Serene handed in her paperwork and spent the next few days loitering around the office until the old cranky administrator processed it just so she would go away.
She hadn't told her team she was leaving yet, waiting until she had the sheet in front of her before making her next move.
Jazz, Nyla and Maizie were in a spare classroom tinkering with their weapons and Serene had to admit this probably wasn't the best place to do it.
Deciding that being rude and recalcitrant was the best way to ensure some time apart was the best decision for everyone, she headed in.
"Hey," Jazz greeted as Serene sat on a desk nearby them. Jazz was repairing the dust cartridges in her axes. Nyla was cleaning her guns, her whip on the desk.
"Hey," Serene rested her hands on the desk behind her, subtly checking that the halves of her staff were still on her back. She figured she could take them, but not unarmed.
"Where have you been?" Nyla asked innocently. "It's almost time to pack up." "I had to get this thing sorted." Serene shrugged, trying to play it off casually.
"What thing?" "Paperwork to go to Beacon," she held up the sheet for a moment. They all stopped working, looking up at her.
"What?" Maizie asked. "I thought we weren't going for a few more week," "I decided to go early. Check it out." "Why do you need to 'check it out' if we're not competing?" Jazz asked. "Why didn't you tell us?" She sounded hurt.
"Didn't realise I had to run everything past you." Serene sassed.
Jazz frowned. "We agreed,as a team, that we wouldn't be leaving until later in the year. You could have at least run it by us," Serene rolled her eyes. "A team." She muttered, pushing herself off the desk and heading to the door. "Whatever. I'm leaving tonight."
Serene shoved a few clothes and her weapons into her still mostly packed duffle bag and grabbed her charger, making sure she didn't forget anything important and dragging her trunk out of the room to the office.
"You're lucky you got here in time," She administrator said, all stiff as she stuck a sticker of Serene's student ID on the trunk and signing it. "The carrier leave in a few hours; any later and you'd have had to wait another two weeks before getting your things to Beacon." Serene didn't reply. Raven had told her to make her own way to Beacon, and she was currently weighing her options. The administrator looked at her like she was dirt and returned to her kingdom of paperwork and stamps. Serene picked up her duffle and left.
She walked until she didn't recognise where she was and stepped inside the nearest open place bustling with people.
It was a well-lit restaurant designed in classic Mistrali décor. Most more than half the seats were occupied by rowdy locals eating and drinking and laughing loudly. Serene felt a wave of déjà vu at the noise; it reminded her of most nights back at the tribe.
She slid into an unoccupied wall seat and dropped her bag at her feet, resting her head in her hands. This was exhausting. She didn't realise how hard it would be to lie and keep her past from people, careful of every word she uttered and every person who might recognise her. Living a lie was hard; she didn't know how Raven did it for four years.
"You look like hell, kid," Serene jumped, her senses thrown off by the loud room and she reached for her staff.
A teacher from the academy stood on the other side of the table, leaning with one hand on the wooden table, her hip sticking out with her fan hanging from her leather belt. Professor Ramona Champagne was a tall, muscular huntress with warm brown skin and dark hair that made her foresty green and brown colour scheme pop. As well as being the Combat teacher, she had been 'working' with the troubled kids at Haven. Serene had been careful to stay under the radar but had noticed the teacher keeping an eye on her in class.
"What are you doing down here kid?" Romana asked, taking a seat across from Serene and leaning back in the chair, crossing a leg over the other, looking her over.
Serene leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest and shrugging. "I'm going to Beacon." "Already?" Professor Champagne asked casually. "Yep." "How are you getting there? You got a passport?" Serene did not. She didn't answer.
"How are classes going Serene?" Champagne asked, changing the subject. "Are you adjusting well?" "I'm fine," Serene said pointedly, hoping she would leave. She just nodded.
"You get along well with your teammates?"
Serene wanted to brush her off but found she didn't have the nerve. She'd seen the huntress fight, and while she wouldn't admit she was afraid of her, she could concede that she wasn't someone she wanted to piss off.
"Sure," Serene sighed, running a hand through her hair.
Champagne nodded, leaning back again. "Look, I haven't really had a chance to talk to you, so I just wanted to say that I know for a lot of students from the East it's hard adjusting to a more… structured way of life. If you need someone to talk to…" She let the offer hang and after a moment Serene gave an almost imperceptible nod. She'd never been offered to talk about her feelings before. She wouldn't even know how to do it.
