Sea Struck: Scene Collection

OCEANS

Solitude found little time for Scarlet anymore. With a houseful, the retired captain found the silence that swathed the nearby riverbank odd, but welcoming. Elizabeth had grown far worse, leaving her little time to coil alone. It was of great luck that she was able to slip away, leaving both the teetering Annie and withering Beth in the hands of William. A soul hadn't witnessed the joyous smile that touched her lips as she spluttered from the creaking doors of the vineyard - or so she'd thought.

She sat upon the bank, eyes heavy with her idling. Lock of red hair, freed of their containments spoiled her sheltered figure. Even in moonlight the curly mess set whatever it touched aflame with ginger accent. Nonetheless, Scarlet could care less if the entire world knew where she was. The only thing that mattered was the quiet - quiet she so desperately missed. The river that craned around the towering pines whispered words that left her at ease. Scarlet might have fallen asleep if not for keeping her eyes trained on the delicate display of rocks the river leapt and jumped over. She hadn't the time to worry about what the water had ever looked like, or even take pause for the music the water graced, but sitting there now, Scarlet was reminded only of the distant ocean and the rolling ship that touched an unknown shore. Shores she would never see again.

Her heart would always float on the greedy mouths of waves. She belonged not to the throng of foliage huddled against the villa, but the angry hands that always reached to devour more. Scarlet yearned for the salt coat decks of the ship. The never-ending mystery of where the faithful vessel would take her. Adventure had been her only temptress. Soured now, by the qualms of the desire to provide for her son and his daughter. Scarlet drew in a settling sigh. Like day and night, her time with the waves had shifted. Now she must be content with the lingering smells of sand that still touched a few of her coats. If only that was easier said than it was done.

A sudden loneliness unquenchable by companionship of anything other than that of rolling water seeped through her. It weighed her clothes, pruned her fingers - drowned her gut. Lips forming a scowl laced with rising despair, Scarlet braced her arm over the boulder she leaned against, rising to her feet. Hasty fingers crawled at the clothes that restrained her. Layer by layer Scarlet shed them until she was nothing but skin and wondering thought. Hesitant, Scarlet glided over the soggy soil until her toes touched the babbling brook. A shuttering laugh bubbled from her lips as the river toyed with her feet. Further inward she drew, opening her arms wide to the saltless stream.

Erren would never know the sheer delight of returning to the rolling waves. Tales of her storm-raged nights and misadventures spun from her lips with each chance she got, but the words did not kindle the same fire as it did in her. Erren belonged not to sea or earth, but to wherever the wind carried him. Scarlet hoped that the breeze would flutter him by a rocky shore at dawn, or a yawning cave with the promise of the unknown to be known. She wanted the same thrill for her son.

But somehow Scarlet knew that Erren would never see those things. The sea would never touch him in the manner it had her. If only Tess could have shown her more than what lie within the depths of translucent stretches. Perhaps then she could revel in the beauty the soil could give.

Nonetheless, as the river washed away the empty hollows forged within, Scarlet decided that the sea was not meant for all. Most were swallowed by the rolling froth; but not her. She would forever remain with the tide - even if her body was caged within the confines of a dreary pine forest.

"Scarlet, love?" A worried tenor broke her serendipity. Scarlet took her feet from the riverbed to sink beneath the protection of the glassy surface. She swiveled, hands sliding as one with the water. Vin stood atop the encline she'd scored to reach the shoreline. Dread collapsed her reunion with the spindly creek.

"What?" She snapped a bit too harshly. "What is it?" Her presence was most likely in requirement for the aide of a certain fussy blonde, or a demanding redhead. How foolish of her to think she could slip through their needy tendrils.

Vin took his steps gingerly down the bank. Curious if nothing as to why her clothes were bunched beside a rock. Head cocked with his pondering, Vin folded his arms over his chest as he drew as far as he dare into the river, having his boots to thank for the manner of his close approach. Scarlet glared from where she bobbed - not out of anger, but anticipation. Vin took a relaxed posture then, sliding his hands to rest at his sides.

"I saw you walking this way," Vin told her. "I thought something might be troubling you." Head lolling to look at her clothes behind him, Vin turned his eyes back to peer at her with a growing grin. He took his shirt away gently, fiddling with his belt after leaving the eggshell flannel with her own items.

A cheeky smile touched one side of Scarlet's mouth. "Only trying my damndest to get away from you."

"You should know that is not possible, mi tesoro," Vin teased. Shed of his covers, Vin slipped within the river, floating lazily out of arm's reach of Scarlet. Her smile melted into something far deeper than the loneliness that tugged at her strings. Vin had rolled his back to hers, catching himself only when he caught sight of Scarlet's eyes drifting to nowhere - she looked away from him when something plagued her chest. He drifted to her, his fingers rolling over the sides of her forearms. "What is it?" He pressed.

"I miss the sea," Scarlet confessed. "Miss the days we could go wherever we wanted. When the only responsibility we had was to each other."

A swell of what once was rushed her then; a riptide of unforgiving moments she'd buried. So much loss, so much pain; how could a place that held such grief call to her so strongly? She opened her mouth to speak, but her words were halted by a flickering of a picture that haunted her every breath. Death had touched her life many a time - but never herself. The man that stood in front of her now, however, knew what the final sleep drew to. To remember him in her arms, still slick with the blood that left so carelessly - she could not bare it.

Vin knew this look well. Ghosts lingered over them both, ghosts Vin had come to learn all too well and witness far too much.

"Ah," Vin sighed, tucking Scarlet against his chest without her expressed permission. "We are here now, Scarlet. You cannot fret over what once was. Water or land, we have each other. It matters not where our feet touch."

"This was not the life I wished," Scarlet muttered.

"Wished, perhaps not, but I have you and you have me - and that is all that matters."

Head heavy with the void the relentless beating waves had carved, Scarlet lifted her head to peer into Vin's eyes. She saw nothing but the truth and the deep amber she had once feared she would never come across again. Breath a hushed puff dancing between their lips, Scarlet reached to stroke the side of his face, suddenly thankful for the warmth that the tide could never provide her. Vin reached to wrap his captain in his arms, pressing their temples together.

Scarlet tilted her head back, rolling her nose to brush his so that she could firmly press her lips to his. You are mine, it said. Only mine. Hands adventuring to her hips, Vin returned her kiss, biting the tender skin of her lower lip. Scarlet did not belong to the sea; she belonged to him. The ocean would have a beginning and end, but never they.

Scarlet draped her arms about his neck, showering his throat with greedy kisses stolen beneath the wash of moon. Vin's hands ventured where only he was permitted, drawing things from Scarlet no one else would ever be capable of. The ocean was not something of a missing object, but rather a tool used to wash them to the same shore. Once a coughing stream, they'd grown to a towering deep.

Scarlet needn't an ocean, river, or pond.

Together they were much, much more.