Fareeha had no idea how long she stood there — staring at the mermaid in an emotional state that was somewhere wedged between bewildered shock and indignant fury and hand to her cheek where Angela's tail had struck her. She was only able to tear her eyes from the golden tail poking out from under the lump of fabric— the only indication the mermaid hadn't evaporated— when she felt her fingers grow damp. Pulling her fingers back, Fareeha realized that she was bleeding. Fixing Angela with the dirtiest glare she'd ever given the mermaid, she turned and walked out, slamming the door behind her.

Fareeha quickly made her mind up to see Lucio over the admittedly embarrassing injury. God knew how much bacteria that wound had. The captain was trying to come up with a credible excuse as to how in the hell she got it— it wasn't exactly easy to explain how a mermaid managed to slice her face open in the perfect shape of a tailfin—when she walked directly into someone.

Fareeha knew immediately that the victim of her distracted mind was Hana, mainly due to the indignant outburst that followed. She was carrying a bucket full of what looked like stagnant water, but it was hard to tell since the impact had spilled it across the floor and down Hana's already-stained shirt. What really tipped Fareeha off was the horrible, putrid scent that soon permeated the tiny space.

Hana shot Fareeha a glare before bending over to lift the bucket once more.

"Look," she seethed in a tone that was surprisingly calm, given the circumstances, "I know you're the captain and you're my boss and I am not in any mood to get marooned on an island, but please watch where the hell you're walking."

Taking a closer look at the smaller woman, Fareeha realized she was wearing rubber gloves that ran all the way to her elbows and fisherman's boots that reached all the way up her thighs, a sure sign that she was working on cleaning long-stagnant water out of the ship's the bilge chamber. It was arguably one of the least pleasant jobs on the ship and the fact that she had just poured it down Hana's entire front side made her wince.

"Sorry, Hana," she finally replied, trying not to wrinkle her nose at the horrific smell. "My mind is on other things-"

"Really?" she interrupted, tone absolutely saturated with sarcasm as she pulled a rag out of the pocket of her pants. "I couldn't tell." She tossed the rag on the ground and stamped on it, moving it around with her foot.

"Do you want to get changed?" Fareeha offered. "I can clean this up."

Hana rolled her eyes. "Thanks, but no. I got it."

Fareeha frowned. "Are you sure?"

"It's fine." Hana picked the rag up and tossed in back into the bucket. "No point in cleaning up until I'm done. I guess you saved me a trip out to the deck."

"That's a way to look at it," Fareeha snorted, trying to keep the humor out of her voice. "I still can't help but think you'd rather not take a shower in stagnant water, though. Just a hunch."

Hana arched an eyebrow at her. "I'll consider replying to that that once I'm not covered head-to-toe with slime." Before she turned back toward the bilge chamber, Hana looked back at her. "You going to see Lucio?"

It was Fareeha's turn to raise her eyebrow. "How on earth did you guess that?"

Hana gestured to her face. "Because that mermaid kicked your ass."

"It wasn't-"

Hana let out a loud laugh, cutting her off with a smirk. "She love tapped you right in the face with her tail. Is that why you named her Mercy?"

"Her name is Angela," Fareeha corrected her absently, trying to ignore her forming embarassed blush. In the next instant, she felt a brick of solid lead drop into her stomach at the look Hana gave her. The engineer stopped dead, hand on the door.

"Holy shit," she breathed. "Did-"

"No." Fareeha cut her off before the question even came out.

Hana's smirk slowly warped into an ear-to-ear grin. "She spoke to you!" That time it wasn't a question, but an exclamation. "That mermaid told you her name, didn't she?"

"Hana, please-" Fareeha half-begged, as with every passing second, the Korean woman's face became more and more smug.

"That's no fair! I want to talk to the mermaid!"

Fareeha lunged forward, covering Hana's face with both of her hands. Even covered, Fareeha could see that the smirk had not faded from her lips."Be quiet!" she hissed. "The last thing I need is word getting out that she can speak. Do not tell anyone about this! Not a soul!"

Hana lowered her voice several octaves when Fareeha finally let her hands fall from her face. "Afraid of people learning the truth, Captain?"

Fareeha glowered at her, all humor gone from her face. "Wallahi!"

"At least let me tell Lucio, then!" she insisted. "I won't tell anyone else, but he should know. If it weren't for him, that mermaid would still be hiding from us every time we walked in there."

Fareeha lifted her index and middle fingers to her head, massaging her temples as she struggled to keep herself from further arguing with Hana. She simply did not want to run the risk of anyone else overhearing them.

