Day 2, aboard the cruise ship

- - -

"Jeez, how long has it been since we've had some time to just chill?"

Luan glanced at her sister as the two of them leaned on the railing of the large cruise ship. Luna's short hair blew gently in the breeze, and she brushed some of her own hair out of the way. "It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing."

Luna stifled a laugh.

Luan turned to face Luna fully, surprise on her face. "Did… Did you just laugh at one of my jokes?"

"Of course, dude." Luna smiled in reply. "It's been too long since I've heard you make a joke and last time we met you didn't make a single one."

Luan sighed. "Yeah, that wasn't a good time for me."

A short pause. "You doing okay now?"

"It's… still rough, but now that I'm spending time with you girls I'm feeling a lot better." Luan gasped a little. "Oh, I just remembered, I bumped into someone a few days ago."

Luna tilted her head. "Hm?"

"You remember Maggie, right?"

"You mean your emo ex?"

Luan nodded. "Yep. God, she's still pretty. She has a kid now, apparently."

"Wait, I thought she was, like, entirely gay."

"Guess not. Anyway, she didn't tell me who the dad was, but the kid's like eleven years old and is just the most adorable thing."

"So no dad, huh?" Luna smirked. "Hey, you bet Linc had something to do with that?"

"Dude, don't joke about that." Luan replied, although she had a slight smile herself.

"Well, as much as I'm enjoying this, I'm gonna go grab something to eat."

"Mind if I come with?"

"All good, sis." The two of them pulled away from the majesty of the ocean and started to head into the cruise ship itself. "Also, no offence, dude, but do you think you're being a bit clingy?"

"I am?" Luan's mood immediately dropped. "Sorry."

"Luan, hey, it's okay, I'm enjoying the company. Just… y'know, is everything alright?"

"Ah, you've already heard me ramble about this before. The whole 'nobody really talks to me any more' thing. I've just been lonely recently."

"You should totally hook up with Maggie, then."

Luan blushed furiously. "Luna!"

"Heh heh, knew that'd happen." Luna smiled. "But seriously, I think you two could give it another go, seeing as you only really broke up because Maggie moved interstate for a job."

"I'll… Maybe. I dunno."

Soon enough, the pair made their way to the restaurant area of the ship - it wasn't the fanciest of places, but for what they were all used to, this was quite the luxury.

And they weren't the only ones there. Currently sitting at the bar were Lori and Lynn, with Lola and Lana, and Lisa, sitting at different tables, eating a wide variety of foods. Lynn was currently trying to challenge another passenger to a drinking competition or an arm wrestling match, it was honestly hard to tell at their distance.

"I'll grab us a bite. You go and spend time with the others."

Luan nodded, and moved up to where Lynn was just as the person she was trying to challenge moved away.

"Coward!" Lynn shouted, completely oblivious to societal norms, before turning to Luan as she approached. "Oh hey Luan."

"Hey." Luan took a seat. "What's up?"

"Just trying to get a good arm-wrestling match going on, but nobody's going for it."

"Mind if I give you a hand with that?"

Lynn groaned as the pun hit her, but quickly brightened up at the challenge. "Sure, but I gotta warn you, I'm a lot stronger than I used to be."

Luan placed her arm on the bar and gripped Lynn's hand. The womanlet had a vice-like grip and she could feel the raw power behind her toned muscles, and she immediately regretted her decision.

"Ready?" Lynn asked.

"Yep." Luan lied.

"On three. One…"

Luan tensed up, bracing for the inevitable.

"Two…"

Lynn remained relaxed for a moment, but as she opened her mouth to count up her entire visage changed. What replaced her friendly demeanour was a steel-eyed determination to win at all costs, her entire body preparing to launch Luan into next week. Luan knew this expression change well, and she knew that it was all she could do to keep her arm from shattering.

"Three!"

Luan pushed for only a brief moment, and for a split second she seemed to be getting somewhere. But it was quickly replaced with agony as her arm went completely the wrong direction and slammed into the bar at mach speed.

Lynn raised her arms up. "Woo!" She shot her hand out, grabbing Luan's still-functioning arm and shaking it. "Well done, Luan. You been working out?"

"Lot of lifting books." Luan replied through pained gasps. "But compared to me, you're armed and dangerous."

"Ah hah hah hah." Lynn's laughter was obviously fake.

"Still, -ow- you beat me. Let's give her a hand, everyone."

Lynn sighed. "You done?"

"I would, but I don't have my notebook handy." Luan smirked.

Lynn just gave her a deadpan look and walked away. Part of her knew this was normal, but the pain of isolation stung her deeply nonetheless.

