continuing to scroll through the site for a large aquarium.
“Hey, do you think I should renovate the walls so they’re built-in aquariums or should I get those tube things in malls?” He asks, gazing behind the holograms and screens to look at the walls of his workshop.
Rhodey lets his head fall to the table on the other end of the video call.
“Honey bear, you’re a genius! I should do both.”
“Pep—Pep—Pep—Pep, no listen. Listen!” Tony tries to cut in, the keyword here being ‘tries’.
“An octopus , Tony? Are you out of your mind ? Oh my god, I did not sign up for this! I really didn’t!”
“Pepper, they were gonna sell him! To a restaurant!” Tony exclaims, gesturing wildly to the decently sized aquarium where a California two-spot octopus was resting on a decorative rock. Not that his PA could see that, as she was currently lecturing him on his impulsive decision.
Browsing the vast corners of the deep web isn’t exactly the best thing to do when you’re sleep-deprived and in pain from an electromagnet in your chest. But Tony didn’t really think he’d do anything awful right?
Well, apparently he gained an octopus. Fun.
“Tony, we aren’t talking a cat or a bird, this is an exotic creature! Are those even legal in California?” Pepper continues, shuffling papers on her end of the line. Tony could just picture her rubbing her temples.
“They’re legal, I checked,” He says firmly.
For a moment, the other line is silent, and Tony has the childish urge to hold his breath. Then, Pepper sighs, “You know everyone thinks you’ve lost it after Afghanistan and the whole Iron-man thing? This will raise a lot of questions. I mean, the board already locked you out once, and—”
“Listen, I mean, can I really be an eccentric billionaire if I don’t have an equally eccentric pet?”
“ Anthony Edward Stark —”
Oh boy.
Giovanni the octopus was a little shit and Tony will not hesitate to tell everyone nearby about it.
“DUM-E you menace, bring that back, no no—no, don’t you dare ,” Tony warns, as his firstborn struggled to lift multiple tools in his grip. Beeping enthusiastically, as he rolls his way across the linoleum floor, the tools hanging from his claw haphazardly.
Across the workshop, an orange tentacle catches his eye. He turns around, his hands on his hips, and points to his octopus, “Don’t encourage your brother, young man.”
Giovanni moved his arm again, curling his tentacles in a way that Tony recognized.
Tony gasps, faux scandalized, “Hey, watch your language, you need to respect your elders!” Before his octopus could reply, a crash behind them drew the two’s attention followed by sorrowful beeping.
“DUM-E,” Tony chides, “I didn’t wanna say ‘I told you so’ but—” He pauses as he hefts up the bot from his side, dusting off his claw.
Tony then looks a little thoughtful before continuing, “actually no—” He huffs, as he drops down to pick up the tools, “I am going to say that. DUM-E, my idiot darling, why don’t you just listen to your father?” He asks dramatically as he carries the cradled tools to his tabletop.
DUM-E trails mournfully behind him, only perking up a bit when Giovanni moves around in reassurance when they come close to his tank.
Tony relents at that, always weak when his boys all care for one another. He turns with a fond smile and pats the claw that’s currently hanging in shame. “It’s ok buddy, you meant well. Look, go get those screws from over there.”
Tony sighs as the bot whirrs away excitedly. Fiddling with his Stark Medical Scanner, he pricks his finger discreetly.
9%
“Shit,” He mutters, dragging his hand across his face. “JARVIS, pull up the table, let’s revise the results again.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Thanks, J.”
Tony pressed his lips together tightly, then exhaled hard through his nose.
Ok, this was kinda his fault. He obviously should tell someone of his— condition . But in his defense, it would all just spiral from there.
Rhodey would get all sad and come to Malibu—he’d also refuse to leave, meaning he would get heavily chewed out back at work. Tony can’t have that, even though his honey bear was too good for them anyway.
Happy would beat himself over not being able to ‘protect him’ or something and give him those side-eye looks from the doorway—which Tony loves , don’t get him wrong, but it gets old fast .
Pepper would panic, then Tony would panic, and they can’t have that because if they’re both panicking, then nothing will get done. It’s just not good overall. He remembers what she had to go through when he first came back from Afghanistan, he doesn’t want to put her through that. Not again. It’s not fair to her.
But his kids, they can already tell some things. And while DUM-E , U, and Butterfingers can be swayed to look the other way, Giovanni is adamant. Especially now.
“Giovanni, Sunshine, my little octi-pocti, darling, speak to me,” He dramatically pleads with the animal. In return, the cephalopod just ignores him, half-buried under the sand of his aquatic home. Tony slumps on the stool, then drags himself to the wall of water in his workshop.
