Title: Grasp
Character(s): Rose, Dart
Summary: She'd fall with him this time if she had to, but she wouldn't let go. Not again.
She felt her arm go ice cold from strain. In contrast, Dart's was still warm, though it might have been that his glove was the source. His arm had to be equally taxed, as he dangled precariously over the roaring ocean. The wind howled, echoing the desperation within her that only barely showed on her tight and worried face. Dart was gasping, and even through the thick leather she could tell his arm was starting to shake. Or was it hers?
"Rose! Let go!" His shout was mostly drowned by the waves that crashed and tugged the debris below. "You gotta live!"
Let go? Live? She had yet to relearn how to do either. This was not the time for letting go. And he had more reason to live than she, who had wandered for many years beyond what she should have. She searched his face and tried again to pull him up. His eyes were resigned already, a familiar color reflecting her own pale face. A strong sense of familiarity struck her. This was just like that time! That time when Zieg...
Fear made her colder than the wind could ever hope to. It was a feeling that she thought had become foreign to her.
This is the same as back then!
"I won't." She whispered.
Her lips were cold and abused by the wind. Her entire upper body was cramped. She pulled again, but her arm had no strength left, and the other was the only thing keeping them both above the ferocious waters. The ghost ship was already half under. A monstrosity of a ship that had sailed on its own for years after she had attacked it was now nothing but fodder for the ocean, falling to join the mermaids and the krakens in the murky depths. How could she simply let go of Dart for that? How could she let him slip away and disappear from her sight, never to be seen again, as she desperately continued to reach her arm out in the vain hope that gravity would reverse and return him?
"I won't let go!" She yelled. "I will never let that happen again!"
Albert's paniced calls barely reached her as a wave slammed the ship, rocking it, making it tremble. It ruined her balance. Her feet slid from under her. A sharp pain erupted in her hip as it hit the edge of her platform. Still, her hand remained tightly closed around his wrist, as if an invisible belt had wound itself around their arms. She fell, crashing into his chest, and automatically she wrapped both arms around him and didn't let go, even as the water weaved cold fingers between them, pulling, tossing, tugging.
I won't let go. She thought. I won't let go.
It became her mantra as they sank and rose according to the ocean, and when Dart fell unconcious, she only tightened her grip. She would not allow him to slip away while he was in her grasp.
A/N: It's been a yeee~ar or so since I updated this. I've been chipping occassionally since then. I apologize if the ending seems rushed or something. I couldn't figure out how to end it when I wanted to and my fingers kept adding stuff.