It seemed that when the options presented themselves, the ocean or space, Sheena was going to choose both.

It started when she was a kid and, in a drowsy state of mind after a fun day at the beach, looked out at the horizon and noticed the line was indistinguishable. The calm sea was like an expansion of the inky night sky.

They had their similarities, Sheena had figured. Unknowable expanses, their dangers, sea stars and the stars in the sky. She spent the rest of the summer trying to find more similarities.

Ultimately her heart sailed more to the mystery of the sea, and Sheena studied to become a marine biologist. In that way her other love wouldn't be too far away.

After one particularly grueling work day Sheena was never more grateful that there was going to be something fun to do afterwards. A small band was more her style, intimate and low-key. Big, famous concerts were fun but sometimes the cheers and screams were too loud to hear the music.

The way there meant long hours on the road so Sheena stopped in a sleepy, little town to get something to drink. There were a few patrons in the doughnut shop, looking relaxed. One of them seemed to be utterly enraptured with Sheena; she didn't show but it made it happy.

But there was no time to chat; if she didn't hurry she would be late, and that customer had her kids – Sheena assumed – with her. Sheena didn't want to interrupt a family's night out.

And then it seemed they were going the same way. Sheena gave a wink when she caught sight of that customer in a van, and went on ahead.

When that woman found her at the party she opened up with a line about being a space alien. It certainly marked a checklist of lines Sheena had never heard before.

But Pearl was so earnest that a part of Sheena believed it; usually Sheena found herself in romantic relationships with cool, collected women such as herself. Someone that enthused about the great expanse of space was new, and someone Sheena ought to know.

On the way home, when Sheena looked out at the indistinguishable line, she got a call from an unknown number. When she answered and heard Pearl, excited and nearly too loud for the phone, Sheena's mouth spread into a smile.

A/N: Originally posted on AO3 on December 6 2020