Work Text:
It is a quiet night on the Albatross, a bottle of booze passed between several slightly tipsy captains. It is warm and safe on the ship. They do not speak, they don’t need to. The aurora borealis is glowing brightly in the sky above. The Riptide Pirates are well into their travels of the Northern Sea.
Gillion is standing snug between his two co captains leaning over the rails of the ship. The bottle is nearly empty when he decides to whisper a confession.
“I am not so sure of my destiny anymore.”
Any haze Jay or Chip were in is immediately broken. They simultaneously turn to Gillion wearing expressions of shock.
“What?” Chip says, completely floored. “What makes you say that?”
“Yeah.” Jay jumps in, her voice tinted with that soft laugh she always carries around. “No offense Gill but your destiny is all you ever talk about.”
This makes Gillion stop and think. His destiny is all he ever talks about. Before joining The Riptide Pirates his destiny was all he had ever known.
Gillion reflects back on his childhood, if you could call it that. The endless days of studying and training. Constantly being told ‘you are the chosen one Gillion’ or ‘you were made to be so much greater then this Gillion’.
He reflects back on his teenage years, when the elders began to lose patience with him. The constant repetition of casting a spell until he could get it right, because he was worth nothing if he couldn’t get it right.
His destiny had been a rigid path set out for him. A destiny he would’ve followed until the day he died. But now? Well Gillon isn’t so sure ‘his destiny’ is something worth dying for.
He is tired of being forced to follow a destiny he doesn’t want. So incredibly tired.
“It was never really my destiny was it?” Gillion sighs and looks up towards the moon. “It was just instructions that somebody else had written out for me to follow.”
Jay and Chip remain silent. Gillion isn’t sure why, it’s uncharacteristic of them to fall silent like this. When Jay and Chip are together in a room they always bounce off each other, the constant push and pull.
Despite their silence, Gillion keeps going. Perhaps they are waiting for more explanation before they weigh in with their opinions.
“My entire life I have been the chosen one. I studied, I worked, I trained. I was the Champion of the Undersea. Then I was banished.” Gillion pauses, taking a deep breath. “Then you two found me. You two showed me this whole new world. I live, I dream, I smile. I am Gillion Tidestrider.”
His hands are shaking now. Gillion grasps the railings of the ship until his knuckles turn a light blue. “I just wish I had met you two sooner. Because now I look back at the first twenty-two years of my life, and I wonder what any of it was for.”
Wordlessly, Jay reaches up and wipes something off of his face.
Oh.
He is crying. So that’s why they had fallen silent.
“Sorry.” Jay says, noticing Gill’s analysis of her actions. “It just hurts to see you like that.”
“Careful dude, you’re gonna crack the ship.” Chip laughs sadly, trying to brighten the mood, as he gently pries Gill’s hands away from the rails.
Once his hands are off the rails Gillion falls to his knees. His two co captains immediately drop to the deck next to him.
“Gill.” Jay begins quietly, she doesn’t get a chance to finish before a sob echoes out into the open sea.
Two pairs of arms wrap him tightly into a warm embrace. Gillion can’t help but wish for it to always be this way. Just the three of them, no destinies, deals, or prophecies.
Gillion doesn’t stop sobbing for quite some time. He doesn’t want to. He’s never been able to cry like this before. Not in the Undersea when somebody was always watching his every step.
“I’m so sorry Gill.” Chip whispers, which is uncharacteristically quiet of him. “You were only a kid.”
Hidden underneath Chip's sorrow is a burning hot rage. Gillion makes eye contact with Chip, who isn’t done making his point yet.
“Those morons in the Undersea had no idea what they were doing.” Chip says, bright fury burning in his dark brown eyes.
Jay hasn’t said a word. She just holds on tightly.
Gillion wonders if her childhood was anything like his, growing up in a Navy family. Surely some big expectations were placed upon the shoulders of that little girl. But Jay’s story is a story for another late night, and a different shared bottle of booze.
For now three of them sit together on the deck of The Albatross. The bottle of booze long forgotten.
“I’m glad I met you guys.” Gillion croaks, not used to the feeling of talking after being a sobbing mess.
“I’m glad we found you Gill.” Jay chokes, hiding tears of her own.
The captains of The Albatross sit like that all night, eventually drifting to sleep, Alphonse keeping a watchful eye over them.
For the first time Gillion truly feels at home.
Swept up in the riptide.