“Giovanni~” He drawls the name out again, near whining. While the intelligent creature cannot actually hear him, the octopus does understand him in some way, they're very smart. Tony suspects it might be lip reading, but he isn’t sure. Giovanni, the stubborn bastard, wiggles himself deeper. Tony swears the octopus crossed his tentacles . The audacity.
He sighs again. His octopus was not amused by his antics in France. With the new modifications of the home, Tony had redone parts of his house to be replaced with aquarium, allowing his octopus free reign, swimming around the whole estate through the walls.
On top of that, JARVIS and Giovanni were thick as thieves. This allows Giovanni access to most of Tony’s tech, which in hindsight should have been something he thought about after the race. In Tony’s defense, he has other things on his mind.
After Giovanni saw the news on the tv, and with no follow up other than JARVIS, the octopus was frantic. Which, in turn, made the bots frantic too. Overall, it was not pleasant coming back to the mansion.
And, now he has a pouting octopus.
“Look, Gigi, I’m fine ok? It’s not that bad, I came back in one piece.”
JARVIS’s speakers make a noise that’s similar to clearing a throat. Giovanni, too, wriggled deeper into the sand again in agreement. Tony mock glares at his AI, giving a ‘ really? ’ look.
“If I may sir, it might be best to tell young sir about the reactor?” JARVIS offers, seeming to put all his eggs in one basket.
Tony twists his lips but notices how Giovanni stopped squirming angrily in the sand.
He rises up from the sand, looking almost ghost-like with the way his body is bonelessly in an elongated position. The octopus’ body language screams ‘ this better be good ’, and Tony can distinctively pick out the Rhodey and Pepper-ness out of it. It’s quite fascinating to see the human-like reactions from the animal and—Tony just loves him.
The words struggle to come properly out of his mouth, his tips twisting as he repeatedly swallows. How can he break the news to someone? How can he say ‘ I’m dying ’ without just saying that?
“Buddy—” he begins and then stops again, his mind running a blank when it comes to words. He reflexively taps a finger against the covered reactor, looking down at his knees.
Giovanni swims closer to Tony, hovering by his head. Tony turns to face him, now with his legs crossed. He taps it again, “You know this, Gigi? How it’s supposed to keep me alive?”
When his octopus makes the recognizable motion that means ‘ yes ’, Tony takes a deep breath and continues, “Well, it’s not doing its job very well.”
Tony finds himself childishly holding his breath after that, waiting to see if the animal understands. A million things run through his head with every passing nanosecond. Doubts, second thoughts, curses, and insults plague his mind as he writes and rewrites ways to tell someone—nay, his octopus who is practically his son, (not something you say every day, huh?) —he’s dying .
Finally, finally,—after what feels like hours, years even—Giovanni raises a tentacle. Time moves slowly, almost syrupy from Tony’s perspective. His heart beats loudly, echoing in his ears under the roaring of his blood that’s just~ louder than the humming of the aquarium. ‘
Giovanni’s orange tentacle reaches out against the glass that Tony’s nearly pressed his nose against and rests it against it, a mimicry of touch and reassurance.
And suddenly Tony’s filled with a range of emotions, feeling distinctly like a parent whose child has finally understood the hardships in life. A parent whose child has matured enough to finally look them in the eyes and empathize. A parent whose child has finally discovered what sacrifices they went through and what it truly means.
It feels like being taken apart and rearranged again, like being swamped and then relieved of your duties for just the moment, yet this moment is all that will matter in the end.
Tears near well up in his eyes, and Tony closes them, having his focus shift from what he emotes to what he touches, the cool floor underneath that can feel the pulsing and moment of machinery and aquarium around him. He feels small, overwhelmed yet still grounded for the moment.
He’s nearly forgotten how to live in the moment, how to actually do it while feeling . Did Afghanistan change that? Or has he been doing it for longer?
“I—, god I’m—really—I’m supposed to be consoling you, not the other way around,” He sighed and rests his head against the glass, turning his head to up at the workshop lights rather than the water of Giovanni’s home. DUM-E wheeled up to him and Tony puts a hand on his claw in response to his beeping. A self-deprecating smile graced the engineer’s lips.
By his ear, he hears a plopping suction sound. Turning his head, he's greeted by the octopus’s tentacles all sprawled out—sticking to the glass like a starfish. Giovanni’s eyes which crinkled not unlike a smile. It brings a surge of affection that washes over Tony and his heart squeezes when DUM-E whirrs and bumps his knee in reference to his thoughts.
“Yeah buddy, I love you, too.”