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You loved your girlfriend! Really you did. But sometimes, she could really scare the carp- er, crap out of you. Feferi Peixes, soon to be ruler of the entire planet we the most beautiful and bubbly girl you'd ever met. Her eyes shone with a life like they were lit from the inside and her smile made your guts feel all sorts of twisty ways. You were so, so, so lost on your very own Ariel incarnate and you had a feeling she knew it too. Why else would you ever agree to let her teach you, a loser afraid of drowning, to swim?
In theory, it was a great idea, you had to admit. Though, most of Fef's plans were amazing in theory. You'd been afraid of the water ever since an incident when you were a few years- er, sweeps younger that left you half-dead and washed up on the beach of an alien planet. (Not that you didn't love Alternia because... well, it gave you her. It was just the fact that some nightmares you never really got over.) You were terrified of almost everything here at first and she made you brave then, even in the face of other highbloods that could have so easily snapped you in half like a toothpick. If Feferi was at your back, you were sure you could do anything.
At least, that's what you kept telling yourself as you wadded into the briny chill under the bright and starry sky of Alternia. She looked transcendent just treading water, body cutting through the waves with an ease you could never hope to replicate in a million years. You remembered seeing a shark on Earth TV once and while the graceful predator comparison was apt, you didn't think there were words that really fit just how breath taking she was. Breaching the water in an arch, she was resplendent, magnificent in her form like a siren luring you out to your demise. By contrast, you were certain you looked a fool, barely trusting yourself to wade past waist deep as you watched her.
As soon as you looked down to make sure of your footing, you'd lost her in the inky blackness of the ocean. The top was beautiful, glittering with moon light like the stars shimmering in the sky, but you knew underneath there could be so much worse and a lump formed in your throat as you called out to her without reply. Did something get her? Was she hurt? Was it the same thing that had sent you here? Thick, cloying panic filled your veins. Where was she? What happened to her? You called out again, only to hear a splash behind you.
Something was in the water.
Something was in the water and it might have gotten Feferi. What chance did you have to take it down?
Which of course lead you here: soaking wet, kneeling on the sand, and holding your girlfriend's nose to stop the bleeding.
"You didn't have to hit me so hard, minnow!" she whined, wincing more as her movements jostled the bruised cartilage. She was lucky you didn't break it after a joke like that and you more than happily told her as much.
"Whale, I talked to Eridan a-bouy-t it first and he said it was a great id-eel! If you got all your fear out at once, then I cod work on teaching you much beta."
She trusted that little shithead way too much, but that wasn't an argument you wanted to have again. Instead, you told her that people from your planet were different. They couldn't just feel all their emotions at once to get over them. You had a few plans about Eridan's hair gel that you'd have to put into action now, but that could wait until after her coronation. Oh cod- er, god. You'd almost forgotten about the ceremony. When you mention it to her, she laughs. All bubbly and endearing and infectious.
"I wonder how long it will take until someone writes about our pitch fling?" Your expression softens, as you pull the tissue away from her nose to kiss the bridge. There's no way you could ever feel pitch for someone as lovely as she it. You were as red for her as the blood in your veins.
Oh. You said that out loud, huh? You can tell by the dark flush of fushia staining her face as she ducks her head, ear fins fluttering as she tried not let you see how flustered you'd made her. You stand, wiping the sand off your knees and offer a hand out to help her up. There was no point in correcting yourself when every word you said was true.