It was their fifth day on sea, and it was mostly like all the others. However, since their kiss there was always an uncomfortable silence between them when they looked at each other and smiled. More times than once had they been caught staring at one another, just to turn away embarrassed at what the other had found out. It seemed very childish, but they knew it very mature in their own aspects.
Ariel laid with her stomach on the bow and her fingers stretched past the railing and down to the surface of the ocean. She was lost in a daydream, a daydream of home and her family, one that had been quite the opposite story only a few weeks ago. Everything had taken such a strange turn, and yet she found herself enjoying the way things had played out. She could only hope that she still felt that way once she was in the water.
"Ariel, look at the clouds ahead."
That was the first time that either of them had spoken that day, and Ariel was wishing that Jordan hadn't. When she looked forward to the horizon she saw what he was looking at, a pack of black clouds huddling together with the occasional bright light that would puncture through to show the starkness of the scene. A storm was heading their way.
"It's coming in fast, and there's no way that I'm going to be able to avoid it… Get down below. I'll be down in a second as soon as I tie everything up."
Ariel had never seen Jordan with such a look in his eye. He had always been laid back and somewhat humorous, but there was no mistaking the seriousness in his voice. Without a second thought she crawled over to the small stairway and went down below to lie upon a silken bed.
Jordan went and laid down his sail and let loose his anchor. The storm was coming fast, and he didn't even dare to try to out sail it. There was no chance, and even sitting her stagnant was a gambler, but it was the only thing he knew to do. With a few quick check to all the gear up top, Jordan raced towards the small stairway, only to stare back at the clouds once more as he heard the strike of the first lighting strike.
*****
Jordan and Ariel lay in the bed down below and looked into darkness as they felt the boat start to slowly rock. It seemed like a mother pushing her baby back and forth in her crib, but at the loud crack of thunder that all changed. The boat now took a change from a constant and predictable rocking motion, to a choppy and unbalanced flopping as if a fish out of the water. With each sway it seemed that each of their hearts would speed up, till it got to a speed that made it seem as though it were humming. Ariel knew that she could easily survive and even enjoy this storm if she just jumped in the water and waited it out below, but then were would she be. Lost as the day she had been when locked in that evil cabin. No. She would not leave Jordan, not for the balance of the world to be turned in her favor.
Soon there came a point of time were they both knew that they could do nothing but wait, they were trapped like a dog in a cage, except they didn't yap to get out, they just wanted to stay in. They held each other, not in a scared kind of sense, but a comforting one all the same. Ariel was crying, and although Jordan could not see, he felt it. He lifted a hand to her face and wiped away a teardrop.
"No tears Ariel I'm here with you."
Ariel looked into his eyes although blackness still engulfed them and smiled at the ironic sense of things.
"No tears," Ariel began to say over and over again. Soon, she got to a crescendo in her words and Jordan reached out and kissed her, only to pull away slightly and say three words.
"I love you."
Ariel kissed him back and they embraced. He lay her gently upon the bed and continued to kiss her, both crying as it happened. As the boat was being thrown around by massive waves that formed outside, Jordan and Ariel sat at the middle of all the madness making love. This amazing act made so much sense to the two people who were living it, but to the world around them they seemed so small, small enough to not be seen, and small enough to change the world.