Malachite was furious. The two gems comprising her were not happy at all. Jasper desperately wanted to break free from her undersea chains and rise to the surface to cause havoc, but Lapis insisted on keeping them locked up to protect Steven and his friends. To top it off, both of them were angry. As one, it wasn't going exceptionally well. Malachite had been on the ocean floor for weeks now, with nothing but time to think. Or brood. A bad storm raged at the surface, near hurricane strength, but Malachite took little notice. She got restless and stretched out, letting herself roll onto her back in the sand and glance up at the waves crashing above her, she noticed something. What did the humans call it? A 'boat?' That was it, a boat. It seemed to be fairing quite well in the storm until it pulled a wild maneuver. Malachite saw a small splash in the sea above her as the sailboat's single crewman was tossed over the side by a large wave. His lifeline parted close to the boat and he made a frantic grab for the trip line he had trailed astern, but he couldn't quite make it.
Malachite was curious now. She had never really observed human behavior, but for such small and weak creatures, it seemed insane to be out on a boat of that size in weather that severe. As the boat sailed on, under self-steering, Malachite watched the lone sailor trying to stay afloat, hopelessly watching his craft glide away from him. Eventually, about a hundred yards directly above her, the sailor gave in to the storm and let the waves push him under.
Malachite had forgotten that humans can't breath underwater until she saw the sailor take a breath of of seawater into his lungs and wretch, his eyes going wide and his body contorting for a moment before becoming still. At this point, he was only a few yards above Malachite. She gasped and reached up, grabbing him in her hand and forming a bubble of air around him. Showing an odd level of compassion, Malachite began panicking when her rescue wasn't waking up.
"A-ah! Wh-what do we do, what do I do?!"
After a moment of arguing with herself, Malachite reached a finger into the air bubble and gave him a tap on the chest. This did break a few ribs, but to her surprise, it forced the water back out of his lungs and he rolled over in the bubble, coughing and wheezing for several minutes. Eventually, he rolled onto his back and opened his eyes. He saw where he was and who was holding him.
"Ah! H-h-h-hey now, wh-who, what?..."
"Uh, h-hi, I'm Malachite...you fell off your, uh...'boat' and I put you in a bubble..."
She didn't really know what to say at this point. Neither did he.
"E-eheh...I'm Munn...Andy Munn...o-or Sailor Munn, whichever is...easiest..."
He looked her up and down and gulped, really not knowing her full intentions.
"Who-what? Who are you?"
"I'm...a fusion between two gems...I don't think you'd understand."
Munn reclined against the wall of the bubble he was in, one arm around his wiast.
"I-I guess that explanation might be a bit much for me at the moment...um, I don't mean to be rude, and I do really appreciate you saving me, but did you happen to, uh, notice which way my boat went?"
"A-ah, right, it went that way!"
Malachite pointed in the boat's direction, though now far out of sight. "I...we can see if we can find it if you want." Munn laughed a little.
"I'd much appreciate it, ma'am.
His hat had been tethered to his coat by a lanyard, so he found it and placed it back on his head, a traditional 1800's navy hat. Malachite grinned a little to see him dump a hat-full of water over himself while putting it back on.
"Haha! Nice one, twerp."
She had already started walking the seafloor in the direction of Munn's boat.
"I swear that self-steerer I put on there is so darn good, that boat'd sail herself to England without me! I hope a wind shift trips her up in time..."
Malachite liked hearing him talk. It was the first voice she had heard in weeks. And an overly friendly one at that. Both parts of Malachite were starting to warm up to him, though they couldn't quite understand why, or what this strange new feeling was.
"So...where did you come from? Why were you out in that storm by yourself in a little boat? It's crazy! And...kinda brave?..."
Malachite blushed, realizing what she had just said, but Munn did a better job of covering his own.
