Like any other pirate worth their salt, Miss Fortune knew there was treasure lost somewhere beneath the waves. And like every other pirate in Bilgewater, she had no idea where it was.

But she knew who did.

Every night Sarah Fortune would sit on the edge of her ship, dangle her feet above the surf and watch the moon. She always made sure she was moored close to shore, close to an area full of treacherous rocks and shallow tide pools. They attracted some pretty interesting things: eels, dolphins, seals, every color of fish you could imagine…

Mermaids.

Sarah was fond of moon watching because apparently, so were mermaids. Or one particular mermaid, to be specific. Nami loved staring at the moon with those big amber fish eyes of hers, and she really loved all the tiny tide pools stuck between the rocks. Hence why Sarah risked ruining her ship to be near them.

The Marai Mermaid would spend hours flitting from one pool to another, talking to the fish. It was interesting to watch, really. Sarah herself enjoyed watching the lionfish. But she had bigger fish to fry, so to speak.

Naturally, Nami wasn't all that friendly with pirates. She preferred quieter, less illegally inclined friends that maybe didn't smell so much like alcohol. She guessed she didn't mind Sarah all that much though. She was clean and smart and was a little bit sneakier about how she made her money. She was pleasant to talk to, also. Most of the time, she actually seemed to care about what Nami was saying, and not even the treasure parts too.

But mostly, she was only interested in the treasure.

She wanted to know all about it: whose was it, what it was, how much did Nami think it was worth, where was it. Nami knew the locations of hundreds of shrunken ships that knew for a fact had dragged a lot of valuable stuff to the bottom of the ocean. It was fun finding them.

It was more fun messing with Sarah.

This particular night Nami was at the beach very early, just hardly passed moon rise. Sarah saw her hunched over a tide pool, standing (was it considered standing?) very still. Sarah left her spot on her ship to traverse the rocks below, to where Nami was. She found her coddling a rather plump starfish, murmuring to it for a moment before placing it oh so gently back in the water. She looked up at Sarah, grinning, the small fins around her face waving just slightly.

"He says the water is colder than he's used to. And dirtier."

Sarah shrugged. "He's a starfish. I don't think he gets to be picky."

Nami flipped the tip of her tail, most of which was in the tide pool she'd plucked the starfish from. Water splashed outwards, landing on Sarah's clothes.

"It is dirtier."

Sarah grimaced at her shirt.

Nami paid no attention, fixing those big eyes on the moon. Her tail flicked slowly through the water, making it undulate and splash over the sides of the pool. Altogether, very peaceful. And quiet.

"How's the moon treating you?"

Nami giggled.

"I can talk to the fish, not the moon."

Sarah thought she sounded rather wistful.

"How's Bilgewater treating you?"

It was Sarah's turn to laugh.

"The beer is crap, the people are crap, the pay is crap. So quite nicely, I'd say."

Nami grinned. "Piracy, not enjoyable? I'd never have imagined."

Sarah chose not to respond; talking about how very wrong it was to be a pirate was Nami's favorite thing to do, but for Sarah… Not so much. Truthfully, she loved everything about it. The terrible people, smelly ports, the overall shady quality of her work. Who wouldn't want to be a pirate?

The sound of Nami's tail smacking against the water answered her question.

"I have something for you."

Sarah raised an eyebrow. This was new.

"Oh?"

Nami reached into the tide pool, fishing around in the sand for a moment.

"Listen, I'm sure your starfish is great and all but I-"

The mermaid held up a hand, silencing her, and pulled something that was definitely not a starfish from the water.

It was a very long, very old necklace, the gold chain dirty and sticky with algae. But the diamond, the diamond nearly as big as Nami's eyes that hung from the chain still glittered in the moonlight. Nami held it out to Sarah, another huge grin on her face.

"Cool, huh?"

Sarah took it wordlessly, about to ask if Nami was sure she wanted to give it away, but changed her mind and decided to remain silent.

Well, almost silent.

"Just for me? Nami, you're too kind."

The grin on her face turned into a very smug smirk, and when she answered, Sarah swore the mermaid had planned this whole night, down to every last reaction.

"Yeah the necklace is nice, but you should've seen the rest of it!"

She leaned backwards, spreading her arms across the sky, tail flipping out of the water.

"There was stuff everywhere!"

Sarah's eye twitched, the thought of so much money in one place nearly giving her an aneurysm.

"And you're not going to tell me where it is… Are you."

Nami smiled again.

"Nope! But he will."

Nami once again held out her hand, offering Sarah a small, purple starfish.