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Ursus was going pretty fast, and Gillion sat on the edge of one of his fins, feet dangling into the salty sweeping current, watching the way it wrapped around the webs between his toes. He stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and squinted in concentration, trying to align all ten of his toes in a parallel line despite the water forcing his feet up and down and up again, before giving up and laying back. The surface was closer than it had been in a few days, and Gil could see the dapples of sunlight that streamed down to make pearlescent dots on Ursus’s white fur.
The sunlight was blocked by a skinny frame in a too-baggy coat, worn at the edges and deep velvet fading to pale red. “Whatcha’ doin?” Chip chirped, slightly leaning over Gillion before flopping beside him and rolling to a stop against his side.
“Relaxing.” Gil let his neck fall back from where it had craned up to meet Chip’s eyes. “I created a new trial. With my toes. Trying to keep them steady in the current.”
Chip nodded sagely, then pulled off his boots and tossed them behind his shoulder. “Watch a master.” He slowly inched his foot into the faster current outside of Ursus’s wake, but pulled it out instantly with a yelp and unceremoniously gave up.
“Ha! Your bones are too skinny,” Gillion proclaimed, triumphant. “You have weak toe bones, Chip.”
“Maybe compared to yours, but I bet you I could beat Jay in footsies any day.”
“Is that what you call finsies? Also, Jay only has five toes.”
“Oh. Right. Oops.”
They settled into a comfortable silence, only pausing to talk about comfortable nothings–a spot in Chip’s new web tattoos that looked a little bit phallic, a coupon Gillion had seen in passing for fishty per cent off all dry items at the fish flop shop, that honorable, philosophical soldier(or, to quote Chip, “stupid fucking blobfish”) that Gillion had sent to a heroic end a few days prior. They watched the surface slowly grow darker together, Gil holding up his spread fingers to watch the dwindling sunlight through his translucent webs, and the current slowed along with Ursus as he settled to a slower pace for the night.
“What‘re you thinkin’ about, Gil? …Is it about the Luxbris Clam?” Chip’s voice was quieter, and a bit more somber.
“Well, sort of.” Gillion pursed his lips. “I have been thinking about the actual trial all day because I feel so much lighter now. It’s… really nice. But I guess I’m still wondering about something I realized after the fact. Something that I think helped made me feel like myself even without my guilt.”
“Anything I can help out with?”
“Hm. Actually… well, maybe.” Gillion let the hand he was holding up to the sky fall to his side. “Jay called you and me romantic earlier. I didn’t think of it that way, but I think she’s a little bit right.”
Chip was quiet for a bit before he turned on his side to face Gil. “...What do you mean?”
“We’re best friends and co-captains and I sacrificed the world for you. And I think that’s kind of just what romance is. At least for you and me. Obviously, there’s the… evil romance my grandfather quite likes for some reason. I don’t mean that way. But I love you, Chip. And I think when all this is over, I… I can allow myself, now, to want to stay with you forever.” Gil rolled over his shoulder to look Chip in the eyes. They were so close, he could feel his co-captain’s breath(his breath, and that made Gil feel even warmer inside, because Chip’s chest was moving and he was alive) on the strands of hair he tucked behind his ears.
“Oh, your grandfather’s books are a different beast entirely from normal sex. At least I think so. …I hope so.”
“All sex is evil, Chip. And also makes me feel icky.”
“I assumed that. But some…” Chip shuddered. “Some sex is more evil than others. Especially when that man is writing it.”
Gillion nodded sagely. “Like Fishimal Farm.”
Chip furrowed his brow, then brushed it off. “I didn’t really think about it that way either. The romance thing, I mean. Maybe Jay’s been spending too much time on that orb Aurora showed her. But what do you want for us, Gil?”
“I don’t really know, now that I think about it.” Gillion fully turned to face him now. “We already love each other. Maybe we’ve been doing romance this whole time.”
Chip paused, then raised his eyebrows and nodded. “Hm. Actually? Damn. You know what? That makes sense.”
“Oh! And I can actually marry you now! Your vow was indeed ‘Til’ Death Do Us Part’, and you did die, so you and Amanda Rinn are legally separate now.”
“I don’t know if I’d want to get married under the ocean. Or for a while, actually. We should deal with the whole ‘the world is being ravaged by corruption and your gods are being killed by an authoritarian terrorist military and your shitty adopted dad’ thing first.”
“Sure. Plus when we do, we’d want to invite everyone, and I’d want to have it on our ship too. Or a ship, I guess. A new one. Wasn’t my fault this time, though.”
Chip grinned at him. Gillion blinked. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Sorry. You’re just… well. I’m glad you’re back to normal. It’s really nice.”
Gillion grinned right back at that. “Me too. Oh, wait. I think there is one thing I want to do.”
“What?”
“I want to do this again.” Chip didn’t have time to react before Gillion cupped his cheek and pulled him in, kissing him quickly and sweetly before pulling away. “There. An act of love.”
Chip’s face was beet-red, and he sputtered for a few seconds before giving up and pecking Gil’s cheek. Gillion cheered. “Romance!”
“Romance,” Chip muttered, embarrassed, into the crook of his neck. “Archive of our Fish is going to have a field day with this one. Tell Jay she’s under NDA.”
Gillion nodded curtly, a determined expression on his face. “Non-Digestable Anchovies. I’ll fill out the forms right now.”
“Thanks. Love you, Gil.”
“I love you too, Chip.”