"Well, I guess you could say I'm a...nautical vagrant. I live on that boat and I just sail around the world, waiting for nice things to happen! Most of the time they do. Sometimes, you get a storm or an unexpected reef. Or sometimes you almost starve to death because the wind died, you ran out of food, the fish weren't biting, and you're an idiot... But mostly good things!"
Malachite raised an eyebrow, questioning how much intelligence this human actually had. He reminded her of Greg, only...tiny. This guy couldn't have been more that five feet tall and thin as a rail. She did like his big sideburns, though, and the lightly unshaven look of the rest of his face. A bit more attractive than Greg's unkempt beard. Wait. What was she saying?! There is now way she could be feeling human emotions for this...twerp...
After regaling Munn with the long story of who she was, where she came from, and how she came to be, Malachite found it nice to open up to someone. She wasn't even really conscious of her two individual parts anymore. Both Jasper and Lapis liked Munn. Lapis like his adventurous nature and sense of humor and Jasper...just thought he was cute. She didn't know why, but she just thought he was cute.
After several hours, Malachite's superior vision spotted Munn's boat on the surface, not far off, having finally luffed up in a wind shift. The storm was passed.
"Hey Munn, there's your...boat..."
She trailed off with disappointment in her voice, knowing she'd be alone again.
"H-hey now..."
Munn could tell how she felt and he felt the same way. Malachite was huge and strong and smart and...what was the word he was looking for...hot. Really pretty hot.
"I-I wish I could fit you on my boat...but I think I'm just dreaming now..."
Malachite's eyes widened. Maybe...maybe she could-it was worth a try.
"Listen, twerp...I'm not sure if this will work, but if I made myself smaller...would you really want me around?"
Munn's face lit up "You can do that? Y-yes! Yes, I would! It would be my honor..."
He took his hat off and bowed to her, blushing as a glob of seaweed fell out of his shirt collar and then wincing when he got halfway down, forgetting his ribs. Malachite laughed and almost squished him in her hand accidentally.
"O-okay, let's see..."
Her gems glowed brightly and as she shrank, the bubble around Munn burst and he took her hand, holding his breath till she was finished. When the light faded, Malachite was only about 7 feet tall, floating in the water next to Munn, who pointed upwards, his breath about run out.
"Ah! Oh, okay!"
She gripped his hand and floated them quickly up to the surface, where Munn finally grabbed the trip line from his boat, pulling them up the stern. After folding down the ladder, Malachite climbed aboard, lifting him up with her. Panting a little, Munn put his hand on one of hers. She grinned and leaned over pulling him into a hug and gently kissing his mouth, something Lapis and Jasper had only seen humans do a few times. Munn turned bright red and rested his hand on her hip, returning the kiss.
"I've never really done that before...is that the right thing to do when you feel different about someone?" Malachite was losing her confidence now and fidgeting a little. Munn nodded and took her hand.
"Yes, I think it is." He leaned in and kissed her again, a little harder this time. Malachite still didn't quite know what she was doing, so she reluctantly pushed him away a little.
"O-okay, don't get too excited, twerp. You have to show me how this 'boat' thing works! She tried to look annoyed, but it wasn't working too well. Munn nodded and began to explain how everything worked. The halyards raised the sails, the sheets trimmed them in, there were three of each and more of everything else. He had lost her when she got a warm feeling in her stomach from listening to his voice. About two sentences in.
"Th-this is an unreasonably complicated way to travel this silly planet! And you can't even take it on land or-" She saw a look on his face as if every last bit of pride had just drained out of him all at once. To him, this was all he had. This was all he knew how to do. She choked back a gasp at herself, afraid she had just ruined whatever...feelings this human had for her.
"O-oh no, Munn, please, I didn't mean-" She put her arms around him and squeezed a little too hard, earning a small yelp from him. She clearly wasn't good at this and loosened her grip, getting really nervous now. Lapis and Jasper argued internally over how to fix this, but they only came up with one idea. Malachite gently lifted Munn to her height by his shoulders and kissed him again. He gladly returned it, stroking her strong arm with his hand, realizing that a sailboat must seem incredibly silly to a superior space rock.