"Well," Champagne nodding, running her hands over her now uncrossed legs. "If you need to get to Beacon without being noticed, I might know a way to help."
That caught Serene's interest, as much as she tried to play it off casually. "Oh?" "Yeah. There's a civilian flight tonight to the docks to the west coast of Mistral. From there it should be easy enough to get a ride on a boat to Vale." "Won't I still need a passport?" Professor Champagne shrugged casually. "Not if no one knows you're there." She gave Serene a wink and stood, walking off somewhere else in the now packed room.
The civilian flight was easy enough to get onto, despite her reluctance at handing over her staff.
It was past midnight when she arrived at the docks and there was no one else around, the only sound was the soft banging of ships against the harbour and the waves crashing into the barriers.
Serene wouldn't lie; she was excited. She'd never seen the ocean before.
The full moon lit the beach and Serene walked to the end of the cement walkway at the edge of the white sand beach, finding a bench and sitting down. She set her bag down and watched the waves crash and the pale moonlight shine on the water. it was like nothing she had ever experienced. She hoped she would be able to visit the beach more often.
"There you are!" Serene jumped to her feet, pulling her staff from her back and turning towards the voice.
"Woah, relax," Sun said, holding his hands up in surrender. Serene huffed out a breath, "What are you doing here?" "Professor Champagne called," Sun pulled out his scroll. "Said you were headed this way and to keep an eye out for you." "I thought you left two days ago." Serene eyes him suspiciously.
"Yeah; turns out it's a lot harder to stow away on a ship here than it is in Vacuo." He jumped over the back onto the bench and sat down. "I've been waiting for the right time." "Can't you just bribe someone?" "That would defeat the whole purpose of stowing away." "And what purpose is that?" "I don't have any money to bribe someone with," "Oh." Serene joined him on the bench. They sat in silence for a while and Serene turned her focus back to the beach.
"Have you ever been here before?" Sun asked.
"What?" "You're from Mistral right? You ever been here?" "Where are we?" "Brash Bay," Sun said, gesturing vaguely to a sign a bit further down the path. Serene around and noticed the sign; if she hadn't been raised in the dark, she probably wouldn't be able to make out the words on the Eastern facing sign.
"No." She shrugged. "I've never been to the beach before." "What?" Sun asked, absolutely scandalised. "You've never been? Dude!" "What?" She asked defensively.
"Dude, the beach is the best! You should try surfing it's amazing." "What the hell is surfing?" Sun looked at her like he was about to explode, his mouth opening and closing in shock. Serene was pretty sure of what surfing was, but she was enjoying his reactions.
"Do you wanna go for a swim?" He asked. Serene raised an eyebrow. "It's the middle of the night." "So? It's a full moon, unless you've got somewhere else to be?" He asked her pointedly. Serene shrugged, trying to play it off cool. "Nope." "Then let's go!" Sun jumped up and kicked off his shoes, putting them on the bench and taking off his shirt, leaving them both on the bench. "You're gonna swim in jeans?" "I'm wearing boxers," He said. He dropped his pants and Serene snorted with laughter.
"Shut up!" Sun said, his turn to be defensive.
"Nice banana shorts. A little on the nose don't you think?"
"My mum bought them for me. Are you coming or not?" Serene thought about it a moment later before undoing her boots and stripping until she stood in the cool summer air in her boy shorts and sports bra.
"Race you to the water?" Sun asked.
Serene rolled her eyes. "Seriously? How old are y-" she took off in a sprint, hearing him call out ("No fair!") behind her. Her hardened feet pounded over the cement walkway before leaping down the small drop onto the beach. She was surprised by how unstable the sand was, but her strong legs quickly adapted and propelled her forward over the dry and loose to the wet and more solid sand and into the cool dark water. She felt Sun beside her and heard him hit the water as she dove under the shallow waves. Reaching out, she ran her hand over the whirling grains of sand, loose and tumbling through her fingers.
She broke the surface, the salt overwhelming her senses as she tried to stay afloat while she got her bearing and found her footing. She looked around for Sun, seeing him a few metres closer to land, breaking through the water, only to immediately be taken down by a wave.
Serene felt a rush of joy as the water surrounded her. It was cold, but not unpleasantly so, and the saltwater made it feel more intense than the river water she was used to.
She loved it.
"Pretty cool huh?" Sun asked, swimming over to her.
