Beneath The Waves

Lauren

Lucy

"I'm going to miss you so much." Lucy pouts, watching as Max is cleaning off her bunk, getting all her things ready to go.

She looks up from her task sternly, "do not make me cry." Her serious façade falls quite quickly, however, as Lucy sends her a soft smile. "We are porting for three days, it'll be okay. That's three extra days for us."

"Yeah, but we are porting this morning at, like, ten o'clock. That's just so soon." Lucy sighs, slouching back into Max's bed.

"It's five in the morning, so there is still time for us to fuck around like grumpy old pirates onboard."

Frowning with her eyebrows at the smaller girl, she complains, "I do not want to be an old, grumpy pirate. I'm just going to miss you."

A soft exhale comes from Max, her body relaxing as she falls forward and hugs Lucy. "I'm going to miss you, too."

"You know what I would love?" Max asks mostly rhetorically so Lucy doesn't answer. "For you to come with me when I go see Chloe for the first time. I really want you to meet her."

Lucy pulls away from Max, beaming. "For real? I'd love to go meet the person who makes you so happy," she then adds in a faux-angry tone, "and beat them the hell up for stealing you away from me."

The younger gunner laughs, feeling the mutual pit of sadness and her soon-to-be absence wash up in her stomach. "I've loved all the time I've spent being a gunner with you. Truly, Lucy."

"I feel the exact same way."

The two friends stare at each other for what could be a forever until Max chuckles softly, reaching out to squeeze Lucy's hand. "You know what you should do for mourning the loss of me as a fellow gunner?"

"Woah, you're not dying on me, right?" Lucy jokes half-heartedly, but presses on a strained smile anyway. "What should I do?"

A smug look plays on Max's face, "ask out Camila while we are here."

That gets a genuine smile out of the gunner. "Dumbass," Lucy pulls her into another hug, burying her face in her shoulder. They sit there, Max postponing the rest of her packing until they're fully content. "We both know I'm not doing that."

"I don't know. This might be your last chance."

——

Camila

Ten o'clock sharp and the crew has started porting them into the Bay's docks. Ally slides down a rope off the side of the ship, landing on the dock with Dinah to help pull them in while Normani steers. They use the handles on the side of the ship to pull the vessel in, tying the rope to the post on the docks. Normani makes sure they're lined up with the boarding section so everyone can leave from main deck. Ally makes her way back up via the boarding steps on the dock, dropping the anchor so they don't drift.

It's been done. They're really back here.

Standing on main deck, feeling a gentle breeze run through her hair, she smiles sadly at the small town before them. Camila remembers the last time they were here. It was a couple weeks after Lauren had been thrown overboard, and seeing this town again brings Camila back. It's like salt in the wound, especially since they're going to be ported here for nearly three days.

The last time they ported here, it had been late at night and Ally had gotten them into port properly but announced to Camila the following morning that their outdoor storage unit had been broken into by something and all their extra ship parts and wood had been stolen. That was annoying, Camila remembers, especially since she was the one who had to fix it.