"Fine, but," Fareeha had to emphasize the word due to the return of Hana's smug grin, "I'm going to go with you and I will tell Lucio what happened."

To Lucio's credit, he took the whole thing with much more grace than Hana did. Granted, that wasn't exactly a high standard to hold one to, but at least he didn't make a scene about it. He didn't even really ask where the wound came from; the medic just resigned himself to treating it. He was silent as Fareeha explained mostly what had happened, though she left the part out where Angela had insulted her before she struck her. Lucio only responded in hums as he worked on her face while Fareeha spoke, helping her to clean the wound, applying a salve and then eventually dressing it with a bandage.

"Pretty incredible, right?" Hana asked once Fareeha had stopped speaking. The engineer had found herself a seat in the back of the cabin that served as Lucio's self-named medical bay, although Hana liked to tease him how that was an incredibly glorified name for what was essentially sleeping quarters with room for storing tonics and ingredients for making salves. Still. Lucio preferred having a more positive connotation for what most sailors would refer to as a sickbay.

Lucio just shrugged as he glanced over in Hana's direction. "I mean, not really. It's not surprising to me. She's always been receptive to our words, so I guessed it was more a case of not wanting to talk versus not being able to." Lucio stood up, tossing his gloves on the table he was seated next to. "It's too bad those idiots spooked her so much. I heard you were making some really good progress with her."

Fareeha did not immediately reply to that. Every bone in her body wanted to agree with him, but she knew that was not the case. Whatever had set Angela off had been personal, not just a

bitterness that they had allowed her to fall into the Shimada's hands in the first place.

Instead of reply to his comment, the captain learned back in her chair with a frown. "Whatever caused it, she's really angry."

"Do you think she's angry or just stressed out?"

"Angry," Fareeha said immediately, flinching as she recalled just how much force that kick to the face had and how much it still hurt. "Absolutely livid is probably more accurate."

Lucio just smiled. "Give me a sec." He disappeared behind a blanket that was nailed to the ceiling towards the back of the room, functioning as a sort of makeshift sleeping area for patients who needed overnight monitoring.

When Lucio reemerged, he was holding his oud. "Let's go pay Angela a visit."

Fareeha walked with them back to the room Angela was in, though was spared the inconvenience of having to unlock the door, as it was still very much off its hinges from where the Shimada goons had tossed it aside.

The mermaid was actually moving when they walked in, swimming around the center of the tank in fast, tight, agitated circles. When she heard them, Angela stopped, facial expression already twisted into a glare before even really looking at them. When she saw Lucio, her face softened ever so slightly. Not by much, but enough to make her look slightly calmer than bloodthirsty. However, the vitriol returned to Angela's eyes the second she noticed Fareeha standing toward the back of the room.

It was such a look of utter loathing that Lucio even turned her way, eyebrow raised in a silent question: What the hell did you do?

Fareeha returned Angela's harsh look before saying curtly, "I'll be outside."

As Fareeha leaned against the wall just outside the door, hidden from Angela's view, Fareeha couldn't help but sigh. Nobody in the small cabin was speaking; the only thing she could hear

was whatever soft melody Lucio was playing. Occasionally he'd stop and either him or Hana would ask questions, but Angela never replied, never spoke. She was as silent as they had all come to expect her to be. Over and over again, she played the small wrestling match she'd went through with Angela in her head, trying to reason what exactly she had done to make her so bitter. Perhaps it was the way she spoke to her, perhaps it was she didn't want to be touched.

Or perhaps, another voice said and Fareeha flinched at the thought, she simply did not want to return to the ship.

Adding a 'perhaps' to that was a damn joke, and she knew it. She knew without a doubt that Angela was so livid because the last place she wanted to go after Jesse 'rescued' her was straight back into another glass cage. Yet, the knowledge of that did nothing to alleviate the unexplainable heaviness Fareeha felt at the thought that Angela hated her personally. If anything, it made her feel ten times worse.

She wasn't sure how long she stood out there, essentially sulking, but eventually, Lucio popped his head out of the room, gesturing for her to step inside. For obvious reasons, Fareeha hesitated, but eventually followed him to Angela's tank. After several seconds spent watching Angela, Fareeha looked up for either of them, she saw that both Hana and Lucio were standing in the doorway, watching her. Hana's face was contorted into the same grin she'd given Fareeha when she had encountered her in the hallway, whereas Lucio's expression was something more muted. He was also smiling, but it was a far more natural, less antagonistic then Hana's. Wordlessly, he merely nodded his head toward the tank.

