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Gryffon always took second watch. He preferred not having to wake up just before the morning, like he would have to with third or fourth watch. It was easier that way, to not have to force himself awake after practically no sleep. And the captains always took first, so he never wanted to infringe on their crucial time together. He didn’t have to be awake through those first three hours of their shift, technically, but he loved the moments where he could hear the water crashing against the side of the boat, lulling everyone else to sleep. He didn’t want to waste them. Instead he just stared at the ceiling, felt the gentle rocking of the ship beneath him and let his mind wander. The stars above him when he finally got to sit on the deck and stare out at the ocean around him were etherial. They twinkled and gleamed over his head like each and every wave in the massive sea, and he just couldn’t help feeling at peace. Everything about his time alone was just that. Peaceful.
He barely noticed when Queen began taking the second watch with him.
It was like her voice blended perfectly in with the waves, their timing syncing up, burying the artist’s song to the point where it could barely be heard. Gryffon still laid on the upper deck, his back pressed against the worn wooden floorboards, taking in the senses around him. Letting the feeling of calm wash over him and through him, becoming little more than another soul in the sea. Only now there was one more, a song blending with the already beautiful painting of sounds around him, mixing a soft voice with the waves crashing and the wind blowing into the mast. He only realized that it was Queen the night after the Electrodon attack, when they couldn’t stop their sobs from breaking out of the fluctuating patterns of the waves. There was something different in the air, something crackling below the ship, and Gryffon just assumed that it was pent up magic still in the water. It took him a minute to place the sound, and to assure himself that it wasn’t all inside his own head. But when he sat up, Queen’s long white hair and tear streaks caught the moonlight, and the sight of her knocked the numb peace from his chest instantly. It was like the water in the air and on their face had been enchanted to refract and capture light, a beautiful feat of magic learned only to highlight the picture they made. Her voice sounded strung-out as she whispered an apology. Something in Gryffon wanted to run to them, to bolt up and shield the place in Queen where those tears were coming from. There had to be something so naive in her, some spark in their brain that led them to feel as deeply as this, and Gryffon wanted to guard it with more care and patience than he had ever felt the need to in his life. Instead, he gestured for Queen to come forward, to meet him at the edge of the deck and lay down. They did, although with more tears gathering in their eyes, and Gryffon gestured up at the sky.
“Look. Nothing can possibly be too terrible when the stars look like that.”
Another sob tore through Queen as they gazed longingly up at the stars. Their chest was rising and falling unevenly, and her breathing was ragged and slow. They looked less terrified than wracked with guilt, and less melancholic than lonely. Gryffon opened his mouth to speak again, pulling words that were slow and deep and steady in a way which he hoped was soothing. He was never good with the words themselves, but had been told that his voice was nice to listen to. He hoped that was enough for this situation.
“We’re all okay. Nobody’s really dead. Nobody’s dying. What’s wrong?”
“I think… La. I- I’m not suited for this.” Queen choked out between their uneven breaths, her voice high and unsteady. “I feel that I- I know nothing of this way of life, and we all very nearly just died, and I was powerless to stop it.”
“Everybody felt that. This fight was a weird one. I wasn’t exactly doing much myself.”
“I just feel… I don’t know how I feel. I feel cursed, la.”
“This isn’t an easy life to just get thrown into like you did. You’re doing well for yourself. You’ll get used to it.”
Queen’s shuddery gasps turned more even as Gryffon spoke, and they stared up at the sky with such a fervent longing that Gryffon almost wondered if the stars were the only thing left to help Queen right now.
“Do you promise, la?” They asked quietly, her soft lips forming such a short question like it meant the world to them. Queen was so fucking good with words, Gryffon thought to himself.
“Yeah. I promise.”
Queen inched closer to Gryffon, placing her palm over his without taking their eyes off the sky. Gryffon could feel that he wanted, wanted to not let Queen go as they lied there breathing slower and steadier by the second, tracing small pictures of what felt like the constellations into the pads of his fingers. He also knew that Queen needed sleep desperately, and that Jay would likely come back out to do a third watch with Drey in only a few minutes. So he ended up doing nothing but trying to memorize the patterns that got slower as Queen’s breaths evened out. It wasn’t long before they were asleep, and Gryffon could hear the telltale steps coming out from below deck. He glanced at Queen, double checking that they were truly asleep before awkwardly scooping them up at the knees and neck and heading back to the crew quarters. He gently placed Queen in their hammock, noting with a small increase to the ache in his chest that she’d embroidered the fabric around her head with little silver music notes. He slumped into his own hammock with a sigh, noting with exhaustion that the shadows from the stars danced behind his eyelids far more than they did when he was alone. He didn’t wait long for sleep to take him, a rare gift earned from a day of fighting and emotional maturity.
The next night when he got up to take his watch, Queen was already awake and behind the door, asking in a small voice if they could come too. And the night after that, and the night after that. At some point, Gryffon wasn’t taking the second watch alone anymore, and he would go to bed with his skin warm where Queen had set her hands. At some point, the night had become less about the stars and the waves, less about Gryffon letting his soul drift into the ocean, and more about Queen. Queen’s hands, Queen’s body, Queen’s voice. The way they lit up every space they were in, but how their light dimmed during second watch, like they didn’t want to outshine the stars. For Gryffon, they did. Every single time. He wanted to tell them that. One day he’d get around to it. He didn’t want to ruin these moments for himself or Queen, though, so he stayed silent. One day, he promised himself mentally. One day he’d explain to Queen how they lit up every dark corner in this ocean, and how their music, however fractured, felt like the constellations given material form. He’d maybe explain how badly he wanted Queen, how desperately he needed to reach out and take her and hold her close enough that nothing would ever go wrong. He could feel this weight settling in his chest, growing roots and staying there, changing him into something just a bit softer every time Queen stayed near him. He didn’t quite know what to do with it. He felt that Queen probably would. It seemed like the kind of thing they liked.