Trying to crush this feeling, she shifted up to Lori, who was sipping some multicoloured drink and flicking through her phone. "Hey Lori."

"Luan, I am not in the mood for one of your jokes."

"Really? You used to love them."

Lori raised an eyebrow. "Maybe so, and maybe I'll be up for them later on, but for now I'd rather be left alone. It was bad enough having Lynn next to me."

"Oh, okay." Luan tried to smile, and was glad Lori couldn't see her face as she turned around. Just as she did, Lola and Lana both stood up and walked off, sparing a glance at Luan as they did. Lisa left shortly afterwards, and didn't even look her way.

Luan felt her mood crash through the ship's decking right to the bottom of the ocean they were on. Desperately trying to keep her optimism up, she moved over to Luna, who was just moving to a table with some food.

"Hey Luna."

"Hey Luan. Jeez, you look down."

Luan sighed, no longer trying to fake it. "That obvious, huh?"

"You're shit at hiding your emotions."

"Yeah…" Luan fell into her seat. "It's just that… I dunno, I feel like everyone's avoiding me."

"Nah, they've just got something else to do or something."

"Lori just outright told me to leave her alone."

Luna frowned a little. "Well, she has been through a fair bit. Besides, it's only the first day, dude. Give everyone some time to warm up again."

"Yeah…" Luan picked at her food, her appetite as broken as her mood. "But what if none of them really like me anymore? What if they never liked me?"

Luna grabbed her sister's hand. "Dude. Stop that. I know they still love you, they're just… it's just been a while."

Luan sighed, pulling her hand out of Luna's grasp and standing up. "I think I'm going to take a short nap."

"Sis-" Luna started, but Luan had already started to walk away. By the time her brain kicked into gear and realised she could've stood up and stopped her, Luan had left the dining hall.

- - -

Luan turned on her side, trying to will herself to close her eyes, but she couldn't. She balled her fists, fighting the urge to punch herself in the gut for being so weak.

Her mind flashed back to the dining hall, replaying what happened, flickers of the pure scorn she saw behind the eyes of her sisters sharp in her mind. Her eyesight became blurry and unfocused, but the flashbacks were as sharp as they could be.

Her mind then wandered into 'what-ifs', imagining herself being yelled at by her sisters. She screwed her eyes shut, tears freely flowing sideways. She tried to fight back, to counter the accusations hurled at her, but she couldn't. She curled up on herself, failing to stop herself from crying as the voices grew louder and harsher, each word wounding her deeply.

This all stopped suddenly when she heard a knock on her cabin door. "Luan?"

It was Luna's voice. Luan flipped onto her other side, facing away from the door. "Leave me alone."

"Dude, seriously, it's been an hour."

"I said leave me alone! I don't want your pity."

"Pity? Come on, sis, I don't pity you-"

Luan shot upright. "Oh really? Then why are you the only one who's actually talked to me?"

"I…"

"Just leave me alone, alright?" She fell back down on her side, turning away from the door.

A long stretch of quiet followed, but just as Luan was about to fall back into the whirlpool of emotional torment, someone spoke. "Luan?"

It was Lynn's voice. Luan paused, then slowly pulled herself upright.

"I… I had no idea you were feeling this bad." Lynn sighed. "Look, I'm kinda bad at this sort of thing, so you could've just told me-"

"Oh, well done, Lynn, that's only gonna make her feel worse." Lola's voice replied.

"I don't see you trying." Lynn snapped back.

"Do you think I didn't want to? You started before I could-"

"Holy shit, guys, just… Chill, will ya?" Luna added.

"My point is," Lynn continued after a moment, "is that I'm sorry. We all are."

"Luna told us what you were going through." Lana's voice chipped in. "We kind of know what that's like, but we've all been too focused on our own little worlds."

Luan slowly pulled herself to the door and slid it open. All the sisters she heard were there, plus Lori, who had just put away her phone into her suit jacket.

"Jeez, you really do look rough-" Lynn was interrupted by an elbow to her arm from Lana. "Heh, sorry."

"It's okay." Luan replied. "I… I should've let you guys know what was-"

"Stop." Lori started. "We should've been the ones asking you how you were. Don't pin the blame on yourself."

Luan was taken aback by that. For so long she had always thought it was her fault, but to hear that at least one of her sisters thought it was there fault… it took her quite a bit to process that.

"Anyway, to lighten the mood, we were thinking we'd all have a nice big dinner together." Lana said.

Luan blinked, then smiled. "I'd love that. It should be quite a ful-'filling' experience."

Like a well-timed chorus, they all groaned.

Luan beamed. "Get it?"