Fareeha raised an eyebrow at him. Stifling a laugh, Hana shoved Lucio out of the doorway and out of sight, leaving Fareeha staring at the empty space, eyebrow still arched. Rolling her eyes, Fareeha turned back toward the tank.

The mermaid was sound asleep - a state none of them had seen her in before. Occasionally, Fareeha had seen her resting on the ground or resting her eyes, but she had never seen Angela actually asleep before; the captain had simply assumed merfolk didn't sleep so much as enter a state of semi-consciousness.

Quietly, as to not wake Angela, she approached. Despite the tension that had tainted their last few interactions, Fareeha felt a smile form on her lips when she laid eyes on her.

Angela looked...serene. There was no other word for it. Not even in the calmest, most pleasant interactions she'd had with the mermaid had Angela looked anywhere near at peace as she did at that moment, deep in sleep.

Angela was curled up in a posture Fareeha had seen dozens of times: lying on a deeper pile of sand in the back of the tank, tail curling around her torso, blanket twisted around her body in a way that gave her a bit of padding to rest her head on. Unlike almost every time Fareeha had seen her, though, Angela was smiling, tailfin twitching several times a second in subconscious response to whatever dream she was clearly having. It was such a peaceful scene that Fareeha couldn't help but regret that it was the first time she had ever seen Angela so calm.

As quick as it had formed, Fareeha felt her smile falter, as the ever-familiar knife of guilt lodged itself in her gut and twisted viciously until a sigh passed her lips. It didn't matter what she tried. She could sit down there and spend every waking moment of every day with the mermaid. She could go out of her way to only feed her the largest, most filling fish she could find. She could give her every blanket, grain of sand and seashell she could get her hands on.

It didn't matter.

None of it matters.

Angela didn't want to be there, with them, and especially not with her. She wanted her freedom - the freedom she was quite literally dreaming of - and that was nothing Fareeha would never be able to substitute. At the end of the day, she was still a prisoner. Angela was still uncomfortable and miserable and she'd never be as happy as she looked at that moment, in her sleep. At least, not as long as she was on the Raptora. Slowly, Fareeha dropped her hand from the tank.

"I really made a mistake, didn't?" she muttered, voice hardly above a sad, regretful whisper.

Before she woke Angela once more and was further belittled by her icy blue glare, Fareeha turned away from the source of her well-earned guilt and quietly left the dark storage room.

Without much input from her own conscious, her feet carried her to the deck. By that point in the night, the top of the Raptora was almost entirely abandoned save Lena, clearly working a bit later than she normally did. It created a quiet atmosphere that Fareeha had fond memories of. Slowly, she approached the railing, staring at the sky above her, immediately making out one of the dozens of constellations her mother had taught her to recognize when she was just a girl. Normally, it would have put her at peace. That night, it still left her absorbed in thoughts, but they weren't memories - they were just more thoughts of Angela.

Her brown eyes rested on the frothy waves under her feet as the smallest of sighs passed her lips.

"That's not a very good sound coming from you, Cap'n."

Immediately upon hearing the familiar sound of Lena's voice, Fareeha straightened her back, pretending to be focused on something out in front of them.

"I was checking on the navigation," she replied, eyes still on the horizon. "I don't want to make another detour on this assignment."

Lena's brown eyes followed her gaze, brow furrowed, as she could clearly not tell what obscure landmark Fareeha was pretending to look at.

Lena chuckled. "I can promise you that you're in good hands." Pointedly, she reached out to the wheel that controlled the ship's rudder. "I got a flawless track record. Though," she stepped next to Fareeha once more, "navigation helps if you got the tools for the job. Not even I'm good enough to read horizons with my naked eye, luv." With that, she passed the captain a sextant. "'Course, you could just ask me where we're at. Might be less effort on your part."

Fareeha finally cracked a smile as she glanced at Lena out of the corner of her eye. "Nothing escapes you, hm?"

"You aren't exactly subtle, luv. You walk around playing those heavy sighs like a broken record then expect us to not notice when you're down." Lena joined her at the edge of the ship. "So what's really wrong?"

"It's nothing, rea-"

"If she says it's nothin'," another familiar voice drawled, "you have my permission to fling her overboard." Jesse joined the two women, leaning backwards against the ship's railing.

"You're either sleepwalking, or your mind is runnin' a mile a minute. Which is it?"

"I'm fine," she replied, only barely glancing at him as he pulled out his lighter and ignited the end of a fresh cigar.