"I'm sorry, you little twerp. I like you a lot..."
Munn took her hand as she put him back down on the cockpit bench beside her. Malachite gripped it gently and looked around, now admiring the boat, but observing the setting sun.
"What do we do when it gets dark?"
"Well, I usually slap on the self-steering again and go down below to sleep through the night. I have a radar reflector that lets other boats see where I am in the dark. My spare bunk would never fit you, so I'm giving you my stateroom. The bed's nice and big!"
Malachite had actually grown fond of sleeping, as she had plenty of time for it on the ocean floor. She nodded and followed him down into the cabin, which provided standing headroom for Munn, but not so much for her. She perched on a bench, her legs folded under her while Munn made his bed(which he never usually did). After switching on a light in his cabin, he directed her in.
"This is as comfortable as I can offer, I'm afraid..."
Her eyes widened as she climber into the nice cushy bed, on which Munn had put three fancy blankets, and a ton of pillows.
"W-wow, you outdid yourself, twerp, no one's ever set me up with anything that feels this nice."
Munn blushed again and touched the brim of his hat to her before turning and setting up the spare bunk for himself in the dinette.
"Let me know if there's anything else you need!"
Munn stretched out on the little bunk, with no blanket or pillow, having given them all to her. Malachite pawed around the bed for a minute before settling down and curling up in the middle, pretty much taking up the entire space. But there was something missing. Even with the blankets, she was still a little cold.
"H-hey twerp! Would you mind, uh...not sleeping out there?..." She bit her lip. "It's, uh...a little cold in here..." Munn stepped into her room wondering what she meant, when she gently pulled him up onto the bed and wrapped her four upper arms around him, pulling him in close.
"I-if this is okay-I mean I was a little cold and I really like you-but you don't have to if you don't want to-but..."
Lapis and Jasper were arguing furiously again. Isn't this what humans like to do? It was called 'cuddling,' she'd seen people do it all the time! What if he didn't like it, what if he didn't like her, what if?- Her internal argument was cut off by a deep kiss and Munn's arms wrapping around her 'upper' waist.
"This is perfect. You're perfect." He smiled as he gazed up into her eyes. Malachite was amazed at how much more she seemed to like him each second. He was also incredibly warm, but she noticed his shirt was still damp from earlier. She let her comfort and curiosity get the better of her and she began tugging it off.
"H-hey now!" Munn blushed furiously, as he was self-conscious about his apparent lack of muscle.
"Quit squirming, twerp, it's still wet, we'll be warmer without it."
He let her take it off and tried to discreetly cover his stomach with his arms. It didn't work, and Malachite still saw the horrendous bruises all over him from the thump she had given him to get the water out of his lungs.
"A-ah, I did that, didn't I?...Nnng, dammit, I'm sorry!" She tried to hide her face a little as she traced over them lightly with her fingers, feeling pretty awful that she'd had to injure him on their first meeting. Munn refused to let her feel bad for long. Taking her hand and tracing his over her cheek, he kissed her again.
"You know you saved me, right? Eheh..."
Malachite still felt bad, but she brightened at his touch and started to feel much warmer. Realizing her own top was a little wet, she reached around her back to unclip it and tossed it onto a shelf next to the bed. Munn wiped blood from his nose and felt a little warmer. Malachite noticed and immediately remembered there was a reason humans wore clothes. She let out an 'eep' and blushed again, pulling a blanket up to cover herself.
"S-sorry...I forgot...I'm still not used to human behavior, this is very difficult..."
Munn finished wiping his nose bleed and stammered. "I-I don't mind, believe me!" Malachite laughed and pulled him closer.
"Mmm, you're so waaarm...where were you the whole time I was at the bottom of the ocean?"
"Almost drowning. Hehe."
Malachite rested her head on top of his and finally let herself drift off to sleep, as did Munn after glancing up at the compass in the ceiling to make sure they were still on the right heading.