𝗺𝗶𝗱𝗻𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻 || 𝗺𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗸

- the royal merchant -

"The tide's turning.." Kie states warily, she doesn't want to scare Melia.

The monitor beeps as the boat drifts slightly out of the area they needed to be in.

"Hey, JJ?" John B calls.

"Yup?"

"Ten seconds easy!" He instructs, watching the screen. "Alright! South-southeast!"

"Copy that!"

The tide was starting to pick up, Melia was trying super hard not to freak out. It's just a storm, she would be fine.

"JJ! 20 seconds mid-speed, all right? South." John B continues.

"Copy that! Aye, aye!" JJ calls back, biting his lip as he carries on steering. "Keep the tether out of the prop, Lia!" He tells her.

"I-I'm trying!" She says, looking nervously at the harsh storm clouds rolling in. Her hands were shaking as she tried to grip the rope.

"JJ, keep going!" John B runs his hands through his hair.

Thunder rumbles once again, this time sounding closer.

"John B, is that good?" He asks, looking back at the boy.

"We're good!" JB confirms, nodding.

"Okay, 700 feet!" Kie yells, marking another line with chalk. She glances at Melia who had her eyes fixed directly at one spot in the water.

Thunder crashes again and she jumps, shaking her head. "K-Kie? Can we swap?" She asks, she wants to move further into the middle of the boat, rather than standing at the edge.

"Yeah of course, Mills." Kie says with a smile, quickly grabbing her end of the tether so they could swap over. Melia walks to the middle of the boat and lets out a shaky breath.

The waves were starting to get really big, John B made sure he was stood next to his sister - who was getting increasingly more panicked as time went on.

Thunder was becoming more and more frequent, Melia was trying her hardest to stay calm.

Only a few more hundred feet... She thinks, squeezing her eyes shut.

"JJ, hold it steady!" John B yells.

"Okay! Nine hundred!" Kie calls out, Melia shakily marks another line on their tally.

"JJ, we're going to turtle in this storm!" Pope yells, shaking his head.

John B and JJ shoot him a warning glare, if Melia wasn't already scared - she definitely was now.

"Nine Twenty!" Kie yells.

"Crank it north by northwest! Ten seconds!" John B informs JJ, he wraps his arm around his sister: who was completely out of it.

She jumps at his touch but soon relaxes at the realisation it was her brother. Although they fight, they do love each other really.

"Pope, how are we doing?" Kie asks.

"Almost there.." He says, eyes focused on the image the camera was portraying on his screen.

"John B there's too much current!" Kie says, shaking her head as she keeps trying to feed the tether down further into the water.

"We're gonna lose it!"

Thunder claps once again. Melia jumping, moving closer to her brother but keeping a hold of the tether.

"South, south-west, JJ! Hard!" JB shouts.

The monitor beeps as they get closer.

"Half speed! Steady at this bearing, JJ!" The wind whips his brown hair back.

The monitor beeps once again as they hover over the spot.

"What do you got, Pope? C'mon man! What do you see?!" John B asks, looking over at his screen.

"Nothin'. A whole lot of nothing!" He furrows his eyebrows.

Melia whimpers slightly as some water gets splashed up at her.

"I'm not risking my life for fucking nothing!" She yells, shaking her head. Her brothers grip tightens on her shoulder.

"Come on, you should be right above it.." John B states, squinting his eyes at Pope's screen.

"Kiara!" Pope yells.

"Nine sixty!" She responds, feeding the rope in as fast as she could.

"Nine seventy!"

Pope bends forwards, staring at the camera. Come on...

"Nine eighty!" Kiara shouts.

"I'm at the bottom! I'm at the bottom!" Pope informs everybody, watching intently. Melia quickly stops handing the tether down to Kie.

"Okay- steady here, JJ!" JB yells. "Steady here! Quarter speed, all right?!"

"You should be seeing something, man!" Melia grips her temples with stress, her hands shaking still.

"I know! I know!" Pope groans.

"Wait! Wait.." He finishes, furrowing his eyebrows before his face drops.

"Oh, good god.." He says, a grin growing on his face.

Melia quickly turns to look at the screen, JJ comes over and so does Kiara.

"It's the Royal Merchant.." JB whispers, looking up at his sister with a massive smile.

"Dad- Dad was right?!" Melia beams, she didn't even care about the storm now.

Her dad was right.

JJ wraps his arms around Melia, pulling her in for an excited hug. She giggles and smiles into his chest.

"Holy shit, Lia!" JJ exclaims, smiling and squeezing her tighter.

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NOTE FROM EMI: sorry this wasnt very like jj and melia filled but i think the hammock scene last chapter made up for it 😋

THANK U TO EVERYONE WHOS BEEN COMMENTING I ACTUALLY LOVE U 💗

thank you for SIX HUNDRED READS?! that's absolutely inSANE. and ty if u got this far !!

sorry for my uploading schedule being all wack, i'm trying to fix it guys🙏

LOVE YOU AND SEE YOU AGAIN IN A FEW DAYS FOR THE NEXT CHAP 💕