"And I'm your damn father. Tell me how ya really feel, 'Reeha. I'd recognize that slouch to your shoulders a mile away. Ya got somethin' on your mind."

"Something that isn't related to navigation, I'm sure," Lena commented, turning her focus back to steering the ship.

"If I had to guess, I'd say it probably involves a mermaid."

"You too, huh?" Fareeha asked wryly.

Jesse chuckled. "What is it this time? She not eating? Torn up about not sellin' her?"

"You could say that," Fareeha replied, glancing at Lena out of the corner of her eye. Lena had turned her full attention back to steering the ship. Fareeha was certain she could still hear the entire conversation, but she seemed to be allowing Jesse to do the talking.

"She's really angry," Fareeha half-sighed.

"So what do you actually plan on doin' with her?" There is was: the question that Fareeha wasn't even able to answer herself. As if reading her mind, Jesse continued, "Let's talk out your options, 'Reeha." He ticked off his finger. "You can sell her-"

"No, I can't," Fareeha said, voice firm in a way that not even McCree argued the point.

"Okay," he said, pausing to draw back on his cigar. "In that case, you can let her go, or you can keep her. You can keep her as long as you like 'til ya know what you wanna do." Fareeha pursed her lips at the thought of that. Of course, he was right. So why did that put such a rancid taste in her mouth?

"You don't seem like you wanna do that, either," he commented. "So that leaves one option."

Finally, Fareeha turned to look at him. "That's the right thing to do, isn't?"

Jesse shrugged. "I suppose that depends on who ya ask. If you ask a bleedin' heart who thinks money is the root of all evil, they'd probably tell you yes. If you ask one of the deckhands on this ship, they'd probably tell you no." He puffed once more. "If it helps, tell me this: why didn't you just sell her to Genji when he asked?"

That she didn't have to think about. "Because it wouldn't have been right."

"And why not?" His voice was as easygoing as ever, but something about the way he said that made it seem like he was poking at something. "Why you figure you were so hell-bent opposed to sellin' her to the Shimadas?"

Fareeha's eyes grew distant as she looked back over the horizon with a sigh. "Because she's not a beast. She's an incredible creature."

Jesse arched an eyebrow at her. "Incredible creature, huh?"

"She is," Fareeha defended with a shrug, ignoring the little smirk Jesse gave her. "I've never seen anything like her. She's every bit as intelligent as either of us. She even spoke to me, Jesse." Her voice softened. "...she doesn't deserve a life like that."

A life like the one I'm giving her by keeping her in that tank.

Jesse didn't anything for several seconds after that; he just took a long draw back on his cigar and puffed a few times. The silence was deafening and before she even know what she was saying, Fareeha blurted out, "I really am no better than the Shimadas, am I?"

Jesse continued to be silent until he sighed, the noise accompanying the last bit of smoke as it evaporates into the night sky. "'Reeha," he said, "what makes you better or worse than the Shimadas is what you do about it."

"And what do you propose I do about it?" she retorted, trying to not make her increasingly sharp tone sound like she was snapping at him.

"Whatever you damn well wanna do about it." He paused to tap the end of his cigar on the edge of the ship."You're the one in charge here. That mermaid has been yours and yours alone since the day she was dragged on this ship, and you know it. You've been the one feedin' her, you've been the one keeping her happy, you were the one who was crying when she was stolen-"

"She isn't my mermaid," she interrupted him. "And I wasn't crying."

He rolled his eyes. "You sure as hell were. And you sure as hell weren't stable about the situation." He paused to chuckle. "Point is, ya gotta do what's going to make you the happiest."

"I can't just think of myself-" she started to say, but it was Jesse's turn to cut her off.

"You have to." The stare he was fixing her in was somewhat stern.

Fareeha tried not to sigh. "Jesse, I have an entire ship full of people expecting to make an early retirement off of this trip. What am I supposed to tell them?"

"Since when do you give a damn about what everyone else wants you to do?"

"I don't."

Jesse arched an eyebrow at the force of her words. "Then don't worry your head about pleasin' them. This ain't a situation where there's any right answer, Fareeha. Ya got a crew that expects to make money off sellin' a mermaid, ya got a captain who's too enamored with the mermaid to sell it, and ya got a mermaid that's gonna spent the rest of its life miserable if you don't turn it loose." He paused to draw back on his cigar once more. "You're not gonna make everyone happy. You gotta make the choice you can live with."