"It's alright," She smiled. They swam out a bit further, bobbing slightly with the waves.
"What do you think happened to it?" Sun asked once Serene once again broke the surface after wetting her hair.
"What?" She wiped her eyes and looked over at him where he was floating on his back, looking up at the sky.
"The moon. What do you think happened to it?" "I don't know. Maybe it was just… like that."
"I think something broke it." "What could break the moon?" "Like a comet or asteroid or something." His shrug was lost in the waves.
Serene just nodded, copying his position easily and staring up at the sky, bobbing with the waves. The city they were near was fairly big, but she could still see a good amount of stars.
Serene woke up on the beach hours later as the sun began to rise; the blinding light broke the horizon and shone right into her eyes. Sun was asleep on the bench, using her bag as a pillow.
She laid there for a few more minutes, letting the light of the sun begin to warm her skin.
Not accustomed to sleeping in, she sat up and looked down at herself. She was in what she had gone swimming in and didn't recognise the towel she was lying on.
Standing up, she walked over to the bench and yanked her duffle from under Sun, who immediately jerked awake. At least he had put his pants on before passing out.
She dropped her bag on the ground and pulled out a t-shirt and shorts, grabbing her boots and shoving Sun aside so she could sit down and wipe the sand off her feet.
"What time is it?" Sun asked, stretching. She winced at the popping of his joints.
"Um," She checked her watch. "Six o'clock." "Cool." "Is this what you've been doing for three days?" Serene asked. "Just bumming around trying to find a ride?" "Pretty much." Serene eyed him weirdly and did up her laces, rifling through her bag for her hairbrush. "So what's your plan to get to Vale? That trip is gonna be pretty pricey." Serene shrugged, shoving her other clothes and hairbrush back into the bag. "I'll think of something."
"You better think quick; we've gotta get there soon or we'll miss classes." Serene looked around, checking for any passers-by before standing and slinging her bag onto her back. "How cool are you with breaking the law?" She asked. "You gotta do what you gotta do." Sun shrugged, before looking worried. "You're not talking, like, murder or anything are you?" Serene just rolled her eyes and walked off. Sun shoved his feet into his sneakers and ran after her.
"Not that I'm complaining, but why are we stealing pizza for breakfast?" "We gotta look like we blend in," Serene said, picking up a slice.
"I don't think we're succeeding." Sun said, looking around at the haggard looking old sailors milling about the fishing boats.
"Not with them. Them," She gestured further along the pier to a larger, brighter boat. It's back was emblazoned with the words 'Seas the Day'in blue cursive writing. Several touristy looking people were eating in front of the nice little café across from it. "As far as any of them are concerned, we're two more travellers waiting for the captain." "And when we don't have a boarding pass?" "We won't need them. We're going to stow away." "And how are we going to manage that? We'll be seen," "We just need to get aboard and act like we belong until we find a place to stow away." "Won't they realise we didn't sign on?" "Does that guy look like he's about to go sailing?" Serene nodded down to the boat and Sun turned his whole body to look. Serene rubbed her eyes, muttering about subtlety.
Sun looked down to see the man setting up the sign in stand by the 'Seas the Day'. He had gelled and styled hair, pressed black trousers and a white button up shirt.
"Fair point. So how are we actually going to get on?"
"This seems like a bad idea!" Sun whispered loudly beside Serene as they trailed after the boat, her gauntlet wire hanging around the back railing, Sun's doubles tail wrapped around the railing, holding onto each other by their wrists. They were hanging out the back of the boat and Serene had to admit; this wasn't her best idea.
"Just wait a few more minutes," She hissed back, her arms beginning to burn.
The boat was beginning to slow as they got out into the open see and Serene gave the go ahead. Sun pulled himself up and Serene's wires began to retract, pulling her onto the deck. They looked around, seeing no one else on the back of the boat.
"Where to now?" Sun asked.
"Stay low," Serene said, creeping over to the back of the bridge. She could hear people talking up front and gestured for Sun to come over.
"Come on," They snuck up to the door on the side, Serene keeping an eye out for the passengers and crew and sneaking inside, down to the very bottom of the boat and finding a spare room. It was filled mostly with fishing supplies and smelt strongly of the ocean, which was slightly off putting.
"What does a cruise ship need with all this stuff?" Sun asked, picking up a broken underwater scanner.
"No idea." Serene said, finding a clear space on the floor. "But for the next week and a half this is our home."