When Fareeha fell silent, processing his words, Jesse stood up straight with an exaggerated groan. Gently, he clapped a hand to her shoulder as he walked by. "Whatever ya decide to do, just get some rest. Don't lose sleep over it. And," he gave her a familiar smile as his hand dropped, "if by some chance something happens to that mermaid by around dawn, I'll make sure everyone knows of the tragic death she suffered due to stress built on while the Shimadas had her." He gave her a fake grimace. "Can't sell a dead mermaid, now, can we?"

Once Jesse was gone, Fareeha glanced back at Lena, looking for a hint that she had overheard the conversation, but if she had heard anything, she remained impressively quiet about it and just flashed a smile.

"You can speak, you can can hear, you can even listen, but you don't understand."

As Fareeha stood outside the tank, once again staring down the angry mermaid, Angela's words from early that morning rang through her mind, her voice as clear as it would have been if she'd spoken only seconds ago. She understood now, what felt like some of the longest twelve hours of her life later, what the mermaid had meant by those words. Ignoring the hostile look Angela was giving her, Fareeha approached the glass of the tank, locking eyes with the agitated mermaid.
She understood. God, did she understand. It only took nearly a month, but she finally understood the gravity of a simple decision, and the consequences such a choice had made. There was no way she could possibly expect Angela to forgive her for the weeks of her life they had stolen, but she also knew Angela would understand what had to be done next.
Fareeha bit back a sigh as she finally reached the front of the tank, looking up at Angela with an expression that even to her felt forlorn. Ever so slightly, Angela's face softened, though more out of shock than anything else. The mermaid's ears lifted from her temple ever so slightly, brows furrowing as Fareeha silently lifted her right hand to the glass and rested her palm against it.

Slowly, Angela inched closer to the front of the tank, studying her with a critical stare. Still, as she moved, her dorsal fin became more relaxed, her ears twitched, expression became less annoyed and more so intense. Finally settling on the floor of the tank directly in front of her, Angela's blue eyes shifted from Fareeha's face to her outstretched hand. For a moment, the mermaid nearly mirrored her motions, but stopped halfway through the motion of lifting her arm, ears snapping back against her skull, eyes narrowing in an intense glare.
Fareeha didn't budge; she merely continued to watch.
Several seconds passed before Angela moved again, as her eyes slowly shifted between Fareeha's hand to her face, back to her hand, to her face again. Her tail twitched once before hers gaze finally focused on her hand one last time. Slowly, Angela lifted her own arm, resting her hand on it. The mermaid's face was no longer angry or tense, but had shifted into something incredibly intense, as she stared at both of their hands.
Angela's hand, Fareeha realized for the first time, was nearly identical to hers, barring the orange webbing loosely tying each of her fingers together. Large, thumbed, built for holding tools. Evolved, just like humans were.
Fareeha finally let out a sigh she felt she'd been holding in for a year, the ends of her lips twitching upward in the smallest ghost of a smile as she closed her eyes as well.

"Alright," she murmured, so quietly that she was sure Angela couldn't even hear her, "Let's get you home."

Hoisting a crate on top of the one she'd been using as a ladder to give herself a bit more height, she ignored the way Angela's eyes followed her every action, brow furrowed. For a moment, Fareeha's own gaze fell on a net that was lying on the floor not far from the tank. It would sure as hell make the process of lifting Angela out of the tank easier for her, but the captain shoved that idea aside almost as soon as it manifested in her head; there was no way she'd put Angela through that kind of stress. Instead, Fareeha removed the tank's lid entirely, laying it aside so she'd have more space to work.

From where she rested on the bottom of the tank, Angela stared at her, ears once again pressed flat to her skull. The confusion on her face only deeped as Fareeha dipped both of her arms into the tank, up to her elbows.

Fareeha smiled down at her. "I know I haven't exactly been the nicest of hosts, but I'd like to take this outside, if you'd care to join me."

Angela did not budge; she sat as still as stone, looking up at her with narrowed eyes.

After several seconds of silence, Fareeha shugged. "If you'd rather stay here, that's fine too. It's up to you."

The second those words left her mouth, the water broke directly in front of the captain, causing her to jump backwards several feet in shock. She only barely managed to grab the tank for support, refusing to fall on her ass in front of the mermaid more than once. Unlike the last time that happened, Angela did not look playfully amused. Her blue eyes were harsh, staring directly into Fareeha's brown ones, faces only feet apart. Ignoring the slight apprehension she felt over the look Angela was giving her and their close proximity, Fareeha dropped her arms into the tank, sleeves and all, inviting Angela to climb into them once more.

The mermaid stared for a few more seconds, before very slowly and very cautiously inching forward. Gradually, she lowered herself into Fareeha's arms, allowing the joint of her tail to rest over her forearms, grabbing her shoulders for additional support.

Through the slow process, Fareeha was acutely aware of how rigid Angela's body was, and how strongly the mermaid was fighting every single one of her instincts by allowing a human to even touch her, let alone willingly lift her out of a body of water and onto dry land. Angela's tail was especially stiff, prepared to kick away and propel her back into the safety of the tank.

Once Angela was still for a few seconds, Fareeha carefully looked her in the eyes. "Are you ready?"

A few more moments passed before Angela stiffly nodded her head, every inch of her body tense and uneasy. Once she was out of the water, Fareeha hesitated again, just in case she had changed her mind and wanted to dive back in. Angela's however, stayed steadfast in her forced stillness. Even so, Fareeha could tell how scared she was - she'd have been more concerned if Angela had been just okay with the situation she was currently in - so she was careful to keep her movements slow and deliberate, informing Angela when she was about to jostle her or when the scenery was changing.

For the most part, Angela kept her eyes on her own fingertips as she fearfully clung to Fareeha's shoulder blades. Eventually, their eyes did meet but it was only for a second, as Angela quickly went back to staring at her own hands. Once they emerged from the lower deck, the mermaid perked up considerably, eyes immediately shifting toward the horizon. As Fareeha approached the starboard side of the ship, Angela became considerably more fidgety, tail twitching in anticipation as if she was contemplating just leaping overboard. It was a fair reaction from the mermaid, but Fareeha was certain she had no idea just how high up they were from the surface.

"Just a minute," Fareeha told her, tightening her grip before Angela tossed herself off the side of the ship. "You can't just jump off, you'll hurt yourself. " Fareeha looked over to the port side of the Raptora, where they had a number of small rowboats held up by pulleys and rigging. Carefully, she stepped into one of the boats, gently sitting Angela on the floor before reaching toward the ropes holding it up. Much to her surprise, Lena was already standing there.

Before Fareeha think up a lie, Lena quelled her budding anxiety with a smile.

"Don't worry about it, luv. McCree told me what you're up to and I thought you could use a hand."

Fareeha sat down on one of the dinghy's seats, giving the navigator a grateful smile. "Thanks, Lena."

Lena gave both Fareeha and Angela her signature salute. "Just let me know when you're ready to come back up."

Lena steadily lowered the dinghy toward the water. It seemed like an eternity and Fareeha could only hold her breath as the ocean waves grew ever closer.

Much to her surprise, Angela did not immediately leap overboard the second the rowboat touched the water. Quietly, she reached out, skimming the foam-covered surface with her fingertips as a misty look came to her eyes. Once she became aware Fareeha was watching her, the mermaid's ears flicked forward, blue eyes giving her an irritated side glare. Wordlessly, Angela dove into the water, breaking the surface with an elegance that barely caused any disturbance besides the gentle movements of the waves.

Even in the darkness, Fareeha could make out the shape of her golden tail as it moved under the boat. For several minutes, Angela remained near the boat, swimming in circles, performing small spins and flips and clearly just enjoying the infinitely larger space she now had to move freely. Any remaining heaviness Fareeha had felt while carrying the mermaid out to the deck evaporated in that instant, leaving behind a relief that she couldn't place. Perhaps it was just the happiness Angela was completely radiating, even from under the water.

After she was finished with her little dance, the mermaid's torso resurfaced on the starboard side of the dingy. Moving a lock of hair from her face and tucking in behind her ear, Angela slightly hoisted herself back onto the boat and leaned on the side, eyeing the captain critically. The mermaid looked like she was going to say something for a brief second, but instead the words forming on her tongue came out a strange sound that was somewhere between a groan and a sigh.

Fareeha just smiled in return. "You don't have to say anything." She held her hand out to the blonde. "It has been truly an honor meeting you."

Angela tilted her head, clearly not understanding the gesture, and instead gave her an awkward high-five, which almost got a chuckle out of the Egyptian.

Close enough.

Not surprisingly, Angela did not return her smile. "You are… not the worst human I've met."

"Fair enough," Fareeha replied, not really able to argue with that; it was probably the closest thing to an actual compliment she'd ever get from a creature- a person- she had treated as poorly as Angela. "Just try to take care of yourself. You probably don't want to find yourself in a situation like this again."

Angela just gave her a somewhat withering smirk before she lowered herself into the water and disappeared under the waves, fading from Fareeha's view as the ocean welcomed her home.